1 . Cheap and even free volunteering programs are everywhere. Don’t worry about a budget that may stop you from volunteering abroad! Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary (保护区) is the right place for you.

Highlights

Volunteer with elephants and bring them back into their natural habitat.

Make a difference in the conservation efforts to save elephants living under awful conditions.

Help teach English to the communities and raise awareness about the captive (圈养的) elephant situation.

Wander the forests and observe elephant’s natural behaviours in their home environment.

Our Sanctuary

Our sanctuary has rescued 5 elephants from the tourism industry and we have now brought them home to live out their lives in the forest, in semi-wild conditions. We need volunteers to help us keep these elephants happy and healthy in their natural habitat. With volunteer support. we hope to return more elephants to the forest soon.

Your tasks

Performing research on the natural elephant behaviours and the surrounding forest.

Taking part in community projects such as teaching English at the school and to other locals.

Carrying out litter pick-ups with the kids to educate on waste management.

Your Rough Schedule:

Day 1: Pickup from Chiang Mai at 9 am. Travel through a national park and stunning mountains until you arrive in our unique village. Meet your homestay family and the other volunteers, and immerse yourself in hill tribe culture.

Day 2: Wake up early to hike in the forest and find our elephants. Spend the morning recording and learning about these amazing animals and their natural behaviours. Return to the village in the late afternoon and take part in our community & teaching projects.

Day 3: Another early start to like to observe our elephants one last time. Return to Chiang Mai in the afternoon.

1. Which of the following highlights the volunteer work at the sanctuary?

A．Looking after captive elephants.

B．Seeking elephants in natural forests.

C．Learning local communities’ folk arts.

D．Saving elephants in poor environment.

2. What should you do as a volunteer?

A．Establish experimental bases.

B．Promote educational programs.

C．Enhance cultural exchange.

D．Start anti-poverty projects.

3. What should you keep in mind if you want to volunteer there?

A．You should have good ability of hiking.

B．You can choose your own transportation.

C．You may camp on the mountain for days.

D．You must be familiar with local languages.

2 . Octopuses(章鱼) are some of the cleverest animals on the planet! So what makes them so smart? Let’s focus first on their defense mechanisms. Faced with multiple predators(捕食者)—including fish, birds and whales—octopuses are masters of disguise.They can imitate their environment by changing their skin colour.

Without a shell, octopuses are weak and easily hurt physically, and always try to remain hidden in a shelter such as a hole or the space beneath a rock. Some prefer to wrap themselves in shells and small stones, while others transport their shelters in their arms. This is the case for the coconut octopus, which,true to its name, has been observed carrying coconut shells around to hide within in case of danger.

Octopuses are also fearsome predators themselves, and their attack mechanisms are suited to the wide variety of prey(猎物) they consume, including seashells,fish and even other creatures like them. They can use their vision and camouflage skills to hunt, and their arms to explore,touch and taste their environment to seize every bit of food within reach.

Octopuses can also use conditional discrimination, that is, they can change their choice depending on the situation. For example, they can learn to attack an object only in the presence of bubbles. They can also use space learning, and find a hidden shelter by remembering its position. Last but not least, octopuses can learn by watching other octopuses carry out tasks, such as choosing one specific object over another. This is surprising,because they are mainly solitary(独居的)creatures.

Octopuses meet every criteria for the definition of intelligence: They show a great flexibility in obtaining information (using several senses and learning socially), in processing it (through discriminative and conditional learning), in storing it (through long- term memory) and in applying it toward both predators and prey.

1. Which are both predators and prey of octopuses?

A．Fish.

B．Birds.

C．Whales.

D．Seashells.

2. Why do coconut octopuses carry coconut shells everywhere?

A．To change their skin color quickly.

B．To avoid being discovered by predators.

C．To observe the surroundings conveniently.

D．To hide quickly in the shells when in danger.

3. What’s the fifth paragraph mainly about?

A．The excellent memory of octopuses.

B．The strong learning ability of octopuses.

C．The space discrimination ability of octopuses.

D．The ability of octopuses to adapt to the environment.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．The terrible predators.

B．The masters of disguise.

C．Exactly how clever is an octopus?

D．How strong is the learning ability of octopuses?

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Which pet may an outgoing person prefer?

A．A bird.

B．A dog.

C．A cat.

2. What may a cat owner be like?

A．Clever.

B．Sociable.

C．Careful.

3. What does the speech mainly talk about?

A．Pet people’s personalities.

B．More outgoing dog people.

C．Less sociable cat people.

