1 . Do animals have feelings?

People often assign feelings to animals. That zoo polar bear’s vacant stare must mean he’s sad. The uh-oh expression a dog flashes after knocking over the garbage indicates shame. But scientists haven’t determined whether these human-like expressions really mean anything. After all, it’s very difficult to read a dog’s mind.

Scientists believe that certain brain cells in humans called spindle cells (棱形细胞) are responsible for human social behavior and the interplay between thoughts and feelings. Studies have revealed that chimpanzee, dolphin and whale brains also possess spindle cells.     1    

Even animals that don’t have spindle cells, such as dogs, have shown behaviors that can suggest a human-like social sense.     2     Scientists report that this shows dogs are sensitive to human social cues and are able to correctly interpret them. Still, this only proves that dogs know how to find food, not that they have feelings.

Observations of apes have also revealed behavior that appears to represent various human-like desires. In some tests, chimpanzees demonstrate what looks like altruism (利他主义) helping their own kind and even other species without the expectation of a reward.

    3     In a recent study, a Barnard College researcher tested dogs to see if their guilty looks were linked to actual bad behavior. Dogs were tempted with a treat and told by their owners not to eat it. The dog’s owners weren’t allowed to see whether their pets had eaten the treat or not, but were told either that they did or that they didn’t, and were then instructed to scold the dogs that disobeyed. The experimenters noted that scolded dogs showed a guilty look whether or not they had actually done wrong.

    4     A guilty look suggests a feeling of guilt in a human but not necessarily in a dog, according to the Barnard research. Similarly, even apparent empathy (共情) behavior might not actually mean these feelings are present in the brains of animals.

A．Although these are all animals that can act people-like, the presence of these cells does not mean that the animals have feelings.

B．Anyone who claims to know what animals feel doesn’t have science on their side.

C．In recent experiments, dogs have shown that they know to follow a human’s pointed finger to find a food treat.

D．Many people think that empathy is a special emotion only humans show.

E．Other experiments have cast doubt that animal behavior can reliably signify an underlying feeling.

F．This illustrates the difficulty in accurately interpreting animal behavior as a marker of human-like feelings.

3 . Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Should we be rewilding more land?

Every day in the US, 6,000 acres of open land are cleared for various purposes such as farming, housing, roads, and others. This has led to concerns among scientists     1     believe that losing more open land can harm the planet. Natural habitats such as untouched forests, grasslands, and waterways provide numerous benefits     2     wildlife habitats, clean water, and reduced air pollution. To counter this trend, efforts are underway     3     the world to return animals and plants to certain areas. However, some people argue that rewilding is     4     expensive and risky process that may not work and could cause harm.

Despite the potential risks, rewilding can help slow down climate change by restoring forests that absorb harmful gases like carbon dioxide. It can also prevent species from     5    (die) out and reset natural ecosystems. For example, gray wolves     6    (reintroduce) in Yellowstone National Park in 1995, after being hunted to extinction there. The wolves reduced the booming population of elks (麋鹿),     7     gave the plants the elks ate a chance to thrive and serve as habitat for animals like beavers and birds.

    8     its environmental benefits, rewilding can also provide jobs for workers and scientists and attract visitors to an area. Despite the potential concerns and risks     9    (associate) with rewilding, it is an important tool for protecting the planet and its diverse ecosystems. As such, efforts     10     be made to ensure that rewilding projects are conducted responsibly and with careful consideration of their potential impact on the environment.

4 . Greening the blue

Is there a “natural” way to enhance the potential of the oceans to lock away climate-warming CO₂? Planting more trees on land can help draw down more CO₂ from the atmosphere—the basis of many plans for carbon credits that companies buy to offset their emissions (抵消其排放).     1     Seaweed forests and saltmarshes (盐碱滩) are common examples.

