1 . 假定你是学生李华，为增强学生保护野生动物的意识和提高其积极性，你校将举办一次以“保护野生动物”为主题的英语征文比赛。请你以Protecting the Wild Animals为题，写一篇短文投稿，内容包括：
1. 保护野生动物的重要性；
2. 提出合理建议(至少两点)；
3. 发出呼吁。
注意：1. 词数80左右；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Protecting the Wild Animals

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 . When you hear the word “shapeshifting (变身)”, you may think of magic in some movies and not the climate. But that’s what animals are doing to go on living in the world.

A new study shows that some animals are slowly growing larger beaks, legs and ears. In this way they can cool themselves down more easily as the Earth gets warmer. When we talk about the climate change, we often ask “What can humans do with this?” “How can we live in the future?” “But we should know that animals also have to face these changes,” said Sara Ryding, from Deakin University, Australia. If animals do nothing to keep their normal body temperature, they will die.

In one example, the beaks of some kinds of Australian parrots have grown 4 to 10 percent larger. The study says it has a lot to do with the hotter summer over the years. There are other similar examples. Wood mice have longer tails and bats in warm climates have bigger wings.

Although the changes are still small, they could be common as the weather becomes hotter. “Body parts like ears may become bigger, so we might be able to see a real Dumbo (big-eared elephant from a Disney cartoon) in the near future,” Ryding told the reporters.

1. Why do animals grow bigger body parts?

A．To become stronger.	B．To enjoy a better life.
C．To find food easily.	D．To keep normal body temperature.

2. How many animals are mentioned in Paragraph 3?

A．2.

B．3.

C．4.

D．5.

3. What does the underlined word “they” refer to in the last paragraph?

A．Changes.

B．Tails.

C．Wings.

D．Examples.

4. What does the text mainly tell us?

A．Why climate changes so much.	B．When the climate starts to change.
C．How animals deal with hotter weather.	D．What the weather will be like in the future.

3 . When temperatures rise, humans sweat, dogs pant (喘息), and cats… don’t move enough to overheat? Well, partially. Cats, which need to maintain an internal body temperature of 101°F to 102°F, have several methods for keeping cool in sweltering weather.

It’s a misconception that cats sweat through their paws to cool themselves off. As summer wears on you might see moist paw prints, but as veterinarian Kimberly May told The Washington Post, “Any secretions (分泌物) there or from their nose, mouth, or tongue are not for sweating; they’re for protection and moisture and are insufficient to cool the blood.”

Instead, cats recreate the sweating process—which is similar to human’s via evaporation (蒸发)—by grooming themselves regularly. The saliva (唾液) from their tongues acts like sweat that cools their body when it evaporates—which is why you can also help cool your cat down by using a damp washcloth to lightly wet their fur. In extreme weather, cats will also pant, but unlike dogs who pant regularly to keep themselves cool, a panting cat is a sign of more dangerous over-heating or other serious diseases.

And if you’re tempted to shave your fur friend to help keep him cool—don’t!

“Fur acts as a thermal regulator to slow down the process of heat absorption,” James H. Jones, an expert in comparative animal exercise physiology and thermoregulation at the University of California at Davis, told The Washington Post.

Fur coats are highly evolved—in the winter they keep animals warm, but in the summer, they work both to protect delicate skin from the sun and slow dehydration, Jones notes that, according to research, shaved camels performed worse in the deserts than those with their fur undamaged.

But even with these methods for keeping cool, cats also need to stay indoors to keep comfortable. So even though they evolved from wild ancestors and are able to tough it out, leave the air conditioner or a fan on for your cats when you go out, and make sure to leave them plenty of water.

1. What is the common misunderstanding of how cats cool themselves off?

A．Cats pant regularly to keep themselves cool.

B．Cats rarely know how to cool themselves down.

C．Cats sweat through their paws to cool themselves off.

D．Cats produce secretions from their tongue for protection.

2. How does the author clarify cats’ recreating the sweating process?

A．By making comparison.	B．By analyzing data.
C．By explaining cause and effect.	D．By listing numbers.

3. Why are shaved camels mentioned in the last but one paragraph?

A．To show the camels are resistant to heat.

B．To emphasize the importance of the fur coats.

C．To illustrate the fur coats are highly evolved.

D．To prove the fur coats unnecessary in summer.

