1 . According to a study conducted by UK scientists, there is something known as “plant blindness”. This leads to the common misconception that plants seem to be “less alive” as compared to animals.
Plant blindness was not proven to be what people were born with; rather, the severely reduced contact with nature in urbanized societies appeared to be the problem’s root. According to the research, a decline in relevant prior (先前的) experience with plants causes the cycle of inattention.
Urban civilizations display well-documented plant blindness. Kids are found to frequently think of plants as less superior to animals, especially when they’re young, and struggle to recognize a wide variety of species. Both teachers and students reported having different levels of plant knowledge, especially primary teachers without a science degree. Older people are more knowledgeable about plants because they are more likely to appreciate outdoor activities.
35 studies concluded that urbanization or modernization had a detrimental effect on plant knowledge. The usefulness of plant gathering was decreased by a greater dependency on urban services and a cash economy. The amount of time available to spend outdoors was reduced by work and school. These factors also decreased family time, which had a negative effect on verbally passing down plant knowledge to younger and older relatives.
Stagg said that instead of a cognitive (认知的) barrier to the visual perception of plants, people who live in highly industrialized countries have a lack of plant attention caused by a decline in relevant exposure to plants.
Stagg pointed out to break the cycle of plant awareness, people must be exposed to biodiverse environments and the key is to show that there are some direct advantages of plants to people as opposed to indirect advantages stemming from their use in industry or advantages to distant, traditional societies. Experiences with edible and practical plants in local environments can help with this. Younger generations’ level of botanical knowledge is directly correlated with how useful they think this knowledge is to them.
1. What causes “plant blindness”?| A．The plants have little attraction. | B．People lack contact with plants. |
| C．The plants have inactive characters. | D．People live an unhealthy lifestyle. |
| A．Teenagers interested in animals. | B．Experts devoted to agriculture. |
| C．Students majoring in biology. | D．Farmers working in the field. |
| A．Encouraging. | B．Harmful. | C．Joyful. | D．Temporary. |
| A．“Plant blindness” can be treated or reduced. |
| B．“Plant blindness” is bad for social development. |
| C．“Plant blindness” is something people are born with. |
| D．“Plant blindness” happens most in less developed countries. |
One sunny Saturday morning, I got ready for a hike with my classmates. I was so excited about it since it was my first time to go hiking. I ate a light breakfast just a few slices of bread and an egg. After that I grabbed my backpack and hurriedly ran out of my house and then met my classmates at the school gate. At that time I didn’t think that there would be a terrible disaster ahead.
The jungle (丛林) that we are going to was far from our area. Its name was Salymbia Jungle. The drive was 3 hours long but it was not a dull ride as we were all eager about the hike and we bad each other’s company. We appointed a guide and his name was Thomas. He said that he had hiked in the Salymbia Jungle lots of times, and he was familiar with the pathways. When we arrived, Thomas allowed us to begin. There were a wide variety of plants which I had never seen before. The smell of the jungle was so earthy. All of us were amazed by the beauty of the scenery and the sound of the creatures.
After a while we were walking and then I looked at my wrist (手腕) to check the time but then I realized my watch had fallen off. Then I walked back without telling anyone. I did not worry about getting lost since there were other persons behind and I thought I would have been able to catch up with my classmates. I went back searching the pathway and I lost track of time and lost sight of my classmates. I immediately realized that I was alone.
After I realized I was lost, the first thing I did was to check my phone to see how far away I was from my companions. However, I was having no luck because there was no network in my phone, which made my phone practically useless.
Paragraph 1: The sky started to become darker.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2: As I was falling asleep, I heard a human voice.
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3 . From 7 to 4,400, the protection of the crested ibis(朱鹮)is successful.
The crested ibis is an elegant bird with a red face and claws. During the breeding(繁殖)season, you may notice its white feather turning grey. The color change is due to a kind of black powdery substance(物质)the bird gives out at this special time.
However, its population around the world dropped rapidly in the 1960s due to the loss of living areas and the use of pesticides and fertilizers. Their low breeding ability and weak ability against natural enemies further pushed them to the brink of dying out.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, scientists thought the chances of bringing back the bird were not great. In 1963, Russia announced the bird’s dying out in the country and it hasn’t been seen on the Korean Peninsula since 1979.
There were only five wild crested ibises left in Japan in 1980. A captive(圈养的)breeding program was set up to increase the number of the group, but in 2003, Kin, Japan’s last crested ibis born in the wild, died. The only hope of saving the bird was left to China.
