I work not only at the clinic but also on a private farm in Pensacola, Florida—a place our team of volunteers lovingly refers to as the Misfit Ranch, where we take in and nurse dogs that have been abused.
It all went back to late 2009, when I’d felt so trapped then. One day I got a call from my friend Mary who was looking for a helper to move to her farm nearby and take care of the horses part-time. Something bright in me came back to life upon hearing it.
Animals were a huge part of my growing up years. My parents and I often brought home sick or injured dogs. We’d nurse them back to health and find them homes. Even though I was just a kid, I’d felt such joy and purpose then.
Taking care of horses... Something in me said that I needed to do this. It was the horses that helped restore me. Their presence calmed me. Little by little, the fear that had its hold on me for so long disappeared. At the same time, I was considering a big plan.
I started volunteering with dog rescue groups in the area. I felt drawn to the dogs for whom it was hard to find homes. However, I wanted to be able to do more for these dogs. I began training to become a vet technician (兽医助手). I started treating animals in 2017 and got a job at a clinic.
Sometimes I would take stray (走失的) dogs home with me from the clinic to give them care overnight. I always had a soft spot for the tough cases—the broken ones who, to others, seemed hopeless.
Word spread and I became the go-to for abused dogs in North Florida. Vets would give out my number and people would contact me through social media. The Misfit Ranch grew to a point where I needed help caring for these animals that had no place to call home.
1. What did Mary want the author to do?A.Look after the horses. | B.Sell the private farm. |
C.Stay positive every day. | D.Move house with her. |
A.A warm-hearted father. | B.The pain of growing up. |
C.A child’s love for animals. | D.The purpose of saving dogs. |
A.To win others’ respect. | B.To start dog rescue groups. |
C.To realize her friend’s dream. | D.To provide better service for dogs. |
A.It was easy to find home for abused dogs. |
B.The locals tended to ask the author for help. |
C.There was a need for hands on a farm. |
D.Social media have caused much trouble. |
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【推荐1】As a botanists who studies our cultural relationship with plants, I am forever fascinated with what draws people to gardening.
Admittedly, connecting with the natural world might seem like an obvious motivation, and undoubtedly it is a key part of the attraction.
As I work on my tiny terrariums (玻璃花园) on dark February nights, something magical happens to my brain.
As our world becomes more and more unpredictable and often frightening, gardening seems to be able to appeal to and reach out to a whole new generation, often against all odds.
Of course, gardening in’ t the only thing people turn to. The rise of culture conflicts and fix at ion on body image have also been widely documented as being driven by a psychological need to feel a degree of certainty, control and safety. However, I can’t help but think of these alternatives:
A.In reality gardens are anything but natural. |
B.What are the things they have been attracted to? |
C.They are idealized landscape with all the mud, pests and dead plants edited out. |
D.How much better a place the planet would be if gardening was our outlet for this need! |
E.Much like agriculture, gardening is a universal human desire coded into our cultural DNA. |
F.The calmness created by owning a tiny green space under my control has a powerful effect on my mind. |
【推荐2】Scientists have come up with a new way of identifying animals in an area by testing DNA taken in from the air. The researchers believe their new method could help scientists keep track of animals that are hard to spot, including endangered animals.
Two teams of scientists—one in Denmark and one in the United Kingdom (UK)—came up with the same question at about the same time: Could they identify the animals in an area from DNA that was simply floating in the air?
Testing for eDNA isn’t a new idea, but most of the time, scientists look for eDNA in water. DNA in the air is usually so small that it would take a microscope to see it. The scientists didn’t have high hopes for their experiment. Neither team knew that the other group was working on a similar experiment. One collected samples from different locations at Denmark’s Copenhagen Zoo, and the other at Hamerton Zoo Park in the UK. The scientists used slightly different methods to collect their samples. But basically, both teams collected extremely tiny bits of DNA onto very high quality filters.
In the laboratory, they got the DNA from the filters and made copies of it to study. By comparing their samples with examples of DNA from different animals, the scientists were able to identify many different animals at the zoos.
Each team only discovered about the other experiment after they had written a paper about their own results. Instead of competing, the two decided to combine their results and publish a paper together.
Both teams are excited about the ways this new method could be used in the wild. Scientists have been looking for better ways to track endangered animals without interfering with them. If researchers know where animals live, they can do a better job of protecting them. “The next step is to figure out how to take this method into nature,” says Dr. Bohmann , one of the scientists on the Copenhagen team.
