1 . Pieter Bruegel’s iconic 1565 painting The Harvesters hangs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work showed people harvesting wheat nearly as tall as they were.“nowadays, however, if you walk through a wheat field, you basically see that wheat is about knee-height. The reduced height is essentially a consequence of breeding (培育)along with genes for increasing production to feed a growing population,” biologist De Smet explained.
De Smet says wheat is just one example of how historical artwork can allow us to track the transformation of food crops over time. He teamed up with art historian Vergauwen, a friend since childhood, to document such artwork around the world. They have been mainly looking at things where they can spot changes in shape, color and size.
Their interest in plants in artwork began with a visit to the Hermitage Museum, where they noticed an odd-looking watermelon in an early-17th-century painting. It appeared to be pale and white on the inside. Biologist De Smet assumed the painter had done a poor job. But art historian Vergauwen had a different idea. “No, this is one of the best painters ever from that era. So if he painted it like that, that’s the way it must have looked like,” he explained.
Other paintings revealed that both red and white watermelons were grown during the 17th century.“With all the genetic knowledge we now have, we can look in more detail how something comes about,”De Smet said. “For example, until the 18th century, European strawberries appeared tiny in paintings-they then grew in size as they were crossbred with North American varieties.”
Ultimately, the team hopes to create an online research database of historical plant artwork. They seek the contributions of art enthusiasts around the world via the social media. “However,” Vergauwen reminds, “if you’re going to use, for example, Picasso to try and understand how a pear looked in the early 20th century, you might be misled.”
1. What can we learn about the painting The Harvesters?| A．It shows how people successfully grew wheat. |
| B．It proves that wheat was much shorter in the past. |
| C．It explains the consequence of different breeding methods. |
| D．It gives clues about how wheat in the 16th century looked like. |
| A．Their preference for food crops. |
| B．Their friendship since childhood. |
| C．Their divided views on an old painting. |
| D．Their shared interest in Hermitage Museum. |
| A．Art enthusiasts are not careful enough. |
| B．Abstract paintings often mislead people. |
| C．The source paintings need to be realistic. |
| D．Picasso’s paintings are hard to understand. |
| A．To comment on historical plant paintings. |
| B．To tell interesting stories behind plant artwork. |
| C．To inform readers of a scientific breakthrough. |
| D．To introduce a study on food crop transformation. |
2 . When I was 7 and Stevie was 6, our parents taught us how to play chess and other games. Playing games was our life back then. Stevie and I were very competitive in everything.
We got older and better so our games were more intense, but also more exciting. The strange thing is that I enjoyed the games vastly and was happy for my brother when he won. But afterwards, I felt my well-being threatened, and then my confidence suffered.
When I was 10 years old I wanted to be successful at my talents. One day, a light came on in my head. I had to find something Stevie couldn’t do. It would have to be unique in every way. Before long, I got Jimmy Nelson’s record on “How to Become a Ventriloquist (腹语师)” and I practiced faithfully every day. After summer vacation, I did my first show for my class. The response was favorable. I performed for family get-togethers and did shows on a number of occasions to practice my new skill.
It isn’t easy learning ventriloquism. The difficult part was developing the voice, because at first, it was soft and hard to hear. I memorized the routines and performed more. With time, I got better responses. The loud laughter was nonstop, in addition to the applause.
Four years later, my mother purchased professional ventriloquial figure, which I named Freddie O’Sullivan. He was lifelike, with moving eyes, moving eyebrows, and could stick out his tongue. Treating Freddie like a real person enhanced my performance.
In college, Freddie was well known. He would tell people that he was the only guy that could sleep in the girl’s dormitory. Over the years, I won many talent awards.
One time, an elderly man looked at Freddie attentively and asked him where he got his trousers. The audience nearby had tears in their eyes. I didn’t know what was going on until I was told later the gentleman hadn’t spoken for 20 years.
Thanks to my brother, I created a lifetime with Freddie.