4. What’s the main idea of the article?

A．Changing people’s wrong views on cats’ cooling.

B．Telling us to help cats cool themselves in summer.

C．Uncovering the secrets of cats cooling themselves off.

D．Comparing cats with other animals on keeping cool.

7 . A recent report revealed that, in the US alone, 27 million tons of plastic ended up in landfills in 2018, but only 3. 1 million tons were recycled. Worldwide the numbers are similarly bad, with just 9% of plastic being recycled. The statistics are even worse for certain types of plastic. For example, out of 80,000 tons of polystyrene(聚苯乙烯) containers generated in the United States, only a small amount   (less than 5,000 tons)   was recycled.

Now, researchers at The University of Queensland have found a species of worm with an appetite for polystyrene could be the key to plastic recycling on a mass scale. The superworm can eat through polystyrene, thanks to a bacterial enzyme(酶) in their gut. To study how superworms react to purely plastic food, researchers broke up 135 of the creatures into three teams: one was fed only wheat bran(麸皮), another was fed only plastics, and the third was given nothing.

“We found the bran-fed worms have been significantly healthier than the plastic-fed or starved worms, more than doubling their weight over the three weeks they have been monitored. Though the plastic-fed worms made less impressive gains, they still put on more weight than the starved worms,” Dr. Rinke said.“This suggests the worms can get energy from plastics, most likely with the help of their gut microbes.”

Researchers used a technique called metagenomics to find several encoded enzymes with the ability to degrade(降低) polystyrene. The long-term goal is to engineer enzymes to degrade plastic waste in recycling plants.

“Superworms are like mini recycling plants, eating the polystyrene and then feeding it to the bacteria in their gut,”Dr. Rink e said. It’s hoped this bio-upcycling will promote plastic waste recycling and reduce landfills. Researchers said they aim to grow the gut bacteria in the lab and further test its ability to degrade polystyrene. Then they can look into how to upscale this process to a level required for an entire recycling plant.

1. What problem do the statistics in paragraph 1 indicate?

A．Landfills are poorly managed.

B．It takes a long time for plastic waste to break up.

C．Many plastic containers are of poor quality.

D．The rate of recycled plastics are very low.

2. How do researchers conduct the study on superworms?

A．By making a comparison.	B．By collecting data.
C．By introducing a concept.	D．By referring to a previous study.

3. What can we infer from Dr Rinke’s words?

A．Superworms could survive on only eating polystyrene.

B．Superworms showed little interest in wheat bran.

C．Plastic-fed worms had an obvious increase in weight.

D．Bran-fed worms had a longer lifespan than plastic-fed worms.

4. What do researchers plan to do?

A．Conduct experiments on other worm species.

B．Improve gut bacteria's ability to degrade plastics.

C．Raise superworms on a mass scale to solve plastic pollution.

D．Apply the bio-upcycling technology to recycling plants.

8 . 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。

Mount Wutai, located in the northeastern part of Shanxi province, is 230 kilometers away from the provincial capital city Taiyuan. It was named after five peaks that look like five giant columns (柱子)     1     (rise) straight from the ground. With its high peaks, snow covers for much of the year. Even in midsummer days it remains cool and pleasant,     2     has given rise to another name: Qingliang Mountain as     3     ideal place for escaping summer heat.

Mount Wutai is quiet a beautiful mountain landscape with a cultural heritage that is at least as     4     (value) as the mountain’s natural beauty.     5     (know) as one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains of China, it is home     6     forty-one temples. Within their walls     7     (be) a rich collection of over 100, 000 superb sculptures and paintings, along with a great quantity of Buddhist cultural relics. For example, the east main hall of the Foguang Temple is the     8     (high) wooden building in China that     9     (survive) since the Tang Dynasty.

Wutai Mountain displays its outstanding     10     (combine) of the natural landscape and Buddhist culture, religious belief in the natural landscape and Chinese philosophical thinking on the harmony between man and nature.

9 . Traditionally, it has been assumed that cultivating food leads to a loss of biodiversity and negative impacts on an ecosystem. In a recent study, researchers looked at 28 urban community gardens across California over five years and quantified biodiversity in plant and animal life, as well as ecosystem functions such as carbon sequestration (碳封存), food production, pest control, and human well-being.

