1 . In the world of water, 2021 was another year for the record books. Parts of Western Europe suffered from deadly floods while large areas of the southwestern United States remained locked in a massive drought.
One might think that our impressive water management would safeguard society from such catastrophic events. Yet when it comes to water, the past is no longer a good guide for the future and most of the water engineering is unprepared for consequences of increasingly occurring extreme weather. One of the most alarming wake-up calls came from the city of Cape Town, where the water taps of 4 million residents were nearly forced to be shut off after severe drought dried up its reservoir (水库).
Appealing as it might be, the solution is not to further build bigger and higher dams (水坝) that often result in more disastrous flooding. Rather, it is to work more with natural processes.
The Netherlands avoided major damage from the historic floods in July 2021 thanks to its recently completed project, which gives river room to spread out by redirecting floodwaters into wetlands, lowering parts of the stormy river by more than a foot. Agricultural practices offer another strategy. Scientists have found that boosting organic matter in the soil by 1% can increase the soil’s water-holding capacity by up to 18,000 gallons per acre, creating flexibility to both intense rains and dry periods. This means farmland practices such as the planting of cover crops can not only raise output but improve water management.
Solutions don’t come easily, but they are key to a livable future. While it’s too late to avoid the impacts of climate change, we can avoid the worst of those impacts by investing more in such nature-based water solutions.
1. Cape Town is mentioned to show__________.| A．the reservoir was of no use |
| B．new water management is in need |
| C．how awful it was without tap water |
| D．the existing water management is impressive |
| A．The Netherlands was spared from flood damage. |
| B．The river’s water level was reduced to over a foot. |
| C．Improving soil’s water-holding ability is practical. |
| D．Planting crops boosts organisms at the cost of production. |
① “Restoring Healthy Soil”
② “Filling Wetland”
③ “Strengthening Dam”
④ “Making Room for River”
| A．①② | B．②③ | C．③④ | D．①④ |
| A．Water disaster: way out of control |
| B．Investment in water: a key to the future |
| C．Nature-based solution: a way out for water |
| D．Good news: farming practices working well |
2 . Anew study reports that a mosquito’s sense of smell is more complicated than we once thought. And it may explain why this annoying insect is so good at seeking you out at a barbecue or in your bedroom and biting you—as well as lead to new strategies to prevent the potentially deadly diseases transmitted by its bite.
Meg Younger, a neuroscientist at Boston University, is co-author of the study. She exhales(呼气)gently into one of the mosquito-filled cages. A waft of carbon dioxide blows across the insects, and they go wild. “And now, they’re looking fora target like the complex mixture of human body smell—a smell that’s attractive to the mosquitoes,” Younger explains.
In many parts of the world, this attraction isn’t merely an annoyance for humans. It’s a major health problem. Mosquitoes transmit diseases to humans. These diseases include dengue, Zika, chikungunya fever and malaria. The last disease alone causes over half a million deaths each year.
So scientists have attempted to break this attraction. But try as they might, the little mosquito has resisted. “They’re really good at what they do,” Younger says. Most of what we know about the neuroscience of smell comes from mice and fruit flies, where the wiring is fairly simple. Each neuron(神经元) in the nose has one kind of receptor(感受器) that detects a single kind of smell—say, a banana. And all the neurons with receptors for the banana smell connect to the same part of the brain. Younger and the others studied mosquito brains, where she found that each neuron has multiple receptors that can detect multiple smells.
This work could give researchers additional ways to battle the insects like developing traps that contain new smell mixtures that are more appealing than people.
“It’s an enormous study,” says Josefina del Marmol, a neurobiologist at the Harvard Medical School. She says there’s more work to be done to check. neuron by neuron, that each one actually responds to all the smells it has receptors for. But regarding the central finding, she says, “It really does change a lot about what we know of how insects perceive the world.”
1. Why does Younger exhale into a mosquito-filled cage?| A．To keep targeted mosquitoes alive. | B．To confuse the experimented mosquitoes. |
| C．To experiment on mosquitoes’ sense of smell. | D．To see if breath contributes to disease transmission. |
| A．They have a clearer smell mechanism. | B．They have more neurons to detect smells. |
| C．They have bigger brain parts focusing on smell. | D．They have more smell receptors in each neuron. |
| A．It may have found an ideal way to study insects. |
| B．It inspires new methods to prevent mosquito bites. |
| C．It proves the previous assumption about mosquitoes. |
| D．It sheds light on how mosquitoes transmit diseases. |
| A．It is a big step forward. | B．It has many weaknesses. |
| C．It is far from impressive. | D．It has a worldwide influence. |
It’s almost time for me
4 . Like most of his classmates, Zhang Yixuan is facing academic pressure as he is preparing to attend the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, next year. However, compared with playing smartphones and games, Zhang Yixuan prefers spending his summer vacation walking in wild nature, meeting little creatures like crabs. His bedroom is packed with dozens of “living treasures” that he has collected from the outdoors, including insects, fish, and crabs.
