1 . The Atacama Desert in northern Chile stretches from the Pacific to the Andes across an expanse of red-orange rock mountains and peaks. It’s a dream destination for tourists. But the Atacama Desert is also one of the world’s fast-growing dumps (垃圾场) of abandoned clothes. The scene in northern Chile has been shown in one online video-large amounts of abandoned clothes stretch as far as the eye can see.
Chile is home to one of South America’s largest duty-free ports-located in the coastal city of Iquique. The duty-free port was established in 1975 to help generate jobs and improve local economy. As fast fashion exploded, so did imports. Millions of tons of clothes arrive annually from all over the world.
“The free zone was a ’true transformation’ for the city’s residents,” says Bernardo Guerrero, a sociologist that studies Iquique’s history and culture. “They suddenly had access to things they could never have imagined.” Clothing began washing in and out of Iquique like waves as global fashions changed. Guerrero recalls a time when almost everybody in the city wore the same style of puffer jacket.
The free zone has also developed into a sorting site for abandoned clothes. Mehmet Yildiz, who operates a clothing import business, brings in clothes from the United States and Europe. Once the clothes reach Iquique, workers separate them into four categories according to quality. Yildiz then exports the best to other countries for resale. Clothing that the importers don’t want will be delivered a few miles outside Alto Hospicio, where it goes through another cycle of sorting and resale in street markets. Clothing that doesn’t sell at the market is sent to the desert, and much of it is made from materials that won’t biodegrade (生物降解).
As helpful as resale markets might have been in an earlier era, they’ve been flooded with the large amounts of the mounting discards. New efforts, large and small, are under way to deal with clothing waste, and attention to the mess in the desert may inspire additional projects.
1. What does the online video show about the Atacama Desert?| A．Its large area. | B．Its considerable fame. |
| C．Its natural beauty. | D．Its endless waste. |
| A．It brought about disasters to Iquique. | B．It changed local people’s life rapidly. |
| C．It created lots of jobs for local people. | D．It was affected by the history of Iquique. |
| A．They are made in Iquique. | B．They are of excellent quality. |
| C．They may harm the environment. | D．They boost local economy greatly. |
| A．Things thrown away. | B．Clothes out of fashion. |
| C．Markets out of business. | D．Deserts occupied by waste. |
2 . Wind turbines (风力发电机) work especially well out in coastal waters, where ocean winds can be very strong. Offshore wind farms cost more to build than onshore ones. Offshore equipment must be heavier than onshore equipment. It has to stand up to very heavy winds, big waves and strong currents. Sending people to install, operate and repair equipment at sea is costly. But once set up, offshore wind could pick up bonus tasks.
According to Haris Ishaq, an engineer at the University of Victoria in Canada, one of the best add-ons to wind farms is making hydrogen gas, which means making a clean power source in a clean way. A device called an electrolyzer (电解器) can split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The electrolyzer needs fresh water, not salt water. To remove the sea salt, Ishaq’s team proposes removing the salt through a special technique, which is supposed to run on the electricity produced by the offshore wind farms.
Ishap’s group also proposes adding a second bonus task to wind farms—to capture (捕获) CO2 from the atmosphere. Atmospheric CO2 levels are higher than ever, resulting in a worsening greenhouse effect. A process called direct air capture, or DAC, can remove CO2 from the air. The DAC devices need electricity to run. Fans move air across a solid material that captures CO2 and releases everything else. When the solid material is heated to 100° Celsius, it releases the stored CO2. The same solids can then be reused to grab more CO2. The electricity made by wind turbines would power the devices’ fans and the electric boiler, to heat the carbon-collecting solid. To store the CO2 released, Ishaq’s team proposes injecting it into a type of deep-sea rock. That rock reacts with the gas, turning it into more rock in 10 to 25 years.
Ishaq’s team modeled wind turbines, electrolyzers and DAC units on computers to confirm their proposed system is a good idea. The next step is to test a small version of this set up on a floating platform in the ocean.
