Wild beavers (河狸) are back! Experts say that the wild beaver families are doing well. The beavers are even boosting wildlife and the environment!
Over ten years ago, a family of beavers turned up in a part of the river Otter, in Devon. No one knew exactly where they came from. It was a big surprise wild beavers hadn’t lived in England for around 400 years!
In 2015, the government allowed the beavers to stay there as part of a test. They wanted to see if these animals could be reintroduced to the wild. The test ends in February. Some scientists from the University of Exeter already say the beavers help the wildlife in the area. One scientist called it “an amazing story”.
A lot of this is because of dams (水坝). Beavers build dams along the river. This creates deep pools in the riverbed and slows the water down. Scientists say this is perfect for many different types of plants and animals! Many plants are growing near the beavers. Different types of animals are also becoming more and more in the river. Beavers also help make flooding less, scientists say. The beavers’ dams slow down the speed of the river, especially after heavy rain.
Beavers aren’t the only animals that are being reintroduced to the wild! In 2019, red squirrels were brought back to an area of the Scottish Highlands. Further away, the world's rarest (罕见的) duck, the Madagascar pochard, is making a comeback. It was set free into the wild on the African island in 2019 and is doing well.
Who knows what other animals might be making a comeback?
1. The underlined word “boosting”in Paragraph 1 probably means “______”| A．building | B．spreading | C．helping | D．creating |
| A．To reintroduce animals to the wild. |
| B．To introduce the beavers to the wild. |
| C．To build dams for the beavers in the river. |
| D．To grow more different plants along the river. |
| A．They help plants grow. | B．They eat up the plants. |
| C．They do harm to animals. | D．They bring heavy floods. |
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．Worried. | B．Disappointed. | C．Tired. | D．Pleased. |
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【推荐1】In the past 40 years, the total number of Adélie Penguins (阿德利企鹅) been steadily declining. A new study, however, announced the discovery of a previously unknown “supercolony” of more than 1,500,000 Adélie Pen-gums in the Danger Islands of the Antarctic Peninsula’s northern tip.
“Until recently, the Danger Islands, a chain of remote, rocky, islands, weren’t known to be an important penguin habitat(栖息地) says Heather Lynch, a professor at Stony Brook University; These supercolonies have gone unnoticed for decades, she notes, partly because of the remoteness of the islands themselves, and partly the dangerous waters that surround them. Even in summer, the nearby ocean is filled with thick sea ice, making them extremely difficult to access.
Yet in 2014, Lynch and Mathew Schwaller from NASA discovered guano stains (粪渍) in satellite pictures of the islands, which meant a large number of penguins. To find out for sure, Lynch teamed with Stephanie Jenouvrier, Mike Polito and Tom Hart to arrange an exploration into the islands with the goal of counting the birds firsthand.
In December 2015; they found hundreds of birds and started to calculate by hand. The team also used a commercial drone (无人机)to take pictures of the entire islands. They then used a kind of network software to analyze the pictures, searching for the penguin nests autonomously. The accuracy that the drone ensured was the key. The number of penguins could provide understandings not just on changeable penguin population, but also on the effects of changing temperature and sea ice on the area’s ecology.
“the Danger Islands hold the largest population of Adélie penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula. Being able to get an accurate count of the birds in these supercolonies offers a valuable standard for future population changes of penguins,” notes Jenouvrier. “The population of Adélies on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula is different from what we see on the west side, for example. We want to understand why. Is it linked to the extended sea ice condition over there? Food availability? That’s something we need to figure out in the future,” she says.
1. What does Paragraph 1 mainly focus on?| A．The concept of supercolony. | B．The discovery of the Danger Islands. |
| C．A newly discovered penguin habitat | D．The population decline of Adélie Penguins. |
| A．are circled by large islands | B．are home to various wildlife |
| C．are a newly formed chain of islands | D．have rough surrounding environment |
| A．It was really hard to get the accurate study result. |
| B．Modern equipment played an important role in the study. |
| C．The population of the penguins changed the area’s ecology. |
| D．The computer helped analyze the living habits of the penguins. |
| A．The study on Adélie penguins still has a long way to go, |
| B．The sea ice condition affects the growth of the penguins greatly. |
| C．The rapid decline of the penguins is mainly caused by food unavailability |
| D．The study on Adélie penguins, shows a new way for environmental protection. |
【推荐2】Before bringing a dog into your family, it is important to know how to take care of it.
