1 . Michael Gonsalves, a chef of Golden Oak at Disney World, has a cuisine concept rooted in fresh, locally-sourced ingredients that originated from childhood harvesting produce from their family garden with his mom to eventually leading kitchens at Walt Disney World Resorts to employ a sustainable model.
“Truly the whole process starts with menu planning,” he said. Creating one dish leads into the creation of many more through the end-to-end use of products. As chefs, they are always searching for the best ingredients. It is then their focus to ensure they appreciate and respect all that go into each and every one of them. For example, they source chicken that is naturally grown and fed on a natural plant forward diet, no hormones (激素) or additives — that’s used in many ways throughout menus from a simple grilled chicken breast to bone soup. Nothing goes to waste.
When they do have waste, even if minimal, they shift it from landfills to transform it into compost (堆肥) that’s then used across the Walt Disney World property. They also support Second Harvest, a local community food bank where healthy produce, prepared, but not served, meals eatable for human consumption are donated. Disney also works with pig farmers when they can’t distribute foods past the point of safety for human consumption. Besides, wildlife reservations love to get the meat because tigers and wild cats can still eat that.
Their operations are “on a path to a sustainable zero waste kitchen of tomorrow” where chefs learn the full-life cycle of plants from seed to plate and gain a better understanding and appreciation for the product and their craft.
Golden Oak at Disney has millions of bees that produce up to 300 pounds of honey per year, plus those bees help with cross pollination (授粉) of their gardens on a daily basis. They advocate a culture that helps develop not only the quality of food, but an appreciation for nature.
1. Where did Michael Gonsalves’ idea about cuisine come from?| A．His mom’s suggestions. | B．His dream of becoming a chef. |
| C．His interest in delicious food. | D．His labor experience as a child. |
| A．They are grilled to eat. | B．They are used to the fullest. |
| C．They are divided into groups. | D．They are selected by quality. |
| A．Give examples about zero waste. |
| B．Introduce the unique habit of wildlife. |
| C．Stress the importance of natural food. |
| D．Explain the operation mode of the food bank. |
| A．Disney World:New Cuisine Road |
| B．Michael Gonsalves:Creative Chef |
| C．Michael Gonsalves:Advocate of Food Diversity |
| D．Disney World:Pioneer in Environmental Protection |
2 . One man’s trash is another man’s treasure is absolutely the case in Turkey where garbage collectors started collecting books that have been thrown away and ended up opening a library.
It started when garbage man Durson Ipek found a bag of abandoned books when he was working and then it snowballed from there. Ipek and other garbage men started gathering the books they found on the streets that were ready for landfills (垃圾填埋地) and as their collection started to grow, so did word of mouth. Soon, local residents started donating books directly. The library was initially available only to the garbage employees and their families to use but as the collection grew, so did public interest and the library was opened to the public in 2017.
“On the one hand, there were those who were leaving these books on the streets. On the other hand, others were looking for these books,” Ankaya mayor Alper Tasdelen told CNN. “We started to discuss the idea of creating a library from these books. When everyone supported it, this project happened.”
All the books that are found are sorted and checked for condition. If they pass, they go on the shelves. Today, the library has over 6,000 books that range from fiction to nonfiction and there’s a very popular children’s section that even has a collection of comic books. An entire section is devoted to scientific research and there are also books available in English and French. The collection has grown so large that the library loans books to schools and educational programs.
“Village school teachers from all over Turkey are requesting books,” Tasdelen told CNN. The government has to hire a full-time employee to manage the library.
This library is incredibly popular. It is frequently filled with the children of the city’s workers and students from nearby schools. There is a waiting room set up for readers and chess boards for the people who visit the library. You can even enjoy a cup of tea in the waiting room.
1. What does the underlined word “snowballed” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Declined quickly. | B．Grew slowly. | C．Developed rapidly. | D．Worsened steadily. |
| A．Its great popularity. | B．Its potential significance. |
| C．Its huge collection of books. | D．Its wide variety of readers. |
| A．To raise people’s awareness of recycling. | B．To classify and check the donated books. |
| C．To expand the social influence of the library. | D．To meet the huge demand from rural teachers. |
| A．It’s an excellent place to enjoy tea. | B．It’s crowded with readers every day. |
| C．It needs to improve its management. | D．It provides a very considerate service. |
3 . The science of why insects gather around lights at night has never been nailed down. Popular theories propose that moths and other insects navigate (导航) by the moon and mistake lamps for moonlight, or that the insects fly towards light to escape coming danger. Now researchers believe they have a more convincing answer: contrary to current theories, insects are not attracted to light from far away, but become trapped if they fly close to an artificial light source.
