1 . The world’s largest ape Gigantopithecus blacki (G. blacki) vanished from Earth between 295, 000 and 215, 000 years ago, more than 100, 000 years earlier than once thought, pushed to extinction as the environment around it shifted, researchers reported recently in Nature.

The fate of G. blacki, twice the size of the largest modern apes and resembling a super-sized version of its close cousin, the orangutan, has long been a mystery. For about 2 million years, G. blacki inhabited a landscape of forests and grasses in what’s now southern China. It left behind only scattered remnants: thousands of teeth and four jawbones, unearthed in cave sediments in the region.

To establish a chronology for the ape’s extinction, paleoanthropologist Yingqi Zhang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and his colleagues used different dating techniques to determine the ape’s habits, diet and environment. In the teeth, they looked for data on the ape’s diet, measuring isotopes (同位素) of carbon and oxygen as well as examining the teeth for tiny evidence of wear and tear — which can reveal not only diet, but also give hints of repeated behaviors and stress. The team also analyzed the cave sediments bearing the fossils, hunting for fossil pollen and conducting luminescence dating (光释光测年) on radioactive elements within the sediments.

The team’s reconstruction revealed that — around 700, 000 to 600, 000 years ago, southern China shifted from its forested landscape to a more seasonally-driven environment. Some apes, including the orangutans, were able to adapt to these changes. But G. blacki was unable to change rapidly enough, and its numbers slowly dwindled before going extinct, the team suggested.

The assembled evidence told a convincing story that “the extinction of G. blacki coincided in southern China with a decrease of forest cover and expansion of savanna-like environments,” said Hervé Bocherens, a biogeologist at the University of Tuebingen in Germany. Still, he said, documenting the extinction of this species from the fossil record is tricky — and it’s impossible to rule out the possibility that pockets of G. blacki may have lingered in still-undiscovered caves for longer.

1. What can be known about G. blacki according to paragraph 2?

A． G. blacki shared certain similarities with the orangutan.

B． G. blacki was twice larger than the largest modern apes.

C． G. blacki lived in places full of basins and deserts.

D． G. blacki might have thousands of teeth.

2. What did Zhang and his workmates do to figure out information related to G. blacki ?

A．They checked the situation of G. blacki.

B．They repeated the behaviors done by G. blacki.

C．They applied radioactive elements to the analysis of the cave sediments.

D．They measured isotopes of carbon and hydrogen in G. blacki diet.

3. What is the meaning of the underlined word “dwindled” in paragraph 4?

A．Increased.

B．Reduced.

C．Unchanged.

D．Multiplied.

4. What can we learn from Bocherens’s words?

A．Many hands make light work.

B．One good turn deserves another.

C．Knowledge advances by steps and not by leaps.

D．Experience must be bought.

2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

In an age of rapidly growing urbanization, rooftop farming has emerged as a sustainable response     1     the challenge of creating green space in cities. This innovative practice transforms rooftops into mini farms, where vegetables, fruits, and even flowers     2     (plant), providing local residents with fresh produce and adding a touch of nature to urban environments.

Rooftop farming, also     3     (refer) to as vertical agriculture, is more than just a trend; it’s a step towards environmental conservation. Green roofs with vegetation help to absorb sunlight and release moisture, cooling the air and reducing the demand for air conditioning,     4     in turn lessens energy     5     (consume) and carbon emission. Meanwhile, rooftop farms serve as educational platforms,     6     (teach) city dwellers about sustainable agriculture practices and the importance of locally     7     (source) food.

As urban populations continue to grow, rooftop farming fosters community engagement     8     promotes healthier lifestyles by providing access to fresh and organic produce. When we look towards     9     future where environmental consciousness and sustainable practices become increasingly vital, rooftop farming stands as a testament to our ability to cultivate more than just food—we cultivate hope for a     10     (green) and more resilient world.

3 . Sometimes we only appreciate something when we realize we may lose it. That is the story of the Everglades. A shallow slow-moving river, the Everglades once covered about 18,000 square miles of southern Florida. Until the 1900s, few people lived in the grassy wetlands. Not much was understood about the unique balance of nature that existed there. Plants, creatures, and water had formed a remarkable ecosystem.

By the early 1900s, Florida’s pleasant winters attracted more people. Visitors became new permanent residents. They built homes and roads. The conditions looked good for farming, so the newcomers planted large agricultural crops. But South Florida’s cycle of flooding was a problem. To address that, developers attempted to drain (排水) the land. They also built structures to control water levels and flow.

