【推荐1】The cold, wet weather of winter often puts out any wildfires that are still burning, but not in the far North areas, such as Alaska, Canada, and other parts of North America. Some forest fires just don’t die in these places. Think of the fires as “zombies” (僵尸): Scientists do. When summers are warmer than normal, some fires can hide through the winter. They burn dead plant matter and soils under snow. In May 2021, scientists reported their work to a scientific journal. The scientists saw that zombie fires are rare but they could become more common as the world warms, the study warns.

“Some years, new fires were starting very close to the previous year’s fire,” explains Rebecca Scholten. She studies Earth and environmental sciences at Vrije University Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The new fires made scientists wonder how often fires might survive the winter. The scientists started by combing through firefighter reports. Then they compared these with satellite images of Alaska and northern Canada. The scientists looked for fires that began close to fires from the year before. They also focused on blazes starting before the middle of summer. Random lightning or human actions spark most fires in the area, Scholten says. But those fires happen later in the year.

Zombie fires accounted for less than 1 percent of the total area burned by fires from 2002 to 2018. But it changed from year to year. Take 2008, for example. A zombie fire burned Alaska that year. It caused almost one-third of fire damage that year. One clear pattern emerged: Zombie fires were more likely to happen after very warm summers. High temperatures may allow fires to reach more deeply into the soil. Such deep burns are more likely to survive to spring.

The zombie fire threat could grow. The climate is warming. Forests in the far North already are warming faster. “We’re seeing more hot summers and more large fires and intense burning,” Scholten says. Plus, zombie fires could cause more issues. The fires release huge amounts of greenhouse gases. These trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere is a layer of gases that surround the Earth. Scholten’s research could help fire management. Firefighters would know to check for them after warm summers.

1. What may lead to zombie fires according to the passage?

A．wet weather	B．hotter summers
C．low temperatures	D．cold winters

2. What can we learn about zombie fires from Paragraph 2?

A．Where flames broke out provided the clue.

B．Changing climate plays a role in the zombie fire threat.

C．Zombie fires are less likely to happen after very warm summers.

D．It is of little use comparing firefighter reports with satellite images.

3. What conclusion will be possibly made based on the last paragraph?

A．It is important to understand zombie fires.

B．Zombie fires are likely to be under control soon.

C．Firefighters cannot do much to stop the zombie fires.

D．We still have much to learn about the warming climate.

4. Which of the following could be the suitable title of the passage?

A．“Zombie“ wildfires do great damage to land

B．“Zombie” wildfires release greenhouse gases

C．“Zombie“ wildfires sparked by human actions

D．“Zombie” wildfires reappear after wintering underground

【推荐2】The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported recently that diseases from mosquito, flea and tick bites tripled in the US between 2004 and 2016, with more than 640,000 cases seen during that period of time. Maine alone saw a 20-fold increase in cases of the tick-borne (蜱传播的) illness Lyme disease. The danger showed no sign of abating this year, with ticks crawling into Mainers’ lives as early as May.

Their early arrival was largely a product of warmer temperatures in the region. It is perhaps for this reason that Lyme disease-once a regional problem largely confined to New England-has now been discovered in all 50 states. Warm weather-loving ticks and Lyme disease are just the examples of how our rapidly-heating planet is destroying our health.

Climate change’s most visible symptoms are the natural disasters we’ve seen so often in recent years. When a disaster strikes, the most immediate threat to health is, of course, the danger posed by the event itself. During the 2017 wildfires in California and Oregon, for example, many living near the smoke reported respiratory distress (呼吸窘迫) and other problems because of breathing in the dangerous smoke. But this initial damage is often just a prologue (序幕) to the damage these disasters can have on our health-damage that unfolds over the course of weeks, months or even years.

Take standing flood water for example. It’s a ripe breeding ground for mosquitoes and bacteria and can pose a serious threat in the period following a major storm. Climate change’s impact is combined with the destruction of the basic construction-like power grids and drinking water delivery systems-and the loss of core services-like health care and waste disposal. It can both create new health challenges and complicate the treatment of existing ones.

Climate change can lead to storms and fires, fever and smoke, and the mental and physical health challenges that characterize the long aftermath of disasters. It is through these damages that climate change has gotten under our skin, into our lungs and weighed on our minds to the hurt of our well-being.

1. What does the underlined word “abating” in the first paragraph mean?

A．Decreasing.

B．Distinguishing.

C．Disobeying.

D．Developing.

2. Why can Lyme disease be found in all 50 states now?

A．Because of the movement of population.

B．Because of the wide spread of mosquitoes.

C．Because of more natural disasters in the country.

D．Because of warmer temperatures all over the country.

3. What does the author mainly want to show in the text?

A．Natural disasters are becoming more common.

