1 . In Central America, sea turtle eggs are a popular cuisine dish. The eggs are hugely and secretly harvested onto tables, leaving the sea turtles listed as threatened. Yet we simply do not have the ability to continuously guard large beaches. Scientist Kim William was thinking hard when she had an “aha” moment: How about placing a fake egg containing a GPS tracker.
That's how the special eggs come in. To build them, Williams and colleagues used a 3D printer. Then, they fixed in the smallest GPS tracking devices. As mother turtles laid their eggs under cover of night, the researchers slipped a single spy egg into each nest. Once they are covered in sand with the real ones, it's very difficult to tell the difference," says Williams.
Of the 101 spy eggs, 95 were taken away while 6 were quickly discovered and left on the beach. The team received tracking data with the farthest egg travelling 137 kilometers inland and stopping at a local supermarket. The spy egg sent its final signal the next day from a personal house, suggesting that the research team had tracked the eggs all the way. The researchers stress that the tracker is not a way to catch local thieves, many of whom are living in poverty, but rather a tool to better understand how the deal goes.
Still, stopping stealing is not as simple as handing the tracking data over to the police, Across Central America, trade in sea turtle eggs can be legally ambiguous. In Costa Rica, for example; it is illegal to steal and sell sea turtle eggs but buying them is not a crime. It is not black and white. Meanwhile, local support is in need above all. “It, but not tracking with eggs, is the real meat and potatoes of conservation," says Williams.
1. What is the major threat to the existence of sea turtles?| A．Unguarded sea beaches. | B．Unsafe GPS trackers. |
| C．The overhunt of turtle eggs | D．The popular dishes of sea turtles. |
| A．By using an expert's words. | B．By clarifying the process. |
| C．By making a comparison. | D．By listing scientific data. |
| A．test the GPS trackers | B．look into the whole deal of turtle eggs |
| C．catch the eggs thieves | D．learn about the current situation of sea turtles |
| A．Central America Need Wildlife Protection | B．Sea Turtles Draw International Concern |
| C．GPS Trackers Improve Tracking accuracy | D．Spy Eggs Help Save Endangered Sea Turtles |
2 . Over the past five decades mosquito populations in parts of the U.S. have skyrocketed by a factor of 10-a situation with worrying implications for the spread of diseases. And some places are apparently more easily affected than others. A new study in the Journal of Medical Entomology found that in Baltimore, low-income neighborhoods bear the biggest burden: they have not only more mosquitoes but also larger ones, which often survive longer. The problem most likely is rooted in the fact that Baltimore has nearly 17,000 abandoned buildings, which are concentrated in economically disadvantaged areas and serve as convenient mosquito-breeding zones.
Compared with prosperous blocks, low-income blocks have more abandoned buildings and are more heavily littered with thrown-away containers that collect standing water. And water that pools in abandoned buildings is protected by shade-which helps mosquitoes grow larger. Some cities take efforts to plant trees in low-income blocks but may actually worsen the problem: trees and bushes not only shade outdoor breeding(繁殖) pools but also shed leaves into the water and feed the mosquito larvae(幼虫), helping them grow bigger. Worse still, climate change could worsen the disease landscape by broadening habitats and lengthening the time every summer that mosquitoes can breed and survive.
Cities may, then, need to focus more mosquito-control efforts on these areas. Urban health departments typically educate homeowners about the importance of emptying water out of outdoor containers. But nobody empties those in or around abandoned buildings. “It is something that is fairly difficult for a city to address because it’s really expensive to go into private belongings and clean them up,” says Dina Fonseca, a molecular ecologist at Rutgers University. Yet if these belongings become breeding grounds not only for annoying mosquitoes but also for dangerous diseases, officials’ concepts may need to change.
