1 . Dolphins are social and intelligent animals. And, like the way humans maintain relationships by hugging or giving a handshake, dolphins breathe together at the same time when they come up from the water for air. This shared act is important for creating social connections. But sharing the same air and area is also spreading an infectious and deadly disease among the dolphins.
Janet Mann and other scientists are trying to understand the virus. They discovered it in the water off the American states of Virginia and Maryland. It is now spreading to other Atlantic coast dolphins.
Mann explains that the dolphin virus is in the lungs. “When dolphins breathe together at the surface, they’re sharing tiny droplets just like we do when we’re talking with each other,” she said.
During her 35 years of studying dolphins, Janet Mann has noticed that even though dolphins have close friends, they visit other dolphins and leave the groups often. Following the social lives of dolphins in the Chesapeake Bay has permitted researchers to identify over 2,000 dolphin individuals. They can remember them by their special shapes and markings on their back fins.
Two researchers, Melissa Collier and Ann-Marie Jacoby, saw two dolphins. A third dolphin joined his friends. All three dolphins came to the surface of the water and breathed together. “This is typical, male behavior. The males stay pretty coordinated (协调) with each other. The females sync (同步), but not as regularly. They syne mostly with their offspring (幼崽).” Mann says. This behavior pattern might explain why more male dolphins have died in the most recent outbreak of the virus.
Viruses are naturally occurring in the wild, but human activities in the ocean can make the virus worse by wakening environments and populations even more. Pollution from carbon and plastics, limited food sources, along with ocean warming from climate change, harm the animals. These factors weaken the dolphins’ immune systems. “So, they are extremely vulnerable (脆弱的,易受伤的) to virus outbreaks.” Mann says.
1. What are Mann and other scientists trying to do?| A．Record the dolphins’ social habits. | B．Increase the population of dolphins. |
| C．Compare the viruses among dolphins. | D．Study the spread of the virus among dolphins. |
| A．Researchers. | B．Close friends. |
| C．The social lives of dolphins | D．Over 2,000 dolphin individuals. |
| A．They absorbed more air than females. | B．They did more social activities together. |
| C．They came to the surface of the water more | D．They were more vulnerable to viruses. |
| A．Ocean warming. | B．Dolphins breathing together. |
| C．Researchers studying dolphins. | D．The growing population of dolphins. |
The Grand Canal in China, the world’s
Constructed in the 5th century B.C. and completed in 1291, it
In
As an artery connecting northern and southern China, it has long contributed to the nation’s prosperity and it
3 . Cambodia recorded 792 rare white-shouldered ibises (白肩黑鹮) in its 2022 census (统计), an increase of 5 percent from 755 birds in a year earlier, conservationists said on Thursday.
Bou Vorsak, director of BirdLife in Cambodia, said the census, jointly conducted by the members of the Cambodian Ibis Working Group (CIWG), found 377 white-shouldered ibises at Siem Pang Wildlife Sanctuary, 326 at the Mekong Flooded Forest, and 89 at Koh Srolauv, Kulen Promtep, Lomphat, Srepok and Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuaries. “The white-shouldered ibis is one of the rarest birds in the world, with the global population of approximately 1,000 birds,” he told the journalist. “Cambodia is the largest habitat for this critically endangered species, accounting for nearly 80 percent of the global population.”
Vorsak said BirdLife in Cambodia is delighted to support this species working group to develop and implement the Cambodian ibis conservation action plan to protect the critically endangered birds from extinction.
Neth Pheaktra, secretary of state and spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, said the government thanked all conservation partners for their efforts to protect and conserve natural resources and wildlife, including white-shouldered ibises.
“The Ministry of Environment and non-governmental organization (NGO) partners will continue their efforts to provide safe habitats to wildlife through law enforcement (执行), local economic supporting, and other education campaigns to change public behavior,” he said. “The Ministry of Environment will continue to educate people to stop trapping, hunting, eating and trading wildlife.”
