Have you ever seen guides letting you get close to elephants and even offering you rides? Don’t do this, we’re here to explain why you should not ride an elephant.
Humans often think it’s OK to have elephants under their control (控制). Many people in Southeast Asia buy and sell elephants illegally (违法地). But elephants are wild animals. Humans shouldn’t do that.
Elephants are smart. They can feel sad and happy. Wild elephants won’t let humans ride on top of them. So in order to control them, humans catch baby elephants and train them in pretty bad ways. These all cause a lot of pain for their spirit and bodies.
Although elephants have large bodies, their spines (脊椎) are not strong enough to carry humans. And many of them die as a result of years of carrying humans on their backs.
Asian elephants are in danger. The United Nations says that only about 35,000 Asian elephants are left in the wild now. Riding elephants is one of the main causes (原因) to their death.
Why shouldn’t we ride elephants? | |
| Reason 1 Many Southeast Asians | Reason 2 Elephants are smart. They can feel Humans’ |
| Reason 3 Elephants have large bodies, but their spines are not very | Reason 4 Asian elephants are in danger. There are only about |
I’m Marcus Higgs and I’m a conservation (保护) officer. This means I work in the countryside, and I care
| Come and enjoy an underwater world at City Aquarium (水族馆)！There are hundreds of wonderful sea animals for you to see! | |
| Sharks appeared on our earth many years ago. In most people’s eyes, they are dangerous. Some of them are big, and some are small. Don’t miss the shark feeding in our aquarium every day at 3 p.m. |
| Most penguins come from the Southern Hemisphere (南半球), and some of them live in one of the coldest places on the earth: Antarctica (南极洲). See them playing and swimming in the icy waters! |
| Turtles showed on the earth about 200 million years ago. But today, some kinds of sea turtles are in great danger because of hunters or plastic (猎人或塑料) in the sea. Come and see these beautiful sea animals. |
| Coral is not a plant or a rock — they’re animals! Coral help from (形成) coral reefs. They can live for hundreds of years and are home to many kinds of fish. Turtles also live there. Come and enjoy this colorful and exciting world! |
| Opening hours We’re open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends. Tickets Adults (成人): $10 Children: $5 | |
1. Which kind of sea animals can help provide the house for animals to live in?
| A．Sharks. | B．Coral reefs. | C．Penguins. | D．Turtles. |
| A．Fifteen dollars. | B．Twenty dollars. | C．Thirty dollars. | D．Thirty-five dollars. |
| A．All sharks are large. |
| B．Penguins usually live with other animals. |
| C．Coral reefs can only live on the earth for ten years. |
| D．There are fewer turtles now. |
4 . Whenever there’s a terrible storm, there are plenty of sad stories. Many people lost their houses, their cars and their pets. But sometimes these stories have happy endings too.
A family in New Jersey, the US, has a cat named Vivien. She is very smart. She can even draw with her wet paws on the floor. They all love her very much. When hurricane (飓风) Sandy hit America in October, they moved to a safer place 13 kilometers away from home. Sadly Vivien went missing.
The whole family was worried about her. They uploaded (上传) posters on the Internet to look for her. All the nine family members searched wherever they thought she could stay, but they didn’t find her. The family thought Vivien was gone forever.
But six months later, Vivien showed up at their house, according to Yahoo News. They considered her return as a wonder. No one can be sure where Vivien was for all that time.
Many animals are good at finding their way home. People usually say that dogs and cats find their way home using their sense of smell.
But that doesn’t explain how Vivien found her way back. Hurricane Sandy blew away the normal smells of home.
“I wish she could talk.” said her owner.
1. From the passage we know Sandy is a ________.| A．pet | B．hurricane | C．girl | D．cat |
| A．6 | B．9 | C．13 | D．11 |
| A．Vivien can even draw. |
| B．The family tried hard to look for the pet. |
| C．The owner knew how the cat found her way home. |
| D．The family thought the cat was gone forever. |
| A．A Terrible Storm | B．A Clever Pet |
| C．A Smart Owner | D．Hurricane Sandy |
5 .