Those changes made it easier for more people to live year-round in South Florida. However, they also disturbed life in the Everglades, which depends on freshwater regularly refilling the land. The area’s growing human population needed freshwater. And large farms consumed large quantities of freshwater. By the mid-1900s, water levels in southern Florida began to go down. Lack of freshwater wasn’t the only problem. As more and more land was developed for people and farms, the Everglades’ historic boundaries contracted. Loss of habitat and hunting threatened the survival of native species in the Everglades.

Some people hoped that the government’s recognition might save the Everglades. They fought for it. Everglades National Park was established in 1947. It became the first park in the United States created for its biodiversity.

Now, Everglades National Park protects 1.5 million acres along the southern tip of Florida. An amazing variety of creatures live there. About 360 different species of birds have been sighted in the park. Nearly 300 different species of fish have been identified. About 40 species of mammals and 50 species of reptiles inhabit the park. Nature still rules in the Everglades, a place worth understanding, appreciating, and protecting.

1. What was the Everglades like before the 1900s?

A．Naturally wild.	B．Partly explored.
C．Completely lifeless.	D．Thickly populated.

2. What problem did new residents cause for the Everglades?

A．A cycle of flooding.

B．Pollution of freshwater.

C．Possible extinction of native species.

D．The extension of historic boundaries.

3. Why are the figures mentioned in the last paragraph?

A．To attract visitors to the park.

B．To stress the great power of nature.

C．To call for more efforts to protect nature.

D．To show the successful conservation of the park.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．How people adapted to life in the Everglades.

B．How Everglades National Park was established.

C．How humans harmed and saved the Everglades.

D．How the ecosystem of the Everglades was formed.

4 . Keep a Moon Diary

Grab a notebook and your favorite pen or pencil, and you’re ready to begin your very own Moon Diary. You’ll discover all kinds of fascinating things about how the moon travels and notice the various phases of the moon.

Before you start you can collect together some books about the moon to learn about it.     1     And even though you are older you can still try these kinds of books about the moon.

Start your Moon Diary by looking for the moon one night and recording all the things you notice. Note the date, time, and weather. Is the moon full? Half full? Or maybe gone entirely? What color does it seem to be?     2     Take time to look at the moon each night for four weeks. Every night, record what you see. Does the moon appear to be getting bigger? Smaller? Where does the moon appear in the sky? Maybe record what natural sounds you hear when the moon is high in the sky!

    3     Sometimes you will see the moon in the daytime, and other times you may have to wait until nighttime for the moon to rise. You can check when the moon will rise each night by looking for the information online.

It takes about 28 days for the moon to make one complete orbit around the Earth. So after four weeks, you’ll have completed your very own Moon Diary!     4     What do you notice? How does the moon change shape over time? Is the moon rising earlier or later in the sky each day? How does it affect the amount of light in the sky?     5     See where the moon takes you!

A．Look back over what you wrote and drew.

B．You could draw a sad face in the box instead.

C．Write and draw your observations in your notebook.

D．Every day for a month, look in the sky and find the moon.

E．Maybe you’ll decide to keep going with your Moon Diary.

F．Picture books and stories are a great way to introduce a topic.

G．Predict what shape the moon will be each night for the next month.

5 . New findings suggest that when it-comes to learning, the snake may be quite a bit like humans. David Holtzman, a scientist at the University of Rochester, has found that snakes have a much greater capacity for learning than earlier studies had indicated.

Holtzman’s study challenged 24 snakes to escape from a black plastic container the size of a child’s pool. Cards mounted on the container’s walls and tape on its floor provided the snakes with visual and touchable signals to find their goal: holes in the container’s bottom that offer a dark, comfortable spot to hide.

Simply falling into a hole isn’t the only proof that the snakes are learning something, though. “Speed to find that goal is one of the measures which shows they’re learning,” Holtzman says. “On average, they take over 700 seconds to find the correct hole on the first day of training, and then go down to about 400 seconds by the fourth day of training. Some are actually very fast and find it in less than 30 seconds.”

Studies dating back to the 1950s interpreted snakes’ awkwardness with mazes(迷宫)as a poor reflection on their intelligence. “Early attempts to study snake intelligence were problematic because the studies used mazes as testing arenas(场地)-as though snakes might be expected to run through mazes in the same way mice run through mazes,” says Peter Kareiva, a professor of zoology. “Snakes do not encounter anything like mazes in nature, and they do not learn how to run mazes in laboratory conditions.”

Holtzman also found a few age-based differences in the signals the snakes use. Young snakes appear to be more adaptable and resourceful, using a variety of clues to find their way to the exit.But their elders seem to rely much more heavily on visual clues. “Actually, one of the amazing findings from our studies is that snakes do use vision in locating places,” says Holtzman. “They don’t just rely on the chemical clues picked up by sticking their tongues out, as many snake biologists assume.”