Knowing how to take care of a dog involves proper attention to your dog's diet.
Knowing how to take care of a dog also involves an adequate level of exercise.
Proper veterinary(兽医的) care is extremely important when understanding how to take care of dog. It's best if you bring your dog in for veterinary checkups at least once year.
| A．Dogs are very expensive to keep if you want them happy. |
| B．You need to provide for its needs, both physical and emotional. |
| C．You should know training is very important for a domestic animal. |
| D．Each year, thousands of dogs experience obesity-related health problems. |
| E．Inexpensive low-quality dog food can negatively affect your dog's health. |
| F．Part of knowing how to take care of a dog involves knowing how to train a dog. |
| G．If you're worried about costs, you may want to invest in pet insurance for your dog. |
【推荐3】Poison frogs across Central and South America display some of the brightest colors in the animal kingdom. The way such creatures evolved to be just colorful enough to signal their toxic (有毒的) defense-but not so colorful that they become vulnerable to predators (捕食者) — has long been a grey area for scientists. Initially, predators would not have known that bright colors signal toxicity, and therefore would have eaten, and then become ill-these easily-spotted few members of a species with the colorful mutation (突变). In theory, this should make it virtually impossible for the aposematic (防护色的) pioneers to pass on their genes to their offspring, allowing for the mutation to take hold in the population.
To get to the bottom of this dilemma, Karl Loeffler Henry, a researcher at Carleton University launched the new study. Loeffler Henry’s team pored over data from the family trees of 1,100 species of frogs, newts and salamanders, and categorized them into one of five groups. On one end of range are the creatures with bright blues, yellows and reds. On the other are species that blend in perfectly with their surroundings. Between these poles, the scientists place species with camouflaged (伪装的) tops and colorful bottoms in various degrees. These tend to display their dramatic halves only when trying to defend themselves from predators.
The team used nine different computer models to test the potential evolutionary routes the species in the bright aposematic group might have taken to evolve this way. In the end, the researchers realized that they all kind of followed a similar pattern, evolving from species in the middle of that range, those whose colors are hidden unless in danger.
There have also been other theories proposed, but this new theory presents a mechanism that is likely to play a role in the evolution of anti-predator defense in various prey groups and a wide range of different predators. Possibly, it might inspire the exploration of evolution of warning coloration in other animal groups as well.
1. What remained unclear to scientists in the past?| A．How the proper shades of the colors are evolved. |
| B．How these creatures signal their toxic defence. |
| C．Which colors are better at scaring predators away. |
| D．Which creatures are at higher risk of being eaten. |
| A．The predators clearly knew about the toxicity but still feed on them. |
| B．The first colorful members have bright colors but can avoid predators. |
| C．The first colorful members were eaten but the mutation was passed on. |
| D．The predators became seriously ill but their population continued to boom. |
| A．The colors of all those species were either bright or grey. |
| B．The aposematic group evolved by following nine routes. |
| C．The researchers observed these different species in the wild. |
| D．The origin of the evolution turned out to be the hidden colors. |
| A．Other theories of the evolution. | B．Other animals’ evolution routes. |
| C．The drawbacks of the study. | D．The significance of the study. |
【推荐1】While riding hard on a bike, do you feel like you are saving the planet? Or do you just feel out of breath? In fact, cycling is now considered one of the best weapons mankind can use in the fight against climate change.
The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution (决议) in March supporting bicycles as a tool for dealing with climate change. The resolution calls on member states to “add the bicycle to public transportation, in the city and countryside, in developing and developed countries”, with all 193 members of the UN agreeing upon the resolution.
The decision has received positive comments from different groups in support of cycling and the environmental awareness internationally. “It’s an important step toward the recognition of cycling as an important means of transport,” said the European Cyclists Federation.
The resolution from the UN comes at a time when climate change has returned to the center of the world’s attention. On February 28, the UN published a new report assessing (评估) recent climate change trends (趋势). The report warns that the world’s average temperature will rise by 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), with more than 40% of the world’s population being “easily affected” to these temperature changes.
Cycling is an environmentally friendly means of transport. Choosing to take a bike instead of a car just once a day can reduce a person’s carbon emission (碳排放) from transport by 67 percent, according to a research by the University of Oxford. The research also found that cyclists produced 84 percent lower CO 2 emissions from all daily travel than non-cyclists.
