Elephants may be known for their size and
Elephant
“Pai Lin was given up by her owner who felt that she was too slow and always painful
Tom Taylor, the group’s project director, added that elephants’ backs were not designed to carry heavy weight. Their spines go upwards. Continuous pressure on their backbones from tourists can result
2 . Last summer on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, Tina Taniguchi worked close to the ground. Her coconut leaf hat covered most of her thick brown hair. Wet soil had gotten on her clothes and her smiling face.
Taniguchi smiles a lot while working on the Hanapepe salt land on the west side of Kauai. It is a piece of land about half a hectare in size with pools of salty water. The salt becomes crystals (晶体)as the water dries.
“The work is tiring, but for me it’s also play,” Taniguchi said with a laugh. Taniguchi’s family is one of 22 families who make salt, following a cultural and spiritual tradition. Hanapepe is one of the last remaining salt lands in Hawaii. Its salt can be traded or given away but must never be sold. Hawaiians use it in cooking, healing, and as protection.
Over the past 10 years, there have been several threats to this field. They encompass development, pollution from a neighboring airfield, damage to the sand from vehicle traffic and waste left by visitors to the nearby beach. In addition, rising sea levels and weather might stop the practice.
The process of turning sea water into salt can be slow. The season begins once the rain stops and water starts to disappear from the salt beds. Ocean water travels underground and enters the wells. Each family has their own well. As water enters the well, so do tiny, red brine shrimp. These small ocean animals give Hanapepe salt its unusual, sweet taste.
The families first clean the salt beds and line them with black clay (陶土). Then they move water from the wells into the beds. There, salt crystals form. The top level, or layer, is the whitest. It is used for table salt. The middle layer is pinkish and is used in cooking, while the bottom layer, which is a deep red color, is used in blessings.
1. What do we know about Taniguchi?| A．She gives salt to others as a gift. | B．She works hard but with pleasure. |
| C．She has found a new way to make salt. | D．She fears old traditions will disappear. |
| A．Trade goods with it. | B．Use it as a treatment. |
| C．Make money from it. | D．Cook vegetables with it. |
| A．Prevent. | B．Include. | C．Improve. | D．Discover. |
| A．The special taste of the salt. | B．A thicker middle layer of salt. |
| C．More water in the wells. | D．A quicker process of making salt. |
1. Where is the weather forecast mainly about?
| A．The United States and Britain. |
| B．The United States and Canada. |
| C．Columbia and San Francisco. |
| A．58. | B．68. | C．78. |
| A．Sunny and warm. | B．Sunny and windy. | C．Cloudy and windy. |
| A．In the morning. | B．In the afternoon. | C．In the evening. |
4 . Architects often spend months or even years perfecting a design to express their ideas more clearly, convey additional information, or outline the right proportions for a building. However, the urgent issue of climate change is placing new demands on their work. For example, in July, Super Typhoon Doksuri battered China, affecting more than 2.66 million people in Fujian Province alone.
Green architecture that conserves energy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions offers a solution, and concerted efforts have been made in diverse research fields over the past three decades to minimize heat loss. In addition, new buildings have to be tailored to the needs of people’s lifestyles.
Ren Jun, a professor at Tianjin University’s School of Architecture, who designed the first near-zero energy house in China in December 2019, said, “You can construct low-energy, environmentally-friendly houses, but if the interior design and environmental quality don’t meet residents’ requirements, these properties won’t be suitable to live in.”
The near-zero energy house, located-in Banbidian village in Beijing’s southern district of Daxing, won the International Design Award in the United States in January last year. The 400-square-meter property, which stands at the entrance to the village, runs on solar power gathered from rooftop panels, with the addition of a small amount of power from the grid (电网).
Ren said the first obstacle to conserving energy in the property was heat retention, which he attempted to achieve by keeping the indoor temperature at a certain level. The property is divided into five areas: a solar garden in the front yard, a central lounge, a water courtyard, a sponge zone, and a back room. For the exterior walls, Ren used three types of insulation (隔热层), including plastic foam, each about 25 centimeters thick.
Ren also looked for ways to deal with emissions at the house. He decided to install a ventilator, which pipes air that is polluted and replaces it with fresh air from outside in every room at the property.
Ren said it would take three to five years before more ultralow or near-zero energy buildings appeared in Chinese cities.
1. Which is not an important factor for designing green houses?| A．Energy consumption. | B．Carbon emission. |
| C．People’s lifestyle. | D．Architecture style. |
| A．The house consumes little electricity. |
| B．The house is deliberately designed to keep heat. |
| C．The house is equipped with many intelligent facilities. |
| D．The house is the first International Design Award-winning building in China. |
| A．He designed the house in five stories to trap heat in it. |
| B．He applied 75 centimeters of plastic foam to exterior walls. |
| C．He tailored the interior design to the demand of local people. |
| D．He installed a ventilator to cut down carbon dioxide emissions. |
| A．Green Homes Offer Hope amid Climate Change |
| B．Green Houses Feature Near-Zero Energy Consumption |
| C．Ren Jun Won the International Design Award |
| D．China Strives for Low Carbon Strategy with Green Houses |
5 . Can the colors you choose for your home affect (影响) your feelings? Of course! Believe it or not, colors can have a great effect on how you feel, from your energy levels (精力水平) to happiness.
