1 . Scientists have determined that July 2023 was the hottest month on record and that the Earth’s average surface temperature is the highest it’s been in at least 120,000 years.
There’s no shortage of advice for people in hotter-than-normal regions. They can wear a sun hat or stay in the shade (阴凉处). And when all else fails, go inside and turn the air conditioning on.
But wild creatures can’t enjoy the cool air indoors. Many people assume that wild species must have some ways of dealing with these unusually high temperatures. However, most of them can’t. If their body temperatures go too high or too low, they will die. So in addition to finding food and avoiding enemies, every wild creature must continually engage in an ongoing exchange of energy with their environments to ensure survival.
Birds do this by getting out of the direct sun, sitting still, and breathing shallow breaths. In short, they do nothing but breathe in the shade. This behavior is usually successful because it enables most birds to survive most of the very hot days. But it wrecks their schedule. Many birds no longer have enough time in their days to find enough food to remain healthy, especially the extra food needed to raise their young.
It’s not only birds that are suffering from heat, nor is it only land species: animals in the ocean are also suffering. The largest analysis (分析) of coral reef (珊瑚礁) health found that 14% of the world’s coral reefs had been lost in the previous decade due to heat. Another recent study predicts (预测) that over 99% of coral reefs will experience heat that they cannot recover from if the global average temperature increases by just 1.5 degrees Celsius, which, unless we massively reduce our carbon emissions, is likely to happen in the next decades.
Heat is damaging ecosystems everywhere, and we’re just in the early stages of climate breakdown. Humans are highly adaptable. The vast majority of wild species, however, can’t simply pack up and go someplace else. By continuing to pollute the atmosphere, we’re damaging their worlds and pushing ever-greater numbers of them into extinction.
1. How do wild species differ from humans in handling rising heat?| A．They can migrate to cooler environments. | B．They are better at cooperating with each other. |
| C．They have limited methods for adapting to it. | D．They are more resistant to heat-related health issues. |
| A．Represents. | B．Disturbs. | C．Adopts. | D．Meets. |
| A．Land species are more easily affected by heat. |
| B．Heat can cause serious trouble for different wildlife. |
| C．Coral reefs are of great value to coastal communities. |
| D．Underwater creatures have adopted ways to control heatwaves. |
| A．Wildlife can adapt quickly to various environments. |
| B．Wild species have more natural enemies to deal with. |
| C．Ecosystems may naturally recover from heat damage. |
| D．Immediate action is required to protect ecosystems. |
1. What will the weather be like near the ocean this weekend?
| A．Windy. | B．Snowy. | C．Sunny. |
| A．Traveling to the coast. | B．Staying inside. | C．Playing in the snow. |
| A．Roads may become dangerous. |
| B．Temperatures could be very low. |
| C．People might lose electricity. |
| A．On Tuesday. | B．On Friday. | C．On Saturday. |
3 . Shop Sustainably
If you have to name one thing that contributes most to your ecological footprints, you may say the energy you use at home, or your car’s emissions.
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●Avoid unnecessary packing. Buy loose fruit and vegetables instead of pre-packaged produce, and avoid products that contain multiple single packages or double packaging, like grain in a box and a bag. Consider switching from tea bags and coffee pods to tea leaves and ground coffee.
●Go organic when you can. In addition to the benefit organic farming has to insect biodiversity, it’s also considered more sustainable and better for the environment.
●Buy seasonal and native products.
| A．Take reusable grocery bags. |
| B．Select single-use plastic bags. |
| C．It supports local farmers and food producers. |
| D．You can also refill your own containers with loose-packed food. |
| E．When buying organic products, look for those officially certified. |
| F．But it’s what we eat that accounts for up to 60% of our personal demand. |
| G．You’ll find it convenient whenever you buy tea or coffee in the supermarket. |