The crested ibis hadn’t been recorded in China since 1964. A group of five scientists still decided to find the bird’s historical living areas in 1978. Finally, in May 1981, a farmer in Yangxian County, Shaanxi said he had seen the bird and led the group to find the last seven crested ibises in the county.
Shortly after this exciting discovery, a special group was set up to protect the bird. The local government also stopped hunting, the use of fertilizers and pesticides, and land clearing near their living areas, which enabled the family of the crested ibis to enlarge. According to the incomplete data, its number in China in 2020 increased to about 4,400, with 4,100 located in Shaanxi, one of their biggest living areas. Its home range also increased from less than five square kilometers to 15,000. The crested ibis is among several species successfully saved from dying out.
1. What causes the crested ibis to change its color?| A．The weather change. | B．The environmental impact. |
| C．The need to guard against enemies. | D．The black substance produced in the body. |
| A．Costly. | B．Unsuccessful. | C．Instructive. | D．Traditional. |
| A．It is dying out. | B．It has a strong breeding ability. |
| C．China’s way to protect it works. | D．It can survive easily. |
| A．Rules of Protecting the Crested Ibis | B．Efforts to Protect the Crested Ibis |
| C．A Shared Value of Crested Ibis’s Protection | D．Problems of the Living Areas Faced by the Crested Ibis |
4 . One Christmas Eve, our birder friend called us with a request. “Do you have room in your car for a (n)
He dropped off the bird in a cardboard box and
Once or twice, our oldest son
I bent over my daughter to
| A．male | B．injured | C．single | D．healthy |
| A．ride | B．home | C．friend | D．ticket |
| A．confused | B．relaxed | C．worried | D．excited |
| A．in debt | B．in peace | C．in need | D．in shape |
| A．washed | B．covered | C．checked | D．marked |
| A．took off | B．gave up | C．set off | D．showed up |
| A．fell asleep | B．passed by | C．settled down | D．came alive |
| A．though | B．because | C．until | D．while |
| A．ignored | B．interrupted | C．remembered | D．witnessed |
| A．talk | B．refuse | C．touch | D．panic |
| A．turned around | B．ran away | C．stood up | D．dropped in |
| A．Finally | B．Generally | C．Suddenly | D．Gradually |
| A．happy | B．shocked | C．quiet | D．discouraged |
| A．justice | B．honour | C．warmth | D．freedom |
| A．protect | B．stop | C．warn | D．observe |
| A．sorrow | B．embarrassment | C．relief | D．amusement |
| A．trouble | B．opportunity | C．message | D．challenge |
| A．wheel | B．car | C．test | D．risk |
| A．necessary | B．impossible | C．fortunate | D．interesting |
| A．important | B．disappointing | C．difficult | D．unforgettable |
5 . Spiders don’t have ears like we do, and many have poor eyesight. But they can sense vibrations (振动). Instead of eardrums that turn soundwave pressure into signals for our brains, spiders hear using tiny, sensitive hairs that move in response to sounds.
Previously, researchers had measured how a single thin piece of spider silk moved in response to sounds in the air. They found that the web silk itself is really good at detecting sounds. In a new study, Ron Miles from Binghamton University and his co-authors provided the first evidence that spiders can pick up sounds in another way through their webs.
To study hearing in animals, researchers placed orb-weaving spiders, which are known to make large, wheel-shaped orb webs, in a specially designed quiet room. They tracked how the spiders reacted to different sounds played on a loudspeaker Depending on how loud the sound was, spiders stretched, turned or raised their forelegs. Researchers noticed that the spiders turned their bodies toward the sound, suggesting they knew where the noise originated.
The ability to use a web like a giant extended ear could help spiders detect prey (猎物). If an insect is flying nearby, for instance, “That’s going to cause the web to vibrate because of the sound,” Miles said “That kind of gets the spider’s attention.”
Spiders might even use their webs to tune in to a variety of sounds “We suspect that the spider is actually able to sort of adjust the tension in the web in order to pick up certain frequencies,” Miles said.
Most microphones today work by sensing pressure and turning it into an electronic signal. But in the natural world, “spiders aren’t sensing pressure.” Miles said “Most animals don’t hear that way, they sense the motion of the air” Future microphones, like those used in hearing aids, could be designed with this in mind.
