1 . The only known white giraffe in the world has been fitted with a GPS tracking device in an effort to protect him from poachers (偷猎者) in Kenya. The unique male giraffe now stands alone after a female and her calf were killed by poachers in March, 2020.
The GPS tracking device, secured to one of the animal’s horns, will give hourly updates of his location, said the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy. Rangers will be able to monitor the giraffe’s movements in the conservancy located in Garissa County, eastern Kenya.
“The giraffe’s living range has been blessed with good rains in the recent past and the abundant vegetation is a good sign for the future of the white male,” said Ahmed Noor, manager of the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy.
Noor thanked the Kenya Wildlife Service, Save Giraffes Now and the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) for their help in safeguarding wildlife species.
“Our mission is to work with communities, secure their livelihoods as well as protect the unique wildlife like the only known white giraffe,” said Antony Wandera, the senior wildlife monitoring officer at the NRT.
The male giraffe has a rare genetic trait called leucism (变白), which results in the partial loss of pigmentation (肤色) in an animal and makes it easy to spot for poachers. Unlike albinism (白化), animals with leucism continue to produce a dark pigment in their soft tissue, meaning the giraffe’s eyes are dark.
In March, 2020, the remains of two of the stunning white giraffes that lived at the Kenyan wildlife reserve were found dead, killed by poachers.
The world’s tallest land animal has lost 40％ of its population in just 30 years, the African Wildlife Foundation estimates.
1. Why do people fit the white giraffe with a GPS tracking device?| A．To entertain the white giraffe. |
| B．To find a better way to feed him. |
| C．To prevent him from being killed. |
| D．To learn more about the white giraffe. |
| A．Every day. | B．Every hour. |
| C．Every week. | D．Every two hours. |
| A．Job. | B．Dream. | C．Interest. | D．Suggestion. |
| A．The population of white giraffes is increasing. |
| B．The white giraffe has become extinct in the world. |
| C．Few organizations show interest in protecting wild animals. |
| D．The population of giraffes in the world has been decreasing. |
2 . A camera has captured footage of two wild giant pandas in a national park in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
The clips, taken in the Xuebaoding section of the Giant Panda National Park, include two pandas wandering in the daytime and moving alone at night. It is particularly rare to see two wild giant pandas walking together, the administration of the park said on Friday.
In the video, a giant panda walked up to a tree and sniffed it carefully. Then a second panda, looking like a quiet “little girl”, approached, looking at the ground, perhaps in search of food. Later, the first panda turned around, rubbing its bottom back and forth as if scratching or dancing, a typical marking behavior in animals. After that, it lay on the ground, waving its hands and feet around, as if to amuse its companion.
According to a staff member at the administration, the camera was set up on Dec. 23, 2019 in a location that was often visited by the furry animals.
Wildlife protection experts said the video was likely taken in April, the breeding(繁殖) season for wild giant pandas. The two adult pandas were very harmonious together, with no fighting, leading to the conclusion that they were probably a male and a female engaged in courting and playing.
In 2017, China announced a plan to build the Giant Panda National Park to help the endangered animals strengthen their relations, bringing together pandas on six mountains in three provinces, Gansu, Shaanxi and Sichuan.
1. The underlined word “clips” in Paragraph 2 probably means “__________”.| A．cameras | B．national parks |
| C．giant pandas | D．videos |
| A．To help itself lie on the ground. |
| B．To attract the female panda. |
| C．To ease the discomfort. |
| D．To search for food. |
| A．Pandas often like to fight in April. |
| B．Only adult pandas can live in harmony. |
| C．Giant pandas were better protected after 2017. |
| D．China started to help all the endangered animals in 2017. |
| A．In a fashion magazine. | B．In a travel brochure. |
| C．In a storybook. | D．In a newspaper. |
3 . Many of us listen to music while we work, thinking that it will help us to concentrate on the task at hand. And in fact, recent research has found that music can have beneficial effects on creativity. When it comes to other areas of performance, however, the impact of background music is more complicated.