B．We should take measures to prevent climate change.

C．Climate change is becoming more and more noticeable.

D．Climate change increases the chance of people getting sick.

4. The author draws the main idea of the text by ________.

A．following time order	B．giving examples
C．making comparisons	D．presenting research findings

【推荐3】People living in some northern Italian towns face fines for wasting water as mayors ration(定量供应) supplies amid a severe drought.

Italy has had one of its driest winters in the last 65 years, with rainfall 80% lower than the seasonal average. The situation has been more acute in northern regions, where some areas have been deprived(剥夺) of significant rainfall for three months or more. The Po, the county’s longest river, is at its lowest level recorded in winter since 1972.

Mayors of towns in regions including Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy and Trentino have introduced water-rationing measures, ranging from fountains being switched off and nightly restrictions on tap water to bans on using water for gardens and allotments(小块菜地), for washing cars and filling swimming pools.

“I don’t ever recall a situation of this kind in winter. We haven’t had any rain since 8 December,” said Francesco Pietrasanta, the mayor of Quarona, a town in Piedmont. “The rule is to only use water for real necessity, such as for hygiene(卫生) or food reasons.”

The winter drought followed an intense, protected heatwave across Italy last summer. In August, Siracusa in Sicily is believed to have broken the European record for the highest temperature when it recorded a figure of 48.8℃. Snowfall has also been below average this winter. Scientists have long predicted that the climate crisis and global heating would lead to more frequent extreme weather.

Rain is forecast in the north and the rest of Italy from Wednesday, although Pietrasanta said it would need to be significant to resolve the water shortage. “We might get some rain on Friday but I’m not sure it will be enough,” he said. “This situation ought to make us think about changing policy to manage water in a different way, especially with climate change.”

1. Why are the statistics listed in paragraph 2?

A．To stress the severity of drought.

B．To show climate differences in regions.

C．To present the consequence of low temperature.

D．To discuss the possibility of rainfall

2. Which of the following actions will be fined?

A．Turning off foundations.	B．Swimming in public pools.
C．Watering gardens in the morning.	D．Using modest tap water at night.

3. What may lead to the winter drought according to paragraph 5?

A．The ongoing climate change.	B．The heatwave last summer.
C．The absence of snowfall.	D．The overconsumption of water.

4. What can we infer from Pietrasanta’s words in the last paragraph?

A．Similar situations have appeared before in northern Italy

B．Measures should be adopted to tackle water shortage

C．The coming rain will be sufficient to solve problems

D．Proper policies have been put in place since the crisis

【推荐1】Science tells us that global warming is a serious issue and we’re seeing its effects all around us—extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and endangered plant and animal species going extinct on a daily basis.    1    Here are some ways you can help with inducing global warming.

Use less water.

It takes a lot of energy to pump, heat, and treat your water.    2    You can make changes like taking shorter showers, turning off the tap when you’re brushing your teeth,and switching to water-deficient fixtures to reduce the amount of water you use. Reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as possible.

    3    Taking advantage of your local or city program to recycle trash like paper, plastic, and glass is one easy way to get started. Also, try to buy products with zero waste or eco-friendly packaging whenever you can, so you’re putting less trash in your bin every day. You can also donate items you don’t want instead of throwing them away.

    4    

You’ll be supporting your community and generating less pollution. One of the easiest ways to buy local is by visiting your local farmers markets for fresh produce. You can also buy items for your home, like furniture, from local craftsmen. Try to support local businesses as often as possible.

Talk to others about climate change.

Spread the word so other people can do their part to help. Climate change affects everyone! It’s a bit scary to think about sometimes,but global warming is impacting our daily lives more and more as years go by.    5    

A．Buy local whenever you can.

B．Tum off lights and unplug your devices.

C．Producing less trash every day can make a big difference.

D．You can make simple changes at home to make an impact.

E．You can cut the power to all of them with the press of a button!

F．Just sharing your concern with the people around you can help.

G．Simple things like reducing water consumption make a big impact!

【推荐2】Humans need homes as sheltered bay to protect themselves from bad weather and threats from other animals and creatures. Birds also need habitats for survival. Yet, climate change has posed a great threat to their habitats. Like Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province, for example. As an important habitat for the Siberian crane (鹤), an endangered species in the world. Poyang Lake has experienced unnatural ups and downs in recent years. “In some years the lake experiences floods, while in others it experiences droughts. Both of these situation create food shortages in the cranes’ habitat,” Qian Fawen, a research professor from the National Bird Banding Center of China, told China Daily.

