1 . Dogs have a different way of seeing the world compared to human beings. As a result of this, they heavily rely on their body language to pass their messages to people.
If you pay close attention to your dog, you will notice that at some point it will curl up just like a fox. In such cases, the paws will be curled up underneath their bodies and their tail will be well wrapped around them. This shows that the dog is probably feeling cold. Curling up helps them keep more body heat.
| A．Dogs may sometimes be grass-eating animals |
| B．Eating grass is not the most uncommon thing for a dog |
| C．Read the text to find out more on what your dog is trying to tell you |
| D．It’s a sign that they want to play or simply need something from you |
| E．You may feel the joy of your dog or feel it cute to see such baby-like gesture |
| F．If this happens a lot, take your dog to the vet to ensure their safety |
| G．If you see your dog doing this, throw a blanket over them to help them feel warmer |
2 . 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 |
1. Where did Bruce see a red squirrel?
| A．At his garden. | B．In a farm. | C．In the wild. |
| A．About 3,500,000. | B．About 150,000. | C．About 25,000. |
| A．Introduction of grey squirrels. |
| B．Some unknown disease. |
| C．Lack of food. |
| A．By practicing a lot. |
| B．Through his tutor’s guidance. |
| C．With the help of his grandpa. |
4 . Any schoolchild knows that a whale breathes through its blowhole. Fewer know that a blowhole is a nostril (鼻孔) slightly changed by evolution into a form more useful for a mammal that spends its life at sea. And only a dedicated expert would know that while toothed whales, such as sperm whales, have one hole, baleen (鲸须) whales, such as humpback and Rice whales, have two.
Even among the baleen whales, the placing of those nostrils differs. In some species they are close together. In others, they are much further apart. In a paper published in Biology Letters Conor Ryan, a marine biologist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, suggests why that might be. Having two nostrils, he argues, helps whales smell in stereo (立体空间).
Many types of baleen whales eat tiny animals known as zooplankton (浮游动物), which they catch by filtering (过滤) them from seawater using the sheets of fibrous baleen that have replaced teeth in their mouths. But to eat something you first have to find it. Toothed whales do not hunt by scent. In fact, the olfactory bulb—the part of the brain that processes smell—is absent in such creatures. But baleen whales still have olfactory bulbs, which suggests smell remains important. And scent can indeed give zooplankton away. Zooplankton like to eat other tiny creatures called phytoplankton (浮游植物). When these are under attack, they release a special gas called dimethyl sulphide, which in turn attracts baleen whales.
Most animals have stereoscopic senses. Having two eyes, for instance, allows an animal to compare the images from each in order to perceive depth. Having two ears lets them locate the direction from which a sound is coming. Dr Ryan theorized that paired blowholes might bring baleen whales the same sorts of benefits.
The farther apart the sensory organs are, the more information can be extracted by the animal that bears them. The researchers used drones to photograph the nostrils of 143 whales belonging to 14 different species. Sure enough, baleen whales that often eat zooplankton, such as the North Atlantic right whale, have nostrils that are farther apart than do those, such as humpback whales, that eat zooplankton occasionally. Besides allowing them to breathe, it seems that some whales use their blowholes to determine in which direction dinner lies.
1. What do we know about whales’ nostrils according to the first two paragraphs?| A．They are adapted ones. | B．They are developed merely for smell. |
| C．They are not easy to detect. | D．They are fixed universally in numbers. |
| A．The teeth that baleen whales have. |
| B．The smell that phytoplankton send. |
| C．The sound waves that zooplankton create. |
| D．The chemical signals that zooplankton give off. |
| A．By quoting a theory. | B．By using examples. |
| C．By making contrast. | D．By making inferences. |
| A．The sense of smell. | B．The possibility to attract food. |
| C．The ability to locate food. | D．The ability to communicate. |
5 . In June a massive “heat dome” baked the famously temperate Pacific Northwest, subjecting parts of Washington State, Oregon and western Canada to extreme temperatures. It is virtually impossible that heat waves like this would have occurred without climate change. Scientists estimate it was a one-in-1,000-year event. “And that’s an ‘at least,’ ” says Kristie. L. Ebi. “It could be more rare than that.” If warming reaches two degrees Cabove preindustrial levels — the threshold (阈值) that most national governments have agreed to try to avoid in hopes of reducing climate change impacts, “that event could occur every five to 10 years,” Ebi says.