1. What does the phrase “a factor of 10” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．A major cause. | B．A high rate. |
| C．A big concern. | D．A special situation. |
| A．Because people there lack the awareness of waste sorting. |
| B．Because people there pay little attention to water protection. |
| C．Because more thrown-away containers are collected for reuse there. |
| D．Because more abandoned buildings serve as habitats for mosquitoes there. |
| A．Planting more trees. | B．Changing officials’ ideas. |
| C．Emptying water containers. | D．Cleaning abandoned buildings. |
| A．To complain about the poor housing. | B．To offer some treatments for diseases. |
| C．To appeal for mosquito-control efforts. | D．To introduce a new species of mosquitoes. |
3 . California has been facing droughts for many years, with certain areas even having to pump freshwater hundreds of miles to their distribution system. The problem is growing as the population of the state continues to expand. New research has found deep water reserves under the state which could help solve their drought crisis. Previous drilling of wells could only reach depths of 1,000 feet, but due to new pumping practices, water deeper than this can now be extracted (抽取). The team at Stanford investigated the aquifers (地下蓄水层) below this depth and found that reserves may be three times what was previously thought.
It is profitable to drill to depths more than 1,000 feet for oil and gas, but only recently in California has it become profitable to pump water from this depth. The aquifers range from 1,000 to 3,000 feet below the ground, which means that pumping will be expensive and there are other concerns. The biggest concern is the gradual setting down of the land surface. As the water is pumped out, the vacant space left is pressed by the weight of the earth above.
Even though pumping from these depths is expensive, it is still cheaper than desalinating (脱盐) the ocean water in the largely coastal state. Some desalination plants exist where possible, but they are costly to run and can need constant repairs. Wells are much more reliable sources of freshwater, and California is hoping that these deep wells may be the answer to their severe water shortage.
One problem with these sources is that the deep water also has a higher level of salt than shallower aquifers. This means that some water may even need to be desalinated after extraction, thus increasing the cost. Research from the study of groundwater has just been published. New estimates of the water reserves now go up to 2,700 billion cubic meters of freshwater.
1. According to the text, what causes the water crisis in California?| A．Previous drilling of wells. | B．The messy distribution system. |
| C．Constant droughts in the area. | D．The adoption of new pumping practices. |
| A．expensive but practical | B．reliable and profitable |
| C．cost-free but demanding | D．cheap and environment-friendly |
| A．The damage to aquifers. | B．The sinking of land surface. |
| C．The decrease in operation costs. | D．The negative effects on the climate. |
| A．To encourage people to save water. |
| B．To promote the seawater desalination. |
| C．To introduce a new way of extracting freshwater. |
| D．To draw people’s attention to the droughts in California. |
4 . Olympic National Park, with its temperate rainforests and breath-taking views, exerts a natural pull on many Pacific Northwestemers. But Seattle writer Rosette Royale found it repellent. To Royale, the park seemed like a damp, dirty and unpleasant place. “I couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to carry a 50-pound pack into the wilderness and camp there for days,” he said. “It didn’t make sense.”
Then he met Bryant Carlin, a vendor (小贩) for Real Change, the Seattle weekly sold on the street by vendors who are homeless or low-wage earners. He was also a skilled outdoorsman and a nature photographer who would take weeks-long photographic journeys to the park. The two men connected in the fall of 2011 when Royale interviewed Carlin for a feature story in Real Change about Carlin’s photography.
That first time they met—and for years afterward—Carlin invited Royale to go camping with him. Each time, Royale said “Thanks, but no thanks.” Until one day, in the spring of 2015, Royale surprised himself by saying yes. “Little did I know,” said Royale, “that saying ‘yes’ would change the course of my life.”
Royale and Carlin went on five separate journeys to the Olympic wilderness. They camped in spring, summer, fall and winter. For Royale, the trips were exhausting and terrifying. But the trips were also inspiring, and helped Royale—a black, strange man—to develop a relationship with the outdoors that he had never experienced before.
