1 . Polar bears are icons of the Arctic. Detailed monitoring of their populations is crucial for their conservation—but because polar bears are so difficult to find, we are missing critical data about population size. Scientists have now developed a new tool to help: DNA analysis using skin cells left in the bears’ footprints in the snow.

The scientists were inspired by the techniques that can be applied to tiny, degraded DNA samples. With these techniques, it isn’t necessary to physically capture bears, which can be stressful and dangerous for both bears and humans. Instead, the researchers can turn to the snow tracks of polar bears and look at sources of DNA left in passing—environmental DNA. "The tracks usually contain fresh cells, and the DNA is intact because of the cold’ storage’ temperature, "said Dr. Melanie Lancaster of the World Wide Fund, lead author.

The scientists collected snow from individual tracks made by Alaskan polar bears in the wild. Additional materials like hair and saliva(唾液)were sampled, confirming that the tracks provided accurate genotype(基因型) 24 wild polar bear tracks were sampled. The researchers melted and filtered the snow to collect environmental DNA, then carried out micro-satellite analysis. Although the concentrations (浓度)of DNA taken from trucks sampled in the wild were very low, 13 of the wild polar bear samples could be genotype, identifying 12 different individuals.

This technique has huge potential to inform conservation of these animals, to better understand their populations and behavior. Although the sampling has a lower success rate, ease of collection means that it can significantly expand sample sizes.

"We hope this method will be taken up by the polar bear research community, with the involvement of hunters, volunteers, and local communities, as a new way to collect information on polar bears, "said Lancaster. "We also hope the method will be expanded to other animals living in snowy environments. "

1. Why do scientists develop the new method?

A．To improve the environment in the Arctic.

B．To protect humans from the polar bears attack.

C．To find solutions to global climate change.

D．To gather essential data for monitoring polar bears.

2. What does the underlined word “intact” mean in paragraph 2?

A．Unknown.

B．Undamaged.

C．Unusual.

D．Unstable.

3. What did the scientists do in the study?

A．They tracked and caught polar bears in the wild.

B．They recorded the bears’ behaviors with cameras.

C．They analyzed DNA from polar bears’ snowy footprints.

D．They compared the polar bears’ genotype with other animals?

4. What is Lancaster’s attitude toward the method?

A．Disapproving.

B．Favorable.

C．Uncertain.

D．Suspicious.

2 . About 12% of the total global energy demand comes from heating and cooling homes and businesses. A new study suggests that using underground water to maintain comfortable temperatures could reduce consumption of natural gas and electricity in this section by 40% in the US. The approach is called ATES, short for aquifer thermal energy storage (含水层热能储存).

“We need storage to absorb energy from the sun and wind. It’s crucial to creating affordable, reliable, and deeply environmental-friendly electricity systems. Most people are interested in batteries and other kinds of electrical storage. But we were wondering whether there was any opportunity to use geothermal (地热的) energy storage,” said first author A.T.D Perera. “With ATES, energy can be stored for a long period of time, without adding an additional burden to the grid (输电网).”

ATES is a pleasantly simple concept that takes advantage of the heat-absorbing property of water and the natural geological features of the planet. You simply pull existing underground water up and heat it at the surface in the summer with environmental heat or energy. Then you send it back down. It stays fairly hot because the Earth is a good insulator (绝热体).

“Unlike above-ground tank-based water or ice storage systems, ATES will not need space. It’s also more efficient and can support larger communities in cooling or heating than traditional geothermal heat pump systems that rely on heat moving with the underground soil,” added co-author Hong Tianzhen.

A major beneft of ATES is that it will become more efficient as weather becomes more extreme in the coming years due to climate change. The hotter summers and severer winters could increase the amount of free thermal energy that can be stored with ATES. “It’s very much a realistic thing to do and this work is really about showing its value,” said Perera. “This technology is ready to go, so to speak. We just need to do it.”

1. What do we know about ATES?

A．It is technologically demanding.

B．It is aimed at replacing natural energy.

C．It mainly relies on batteries to function.

D．It helps achieve an environmentally friendly society

2. How does Hong Tianzhen explain ATES’s advantages?

A．By giving examples.	B．By discussing results.
C．By making comparisons.	D．By analyzing principles.