1. What’s the task of the scientists from different countries?A.To recognize animals by DNA in the open air. |
B.To improve what the other team have achieved. |
C.To look for eDNA in water for some rare animals. |
D.To save endangered animals by copying their DNA. |
A.The two teams collected DNA from the same zoo. |
B.Neither team made correct treatment on the study. |
C.The two teams used completely different techniques. |
D.Scientists didn’t think highly of the two teams’ methods. |
A.Eventful. | B.Competitive. | C.Promising. | D.Complicated. |
A.People’s efforts in saving endangered animals. |
B.New methods of recognizing animals by DNA. |
C.Ways of studying animals without disturbing them. |
D.Different countries’ cooperation in saving animals. |
【推荐3】We hear a lot about plastic polluting our ocean waters. Some of us have even made it a habit to avoid using plastic straws for the sake of turtles and other sea animals. Although these small acts of consideration go a long way, ocean waters still remain a threatening experience for sea life.
A helpless dolphin in Bali, Indonesia, experienced the unkindness of human negligence (疏忽) but luckily came across a few good people who saved it. The clean-up workers of 4ocean was cleaning up plastic from ocean garbage patches (垃圾带) when their boat touched a do lphin stuck in a ghost net — a fishing line left in the ocean. The workers immediately stopped their clean-up and carefully brought the dolphin onto the boat. The net was tied around the dolphin’s mouth and tail, causing it serious injuries. The workers cut through the line. The dolphin was then set free, but it paused for a few seconds as a kind of possible appreciation before swimming away. The video of the amazing rescue was uploaded on their social media and has been viewed 1. 1m illion times within a month.
The workers were Risallah, NurWahyudi, Mujtahidin and Husnan Sidik. “I was shaking when I touched the dolphin. I was afraid we hurt it more when we cut the fishing line,” said Mujtahidin. “It was a shocking moment,” continued Nur Wahyudi. Cameraman Husnan Sidik added, “As the cameraman, this is one of the greatest moments. We won’t experience this every day. We have the chance to free the dolphin and I’m sure the d lphin is also happy.”
The sea life needs as much help as we can offer. 4ocean is a task-driven company whose members aims to end the ocean plastic crisis (危机). It has removed 30 million pounds of rubbish from the world’s waterways, setting a new record. It hires locals from the worst affected areas of the ocean plastic disaster and gives them a full-time income and many benefits. The team is known to help both animals and humans.
1. Which word can best describe the workers’ rescue?A.Awkward. | B.Complex. | C.Worrying. | D.Touching. |
A.Their thoughts about the experience. | B.Their personal opinions on dolphins. |
C.Their brief descriptions of the dolphin. | D.Their feelings about threats to the dolphin. |
A.To film sea life for social media. | B.To clean up garbage from ocean. |
C.To rescue dolphins from ghost nets. | D.To find out the causes of ocean pollution. |
A.The four workers should be given prizes. |
B.More efforts should be taken to stop fishing. |
C.More measures should be taken to fight plastic pollution. |
D.The government should focus on dolphins’ living conditions. |
【推荐1】Recently, one of my best friends, whom I’ve shared just about everything with since the first day of kindergarten, spent the weekend with me. Since I moved to a new town several years ago, we’ve both always looked forward to the few times a year when we can see each other.
Over the weekend, we spent hours and hours, staying up late into the night, talking about the people she was hanging around with. She started telling me stories about her new boyfriend, about how he experimented with drugs and was into other self-destructive behavior. I was blown away! She told me how she had been lying to her parents about where she was going and even stealing out to see this guy because they didn’t want her around him. No matter how hard I tried to tell her that she deserved better, she didn’t believe me. Her self-respect seemed to have disappeared.
I tried to convince her that she was ruining her future and heading for big trouble. I felt like I was getting nowhere. I just couldn’t believe that she really thought it was acceptable to hang with a bunch of losers, especially her boyfriend.
By the time she left, I was really worried about her and exhausted by the experience. It had been so frustrating, I had come close to telling her several times during the weekend that maybe we had just grown too far apart to continue our friendship,but I didn’t. I put the power of friendship to the ultimate test. We’d been friends for far too long. I had to hope that she valued me enough to know that I was trying to save her from hurting herself. I wanted to believe that our friendship could conquer anything.