For Carlin, the trips were an opportunity to throw off the label of “homeless”. In Olympic National Park, sleeping outside just means you’re a camper. But there was one aspect of Carlin’s life in the city that he couldn’t escape: alcohol abuse. While he never brought beer on their camping journeys, the effects of years of drinking weren’t so easy to leave behind.
1. What does the underlined word “repellent” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Appealing. | B．Puzzling. |
| C．Rewarding. | D．Disgusting. |
| A．His first meeting with Carlin. | B．His rejection of Carlin’s invitation. |
| C．His camping trips with Carlin. | D．His reading of Carlin’s feature story. |
| A．They improved his photography skills. |
| B．They helped him feel a sense of belonging. |
| C．They deepened his relationship with nature. |
| D．They enabled him to get rid of alcohol addiction. |
5 . Recently, as the British doctor Robert Winston took a train from London to Manchester, he found himself having to listen to a loud conversation of a fellow passenger woman. Boiling with anger, Winston took her picture and sent it to his more than 40,000 followers on the Tweet. By the time the train reached the station in Manchester, some journalists were waiting for the woman. And when they showed her the doctor's messages, she used just one word to describe Winston's actions: rude.
Winston's tale is a good example of increasing rudeness, fueled by social media in our age. Studies show that rudeness spreads quickly and virally, almost like the common cold. Just witnessing rudeness makes it far more likely that we, in turn, will be rude later on. Once infected, we are more aggressive, less creative and worse at our jobs. The only way out is to make a conscious decision to do so. We must have the courage to call it out, face to face. We must say, "Just stop." For Winston, that would have meant approaching the woman, telling her that her conversation was frustrating other passengers and politely asking her to speak more quietly or make the call at another time.
The anger we feel at the rude behavior of a stranger can drive us to do out-of-place things. Research discovered that the acts of revenge (报复) people had taken ranged from the ridiculous to the disturbing. Winston did shine a spotlight on the woman's behavior—but in a way that shamed her.
When we see rudeness occur in public places, we must step up and say something. And we can do it with grace, by handling it without a bit of aggression and without being rude ourselves. Because once rude people can see their actions through the eyes of others, they are far more likely to end the rudeness themselves. As this wave of rudeness rises, civilization needs civility (举止文明).
1. Robert Winston’s reaction to the woman’ behavior at the train can be described as ________.| A．a way of returning good for evil | B．an answer to the call of the journalists |
| C．a good example of stopping rudeness | D．an act of answering rudeness with rudeness |
| A．wiser decisions | B．more frustrated passengers |
| C．poorer work performance | D．more face-to-face communication |
| A．What to say to a rude person. | B．Civilization Calls for Civility. |
| C．How to Fix Rudeness Spread Online | D．Rude Behavior Makes a Rude Man |
6 . Handwriting, which has developed over ages, is receiving a tech edge from the boom in artificial intelligence(AI). Thanks to the rapid advances in technology, new smart hardware is reshaping how pupils will write and interact with teachers.
Equipped with a built-in mini camera, T-One, an AI-enabled smart pen can click up to 240 images(图像) per second, and store content handwritten on 400 A4-sized pages. Meanwhile, it can immediately digitalize students, handwritten notes, automatically evaluating their answers and potentially reducing the workload of teachers.
When students write with the smart pen on a piece of specially produced paper, which is printed with an invisible dot code pattern, the high-speed camera at the front of the pen can record the movement of the penpoint. And the pressure sensor will store all the information such as writing time and speed, and page number. Information thus collected is sent via Bluetooth to computers or other hand-held devices(设备), which are equipped with Master Learner’s “super teacher” system. The system can automatically review students’ homework on behalf of teachers.
The system is said to be able to evaluate answers. Professor James, founder of Master Learner, said, “Handwriting has always played an irreplaceable role as a medium of interaction between teachers and students. Unlike typing on the keyboard, writing on paper is still the most preferred way in Chinese classrooms and examinations.”