“In an average year in the U.S., heat kills more people than any other type of extreme weather,” says Kristina Dahl, a climate scientist. Hundreds of people died in the recent Pacific Northwest heat wave, according to estimates: there were at least 486 deaths in British Columbia, 116 in Oregon and 78 in Washington. A recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found there were more than 3,500 emergency department visits for heat-related illness this past May and June in a region that includes Oregon and Washington State.
The human body functions best at 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C). The body has mechanisms to rid itself of excess heat, most notably sweating. But at a certain point, that fails to work, causing loss of consciousness. People can eventually acclimatize to some level of heat. If you live in a hot climate or work in hot conditions for a period of weeks or months, your body becomes more efficient at sweating and cooling itself down. This process takes time, however.
As the planet warms, heat waves like these this year are becoming frighteningly common and catching climate scientists off guard. “Even a lot of our climate models that project out how frequent extreme heat will be in the future wouldn’t have necessarily predicted this level of heat for that part of the country,” Kristina Dahl says. “But then to realize that I am seeing it in my lifetime, and living it right now, is really terrifying.”
1. What does Ebi’s saying imply in Paragraph 1?| A．Heat dome has affected at least three regions. |
| B．Temperature reaches the threshold immediately. |
| C．Heat waves affect the Pacific Northwest greatly. |
| D．Severe weather could become frighteningly common. |
| A．Many areas are badly affected by heat waves. |
| B．Heat waves pose a major risk to public health. |
| C．More people died of illnesses in this summer. |
| D．Latest news on heat waves are widely reported. |
| A．Adapt. | B．Settle. | C．Respond. | D．Object. |
| A．ruins his normal daily life. |
| B．gets scientists prepared to it. |
| C．fails to be accurately forecast. |
| D．should be examined frequently. |
Dion was having a running race. This race would stretch in six stages over seven days and cover almost 155 miles. Gobi, a little she-dog happened to join him. It was their third day.
The sky was clear, the weather was warm: the ground was firm beneath Gobi’s feet. From time to time, Dion would look over at her and smile. The warmth of that smile was even brighter than the sun beating down on them, but in a good way. It filled Gobi up.
As they progressed, a broad river popped into their sight, lying right in front. Dion had no idea how deep it was, but the race markers led right across, so he had to assume he’d be able to make it across as well.
Taking a deep breath, he took a careful step into the water. It was surprisingly cold considering how warm the day was, and he sank down up to his waist, but that was it. At least the riverbed seemed solid. He could make his way across; he just had to go slowly. One wrong step and he’d get completely wet. Plus, he could hurt himself since he couldn’t see where he was putting his feet. This was going to take a while.
Gobi watched as the man jumped into the water. She wagged her tail, but he didn’t look her way. He was clearly busy concentrating. She sat down just before the water and watched. Surely, he would turn around and notice that she wasn’t with him. But several minutes passed, and he got farther and farther away. Finally, Gobi couldn’t take it any longer. She began anxiously running up and down the riverbank. Was the man going to leave her?
At the sound of her bark, Dion stopped. He always made a point of facing forward, always forward, during a race. But this time he did glance back. Gobi was sitting at the river’s edge, barking fiercely. There was no way the little dog could cross that on her own. These days, he’d fed her, given her water, and named her. He had to admit that he liked having her with him. She lifted his spirits.