3. Which will affect ATES’s efficiency most?

A．Temperature variations.	B．Insulated materials.
C．The duration of storage.	D．The category of energy.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．A Turning Point in Energy Usage

B．A Solution to Green Cooling and Heating

C．A Transformation in the US Electricity System

D．A Discovery About Geothermal Energy Storage

3 . 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.

2. What can we conclude about the nero-zero energy house?

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.

3. What did Ren do to build up the house?

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.

4. Which is the best title for the passage?

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

4 . The impact of fast fashion on the environment is significant. Recently Zara, one of the largest fast-fashion retailers (零售商) in the world, put forth a concept that only sustainable fabrics are used in clothing production. But how can Zara ever be sustainable? They produce around 450 million garments (衣服) a year and release 500 new designs a week, about 20,000 a year. Zara’s fast-fashion model has been so successful it has inspired an entire industry to follow them.

Clothing production doubled from 2012 to 2022. The average consumer bought 60 percent more clothing in 2022 than in 2012, but kept each garment half as long. And less than one percent of all clothing produced globally is recycled.

I spend a lot of time reading the corporate social responsibility reports of large brands and interviewing micro-to-small sized enterprises to see how they approach sustainability. The largest significant difference between them is culture.

Small brands focus on creating a culture of sustainability by using strategies like producing made-to-order, so they are not making more than what is sold. Most small brands are opting to work under, an “anti-fashion calendar”. They choose not to follow the intense seasonal calendar that fashion functions under. They do this because waste is one of their biggest concerns. They also design clothing to be of the highest quality, ensuring durability and longevity, so you may keep it longer.

Fast fashion is a “grow or die” business, and the fast-fashion growth model used by all large companies is predicated on limitless growth. Large global corporate retailers are not seeking to change their fundamental business model or create cultures of sustainability. That would require re-working their entire business structure and ultimately hurt their bottom line.

I would start to believe Zara and other large fashion brands had good intentions to fight climate change if they started to look at how to move away from their continuous offerings of weekly new products. They need to introduce alternative sustainable business model practices. One small step could be to offer repair or tailoring services. Tailoring creates clothes that fit perfectly, subsequently increasing their emotional value, so that we love them and keep them longer.

1. What does the author intend to show with the numbers about Zara in paragraph 1?

A．Zara is not eco-friendly.	B．Zara is popular with consumers.
C．Zara is a large fast-fashion retailer.	D．Zara is a success in fashion industry.

2. Which of the following shows a cultural feature of small brands?

A．Designing clothing as needed.	B．Designing clothing seasonably.
C．Producing clothing as needed.	D．Producing clothing seasonably.

3. What does the underlined part “bottom line” in paragraph 5 relate to?

A．The fast-fashion retailers.	B．The profits from fast fashion.
C．The culture of sustainability.	D．The relationship with consumers.

4. What does the last paragraph focus on?

A．How to make consumers love their clothes.

B．How to make consumers buy less clothing.

C．How large fashion brands offer weekly new products.

D．How large fashion brands improve their services.

5 . African penguins live on the rocky coasts of South Africa, Namibia and nearby islands. Like other types of penguins, the birds have white feathers covering their chests and black feathers covering their backs. They form lifelong pair bonds with mates, but they nest in huge colonies — so, scientists wondered how the birds were able to identify their partners among the sea of black-and-white birds. They wondered if their chest spots had something to do with it. To test this theory, they studied 12 African penguins at a zoo and marine park near Rome called Zoomarine Italia.

In one test, they hung two life-size photographs of the African penguins. One showed a random member of the colony, while the other showed the test subject’s mate. The scientists recorded the birds’ interactions with the photos: How long did they spend looking at each one, as well as how much time did they spend standing near each photograph? The penguins spent more time gazing at the photo of their partners — about 23 seconds longer, on average — than looking at the other photo. They also stood next to the image of their beau s for twice as long. Then, the researchers covered up the heads of the birds in the photographs, leaving only their speckled bodies visible, and the penguins still lingered near their partners’ portraits.

In another experiment, the researchers hung up two photos of a bird’s mate — but, in one, they had digitally removed its spots. In this case, the penguin again spent more time looking at the photo with the dots.

Finally, the researchers posted two photographs of penguins with digitally removed spots — one of the test subject’s mate and the other of a random penguin from the colony. In this scenario, the penguins did not appear to recognize their partners. They spent roughly the same amount of time gazing at or standing near both photos.

