1 . Have you ever paused to see clouds when you rush to your destination? There’s a group of passionate “treasure finders” dedicated to observing and capturing the beauty in the sky cloud spotters.
Cloud spotters take a more serious approach to make sense of the sky.
Ji Yun, 36, is an expert in cloud spotting. He set up a WeChat group to gather together people with similar hobbies in 2013. As the number of group members continued to grow, Ji and several cloud enthusiasts created dozens of online groups for different regions in China, forming the Sky Enthusiasts Association in 2019.
Power comes in numbers. Three years after the association was formed, cloud enthusiasts from all over China had collected every kind of cloud in the International Cloud Atlas, a reference by the World Meteorological Organization.
Indeed, Jiang Xinwei in Jilin finds cloud spotting relaxing. Even though she is going through her toughest school year in grade 12, Jiang maintains this hobby as a short break from her heavy schoolwork. “Observing the clouds has become a habit for me,” the 17-year-old said. “
“Clouds change in the blink of an eye.
| A．Currently, there are thousands of people across different groups. |
| B．This often leads us to think about the relationship between humans and nature. |
| C．They take photos of the clouds and match them to cloud type names. |
| D．My worries and troubles seem to fade away as I look up. |
| E．But that is not to say all clouds spotters need to go to such great lengths. |
| F．Cloud spotting can also make some people feel blue. |
| G．When they roll over the sky, I feel the passage of time has a concrete shape. |
2 . When a leafy plant is under attack, it doesn’t sit quietly. Back in 1983, two scientists, Jack Schultz and Ian Baldwin, reported that young maple trees getting bitten by insects send out a particular smell that neighboring plants can get. These chemicals come from the injured parts of the plant and seem to be an alarm. What the plants pump through the air is a mixture of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, VOCs for short.
Scientists have found that all kinds of plants give out VOCs when being attacked. It’s a plant’s way of crying out. But is anyone listening? Apparently. Because we can watch the neighbours react.
Some plants pump out smelly chemicals to keep insects away. But others do double duty. They pump out perfumes designed to attract different insects who are natural enemies to the attackers. Once they arrive, the tables are turned. The attacker who was lunching now becomes lunch.
In study after study, it appears that these chemical conversations help the neighbors .The damage is usually more serious on the first plant, but the neighbors, relatively speaking, stay safer because they heard the alarm and knew what to do.
Does this mean that plants talk to each other? Scientists don’t know. Maybe the first plant just made a cry of pain or was sending a message to its own branches, and so, in effect, was talking to itself. Perhaps the neighbors just happened to “overhear” the cry. So information was exchanged, but it wasn’t a true, intentional back and forth. Charles Darwin, over 150 years ago, imagined a world far busier, noisier and more intimate (亲密的) than the world we can see and hear. Our senses are weak. There’s a whole lot going on.
1. What does a plant do when it is under attack?| A．It makes noises. | B．It gets help from other plants. |
| C．It stands quietly | D．It sends out certain chemicals. |
| A．The attackers get attacked. |
| B．The insects gather under the table. |
| C．The plants get ready to fight back. |
| D．The perfumes attract natural enemies. |
| A．predict natural disasters |
| B．protect themselves against insects |
| C．talk to one another intentionally |
| D．help their neighbors when necessary |
| A．The world is changing faster than ever. |
| B．People have stronger senses than before |
| C．The world is more complex than it seems |
| D．People in Darwin’s time were imaginative. |
3 . By the time I took Kicker home, I was living in a van (旅居房车), so he was thrown into van life from day one. At this point, I knew how to make him an outgoing and adaptable dog, and my life was far more adventurous than it had been...
Right out of the gate, I took him to ski touring, which is a lot like cross-country skiing but in wilder terrain. At first, Kicker would just stay nestled (依偎) in my jacket, but as he got stronger, he would run on his own for a little while before I carried him again.
We also went on some winter camping adventures in the high peaks of the Uinta Mountains, and we tried snow kiting. He ran around while I skied. He learned to speed-fly and kiteboard. One time he vomited (呕吐) all over the new cushions on my bed. Boy, did that stay smelly for days! Still, living in a van with a dog was great. With each new day, he got stronger and more independent.