World Wide Fund (WWF) Cambodia country director Seng Teak congratulates the rising number of white-shouldered ibis population trends in Cambodia. “It is a positive result for the conservation and protection of the species. We stand ready to collaborate on the joint conservation action efforts to thrive for stronger survival of this rare species,” he said.
1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?| A．There were 755 ibises recorded in 2022. |
| B．The population of ibises has dropped by 5 percent. |
| C．The population of the white-shouldered ibis is small. |
| D．The white-shouldered ibis is the rarest bird in the world. |
| A．Arrange for. | B．Line up. | C．Take over. | D．Carry out. |
| A．Making policy to protect them. |
| B．Educating people not to do harm to them. |
| C．Forcing people to spare fields for wildlife. |
| D．Giving local residents economic supporting. |
| A．To make others join WWF. |
| B．To show how great work he had done. |
| C．To express his attitude to the conservation. |
| D．To convince people to keep the white-shouldered ibis. |
4 . Here are several places which will surprise you.
Death Valley, California, USA
Very lively at night but completely dead during the day, this place is nothing but dry hot desert. It actually holds the record for the hottest air temperature. It has an average temperature of 46℃ but it has reached 56.7℃ in 1913 and is considered to be a current record. As the driest place in the USA, this place is actually inhabited even though less than a thousand people live there.
Kebili, Tunisia
Tunisia’s close location to the Mediterranean Sea suggests that it should be nice and cool but Kebili is a desert town which has the highest temperature recorded at 55℃. The people inhabiting the area have adjusted to tough conditions and learned to spend most of their time in the shade. Date palms are one of the key features of this place.
Wādī Halfā, Sudan
The city is located on the shores of Lake Nubia, and dust storms are a pretty common thing in the summer. With an average temperature of 41℃, it still managed to make it to 53℃ in 1967. You would think that it should be a little bit cooler for it is the most northern place in Sudan.
Dasht-e Lut Desert, Iran
It’s another uninhabited desert which is actually getting super hot. In the past 20 years, the temperatures of 70℃ have been recorded. The salt desert spreads over 200 miles and even wildlife is not that spread. The place is popular with tourists and naturalists who would like to experience extreme landscapes.
1. What can we say about Death Valley?| A．There is little rainfall in it. | B．Over 1, 000 people live there. |
| C．There is nothing but dry hot sand in it. | D．Its average temperature is 56.7℃. |
| A．Death Valley. | B．Dasht-e Lut Desert. |
| C．Wādī Halfā. | D．Kebili. |
| A．They are places suitable to settle in. |
| B．They are located close to deserts. |
| C．They are the hottest places on earth. |
| D．They are more popular with tourists than other places. |
1. How is the weather now?
| A．Cloudy. | B．Sunny. | C．Snowy. |
| A．Practical. | B．Crazy. | C．Shameful. |
| A．It is very dangerous. |
| B．It is easy for skiing in the area. |
| C．It is very good for exercising legs. |
6 . These days, there’s a green version of just about everything. There are cars that run on electricity and alternative fuels, houses that are powered by solar energy and wind farms seemingly popping up on every open space from California to coastal Japan. Even drones (无人机) ate getting in on the action. The unmanned air vehicles are also being put to environmental uses around the globe.
The eye in the sky that they provide helps researchers better understand what’s going on with the natural world in which we live. For environmentalists and earth scientists, the flying machines can be sent way up in the air to record sweeping footage of a large area to track the impact of things like climate change, migration and the acts of cutting down and burning forest trees, which can be done without having to buy a helicopter, rent a plane or tape a video camera to a bird.
Sure, there’s plenty of satellite footage already out there, but drones let researchers accurately position the data set that they want to get a quicker, closer look at the area that they’re looking to monitor. In 2013, for example, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sent a drone into the Turrialba Volcano in Costa Rica to gather data about its emissions. The temperature, ash height and gas concentration information collected during the mission helped earth scientists determine which way the volcanic and potentially poisonous gas erupting from the volcano was moving and take steps to limit its environmental impact.