Together, the results of these experiments suggest African penguins are zeroing in on their partners’ spots and using them like name tags, scientists say.

“Our results provide the first evidence of a specific visual cue responsible for spontaneous individual recognition by a bird and highlight the importance of considering all sensory modalities in the study of animal communication,” the researchers write in the paper.

1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?

A．African penguins live on the rocky coasts of North Africa.

B．Scientists are curious about the African penguins.

C．African penguins have white feathers covering their backs.

D．Scientists studied 12 African penguins only at a zoo near Rome.

2. What plays a key role in African penguins’ identifying their partners?

A．Their partners’ voice.	B．Their partners’ heads.
C．Their partners’ back feathers.	D．Their partners’ speckled bodies.

3. What does the underlined phrase “zeroing in on” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Losing sight of.	B．Taking delight in.
C．Paying attention to.	D．Speaking highly of.

4. Where might you find the passage?

A．In a science report.	B．In a travel brochure.
C．In a biology textbook.	D．In a fashion magazine.

6 . A new study by the world’s top scientists says that humans need to cat less meat and dairy and change the way we farm to save the planet from climate change. Climate change means the global changes in the Earth’s average temperature, mostly caused by humans.    1    .

Burning fossil fuels (化石燃料) (coal, oil and gas) to power our homes, cars and factories is a major cause of climate change, yet the report says that limiting the use of fossil fuels will not be enough on its own to stop the harm being done to the planet.    2    The two-year study was carried out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) —an organization that advises governments on climate change. It was prepared by 107 top scientists from 52 countries.

In the past 100 years, the planet’s population has increased from 1.9 billion to 7.7 billion.    3     Raising animals creates a number of problems. Firstly, it uses far more water and other resources than farming crops. Secondly, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air.    4     Farmed animals also produce a lot of methane (沼气), another greenhouse gas that causes climate change.

    5    especially in places where a lot of these foods are eaten, such as Europe, the UK and the US, it doesn’t completely rule out eating meat and dairy, but says we should try to cut down.

A．Although the new report says that people should eat less animal products

B．As a result, the amount of land needed to produce food has also increased

C．The report says that humans should also change to a more plant-based diet

D．Avoiding meat and dairy is the biggest way to reduce human impact on Earth

E．When land is cleared for farming animals, that carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere

F．The world needs to produce more food without expanding the food system’s carbon footprint.

G．A Rising global temperatures lead to more extreme weather events, such as floods and hurricanes

7 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。1.

A．They didn’t open their wings.

B．They didn’t stop moving around.

C．They didn’t come down from the tree.

2.

A．Talk about them at her school.

B．Send them to the local paper.

C．Enter them in a competition.

8 . The first animal Tracey Parsons rescued was a baby bird she found jumping in and out of the road. It had lost its mother. Parsons was seven. She kept it in her bedroom, where it flew around the room. She went to the library to learn how to feed it. The bird started following her around. In the morning it would fly up to her bed and sing beautiful songs. “I’ll never forget it,” she says.

Parsons, who is now 35 and runs a clothes shop in Blackheath, London, doesn’t know how many animals she’s saved since then. Thousands, she estimates. “I like animals,” she says, “because they’re pure and reflect the beauty of nature. And they don’t have their own voices, so someone has to be their voice.”

Any time an injured bird or animal is found in the area, odds are it will find its way to Parsons’ home. People bring them to her front door all the time. Around Blackheath, people know Parsons as “the bird lady”. The local farmers’ market donates scraps (剩饭) for her to feed the ducklings.

She spends thousands of pounds a year on feed and medication. Once the animals are rehabilitated (康复), Parsons releases them into the wild or takes them to wildlife sanctuaries (保护区) if they’re not able to live independently.

“I’ve known Tracey for more than 10 years,” says her friend Diane Blackwell. “She paddles (划船) into freezing pond water to rescue ducklings. She’s rushed to my place to rescue a badly injured fox at 10 pm. She doesn’t have an off switch for her rescue work.”

When asked which animals stand out in her three-decade-long career as a wildlife rehabber, Parsons tells a seemingly unbelievable story. One day in 2019, Parsons was at her shop. When she opened the curtain she saw an injured fox. It ran away, but returned the next day, and every day after that. He’d jump in her lap, and follow her around. People think foxes are aggressive (富于攻击性的), but that’s not true, she says. “They’re adorable, loving creatures.”

