1 . On a cold and clear day in February, Wes, his brother Jeff, his assistant Jordan, and I were following the GPS from the bear’s collar( 项 圈 ) up a steep and into a red earth canyon. The temperature dropped to zero as we cleaned the snow, trying to locate the black bear’s entrance.
The radio signal was so weak that as the sun set, we considered turning back. Then a curtain of snow collapsed, revealing a sandstone cave. It narrowed to a dark tunnel, and the musky(麝香味)smell of wild animal steamed from within. Wes didn’t hesitate. Armed with an expandable six-foot stick with a tranquilizer syringe(镇定剂喷射器) on its tip, he dived in headfirst. His brother crawled after him.
Thirty seconds later, they came flying backward out of the tunnel. The bear they’d collared a year and a half ago now weighed about 350 pounds— and he was awake! Wes had managed to jab him with the syringe, so we waited for the drug to take effect. But when we rounded the tunnel bend, wide eyes flashed at us. He was STILL awake!! Wes told me not to move while he backed out and jabbed another dose of tranquilizer.
The bear started crawling toward us. We desperately blocked the exit with backpacks and sticks as Wes jabbed him again— but he powered through our barriers with groggy(头晕眼花的) steps and began to crawl down the snowy slope. Jeff and Jordan held his back paws, managing to hold on to him; Wes jumped on his back and grabbed his collar. The bear pulled them down the hillside together. The tranquilizer had taken effect— he was asleep. Wes and his brother changed the batteries of the collar and checked his health, but we had one more difficult task: getting a 350-pound bear up the snowy path and safely back to his cave before he awoke. We pushed and pulled with every muscle. Before the drug wore off, our effort paid off.
When spring came, signals from the bear’s new radio collar showed he’d continued his everyday life—avoiding any more contact, we hope, with humans.
1. Why did the author and his friends go to the canyon?| A．They wanted to conduct a radio experiment. |
| B．They expected to hunt for a bear for fun. |
| C．They wished to explore the nature in winter. |
| D．They planned to maintain the bear’s radio collar. |
| A．The bear’s unique smell reminded them. |
| B．A hunter led them to the bear’s habitat. |
| C．The strong sunlight revealed its cave. |
| D．A curtain of snow showed them the way. |
| A．Kick. | B．Inject. |
| C．Cure. | D．Assist. |
| A．The bear was more than pleased to see them again. |
| B．The drug took effect immediately after the bear took it. |
| C．They made it to send the bear back to its cave. |
| D．They gave the bear tranquilizer 4 times in the end. |
| A．The Bear Wearing a Collar | B．Danger in Nature |
| C．An Encounter with a Bear | D．A “Little” Adventure |
2 . A Glass of Milk
There was a poor boy who made a living by selling objects door to door ,to pay for his school. He was very
The young girl understood
The girl replied. "I don't accept
With all his efforts and
Her eyes were
| A．fat | B．hungry | C．short | D．stupid |
| A．decided | B．agreed | C．refused | D．climbed |
| A．took | B．heard | C．saw | D．felt |
| A．man | B．woman | C．boy | D．girl |
| A．his | B．her | C．my | D．your |
| A．difficultly | B．suddenly | C．slowly | D．carelessly |
| A．to | B．for | C．from | D．of |
| A．everything | B．something | C．anything | D．nothing |
| A．admired | B．married | C．followed | D．thanked |
| A．Months | B．Years | C．Days | D．Weeks |
| A．ill | B．asleep | C．silent | D．lonely |
| A．Since | B．Before | C．As | D．Until |
| A．doubted | B．asked | C．achieved | D．recognized |
| A．pressure | B．money | C．justice | D．knowledge |
| A．partly | B．completely | C．strangely | D．obviously |
| A．surprised | B．curious | C．worried | D．angry |
| A．send | B．promise | C．explain | D．write |
| A．check | B．book | C．hill | D．note |
| A．covered | B．lined | C．filled | D．crowded |
| A．said | B．found | C．told | D．forgot |
3 . Women’s Poetry Competition 2024
Welcome to Mslexia, the only magazine where every reader is a potential contributor too. Almost every part of the magazine is open to submission by any woman writer. Our competition is open to unpublished poems of any length. Your £10 entry fee allows you to submit up to three poems. The judge this year is the outstanding and award-winning writer Pascale Petit.