Similarly, Arctic researchers are using drones to help study temperature change and the melting of glaciers. They use drones equipped with infrared (红外线的) cameras to sweep into places that they may otherwise not be able to reach to monitor and collect data on the melting ice. The same flying machines may also eventually be used to transport other data collection tools into the wild.
1. How does the author lead in the topic of the text?| A．By giving examples. | B．By listing data. |
| C．By drawing a distinction. | D．By making assumptions. |
| A．The high safety. |
| B．The huge space. |
| C．The recovery capability after damage. |
| D．The ability to collect data at a high altitude. |
| A．Their production steps. |
| B．Their practical functions. |
| C．Their potential impacts on the atmosphere. |
| D．Their data set for motoring the environment. |
| A．Drones: Poisonous | B．Drones: Eco-friendly |
| C．Drones: Limited | D．Drones: Adaptable |
It was a lovely spring morning in the mountains of my home. Here was full of natural atmosphere. The sky was blue, the sun was warm, and the air was fresh. As driving along the winding road, I could see thousands of wild flowers in bloom. When I turned round, I slowed down as I saw some volunteers picking up garbage along the side of the road. I just smiled as I saw them doing some cleaning in spring for Mother Earth and my mind suddenly floated back in time to another spring morning long ago.
When my children were younger, I used to walk along a small route around the lake near my home. It was also on a spring morning that I noticed much garbage lying along the route. The next day, I brought a big garbage bag and started to slowly pick up the garbage along my way. All kinds of deserted objects lay all over the floor. There were pop cans, plastic water bottles, wrappers for candy bars, empty chip bags, pieces of broken fishing line and even an old shoe. Every time I stopped, I picked up a piece of garbage. And I even fished some garbage out of the edge of the water. By the time I circled the lake, the garbage bag had been nearly full.
Tired but happy, I put the bag in an empty garbage can. I stopped before I headed home and took one last look at the lake as the sun set. It looked more beautiful than ever and I felt like the angels were looking down upon it with me and sharing my smiles.
I always think that at times this world’s problems can seem overwhelming and you may wonder what you can do to make a difference. But the truth is that every good thing you do matters a lot! I do believe every time I stop to pick up a single piece of garbage, I can make a difference. As my children are adults now, I decide to spend more time protecting the environment.
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。
I begin to encourage others to develop the environmental awareness.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Many days have passed, and the surroundings have improved a lot.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8 . Scientists from Deakin University in Australia have traced how about 30 species changed across various time periods in response to rising temperatures. They searched through nearly 100 past studies by other researchers, and tracked comparisons that date back a century or two in some cases. They found many creatures are changing the sizes and shapes of certain body parts.
“Warm-blooded animals in the wild rely on their own bodies to avoid overheating. They release heat through their appendages (肢体),” explains Sara Ryding, who led the study. For little creatures. like mice, tails do the job. For birds, their bills (喙) do the work.
The animals’ shape-shifting changes make sense, researchers say. In biology, an established concept called Bergmann’s rule shows that creatures that live in colder climates tend to be larger and thicker than those closer to the equator (赤道). Later, a biologist, Joel Asaph Allen further expanded the concept, saying that animals that adapted to cold climates have shorter limbs (肢) and bodily appendages — to keep the warmth in. For similar reasons, in hotter climates, warm-blooded animals"appendages become larger, relative to their body size. Larger appendages can help animals release more heat into the surrounding air.
Ryding’s team also conducted various field studies. One of them measured the bills of Galapagos finches from 2003 to 2011 and found they enlarged in response to temperature rises. Other data the researchers analyzed focused on European rabbits, which were brought to Australia and settled in areas with different weather. Those that found themselves in hotter places developed longer ears over time.
