In September 2017, villagers found a tiny elephant wandering around alone in Burkina Faso, West Africa. They named the baby elephant Nania and brought it to a local wildlife base. The caregivers there saw promising signs-the young elephant remained physically healthy and didn't seem depressed. Experts predict the elephant was discovered within a day or two of being separated from her family, or she wouldn't have survived.
Fortunately, Nania grew well with her caregivers, who acted as her parents playing with her for 6-8 hours a day. Several months later, Nania was ready to start the process of returning to wild elephant group. As is known to us, turning wild animals into adopted ones is actually a process the animals can do naturally. Most animals including nonrelatives act like family. However, helping an elephant rejoin the wild is no simple task. Will it be able to find food for itself, avoid danger, and eventually have its own children?
Meanwhile, scientists began the search for her mother using DNA matching technology. They began collecting wastes samples from the 40 wild elephant tribes that passed through the area and analyzed the elephant wastes for DNA in a lab. Then one day, the lab found a surprising result: the DNA was a match. One of the sampled elephants was not just a family member of Nania, but almost surely her mother. Most importantly, through the DNA, the scientists discovered that Nania is a forest elephant. Forest elephants are endangered, which makes the importance of saving Nania much greater.
“What you really hope for is that there’s some connection that can be remembered when she finds her own species,” Katie Moore, vice president for animal rescue, said. “And that it just happens. To Nania, it will not feel lonely any more.”
1. What do we know about the tiny elephant from paragraph 1?| A．It seemed well although it was lost. | B．It was frightened of being left alone. |
| C．It had been missing for a long time. | D．It felt quite frustrated for loneliness. |
| A．It was impossible for it to find its family. |
| B．It was hardly able to join other species family. |
| C．It was unwilling to leave and go back to the wild. |
| D．It might be hard for it to survive back in the wild. |
| A．Nania forgot the animals in wildlife base. | B．Nania managed to get used to its former life. |
| C．Nania could be recognized by other elephants. | D．Nania had almost forgotten her family members. |
| A．The Endangered Forest Elephants | B．A Lost Elephant Finding Its Mother By Itself |
| C．A Rescued Elephant’s Returning To The Wild | D．An Amazing DNA Matching Technology |
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【推荐1】“I honestly have no idea how that cat got up there. It’s a hundred-foot metal pole （杆）. There’s no way he climbed that thing.” Jim said to the worried woman. He wasn't even her cat, but she was passing by and saw him, immediately calling the fire station to come to save him. Jim saw a lot of strange things as a fireman, often sad or upsetting （令人不快的）things, but this was new.
“I suppose we could get a blanket and see if we can convince the poor cat to jump down. But he doesn't really look scared...” Jim said to the woman.
"Dave, get over here!" Jim called over his shoulder to the fire truck driver. Dave walked over and looked where Jim was pointing.
“How did he get up there?”
Jim shrugged （耸肩）,similarly puzzled, “Do you suppose we could get a blanket and convince him to jump? ”
Dave shrugged in response, “I don't see why not.”
Jim looked up at the black mass on the top of the flagpole, the American flag waving proudly beneath him. It was a cat, and he regarded the people gathering below as if they were his subjects （臣民）and he their king, his yellow eyes scanning his surroundings with apparent disinterest.
When a blanket was spread out below the cat, Jim and Dave began striking the flagpole. The cat looked down, and then gazed into the sky as if he was looking for something. Jim and Dave followed his gaze. Suddenly, out of the clear sky, appeared a dark figure .The figure moved towards the flagpole. It was an eagle! As it got closer, the cat jumped down from the pole swiftly onto the ground, and then got lost in the bushes.
Jim, Dave, and the old woman were left with their mouths open. They all agreed it was the best way to get him down.