According to Dr Sam Fabian, study co-author and Imperial College London entomologist, moths and many other insects that fly at night evolved to tilt (倾斜) their backs to wherever is brightest. For hundreds of millions of years, this was the sky rather than the ground. The trick told insects which way was up and ensured they flew level. But then came artificial lighting. Moths found themselves tilting their backs to street lamps. This caused them to circle around the lamps endlessly, the insects trapped by their evolution.
Fabian and his colleagues filmed insect flight paths around lights in the lab. The videos reveal that time and again, moths and dragonflies turned their backs to artificial lights, which appeared to greatly change their flight paths. If the light is above them, they might start orbiting it, but if it’s behind them, they start tilting backwards and end up flying in circles or diving toward the ground.
Researchers have long warned that light pollution is a big driving force in the dramatic decline in insect populations. Moths and other insects that become trapped around lamps become easily caught by bats. The artificial lighting can also fool them into thinking it is daytime, causing them to bed down and skip a night’s feeding.
There are, Fabian believes, helpful lessons from the research. “What this tells us is that the direction of artificial light matters. Could we change lighting environments to not trap insects? For we’re facing a massive decline in insects around the world, and artificial light at night is one of the factors that could potentially be leading to this decline,” Fabian said.
1. What do the underlined words “nailed down” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Popularized widely. | B．Discussed openly. |
| C．Defined accurately. | D．Explored academically. |
| A．they can’t keep their balance. |
| B．they use improper flight attitude. |
| C．they lose track of which way is up. |
| D．they are attracted to lights from far away. |
| A．It may lead to better conservation of insects. |
| B．Natural enemies of insects will be got rid of. |
| C．Artificial lighting will be greatly reduced at night. |
| D．It may raise concerns for insects’ eating behavior. |
| A．Why insects lose their ability to fly at night. |
| B．Why artificial light and evolution trap insects. |
| C．How artificial light impacts insect populations. |
| D．How insects evolved distinct strategies of flight. |
4 . Every year, as the surface water temperature off the United States mid-Atlantic coast rises steadily from late spring through the summer, a pocket of uncharacteristically cool and crisp water gets trapped at the bottom of the ocean. Packed with nutrients this thick band of cold water, known as the mid-Atlantic cold pool, is a vital home for shellfish species. Extending at its seasonal peak from Nantucket, Massachusetts, to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the cold poll creates a diverse ecosystem ranging from algae(海藻)to fish — and some of the most valuable shellfish fisheries in the United States.
Now, however, two pressures have scientists worrying about whether the cold pool will last. The first is no surprise: climate change. Over the past five decades, climates change has destabilized the cold pool, causing it to warm and shrink. Compared with 1968, the cold pool is now 13℃ warmer and has lost more than one-third of its area.
The second concern is 1ess certain. In 2023, the US federal government approved plans to install(安装)98 wind turbines(涡轮机)off the New Jersey coast, covering an area of more than 300 square kilometers. Yet putting so many turbines to the seafloor could have unexpected consequences for the cold pool. That’s why Travis Miles, a researcher at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, and his colleagues are investigating. So far, Miles and his colleagues can’t definitively say what will happen to the cold pool, saying more research is needed to assess how climate change and offshore wind, together, could affect the cold pool. However, their initial analyses suggest the cold pool should be fine — at least in normal conditions.
New Jersey’s offshore wind plans are strongly opposed mainly by fossil fuel-industry funded efforts. Miles worries that an overabundance of caution or fear of potential impacts, including on the cold pool, might slow down the development of renewable energy. “...it’s quite clear that climate change is far more damaging than installing wind farms,” he says. “I don’t think any scientist would argue with that.”