Cycling has grown in popularity as people who take public transport to work wish to stay away from crowded public transport and also like taking any opportunity to exercise. Cycling culture has been further encouraged with the influence of COVID-19. In May 2020, bike sales in Spain increased 22 times compared with 2019. In London, large parts of the city are being closed off to cars so that people can walk and cycle safely.
More importantly, the resolution focuses on bike-sharing services, which could be seen as recognition of China’s bike-sharing success, noted CGTN. China has some of the largest bike-sharing systems in the world. This means of transport that produces zero emissions reduces the amount of CO2 sent out into the atmosphere (大气层) by 4.8 million tons every year, according to a 2020 report from the World Resources Institute.
1. What is the resolution aimed at?| A．Winning all member states’ support. |
| B．Making bicycles part of public transport. |
| C．Dealing with the problem of climate change. |
| D．Making people healthier and more athletic. |
| A．The whole world’s attention on climate change. |
| B．Cycling is encouraged in numerous countries. |
| C．China’s success in Bike-sharing systems. |
| D．More people wish to exercise more. |
| A．It get people to exercise and stay healthy. |
| B．It can largely reduce our carbon footprint. |
| C．It can reduce the influence of the COVID-19. |
| D．It helps us stay away from crowded public transport. |
| A．Cycling to improve health | B．Cycling to a climate solution |
| C．Why is cycling so important | D．A new resolution by the UN |
【推荐2】Weaving environment-friendly materials into beautiful clothing is normally brands' first step toward achieving sustainability.
Allbirds is a shoe brand founded in 2016 in New Zealand, which just entered China two years ago. Many influencers are fans of the brand, including Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, Dick Costolo, the former CEO of Twitter, actress Emma Watson, and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
The brand chooses natural and sustainable wool from merino sheep as the main raw material, and it costs 60 percent less energy than producing typical synthetic (合成的) shoes; it sources tree fiber involved from farms in South Africa, where people minimize fertilizer and irrigate the land with rainfall, directly saving 95 percent water and cutting carbon footprint in half; sugarcane (甘蔗) involved is sourced from southern Brazil, which relies on rainwater as well.
The brand received Forest Stewardship Council certification, approving that it sources materials that meet strict standards to protect forests, and the animals and people who depend on them.
During China Fashion Week, which was recently held, an increasing number of Chinese brands showed their practice of sustainability. Demain presented the potential of plant-based regenerated fiber; Damowang formed recycled PET fabric into clothes, which cause 32 percent less carbon emission while producing comparing to normal PET fabric; I-La introduced new collection made from biodegradable (生物降解的) natural materials; Chicco Mao called attention to the catastrophic impact of global warming on coastal ecology through design.
According to the report, although the number of mass market retailers, who make products from sustainable materials, stays low, it has increased fivefold in the last two years.
Yan Yan, the head of Responsible Supply Chain Association, talked about sustainable fashion at China Fashion Summit on March 27. She said, “the realization of sustainable fashion counts on the transformation of the whole industry, involving designers' awareness, the selection of raw materials, manufacturing process, consumption concept and where these products will end up with.”
1. Why is Allbirds mentioned in the text?| A．Because it is an influential brand in China. |
| B．Because it has attracted many celebrities as fans. |
| C．Because it has received approving certifications. |
| D．Because it stands out in sourcing natural materials. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By using figures. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By proving facts. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Objective. | C．Optimistic. | D．Unclear. |
| A．Realization of Sustainability. | B．Fashion Brands. |
| C．Sustainable Fashion. | D．Sustainable Materials. |
【推荐3】For Suilasaikhan, a man living in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region(IMAR)(内蒙古自治区), life was hard years ago. When the wind blew, the sand made it almost impossible for him to see anything. He had to find his way back home by following the barking of dogs.
Thankfully, things are much better today. About one third of the desert is now covered with trees, and sandstorms are less common. Ian Teh, who comes from Malaysia, came to China last year and was amazed to see people planting trees in the several deserts in northern China. "To be honest, it was hard to imagine it was ever a desert at all," he said.
These are the results of Chinas years-long efforts to deal with desertification (沙漠化). In the 1950s, this widespread problem affected the life of about 400 million people in 18 provinces and autonomous regions in China. So China started several programs to deal with it. For example, the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, saw thousands of trees planted in northern China.
