1 . 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。

After 30 years in hotel management, Anne Guan started her BnB business in a valley of Yellow Mountain. It is one of the most famous     1     (mountain) areas in China with breathtaking natural scenery. Every time she takes     2     walk to the woods, she carries a non-woven bag with her to pick up trash.

Anne     3     (begin) her waste collection journey in 2017 when she went     4     a road trip on China’s National Highway 318 (G318) to Tibet Autonomous Region. She and her friends were amazed by the wonder of nature     5     they came across a water channel, filled with waste. They were shocked.

“It’s all too much, and you can’t even imagine how there can be so much trash,” said Anne. “So we started to pick up waste all the way during the trip. First, it’s just me and my friends. And then, our Tibetan guides and other     6     (tourist) also joined us.” When they went back to the city, trunks of all their six cars     7     (fill) with bags of trash.

The experience in Tibet carved into Anne’s heart. “I want to use my own     8     (behave) to influence more people not to throw waste, to pick up the waste in the environment, and     9     (do) a little bit for our planet.” Motivated by her, some house guests also carry a bag for collecting trash while     10     (hike).

2 . I study snakes in Brazil’s Ribeira Valley, an area where snake bites are very common. I focus mainly on the venomous lancehead (矛头蝮蛇). It is responsible for most of the 26,000 recorded snake bites in Brazil each year.

After my undergraduate biology degree at the Federal University of São Carlos, I spent two years at the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, studying snakes that live in São Paulo’s rivers and urban parks, I then did a master’s degree at São Paulo State University, researching the reproductive biology of the bushmaster—one of the largest venomous snakes in the Americas and one of the few snakes that show a form of parental care. It lays its eggs in underground holes and remains curled around them for long periods of time to keep them warm and protected.

When I was 12 years old, I visited the Acqua Mundo aquarium on the coast of São Pauled and fell in love with a beautiful, giant, albino ball python (白化球蟒). Brazil has more than 400 snake species. At first, I just thought that snakes were pretty, but as I learnt about and worked with them, I became curious about how their environment influences their movement and activities, I’m now planning to attach accelerometers (加速计) to snakes. These small data devices can monitor fine-scale body movements and postures. Because many of the snakes are venomous, it is dangerous to work with them. But we learn to respect them and understand their defence behaviours, and two people always work together when handling them.

One goal of my project is to learn more about their interactions with humans, aiming to inform policies to lighten snake bites. The biggest threat to snakes is habitat loss, which has been made worse by Brazil’s current environment policies, which encourage the clearing of land for farming.

1. What did the author do next after getting undergraduate degree?

A．He began to study snakes in Ribeira Valley.	B．He studied snakes at the Butantan Institute.
C．He lived near São Paulo’s rivers to study snakes.	D．He studied in São Paulo State University.

2. Why is the author going to attach accelerometers to snakes?

A．Because they let researchers know more about snakes.

B．Because they can make venomous snakes move faster.

C．Because it’s dangerous to work with venomous snakes.

D．Because they let researchers understand snakes’ defence behaviours.

3. Which of the following is the purpose of the author’s study?

A．Encouraging people to clear land for farming.

B．Supporting people who catch some venomous snakes.

C．Showing the current environment of Brazil is worse.

D．Studying the relationship between people and snakes.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Studying and handling snakes for science.

B．Showing experiences of catching snakes.

C．Introducing some venomous snakes in Brazil.

D．Calling on people to protect snake’s living environment.

3 . How to Survive a Tsunami on the Beach

The word tsunami is from Japanese. It describes a series of waves that can reach over 100 feet tall and travel at speeds up to 600 miles per hour across the sea. A single wave in a tsunami can be quite long, as much as 60 miles, causing great damage.    1    

Your best chance for surviving a tsunami on a beach is to pay attention to the warning signs, stay away from the shore after an earthquake, and get to high land. Then wait for information from disaster response groups.

    2    With your family, discuss how you’ll reach the evacuation area (紧急疏散区) as soon as possible.

The sooner you know a tsunami is coming the better your chance of making it to higher ground.    3    

·Head for high ground, get at least 100 feet above sea level.

