Buck’s first day on the beach was a nightmare. Every hour was filled with shock or surprise. He had been suddenly removed from civilization and thrown into the heart of a primitive world. Here there was neither peace nor rest, nor a moment’s safety. It was essential to be constantly alert, for these dogs and men were not town dogs and men. They were savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of Club and Tooth.
Buck had never seen dogs fight like these, and his first experience taught him an unforgettable lesson. He was fortunate that it was Curly who was the victim, not himself. Curly, in her friendly way, tried to make friends with a husky dog. The dog was the size of a full-grown wolf, but not half as large as Curly was. There was no warning: only a fast jump, a metallic cut of teeth, and a jump back. Curly’s face was ripped open from eye to mouth.
It was wolf fighting, to strike and jump away, but there was more to it than this. Thirty or forty huskies ran to watch. They surrounded the fighters in a silent, watching circle, all licking their lips. Curly rushed at the husky, who struck again and jumped away. He met her next rush with his chest in a strange way that knocked her over. She never got up again. This was what the watching huskies had waited for. They closed in on her, snarling and yelping. Curly was buried, screaming in pain, under the dogs’ bodies.
1. Why did Buck have to be ‘constantly alert’?| A．He couldn’t fall asleep | B．He was worried about Curly |
| C．He had to make sure he was always safe | D．He was in a lot of pain |
| A．You must have a tooth and club in the wild | B．The strongest make the rules |
| C．The weakest must survive in the wild | D．The tooth must fight the club |
| A．Run at the enemy non-stop | B．First to strike wins |
| C．Attack and step back | D．Wolves only use their paws to fight |
| A．Dogs will always fight other dogs for food |
| B．Buck wanted to help Curly, but he was afraid of the huskies |
| C．The only way dogs can survive is by eating other dogs |
| D．Only the strongest shall survive in the wild |
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【推荐1】Saturn, an alligator（短吻鳄）, aged 84, died at the Moscow Zoo. That in itself made Saturn unusual. In the wild, the normal life span for an alligator is 30 to 50 years. But longevity was the least unusual aspect of Saturn’s life story.
Saturn was born somewhere in Mississippi in 1936 and was shipped to the Berlin Zoo from which he disappeared on November 23rd, 1943, when the zoo was stricken in an air bombing campaign. Of the 16,000 animals once kept in the Berlin Zoo, fewer than 100 survived the war. Saturn was one of them.
When he got freedom in 1943, Saturn was 7 years old. In June 1946, an almost adult Saturn was discovered and captured by British army. The alligator was then turned over to the allied Soviet troops（苏联盟军）in Berlin who sent him on to Moscow where he would live in the next 74 years.
It was in Moscow that word got around that Saturn was a pet which belonged to Adolf Hitler. This undocumented episode with Hitler made Saturn a public figure.
"Even if he belonged to someone," the zoo's announcement of Saturn's death says, "animals are not involved in war and politics." Officials at the Moscow Zoo treated him as an honored guest. "We tried to take care of him with great care and attention. He was picky about food." Even among his keepers, he knew who he liked. He perfectly remembered the trusted keeper.
If a zoo animal can be a historical figure, officials say this one qualifies. "Saturn is a whole era for us. There is not the slightest exaggeration," the announcement of his death said. "He came after the victory in WWII—and witnessed（见证）its 75th anniversary. It is a great happiness that each of us could look into his eyes, just quietly being near. He saw many of us as children. We hope that we did not disappoint him.”
Death may not end Saturn's public career. It has been reported that his body will be maintained and placed on show at Moscow's Charles Darwin Museum of Biology.
