【推荐1】Two world championships were decided this weekend on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In England, the Rugby World Cup was decided. In New York, the baseball season saw its final match. More than 80,000 audiences watched New Zealand win the Rugby championship 34-17 over Australia. The match was held on Saturday at the famous Twickenham Stadium near London.

It was the second world title for New Zealand. Fans call the team “All Blacks” because of their black uniforms. A day later, the baseball World Series came to a close with a win by the Kansas City Royals over the New York Mets.

In the World Series, the first team to win four games claims victory. The Royals won four of the first five games played with the Mets. Kansas City last won in 1985.

The Rugby World Cup opened on September 18, when England defeated Fiji. Forty-eight matches and six weeks later, New Zealand won the title. Going into the tournament, the All Blacks were ranked No.1 in the world.

Every tournament like this has a “favorite”, or the team expected to win. The tournament also has an “underdog” , or the team less likely to win. But the underdog often becomes a favorite. This year in the Rugby World Cup, the “underdog” team was Japan.

Coming into the tournament, Japan was ranked 13th in the world. But after an inspiring showing in the group stage of the tournament, Japan moved up three places to 10th. Aside from the championship game itself, the match that created the biggest surprise came when Japan defeated world No.3 South Africa 34-32.The Associated Press called it “the biggest shock in Rugby World Cup history”.

South Africa was a two-time World Cup champion. Japan had only ever won one match in the World Cup before that game.

1. Why were the two major sports events reported together?

A．They were both held in developed countries.

B．Their results both came out at the same time.

C．The winners were both not expected.

D．They both belong to sports competitions.

2. The underlined word “favorite” in Paragraph 4 refers to________.

A．a player regarded as the most valuable

B．a team whose players are most skilled

C．a player who is the most popular

D．a team more likely to come first

3. How did Japan perform in the matches?

A．It created a big surprise.

B．It tried their best to play.

C．It acted as it was expected.

D．It surprisingly won third.

【推荐2】As a hockey parent, while watching my son played from Mite to Bantam, House League to Travel, I’ve learned that losing may be best for kids.

In his third season in 2019, my son’s team never lost more than three straight games. There was happiness, boasting, celebration, pizza. In short, it was a typically good youth hockey season. He improved as a player, but did not much change as a person.

However, what happened the next year added its story to the legends of sporting incompetence. Not merely weak but prettily bad, this team lost 40 of their first 50 games, most of the defeats coming in the course of two losing streaks. For a time, I worried that these streaks would kill my child’s love of the game.

But that’s not what happened. As bad as it got, the losing was clarifying. It weeded out the kids who were in it less for the game than the glory, leaving just the die-hards behind. What started as a list of 17 of the team was cut down to 12. It was especially instructive for the kids. It taught him a great truth of the world: For everyone good, there is someone better.

What’s more, the kids were learning the game in a way that only losing can teach. Each player got to play everywhere, to learn and appreciate the role of every position on the ice. They kept an eye on their opponents too, studying and incorporating the tricks of success. In an effort to break the streak, they went back to basics, accepted the wisdom of the hockey ancients: If playing like a team, they can defeat a collection of all-stars; If doing small and unappreciated tasks well, they can get the goal.

This new team had character and could never be counted out, no matter the score. They had learned the most important lesson: You can lose without being beaten. They squeaked into the state tournament, then made it all the way to the final, where the winner was decided in overtime. When they lost that game and went into the handshake line, it was not as runners-up but as a team that had been made into winners in the only way that will stick — by losing.

1. What does the author think about the son’s team in the third season in 2019?

A．The team had a bad performance.

B．The team didn’t live up to the author’s expectations.

C．The team played typically well and won all the games.

D．The team didn’t have the spirit of facing failure.

2. What does the underlined word “clarify” refer to?

A．The losing made the kids better understand hockey.

B．The losing helped the kids learn a great truth of the world.

C．The losing separated true player from those playing for glory.

D．The losing boosted the kids’ teamwork.

3. According to the author, what have the son’s team learned?

A．For everything big, there is something bigger.

B．Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

C．God helps those who help themselves.

D．The hardest battle you’re going to fight is the battle to be just you.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．How Kids Can Deal With Losing	B．What Kids Can Learn From Losing
C．Why Kids Can Benefit From Losing	D．How Kids Can Get Over From Losing

【推荐3】Look at the chart and answer the questions.

