In a new study, researchers found that invasive insects in the United States could kill approximately 1.4 million urban trees by 2050, which would cost over $900 million to replace, reports Vishwam Sankaran for the Independent.
Hot spots predicted to have the most urban tree mortality (死亡率) were Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; and New York, New York. The study, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, is the first nationwide forecast of street tree mortality from invasive insects.
The emerald ash borer is an invasive beetle native to Asia. It was first detected in 2002 in southeastern Michigan, and experts suspect it was brought into the United States on wood packing material carried on cargo ships or airplanes traveling from Asia. Since then, the bug has been damaging ash trees. In the last two decades since the insect was first detected, numerous trees have been killed in North America.
Data collected from 30,000 communities across the country was used to estimate tree mortality in the next 30 years. The researchers combined this data with a model that predicted the spread of 57 different invasive insect species. Their results show emerald ash borers alone could cause 90% of the estimated 1.4 million tree deaths. Ash borers are already predicted to “kill virtually all ash trees” in over 6,000 urban areas, according to Newsweek.
Less than 25% of 30,000 urban areas in the U.S. are expected to experience 95% of all street-tree mortality, reports Adam Barnes for the Hill. The areas that will experience the most tree loss include cities in the Midwest and East Coast. These locations are expected to have the most tree loss because large numbers of ash trees occupy the streets and parks in these areas, reported the Independent.
When it comes to how to save urban areas from becoming treeless, study author Emma Hudgins, a biologist at McGill University, says, “These results can hopefully provide a cautionary tale against planting a single species of tree throughout entire cities, as has been done with ash trees in North America. Planting various trees provides resilience against pest infestations (侵扰).”
1. What can we know about the emerald ash borer?| A．It is an invasive beetle in Asia. |
| B．It was first found by the Michigan people. |
| C．It has killed numerous trees in America. |
| D．They definitely enter the U.S. by cargo ships or airplanes. |
| A．The purpose of the research. | B．The conclusion of the research. |
| C．The significance of the research. | D．The process and result of the research. |
| A．Pest infestations are taking place across the country. |
| B．The insect’s invasion won’t spread equally in America. |
| C．Tree loss is the main cause of environmental problems. |
| D．Ash trees are being removed from many areas in the U.S. |
| A．Getting different types of trees planted. |
| B．Replacing foreign trees with local ones. |
| C．Getting more trees planted in more areas. |
| D．Planting trees resistant to pest infestations. |
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【推荐1】In Shark Bay, Australia, bottlenose dolphins that aren’t related have been observed teaching each other a new way to use a tool, a behavior that until now scientists have found only in humans and other great apes. It’s also the first known example of dolphins transmitting such knowledge within the same generation, rather than between generations.
In a practice called shelling, dolphins will chase fish into abandoned giant snail shells on the seafloor, then bring the shells to the surface, and shake them with their noses, removing the water and catching the fish that fall out.
“The fact that shelling is socially transmitted among dolphin peers rather than between mother and child sets an important milestone, senior study author Michael Krutzen said.
In 2007, Krutzen launched a study of Shark Bay’s dolphins, identifying more than a thousand individual dolphins over 11 years. During this time, scientists observed shelling 42 times among 19 dolphins. Half of these events occurred after a marine heatwave in 2011, which may have caused a die-off among giant sea snails, leading to more shells on the seafloor.
Because of the length of their study, scientists had very detailed knowledge of the individual dolphins’ family histories, ages, sexes and behavior, making it easier for them to study the 19 dolphins that practiced shelling. For instance, they observed that the dolphins that practised shelling hung out with other shellers, so it’s likely that they copied from those they spent time with, says study lead author Sonja Wild.
The team knew that environmental factors-specifically, whether shelling dolphins did so simply because they lived in a shell-rich area — could explain this peer-to-peer transmission. A genetic characteristic among a family group was another possible reason.
