CHINADAILY—In 2011, scientists moved eight Rothschild's giraffes to Longicharo Island. They hoped it would save the endangered animals from hunters and allow their numbers to increase. However, the large amount of rain in August 2020 caused the lake water level to rise, cutting the area off from the mainland and reducing the once 100-acre habitat to about 8 acres, which made it necessary to relocate（转移）the animals to a safer habitat.
In December 2020, the rescuers teamed up with UK -based non-profit organization Save Giraffes Now to construct a barge（驳船）, which is designed and built specifically to carry tall, heavy giraffes. It floats atop a series of empty drums with its sides made higher to keep the animals from jumping out as the barge was gently pulled by boats.
Their first giraffe to be saved was Asiwa, who was trapped alone with no food sources. However, making the gentle giant get on the barge was not easy. The giraffes don't know that you're trying to help them," O'Connor, president of Save Giraffes Now, says. "They think you'll hurt them. So they're really trying to work against you, which makes it even harder."
After several attempts to lead Asiwa on board the barge with treats failed, the scientists had no choice but to sedate（注射镇定剂）her. While it's often used to transport large animals, it is not the preferred method for giraffes since the change in blood pressure could damage their brains.
To prevent any accidents, the rescuers gave the giraffe a light sedative and then quickly guided her onto the barge. To ensure Asiwa would not frighten, they covered her head with a hood and put socks in her ears to block out sound. "The wonderful part was watching her gently walk off the boat once the hood was removed as if nothing had happened," said photographer Ami Vitale.
Weather permitting, the rescuers hope to relocate the island's remaining seven giraffes by March 2021 to the 44, 000-acre Ruko Community Wildlife Conservancy. Once we rescue them, that's not the end of it," O'Connor says. "That's actually just the beginning of trying to repopulate the entire Western Rift Valley with this type of giraffe, where they became locally extinct 70 years ago."
1. What might directly cause the relocating of the giraffes?| A．A heavy rain. | B．The killing from hunters. |
| C．A smaller habitat. | D．The construction of a barge. |
| A．A sedative would frighten giraffes. |
| B．It took efforts to relocate Asiwa. |
| C．Asiwa readily followed the rescuers' orders. |
| D．The rescuers managed to save all the giraffes. |
| A．Rothschild's giraffes lost their habitat. |
| B．Why it was difficult to transport the giraffes. |
| C．Rescuers moved Rothschild's giraffes to safety. |
| D．How the rescuers got the giraffe onto the barge. |
| A．A news story. | B．A research report. |
| C．A biology book. | D．A pet magazine. |
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【推荐1】Like most of his classmates, Zhang Yixuan is facing academic pressure as he is preparing to attend the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, next year. However, compared with playing smartphones and games, Zhang Yixuan prefers spending his summer vacation walking in wild nature, meeting little creatures like crabs. His bedroom is packed with dozens of “living treasures” that he has collected from the outdoors, including insects, fish, and crabs.
It is the microscope that his father bought him that makes the bedroom look more like a mini-biology lab than anything else and it’s a place where Zhang can devote himself to identifying or observing crabs day and
Last year, a group of crabs caught Zhang’s attention since they looked unusual compared with the commonly seen ones in Rongxian county, where he lives. He decided to take seven of them home. After much observation and lots
The hardworking and gifted teenager is very grateful to his parents for their understanding and support. His father Zhang Lefei, who was born in a rural area, loved catching fish and crabs himself at an early age. So he and his wife would take their son out into nature to explore as much as possible and would allow him to observe crabs quietly without any disturbs.
They say interest is the best teacher. And so are parents, it seems.
1. What does paragraph 1 mainly tell us about Zhang Yixuan?| A．His hobbies. | B．His character. |
| C．His academic pressure. | D．His relationship with others. |
| A．In the wild. | B．In his school. |
| C．In his bedroom. | D．In a biology lab. |
| A．Showed. | B．Inferred. |
| C．Argued. | D．Suggested. |
| A．To share their interest. | B．To show their support. |
| C．To indicate their effort. | D．To reveal their background. |
【推荐2】How long have we had a soft spot for dogs? A reanalysis of a prehistoric dog that was buried with two people reveals that the animal had experienced several bouts of potentially fatal illnesses, but it survived.
