The classical gardens of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, date back to the 6th century
Built in the 11th century on the site of an
The classical gardens of Suzhou
2 . By the end of the century, if not sooner, the world’s oceans will be bluer and greener thanks to a warming climate, according to a new study.
At the heart of the phenomenon lie tiny marine microorganisms(海洋微生物) called phytoplankton. Because of the way light reflects off the organisms, these phytoplankton create colourful patterns at the ocean surface. Ocean colour varies from green to blue, depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton. Climate change will fuel the growth of phytoplankton in some areas, while reducing it in other spots, leading to changes in the ocean’s appearance.
Phytoplankton live at the ocean surface, where they pull carbon dioxide(二氧化碳) into the ocean while giving off oxygen. When these organisms die, they bury carbon in the deep ocean, an important process that helps to regulate the global climate. But phytoplankton are vulnerable to the ocean’s warming trend. Warming changes key characteristics of the ocean and can affect phytoplankton growth, since they need not only sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow, but also nutrients.
Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a scientist in MIT’s Center for Global Change Science, built a climate model that projects changes to the oceans throughout the century. In a world that warms up by 3℃, it found that multiple changes to the colour of the oceans would occur. The model projects that currently blue areas with little phytoplankton could become even bluer. But in some waters, such as those of the Arctic, a warming will make conditions riper for phytoplankton, and these areas will turn greener. “Not only are the quantities of phytoplankton in the ocean changing. ” she said, “but the type of phytoplankton is changing.”
And why does that matter? Phytoplankton are the base of the food web. If certain kinds begin to disappear from the ocean, Dutkiewicz said, “it will change the type of fish that will be able to survive.” Those kinds of changes could affect the food chain.
Whatever colour changes the ocean experiences in the coming decades will probably be too gradual and unnoticeable, but they could mean significant changes. “It’ll be a while before we can statistically show that the changes are happening because of climate change,” Dutkiewicz said, “but the change in the colour of the ocean will be one of the early warning signals that we really have changed our planet.”
1. What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?| A．The various patterns at the ocean surface. |
| B．The cause of the changes in ocean colour. |
| C．The way light reflects off marine organisms. |
| D．The efforts to fuel the growth of phytoplankton. |
| A．Sensitive. | B．Beneficial. | C．Significant. | D．Unnoticeable. |
| A．Phytoplankton play a declining role in the marine ecosystem. |
| B．Dutkiewicz’s model aims to project phytoplankton changes. |
| C．Phytoplankton have been used to control global climate. |
| D．Oceans with more phytoplankton may appear greener. |
| A．To assess the consequences of ocean colour changes. |
| B．To analyse the composition of the ocean food chain. |
| C．To explain the effects of climate change on oceans. |
| D．To introduce a new method to study phytoplankton. |
3 . With no special equipment, no fences and no watering, two abandoned agricultural fields in the UK have been rewilded (重新野化), in large part due to the efforts of jays, which actually “engineered” these new woodlands. Researchers now hope that rewilding projects can take a more natural and hands-off approach and that jays can shed some of their bad reputations.
The two fields, which researchers have called the New Wilderness and the Old Wilderness, had been abandoned in 1996 and 1961 respectively. The former was a bare field, while the latter was grassland—both lay next to ancient woodlands. Researchers had suspected that the fields would gradually return to wilderness, but it was impressive to see just how quickly this happened, and how much of it was owed to birds.
Using aerial data, the researchers monitored the two sites. After just 24 years, the New Wilderness had grown into a young, healthy wood with 132 live trees per hectare, over half of which (57%) were oaks. Meanwhile, the Old Wilderness resembled a mature woodland after 39 years, with 390 trees per hectare.
“This native woodland restoration was approaching the structure (but not the species composition) of long-established woodlands within six decades,” the researchers explained in the study.
Part of this reforestation was done by the wind, and researchers suspect that previous ground disturbance may have aided the woodland establishment—which is good news, as it would suggest that agricultural areas may be reforested faster than anticipated. However, animals—Eurasian jays, thrushes, wood mice, and squirrels—also played an important role in helping the forests take shape. This handful of species provided much of the natural regeneration needed for the forest to develop. Jays, in particular, seem to have done a lot of heavy lifting.
