1 . Mosquitoes are one of the few unpleasant parts of summer. As the temperature rises, these disease-carrying pests become a common sight, especially around standing water. Thankfully, these tiny annoying creatures don’t follow us into the winter, right? Wrong. According to researchers in Florida, climate change will likely keep mosquitoes active even in the colder months of the year. “In tropical (热带的) areas, mosquitoes are active all year, but that isn’t the case for the rest of the world. Outside of the tropics, winter temperatures cause mosquitoes to go into a kind of hibernation called diapause (滞育). We call these mosquitoes ‘cold bounded’ because their activity is limited by these lower temperatures,” says Brett Scheffers, assistant professor in the wildlife eco logy and conservation department, in a university release.
“However, with climate change, summers are to get longer and winters are to become shorter and warmer. What will that mean for those cold bounded mosquitoes? How will they respond?” To see just how adaptive mosquitoes are already becoming to changing temperatures throughout the year, researchers collected these insects during each season in Gainesville, Florida.
Study authors caught over 28,000 insects from 18 different mosquito species during their experiment. Scientists lured the pests by using a trap that produces carbon dioxide. Mosquitoes seek out this gas, which both humans and animals blow out when they breathe. For these pests, the gas signals that a tasty meal is nearby. The team randomly selected 1,000 of these mosquitoes to test in their lab temperature experiment. They placed each insect in a test tube before putting it in water. From there, researchers continued to change the temperature, from cold to hot. At the same time, the team monitored when each mosquito became inactive—marking their upper or lower temperature thresholds (阈点).
As for what is allowing mosquitoes to make these rapid adjustments to the weather, the answer is still unclear. However, researchers believe evolution could be working at a much faster rate in tinier creatures. Study authors believe their findings will help communities better prepare for insect season as climate change continues to lengthen summer.
1. What does Brett Scheffers think of those cold bounded mosquitoes’ behaviors?| A．Less active. | B．More alarming. | C．More annoying. | D．Less consistent. |
| A．To find out why summer gets longer. |
| B．To see how mosquitoes spread in tropical areas. |
| C．To learn how mosquitoes are adapting to climate change. |
| D．To learn why climate change is related to species evolution. |
| A．Killed. | B．Attracted. | C．Changed. | D．Protected. |
| A．Cold bounded mosquitoes are easily trapped |
| B．Wildlife ecology helps better prepare for insect season |
| C．Mosquitoes will be a year-long problem due to climate change |
| D．The cause of mosquitoes’ rapid adjustments to the weather is clear |
2 . Welcome to Santa Cruz County. It is home to rough coastline and it’s the main destination for many hiking adventurers!
California King Tides Are Coming!
California King Tides are coming back to Santa Cruz County, and this season you have even more opportunities to enjoy these impressive tides! These naturally occurring and predictable events are when the highest and lowest tides hit our shores and create an even more dramatic coastline.
Winter Wildlife Getaway!
This season marks the start of the best wildlife watching on the California coast! Migrating whales and many special birds make December and January the perfect time for a wildlife adventure.
Magic Monarch Butterfly!
In Santa Cruz, we like to celebrate all creatures great and small, especially those of the migrating variety. On one hand, we are attracted by the sight of a whale surfaceing from the depths of the sea and, on the other hand, we delight in the attractive magic of a flying monarch butterfly.
County Shores!
Explore Santa Cruz County shores, and you’ll delight in rock y tide pools full of unique sea creatures. While exploring local tide pools, remember to have respect for your surroundings.
Care & Safety
Never turn your back on the ocean. Sleeper waves are a real phenomenon, and can sweep you away at any time.
We know how wonderful it might be to touch a plant or catch a fish from its waters, but disrupting tide pool life harms its inhabitants. Even if you think you’re saving a fish that appears to be pushed out of water, it’s best to leave it be. The tide will finally return it.
1. What are California King Tides like?| A．Unpredictable. | B．Splendid. | C．Ordinary. | D．Destructive. |
| A．Spring. | B．Summer. | C．Autumn. | D．Winter. |
| A．Handle them gently. | B．Catch them immediately. |
| C．Leave them where they are. | D．Take them back to the ocean. |
3 . Years ago, just as I do every winter, I was bagging up the clothing my sons had outgrown. It is always my
I found an ugly pair of hand-knitted socks. I had to
Later that afternoon,
Not only were his feet
| A．worry | B．beauty | C．hope | D．secret |
| A．take up | B．leave | C．make | D．free up |
| A．compare | B．decide | C．record | D．explore |
| A．wonderful | B．clean | C．uncommon | D．unpleasant |
| A．painting | B．washing | C．loading | D．lifting |
| A．turned | B．ran | C．put | D．reached |
| A．Secretly | B．Fortunately | C．Generally | D．Sincerely |
| A．tight | B．strange | C．grateful | D．winning |
| A．caring for | B．living up to | C．putting up with | D．laughing at |
| A．show | B．ride | C．sale | D．space |
| A．frightened | B．satisfied | C．disappointed | D．surprised |
| A．bravely | B．happily | C．anxiously | D．angrily |
| A．warmed | B．hurt | C．fixed | D．whitened |
| A．money | B．peace | C．luck | D．joy |
| A．shared | B．divided | C．supported | D．collected |
4 . Politicians and the public tend to worry about carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (排放) but neglect the effects of cutting methane (甲烷). Actually, dealing with the gas would have a large effect rapidly and at relatively low cost.