The Bonn-Oberkassel dog was unearthed a century ago in Germany. It was buried alongside the remains of a man in his 40s and a woman in her 20s, and all are about 14,200 years old. The animal probably lived long after dogs were domesticated, as evidence for this process stretches back at least 32,000 years. But the Bonn-Oberkassel dog is still important because it is the oldest known dog burial, says Luc Janssens at Ghent University in Belgium, which means it can help us understand why dogs were domesticated.
A common assumption is that prehistoric humans domesticated dogs to put them to work, helping with hunting, guarding settlements or used as pack animals for transport. However, Janssens and his colleagues say there is an alternative: we domesticated dogs simply because we liked having them as pets.
Their reanalysis of the dog reveals it had terrible oral health. Although only about 7 months old when it died, the dog had experienced three bouts of severe illness when it was between 19 and 23 weeks old. “The first infection would be enough to be fatal to most dogs in the wild,” says Janssens. “Then came two extra bouts, and the probability that the animal would survive without human help is very, very low.”
The researchers argue that the sick puppy would have been unable to do any useful work. In fact, keeping it alive was probably an unpleasant burden on its owners: it might have vomited 吐）regularly and had diarrhoea（腹泻）.
Its survival hints that its owners felt a bond of friendship，just like a modern dog owner. “This is the first time we find evidence to suggest that dogs were treated emotionally without expectation of any benefit,” says Janssens.
Bonds of friendship may have helped drive domestication, says Mietje Germonpre at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. “Baby wolves could have been ‘adopted’ to provide company,” she says. “This raising of baby wolves as pets could have been a stepping stone，together with other motivations, on the pathway to the domestication of the dog.”
It is significant that the dog was buried, says Pat Shipman at Pennsylvania State University. 、‘When you start burying animals，it indicates a special relationship of some kind.” Nevertheless， Shipman says we can’t rule out the possibility that the Bonn-Oberkassel dog was - or could have become - a useful working dog, which might explain why its owners cared for it through its illness, in the hope that it would recover.
1. Which of the following statements is true of The Bonn-Oberkassel dog?| A．It lived longer than the dogs of its time. | B．It was taken good care of by its owners. |
| C．It had a terrible problem with its eyes. | D．It was once used for transportation. |
| A．It was unearthed almost 100 years ago. |
| B．It was among those earliest domesticated dogs. |
| C．It can lead to new perspectives on dogs’ domestication. |
| D．It can help people understand why dogs were buried with humans. |
| A．We can't say for sure that the Bonn-Oberkassel dog wasn't a working dog. |
| B．Domestication has turned out to be a stepping stone to bonds of friendship. |
| C．It is no more than 10,000 years since humans started to bury animals. |
| D．Dog owners have long been known to be more caring than others. |
| A．How dogs were domesticated | B．Ancient humans loved their dogs |
| C．The changing human-dog relationship | D．Why dogs became pets while wolves didn’t |
【推荐3】A South Korean man and the 21 ducklings he has been raising as his children ever since they hatched have been breaking the internet with their amazing bond. A video that recently went viral in the western world shows the cute birds following their “mother” on a mountain hike and listening to his every command.
The middle-aged man, whose name is not revealed in the video, has been taking care of his 21 ducklings ever since they were eggs, making sure the incubation( 孵 化 ) period went smoothly, and even helping the tiny birds break through their shell when it came time to hatch. He was the first thing they laid eyes on in this world, and he has remained the most important figure in their lives since.
Ducklings naturally follow their mother around, and since the man was the one who acted as their mother, these birds follow him everywhere, even up a mountain. To them it’s only natural, but the middle-aged man considers it training and conditioning for the time when he finally releases them into the wild. He would love to raise them all as pets, but knows that wouldn’t be ideal for him or the birds, so he’s making sure that they are strong enough to survive in the wild.
