Longmen Grottoes
Set on the banks of the Yi River, 12km south of the current Luoyang City, the Longmen Grottoes are ranked first of the Four Great Grotioes in China, together with Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Yungang Grottoes in Datong and Mount Maiji Grottoes in Tianshui. They were also listed in the World Cultural Heritages and Relics by UNESCO in 2000.
Longmen Gate also houses
Wandering in the Longmen Grottoes, one is amazed by the delicate carving skills, deep Buddhist culture and great art achievements of Chinese people.
2 . After a week of talks in Canada, negotiators (谈判者) from 170 countries have a “clear path to landing an ambitious deal” on plastic pollution at a final round of negotiations in South Korea in November, Inger Andersen, executive director of the U. N. Environment Programme, said in a statement.
“The work, however, is far from over,” she added. “Some countries continue to block a crucial measure: a global limit on the production of new plastic, which is essential to control pollution.”
Plastic is made from fossil fuels, and major oil and natural gas producers like Russia and Saudi Arabia have been widely criticized for throwing up roadblocks in the negotiations in order to protect future profits. However, scientists and environmentalists say the United States also bears a lot of blame. The country is the top producer of oil and gas globally, and it has the world’s biggest economy, which has historically given the U. S. huge power in environmental negotiations.
Critics say American negotiators haven’t been willing to push for a global cap (限额) on plastic production, and are instead throwing their weight behind measures like recycling that are favored by the country’s fossil fuel and petrochemical industries.
Erin Simon, head of plastic waste and business at the World Wildlife Fund who attended the talks in Canada, says the U. S. and a lot of other countries are brainstorming and trying to come up with creative solutions to meet everybody’s needs as best as possible.
The State Department has said that for an agreement to be effective, it needs to be supported by every country, including nations that are major producers of fossil fuels and plastics. More than 50 countries now say they want an agreement to include targets for reducing plastic production.
“The drumbeat to reduce plastic production is growing from countries worldwide,” Ana Rocha, the director of global plastics policy in Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, said in a statement. “More and more leaders are waking up to what the science and our lived experiences tell us: plastic is pollution, and we need to stop it where it starts.”
1. What is the key to controlling plastic pollution according to Inger Andersen?| A．Limiting the use of second-hand plastic. |
| B．Raising people’s environmental awareness. |
| C．Reducing the worldwide production of plastic. |
| D．Passing laws to regulate the disposal of waste plastic. |
| A．Stopping producing plastic. | B．Sharing quality plastic. |
| C．Forbidding using plastic. | D．Recycling used plastic. |
| A．All countries’ support. | B．The shared laws. |
| C．Everyone’s permission. | D．Creative solutions. |
| A．Plastic production is reducing all the time. |
| B．The plastic pollution should be handled technically. |
| C．People’s awareness of reducing plastic pollution is increasing. |
| D．More leaders realize lived experiences can help handle plastic pollution. |
3 . Wildlife conservation initiatives offer a meaningful way for individuals to actively participate in the protection of endangered species while gaining insights into how they can contribute to their preservation. For those passionate about wildlife, several programs present opportunities for involvement:
◆ Animal Rescue Project, South Africa:
Engage alongside experienced conservationists in Cape Town, solving the challenge of finding new homes for homeless dogs and cats. The project involves an animal hospital equipped to cater to their medical needs and an adoption center dedicated to finding them permanent homes. Due to financial constraints, the center relies heavily on volunteers to handle daily tasks and provide hands-on care for these animals.
◆ Sea Turtle Conservation Project, Sri Lanka:
Witnessing a decline in sea turtle populations due to various commercial activities, this project focuses on supporting hatcheries(孵化场) in their conservation efforts. Participation in the Sea Turtle Conservation Project in Sri Lanka supports hatcheries in their conservation efforts, including providing financial assistance.Your participation not only aids in providing financial support to these hatcheries but also contributes to the sustainability of sea turtle populations.
◆ Wildlife Conservation Program, Australia:
Immerse yourself in activities such as animal care, facility maintenance, and enrichment tasks, offering an incredible opportunity to gain firsthand international work experience. This program also serves as an excellent opportunity to make a meaningful contribution while fostering connections with like-minded individuals from across the globe.
