A group of wandering wild elephants suddenly left their home in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, which have become a hit in China and globally.
Since leaving the reserve, the elephants have walked over 310 miles. Along the way, they have got into farms for food and water, walked through urban streets, and even paid a visit to a car shop and a retirement home. However, they have destroyed more than $1 million worth of crops.
Researchers are not sure why the elephants decided to leave or where they are headed. While elephants are known to leave their habitats (栖息地) in search of food, this is the longest moving of wild elephants recorded in China. Because of the extreme distance traveled, some doubt that the elephants ay be lost. However, other scientists think the elephants were forced to move due to deforestation.
Successful protection efforts have almost doubled the elephant population in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve and the surrounding regions. However, their natural habitat has been continuously reduced to make room for agricultural development.
“We’ve seen elephants swelling their range for decades now, as their populations increase, and they search for more food for the growing group,” Becky Shu Chen, a scientist at the Zoological Society of London, told The Washington Post.
The wandering elephants’ search for a suitable home has not gone unnoticed by the millions of locals that eagerly follow their daily movements on social media. Adam Chang, assigned to deliver food to the elephants, says, “Before this meeting, I just felt curious about animals. Now, I think I would volunteer in animal rights groups to preserve those giant creatures.”
1. Where is this passage probably from?| A．A book. | B．A report. | C．A brochure. | D．A review. |
| A．They had no sense of direction. |
| B．They didn’t have enough food. |
| C．People grew crops to attract the elephants. |
| D．The leader of the group led the wrong way. |
| A．Shrinking. | B．Decreasing. | C．Expanding. | D．Exploding. |
| A．Some wild elephants went northward. |
| B．China made great progress in protecting elephants. |
| C．Agricultural development is good for animal protection. |
| D．China’s wandering elephant group attracts the world’s attention. |
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【推荐1】Populations of humpback whales (座头鲸) that live in different places can learn long, complicated (复杂的) songs from one another. Scientists at the University of Queensland, in Australia, focused on two populations of humpback whales, one by Australia’s east coast and the other off New Caledonia—a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean about 900 miles away. These populations may share feeding grounds or come across one another while moving from one place to another.
Only male whales sing. Their songs are known to be made up of a wide variety of different sounds arranged into patterns (模式) and can last for hours. The researchers listened to samples (样本) of male humpback songs from 2009 to 2015. They found out how complicated the songs were based on the number of sounds and how long the patterns lasted.
“The team found that the whales from New Caledonia were able to sing the same songs as the Australian whales without simplifying or leaving anything out,” said lead researcher Jenny Allen. This was true no matter how complicated the songs were. The whales also sang a different song each year. “It means humpback whales can learn a whole song pattern from another population very quickly,” Allen said.
It is not known for sure why male whales sing, but two possible reasons are to attract a mate or to warn other males to stay out of a private area. In addition to humpbacks, only a few other species of whales (blue, fifin, bowhead, and minke whales) sing.
Humpback whale numbers have been badly affected by hunting, which was stopped by law in the 1980s. Today there are thought to be about 40,000 humpbacks swimming in Australia’s waters, although scientists warn that the species still faces a number of threats in the wild. Allen said the study’s findings will aid efforts to save and protect humpback whales.
1. Why did the researchers choose Australian whales and whales from New Caledonia?| A．They are quick learners. |
| B．They are good at singing. |
| C．They have the chance to meet. |
| D．They have the same living habit. |
| A．They could show where they came from through songs. |
| B．They attracted different species of whales through songs. |
| C．They increased sound numbers and pattern length every year. |
| D．They were able to learn each other’s songs exactly and quickly. |
| A．Easy. | B．Warning. | C．Meaningful. | D．Pioneering. |
| A．Why male humpback whales can sing |
| B．Humpback whales prefer complicated song |
| C．How whales communicate with each other |
| D．Humpback whales learn songs from one another |
【推荐2】A woman in Pulaski, Virginia, says she was stopped by a squirrel, who pulled on her leg repeatedly and led her to help its injured baby.
Tia Powell was walking in Kiwanis Park when she was “approached by a squirrel”, the Pulaski Police Department wrote on Facebook. The squirrel stood in her way on the path. After realizing that the squirrel did not mean any harm and wasn’t going to leave her side, Powell turned around and the squirrel led her down the path to a baby squirrel with an injured leg.
At one point, Powell wasn’t sure she could help and she began walking and the squirrel followed her again and actually pulled her trouser leg! So, she fed the squirrels a sandwich she had with her and watched them try to Jump up into a tree. When she realized the baby squirrel was still struggling to get up the tree, she decided to call in backup. Powell called the Pulaski Police Department.
Powell didn’t know how the baby squirrel got injured, but she thought a nearby street cat was the culprit (肇事者). So, the group of rescuers decided to move the squirrels to safer area. “We were able to get the baby and mother to a different area with more trees and it was able to climb all the way up and they looked very happy,” Powell said.