1. Why did the woman call the fire station?| A．Because the pole was on fire. | B．Because her cat was missing. |
| C．Because she felt it was strange. | D．Because she wanted to save the cat. |
| A．To strike the pole. | B．To spread a blanket. |
| C．To shout at the cat. | D．To shrug helplessly. |
| A．The cat. | B．Jim. |
| C．The king. | D．Dave. |
| A．An eagle. | B．The firemen. |
| C．The king. | D．The people around. |
【推荐2】If you live near a deep forest, you might have come across some wildlife animals hiding in your backyard, but nothing beats the surprise this woman got when she found three baby deer hiding in her house to wait out the storm.
The woman then posted several photos of the baby deer taking refuge (避难) in one of her rooms on her Imgur account “Amscolie”. She wrote that it was a very stormy day and a rainstorm was coming so she left her back door open just in case some animals wanted to take refuge in her house. In the meantime, she went out in the storm to check whether there were any animals that were stuck in the bad weather, especially a number of deer. However, she could not find any of them so she went back to her home.
Surprisingly, she found that the deer had already made their way inside her house!
Like many other animals, deer too can predict stormy weather and know when it is best to find a shelter from the dangerous weather. As the back door was opened, she did not notice when the deer entered her house. The three lovely baby deer made their way inside but there was no sight of their parents. The woman did try to find if there was any deer nearby her house but to no avail. The woman thought that the baby deer might have lost their parents so she welcomed them with open arms.
“I raise orphaned (孤儿的) wildlife. Recently, the back door was open as a storm was coming. The deer were nowhere to be found. I went inside, only to see them next to an end table in the living room. I told them they could sleep in the house for the night because the weather was going to be terrible,” the woman wrote on Little Things. com.
1. How did the baby deer enter the woman's house?| A．The woman invited them in. |
| B．The woman led them in. |
| C．They entered through the back door. |
| D．They entered through the window. |
| A．She raises deer in her own house. |
| B．She lost her deer on a stormy night. |
| C．she is devoted to protecting wildlife. |
| D．She hardly came across wild animals. |
| A．Failed | B．Resigned | C．Missed. | D．Disappeared. |
| A．They were hungry |
| B．Their parents lost them on purpose |
| C．They were being hunted |
| D．Bad weather forced them to find a shelter |
1. According to the statistics, what is the world average of freshwater resources per person?
| A．6,122 cubic kilometers |
| B．241 cubic kilometers |
| C．3,642 cubic kilometers |
| D．244,973 cubic kilometers |
| A．Guyana | B．Iceland |
| C．Brazil | D．China |
| A．Suriname | B．Seychelles |
| C．Canada | D．Bhutan |
【推荐1】Recently, an Internet game has become a new fashion among young office workers and students. People can “farm” on a piece of “land” and “grow”, “sell” or even “steal” “vegetables”, “flowers” and “fruits” on the Net. They earn some e-money and buy more “seeds”, “pets” and even “houses”.
Joyce interviewed some young people. Here are their opinions.
Harold: I don’t quite understand why they are so mad about the childish game. Maybe they are just not confident enough to face the real world.
Allan: I enjoy putting some “bugs” in my friends’ gardens and we’ve become closer because of the game. Having fun together is the most exciting thing about it.
Laura: You know, people in the city are longing for the life in the countryside. It reduces my work pressure in the office; besides, it gives me the exciting feeling of being a “thief”.
Ivy: Well, it’s just a waste of time. Teenagers playing the game spend so many hours on it that they cannot pay more attention to their study.
1. By playing the game, people can ________.| A．make a lot of money | B．make many friends |
| C．have great fun | D．better their life |
| A．live a more comfortable life | B．show their confidence in the reality |
| C．earn e-money to develop their own “farm” | D．enjoy life |
| A．Laura | B．Harold | C．Joyce | D．Allan |
| A．She is a college student. | B．She lives in a village. |
| C．She is an office worker. | D．She wants to be a thief. |
| A．It is not good for students to play it. | B．Teenagers can have fun together. |
| C．Teenagers can relax themselves. | D．Students will learn to face the world. |
【推荐2】Researchers believe they have found an unknown kind of whale in waters off Mexico's western coast. If others prove the finding, the new whale will be an important discovery among giant animals.