·    4    

·Don’t swim against the current.

As you learn how to survive a tsunami, remember the first wave in a series of waves is the smallest and weakest.    5     If you’re in a boat at the beach, head out into the ocean. You’ll stand a better chance away of survival away from the shoreline.

A．That’s why it’s crucial to know how to survive a Tsunami.

B．Grab something like a tree or something that float, like a raft.

C．The waves following an earthquake may continue for hours or up to a day.

D．That’s why it’s essential to learn the early warning signs to survive a tsunami.

E．If it’s too late, and the water’s already rising, here’s what to do in a tsunami.

F．Your best chance for surviving a tsunami on a beach is to pay attention to the warning signs.

G．Whether you’re visiting or living in a tsunami zone, learn where the closest place is out of the tsunami’s reach.

4 . A new study shows homing pigeons (鸽子) combine precise internal compasses and memorized landmarks to retrace a path back to their home—even four years after the previous time when they made the trip.

Testing nonhuman memory keeping is challenging in research studies. “It’s rare that there is a gap of several years between when an animal stores the information and when it is next required to get it back,” says Dora Biro, a zoologist at the University of Oxford. In a recent study, Biro and her colleagues compared domestic homing pigeons’ paths three or four years after the birds established routes back to their home from a farm 8.6 kilometers away. The study built on data from a 2016 experiment in which pigeons learned routes in different social contexts during several flights-on their own or with peers that did or did not know the way.

Using data from GPS devices temporarily attached to the birds’ backs, the researchers compared the flight paths a group of pigeons took in 2016 with many of the same birds’ routes in 2019 or 2020, without the birds visiting the release site in between. Some birds missed a handful of landmarks along the way, but many others took “strikingly similar” routes to those they used in 2016, “It was as if the last time they flew there was just the day before, not four years ago,” says Oxford zoologist and study co-author Julien Collet.

The team found that the pigeons remembered a route just as well if they first flew it alone or with others and performed much better than those that had not made the journey in 2016. “The result is not surprising, but it provides new confirmation of homing pigeons’ remarkable memory. It closes the distance a little bit between our overconfident human cognitive (认知的) abilities and what animals can do,” says Verner Bingman, who studies animal navigation at Bowling Green State University and was not involved in the study.

1. What does paragraph 1 mention about homing pigeons?

A．The time of leaving home.	B．The location of their birth.
C．The ways they navigate home.	D．The reasons for their taking trips.

2. How did Biro and her colleagues conduct the study?

A．Through questionnaires.	B．Through information assumptions.
C．Through lab experiments on animals.	D．Through comparative analysis of data.

3. What did the researchers use to get the pigeons’ flight routes according to paragraph 3?

A．Prediction method.	B．Tracking method.
C．Expert consultation.	D．Literature consultation.

4. What can we learn about animal cognitive abilities from Verner Bingman’s words?

A．They are underestimated.	B．They have been declining.
C．They are much lower than humans’.	D．They have never been confirmed.

5 . In nature, octopuses (章鱼) hunt mainly with their sense of touch, using their eight arms to feel out their environment for hidden creatures. Researchers at the University of Minnesota recently studied a different way octopuses hunt—when they identify prey (猎物) based on sight. The study findings show that the marine creatures are quite consistent and methodical in how they approach prey.

Lead researcher Trevor Wardill and his team placed California two-spot octopuses into water tanks, hiding them in caves where they would have one eye looking out. They then placed either fiddler crabs or white shrimp in the tanks to see how the octopuses would try to catch them, capturing the interactions on video. The crabs and shrimp behave differently when trying to escape from predators (捕猎者), so using both species gave the researchers an opportunity to see whether this led the octopuses to use a different arm for hunting depending on the prey.

Wardill’s team found that the octopuses almost always used the same arm to grab their prey. Specifically, the second arm from the middle of the octopuses’ body, on the same side of their body as the eye, caught the prey. If they needed more arms to grab prey, they would use the ones next to the second arm.

