1 . Some of our planet’s power pollinators (传粉昆虫) may have originated tens of millions of years earlier than scientists once believed. In a study published July 27 in the journal Current Biology, a team of researchers traced bee family back over 120 million years to the ancient supercontinent Gondwana (冈瓦纳大陆). While looking deeper into bee history, the team found evidence that bees originated earlier, diversified faster, and spread wider than previously suspected, putting together pieces of a puzzle on the origin of these pollinators.
In the study, an international team of scientists would be in sequence and compared genes from over 200 bee species. They then compared these bees with the traits from 185 different bee fossils and extinct fossils to develop an evolutionary history and genealogical model for how bees have historically been spread around the world. The team was able to analyze hundreds of thousands of genes at a time to make sure that the relationships they inferred were correct.
“This is the first time we have broad genome-scale data for all seven bee families,” study co-author and Washington State University entomologist Elizabeth Murray confidently said in a statement. Earlier studies established that the first bees potentially evolved from wasps (黄蜂), transitioning from predators up to collectors of pollen and nectar (花蜜). According to this study, bees arose in the dry regions of western Gondwana during the early Cretaceous period, between 145 million years ago to 100.5 million years ago.
“There’s been a long-time puzzle about the origin of bees,” study co-author and Washington State University entomologist Silas Bossert said in a statement. “For the first time, we have statistical evidence that bees originated on Gondwana. We now know that bees are originally southern hemisphere insects.” The team found evidence that as new continents formed, the bees moved northward. They continued to diversify and spread in parallel partnership with flowering plants called angiosperms. The bees later moved into India and Australia and all major bee families appear to have split off from one another before the beginning of the Tertiary period (65million years ago).
1. What’s the purpose of bee history researchers do research on?| A．To discover the origin of these pollinators. |
| B．To find out some reasonable proofs. |
| C．To know much about our planet. |
| D．To study the life of bee species. |
| A．in danger. | B．in need. | C．in order | D．in favor. |
| A．Unbelievable. | B．Reliable. | C．Positive. | D．Negative. |
| A．The earliest home of bees may be in Gondwana. |
| B．The world’s earliest bees were found in India and Australia. |
| C．The researchers are going on doing research on bee families. |
| D．The researchers get a lot evidence to prove their research. |
2 . Climate change is causing more areas to turn into deserts. This issue is affecting the lives of 250 million people as land that used to be good for farming becomes dry and unproductive. Around one-third of the world’s land is impacted, including regions in Africa, southern Europe, Asia and America.
Sand to Green is a Moroccan company that can transform a patch of desert into a sustainable (可持续的) and profitable plantation in five years, according to Wissal Ben Moussa, its co-founder and chief agricultural officer. The solution is using agroforestry (农林业)to create a new kind of agriculture that is sustainable and that can be resilient (有适应力的) in front of climate change.
The system can be set up close to any source of salty water, which Sand to Green cleans using energy from the sun. It then grows different types of fruit trees and plants together in the same area—a method called mixed planting—and waters the plants’ roots directly with the cleaned water, to reduce water loss to the air. The soil is regenerated using what Sand to Green calls “green manure”, a mixture that includes compost, biochar(生物炭)and microorganisms that help the soil “wake up”. Biochar is a form of charcoal that can help dry soil hold on to water.
In a five-hectare trial in southern Morocco that’s been running since 2017, Sand to Green has tried out a variety of plants in search of the best performers. Among the intercropping herbs (草本植物) that have been successfully trialed are rosemary, geranium, vetiver and citronella, which Ben Moussa describes as “very low-maintenance and very high-profit”.
Sand to Green is now working to scale up to a 20-hectare commercial site, also in southern Morocco. It says a site of that size would cost around $475,000 to set up and would start bringing financial returns in about five years.
According to Ben Moussa, with this system they create biodiversity, which means better soil, healthier crops and a bigger yield. The plantation can generate 1.5 times more yield, thus making more money than a farm that grows only one type of crop in the same space.
1. What phenomenon does the author describe in paragraph 1?| A．Deforestation. | B．Desertification. |
| C．Global warming. | D．Urbanization. |
| A．To preserve the crop’s survival rate. |
| B．To protect water from pollution. |
| C．To make a new type of soil. |
| D．To help people adapt to climate change. |
| A．It aims to plant more trees. |
| B．It earns a good reputation. |
| C．It develops new plants. |
| D．It produces good results. |
| A．Expand. | B．Object. | C．Refer. | D．Prefer. |
3 . The beauty industry produces many units of one-time use containers every year. More and more consumers are asking how they can keep themselves clean and beautiful without trashing the planet.
It’s a question Women of the Future winner, Natassia Nicolao, considered during her years working in product development for beauty and wellness companies. Raised by a strong and supportive mother, Natassia used her skills and passion to make a difference. In 2021, she created her waterless beauty brand.
She said, “Water is involved in every stage of a product life cycle. Everything we use, buy, sell and make has a huge water footprint. On top of that, the beauty industry adds water as the main ingredients in its products, despite it having no direct benefit to our skin.”