To solve such habitat problems, China has recently recognized 1,140 sites as important breeding (繁殖), wintering grounds, and migratory (迁徙的) stops, with most of them located in wetlands. Wetlands include coastal areas with a water depth of no more than 6 meters at low tide, but exclude rice fields and areas of water used for fishery and artificial breeding, noted the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. Referred to as the “Kidneys of the Earth” and as “species gene pools”, wetlands conserve clean water, maintain biodiversity, help contain floods and prevent droughts.

To protect China’s wetlands, a law was also introduced in 2022 to restrict construction at important national wetlands and ban harmful activities including over-farming, over-harvesting and the discharging of wastewater. Since these measures have gone into effect, more birds have been spotted wintering in the nation’s wetlands. In February, government in Hunan province reported 72 species of waterbirds that spent this past winter in Dongting Lake. Mallards and Eurasian cranes are among the birds which stay at the lake. Black-faced spoonbills, a rare and endangered species, were also spotted at Dongting after an absence of five years. The number of spoonbills has increased from 300 in the 1980s to more than 5,000 presently, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

1. Why did the author mention Poyang Lake?

A．To stress the risks of serious water shortage in China.

B．To argue for the need of dealing with climate change.

C．To explain the importance of wetlands for bird habitats.

D．To describe the living environment of endangered birds.

2. What problem did the Siberian crane meet in China?

A．The lack of food.	B．The loss of habitat.
C．The change of weather.	D．The failure of artificial breeding.

3. What does the article tell us about wetlands?

A．They keep the balance and diversity of nature.

B．They are partly used for fishery and artificial breeding.

C．They feature a water depth of 6 meters at low tide.

D．They are places where rice are grown to feed birds.

4. What is a result of the measures to protect China’s wetlands?

A．The reappearance of some dangerous birds.

B．The significant increase of migratory birds.

C．The declining species of endangered birds.

D．New discoveries of bird migratory patterns.

5. What is the article mainly about?

A．Challenges to the endangered birds in China.

B．The role of wetlands in fighting climate change.

C．The success of a new law on bird conservation.

D．China’s protection of wetlands for bird habitats.

【推荐1】Hotels are introducing programs aimed at healing the body and mind to appeal to health-conscious guests and those looking to boost their energy levels.

Typically a lifestyle observed by middle-aged or older people, yangsheng has gained popularity among younger Chinese in recent years. Yangsheng, or nurturing life, is a core component of traditional Chinese medicine that places essential emphasis on the prevention of illness and fostering health and well-being.

Growing stress from life and work is one of the reasons why people are seeking more ways to rejuvenate themselves. In an online survey polling 1,000 participants conducted by Shanghai-based consultancy CBNData in June 2021, 59 percent said they had experienced work-induced pressure and anxiety in the past year. Fifty percent of 962 respondents said they would participate in healing activities, such as massage and yoga, to relieve stress.

The increased interest in wellness is driving changes in the hotel industry. “Changes in society and the COVID-19 pandemic have greatly changed people’s attitudes toward health,” Tang Min, general manager of the Six Senses Qing Cheng Mountain hotel in Sichuan Province, told Jing Daily, a digital publication that focuses on luxury culture and lifestyles in China. “People are more eager to establish contact with themselves, others and nature. Generally, they hope that when their trip is over, they can live better than before,” she said.

For the hotel industry as a whole, she said the era of hotels only providing beds and meals is becoming a thing of the past. “Hotels today are more focused on the guest experience,” she said, adding that staying in a wellness hotel is a healthy experience that allows people to relax physically and mentally, change themselves and become a positive influence to people around them.

Looking into the future, Tang Min told Jing Daily that the concept of sustainable development will be a major trend in the wellness hotel industry. Sustainability(可持续性) in personal health and that in the natural world are expected to complement and exert a positive influence on each other, she noted.

1. What can we know about yangsheng according to paragraph 2?

A．It plays a vital role in curing diseases.

B．It is only appropriate for people over forty.

C．It appeals to the younger generation nowadays.

D．It is a minor element of traditional Chinese medicine.

2. What does the underlined word “ rejuvenate” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Reward.

B．Reflect.

C．Recognize.

D．Refresh.

3. What can we infer from Tang Min’s words?

A．The wellness hotels highlight guests’ health and well-being.

B．People are unwilling to interact with others after the pandemic.

C．Hotels today focus on providing superior accommodations.

D．Sustainability in personal health contradicts that in the natural world.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．Casual Lifestyle Among Chinese Youth

B．Bringing Sustainable Trend to Wellness Industry

C．Escaping from Stress Boosts a Growing Market

D．When Tradition Chinese Medicine Meets Yangsheng

【推荐2】I start   my workday early, parking myself in front of my home computer and often forgetting to get up for hours. But one thing I try to do every day is take a ten-minute walk around midday.

