1. Who first recorded the sighting of the Nazca Lines?
| A．A ruler. | B．A pilot. | C．A researcher. |
| A．Ancient peoples. | B．Animals. | C．Rocks. |
| A．Local climate. | B．Special techniques. | C．Humans’ protection. |
| A．They were created by aliens. |
| B．They were created to record star changes. |
| C．They were created for water-related events. |
2 . Children can gain a stronger connection with the environment through story writing, according to a new study. The research was focused on the issue of plastic litter in Latin American countries along the Pacific Ocean.
The experts set out to explore how a story-writing activity may influence the opinions of children about plastic litter, as well as how their behavior may be affected. “A key element of our project was to examine the children’s responses to questionnaires (调查表) they completed before and after writing these stories,” said study co-author Dr. Kayleigh Wyles. “We found that their knowledge on the topic increased and they became more active, as they reported doing more pro-environmental acts afterwards.”
The children were asked to use their imaginations about litter items that are commonly found on the beach, such as straws and plastic bags. They were then instructed to imagine how these items ended up on the beach in the first place. The writing project showed that children were more likely to think about ways of preventing litter from entering the environment, rather than just cleaning it up. According to the researchers, the most popular solutions suggested in the stories were the regeneration and reduction of litter.
Overall, nearly 90 children participated in the study and in more than half of the stories, the children showed awareness of the dangers of plastic pollution in the marine (海洋的) environment, including the risk of animal involvement. Many stories described consequences of animals ingesting plastic, such as injuries or death.
“Stories offer a new and different way to explore what people believe and how they understand their environment,” said lead study author Estelle Praet. “The results were truly inspiring and showed the children’s awareness of plastic’s impact on marine life and the environment.”
1. Which might Dr. Kayleigh Wyles agree with about the story-writing activity?| A．It changes the kids’ way to use plastic products. |
| B．It promotes the kids’ knowledge on plastic litter. |
| C．It affects the kids’ responses to difficult questions. |
| D．It makes the kids more imaginative in story writing. |
| A．Cleaning them up regularly. | B．Destroying them on the beach. |
| C．Delivering them to factories. | D．Recycling and reducing them. |
| A．Giving away. | B．Taking in. | C．Escaping from. | D．Living with. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. | C．Optimistic. | D．Critical. |
3 . The African penguin is expected to go extinct in the wild in just over a decade, given its current population decline. The main reason is a lack of food caused by disturbance to ocean conditions from global heating and competition from the commercial fishing industry. According to a study, scientists have identified a possible additional cause, one that is an entirely new threat and that further prevents the penguins from finding food: noise pollution from marine (海洋的) ships in a bay.
Since 2016, a new shipping practice has started at Algoa Bay. The bay offers ship-to-ship refueling for ships anchored offshore. Since the start of this practice, marine traffic in the bay has doubled. The number of bulk carriers (散货船) pulling into the bay has increased by ten times as much. Thus the noise levels in the area had doubled and the population of penguins has dropped sharply. High noise levels affect the ability of marine animals to find food, communicate or navigate properly.
Researchers used data from ship identification tools to estimate underwater noise from passing ships. They also attached underwater microphones and accelerometers (感应器) to some of the penguins. Recording the noise will tell researchers what the penguins are hearing, if they’re talking while hunting, if they’re changing their movements in response to noise, and if the noise is drowning out their hunting conversations. This will allow researchers to determine whether the sound disturbance is a direct cause of the penguins’ ongoing difficulties in finding sufficient food.
The study is the first to explore the effects of ocean traffic noise pollution on seabirds and the consequences of offshore shipping activities on underwater noise levels. Experts are considering proposing various global best-practice approaches to reduce some of the impacts of noise pollution, such as policies that limit the number and size of ships allowed into a bay of this kind. “We also need more scientific monitoring of noise, before these measures are put in place and afterward, so that we have a proper understanding of what works.” a researcher said.