1. What’s getting less and less these days according to the talk?
| A．Empty land. | B．Garbage. | C．Water. |
| A．Burying it. |
| B．Sending it out of our planet. |
| C．Using it as an energy source. |
| A．It is hardly ever done. |
| B．It causes air pollution. |
| C．It is useless for hard materials. |
The world has just endured its hottest year on record, with global average temperatures
China, the world's largest developing country and a responsible major country,
Because of global warming, extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity. Building
6 . One of the things that make humans mammals (哺乳动物) is that we’re warm-blooded — our bodies have high metabolism (新陈代谢) that maintains our internal temperature independent of the surroundings, unlike cold-blooded animals that have to lie in the sun for heat. Among modern animals, only mammals and birds are warm-blooded and our ability to keep ourselves warm has enabled us to survive in icy weather and make long migrations. But it’s been a mystery exactly when mammals evolved their high metabolism. In a new study, scientists point to an unlikely source for determining when ancient mammal ancestors became warm-blooded.
The ears of all living creatures that have backbones contain tiny canals (管道) filled with fluid that helps us balance. The runniness (流动性) of that fluid changes based on temperature, and our inner ears have evolved different sizes so that the fluid can flow correctly. Cold-blooded animals’ ear fluid is cooler and thicker, so it needs wider spaces to travel through, while warm-blooded animals have runnier ear fluid, so our canals are different.
“Canals were generally used to predict the movement of fossil organisms. However, by carefully looking at their biomechanics (生物力学) , we figured that we could also use them to infer body temperature,” says Romain David, one of the study’s lead authors. “This is because, like honey, the fluid inside canals gets runnier when temperature increases, impacting function. Therefore, during the transition to endothermy (温血性) , physical adaptation was required to keep best performances, and we could track ear canals in mammal ancestors. ”
To track these evolutionary changes, the researchers compared the sizes of the inner ear canals of over 300 animals, including 243 living species and 64 extinct ones. They found that mammal ancestors didn’t develop the kinds of inner ear structures ideal for warm-blooded animals until 233 million years ago.
The origin of mammalian endothermy is one of the great mysteries to be solved. Many different approaches have been used to try to predict when it first evolved, but they have often given unclear or conflicting results. This method shows real promise because it has been confirmed using a very large number of modern species.
1. Which of the following might be the key to mammals’ long migrations?| A．The large body size. | B．The rich food resources. |
| C．The warm-bloodedness. | D．The adaptability to surroundings. |
| A．They have much bigger backbones. |
| B．Their inner ear canals are relatively narrow. |
| C．They are much more sensitive to outside sounds. |
| D．Their ear fluid seldom changes with temperature. |
| A．Theories on the evolution of mammal ancestors. |
| B．The reason for studying the inner ears of mammals. |
| C．The importance of physical adaptation to mammals. |
| D．Possible ways to predict the movement of fossil organisms. |
| A．Appreciative. | B．Doubtful. | C．Negative. | D．Unconcerned. |
7 . In a small tea shop located in Bisalpur, Uttar Pradesh, one can spot unique furniture like stools (凳子) and tables made of bricks and recycled plastic. Other than customers, tourists who come to visit the nearby Jawai Dam often stop by here to hand plastic waste over to the shopkeeper. Run by Kana Ram Mewada, the shop not only sells tea and snacks, but also leads a campaign to reduce the use of single-use plastic in the village.
According to a report of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2019—2020, 3. 5million metric tons (公吨) of plastic waste is annually generated in India, and will remain in landfills (垃圾填埋场) for the upcoming hundreds of years.
Kana was deeply disturbed after reading that report on the Internet and began thinking about ways to raise the villagers’ awareness and make his village free of plastic.
He started a campaign by collecting plastic waste from his own shop and roadside. Whenever customers came, he explained the campaign. In order to attract more people, he started giving something in return for the waste they brought. Sometimes, he purchased a few things made of recycled waste to show the villagers and told them they were created from their plastic waste contribution. He also made decorative items out of the waste and placed them around the shop.
As a result, people from the village became curious about his campaign. Even tourists began participating in the exchange. And today, the forest, rivers and public spaces that were once filled with plastic waste are cleaner than before.
