1 . Imagine possessing something that you loved so much. Imagine what it would feel like if you lost it. While that item may be something as simple as a toy, you would still feel very upset, but you could replace it with a new one. Now imagine losing something that you depend on for survival and cannot be replaced. That is what it would be like if we lost the natural environment around us.
Firstly, I believe the environment should be protected because it supports human life. One of the largest examples is that we get all of our food and drinks from the environment. If the environment were to be destroyed beyond revival, then the human race would be over in months. Scientists have to find another planet with similar conditions to the Earth, and if it's found, we don’t have the technology to get to that planet in time.
Secondly, I believe that the environment serves as an amazing educational tool for students. When I was in second grade, I had an absolute interest in animals. When we had a field trip to the Daggerwing Nature Center, I was very excited. When we got there, I could hardly believe what I was seeing. There was a bridge to get to the main building, and under the bridge was a small swamp (沼泽) with turtles, fish, and my personal favorite, alligators. I was so surprised that I almost ran into the tour guide. We walked into the building and saw various animals in their habitats. I was so inspired by this visit. Six years later, I have taken an animal behavior class for three weeks. Meeting by chance with the environment can inspire people, and if preserved, it will continue to inspire people.
In conclusion, the environment is so valuable because it can't be replaced, keeps us alive, and serves as a great educational tool.
1. The first paragraph leads to the theme of the text by________________.| A．describing a process. | B．presenting differences. |
| C．analyzing causes. | D．showing similarities. |
| A．health. | B．recovery. |
| C．range. | D．survival. |
| A．To express the writer’s absolute interest in animals. |
| B．To introduce the Daggerwing Nature Centers scenery. |
| C．To show the environment can inspire and educate people. |
| D．To prove the subject he has chosen is promising. |
| A．Why the Environment Is So Important? |
| B．Which Planet Can Replace the Earth? |
| C．How People Should Protect the Environment? |
| D．What People Can Do to Stop Pollution? |
2 . Sometimes, you just can’t say no to another spoonful of ice cream and maybe one more after that. Why not? You deserve it.
There’s no need to beat yourself up about it later. The truth is that you were probably bound to do that from the very first spoonful. That’s because there is a switch in your brain, and for whatever reason, it can get stuck in the “on” position.
According to a new study, this impulse (冲动) control may come down to a very specific circuit (回答) in the brain which occasionally produces melanin-concentrating hormone, or MCH—a chemical linked with our desire for food or drugs. And that circuit always says yes.
By manipulating this circuit, it is possible that we might be able to develop cures for overeating that help people stick to a diet without reducing normal appetite or making delicious foods like donuts less delicious.
For their research, the scientists treated rats to a self-serve buffet. Bur the treats were on a timed delivery system, making tasty food every 20 seconds, and only when a rat pressed a lever (杠杆). Hit that lever too early—as impatient test subjects occasionally did—and the counter would start from scratch. Lever-happy rats would have to wait another cycle before the food became available again.
A second experiment offered the rats two dining options. Push Lever A and get an immediate small reward. Pushing Lever B meants waiting for around40 seconds, but the food reward would be much bigger. Guess which lever those impatient rats were most food of? That’s right. They picked the now-now-now switch.
Their impulsiveness, however, rose sharply when scientists gave the rats MCH. These animals become more impulsive. MCH, it seemed, could talk rats into loosening its inhibitions (拘束). The result? More please.
Researchers can now see where that conversation between the brain’s reward system and its impulse control center takes place. The next step will be to map it—and potentially influence the discussion. It may eventually be possible to control a food-eating impulse.
1. Which of the following can best replace the underlined word “manipulating” in paragraph 4?| A．Strengthening. | B．Controlling. |
| C．Classifying. | D．Creating. |
| A．A bigger food reward would appear. |
| B．Tasty food would be delivered much sooner. |
| C．Longer time would be needed for food to appear. |
| D．The lever would be stopped form delivering food. |
| A．To find out the effect of MCH on animals. |
| B．To prove rats are also greedy for more food. |
| C．To study how levers influence rats’ impulse. |
| D．To show rats and humans have similar impulse for food. |
| A．What Is the Effect of Your Impulse? |
| B．What Can You Do to Resist More Food? |
| C．Why Can’t You Say “No” to Your Impulse? |
| D．Why Do You Always Give in to One More Mouthful? |
3 . My work started in 2003 at my local animal shelter’s Adoption Department. It seems like such a long time ago. In the 13 years that have passed, more than 50,000 animals have passed the doors of the shelter. Most of them, I do not remember. But occasionally there are animals who stand out. Tabby was one such animal.
