1 . Polar bears are icons of the Arctic. Detailed monitoring of their populations is crucial for their conservation—but because polar bears are so difficult to find, we are missing critical data about population size. Scientists have now developed a new tool to help: DNA analysis using skin cells left in the bears’ footprints in the snow.
The scientists were inspired by the techniques that can be applied to tiny, degraded DNA samples. With these techniques, it isn’t necessary to physically capture bears, which can be stressful and dangerous for both bears and humans. Instead, the researchers can turn to the snow tracks of polar bears and look at sources of DNA left in passing—environmental DNA. "The tracks usually contain fresh cells, and the DNA is intact because of the cold’ storage’ temperature, "said Dr. Melanie Lancaster of the World Wide Fund, lead author.
The scientists collected snow from individual tracks made by Alaskan polar bears in the wild. Additional materials like hair and saliva(唾液)were sampled, confirming that the tracks provided accurate genotype(基因型) 24 wild polar bear tracks were sampled. The researchers melted and filtered the snow to collect environmental DNA, then carried out micro-satellite analysis. Although the concentrations (浓度)of DNA taken from trucks sampled in the wild were very low, 13 of the wild polar bear samples could be genotype, identifying 12 different individuals.
This technique has huge potential to inform conservation of these animals, to better understand their populations and behavior. Although the sampling has a lower success rate, ease of collection means that it can significantly expand sample sizes.
"We hope this method will be taken up by the polar bear research community, with the involvement of hunters, volunteers, and local communities, as a new way to collect information on polar bears, "said Lancaster. "We also hope the method will be expanded to other animals living in snowy environments. "
1. Why do scientists develop the new method?| A．To improve the environment in the Aretic. |
| B．To protect humans from the polar bears attack. |
| C．To find solutions to global climate change. |
| D．To gather essential data for monitoring polar bears. |
| A．Unknown. |
| B．Undamaged. |
| C．Unusual. |
| D．Unstable. |
| A．They tracked and caught polar bears in the wild. |
| B．They recorded the bears’ behaviors with cameras. |
| C．They analyzed DNA from polar bears’ snowy footprints. |
| D．They compared the polar bears’ genotype with other animals? |
| A．Disapproving. |
| B．Favorable. |
| C．Uncertain. |
| D．Suspicious. |
2 . I was surprised to find the congestion (拥塞) outside Layla’s primary school was unusually absent—I’d driven right into a parking space, and I was on time, for once. The school bell rang, and in a moment a stream of children made their way through the gate. But something was different—the kids were piling into vehicles in threes and fours.
Before I could enquire my daughter Layla, Mr Trent, the deputy head, approached. “Mrs Pavis, did you not read our letter?” Letter? What letter? I had a history of not looking out for them, and not reading them in most cases. “The letter? Of course. It must have just slipped my mind—I’ve been away with work.”
Now I was digging around in Layla’s messy schoolbag at home. Eventually, I found several letters, all addressing the same topic—parking outside the school gates. Apparently with some parents parking illegally, the police were about to get involved. “Why didn’t you give me these letters?” I demanded. Layla shrugged. “I forgot.” I was about to launch into a severe lecture when it occurred to me that I had always forgotten—I had forgotten to give Layla her money for cookery that morning and forgotten to hang out the kids’ washed clothes.
I contained myself and figured out that they wanted the parents to car-pool (拼车). I spent the next half hour ringing round Layla’s friends’ parents, enquiring if they would like to car-pool with us. Unfortunately, they were all sorted. It was my own fault—I should have read those letters ages ago. “Er... I overheard others talking about it,” Layla said, “They said they didn’t know who would car-pool with us, because we’re always late.” I flushed instantly. We were a disorganised family, and I was the one to blame.
I resolved to change. With responsibility for my kids, I find I am never, ever late. It’s good for Layla and for her older brothers, and it’s good for me, because now I never leave the house unprepared. I’ve even started checking the kids’ schoolbags for notes from school.
1. What did the author notice when the school was over?| A．It was hard to find a parking space. | B．Children were picked up in groups. |
| C．Her daughter was absent from class. | D．She arrived much earlier than others. |
| A．The reflection of her daily routine. | B．The realization of her carelessness. |
| C．The knowledge of her kid’s character. | D．The awareness of her kid’s depression. |
| A．Because they contacted them late. | B．Because they failed to keep the house tidy. |
| C．Because they couldn’t be on time. | D．Because they ignored the school’s request. |
| A．Action creates motivation. | B．Mother’s love never changes. |
| C．It’s never too late to mend. | D．Patience is the key to success. |
1. Who is Dr. Zahi Hawass?
| A．An artist. | B．A writer. | C．A guide. | D．An archaeologist. |
| A．On May 4. | B．On May 11. | C．On June 5. | D．On June 27. |
| A．Calling 6467571717. | B．Emailing to contact@zahilectures.com. |
| C．Going to Egypt directly. | D．Visiting www.zahilectures.com. |
| A．To advertise lectures. | B．To entertain people. |
| C．To present facts. | D．To stress history. |
4 . I still remember the day when I first came to the senior high school. Being a boy of 16, I was longing for a new life as a senior high student; but at the same time, I had no idea what senior high school life would be like.
