1 . Every 17 years, billions of insects, known as the cicadas (蝉) of Brood X, rise from the earth This year, perhaps, there will be trillions! Brood X is one of the largest groups of cicadas and will appear sometime in May, 2021 in 15 states, from Georgia in the south to New York in the northeast.
Many scientists and insect lovers say they’re looking forward to the red-eyed insects after a 17-year wait. One of them is Mike Raupp, an insect expert at the University of Maryland. " What they're waiting for is the soil temperatures to reach about 18℃, and then they're going to be and out of the ground. ”
When the insects come out of the ground, they will drop their skin, get their wings and try to go up on the treetops to escape from the predators (天敌). Once on the treetops, the male cicadas will "sing " their mating songs to draw the females. If she likes the singing, they will mate and reproduce. About six weeks later, the nymphs (蛹) will fall off the treetops and go into the ground Underground, the insects will quietly feed off tree roots and wait for another 17 years to start the party on the treetops all over again.
Raupp explained that some cicadas appear every year, but they have a much shorter life cycle and stay alive in two ways. They are green and can hide in nature. Also, they can fly very fast. So, they avoid being caught by predators. Periodical cicadas like Brood X have neither of those lifesaving methods. To continue the species, he said billions of periodical cicadas will appear all at the same time. So, their predators can't eat all of them. Also, by coming out every 17 years, they aren’t a dependable food source for predators and simply outlive them.
（From a report published in Newsweek on May 18,2021）
1. When did Brood X appear last time?| A．In 2004. | B．In 2015. |
| C．In 2017. | D．In 2020. |
| A．They are one of the largest groups of insects. |
| B．They expose themselves for their red eyes. |
| C．They live on tree roots when underground. |
| D．They can fly very fast to escape being hunted. |
| A．It's a good time to mate and reproduce. |
| B．It's a good way to keep the species alive. |
| C．It's easy for them to hunt for food. |
| D．It's easy to defeat their predators. |
| A．Cicadas Coming after 17 Years Underground |
| B．Cicadas Holding a Grand Party on the Treetops |
| C．A Reunion in 17 Years for the Cicada Family. |
| D．A Unique Way to Escape from the Predators. |
1. What is the most important advantage of paper bottles?
| A．Low in price. | B．Easy to recycle. | C．Convenient to move around. |
| A．Shaping them perfectly. |
| B．Stopping them from leaking. |
| C．Making them lighter than plastic. |
| A．More forests will be lost. | B．More testing will be done. | C．More money will be wasted. |
| A．To save most of the forests in the world. |
| B．To make paper bottles cheaper than before. |
| C．To replace glass and plastic bottles with paper ones. |
3 . Coral reefs (珊瑚礁)are in great danger ,due to warming oceans. Conservationists are worried about how to save them, but a new study might come as music to their ears.
A team of scientists came up with an unusual idea to play underwater sounds along degraded(退化) coral reefs of Australia's Great Barrier Reef that would copy the usual noises heard on a healthy and active reef. When they did so, they found that fish were attracted to the music and more willing to hang around.
Dr. Stephen Simpson, a researcher at the University of Exeter, UK, said that coral reefs are remarkably noisy places full of various sounds. Young fish will be attracted to these sounds after they spent their early stage in the open ocean. However, once a reef becomes degraded, it smells and sounds less attractive to the young fish, who choose to settle elsewhere, thus speeding up further degradation of the reef.
In the experiment, reefs were given one of three experimental treatments. They either had no loudspeaker, a fake loudspeaker, or a real loudspeaker that played reef sounds. Playback occurred for 40 days, always at nighttime, which is when fish settlement typically occurs.
After 40 days, there were twice as many young fish on reefs with real loudspeakers than the other two kinds of reefs, with no significant differences between the two control treatments. And biodiversity also increased by 50 %, with more species attracted to the sound.
While the presence of fish alone cannot restore a coral reef to good health, study author Dr. Mark Meekan explained that “recovery is encouraged by fish that clean the reefs and create space for corals to regrow”. This could promote a “snowball effect”, with other fish responding positively to communities founded earlier, causing further increases in settlement.
The researchers hope that this discovery can add to reef restoration efforts because, at this point ,the reefs need all the help they can get.
1. How will conservationists feel about the new study?| A．Hopeful. | B．Amused. | C．Worried. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．To explain the importance of sounds to corals. |
| B．To figure out the effect of some sounds on fish. |
| C．To prove the relationship between fish and corals. |
| D．To show fish prefer to gather around loudspeakers. |
| A．They can provide food for corals. |
| B．They can make beautiful music for corals. |
| C．They can cure unhealthy corals of diseases. |
| D．They can create room for the growth of corals. |
| A．Fish Can Help Degraded Corals Produce Music |
| B．Reef Music Attracts Young Fish to Degraded Corals |
| C．Pleasant Music Can Help Coral Reefs Grow Healthily |
| D．Degraded Coral Reefs Can Create Music to Attract Fish |
4 . Sunflower season generally runs from late July, so be sure to visit the best sunflower fields near Chicago.
