2 . A music column by New Music Friday is from https: //www.npr.org, sharing the best albums released every Friday. Readers can enjoy and download the album’s title track online. The column is well enjoyed by the music explorers. Here are some recent hits.

The best releases out Sept. 30

By Stephen Thompson, Keanna Faircloth, Bob Boilen, Tarik Moody

It’s been five years since Björk last released an album, but now the Icelandic icon (偶像) is back with a deeply inventive set called Fossora. Every sound on the record feels as if it’s springing into the mix from a different direction, as her energetic voice shares space with everything from bass clarinets (低音单簧管) to the voices of Björk’s own creation. Fossora was inspired, at least in part, by the death of the singer’s mother, but joy also exists.

The best releases out Sept. 16

By Cyrena Touros, Christina Lee, Tarik Moody, Stephen Thompson

The superstar K-pop girl group BLACKPINK is one of the biggest pop juggernauts in the world, with billions of streams and massive world tours to its name. Born Pink, its second full-length album, promises to further promote BLACKPINK’s domination of the U.S. charts.

The best releases out Sept. 9

By Christina Lee, Ann Powers, Stephen Thompson, Cyrena Touros

Ari Lennox experienced a huge breakthrough with 2019’s much-loved Shea Butter Baby, but her new album age/sex/location promises to be even bigger. She’s been trying many her singles for many months now, and even dropped a five-song EP last Friday, but the album is finally here. It somehow sounds modern even if it recreates the most unforgettable R&B sounds of the’90s and early’00s.

1. Why is Björk’s mother mentioned?

A．She gave Björk an energetic voice.

B．She helped Björk to record the new album.

C．Her death gave Björk some inventive ideas.

D．Her leaving delayed the release of Fossora.

2. What do we know about Ari Lennox’s new album?

A．It is made up of five songs.

B．It is adapted from Shea Butter Baby.

C．It is intended for single music-lovers.

D．It is trying to make another breakthrough.

3. Who has worked on all the three new albums?

A．Stephen Thompson.	B．Tarik Moody.
C．Christina Lee.	D．Ann Powers.

3 . You may have recently seen a video from the Beijing Wildlife Zoo becoming a hit. What exactly was so interesting about this video? It shows a dog playing with big cats four to five times its size! Many people might wonder if this dog has a death wish, but it seems that the dog and the big cats are good friends.

The dog was actually raised alongside the lion and tiger cubs, making up an odd but loving family, according to zoo officials. As opposed to the common belief, cross-species friendship has been around for centuries. People have domesticated many animals, most notably cats and dogs, and formed bonds with them as pets. Perhaps you even have a pet yourself.

There are many other instances of cross-species friendships.

At an animal sanctuary in Santiago, Chile, a jaguar named Marina and a deer named Laura formed a friendship after they both came to the park. As neither animal had a mother, sanctuary staff said they instantly bonded when they met. Laura had been rescued from a slaughterhouse while Marina had been rescued from the street.

One possible explanation for these friendships is the environment of the zoo. Animals don’t hunt for their food and don’t need to worry about marking their territory or looking for mates in the way an animal in the wild would. “All those activities take time and energy, and if these needs are removed, the animals get bored,” Gordon Burghardt, a psychologist at the University of Tenessee, US, told The Atlantic magazine. “In this particular situation, the animal’s motivation to engage socially and playfully may be higher in its need hierarchy(等级)than eating.”

Marc Bekoff, former biology professor at the University of Colorado, US, told Slate magazine, “I think the choices animals make in cross-species relationships are the same as they’d make in same-species relationships. Some dogs don’t like every other dog. Animals are very selective about the other individuals who they let into their lives.”

1. What is the common opinion about the friendship between animals?

A．It’s easier for dogs and cats to become friends.

B．Animals tend to play with peers of the same species.

C．The friendship between animals is not solid and reliable.

D．It’s common that animals of different species can become friends.

2. Why are Marina and Laura mentioned in paragraph 4?

A．To present a truth.	B．To explain a phenomenon.
C．To introduce the topic.	D．To provide a proof.

3. What’s the key factor of the animals’ friendship in the zoo according to Gordon Burghardt?

A．The existing tradition.	B．The influence by mates.
C．The animals’ inner social drive.	D．The animals’ raisers’ instruction.

4. What’s the purpose of the passage?

A．To appeal to people to treasure animals.

B．To inform readers of a special friendship.

C．To demonstrate the history of bringing up pets.

D．To compare friendship between cross-species and same-species.

4 . Canada’s Wonderland

From family-friendly rides to thrilling roller coasters, Canada’s Wonderland has plenty of attractions for all levels of adventure. Meanwhile, various delicious food choices, including the crowd-pleasing funnel cakes, are available. Visit the entertainment areas and find out who is performing at the Canterbury Theatre or take in a show featuring Snoopy and the Gang at the Playhouse Theatre. Cool down at the 50-acre water park, where you can choose from 17 different water rides to experience.