◆ Marine Conservation Program, Bali:
Set in Tianyar, where coral reef degradation threatens the ecosystem, this initiative aims to restore and conserve the reef to ensure a sustainable future for the local community and marine life.
1. What is the primary objective of the Animal Rescue Project in South Africa?| A．To provide medical care for injured wildlife. |
| B．To conduct research on endangered species. |
| C．To organize volunteer activities in Cape Town. |
| D．To rehabilitate and rehome stray dogs and cats. |
| A．By organizing awareness campaigns about marine conservation. |
| B．By establishing new habitats for sea turtles. |
| C．By providing financial support to local hatcheries. |
| D．By regulating commercial fishing activities. |
| A．The chance to explore the cultural heritage of Australia. |
| B．The opportunity to engage in international work experience. |
| C．The availability of luxurious accommodations for volunteers. |
| D．The focus on research projects studying various animal species. |
4 . Each spring, millions of people take photos among the famous cherry trees around the Tidal Basin in Washington DC-some even get married there. That’s what Jody Axinn did 10 years ago.
“Now, the romantic spot is unrecognizable. The whole section is under water,” says Axinn who is revisiting the cherry trees with her family. “When I got here 10 years ago, the place was flooded regularly, but certainly not twice a day, every day.”
There are two forces working together to affect the Tidal Basin, the trees and monuments around it. The seawall around the basin, built with mud dug up from the Potomac River bottom, has sunk about five feet over the past century.
“At the same time, the water level in the basin has gone up by more than a foot because of climate change,” explains Leslie Frattaroli, manager of the National Park Service (NPS). “The Tidal Basin looks like a small lake, but it’s actually part of the Potomac River, because there are gates at the upstream and downstream ends of the basin that allow river water to rush through. Therefore, it is gradually rising along with the level of the world’s oceans.”
Combining these two factors, the water is six feet above where the seawall was originally designed to keep it out. Later this spring, the park service will start to raise parts of the walkway around the basin and along the Potomac River.
“It would be impossible to complete the $113 million project without removing the cherry trees along the water,” Leslie says. “The good news is that when the project is completed in 2027, 274 new cherry trees will be planted.”
Among the trees to be removed is a very famous little tree known as “Stumpy”. At high tide (潮汐), the base of the tree is flooded. Although it is in extremely bad conditions, its remaining three or four small branches burst into flower each spring, with the Washington Monument standing tall in the background.
1. What can be learned from Jody Axinn’s words?| A．The famous cherry trees should be protected. |
| B．The flooding around the basin is more serious. |
| C．Getting married at the Tidal Basin is unpopular. |
| D．Washington DC has changed beyond recognition. |
| A．The sinking seawalls. | B．The rising sea level. |
| C．The beautiful scenery. | D．The warming climate. |
| A．too small to hold the water | B．a small inland lake |
| C．at the downstream end of a river | D．connected with the oceans |
| A．It is not in harmony with the scenery. | B．It is in very bad conditions. |
| C．It happens to be in the reconstruction area. | D．It is attracting too much attention. |
5 . Having studied more than 400 groups of honeybees in Brazil for two years, a group of biologists led by Viviana Di Pietro report that, like humans, honeybees are capable of learning new traditions which are then handed down over generations.
“The most obvious example is that honeybees can build their homes according to different architectural traditions which are then handed down over generations,” they write. “We found that around 95% of the honeybees built their homes in a horizontal (与地面平行的) style, while 5% of them preferred a spiral (螺旋形的) structure. In each case, the tradition was passed down to the next generations.”
Since honeybees showed a strong preference for a horizontal structure, it was surprising that spiral structures occurred at all. “With the help of video cameras, we found that there was a noticeable difference in average building rate between the two styles.” the researchers add.
In order to rule out a genetic (遗传的) explanation for the different styles, the researchers took honeybees from the groups that built in spiral tradition close to the groups that built in horizontal tradition. The imported honeybees soon learned to build their homes in the local style, which was then passed down to their children as they eventually grew up. “It is very likely that the imported honeybees might have changed the style as a way of correcting the construction errors made by their ancestors.” the researchers suggest.