1. How did the author feel at first when Stevie won a game?| A．Delighted. | B．Confused. |
| C．Depressed. | D．Surprised, |
| A．To gain her parents’ favor in family get-togethers. |
| B．To record her intense and competitive childhood. |
| C．To have a special talent better than her brother. |
| D．To bring joyous laughter to people around her. |
| A．Freddie trained the author professionally. |
| B．Freddie inspired an old man to restart to talk. |
| C．Freddie took the place of the author’s brother. |
| D．Freddie disturbed others in the girl’s dormitory. |
| A．Generous and grateful. | B．Modest and responsible. |
| C．Patient and honest. | D．Sensitive and determined. |
3 . I live in Xizhou in Yunnan Province, on the historic Tea Horse Road. I have to admit that when I first heard that Paul Salopek was going to walk the entire globe on his own two feet, I was blown away. I couldn’t imagine that there could be such an unusual person in the world.
Last May, I met Paul. He told me that it was his first time in China. He talked to me with great excitement about the history, migrations, and discoveries in my region of China. He spoke of the Shu-Yandu Dao (the Southern Silk Road), the travels of the 17th-century Chinese explorer Xu Xiake, the Tea Horse Road and the early 20th-century American botanist Joseph Rock. He also talked of Xuanzang. Paul considered many of them heroes and in a sense Chinese pioneers of slow journalism.
I decided to accompany Paul on his walk toward Yunnan. On September 28, 2021, we set out. Our days were simple: walk, eat, sleep, and repeat. We woke up at sunrise, set off in high spirits, and rested at sunset, dragging ourselves into exhausted sleep.
We met many people on the road. Some were curious, surrounding us and watching us; some gave us directions; some invited us into their home to take a rest; some spoke of the charm of their hometown. We met many beautiful souls, simple souls and warm souls. We were walking with our minds.
Together, we were impressed by the biodiversity of the Gaoligong Mountains. As I walked on ancient paths through mountains, I seemed to hear the antique voices of past travelers urging me to be careful on the road.
Looking back on the more than 200 miles I walked with Paul, I came to a realization. Walking for its own sake, while healthy and admirable, is only a small part of the benefit of moving with our feet. A deeper reward is rediscovering the world around us, shortening the distance between each other, and sharing each other’s cultures.
1. How did the writer first respond to Paul’s travel plan?| A．Scared. | B．Puzzled. |
| C．Disappointed. | D．Surprised. |
| A．He was a western journalist. | B．He had a knowledge of China. |
| C．He came to China several times. | D．He was Joseph Rock’s acquaintance. |
| A．They honored the ancestors. | B．They set off in high spirits. |
| C．They satisfied the locals’ curiosity. | D．They built bonds with people. |
| A．To share and reflect on a journey. | B．To suggest a new way of travel. |
| C．To advocate protection of biodiversity. | D．To introduce and promote Chinese culture. |
4 . I am thinking today about my new favorite thing. It’s an app that my husband told me a few years ago that helps me bypass all the obstacles (障碍) in my way: potholes, heavy traffic, and even speed cameras.
To be honest, when my husband first told me about it, I didn’t pay much attention. I was only going to places I already knew how to get to. Plus, I learned to drive from my father—who never turned to a map. I think I mistakenly absorbed the message that real drivers didn’t need a map; you somehow just magically knew where to go. It was only later that I realized that just getting a driver’s license didn’t mean you knew how to get to places—that was lesson one. Lesson two came when my kids started playing on two different travel teams. The drivers in our household suddenly had the need to head in different directions on the same day.
Suddenly my app became very meaningful to me. How did I ever manage to get to strange playing fields hidden somewhere without it? But the crazy thing I have also noticed is how often I just don’t listen to it. Why might that be? Do I just prefer the old routes, even if they are actually worse? I see an analogy (类比) to the present moment. There is evidence that some old ideas and some long familiar ideas will send us into a boring unchanging lifestyle. But for some reason we like them better than an unfamiliar new route that might take us into areas we’ve never heard of, let alone visited.
It can be hard to admit we don’t know everything. As a person who still drives an 8-year-old stick shift and who has never stood in line for anything new, I certainly understand that. But I also try to remember the times I let go of my ego (自负), or my fear, and learned that life could be better. Not perfect—but better. I am glad I finally listened to my husband about that app. He was right.