Red: The Color of Being Successful.
Red is a kind of color full of energy. It can raise your energy levels.
Yellow: The Color of Happiness.
Blue: The Color of Rest and Beauty.
Blue is the color of the sea and the sky. It makes you comfortable and always slows you down.
| A．It’s a color like fire. |
| B．I don’t like this color at all. |
| C．You’d better not choose this color. |
| D．It can be a perfect color for a room. |
| E．Blue can bring you the feeling of peace. |
| F．Yellow is known to be an exciting color. |
| G．There are three kinds of colors for your home. |
6 . African penguins live on the rocky coasts of South Africa, Namibia and nearby islands. Like other types of penguins, the birds have white feathers covering their chests and black feathers covering their backs. They form lifelong pair bonds with mates, but they nest in huge colonies — so, scientists wondered how the birds were able to identify their partners among the sea of black-and-white birds. They wondered if their chest spots had something to do with it. To test this theory, they studied 12 African penguins at a zoo and marine park near Rome called Zoomarine Italia.
In one test, they hung two life-size photographs of the African penguins. One showed a random member of the colony, while the other showed the test subject’s mate. The scientists recorded the birds’ interactions with the photos: How long did they spend looking at each one, as well as how much time did they spend standing near each photograph? The penguins spent more time gazing at the photo of their partners — about 23 seconds longer, on average — than looking at the other photo. They also stood next to the image of their beau s for twice as long. Then, the researchers covered up the heads of the birds in the photographs, leaving only their speckled bodies visible, and the penguins still lingered near their partners’ portraits.
In another experiment, the researchers hung up two photos of a bird’s mate — but, in one, they had digitally removed its spots. In this case, the penguin again spent more time looking at the photo with the dots.
Finally, the researchers posted two photographs of penguins with digitally removed spots — one of the test subject’s mate and the other of a random penguin from the colony. In this scenario, the penguins did not appear to recognize their partners. They spent roughly the same amount of time gazing at or standing near both photos.
Together, the results of these experiments suggest African penguins are zeroing in on their partners’ spots and using them like name tags, scientists say.
“Our results provide the first evidence of a specific visual cue responsible for spontaneous individual recognition by a bird and highlight the importance of considering all sensory modalities in the study of animal communication,” the researchers write in the paper.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．African penguins live on the rocky coasts of North Africa. |
| B．Scientists are curious about the African penguins. |
| C．African penguins have white feathers covering their backs. |
| D．Scientists studied 12 African penguins only at a zoo near Rome. |
| A．Their partners’ voice. | B．Their partners’ heads. |
| C．Their partners’ back feathers. | D．Their partners’ speckled bodies. |
| A．Losing sight of. | B．Taking delight in. |
| C．Paying attention to. | D．Speaking highly of. |
| A．In a science report. | B．In a travel brochure. |
| C．In a biology textbook. | D．In a fashion magazine. |
7 . A new study says that no matter how much the world cuts back on greenhouse gases, a large and important part of ice of Antarctica (南极洲) is expected to disappear.
Researchers used computer models to expect the future melting (融化) of protective ice around Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea in western Antarctica. They said the melting will take hundreds of years. It will slowly add nearly 1.8 meters to sea levels. And it will be enough to change where and how people live in the future.
The study found that even if future warming was limited to just a few tenths of a degree more, it would have limited power to prevent ocean warming that could lead to the breakdown of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Study lead writer Kaitlin Naughten is an expert on oceans at the British Antarctic Survey. She said their research suggests that Earth is set on the path to a quickly increasing speed of ocean warming and ice shelf melting over the rest of the century.
While past studies have talked about how serious the situation is, Naughten was the first to use computer modeling to study how warm water from below will melt the ice. The study looked at four different cases in how much greenhouse gases the world produces. In each case, ocean warming was just too much for this area of the ice to survive.
Naughten looked at floating areas of ice that hold back glaciers (冰川). Once these areas of ice melt, there is nothing to stop the glaciers behind them from flowing (流) into the sea.
The study also looked at what would happen if future warming was limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius over mid-19th century levels: the international goal. They found the rapid melting process in this case as well.
The world has already warmed about 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times and much of this summer went past the 1.5 degrees mark.