1. What does the underlined word “shed” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Be opposed to. |
| B．Be ashamed of. |
| C．Get used to. |
| D．Get rid of. |
| A．The scale of the woodlands. |
| B．The diversity of the fields. |
| C．The rate of the changes. |
| D．The frequency of the wilderness. |
| A．The woodland restoration was approaching the structure of long-established ones. |
| B．Much of the wilderness of the fields was owed to birds. |
| C．Previous ground disturbance aided the woodland establishment. |
| D．How quickly the fields returned to wilderness over time. |
| A．The essential role of humans in the reforestation. |
| B．The factors that contribute to the reforestation. |
| C．The importance of woodland establishment. |
| D．The threats faced by a handful of wild animals. |
4 . Mount Tai, located just north of Tai’an city in East China’s Shandong Province, is a mountain of historical and cultural
Among the Five Sacred Mountains (the other four are Heng Mountain of Hunan Province, Hua Mountain of Shaanxi Province, Song Mountain of Henan Province and Heng Mountain of Shanxi Province), Mount Tai is only the third highest. Why is it seen as the
In absolute terms, Mount Tai cannot be considered as the highest of China’s mountains, but because it is
Many Chinese emperors climbed to the top for enthronement (登基) or other significant ceremonies in ancient China, for they considered it to be a
Mount Tai is famous for its various stone inscriptions, which are the works of either ancient emperors or celebrities. The stone inscriptions
| A．evidence | B．significance | C．confidence | D．existence |
| A．partner | B．member | C．leader | D．laggard |
| A．close | B．far | C．remote | D．proper |
| A．absolute | B．relative | C．real | D．perfect |
| A．altitude | B．width | C．longitude | D．attitude |
| A．However | B．Therefore | C．Otherwise | D．Moreover |
| A．chance | B．change | C．death | D．renewal |
| A．gift | B．symbol | C．beginning | D．call |
| A．look at | B．go through | C．look for | D．go back |
| A．preserved | B．ruined | C．collected | D．hid |
| A．newspapers | B．information | C．articles | D．advertisements |
| A．combine | B．change | C．stop | D．increase |
| A．exciting | B．famous | C．delicate | D．rough |
| A．importance | B．magnificence | C．possibility | D．difference |
| A．powerless | B．pale | C．weak | D．forceful |
Who built the first canal? Perhaps some people long ago, living in
Today, most countries in the world have canals. Even in the 2lst century, goods can be moved more
Most of the canals have a long history. Canals existed in Egypt thousands of years ago. And the Grand Canal of China was begun about 2,500 years ago. and took centuries to finish. During the seventeenth century, France built many canals that are still
Autumn Equinox (秋分) lies at the midpoint of autumn,
By Autumn Equinox, most of the areas in China
According to experts, on the Spring Equinox and Autumn Equinox, the day and night are of equal time both in the southern and northern hemispheres. Standing eggs on end,
But once it
When you imagine the South Pole，what do you see？A pole with flags sticking out in an empty，frozen，white openness？Actually，there’s more than one South Pole—and none of them exactly fits the above
If you think of the earth as a
A short distance from the geographic South Pole is a ceremonial South Pole—
There is still another South Pole：the pole of inaccessibility，defined as the place in Antarctica that is the
8 . I. M. Pei, whose modern designs and high-profile projects made him one of the best-known and most prolific architects of the 20th century, has died. He was 102. A spokesman for Pei’s New York architecture firm confirmed his death to the Associated Press. Pei, whose designs included a controversial renovation of Paris’ Louvre Museum and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, died overnight, his son Chien Chung Pei told The New York Times.
Ieoh Ming Pei, the son of an outstanding banker in China, left his homeland in 1935, moving to the US and studying architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. After teaching and working for the US government, he went to work for a New York developer in 1948 and started his own firm in 1955.
The museums, municipal buildings, hotels, schools and other structures that Pei built around the world showed precision geometry (几何学) and an abstract quality with much respect for light. They were composed of stone, steel and glass and, as with the Louvre, Pei often worked glass pyramids into his projects.