1. Why are offshore wind farms built despite many difficulties?| A．They can serve better purposes. | B．They are money-saving. |
| C．They can be used longer. | D．They need little maintenance. |
| A．Reducing greenhouse effect. | B．Testing an air-capturing process. |
| C．Exploring a kind of deep-sea rock. | D．Starting a hydrogen-collecting project. |
| A．Neutral. | B．Cautious. | C．Uncertain. | D．Approving. |
| A．Clean Energy Is Put into Better Use |
| B．Hydrogen Promises to Be The Energy of Tomorrow |
| C．Engineers Propose Add-ons to Offshore Wind Farms |
| D．Wind Turbines Work Especially Well Out in Coastal Waters |
3 . Researchers say they have found a new species of tropical fish during an expedition (探险) to remote islands off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Named the tailspot wrasse (尾斑隆头鱼), the colorful species was found living among volcanic rocks in the waters surrounding the Revillagigedo Archipelago — an island system known as the “Mexican Galapagos” for its vast marine biodiversity. The discovery was officially penned into the scientific record on Tuesday with the publication of a paper on the species in the journal PeerJ.
“I can’t believe that we can still find species that are new to science in a place where people are visiting pretty regularly — it just shows how big and complex the world is,” said UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Ben Frable, who was one of the scientists in the expedition.
Based on the samples examined by Frable and the rest of the team, the species ranges in size from about an inch long to nearly six inches, Scripps said. They are also believed to be hermaphroditic (雌雄同体的), beginning life as female with some later changing to male.
The smaller female fish are mostly white with red stripes on top and black patches on their back fin. The male fish are described by Frable as having an orange-red up top fading to a yellow belly with a dark band at the base of the tail.
According to Scripps, researchers believe they are related to other fish in the wrasse family. However, the species are believed to be endemic, meaning it cannot be found anywhere else on Earth.
Located just 250 miles south of the Baja California peninsula, the Revillagigedo islands are well-known for their abundance of marine life, in part due to protections that prevent fishing in the area.
1. What does Frable think of the discovery of the new fish species?| A．Interesting. | B．Amazing. | C．Boring. | D．Frightening. |
| A．Its living habits. | B．Its physical features. |
| C．Its size and color. | D．Its protection efforts. |
| A．It’s unique to the area. |
| B．It feeds on volcanic rocks. |
| C．It has no relation to other fish species. |
| D．It’s the smallest fish species in the area. |
| A．To record a meaningful expedition. |
| B．To call on people to protect marine life. |
| C．To share the discovery of a new fish species. |
| D．To show gratitude to the established scientists. |
1. Where did Maxine get the idea to start a dog shelter?
| A．From a book. | B．From a neighbor. | C．From a dog lover. |
| A．It ran to the next door. | B．It looked lovely and happy. | C．It started being close to her. |
| A．The city government and dog lovers support her. |
| B．Her family gives her money. |
| C．She collects fees from neighbors. |
| A．Around 8 years old. | B．Below 10 years old. | C．Around 17 years old. |
5 . It’s not easy to swim 109 miles when you’re starving to death. It’s not easy either to try to survive when you’re losing body weight at a rate of 2. 2 lb. a day. And it might be the hardest of all if you’re a nursing mom and your calorie intake has dropped so low that you can no longer produce the milk you need to care for your young.
As a newspaper in Nature Communications reveals, all of those challenges and more are facing the world’s polar bears, thanks to disappearing sea ice in our warming world, denying the animals a platform that they need to hunt for seals. If the trend isn’t reversed (扭转) soon, the estimated 26, 000 polar bears in the wild could start to lose their hold on survival before the middle of this century.
The researchers followed 20 different polar bears in Manitoba, Canada, from 2019 to 2022, fitting them with GPS trackers and video collars and periodically tranquilizing(麻醉) them to analyzes their blood, body mass, and daily energy consumption.
“The polar bears in Hudson Bay are probably at the edge of the range at which they can survive right now,” says Anthony Pagano, a research biologist with the U. S. Geological Surrey and the lead author of the paper. “Most of the modeling work suggests that around 2050, they are going to be on land and away from their primary habitat on the ice.”