The findings have surprised observers of animal culture, as they suggest that honeybees can learn and hand down different building traditions over generations. This has changed the way of thinking about culture, which is often strictly defined as behaviour directly handed down from human parents to their children until it becomes a tradition in a group.
“Insect culture was thought impossible. Less than a century ago, culture was thought to be uniquely human,” says biologist Andrew Whiten of the University of St Andrews, who was not involved in the research. “But the new research has offered strong evidence pointing to the opposite.”
1. Why do most honeybees prefer a horizontal structure according to the research?| A．It is easier to be copied. | B．It is a bit stronger. |
| C．It is more comfortable. | D．It is faster to build. |
| A．Scientists. | B．Traditions. | C．Findings. | D．Parents. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Disapproving. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
| A．Researchers Have Different Views on Animal Culture |
| B．Honeybees May Learn and Preserve Cultural Traditions |
| C．Honeybees Can Learn Building Skills From Their Neighbors |
| D．Researchers Have Misunderstood Honeybees for a Long Time |
6 . “Earth” has always been an odd choice of name for the third planet from the Sun. After all, if an alien examines it through a telescope, he would note that two-thirds of its surface is covered not by earth at all, but by oceans of water.
However, most of the oceans on Earth remain unexplored. For example, photographers are fond of pointing out that scientists have mapped nearly all the oceans’ surface, but less than a quarter of the seabed. Biologists think the oceans might host more than 2 million species of animals, of which they have so far identified perhaps a tenth.
A new project may change this. Launched in London on April 27th, 2023, Ocean Census aims to discover 100,000 new species of ocean animals over the coming decade. Its first ship, Kronprins Haakon, set sail on April 29 for the Barents Sea.
The project is launched for two reasons. One is that the longer scientists wait, the less there will be to study. “Top on our agenda are species thought to be in the greatest danger from climate change,” says Oliver Steeds, founder of the project. “Otherwise, the forest is burning down and we won’t know what was there before it is lost.”
The second reason is technological. Biologists find about 2,000 new species a year, a rate hardly changed since Darwin’s day. Ocean Census is betting that it can go faster. Fancy cameras on remote-operated vehicles, for instance, allow scientists to scan deep-sea creatures such as jellyfish without removing them from their habitat. Just as the huge pressures of the deep sea are deadly for humans, taking such a jellyfish to the surface for examination may reduce it to gooey slime (黏液).
Exactly what the new effort might turn up, of course, is impossible to predict. But history suggests it will be fruitful. Half a century ago, scientists discovered hot seabeds that were home to organisms living happily in conditions that, until then, had been thought harmful to life. These days, such hot seabeds are thought to be one possible candidate for the origin of all life on Earth.
1. What phenomenon is described in the second paragraph?| A．The oceans are home to most of the animals. | B．The oceans have not been studied in depth. |
| C．Scientists enjoy photographing the oceans. | D．“Earth” is not a proper name for our planet. |
| A．More efforts from scientists are necessary. | B．Animals in the forest should be rescued, too. |
| C．Climate change is endangering the forest. | D．The project should start with threatened species. |
| A．It is mature to study the oceans now. | B．Scientists should slow down their studies. |
| C．It is harmful to study deep-sea animals. | D．Researchers want more advanced equipment. |
| A．Dangerous. | B．Creative. | C．Promising. | D．Unnecessary. |
Bill McDonnell, who was a soldier when young, was a 92-year-old now, still healthy and strong. He loved hunting very much. On December 15, Bill decided to go hunting in Shenandoah Mountain the next day as the deer season had begun. His wife Joanna McDonnell intended to let their son Bill McDonnell Jr. accompany him, but Bill Jr. had a football game that day. Bill McDonnell said he could manage all by himself. Joanna then required Bill to be out of the woods by 2 pm and home by 3 pm, plenty of time before sunset. She added, “ Do take some necessities like a flashlight, just in case.”
The next morning, Bill woke up at four, grabbed his muzzleloader (前装枪), and steered his Jeep toward Shenandoah Mountain. At the end of the old Laurel Run logging road, he began to walk. It was about 7:30 am and 25 degrees when the sun peeked through the trees.