Prizes
1st: £2,000; 2nd: £500; 3rd: £250 (Each prize goes for one person.)
Unpublished Poetry Prize for the best poem by a previously unknown poet: £250.
The four winners, plus sixteen additional finalists will have their poems published in the May issue of Mslexia.
Results
The deadline for all entries is 23:59 GMT, 6 March, 2024
The winners and finalists will be announced on 1 April, 2024
How to enter
Add the entry fee to your basket and go to the checkout. Once the order is completed, you’ll be taken to a submit page where the entry form is located. Click the “Enter Now” button. You can submit at a later date by typing into your Mslexia online account and going to the “competitions” bill.
Visit our Entry Instructions for a more comprehensive guide on how to enter, and be sure to read our Rules before submitting your entries.
Frequently-asked questions
Have a question about formatting, eligibility(资格), or anything else?
Ready to enter? Please see our Entry Instructions. For any further information, call us at 0191 204 8860 or email competitions@mslexia.co.uk.
1. How many winners will get prize money?| A．Three. | B．Four. | C．Sixteen. | D．Twenty. |
| A．Submitting two poems. | B．Visiting Entry Instructions. |
| C．Writing a poem of 120 words. | D．Mailing your entry on April 1. |
| A．In a textbook. | B．In an art magazine. | C．On a website. | D．In a local newspaper. |
4 . You have probably read about robots replacing human labour as a new era of automation takes root in one industry after another. However, a new report suggests humans are not the only ones who might lose their jobs.
In New Zealand, farmers are using drones（无人机）to herd and monitor cows and sheep, taking up the position that highly intelligent dogs have held for more than a century. The robots have not replaced the dogs entirely, Radio New Zealand reports, but they have appropriated（盗用）one of the animal's most powerful tools: barking. The DJI Mavic Enterprise, a $ 3,500 drone favored by farmers, has a feature that lets the machine record sounds and play them over a loudspeaker, giving the machine the ability to imitate its canine counterparts.
Corey Lambeth, a shepherd on a farm, told RNZ the machines are surprisingly effective. “That's the one thing I've noticed that when you're moving cows the old cows stand up to the dogs, but with the drones, they've never done that,” he said, noting the drones move cows faster, with less stress, than the dogs do.
The drones come in handy for more than just herding cows and sheep. The robots allow farmers to monitor their land from afar, monitoring water and feed levels and checking on the animals' health without disturbing them. Jason Rentoul told RNZ that a two- hour herding job that used to require two people and two teams of dogs could be accomplished in 45 minutes using a single drone. “On a hilly farm where a lot of stuff is done by farmers on foot, the drones really save a lot of man hours,” he said.
For now, farmers say, there is still a need for herding dogs, primarily because they have a longer lifespan than drones, can work in bad weather and do not require an electrical socket every few hours to recharge.
1. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Farmers. | B．Dogs. | C．Sheep. | D．Loudspeakers. |
| A．Herding dogs will gradually lose their position on the farmland. |
| B．The drones can help monitor weather conditions with the current technology. |
| C．The drones are multifunctional and leave the animals undisturbed. |
| D．The market for the DJI Mavic Enterprise is pretty small because of its high price. |
| A．The drones can't bark as loudly as the dogs do. |
| B．Cows are not used to seeing the drones. |
| C．The drones are much more expensive. |
| D．The drones' power is limited and they need charging. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Objective. | C．Critical. | D．Doubtful. |
5 . That the Leaning Tower of Pisa no longer leans quite so much after a ￡20 million project to save it has proved to be a great success.The tower,which was on the edge of collapse,has been straightened by 18 inches,returning it to its 1838 position.