The team of researchers came upon three unusual whales while following a rare group of beaked whales（突吻鲸）. The whales were near Mexico's distant San Benito Islands, about 500 km south of the U.S. border. Beaked whales usually avoid meeting humans.
Jay Barlow studies sea animals. He noted that it was a very unusual meeting. "It's very rare to even see a beaked whale, and to find a group of friendly beaked whales, it's even rarer," he said.
Barlow said he and other researchers did not realize they were seeing a possible new kind of whale until later. The group saw something different about the whales' teeth when they studied the photos they took of the animals. The underwater recordings of the whales' calls also suggested they were different from all the others.
The researchers are now waiting for test results on water they collected near the whales. There could be skin cells in the water from the whales. If so, they will examine the DNA to make sure whether the whales are a new species.
Though up to 5 meters long, the whales can be hard for scientists to see. That is because they usually swim and eat at depths of around 914 meters. They only come up at times for air. In the deep water, the animals can stay away from their main enemy-killer whales.
Barlow said that finding a new species is a rare event. His team has proof about the whales that looks like a new discovery. He said the DNA testing would help determine it and he hoped the whales could be determined as a new species. That would bring the number of known beaked whale species to 24.
1. What do the scientists say about the possible new species?| A．They are very fierce sea animals. |
| B．They frequently come up for air. |
| C．They belong to the beaked whale species. |
| D．They only live near Mexico's distant San Benito Islands. |
| A．Its ears. | B．Its teeth. |
| C．Its eyes. | D．Its mouth. |
| A．To get the whales' skin cells. |
| B．To study the quality of the water. |
| C．To learn about the whales' living habit. |
| D．To know what kind of food the whales eat. |
| A．The reliability of the DNA testing. | B．The aim of the DNA testing. |
| C．The process of the DNA testing. | D．The result of the DNA testing. |
【推荐3】A brown leather cap, worn by pioneer pilot Amelia Earhart during her record-breaking flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928, had sold for $825,000 online, according to the Heritage Auctions (拍卖) website. The leather cap was expected to sell at around $80,000, but on Saturday, a person purchased it at about ten times the amount.
Anthony Twiggs, a retired photographer in Minnesota, put the helmet up for auction after experts confirmed its authenticity, according to The New York Times. Twiggs had received the cap 20 years ago from his mother, Ellie Brookhart, who claimed she got from a friend in 1929 following the first Women’s National Air Derby, an all-female race, in which Amelia finished third.
When the pilot was talking with reporters after the race, Ellie Brookhart and her friend were among the greeting crowd. The friend spotted the cap on the ground and presented the leather helmet—with the name “A. Earhart” printed on the inside—to Twiggs’ mother in an attempt to impress her. “My mother decided to keep it for Amelia,” Twiggs tells The New York Times. But Amelia was too busy with reporters then and when his mother tried to give it back to her a bit later, she had already left.
For the next 90 years, the cap was kept in a closet in Brookhart’s home, where she would bring it out occasionally over the years to show her four children. After his mother’s death, Twiggs tried to interest museums and collectors in acquiring it. However, he hit a wall. No one believed the story.
Now 67, Twiggs sent photos to John Robinson of Resolution Photomatching to verify (核实) the flying cap’s authenticity. After comparing images of Earhart wearing the hat with the current photos of the artifact, Robinson gave him a positive answer.
1. What turned out to be unexpected about the auction?| A．The style of the cap. | B．The owner of the cap. |
| C．The buyer of the item. | D．The final price of the item. |
| A．She had no intention to keep the cap at first. | B．She was too busy to return the cap to Amelia. |
| C．She interviewed Amelia Earhart in 1929. | D．She was interested in collecting caps. |
| A．Interested. | B．Doubtful. | C．Unclear. | D．Favorable. |
| A．A book review. | B．A history report. | C．A news story. | D．An auction advertisement. |