In 1994, China joined the United Nations' convention (公约) against desertification and created the world's first law on sand prevention in 2001. With these efforts, the past five years have seen the area of desert in China decrease by 242,400 hectares.
Desertification isn't the problem only in China. With china's success in dealing with desertification, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) believes the country is a good example for other countries to follow. "China is one of the most successful countries in greening the desert and has lessons to share with the world." UNEP Executive Director Erik Solheim told Xinhua.
1. What is the passage mainly about?| A．The desertification in North China. |
| B．China's efforts to stop desertification. |
| C．Foreigners' amazement at China's dealing with deserts. |
| D．The importance of dealing with desertification in China. |
| A．He had never seen the deserts in North China. |
| B．He thought it impossible to plant trees in deserts. |
| C．He was excited to see so many trees in North China |
| D．China has made great progress in fighting against desertification. |
| A．China has set a good example in greening the desert. |
| B．China created the world’s only law on sand prevention. |
| C．China is the only country to deal with desertification successfully. |
| D．By 1994, the area of desert in China had decreased by 242,400 hectares. |
| A．To tell us the difficult life of the IMAR people. |
| B．To introduce United Nations Environment Program. |
| C．To show us china's success in programs against desertification. |
| D．To compare the differences between the past and the present. |
【推荐1】Here are some libraries in Shandong province.Have a look and visit them in your spare time.
Shandong Provincial Library
Shandong Provincial Library, well known for its long history and luxurious collections,is one of the top 10 libraries in China.The library holds 6.12 million volumes.It has 44 service stations,with an average daily reception of 5,000 visitors.It also exchanges documents and literature works with Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom at irregular intervals.Opening Hours: 8:30 am-7:00 pm, closed every Monday afternoon (except for national holidays)
Add:2912, Erhuan East Road, Licheng district (at the intersection of Hualong Road)
Qingdao Library
Qingdao Library is a cultural landmark in Qingdao.It is an intelligent and modern library with 100 staff and 1.23 million volumes.It consists of a total of 32 halls and rooms, as well as newly-developed lecture halls, exhibition centers and electronic reading rooms, with more than 1,900 seats.The library remains open every day.
Opening Hours:8:30 am-5:30 pm
Add:109 Yanji Road, Qingdao, East China's Shandong province
Lijin Library
Lijin Library was founded in 1956 and rebuilt in 1993.It has 56,000 books, more than 1,000 bound volumes of newspaper, 5,000 bound volumes of journals, 120 thread-bound（线装的）ancient Chinese books and more than one TB of digital books.The library has three service stations, receiving more than 92,000 visitors every year.
Opening Hours: From Monday to Sunday 8:00 am-11:00 am; 2:00 pm-5:00 pm
Add:568 Jin'er Road, Lijin county, Dongying city, East China's Shandong province
1. What is special about Shandong Provincial Library?| A．It ranks the tenth in China. |
| B．It keeps open from Monday to Sunday. |
| C．It has the largest book collections in China. |
| D．It exchanges resources with some foreign countries. |
| A．6 hours. | B．9 hours. | C．10 hours. | D．10 hours and a half. |
| A．It opens all day long. |
| B．It has many ancient Chinese books. |
| C．It has 100 staff with three service stations. |
| D．It has the most volumes of books among the three. |
【推荐2】While we like to think that people get ahead because of some combination of effort, talent, and knowing the right people, research shows that success is partly due to people’s nice appearance (外貌).
Attractive people do better in school, where they receive more help and are punished less; at work, where they get better pay and higher positions; in love, where they control the relationship; and among strangers, who think them more interesting, honest, and successful. Studies show that you’re more likely to get employed (雇佣) if you look clean and carefully dressed, that good-looking people make about 12% more money than less attractive guys, and that attractive saleswomen bring in more money than their less attractive partners. Psychologists call it the “beauty premium (美貌津贴)”. Basically speaking, the income differences between attractive and unattractive people is comparable to those between sexes or colors. In a paper titled “Why Beauty Matters”, University of Michigan information scientists Markus Mobius and Tanya Rosenblat pointed out three reasons.