1. What can we learn about Parsons’ rescue attempt at age seven?

A．She found it challenging and dangerous.

B．She found a dying duckling outside her room.

C．She regarded it as a memorable experience.

D．She brought a baby bird to a wildlife sanctuary.

2. What do Parsons’ words in paragraph 2 show?

A．She wants to protect animals.

B．Animals can recognize human voices.

C．Every animal has its own unique voice.

D．She thinks wild animals may threaten humans.

3. What does Blackwell say about Parsons?

A．She has devoted herself to saving animals.	B．She is supported by local people.
C．She feels tired from her work.	D．She cares little about her friends.

4. What made the fox unique in Parsons’ animal rescue career?

A．It was badly injured.	B．It was a rare species.
C．It was friendly to her.	D．It was found in her shop.

9 . 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。

Lǎozìhào refers to the old and famous shops, which have always been reliable and trustworthy and still enjoy     1     irreplaceable position in people’s minds since long time. Not only do they represent high quality and good reputation, they have also become an indispensable part in     2     (people) daily life.

These famous and time-honored shops, eg, Quanjude and Tongrentang,     3     (locate) in Qianmen, the center of Beijing, all have represented the highly developed     4     (commerce) culture of old Beijing.

But these shops are more about businesses; they are also a historical and cultural phenomenon. He     5     has never tasted a roast duck will regret his whole life--such common sayings have made Quanjude a     6     (represent) of Beijing. Many other similar two-part allegorical sayings among the folks have also     7     (vivid) revealed the very characteristics of these old shops.

Nowadays, with the rapid development of economy and fierce competition in modern society, some Lǎozìhào shops have been keeping pace     8     the times and carrying forward their brands through continuous reforms and innovations. That’s why they    9     (stand) the test of time and survived in competition, while some others have faded into the history due to their inability     10     (adapt) to the rapid changes in modern social life.

10 . A mere four months ago, a black cat named Bounty had no idea just how adventurous his life was about to become. Although the cat was _______ destined for a cat shelter, Doina adopted him just in time. To some, Doina being an avid (酷爱的) traveler seemed like a potential issue, but it _______ , these two were made for each other.

_______ for their journey to begin, Doina gathered all of the equipment, treats, and other _______ that the two of them would need. Though, when it came to carriers for Bounty, Doina had to get a bit _______ . “I made a special pouch (小袋) for him, because cat carriers are not adapted to certain _______ ,” she said.

One of their first adventures included a _______ tour of Italy, the first test that helped them discover how _______ he was to an adventurous lifestyle. “At the start, Bounty was a little anxious and nervous, but after the first few days, he started to _______ himself,” Doina said. “While I pedalled, he ________ in the pouch.”

Since that first cycling tour, Bounty and Doina have ________ several more adventures in their short time together, including mountaineering and camping. In fact, this adorable ________ has already managed to become a record breaker! He is considered to be the first house cat to summit La Grignetta, a 7,100-foot mountain in the Italian Alps. Best of all, he did so “without even a meow of ________ ”.

The two of them have cycled the entire length of the Italian peninsula! If you’d like to ________ this adorable duo, you can visit their website where Doina ________ their travels with lots of updates, photos, and videos for their 800 followers to enjoy.

1.

A．originally

B．temporarily

C．eventually

D．actually

2.

A．gave out

B．broke out

C．turned out

D．found out

3.

A．Shocked

B．Frightened

C．Embarrassed

D．Excited

4.

A．necessities

B．products

C．presents

D．fruits

5.

A．generous

B．creative

C．efficient

D．ambitious

6.

A．hotels

B．journeys

C．problems

D．vehicles

7.

A．skiing

B．hiking

C．flying

D．cycling

8.

A．accustomed

B．opposed

C．blind

D．sensitive

9.

A．cure

B．enjoy

C．protect

D．feed

10.

A．cried

B．ran

C．sang

D．slept

11.

A．offered

B．expected

C．finished

D．discovered

12.

A．bicycle

B．cat

C．tour

D．carrier

13.

A．protest

B．agreement

C．challenge

D．trust

14.

A．have fun with

B．put up with

C．keep up with

D．get along with

15.

A．helps

B．plans

C．orders

D．documents