She went back a few days later to show her kids where it all went down. In the trees, Powell spotted two squirrels staring at her, and couldn’t help but wonder if they were the same squirrels she rescued.
1. Why did the squirrel stop Tia Powell?| A．To attack her side. |
| B．To save its baby. |
| C．To ask her the way. |
| D．To pull her trousers. |
| A．Turned and walked away. |
| B．Helped them into a tree. |
| C．Left a sandwich for them. |
| D．Reported them to the police. |
| A．The baby squirrel itself. | B．The mother squirrel. |
| C．A street cat. | D．Tia Powell’s kid. |
| A．Cheerful. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Sensitive. | D．Unhappy. |
【推荐3】When fisheries biologist James Drymon noticed feathers in the vomit of a tiger shark, he first assumed they belonged to some unfortunate seabird: a gull, perhaps, or a pelican. But when he and his team genetically sequenced the feathers, the results surprised them: the feathers came from a land-based songbird called a brown thrasher. So what was it doing in a tiger shark’s stomach in the Gulf of Mexico?
Drymon, a researcher at Mississippi State University’s Coastal Research and Extension Center, and his colleagues sorted songbird from a tiger shark’s stomach through the stomach contents of 105 juvenile tiger sharks between 2010 and 2018. Nearly 40 percent had recently feasted on birds that come from dry land. In all, the scientists counted 11 terrestrial bird species showing up on the sharks’ menu. The results were published online in May in Ecology. Researchers have known since the 1960 s that sharks sometimes eat songbirds. “But what was interesting to us was the prevalence of the behavior,” Drymon says, “This is something that happens every year in a high number of sharks.”
Every fall and spring, songbirds undertake dramatic migrations across the Gulf of Mexico. If bad weather comes along, they can be forced to land on the water—which is effectively a death sentence. “The estimate for the number of migrants that die because of storm-related events is in the billions,” Drymon says. He suspects that sharks have long taken advantage of this twice-yearly nutritional bounty raining down from the skies, but scientists have only recently had the genetic tools to confirm this by identifying partially digested feathers.
“The results stressed how interconnected marine and terrestrial ecosystems can be,” says University of Miami marine ecologist Neil Hammerschlag, who was not involved in the study, “It shows how opportunistic these sharks are.”
1. How did James Drymon and his colleagues identify the feathers?| A．By making comparison. | B．By checking their DNA. |
| C．By observing them closely. | D．By analyzing previous data. |
| A．They dislike terrible weather. | B．Most of them feed on land birds. |
| C．They actively catch songbirds for food. | D．They are good at making use of opportunities. |
| A．Sharks in the sea. | B．Other larger birds. |
| C．The stormy weather. | D．The long distance. |
| A．Tiger sharks’ eating habit. | B．Researchers’ identification of feathers. |
| C．Land birds’ suffering a lot when migrating. | D．Land birds’ being on the menu of tiger sharks. |
【推荐1】“Art does not solve problems, but tells us their existence”, famous Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz once said. “Arts education, on the other hand, does solve problems”
The high school entrance exams for Chinese Junior 3 students are mainly about academic subjects, such as math and Chinese. But starting from 2022, they will be tested in areas like music and art. On Oct 16, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said that fine arts will be included in high school entrance exams in more provinces and cities by 2022. Twelve cities in six provinces have already started the practice, including Nanjing and Qingdao. The scores for these subjects are from 10 to 40 points. This is being done to encourage primary and secondary schools to provide more fine arts classes. They should cover subjects such as music, painting, calligraphy, dance, drama and opera. The Paper noted.
“Arts education is not just about teaching it’s about the ability to appreciate artistic beauty, which is very important for students’ mental health,” Fan Di’an, president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, told China Daily. However, the change has caused heated discussion. Many students and their parents worry about this new policy will bring too much extra work. They think that since students already have heavy academic workloads, adding new testing material would make things worse. It was also pointed out that not every, student would be talented enough to be good at these subjects. It’s really hard for tone-deaf people like me to remember melodies. So I need to do extra practice before music tests,” Zhao Hanfang, a 15-year-old student from Yunnan, told TEENS. “ So if music is included in the high school entrance exams, I might be too much stressed.”
In response to this, Jiangsu authorities said that the tests would be based on basic knowledge that comes from the students’ textbooks. The extra workload will not be difficult and shouldn’t put too much pressure on students. China Business Herald noted.