Having lived through water restrictions in drought-ridden Australia, Natassia felt it necessary to stop the overuse of water in the beauty industry. Natassia has always loved beauty. Her company tries to be sustainable in every step of the way, but at its core, it is about removing water from our beauty routines.
“It’s really rooted in water conservation first, and then managing your water footprint, your carbon footprint and your waste footprint,” Natassia said. “We create waterless beauty products to help conserve water.” The glass bottles and jars of her products can be recycled. The oils and wipes are formulated without any water, requiring no water to use. The company also has a piece of game-changing beauty technology: face-wipes and masks that completely dissolve in water.
“The company is still in its beginning,” Natassia said. With the prize money from Women of the Future, she plans to purchase a machine to simplify the creation of the wipes and masks. The publicity, meanwhile, will help her spread the message central to the company’s existence that beauty must do better. Natassia believes that, with a little courage and innovation, it can do.
1. What does the underlined word “trashing” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Studying. | B．Damaging. | C．Exploding. | D．Supporting. |
| A．Her pursuit of profit. | B．Her best beauty skills. |
| C．Her growth environment. | D．Her love of extreme beauty. |
| A．Environmentally friendly. | B．Relatively cheap. |
| C．Elegant. | D．World-famous. |
| A．It has died out. | B．It’s promising. | C．It develops well. | D．It’s worth analysis. |
Jiangxi Province has taken many measures to protect finless porpoises (江豚),
The species,
As the water level dropped to less than 12 meters, the lake officially entered this year’s dry season on August 6,
Wang Liang, who works for the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Jiangxi, said the province has released
5 . Have you ever imagined being able to communicate with your pet at home and have it understand everything you say? It sounds too good to be true, but scientists have started using artificial intelligence (AI) to help communicate with animals.
Professor Karen Bakker—who is the author of a book called The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants—said that AI is already helping humans communicate with bats and honeybees and this could change what we know about nature and our non-human relationships.
Scientists have worked out how bats speak to each other to argue over food and how mother bats communicate with their young.
Professor Bakker explained how researcher Yossi Yovel had used recordings and AI to understand bats.
“Bats argue over food; they actually distinguish between genders when they communicate with one another; they have individual names, or ‘signature calls’,” she said.
“Mother bats speak to their babies in a kind of ‘motherese’.
Bats learn to ‘speak’ with signals from their mothers.
But while human mothers raise the pitch(音高) of their voices when talking to babies，mother bats lower the pitch.
She said it was a great example of how animal patterns could be revealed using sensors and microphones that would otherwise never be heard with the human ear.
AI makes this possible because a computer can be trained to listen like a bat.
With honeybees, the computer combines listening with vision of the bees’ body movements to understand what they are communicating. Researchers now know how be essay things such as “hush” or “stop”.
Researcher Tim Landgraf even created a robot honeybee that entered a hive(蜂房) and was able to communicate with other bees when it wanted them to stop doing something or fly.
1. What is the role of AI in communicating with animals?| A．Allowing humans to speak to animals. |
| B．Translating human language into animal language. |
| C．Transforming human thoughts into animal language. |
| D．Helping humans understand what animals are saying. |
| A．They use unique names given by human. |
| B．They live together like early human groups. |
| C．They share their food with each other without arguing. |
| D．They can distinguish between genders when communicating. |
| A．By using a kind of “motherese”. |
| B．By raising the pitch of their voices. |
| C．By using sensors and microphones. |
| D．By making body movements. |
| A．It can speak with other bats. |
| B．It can build a hive with bees. |
| C．It can communicate with other bees. |
| D．It can teach other bee show to fly and stop. |
6 . My son Timmy was born with several rare developmental disabilities. By age 13, he had had at least 10 surgeries on his legs and feet. Balancing and walking was very
Meeting Janice, who
Larry has changed Timmy, s life so much for the better. Not only does Larry give my son
Larry slows to Timmy’s pace and watches every
| A．suitable | B．difficult | C．easy | D．perfect |
| A．used to | B．seemed to | C．had to | D．failed to |
| A．motivated | B．pushed | C．anticipated | D．formed |
| A．disappointed | B．strict | C．careful | D．familiar |
| A．judgement | B．day | C．match | D．task |
| A．dressed | B．stuck | C．pulled | D．invited |
| A．support | B．message | C．highlight | D．news |
| A．bleeding | B．falling | C．following | D．screaming |
| A．take | B．come | C．leave | D．see |
| A．sad | B．excited | C．angry | D．well |
| A．eat | B．drive | C．read | D．laugh |
| A．plan | B．decision | C．move | D．conclusion |
| A．amazing | B．shocking | C．boring | D．annoying |
| A．exercise | B．security | C．account | D．tension |
| A．doctor | B．journey | C．school | D．friend |
7 . WHY SHENNONGJIA?
As we know, in 2016, Shennongjia made it on to the UNESCO World Heritage List. But there are so many important places not yet on this list. So you might ask: why Shennongjia?
UNESCO awarded Shennongjia this status because it meets two criteria required by the list. It contains a naturally-balanced environment that allows the many and various species to live and prosper. It is also one of the rare locations in the world where scientists can observe in real time the ecological and biological processes that occur as the plants and animals develop and evolve.