Not long into the hike, he came upon a path he didn't remember. Maybe this was a secret route to the king of all bucks (雄鹿). He took it. Then, around 11 am, he came into a clearing (林中空地) along a ridge line (山脊线). He had walked farther than he had expected. It seemed that his path up the mountain had meandered quite a bit. “Where am I now?” he muttered. Bill figured he could drop into the valley, hunt a bit and then go back home. But when he snaked down through the forest, he found there was no path at all. The forest was thick. It was hard to tell the direction now.
By around 2 pm, Bill stopped at somewhere in the valley, exhausted. “I’ll get it figured out,” he said to himself. He took out his phone to call his wife, but the phone had died. He dug into his pants for the GPS device he always brought in case of emergency and pushed the “on” button. Nothing. He had forgotten to charge it the night before.
“No, I’m not lost,” he told himself. His eyes caught a stand of tall trees. He remembered admiring the line of fantastic oaks and pines earlier. Reach them and the car wouldn’t be that far off. It meant he would have to cover some ground.
注意:续写词数应为150左右。He was moving slower and slower, Joanna‘s 3 pm deadline having passed.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was about 9:45 pm when Bill heard the whoop-whoop-whoop of a helicopter.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8 . Tiny, black-capped chickadees (北美山雀) have big memories. They store food in hundreds to thousands of different locations in the wild—and then come back to these places when other food sources are low.
Scientists have known that chickadees have incredible memory skills. That memory can be a matter of life or death for these birds when there are no enough food resources in colder months.
Some researchers thought that neurons called place cells (细胞) would explain these birds’ ability to remember where their food is stored. These cells are known to include information about where things are in space. But recently, Selmaan Chettih and his team found that each time a chickadee hides a seed (种子) in a specific location, a unique brain pattern appears—separate from place cells.
To observe this, Chettih and his team created special areas with lots of feeders filled with sunflower seeds. They put small flaps (片状下垂物) where birds could hide seeds.
The scientists tracked the activity in their brains. Each time a bird hid a seed under a flap, researchers saw a brief unique brain pattern appear—what they called the bar code. Different patterns appeared even if the birds hid many seeds in the same location. When the birds revisited these sites and retrieved the hidden seeds, the same bar code-like pattern appeared again, as though all the information about each location and seed were related to a unique brain pattern.
The researchers compared these memories to episodic memories in humans, which are memories of specific events or personal experiences. They’re important to how humans connect time, people, places and sensory information together.
Chettih says that this seed-hiding behavior has a clear pattern of activity, which may help researchers build a structure for how the brain creates and stores memories.
1. Why are memory skills necessary for chickadees?| A．Memory skills show their intelligence and learning abilities. |
| B．Memory skills can help them survive in colder months. |
| C．They need memory skills to identify different types of food. |
| D．They use memory skills to avoid being attacked by other animals. |
| A．Unique brain patterns appeared when chickadees hid seeds. |
| B．Chickadees’ memories were controlled by place cells. |
| C．Chickadees preferred hiding sunflower seeds. |
| D．Chickadees often hid many seeds in the same location. |
| A．Got back. | B．Gave up. | C．Repaired. | D．Designed |
| A．To compare chickadees and human memory skills. |
| B．To present a detailed description of chickadees. |
| C．To introduce a study on chickadees’ memory. |
| D．To provide readers with a way to improve memory skills. |
9 . The ocean is home to more than 200,000 known species and as many as 2 million that we have yet to discover. And, it is also home to 24.4 trillion pieces of microplastics. In 2022, researchers spotlighted how bad marine microplastic pollution, is getting: The total amount of microplastics on the bottom of oceans has greatly increased. in the past two decades.
Microplastic particles don’t just end up at the bottom of the ocean. Animals are eating them — at least 1,500 species have been reported to ingest plastic. And a lot of it. For example, whales in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf consume roughly three million microplastics daily, according to research published in Science of the Total Environment, which analyzed whale waste to see how much microplastics were present.