1. Which can best describe the findings of the study?| A．Cheerful. | B．Encouraging. | C．Misleading. | D．Disappointing. |
| A．Her research area. | B．Her research time. |
| C．Her research method. | D．Her research purpose. |
| A．They will flow into the sea. | B．They protect the Antarctic ice. |
| C．They have warmed about 1.2℃. | D．They disappear faster than other ice. |
| A．Ice in Parts of Antaretica Will Disappear | B．Climate Change Will Harm Humans |
| C．Sea Level Will Rise Suddenly in the Future | D．Limiting Greenhouse Gases Makes No Sense |
8 . Scientists have found a new way to break down a group of harmful chemicals very hard to get rid of. The discovery could help solve a dangerous and growing problem — how to clean up the pollution of “forever chemicals”.
The group of chemicals known as PFAS (全氟烷基物) are pretty amazing. They’re non-stick, waterproof, and oil proof. They don’t burn easily or dissolve (溶解) in water. So scientists got really excited when they were discovered. Businesses started putting PFAS in all sorts of products, from non-stick pans to waterproof clothes, and from fire-fighting spray to carpets that resist stains. Even things like food wrappers and floss for cleaning your teeth contain PFAS chemicals.
But after a while, scientists realized the same things that made the chemicals useful also caused a real problem — PFAS doesn’t break down in nature. It doesn’t dissolve in water or bum. Not even bacteria can break PFAS down. No wonder these chemicals are known as “forever chemicals”.
As a result, PFAS chemicals surge in the environment. The chemicals are found in air, water, and dirt around the world — and in animals and people. In the US, 97% of humans have PFAS in their blood.
Luckily, scientists in the US have now found a way to break down some PFAS chemicals. Their solution requires boiling PFAS with two other very common chemicals. These chemicals can be found in just about any laboratory.
Dr. Brittany Trang, one of the scientists involved, said she didn’t even want to test the idea at first. “I thought it was too simple,” she said. But the process worked.
The research involved 10 types of PFAS, including two of the most common kinds. That’s a big step. But there are over 12,000 different kinds of PFAS. It’s important to note that the new method can only break down PFAS chemicals that have already been collected. Figuring out how to remove PFAS chemicals from the environment and collect them remains a huge challenge.
1. What can we infer about PFAS chemicals from paragraph 2?| A．Scientists were so excited to invent them. |
| B．They were environmentally friendly at first. |
| C．They are really widely used in our daily life. |
| D．They have more advantages than disadvantages. |
| A．Increase fast. | B．Float everywhere. | C．Extend fully. | D．React quickly. |
| A．It’s already too late to get rid of them. |
| B．There’s still a long way to go about it. |
| C．The new method is too simple to work well. |
| D．It’s impossible to get them removed from the environment. |
| A．Say Goodbye to Forever Chemicals |
| B．PFAS Chemicals Are a Two-edged Sword |
| C．PFAS Chemicals Will Remain a Challenge for Long |
| D．Scientists Find a Way to Break down Forever Chemicals |
Every Lunar New Year, China introduces a zodiac(生肖) sign from a cycle of 12 lucky animals. This year, it’s the Year of the Dragon, or more
The Western
Therefore, some culture experts have been calling for a switch to ”loong”
10 . Hiking is tricky when you’re carrying a threatened species. Ally Whitbread carefully walked through the wilds while carrying a cooler full of small, rare snails —the Chittenango ovate amber snails.
“I feel like I’ve got 500 babies to take care of—just like a very crazy mother hen,” she said. Whitbread is part of a team transporting a lab-grown population to a new, remote home. The snails are facing extinction —only dozens are estimated to remain at one waterfall in upstate New York. “Such a recovery process can take years to decades. There are several things remaining to be unlocked during the process —what the action is going to bring, what role that species might play, and whether they might live well. We are just racing to better understand our planet’s biodiversity before the species die out.”
It took the scientists years to raise this population in the lab. The hike to a hidden waterfall is a chance to examine what makes them grow well in the wild, or what doesn’t. The snails don’t have any known unique features critical to humans, and it’s been a long journey just to attempt to save them. These efforts could figure out their hidden benefits.
Specialist Cody Gilbertson said the drive to save them can go deeper, not just the love for science. The creatures are no bigger than a fingertip and look up at their caregivers. “You know their big eyes are staring at you, like —there’s no way that you’re not going to kind of fall in love,” Gilbertson said.
Dropping them off at their new waterfall home wasn’t even the end —it’ll be another 5 years before the team knows whether the snails can survive there. They’ll go for a hike twice a month to track their progress.
1. How does Whitbread feel about the snails’ future?| A．Hopeful. | B．Uncertain. | C．Excited. | D．Disappointed. |
| A．To figure out their hidden benefits. |
| B．To observe their reproducing process. |
| C．To preserve the planet’s biodiversity. |
| D．To identify factors in their survival. |
| A．Open. | B．Develop. | C．Improve. | D．Uncover. |
| A．Their lovable appearance. | B．Their endangered state. |
| C．Their potential role. | D．Their growing conditions. |