According to the study, the data gathered was troubling. Weight loss varied among bears, with the daily loss of 2. 2 1b. representing an average; some of the subjects dropped up to 3. 75 lb. every 24 hours.
The bears are efficient hunters when they’ve got the purchase of ice beneath them, but they are clumsy when they are going after seals and trying to swim at the same time.
That leaves them searching on land for foods they would not ordinarily eat and getting little payoff for their efforts. Polar bears are feeding on ducks, geese, and eggs. Other foods on the desperate bears’ menus include berries and other vegetation. None of that food is as calorie-rich as seals.
1. What’s the function of the first paragraph?| A．To make a prediction. | B．To introduce the topic of the text. |
| C．To describe the greatness of mother bears. | D．To offer some advice on saving the bears. |
| A．By observing them in the wild. | B．By analyzing their blood samples. |
| C．By copying their living environment. | D．By tracking them with GPS and video collars. |
| A．They will adapt well to the changing environment. |
| B．They will develop to become better hunters on land. |
| C．They will move to other areas with more suitable habitats. |
| D．They will struggle to survive due to the loss of their habitat. |
| A．The challenges faced by polar bears. | B．The future of polar bears in the wild. |
| C．The methods used to study polar bears. | D．The importance of protecting polar bears. |
A composting (堆肥) program at The Wesley School in Los Angeles is helping students get hands-on experience and ways
The school’s composting program
The school will use the compost on plants around campus. Some will
It takes two hours for the container to be emptied and prepared to receive
7 . Since childhood, London-based artist Josh Gluckstein has been fascinated by the incredible diversity of our planet’s wildlife and inspired to make sculptures of animals from found materials. He often uses abandoned or recycled materials like clothing from junk shops or wood from old furniture. An important aspect of his practice is concern for the environment. “I have traveled through Asia, Latin America and East Africa, and have been fortunate enough to have some incredible wildlife encounters,” he says. “However, on my travels, even in the most remote locations, I was shocked by the huge amounts of plastic waste.”
Mach of the garbage that washes up on shorelines around the world is due to an unregulated (未受监管的) system in which richer countries export waste to developing countries because it is often cheaper than developing better infrastructures (基础设施) to handle it. Many of the thousands of shipping containers exported each year are often dumped illegally.
“I remember going to the Galapagos Islands and visiting a beach famous for a large population of sea lions. It was indeed incredible to see them in the wild, but on every inch of sand not covered by sea lions, there were plastic bottles and cans. It was a heartbreaking sight. I knew I wanted to create artworks that didn’t create waste or harm our planet,” Gluckstein says.
Gluckstein hopes his works will raise people’s awareness about the importance of protecting endangered species. His new series called “Gold” focuses on illegally hunted animals by applying gold leaves to their bodies. He plans to donate some of the sales of his sculptures to the world Wide Fund for Nature.
1. What do Gluckstein’s sculptures focus on?| A．Fashion. | B．Animals. | C．Sports. | D．Travel. |
| A．Poured, | B．Protected. | C．Sold. | D．Used. |
| A．Where he has toured. | B．How sad he was. |
| C．How he found sea lions. | D．Why he created eco-friendly sculptures. |
| A．They can bring him financial benefits. |
| B．They can make him famous as an artist. |
| C．They can help protect endangered animals. |
| D．They can improve people’s ability to appreciate art. |
1. When did the earthquake happen?
| A．On Wednesday night. | B．On Thursday morning. | C．On Thursday afternoon. |
| A．Forty people lost their lives. |
| B．At least 110 people were injured. |
| C．A railway was nearly destroyed. |
| A．Help the victims. | B．Tell some survival skills. | C．Check the highways. |
9 . For much of history, biologists and behaviorists assumed that intelligence of species could be neatly organized into a hierarchy. Modern man was placed at the top, followed by other mammals (哺乳动物). Then came the birds, reptiles (爬行动物) and insects.
