For 20 years, two brothers living in the dirty neighborhood of Wazirabad in India’s capital, Delhi, have been treating wounded black kites (鸢) that fall from the city’s skies.
Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad rescue birds of prey — mostly injured by paper kite strings — and carry them to a basement garage at home. Here, they begin nursing them to health: cleaning and bandaging wounds, fixing wings and broken bones.
Small miracles happen in the basement. Here lives are saved, a living is made and there’s some happiness too. “You don’t care for things because they share the same country, religion or politics,” say the brothers. “Life itself is relationship. That’s why we can’t abandon the birds.”
The brothers talk about how a neighborhood bird hospital refused to treat the first kite they rescued because it was a “non-vegetarian bird”. At that time, they, were teenage bodybuilders and that’s how they “came to know about flesh and muscles”. They figured out ways to bandage the kites. They became passionate about birds. “We’d lie on the ground, watching the elegant flights in the sky,” they say. “The head would spin. Have you ever felt dizzy looking into the sky?”
The street outside the brothers’ home becomes a smelly pool of sewage water which comes into the basement during the rainy season. Pigs wander in a muddy channel. Air quality reaches dangerous peaks. Yet there’s life and hope. Monkeys climb playfully over some electric wires that hang unsteadily over narrow streets. An airplane in the sky is reflected in a pool of quiet water.
When the weather clears, skies are filled with paper kites. And then the birds begin dropping, and the brothers are back at their job. Sometimes the birds fall after bumping against buildings in the smog or getting entangled (缠住) in overhead wires. At one point, there were more than 100 wounded birds in the basement. The brothers once swam across the river to rescue a bird with a broken wing.
1. Why do the brothers treat wounded kites?| A．They believe they are interconnected. | B．They like to see miracles happen. |
| C．They are deeply religious people. | D．They do it for political reasons. |
| A．Kites are not protected birds. | B．Kites feed on other creatures. |
| C．Kites keep their heads spinning. | D．Kites are dangerous to human beings. |
| A．By listing some statistics. | B．By depicting a miserable scene. |
| C．By making an analysis. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．Look at the positive side of a thing. | B．Start a great cause with small deeds. |
| C．Live in harmony with creatures around. | D．Lend a helping hand to people in need. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Raising a baby takes a lot of work, especially when that baby is a king penguin. Now, it looks like climate change will make life even harder for these birds.
Most king penguins live on the Crozet Archipelago, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, about 1，000 miles north of Antarctica. After the penguin chicks are born in November，which is summer in the Southern Hemisphere，both parents spend 4 months collecting fish to feed their offspring (后代)．
When the fish move to deeper waters in March, the adults swim hundreds of miles south. There, near the Antarctic ice, they spend the winter eating seafood to add to their own energy stores. In October, the parents return to their babies and finish raising them.
Scientists from France have been studying king penguins for a decade. Starting in 1998，Yvon Le Maho and his colleagues put electronic ID tags under the skin of hundreds of penguins. These are the same types of tags you might put in your dog or cat so that you can track them if they're lost. The tags have allowed researchers to get everything about penguins, such as how long they live, whether they return from their winter trips, and if their babies manage to survive the winter.
To see whether water temperatures affect the penguins, Le Maho compared his data with temperature records. Ocean surface temperatures vary from year to year. And previous research had shown that fewer fish and other creatures grow when the water is warmer. Le Maho suspected that this drop would make it harder for adult penguins to survive the hard times ahead. Indeed, his results showed that fewer adults survived during winters when the water was especially warm.
King penguins can live for up to 30 years. And for now, the population still appears healthy. But a warming trend could spell big trouble for a bird that depends on cold and ice.
