【推荐1】The last African elephant at the Johannesburg Zoo, Lammie, lost her male partner to a sickness in September.

Lammie was born in the zoo 39 years ago. She had lived for 17 years with Kinkel, who died at age 35. Kinkel had been rescued in the wild after his trunk was caught in a trap in 2000. Around the time of her partner's death on Sept. 4, Lammie had stopped eating. The day before Kinkel died, she was seen trying to help him get up. Elephants are known for their intelligence, strong social ties and even the ability to mourn (哀伤). Some people argue Lammie should be sent to another place where she can be with other elephants.

Audrey Delsink is wildlife director of Humane Society International/Africa. She said, Lammie “is in desperate need of a happier existence and the chance to live out her years with other elephants.” Delsink added that a wildlife rescue place is ready to take Lammie if the Johannesburg Zoo agrees to let her go.

But the zoo says Lammie is staying. The zoo says it serves an educational purpose, especially for the poor who cannot pay to visit wildlife parks.

Michele Pickover disagrees. She is director of the EMS Foundation, a South Africa-based African wildlife rights group. She said “nobody learns anything” by seeing an elephant in captivity (被圈养). She said that watching a film about elephants would be more educational.

But, a spokeswoman for the Johannesburg Zoo, Jenny Moodley, says it is looking for a new partner for Lammie. She said the zoo is following guidelines in its search set by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. She added that experts are closely observing Lammie and that the elephant might not adapt well to a new environment. Moodley said of Lammie: “She is coping incredibly well, considering that she has lost her partner.”

1. What do we know about Lammie ?

A．She used to be rescued in the wild.

B．She lost her friends.

C．She was sad because of her partner’s death.

D．She has been sent to another zoo.

2. What will Audrey Delsink agree?

A．Use Lammie to educate poor people.

B．Let Lammie stay in the zoo.

C．Ask experts to take care of Lammie.

D．Let Lammie live in a wild life rescue place.

3. What does Jenny Moodley intend to tell us ?

A．Lammie has recoverd from the pain.

B．Lammie doesn’t need another partner.

C．Lammie will be sent away soon.

D．Lammie is well taken care of.

4. What can be the suitable title for the text?

A．Rescuing the elephant

B．The sad story of an elephant and her partner

C．Should the last elephant stay or go?

D．Can elephant live happily without a partner?

【推荐2】There have been numerous wake-up calls about the effects of climate change on sea life. As ocean waters heat up, they are making coral lose color. Growing levels of carbon dioxide are making seawater more acidic. Now climate change is starting to affect fish's sense of smell, a phenomenon that will worsen in the coming years if global warming continues growing.

A sense of smell is what the fish can't do without. They use it to find food, detect upcoming danger, escape from predators (捕食者）find safe environments, and even recognize one another. "Future levels of carbon dioxide can have large negative effects on the sense of smell of fish, which can affect fish population numbers and the entire ecosystem, ”said an ocean life expert. "This can be prevented, but we must reduce carbon emissions now before it's too late.”

Experts believe that about half of carbon dioxide emissions produced by human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels--have over time ended up in the oceans, lowering the pH of seawater, and making it more acidic.

Researchers found that sea bass (鲈鱼）exposed to the more acidic conditions swam less and were less likely to react when encountering the smell of a predator. Also, they were more likely to "freeze", a sign of anxiety, according to the study. They found the longer the fish were in high CO2,the worse they got along. The researchers also measured the ability of the fish to detect certain odors (气味）in different levels of acidity (酸度）。 The study showed that their ability to detect and respond to some odors connected with food and threatening situations was more strongly affected than other odors.

The research is important because 20 percent of the protein consumed by 3 million people comes from seafood, and about 50 percent of this comes from fish caught from the wild. “Therefore, increases in carbon dioxide in the ocean have the potential to affect all fish species, including those that many people rely on food and livelihood, "the ocean life expert warned.

1. What do we know from the first paragraph?

A．Global warming will continue in the coming years.

B．Global warming is starting to affect fish's sense of smell.

C．The temperature of seawater is rising to a dangerous level.

D．Few people are worried about the impact of climate change.

2. Why does the author attach great importance to the sense of smell of fish?

A．It can affect the survival of fish.

B．Fish can stay safe with their sense of smell.

C．Fish rely on their sense of smell to find food.

D．Fish can find each other by their sharp noses.

3. Why does the author mention human activities in the text?

A．He wants to blame human beings for global warming.

B．He wants to criticize human beings for overuse of fossil fuels.

C．He concludes that human activities can destroy the sense of smell of fish.

D．He concludes that human activities can improve the ecosystem of the ocean.

4. What is the author's attitude toward the future of fish industry?

A．Satisfied.

B．Enthusiastic.

C．Disappointed.

D．Concerned.

【推荐3】阅读下面短文，按照要求用英语回答问题。

Trees are useful to man in three very important ways: they provide him with wood and other products; they give him shade; they help to prevent drought and floods.

Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, man has not realized that the third of these services is the most important. To make money from the trees, he has cut them down in large numbers, only to find that without them he has lost the best friends he had.