Human activity emits far less methane than carbon dioxide, but methane has a heavier impact. Over the course of 20 years, a ton of the gas will warm the atmosphere about 86 times more than a ton of CO2. As a result, methane is responsible for 23% of the rise in temperatures since preindustrial times. Carbon dioxide gets most of the attention, but unless methane emissions are limited, there is little hope of controlling the climate.
By how much do methane emissions need to fall? Carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for centuries, making it hard to reduce its atmospheric concentrations (浓度). By contrast, methane has a half-life of roughly ten years, which means that it degrades quickly. If new emissions can be cut to below the rate at which old emissions reduce, the concentration of methane in the atmosphere will soon fall, slowing global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that, to keep temperatures between 1.5℃ and 2℃ above preindustrial levels, human methane emissions must drop to 35% below where they stood in 2010 by midcentury.
That is entirely possible. A big step would be to stop millions of tons of methane from leaking out of fossil-fuel infrastructure each year, through pipes with holes, leaky valves and carelessness. The International Energy Agency, a global forecaster, estimates that 40% of methane emissions from fossil fuels, equal to 9% of all human methane emissions, can be got rid of at no net cost for firms. The harder task is to reduce emissions from agriculture, but even here farmers can make use of new ideas, including developing new forms of food for farm animals, and changing how rice is watered.
1. What does the underlined word “neglect” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Ignore. | B．Blame. | C．Value. | D．Delay. |
| A．A less serious threat to global warming. |
| B．The little hope of controlling the climate. |
| C．People’s more attention on carbon dioxide. |
| D．The urgent need to reduce methane emissions. |
| A．They are the only hope of controlling the climate. |
| B．Their atmospheric concentrations are hard to reduce. |
| C．Their impact on the climate is huge but manageable. |
| D．They stay in the atmosphere longer than carbon dioxide. |
| A．Coal mining. | B．Rice farming. | C．Fuel burning. | D．Oil leaking. |
5 . If Benjamin Franklin were alive today and read the latest science-based sleep news, he might update his “early to bed and early to rise” advice to include “less likely to become clinically depressed”.
A new study of 840,000 adults by a team of researchers from CU Boulder, Harvard Medical School, and MIT suggests that “early risers” may be at a significantly lower risk of developing depressive disorders than “late risers”.
According to the first author Iyas Daghlas and the lead author Céline Vetter, this research “shows strong evidence that a person’s propensity (倾向) to sleep at a certain time influences depression risk”.
Based on their latest findings, Daghlas thinks that going to bed one hour earlier and getting up an hour earlier (e. g., sleeping from midnight to 8 am instead of 1 am to 9 am)can reduce a person’s risk of major depression by 23%.
The reason why earlier risers are less to get depressed seems to be linked to getting more light exposure during the day. Therefore, there’s no need to wake up before sunrise in an attempt to lower your risk of depression if the sun isn’t up yet.
It’s unclear if someone who is already an early riser would benefit from getting up a bit earlier. But for night owls, the latest research suggests that shifting to a slightly earlier bedtime could lower depression risk.
Based on getting eight hours of sleep per night, the latest “early to bed, early to rise” advice for night owls might mean going to bed at 2:00 am instead of 3:00 am, and getting up at 10 am, instead of 11 am. This shift to being a slightly “earlier riser” means you’ll experience more daylight during your waking hours.
“Keep your days bright and your nights dark,” Vetter recommends. “Have your morning coffee on the porch (门廊). Walk or ride your bike to work if you can, and dim those electronics (电器) in the evening.”
1. What’s the function of paragraph 1?| A．To lead in a new finding. | B．To offer advice to readers. |
| C．To state the result of a study. | D．To introduce a popular word. |
| A．It allows people to get the sun more. | B．It reduces people’s risk of being burnt. |
| C．It enables people to have a better sleep. | D．It gives people more time to get around. |
| A．Make something obvious. | B．Make something far better. |
| C．Make something less bright. | D．Make something convenient. |
| A．Shifting to a slightly earlier bedtime is really easy? |
| B．Being a night owl increases your risk of depression? |
| C．Increasing sleeping time can lower depression risk? |
| D．“Early to bed and early to rise” makes work more effective? |
6 . According to a large study of activity levels and arthritis (关节炎) pain, there seems to be no link between the amount of exercise people do and whether they develop painful osteoarthritis in their knees. But the research couldn’t rule out that high-impact forms of exercise like running bring on the condition.