Thompson Strawberry Farm
This huge Wisconsin sunflower field covers an area of 15 acres, so come prepared with scissors and a jar to prepare for a long day of picking. Visitors are welcome to cut up to a dozen sunflowers from the field, but if you really want to take home a few more, additional flowers will only set you back a dollar each.
$25 per car for up to six people, $5 per person for more than six people.
Heap's Giant Pumpkin Farm
Flower enthusiasts will delight in walking through more than 5 acres of sunflowers at this farm, which offers an all—day pass that gives you access to the sunflower field and other farm attractions like corn mazes(迷宫). You can buy a De Bucket: a $20 basket you can fill with as many flowers as you can fit inside.
Thistleberry Farm
Though some of its previous summer sunflower fields have already been cleaned, South Bend's Thistleberry Farm will once again erupt in a 3—acre sea of sunflowers from September 16—27. You can order tickets online to reserve a spot before visiting.
$6 per person plus a $ l online processing fee.
M&D Farm and Garden Center
Located just 45 minutes of driving outside the city in Homer Glen, Illinois, this 10—acre farm allow for six weeks throughout the season. Check the farm's Facebook page for updates about when the field will enter full golden time — and when you visit, be sure to have a couple of fresh cut sunflowers for $2.50 each.
$5 Monday —Friday, $7 Saturday — Sunday, children under 3 free.
1. Which sunflower field is the largest?| A．Thistleberry Farm. |
| B．Thompson Strawberry Farm. |
| C．Heap's Giant Pumpkin Farm. |
| D．M&D Farm and Garden Center. |
| A．Free Admission. |
| B．Sunflower cleaning. |
| C．Online ticket booking. |
| D．Sunflower delivery. |
| A．$10. | B．$20. | C．$25. | D．$50. |
5 . Many people think that hippos (河马) are cute and funny-looking. They are really fat and they have short, thick legs. They also have little round ears that wiggle (摆动) sometimes.
Hippos look funny, but you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Hippos are extremely violent and dangerous. In fact, they kill more people than any other animal in Africa. Think of how many dangerous animals that Africa has. It has got crocodiles, snakes, lions, elephants and many more. Hippos are more dangerous than all of them.
Hippos are naturally very dangerous animals, but there are some situations that make them even more dangerous than normal. They are very territorial. That means that they stay in one area which they consider to be their private area. If a person or animal enter a hippo’s area, the hippo will attack. Hippos also often attack when they are returning to the water. Hippos eat on land and return to water at dusk. If a hippo sees an animal when it’s returning to the water, it will become violent.
Hippos are so strong that they often kill crocodiles. There are two reasons that explain why hippos and crocodiles often fight. First of all, hippos and crocodiles live in the same areas. Since hippos are territorial, they don’t like having crocodiles nearby. Also, crocodiles often eat young hippos. For that reason, adult hippos frequently kill crocodiles.
Mother and daughter hippos have close relationships. However, hippos don’t have any other close relationship with each other. Hippos often live together in large groups, but scientists don’t know why. It’s hard to study the behaviour of male and female hippos, because males and females look the same.
Hippos are violent, but they are herbivores. A herbivore is an animal that eat only plants. An adult hippo eats about 50 kilograms of plants every day. Hippos are much more comfortable in the water, but they can run fast on land. Their top speed is about 19 kilometers per hour. That’s much faster than humans can run.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．The fight between hippos and crocodiles. |
| B．How to tell male hippos and female ones. |
| C．Africa’s most dangerous animal — hippos. |
| D．Why hippos get violent. |
| A．It is afraid of other animals. |
| B．It stays within a limited area. |
| C．It does not like to live in large groups. |
| D．It does not want other animals to enter its area. |
| A．Hippos swim faster than crocodiles. |
| B．It is hard to explain why hippos live in groups. |
| C．Male and female hippos look different. |
| D．Violent animals usually eat plants. |
| A．To inform. | B．To entertain. |
| C．To instruct. | D．To persuade. |
6 . When it comes to sharks, many people think of their pointy fins and violent nature. But there is more to sharks than their sharp teeth: The creature appeared on earth 410 million years ago, before dinosaurs.
However, sharks are now at the edge of extinction. Numbers of sharks have decreased by 71% over the past 50 years, according to the research published in Nature. “Such sharp decreases are shocking even to experts, especially when compared to land animal statistics,” Sonja Fordham at Shark Advocates International told New Scientist magazine. “This data(数据) may be an underestimate(低估) of reality because of unreported fish catches,” noted Nathan Pacoureau, a researcher of the study team.
The study included 31 species; 24 now risk extinction, and 3 shark species are now classified as highly endangered. The study found the decrease hit the largest species first before influencing smaller ones over time, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It also said that shark finning and fishing worldwide have driven the decrease. “The Indian Ocean is the worst. There is almost no fishery management at all,” said Pacoureau.