So the researchers combined their data on the dolphin sightings, as well as genetic and environmental data, into a computer model that proposed various ways shelling could be transmitted between dolphins. The model that supported horizontal (横向的) transmission was the strongest outcome, according to the study.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To make a comment on the main topic of the passage. |
| B．To draw readers’ attention to the main topic of the passage. |
| C．To give a brief introduction to the main topic of the passage. |
| D．To present the background of the main topic of the passage. |
| A．What shelling is. | B．Why dolphins do shelling. |
| C．What happened to the fish. | D．How dolphins deal with abandoned snail shells. |
| A．usually hunt alone | B．live around areas rich in shells |
| C．conduct shelling about four times a year | D．acquire shelling skills from other shellers |
| A．further confirm how shelling actually spreads |
| B．explain why shelling only spreads between peers |
| C．look for new possible ways for dolphins to spread shelling |
| D．find out how environmental and genetic factors affect shelling transmission |
【推荐2】“When I think of England, I think of the queen taking her dogs for a walk in the countryside,” says Carsten Haferkamp, a dog-owning German architect working in London. There may be something in the stereotype. Data from Tractive, a firm that provides GPS tracking for pets, show that Britons walk their dogs more than their European neighbours do.
The British love for dog-walking may have more to do with the walking than the dogs. Britons are big walkers—they came fifth in the world in a study in 2017, the highest in Europe. Dogs provide walkers with company and a purpose, so it may be that walking encourages dog-ownership, rather than vice versa.
But Julien Dugnoille, an expert at Exeter University, suspects dog-walking has a deeper significance. Dogs, he suggests, are a useful aid to a socially awkward nation. “Britons tend to see dog-walking as a rare opportunity to socialise with strangers, to have a chat with strangers and exchange a few jokes and comments about the weather without putting themselves in danger (ie, without being too committed in their interaction).”
A tradition among the British aristocracy (贵族) of owning and training dogs also leads Dr Dugnoile to suspect that dog-walking retains some of its ancient kudos. When people in the park say “Max is very well-behaved,” says Dr Dugnoille, “that is a way to demonstrate mastery in the art of taming(驯养), an advantage over those dog owners who are ‘not in control of their own dog’.”
But it’s not just about showing off, in his view. He believes walking with one’s best friend creates a time and space where dogs and humans meet as species and connect as individuals.
Still, Britons should not congratulate themselves too much on their behavior towards their dog companions, for they are guilty of a universal hypocrisy (虚伪). According to Dr Carri Westgarth of Liverpool University, “People say that a dog needs a walk every day, but they will find reasons why their dog doesn’t need a walk. They’ll say: he’s got company indoors, he’s nervous or he doesn’t like the rain.”
1. What is the purpose of mentioning the queen in paragraph 1?| A．To inform us of a foreigner’s impression of England |
| B．To show the British devotion to walking dogs |
| C．To tell us the importance of dog-walking for Europeans |
| D．To demonstrate the queen’s love for walking with her companion |
| A．Britons see dogs as protectors from danger. |
| B．Dog-walking is related to the British culture. |
| C．Britons prefer to walk rather than walk the dog. |
| D．Dog-walking is a close link between the British and nature. |
| A．Practice. | B．Belief. | C．Honor. | D．Manner. |
| A．Love Your Dog, Walk Your Dog | B．How Do Britons Walk Their Dogs? |
| C．Dog-walking, the New Fashion | D．Why Do Britons Love to Walk Dogs? |
【推荐3】For Caribbean box jellyfish (水母), learning is literally a no-brainer.
In a new experiment, these animals learned to spot and avoid obstacles (障碍物) despite having no central brain, researchers report in Current Biology. This is the first evidence that jellyfish can make mental connections between events and change their behavior accordingly. “Maybe learning doesn’t need a very complex nervous system, but rather, learning is an essential part of nerve cells,” says Jan Bielecki, a neuroethologist at Kiel University in Germany. If so, the new finding could help trace how learning evolved in animals.