1. What did the new study find?| A．Spiders do not have eardrums. | B．Spiders indeed have poor eyesight |
| C．Spiders rely on sensitive hairs to hear | D．Spiders can use their webs to detect sounds |
| A．How the study affected spiders. | B．How the study was conducted. |
| C．How loud the sound was in the study. | D．How spiders made the web in the study. |
| A．By shifting its position on the web. | B．By sensing different levels of pressure. |
| C．By changing the tension of its silk. | D．By making full use of different parts of its body. |
| A．It could help improve microphones. |
| B．It could bring attention to spider web-making. |
| C．It could highlight the role of electronic technology. |
| D．It could heighten public awareness of insect protection. |
1. Why did Tracy bring dogs to the children？
| A．To teach them to love anunals. |
| B．To help them gain confidence. |
| C．To protect them from dangers. |
| A．They may misbehave. |
| B．They may get huit. |
| C．They may carry diseases. |
| A．Give a talk. | B．Meet the children. | C．Take some photos. |
7 . In the office of remote sensing scientist Liu Shaochuang, there is a huge photograph of a camel he snapped a decade ago in Xinjiang. He crouched for hours by a pool of water in the Gobi Desert to capture the image.
Since 2012, he has led a team in tracking and studying wild camels using satellite remote sensing technology.
Unlike zoologists who focus on species, Liu has studied the interrelationship between endangered animals and their environment, which he believes will help develop better protection strategies in the face of climate change.
His interest in wild camels began when his team tested a prototype(雏形)design of the lunar rover Yutu in the desert. Living in the harsh deserts in northwestern China and southwestern Mongolia, camels are listed as critically endangered animals. Experts estimate that the population of this species is currently less than 1, 000, of which around 650 are in China.
“Ten years ago, the research relied solely on human observation, which was very primitive, ”Liu says. Because camels are fully migratory and can travel over long distances, scientists used to learn their habits by studying hoof prints and droppings. It was hard to find one camel in the desert, let alone track it. But Liu thought his expertise in satellite navigation(导航)and remote sensing might come in useful in the study of wild camels.
It was not easy at first. Liu learned zoology from scratch. His team had to spend several weeks each year braving dust and sandstorms in the vastness of the Gobi Desert seeking out camels. A scar on his right eyebrow is the result of a rollover accident on a rugged mountain road in Xinjiang.
“The most exciting moment was attaching a satellite positioning collar to a wild camel. ”The tracking collar, equipped with special receivers, weighs only a few hundred grams. It can detach automatically and will not have a negative impact on the daily lives of the animals. The locations of the tracked animals are transmitted via satellite every day. Based on the data, scientists can get to know their migratory paths, living environments and possible threats they may meet with.
For Liu, it is worth the significant sci-tech effort to study such a rare species. He adds wildlife protection and research will become more precise and efficient with the help of technology.
1. What was it that made tracking wild camels difficult?| A．The number of camels experienced a sharp decline. |
| B．Massive migration made camels cover huge distances. |
| C．Primitive tools were used in human observation. |
| D．Hoof prints and droppings were never to be seen. |
| A．His carelessness in carrying out his research. |
| B．His inexperience at the very beginning of his work. |
| C．The rough conditions under which he worked. |
| D．The stress he met with in his work. |
| A．The formation of the tracking collar. |
| B．The definition of the tracking collar. |
| C．The importance of the tracking collar. |
| D．The function of the tracking collar. |
| A．Generous and ambitious. | B．Confident and grateful. |
| C．Creative and determined. | D．Optimistic and modest. |
8 . Acid rain is very harmful to the environment because it makes living things die. Acid rain affects life in the water as well as life on the land. It is even worse in the water because the fish need the water to breathe. When the water gets polluted, the fish get sick and end up dying.
All rainwater contains some level acidity. Acidity is measured by PH, which stands for potential of hydrogen(氢). The PH scale measures the amount of acid in a substance. PH is measured on a scale from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral(中性的). The lower the number is on the PH scale, the more acidic that substance is. Normal rainwater has a PH of 5. 6. When the PH level of rainwater goes below 5. 6, it is considered acid rain.
All of the sea life will die when the water becomes too acidic. For example, all fish will die when the water goes below a PH of 4. 5. Most of the frogs and insects that live around the water will also die when the water reaches a PH of 4. 5. When the water has a PH of 5. 5, all of the bottom-dwelling bacterial decomposers(分解体), animals that eat the remains of the food that other animals don’t want, will begin to die. When these decomposers die, they will leave the under-composed food on the bottom. This will make the water dirty and polluted. All fresh water shrimps(虾) will die when the water has a PH of 6. 0. Aquatic plants will grow the best when the water has a PH between 7. 0 and 9. 2. If the acid rain problem gets worse. all of the sea life will eventually be gone.