Osteoarthritis is more common as people get older and is sometimes called a “wear and tear” condition. Arthritic knees often have obvious damage to their cartilage which covers and protects the ends of bones.
Earlier studies have found conflicting (矛盾的) results on whether exercise can make arthritis more likely. So Lucy Gates at the University of Southampton in the UK and her colleagues joined together the results of six such studies, which over 5,000 people took part in who firstly had no knee pain or other sign of arthritis.
At the beginning, people were asked about how much exercise they did, including playing sports, walking and cycling. They recorded the general time spent exercising each week, and their activities were graded by their metabolic equivalent, or MET (代谢当量) scores, a standard way of dividing activities into different types according to how much they raise a person’s metabolic rate.
At the end of the studies, which lasted from five to twelve years, people were also asked if they had developed knee pain or arthritis. The probability of developing arthritis wasn’t associated with activity levels, either by how much time people spent exercising each week or by their total time and MET scores.
“There’s more work to be done on telling apart risk and different types of activity,” says Gates. “The next step is to figure out how different weight-bearing activities might change things. We can’t say there’s no relationship there,” says team member Thomas Perry at the University of Oxford.
1. What is the finding of the large study?| A．Too much exercise leads to arthritis. |
| B．Arthritis is common among old people. |
| C．Sports-loving persons are in better health. |
| D．Exercise may not be responsible for osteoarthritis. |
| A．Their love for exercise. | B．The goal to treat knee pain. |
| C．The results of earlier studies. | D．Their care for those 5,000 people. |
| A．By studying the cause of pain knees. |
| B．By tracking and recording for a long time. |
| C．By asking people to fill in online questionnaires. |
| D．By grading and recording people’s metabolic rates. |
| A．Education. | B．Jobs. | C．Sports. | D．Arts. |
7 . There are so many breathtaking castles in Europe. Here’s one possibility for such a list with our picks for the most beautiful castles in the world.
Mont Saint Michel, France—A rocky tidal island in Normandy, located about 1 km off the coast. The island’s highest point is 92 meters above sea level. The population of this UNESCO World Heritage Site is only a few dozens, but it is visited by more than 3 million people each year. The strong tides in the area change quickly, and connect and disconnect the island from the mainland on a daily basis.
Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany—German for “New Swanstone Castle”, this castle is a 19th-century palace on a rugged hill in Bavaria, Germany. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig Ⅱ of Bavaria as a retreat and was opened to the paying public immediately after his death in 1886. More than 1.3 million people visit the castle annually.
Hohensalzburg Caste, Austria—One of the oldest and most preserved castes of Europe, Hohensalzburg (German for “High Salzburg Fortress”) was built in the 11th century and expanded in the 14th century. It is located on a hill in Salzburg. With a length of 250 meters and a width of 150 meters, it is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.
Alceazar of Segovia, Spain—Spanish for “Segovia Castle”, is a stone castle located in the old city of Segovia. The Alcazar was originally built in the 12th century as a fortress (堡垒) but has served as a royal palace, a state prison and a military academy since then. The castle is one of the inspirations for Walt Disney’s Cinderella Castle.
1. What is Mont Saint Michel special about?| A．It has a large population. | B．It is the largest castle in Europe. |
| C．It was built for military purposes. | D．It provides chances to appreciate tides. |
| A．They are located on a hill. | B．They are about 1,000 years old. |
| C．They are available at no charge. | D．They once served as a royal palace. |
| A．Mont Saint Michel. | B．Alcazar of Segovia. |
| C．Hohensalzburg Castle. | D．Neuschwanstein Castle. |
8 . I grew up in a house with an unusual design feature. The floor of part of the house was made of pieces of chalkboards that my father gathered from the local high school when it was repaired. He added a second large piece on the wall, too.
The result was that we always had a place to write notes, draw pictures, do quick calculations, and keep an ongoing grocery list to which anyone could contribute. The wall chalkboard was used for important notes, while the floor was most handy for messages that were meant to catch someone’s eye the moment they came in the house, things like “I’ve run out to the store, back in 30 minutes” or “Please start dinner at 5:30”.
When I was young, I thought that every house would have a large writing area, but then I moved away and realized that wasn’t the case. For years, especially since having kids, I’ve tried to keep information organized. Though my Moleskine paper planner has given some semblance (表象) of order to my life, it doesn’t make up for a good chalkboard.