The video shows the ducks following the middle-aged man as he hikes up a mountain outside Seoul, stopping whenever he does and refusing to follow anyone else, even if they give the same “let’s go” command their human mother does. Unless they hear his voice and see him moving, they don’t budge. It’s actually quite remarkable. I mean, it’s one thing to see dogs acting like this, but ducklings? That’s something else.
While it’s not clear what the man does for a living, I’m pretty sure he has a lot of experience with ducks, as at one point he reveals a certificate for “father of ducklings” dated 2005.
1. What can we learn from the video?| A．The ducklings just broke through their shells. |
| B．The man accidentally saved some ducklings. |
| C．The ducklings just obeyed the man naturally. |
| D．The man took pride in his ducklings. |
| A．To make a living by performing. |
| B．To film a video to attract attention. |
| C．To free them into the wild one day. |
| D．To make a contribution to a bird reserve. |
| A．Attack. | B．Move. |
| C．End. | D．Struggle. |
| A．“Father” and “mother” of cute pets |
| B．Man raises ducklings as his “children” |
| C．Ducklings also regarded as good pets |
| D．Amazing bond between man and animals |
【推荐1】For Derek Veal, it all started when he explored his grandfather’s old house in Georgia. He found an old suitcase filled with photographs, some more than 100 years old.
The suitcase belonged to his great-grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s (老年痴呆症) and lived in a nursing home. Veal and his grandfather went to visit her with the photos, hoping she could tell them more about the photos. What happened next changed Veal’s life.
“Everything came back to her when she saw these pictures,” Veal said. “She recognized her sisters, her aunts, her grandparents… It was the first time I had ever seen someone’s excitement from an old photo returning to them.”
The experience made Veal realize the power of old photographs to hold precious and long-forgotten memories and restore a sense of identity. It never left him. Two years ago, when he came across old family photos for sale at a thrift store (旧货店), he decided to pick one picture and try to track down the family. Soon, he was inspired to buy more photos and started a Facebook group called Old Photo Project to aid in finding their families.
Veal is not alone in this hobby. Photo and genealogy (家谱学) enthusiasts worldwide regularly use the internet and even social media to track down the families and faces in the lost photos. David, 26, lives in New York and started his project, Museum of lost Memories, in late 2020. He has already had over 300,000 followers on Instagram and over 750,000 on TikTok. “Some of my posts have gone viral and a person or family was tracked down in a matter of minutes!” David said. The motivation behind this hobby seems to be a combination of enjoying the detective work it takes to solve the puzzle, and the memories these lost pictures can bring back to the families they belong to.
“I feel like this is my calling,” said David. “The more I return memories, the more it feels like I’m supposed to be doing this.”
1. According to the text, what changed Veal’s life?| A．His awareness of the value of old photos. |
| B．The true stories about his great-grandmother. |
| C．His family’s history shown in the photographs. |
| D．His exploration of his grandfather’s old house. |
| A．Have been updated regularly. | B．Have made people think deeply. |
| C．Have received some comments. | D．Have spread quickly and widely |
| A．It’s not easy. | B．It’s his duty. |
| C．It’s not enough. | D．It’s just a hobby. |
| A．Returning Long-lost Memories | B．Old Photos for Photo Enthusiasts |
| C．The Power of Photos on the Internet | D．Researching the History of a Family |
【推荐2】British sculptor Jason Taylor has made it his mission to use his talent to conserve our ecosystems by creating underwater museums. Over the years, the environmentalist has put over 850 massive artworks underwater worldwide. On February 1, 2021, Taylor launched his latest work——The Underwater Museum of Cannes.
The main goal was to bring attention to the fact that our oceans need our help, Taylor told Dezeen. ——Ocean ecology has been destroyed by human activity in the Mediterranean over the past few decades, and it is not obvious what is taking place when observing the sea from afar.