Two-thousand years ago, a rich and powerful country cut down-its trees to build warships, with which to gain itself an empire. It gained the empire, but since the trees were cut down, its soil became hard and poor. When the empire fell to pieces, the home county found itself faced by floods and hunger.

Even where a government realizes the importance of an enough supply of trees, it is difficult for it to let the villagers see this. The villagers want wood to cook their food with, and they can earn money by selling wood to the townsmen. They are usually too lazy or too careless to plant and look after new trees. So, unless the government has a good system of control or can educate the villagers, the forests will not get protected. This does not only mean that the villagers’ sons and grandsons will have fewer trees. The results are even more serious. Where there are trees, their roots break the soil up, allowing the rain to sink in, which makes the soil stick together and prevents it being washed away easily. Where there are no tree, the rainfall son hard ground and flows away on the surface, causing floods and carrying away with it the rich top-soil, in which crops grow so well. When all the top-soil is gone, nothing remains but worthless desert.

1. Why do men cut down trees in large numbers in many places? (No more than 10 words)
___________________________________________________________________________
2. What happened to the soil after trees were cut down in the rich and powerful country? (No more than 5 words)
___________________________________________________________________________
3. What should the government do to protect the trees? (No more than 15 words)
___________________________________________________________________________
4. What does the underlined phrase “sink in” in the last paragraph mean in English? (No more than 5 words)
___________________________________________________________________________
5. Do you think it is important to protect trees? Why do you think so? (No more than 20 words)
___________________________________________________________________________

【推荐1】Muscles make an excellent vaccine administration site because muscle tissue contains important immune cells. These immune cells recognize the antigen, a tiny piece of a virus or bacteria introduced by the vaccine that stimulates an immune response. In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine the immune cells in the muscle tissue pick up these antigens and present them to the lymph nodes. Injecting the vaccine into muscle tissue keeps the vaccine localized, allowing immune cells to sound the alarm to other immune cells and get to work. Once a vaccine is recognized by the immune cells in the muscle, these cells carry the antigen to lymph vessels, which transport the antigen-carrying immune cells into the lymph nodes. Lymph nodes, important parts of our immune system, contain more immune cells that recognize the antigens in vaccines and start the immune process of creating antibodies.

Muscle tissue also tends to keep vaccine reactions localized. Injecting a vaccine into the deltoid muscle may result in local inflammation or soreness at the injection site. If certain vaccines are injected into fat issue, the chance of painful redness or swelling increases because fat tissue has poor blood supply, leading to poor absorption of some vaccine components.

Yet another deciding factor in vaccine administration location is the size of the muscle.

Adults and children aged three and older tend to receive vaccines in their upper arm in the deltoid. Younger children receive their vaccines mid-thigh because their arm muscles are smaller and less developed.

Another consideration during vaccine administration is convenience and patient acceptability.

Can you imagine taking down your pants at a clinic with strangers around? Rolling up your sleeve is much easier and more preferred.

1. How many reasons are mentioned for the vaccines given in the muscle?

A．2

B．3

C．4

D．5

2. Why do muscles make a good vaccine administration site?

A．Muscle tissue contains vital immune cells.	B．Muscle tissue stimulates immune responses.
C．Muscles can easily recognize bacteria.	D．Muscles can prevent reproduction of viruses.

3. What could be a result of injecting vaccines into fat issues?

A．Poor blood supply.	B．Local pain.
C．Rapid fat loss.	D．Better absorption.

4. Where is the passage most likely taken from?

A．an advertisement

B．a novel

C．a speech

D．a journal

【推荐2】Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia (百科全书), is the largest encyclopedia ever. An encyclopedia is a collection of informative articles about various things. Encyclopedias used to be printed as books.     1    

“Wiki” is an Internet term that means “a website that can be edited by the public”. It comes from “wikiwiki”, a Hawaiian word for “quick”. Two Americans, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, created Wikipedia in 2001.     2     It has about 6 million articles in 300 languages and is visited by billions of people each day, who want to find information about anything — science, math, languages, art, culture and company histories. There are articles on sports stars, too, and even long-forgotten soap operas from the 1970s.

    3     Except for a small number of pages, anyone can edit articles and registered users can create their own articles. Editing is unpaid, although Wikipedia does employ a small staff. Wikipedia is freely available to anyone with an Internet connection. Its founders hoped that the model would make use of humanity’s collective knowledge.

    4     Many Wikipedia pages contain errors, although the organization has a content review system that works to fix this problem. Several studies have concluded that Wikipedia is as accurate as most print encyclopedias. Indeed, a 2005 report in the journal Nature found it to be only slightly less reliable than Encyclopedia Britannica.

Today Wikipedia faces many challenges. It does not rely on advertising.     5     Perhaps more importantly, the number of its volunteer editors is shrinking.

Despite these difficulties, Jimmy Wales says he will still stick to his dream. He has big plans for the future. He wants Wikipedia available in all of the world’s languages.

A．Most of its editors are volunteers.

B．Now, they are mostly found online.

C．Wikipedia employs an open editing model.

D．Instead, all of its funds come from donations.

