After a relaxing July day at the Jersey Shore in 2021, Jessica Reeder and her two children headed home to Philadelphia. As they reached Pennsylvania, they were greeted with a yellow-gray sky. It reminded Reeder of what she often saw in Southern California in her childhood when wildfires were burning.
In North America, most large wildfires occur in the western states and Canada. But smoke generated in the West doesn’t stay there. It tends to travel east. Within days, it can dirty the air in the Midwest and even East Coast towns. Today, most asthma (哮喘)-related US deaths and emergency-room visits from wildfire smoke occur in eastern cities.
The big problem comes from tiny aerosols (气溶胶) ― bits of ash, and other droplets in the air. Scientists refer to this mix as particulate matter, or PM.
The smaller the PM is, the longer it can stay in the air. And the longer it floats, the farther it can travel. The especially worrisome sizes are known as PM2.5. These bits are no more than 2.5 micrometers wide. That’s about one-thirtieth the width of a human hair. These aerosols are so small that they can be breathed deeply into the lungs. PM2.5 has been linked with breathing-related injury and heart disease.
Over the last few decades, US clean-air laws have set limits on emissions (排放) of PM from industrial sources. That has helped clean the air in many cities. But these rules don’t cover PM from wildfire smoke. Recent studies have shown that aerosols from wildfires may be more poisonous than industrial sources of these pollutants.
So far, much of the science on how wildfire PM2.5 can sicken people has focused on people exposed to smoke near fires in the US West. Now, researchers are turning their attention to how this smoke may be affecting people as far away as the East Coast. With climate change increasing the intensity and frequency of wildfires, people across North America need to be more concerned about the health impacts of this smoke.
1. Why does the author tell Jessica Reeder’s story?| A．To lead in the topic. | B．To praise her performance. |
| C．To remember a friend. | D．To introduce a nice scene. |
| A．The classification of PM. | B．The treatment for asthma. |
| C．The harm of tiny aerosols. | D．The characteristics of PM. |
| A．It cut down on PM from wildlife smoke. |
| B．It reduced industrial emissions by law. |
| C．It encouraged people to work from home. |
| D．It stopped wildfire smoke travelling east. |
| A．Wildfire Smoke Poses Health Risks in North America |
| B．Wildfires Are Burning Out of Control in the US |
| C．Why Do Large Wildfires Occur in the Eastern US? |
| D．How Do Wildfires Affect the Western US Cities? |
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【推荐1】The State of California is depending on its forests to help cut down planet-warming CO2. But that climate-change strategy may be risky, as new research from the University of California, Irvine(UCI)reports that trees in California’s mountains and open spaces are dying from wildfires and other pressures — and fewer new trees are filling the blank.
“The forests are not keeping up with these large fires,” said study co-author James Randerson, the Ralph J. and Carol M. Cicerone Professor of Earth system science at UCI. Acrossthe whole state, tree cover area has dropped 6.7% since 1985. “These are big changes in lessthan forty years,” he said. It’s the first time that researchers have been able to measure tree population fall in California, and find out the reasons(wildfires and woodcutting).
For the study, the UCI-led team used satellite data from the USGS and NASA’s Landsat mission to study plant changes between 1985 and 2021. They found that one of the most obvious falls in tree cover was in southern California, where 14% of the tree population in local mountain had disappeared, maybe everlastingly.
“The ability. of forests to recover(恢复)from fire appears to be dwindling in the south,” said Jonathan Wang, a researcher in Randerson’s research group, who led the study coming out in AGU Advances. “At the same time, the state’s coverage of bushes and grasses is rising, which could mean more everlasting ecosystem shifts(生态系统转化).”
“The speed and scale of fall in tree cover is different across the state. Tree cover in the Sierra Nevada, for example, stayed relatively unchanged until around 2010, then began dropping suddenly. Fortunately, in the north, there’s plenty of recovery after fire,” said Wang, perhaps because of the area’s higher rainfall and cooler temperatures. “This threat(威胁) to California’s climate solutions isn’t going away anytime soon,” Wang said. “We might be entering a new age of bigger fire and vulnerable(易受损的) forests.”