However, the researchers aren’t sure whether this shape-shifting is a good development. If larger ears or bills can help the animal cool off, that’s a good thing. But certain changes may damage some creatures’ ability to hunt for food. “If you’re a hummingbird and your bill is getting broader and wider, it may become too large to effectively feed on flowers where you’ re drawing your nutrition from,” says Ryding.
1. How did the scientists carry out their study?| A．By experimenting in the wild. | B．By referring to previous data. |
| C．By exploring a variety of fields. | D．By collecting information worldwide. |
| A．To offer background information. | B．To raise doubts about a concept. |
| C．To stress the role of weather changes. | D．To explain the researchers’ findings. |
| A．Their rules. | B．Their reason. | C．Their effects. | D．Their frequency. |
| A．Animals are good at surviving tough situations. |
| B．Animals base their body changes on their environments. |
| C．Climate change forces animals to change their habitats. |
| D．It is wise of animals to use their different body parts effectively. |
9 . Young Komodo dragons move around in a zoo in the city of Surabaya, Indonesia. Some fight over a female while others look for food in a pond, a small body of water. The zoo in Indonesia is breeding Komodo dragons in an effort to save the world’s largest lizards from dying out.
The large lizards are found on the island of Komodo and several neighboring islands in eastern Indonesia. In September, the International Union for Conservation of Nature put them in its Red List of Threatened Species. The international group noted that the dragons were at an increased risk because of the effects of climate change. It warned that rising temperatures and sea levels due to climate change are expected to reduce the Komodo dragon’s living area by at least 30 percent in the next 45 years.
Zoo officials hope that their efforts to save the lizards will draw the attention of world leaders who are gathered in Glasgow, Scotland, to discuss climate change. Since launching the breeding (孕育) program, the zoo has built up its Komodo dragon population to 108 adults and 35 young ones. In addition, 40 Komodo dragon eggs are being kept warm for birth.
Zoo keeper Rukin said the temperature and humidity had to be just right for mating. The hope is that dragons bred in the zoo could be returned to the wild, he said. “I hope we can breed them well and correctly,” Rukin added. He said, “I hope the project will make sure that future generations will still be able to see the dragons in real life, not just in pictures.”
1. Why were the dragons at an increased risk?| A．Because of the effects of climate change. |
| B．Because of the loss of the living area. |
| C．Because of the rising temperatures. |
| D．Because of the rising sea levels. |
| A．143 | B．183 | C．75 | D．148 |
| A．To save Komodo dragons. |
| B．To increase the numbers of Komodo dragons. |
| C．To make people take pictures of Komodo dragons. |
| D．To ensure people will be able to see Komodo dragons in real life. |
| A．The large lizards are found on the island of Komodo. |
| B．The world’s largest lizards were in danger of extinction. |
| C．The zoo in Indonesia succeeded in breeding Komodo dragons. |
| D．The zoo in Indonesia took actions to save the world’s largest lizards from dying out. |
10 . When we think of Antarctica, the first thing that comes to our mind is a picture of penguins and large areas covered with snow. Large amounts of white snow spreading over thousands of kilometers is a pretty good description of Antarctica.
Research and observations conducted over the past few years have led to the conclusion that the Antarctic Peninsula's snow is turning green.
Scientists fear that such profound growth of algae can set off more global warming, causing even more snow to melt. To better understand that, we must consider that white snow reflects most of the sunlight that falls on it. However, as the surface of the snow darkens, it absorbs more and reflects less of the sunlight.
| A．This is due to algal growth. |
| B．But, that legendary snow is not completely white anymore. |
| C．Sometimes, they can be present below the surface of the snow. |
| D．The algae grow so quickly that they occupy great areas of the snow. |
| E．The Antarctic is the area of the continent with the most vegetation. |
| F．More sunlight implies more heat trapped on the surface of the Earth. |
| G．Scientists are estimating the area covered by these green snow algae. |