5 . Marine life (海洋生物) in Florida Keys is negatively influenced by two forces: human activity and climate change. The former involves fishing, tourism and diving while the latter causes a large increase in intense hurricanes. Fortunately, when the researchers of Florida Museum of Natural History started looking for sea urchins (海胆) on the ocean floor off the coast of Florida Keys in the summer of 2020, they uncovered their population had relatively been stable since the 1960s.

The researchers visited 27 sites along a 20-mile stretch of coast near Florida Keys looking for tracks that reflected the presence of burrowing echinoids (穴居海胆类动物). “The findings that burrowing echinoids have been highly resilient (有适应力的) against climate change and environmental pollution over the last 60 years was a huge discovery for us.” said study co-author Tobias Grun.

Grun said, “However, we know little about their current distribution, population size, and health. The reason is not the lack of interest by the scientific community but lies in that fieldwork is very expensive.”

As the climate crisis progresses, it’s important to understand why some marine creatures are more resilient in bearing the impacts of a worsening environment than others. Grun said, “Evolution may be at play. Some marine animals are very opportunistic. They can tolerate a wide range of abiotic factors like pH, temperature, and salinity, to name a few.”

Grun added, “At this point, our data show that burrowing echinoids are more resilient than many other marine species and are doing comparatively well. That does not mean that we can push our luck and keep going the way we are right now. Our study provides some hope that these creatures are resilient, but much more work is needed to translate our findings into a larger scale. The reasons for their resilience are also widely unknown.”

1. Which has an effect on the marine life in Florida Keys?

A．Wildfire.

B．Pollution.

C．Fishing.

D．Flood.

2. What did Grun think of the findings?

A．Indifferent.

B．Important.

C．Subjective.

D．Outdated

3. What was a challenge for the research according to Grun?

A．The goal.

B．The staff

C．The cost

D．The usage

4. What does Grun tell us in the last paragraph?

A．It’s necessary to do further research.

B．It’s right to keep going the present way.

C．The reasons for sea urchins’ resilience are well known.

D．Fish are more resilient than other marine species.

7 . The deep, dark sea is a surprising area. Down there, it’s normal to happen on unheard-of never-seen-before animals and their interesting behavior. Sometimes, sources for precious new medicines are collected—and many more are almost certainly waiting to be discovered.

What marine scientists didn't expect to find, however, was a three-foot-long tusk (长牙) from an extinct mammoth (猛犸象) about 10, 000 feet beneath the ocean. Researchers collected the sample off the California coast in July 2021. “You start to expect the unexpected when exploring the deep sea, but I’m still stunned that we came on the ancient tusk of a mammoth,” Steven Haddock, a marine scientist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, said in a statement.

Columbian mammoths, giant ice age mammals that stood some 14 feet tall, marched around what is now California as recently as some 11, 000 years ago. Paleontologists (古生物学者) are still pulling their well-preserved bones out of tar in Los Angeles. How did a tusk find its way to the deep sea? It’s unknown, and likely will remain unknown. But land-dwelling creatures are sometimes washed out into deeper ocean regions, perhaps during great floods.

The intense cold and pressure in the deep sea excellently preserved the tusk. The research team plans to examine the fossil carefully and even determine the long-dead creature’s age. They suspect it’s over 100,000 years old.

“This deep-sea environment is different from those we have seen elsewhere,” mammoth paleontologist Daniel Fisher said in a statement, noting that most mammoth finds in the ocean are in much shallower waters.

“We know so little about the deep ocean that pretty much anyone can find something new if they were doing something unique down there,” Alan Leonardi, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, told Mashable last year.

1. What made scientists feel unexpected about the deep sea?

A．The sources for valuable medicines.

B．The finding of an ivory from a mammoth.

C．There are many never-seen-before animals.

D．There used to be a mammoth in the deep ocean.

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

A．Shocked.	B．Interested.
C．Devoted.	D．Curious.

3. Why was the tusk of the mammoth preserved well?

A．Because there was no creatures’ disturbance.

B．Because of the effort made by the research team.

C．Because of the extreme environment in the deep sea.

D．Because the tusk had stayed under sea for a short time.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The research of the deep sea

B．The importance of exploring the deep sea was interesting

C．Scientists found a mammoth tusk in the deep sea

D．The meaning of finding a mammoth tusk in the deep sea

8 . Chinese scientists say they have developed a robotic fish that can remove microplastic particles from water environments. Researchers working on the project say the robots could help to clean up plastic pollution in oceans around the world.