1. What mainly helped California cut down CO2?| A．Rich forests. | B．Less vehicles. |
| C．Energy saving. | D．Fine weather. |
| A．Poor soil. |
| B．Continual floods. |
| C．High demand for farmland and food. |
| D．Large wildfires and people’s cutting trees. |
| A．Suitable. | B．Falling. | C．Obvious. | D．Boring. |
| A．California’s trees will die out in the future |
| B．California’s environment will face a big challenge |
| C．The reasonfor California wildfires has been found out |
| D．Wildfires seriously threaten California’s tree cover |
【推荐2】Having lived in California until 1970, my family has felt a number of earthquakes. We have been fortunate, however, to have suffered no bodily harm or property damage.
There is a website that lists all California earthquakes recorded from 1769 to the present. The site lists the dates and times as well as the magnitude and the exact location of any quake that measured more than 6.0. There are only a few quakes that stand out in my memory and, luckily, none is shown in the website. So, my personal experience with earthquakes might be considered insignificant.
There are three earthquakes that are difficult to forget. The first one was in 1955 and our oldest daughter was walking with me in our backyard in Redwood City in California. As the shaking became stronger, I held her to me with one arm as I held on to one of our fruit trees with the other. All three of us (my daughter, I and the tree) shook for two or three minutes that to us felt like hours.
The second one was in 1963. Our entire family was visiting Disneyland in Southern California. The earth started to shake just as we were beginning to walk from our hotel toward the famous landmark.
My third experience with an earthquake was a lonely one in California. It was in my sixties and I was alone in an old church. As the building started to shake, I quickly headed for the door to go outside. I remember I said a little prayer — something like, “Help me get out of here in time, Dear Heavenly Father”. Minutes later, I was safe outside.
1. The author writes the passage mainly to tell us about .| A．a new film about an earthquake | B．how to survive an earthquake |
| C．his three earthquake experiences | D．how to save children in an earthquake |
| A．all caused bodily harm | B．are all recorded in a website |
| C．all measured more than 6.0 | D．all happened in California |
| A．A church. | B．Disneyland. |
| C．A building destroyed by an earthquake. | D．The place where the author was born. |
| A．It happened in the author’s sixties. |
| B．The author succeeded in getting outside. |
| C．When it happened, the author was in a church. |
| D．The author was too afraid to walk when it happened. |
【推荐3】Named after Camp Creek Road, its place of origin, the fire started on November 8, 2018 and killed at least 71 people. More than 1,000 people are reported to be missing, although officials say that number could increase.
The fire has been heavily sweeping the Sierra Nevada forest since last Friday, according to the California firefighting office, Calfire. 1,500 firefighters were sent to the affected area, but difficult conditions have prevented their activities and access to the area.
The fire has had huge fuel(燃料) as a result of wood from dead trees—27 million died last year after years of dry weather — plus leaves and grass dried by heat.
Evacuations(疏散) were ordered in several camps and in other areas. Calfire asked people to get ready to escape, considering high temperatures for the next few days.
The fire forced the shutdown of a highway and one of the entrances to Yosemite National Park. Meanwhile, scores of people have become sick and the air in northern California has been listed the world’s worst.
Heavy rain is coming next week that could reduce the flames but also bring floods on hillsides.
According to experts, the main causes of the wildfires are the weather, climate change and population change.
1. Where did the fire happen at the beginning?| A．Calfire |
| B．Sierra Nevada |
| C．Camp Creek Road |
| D．Yosemite National Park |
| A．Climate change. |
| B．Firefighters’ action. |
| C．People’s evacuation. |
| D．Dry wood in the forest. |
| A．Floods happened there. |
| B．27 million trees were dead. |
| C．The Yosemite National Park was closed. |
| D．The air became worse in northern California. |
| A．The main causes of the fire. |
| B．A forest fire in California. |
| C．The measures to stop the fire. |
| D．The influences on people’s life. |
Misunderstanding # 1 : Napping is only for the lazy.
Fact: Around a third of American adults nap on the average day, and for good reason: A short nap can improve everything from alertness(警觉) and memory to creativity and productivity(生产效率). And none of these sounds like laziness to us!