Tabby was one of the many homeless dogs. What’s more, she was blind and deaf. Tabby’s chances at adoption seemed remote at best. But one day a woman named Loretta came to the shelter. Her son, Gary, who suffered from epilepsy (癫痫) had seen Tabby’s picture on the shelter’s website. They were interested in meeting her! Most boys would want a puppy, a dog who could grow with him and run through grassy fields on summer days. Tabby would never be able to do that. But as they say, "love is blind". After meeting her, they decided to adopt Tabby!
If Tabby’s story had simply ended with her successful adoption, it would still have been something very special indeed but it was what happened after her adoption that some might label as "magical" or perhaps even miraculous. As Gary and Tabby did everything together, they became so "in tune" with one another that Tabby began to telegraph Gary’s seizures (疾病发作) before they occurred, giving his family a warning that one was about to strike. What’s more, Gary seemed to be having fewer and fewer seizures since Tabby’s arrival.
How could it be? There are some things that happen in this world that challenge all logic and understanding. Sometimes, the best that we can do is to accept a miraculous thing, which we didn’t attempt to explain. Because when you try to explain it, you lose the beauty and wonder of it all.
1. Which sentence can be used to describe Tabby?| A．She was so lovely that she could be easily adopted. |
| B．She suffered a lot from the disease-epilepsy. |
| C．She was so strong that she could run very fast. |
| D．She was homeless and couldn’t see or hear. |
| A．Amazing. | B．Typical. | C．Interesting. | D．Special. |
| A．Gary learnt about Tabby from a magazine. |
| B．Gary was cured in the company of Tabby. |
| C．Tabby could indicate a seizure before it struck. |
| D．Most boys would have the same decision as Gary. |
| A．Love is Blind: a Miraculous Dog | B．Give Me Food: My Dear Master |
| C．Love is Everywhere: a Poor Dog | D．Take Me Home: My Dear Boy |
4 . Our fascination with Mars has never stopped. However, in the early days of space exploration, visits were restricted to “fly-bys”, such as those by Mariner Space Probes, by means of which craft would simply pass the planet, taking pictures and collecting data as they went. The Viking “orbiters” were next, and later craft in the Viking series, known as “Landers”, began to study the surface, equipped with instruments which continued to collect data about the environment until they stopped working.
The more recent “Rovers” move around the planet’s surface as they gather information. Current proposals include missions to study geographic features, climate, and soil components, in order to determine, among other things, whether the planet can ever have supported carbon-based life forms. Scientists now believe that at some stage the planet cooled dramatically, resulting in the near-loss of its atmosphere and, thanks to the wearing away of some surface features mineral deposits and other factors, it is also believed that liquid water once flowed here.
One of the most famous craft is “Phoenix”, which landed in November 2008. Its mission was to obtain samples from beneath the surface by digging into the arctic ice while its camera provided geological data and other equipment scanned the atmosphere, measuring temperature and pressure in an attempt to discover whether the chemicals necessary for life might exist beneath the surface. The craft was expected to send back data for three months, but managed to hold out for further two. An especially important part of the project was the need to keep absolute cleanliness of the equipment in order to ensure that any organic material collected was not contaminated by microbes(微生物).
In the future manned landings may probably come true-and though it may seem an extremely difficult undertaking, plans have already been discussed for the “terraforming(行星地球化)”of the planet, giving it an atmosphere, oceans and other elements similar to earth, with, the possibility of human settlement.
