Anuar Abdullah has always had a special feeling for the ocean. In the 1980s, he settled in Perhentian as a diving instructor and fell in love with corals. Twice daily, he went out to sea, staying underwater for as long as his oxygen supply allowed. He learned the shapes and textures (纹理) of coral reefs long before he knew their Latin names. He studied the living conditions—the water temperature, the sunshine, the diversity(多样性) of ocean life—and saw how just one of those factors could bring about large-scale death.
Abdullah spent two decades experimenting with how to grow coral reefs in the ocean. He didn’t have a degree in marine (海洋的) biology or a research lab, but he had his own ways. Almost all the materials he used to grow corals came directly from the ocean. He didn’t use steel pipes or bricks—which he couldn’t afford—instead, he gathered rocks from the seafloor, piling them so they wouldn’t be knocked down by tidal waves. While others might depend on a lab to break live coral into pieces that were in turn used for growing, he searched for broken pieces of coral in existing reefs and fixed them to the rocks using animal-friendly glue. When he needed other materials, he started by searching the beach for waste.
Every day, the locals saw him on his knees examining corals in the ocean. Sometimes, he picked up a rock to which he had fixed a piece of coral several weeks earlier, and said very quietly, “My little acropora (鹿角大珊瑚), how are you doing today?” The locals whispered about how he’d spent days in the water speaking to corals as if they were people. “Everyone thought I was stupid,” said Abdullah, “But I knew I was doing the most important thing in the world.”
Actually, Abdullah was right. Now, in a world rapidly losing its coral reefs to climate change and environmental damage, he has become an increasingly influential expert on how to bring them back to life. Thousands have traveled from around the world to learn from Abdullah how to grow corals, with some eventually leaving their jobs to join his projects full time. With his 700 active volunteers, he has already saved about 125 acres of coral reefs.
1. Abdullah went out to sea twice daily to ________.| A．study coral reefs | B．have diving training |
| C．check his oxygen supply | D．share his feelings for the sea |
| A．eco-friendly and practical | B．traditional and indirect |
| C．high-tech and affordable | D．scientific and expensive |
| A．searched for waste to make a living | B．received a degree in marine biology |
| C．talked to everyone about coral reefs | D．became an expert on coral protection |
| A．Anyone with a dream is amazing. | B．Achievement provides true pleasure. |
| C．An individual can make a difference. | D．The strong man is strongest when alone. |
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【推荐1】Our planet is losing species at an alarming rate. As the world has become increasingly industrialized, natural habitats have been destroyed to build cities that are unlivable for wildlife. However, a pair of European designers, architect Rene Hougaard and product designer Alexander Qual, believe there are ways to encourage cities to coexist with nature. Inspired by everyday people who build “insect hotels“ in their backyards, they’ve created outdoor furniture that would be beautiful to look at, but also allow bugs, birds and wildflowers to thrive (繁殖).
The natural world tends to appear messy and chaotic to the human eye, but there is often method in the madness. Qual and Hougaard kept this in mind as in all the structures, they played with the concepts of order and messiness.
Qual created a large, yellow, leaf-shaped insect hotel, that’s designed to be placed on a flower bed in a park. The structure contains wooden blocks with holes that are 6, 7 and 8 millimeters in diameter (直径), since different insect species prefer holes of different sizes.
Hougaard created a metal log bench with an empty space in the middle specifically designed to hold a decaying (腐烂的) log that can provide a habitat for insects and plants, along with birds and bats. While humans often shun decay, Hougaard imagines a place where people can sit down and observe the slow process in which bacteria break down the wood, creating food for insects, birds and other animals.
As for the question of whether people actually want to be so close to bugs, snakes and nesting birds, the designers acknowledge that modern humans have been trained to stay away from such creatures. But Hougaard says these structures keep animals contained, while allowing people to observe and appreciate them safely. And eventually, if we want to maintain biodiversity, humans need to become much more comfortable living alongside wildlife, rather than feeling the need to destroy it. After all, we humans need nature to survive.
1. Why did Hougaard and Qual build insect hotels?| A．To inspire more people to build one. | B．To bring biodiversity back to cities. |
| C．To provide a way to manage the city. | D．To slow down the process of industrialization. |
| A．The size of species. | B．The variety of colors. |
| C．The building materials. | D．The combination of order and disorder. |
| A．Avoided. | B．Crealed. |
| C．Observed. | D．Provided. |
| A．Bugs and snakes annoy people a lot. |
| B．Modern people have destroyed some creatures. |
| C．People should protect wildlife for our own good. |
| D．Hougaard’s structures enable people to touch the animals. |
【推荐2】In the three decades since Darah Lady’s grandmother first arrived in this distant area of northern Brazil, clearing the forest by hand to build a house for her 14 children, the family has pushed deeper and deeper into the Amazon. It has been driven by a saying that good fortune comes when nature gives in to human control.