1. What do we know about the mid-Atlantic cold pool?| A．It forms in early spring. | B．It’s a band of cold near-bottom water. |
| C．It serves as a habitat of most sea species. | D．It extends from Nantucket to New Jersey. |
| A．Break down. | B．Get polluted. | C．Dry up. | D．Become smaller. |
| A．supportive | B．dismissive | C．overcautious | D．skeptical |
| A．The Cold Pool Plays a Role on species |
| B．Opinions Divide on Offshore Wind Farms |
| C．Scientists Eye Potential Risks to the Cold Pool |
| D．Renewable Energy Helps to Race Against Climate Change |
5 . Like many of the Indigenous (土著的) communities across the Australian continent, the remote communities in north-west New South Wales are struggling. Many of the 300 or so residents rely on welfare. Higher electricity bills—up to $3,000 a quarter for some households—further worsen the poverty. They’re always at the end of the power line, so the service that is there is quite extraordinary in terms of cost. It’s a real problem that needs to be fixed.
To that end, Anderson and other Indigenous leaders have formed the First Nations Renewable Energy Alliance (FREA) to push for renewable energy in Indigenous communities. They partner with private enterprise to support Indigenous communities looking to switch to renewable energy.
“We can build a power station where the community exists,” Anderson says, “so people are able to successfully live in the environment the way they want to live and have access to power which enables them to better determine their economic future.”
Only a handful of Indigenous communities have set up renewable energy projects in Australia. The Indigenous-owned and -operated company AllGrid Energy, for instance, has installed solar panels and battery storage systems to replace diesel (柴油) generators in the communities of Ngurrara and Kurnturlpara in the Northern Territory’s Barkly Tableland. Within two months of the system being installed in May 2016, people were moving back to their homelands, the communities growing from just two permanent residents to about 40.
But FREA will go one step further, working with community leaders and acting as a conduit (纽带) between the communities and the businesses they are dealing with. This is essential, says Anderson, to avoid predatory (吞并) practices they have seen in the past, with companies “playing on the psychology of poverty” to gain advantage. The FREA has drafted terms of agreements that will guide how companies engage with Indigenous communities for renewable energy projects.
One of the next steps for FREA will be to identify a community that can act as a test case for a renewables project. “Our experience is that if we can make it work for one community, it will work in every other community,” Anderson says.
1. What is FREA expected to do for the remote Indigenous communities?| A．Increase power supply to them. | B．Help them return to their homelands. |
| C．Shake them off poverty. | D．Reduce their higher power costs. |
| A．Renewables projects are inaccessible. |
| B．Renewables projects are quite workable. |
| C．Renewables projects can increase locals’ income. |
| D．Renewables projects can coexist with diesel power plants. |
| A．Its strategies to win over the businesses. | B．Its cooperation with community leaders. |
| C．Its potential conflict with energy companies. | D．Its innovation in directing renewables projects. |
| A．Consult the experts. | B．Select a piloting community. |
| C．Collect sufficient construction fund. | D．Make renewables projects available to all. |
6 . Giant pandas are among the most lovable animals alive today. Unlike their relatives, such as the polar bear, pandas don’t eat meat but survive on a diet of only bamboo. So why and how have pandas abandoned their taste for meat to pick up a vegetarian diet?
Pandas today don’t eat meat. However, they’ve kept much of their meat-eating adaptations from times past. Their digestive systems have not changed much from their meat-eating days. Out of the huge 12.5 kg of bamboo they eat in a single day, only about 17% of it is digested. To survive, pandas eat large amounts of bamboo while having a low-metabolic (新陈代谢的)，lazy lifestyle to make up for the poor energy return.
The giant panda’s shift to a vegetarian diet is in line with the inactivation of a specific gene-Taslrl, which provides them with the ability to taste certain amino acids (氨基酸) abundant in meat. Its inactivation in pandas would lead to their dietary change.
Pandas have evolved to a great degree to cope with their relatively recent bamboo-eating lifestyle. Pandas must seize long and thin pieces of bamboo shoots. To assist with this, they have developed a long “fake-thumb” (伪拇指). So giant pandas have six fingers in each paw which provides better support for them to seize object such as bamboo in one paw quickly. Researchers have found that the surface of the panda’s tongue is different. While other bears and many meat-eating animals have smooth tongues, pandas have evolved tiny projections on the surface of their tongues that serve to file down food. This is especially useful for pandas as they remove the outer cover of bamboo.