It is the microscope that his father bought him that makes the bedroom look more like a mini-biology lab than anything else and it’s a place where Zhang can devote himself to identifying or observing crabs day and
Last year, a group of crabs caught Zhang’s attention since they looked unusual compared with the commonly seen ones in Rongxian county, where he lives. He decided to take seven of them home. After much observation and lots
The hardworking and gifted teenager is very grateful to his parents for their understanding and support. His father Zhang Lefei, who was born in a rural area, loved catching fish and crabs himself at an early age. So he and his wife would take their son out into nature to explore as much as possible and would allow him to observe crabs quietly without any disturbs.
They say interest is the best teacher. And so are parents, it seems.
1. What does paragraph 1 mainly tell us about Zhang Yixuan?| A．His hobbies. | B．His character. |
| C．His academic pressure. | D．His relationship with others. |
| A．In the wild. | B．In his school. |
| C．In his bedroom. | D．In a biology lab. |
| A．Showed. | B．Inferred. |
| C．Argued. | D．Suggested. |
| A．To share their interest. | B．To show their support. |
| C．To indicate their effort. | D．To reveal their background. |
5 . A second-grade education has not stopped garbage collector Jose Gutierrez. He is bringing the gift of reading to thousands of Colombian children.
Gutierrez started saving books from the trash 27 years ago. He was driving a garbage truck at night through the country’s richer neighborhoods. The books that were thrown away slowly piled up. Now the ground floor of his small house is a community library. It is stacked (堆放) from floor to ceiling. They range from chemistry textbooks to children’s classics.
Books are luxuries for boys and girls in low-income neighborhoods. New reading material at bookstores is too expensive. There are 19 public libraries in Bogota, a city of 8.5 million people. But the libraries tend to be located far away from poorer areas.“They should be in all neighborhoods and on each comer of every neighborhood,” the 60-year-old says.“Books can save us. That is what Colombia needs.”
Gutierrez has a love of reading, which comes from his mother. She always read to him even though she was too poor to keep him in school. Gutierrez is a keen reader of works by authors such as Leo Tolstoy and Victor Hugo. His favorite books include One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Gencral in His Labyrinth by Colombia’s Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The first book Gutierrez found was a copy of the classic novel Anna Karenina. The Tolstoy book was later joined by The Little Prince, Sophie’s World, The Iliad and a number of novels. Today, he has collected around 25,000 books.
Now, Gutierrez still looks through the rubbish for additions to his library, named “The Strength of Words.”His fame as Colombia’s “Lord of the Books” has helped a lot. It has brought him thou-sands of donated books. He has sent many to other libraries around the country. Moreover, Gutierrez has traveled to book fairs in Mexico and Chile to share his experience of starting a library with the books that are thrown away.
Gutierrez says he doesn’t reject technology that allows books to be read digitally. But he prefers to read the printed words on paper.“There is nothing more beautiful than having a book in your pocket, in your bag or inside your car.”
1. How old was Gutierrez when he started saving books from the trash?| A．In his twenties. | B．In his thirties. | C．In his forties. | D．In his fifties, |
| A．Luxury books. | B．Garbage trucks. | C．Public libraries. | D．Poor areas. |
| A．The beginning of his charity project. | B．A window to the world. |
| C．One of his greatest achievements in life. | D．Some comfort in difficult times. |
| A．Actions speak louder than words. | B．A good book can shine a light upon the soul. |
| C．One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. | D．The palest ink is better than the best memory. |
As a nature photographer, I have to brave the wind and the rain, but I still enjoy working outside in the wild. I enjoy observing animals in their
Last spring, I followed a path that took me through
From time to time I look at the photo as a reminder to show respect to all animals. It is after all we who are the
7 . How to Reduce Paper Waste
● Write on both sides of the paper.
It may seem as if simply writing on both sides of a piece of paper is not helpful, but in fact, it can help a lot.
● Use old newspaper to wrap gifts.
● Recycle old paper.
If there is a recycling centre near you, you might want to give away all of your old papers and notebooks for recycling.
● Take notes on your computer or smartphone when possible.
Taking paper notes can use up a lot of paper, which may be harmful to the environment. Instead, use a computer or your smartphone.
