1 . Every few years, snowshoe hare (白靴兔) numbers in the Canadian Yukon climb to a peak. As hare populations increase, so do those of their predators (捕食者): lynxes and coyotes. Then hare populations fall and their predators start to die off. The cycle is a famous phenomenon among ecologists and has been studied since the 1920s.
In recent years, though, researchers have found hare numbers fall from their peak not just because predators eat too many of them. Long-lasting stress from living surrounded by killers causes mother hares to eat less food and bear fewer babies. The trauma (创伤) of living through such threats causes lasting changes in brain chemistry, keeping the hares from reproducing at normal levels.
And it’s not just snowshoe hares, as behavioral ecologists Liana Zanette and Michael Clinchy, who study what they call the ecology of fear, have shown. They’ve found that fear of predators can cause other wild mammals (哺乳动物) and songbirds to bear and raise fewer young. The offspring of frightened voles and song sparrows are less likely to succeed in reproducing. These findings add to a growing body of evidence showing that fearful experiences can have long-lasting effects on wildlife and suggesting that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not only unique to humans, but shared among other creatures.
Rudy Boonstra, a population ecologist at the University of Toronto, sees the response of snowshoe hares as an adaptation that allows the animals to make the best of a bad situation. Animals stressed by many predators spend more time hiding and less time feeding, so they produce fewer young but that may allow more adult hares to survive to rebuild the population when the cycle starts again.
Despite the evidence that a wide range of animals experience the long-term impacts of extreme stress, some psychologists still hold their human-centric(以人为本的) view of PTSD. “It is defined in terms of human responses,” says neurobiologist David Diamond. “There is no biological measure - you can’t get a blood test that says someone has PTSD. This is a psychological disease, and that’s why I call it a human disorder. Because a rat can’t tell you how it feels.”
1. What did researchers find about snowshoe hares lately?| A．Their predators are in danger of dying out. |
| B．Their numbers decline partly because of stress. |
| C．Their safety is threatened by lynxes and coyotes. |
| D．Their populations rise and fall every few years. |
| A．PTSD exists among wild animals. |
| B．It is hard for animals to remember trauma. |
| C．Snowshoe hares suffer more than other mammals. |
| D．Birds attract fewer predators than land animals do. |
| A．PTSD is a uniquely human problem. | B．Blood tests help identify animals’ PTSI. |
| C．PTSD is a normal adaptive response. | D．More animals are suffering from PTSD |
| A．The Population of Snowshoe Hares Is Increasing Sharply |
| B．Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Protects Snowshoe Hares |
| C．Post-traumatic Stress Disorder May Not Be Unique to Humans |
| D．The Protection of Snowshoe Hares Is Urgent |
When it comes to traveling in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Li River is one of the destinations tourists won’t miss. However, with the number of tourists increasing, the river’s water
The waste water treatment facilities have been constructed, which has helped improve the water quality and water
What is the most amazing is that the “Water Ten Plan” is now tackling water pollution across the country. With such campaigns
3 . Having lived in California until 1970, my family has felt a number of earthquakes. We have been fortunate, however, to have suffered no bodily harm or property damage.
There is a website that lists all California earthquakes recorded from 1769 to the present. The site lists the dates and times as well as the magnitude(震级) and the exact location of any quake that measured more than 6.0.
There are only a few quakes that stand out in my memory and, luckily, none is shown in the website. So, my personal experience with earthquakes might be considered insignificant.
There are three earthquakes that are difficult to forget. The first one was in 1955 and our oldest daughter was walking with me in our backyard in Redwood City in California. As the shaking became stronger I held her to me with one arm as I held on to one of our fruit trees with the other. All three of us (my daughter, I and the tree) shook for two or three minutes that to us felt like hours.
The second one was in 1963.Our entire family was visiting Disneyland in Southern California. The earth started to shake just as we were beginning to walk from our hotel toward the famous landmark.
My third experience with an earthquake was a lonely one in California. It was in my sixties and I was alone in an old church.As the building started to shake, I quickly headed for the door to go outside. I remember I said a little prayer—something like, “Help me get out of here in time, Dear Heavenly Father”. Minutes later, I was safe outside.
1. The author writes the passage mainly to tell us about ________ .| A．a new film about an earthquake | B．how to survive an earthquake |
| C．his three earthquake experiences | D．how to save children in an earthquake |
| A．all caused bodily harm | B．are all recorded in a website |
| C．all measured more than 6.0 | D．all happened in California |
| A．was staying with his daughter | B．was planting fruit trees |
| C．held on to a tree for hours | D．was in a hotel |
| A．A church. | B．Disneyland. |
| C．A building destroyed by an earthquake. | D．The place where the author was born. |