Marathon participants in China

1. What key information is shown in this chart?
_________________________________________
2. What reasons lie behind the phenomenon?
_________________________________________

【推荐1】It’s safe to say Yellowstone National Park is still looking good at the ripe old age of 150. The park, which stretches into Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, is known for its unique natural scenery, bountiful wildlife, and deep history. It also helped usher (引领) in the broader national park movement in the U.S., according to Chuck Sams, the director of the National Park Service.

“We now celebrate something much bigger than the park itself —the beginning of the national park idea, an idea that spread through the country and around the world, inspiring governments to protect natural and cultural treasures ‘for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,’” he said in a statement.

Yellowstone is home to the largest concentration of mammals in the lower 48 states. Bears, wolves, coyotes, moose, and a large population of small animals can be found in the park. It’s also the only place in the U.S. where bison (野牛) have lived continuously since prehistoric limes. It was looking risky for a period in the 1900s, when die animal was hunted down from a previous high of tens of thousands to less than two dozen. This bison conservation effort continues to this day.

Yellowstone shut its gates in March 2020 due to coronavirus concerns and remained closed for nearly two months. But the park broke attendance records after it reopened. The park reported 4.9 million recreation visits in 2021 — up 28% from 2020 and making it the busiest year on record, July 2021 was die most-visited month in Yellowstone’s history and the first lime visitation exceeded l million visits in a single month. It’s Yellowstone’s natural beauty and deep history that brings millions of visitors each year.

“Yellowstone’s 150th anniversary will be an important moment in time for the world,” said Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly. “It’s an opportunity for us to reflect on the lessons of the old days while focusing our efforts to strengthen Yellowstone and our many partnerships for the future.”

1. What does Paragraph 1 mainly tell us about Yellowstone National Park?

A．Its vast area.	B．Its long history.
C．Its significant role.	D．Its fantastic views.

2. What is a direct result of the bison conservation effort?

A．An increase in the park’s income.	B．A growth in bison population.
C．Damage to local ecology.	D．Improvement of species richness.

3. What is the author’s attitude towards increasing tourists?

A．Positive.

B．Unclear.

C．Disapproving.

D．Concerned.

4. What does Sholly say about Yellowstone’s 150th anniversary?

A．It reminds participants to strive for a shared future.

B．It leads people to rethink the idea of the park.

C．Its celebration mil take place as scheduled.

D．Its past shows long-term conservation efforts count.

【推荐2】If you’ve ever had a dog, you know just how deep a connection you can develop with “man’s best friend”. But a dog has a much shorter life span — about 12 to 15 years long — than humans, which means every dog owner has to go through the heartbreaking moment when their loving pet passes away.

Why not make a clone of that dog then? This is the solution offered by a South Korean company, Sooam Biotech Research Foundation. The company has successfully cloned at least 400 dogs, mostly for US customers, ever since it pioneered the technique in 2005. Now, Sooam Biotech is planning to introduce their business to UK dog owners, offering them dogs that look just like their lost ones.

Meanwhile, another dog is selected to supply an egg. Researchers then replace the DNA in the egg with that from the skin cell and implant the egg into the womb (子宫) of a female dog. The egg grows into a puppy over the following two months. To clone a dog, researchers first need to take a skin cell from a living dog or one that has just died.

The whole process takes less than a day, but it comes at a shockingly high price — around £63,000 (614,000 yuan). But if you can’t afford it now, you can also save the cells in a laboratory and access them at a later date. Just like identical twins of humans, they share the exact same DNA but there will still be small differences between them. “The spots on a Dalmatian clone will be different, for example,” Insung Hwang, head of Sooam Biotech, told The Guardian. However, as magical as cloning might sound, there is no guarantee that the cloned dog will be a perfect replica of the original one.

Dog owners will also have to accept the fact that personality is not “clone-able”. Apart from genes, personality is also determined by upbringing and environment, which are both “random elements [that] cloning technologies simply cannot overcome”, Professor Tom Kirkwood at Newcastle University, UK, told The Telegraph.

Perhaps bringing our dogs back with cloning is not the best way to remember them after all.

Kirkwood, a dog owner himself, pointed out: “An important aspect of our relationship with them is coming to terms with the pain of letting go.”

