1 . In an incredible display of compassion and kindness, a man from Turkey was spotted trying to warm a pigeon in the most creative way.
Sabahattin Yılmaz was at home one chilly day. After a rain shower had passed, he noticed something landed on the sill (窗台) outside his window—a cold and wet pigeon. The animal was trembling and soaked; it clearly didn’t have the chance to seek shelter before the rain began. Feeling for the poor pigeon, Yılmaz thought of a way to dry him off.
Rather than pick him up and take him inside to warm up, Yılmaz plugged in a hairdryer and used it to dry off the bird. Little did he know that his neighbor captured the whole moment on video. In the video, Yılmaz can be seen leaning out of his window. He was stretching his arm as far as he can so the hot air can reach the pigeon. The bird willingly let the man warm him up, crouching (蹲伏) to let his outer feathers dry.
Yılmaz told the media that he spent about fifteen minutes drying off the bird. He said he had just opened his window when he saw the pigeon around the corner of the sill. He described it as wet and “about to freeze” from the cold and rainy weather.
After fifteen minutes, Yılmaz gave the pigeon birdseed, which he ate happily. However, the bird remained wet still. “I saw that it was still there so I warmed it up again, after the pigeon recovered again, and after eating a good amount of seed, it flew away,” Yılmaz recalled.
He also didn’t know that he was being recorded at the time and that the video was shared online. He simply did it out of the kindness of his heart. “The pigeon is a living creature and deserved to continue living, that is why I did it,” he said.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．An online video about a pigeon became a hit. |
| B．A man warmed up a wet and cold pigeon. |
| C．A man invented a creative way to help birds. |
| D．A man lives in harmony with a pigeon. |
| A．It was scared and flew away. |
| B．It was annoyed and refused his help. |
| C．It was ready to accept his assistance. |
| D．It was happy to settle in his home. |
| A．A man was filming Yılmaz’s kindness. |
| B．A pigeon was jumping back and forth when dried off. |
| C．Yılmaz was warming a pigeon in a novel way. |
| D．Yilmaz was stretching his arms to catch a pigeon. |
| A．Indifferent but creative. | B．Patient and ambitious. |
| C．Talented but careless. | D．Sympathetic and warm-hearted. |
2 . The public nowadays has a misunderstanding of forest fires, believing that fires should be kept out of every type of forest. Many of us can recall Smoky the Bear's famous warning: “Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires”. However, that's not always the case. Under the right conditions, and when conducted safely, fire can create many environmental benefits as well as help prevent larger, uncontrollable wildfires.
After a forest fire, many wildlife species will move into recently burned areas to feed on these newly available foods. Some reptiles and amphibians such as the pine (松树） snake prefer forests frequently burned by fire. As Herbert Stoddard put it, “One of the most harmful things modern man has done to birds has been his attempt to exclude fire from fire-type pine forests. Within a few years most forests choke up with bushes, lose their prairie-like vegetation (草原般植被） and can no longer support birds dependent on periodic burning for their food supply and proper cover.”
If you are asked to picture the forest floor, what do you see? Pine needles, cones, leaves, branches might come to mind-all sources of fuel. If these fuel sources build up without any type of removal, the 'fuel load' can lead to fires catastrophic to forests and people alike. In contrast, prescribed fire can be used by forest professionals every couple of years to keep forest fuels at an appropriate and manageable level. They can also minimize the spread of pest insects and disease and remove unwanted tree and plant species. Plus, they can create and maintain important wildlife habitats rich in grasses and promote the growth of trees, wildflowers and other various plants.
Many organizations and agencies work to promote fire on the landscape when and where appropriate. Smokey Bear even has an updated warning: “Only You can Prevent Wildfires,” as the Forest Service has over the last few decades developed policies and procedures to include prescribed fire as a management tool, as well as continuing their work to prevent and fight wildfires.
1. Why did the author mention Smoky the Bear's warning?| A．To introduce the topic of the passage. |
| B．To clarify a misunderstood concept. |
| C．To show the significance of fire prevention. |
| D．To raise people's awareness of forest protection. |
| A．Forest bushes. |
| B．Fuel sources. |
| C．Pine forests. |
| D．Periodic burning. |
| A．To put out wildfires. |
| B．To keep the forest balance. |
| C．To remove tree and plant species. |
| D．To keep the fuel rich in the forest. |
| A．One Match Can Start A Forest Fire |
| B．Where There Is Smoke There Is A Fire |
| C．Not All Forest Fires Are Created Equal |
| D．Why Not Keep The Forest Fire Burning |
3 . What defines (定义) a generation? Often, experts say, members of a generation are defined by the events that shaped their lives as young adults.