The Louvre, parts of which date to the 12th century, proved to be Pei’s most controversial work, starting with the fact that he was not French. After being chosen for the job by the then president, François Mitterrand, surrounded by much secrecy, Pei began by making a four-month study of the museum and French history. He created a futuristic (未来主义的) 70ft-tall steel-framed, glass-walled pyramid as a grand entrance for the museum with three smaller pyramids nearby. It was a striking contrast to the existing Louvre structures in classic French style and was violently criticized by many French.
Pei said the Louvre was undoubtedly the most difficult job of his career. He said he had wanted to create a modern space that did not detract from the traditional part of the museum. “Contemporary architects tend to impose modernity on something,” he said in a New York Times interview in 2008. “There is a certain concern for history but it’s not very deep. I understand that time has changed, we have evolved. But I don’t want to forget the beginning. A lasting architecture has to have roots.”
When Pei won the international Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1983, he used the $100,000 award to start a programme for a spiring Chinese architects to study in the US. Even though he formally retired from his firm in 1990, Pei was still taking on projects in his late 80s, such as museums in Luxembourg, Qatar and his ancestral home of Suzhou.
1. What can we learn from the first three paragraphs?| A．Pei is famous for traditional designs in architecture. |
| B．Pei built the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. |
| C．Pei put the elements of light and glass pyramids into the Louvre. |
| D．Pei set up his own firm with the help of a New York developer. |
| A．Positive. | B．Neutral. | C．Objective. | D．Critical. |
| A．To list the modernity of the Louvre innovation. |
| B．To explain Pei’s idea about the Louvre innovation. |
| C．To show Pei’s love for traditional culture. |
| D．To present Pei’s contributions to architecture in history. |
| A．Creative and persistent. |
| B．Productive and stubborn. |
| C．Hard-working and humorous. |
| D．Tolerant and considerate. |
1. What do we know about the area?
| A．Lightning strikes mostly in December. |
| B．The area is near the Andes Mountains. |
| C．The people there worry about getting hit. |
| A．The Never Ending Storm of Catatumbo. |
| B．The Lightning Capital of the World. |
| C．The Light of Venezuela. |
| A．Warm mountain winds. |
| B．Warm sea air. |
| C．The crowded population. |
| A．He’s scared of storms. |
| B．He’ll never visit Venezuela. |
| C．He’d be careful if he lived in the area. |
10 . The huge stone human statues of Easter Island have fascinated the world for centuries, but now a new research has solved one of the biggest mysteries (谜团) why the statues are located where they are.
Easter Island has more than 600 statues, built by different families hundreds of years ago. It is thought the statues represent their ancestors. However, it was previously a mystery why many of them were around the coast. While scientists have suggested the sites may have a connection with the island’s resources (资源), the latest research is the first attempt to look into such views.
Researchers focused on the east of the island, where various resources are located, and looked at the distribution (分布) of 93 statues built before European sailors arrived in the 18th century. After finding no connection with the rock used for the construction, they considered whether the statues were found near other important resources.
Things became interesting when they checked where the islanders got their drinking water. The island has no long-standing streams or lakes. However, fresh water brought by storm could pass through the ground and go deeper into the underground water system. “It is sort of amazing at low tide (潮水) when the water goes down, suddenly there are streams running off at different sites right at the coast that is just pure fresh water,” said Lipo. “We noticed, actually, when we were doing an investigation on the island, that we saw horses drinking from the ocean.”
The results of the new research—published in the journal Plos One—found that closeness to freshwater sites is the best explanation for the location of the statues, including why they appear inland as well as on the coast. “Historical records show the islanders also made wells to get drinking water,” said Lipo, adding that historic wells explained some inland statue locations that were apparently without natural water resources.
The results, said Lipo, made sense, as drinking water is important for the islanders and it is not practical to have to walk miles to get it.
1. The new research is thought to be unique because it is the first_________.| A．to find the statues located around the coast |
| B．to connect the statues with the islanders’ ancestors |
| C．to examine the connection between statues and resources |
| D．to suggest a connection between statues and resources |
| A．To suggest that the horses have got used to sea water. |
| B．To provide evidence of drinking water on the coast. |
| C．To describe an interesting thing which is rare to see. |
| D．To show that the island has a great shortage of water. |
| A．The islanders had learned to dig wells. |
| B．The islanders could rely on inland lakes. |
| C．The streams would run off at different site. |
| D．The islanders could walk miles to get water. |