1. What does the underlined "That" in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Saturn's death. | B．Saturn's longevity. |
| C．Saturn's life story. | D．Saturn's living conditions. |
| A．Saturn was born and raised in the Berlin Zoo in 1936 |
| B．Saturn survived an air attack and got freedom in 1943. |
| C．Saturn got caught by the allied Soviet troops in 1946. |
| D．Saturn celebrated its 75th birthday and died in 2020. |
| A．He was kept a pet there. | B．He could remember all the keepers. |
| C．He lived a go-as-you-please life. | D．He got well-known as a picky eater. |
| A．His story with Adolf Hitler. | B．His uncommon 84-year lifespan. |
| C．He will be on show after death. | D．He was identified as a history witness |
【推荐2】Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise (巨龟) living on the island of Saint Helena, turned 190 years old. The event was celebrated with a big party, which included a special salad cake.
Nobody knows for sure how old Jonathan is. But in 1882, he was brought from the Seychelles as a gift to Sir William Grey-Wilson, who lived in Saint Helena. Pictures taken around that time show that Jonathan was already full-grown. Since it takes about 50 years for Seychelles giant tortoises to become adults, animal experts say Jonathan must have been born around 1832. To help keep things straight, Saint Helena’s current governor (管理者), Nigel Phillips, gave Jonathan the official birthday of December 4, 1832. That’s earned him the Guinness World Record for the world’s oldest land animal.
In 1890, William became the governor of Saint Helena. He brought Jonathan along with him to live at the governor’s home, Plantation House. Since then, over 30 other governors have come and gone from Plantation House. But Jonathan has remained. Currently, another three are staying there with him. Jonathan is a local star. For his birthday, he’s now being honored on a series of stamps. Saint Helena held a three-day party. People were invited to Plantation House to visit him. People made him a special salad cake to celebrate.
Jonathan was born before the Internet, computers, TVs, radios, telephones, or light bulbs ever existed. There weren’t even typewriters, electric motors, or photographs. Forty different presidents have led the US since he was born. Jonathan was born before global warming began and before plastic was ever invented.
Though Jonathan is still very active, he’s blind, and he can no longer smell things. Now he needs to be fed by hand. But he eats lots of vegetables and fruits, including carrots, apples and bananas. His sense of hearing is also still strong. He recognizes the voice of Joe Hollins, who looks after him, and gives responses to it.
1. What can be learnt about Jonathan?| A．He met William as a baby tortoise. | B．He is the world’s oldest animal. |
| C．His birthplace is Saint Helena. | D．His exact age is known to nobody. |
| A．3. | B．4. | C．31. | D．40. |
| A．To say Jonathan’s long lifetime. | B．To introduce Jonathan’s way of life. |
| C．To explain Jonathan’s main changes. | D．To praise Jonathan’s social role. |
| A．He has already become lazy. | B．He’s too old to move his body. |
| C．He’s suffering health problems. | D．He is often particular about food. |
【推荐3】Just like humans, birds too rely on sound to communicate. However, they do not have a “language” in the true sense of the word and instead produce a variety of sounds to convey different emotions.
Often, birds recognize their mates (or young) by sound rather than sight. Hungry young birds use begging calls to let their mothers know it is feeding time. Alarm calls, flight calls and warning calls are other sounds made frequently by adults.
A new study shows that songbirds rehearse (排演) their songs even in their sleep. The activity in the brain of the birds when asleep is similar to the brain activity when the birds were awake and singing. The team used tiny recording devices to measure the activity of individual brain cells in four songbirds both when they were singing and when they were asleep.
Apparently the bird stores a song after hearing it, and then rehearses it later in its sleep. Scientists now believe the birds “dream of songs and tunes” to help them master the fine art of singing and that sleep plays a key role in the learning process!
Many songbirds learn to sing listening to adult birds of the same species. However, if separated from the adults, the young birds develop sounds which are hard to understand instead of normal song patterns. Researchers carried out an experiment in which a male bullfinch (灰雀) was raised by a female canary (金丝雀). The bullfinch soon learned the canary’s song and when it was later mated to a female bullfinch, Mr.Bullfinch taught his children the canary’s songs.