1. According to Magdalena Abakanowicz, ______.| A．art is the key to all problems |
| B．knowing art can make life better |
| C．arts education can solve all problems in life |
| D．arts education is more important than art |
| A．The policy tells of the importance of arts. |
| B．High school entrance exams will not be changed. |
| C．Nanjing and Qingdao will carry out the policy by 2022. |
| D．Students should master music, painting, calligraphy, dance, drama and opera. |
| A．Some problems students might face. |
| B．Tone-deaf students can not pass the test. |
| C．Too much schoolwork makes things worse. |
| D．How to deal with the extra work brought by the policy. |
| A．Students needn’t make preparation for the arts test. |
| B．Students will be much busier because of the policy. |
| C．The policy is right for students who are gifted for arts. |
| D．Students should attach importance to their art textbooks. |
【推荐2】In the past week almost 120 global leaders have resolved to triple (使增至三倍) the world’s renewable energy capacity before 2030 in an attempt to reduce the global consumption of fossil fuels. As the second half of the Cop28 UN climate conference in Dubai unfolds , more countries may join the calls for a global target of 11 TW (太瓦) of renewable power by the end of the decade, three times higher than the 3.629 TW in place at the end of 2022.
Renewable energy really could be tripled in this decade, but it won’t be a breeze, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) .
Based on the rate of growth for wind and solar power, the world is on track to meet this target. But the global energy watchdog (监察人) has warned that “stronger policy actions by governments” will be required to overcome challenges, such as rising costs, uncertain supply chains and grid (电力网) bottlenecks, which are considered essential to hit the goal of limiting global heating to within 1.5C of preindustrialised levels.
Renewable energy sources tripled, the global demand for coal power would be cut in half by 2030, according to estimates. “This is crucial for 1.5C,”said Dave Jones, the global insights lead for climate think-tank Ember. “The tripling goal would take renewables to the next level, with solar and wind reaching 40% of global electricity generation by 2030.”
The goal has won the support of 118 countries. In practice, not every country will triple its renewable capacity to meet the global target. Some countries starting from a lower level would need to more than triple their wind and solar power, while for others with a high share of renewables already, it would not be practical to triple their capacity again.
The prospect of having demand for coal is a goal worth struggling for, but governments must stay the course. Increasing capacity may have been simple in recent years with low interest rates and government support schemes, but the sector’s progress for the rest of the decade is less certain.
1. What does the underlined word “breeze” mean in paragraph 2?| A．A demanding mission. | B．An effortless task. |
| C．A dreamy vision. | D．A fruitless effort. |
| A．The road to the top is full of twists and turns. | B．A good beginning is half done. |
| C．No pains, no gains. | D．Rise from the fall, and you’ll rise high. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Neutral. | C．Cautious. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．Drawbacks of power generation using coal. |
| B．Ways to triple the output of sustainable energy. |
| C．Specific difficulties in the future and solutions. |
| D．Joint achievements made by nearly 200 countries. |
【推荐3】A Japanese tech, startup claims to have developed an artificial intelligence software that analyzes surveillance camera footage (监控录像) in order to detect suspicious behavior and prevent shopping before it actually happens.
VaakEye, an AI software developed by Japanese startup Vaak, can detect shoplifting before it occurs by analyzing separate suspicious movements and behaviors of people caught in the camera’s field of view, from a person’s face, clothes, movement, overall behavior, to macro-data like crime incidence in the area the shop is located in, or current weather conditions. If the analysis infers that there is a high-enough probability of a person shoplifting, it sends an alert via a smartphone app so the crime can be prevented.
VaakEye first made news headlines back in December 2018 when it picked up on previously undetected shopping activity at a convenience store in Yokohama. The suspect, an 80-year-old man, was arrested a few days later after stealing a hat. Today, Vaak is currently testing its software in a few dozen stores in the Tokyo area, but plans to have it installed in 100,000 stores across Japan in the next three years. This new shoplifting-prevention software has reportedly helped detect at least 7 shoplifters in tests performed as of December 12th last year, and is credited with reducing shopping cases by 75%, according to IT Media. Theoretically, shop staff can approach suspicious subjects after receiving an alert from the software and ask if they need some help. This should discourage suspected shoplifters from going ahead with their plans.
While Vaak is currently focusing on shopping prevention, they also have plans to enhance the software’s functionality. Tanaka told it could also be used to analyze the way consumers interact with various products, thus helping businesses better display their goods, and also in public spaces and train platforms to detect suspicious behavior and prevent suicide attempts. “We’re still just discovering all the market potential,” Tanaka said. “We want to keep expanding the scope of the company.”
1. How does VaakEye detect shoplifting?| A．By installing high-tech tracking devices. | B．By guessing the probability of shoplifters. |
| C．By following the suspects through technology. | D．By analyzing data collected through the camera. |
| A．They will arrest the suspects. | B．They will pretend to ask the suspects. |
| C．They will search the suspects, | D．They will directly discourage the suspects. |
| A．It helps prevent suicide attempts. | B．It gets rid of all shopping cases. |
| C．It can potentially be applied to various fields. | D．It has been widely used in preventing shopping. |
| A．Positive. | B．Objective. | C．Uncertain. | D．Critical. |