● Send e-mails instead of traditional mail.
Traditional, posted mails require a lot of paper. There are also some other disadvantages to traditional mail. E-mails have a few advantages, including being delivered much quicker than traditional mail, the ability to be sent to one person or a larger group, and being able to send them at any time.
| A．Taking care of the Earth is everyone’s job. |
| B．You could use note app or word processor to do this. |
| C．Using old newspapers is a great, eco-friendly way to wrap gifts. |
| D．You could also text or call someone as opposed to sending traditional mail. |
| E．The back of a piece of paper can be used for things like drafts or other notes. |
| F．It takes a lot less energy to recycle paper than to make some from raw material. |
| G．Traditional mail is perhaps one of the most exciting ways to hear from someone. |
8 . Once there was a dandelion (蒲公英) living alone by the road. It felt bored and sad all day as no one ever stopped to take a look at or talk to it.
One day, a mother was walking on the road with her baby. The baby was crying hard and loudly. No matter what the mother did, she couldn’t get the baby to stop crying. Then the mother looked down, and she found the lonely dandelion. It looked so lovely in the sun with its white seeds widely open, and more beautiful than other plants around.
The mother squatted down, (蹲下) picking the dandelion softly. Then she brought it up to her baby so that he could see it clearly. When the baby saw the flowers of the dandelion, he quickly stopped crying and looked at them with interest.
His mom put the dandelion near her mouth and blew the flowers up and down. The dandelion seeds then flew in the air, spreading far away with the wind. The mother gave the dandelion to her son. He didn’t know what the plant was, but he knew it was fun to play with, which made him giggle (咯咯笑) so happily.
Now the dandelion knew its value and didn’t feel sad. It lived a beautiful life just by being itself. It wasn’t as beautiful as other flowers, but it brought the child a simple kind of happiness that money can’t buy.
The dandelion’s story tells us that everyone is special and great. We can help others in one way or another. We’re far greater than we think we are.
1. Why did the dandelion feel lonely at first?| A．Because no one noticed it . | B．Because it left its mother. |
| C．Because it lived by the road. | D．Because it had no friends. |
| A．Kind and honest. | B．Friendly and helpful. |
| C．Patient and careful. | D．Beautiful and funny. |
| A．it could travel farther | B．it found its value |
| C．it was powerful again | D．it had more seeds than before |
| A．Great minds think alike. |
| B．Two heads are better than one. |
| C．Rome was not built in a day. |
| D．All things in their being are good for something. |
9 . When the Covid-19 pandemic struck Indonesia’s island of Bali, tourism-the driving economic force in the region-just about came to a halt. More than half of Bali’s economic profits comes from tourism which
Made Janur Yasa, a restaurant owner in the town of Ubud said he wanted to find a way to help people in his community during the pandemic while also
In May 2020, he
The program
“Teenagers come with a smile. Elderly people are there. Young kids come with their mothers. That’s what keeps me
| A．improves | B．employs | C．amuses | D．guarantees |
| A．piled up | B．used up | C．put up | D．cleaned up |
| A．thirsty | B．crazy | C．exhausted | D．hungry |
| A．raising | B．sharing | C．addressing | D．producing |
| A．started | B．quit | C．accepted | D．supported |
| A．renew | B．benefit | C．destroy | D．threaten |
| A．threw | B．removed | C．collected | D．witnessed |
| A．hosted | B．cancelled | C．approached | D．impressed |
| A．principle | B．definition | C．knowledge | D．concept |
| A．sets up | B．brings together | C．picks out | D．depends on |
| A．practices | B．contests | C．events | D．beliefs |
| A．inspire | B．disturb | C．affect | D．feed |
| A．hardly | B．nearly | C．barely | D．obviously |
| A．going | B．passing | C．rushing | D．recording |
| A．confidence | B．responsibility | C．hope | D．respect |
10 . Earth Hour is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature. It's a big event usually at the end of March every year. On this evening, people “go dark”.
It's true that turning off lights for just one hour saves only a small amount of power.
But on another level, a large number of people’s acting together sends a powerful message to governments and companies.
The logo(标识) of Earth Hour is “60+” .The number 60 is for the 60 minutes of Earth Hour.
| A．But this is only the beginning. |
| B．Earth Hour represents every hour of every day. |
| C．After all, everyone has to answer for what they have done. |
| D．Besides turning off the lights, people get involved in other events. |
| E．It pushes them to take urgent measures by making changes to policies. |
| F．That is, they switch off all unnecessary lights at the same time for one hour. |
| G．The plus invites people to continue their action even after Earth Hour is finished. |