For the first criterion, Shennongjia is apparently one of the most “complete” natural areas in the world. The region rises from about 400 metres to over 3, 000 metres above sealevel, giving it the name the “Roof of Central China”.
For the second criterion, we can see that Shennongjia has incredible biodiversity. Look at this slide. According to official statistics, over 3, 000 plant species have been recorded there. This represents more than ten percent of China’s total floral richness.
It is a challenge to look after so many species. In winter, scientists brave heavy snow and freezing temperatures to supply food to the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey. Thanks to their efforts, the monkey’s population has doubled since the 1980s.Their number reached over 1, 300 in 2015 and continues to grow.
But the most impressive aspect of Shennongjia is the local people, who take things from nature without causing damage. I visited a local village which is known for its home-made honey. What is special about the honey is that it is produced by the earliest species of Chinese bee. All of this explains why Shennongjia earned—and deserves—its place on the UNESCO World Heritage List, as well as highlighting how understanding, awareness and hard work have contributed towards protecting a unique and wonderful part of our natural world.
1. Why is Shennongjia included in the UNESCO World Heritage List?| A．Because its forests stretch on and on like great green seas. |
| B．Because it is the legendary father of Chinese herbal medicine. |
| C．Because it satisfies the two requirements for the status. |
| D．Because it has the mysterious creature called “Yeren”. |
| A．Roof of Central China | B．Roof of Northern China |
| C．Roof of Eastern China | D．Roof of Southern China |
| A．Patient. | B．Careful. | C．Confident. | D．Hard-working. |
| A．A local village. | B．The local people. |
| C．Some special monkeys. | D．The wild bees. |
People think animals are stupid, that they don’t understand kindness and that they can’t feel trust, or gratitude, or love. But I know they’re wrong and I have the evidence I need. It happened on a winter night, when a duck climbed up the stairs to save his sister.
That day, the temperature had suddenly dropped sharply, with cold winds blowing strongly and big snow falling. It wasn’t until late afternoon that we remembered our two ducks were still at our poorly built small farm. “Have they died due to the cold?” we wondered, worried.
My mother and I hurried to the farm and luckily found they were still alive. Their body was covered with snow; they were too cold to even quack. They stayed close together for warmth. We decided to take them home. Once back in the warm house, we made a nest for them in the basement, using newspaper and towels, and brought them food and water. The ducks gathered together in the warm basement. Near their nest, there were fishing nets we had carelessly left. We didn’t realize that could be a danger to them.
We just decided to leave the ducks alone to warm up and recover. We knew they had enough food and water, so we didn’t go down to the basement again that afternoon. That evening we were reading by the fire in the living room when we heard a strange sound coming from the basement. There was kind of a strange noise, then a pause (停顿), and then the strange sound again-over and over.
“Could that be the ducks?” my mother asked my father. Curious about that, we stood up and went to find out. It was indeed the ducks- at least one of them. We found the duck brother was standing on the second-highest step, beating his wings for balance. He gathered his strength and made the difficult leap to the highest step, the source of the strange noise
注意：续写词数应为 150 左右。
When he saw us, he stayed there and started quacking (呱呱叫) crazily and beating his wings.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
To free the duck sister from the fishing nets, I rushed upwards to bring scissors.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This is the year 2070. Today is my
I remember when I
I remember there were “Saving Water” warnings in many public places, but nobody
In the past, doctors suggested adults drink eight glasses of water a day. Nowadays, I am allowed half a glass only. Most people are weak and sick.
When my son asks me about my childhood, I tell him about how pleasant it was to fish in the rivers
I hope the people living in the 2020s
10 . We all know that some animals adapt to living in very cold environment, like polar bears in the frozen Arctic. But what about the opposite situation? How do animals become adapted to the life in very hot places? A great example of animals beating heat is the camel living in deserts.
A major problem for camels in deserts is the temperature. It’s hot and dry during the day and can be very cold at night. So their fur can not only protect them from the burning sun at daytime, but also help keep warm at night. Another thing is that camels have long necks and legs, so they have large surface area to lose heat easily. They can stand body temperature above41℃, which would be really damaging to living creatures like us humans. And how can they manage to travel a long distance without water at all in deserts? They have large flat feet to spread their weight on the shifting sand. They store fat in their humps to keep them from getting hungry or dehydrated. This helps when they’re not able to find food or water for long periods of time.
In addition to these, camels have other ways to adapt to their environment. In a desert, it can sometimes get very dusty. However, camels don’t mind since they have extremely thick and long eyelashes which protect their eyes from blowing sand. Sand up the nose can be a problem, but not for camels. They can shut their nostrils during sandstorms.
1. What do we know about camels living in deserts?| A．Their fur can help keep cool at night. |
| B．They have long necks to protect them from blowing sand. |
| C．They have large flat feet to walk on the sand. |
| D．They can stand body temperature up to 41℃. |
| A．Being lack of water. | B．Being lack of food. |
| C．Being lack of fat. | D．Being lack of direction. |
| A．The Camel —the Best Traveller in Deserts | B．The Camel Needs More Water |
| C．The Harder, the Better | D．Be the Best in Deserts |