| A．Hot. | B．Warm. | C．Cold. |
1. What is a visitor’s first impression of Liverpool?
| A．Its buildings. | B．Its paintings. | C．Its sports. |
| A．Tradition. | B．History. | C．Music. |
| A．Well-known athletes. | B．A famous city. | C．British festivals. |
1. What is the weather probably like now?
| A．Rainy. | B．Cloudy. | C．Sunny. |
| A．No one wanted to play any games. |
| B．People ran out of food and drinks. |
| C．People just wanted to stay warm. |
7 . For the past four years I had been having up to 30 seizures (癫痫发作) a day. It made me
Despite
One day, my friend Kerri asked if I wanted an assistance dog. I knew there were guide dogs for the
Soon after, I
It’s
| A．think | B．hide | C．suffer | D．learn |
| A．personal | B．countless | C．formal | D．impressive |
| A．sleeping | B．working | C．replying | D．breathing |
| A．warmth | B．fun | C．safety | D．independence |
| A．deaf | B．blind | C．injured | D．elderly |
| A．wrote | B．learnt | C．overheard | D．planned |
| A．warn | B．attract | C．follow | D．hit |
| A．burn out | B．break in | C．come on | D．drop by |
| A．saved | B．addressed | C．met | D．invited |
| A．rose | B．lay | C．struggled | D．played |
| A．sensed | B．caused | C．touched | D．cried |
| A．action | B．attack | C．guide | D．help |
| A．boss | B．teacher | C．partner | D．listener |
| A．risked | B．stopped | C．kept | D．saved |
| A．thankful | B．anxious | C．excited | D．patient |
| A．Rainy. | B．Snowy. | C．Cloudy |
9 . Marine life (海洋生物) in Florida Keys is negatively influenced by two forces: human activity and climate change. The former involves fishing, tourism and diving while the latter causes a large increase in intense hurricanes. Fortunately, when the researchers of Florida Museum of Natural History started looking for sea urchins (海胆) on the ocean floor off the coast of Florida Keys in the summer of 2020, they uncovered their population had relatively been stable since the 1960s.
The researchers visited 27 sites along a 20-mile stretch of coast near Florida Keys looking for tracks that reflected the presence of burrowing echinoids (穴居海胆类动物). “The findings that burrowing echinoids have been highly resilient (有适应力的) against climate change and environmental pollution over the last 60 years was a huge discovery for us.” said study co-author Tobias Grun.
Grun said, “However, we know little about their current distribution, population size, and health. The reason is not the lack of interest by the scientific community but lies in that fieldwork is very expensive.”
As the climate crisis progresses, it’s important to understand why some marine creatures are more resilient in bearing the impacts of a worsening environment than others. Grun said, “Evolution may be at play. Some marine animals are very opportunistic. They can tolerate a wide range of abiotic factors like pH, temperature, and salinity, to name a few.”
Grun added, “At this point, our data show that burrowing echinoids are more resilient than many other marine species and are doing comparatively well. That does not mean that we can push our luck and keep going the way we are right now. Our study provides some hope that these creatures are resilient, but much more work is needed to translate our findings into a larger scale. The reasons for their resilience are also widely unknown.”
1. Which has an effect on the marine life in Florida Keys?| A．Wildfire. | B．Pollution. | C．Fishing. | D．Flood. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Important. | C．Subjective. | D．Outdated |
| A．The goal. | B．The staff | C．The cost | D．The usage |
| A．It’s necessary to do further research. |
| B．It’s right to keep going the present way. |
| C．The reasons for sea urchins’ resilience are well known. |
| D．Fish are more resilient than other marine species. |
10 . It is not always easy to understand animal behavior, especially when it’s related to other species (物种). For decades, researchers have observed orca (虎鲸) attacking and even killing porpoises (鼠海豚) in the Pacific Northwest. But it confuses people that these expert hunters don’t eat them. So what’s going on here?
Southern Resident orcas are a different population of orcas that live in the Pacific Northwest. The lives of these orcas are closely tied to those of the salmon (鲑鱼). So if the salmon disappear, so too will the orca. But despite their preference for salmon, these whales are known to attack and kill other smaller marine mammals (海洋哺乳动物) without eating them.
To better understand this unusual behavior, an international team of researchers did a research and examined more than 60 years of recorded interactions between Southern Resident orcas and porpoises in the Salish Sea.
“Why don’t the Southern Residents just eat porpoises instead?” Deborah Giles of Wild Orca said. “It’s because fish-eating killer whales have a completely different ecology and culture from orcas that eat marine mammals. So we must conclude that their interactions with porpoises serve a different purpose, but this purpose has only been a guess until now.”
According to Giles and her colleagues’work, the orca may be attacking the porpoise as a form of social play. It is possible these large animals may be attacking the smaller mammals as a way to build up social cohesion (凝聚力). Similarly, the behavior could represent hunting practice, by which the orcas are practising their teamwork and cooperation skills for hunting salmon. Finally, the behavior could be a way of “mismothering” where the orca see the smaller porpoises as weaker or ill and so in need of care.
This work highlights the need for the protection of salmon populations in the area as well as the orcas’entire hunting range. The threat (威胁) to the salmon’s future is not just a threat to a single species, but an entire ecosystem.
1. Why did an international team of researchers do their study?| A．To find out a way to protect porpoises. |
| B．To make sure the reason why some orcas attack salmons. |
| C．To solve the problem of marine mammals’ living environment. |
| D．To better understand the strange behavior of Southern Resident orcas. |
| A．Porpoises. | B．Marine mammals. | C．Salmons. | D．Whales. |
| A．It’s a kind of social play with porpoises. |
| B．It is a practice to kill porpoises as their food. |
| C．The orcas may dislike the smaller porpoises. |
| D．It’s a way for the orcas to practice their hunting skills. |
| A．Positive. | B．Objective | C．Doubtful. | D．Uncertain. |