1. What did the author think of the app at the very beginning?| A．It was magical. | B．It was practically valueless. |
| C．It was powerful. | D．It was not as good as a map. |
| A．Her desire to explore alone. | B．Her doubt about the new device. |
| C．Her preference for the new routes. | D．Her refusal to experience changes. |
| A．She is willing to challenge herself. | B．She cares little about others’ comments. |
| C．She recognizes her problems easily. | D．She is too inflexible to make any change. |
| A．Real Drivers Know Their Way | B．It Pays to Take a New Route |
| C．New Apps Make Life Perfect | D．It Matters to Listen to Inner Voice |
5 . Every year thousands of people come to the city of Pamplona, in north-eastern Spain, for the opportunity to run for their lives as six fighting bulls are released to charge through the town. There are injuries and deaths every year, but the event is of interest to many people. A paper just published in Science describes the insight the event offers into the psychology of panicked crowds.
That is a useful topic to explore. Arehitects, civil engineers and urban planners must try to work out how people will behave in the event of a disaster like a fire, a flood or a terrorist attack so they can design their creations to avoid potentially deadly collisions (碰撞). Unfortunately, solid information is hard to come by. Daniel Parisi, the paper’s lead author, realised that the Pamplona bull-runs offered the perfect natural experiment.
Dr Parisi and his team went to two different rooftop locations in Pamplona in July 2019, and filmed the runners as the animals were released, Later in the lab, they calculated the speed of the runners, the density (密度) of the crowd, the probability of a runner tripping and falling and the relationship between runner-group density and speed.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the researchers found that runners picked up speed when the bulls drew near. Less expected was the finding that the speed of individual runners increased with the density of the crowd, which was contrary to a long-held assumption in architectural and urban-design circles that people will slow their pace as group density goes up, in order to lower the risk of a collision, which could lead to a fall and, perhaps, injury or death.
Yet it seems that, in the heat of the moment, people pay little attention to the danger of colliding with each other, and do not slow down. The responsibility therefore falls upon urban designers to work out how best to plan the construction of future tunnels, bridges and other passages that restrict flow. The only option may well be to make them wider.
1. What did Dr Parisi and his team do in Pamplona?| A．They proved his theory. |
| B．They recorded a bull-run. |
| C．They watched a thrilling bull-fight. |
| D．They designed a psychological experiment. |
| A．People slowed down in crowded areas. |
| B．Tripping posed a danger to bull-runners. |
| C．Bulls coming near made people running faster. |
| D．People tended to speed up in high-density crowds. |
| A．People lose their mind in disasters. |
| B．Future tunnels and bridges may be wider. |
| C．Panicked crowds are aware of the danger of collision. |
| D．Restricting flow helps to prevent people colliding each other. |
| A．How crowds react to panic |
| B．Bull-runs caught on in Spain |
| C．Dr Parisi’s finding shocks the world |
| D．What architects can learn from bull-running |
6 . In 1879, an 8-year-old girl made a discovery that would rock our understanding of human history. On the walls of Altamira cave in northern Spain, she spotted amazing drawings of wild cows, painted in vivid red and black. More striking even than the images was their age: they were made thousands of years ago by modern humans’ supposedly primitive ancestors. Today, nearly 400 caves across Europe have been found decorated with hand stencils (模板), strange symbols and beautiful images of animals created by these skillful artists.
The discoveries led to the view that artistic talent arose after modern humans arrived in the region some 40,000 years ago, as part of a “cultural explosion” reflecting a flowering of the human mind. But more recent evidence has blown this idea out of the water. For a start, modern humans might not have been the first artists in Europe. What’s more, a collection of cave paintings emerging in Indonesia has dismissed the idea that Europe was the centre of creativity.
Local people have long known that the caves of the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, contain many painted images. Modern humans are thought to have reached the region some 65,000 years ago, but nobody imagined the art could be very old because ancient paintings seem unlikely to survive in the environment of high temperatures. A team of researchers led by Maxime Aubert, now at Griffith University in Australia, upended this idea using a technique that is shifting our understanding of cave art. Using this technique in seven caves, they found a hand stencil was at least 39,900 years old, making it the oldest known hand stencil at that time.