The octopuses also attacked differently depending on the prey. When faced with crabs, an octopus would move suddenly on top of the crab with its whole body. However, when catching shrimp, the octopuses would take one arm and reach out very slowly toward the shrimp, then grab it and latch (缠住) onto it with its other arms to pull it in.

Wardill and his team hope to do more research. They want to study the octopus’s brain as it attacks pre y to develop a better understanding of what role the creature’s nervous system plays in selecting the arms it uses.

1. What is the recent study mainly about?

A．Octopuses’ ability to hide itself.	B．Octopuses’ way to track prey.
C．Octopuses’ hunting mode via eyes.	D．Octopuses’ method of perceiving the environment.

2. What can we learn about the octopuses in the study?

A．They adopt different strategies to hunt.	B．They stretch arms slowly to catch crabs.
C．They move suddenly to prey on shrimps.	D．They use the second arm to catch prey anytime.

3. What does the follow-up test aim to find out about the octopuses?

A．Whether they’re nervous in hunting.	B．How their nerves work during hunting.
C．How they choose their arms in hunting.	D．Whether they use their brain during hunting.

4. Which of the following can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Octopuses: Skillful Hunters	B．Octopuses: One-armed Predators
C．Octopuses: A Sharp-eyed Species	D．Octopuses: A Mysterious Creature

6 . For the past four years I had been having up to 30 seizures (癫痫发作) a day. It made me _________ a lot.

Despite _________ visits to hospitals, no doctor could tell me the cause of it. At night, my family had to check on me just in case I wasn’t _________. So I could never be in a room alone and as a 21-year-old young man, I was finding the lack of _________ getting me down.

One day, my friend Kerri asked if I wanted an assistance dog. I knew there were guide dogs for the _________, but I wasn’t sure how a dog could help me. A few days later, Kerri told me she’d done some search and found a company “Dogs For Life”. From the website of the company, I _________ that they teach dogs to smell a chemical change in the body and _________ people when a seizure is about to _________.

Soon after, I _________ Baloo, a dog trained by Dogs For Life. It sat silently in the corner. As I sat down, Baloo suddenly __________ and jumped on me. Minutes later, I had a seizure. It had __________ the chemical changes in my body and tried to warn me. It was by my side until the __________ came. Instantly, I knew it was a good __________ for me, and I took her back home.

It’s __________ my life more than a handful of times and I couldn’t be more __________ for it.

1.

A．think

B．hide

C．suffer

D．learn

2.

A．personal

B．countless

C．formal

D．impressive

3.

A．sleeping

B．working

C．replying

D．breathing

4.

A．warmth

B．fun

C．safety

D．independence

5.

A．deaf

B．blind

C．injured

D．elderly

6.

A．wrote

B．learnt

C．overheard

D．planned

7.

A．warn

B．attract

C．follow

D．hit

8.

A．burn out

B．break in

C．come on

D．drop by

9.

A．saved

B．addressed

C．met

D．invited

10.

A．rose

B．lay

C．struggled

D．played

11.

A．sensed

B．caused

C．touched

D．cried

12.

A．action

B．attack

C．guide

D．help

13.

A．boss

B．teacher

C．partner

D．listener

14.

A．risked

B．stopped

C．kept

D．saved

15.

A．thankful

B．anxious

C．excited

D．patient

7 . To humans, roads mean connection and escape; to other life-forms, they spell death and division. A half-century ago, just 3 percent of land animals met their end on a road; by 2017 the number had greatly doubled.

Considering the outsize effects of roads, it’s perhaps surprising that they didn’t truly receive their scientific due until the late 20th century. In 1993, Richard Forman, a landscape ecologist, coined an English term: “road ecology,” defined loosely as the study of how “life changes for plants and animals with a road and traffic nearby.” As the 1990s wore on, road ecology gained steam.

Like most people, I at once cherish animals and think nothing of piloting a 3,000-pounddeath machine. One summer, in Alaska, I hit a songbird–a death I didn’t discover until I found the delicate splash of feathers the next day. I’d killed it unconsciously. But I could do nothing.