1. What can we know about acid rain?| A．It does more harm to life in the water than on land. |
| B．It will kill the living things as soon as it touches them. |
| C．It is rainwater which contains any amount of acidity. |
| D．It is a substance which has potential of hydrogen. |
| A．All fish. | B．Frogs and insects. |
| C．Bacterial decomposers. | D．Fresh water shrimps. |
| A．if the PH of rainwater is 5. 6, all of the sea life will be gone |
| B．if the PH of sea water is below 7. 0, it is not a problem |
| C．if the PH of rainwater is below 5. 6, it is dangerous |
| D．if the PH of sea water is below 4. 5, some of the sea fish can’t die |
| A．The definition of acid rain. | B．How to measure rainwater’s PH level. |
| C．The effects that acid rain has on sea life. | D．How to protect sea life from acid rain. |
Alexis Langlois, who manages a large farm, heard her neighbor crazily knocking on her front door on a Monday afternoon.
“There’s an emergency”, Amber Countryman yelled. “The horses are stuck in the water.” Langlois was struck with “absolute panic”. She threw on her winter boots — without socks — and rushed toward the small pond on the 80-acre property. She was surprised by what she saw: four horses were in the water up to their necks in 10 feet of ice water.
She immediately called 911.While waiting for help to arrive, “people just started showing up,” she said. “Neighbors were pouring in. People came with ropes, chainsaws, shovels and pick axes.”
“I grabbed a bunch of supplies,” said Countryman, whose two teenagers and their friend also as sited with the effort.
“It was-8℃that day,” she said, adding that she brought out handwarmers and water for the helpers.
Everyone was determined to get the horses out of the pond — which is about 15feetwide.
Beneath a six-inch layer of ice, the water was “just barely above freezing”, said Chris Yerkes, the South Kalispell Fire Department chief who rushed to the pond with about a dozen volunteer personnel.
When the firefighters arrived, neighbors had already attempted to pave a path through the ice toward the edge of the pond using pick axes, sledgehammers and shovels, and “we continued with that effort.” Yerkes said. Unfortunately, “as we got closer to the edge, we realized there was about three to four inches of mud.”
The thick layer of mud — which the rescuers couldn’t cut through — blocked the horses from climbing out. Firefighters enlisted additional support from Flathead County Animal Control, as well as staff from local equestrian organization Rebecca Farm.
“There had to have been at least 60 people here,” Langlois said. “It was very swift action on everybody’s part.”
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1
It took nearly two hours to find a workable solution that could bring all four horses to safety.
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Paragraph 2
To get the horses out, they used a powerful tractor (拖拉机) to get the animals out of the mud and ropes to pull them over the edge.
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10 . It’s obvious that plastic pollution is a big problem nowadays. Luckily, researchers have found a chemical from a kind of worm can degrade one of the most common forms of plastic. The finding could open up new ways to deal with the problem.
There have been several studies showing microorganisms can release enzymes (酶) that cause the plastic polyethylene (聚乙烯) to start to change. But that process takes a long time. The recently-discovered enzymes were found in the saliva (唾液) of the wax worm moth. They appear to act in only a few hours.
Federica Bertocchini is one of the researchers who helped write a study on the finding. She is also a beekeeper. Bertocchini said that one year she found her honeycombs full of wax worms. Honeycombs are built by bees to store honey. She cleaned the honeycombs and put the worms in a plastic bag. When she returned, she found the bag was full of holes. All this made her wonder if the worms were eating the plastic or if there was a chemical reaction that caused the holes, leading to the idea of the research.
“We checked that, doing proper lab experiments, and we found the polyethylene had been oxidized (氧化),” she said.
In her latest research, Bertocchini and her coworkers identified two enzymes in the worm’s saliva. The enzymes appeared to break down polyethylene in only a few hours at room temperature. Bertocchini says her team is still trying to understand how the worms deal with the plastic. She adds, hopefully in the future, the enzymes can be used in homes, where each family could deal with their own plastic waste.
1. What does the underlined word “degrade” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Break down. | B．Bring forth. | C．Compete with. | D．Pick out. |
| A．They’re easily available. | B．They can be produced at home. |
| C．They function very fast. | D．They can be applied to all plastics. |
| A．How Bertocchini found the enzymes. | B．Why Bertocchini cleaned the honeycombs. |
| C．How Bertocchini took care of the honeycombs. | D．How Bertocchini came up with the idea of the research. |
| A．They will work at room temperature. | B．People can make them on their own. |
| C．They will solve all plastic pollution. | D．They will become a household product. |