Some regard the potential for this “blue carbon” as huge, although as yet there is no mechanism for integrating it into carbon offsetting plans. John Virdin of Duke University in North Carolina says, “    2    ” He adds, “You have to go out and measure all the carbon that’s there, you have to show that it’s not going to be lost, you have to keep monitoring it.” Virdin and others have proposed extending an existing land-based plan called REDD + (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) to the ocean, but that is an idea whose ship has yet to sail.

    3     In March, the UK government’s climate adviser, the Climate Change Committee, found that restoring and creating seagrass and saltmarsh ecosystems in the country would only lock away a small amount of CO₂, removing “well below” 1 million tonnes a year. Nonetheless, these are efficient carbon stores according to the committee.     4    

A．Using the oceans as a solution to climate change is hardly a new idea.

B．There is still some doubt about how big the marine offsetting effect might be.

C．It’s really hard to turn blue carbon conservation and restoration into carbon credits that you can sell.

D．Something similar might work in the oceans, by stimulating the growth of marine and coastal ecosystems.

E．And conserving them is important given how much fishing and other activities have degraded them.

F．The big objection to all these plans is the possibility of negative environmental side effects.

5 . More than three billion people rely on the ocean to make a living, most of whom are in developing countries. As the global population increases, the demand for seafood is expected to rise, too.

Although ocean ecosystems are stretched to the limit by climate change, overfishing and more, studies nevertheless suggest that seafood can be expanded sustainably to meet future food demands. Success will depend on small-scale fisheries. These fisheries can be remarkably efficient. Almost everything that hand-to-mouth fisheries catch is consumed. By contrast, around 20% of the fish caught by industrial ships is estimated to be wasted, mainly because of unwanted by-catch.

Small fishers rarely have the right resources to expand their operations, or even to survive. If they do scale up, they might lose some of their current advantages or engage in the same harmful practices as do large commercial fisheries. Managed with care, however, small fisheries could provide win-wins for livelihoods and the environment.

Most nations already have management policies for marine ecosystems that provide for small-scale fisheries. But small-scale fishers’ rights to access are often poorly defined, ineffectively enforced or unfairly distributed (分配). Government subsidies (补贴) also require reform. One estimate found that large-scale fishers receive about 3.5 times more subsidies than small-scale fishers do. Instead, subsidies and other funds should be directed towards small-scale fishers to let them expand their access to markets, while keeping them from adopting the negative practices of large-scale operations.

The total global loss and waste from fisheries is estimated at between 30% and 35% annually primarily due to a lack of technology, good manufacturing practices, and infrastructure such as decent roads and cold storage. Public and private investment in cold-storage facilities and processing equipment could help. One promising strategy is to pair international or national funding with direct contracts for feeding programmes linked to schools, hospitals and similar facilities. Such arrangements would provide small fisheries with large, consistent markets and storage infrastructure that boosts local consumption and does not incentivize (刺激) overfishing.

Moreover, simple incentive programmes could be conducted by funders, managers and local governments trying to promote sustainable fisheries. For example, local markets could display a rating system for individual fishers or small fisheries. This could include various elements of sustainability other than environmental ones — such as providing information on the type of fishing equipment, location of the catch and freshness. Promoting the rating as a social responsibility concept would inform consumers of the need to support sustainable fisheries.

Anyway, only joint problem-solving efforts can deliver seafood protein, sustainably, to a world that increasingly needs it.

1. The passage mainly tells us that ________.

A．small fisheries can help the world if managed with care

B．the global demand for seafood is increasing dramatically

C．small-scale fisheries need to be commercialised urgently

D．people in developing countries are more reliable on fishing

2. Small-scale fisheries are more efficient because ________.

A．what they catch is hardly wasted	B．their by-catch accounts for a larger share
C．they catch fish by industrial means	D．their operation is limited within a small area

3. What can be inferred about small fisheries’ current situation?

A．They gain no support from governments.	B．They are expanding to meet local demands.
C．They have little access to good resources.	D．They impact marine ecosystems negatively.

4. To promote sustainable fisheries, which of the following is one of the author’s suggestions?

A．To initiate a rating system for small fishers to evaluate the local markets.