That morning when the bus carried me to the gate of the school, I was so excited that my heart was beating very fast as if it would leap out of my mouth. From then on, I would be a student of this school. After registration, I was led by an instructor to the dormitory, where, for the first time, I was going to live without parents but roommates. I was so clumsy（笨拙的）that I did not know how to make the bed and fix the mosquito net.
In the afternoon, I took a walk around the campus together with my roommates. To think of studying in such a beautiful place made me feel quite proud of myself. As we were walking along, talking and laughing, a voice came into our ears, “Oh, look at these new students！” It was our junior-school-students’ looking that gave us away. We continued our tour of the senior school，inspecting（查看）every building and every garden until the sun began to set.
In the evening, we sat together, talking about the past and the future. We were so excited that no one wanted to go to bed.
阅读短文，回答下列问题
1. What’s the main idea of the passage?
2. What are the author’s feelings about the first day he/she came to the senior high school?
3. What did the author do in the afternoon?
5 . Regardless of how famous they are, and despite the star treatment they receive, many celebrities make it a point to give back to charities. Some have even set up their own private foundations. Their widely publicised visits to troubled areas of the world help to raise awareness of issues such as famine and poverty. According to Jane Cooper of Unicef UK, celebrities have a unique ability to reach huge numbers of people, many of whom might not otherwise be engaged in charitable causes. She pointed out that famous faces had played a significant role in raising funds in recent years, and their energies had produced tangible results, such as enabling millions of children in poorer countries to attend school.
But in spite of these successes there is evidence to suggest that celebrity endorsement (代言) may be overrated. In a survey of members of the public to find out if celebrity involvement would encourage people to donate, researchers found that the impact was not as great as previously thought. When shown a list of well-known organisations and famous people who represent them, over half of respondents were unable to match the celebrity with the cause. What’s more, three quarters claimed that they didn’t respond to celebrity endorsement in any way. The survey also showed that a few names did stand out as being associated with particular charities. But the presence of a celebrity in a campaign, was not a significant factor when it came to a decision to donate time or money. Instead, the majority of people contribute because of personal connections in their lives and families which make a charity important to them.
In another study aimed at young people, most participants cited a compelling (无法抗拒的) mission as their main motivation to give. The second most important incentive was if a friend or peer recommended supporting a particular cause. Only two percent of respondents said they were motivated by celebrity endorsement. This seems to contradict the general assumption that teenagers are particularly influenced by famous people. One possible explanation is that there is a general fatigue (疲倦) with celebrity culture. There is also a suspicion that the stars are the one who benefit most when they offer to do charity work. Some critics have accused that celebrities might actually take attention away from issues by attracting more attention than the causes they represent.
So taking all these issues into account, is it time for charities to rethink their campaign strategies and look for alternative ways to reach new audiences? Whichever point of view you favour, there seems to be opportunities for more research into how charity campaigns might develop relationships with celebrities to maximise their potential. This in turn will open up more engagement, and better targeted campaigns-which can only benefit those who really matter — the people and animals that are in need of assistance.
1. What does the underlined word “tangible” in paragraph I probably mean?| A．Definite. | B．Complicated. | C．Limited. | D．Temporary. |
| A．they gain benefit from the charities |
| B．they are forced to finish a necessary task |
| C．they believe in the famous people they like |
| D．they are inspired by the people around them |
| A．what celebrities achieve in doing charities |
| B．How young people react to celebrity culture |
| C．why young people are hardly influenced by celebrities |
| D．who is to blame for taking attention away from charities |
| A．Objective. | B．Positive. |
| C．Negative. | D．Unclear. |
6 . I’m May. high school seniors all around the U. S. scramble (争抢) to get ready for prom. Prom. short for promenade, is a formal dance held by a high school before graduation. It's an important aspect of American school culture because it's the last high-school dance seniors will ever attend.
Prom entails (牵涉) countless traditions. First a guy must ask a girl to go to prom with him. Most guys choose to do special prom proposals in hopes of winning the girl's heart with their creativity. Then he will rent a tuxedo (燕尾服), and the girl will often get their hair, nails and makeup done professionally. That night couples will take pictures, and then they will often take a limousine (豪华轿车) to dinner and to the dance. Several reports state that parents can spend upward of $ 2,000 to give their kids the perfect prom experience.