“It has straightened a little bit more than we expected,but very little helps,”said Prof.John Burland,the only British member of the rescue committee.“The tower is still very slightly moving towards being upright.”
The tower,which has been leaning almost since building work first began in 1173,was closed to the public in 1990 because of safety fears.The 183-foot tower was nearly 15 feet off vertical and its structure was found to have been weakened by centuries of strain(作用力).
Prof.Burland said it could have collapsed “at any moment”.However,it took nine years of quarrelling before any work was done.The last attempt at straightening the tower was carried out.Concrete(混凝土) was poured into the foundations,but the result was that the tower sank further into the soil.
The straightening work involved digging out around 70 tonnes of earth from the northern side of the tower,causing it to sink on that side.Before the digging started,the tower was fixed with steel ropes and 600 tonnes of lead weights.
However,halfway through the project,concerns at the ugliness of the lead weights led to their removal and the tower leaned greatly.The weights were hurriedly reattached.One night,the tower moved more than it had averaged in an entire year.The tower’s stonework has also been restored.
The Italian government stepped in after a tower collapsed in Pavia in 1989,killing four people.Experts suddenly realized that the tower at Pisa,which was similarly built and on the same sort of earth,could do the same.
1. What would be the best title for the passage?| A．The Building of the Leaning Tower of Pisa |
| B．Saving the Leaning Tower of Pisa |
| C．The Collapse of the Leaning Tower of Pisa |
| D．The History of the Leaning Tower of Pisa |
| A．closed for the straightening work in 1990 |
| B．began to lean more than 800 years ago |
| C．has a history of more than 1,000 years |
| D．has become vertical |
| A．The development of new technology. | B．The advice of Prof.John Burland. |
| C．The expectation of the rescue committee. | D．The collapse of a tower in Pavia. |
| A．The lead weights fixed to the tower. |
| B．Restoring the stonework. |
| C．Pouring concrete into the foundations. |
| D．Digging earth from the southern side of the tower. |
| A．The position of the tower has been restored to what it was 182 years ago. |
| B．Hundreds of years of strain has weakened the tower’s structure. |
| C．The tower doesn’t lean any more after the straightening work finished. |
| D．People spent nine years in discussing about the straightening work. |
6 . Sammie Vance knows it feels bad to be left out. So she has been helping kids who feel lonely make friends.
Sammie is 14. When she was in the third grade, she started the Buddy Bench program. That was at her school, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Anyone who felt lonely could sit on the “buddy bench.” It showed others that someone needed a friend.
The bench brought kids together. “There was one little boy at school, younger than me,” Sammie told TIME for Kids. “He would see me in the hallway and give me a thumbs-up. That told me that what I was doing helped him.”
It costs money to build benches. Sammie decided to make them out of recycled materials. This lowered the cost. And the benches were eco-friendly.
Sammie gathered friends in her community. They collected 1,200 pounds of bottle caps. A company called Green Tree Plastics made three benches with the bottle caps.
Sammie has helped communities all over the country set up buddy benches. And she is spreading kindness around the world. “We recently got a bench in Ghana, Africa,” she says. “That was cool.”
Sammie reminds us that kids can help their community. Even small acts of kindness can be powerful. “You don’t have to be an adult to make a difference,” she says.
Sammie wrote a book. It is called Inspire the World: A Kid’s Journey to Making a Difference. It tells the story of her buddy benches. Sammie hopes her example will inspire others. “I used to be really, really shy,” she says. Building buddy benches gave her confidence. “I’m definitely more outgoing now.”