Bielecki and his colleagues wondered if Caribbean box jellyfish could learn that low-contrast objects, which might at first seem distant, were actually close by. The team put 12 jellyfish into a round tank surrounded by low-contrast, gray and white stripes. A camera filmed the animals’ behavior for about seven minutes.
At first, the jellyfish seemed to interpret the gray stripes as distant roots and swam into the tank wall. But those collisions (碰撞) seemed to lead the jellyfish to treat the gray stripes more like close roots in dirty water, and the animals started avoiding them. The jellies’ average distance from the tank wall increased from about 2.5 centimeters in the first couple of minutes to about 3.6 centimeters in the final couple of minutes. Their average collisions into the wall dropped from 1.8 per minute to 0.78 per minute.
“I found that really amazing,” says Nagayasu Nakanishi, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, who has studied jellyfish nervous systems but was not involved in the new work. “I never thought jellyfish could really learn.”
Neurobiologist Björn Brembs views the results more cautiously, noting the small number of jellyfish tested and the variability in their performance. “I want this to be true, as it would be very cool,” says Brembs. Experiments with more jellyfish could convince him that the animals really do learn.
1. What can we know about the jellyfish in paragraph 2?| A．They can avoid obstacles with a central brain. |
| B．They can change their behaviour after evolution. |
| C．They may have learning abilities with nerve cells. |
| D．They may develop a very complex nervous system. |
| A．They completely ignored the gray stripes. |
| B．They gradually started avoiding the gray stripes. |
| C．They could avoid collisions if given enough time. |
| D．They increased their collisions with the tank wall. |
| A．Jellyfish preferred the gray stripes over other things. |
| B．Jellyfish were unable to learn from their environment. |
| C．Jellyfish relied on the distant objects to change their behavior. |
| D．Jellyfish showed a learning process and adjusted their behavior. |
| A．He believes more testing is needed to confirm the results. |
| B．He is excited by the potential implications of the findings. |
| C．He dismisses the findings as irrelevant to jellyfish behavior. |
| D．He is doubtful due to the consistent performance of the jellyfish. |
【推荐1】Changes have been taking place in Philadelphia since 1984. One by one, graffiti-covered walls have been changed into outdoor art. So far, more than 1,800 murals (壁画) have been painted. Philadelphia now has more murals than any other American city.
The walls that were once ugly with graffiti are now covered with beautiful pictures of historical heroes and modern art, thanks to the Mural Arts Programme (MAP). Its work makes schools and public places attractive. The programme began as part of Philadelphia’s Anti-Graffiti Network. Jane Golden is the MAP’s artistic director. “When people ask me what our programme is about,” she says, “I answer them with one word: hope.” Each year, the MAP offers the youth art programmes and workshops. Some one-time graffiti writers even help paint MAP murals.
Golden says that the MAP’s work is all about developing a sense of community. When a neighbourhood requests a mural, the MAP works with the people there to develop a message. Some messages have been “Safe Streets”, “Love And Care”, and “Peace Walk”.
The MAP receives up to 50 requests for murals each week. Last year, the workers painted 140 murals.
“The making of a mural enters people’s collective memory as an extraordinary, pleasant moment in neighbourhood history,” says Golden, who began as a muralist in Los Angeles.
1. What is the MAP in Philadelphia aimed at?| A．Helping the young find jobs. | B．Protecting the neighbourhood. |
| C．Fighting against graffiti. | D．Attracting more visitors. |
| A．By having discussions with people in the community. |
| B．By seeking advice from the city government. |
| C．By learning from the young graffiti writers. |
| D．By studying the history of the city. |
| A．Difficult. | B．Dangerous. |
| C．Experimental. | D．Successful. |
| A．Love, From Graffiti Writers to Muralists |
| B．MAP, a New Company in Philadelphia |
| C．Jane, an Excellent Mural Artist |
| D．Hope, One Wall at a Time |
【推荐2】With greater climate catastrophe (气候突变) on Earth, it is natural for us to make every effort to stop the potential floods, snowstorms, and alarming reports from scientists. For many of us (myself included), part of that means running out to buy reusable straws, organic cleaners, and packaging-free products.