But now things have changed. I’m pleased to say that a proper chalkboard has finally been fixed in my kitchen—something that should have happened years ago! My dad recently came for a visit and brought a piece of slate (石板) that fits the wall behind the door, adding a board for chalk.
All of a sudden we have an obvious place to go to store information where all family members can see it, a place where important thoughts can be written down.
I think every house should have a proper-sized chalkboard — a real slate one, if you can find it. It’s a game-changer, a family unifier, and an effective organizer. I may not have a chalkboard floor, but once again I have a chalkboard wall, and now my home feels complete.
1. What developed the author’s love for houses with a chalkboard?| A．His father’s expectation of him. | B．Usual visits to an old house. |
| C．The environment he grew up in. | D．His habit of writing something. |
| A．He was too busy to relax. |
| B．He developed an interest in chalkboards. |
| C．He grew poorer at collecting information. |
| D．He had trouble organizing information at home. |
| A．He bought slate from a school for the author. |
| B．He lived together with the author all the time. |
| C．He got a chalkboard fixed at the author’s home. |
| D．He had a chalkboard wall built in his own kitchen. |
| A．Making one healthier and wealthier. |
| B．Helping to keep the family life in order. |
| C．Increasing one’s sense of belonging. |
| D．Developing children’s interest in learning. |
9 . One November day, two weeks before Thanksgiving, my mom was travelling through Kentucky when her old car had trouble. She pulled over,
Seeing my mom, the driver’s wife didn’t ask any questions, but welcomed her
Two weeks later, my mom wanted to
It
Their actions
| A．excited | B．anxious | C．rude | D．proud |
| A．trouble | B．change | C．power | D．business |
| A．wished | B．invited | C．caused | D．permitted |
| A．coldly | B．angrily | C．formally | D．warmly |
| A．rented | B．painted | C．fixed | D．washed |
| A．know | B．wonder | C．trust | D．remember |
| A．strength | B．safety | C．thought | D．health |
| A．thank | B．blame | C．visit | D．praise |
| A．refused | B．forgot | C．decided | D．agreed |
| A．answered | B．addressed | C．stamped | D．devoted |
| A．horror | B．shame | C．puzzlement | D．amazement |
| A．turned out | B．set out | C．seemed | D．mattered |
| A．offered | B．afforded | C．needed | D．raised |
| A．avoided | B．paid | C．collected | D．borrowed |
| A．truly | B．rarely | C．suddenly | D．toughly |
10 . While some people might view breakfast as optional, most Shanghainese, despite living in arguably the most fast-paced city in China, won’t be caught skipping this meal no matter how busy they are.
In fact, Shanghai was even named by the Ministry of Commerce as a pilot city for the National Breakfast Demonstration Project in 2011. According to the authorities, the project is aimed at improving the quality of life and making high-quality breakfast options more accessible to the masses. Since the beginning of the project, the city has built 24 industrialized and standardized central kitchens which supply food to 7,800 stores selling breakfast items. By August 2020, there were more than 20,000 shops in the city offering breakfast food.
In the current stage of the ongoing project, the focus has shifted from increasing options to improving the convenience of purchasing this meal. To do so, the local government issued a guideline last August to promote digital breakfast services in convenience stores, mobile food trucks, retailers, and Internet platforms. Companies have also been encouraged to come up with new nutritious meals and adopt the use of eco-friendly packaging materials.
For office workers like Qian Li, buying breakfast no longer involves having to brave long queues. Rather, all she has to do now is place an order using the app for the Ego convenience store near her work place before picking up her freshly made meal from a smart locker.
The guideline has also resulted in developments like cooperative deals between e-commerce giant Alibaba and three major food truck enterprises. According to this agreement, mobile breakfast trucks, including those operated by local food company LiangFood, can establish a digital presence on Alibaba’s take-out and delivery platform Eleme, allowing customers to order their meals online without having to queue.
The introduction of more healthy breakfast options is also in preparation. To date, 12 enterprises have developed 208 nutritious breakfast sets catering to specific groups of people—patients with diabetes, the elderly, children and teenagers.
1. What is the original purpose of the project in 2011?| A．To make Shanghai a fast-paced city. | B．To raise the awareness of having breakfast. |
| C．To improve the quality of breakfast served. | D．To help people have more choices for cooking. |
| A．She is tired of making breakfast. | B．She enjoys the new mode of breakfast. |
| C．She has to stand in line for her breakfast. | D．She prefers getting meals at convenience stores. |
| A．Satisfying the need of. | B．Making use of. |
| C．Making a difference to. | D．Being connected with. |
| A．Breakfast does matter for your health | B．Breakfast has gone digital in Shanghai |
| C．Shanghainese think highly of breakfast | D．Joint efforts are made to encourage breakfast |