Time will tell if pandas will adapt and survive, go back to eating meat, or disappear in the wild. Whatever the future holds, we can be grateful that, for the time being, we get to share our planet with these adorable animals.
1. Why are the numbers mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．To illustrate the variety of food. |
| B．To represent the evolutionary rule of pandas. |
| C．To describe the changes of living environment. |
| D．To show the ineffectiveness of digestive system. |
| A．The low-metabolic ability. |
| B．The amino acids in meat. |
| C．The Taslrl gene’s inactivation. |
| D．The supplies of bamboo. |
| A．Seizing bamboo shoots. |
| B．The low energy return. |
| C．Developing more fingers. |
| D．The vegetarian diet. |
| A．The preference for bamboo. |
| B．The evolutionary feature in eating. |
| C．The unique lifestyle. |
| D．The special appearance. |
When I arrived home from school, night was falling. A call came from the public: a bird of unknown species was being attacked by a group of noisy children in his front garden. He scared them off and grabbed their victim. I immediately called for my classmate Jack to the spot.
We were standing in front of a stranger’s house in an unfamiliar street, rescue box in hand. My head full of instructions to follow. “The bird would be our first test as a volunteer wildlife rescuer!” Jack said excitedly. We had completed the two-day intensive training course the previous month and learned the basic skills of rescuing animals in various situations.
But we were anxious, too. After all, it was the first time for us to rescue a bird. Would I be able to transfer the bird neatly into my rescue box? Many worries flashed in my mind. Sensing my unease about the act ahead, Jack said, “These things are pretty easy to deal with!”
I was wondering what kind of bird it was when a kind-looking man appeared and led us inside to see our very first patient. I lifted the edge of the shoe box very slightly to see an angry-looking bird standing to attention on very thin and long legs, together with a slice of banana and a small dish of water. He didn’t know its true name but the folks called the creature Red Fan. “It’s eaten some banana,” said the man proudly. The poor soul seemed rather nervous, so l decided not to grab it by hand but just transfer the whole shoe box into my rescue box.
Back home, we could only see some minor injuries in the left wing, but there was no blood on its feathers. Jack managed to treat the injuries with some iodophor (碘伏药水). We assessed its condition to find out if it was appropriate to release the bird the next day. How could we help it spend the night peacefully? We hadn’t seen this species of bird before, let alone its habits.
注意：1. 续写词数要求应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
“Why not do a search on the Internet?” suggested Jack.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The next day, we were glad to see the bird was well enough.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8 . I’ve always been crazy about pandas. My drawers are full of panda T-shirts and my pencil case and purse both have pandas on them. So when I found out that my parents planned to take me on a trip to Chengdu, which is the place in China for
I immediately started doing my
The volunteer. Program lasts all day and
It is hard work but enjoyable and
| A．saving | B．seeing | C．training | D．releasing |
| A．eyes | B．favour | C．luck | D．dream |
| A．duty | B．job | C．homework | D．research |
| A．work | B．live | C．learn | D．struggle |
| A．features | B．intends | C．allows | D．includes |
| A．goal | B．risk | C．highlight | D．end |
| A．approach | B．feed | C．follow | D．check |
| A．tense | B．awful | C．urgent | D．incredible |
| A．forecast | B．explore | C．read | D．list |
| A．helping | B．backing | C．promising | D．instructing |
| A．base | B．reserve | C．wild | D．field |
| A．double | B．control | C．balance | D．grow |
| A．relaxing | B．amusing | C．memorable | D．flexible |
| A．search | B．collection | C．hobby | D．gifts |
| A．amazing | B．adventurous | C．challenging | D．comforting |
9 . Soaring to 29, 035 feet, the famous Mount Everest had long been considered unclimbable due to the freezing weather, the obvious potential fall from cliffs and the effects of the extreme high altitude, often called “mountain sickness.” But that was to be changed by Edmund Hillary.
When he was invited to join the British Everest expedition in 1953, Edmund Hillary was a highly capable climber. The glacier-covered peaks in his hometown in New Zealand proved a perfect training ground for the Himalaya. It was his fourth Himalayan expedition in just over two years and he was at the peak of fitness.