Misunderstanding # 2 : If I take a nap, I’ll only wake up feeling worse.
Fact: That weak feeling after you wake up from a nap is real (it even has a name: sleep inertia), but it’s not a guarantee(保证). How you feel after your nap is a factor of how long you sleep. Experts generally agree that a nap should last no longer than 30 minutes. “If it takes longer than 30 minutes, you end up in deep sleep. You’re going into a stage of sleep where you find it very difficult to wake up.” said sleep expert Michael J. Breus, Ph. D. Next time you’re in the mood for a nap, set your alarm for 20 to 30 minutes, tops.
Misunderstanding # 3 : You mustn’t nap at work.
Fact: In fact, in the office environment, we’re all for catching a few winks (眨眼) during the workday. Some companies have even created special rooms for afternoon naps as more and more employers come around to the idea that a well-rested workforce is a more productive workforce. If your employer doesn’t offer a place to lay your head, try to find an empty conference room where you can close the door and turn off the lights. Really want. You can also take a nap during your lunch break on a park bench or in your car.
Misunderstanding # 4 : I’ll be more productive if I just finish this task, rather than waste time sleeping.
Fact: Yes, you’ll be away from your desk if you spend 10 to 30 minutes sleeping. But you’ll likely make up for that “wasted” time afterward. “My research shows that people feel tired after a long time of work during the day,” Sara Mednick told Bloomberg Businessweek. “It’s difficult to keep energetic and productive all day.” However, a nap can leave you feeling refreshed and more ready to deal with the task at hand.
1. According to the passage, a short nap has the following benefits EXCEPT .
| A．making people think more quickly |
| B．improving people’s memory |
| C．allowing old people to live longer |
| D．raising people’s work efficiency |
| A．the way of sleep | B．the place of sleep |
| C．the environment of sleep | D．the length of sleep |
| A．taking a short nap at work is a waste of time |
| B．people become less productive without a nap |
| C．people become less productive after a nap |
| D．napping is only for the lazy and young children |
| A．The advantages of taking a nap. |
| B．The more naps you take, the more productive you become. |
| C．4 things people get wrong about napping. |
| D．How to take an afternoon nap correctly. |
【推荐2】Can I train myself to need less sleep?
As an experiment for his high-school science fair in 1964, a 17-year-old San Diego boy named Randy Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours. That is 11 days. The project attracted the attention of the Stanford sleep researchers William Dement. Dement and other researchers took turns watching and assessing the young man's consciousness.
I asked David Dinges, the chief of the division of sleep at the University of Pennsylvania, how many people could do anything close to that without dying. He replied that "when animals are sleep- deprived constantly, they will suffer serious biological consequences. Death is one of those consequences”.
That said, cases like Gardner's--- of people who suffered great sleep deprivation without major setbacks--are well documented.
The concept of sleeping in short bursts has spread since those races began, in the 1960s. Today, a small global community of people practices "polyphasic sleeping”，based on the idea that by dividing your sleep into short bursts, you can get away with less of it.
| A．The winners tended to be the people who slept the least, often in multiple short bursts. |
| B．The crucial finding was that throughout their time in the study, the sixers thought they were functioning perfectly well. |
| C．A small number of people, sometimes called "short sleepers” and commonly thought to make up perhaps 1 percent of the population, seem to survive on only four or five hours a night. |
| D．But when the doctor put patients in a lab to make certain they stayed awake, performance suffered. |
| E．Though it is possible to train oneself to sleep in short bursts instead of a single nightly block, Dinges says it does not seem possible to train oneself to need less sleep per 24-hour cycle. |
| F．By all accounts, he took no stimulant medications. |
【推荐3】People who are cheerful and relaxed are less likely to suffer from colds. It’s possible that being full of vim and vigor helps the body fight illnesses, say the researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh.
“We need to take more seriously the possibility that a positive emotional style is a major player in disease risk,” says psychologist Sheldon Cohen, the study’s lead researcher.
In a previous study, Cohen and his colleagues found that people who tended to be cheerful and lively were least likely to develop sniffles, coughs, and other cold symptoms.
Those findings were interesting, but they didn’t prove that a person’s attitude affects whether he or she gets sick. Instead, it was still probable that a person’s underlying personality is what matters.