1. According to the text, what is “fly-by”?| A．A type of UFO. | B．A photograph of a planet. |
| C．A planet of the solar system. | D．A way of collecting information. |
| A．There is ice on it. |
| B．It once had some mineral deposits. |
| C．It once had carbon-based life forms. |
| D．There are some damaged areas on its surface. |
| A．Polluted. | B．Protected. | C．Controlled. | D．Reduced. |
| A．It will happen very soon. |
| B．It may be hard, but it’s possible. |
| C．It will be full of uncertainties, but it’s worth the efforts. |
| D．It relies on different countries working together. |
5 . If you’ve ever been on a fishing boat, you’ve probably seen crowds of birds following it, hoping to catch a snack. Now scientists use those birds’ behavior to track illegal fishing boats.
Researchers attached data loggers to the backs of 169 albatrosses (信天翁) in Indian oceans. Weighing only 42 grams, the devices included a GPS, which enabled them to detect the presence and intensity of radar signals emitting from boats. That information was then sent by satellite, so the researchers could track the location of the birds—and thus the radar-emitting boats—in real time.
The scientists then cross-checked that data against the known locations of boats, collected from a system boats use to declare themselves, called the Automatic Identification System (AIS). And noticeable differences appeared frequently.
More than a third of the times the birds “loggers” detected radar signals, and therefore a boat, but no such boat appeared in the official log—meaning that the vehicles had likely switched off their AIS—something that probably happens in illegal fishing operations.
The work suggests birds could be an effective boat-monitoring tool as long as illegal fishing operations don’t target the birds.
Fortunately, such a task would be difficult. Around fishing boats, you can find hundreds of birds at any one time that are flying around. And the birds with loggers are not marked in any way. So it’s not really possible for fishermen to pick out a specific bird.
But what concerns researchers is that albatrosses often get caught by some fishing boats. Though regulations have been established to protect against that happening—with success—illegal boats don’t necessarily obey. So scientists might be underestimating the risk posed to albatross populations.
1. What characteristic of albatrosses do scientists take advantage of in their research?| A．Their feeding patterns. |
| B．Their sense of direction. |
| C．Their greedy behaviors. |
| D．Their habit of following fishing boats. |
| A．To seek more fishes. |
| B．To have it mistaken for another. |
| C．To avoid being detected. |
| D．To save the trouble of declaring itself. |
| A．Identifying birds with loggers. |
| B．Monitoring illegal boats. |
| C．Tracking radar signals automatically. |
| D．Fishing illegally. |
| A．AIS: an Effective System to Locate Boats |
| B．Humans Are Good at Discovering Birds’ Nature |
| C．Data Loggers Help Fishermen Get a Good Harvest |
| D．Scientists Use Birds to Track Illegal Fishing Operations |
6 . I’m Jeff Logan, president of Logan Luxury Theaters Corporation. I’m very sorry to tell you many cinemas are at risk of closing permanently (永久). That’s something we would hate to see happen.
Watching the newest box office movie and eating a big bucket of popcorn is an experience that many of us have enjoyed for a very long time. We all have fond memories of going to a theater of our first dates or the first movie we saw with our children. A movie theater is so important to the fabric of the local community. It’s a place where we all gather, no matter what our interests, and no matter what ages, young and old, rich and poor.
But how much longer will classic theaters remain open? Just like other industries, movie theaters have been hit hard by the pandemic (流行病) and are going dark. The entire industry is being controlled by the pandemic, because the studios don't want to release their new movies until all the theaters can be open. As we all know, the theaters can’t do well and can’t get back to full 7-day a week at full speed operation without new movies to play.
Recently, the Logan Luxury 5 Cinema in Mitchell reopened for the weekends. However, like many theaters, it is only operating at about 10 percent capacity. Since opening, several new safety measures have been put in place. Block off every other row. People are asked to leave three seats between them and the next group. Staff spray the theater with disinfectant (消毒剂) after every show. And sanitizer stations can be found throughout the theater.
Even so, some people still aren’t comfortable going to a movie theater yet. I fully understand that. Anyhow, I just hope we must do something else to help out our local theaters, like taking part in a new national proposal called “Save Your Cinema.”