1. What do adult penguins do in March?| A．They swim south to find food for their offspring. |
| B．They leave their offspring alone for months. |
| C．They take their offspring elsewhere to search for food. |
| D．They teach their offspring some living skills. |
| A．help penguins recognize each other |
| B．help researchers tell one penguin from another |
| C．keep track of the details of the penguins |
| D．help researchers find the lost penguins |
| A．Worried. | B．Optimistic. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Satisfied. |
| A．To call on people to fight against global warming. |
| B．To call on people to protect the endangered penguins. |
| C．To tell global warming is threatening the survival of penguins. |
| D．To explain how global warming affects the life of sea animals. |
【推荐2】My 18-month-old son, Adam, called from the front door. “Look, Mama! Doggie!” I dropped what I was doing and stuck my head out of the door. Brandy, our next-door neighbour’s 11-year-old dog, was over again. “Go away!” I shouted.
Brandy’s owner had died about a month earlier. The woman’s family had emptied the house and stuck a “For Sale” sign in the front yard, but the family had left old Brandy behind. For weeks, she’d been wandering around the neighbourhood.
It wasn’t that I disliked dogs or anything like that. I just didn’t think about them very much. I never had a dog growing up and had never thought to get one.
Brandy went away and I stayed outside with Adam. Then the phone rang. I went inside to take the call. When I came back, Adam was gone. I searched the yard, front and back, then the basketball court and public pool. No trace of him. I was so nervous that I ran home and called the police, then my husband.
Police searched the neighbourhood. Suddenly I heard another sound: a dog barking. “It’s coming from the woods,” one of my neighbours said. We followed the barking to a wooded cliff(悬崖).There we found my son, and he was just inches away from the edges of the cliff, fast asleep. Brandy was beside him, leaning(斜靠着)against him to keep him away from the edge(边缘). When I picked Adam up, Brandy sank down on her side, breathing quickly. She must have been holding Adam there for hours!
I thanked the police and brought Adam and Brandy back to our house. She hesitated a moment on our doorstep, no doubt remembering the time I’d driven her away.
“Come on, girl,” I said. “This is your home now.” Brandy stepped in and once she saw she was really welcome, she relaxed and lay down on the floor just inside the door. She’d done a great thing, and I wondered if she knew it. She’d certainly touched me in a way that no animal ever had. What a pity a dog like Brandy had been left behind!
1. What is the correct order for the events in the story about Brandy?a. She was left behind by her owner’s family.
b. She stepped into the woman’s house.
c. She appeared at the woman’s front door
d. She stayed beside the woman’s son for hours
| A．d, c, b, a | B．a, c, b, d | C．c, d, b, a | D．a, c, d, b |
| A．She gave her some food. | B．She took her home. |
| C．She drove her away. | D．She said thanks to her. |
| A．By searching the neighbourhood. | B．By hearing a dog barking. |
| C．By following a dog’s footsteps. | D．By hearing her son’s crying. |
| A．Gratitude(thankfulness) | B．Dislike. |
| C．Pity. | D．Coldness |
【推荐3】For thousands of years, the Yangtze River Basin has nurtured (哺育) countless generations of people in China. With towering mountains, dense (茂密的) forests and beautiful wetlands, the basin is also home to many kinds of wild animals and plants.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, it boasts about 350 types of fish, 762 kinds of bird, 280 mammals and over 14,000 different plants.
One of the most famous creatures is the baiji, or Yangtze River dolphin, which is described as the “Goddess of the Yangtze” in the Erya (《尔雅》), a Chinese dictionary dating back to 200 BC.
The light grey, long-nosed river dolphin first lived in the oceans before settling in the Yangtze River around 20 million years ago. Despite having eyes, it relies on its sonar (声呐) abilities to navigate (导航) through water, according to China Daily.
It’s also a shy creature. That’s why Wang Ding, an expert from the Institute of Hydrobiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, compared it to the “girl next door”. “The baiji is very beautiful but difficult to get close to,” Wang told the Guardian.
However, the baiji’s cousin, the Yangtze finless porpoise (江豚), seems to have a more lively character. Known for its “mischievous” (淘气的) smile and friendliness with humans, the finless porpoise is nicknamed the “water elf (精灵)”.