This opened a floodgate to new discoveries in Indonesia. These included a hunting scene created at least 43,900 years ago, and by far the oldest descriptive artwork. “When we found that image, we were absolutely delighted, but when it turned out to be that old, we were almost jumping with joy,” says Adam Brumm, also at Griffith University.
1. What did the girl find in the cave?| A．Wild animals. | B．Ancient images. |
| C．Painting techniques. | D．Recording artists. |
| A．It can be traced back to Europe. |
| B．It reflected the flowering of human minds. |
| C．Modern humans led to its rise in Indonesia. |
| D．Modern humans might not have been real artists. |
| A．Proved. | B．Strengthened. | C．Overturned. | D．Overemphasized. |
| A．The amazing discoveries. | B．The researchers’ expectations. |
| C．The benefits of the technique. | D．The description of the cave art. |
7 . On Grytviken island in the South Atlantic Ocean lies the South Georgia Museum, one of the most remote museums in the world.
South Georgia Museum is located in the island’s old whaling station. Whaling, or the hunting of whales for their usable natural products, such as meat and oil, ceased there in 1964. The building that now houses the museum once served as the whaling manager’s home and office and went unused for over 20 years before it opened to the public as a museum in 1992.
There are no passenger flights to or from Grytviken, so the majority of visitors arrive on a ship. The island itself only sees about 10, 000 visitors a year and there are no permanent residents, only a group of 20 scientists, maintenance staff, and museum workers who brave the island’s cold weather conditions. Traveling to the museum requires advance planning. South Georgia Museum staff all travel to the island from abroad for the southern hemisphere (半球) spring, or mid - October, and most come from the United Kingdom, around 8, 000 miles north.
The museum, which offers free admission, “aims to make this history and heritage accessible both to the visiting public and to those unable to visit this remote region through education, exhibitions and outreach”. according to its website. It houses a natural history collection, artifacts, exhibitions related to the early history of sealing and whaling as well as Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton, and more. The museum rooms are named after individuals who contributed to the growth or conservation of the island in some way.
The temperature is ideal for visitors October through December, but sill, daytime highs don’t often reach above 40 degrees Fahrenheit. For those who work there, Internet access is patchy and fresh food options are rare. It’s not a place for everyone, but for the staff that calls it home for parts of the year, it’s a unique form of paradise. “Stepping away from the world has been a treat,” said Pierce, one of the staff.
1. What can we learn about the South Georgia Museum?| A．It is accessible to visitors by air. | B．It has 20 maintenance workers. |
| C．It opened to the public in 1964. | D．It used to be a whaling station. |
| A．Managers of the whaling station. |
| B．Adventurers exploring the Antarctic. |
| C．Those who made contributions to the island. |
| D．Individuals who conserved whales from extinction. |
| A．Poor. | B．Easy. | C．Free. | D．Quick. |
| A．Animals. | B．People. | C．Travel. | D．News. |
8 . In 2019, I was staying at a fitness camp in Thailand. After doing 2.5 hours of kickboxing, I began to cough. Thinking it was probably from the intense workout, I brushed off the
But over the next few hours, I started struggling to
The woman was so
When I got back to the
It is hard to describe the
| A．discomfort | B．misfortune | C．tiredness | D．challenge |
| A．still | B．also | C．even | D．ever |
| A．beat | B．race | C．stop | D．warm |
| A．recommending | B．forcing | C．introducing | D．dragging |
| A．explain | B．claim | C．complain | D．argue |
| A．patient | B．efficient | C．confident | D．innocent |
| A．purchasing | B．driving | C．requesting | D．stopping |
| A．assuring | B．reminding | C．persuading | D．showing |
| A．Certainly | B．Hopefully | C．Obviously | D．Thankfully |
| A．turned to | B．smiled at | C．objected to | D．stared at |
| A．saved | B．marked | C．deleted | D．translated |
| A．office | B．home | C．camp | D．hospital |
| A．recovered | B．escaped | C．retired | D．collapsed |
| A．surprise | B．fear | C．sorrow | D．regret |
| A．humorous | B．ambitious | C．helpful | D．trustful |
9 . While many animal populations seem to dwindle, one species that is moving in the opposite direction of such loss is America’s native wildlife — wood stork.