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。
Paragraph 1: Right now, listening to her barking as he left her behind nearly broke his heart.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: This became tougher for Dion to cross the broad river.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . Each fall, millions of butterflies across the U. S. and Canada fly up to 4, 000 km to central Mexico. Travelers can see the butterflies overwintering on the Western Monarch Trail, a 465-mile, road trip-friendly conservation initiative that links over a dozen stops along the route.
Helping the butterflies
Organizers created educational panels in English and Spanish explaining the butterflies’ annual traveling and their trouble. The signs also outline ways travelers can help the butterflies recover, such as by supporting chemical-free farms and planting native nectar (花蜜) gardens.
Why butterflies fly to the California coast
Many stops in Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove and Andrew Molera State Park, are overwintering sites where, from October to February, travelers can see thousands of butterflies gathering in forests in areas with mild temperatures, dappled (斑驳的) sunlight, high dampness, and little to no wind.
Other sites, like the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden and Avila Valley Barn, growflowers that provide sugary, high-calorie food for the butterflies to eat. Butterflies settling here demonstrate how vital nectaring plants are to their survival.
How to explore the Western Monarch Trail
The butterflies’ behavior varies at different times of day and depending on the weather. In the mornings, while temperatures are still cool, step out of the cabin (木屋) in the Fernwood Resort where you stay overnight, you’ll find many butterflies hanging together on the branches and trunks of trees at the overwintering sites. As the day starts to heat up-typically by late morning or early afternoon — you’ll be amazed at the phenomenon “sunburst” — the butterflies start flying around in search of nearby nectar. Keep your eyes skyward. Don’t grab your camera. Just be in the moment.
1. What’s the Western Monarch Trail initiative aimed at?| A．Providing a travel route. | B．Encountering butterflies. |
| C．Promoting organic farming. | D．Advocating species conservation. |
| A．It holds many nectar gardens. |
| B．It’s pleasant throughout winter. |
| C．It has sufficient food for butterflies. |
| D．It’s home to butterflies all year around. |
| A．Signs to guide the route. |
| B．Cameras for recording videos. |
| C．Ready shelters to stay overnight. |
| D．Experience of watching “sunburst” at dawn. |
8 . If you live on this planet, there’s a decent chance you’ve seen the classic Star TrekEpisode, in which captain Kirk and several members find themselves in what appears to be another universe.
These days, it seems the idea of the multiverse—many worlds—is having its Hollywood moment. Its appeal as a storytelling device is obvious—characters explore a multi-world with varying degrees of similarity to our own, as well as different versions of themselves. Hence, it has been fully established in mainstream pop culture.
While Hollywood can’t seem to get enough of the multiverse, it remains deeply controversial (有争议的) among scientists. Advocates on the two sides show no mercy toward each other in their books, on their blogs. But physicists didn’t pull the idea out of thin air—rather, several distinct lines of reasoning seem to point to the multiverse’s existence. However, critics warn that making the multiverse legal could make it harder for the public to distinguish speculative (推测性的) theories from established fact, making it more difficult to keep pseudo-science (伪科学) at bay. Giving credit to such speculation risks “turning fundamental physics into pseudo-science”.
The multiverse controversy is rooted in the idea of test ability. If we can’t interact with these other universes, or detect them in any way, some experts insist that reduces them to mere philosophical speculation. But Carroll, an advocate for “many worlds”, argues that mathematics is the language describing our physical theories. Since Schrdinger’s equation (方程), on which Quanturr (量子) mechanic rests, predicts the existence of many worlds, so be it.
Could a more expansive view of the universe itself be the next breakthrough? As Siegfried puts it: “Every time in the past that we’ve thought, ‘We’ve got it; this is what the whole universe is’—the people who’ve said, ‘Maybe there’s more than one of those’ have always turned out to be right.”