The Underwater Museum of Cannes contains 6 sculptures featuring local residents of various ages. They range from Maurice, an 80-year-old fisherman, to Anouk, a 9-year-old student. Towering over 6-feet-tall and weighing 10 tons, the faces are sectioned into two parts, with the outer part like a mask. The mask indicates that the world’s oceans appear powerful and unbeatable from the surface but house an ecosystem that is extremely fragile to careless human activities.
Though the waters surrounding the sculptures now appear a pristine blue, the seabed was filled with old boat engines, pipes, and other human-made trash when the project began about four years ago. Besides eliminating the trash, Taylor also restored the area’s sea grass. Just one square meter of the sea grass can generate up to 10 liters of oxygen daily. The sea grass also helps prevent coastal erosion and provides habitats for many ocean creatures.
The idea of creating an underwater museum was to draw more people underwater and develop a sense of care and protection. Taylor told Dezeen. ——If we threw unwanted waste near a forest, there would be a public outcry. But this is happening every day in our surrounding waters and it largely goes unnoticed.
1. Why does the outer part of the sculptures look like a mask?| A．To popularize the features of the locals. |
| B．To remind people to protect themselves. |
| C．To stress the sensitiveness of the ecosystem. |
| D．To reflect people’s protection of the ocean. |
| A．How the project was started. |
| B．How the sea grass was restored. |
| C．Why the surroundings were improved. |
| D．What recovery effort the project made. |
| A．recycling | B．removing | C．abolishing | D．assessing |
| A．Forests play a more important role in ecosystems. |
| B．The destruction caused to the ocean is noticeable. |
| C．The situation of the ocean is easily ignored. |
| D．People have zero tolerance to damage done to nature |
| A．The Underwater Museum, a long way to go. |
| B．The Underwater Museum, a big difference to the sea. |
| C．The Underwater Museum, a masterpiece of Jason Taylor. |
| D．The Underwater Museum, an appeal to conserve ecosystems. |
【推荐3】Holidaymakers planning to hit the beach in Ibiza this summer will need to wear face masks even when they’re sunbathing on the beach.
Previously, the Balearic Island had exempt (免除) sun-seekers from wearing face masks on beaches, provided they were social distancing. However, new rules have come into force from the Spanish central government which will make mask-wearing compulsory for anyone visiting outdoor public spaces - including beaches and pools. The new face mask policy also applies regardless of whether there is social distancing in place (1. 5m in Spain); so someone who is lying on a towel sunbathing away from others will still be required to wear a face mask. Those who break the rules could face fines of up to €100.
There will be some exemptions such as children who are under six, and adults with illnesses that could cause them breathing difficulties.
The decision comes as Spain has been noting a gradual rise in Covid-19 cases. And it’s not just Ibiza which will be affected - the new rules will be enforced in the Canary Islands and mainland Spain too, including popular tourist destinations such as Costa del Sol.
However, the Balearic Islands government is protesting against the new rules, arguing that the regulations could put people off holidays especially during the hot summer months. Earlier this month Spain ended a travel ban for British people, which had been in place since December due to a mutant strain of coronavirus (冠状病毒的突变株) found in the UK. It’s hoped that some international travel could begin again from May.
What do you think of Spain’s new face mask rules? Let us know in the comments below.
1. What do we know about Spain’s new face mask rules?| A．Whoever breaks them will be fined at least €100. |
| B．They won’t apply if people keep a social distance of 1.5 m. |
| C．Kids and adults with breathing difficulties needn’t obey them. |
| D．They’re policies reacting to the increase in Covid-19 cases. |
| A．It’s the area most affected by the new rules. |
| B．The new rules have a negative impact on its tourism. |
| C．The new rules will lead to a travel ban for the British. |
| D．Residents can’t live a normal life due to the new rules. |
| A．A travel brochure. |
| B．An annual Survey. |
| C．An online news report. |
| D．An introduction to a book. |