The robotic swimmers are about 1.3 centimeters long. They are made of a soft chemical Compound. The robots are designed to absorb microplastics while moving through the water. The project was launched by a team at Sichuan University in southwestern China. The researchers said the robots have already performed well in shallow water and they plan to carry out more tests in deeper waters. The scientists reported their findings in a new study in Nano Letters. The publication comes from the American Chemical Society, a nonprofit organization supported by the U.S. Congress. The robotic fish were built to target microplastic particles, which are smaller than five millimeters. Studies have confirmed that microplastic pollution has been discovered in many natural environments. The material comes from the breakdown of manufactured plastic products and industrial waste.

The team said the robots can be controlled by light. Turning “a near-infrared light laser” on and off causes the fish’s tail to move back and forth, the American Chemical Society said. The robotic fish can swim up to 2.76 body lengths per second. The researchers said this is faster than most similar soft robots. Wang Yuyan was a member of Sichuan University’s research team. She told Reuters news agency that the small, lightweight robot is currently being used to collect microplastics for research purposes. But Wang added that the team plans to expand that use so the robot fish can remove larger amounts of microplastic waste from deep ocean areas. The fish can take in different kinds of microplastics and even repair itself when damaged, the researchers said. And if a robot fish is accidentally eaten by a real fish, it could safely digest the material, the team added. Wang said similar robots could be developed to be placed inside the human body to remove unwanted materials or disease.

1. Why has a robotic fish been created?

A．To remove disease in people.	B．To clean up pollution in oceans.
C．To remove unwanted materials in body.	D．To remove microplastic particles in water.

2. What will happen to the robotic fish when eaten by a real fish?

A．It will be harmless.	B．It will repair itself.
C．It will take in microplastics.	D．It will collect microplastics.

3. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．The purpose of the robotic fish.

B．The function of the robotic fish.

C．A further introduction of the robotic fish.

D．Potential application of the robotic fish.

4. What is Wang Yuyan’s attitude to the future use of the robotic fish?

A．Pessimistic.

B．Positive.

C．Unclear.

D．Suspicious.

9 . How to Survive a Lightning Strike?

According to the National Weather Service, almost two-thirds of lightning accidents occur as people enjoy leisure activities outdoors.     1    . Here’s how to stay safe when you’re enjoying summer outdoors.

Keep an eye on the sky

    2    . Thunderstorms usually occur in the afternoon or evening. Start your hike in the morning, and finish up by noon if the forecast indicates bad weather ahead. If the forecast calls for periodic storms throughout the day, make a smart choice and consider giving up the trip.     3    .

Before you head out for hiking, check maps to locate visitor centers, campground buildings, or rest areas along your route. Once you hear thunder, see lightning, or sense that a storm is approaching, don’t hesistate to use your plan. Hikers are strongly advised to watch continually for the nearest shelter.     4     .

Know the storm’s distance

Count the seconds between the flash and the following sound of thunder. Divide the number of seconds by five to calculate the number of miles between you and the storm. For example, if the number of seconds is 30, then the distance inbetween equals six miles, and find shelter immediately.     5    , just remember that you can hear thunder at a distance of 10 miles.

A．Make a safety plan

B．Check the weather forecast ahead

C．If this simple math is still confusing

D．If you get indoors as soon as possible

E．People are struck while camping, hiking or boating

F．Staying calm will help you avoid meeting further dangers

G．Car campers can stay in the vehicles when no other shelter is available

10 . Food waste contributes to ever-growing landfills (垃圾堆).    1     If you want to help the environment in your own way, you can start by reducing, or better yet, completely erasing food waste in your home. To give you an idea of where to start, here are some tips:

Don’t buy too much food whenever you go grocery shopping.    2     However, if your family cannot eat all the food before it goes bad, then it just adds to food waste. Taking several short grocery shopping trips every week instead of one long trip may help keep you from buying too much food, thereby cutting back on food waste.

Always make a shopping list.    3     That’s because you already know what things you need. Moreover, a list will prevent you from buying food items that you already have at home, which can help reduce the amount of potential food waste.

    4     For meats, you have to keep them in the freezer while fruits and vegetables should be stored in the crisper compartment (保鲜室). Although these tips may seem simple, they can help greatly reduce the amount of food waste that your family produces.

Use the “First-In-First-Out” method. For example, placing the newly bought foods at the back of the fridge or cupboard will encourage people to use the ones that are in the front row. This will ensure that you know what you have and reduce food waste.     5    

A．It can help keep your grocery trips short.

B．Having a fully filled fridge may look nice.

C．Your fridge may be too crowded to function well.

D．It is a waste of your money, as well as your effort.

E．Some people like to store up food for emergencies.

F．Foods need proper storage to prevent them going bad.

G．If you can’t see what foods you have, you’ll forget them.