Compared to the friendly porpoise, the snow leopard (雪豹), known as the “king of the snowy mountains”, couldn’t be more different. With sharp teeth, the white-coated big cat has strong limbs (四肢), which help the animal to cover about 10 meters in a single leap.
Despite the biodiversity in the Yangtze River Basin, however, its creatures are under threat. For example, the baiji was declared “functionally extinct” in 2006. This means that even if there are some of a species still alive, it still may not survive. The finless porpoise was categorized as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2013, while the snow leopard was listed as “vulnerable (易危的)” in 2017.
A major reason for the drop in the number of these creatures is human activity, such as hunting and pollution, according to China Daily.
“In the past, many people relied on fish farming to make a living,” Huang Zehua, an official from Jingzhou, Hubei, told Beijing Review. “Fish farming then was mostly chaotic and disorderly.”
Luckily, measures have been taken to protect the Yangtze River Basin. In 2016, China announced the creation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, involving nine provinces and two municipalities (直辖市). Environmental protection and green development are considered first in the development of the economic belt, according to China Daily.
“The Yangtze River is China’s mother river, and it’s our duty to protect it,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping during an inspection tour of Hubei in April, 2017.
Saving | |
| China’s mother river | With rich natural |
| The animals living in or along the river | Baiji came from the oceans 20 million years ago, using its sonar to |
| The Yangtze finless porpoise might have the same | |
| The snow leopard is | |
| A major factor | The |
| Measures taken to protect the Yangtze River Basin. | Nine provinces and two municipalities have joined the Yangtze River Economic Belt and agreed that environmental protection and green development are a |
【推荐1】Having spent more than a decade on the dance floor, ROME — Niccolo Filippi, a 23-year-old Italian dance performer, recently decided to explore Chinese culture and its traditional dance forms and believes that this experience will not only boost his career, but also broaden his horizons beyond the world of dance.
His interest in diversifying his skills grew after he stumbled upon a short video of traditional Chinese-styled dance on YouTube. “I saw it as an art that combines tradition and modernity, which was mostly the reason why I liked it,” says Filippi.
Ever since, he has been closely following Chinese dance performers and watching numerous videos to learn more about the traditional style that he admires. “I prefer the traditional style because of its light movements. It also reflects my personality with elegance,” he adds.
Filippi’s chance came when he was invited to perform for a Chinese New Year celebration in the central Italian city of Florence. He has since fully committed himself to the art form, learning several pieces and putting his newfound passion into practice.
“The biggest difference that I found (compared to other disciplines) is the change of mood and emotional expressions among dances,” says Filippi, adding that he needed to shift from the dynamic moves of hip-hop to the graceful and fluid movements of Chinese dance. Despite various obstacles, Filippi’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. Two of his friends shared videos of his performances on social media, and the response was overwhelming. One video garnered 500,000 views, while the other received 200,000 views.
Filippi believes that learning about different cultures is priceless, and he sees it as a means of personal growth. “I like to think of a person as a book,” he says. “Embracing different traditions and cultures, such as Chinese culture and many others, is like adding new chapters to my book, making it more diverse and wonderful.”
1. What is the main reason why Filippi falls in love with traditional Chinese dance?| A．Its potential to boost his career. | B．Its mix of traditional and modern elements. |
| C．Its graceful and light movements. | D．Its true reflection of his elegant personality. |
| A．By listing numbers. | B．By giving an example. |
| C．By sharing a story. | D．By making a comparison. |
| A．Filippi thinks little of learning from other cultures. |
| B．People prefer to write down their past experiences. |
| C．Accepting various cultures boosts personal growth. |
| D．A book with chapters on traditions is more wonderful. |
| A．Chinese-styled dance videos go viral on social media. |
| B．An Italian’s dance journey towards specialization starts. |
| C．Filippi’s desire for Chinese culture extends beyond dance. |
| D．An Italian dancer shows passion for Chinese-styled dance. |
【推荐2】In late September, 2023, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission (任务) delivered bits of rock and dust collected from a distant asteroid (小行星) to Earth. The sample, from the asteroid named Bennu, is the first of its kind brought to the United States. Now, the public can see the asteroid’s rocky debris (碎片) on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History a few days ago.