1. When did Sammie start the Buddy Bench program?| A．In the third grade. | B．In the fourth grade. |
| C．In the fifth grade. | D．In the sixth grade. |
| A．She helps them find a new hobby. |
| B．She introduces them to her friends. |
| C．She starts a program to help them make friends. |
| D．She gives them a thumbs-up to make them happy. |
| A．She raised money herself. | B．She cycled to find materials. |
| C．She turned to her parents. | D．She used recycled materials. |
| A．To inspire children to make differences. |
| B．To raise more money for her journey. |
| C．To build more benches for children. |
| D．To remind children to act like adults. |
7 . My 4-year-old son now enjoys posting letters. He has formed the
On Tuesday of last week, I was walking down to school to collect my son when I
I have decided that my son should
It’s doing the little, simple things that can often make a big
| A．habit | B．attitude | C．style | D．form |
| A．hiding | B．writing | C．drawing | D．putting |
| A．handing | B．holding | C．posting | D．writing |
| A．opened | B．set | C．chose | D．saw |
| A．kind | B．surprised | C．careful | D．honest |
| A．meant | B．asked | C．hated | D．refused |
| A．actually | B．suddenly | C．hardly | D．partly |
| A．intelligence | B．strength | C．money | D．time |
| A．met | B．visited | C．dated | D．called |
| A．crying | B．lying | C．laughing | D．standing |
| A．humorous | B．embarrassed | C．confused | D．amused |
| A．copied | B．bought | C．kept | D．examined |
| A．receiving | B．writing | C．painting | D．exchanging |
| A．report | B．expression | C．talk | D．discussion |
| A．unless | B．but | C．so | D．although |
| A．charge | B．offer | C．act | D．help |
| A．worth | B．happiness | C．value | D．future |
| A．add | B．stop | C．continue | D．form |
| A．certainly | B．unfortunately | C．accidentally | D．confidently |
| A．point | B．difference | C．behaviour | D．living |
8 . I’ve spent over a year in India,and in those 365 plus days,I’ve learned a lot about getting around Indian cities.My biggest lessons have been learned through being cheated,particularly by taxi and rickshaw(人力车) drivers,but that doesn’t mean those are bad ways to travel,as long as you know what you’re doing.Below are the best ways to get around the city of Delhi,India,and tips for how to keep from being the victim of scams(欺诈).
Taking taxis is a great way to get around the city of Delhi and chances are,if you arrive in Delhi by plane,as soon as you make it through customs,you’ll be swarmed by Indian taxi drivers.At the Delhi airport,be sure to arrange for a taxi to your hotel at one of the two Delhi Traffic Police Taxi Booths.One is inside the airport,and the other is outside.The key is to make sure to go to a booth run by the police,rather than by independent taxi drivers.
Rickshaws are one of my favourite ways to get around Indian cities,in part because it’s how the locals often travel.Auto-rickshaws are more common,but bicycle rickshaws are still used in Old Delhi.If you do have a chance to take a bicycle rickshaw,you should do it at least once for a unique experience that should only set you back about 15 rupees.Auto-rickshaw rates around Delhi range between 30 and 80 rupees,depending on the distance.
If you really want to travel around Delhi like the locals,take a public bus.Indian buses become very crowded and most do not have air conditioning.They are,however,very cheap.A bus trip won’t set you back any more than 15 rupees,as long as you stay within the city limits.Since Indian buses get so crowded,try to board the bus at the start of the route so you can get a seat.
The train is a great way to get around within the city of Delhi.Fares are reasonable,between 6 and 22 rupees.All departure announcements are in both Hindi and English,and tokens can be purchased for between 6 and 22 rupees.
1. The author is trying to in Delhi through this text.| A．give some advice of travelling | B．expect us to travel around |
| C．show his/her experiences | D．explain the difficulties of travelling |
| A．pay more to the drivers to keep safe | B．show your ticket to the driver |
| C．go to a police-run booth | D．go out of the airport |
| A．save some money | B．enjoy the comfortable trip |
| C．gain a unique experience | D．help the local rickshaw drivers |
| A．You won’t have to pay much if you travel around by bus in India. |
| B．It will be difficult for you to get a seat if you get on the bus halfway. |
| C．A rickshaw driver only charges whatever amount you give him. |
| D．You’ll have to speak English if you travel around in India. |
| A．Hotel recommendations in Delhi | B．Weather conditions in Delhi |
| C．Food and drink in Delhi | D．Car rentals in Delhi |
9 . Physical weakness, lack of energy, severe hair loss, and pain in the neck, are more common among young people recently. More people are now turning to TCM for help, which stands for traditional Chinese medicine.