The idea that listening to music when working is beneficial to output probably has its roots in the so-called “Mozart Effect”. Put simply, this is the finding that the spatial reasoning ability is increased immediately after listening to the music of Mozart’s, compared to no sound at all.
How sound affects performance has been the topic of research for over 40 years, and is observed through a phenomenon called the irrelevant sound effect. To study the irrelevant sound effect, participants in the research are asked to complete a simple task which requires them to recall a series of numbers or letters in the exact order in which they saw them. The tricky thing is being able to do this while ignoring any background noise.
Two key characteristics of the irrelevant sound effect are required for its observation. First, the task must require the people to use their rehearsal ability, and second, the sound must contain acoustical variation. Where the sound does not vary much acoustically, the performance of the task is much closer to that observed in quiet conditions.
The irrelevant sound effect itself comes from attempting to process two sources of ordered information at the same time—one from the task and the other from the sound. Unfortunately, only the former is required to successfully perform the recall task, and the effort to ensure that irrelevant order information from the sound is not processed actually hinders this ability.
A similar conflict is also seen when reading in the presence of lyrical music. In this situation, the two sources of words—from the task and the sound—are in conflict. The cost is poorer performance of the task in the presence of music with lyrics.
What this all means is that whether having music playing in the background helps or hinders performance depends on the task and the type of music, and only understanding this relationship will help people maximize their productivity levels.
1. “Mozart Effect” is mentioned to .| A．explain how music can relax people | B．show music can improve performance |
| C．advise people to listen to Mozart’s music | D．stress Mozart’s music gains wide attention |
| A．Interesting. | B．Awkward. | C．Unexpected. | D．Expected. |
| A．support an idea | B．make a contrast | C．introduce a topic | D．describe a fact |
| A．Music shapes your life | B．Music develops your creativity |
| C．Choose quiet music for your work | D．Does music make you concentrate? |
4 . The end of the school year was in sight and spirits were high. I was back teaching after an absence of 15 years, dealing with the various kinds of "forbidden fruit" that come out of book bags. Now was the spring of the water pistol.
I decided to think up a method of dealing with forbidden fruit.
"Please bring that pistol to me," I said. "I'm going to put it in my Grandma's Box."
"What's that?" they asked.
"It's a large wooden chest full of toys for my grandchildren," I replied,
"You don't have grandchildren," someone said.
"I don't now." I replied. "But someday I will. When I do, my box will be full of wonderful things for them."
My imaginary Grandma's Box worked like magic that spring, and later. Sometimes. students would ask me to describe all the things I had in it. Then I would try to remember the different possessions I supposedly had taken away—since I seldom actually kept them. Usually the offender would appear at the end of the day, and I would return the belonging.
The-years went by, and my first grandchild Gordon was born. I shared my joy with that year's class. Then someone said, "Now you can use your Grandma's Box." From then on instead of coming to ask their possessions back, the students would say, "That's okay. Put it in your Grandma's Box for Gordon."
I loved talking about the imaginary box, not only with my students but also with my own children. They enjoyed hearing about all the forbidden fruit I had collected. Then one Christmas I received a surprise gift—a large, beautifully made wooden chest. My son Bruce had made my Grandma's Box a reality.
1. What was the author's purpose in having the conversation with the students?| A．To collect the water pistol. | B．To talk about her grandchildren. |
| C．To recommend some toys. | D．To explain her teaching method. |
| A．The student's parent. | B．The maker of the Grandma's Box. |
| C．The author's grandchild. | D．The owner of the forbidden fruit. |
| A．They went to play with the baby. | B．They asked to see the Grandma's Box. |
| C．They made a present for Gordon. | D．They stopped asking their toys back. |
| A．She enjoys telling jokes. | B．She is a strict and smart teacher. |
| C．She loves doing woodwork. | D．She is a responsible grandmother |