However, research suggests that intelligence is actually distributed in different ways across the animal kingdom. In the 1960s, a new generation of researchers pushed the rest of the academic community to define animal intelligence in looser terms. They thought the conventional definition of intelligence — something made up of both consciousness and the ability for abstract thought — was too particular to our own species. Because every animal followed a completely different evolutionary journey, intelligence should be measured in relative terms instead of absolute terms.
In the following decades, a variety of technologies that allow us to observe animals for longer periods of time without disturbing their normal routines revealed that animal behaviors are far more complex than many previous thoughts. In Melbourne, some remote controlled machines are helping researchers to better understand the breeding patterns of southern right whales. Meanwhile, they use the computer to learn to understand, track and predict the movements of organisms.
Regardless of our rapidly changing conception of animal intelligence, it is best recognized when the behavior of an animal is similar to our own behavior. For example, elephants, which are said to remember and return to the tomb sites of dead members of their herd. They also exhibit an unusual interest in the dead bodies of other elephants, signaling their attention to death and perhaps even realizing their own death.
As time passes, we are continuously amazed at the level of cognitive (认知的) complexity exhibited by animals. At times, their madness can be difficult to spot. Modern technology finally allows us to look with some precision. Though the search only got underway a few decades ago, we have already discovered more similarities between animals and ourselves than we previously expected.
1. What does the underlined word “hierarchy” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Rank. | B．Trend. | C．Form. | D．Campaign. |
| A．Abstract. | B．Inaccurate. | C．Unnoticed. | D．Complex. |
| A．To make a prediction. | B．To make an assumption. |
| C．To prove an exception. | D．To prove a viewpoint. |
| A．Human cognition. |
| B．Human intelligence. |
| C．The distribution of animal intelligence. |
| D．The species classification in the animal kingdom. |
10 . The animal kingdom is dotted with species that give birth to spotted young, from deer to birds and fish. Even species that we don’t typically associate with spots, such as lions, wear the pattern as babies, only to lose it later in life.
But what purpose do these spots serve, and why do only some species seem to have them? Kiyoko Gotanda, a biologist at Brock University, said it is likely so common because spots are useful in keeping babies hidden from their enemies.
Spotted young tend to be more common in species that live in habitats with some three-dimensional structures, Gotanda noted, and less common in environments that are uniform or featureless. Indeed, baby seals born on pack ice are pure white, and develop spots only when they leave the ice for rocky beaches. But in habitats with some cover, spots function as the sunlight passing through leaves or tall grass, making an animal hard to be discovered in its background.
“It is not as overt a pattern as something like a stick insect that becomes something else entirely, which can be clearly identified. But spots do create these three-dimensional effects that help some species hide better,” said Gotanda.
In other rarer cases, spots actually help babies stand out. Young garibaldi — orange marine fish found along the coast of California and Mexico — have bright-blue spots that advertise their lowly status to highly territorial (有地盘意识的) males. As the fish grow and start to engage in the social order, their spots fade.
In fact, many species grow out of their spots, and the reasons aren’t entirely understood. According to Gotanda, patterning is typically considered more energetically costly to produce than a single, solid color. But spots don’t take a lot of energy to grow and maintain at least in the case of white spots. There must be other reasons to explain their loss, he said.
1. Where are spotted baby animals more likely to appear according to Paragraph 3?| A．In the desert. | B．On the ice. | C．In the forest. | D．In the lake |
| A．Obvious. | B．Strange. | C．Hidden. | D．Complex. |
| A．Animals with spots on the body are more energetic. |
| B．Spotted animals often exist in uniform surroundings. |
| C．The growth of animal spots will consume lots of energy. |
| D．There are more to explore about the loss of animal spots. |
| A．How Are Spots Protecting Baby Animals? |
| B．Why Do So Many Baby Animals Have Spots? |
| C．Where Can You Find Baby Animals with Spots? |
| D．What Causes the Loss of Spots on Baby Animals? |