However, before you are delighted at “green” purchases, take a second to consider the results of a new study from Arizona University. By comparing the shopping habits, mental health and environmental impact of young people, the researchers reconfirmed a principle: Buying less beats buying “green” stuff without effort. And that is true whether you are looking at the impact that your purchases have on the Earth or on your own happiness.
It should not come as a shock that simply consuming less is better for the planet. After all, every new item a factory yields requires some resources to produce. Take plastic bag bans for instance. If your city is getting rid of single-use shopping bags, it can be attractive to pay for a fashionable organic cotton bag hanging in the check-out line of your local supermarket. However, experts insist that growing cotton is actually no better for the Earth than producing the conventional plastic bags. Then what is your best bet for carrying your groceries if you care about sustainability? Any bag you already own.
It is not just the Earth that will be happier if you buy less. You will feel more contented too, according to the new study. “People believe that they might well be self-satisfied about becoming environmentally conscious through ‘green’ buying patterns, but it doesn’t seem to be that way”, said the lead researcher Sabrina Helm. “Reduced consumption has effects on increased happiness, but we don’t see that with ‘green’ consumption.”
“Owning every new ‘green’ product on the market might make you feel contented, but if you relieve yourself of that burden of ownership, most people report feeling a lot better,” said Helm.
1. Why does the writer mention “green” shopping habits?| A．To call on a green lifestyle. | B．To present a half true “green” truth. |
| C．To introduce a social trend. | D．To praise people’s green efforts. |
| A．Growing cotton is far worse for the Earth. |
| B．Reduced consumption is better for the Earth. |
| C．Using any bag you have is the best bet. |
| D．The plastic bag bans are of no effect. |
| A．The sense of achievement. | B．The sense of relief. |
| C．The sense of happiness. | D．The sense of security. |
| A．Less is More | B．The Greener, The Happier |
| C．Happiness Guarantee | D．What Are Green Products? |
【推荐3】NASA’s Opportunity rover has reached the end of its life. Initially designed to last 90 days, and to travel only 1,000 meters, Opportunity in fact spent almost 15 years exploring the surface of Mars. During that time, it traveled more than 45 kilometers beyond expectation.
The last signal from Opportunity was on June 10th, 2018, when a severe global dust storm enveloped Mars. Since then, NASA has spent eight months trying to regain communication with the rover, but had no result. On Tuesday February 12th, 2019, NASA made one final attempt to wake Opportunity up, but it was unsuccessful.
Before Opportunity was sent into space the Mars Global Surveyor spotted what looked like sedimentary rocks(沉积岩)from orbit in 2000. An Opportunity team member said, "On the earth, sedimentary rocks preserve the history of the surface of our planet, and within that history, the fossil record of life exists. It is reasonable to look for evidence of past life on Mars.
While the rover didn't find any actual fossils, Opportunity did provide evidence that the environment on Mars was once much better and warmer. This answered what was the major goal of the Opportunity rover. Opportunity identified sedimentary rocks which basically meant the presence of water. But not everything went smoothly for Opportunity to achieve the goal of exploration. At one point in 2005, all its six wheels were stuck in soft sand, and it took five weeks of hard work to get the rover out.
Opportunity was one of the most successful rovers ever. During its journey on Mars, Opportunity discovered “Heat Shield Rock”, a basketball-sized- meteorite which is made mostly of iron and nickel. It also gave us a massive amount of photos of Mars with which people have done some amazing things. Bodrov, a photographer, took images from Opportunity to create a 360-degree view of Victoria crater on Mars.
Although Opportunity has reached the end, the legacy that the rover produced for us will last a long time. With the technological development, perhaps the day is not so far off when brave astronauts walk on the surface of Mars.