1. What does the underlined word “fabric” in paragraph 4 refer to?| A．Typical feature. | B．Basic structure. | C．Public support. | D．Common vision. |
| A．Cinemas don’t operate normally. |
| B．New movies aren’t welcomed. |
| C．People don’t like going to cinema. |
| D．Many cinemas go out of business. |
| A．It makes a lot of money. |
| B．It does well in disease prevention. |
| C．It receives a large audience every day. |
| D．It offers more enjoyable experience. |
| A．To share the good old days. |
| B．To explain a social problem. |
| C．To recommend a theater. |
| D．To ask for people’s help. |
7 . Dolphins have been known to show many human-like behavioral characteristics. These include forming complex relationships to accomplish common goals, teaching one another survival skills, and “babysitting” each other’s kids. Now, some researchers at Largo, Florida have discovered another thing the intelligent animals share with humans — a love for the television!
For their research, Kelly A. Winship and Holli C, Eskelinen observed 11 bottlenose and five rough-toothed dolphins. The animals were treated to two TV shows — Planet Earth and the popular kids’ series, SpongeBob SquarePants. The researchers say the dolphins did not seem to care what was being played. They were equally attracted by both — the realistic imagery of Planet Earth and the cartoon in SpongeBob SquarePants.
Interestingly, however, the male dolphins spent more time staring at the screen than the females. They also responded more strongly to the programming by either showing aggression (indicated by head moves), or interest (shown by raising their heads or pressing their foreheads against the TV), or even blowing bubbles (indicating interest or aggression). Winship and Eskelinen, who published their findings in the journal Zoo Biology, believe the display of aggression was most likely a result of the failure to physically interact with, or manipulate, the TV.
Though there is a lot more to learn about the animals’ television preferences, the scientists believe suitable programming could be used as part of enrichment programs for dolphins unfit to be released in the wild. The researchers also think monitoring their response to different kinds of shows could provide scientists with some insight into the dolphins’ thinking process.
1. What have researchers newly discovered about dolphins?| A．They somewhat behave like humans. | B．They offer help to each other |
| C．They are highly intelligent. | D．They enjoy watching TV shows. |
| A．The time of body moments. | B．Program preferences. |
| C．The strength of response. | D．Interacting methods. |
| A．Have control over. | B．React to. | C．Catch sight of. | D．Turn on. |
| A．Learning about their TV preference. | B．Enriching their life in the wild. |
| C．Monitoring their daily behaviors. | D．Studying how they think. |
8 . Take a walk through Washington and you’ll find plenty of marble memorials(纪念碑). But is that what the future of the memorial-rich city holds? If the winners of a new design competition have their way, probably not.
The Memorials for the Future design competition invited submissions (意见书) from teams throughout the world. Though, the memorials selected won’t actually be built in the city, they were intended to start a discussion about how to think of memorials in a very different future.
Climate Chronograph, the winning project by Team Azimuth Land Craft, greatly departs from memorials as we know them. The project memorializes the harmful effects of climate change by suggesting a memorial at Hains Point, a spot between the Potomac River and Washington Channel. Just 100 years ago, the man-made island was part of the river. It came into existence after the National Park Service decided to turn the confluence(合流点) of the waters into a tidal basin to protect the nearby National Mall from floods.
Those floods are expected to come more and more often as the climate changes. Climate Chronograph will memorialize those changes by planting cherry trees as a kind of tidal gauge(潮位计) that can be used by future visitors to determine just how much water levels have risen.
The other winning projects include a project that frees mechanical parrots that fly over the Jefferson Memorial and collect and retell stories about monuments，a podcast (播客) platform that puts immigrant stories on public transportation, and an interactive memorial that brings national parks to the D. C. Metro. The competition also produced a report that points to ways America can better memorialize the things that matter—strategies that could help cities save money and space.
That’s good news, especially given that D.C.’s iconic Mall has been closed to new construction. The memorials of the future won’t just turn collective memories toward the stories of new phenomena and groups like climate change and immigrants. Rather, it seems that they’ll make use of space in new creative ways—no marble needed.