Walking at lunchtime is a smart thing to do, a new study finds. This doesn’t seem like news. After all, we’ve known forever that doing exercise is good for us. But as The New York Times points out, those fitness studies typically looked at the effects of exercise plans in the long run.   This new study looks at changes that happen more quickly, from one day to the next or even   from this hour to the next hour.

For the study, researchers gathered a group of mostly sedentary(久坐的) office workers in the UK. All were out of shape, but otherwise emotionally and physically healthy. Researchers asked them to take 30-minute lunchtime walks, three days a week for 10 weeks. The volunteers were also asked to install apps on their phones, so that the researchers could send the volunteers questions   after   they   walked.   Then   the   researchers   used   those   answers   to judge   how   the volunteers were feeling about life and work, and to measure their feelings about everything from stress and tension to motivation.

When the researchers   compared the volunteers’ answers   on the   afternoons when   they walked to those on the afternoons they didn’t walk, there was quite a difference. On the days when they had a lunchtime walk, the volunteers said they felt less stressed, more energetic and more relaxed versus(与……相对) on the days when they didn’t walk.

Unfortunately, the researchers said many of the volunteers didn’t believe they’d be able to continue walking once the study ended, mainly because they were expected to work through

their lunch breaks. It’s an understandable response, but a sad one.
1. How does the new study differ from other fitness studies?

A．It calls on people to have a walk after lunch.

B．It focuses on the short-term effects of walking.

C．It mainly pays attention to sedentary office workers.

D．It aims at studying the relationship between exercise and health.

2. Why were the volunteers required to install apps on their phones?

A．To record their time spent online.

B．To know how long they walked.

C．To prevent them from getting lost.

D．To respond to the researchers’ questions.

3. What is the finding of the new study?

A．Lunchtime walks can soon improve people’s mood.

B．Office workers usually have little time to go for a walk.

C．A sedentary lifestyle is linked to an increased risk of disease.

D．Walking brings more advantages to people than other exercise.

4. What can we infer about the volunteers from the last paragraph?

A．They will spend more time walking.

B．Some of them tend to be more outgoing.

C．Most of them will perform better at work.

D．They may stop lunchtime walks due to work pressure.

【推荐3】In times of intense stress, people sometimes let it out with a scream and a new study suggests that plants might do the same. Researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel has found that plants let out ultrasonic (超声的) screams when damaged or stressed by drought.

The noises, falling within a range of 20 to 100 kilohertz, are too high-frequency for humans to hear, but other plants and some animals perceive them. Insects might be listening for sounds from stressed plants to assess their condition before laying eggs on their leaves. A moth (蛾) may decide against laying eggs on a plant that sounds water-stressed.

Researchers attached recording devices directly to plants to listen for secret sounds inside their stems (茎). In drought, air bubbles formed, burst and caused vibrations (振动) within the tissue that normally carries water up the plants’ stems. The process was picked up by the attached recording devices, but researchers wanted to know if any plant sounds could travel through the air.

So the team placed microphones 10 centimetres from stressed-out tomato and tobacco plants. They subjected one set of crops to drought and another to physical damage. A third group was untouched.

The microphones did pick up distinct sounds. On average, drought-stressed tomato plants let out about 35 ultrasonic screams per hour, while those with cut stems made about 25. Drought-stressed tobacco plants let out about 11 screams per hour, and cut crops made about 15 sounds in the same time. The average number of sounds from untouched plants fell below one per hour.

The researchers also attempted to identify each plant group just based on its screams. Using a type of artificial intelligence calculations, the team picked out distinct features in each set of sounds and successfully sorted their plants into three kinds: “dry, cut or untouched.”

If it is not too costly to set up the recording in a field situation, farmers might be able to hear these stress signals too. In future, enabling farmers to listen for water-stressed plants could “open a new direction”, which will be increasingly important as climate change exposes more areas to drought.

1. The moth is mentioned in paragraph 2 to show __________.

A．moths need enough water when laying eggs

B．some animals are able to hear plants scream

C．some insects are picky about their surroundings

D．wildlife species depend on each other when stressed

2. What can we learn from the research?

A．Plants’ sounds couldn’t be detected by humans.

B．Plants can be grouped according to their features.

C．Plants’ screams are related to stress types in a way.

D．Air bubbles contribute to the lack of water in plants.

3. What does the last paragraph focus on?

A．Supporting evidence for the research result.

B．Potential application of the research findings.

C．A further explanation of the research methods.

D．A reasonable doubt about the research process.

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

A．Plants’ Vibrations: Way to React to Stress

B．Stress Signals: Secret Newly Found in Plants

C．Green Screams: Plants Make Noises When Stressed

D．Ultrasonic Screams: Discovery Opens a New Chapter