He hopes that he can also help the neighboring villages recycle plastic waste and make the whole area plastic-free. “When an ordinary person like me decided to start a cause, it was inspiring that a whole village stood by me and supported me. We can all become torchbearers (启蒙者) for a better tomorrow. What we have to do is take a step forward,” he said.
1. What led Kana to start the campaign?| A．An online report. | B．Tourists’ behavior. |
| C．Customers’ advice. | D．His visit to landfills. |
| A．To get more people to join his campaign. | B．To teach shoppers how to make them. |
| C．To make his shop much more beautiful. | D．To advertise the goods in his shop. |
| A．Considerate and proud. | B．Ambitious and generous. |
| C．Responsible and creative. | D．Determined and humorous. |
| A．A shopkeeper’s path to success. | B．A historic tourist spot in Bisalpur. |
| C．A unique way of turning waste into art. | D．A shopkeeper’s campaign for plastic recycling. |
8 . Vicky Barlow is a volunteer for a non-profit environmental organization. She was overturning stones in a rock pool in Falmouth, England when something “extremely bright and unusual” caught her eye. Under a large seaweed-covered rock, she made a very rare find: a rainbow sea slug (蛞蝓).
Rainbow sea slugs are very uncommon in England — they’re usually found in warmer waters, such as those along the west coasts of Spain, Portugal and France. In fact, there have only been three previously documented sightings of the species in the UK. But those were all found by divers rather than rock poolers. “It’s a warm-water species but it looks as if it has arrived here,” said the sea biologist Ben Holt. He adds that waters around the UK have seen rapid warming due to climate change. By the end of the century, water temperatures in the UK will rise by more than 3℃.
Sea slugs are particularly useful in related research. Most sea slugs only live up to about one year, which means they can make a very quick response to the changes in water temperatures caused by climate issues. In Australia, climate scientists have been collecting information on sea slugs for over 10 years to record the species and learn about changes in their distribution (分布), including their arrival in historically cooler waters.
Around 3,000 species of sea slugs exist in waters worldwide. They mainly feed on seaweed and other sea slugs. Unlike snails, adult sea slugs don’t have shells to protect them from being eaten by hungry marine animals. Instead, many of them have formed bright colors to scare off their enemies such as sea turtles, starfish and crabs. Some species may even have the unusual ability to steal stinging cells (刺细胞) from animals they feed on and shoot them out when threatened.
Before sending it back where it came from, Barlow placed the sea slug in a pot to get a better look at its colors. “It is absolutely amazing that I could find it on our rocky coasts,” Barlow writes in her blog. “It’s a perfect example of the incredible wildlife we have on our doorstep.”
1. Why are rainbow sea slugs rare in England?| A．They prefer to live in deep waters. |
| B．Divers are unable to recognize them. |
| C．Rock pools are poorly managed here. |
| D．The environment is normally unfavorable. |
| A．They are important in studying climate change. |
| B．Their overall population continues to decrease. |
| C．They mostly choose to live in cooler waters. |
| D．Their sea habitats have been badly polluted. |
| A．Their survival abilities. | B．Risks caused by their colors. |
| C．Changes in their feeding habits. | D．Their common marine enemies. |
| A．Calm and peaceful. | B．Surprised and glad. |
| C．Curious and doubtful. | D．Shocked and worried. |
9 . Tropical cyclones(热带气旋), including hurricanes and typhoons, are now moving at a slower speed than they did decades ago, new research shows.
While having a cyclone travel with less speed may seem like a good thing, it’s actually just the opposite. Wind speeds within the storm remain high, but the whole system itself moves slower, allowing punishing rains to stay longer over communities. “Nothing good comes out of a slowing storm,” says James Kossin, author of the paper. “It can increase the amount of time that buildings suffered from strong wind. And it increases rainfall.”
In his paper, Kossin showed that from 1949 to 2016, tropical cyclones across the globe slowed their movement by 10 percent on average. In some regions (地区), the speed of those storms slowed even more as they hit land. In the western North Pacific, the decrease was much more manifest—almost a third. That means a storm that may already hold more moisture (水分)will have time to drop more of it in each spot.