I had dreamed of visiting Alaska since I was a child, so being able to share that trip with Kicker felt incredible. There’s something to be said about shared experiences and how they help develop a strong bond. Together we kayaked, snowmobiled, and even ended up exploring deep blue ice caves in Worthington Glacier. Kicker learned to come snowboarding with me in the mountains of Alaska. He would hike part of the way, and I would carry him the rest. I would always let him run next to me as I boarded, but I usually ended up putting him on my shoulders for the rest of the ride down—he had grown far too big to fit in my jacket.
Having a dog has been one of the most rewarding things in my life. For me, it’s about the time spent together exploring, sharing experiences, working through challenging situations, snuggling, and ultimately taking care of one another.
1. What was Kicker like when he was first taken home by the author?| A．Sick and pitiful. | B．Small and weak. |
| C．Happy and active. | D．Outgoing and adventurous. |
| A．To illustrate how hard life is in a van. |
| B．To indicate that raising Kicker was not all roses. |
| C．To show the importance of taking good care of a pet. |
| D．To warn us of the trouble a pet can bring to us on a trip. |
| A．What tricks Kicker learned in Alaska. |
| B．What great experiences the author had. |
| C．How the author realized his childhood dream. |
| D．How much the author enjoyed Kicker's company. |
| A．They bond through shared adventures. |
| B．They help each other to become stronger. |
| C．They bond through giving each other rewards. |
| D．They depend on each other in life’s hardest times. |
4 . Traditionally, profiting from forests often meant capitalizing on timber (木材)——choosing commercial timber. Yet increasingly, there is an understanding that it’s of greater significance to keep trees standing than cut them down for financial profit. Money is not everything. We have to recognize real and lasting value is from natural resources. But money is a fact of life.
Good news is that we can expect entire natural woodland is left undamaged and still provides a revenue (收益) stream. Leaving woodland complete does not necessarily mean that we do not touch it at all. Conservation work may involve building back biodiversity or the removal of foreign plant species.
A healthy woodland system can provide a range of yields (产物). Besides eatable yields——top fruit, berries, and food crops, it produces substances for chemical use. The non-timber forest products provided by natural ecosystems will vary significantly depending on where they are. But there’re almost always ways to explore to acquire revenue.
A project in the U.K. shows woodland is also a draw for visitors. It engages a community who creates a sustainable area of woodland. The sale of handmade wooden items and non-timber forest products is involved. But the community largely obtains revenue by opening up parts of the natural woodland to the public with an adventure playground and outdoor recreational activities on the site. It also offers courses on nest building, special wildlife events and more. The project is thought to have great uniqueness. In terms of revenue, it centers round the existing natural land; the yields woodland can provide become side products.
Recreational activities, tours, and classes are just the commencement. A rich and biodiverse woodland can be an ecosystem that draws in people looking for a beautiful place to stay. Woodland has great value in ecological and social terms. And when you nurse it, it could also add to the income from your land.
1. What do people increasingly think about forest conservation?| A．It is difficult to carry out. |
| B．It means making full use of timber. |
| C．It outweighs financial development. |
| D．It should centre on building back biodiversity. |
| A．It makes woodland itself the main product. |
| B．It focuses on protecting natural land. |
| C．It aims to promote ecotourism. |
| D．It provides educational experiences. |
| A．Intention. |
| B．Wish. |
| C．Exception. |
| D．Beginning. |
| A．Woodland Brings Profit While Staying Complete |
| B．A Project Creates Sustainable Woodland |
| C．Forest Conservation Has Been a Top Priority |
| D．Non-timber Products Help Gain More Revenue |
“Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…”
Danny sang while his fingers pressed and pulled skillfully at the guitar strings, delivering a slow and peaceful tune. A circle of audience had formed, nodding and moving slowly to the song.
Lying at the feet of the street performer was his most adoring fan: One-Eyed, a white stray (流浪) dog with pieces of brown. Danny felt the name was suitable considering its physical disability. Usually, One-Eyed would bark loudly as Danny performed. Much to his annoyance, people often mistook the pair as owner and pet. At this time, Danny would reply, “My dog? No!”, eyes rolling at the idea. How he wished the dog would leave him alone instead!