Last year, a British survey of London’s songbirds showed that the city’s birds are losing their tunes. Birds could hardly hear one another, over the traffic noise; as a result, instead of copying the sweet notes of the adults, young birds were copying the sounds they heard most often, namely car horns and beeping cellphones!
1. According to the passage, how do birds recognize their mates?| A．By using their own words. | B．By listening to their sounds. |
| C．By looking at their appearances. | D．By singing the same songs. |
| A．Young birds learn to sing from whom they live together with. |
| B．Birds only learn how to sing from the same adult species. |
| C．It's not easy for adult birds to teach young birds songs. |
| D．A canary's song is more beautiful than a bullfinch's. |
| A．Traffic noise makes young birds become deaf. |
| B．Birds in the city can sing as sweetly as those in the wild. |
| C．Birds in the city recognize their mates mainly by sight. |
| D．Noise pollution causes much trouble for birds in the city. |
| A．To inform the readers how songbirds bring up their babies. |
| B．To show the differences in songbirds’ brain activities when they are awake and asleep. |
| C．To persuade the readers to reduce the noise pollution and protect the birds. |
| D．To explain to the readers how songbirds communicate with each other. |
【推荐1】When Narayanswami was invited to a dinner by a friend who worked at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she was excited. Many of the guests flew planes. “I must have expressed some yearning(渴望),”she says, because someone told her “You should join the flying club!” The next day Narayanswami, who was 57 at the time, arranged to meet an instructor. “I said ‘Aren’t I too old?” He said “We’ve got students in their 80s.”
Narayanswami grew up in Southwest London, and at grammar school suffered horrific racist bullying. The library provided shelter. But, as she reached her late teens, she feel family pressure for an arranged marriage; “I really protested,” she says. “But I want to be an astronaut! My mother made a promise. As long as you are getting an education we will not look for a husband for you.”
Narayanswami studied biology at Leicester University, then did a PhD at St Andrew, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of California. “Every time you move you get further away,” her dad remarked on the phone. “I didn’t feel I would be able to escape unless I did that,” she says.
In 2020, aged 64, Narayanswami finished 423 flight hours she needed to earn her pilot's license. Then she applied to Nasa’s astronaut corps, but received a very appreciative rejection. Even now, at 66, she says “I haven't been able to figure out how to deal with it. It doesn’t go away.” The racist bullying she received as a child has cast a very long shadow.
Flying has helped. It is a workout: she has to tow the plane out to the taxiway. And it offers a different perspective. “I can see eagles, bears, mountain lions, birds of prey. I love the beauty of the clouds. They are like hills. Vaster than our hills,” she says.
New possibilities have arisen—Narayanswami chairs the board of the General Aviation Awards in the US—but she finds relaxing difficult. In flight, she is part of a huge network of people who are communicating by radio frequency. There is no sense of skin colour. We are all tied together by our voices.
1. How did the instructor’s words sound to Narayanswami?| A．Disappointing. | B．Embarrassing. |
| C．Annoying. | D．Encouraging. |
| A．Accepting an aged marriage. | B．Receiving an education. |
| C．Keeping a distance. | D．Making a promise: |
| A．It indicates prejudice against her. | B．It ruins her childhood memory. |
| C．It raises concern for her age. | D．It leaves room for negotiation. |
| A．A good way of relaxation. | B．A different dimension of life. |
| C．A rich knowledge of wildlife. | D．A full exhibition of leadership. |
【推荐2】Born in California and representing the United States before switching to China, teenager Gu Ailing will be most likely to be one of the faces of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The 17-year-old is a freeskier(自由式滑雪运动员) and grade-A student with an American father and Chinese mother. She grew up and still lives in the United States, but in June 2019 she made the “quite difficult” decision to compete for China. She wrote on Instagram that she was “proud of my heritage and equally proud of my American upbringings (培养)”.
As for the decision to compete on behalf of China, she said it is “valuable opportunity to help inspire millions of young people in China where my mom was born.”