Evidence suggests, for instance, that certain people are naturally more likely to be outgoing and optimistic, with high self-respect and a sense of control over life. This would mean that who we are, not how we feel, finally decides our chances of catching colds.
To figure out which mattered more (personality or emotions), the CMU team interviewed 193 healthy adults. The researchers talked to each person over the phone every evening for 2 weeks. They told the researchers about the positive and negative feelings they had experienced that day.
The results showed that everyone in the study was equally likely to get infected. Their symptoms, however, differed depending on the types of emotions that they had reported over the previous 2 weeks.
Among those who reported good moods and had been infected with the flu virus, for example, 28 percent developed coughs and stuffy (堵塞) noses. On the other hand, those symptoms struck 41 percent of people who had been less positive. Scientists argue about whether negative emotions or positive emotions have a stronger effect on how healthy we are. For now, it can’t hurt to look on the bright side more often than not!
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．How to get rid of colds. | B．Being cheerful turns away colds. |
| C．Attitude determines life. | D．Different opinions about colds. |
| A．ignorant | B．well-informed |
| C．energetic | D．in low spirits |
| A．health | B．personality |
| C．quality | D．mood |
| A．positive emotions are as good as negative emotions |
| B．it is not necessarily good for you if you always look at problems positively |
| C．it will be good for your health to always keep up an optimistic state of mind |
| D．the saying-every coin has two sides |
【推荐1】It’s late evening in the middle of the winter. The snow is deep, but off I go into the wild. Suddenly, I hear it: the howl (嚎叫) of wolves. Excitedly, I walk faster in the direction of the howling.
I’ve been working as a volunteer wolf tracker in Yellowstone National Park for over a year. It’s my job to follow wolves to record information about them. Like wolves, however, I don’t work alone. I’m one of a team of people who have been in a project to help reintroduce wolves to the park.
Humans have always feared wolves. From fairy tales to movies, the wolf is always the bad guy —a danger to humans and other animals. In the 1920s, the organizers of the park shared this view about wolves and made the decision to drive them away from the park. As a result, the number of elk (麋鹿) in the park increased. The elk started looking for food near river banks since they didn’t have to worry about wolves. This, in turn, stopped trees from growing along the rivers, doing great harm to the environment there.
The return of wolves has already made a big difference. To begin with, the elk soon learned to stay away from the rivers, so new trees have been able to grow there. The trees become home to new wildlife, such as birds, and provide food for more animals.
The park is now becoming more and more popular with those who want to see wolves in their natural environment. It has also helped the local people make more money. Tourists visit the area, stay in the local hotels, and eat in the local restaurants.
Looking at the wild animals and the beautiful sceneries around me, I am amazed at the changes the wolf has made to Yellowstone. And happily, it is playing a good guy in this story.
1. According to the passage, one of a wolf tracker’s jobs is to ________.| A．catch wolves in the park | B．feed wolves in the wild |
| C．stop wolves from killing elk | D．collect information about wolves |
| A．The wolves were always howling at night. |
| B．The elk in the park were in danger of dying out. |
| C．The wolves had done great harm to the environment. |
| D．The park was thought to be unsafe with wolves around. |
| A．risks | B．troubles | C．changes | D．competitions |
| A．Wolves are important to Yellowstone. |
| B．Yellowstone has been home to wolves. |
| C．The wolf and the elk live in peace now. |
| D．The number of wolves is growing fast. |
In 2019, the state of California was on fire. Alexandria Villaseor, who was 13 at the time, witnessed the destruction of Northern California’s Camp Fire, which would go on to burn more than 150,000 acres of land. Villaseor was scared. “That’s when I found out how important climate education was,” she reflected. “And just how much we lacked climate education these past couple of years.”
Villaseor, at the age of 15, was determined to have a bigger conversation. She quickly realized the fight requires international, government-level changes. For her, what started as local concern turned into a year-long protest in front of the United Nations’ New York City headquarters and a global campaign for more compulsory climate education. She sat on a bench in front of the headquarters, begging for the world’s leaders to take climate change seriously.