1. What is caused by the noise pollution?| A．The penguins’ lack of food. |
| B．The penguins’ proper navigation. |
| C．People’s communication disability. |
| D．The commercial competition. |
| A．Because they wanted to study the way of relieving marine traffic pressure. |
| B．Because they could determine and analyze the source of ocean noise pollution |
| C．Because it helped to calculate underwater noise levels caused by different ships. |
| D．Because the impact of ocean on penguins’ hunting behavior could be found. |
| A．By exploring the real effects of ocean traffic. |
| B．By restricting the ships to go into the bay. |
| C．By banning all the offshore shipping activities. |
| D．By increasing ship-to-ship refueling activities. |
| A．Evaluate the risk of the noise. |
| B．Establish a monitoring system. |
| C．Put the measures in place. |
| D．Try to understand what happens. |
4 . For years, David James, who studies insects at Washington State University, had wanted to examine the migration (迁徙)patterns of West Coast monarch butterflies (黑脉金斑蝶). The route the butterflies travel has been hardly known because the populations are too small to follow. For every 200 monarchs tagged (打标签)by a researcher, only one is usually recovered at the end of its trip, James says, and finding even 200 in the wild to tag is unlikely. Knowing the route is vital to conservation efforts, but James had no way to figure it out- until he got a phone call from Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
The prison was looking for new activities to improve the mental health of those serving long-term sentences. So James began working with prisoners to raise monarchs through the whole process of their transformation. The adult insects were then tagged and released from the prison. Over five years, nearly 10, 000 monarchs flew from the facility. Elsewhere in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, researchers released another few thousand.
The tags included email addresses, and soon after the first butterflies took off, James started receiving messages from people who had spotted them. The butterflies, the reports confirmed, wintered in coastal California. Twelve of them landed at Lighthouse Field State Beach in Santa Cruz. Several more headed to Bolinas and Morro Bay.
The work helps researchers identify ideal places to plant milkweed and other vegetation that are important to the life cycle of West Coast monarch butterflies. It also brought out the gentler side of some of the prisoners. “They were very worried that they were going to harm the butterflies, ”James says. Watching the monarch change their form also touched the men. “This butterfly changed, ” James recalls prisoners telling him, “and maybe we can too. ”
1. What was hard for David to do in his study?| A．Gain financial support. | B．Hire qualified workers. |
| C．Build a new laboratory. | D．Find enough monarchs. |
| A．To guarantee their safety. |
| B．To enable them to fly longer distances. |
| C．To track their travel routes. |
| D．To distinguish them from other species. |
| A．The patience the butterflies showed. |
| B．The hardship the butterflies underwent. |
| C．The transformation of the butterflies. |
| D．The devotion of James to the butterflies. |
| A．The impact of the research. |
| B．The findings of James’ study. |
| C．The release of the prisoners. |
| D．The life cycle of the butterflies. |
5 . The swan is a large, beautiful bird with a long neck, big white wings and wide feet. It is a great flyer because of its strong wings. It is also a good swimmer, swimming quickly and nicely through the water. But on dry land, it’s a different story—the swan’s heavy body and slow walk make it look a bit funny!
Swans live anywhere there is fresh water, like lakes and slow-moving rivers. They eat water plants and small fish. Swans are very territorial (地盘性的), which means that they protect their homes against any strangers. When swans want to look strong, they stand up tall, show their long necks and open their big wings while letting out big noises.
In spring, swans make a nest (巢) of tree leaves near the water. They often use the same nest year after year, repairing it when egg laying time comes round. The mother swan lays between five and eight eggs in the nest, and then sits on them to keep them warm and safe until about a month later, cygnets are born. Sometimes the father swan will take the first—born cygnets out onto the water while the mother stays to look after the other eggs. The cygnets are looked after by both parents, who will fight other animals, people or even boats if they think their cygnets are in danger!