1. What do the statistics in paragraph 1 mainly show?| A．Opportunity's journey on Mars came to an end. |
| B．Opportunity was overused for more than a decade. |
| C．Opportunity's performance was better than expected. |
| D．Opportunity explored Mars within the assigned time. |
| A．A meteorite. | B．A dust storm. | C．The soft sand. | D．The broken wheels. |
| A．To explore the environment on Mars. |
| B．To discover the climate conditions on Mars. |
| C．To survey the history of the surface of Mars. |
| D．To find differences between rocks on earth and on Mars. |
| A．To illustrate what contributions Opportunity made. |
| B．To demonstrate how Opportunity worked on Mars. |
| C．To introduce how “Heat shield Rock” was discovered. |
| D．To explain what images Bodrov took from Opportunity. |
【推荐1】On Dec 4, 2022, Chinese astronauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
The astronauts were in orbit for 183 days, during which they oversaw the completion of China’s Tiangong space station and several life sciences experiments. They returned with the world’s first rice seeds produced in orbit, a feat that allows scientists to examine the effects of microgravity on rice growth so as to find a sustainable food source for long-term space explorations.
One such experiment involved reproducing the entire life cycle of rice for the first time in space. It began with selecting rice seeds carefully, which were then nurtured and monitored as they hatched into seedlings. The astronauts diligently tended to these delicate young plants, which grew into mature plants producing new seeds. It began on July 29, and after 120 days in orbit they successfully produced new space grains.
The new seeds, along with other bio-samples, have been delivered to the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. They will also be transferred to labs in Shanghai for further research. The institute said researchers would conduct microbiology and cellular analysis to better understand how microgravity affects these plants on a molecular (分子的) level. This would provide key insights on creating new crops that are more adaptive to the space environment.
Zheng Huiqiong, a researcher at the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said seeds are crucial for growing new crops and supporting humanity’s long-term survival in space.
While more research is in the pipeline, Zheng said scientists have already noticed several interesting differences between rice grown on Earth and that grown in space. For instance, the flowering period for the space rice begins slightly earlier than rice planted on Earth. Flowering is a crucial stage for plant reproductive development. “The stems for the space rice are also looser, with the dwarf rice variety becoming shorter while the tall shoot rice variety experiencing no change in height,” she added.
1. Why were the rice experiments conducted in space?| A．To gain a thorough insight into space environment. |
| B．To find long-lasting food supply for space exploration. |
| C．To collect diverse space rice seeds for space research. |
| D．To explore the impact of microgravity on plants in space. |
| A．The experiment process. | B．The research procedures. |
| C．The current new findings. | D．The exploration duration. |
| A．By preserving them in a secure facility. |
| B．By shipping them to labs for further analysis. |
| C．By studying their adaptability to microgravity. |
| D．By assessing their growth under controlled conditions. |
| A．More advanced research methods are in great demand. |
| B．Potential application of the research results is promising. |
| C．Space rice varieties commonly suffer decreases in height. |
| D．Distinctions between Earth rice and space rice are evident. |
【推荐2】A native plant of China, bamboo mainly grows in regions south of the Yangtze River. In traditional Chinese culture, bamboo is a symbol of moral honesty, loyalty, flexibility and modesty, making it a frequent theme of Chinese poetry and paintings.
The bamboo forest creates unique prospect (风景) around Anji, a county in Zhejiang Province. As the Kingdom of Bamboo, the city is the filming location of the Oscar-winning movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The bamboo scenery, along with other bamboo-related attractions, including a bamboo museum, has created unique tourism resources.
Bamboo is not only pretty and elegant, and Xie Zhiguang, a 48-year-old local bamboo dealer for over 10 years, explained that it is used for much more than just as an alternative to wood. It is the main food for giant pandas, and bamboo shoots are regularly consumed by humans. Also, the stem of the plant can be made into various products, including chopsticks, furniture, tissue and paper.