1. What is the function of the cards and tape?

A．To direct the snakes to the exits.

B．To protect the snakes from bright lights.

C．To cover the holes at the container’s bottom.

D．To make the container a comfortable spot to stay.

2. What do the data in paragraph 3 show about the snakes according to Holtzman?

A．They are skillful escapers.	B．They are good learners.
C．They communicate with each other.	D．They adapt to environments quickly.

3. What was the problem with early attempts to study snake intelligence?

A．They chose the wrong testing arenas.

B．They failed to do tests in laboratory conditions.

C．They referred to studies dating back to the 1950s.

D．They compared snakes with a different kind of animal.

4. What astonishes Holtzman about snakes?

A．They rely on sight to find their way.

B．They leave chemical clues everywhere.

C．The young beat their elders in many ways.

D．Their tongues are unable to recognize chemical clues.

6 . 环保，一个看似简单却意义重大的主题，已经逐渐成为全人类共同关注的焦点。我校将举办以“保护环境”“English-speaking Contest of Environment Protection”为话题，面向全体学生的英语演讲比赛。请你以学校英语俱乐部(English Club)的名义写一份海报，欢迎全校师生参加。
要点：
时间：本周六上午八点至十一点。
地点：学校会议大厅。
邀请本校美籍教师Smisth讲述美国环境保护情况。
学校校长(headmaster)将为前三名颁奖
要求：
(1)80-120词；
文中不能出现自己的姓名和所在学校的名称。
海报应含所有信息，可适当增加细节。
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7 . How is it that a fly always seems to be buzzing around your food moments after you sit down for an outdoor meal?

The answer is practice. Or, more specifically: evolution (进化). Flies and other insects have been on a multimillion-year journey of evolution, improving their ability to detect food. Being able to zero in on nutritious meals is a matter of life and death.

The family of flies that I study — the blowflies — are the buzzing ones that are usually a beautiful metallic blue, with bronze and green colors. They’ve perfected their ability to quickly sense the smells that naturally come off picnics and garbage cans. There is a lot of competition for a resource like an overflowing garbage can because of how nutritious garbage, with the meat rotting in it, is. But the blowflies can sense these smells long before their competitors or people can, and tend to show up to the scene first.

Sensing systems differ depending on the insect and species. The blowflies’ main sensing organ is their antennae, two thin projections (凸起) from the head that are covered in tiny hairs. These fine hairs are made up of special cells that contain receptors (受体) for specific smells. Think about a batch of chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven. You can detect their delicious smells because we humans have receptors on the surfaces of the cells that line the inside of our noses. These receptors send signals to the brain: yummy food ahead. They’re detecting the sweet smell of sugar-based molecules, an energy-rich food source for us.

What’s a “good” or a “bad” smell can differ depending on the animal doing the smelling. The attractive rotting meat stench(恶臭) that a fly finds delightful is perceived quite differently by a person passing by an unpleasant garbage can on a hot day. But any fly that can detect the useful smell signal, which means “nutritious fly food here”, will have an advantage. Over time, the insects that have the receptors for those smells will have better survival rates and produce more generations.

1. Why does the author focus on blowflies in his study?

A．They have attractive deep green colors.

B．They have gone through much evolution.

C．They have unusual ability to sense smells.

D．They are easier to control than other species.

2. In which field do blowflies have an advantage over their competitors?

A．Detecting food resources.	B．Designing flying routes.
C．Producing nutrition out of garbage.	D．Escaping from enemies.

3. How does the author develop the fourth paragraph?

A．By explaining a principle.	B．By making a comparison.
C．By following time order.	D．By describing a process.

4. What’s the message implied in the last paragraph?

A．It’s rather easy to wipe out the blowflies.

B．Nutritious foods usually have attractive smells.

C．The receptors play a key role in flies’ survival.

D．Flies find a smell signal much faster than humans.

8 . A planet that suffers 475 C beneath a thick acid atmosphere may be the last place you'd expect alien (外星的) life in our solar system. But one NASA scientist claims that extraterrestrials (天外来客) are most likely hiding on Venus amid conditions that are unbearable for humans. The new theory was put forward by the research scientist Dr Michelle Thaller. She says that possible signs of life have already been seen within the carbon-dioxide filled atmosphere, adding that she was absolutely certain that life exists somewhere.

Venus is often described as Earth's twin due to its similar size and structure. But their conditions couldn't be further apart, as astronomers believe it would be impossible for humans to exist on Venus. Positioned 67 million miles from the Sun, Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system, suffering temperatures that can even melt lead. Its atmosphere also adds to the uninhabitable situation.