E．It allows users to get information within seconds.

F．It is now the fifth-most visited website on the Internet.

G．However, some people doubt the accuracy of Wikipedia's content.

【推荐1】Set to launch on October 16, the Lucy spacecraft is designed to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids (小行星). These asteroids are small bodies leftover from the formation of our solar system’s large planets. They share an orbit with Jupiter as the planet goes around the sun. The mission’s aim is to gather new information about the solar system’s formation 4.5 billion years ago.

Lucy will observe eight asteroids over 12 years. One of the eight asteroids orbits in what is known as the Asteroid Belt , an area between Mars and Jupiter. Most known asteroids orbit within this area. The spacecraft will also observe seven Trojan asteroids. Scientists consider the Trojan asteroids to be the ancient remains of the formation of the solar system. They have stayed captured in Jupiter’s orbit for billions of years. The Trojans circle the sun in two groups. One group leads Jupiter in its orbital path, while the other follows behind it. Lucy will be the first spacecraft to visit these asteroids.

The spacecraft was named Lucy after the ancient fossil discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. Lucy was one of the most famous scientific finds of the 20th century. The collection of skeletal bones gave scientists a better understanding of the evolution of humans. Cathy Olkin, the deputy lead investigator for the Lucy mission, compared the NASA spacecraft to the Lucy fossil. “Just like the Lucy fossil transformed our understanding of human evolution, the Lucy mission will transform our understanding of solar system evolution.” she said.

The spacecraft is equipped with several imaging instruments designed to capture information about the composition of materials on the surface of asteroids. Other equipment will be used to record asteroid surface temperatures and measure the size of the objects the space-craft observes. Lucy will depend on solar power to operate. NASA says the mission expects to set a record because Lucy will travel farther from the sun than any past solar powered spacecraft.

Lori Glaze is the director of NASA’s planetary science division. She said “Whatever Lucy finds will give us vital clues about the formation of our solar system.”

1. What is the mission of the Lucy spacecraft?

A．To explore the surface of Jupiter.

B．To collect soil samples from Mars.

C．To find out the origin of solar system.

D．To search for life on Trojan asteroids.

2. What can we learn about Trojan asteroids from paragraph 2?

A．They all orbit in the Asteroid Belt.

B．They were discovered 12 years ago.

C．They share the same orbit with Jupiter.

D．They are the oldest planets in solar system.

3. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．The inspiration for the name of Lucy.

B．The significance of the Lucy fossil.

C．The introduction to the Lucy mission.

D．Cathy Olkin’s study on human evolution.

4. What do we know about the Lucy spacecraft?

A．It has a large space inside.

B．It is powered by sustainable energy.

C．It moves faster with its lower weight.

D．It gets closer to the sun than other spacecraft.

【推荐2】Technology use seems to be the new wave of addiction hitting people of all ages. Its extreme use can be compared to the use of drugs, which is called Plug-in Heroin.

The next time you’re in a crowded public place, look at the people around you. It’s hard to find someone who isn’t glued to the tiny screen, fingers moving at lightning speeds, texting their friends, emailing co-workers or listening to music. It may seem ridiculous that someone is that addicted to such a small object. I’ve seen people who seem to be at their wits’ end if their phone or iPad has been taken away, lost or left at home.

Some people may ask, “What’s wrong with technology use? It’s a way for people to communicate.” While this is true, the overuse of technology isn’t always appropriate in certain settings. Schools are becoming stricter about the use of cell phones, iPads and other electronics in classrooms. Various workplaces have signs hanging on their walls warning employees that “Cell phone use is not permitted” or “Cell phones are forbidden.”

Electronics may be a way for people to communicate and stay in touch with each other, but the disadvantages may outweigh the benefits. People are losing the ability to hold face-to-face conversations with others. However, it’s hard to avoid electronics in this day and age because almost everything is turning into an electronic format. Books, originally meant for paper design, are now being transferred (转存) to electronic forms. Photo albums, and even yearbooks, can now be viewed via the internet. With this growing trend, future generations are bound to become even more addicted to technology.

Is there a cure for electronic addiction? Simply turning electronics off for an hour or two a day may help to an extent, but it will not completely rid electronic addiction. There only seems to be one cure left, and it may be the hardest: self control.

1. What is Plug-in Heroin?

A．The growing popularity of electronics.

B．The unreasonable dependence on electronics.

C．The future possibility of technology development.

D．The serious consequences of technology use.

2. The underlined phrase “at their wits’ end” in the 2nd paragraph probably means     .

A．Exhausted.

B．Confused.

C．Lost.

D．Surprised.

3. Why is it difficult to avoid electronics nowadays?

A．Too many things are available in electronic forms.

B．The design of paper books is less interesting.

C．It is a must to use electronics to keep in touch.

D．Fewer choices are left for communication.

4. In the author’s opinion, what is the best way to cure electronic addiction?

A．Turn off the electronics for one or two hours.

B．Limit the use of electronic devices in classrooms.

C．Learn to control yourself over the use of electronics.

D．Cell phones should be forbidden in the workplaces.