Yet their growing community there could ruin not only their children’s future but also that of the entire planet. More global pandemics (流行病) are on the way, scientists say, and the next one is likely to crop up from a community like Darah Lady’s, where people are taking up more and more space of the natural world and erasing the buffer zone (缓冲区) between themselves and habitats that existed long. As people cut down forest, they not only speed up the global warming but also greatly increase their risk of exposure to disease.
Scientists also say disease hot zones are expanding from Africa to South America, and that deforestation has already led to a rise in spreading disease. Zoologists have found that a third of all known disease outbreaks around the world were due to rapid land use change.
Darah Lady’s community of Maruaga is filled with risks for the spread of viruses (病毒). Their family has already battled zoonotic illnesses — the term used to describe diseases spread between animalsand humans.
When 40% of a land area has been destroyed, according to Tom Gillespie, a university researcher, the region hits a sort of tipping point: Wild animals are pushed closer to humans for food, and viruses begin to spread.
Darah Lady seemed to notice the slight dfference of deforestation. “I get kind of sad,” Darah Lady said, “Because the forest is something I’ve loved since I was little. And they are deforesting, right? It’s destroying nature.”
1. What do you know about Darah Lady?| A．She built a house for her 14 children. |
| B．She made a big fortune in Amazon. |
| C．Her family cut down trees for growing crops. |
| D．Her family lived in Amazon for decades. |
| A．The loss of the buffer zone. |
| B．The effect of global warming. |
| C．The lack of species variety. |
| D．The expansion of wildlife habitats. |
| A．A possible treatment for diseases. |
| B．A real example of the prevention of diseases. |
| C．A further explanation of the spread of diseases. |
| D．A supporting evidence for the danger of diseases. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Design. |
| C．Education. | D．Environment. |
【推荐3】Alaska officials have canceled several crab (螃蟹) harvests, like the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest, in a conservation effort that sent shock waves through the crabbing industry in the region. The fall red king crab harvest was canceled for the second year because of the low number of mature female crabs, which can indicate the health of the broader population. For the first time on record, officials delay the winter harvest of snow crab.
The decision comes after stark population declines of the animals. Data from an NOAA eastern Bering Sea survey shows a 92% decline in overall snow crab abundance from 2018 to 2021. The population declined by 83% from 2018 to 2022 as some small crabs entered the population in 2022, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Last year’s snow crab harvest was 5.6 million pounds, the smallest in over 40 years. Snow crab populations dropped after a 2019 Bering Sea warming, and the causes of the population crash are probably stresses from the warmer water and increased threats from predators (捕食者).
“Management of Bering Sea snow crab must now focus on conservation and rebuilding given the condition of the stock (库存),” the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said in a statement.
Bering Sea crab harvests as recently as 2016 earned $280 million. A fleet of about 60 boats from Alaska, Washington and Oregon typically pursue the crab, and each boat employs about six people.
“It’s going to be life-changing, if not career-ending, for people,” said Dean Gribble, a crab boat captain who has fished for snow crab since the late 1970s. “A lot of these guys with families and kids have no options other than getting out. That’s where the hammer is going to fall—on the crew.”
1. Why did Alaska officials cancel several crab harvests?| A．To save the animals. | B．To narrow the market. |
| C．To increase the price. | D．To reform the industry. |
| A．Entire. | B．Small. | C．Sharp. | D．Annual. |
| A．Praise the fishermen’s great work. | B．Add some background information. |
| C．Summarize the previous paragraphs. | D．Introduce a new type of well-paid job. |
| A．The policy is a total failure. | B．The locals should stay at home. |
| C．The fishermen will be hit hard. | D．The snow crab has been in danger. |
【推荐1】Recently, a satellite designed to study all water across the world has begun sending its first images back to Earth. The satellite is called SWOT, which stands for Surface Water and Ocean Topography.
The American space agency NASA says the satellite is expected to measure the elevation（海拔）of nearly all water on Earth’s surface. It is the largest and most detailed effort yet to map the world’s water.
The satellite uses instruments to glean detailed height and surface measurements of water in oceans, lakes and rivers. Researchers say the information can help them learn more about how the world’s water supply influences climate change.
One major goal of the project is to research how oceans take in atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide (CO2). The natural process reduces temperatures and climate change.
Data will be recorded about 90 percent of Earth’s surface. Such data can support efforts to learn about ocean currents, guess the weather and control freshwater supplies in areas with little rain. The information is also expected to help communities as they seek to improve and manage their water resources and prepare for floods and other disasters.