“Overfishing of sharks destroys the health of entire ocean ecosystems as well as food safety for some countries,” said Nicholas Dulvy, a professor of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. “The researchers are calling on immediate action to ensure a brighter future for these animals,” according to the BBC.
Although the situation looks depressing, the future of sharks is not doomed(注定)yet. 25 species have recovered because of long-term protection campaigns in the past decades. A couple of shark species have started to recover through science-based fishing limits. These examples provide living evidence that the world can set and meet biodiversity goals.
1. What can we know about sharks from the text?| A．They are faced with a bad situation. |
| B．They began to exist later than dinosaurs. |
| C．They are well preserved in the Indian Ocean. |
| D．They became an extinct species 5 decades ago. |
| A．They just focus on the largest species. |
| B．They may leave out unreported situations. |
| C．They disagree with some experts’ judgements. |
| D．They are only compared with those of land animals. |
| A．Overfishing. | B．Natural disasters. |
| C．The ocean pollution. | D．Food source shortage. |
| A．Hopeless. | B．Bright. | C．Dark. | D．Unclear. |
7 . A four-year-old boy who was crazy about collecting rubbish has finally fulfilled his dream of being a cleaner. Riley McCourt has admired the local rubbish collectors for ages, spending his days picking up waste on his street and wheeling bins (垃圾桶) to the side of the road to help out his neighbors. He loves cleaning and binning waste. His favorite chore is to empty the rubbish from the chip shop his mum runs. Two weeks ago, however, a disaster struck: Riley accidentally knocked over one of the bins and was accused of causing trouble.
Someone posted in the local Facebook group that Riley had put rubbish in the street, clearly unaware of his love for keeping the streets clean. Thankfully his innocence was quickly proven, and his local council decided to make his dreams come true by allowing him to work alongside the cleaners for a day.
Riley joined the waste collection crew on Wednesday, chatting with the team, helping with the recycling, and riding in the waste collection vehicles. He even got his own jacket. Riley's mum, Toni McCourt, said, “He loves the bins and trucks.” Riley's favorite day is definitely bin day. He goes round collecting the rubbish up on the street. The cleaners all know him when they spot him. He goes outside as soon as he sees them come round. He helps his neighbors put their bins out for collection.
Riley clearly made a good impression during his first day on the job, as community services manager Jane Carrol said she was very pleased with his enthusiasm for the role. Jane said, “Riley is clearly a keen recycler and who knows, when he is older I'm sure he would make an excellent member of the team here. It was a pleasure for the team to show him around the vehicles.”
1. What is Riley's dream?| A．To prove his innocence. |
| B．To collect much rubbish. |
| C．To work as a real cleaner. |
| D．To work in his mother's shop. |
| A．He was wronged by someone. |
| B．He was knocked over by a bin. |
| C．He had an accident in the shop. |
| D．He forgot to empty the rubbish. |
| A．People go out to celebrate it. |
| B．The cleaners collect the bins. |
| C．People help Riley collect rubbish. |
| D．The cleaners collect rubbish in the bins. |
| A．It is dangerous to do so on the street. |
| B．It is good for the community to follow him. |
| C．It is worthwhile to give Riley high remarks. |
| D．It is unnecessary for such a little boy to do so. |
8 . Half of the world's beaches could disappear by 2100, a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests.
Michalis Vousdoukas, of the European Union's Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy, was the lead researchist. "Tourist areas which have sandy beaches as their main selling point will probably face strong consequences," he said. Aside from economic value, beaches play an important environmental role. "Sandy beaches are important habitats supporting a wide range of species. They also protect the coast from the effects of storms, so without sandy beaches other inland environments can be affected by the effects of waves and saltwater entering," Vousdoukas added.
The main causes are rising sea-level and erosion (侵蚀)from storms, the study says, which warned of the near-disappearance of almost half of the world's sandy beaches by the end of the century. Beaches in the United States will be “greatly affected”，as will shorelines in Canada, Mexico, China and Chile. In the U. S. , beaches along the East Coast and the Gulf Coast will experience the most erosion.
Michalis Vousdoukas and other researchers used satellite images to track the way beaches have changed over the past 30 years and patterned how global warming might affect them in the future. They found that West Africa will see some of the worst losses, where more than 60% of sandy coastline may be lost in countries such as The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. Australia will also take a hit:when the total length of sandy beach projected to be lost is analyzed, Australia would be hit the hardest, with more than 7,000 miles at risk.
1. What mainly caused the disappearance of half of the world's beaches?| A．Over population and more tourism. | B．Severe erosion and coastline losses. |
| C．Global warming and climate change. | D．Sea-level rise and storm destruction. |
| A．Chile. | B．The Gambia. | C．Australia. | D．The United States. |
| A．They can provide habitats for species. |
| B．They can block out waves and storms. |
| C．They can be popular tourist attractions. |
| D．They can stop erosion from happening. |
| A．To introduce beaches. | B．To make a comparison. |
| C．To protect environment. | D．To explain a study. |
China's first national park in the Sanjiangyuan area,
The environment had
Unlike nature reserves,
Under the national park management, herdsmen and farmers will be turned