The history of prom can be traced back to the last half of the 1800s. At that time, American universities and colleges organized dances each year for their graduating students. The purpose was not only to entertain the students but also to prepare them for the wider world by teaching them proper manners for men and women.
Later, high schools took over the prom tradition. In the 1950s, high schools began moving the dance from their gyms to beautiful hotels or country clubs to make the event even more special. Perhaps the most amazing prom took place in 1975, when Susan Ford, the daughter of the country's president, received permission to hold her high school's prom at the White House. So far, no other prom has managed to top that.
1. What does this article mainly explain about prom?| A．Its unusual atmosphere. |
| B．Its present and future. |
| C．Its educational benefits. |
| D．Its customs and roots. |
| A．Their appearance. |
| B．Their possessions. |
| C．Their transportation. |
| D．Their supervisors. |
| A．What marketing plan to use. |
| B．How to behave around others. |
| C．Which food was best to eat. |
| D．When to earn a great degree. |
| A．In an official residence. |
| B．In an international court. |
| C．In a motion picture studio. |
| D．In a modern gallery. |
7 . Future City Competition
Future City starts with a question—how can we make the world a better place? To answer it, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue. Past topics include Urban Agriculture, Public spaces, and Green energy while the topic of this year is Living on the Moon. Teams will design a futuristic lunar city and provide examples of how the city uses Moon resources to keep its residents safe and healthy.
Participants complete five deliverables: a 1,500-word city essay: a scale model; a project plan; a presentation video; and a virtual/online Q&A session with /judges. Regional winners represent their region at the international Finals. After completing Future City, student participants are not only prepared to be citizens of today’s complex and technical world, but also ready to become the drivers of tomorrow.
What you can learn
This flexible, cross-curricular(跨课程的) educational program gives students an opportunity to do the things that engineers do-identify problems: brainstorm ideas; design solutions; test, retest and build; and share their results. With this at its center, Future City is an engaging way to build students’ 21st century skills. Students participating in Future City also learn how their communities work and become better citizens and develop strong time management and project management skills.
What you need
Future City costs just $25 per organization—and you can register I team or 100. The price always stays the same.
We keep the price affordable so everyone can participate. Not only that, we limit the budget for materials for the City Model and City Presentation to $100 and encourage teams to use recycled materials. You don’t need expensive equipment to excel. Creativity, hard work, and commitment are all you need to get ahead.
Please note: Some regions limit the number of teams an organization can bring to the Regional Competition. Please check with your Regional Coordinator to find out the guidelines in your region.
1. In Future City Competition 2021, students need to ________.| A．complete more than five taskes |
| B．design a city with green energy |
| C．address problems on the moon |
| D．make use of lunar resources |
| A．Designing cities. |
| B．Identifying problems. |
| C．Training better citizens |
| D．Engineering design process |
| A．to be creative and devoted. |
| B．to use the recycled materials. |
| C．to buy some expensive equipment. |
| D．to ask more people to join in your team. |
8 . Sora observed in amazement as Weilun picked up two large metal cans. She followed Weilun with a pail (桶) of clothes, watching him carry the two cans effortlessly. They were large and were covering Weilun’s small frame.
Sora’s father had sent her to the village to learn about rural life. Sora had never once done any household chores back home. She did not understand why her father would always chant “Where is your willingness to learn?” whenever she asked him if she could stay home for the holidays. Her father had given her a checklist on the life skills that she needed to learn, one of which was to wash clothes. She recalled washing a table cloth after an art lesson in school. That was a piece of cake, she thought. So Sora refused Weilun’s offer to help. Weilun then went to fill the large cans with water at the far end of the river.
Suddenly, a big bird dived from the sky when Sora placed the last piece of clothing back in the pail. Sora released her grasp of the pail in shock. Then she was relaxed to find it was aiming for a worm near her. But the clothes were drifting in the river. Weilun immediately came to help and Sora shifted the blame to the bird.
He pointed at the detergent foam (洗涤剂泡沫) on the surface of the river. “Don’t tell me you rinsed (漂洗) the detergent from the clothes in the river. Don’t you know that it may kill the river creatures? You caused the problem, not the bird!” Sora looked down in shame. “You think that you know everything, but you actually don’t.”
Sora closed her eyes to let Weilun’s words sink in for a moment. She finally understood the meaning behind her father’s chants. She walked towards Weilun and whispered, “Could you teach me all the life skills that my father had planned for me to learn?”