According to him, the smart pen is meant to digitalize the education process, and improve efficiency(效率) while protecting the traditional writing habits. “We are starting to mass-produce the smart pen. In the future, their appearance, weight and feel will be similar to that of conventional pens,” James said hopefully, without mentioning its price.
1. What can we learn about T-One?| A．It is a newly-invented camera with mass storage. |
| B．It can be used to transform students’ personal information. |
| C．It helps improve the relationship between students and teachers. |
| D．It preserves students’ traditional writing habits regardless of its high tech. |
| A．Positive. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Sensitive. | D．Cautious. |
| A．Technology Leads New Times |
| B．Smart Pens Attract Teachers’ Attention |
| C．Interactions Come First in Education |
| D．AI Gives Handwriting Huge Advantage |
7 . A study has shown that severe stress lasting weeks or months can damage cell communications in the brain’s memory areas. Recently, researchers from University of California, Irvine, have provided the first evidence that short-term stress lasting for a few hours has the same effect.
“Stress does exist in our lives and cannot be avoided,” said Dr. Baram, leader of the UC Irvine School. “Our findings can play an important role in the present development of medicine that might prevent these undesirable effects and offer understanding of why some people are forgetful or have difficulty keeping the memories.”
In their study, Baram and her UC Irvine colleagues identified a novel process in which stress caused these effects. They found that, severe stress activated(激活) Corticotropin Releasing Hormones(CRH), which prevented the brain from keeping memory.
Memory takes place at synapses, where there are connections through which brain cells communicate. These synapses lie on dendritic spines(神经元). In rat and mouse studies, Baram’s group saw that the release(释放) of CRH in the brain’s primary memory center led to the rapid breakup of these dendritic spines, which in turn limited the ability of synapses to collect and store memories.
In addition, the researchers reproduced the effects of stress on dendritic spines by keeping low levels of CRH, and watching how the spines ruptured over minutes. “Fortunately, once we removed the CRH, the spines seemed to grow back again, ” Baram said. “And this study can play a role in the creation of treatments to address stress-related memory loss.”
1. According to the text, short-term stress can lead to ________.| A．memory loss | B．cell decrease |
| C．head damage | D．thought disorder |
| A．came into being | B．built up |
| C．broke apart | D．died away |
| A．To discuss the main stages of stress. |
| B．To show the primary cause of stress. |
| C．To introduce a new finding about stress. |
| D．To promote an effective treatment for stress. |
8 . Billboards are everywhere. Indoors, advertising is in magazines and newspapers, on television, and even popping up on computer screens. Outdoors, advertising means billboards. They’re in train stations and on the sides of buildings. They’re along highways in the countryside. Billboards were once large painted signs that urged consumers to buy anything from fried chicken to dish soap. Nowadays, billboards are high-tech devices that advertise the products of the modern world, from cellular phone service to perfume.
Billboards have changed along with technology. Originally painted directly onto wooden boards or the sides of buildings, billboards were first improved by attaching large printed strips to a structure to form an advertiser^ message. Later, mechanical billboards were developed which could display three different images. As one image changed to the next, the movement caught the eye of anyone passing by. More recently, electronic technology has produced back-lit billboards, which shine a light through an image printed on a sheet of plastic, and digital billboards that can display huge images similar to those on a television screen.
The latest trend in billboards is interactivity. In Belgium, a billboard that looked like a pinball machine had people on the street using text messaging to answer a question the billboard sent to their cell phones. If they answered correctly, they had a chance to win a new car. In Japan, some billboards feature QR (“Quick Response”）codes, a newer version of bar codes, which can be read by specially programmed camera cell phones. When a person takes a picture of a billboard with a QR code, the advertiser’s website appears on their phone. A billboard in New York’s Times Square allows people on the street to play a video game using their cell phones, and a huge digital sign in London’s Piccadilly Circus responds when someone waves at it and displays different images depending on the weather.