Wang Louda, 30, who works in the social media industry, has gained a new respect for TCM after suffering from cervical(颈椎) pain.
Six months ago, while driving home from work, Wang suddenly felt weakness in his left arm. He thought it was due to the hard work he was doing and that a good rest over the weekend would relieve it.
However, the situation worsened after a week. He had no choice but to go to the hospital for an examination, which showed something wrong with his cervical.
A friend recommended that he try acupuncture(针灸). After over a month of treatment with TCM, his pain had gradually disappeared.
“TCM is relatively gentle and suitable for treating chronic (慢性的) diseases,” Wang says.
Modern people, due to the endless use of mobile phones and computers, spend up to 10 hours a day sitting to study or work. This sedentary lifestyle, lacking in enough physical activity, means that the muscles and bones cannot receive enough relaxation and exercise, gradually leading to damage. Problems such as neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain, and leg pain are becoming increasingly common.
Yao Jingyi, who works at a TCM clinic in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, has been engaged in the clinic for over 30 years. He is skilled in treating sports injuries, cervical pain, and chronic diseases.
“Acupuncture is one of the treasures of traditional Chinese medicine,” Yao explains.
According to him, the ancient practice of acupuncture woks well in treating “modern illnesses”, such as headache, backache and cervical pain.
1. How did Wang Louda recover from cervical pain?| A．By taking enough exercise. |
| B．By visiting clinics of TCM. |
| C．By taking his friend’s medicine. |
| D．By having good rests every day. |
| A．The lack of sleep. |
| B．Endless use of Mobile phones. |
| C．Long hours’ sitting. |
| D．Enough relaxation and exercise. |
| A．Inactive. | B．Unusual. | C．Flexible. | D．Common. |
| A．The history of traditional Chinese medical treatment. |
| B．An advertisement for traditional Chinese medicine. |
| C．The modern popularity of traditional Chinese treatment. |
| D．The future development of Chinese acupuncture. |
10 . It's important to keep young children connected to the activities they love. Even if the children don't play sports, these great stories in the sports books about competition and dealing with difficulties are timeless and good for them.
Karate Kids
Holly Sterling
Come to join Maya for a karate class! Maya loves playing with her friends and showing her teachers how hard she has worked. But the most important part Maya expects is receiving the encouragement of friends and teachers, which makes her very excited.
（Ages：3-7）
How to Solve a Problem
Ashima Shiraishi
If you thought rock-climbing was only for adults, think again. Ashim Shiraishi is considered to be one of the best teenage climbers in the world. She started climbing rocks in the park when she was just six years old! Her story will encourage children to deal with any difficulty in their way, and to trust themselves and their own abilities-no matter what life throws at them.
(Ages:4-8)
Sports Star Mad Libs Junior
Roger Price
Dreaming of the time you can play with your team? Or perhaps, you're just feeling a little bored at home? If so, this book is the best choice for you！ Fill in the blanks（空白处）with the words you can think of and create funny sports articles that will give you great pleasure for hours.
(Ages:5-8)
The Zach & Zoe Mysteries All Star Collection
Mike Lupica
Although Mike Lupica might be best-known for his middle-grade sports writing, he hasn't forgotten beginners. In this four-book collection twins Zach and Zoe combine（使结合） their love of sports and solving mysteries（谜） to take readers on fun-filled adventures on the football field and basketball court.
(Ages:6-9)
1. What can children mainly learn from Ashima Shiraishi's story?
| A．How to develop new abilities. | B．How to communicate with adults. |
| C．How to face challenges bravely. | D．How to give encouragement to others. |
| A．Karate Kids. | B．Sports Star Mad Libs Junior. |
| C．How to Solve a Problem. | D．The Zach & Zoe Mysteries All Star Collection. |
| A．It is written for twins. | B．It is pleasing to read. |
| C．It praises Zach's friendship with Zoe. | D．It teaches children about task planning. |