On a snowy night, while Danny was performing, a bird flew downward, landing into the midst of the crowd. It cooed happily as if to harmonize with Danny. Unfortunately, that did not sit well with One-Eyed, which immediately bounced at it and the bird flew away desperately.
The unexpected chaos upturned Danny's hat, which could have been filled with notes and coins from his appreciative audience, leaving it ignored on the ground. "Argh! The hateful dog!” Danny broke down, thinking to himself, “Either the dog goes or I go!”
On the next night, Danny tried to find a new place and chanced upon the park. For a while his earnings were good unsurprisingly as there was a steady flow of visitors. However, that didn't last long. One-Eyed came along and appointed itself as Danny's guardian. "Argh! Here comes the hateful dog again!" That night, Danny hadn't made enough money he should have, all thanks to the troublesome dog.
Danny was almost mad with One-Eyed. “What should I do? Call an animal shelter?” Torn by this problem, he walked aimlessly by the lake of the park. With all his mind focused on how to get rid of the dog, Danny didn't watch his steps. Suddenly, he slipped and fell into the lake accidentally. Struggling in the icy water, he cried for help desperately, almost choking to death. Sensing the approach of death, Danny got into overwhelming panic.
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。
Just then, a familiar barking was heard in the distance.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“My hero! Thank you for saving me,” Danny said gratefully with watery eyes.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 . Birds’ bodies are becoming smaller in size in response to climate change, even in places like the Amazon rainforest that are relatively untouched by human hands, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances.
Researchers found that nearly all of the birds’ bodies have become lighter since the 1980s, losing on average about 2% of their body weight every decade. For an average bird species that weighed about 30 grams in the 1980s, the population now averages about 27.6 grams. The study also revealed that wingspan was getting bigger in the Amazon bird species studied.
These birds don’t vary that much in size. When everyone in the population is a couple of grams smaller, it’s significant. This is undoubtedly happening all over and probably not just with birds.
A lower body weight and increasing wing length means that birds use energy more efficiently, the researchers noted. For example, compared with a fighter jet with short wings that needs lots of fuel to fly, a glider plane with a thin body and long wings flies up into the air with much less energy.
The study concluded that a warmer climate was the driving force of these changes. The climate in Brazilian Amazonia, where the birds lived, had gotten hotter and wetter over the study period. Since 1966, rainfall increased by 13% in the wet season and fell by 15% in the dry, with temperatures increasing by 1 degree Celsius in the wet season and 1.65 degrees Celsius in the dry season. The change in climate might have made food or other resources insufficient.
Together, body proportions moved in the direction of more efficient flight and lower metabolic heat production and are consistent with a plastic or genetic adaptation to resource or thermal stress under climate change.
Animals are dealing with climate change in different ways.
1. What is the direct cause of birds’ changes?| A．A warmer climate. | B．A scientific advance. | C．A lack of sufficient food. | D．A lack of drinking water |
| A．To show planes fly with much less fuel. | B．To prove birds need much energy to fly. |
| C．To demonstrate birds’ efficient energy use. | D．To illustrate planes need lots of fuel to fly. |
| A．Animals’ other body part changes. | B．People’s attempts to protect animals. |
| C．Birds’ adaptation to climate change. | D．Animals’ ways to tackle climate change |
| A．Birds Nowadays Also Have to Adapt to Climate Change |
| B．The Climate Crisis Is Influencing Birds’ Body Shapes |
| C．It’s Our Duty to Take Measures to Protect Birds on the Planet |
| D．It’s Time to Raise Human Beings’ Awareness of Climate Crisis |
7 . Many humans have a mental number line that often puts smaller numbers on the left and bigger numbers on the right—if asked to organize several bunches of grapes by size, you’d likely line them up by increasing number of grapes from left to right. Like many humans, honeybees seem to prefer their numbers ordered from left to right, a new study claims.
Martin Giurfa, a biologist, tested 134 honeybees on their number-ordering abilities. First Giurfa had to teach his bee pupils to recognize numbers. Using sugar water, he guided honeybees into a testing bee house built from a repurposed wine box. For each bee, he hung a panel on the back of the box with a certain number of symbols on it—one, three or five.