1. Physically attractive workers are (wrongly) considered abler by employers.
Employers are likely to pay people more depending on how they look. In one of Mobius and Rosenblat’s experiments, would-be employers looking at photographs of would-be employees were ready to give 10.5% higher salaries to attractive people than to unattractive people.
Managers said that the first meeting and short interview only happened on the phone. In other words, you only need to sound attractive, and then you will get more salaries because of your possible beauty.
2. Physically attractive workers are more confident, and higher confidence increases salaries.
We all influenced by the “halo effect” — without realizing it, we take someone’s appearance to be showing their character. Experiments have shown that we consider attractive people as “more sociable, sexually warmer, mentally healthier, more intelligent, and more socially skilled” than unattractive people.
3. Physically attractive workers have social skills that raise their salaries when they communicate with employers.
Mobius and Rosenblat’s experiments also found that attractive people had higher level communication skills compared with unattractive people. Physical attractiveness increases social and communication skills, which in return raise an employer’s judgment (判断) on the worker’s working ability.
What do those of us who are not attractive do? We, on the one hand, should use scientific ways to make us more beautiful, such as wearing some beautiful clothes or making up. The important one is to be more confident. On the other hand, we can improve our temperament (气质) through improving our ability of expression and our knowledge. Just as Shakespeare said, love looks not with eyes, but with the mind.
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．Opinions of different people on beauty. |
| B．Advantages of good-looking people. |
| C．Tips on how to get employed successfully. |
| D．Ways of making more money in different positions. |
| A．need a good understanding of the unattractive workers |
| B．are ready to get along well with good-looking people |
| C．mistakenly believe that attractive people have greater ability |
| D．are unwilling to provide good-looking people with higher salaries |
| A．To learn more about phone language. |
| B．To show your better knowledge of work. |
| C．To know what the hiring manager likes. |
| D．To sound attractive in your dialogue. |
| A．Employers believe that a good-looking person has a good character. |
| B．Employers judge people according to their first impression about them. |
| C．Physically attractive workers are confident about their salaries. |
| D．Physically attractive workers are mentally healthier than unattractive people. |
【推荐3】For more than 600 years, English speakers used “because” as a conjunction meaning “for the reason that,” dutifully following it with a full clause of explanation (or at least the word of). Then, a few years ago, this old word suddenly began bursting with new life, as people started using it in a manner that disobeyed all grammatical rules: How do you know climate change is real? “Because science.” Why are you sleepy? “Because wine.” Academics became nervously excited, debating whether “because” had evolved into a preposition and if so, which types of nouns would appropriately fit this new construction. But there was little disagreement on the driving force behind the change.
The title of Gretchen McCulloch's new book, “Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language”, is in honor of this kind of linguistic change —evolution made possible by the dominance of the web and the never-before-seen explosion of informal writing that has come with it. Her aim is to explain how the internet has shaped language. McCulloch is an internet linguist, and her book about internet language is, fittingly, a mixture drawn from academic and internet cultures. In some measure, Because Internet offers a history of the Web along with an introduction to linguistics and a survey of the most fascinating research from her field, including a study that took advantage of geotags on social media to show how new words spread from place to place. Her work is also a well-researched retort (反驳)to grammarians who think technology is to blame for why kids are engaging in what grammarians believe are lazy, senseless talks. On the contrary, she argues, it’s making us more creative in our writing than ever before.
The formal, unemotional writing we were all taught in the classroom simply won't do in places designed for virtual communications, McCulloch explains. And she breaks down the many ways we’ve managed to use keyboards to restore the dynamism of face-to-face interaction. For a start: We tap all caps when we FEEL LIKE SHOUTING. We use the abbreviation lol not just to mean “laughing out loud” but also to get out of awkward situations or to offer empathy. And we lengthen words to show just how much we feeeeeeeeel.
1. According to the passage, which of the following examples best reflects how people use the word “because” nowadays when answering the question “why were you late for school this morning?”| A．Because the traffic was bad. | B．Because of the traffic. |
| C．Because traffic. | D．Because I got stuck in a traffic jam. |
| A．how to keep pace with the evolution of language |
| B．how to have effective communication online |
| C．how to organize meaningful sentences in English |
| D．how to use new words and signals on social media |
| A．we have developed abbreviations to replace many words |
| B．we can no longer show our identity through the language we use |
| C．the explosion of informal writing in virtual communication has evolved the language |
| D．today's kids are not taught at school how to communicate with others |