1. What is the purpose of the design competition?| A．To select the best design team. |
| B．To find new uses for old memorials. |
| C．To design new memorials for Washington. |
| D．To explore new ways of experiencing memorials. |
| A．Differs | B．Benefits |
| C．Suffers | D．Learns |
| A．It will be located in a park. |
| B．It will be built after the competition. |
| C．It clearly shows the effects of climate change. |
| D．It uses high-tech equipment to measure climate change. |
| A．A memorial to a sad future. |
| B．Marble memorials are out of date. |
| C．Climate Chronograph, memorial for our future. |
| D．What will the memorials of the future look like? |
9 . Four years ago, more than 700 computer scientists competed in a contest to build an artificial intelligence (AI) that could pass an 8th-grade science exam. They all flunked. Even the most developed system couldn’t score higher than 60 points on the test. AI can’t match the language and logic (逻辑) skills that students are expected to have when they enter middle school.
Later, a system named Aristo was developed by the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a lab in the US. It recently passed an 8-grade science exam taken by many US students, the New York Times reported. It correctly answered more than 90% of the questions. Then it was given a 12th-grade exam and it scored more than 80 points.
Aristo was able to pass the exam because it can not only understand language but also use logical thinking to solve difficult problems. For example, it can understand what a forest fire is and how it could affect animals like rabbits. The Aristo system used Bert, a kind of technology developed by Google, to answer the questions. Bert has “read” thousands of Wikipedia articles and books. If it looks at a sentence with a missing word, it can correctly guess what the word is. With the help of Bert, Aristo has “read” a lot of science questions and answers. Over time, it was able to find logical patterns (模式) on its own.
Aristo’s success means that AI systems are getting better at understanding language and even respond to language. However, we can’t compare this technology to real human students and their logical ability, said Jingjing Liu, a Microsoft researcher, who has been working on similar technologies.
1. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “flunked” in the first paragraph?| A．Failed. | B．Passed. | C．Missed. | D．Improved. |
| A．To help students do well in exams. |
| B．To improve the logical skills of AI. |
| C．To help make school tests more scientific. |
| D．To show ATS ability to solve science problems. |
| A．To show what else Aristo can do. |
| B．To tell what Aristo can learn on its own. |
| C．To explain how Aristo learns to solve problems. |
| D．To introduce another achievement in technology. |
| A．AI is not as developed as it might seem. |
| B．Humans can’t live without AI in the future. |
| C．AI will soon replace humans in many tasks. |
| D．Aristo’s logical ability still needs improving. |
10 . All animals—from humans to birds，worms and crocodiles—sleep，however，not all species sleep alike. Scientists have long puzzled over which aspects are truly fundamental. Now a new study on lizards(蜥蜴)suggests that sleep states once thought to occur only in mammals and birds have much older evolutionary origins.
Scientists had long doubted that birds and mammals are the only vertebrates(脊椎动物)to experience rapid eye movement(REM)，a sleep state in which the body is mostly immobile but the brain is overworking. During REM sleep，the brain produces high-frequency waves of electrical activity and the eyes turn suddenly from time to time. In humans，REM is closely linked to dreaming. REM is a pattern of slow-wave sleep，a state in which brain activity weakens and the waves become more consistent. This slower state is widely thought to be important to memory formation and storage.
“But scientists who looked for signs of REM and slow-wave sleep in reptiles(爬行动物) have had‘confusing’results，”says Gilles Laurent，a neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt，Germany. So he and his colleagues had planned to examine how the lizards—a common pet in Germany use visual information to chase treats. Using camera，the team found that the sleeping lizards’eyes twitched during the REM-like stage，just like other animals. They also found a very familiar pattern within the slower phase of the lizards’brain waves. Some scientists believe these waves help transform new information into memories by replaying past events quickly.
Although more studies are still needed to determine whether the function of these brain wave patterns is the same across species，the results suggest that these REM and slow-wave sleep patterns could date all the way back to the common ancestor of reptiles，birds，and mammals.
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．The origin of human dream. |
| B．The definition and effect of REM. |
| C．The features and course of memory. |
| D．The advantages and disadvantages of REM. |
| A．opened wide | B．moved quickly |
| C．stayed closed | D．kept still |
| A．By increasing their frequency slowly. |
| B．By changing their pattern occasionally. |
| C．By playing back the past events quickly. |
| D．By connecting visual information effectively. |
| A．The function of the brain wave is the same. |
| B．All the animals have the common ancestor. |
| C．The sleep pattern of all the animals is the same. |
| D．The study about sleep pattern has a long way to go. |