1. To make them look strong, swans ________.| A．swim quickly | B．stand on one leg |
| C．move their necks often | D．open their wings |
| A．they build their nests after spring | B．they often use the same nest every year |
| C．they use the nests just for laying eggs | D．they build their nests under the water |
| A．cover the eggs with tree leaves | B．stay away and watch the eggs |
| C．stay to sit on top of the eggs | D．have the father look after the eggs |
| A．the swan nests | B．the father swans |
| C．the baby swans | D．the mother swans |
6 . The Great Wall of China is one of the greatest wonders of the world. With a
It is the
No one knows
Today, many of the visitors go to see the Great Wall.
| A．number | B．purpose | C．history | D．choice |
| A．But | B．So | C．And | D．However |
| A．longest | B．shortest | C．farthest | D．biggest |
| A．needs | B．gets | C．spends | D．sounds |
| A．from | B．into | C．by | D．of |
| A．hand | B．accident | C．machine | D．mistake |
| A．usually | B．normally | C．exactly | D．luckily |
| A．provide | B．protect | C．search | D．produce |
| A．smart | B．awful | C．terrible | D．peaceful |
| A．Before | B．Unless | C．When | D．Though |
On 15 May, the China National Space Administration (CNSA)
Zhurong is named after the god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology (神话). The rover
Zhurong landed in a part of Mars
China has received worldwide praise for the
8 . When you think of wolves（狼）, you probably imagine groups of them howling （尖声蒙叫）into the cold night sky. However, very little is known about their movements in the summer. A research team led by Dr. Thomas Gable from the University of Minnesota decided to make a study. They created the Voyageurs Wolf Project.
As the weather warms up and spring arrives, wolf babies are born. They are too small to hunt, but they have a very large need to feed. The routine（生活习惯） of the wolves changes. They begin to hunt alone. This means they are unable to kill the larger animals. Instead, they look for beavers（海狸） and young deer—much smaller than the animals they hunt in the Winter.
Dr. Gable’s team found it difficult to discover the wolves in the summer. The wolves live in thick forests at this time. What’s more, because they hunt smaller animals, no large bones are left behind, so it is hard to know where the wolves are. Caught wolves were fitted with GPS and cameras before being sent back into the wild. The locations（位置） of the wolves were then sent to the Voyageurs team every 20 minutes, 72 times a day for several months.
It was discovered that the wolves were skillful in their hunt for smaller animals. They would find a place where beavers visited. There, they would wait patiently for up to twelve hours for a beaver to appear. What’s more, the wolves would consider the wind direction. They would place themselves in such a way that their smell would be blown away from the beaver. From the information sent to the Voyageurs team, they were able to see the location where each wolf was waiting for smaller animals. They would visit later and try to work out how the wolves had hunted smaller animals. Because some of the wolves had cameras on them, they were able to see how the wolves attacked. They discovered that the wolves were able to hunt for fish—something that had never been seen before.
1. What is the purpose of the Voyageurs Wolf Project?| A．To research wolves’ movements in the summer. |
| B．To understand why wolves howl in the winter. |
| C．To locate different groups of wolves. |
| D．To protect baby wolves. |
| A．Falling numbers of larger animals. |
| B．The loss of natural living places. |
| C．Baby wolves’ need for food. |
| D．Having little water. |
| A．Fitting wolves with cameras. |
| B．Tracking wolves in the summer. |
| C．Finding a lone wolf in the winter. |
| D．Studying the information sent by GPS. |
| A．Their skills at recognizing the wind direction. |
| B．Their great patience with small animals. |
| C．Their care for their babies. |
| D．Their ability to hunt fish. |
9 . Great tits（大山雀）in the UK are the same in almost every way as great tits in the Netherlands: black and yellow feathers，and white spots across the cheeks.But the British ones have slightly longer beaks（鸟喙），and the reason might be the wide use of bird feeders in Britain. In a recent study，researchers reported that great tits in the UK have evolved to have longer beaks in past decades.