Fantasy Fair

Etobicoke’s Woodbine Mall is the home of Ontario’s largest indoor amusement park. There’s an antique carousel, electronic games popular during the 1980s, and many other activities and rides designed for small children. Ambitious kids can try the rock-climbing wall, and the XD simulators offer a great 3D movie experience. The large displays of dinosaurs will attract the younger kids.

Adventure Village

Adventure Village is a great open space with waterfalls, fish ponds and many fun activities. It’s the ideal place where you can show off your secret moves during a friendly, yet competitive game of outdoor laser tag or play golf on the 18-hole mini golf course. Kids will also enjoy learning new skills at the batting cage and the excitement of riding and spinning around on the bumper cars. No need to worry about getting hungry. Big Al’s Cook House offers you various choices on the menu.

Rail Yard Wake & Aqua Park

It’s Ontario’s largest inflatable (可充气的) water park and cable wakeboarding (尾浪划水) facility. There is a water park with many obstacle courses you’ll want to climb, jump and explore. Enjoy the thrill of watersports of wakeboarding, wakeskating and kneeboarding in a safe area.

1. What can tourists do in Canada’s Wonderland?

A．Enjoy tasty food.	B．Drive bumper cars.
C．Play video games.	D．Watch different dinosaurs.

2. What do we know about Fantasy Fair?

A．It’s Ontario’s largest amusement park.	B．It provides indoor activities for children.
C．It allows kids to see exhibitions of planes.	D．It’s a place for tourists to watch 5D movies.

3. Which is the best choice for watersport lovers?

A．Fantasy Fair.1	B．Adventure Village.
C．Canada’s Wonderland.	D．Rail Yard Wake & Aqua Park.

5 . Humans have been living and working on the space station for 20 years. Their meals are packaged, though sometimes astronauts receive fresh treats from resupply missions. The longer that packaged food is stored, the more it loses nutrients like vitamin C and vitamin K.

Astronauts have successfully grown 10 different crops on the space station since 2015 and had the chance to sample each one. The International Space Station hosted a party for astronauts on Friday as they celebrated the harvest of the first Chili (辣椒) grown in space. The crew finally had a chance to taste the peppers after initially kicking off the plant experiment on the space station in July.

Plant Habitat-04 is one of the most complex plant experiments on the orbiting laboratory to date because peppers take much longer to grow than the previous experiment plants. After growing for four months, the peppers were harvested on Friday.

Peppers provide a great source of vitamin C, as well as other key nutrients. Pepper plants self-pollinate, so they are easy to grow, and they are a pick-and-eat crop that doesn’t have to be cooked. They are also safe to eat raw.

A side effect of life in zero gravity is that astronauts often lose some of their taste and smell, so spicy or well-seasoned foods are a favorite. Adding fresh greens or peppers to the menu allows astronauts to liven up their regular meals. But growing and tending to the plants can also produce other benefits.

Astronauts have described the joy from seeing—as well as smelling and caring for—leafy green plants on the space station that remind them of Earth.

“Growing colorful vegetables in space can have long-term benefits for physical and psychological health,” said Matt Romeyn, principal investigator for the experiment.” We are discovering that growing plants and vegetables with colors and smells helps to improve astronauts’ well-being.”

1. What does underlined “kicking off” in the 2nd paragraph mean?

A．Launch.

B．Complete.

C．Quit.

D．Announce.

2. What makes Plant Habitat-04 one of the most complex plant experiments?

A．The technology.	B．Growing process.
C．The varieties of plants.	D．Growing time required.

3. Why are peppers added to the menu for astronauts?

A．They are delicious.	B．They restore their appetite.
C．They help kill diseases.	D．They improve their memory.

4. What is the suitable title for the text ?

A．The Fun in the Space Life

B．The Common Goal in the Space Mission

C．The First Chili Peppers Grown in Space

D．A Research Finding from the Space Mission

6 . Steve Forest is a scientist. He’s standing on an island off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Below him are several hundred penguins and their children. Forrest’s job is to count every one of them. It's snowing. There is a big wind, too. And their children won’t stay still. Penguins are great climbers. So Forrest and the team members must be too. And penguins aren't always clean.

Forrest has been coming to Antarctica every January for six years. He's helping count the area’s penguins. This will help researchers better understand the Antarctic environment. There used to be lots of penguins in Antarctica, “It's all because of climate change,” Heather J. Lynch says seriously. She is leading the research team. The team member Noah Strycker adds, “We know climate change is hitting the Antarctic Peninsula harder than anywhere else in the world. We are following the situation closely.”

Scientists think that warming waters do harm to krill, the tiny animals that penguins eat. This is bad for the sea life. But krill are hard to study, so researchers pay attention to penguins. They’re easier to follow. They return to the same place each year to lay eggs. If penguins aren't doing well , krill probably aren't either. “Penguins give us an idea about what is going on in the sea around us,” Forrest says.

This year, Lynch’s research team uses a drone to help them. They fly it over an area to take pictures to count penguins.

Counting penguins is quite necessary. The more we learn, the more we know about krill and the ocean animals that depend on them. When we understand them, we can start fixing them. We should consider carefully what Lynch says: “What’s happening in the Antarctic is happening everywhere.”