Scientists think the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid is composed of some of the solar system’s oldest materials, formed in dying stars before the planets existed. Examining this ancient matter could hold clues about how organic materials first arrived on Earth, so NASA launched the OSIRIS-REx mission in 2016 to collect samples from Bennu’s surface. The spacecraft arrived at the asteroid in 2018, surveyed the rock for an ideal collection site and ultimately took a sample back to Earth in 2020. Recently, an initial examination of the sample revealed evidence of a high carbon content and water on Bennu.
When the team was unpacking their sample, they found that “bonus” material from the asteroid covered the collector. The presence (存在) of this extra matter delayed NASA’s processing of the sample. “The very best ‘problem’ to have is that there is so much material that it’s taking longer than we expected to collect it,” said Christopher Snead, the OSIRIS-REx deputy sample curator. Next, more of the material from Bennu will go on display at the museum. In the next two years, scientists will continue analyzing the sample and will save at least 70 percent of the Bennu rocks for further research.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson believes that studying Bennu samples will advance our understanding of the solar system for generations. It promises to shed light on (弄明白) what makes our planet unique. By studying this 4.5-billion-year-old sample and sharing it with the public, NASA aims to inspire future scientists and encourage them to explore new fields.
1. What is the mission of OSIRIS-REx?| A．To search for alien life on Bennu. |
| B．To collect a sample from an asteroid. |
| C．To explore the origin of the solar system. |
| D．To study the impact of space debris on Earth. |
| A．There is carbon and water on Bennu. |
| B．Bennu is the oldest star in the solar system. |
| C．Bennu played a key role in the evolution of life on Earth. |
| D．It took two years for scientists to locate an ideal collection site. |
| A．The sample was difficult to collect. |
| B．The spacecraft had technical problems. |
| C．The collector was covered by additional material. |
| D．The examination of the material takes lots of time. |
| A．The significance of studying the Bennu sample. |
| B．The purpose of displaying samples at the museum. |
| C．NASA’s further plans for the research on Bennu rocks. |
| D．NASA’s efforts to inspire scientists to explore new fields. |
【推荐3】What makes a human being? Is it our thoughts? Our emotions? Our behavior?
All of these things make us who we are, but at the center of the matter is the genome (基因组) — the genes inside our bodies that may determine everything from our hair colour to our intelligence. But if we could change our genome, what would it mean to us?
In an online video posted on Nov 26, He Jiankui, a biological researcher from Southern University of Science and Technology in China, said that he had helped to make the world’s first genetically edited babies.
These are twin girls, born in November, with genes edited in an attempt to help them fight against possible future infection (感染) with the AIDS virus.
He said that he chose to do this because HIV infections are a big problem in China. “I feel such a strong responsibility that it’s not just to make a first, but also to set an example,” He told the Associated Press(AP).
The announcement has caused an international storm. Some believe that success will benefit the families of HIV patients. Considering that HIV is “a major and growing public health threat,” attempted gene editing for HIV is justifiable, Harvard Medical School genetics professor George Church told AP.
However, others think that gene editing technology is still unsafe to attempt.
“Gene editing itself is experimental and is still associated with unexpected mutations (突变), causing genetic problems early and later in life, including the development of cancer,” Julian Savulescu, a specialist in ethics at the University of Oxford, told BBC News.
Others fear that this could open the door to using gene editing technology to make designer babies. It might give the parents the choices to choose everything from their baby’s eye color to intelligence.
“You could find wealthy parents buying the latest ‘upgrades’ for their children, leading to even greater inequality than we already live with,” Marcy Darnovsky, director of the San Francisco Center for Genetics, told BBC News.