Gu graduated from a San Francisco high school last year and is focusing on her Beijing 2022 training. It is reported that She scored 1,580 points out of a maximum 1,600 in the SAT (美国大学入学考试), and has been offered a place at Stanford.
Gu started on the snow at the age of 3, was competing in national competitions at 9 and won her first World Cup event at 15. She won two gold medals and a silver for China at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland. On Jan. 30th, 2021, Gu made her debut(首次亮 相) at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado and won two golds and a bronze.
“My goal is to win Olympic gold,” she told the official Olympic website. “It’s the top achievement. And that would be rewarding for all the work that I’ve done to achieve greatness in the sport.”
1. What do we know about Gu Ailing?| A．She grew up in China. | B．She is an average student. |
| C．She will graduate from a high school. | D．She decided to compete for China. |
| A．Helpful and knowledgeable. | B．Modest and hard-working. |
| C．Clever and ambitious. | D．Creative and confident. |
| A．Gu Ailing won her first World Cup event at 15. |
| B．Gu Ailing’s achievements as a freeskier. |
| C．Gu Ailing’s training when she was young. |
| D．Gu Ailing learned to do snow sports in China. |
| A．Gu Ailing—An American Freeskier |
| B．Gu Ailing—A Stanford Graduate |
| C．Gu Ailing—A talented Chinese Freeskier |
| D．Gu Ailing—A Lovely Girl |
【推荐3】By the middle of the second day I know I'm in trouble. In front of me the land stretches up and away towards a distant hill, and into the space, between that hill and me, is crowded one of the most vivid concentrations of color I have ever seen. It starts with the trees. The wet season is the only a few weeks off and almost as if they can smell the coming rains, they have put out their leaves. They are no ordinary green and the dry grasses beneath them are shining with golds, browns, and reds. I want to recreate this scene with watercolors. Although I can make a try at it with words, trying to paint it in my sketch book is another matter altogether. I've already made one attempt: a series of lines in orange and red, with bluish trees placed across them, which now lies face down in the grass beside me.
I've put it there because the last thing I want right now is for someone else to come along and look at it. A young man called Royale walks up the hill. Royale is a sculptor, and, with several other local men, produces pieces of work in the local stone. Recently, and quite suddenly, this work, and that of several other local co-operatives, has acquired an international reputation. I certainly don't want a man capable of such things looking at my own awful painting. So I put my foot, as casually as I can, on the finished one beside me and we resume the conversation started earlier in the day.
I want to talk to Royale about his life here. He, however, is only interested in what I am up to. To begin with, it seems that he considers me a fellow artist, and for a moment I find myself staring into the depths of embarrassment. But when he asks me, "what is painting like?" I realize that this professional artist has never painted anything in his life before. He just wants to go with my colors.
When I signed up for this holiday, I was hoping for an experience like the one I had had four years earlier in Wales. That was my first painting holiday, and I love it. Two things made it great. First was the teacher, a man called Robin, who showed me that what is important about drawing and painting is not the finished article but the process of completing it. The second element of that week was the place. I grew up in places like that, and I connected with it immediately. But it was stupid of me to think that I could reproduce the experience down here, deep in the Southern Hemisphere. Zimbabwe is not a part of me, nor I of it. Trying to draw it for the first time, from a standing start, is like trying to start a conversation in Swahili.
1. What problem does the writer have at the beginning of her holiday?| A．The weather is not good enough for painting. |
| B．She's brought the wrong materials with her. |
| C．There are no animals that she can paint. |
| D．She can't reproduce the exact color. |
| A．she thought it would disappoint Royale. | B．she believed Royale painted better |
| C．it wasn't good enough to sell | D．it was only a quick sketch |
| A．What I might do. | B．What I am painting. |
| C．What I will give him. | D．What I can teach him. |
| A．The landscape was more familiar to her. |
| B．Her technique had improved much faster. |
| C．She preferred the teacher she had had then. |
| D．She had been able to complete a number of paintings. |