“Other research has shown that if plastics are small enough, they can cross the gut(肠道) wall and get into internal organs though the long-term effects are still unclear. Plastics can also release chemicals that are harmful to digestive system,” says Kahane-Rapport. “This is concerning, and while we do not yet understand the long-term health-effects, it is likely not a good sign for whales and their prey(猎物) to eat a man-made material like plastic.”
This is obviously bad for whales, but it also has effects on humans and the ocean at large. We are also part of these food chains and are consuming microplastics regularly. They are in our bottled water, in our table salt — they are even in our house dust and in the air we breathe. And we still don’t know what the health effects are. Meanwhile, the impact on whales — and what it indicates — is troubling on many fronts. “Whales are ecosystem engineers,” says Kahane-Rapport. “They can spread the nutrients that they consumed and serve as ecosystem guards — when whales are not healthy, other parts of the system will suffer.”
Kahane-Rapport says more research is needed. “The next research step will be to determine how much plastic the whales excrete(排出) and how much is left in their bodies. Following that, we would be able to determine the direct health effects on their tissues.”
1. What does the underlined word “ingest” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Deal with. | B．Bring up. | C．Take in. | D．Spread out. |
| A．Researches show contradictory results. |
| B．Digestive system is the most affected part. |
| C．Small plastics are more harmful than big ones. |
| D．Much about microplastics’ harm remains unclear. |
| A．The various sources of pollution. |
| B．Tab chain reaction of microplastics. |
| C．Possible solutions to plastic pollution. |
| D．Growing awareness of ocean protection |
| A．Microplastic pollution to the ocean bottom |
| B．The sufferings of other ocean creatures. |
| C．Whales’ contributions to the ecosystem. |
| D．The amount of plastic in whales bodies. |
10 . An Inuit-developed app, named SIKU after the Inuktitut for “sea ice”, allows local communities from Alaska to Greenland to connect traditional knowledge with scientific data to track changes in the environment, and make decisions about how to manage wildlife.
A group of Inuit elders and hunters from Sanikiluaq, Nunavut, thought up the idea for SIKU more than ten years ago to document and understand the changing sea ice they were seeing in southeastern Hudson Bay. The group turned to the local non-profit Arctic Eider Society (AES) to develop a web-based platform (平台).
Over the years, SIKU has developed, and recently, the elders saw that the platform could help address a familiar challenge: sharing knowledge with younger people who often have their noses in their phones. In 2019, SIKU was reintroduced as a full-fledged (全面发展的) social network — a platform where members can post photos and notes about wildlife sightings, hunts, sea ice conditions and more. The posts tell stories of hunting and traveling; the impacts of climate change and industrial activity; and the traditions, diets and illnesses of local animals.
Inuit communities are already using the app to inform important decisions. In 2021, for example, elders in Sanikiluaq were worried that the local reindeer (驯鹿) population had reduced, so the Hunters and Trappers Association used SIKU to survey hunters and look at recent reported harvest rates. The information led the association to close the hunt for a short time to reduce pressure on the population and to reintroduce hunting slowly when the number of reindeer increased.
Traditionally, Inuit communities shared this information orally (口头上地). “We have lived in the environment for centuries and know about the wildlife. Now armed with SIKU, information is documented in a way that other people will understand. The advantage of SIKU is that it’s part science and part Inuit knowledge and it supports community-driven research,” says Lucassie Arragutainaq, a co-founder of AES.
1. What was the purpose of developing SIKU in the beginning?| A．To raise money for AES. | B．To pass on Inuit tradition. |
| C．To attract more visitors to Inuit communities. | D．To record and learn about the changing sea ice. |
| A．To further prove the role of SIKU. |
| B．To advise people to pay more attention to SIKU. |
| C．To call on visitors and locals to protect reindeer. |
| D．To tell the benefits of the Hunters and Trappers Association. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Worried. | C．Puzzled. | D．Supportive. |
| A．SIKU: Overcoming Environmental Challenges |
| B．SIKU: Informing Decision Of Local Communities |
| C．SIKU: Joining Traditional Wisdom To Modern Technology |
| D．SIKU: Advantages Over Other Local Social Media Platforms |