Road ecology offers one path through this thicket (灌木丛). North America and Europe constructed their road networks with little regard for how they would affect nature. Today, in theory, we know better. Road ecology has revealed the danger of thoughtless development and pointed us toward solutions. Over the last several decades, its practitioners have constructed bridges for bears, tunnels (隧道) for turtles. In Kenya, elephants move slowly beneath highways and railroads via passages as tall as two-story houses.

And road ecology has yielded more than crossings: We’ve also learned to map and protect the migrations of certain animals, to design roadsides that nourish bees and butterflies– proof that old mistakes need not be permanent.

Today we’re entering a period that might fairly be considered the golden age of road ecology. The coming years will undoubtedly be transformative ones for our road network. Still, whether we can ever truly undo the harms of our concrete-coated world is far less certain.

1. What may be the reason for the doubled death number by 2017?

A．Road noises.

B．Traffic accidents.

C．Natural disasters.

D．Hunting activities.

2. What did the author want to tell us by the experience in Alaska in Paragraph 3?

A．Songbirds were common in that area.	B．The songbird’s death was undervalued.
C．Driving a car was necessary for his job.	D．He was much troubled by the songbird.

3. Which best describes the impact of road ecology?

A．Far-reaching.

B．One-sided.

C．Short-lived.

D．Unnoticeable.

4. What is the most suitable title for the text?

A．How Roads Have Transformed the Natural World	B．What Measures Should Be Taken to Protect Animals
C．How Road Ecology Will Change the Future World	D．What Difficulties Humans face in Road Construction

8 . My real research started at the New York Botanical Garden. I met a person who is a paleobotanist (古植物学家), which means that he ________ prehistoric plants. My novel centers on Merwin and Louise, two little Sycamore ________ who began life during the Cretaceous Period.

Sycamore trees are called fossil species, which means they have been ________ since the time of the dinosaurs. They are ________ to modern trees we see in forests today. The Sycamore tree also makes those kind of seed balls, a little bit like a nursery (托儿所), like all these ________ in there together. In most of my stories. I write about children who get ________ from their parents and find their way in the world. That’s kind of what Sycamore seeds and other seeds do. They must ________ the plant that made them and go find a place to ________.

It was fun trying to ________ all the different places these two little seeds could go. I wanted them to go underwater. Drawing pictures underwater is so hard. ________ the whole scene with King Seaweed was really fun.

What surprised me the most was the idea that ________ are really communities. Trees communicate with each other with a mycelial (菌丝) system under the ground that ________ everything. It felt like there were interesting parallels (相似之处) with us, because we also live in ________, and we try to help each other. However, there are sometimes ________ from outside, and we have to find out ways to ________. Plants are doing the same thing

1.

A．cooks

B．studies

C．plants

D．keeps

2.

A．animals

B．children

C．birds

D．seeds

3.

A．alone

B．away

C．around

D．abroad

4.

A．familiar

B．junior

C．unnecessary

D．typical

5.

A．teachers

B．kids

C．parents

D．cleaners

6.

A．absent

B．safe

C．separate

D．tired

7.

A．break away from

B．go away with

C．look after

D．get in

8.

A．die

B．learn

C．sleep

D．grow

9.

A．search

B．dig

C．imagine

D．remove

10.

A．Writing

B．Enjoying

C．Dreaming

D．Controlling

11.

A．rivers

B．forests

C．oceans

D．companies

12.

A．expresses

B．revises

C．improves

D．connects

13.

A．communities

B．buildings

C．systems

D．nurseries

14.

A．qualities

B．greetings

C．difficulties

D．comforts

15.

A．lose

B．quit

C．challenge

D．survive

9 . One of the ocean’s noisiest creatures is smaller than you’d expect — snapping shrimp (鼓虾). They create a widespread background noise in the underwater environment, which helps them communicate, protect their homes and hunt for food. When enough shrimp snap (发出噼啪声) at once, the noise can be deafening.