1. According to the article, Sooam Biotech Research Foundation is ______.

A．working on plans to help dog owners enjoy their pets longer

B．offering a way to help dogs give birth to more puppies

C．providing a service that will make copies of pet dogs

D．introducing a completely new technique to clone dogs

2. Which of the following statements about dog cloning is TRUE according to the article?

A．Dog cloning technology hadn’t been put into practice until recently.

B．Dog cloning is very expensive and usually takes several months to complete.

C．Dog cloning is very popular among US and UK pet owners.

D．Cloned dogs might develop different habits and characteristics even though they look very similar.

3. Which of the following shows the correct order of the dog cloning process?
a. an egg is taken from another dog
b. a skin cell is taken from the pet dog and saved in a laboratory
c. the egg is placed in the womb of a female dog
d. the DNA of the egg is replaced by the DNA from the skin cell
e. the egg grows into a puppy in two months

A．acbde.

B．adbce.

C．bacde.

D．badce.

4. We can learn from the article that Kirkwood ______ dog cloning.

A．disapproves of

B．supports

C．is afraid of

D．is curious about

【推荐3】Why we should spare parasites

Growing up, Chelsea Wood dreamed of becoming a marine biologist and studying large, exciting animals like sharks. Instead, she later found herself peering through a microscope at the organs of a snail. She had often plucked snails off rocks and collected them in buckets, but she had never looked inside of one. Seen through the microscope, they are surprisingly charming. “I couldn’t believe that I’d been looking at snails for as long as I had and missing all the cool stuff,” says wood. “I just totally fell in love with them.”

Nearly half of all known animals are parasites. One study projects that a tenth of them may be doomed to extinction because of climate change, loss of their hosts, and deliberate attempts at eradication. Though it seems few people care — or even notice.

    1    . But most parasites have evolved not to kill their hosts, and not all of them even cause noticeable harm to them.

Scientists warn of dire consequences if we continue to ignore the dangerous situation of parasites. Not only are some of them useful to humans [such as medicinal leeches, still employed in some surgeries], but they also play crucial roles in ecosystems, keeping some populations in check while helping to feed others.

Some experts say there’s an aesthetic argument for saving them.     2    . They’ve evolved clever means of survival, from becoming a fish’s tongue to controlling the minds of cockroaches.

We’ve barely begun to identify all the parasites. “That’s just not something that we’ve prioritized,” says Skylar Hopkins, an ecologist at North Carolina State University. So, Hopkins pulled together a group of scientists interested in parasites, and they started sharing what they knew.

Since parasites rely on other species, they can be easily hurt, Take, for example, the endangered pygmy hog-sucking louse. It only lives on another species that is itself endangered, the pygmy hog, which is disappearing fast. Then there’s the California condor louse. In the 1970s, desperate to save the California condor, biologists began raising them in captivity. Part of the protocol was to delouse every bird, on the assumption that parasites were bad for condors, though it’s not clear that they actually were.

While the death of parasites might seem like no big deal, ecologists caution that wiping them out could end up dooming the planet.     3    . Big predators would lose out too. Many parasites move into their next host by manipulating the host they’re in, which drives that host into a predator’s mouth so that the predator can be fed.

Even human health wouldn’t entirely benefit from wiping out parasites. The human immune system evolved alongside a group of parasites, and if we were to kill them off, our immune systems would then began attacking ourselves.

However, scientists aren’t out to save all parasites. The Guinea worm, for instance, should not be spared. It grows inside a person’s abdomen, causing harm to one’s health.

If anyone would want to get rid of all parasites, you’d think it would be Bobbi Pritt. As medical director for the Mayo Clinic’s human parasitology lab, Pritt identifies harmful parasites found all over the country and in every body part. Yet even Pritt has a soft spot for parasites. As a physician, she favors wiping out parasites that cause disease and suffering.     4    .

Ultimately, we do not want a war against all of them, because there’s still so much we don’t understand.

A．Without parasites keeping them in check, the populations of certain animals would explode.

B．Beyond their aesthetic or scientific importance, parasites are an integral part of the biosphere.

C．Parasites are sometimes rejected by the scientific communities that study the animal world because they rely on a host.

D．“But as a biologist,” she says, “purposefully trying to make something extinct just doesn’t sit well with me.”

E．Therefore, she has committed herself to finding more effective approaches to eliminate all harmful parasites.

F．If you get past their “gross” appearance, you may find parasites’ way of living strangely charming.