The wood stork is the only stork that breeds in North America. In 1984, it was declared an endangered species after its population decreased sharply to just 5,000 mating pairs. At the time, scientists predicted that the bird would become completely extinct by 2000. Today, it numbers 10,000 mating pairs, and the Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing a delisting of the wood stork as an endangered species. So how did the population bounce back?
The success is in part down to the resourcefulness of the wood stork. The wood stork’s native home was in the Everglades in Florida, but it migrated north as the Everglades were being destroyed by development of mankind. Wetland preservation and restoration, protection of nesting areas, and management of water flows began with the approval of the wood stork’s first recovery plan in 1986. In the following year, former Savannah Coastal Refuges biologist John Robinette noticed stork nests in Georgia as stork populations moved to safer wetlands.
According to Stephanie Kurose, a senior policy specialist at the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Endangered Species Act is also to thank for this recovery. She said, “The act saved the wood stork and it helped preserve and rebuild vital habitats throughout the southeast, which has improved water quality and benefited countless other species who call the area home.” “The Endangered Species Act has saved 99 per cent of the species that were on the list since 1973. A hundred types of plants and animals have been delisted as their populations become stable again.
If the wood stork is delisted, it will remain protected by other laws and a monitoring plan will be put in place to ensure the population remains stable.
1. What does the underlined word dwindle probably mean?| A．Boost. | B．Change. | C．Decline. | D．Explode. |
| A．Its population shows a rising trend. | B．It has become completely extinct. |
| C．It is widely distributed worldwide. | D．It is the most endangered species. |
| A．Climate change of Earth. | B．Popularity of water sports. |
| C．Impact of human activities. | D．Arrival of other wild animals. |
| A．People have safer water to drink. | B．A list of species have been saved. |
| C．The local economy has boomed. | D．The wood stock has flown away. |
10 . Natural silence — the kind when you hear nothing but the sound of nature around you — is becoming increasingly scarce. The noise of man-made can be heard even in the remote corners of national parks and deep in the Arctic Ocean.
This is having some troubling effects. In humans, noise pollution has been linked to physical, mental health problems and cognitive impairment (认知功能障碍) in children. In wildlife,it’s disturbing navigation, pairing, communication and can cause hearing loss. “We’re losing the ability to listen to nature without noise pollution,” says sound recordist Matt Mikkelsen. He’s part of the non-profit organization Quiet Parks International, which aims to identify and preserve the planet’s last quiet places.
Recently, this took him to Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota. No cars, motor boats, electricity or telephone lines are allowed in the one-million-acre area,making it a strong candidate for Quiet Park status. But listening back to the recording, Mikkelsen can hear the low hum (嗡鸣声) of a commercial plane flying far away.
Quiet Parks hasn’t yet decided if Boundary Waters meets its criteria — it’s one of 260 potential sites around the world that the organization is currently exploring. The team will analyze the sound recordings from each location and consider them alongside other data.
In recent years, the world has been getting louder, with cities and towns expanding and an increasing number of noises from cars, airplanes or ships. But during the COVID-19 pandemic (流行病), there has been momentary delay.In2020,global air travel was down by 60% and road transport decreased by almost half. Scientists in Europe found that noise caused by humans fell by up to 50% after lock downs were carried out.
“People enjoyed the silence,” says Mikkelsen. “There were no airplanes in the sky and cars weren’t on the street. It was an incredible thing to be able to hear the world, all of a sudden, free from noise pollution,” he says. Since the start of the pandemic, Quiet Parks says it has experienced a huge increase in interest for quiet places. “I hope that we can take that desire for a world with less noise forward,” says Mikkelsen, “and appreciate the spots we have, where we can go and not experience noise pollution.”
1. What does the underlined word “scarce” probably mean in paragraph 1?| A．Special. | B．Rare. | C．Common. | D．Typical. |
| A．Causes of hearing loss. |
| B．Tips on protecting the nature. |
| C．Harmful effects of noise pollution. |
| D．Unidentified problems from human beings. |
| A．The sound recordings. | B．Global air travels. |
| C．Quiet Parks’ criteria. | D．Data of the pandemic. |
| A．A book review. | B．A travel guide. |
| C．A business plan. | D．A science report. |