Her action received national attention, with millions of other students around the world joining in the movement. “It’s completely unacceptable not to learn anything about our planet and our environment in school, after all the young people would inherit the Earth.” Villaseor said, “That’s why I think that climate education is so important, and that’s why I focus a lot on it now.”
Right now, Villaseor is working with the American Administration on its climate plan, which has promised to center on the needs of young people and communities most impacted by climate change. She even spoke at the 2021 Democratic National Convention. “This was definitely a huge moment when I realized that people were listening to the voices of me and youth climate activists.” Villaseor said.
When she isn’t connecting with her fellow youth activists, Villaseor is like most other teens. “My favorite thing to do, of course, is sleep,” she said, “I like to read a lot. I like fantasy books, normally. I also like to write.”
1. What does Paragraph 1 mainly tell us? (no more than 10 words)2. How did Villaseor make the world’s leaders attach importance to climate education? (no more than 15 words)
3. How do you understand the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3? (no more than 15 words)
4. When was the huge moment to Villaseor? (no more than10 words)
5. What do you think of Villaseor? Please explain in your own words? (no more than 20 words)
【推荐3】When scientists talk about recent extinctions, birds and mammals (哺乳动物) get most of the attention. But the first global analysis of its kind finds it is twice as many plants that have disappeared as birds, mammals, and amphibians (两栖动物) combined.
Researchers reviewed published research, international databases, and museum specimens such as grasses from Madagascar, finding that 571 plants species have gone extinct in the past 250 years. One reason why the total is higher than that of the well-studied animals is that there are simply more species of plants. Looking at percentages, the situation is worse for mammals and birds. An estimated 5% of those species have gone extinct, compared with 0.2% of plants.
The loss includes the Chile sandalwood tree in the South Pacific, which was cut down for its fragrant (芳香的) wood. It was last seen on Robinson Crusoe Island in 1908. The extinction rates among plants have been highest for trees and shrubs on islands, which often have species that occur nowhere else, and in regions with rich diversity, especially the tropics and in Mediterranean climates.
Just a few years later, the world lost the banded Trinity (Thismia americana), a leafless plant that grew entirely underground except for its flowers. Most species of this kind of plant grow in rainforests, but this plant was first described in 1912 in a sandy wetland in Chicago, Illinois, and was wiped out by development.
According to the team’s report in Nature Ecology & Evolution, the total of 571 extinct plant species is four times higher than the official listing kept by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Even so, it is probably still an underestimate (低估), as less is known about the status of plants in Africa and South America than on other continents. Many of these species may disappear, too. A major review of the status of global biodiversity recently estimated that more than a million species, including 14% of plant and animal diversity, are threatened with extinction.
1. What caused the extinction of the Chile sandalwood tree?| A．Climate change. | B．The market demand. |
| C．Environmental pollution. | D．The decline of the habitat. |
| A．It flowered without bearing seeds. |
| B．It disappeared during the 19th century. |
| C．It was a flowering plant without leaves. |
| D．It was a rare plant growing underground. |
| A．Their current situation is more worrying. |
| B．About one plant species dies out every year. |
| C．More plant species will keep alive in the reserve. |
| D．They would be replaced by other new species soon. |
| A．Sports. | B．Nature. | C．Entertainment. | D．Figures. |
【推荐1】Breakdancing is close to becoming an Olympic sport after the organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympics suggested its being included in 2024. The other three sports—surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing—will all debut (面世) at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The organizers said the four sports had been chosen because they would reflect the city’s identity and help take the Olympics to the street. They said they wanted to deliver a Games that were in keeping up with the times and encouraged new audiences and attracted young people. Breakdancing is an example of a sport which can be played without the limitation of time and places in urban and other environments.
Breakdancing was one of the sports at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, and now could see its popularity greatly raised. But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) needs to approve (批准) the French suggestion before it can be formally added to the 2024 Paris Olympics sports programme.
Under new IOC rules first introduced to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Olympic host cities can select sports and propose them for inclusion in those Games if they are popular in that country and add to the Games’ appeal.
Antonio Espinós Ortueta, the president of the World Karate Federation said, “Our sport has grown rapidly over the last years. We believed that we had met all the requirements and that we had the perfect conditions to be added to the sports programme. However, we have learned today that we still haven’t had the chance to prove our value as an Olympic sport.”