1. Why did He Jiankui make the genetically edited babies?| A．Because he wanted to be a leader in gene editing technology. |
| B．Because he tried to do his part in fighting against HIV infection. |
| C．Because he attempted to help the twin girls who were infected with AIDS. |
| D．Because he wanted to become the first to make the genetically edited babies in the world. |
| A．indifferent | B．understanding | C．objective | D．unfavorable |
| A．Gene editing can determine everything inside a person’s body |
| B．Gene editing may widen the gap between the rich and the poor |
| C．Gene editing may enable wealthy parents to design their babies |
| D．Gene editing can cause genetic problems sooner or later in life |
【推荐1】Lunch hour is crazy at SAME Café, the restaurant my husband, Brad, and I run in Denver.
One day a woman dressed in a business outfit (套装) stepped in. “Hi, Libby.” she said. I recognized her. The first time she came two years ago, she had no money to pay for a meal. No problem. Like many customers, she volunteered to work. After her meal, she washed dishes. Look at her now. I stole a glance at Brad, in the kitchen. Wasn’t this what we’d hoped for?
In 2015, on a flight home from Texas, we’d hatched this crazy dream. We’d both done a lot of volunteering at soup kitchens. It was something we felt called to do, feeding the poor.
“I wish we could start our own place,” I said. “No cash register (收银机). Just a donation box on the counter.”
“Why don’t we?” Brad said.
It would be a charity, but we didn’t want our diners to think of it as a charity. “If they can’t pay.” Brad said, “they can help wash dishes or sweep the floor. We must treat people with dignity.”
Our first customer was a woman in her forties. She told me she was recently divorced and she and her two kids had no place of their own. “Could I have a salad?” she asked. I brought her a plate of greens with fresh fruit and nuts. Her eyes grew wide. “These are the first fresh vegetables I’ve had in four months,” she exclaimed. That alone made our struggles to open the café worth it.
SAME is short for our belief: So All May Eat. Customers came for Brad’s cooking. But they also liked what our café stood for.
“What do I owe you?” one customer asked. “Whatever you think the meal’s worth,” I said, “and whatever you can afford.” Most customers gave what they could, even if it was just a dollar.
Something was different about the woman that day. Something besides her outfit. She stopped at the counter and ordered greens with sun-dried tomatoes, and a ham and pineapple pizza
“I have something to tell you.” she said. “The last time I was here, I started talking to a woman I’d met here before. She said. ‘There’s an opening in my office. Why don’t you come in and apply?” I did—I got the job!” I knew what was different about her—confidence.
She opened her purse. “I can pay now. How can I ever thank you?”
“You just did,” I said.
1. What did the author and her husband do at soup kitchens in Texas?| A．They learned how to cook. | B．They helped feed the hungry. |
| C．They trained the volunteers. | D．They made a living there. |
| A．With respect. | B．With pity. | C．With care. | D．With effort |
| A．Customers can pay as they like. | B．Customers needn’t pay for a meal. |
| C．Customers help with charity work. | D．Customers get paid for what they do. |
| A．The woman paid for her meal. |
| B．The woman expressed her thanks. |
| C．The woman helped to wash dishes. |
| D．The woman gave her what she had hoped for. |
【推荐2】Brenda Thomas’s heart became a shell when her 21-year-old son died in a motorcycle accident in September 2019, only one week into his senior year of college. But she has found something that helps her to deal with her grief.
She keeps “acts of kindness” cards in honor of her son. These folded pieces of paper are tucked in her purse at all times and always stored in the glove compartment of her car. Whenever she does a good deed for a stranger— which is about once a week— she passes along a card with a message written on it: “If you receive this card, then you must be a recipient of a random act of kindness.” At the top of each note is her son’s name, Trevor Paul Thomas.
Trevor was an athlete who played baseball at Allegany College of Maryland and Penn State Fayette. He was a loyal friend and a force for good, with a witty sense of humor and a big smile. According to his mother, one of Trevor’s best qualities was his compassion for others, no matter how well he knew them. He regularly shoveled(铲) snow off the driveways of older neighbors, delivered hot meals to those in need, and befriended classmates who struggled to fit in. It seemed a natural fit to launch a kindness campaign in his memory.