Though some cognitive(认知的) powers seem to be uniquely human, Giurfa thinks there is danger in dismissing the abilities of animals. “We are different from animals in some aspects,” he says, “but we are very similar in others.
| A．Then he fed them the sugar water. |
| B．It depends on the reference number. |
| C．However, not everyone is convinced. |
| D．After 30 trips to the box, it was time for a test. |
| E．It suggests that honeybees have a “mental number line”. |
| F．Giurfa thinks bees and chicks have inborn mental number lines. |
| G．Denying this similarity will not help us understand what we are. |
8 . In 2014, Xu Yitang, a student at the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, saw corals at an aquarium for the first time.
Little did he know the chance
“The coral organism is quite
As he became better
Fast-forward to today, he
Each day, he spends several hours diving deep under the waves to observe and
His story has been
| A．incident | B．witness | C．encounter | D．appointment |
| A．passion | B．vision | C．friendship | D．career |
| A．study | B．frequent | C．examine | D．discover |
| A．treating | B．preserving | C．selecting | D．growing |
| A．tough | B．smooth | C．delicate | D．impressive |
| A．benefits | B．requirements | C．expenses | D．responses |
| A．reminded | B．informed | C．warned | D．convinced |
| A．shelters | B．partners | C．opportunities | D．services |
| A．Somehow | B．Nevertheless | C．Therefore | D．Unfortunately |
| A．extinction | B．variation | C．decline | D．expansion |
| A．responsibility | B．relief | C．achievement | D．belonging |
| A．consults with | B．applies for | C．seeks out | D．acts as |
| A．find out | B．note down | C．show off | D．speed up |
| A．revised | B．contributed | C．announced | D．featured |
| A．assess | B．follow | C．relate | D．invent |
Al Larson is known as “The Bluebird Man”. He first began his conservational labor of love after he read an issue of National Geographic that detailed how building bird houses could help to stop their declining populations.
Since bluebirds live on dead or nearly-dead trees, their population began to decline when the invention of the electric chainsaw (电锯) in the early 1900s
But the efforts of Larson have shown us that if we take a moment
Now that he is nearing the age of 97, Larson shows no signs of slowing down. And up to now his inspiring story
10 . On September 29, 2021, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared it would be removing 23 species from its Endangered Species Act, including the ivory-billed woodpecker, various Hawaiian birds and freshwater fish, not because they had been pulled back from the edge of extinction, but because the USFWS believed these species would never recover, and were most likely extinct, therefore not requiring protection.
In April, 195 countries are getting together in China for a UN conference to discuss global agreements to protect nature and biodiversity, with the hope of finalizing an agreement to safeguard plants, animals, and ecosystems. However, the new strain (毒株) of Covid-19, Omicron, has potentially thrown the plans into a mess, and negotiators may switch to online talks if travel restrictions to China are put in place again.
“We can't go another four months without any progress” said Georgina Chandler, senior international policy officer at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Conservationists are urging the talks to go ahead — online if necessary — as the biodiversity crisis shows no sign of slowing up.
“Nature loss has not gone away and threatens both human lives and the global economy,” said Lin Li, director of global policy at the organization. “With one million species currently in danger of extinction, delaying action is not an option.”
Improving conservation and management of natural areas, such as oceans, forests, and wildernesses is crucial to safeguarding the ecosystems on which humans depend. However, forests are still being devastated, often for farming or commercial use. As trees absorb about a third of planet-warming emissions produced worldwide, stopping deforestation is key. At COP26 in Glasgow last November, world leaders plan to invest $19 billion in public and private funds to protect and restore global forests.
It’s easy to feel disheartened by the disappointing news, but the only way to stop more species suffering the same fate is to pay attention and take actions.
1. Why would the 23 species be removed from the Act?| A．Because they are less endangered. |
| B．Because they have already died out. |
| C．Because more fund is in need to protect them. |
| D．Because nothing can save them from extinction. |
| A．Take immediate actions. |
| B．Put off the conference. |
| C．Have online talks. |
| D．Improve global economy. |
| A．Abandoned. | B．Destroyed. | C．Rearranged. | D．Disturbed. |
| A．To explain why some species have disappeared. |
| B．To recommend ways to protect and restore forests. |
| C．To describe the present situation of global ecosystem. |
| D．To call for attention and action against biodiversity crisis. |