1. What is required of scientists like Forrest according to Paragraph 1?

A．Being clean.	B．Being good at math.
C．Being cool-headed.	D．Being skilled in climbing.

2. What's the point of counting penguins in the Antarctie?

A．To protect this animal species from extinction.

B．To help find out how many krill might be living

C．To have a better knowledge of the Antarctic environment

D．To collect first-hand data for analyzing global warming.

3. What does the underlined word “them” in the last paragraph refer to?

A．Scientists.

B．Krill.

C．Penguins.

D．Ocean animals.

4. What can be inferred from the text?

A．Penguins lay eggs in the same place on the island every year.

B．The penguin population is increasing due to climate change.

C．The penguin population determines the krill population.

D．Climate change is most obvious in the Antarctic Peninsula.

7 . Wholesale prices for gas and electricity are increasing suddenly across Europe,raising the possibility of increases in already-high utility (公共事业）bills and further pain for people who have taken a financial hit fromCOVID-19.

Governments are struggling to find ways to limit costs to consumers as scant natural gas reserves present yet another potential problem, exposing the continent to even more price increases and possible shortages if it’s a cold winter.

In the U.K., many people will see their gas and electricity bills rise next month after the nation’s energy regulator approved a 12% price increase for those without contracts that lock in rates. Officials in Italy have warned that prices will increase by 40% for the quarter that will be billed in October.

There are multiple causes for the price increases, energy analysts say, including tight supplies of natural gas used to generate electricity, higher costs for permits to release carbon dioxide as part of Europe’s fight against climate change, and less supply from wind in some cases.

Analysts at S&P Global Platts say electricity prices have risen due to strong demand from places like data centers and electric cars, but above all because of the rise in the price of natural gas used in generating plants. Utility companies’ exposure to natural gas prices has increased as high-emission coal plants have been retired, while utilities face higher costs for carbon allowances required by the European Union’s emissions trading system, which is aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

The tight gas market could bite even more sharply if there’s an unusually cold winter. That’s because European distributors did not refill reserves reduced during last winter as they typically had done in summer months. In March 2008, when the freeze named “the beast from the east” hit Europe, industrial users in the U.K got a notice that there was a risk of interruption, although it didn’t come to that.

Could Europe run out of gas? “The short answer is Yes, this is a real risk,” said James Huckstepp, an analyst at S&P Global Platts. “Storage stocks are at record lows and there isn’t currently any spare supply capacity that is exportable anywhere in the world.The longer answer is that it’s hard to predict how it will play out given that Europe has never run out of gas in two decades under the current distribution system.”

1. What does the underlined word “scant” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Total.

B．Additional.

C．Limited.

D．Regular.

2. What has actually led to the rise of electricity prices?

A．The closure of some coal plants.

B．The great demand for electric cars.

C．The competition between utility companies.

D．The change in the emissions trading system.

3. Why could an unusually cold winter make the gas market tighter?

A．More natural gas will be needed for industrial use.

B．European distributors don’t make good preparations.

C．It is not easy to fill reserves during the cold weather.

D．Utility companies work can be easily interrupted.

4. What can we learn from James Huckstepp’s words in the last paragraph?

A．Europe is expected to seek help from other countries.

B．It is hard to control the gas price in Europe at present.

C．Europe might face a serious shortage of gas in the future.

D．There’s something wrong with Europe’s distribution system.

10 . Everywhere you look, people are looking at screens, and then half an hour has gone by before they realize it.

Researchers at the University of Washington conducted in-depth interviews to learn why we can’t stop checking our phones. They found a series of reasons, common across age groups, that start and end habitual smartphone use. Hiniker and her team interviewed three groups of smartphone users: high school students, college students and adults who have graduated from college. The 39 interviewees were smartphone users in the Seattle area between the ages of 14 and 64.

In general, interviewees had four common reasons for using their phones:

■During unoccupied moments, like waiting for a friend to show up.

■Before or during boring and repetitive tasks.

■When in socially awkward situations.

■When they are expecting a message.

The group also had common reasons that ended their phone use:

■Meeting competing needs from the real world, like meeting up with a friend or needing to drive somewhere.

■Realizing that they had been on their phones for half an hour.

■Coming across content they’d already seen.

The team was surprised to find that the reasons were the same across age groups. "This doesn't mean that teens use their phones the same way adults do. But I think this desire to turn back to your phone plays out the same way across all these groups. The high school students would say ‘Anytime I have a dead moment, if I have one minute between classes I pull out my phone. ' And the adults would say 'Anytime I have one dead moment, if I have one minute between seeing patients at work. I pull out my phone.’”

1. When is a man most likely to use his smartphone?

A．When he is talking with a friend.

B．When he is late for a friend’s party.

C．When he is given a challenging task.

D．When he is taking the lift with a stranger.

2. What did the research find about the smartphone users of different ages?

A．They liked to read the same thing again.

B．They used smartphones in the same way.

C．They used smartphones nonstop for a long time.

D．They shared the same reasons for smartphone use.

3. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Influence of Smartphone Addiction.

B．Ways to Stop Smartphone Addiction.

C．Difference in Smartphone Use across Age Groups.

D．Research on the Strong Desire for Smartphone Use.