B．To provide technology for small fisheries to boost their fishing efficiency.

C．To inspire a sense of social responsibility in large-scale fishers and consumers.

D．To facilitate direct cooperation between small fisheries and feeding programmes.

6 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Tall, young and active

November 14, 1963 was a cold morning. This was nothing out of the ordinary for the fisherman. They were used to the winter weather around Iceland. Suddenly, however, they saw something unusual. Thick, black smoke was pouring out of the sea.     1     (think) a boat was on fire, they raced toward it. Yet as they got closer, they realized it was     2     quite different. Magma (岩浆) was rubbing away from the ocean floor. The fishermen watched as a new island rose from the sea. This island, later     3     (name) Surtsey, joined the thousands of volcanic islands worldwide.

The island of Hawaii is one of the most well-known volcanic islands. Lava (熔岩) from multiple volcanoes built this island. One of these volcanoes is Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea began under the ocean over 1 million years ago. Magma broke through the Earth’s crust- that is, the outer layer of the earth.     4     the magma cooled, it formed an underwater mountain. About 100,000 years ago, the mountain rose     5     sea level. Eruption (喷发) then became more frequent and more violent. Layers of lava hardened into rock. Now, Mauna Kea     6     (measure) 9,966 meters from ocean floor to mountain peak, making it the world’s highest mountain.

Fortunately for Hawaiians, Mauna Kea volcano is quiet - for the time being.     7     volcano on the same island is anything but quiet. Kilauea is smaller than Mauna Kea. However, it has erupted nonstop since 1983 and is the world’s most active volcano,     8     produces between 300,000 and 600,000 m² of lava every day. Over the past two decades. It     9     (add) more than 540 acres to the island. In spite of the danger, it is a popular tourist attraction. Yet,     10     this popular tourist attraction contributes to the Hawaiian economy financially also comes at a cost. Kilauea is responsible for taking both lives and homes.

7 . For most birds, eyes are essential to life on the fly. _________ when studying how birds might adapt to our quickly changing world, ornithologists (鸟类学家) have largely overlooked eye size in favor of traits such as wing length and beak shape. Now, though, a lost “treasure trove” (宝库) of avian (鸟的) eyeball measurements offers a new view.

In 1982 University of Chicago graduate student Stanley Ritland carefully _________ the eyeballs of nearly 2,800 species. He never published his data, but Ian Ausprey, a graduate student at University of Florida, has just given it a second look. His analysis _________ previous work in Peru showing that smaller-eyed birds adapt better to changing habitats.

“We’re able to show strong correlations between eye size, the type of _________ the birds use, as well as their food-searching behavior,” Ausprey says. Ritland’s measurements indicated an inverse relation between eye and _________ size. Birds with smaller eyes tended to be _________, traveling across many habitats; larger-eyed species had _________ ranges, concentrated around the equator (赤道) and often covered by dense forest shade. The study suggests that smaller-eyed birds can _________ handle varying light levels as they travel, whereas larger-eyed birds struggle with bright light outside of their dim woodlands.

Ausprey had already seen this _________ in Peru’s mountainous cloud forests. In these biodiversity hotspots, he says, “eye size is __________ related to how birds respond to agricultural disturbance.” Larger-eyed birds tend to __________ from brightly-lit agricultural and deforested landscapes; smaller-eyed birds adapt. The new study __________ Ausprey’s Peru observations to a wider variety of birds elsewhere, including parrots and woodpeckers.

Allison Shultz, an ornithologist involved in the research, praises it for highlighting the importance of birds’ light __________. Her own work has found a link between bird coloration and environmental light, and she looks forward to future research exploring how light pollution and deforestation might further shape bird eyes. “I’d be very curious if we’re actually seeing eyes __________ to better match newer light environments,” Shultz adds.

Ausprey says the study underscores the importance of __________ habitats across the light-availability spectrum (光谱), especially areas of dense rain forests, to protect birds with eyes of all sizes from habitat loss.