Elephants are big mammals (哺动物). They can have:
Elephants can grow up to three metres tall. They can weigh around the same as three large cars! Elephants Never Forget Elephants have big brains and they are very clever. They help and love each other. Lots of people say that they never forget things. Telling Them Apart African elephants have: large ears that look like the shape of Africa; rounded heads. Male (雄性的) and female African elephants can have tusks. Asian elephants have: smaller, rounder ears; two bumps (隆起) on their heads. Only male Asian elephants can have tusks. If you want to know more about elephants, click here: https://twinkl.com. |
| A．An elephant is as heavy as three large cars. |
| B．An elephant is heavier than three large cars. |
| C．Three large cars are heavier than an elephant. |
| D．Three cars are not so heavy as an elephant. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．In a science book. |
| B．In a poster. |
| C．In an animal magazine. |
| D．On a website. |
Monkeys live all around the world. They love living in trees in warm rainforests. Monkeys are clever and lovely.
Sadly, the world of monkeys is in danger. They’re losing their homes because people are cutting down the trees in the forest where they live. The warmer and warmer weather also causes lots of trouble for them.
Another thing to note is that monkeys are used in scientific research. Monkeys share a lot of genes (基因) with humans and scientists study them to learn about our bodies and diseases. But this raises questions: Are they being taken care of well? What’s right or wrong in the name of science? Keeping a balance is really important.
Facing so many problems, there is still hope. Governments are working together to protect them by planting trees to create new homes, making rules to reduce carbon emissions (碳排放), and looking for other ways to do research without using animals.
You can help too! Saving monkeys means we’re making a better future for everyone!
| Monkeys are in 1 | |
| Monkey’s situation | They are 2 homes because of smaller forests and the rising temperature. |
| They are studied in science because they have many genes that are the 3 as those in people. | |
| Government’s actions | They are planting trees, producing 4 carbon emissions, and searching for new research ways. |
1.
2.
3.
4.
5. What can you do to protect monkeys? (请用一个完整的句子作答)
7 . 阅读下面的短文，按照句子结构的语法情况和上下文连贯的要求，在空白处填入适当的词或用括号中所给词的正确形式填空。
Koalas are tree-hugging animals with big, round ears and black noses. Australia is their only home
A koala mother gives birth to and raises only one baby koala at a time. A baby koala can’t see or climb. It is less than 3 cm long when it was born. What
Koalas spend most of their time
Koalas are facing many serious problems. Losing their natural home is one of
8 . Honeybees are great dancers, but they don’t just do it for fun. Scientists have long known that honeybees wiggle their bodies. It is their way of sharing information.
When a bee starts dancing, it steps forward. At the same time, it wiggles side to side. It keeps doing this while it moves around. Scientists call this the “waggle dance”. It helps other bees find food. The bee’s position tells them which way to fly. The more a bee wiggles, the farther away the food is. The longer it repeats these moves, the tastier the food is.
Now a new study shows that honeybees don’t have these dance skills at birth. Young bees learn them by watching the older bees. In March 2023, scientists from the University of California, San Diego, published (v.发表) these findings in a scientific magazine.
The study finds that bees can learn by imitating each other. This is called “social learning”. Many animals learn in this way, like monkeys and birds, but most of these animals have bigger brains (n.大脑). Bees have much smaller brains.
To know how bees learn the waggle dance, scientists recorded videos of honeybees in a lab. They compared two groups of young bees which were 10 days old. In the first group, young bees could watch older ones dance. In the second group, young bees could not watch older dancers. They found that the ones in Group 1 were better dancers while the ones in Group 2 were not good at the waggle dance.
1. The picture which best describes “waggle dance” is ________.A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．they’re much cleverer than bees | B．bees also learn by copying each other like them |
| C．they have bigger brains than bees | D．bees have smaller brains than them |
| A．doing experiments | B．telling stories to bees |
| C．talking with people | D．taking pictures of bees |
| A．Older bees teach young ones how to dance | B．Honeybees are good at looking for food |
| C．How to dance well to get tasty food | D．An important study on bees in 2023 |
At my neighborhood’s dog park, everyone smiles and says hello.