1. What is mentioned about the coming 2020 Tokyo Olympics?| A．They will be much better organized. |
| B．They will include more sport events. |
| C．They will attract more foreign audiences. |
| D．They will spread the local culture worldwide. |
| A．It is the symbol of Paris. |
| B．It attracts people of all ages. |
| C．It can be played anytime and anywhere. |
| D．It was performed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. |
| A．Give useful advice. |
| B．Make final decisions. |
| C．Offer enough support. |
| D．Give detailed explanations. |
| A．He didn’t expect the final decision of IOC. |
| B．He was confident about the future of breakdancing. |
| C．It is too difficult for a new sport to be included in Olympics. |
| D．It is impossible for breakdancing to be performed in Olympics. |
【推荐2】It’s not easy being a teenager—nor is it easy being the parent of a teenager. You can make your child feel angry, hurt or misunderstood by what you say without realizing it yourself. It is important to give your child the space he needs to grow while gently letting him know that you’ll still be there for him when he needs you.
Expect a lot from your child, just not everything. Except for health and safety problems, such as drug use or careless driving, consider everything else open to discussion. If your child is unwilling to discuss something, don’t insist he should tell you what’s on his mind. The more you insist, the more likely that he’ll clam up. Instead, let him attempt to solve things by himself. At the same time, remind him that you’re always there for him, should he look for advice or help. Show respect for your teenager’s privacy. Never read his mail or listen to personal conversations.
Teach your teenager that the family phone is for the whole family. If your child talks on the family’s telephone for too long, tell him he can talk for l5 minutes, but then he must stay off the phone for at least an equal period of time. This not only frees up the line so that other family members can make and receive calls, but teaches your teenager moderation (节制). Or if you are open to the idea, allow your teenager his own phone that he pays for with his own pocket money or a part-time job.
1. What is this text mainly about?| A．Schooling. | B．Parenting. | C．House-keeping. | D．Friend-making. |
| A．become excited | B．show respect | C．refuse to talk | D．seek help |
| A．have others in mind | B．be the best of themselves |
| C．spend more time to study | D．communicate face-to-face |
| A．Watch their children closely all the time. |
| B．Leave their children completely alone. |
| C．Give their children enough freedom. |
| D．Work together with the school. |
【推荐3】Films to regain cinematic love
The magic spell of motion pictures still works. After a months-long departure from cinema, Chinese filmgoers are eager to celebrate the charm of the big screen again. On Monday, cinemas started to reopen. Here are 3 titles on top of the screening schedule.
Dolittle
After his wife's death, Dr. John Dolittle(Robert Downey Jr. from Ironman)decided to hide from the world with his beloved animals. But he has to take a journey to a mysterious island to find a healing tree, which is the only medicine that can help the dying Queen Victoria in Buckingham Palace.
Ne Zha
Mixed Yuan Bead(宝珠)is divided into a Spirit Bead and a Demon Bead. Ne Zha is the one who should be the Spirit. Bead hero but the Spirit Bead and the Dernon Bead are switched. Then Ne Zha is one of the best animated(动画的)films ever made by China and No. 2 on the box office chart for all films ever screened on the Chinese mainland. The box office hit has reached more than 700 million dollars worldwide.
Coco
This Disney-Pixar production offers a heart-warming comedy combining fantasy, music, family values and Mexican culture. Miguel, a little boy from a family of shoemakers, dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his role model, Ernesto de la Cruz. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the amazing and colorful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events. Along the way, he meets charming magician Hector, and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel's family history.
First screened in 2018, Coco brought home two Oscars, including Best Animated Feature Film, one Golden Globe and one BAFTA Award.
1. Which movie is about a doctor's mysterious adventure?| A．Dolittle. | B．Ironman. |
| C．Coco. | D．Ne Zha. |
| A．They are both winners of awards. | B．They are both based on myths. |
| C．They are both produced in China. | D．They are both animated movies. |
| A．A textbook on movies. | B．A film review in a magazine. |
| C．A website on film recommendation. | D．An introduction of a cinema. |