Both Britain and the Netherlands are home to great tit populations that have been studied for many years，and the team suspected that the birds' genes might help explain whether they've evolved differently.Measurements dating back to the 1970s showed that the UK great tits' beaks had increased in length by about 0.2 millimeters.The birds with the longer-beaked gene variants（基因变种）successfully raised about one more baby bird every five years than those with the short-beaked variants.“The assumption would be that if a great tit has a longer beak and is better able to access food, then it is in general in better condition and better able to focus on its young,”says Lewis Spurgin, one of the researchers.
So are the bird feeders behind all this? "Something in the Dutch habitat might be different from that in Britain, or perhaps the distinct beaks have to do with the song. But previous research has suggested that bird feeders might be driving selection for longer beaks among birds that spend their winters in the United Kingdom,” Spurgin says.
British people adore birds. More than half of their gardens are believed to host a feeder, and the UK spends twice as much on bird food annually as all of mainland Europe.“Humans are causing animals to evolve in lots of ways, many of which we probably don't understand. It's going to be an interesting area for future research,”Spurgin says.
1. What do we know about great tits in the UK and the Netherlands?| A．The British ones live in a fragile environment. |
| B．They feed on completely different food. |
| C．The British ones live longer in general. |
| D．They are almost alike in appearance. |
| A．Possible reasons for the different beaks. |
| B．Further research findings about great tits. |
| C．Different results reported by other studies. |
| D．Strong evidence of bird feeders' influence. |
| A．The birds were evolving rapidly in the1970s. |
| B．Natural selection could be affected by humans. |
| C．All genetic changes are blamed on bird feeders. |
| D．Short-beaked birds tend to have more babies. |
| A．Longer-beaked great tits are found in the UK. |
| B．British people's love for birds might harm them. |
| C．Great tits could be evolving to eat from bird feeders. |
| D．It's easier for longer-beaked birds to eat food from bird feeders. |
10 . The panda bear may be one of the world's cutest animals, but it also has one of the world's grossest habits：They like to spread horse dung（粪便） on their necks and faces and roll around in it to cover their entire bodies. Now, researchers say they have an explanation for these dung baths. The horse dung contains something that might help the animals deal with colder temperatures .
To get to the bottom of things, researchers analyzed 38 instances of dung rolling recorded by cameras at the reserve. The bears tended to roll in horse dung less than 10 days old. The dung contained natural compounds（化合物），called BCP and BCPO，that are scarce in older dung, say the scientists .
The team then added these compounds to the hay（草料） of pandas and found the animals favored the hay treated with these compounds. What's more, the pandas tended to roll in horse dung in colder weather, at temperatures between−5℃and 15°C. Could BCP and BCPO help keep the giant pandas warm?
As giant pandas are a national treasure for China, there are strict limitations on conducting research on these protected animals, so the team turned to mice. Covering mice in a BCP-BCPO solution boosted the animals' cold tolerance, the authors report. Treated mice more readily walked on colder surfaces. The researchers discovered BCP-BCPO blocks receptors that sense cold.
“Although it's not concrete proof, the authors provided solid evidence to explain the unique behavior,”Fan Yang, a biophysicist at the Zhejiang University School of Medicine, wrote in an email.“The same receptors are present in many animals. So it is possible that using natural compounds to manage body temperature may actually be a general strategy widely adopted by other animals.”
Staying warm in the winter can be challenging for pandas, notes Zejun Zhang, an ecologist at China West Normal University ,because their low-calorie diet of bamboo makes it hard to store extra fat. It's possible, the authors say, that pandas have used horse dung in this way for thousands of years.
1. What does the underlined word“grossest”Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Funniest. | B．Healthiest . |
| C．Most tiring. | D．Most disgusting . |
| A．By applying them to pandas. |
| B．By experimenting them on mice. |
| C．By analyzing pandas'dung rolling cases. |
| D．By experimenting on different kinds of dung. |
| A．They adjust their sense of cold. |
| B．They make them physically active. |
| C．They provide a heat-trapping cover. |
| D．They help raise their body temperature . |
| A．Their body shape. |
| B．Their body color. |
| C．Their habitat. |
| D．Their diet. |