A few days later, she called to say that she had thought long and hard about our conversation, and then she told me that she had broken up with her boyfriend. I just listened on the other end of the phone with tears of joy running down my face. It was one of the truly rewarding moments in my life. Never had I been so proud of a friend.
1. In the writer’s opinion, her friend ________.A.was a girl with no self-respect | B.could find a better boyfriend |
C.was brave enough to stick to her own choice | D.didn’t value the writer’s suggestion |
A.She would lose the friendship with her. |
B.Her friend’s parents would be worried about their daughter. |
C.Her friend would get into great trouble with the boy. |
D.Her friend’s boyfriend would be in great trouble. |
A.didn’t want to go anywhere else |
B.hated her friend’s hanging with her boyfriend |
C.couldn’t believe that her friend’s choice was acceptable |
D.doubted whether she could in any way help her friend |
A.Friendship starting from childhood is not reliable. | B.Friendship is a cure for any injury in life. |
C.Friendship should be everlasting once begun. | D.Friendship can have magical power in life. |
【推荐2】I recently attended a wedding in a rural area in north Italy, and guests were provided with a car and driver for the 90-minute journey into the hills. That was exciting: A private car! I could pretend I was rich! Since I’m not, though, I had no idea how much this trip actually cost. As a result, after our driver picked us back up at midnight, I secretly worried all the way home about tipping him.
I fished around nervously in my purse and realized that all I had was a $100 note, which I was keeping for an emergency. I had nothing smaller. And I had nothing else to offer but two chocolates from the wedding. So, I could tip the driver that $100 note or two chocolates. In the end, I chose the money.
The whole matter of tipping has long been a source of awkward interactions — and, for some travellers, mild anxiety — throughout the world. Tipping customs vary wildly from country to country. A friend in Rome tells me that Italians get hurt by big tips. “Leaving a big tip is considered impolite,” she adds, “I’ve had Italian friends make me take money back.”
It reminded me of my 100-dollar tip. What if I had annoyed the driver? So I decided to call the car company and ask them to pass on a message to the driver apologizing for the improper tip and explaining the situation.
To my surprise, the car company responded that the driver had actually called to express his gratitude for the unexpected big tip. He had apparently been having a tough week and the money had come at just the right time.
I was astonished. All my worry had been for nothing. What started out as a source of anxiety ended up being a heartwarming experience. I learned that sometimes it’s better to go with your feelings and be generous, even if it means taking a risk.
1. What did the author realize when she dug around in her purse?A.She had spent 100 dollars on emergency. |
B.She had to ask the driver for smaller changes. |
C.She had nothing but two chocolates to offer the driver. |
D.She had no smaller notes and might tip too high or too low. |
A.To compare different tipping customs. |
B.To share a personal story of her friend. |
C.To show the possibility of upsetting the driver. |
D.To demonstrate her rich knowledge on tipping. |
A.He was annoyed by the large tip. | B.He appreciated the author’s generosity. |
C.He was grateful and refused the money. | D.He was upset by the awkward interaction. |
A.Follow your heart and good things are possible. | B.Better think carefully before taking action. |
C.When in Rome, do as the Romans do. | D.A penny saved is a penny earned. |
【推荐3】The Chicago Fire of 1871 was the worst disaster of the 19th century.
The fire is said to have started one evening in Mrs. O’Leary’s barn (牲口棚) on the West Side of Chicago. Several hours after she milked her cow, it kicked over an oil lamp, and the cow started the fire. We do not know if the story is true, but we do know that the fire began in a barn on the West Side.
The fire spread quickly because of the wooden buildings, a strong wind, and a dry season. The fire lasted 27 hours and spread to all parts of the city. Other cities sent 25 fire companies to help put out the fire. Federal troops (联邦军队) were also used to help fight the fire and keep order, too. At last rain put out the fire.
There was a lot of damage. 90,000 people were homeless, and 18,000 buildings were destroyed. Property damage (财产损失) was almost 200 million dollars. In addition, about 300 people died.
People from all over the world helped Chicago by sending food and clothing. Within a month, 4,000 cottages (小屋) with two rooms had been built. In a few years, Chicago was completely rebuilt.
1. Which parts of the city were hurt by the fire?A.The West Side. | B.The South Side and the East Side. |
C.The North Side. | D.All sides. |
A.90,000. | B.18,000. | C.almost 200. | D.about 300. |
A.courage | B.fear | C.weakness | D.laziness |
A.A cow. | B.Firemen. | C.The weather. | D.Carelessness. |