“World events like wars, pandemics (大流行病) and racial unrest can be especially formative,” says Meg Jay, a psychologist and author of “The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter — and How to Make the Most of Them Now”. Because our 20s are often when we have our first jobs and first relationships and first moves and first real-world experiences, these big events become important parts of our life stories.
In 2020, it was a pandemic.
For the last three months of 2020, the Monitor followed twelve 2l-year-olds from around the world. We wanted to understand how this global health crisis is encoding itself in the cultural DNA of a generation coming of age in its shadow. Their lives and circumstances as they rolled into 2021 varied wildly. But the lives of the 2l-year-olds we met had many obvious similarities. Separately, for instance, the internet was their collective lifeline to the world. In Mexico, an art student isolating in her family home posted a daily piece of art to Instagram to remind herself that time had not stopped altogether. In Germany, a labor organizer negotiated contracts and planned strikes via Zoom.
By the end of 2020, many of the world’s 21-year-olds had lost jobs; others wondered if they’d ever find one. In the U. S, youth unemployment doubled between July 2019 and July 2020. Also, the pandemic opened fault lines, and stressed old ones. In India, Jordan, and South Africa, our 21-year-olds wondered how they’d collect enough money for mobile data for online studies. In Mexico, Canada, and Germany, 21-year-olds reflected on loneliness as a privilege — that they were alone because they could isolate, their lives not dependent on doing otherwise.
We found a generation suspended (悬停) between the world they’d grown up in and uncertain arrival of their future.
1. According to Meg Jay, what determines the future of the people in their twenties?| A．Their fundamental changes of working circumstances. |
| B．Their great efforts of coping with uncertainties in life. |
| C．Their first experiences of the major events then. |
| D．Their deep reflections on the attitudes to life. |
| A．Significant employment challenges. | B．Potential social problems. |
| C．Special individual privileges. | D．Global health crises. |
| A．Approving. | B．Negative. | C．Critical. | D．Concerned. |
| A．The World Children Have Grown up in Defines a Generation |
| B．A Young Generation Was Suspended But Ready to Start |
| C．A Great Pandemic Has Brought Various Global Crises |
| D．World Events Changed the Lives of Young Adults |
4 . Tears well up in people's eyes for a lot of reasons. A teardrop running down the cheek is the ultimate symbol of sadness, but people may also cry because they just cut an onion, or maybe they're trying to blink out an eyelash.
For the most part, tears help maintain healthy eyes. When you blink, basal (基底的) tears clean and smooth the eyes, which helps you to see clearly, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Moreover, reflex (反射性的) tears, or those that happen unconsciously, help clear the eyes of irritants (刺激物), including dust and the gas that's produced when a knife slices a raw onion, said Andre Silva, a doctoral student of psychology at the University of Minho in Portugal.
Emotions can also bring about tears in humans. These emotional tears can serve as a means of nonverbal communication. Silva said, “Babies cry to signal to their mothers that something's up. It's a pure attention call. Some people think that babies are capable of controlling adults by crying, but that idea is false and misleading, as a baby is not conscious of being tricky: In a way, we can consider these tears as being somewhere between basal tears and emotional tears.”
As people grow older, they begin to use their tears to express emotions, such as happiness or sadness. These tears may promote compassion and empathy in others. But beware of people who may use their tears to control others. “Some sensitive people may be easily controlled through the crying of others, and may easily shed tears that can also be used by others to control them,” he said.
So, emotional tears have both advantages and disadvantages. “They are a powerful communication device and a powerful manipulative (操纵别人的) device,” Silva said. Crying also makes it hard for some people to mask their feelings when they're in the middle of an extreme emotional state.
1. What's the function of reflex tears?| A．Reflecting our feelings. |
| B．Being used to affect others. |
| C．Serving as a means of interaction. |
| D．Clearing away harmful matters in the eyes. |
| A．Tears are usually used to pity others. |
| B．Babies burst into tears without tricks. |
| C．People mask their feelings when crying. |
| D．Blinking out an eyelash makes it easy to cry. |
| A．We ought to identify tears. |
| B．We should control babies, crying. |
| C．We need to smooth our eyes by emotional tears. |
| D．We can hardly fan others' sympathy by tears. |
| A．Why do people cry? |
| B．Why can tears control others? |
| C．How do people express emotions? |
| D．How can people make use of tears? |