The Thomas family adopted the “acts of kindness” cards to mark what would have been Trevor’s 23 birthday. They hoped that these cards would encourage people to do a good deed as part of Trevor’s legacy. On each card, they included a mantra (箴言) that the family said best describes the way Trevor had lived his life: “Be somebody who makes everybody feel like somebody.”
Recently, while dining with her daughter Whitney in a restaurant, Brenda decided to pay for the meal of a mother and two children. The recipient of Brenda’s spontaneous (发自内心的) gift was Liana Arruda. She was taking her nine-year-old son and his five-year-old sister for dinner. She felt shocked and moved after the waitress handed her the card. She used it as an opportunity to teach her children about compassion and is now brainstorming ways to pass on the goodness. “I’m waiting to find the perfect opportunity,” she said. “I want it to matter, because it mattered to me.”
For the Thomas family, while there is still—and forever will be—a massive void(空虚感) in their lives without Trevor, committing to “living like him” has helped them turn their pain into purpose. “We’ll keep paying it forward in Trevor’s honor because it would make him so proud,” said Brenda.
1. Trevor Paul can be best described as________.| A．ambitious, witty and optimistic |
| B．sympathetic, humorous and warmhearted |
| C．faithful, passionate and competitive |
| D．compassionate, persistent and rigorous |
| A．Do as Romans do. |
| B．Serve others to be popular. |
| C．Influence others with what you do. |
| D．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. |
| A．Trevor would have graduated from university within one year but for the accident. |
| B．Every time Brenda does a good deed for others, they’ll receive an anonymous card. |
| C．Liana was astonished and touched because her two children gave her the gift spontaneously. |
| D．Liana has found a perfect opportunity to pass on the goodness and teach her children about compassion. |
| A．Your pain can be turned into purpose to push you forward. |
| B．Compassion means standing in others shoes. |
| C．Void can be replaced with satisfaction by “living like him”. |
| D．Committing to “following his way” is a good way to honor somebody. |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项 （A 、B 、C 和 D ）中，选出最佳选项。
My friend Jennie Crossen gave her bone marrow (骨髓) to a 51-year-old woman with leukemia, a woman she has never met.
At the end of March, the Red Cross called back. Six different blood elements were tested; Jennie matched five completely and was about a 3/4 match of the sixth. So she was the best match.
In April, Jennie went for a complete physical exam by one of the doctors who would perform the surgery. The doctor had to make sure that it would be no threat to her. The doctor told her that the surgery would entail having two quarts of bone marrow extracted from her hip bones. Jennie would probably be released the same day the surgery took place and should expect to be sore for a couple of months.
“I didn’t think it was that big a deal until I realized I was a match,” Jennie said, “There wasn’t a question in my head. It didn’t seem like something that was going above and beyond.”
Jennie was left with two very small scars on her lower back from the surgery and was given medication to help dull the pain. She still felt a great deal of pressure on her lower back. “Being only 21, I feel like I am not old enough to significantly impact someone’s life,” Jennie said, “It seems strange to me that I could possibly save this woman’s life which was being cut short by cancer.”
Three weeks after the surgery, Jennie received a call from the Red Cross representative who told her the transplant was successful. “I feel good, and I think it will actually work for her,” she said, “So many people say they’d only donate if it was for a family member or close friend. This woman is someone’s family and someone’s friend. Obviously, no one she knows is a match, and the fact that you’d be able to help a perfect stranger is great.”
1. Jennie Crossen gave her bone marrow to .| A．a close friend | B．a stranger |
| C．a classmate | D．a relative |
| A．frightened | B．nervous | C．calm | D．excited |
| A．take pleasure in the beauty |
| B．devote all one’s life to something |
| C．end the dangerous practice of something |
| D．have an important effect on something |
| A．A Great Woman | B．To Save a Stranger |
| C．My Good Friend | D．Jennie’s Life Blood |