1. Why was Sora amazed?| A．Weilun was too small in size for the two large cans. |
| B．Weilun was willing to help his parents do some chores. |
| C．Weilun managed to carry the two large cans easily. |
| D．Weilun was willing to accompany her to the riverside. |
| A．She thought it was an easy task. |
| B．She had learned how to do it. |
| C．She wanted her father to be proud of her. |
| D．She wanted to learn new things by herself. |
| A．The bird was diving for food. |
| B．The bird was attacking her. |
| C．Sora was rinsing the detergent in the pail. |
| D．Sora was shocked to find a worm in the pail. |
| A．She wasn’t capable of living on her own. |
| B．She really lacked the willingness to learn. |
| C．Life skills could be learned in the country. |
| D．Her father wanted her to learn from Weilun. |
9 . Independent living at home is the ideal for every aging person. But a fall or other health-threatening incidents can change everything rapidly.
The wearable “panic buttons” introduced in the late 1980s were a great advance. But they only work if people actually wear them and can reach the button in an emergency. Today there are passive wearables that automatically detect falls, and camera-based systems to monitor elder safety.
Coming from a 40-year career in the semiconductor and wireless communication field, Rafi Zack decided to find a better alternative. “People aren’t devoted to wearing small devices 24/7, and camera-based systems are an invasion（侵犯）of privacy,” he points out, “The most challenging aspect is a fall. How fast we can detect a fall matters because the medical situation worsens quickly. Sometimes people stay on the floor for a long time. We have to find out how to solve that problem.”
Zack is a co-founder, CEO and vice president of R&D at EchoCare Technologies which has developed ECHO (Elderly Care Home Observer), a cloud-connected monitor based on radar technology and machine learning.
Because radar sees through walls, one ECHO unit fixed on the ceiling or wall can monitor one person (or two persons, in a future version) in a standard-sized apartment in a senior living facility. The device detects falls, breathing difficulties, drowning in a bathtub and other dangerous events. It gives out warnings to potential health worsening conditions by continuously monitoring and analyzing the person’s location, posture（姿势）, motion and breath. EchoCare tested the device in the United States, Japan, Australia and Israel. ECHO was certified（认证）in 2019 in Japan with the most aging population in the world.
“Bathrooms were the main testing area where about 17,000 deadly accidents happen annually.” said SMK Director and Executive Vice President Tetsuo Hara. “Bathroom makers, home security service providers and nursing homes are highly interested in EchoCare’s solution.” Zack noted, “As more and more elder people live alone as a result of social distancing, there is an increased need to monitor them without the burden of wearables or privacy-invading cameras.”
1. What’s the advantage of ECHO over “panic buttons”?| A．It has camera-based systems. | B．It has been widely accepted. |
| C．It can function without cameras. | D．Its buttons can be easily reached. |
| A．It is designed to send out warnings regularly. |
| B．It monitors dangerous health-related events. |
| C．It was certified in many developed countries. |
| D．It detects more than one person at the same time. |
| A．It’ll become more popular with the elderly. |
| B．It’ll stop 17,000 deaths happening annually. |
| C．It’ll be used in nursing homes and hospitals. |
| D．It’ll help elderly people to live an active life. |
| A．An Advanced Medical Instrument |
| B．A High-tech Monitor for the Elderly |
| C．The Invention of a Healthcare Device |
| D．The Improvement of a Medical Facility |
10 . What is talent? Are you born with it? Or does it seem to develop over time? Before I start, I’d like to say that one thing everyone agrees on is that the most skilled musicians have worked hard to get there.
While it’s true that a few of us had enough “talent” to avoid extra practice to do just as well as those who did, those who worked hard easily beat us. It is, in fact, very likely that if some of us “talented ones” had actually been practicing and improving our skill, we would have achieved a whole different level.
Another aspect of talent seems to be heart and passion (酷爱). The people I see who are the most talented musicians are crazy about music. They eat, breathe, and live music and they make an extraordinary effort to make it part of their lives. As Remus Badea said, desire for the musician-to-be is significant for them to be successful. This desire is easily found in those considered to be talented. When you want and love something so bad, it drives you and your entire character can be shaped around it. Such determined passion seems to produce incredible skill and talent.
The third aspect (方面) of talent is having talent around you. When surrounded by talented musicians, it only seems natural that you start to catch up to their level Take a look at almost any group of musicians in history. The more talented people in the group the more talented the group is as a whole. A great example of this is the relationship between audio producer and artist. The artist turns up to the studio with their song, and as they work through recording it, the audio producer will often suggest various changes to the song to make it better.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?| A．Pride goes before a fall. |
| B．It’s never too old to learn. |
| C．Practice contributes to talent. |
| D．Talent determines achievements. |
| A．Passion. | B．Character . | C．Skill. | D．Talent. |
| A．To introduce what real talents are. |
| B．To explain how a song is composed. |
| C．To prove talents need team spirit. |
| D．To show the benefits of being with talents. |
| A．Music has no limits. |
| B．Musicians are born with talent. |
| C．Music favors the talented. |
| D．Musicians are created, not born. |