The images use colors to identify the elevation levels in different bodies of water. In one example of its first work, SWOT measured sea levels off the coast of North Carolina and Virginia. A radar（雷达）instrument on the satellite collected data on an ocean area about 120 kilometers across.
NASA said red and orange areas in the images represented sea levels that were higher than the worldwide average. On the other hand, areas shown in blue represented sea levels that were lower than average.
SWOT’s radar instrument can also collect data through clouds and darkness. This will allow scientists to map observations under all-weather conditions and cover large areas at any time of day. The satellite will collect information on bodies of water across the globe—data that will be available to everybody who needs it.
1. What does the underlined word “glean” mean in paragraph 3?| A．Change. | B．Collect. | C．Stress. | D．Compare. |
| A．The process of conducting the project. | B．The sea’s role in climate control. |
| C．Various uses of the data. | D．Information first sent back to Earth. |
| A．Its size. | B．Its shape. | C．Its temperature. | D．Its height. |
| A．It functions in different weather conditions. | B．It watches Earth’s surface from space. |
| C．It gives cheap and useful information. | D．It offers the clearest images of water bodies. |
【推荐2】Weather reports often mention high or low pressure systems headed toward a city or town. If you’re in the path of one of these systems, expect a change in weather conditions. High and low pressure systems operate using similar principles, but the effects they produce differ significantly.
View a weather map, and you may see distinct regions that represent different air masses. An air mass is a region of air that has about the same humidity(湿度) and temperature throughout. When an air mass remains over a location for a while, it decides the characteristics of the region. Air masses can be cold or warm and they may contain wet or dry air. All air masses have the ability to move away from their source region into other locations.
Meteorologists(气象学家) call the boundary between two air masses a front. A cold front’s motion through a warm front is a low-pressure system. If a cold air mass replaces a warm air mass, you have a cold front. Air in the cold air mass is often drier than air in front of it. As the air masses meet, the wind usually changes direction and rain or thunderstorms often occur.
A warm front is associated with a high-pressure system and occurs when a warm air mass replaces a colder air mass. A high-pressure system often brings clear, calm weather. Warm fronts travel slowly and are weaker than cold fronts.
Cold fronts move faster than warm fronts because a cold front contains denser air. Cold fronts also often travel from west to east while warm fronts move from north to south. As a warm front approaches, temperatures may rise as warmer air flows in from a warm air mass. However, when the cold front hits, temperatures can drop precipitously within a short time.
1. How is the temperature of a region under a certain air mass?| A．Unusual. | B．Stable. | C．Diverse. | D．Changeable. |
| A．A clear sky appears. | B．A strong wind is formed. |
| C．The air becomes wetter. | D．The wind changes directions. |
| A．Sharply. | B．Slowly. | C．Possibly. | D．Specially. |
| A．The formation of air masses. | B．The new findings of meteorologists. |
| C．The effects of air mass and fronts on weather. | D．The methods for accurate weather forecasts. |
【推荐3】On Thursday, scientists in Indonesia announced the discovery of a rare frog that has no lungs and takes breath through its skin. Researchers believe that the little animal could provide some information about how environment can cause some animals to change so greatly over time.
The frog was found in a faraway part of Indonesia during a scientific research last summer. The unusual animal is the world’s first know lungless frog species. Only a few amphibians have been found lungless.
David Bickford is a biologist at the National University of Singapore. He led the research team that discovered the rare frog. Its living environment has been polluted by chemicals from agriculture. “These are about the most ancient and bizarre frog you can get on the earth,” he says.
Bickford says it’s possible that the frog may have changed in order to adapt to the cold, fast moving and oxygen-rich rivers in which it lives. The biologist adds that his “extreme change” was probably necessary to reduce the frog’s ability to float. That way, it could keep itself from being swept down the mountain rivers.
Scientists say that the new discovery has made it more important to protect the frog’s river living environment. In the last few years, illegal tree cutting and gold mining have caused the once-clean waters to turn brown with pollution.
“The gold mining is completely illegal and small size,” Bickford says. “But when there are thousand of them on the river, it really has a huge effect. Very soon the frog will be out of the river.”
1. The frog is unusual because .| A．it has no lungs at all |
| B．it doesn’t use its lungs to take breath |
| C．it’s the world’s first lungless species |
| D．it can take breath either through its lungs or its skin |
| A．Cheap. | B．Expensive. |
| C．Unusual. | D．Ordinary. |
| A．Illegal tree cutting. | B．Its living conditions. |
| C．The gold mining. | D．Changes of the climate. |
| A．The frog will have to live on land. |
| B．The frog must develop its ability to float. |
| C．Industrial waste is the main cause of water pollution. |
| D．It’s high time to protect the frog’s living environment. |