On May 28, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, an experienced Sherpa (夏尔巴人) set out and reached the South Summit by 9 a. m. next day. But after that, the ridge (山脊) slightly fell before rising suddenly in a rocky spur (尖坡) about 17 meters high just before the true summit. The formation is difficult to climb due to its extreme pitch because a mistake would be deadly. Scratching at the snow with his ax, Hillary managed to overcome this enormous obstacle, later to be known as the Hillary Step.
At 11:30 a. m, the two men found themselves standing at the top of the world. “Not until we were about 50 feet of the top was I ever completely convinced that we were actually going to reach the summit.” Hillary later recounted, “Of course I was very, very pleased to be on the summit, but my first thought was a little bit of surprise. After all, this is the ambition of all mountaineers.”
Emerging as the first to summit Mount Everest, Hillary Hillary continued by helping explore Antarctica, and establishing the Himalayan Trust (信托基金), through which he provided a number of beneficial services to the Himalayan peoples. He also a sizeable legacy that mountain climbers have chased ever since. As a young climber said, “It was not just Hillary and Tenzing that reached the summit of Mount Everest. It was all of humanity. Suddenly, all of us could go.”
1. What made Edmund Hillary a capable climber on the 1953 expedition?| A．His undisputed reputation. | B．His remarkable physical condition. |
| C．His previous training on Mount Everest. | D．His exceptional ability to adapt to the cold. |
| A．A mistake Hillary avoided making. | B．A steep spur of rock Hillary conquered. |
| C．An ax Hillary used to scratch snow. | D．A sudden fall of a ridge Hillary skipped. |
| A．Overwhelming joy. | B．Enormous pride. |
| C．Complete disbelief. | D．A touch of astonishment. |
| A．It opens up possibilities for other climbers. |
| B．It enabled him to give back to his hometown. |
| C．It left financial benefits for climbers to pursue. |
| D．It led to friendly regulations for mountaineering. |
10 . Kala has deep ties to her Hawaiian roots. Her ancestors navigated (航行) the oceans for centuries using their knowledge of the stars, the sun, the currents and the wind. It’s not that she does it in a canoe without technology, but rather uses the natural technology around her. It’s called Way finding, and was taught to her by her father.
“My father was my foundation, my rock.” she says of her first voyage with him from Oahu to Lahaina in a traditional canoe. He taught her how to read the stars, the ocean swells and how to use them to hold the course. “Over 200 stars have specific names and purposes when you are Way finding. You have to look at each and determine if they are rising or setting. You know this star and the direction it represents. If you can do that, you can use it as a tool to orient (确定方向).” Kala added.
Kala Tanaka sailed the canoe in the ocean for up to three weeks. During the day, Kala used the sun until it hit a certain height. When she got closer to land, she looked for certain species of land birds and clouds that indicated there was land below. When Kala sailed she felt “I feel very connected to the crew and the canoe. We’re a family.” The longer voyage required Kala to spend hours studying the day and the night skies. It was demanding physical work. But it also had its moments of awe. For Kala, the beauty was in tying together the past and the present to enjoy the moment. So when she was not sailing, she was teaching Way finding skills to school-aged children in hopes of preserving the skills her ancestors relied on.
It’s easy to be lost in the immediacy of the technology of our day, to be consumed by screens and miss the nature that unfolds around us. But if we will take the time to look up, to see the stars and the sun, the way the clouds move, the miracle of life beneath and above us, we will discover something deep inside us, something that will always lead to happiness.
1. How does Kala navigate the ocean in a canoe?| A．By observing the natural elements around. |
| B．By following the course of ocean currents. |
| C．By using hi-technology navigation devices. |
| D．By recalling the first voyage with her father. |
| A．It was a heroic adventure. | B．It brought great joy to her life. |
| C．It was school children’s favorite. | D．It represented a kind of innovation. |
| A．Enjoy the screens. | B．Explore the universe. |
| C．Get close to nature. | D．Keep the earth clean. |
| A．Finding Our Way | B．Navigating the Ocean |
| C．The Wisdom from Ancestors | D．An Unforgettable Journey |