1.

A．So

B．Yet

C．Instead

D．Even

2.

A．measured

B．observed

C．tracked

D．recognized

3.

A．rejects

B．opposes

C．supports

D．overthrows

4.

A．habitat

B．tool

C．direction

D．source

5.

A．body

B．city

C．prey

D．range

6.

A．picky

B．stationary

C．migratory

D．inflexible

7.

A．looser

B．tighter

C．wider

D．longer

8.

A．roughly

B．carelessly

C．routinely

D．effortlessly

9.

A．play out

B．pull out

C．take out

D．hold out

10.

A．logically

B．strongly

C．indirectly

D．negatively

11.

A．survive

B．recover

C．reproduce

D．disappear

12.

A．compares

B．owes

C．expands

D．contributes

13.

A．exposure

B．level

C．nature

D．distinction

14.

A．enlarging

B．dropping

C．evolving

D．lifting

15.

A．locating

B．disrupting

C．adapting

D．conserving

8 . Everybody loves to hate invasive species. The international list of invasive species—defined as those that were introduced by humans to new places, and then _________ — runs to over 4,000. In Australia and New Zealand hot war is fought against introduced creatures like cane toads (蔗蟾蜍) and rats.

Some things that are uncontroversial (无争议的) are nonetheless foolish. With a few important exceptions, campaigns to   _________ invasive species are merely a waste of money and effort — for reasons that are partly practical and partly philosophical.

Start with the practical arguments. Most invasive species are neither terribly successful nor very _________ . Britons think themselves surrounded by foreign plants. _________ , Britain’s invasive plants are not widespread, not spreading especially quickly, and often less of a(n) _________ than vigorous native plants. The arrival of new species almost always _________ biological diversity (多样性) in a region; in many cases, a flood of newcomers drives no native species to extinction. One reason is that invaders tend to colonise _________ habitats like polluted lakes and post-industrial wasteland, where little else lives. They are nature’s opportunists.

The philosophical reason for starting war on the invaders is also _________. Elimination campaigns tend to be   _________ by the belief that it is possible to restore balance to nature — to return woods and lakes to the state before human   ____________ . That is misguided. Nature is an everlasting mess, with species constantly emerging, withdrawing and hybridizing (杂交). Humans have only quickened these processes. Going back to ancient habitats is becoming ____________ in any case, because of man-made climate change. Taking on the invaders is a(n) ____________ gesture, not a means to an achievable end.

A reasonable attitude to invaders need not imply passivity. A few foreign species are truly ____________ and should be fought: the Nile perch – a fish, has helped drive many species of fish to extinction in Lake Victoria. It makes sense to ____________ pathogens (病菌), especially those that destroy whole native tree species, and to stop known agricultural pests from gaining a foothold. Fencing off wildlife reserves to create open-air ecological museums is fine, too. And it is a good idea for European gardeners to destroy Japanese plants, just as they give no space to native harmful grasses like bindweed and ground elder. You can garden in a garden. You cannot garden ____________ . That is universally accepted.

1.

A．multiplied

B．shrunk

C．disappeared

D．harvested

2.

A．conserve

B．eliminate

C．investigate

D．prioritize

3.

A．healthy

B．intentional

C．harmful

D．profitable

4.

A．As a result

B．For example

C．By contrast

D．In fact

5.

A．attraction

B．dominance

C．annoyance

D．substitute

6.

A．increases

B．destroys

C．reveals

D．targets

7.

A．oppressed

B．disturbed

C．cultivated

D．preserved

8.

A．acceptable

B．needless

C．mistaken

D．convincing

9.

A．fueled

B．organized

C．interrupted

D．greeted

10.

A．civilization

B．interference

C．interaction

D．maintenance

11.

A．tolerable

B．impossible

C．beneficial

D．critical

12.

A．reluctant

B．disorderly

C．invalid

D．unbalanced

13.

A．damaging

B．flexible

C．doubtful

D．outstanding

14.