1. What’s the writing purpose of paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the main topic. | B．To list the benefits of billboards. |
| C．To show the author’s attitude. | D．To describe the functions of billboards. |
| A．Belgium | B．Japan |
| C．New York | D．London |
| A．Billboards are the products of modern technology. |
| B．Billboards advance with the development of technology. |
| C．The latest billboards are not primarily designed for advertising. |
| D．The more advanced the billboards, the more images they can display. |
Donate to Help Victims of Natural Disasters: Text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief, which helps people affected by disasters such as floods, earthquakes, wildfires and hurricanes．
Please consider making a donation today to help the thousands of people who have been affected by these disasters．
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Started in 2001．the Measles & Rubella Initiative—led by the American Red Cross， provides technical and financial support to governments and communities for mass vaccination campaigns around the world．The Initiative has supported the vaccination of more than 1 billion children helping to reduce measles deaths by 78％globally(compared to 2000)．
Please consider making a donation today to help us continue this campaign．To learn more visit www．Measlesrubellainitiative．org．
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1. The text mainly aims to tell us_____________．
| A．how to keep our wireless bill safe when making donation |
| B．how to make a $10 donation by text message |
| C．when to become an authorized account holder |
| D．how to make individual contributions magnified |
| A．STOP | B．PREVENT | C．HELP | D．REDCROSS |
| A．Offering help to the disaster victims． |
| B．Supporting the American Red Cross． |
| C．Mass vaccination around the world． |
| D．Applying for charges on wireless bills． |
| A．get the permission of his parents |
| B．reach the marriage age |
| C．pay ＄10 to own an account |
| D．stop his daily purchases |
But just before I turned 8, things began to change. I watched two buildings on my block burn down. I remember seeing my neighbor Pito go up and down the fire escape to get people out. Where were the firemen? Where was the truck? Somebody must have called them.
That same summer, after serving two tours in Vietnam, my brother was killed in the South Bronx. He was shot above the left eye and died instantly.
People who could move out of the neighborhood and all I wanted to do were get out, too. I used education to get away from there and got good at avoiding the topic of where I was from. To be from the South Bronx meant that you were not a good person. It felt like a stain.
After college, I didn't want to come back to the South Bronx, but in order to afford graduate school, I had to. I was almost 30 and could only afford to live at my parents' home. It felt like a defeat, and I hated it.
At the same time, the city was planning a huge waste facility here, and no one seemed to care — including many of us who lived here. They were like, "Well, it's a poor community; what's the difference?"
I was very angry. It drove me to act. It moved my spirit in a way that I didn't know was possible. And it changed my beliefs — it changed the way I felt about myself and my community. I worked hard with others who felt the same way, and together, we defeated the plan.
After that, I realized it's just as important to fight for something as it is to fight against something. So we dreamed up a new park on the site of an illegal waste dump — and after many community clean-ups, along with $3 million from the city, we have one. And it's a glory. It was the seed from which many new plans for our community have grown.
Today, the South Bronx is no longer a stain; it's a badge(象征) of honor for me. I believe that where I'm from helps me to really see the world. Today, when I say I'm from the South Bronx, I stand up straight. This is home, and it always will be.
1. Paragraphs 2 and 3 make the readers believe ____________.| A．the author felt watched over and safe |
| B．he author’s brother was a bad man |
| C．the author’s neighbor Pito was braver than a fireman |
| D．the author felt his hometown was not a safe place to live in |
| A．he couldn’t afford to live without his parents’ help |
| B．he loved his hometown very much |
| C．he was defeated in studies at college |
| D．he almost reached the age of 30 |
| A．the author wondered where the firemen and the truck were |
| B．the author wanted someone to call the firemen |
| C．the firemen didn’t come to help although called |
| D．the firemen didn’t find a place to park the truck |
| A．Great changes have taken place in the South Bronx. |
| B．The South Bronx is a beautiful place. |
| C．You can make a difference to your hometown if you act. |
| D．Everyone should love his hometown. |