1. Why is Hollywood so occupied with the multiverse?| A．It makes for engaging plots. |
| B．It is a much-talked-about topic. |
| C．It is helpful to popularize science. |
| D．It dominates the mainstream pop culture. |
| A．Out of date. | B．Out of place. | C．Out of nowhere. | D．Out of question. |
| A．it can be detected somehow |
| B．it can be reasoned logically |
| C．it can be interpreted philosophically |
| D．it can be predicted by mathematics equation |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Dismissive. | C．Unclear. | D．Approving. |
I was eight years old and wasn’t aware of all the arrangements being made for our journey as a family to London in 1950. My mother was in great pain and wished to visit specialists in London. My father reluctantly had to sell our property in Queensland. The day before we boarded the ship, Father unwillingly said goodbye to his five-year-old cattle dog, Spider, who was loved by us all. Father’s friend Sandy was to be his guardian while we were overseas, as he had been getting to know Spider for many weeks.
Six weeks later, an airletter arrived from Sandy, giving my father the news that Spider had run away just two weeks after we had sailed. Sandy had advertised constantly on ABC and other regional newspapers. Despite many “sightings”, the dog was never found. It seems Spider just kept running and searching for us. As he was cattle dog, my father thought he would shoe or dingo-trapped, because of his appearance. But our family thought that Father held a secrets hope that Spider was still alive.
We sailed back to Australia two years later and re-established our home. My father immediately began his own search for Spider. One cold winter’s Saturday morning eight months after our return, my father had a call from an elderly lady living on her own on the outskirts of the town. As she told my father on the telephone, it was “just glimpses of a dingo-type dog in the shadows” of her disused tennis court. That was enough for my father to interrupt my homework.
We set off in his blue and black Jensen car which he had brought back from England. It was hardly the right vehicle for the rough roads we travelled that day. Five and a half hours later, we found the run-down old property. Sadly, she told my father that the “dingo dog” hadn’t been around for a few days. My father had a strange look in his eye. He put two fingers to his lips and did his special whistle for Spider.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Suddenly there was a sound in the bush.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Once home we had the task of getting all the prickles (刺) off him.
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10 . From solar panels to electric cars, clean energy has become a bigger part of our lives in recent years. A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that it will only develop a stronger foothold in the decades to come, with more solar panels, electric cars, and renewable energy by 2030.
The IEA analyzed the current policies and added that there will likely be two-thirds more clean energy ten years from now with a decreased dependence on fossil fuels. “The transition to clean energy is happening worldwide and is unstoppable. It’s not a question of ‘if’, but a matter of ‘how soon’—and the sooner, the better for all of us,” says the IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
“Governments, companies, and investors must support clean energy transitions rather than hinder them. There are immense (巨大的) benefits on offer, including new industrial opportunities and jobs, greater energy security，cleaner air, universal energy access and a safer climate for everyone. Considering the ongoing strains and volatility (波动) in traditional energy markets today, claims that oil and gas represent safe or secure choices for the world’s energy and climate future look weaker than ever,” Biral adds.
Although this is welcome news for many, the IEA stresses that more improvement will be needed for the 200 countries in the Paris Agreement to meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Governments must triple renewable capacity, reduce methane emissions from fossil fuel operations by 75%, and triple clean energy in developing economies.
“Every country needs to find its own pathway, but international cooperation is crucial for accelerating clean energy transitions,” Birol asserts. “In particular, the speed at which emissions decline will be largely determined by our ability to finance sustainable solutions to meet rising energy demand from the world’s fast-growing economies. This all points to the importance of redoubling cooperation, not retreating (逃避) from them.”
1. What does the new report from the IEA show?| A．The demand for fossil fuels is still currently strong. |
| B．The worldwide shift to clean energy is unstoppable. |
| C．The threat of global warming is being underestimated. |
| D．The use of renewable energy is a new focus of mankind. |
| A．Follow. | B．Delay. | C．Improve. | D．Prevent. |
| A．It is challenging. | B．It is impractical. | C．It is unclear. | D．It is conservative. |
| A．Changes to global economic policies. | B．The pattern of energy consumption. |
| C．Combined efforts between nations. | D．The development of advanced technologies. |