Aran Mooney, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, suggested that with increased ocean temperatures, snapping shrimp will snap more often and louder than before. This could raise the background noise of the global ocean. “They make a sound by closing a claw so fast. This makes a bubble (泡泡) and when that bubble bursts, it makes that snapping sound,” said Mooney.

Mooney discovered a strong relationship between warmer waters and more frequent snapping shrimp sounds after experimenting with the shrimp in tanks in the lab and by listening to the shrimp in the ocean at various water temperatures. “As the temperature rises, the snap rate increases,” he said. This makes sense because shrimp are essentially cold-blooded animals, meaning their body temperature and activity levels are largely controlled by their living environment. “We can actually show in the field that not only do snap rates increase, but the sound levels increase as well.”

How the louder snapping shrimp would affect or benefit the surroundings remained to be seen. “We know that fish use sound to communicate,” Mooney said. “If the environment gets noisy, it has the possibility to influence that communication. That’s something we have to follow up on.” There is also the possibility that the change of snapping shrimp affects machines humans use to discover mines, which could lead to unpleasant results.

1. What can we know about the snapping shrimp’s sound?

A．It aims to protect the shrimp.	B．It is important to the ecosystem.
C．It has different uses for the shrimp.	D．It is hard to be discovered by other creatures.

2. How does Mooney do the experiment?

A．By observing snapping shrimp in the field.	B．By recording the snap rates in the lab.
C．By analyzing the way shrimp make noise.	D．By comparing shrimp’s sound in different places.

3. What might Mooney research next?

A．Other uses of shrimp’s sound.	B．Influences of the noise on other creatures.
C．Means of communication among fish.	D．Methods of stopping shrimp’s snapping.

4. Which of the following could be the best title for the text?

A．Underwater World Is No Longer Quiet	B．Small Animals Make a Big Difference
C．Warming Oceans Are Getting Louder	D．Snapping Shrimp’s Noise Speaks Much

10 . Native to forests of Central and South America, glass frogs in the Centrolenidae family get their name from their skin and muscles that help them be perfectly fit to live in their jungle environment. Turn the frogs over, where the effect is the most impressive, and you’ll make out their hearts, livers, and other organs through their hyaline bellies (肚子).

And in a study published in the journal Science, researchers have discovered an amazing mechanism (机制) the animals use to become so clear.

When glass frogs go to sleep, they take in 89 percent of their brightly colored red blood cells into sacs (液囊) in their livers, which reflect incoming light and make the frogs appear nearly unseen. With their red blood cells out of view, the frogs become twice to three times more clear — a trick scientists believe helps the animals avoid being killed and eaten by their natural enemies.

“The trick is really hard to do, because their tissues are full of things that take in and spread light. And transparency (透明) is normal for many creatures in water, but hard on land,” says study co-author Jesse Delia. “Red blood cells also take in a lot of light, and we found that the frogs can actually hide themselves by packing them into the liver.”

Not only are the findings interesting, but the researchers attach great importance to them. That’s because many red blood cells in one place usually form a clot (血块), which can block and lead to a potentially life-threatening condition. But the frogs can seemingly clot and expand their red blood cells at will — without any negative effects. This may mean the animals already have what medical researchers have been seeking for decades: a biological mechanism which prevents too much bleeding while also preventing too much clotting.

1. What does the underlined word “hyaline” mean in paragraph 1?

A．See-through.	B．Powerful.
C．Narrow.	D．Good-looking.

2. What is the new discovery about glass frogs?

A．The frogs fit in their environment better.

B．Sacs filled with red blood cells make the frogs clear.

C．Red blood cells in the frogs’ liver reflect light.

D．The frogs are able to take in a lot of bright colors.

3. What does Jesse Delia think of glass frogs’ trick?

A．Interesting.	B．Unusual.
C．Shocking.	D．Annoying.

4. Why do the researchers consider the findings important?

A．They help cure serious diseases.	B．They are a blessing for wild animals.
C．They can lead to advances in medicine.	D．They will prevent all clotting and bleeding.