Despite this, scientists have long debated whether Venus' clouds may host microbial (微生物的) life forms that can survive. Many scientists think that photosynthesis (光合作用) is possible on the planet's surface as Venus receives enough solar energy to pass through its thick clouds.

However, Professor Dominic Papineau, a biologist at the University College of London, believes Dr Thaller's views are “difficult to realistically assume”. He explained, “For life-related chemical reactions to take place, liquid water is necessary. Hence, to find extraterrestrial life, we need to find liquid water, and to find extraterrestrial fossils requires looking for special rocks that were associated with liquid water in the past.”

This makes life on Venus today difficult to realistically assume, because its surface is too hot, although Venus might have had liquid water in its past. Even still, both Professor Papineau and Dr Thaller agree that the icy moons of our solar system could also be sites of potential microbial life. NASA suggests there are 290 “traditional moons” in our solar system-excluding 462 smaller minor planets.

1. What can we know about Venus?

A．Its atmosphere is thin acidic.

B．It is much bigger than Earth.

C．It is 77 million miles from the Sun.

D．Venus and Earth are considered as twins.

2. Which statement would Papineau agree with?

A．Photosynthesis can happen on Venus's surface.

B．Thick clouds make photosynthesis in Venus hard.

C．Liquid water is important for the extraterrestrials.

D．Some rocks can prove life exists on Venus.

3. What can we know from the last paragraph?

A．The surface temperature of Venus is high.

B．It's very easy to confirm life on Venus.

C．Venus might have liquid water now.

D．Many icy moons go around Venus.

4. In which section of a newspaper can you find this text?

A．Education.

B．Science.

C．Culture.

D．Sports.

9 . A recent study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has discovered that river erosion (侵蚀) can lead to increased biodiversity in areas with minimal tectonic (地壳构造的) activity. The researchers focused their attention on the Tennessee River Basin and examined how the erosion of various rock types by the river had led to the separation and diversification of a type of fish called the greenfin darter. As time passed, these separate fish populations evolved into distinct families with genetic differences.

Scientist Thomas Near observed that the greenfin darter was exclusively found in the southern half of the Tennessee River Basin. The researchers analyzed the genes of each fish in Near’s data set and constructed an evolutionary tree. This tree helped them comprehend the evolution and differences of the greenfin darter species. They discovered that the fish within the same branch of the river were more closely related to each other than to the fish in other branches.

This study provides evidence that river erosion significantly impacts biodiversity in regions with low tectonic activity. It illustrates how changes in the landscape caused by river erosion can lead to the division and diversification of species over time, even in peaceful environments. These findings enhance our understanding of the mechanisms (机制) that drive biodiversity and evolution, even in areas that are not typically associated with intense tectonic activity.

Subsequently, the team discovered a strong correlation between the habitats of the greenfin darter and the type of rocks present. The southern half of the Tennessee River Basin consists of hard, tightly packed rocks, resulting in turbulent (湍急的) waves in the rivers that flow through it. This characteristic may be favored by the greenfin darter. As a result, the team assumed whether the distribution of greenfin darter habitats had been influenced by the changing rock types, as the rivers eroded the land over time. To test this assumption, the researchers developed a simulation model. Remarkably, the results confirmed their assumption.

1. What is new about the MIT study?

A．It finds river erosion can enhance biodiversity.

B．It further proves the mechanisms of river erosion.

C．It proves the geographical features of biodiversity.

D．It classifies a type of fish called the greenfin darter.

2. What can we learn about the greenfin darter?

A．Their appearances vary between families.	B．Their genetic constitutions have diversified.
C．They prefer the deep and slow-flowing river.	D．They go extinct in the changing landscape of rivers.

3. How did Near help the researchers reach their conclusion?

A．By creating an evolutionary tree of the fish.

B．By offering the fish’s genetic data.

C．By reasoning out the time the fish evolve and separate.

D．By analyzing the genetic similarity between different fish.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．River Erosion Can Shape Fish Evolution	B．Genetic Change in the Greenfin Darter
C．Evolutionary Tree Analysis of the Greenfin Darter	D．The Impact of Climate Change on Fish Diversity

10 . 假设你是李华，有一位外国笔友Harry想了解你们的首都北京，请你根据提示回复一封电子邮件。要点如下：
1. 北京的位置(中国北部)、面积(16,410多平方公里)、人口(约2200万)及历史(3,000多年)等；
2. 北京的旅游特色(历史古迹如长城、故宫the Forbidden City、颐和园the Summer Palace, 特色小吃等)；
3. 欢迎Harry来北京参观。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头、结尾已给出，不计入总数。
Dear Harry,
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Yours,

Li Hua