What makes all the functions even more valuable is the speed at which bamboo grows. “During peak times, bamboo can grow one meter a day and over 20 meters within weeks,” he said. “It takes years to grow wood, while the growth cycle of bamboo is much shorter.” This advantage allows farmers to make money faster by growing bamboo than by growing wood. In the battle against extreme poverty in China, bamboo has played a supporting role.
The county introduced processing factories for bamboo shoots and developed a series of products. Bamboo weaving techniques, some of which are listed as intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产), also contributed to poverty reduction. A number of bamboo-weaving skill training centers were set up in poor areas to teach rural people, especially women, to transform bamboo into delicate items. With such items going to domestic and overseas markets, the bamboo weaving business has even become the mainstay industry for some of these regions.
“Bamboo is a sustainable, green resource,” said Wang Jingxin, a professor at Zhejiang University. “Such measures will help to speed up China’s economy and ecology.”
1. Why do poets and painters often use bamboo as the theme of their works?| A．Its various functions. | B．Its particular habitats. |
| C．Its commercial value. | D．Its symbolic meaning. |
| A．Bamboo has a wide range of uses. | B．Bamboo can end the world poverty. |
| C．Bamboo has the fastest growth speed. | D．Bamboo can contribute to the environment. |
| A．It is well known for bamboo carving techniques. |
| B．It is the filming location of many famous movies. |
| C．It sets up a lot of big factories for wood products. |
| D．It takes many steps to develop bamboo industries. |
| A．Intolerant. | B．Doubtful. | C．Favorable. | D．Unclear. |
【推荐3】Tree-planting, intended to help draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, has become a synonym (同义词) for climate action. In our constant focus on trees, we’ve developed a fixed understanding: Trees absorb carbon dioxide, end of story. The reality is that trees don’t grow well alone. They exist within complex communities, helped along by each other as well as the animals they coexist with. The woodland isn’t nature’s only carbon sink: Grasslands and oceans also help reduce the carbon level and rely on a healthy amount of biodiversity.
That’s what the paper, published in Nature, wants to get across. Co-author Oswald J. Schmitz, a professor of ecology at Yale University, said trees might not be able to do their carbon-uptake job efficiently without the right animals in their ecosystem. That’s because animals animate the carbon cycle through their behavior and roles in the ecosystem. He added that the very presence of wild animals could cause feedback effects that change the ecosystem’s capacity to absorb, release, or transport carbon.
In Serengeti, for instance, the sharp decline in wildebeest (角马) population s during the mid-20th century allowed grass to grow wildly, eventually promoting wildfires that consumed 80 percent of the ecosystem annually and led to a net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When disease management and bans on illegal hunting helped animal populations recover, a greater share of the carbon stored in plants was consumed by wildebeest and released as waste, keeping it in the system and restoring the grassland as a carbon sink.
Researchers rarely consider wildlife conservation as a strategy to increase an ecosystem’s carbon storage capacity, said Schmitz. “They think that animals either aren’t important enough or that you can’t take up carbon and conserve animals at the same time,” he said. “Our message is that you can and should. It can be a win-win for both biodiversity conservation and carbon uptake.” We need a full picture-with both trees and animals-to explore nature’s full potential.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．Actions are needed to reduce carbon dioxide. | B．Trees are a quick solution to the climate crisis. |
| C．People are not thinking through trees properly. | D．Grasslands and oceans help maintain biodiversity. |
| A．Activate. | B．Restart. | C．Disturb. | D．Break. |
| A．The conservation of animals is still a serious issue. |
| B．Animals can swing the ecosystem’s capacity to store carbon. |
| C．Human impacts bring about the reduction in wildlife populations. |
| D．The increase in animal species causes a decrease in carbon uptake. |
| A．Animals Adjust Themselves to Climate Change |
| B．Woodland Isn’t the Only Carbon Sink on the Earth |
| C．The Serengeti Ecosystem Needs Urgent Improvement |
| D．Trees May Fail to Fulfil Their Duties without Animals |