Are dog owners nicer than other people? I can’t say that’s true, but sometimes it feels like it is. Maybe because of their animals, the people in the dog park find it easy to be friendly. When I take my pet dog Clancy there, I often have talks with other dog owners.
Not long ago, there was a meeting of recommendations (推荐) at the park. It started with an old man with a Labrador. “Does anyone know a good computer person?” he asked.
“I’ve got one,” said a lady sitting with her Chihuahua. “But does anyone know a good dentist?”
“Oh, I have one of those,” said a young mother with her Pomeranian, “but I wonder if anyone knows a good place to repair (修理) watches.”
“The store up the road does that,” said a man walking past with a Teddy.
Whenever I have a question, instead of turning to the Internet, I think. “There will be an answer at the park.”
However, the bad part is that people who are not dog owners cannot understand me.
“That’s a beautiful painting,” said a friend the other day in my living room as he watched a picture by Remnim Alexander Tayco. “How did you come across the artist?” “While walking my dog,” I said. “He has a dog and Clancy enjoys playing with it.” “What?” he said.
Or when someone asked where I found my accountant (会计师), I replied, “I met her at the dog park.” At this point, people would shrug their shoulders (耸肩), as if to say, “What a strange (奇怪的) place to find an accountant!” But what would be a better place?
1. How does the writer start the passage?| A．By giving an example. | B．By showing a fact. |
| C．By giving some numbers. | D．By solving a problem. |
| A．There are so many problems at the park. | B．Why the writer enjoys walking the dog. |
| C．How the pet owners help each other. | D．There are different kinds of dogs at the park. |
| A．He gave a picture of his to the writer. | B．His pet dog dislikes playing with Clancy. |
| C．He enjoys walking his dog with the writer. | D．His paintings are popular around the world. |
| A．To find a special place to walk the dog. | B．To invite other pet owners to the park. |
| C．To advise people to keep pet dogs. | D．To show his her love for the dog park. |
10 . The Chinese new year begins on 22 January 2023 and ends on 9 February 2024. While most of Asia celebrates the year of the rabbit, Vietnam celebrates the year of the cat. In the Chinese zodiac*, there are 12 animals, and the 4th animal is the rabbit; while in the Vietnamese zodiac, the 4th animal is the cat. Why did the cat substitute for the rabbit in Vietnam?
Ancient storytellers said the Jade Emperor organized a race across a river for all the animals in the world. The first 12 to reach the other side would appear in the zodiac. In the Chinese story, the cat and the rat were riding across a river on an ox when the rat pushed the cat into the water. The rat won the race and that is why cats have been hunting rats ever since. But in the Vietnamese zodiac story, there isn’t a rabbit. The cat could swim and ended up arriving. The two countries have different origins* of zodiac.
Quyen Di, a lecturer at UCLA, said the custom has to do with the landscape of Vietnam. “In the past, the Chinese lived in the savanna* area, while the Vietnamese lived in the lowland area. The people of the savanna like to live near the wilderness, and they chose the rabbit as an animal that lived in the wild fields. But the lowland people of Vietnam consider rabbits as animals that are used for food and chose the cat because they believe cats are friends living in their house.”
1. The underlined words “substitute for” in paragraph 1 can be replaced by ________.| A．take off | B．take care of | C．take the place of | D．take up |
| A．The Jade Emperor liked the cat. |
| B．The rabbit fell into the river in the zodiac race. |
| C．The rat and the rabbit were friends in ancient times. |
| D．The cat finished fourth by swimming across the river. |
| A．Their living environment. | B．Their language pronunciation. |
| C．Their way of life. | D．Their favorite animal. |
| A．To explain the history of the Chinese zodiac. |
| B．To show ways of celebrating the year of the rabbit. |
| C．To tell the traditions of Chinese culture. |
| D．To introduce the origin of the year of the cat in Vietnam. |