“We wanted to determine if there were any biodiversity and impacts on ecosystem function in those urban gardens,” says Shalene Jha, the lead author of the study in Ecology Letters. “What we found is that these gardens, which are providing tremendous nutritional resources and increasing well-being for gardeners, are also supporting incredibly high levels of plant and animal biodiversity. It’s a win-win.”

Previous assumptions by scientists about the negative effect of food production on biodiversity have been almost entirely based on intensive rural agriculture enterprises that tend to grow only one or two types of crops, often at a massive scale. Urban community gardens, private gardens, and urban farms and orchards tend to grow more types of plants in smaller areas. The new study is the first to explore the effects of urban gardens across a wide range of biodiversity measures and ecological services.

“It’s estimated that by 2030, about 60% of the world’s population will live in cities, ” Jha says. “And urban farms and gardens currently provide about 15%-20% of our food supply, so they are essential in addressing food inequality challenges. What we’re seeing is that urban gardens present an critical opportunity to support both biodiversity and local food production.”

The study also found that the choices that gardeners make can have a large impact on their local ecosystem. For instance, planting trees outside crop beds could increase carbon sequestration without decreasing food production from too much shade. And covering only within crop beds could help improve soil carbon services, while avoiding negative effects on pest control.

1. What’s the purpose of the study conducted by Shalene Jha?

A．To analyze the cause of loss of biodiversity.

B．To increase well-being of gardeners.

C．To quantify nutritional levels in plants and animals.

D．To study the influence of urban gardens on ecosystem.

2. What may cause the loss of biodiversity according to previous assumptions?

A．Inefficient pest control.

B．Limited planting scales.

C．Intensive agricultural pattern.

D．Unsatisfactory ecological services.

3. What’s Jha’s attitude towards urban gardens?

A．Objective.

B．Supportive

C．Doubtful.

D．Concerned.

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

A．Urban Gardens Boost Biodiversity.

B．Urban Gardens Challenge Rural Agriculture.

C．Urban Farms Address Food Inequality.

D．Urban Biodiversity Increases Well-being of Cardener.

10 . Not too long ago, 41-year-old Garrett Fisher flew a small airplane close to the surface of the largest glacier in Norway. In that environment, the plane carrying a man who pursues glaciers seemed almost like a toy. Fisher is trying to photograph every glacier on Earth before some of them disappear.

Scientists say many glaciers are getting smaller because Earth’s average temperature is increasing. Information from the European Environment Agency, or EEA, says glaciers in the Alps have lost about half of their volume since 1900 and that by 2100, the size of European glaciers could decrease by between 22 percent and 84 percent. Historical records of the size of glaciers in Europe also show that glaciers are now shrinking faster. This has pushed Fisher to combine his love of flying and photography to photograph Earth’s remaining glaciers before it’s too late.

Fisher believes his photographs can be of great value to future generations. So, he has launched the Global Glacier Initiative, a non-profit group to support and show his work. He plans to open his photos to the public for research.

Fisher flew a small plane that has a smell of oil and feels like an old car. It was his choice to have the dangerous flying. “The weather is bad and the flying is technically challenging, ”Fisher said. Some people would ask, “Why risk flying over glaciers when satellites have already given pictures of them?” Fisher said that satellite images don’t catch the beauty of glaciers the way his photos can. His photos show the colors, shapes, and shadows as the light from the sun hits the glaciers.

Fisher has paid for his glacier photography with his own money. But it is costly. Money is running out and Fisher is looking for people who will help support his work. He hopes his photos will be a reminder to people. He is trying to obtain the perfect image, which is so beautiful that it can make people and policymakers act.

1. What caused Fisher to combine flying and photography?

A．The request from the EEA.

B．The beauty of Earth’s glaciers.

C．The crisis of disappearing glaciers.

D．The need to enrich glacier records.

2. Why did Fisher launch the Global Glacier Initiative?

A．To carry out research on glaciers.

B．To make his photos publicly available.

C．To record the size of European glaciers.

D．To attract more glacier enthusiasts.

3. Which words can best describe Fisher?

A．Adventurous and determined.	B．Optimistic and generous.
C．Creative and thoughtful.	D．Brave and patient.

4. What’s Fisher’s expectation of his photos?

A．Bringing him some financial support.

B．Being recognized by policymakers.

C．Strengthening the human-nature bond.

D．Raising people’s concern for glaciers.