A．pick up

B．take in

C．keep out

D．turn down

15.

A．agriculture

B．vegetation

C．atmosphere

D．nature

9 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

There are many reasons why some cats are bad-tempered; their temperament can be influenced by their upbringing or they are simply born that way. However, even the sweetest, most affectionate cats can suddenly become bad-tempered and behave out of character. According to veterinarian Dr Katrina Warren, the problem can generally be solved, but you’ll need to look for underlying issues.

Changes in a cat’s behaviour can often be explained by a health problem. Pain can cause cats to behave very differently, and it’s easy to mistake a problem as behavioural, when in fact it is medical. Should you observe a significant change in your cat’s behaviour, then a visit to the vet is the best place to start? Watch out for changes in eating, drinking or litter-box habits. Also hiding and avoiding being touched. Be sure to report all changes to your vet. There are many cat health problems that can be readily treated to ease symptoms and pain for your cat.

It pays to remember that cats don’t like to share or queue. Sharing of ‘resources’ such as litter trays and foodbowls can cause stress and anxiety for many cats. It’s always a good idea to provide each cat with their own litter box, food, water bowls and bed as a minimum. One litter box for each cat plus a spare is even better, as are multiple sleeping spots and extra scratching posts. A lack of space to hide from or avoid other cats, competition for territory and lack of individual attention can also add to household friction. If your cat is feeling anxious, offering it an elevated place to sit, such as a climbing tree, can be helpful.

Moving to a new house, the arrival of a new baby, new pets and other types of change can seriously impact cat behaviour. Cats are creatures of habit and tend to be territorial, so a change in routine may cause them to react in a number of ways, including withdrawal or aggression. Try to keep your cat’s environment as calm as possible and make sure there are places where they feel safe. Sometimes confining them to a single room with a litter box, bedding and home comforts can help them to settle.

Some cats simply do not like being touched and handled. These are often cats that received limited socialisation with humans when they were kittens. These cats do best in a quiet household without children and need understanding and patience to help build their confidence.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10 . Huizhou Architecture Comes to Life

Huizhou has a long history. When successful Huizhou businessmen got old,they often went back to their hometown and built houses to spend their remaining years.    1    Now, walking along the bluestone streets there,visitors can appreciate the distinctive Huizhou-style houses,featuring white walls,dark tiles (瓦片) and layered horse-head roofs, and feel like they are lost in a traditional Chinese ink painting.

Huizhou architecture, with its long tradition and great diversity, occupies an important place in Chinese architectural landscape, says Zhang Wangnan, director of the China Huizhou Culture Museum in Huangshan. Huizhou houses tend to be built on the natural places, since Huizhou is a mountainous area with few flat areas of land, according to Zhang. Moreover, daylight is valued in Huizhou houses, reflected in the building of open interior courtyards, allowing sunshine to enter the rooms. “Huizhou businessmen also believed that water symbolizes wealth.    2    It stands for keeping windfall profits,” says Zhang.

Huizhou is famous for its stone, wood and brick carvings, which are widely used to decorate local houses. “    3    In this way,they integrate their aesthetic (审美) values and emotions into the buildings,making them more beautiftul and educating their children through the meanings contained in the patterns,” says Zhang.

    4     “If you look at the outside of a Huizhou house, it seems simple, enclosed by walls, but the insides are open and broad, with complicated decorations. It is just like Huizhou people, who are often reserved toward strangers but friendly when you get to know them.” says Zhang. He also says that Ming houses differ from those of the QingDynasty in many aspects, for example, having fewer horse-head roofs and less complicated carvings.

A．When it rains, water falling on the roof soon flows to the courtyard.

B．Many of their houses are well-preserved today, especially in Xidi and Hongcun.

C．To talk about Huizhou culture, we must first understand Huizhou.

D．People carved beautiful patterns and historical stories on the walls, windows and wooden posts of their houses.

E．Features of Huizhou houses display the characteristics of local people.

F．Huizhou people have established many schools in the field of culture.