Kossin’s work was based on details of almost 70 years’ worth of storms, but he didn’t try to determine what was causing the slowdown. Still, the change is exactly what he and other cyclone experts said, which would be expected from climate change. With the polar regions warming faster than other parts of the globe, that is changing the pressure and reducing the winds that push these storms.
Christina Patricola, a scientist, called Kossin’s work important and new and said she found it reliable. “I was not surprised by his findings,” she says. “But I was surprised by the speed of the slowdown.”
Kossin hopes that scientists will begin building models that show which places are likely to face the most risk. Given that storms in some regions are moving towards polar regions and already increasing in intensity(强度), cyclones causing unusually powerful rain may threaten places not normally in their paths. Scientists must take action to make those places suffer less from the disasters.
1. Why is the decrease in cyclones’ speed a bad thing?| A．It leads the cyclones to move faster on the ground. |
| B．It causes the cyclones to have higher wind speed outside. |
| C．It makes hard rains and strong wind last longer in one place. |
| D．It results in more typhoons taking place in some communities. |
| A．Obvious. | B．Satisfying. | C．Confusing. | D．Impossible. |
| A．Climate change in the polar regions is under control. |
| B．Scientists find it hard to understand the slower cyclones. |
| C．Scientists should do further experiments in polar regions. |
| D．Climate change may be the cause of the slowdown of the cyclones. |
| A．To find out the normal paths of serious cyclones. |
| B．To prove the speed of the cyclones can be controlled. |
| C．To reduce the damage from cyclones to possible areas. |
| D．To call on scientists to focus on the danger of climate change. |
10 . Manatees — often called sea cows — are an anomaly in the animal kingdom. Neither predator nor prey, these peaceable creatures, which can grow to 13 feet and weigh more than 2,000 pounds, are evolutionarily devoid of aggression. Crystal River — “Manatee Capital of the World” — is the epicenter of their presence and recovery.
Yet despite some gains, manatees still face grave threats. Three-quarters of Florida’s 22 million people live along the coast, many in prime manatee habitat, where the strain of human-presence has degraded the state’s enchanted springs, waterways, and wetlands. In Indian River Lagoon, for example, an important manatee habitat along Florida’s densely populated east coast, decades of human waste, sediment from real estate development, and fertilizers from lawns and farms have clouded the water. That has killed seagrass, manatees’ main food source there. More than a thousand manatees have died in the lagoon during the past two years.
What people don’t understand is the need to help support them in waterways. That means restoring seagrass beds and freshwater aquatic vegetation, the basis of their existence and of the overall health of Florida’s waters. Steps to reverse the damage started small. Neighbors gathered with rakes, scooping up algae by hand. Ironically, it was Save Crystal River — the group environmentalists had opposed during their fight over the manatee’s endangered status — that spearheaded the restoration of aquatic vegetation. With funding from the state government, Save Crystal River hired Sea& Shoreline, an aquatic restoration firm, to remove the waste and replant the river bottom with eelgrass, which grows long, ribbon like leaves.
While the prospect of replanting the entire river was daunting, after vacuuming more than 300 million pounds of detritus and planting some 350,000 individual eelgrass pods by hand, the groups have flipped the river back to an ecosystem no longer dominated by algae.
Instead of spending the few short winter months in Crystal River before heading back out into the Gulf of Mexico to graze, some manatees now linger here year-round, enjoying fat times. Aerial surveys from January 2022 revealed the highest number of manatees ever recorded in these waters — more than a thousand in Kings Bay alone.
1. What is a feature of manatees?| A．They are gentle animals. | B．They feed on small creatures. |
| C．They are slightly aggressive. | D．They look cute for their shape. |
| A．Climate change. | B．Habitat loss. |
| C．Low food supply. | D．Human activities. |
| A．By removing wastes from the river. |
| B．By raising funds from the government. |
| C．By replanting algae in the river bottom. |
| D．By refining manatees’ living surroundings. |
| A．They enjoy the cold winter of Mexico. |
| B．They remain in Manatee Capital for long. |
| C．They head towards the warmer waters during winter. |
| D．They have the largest population ever recorded globally. |
