The 6.2-magnitude earthquake
According to China Earthquake Networks Center, the quake
Witnesses told Xinhua the earthquake caused damages on houses, roads and other infrastructures. Several villages have suffered power failures and shortage of water.
According to local meteorological authorities, the
The provincial fire and rescue department has sent 580 rescuers
The railway authority has suspended passenger and cargo trains
Hu Changsheng, Party chief of Gansu, and Ren Zhenhe, governor of Gansu, rushed to the disaster area to command rescue and
It was reported that every effort
1. Where did the speaker move things from the yard?
A.Into the garage. | B.Into the basement. | C.Into the storeroom. |
A.Some flashlights. | B.A radio. | C.Food and water. |
A.About 80 miles an hour. |
B.About 90 miles an hour. |
C.About 100 miles an hour. |
A.She listened to the news on the radio. |
B.She looked after her husband. |
C.She stayed in the bathroom. |
Edgar McGregor, a climate activist, spent hundreds of days straight picking up litter
McGregor was committed to clearing up litter while
Many people are thankful
When asked about his experience, McGregor said, “
Braving the Waters
Joel Boyers and his wife Melody Among were heading home from the Nashville airport. Among had just earned her helicopter pilot’s licence when Boyers received a call from a stranger. The caller told him that her brother and his two daughters were trapped on their roof in Waverly, 60 miles from Nashville. They were surrounded by rising floodwaters caused by the heaviest rainfall that year.
Desperate, the caller begged, “Could you please, please rescue my loved ones?”
Boyers, 41, looked at the address the caller mentioned while glancing at the storm clouds. “Ma’am,” he said, “no one will fly in this weather ...” But even before he finished the sentence, Boyers knew they would go back up. “I’ve got a daughter myself,” Boyers says. “I’ll see what I can do.” He put the brother’s address into his phone and they drove back to the airport.
Before long they were in the air, unprepared for what they were about to see. It was nothing but raging water below them. There were two houses on fire. Cars in trees. Tons of debris (残骸). No one was going to be able to swim in that.
The flooding also took out cell phone service, meaning that Boyers couldn’t use his phone to pinpoint (精确定位) the house he was looking for. He flew on regardless.
As Boyers controlled the helicopter, Among began searching for people caught out on rooftops, bridges — anywhere they could land and get them on board. Suddenly, she saw a teenager trapped in a tree. The teen, soaking wet and exhausted, was barely out of the water. Since there was no place to land, Boyers lowered the helicopter until it approached to just above the water line. Among jumped out and swam to the tree, where she helped the teen into the helicopter. The teen was shaking and looking behind anxiously when she said, “Thank you so much, but my sister and uncle ... please help them ...”
Boyers dropped off the teen on a patch of land across the street. Then he and Among were back in the air.
注意:1. 续写词数应为150词左右;2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Seconds later, they spotted two people on the roof of a destroyed house.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Their mission ended 90 minutes after it began, when professional rescue teams showed up.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . Habitat improvement and a series of protective measures have played a crucial role in the rise of the population of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys(滇金丝猴) , one of the planet’s most endangered animals.
The Yunnan snub-nosed monkey, also known as the black-and-white snub-nosed monkey, lives in high-altitude areas at more than 3,000 meters above sea level in Southwest China’s Yunnan province and the neighboring Xizang autonomous region. About 65 percent of its population inhabits the Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve.
“Currently, the reserve is home to about 3,000 Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys,” said Lai Jiandong, head of the Wildlife Protection Station at the Baima reserve. When the reserve was first established in 1983, however, the population numbered a mere 800.
Lai stresses the continuous enhancement of management levels within the Baima reserve, including the adoption of cutting-edge technologies for monitoring and protecting not only the snub-nosed monkeys but also other endangered wildlife species.
“In recent years, using technologies like infrared(红外线) cameras, we have taken pictures of rare and endangered creatures such as leopards, jackals and sambar deer,” Lai noted, emphasizing the important role of such advancements in wild animal protection.
The primary duties of the Wildlife ProtectionStation involve the daily care of the snub-nosed monkeys in the Weixi Lisu autonomous county, as well as the sheltering and rescue of injured animals. “Over the past few years, we have provided assistance to more than 200 wild animals, including Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, pandas and macaques,” said Lai.
The Yunnan snub-nosed monkey is under China’s national first-class protection and has been listed as an endangered species on the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. They will be better protected.
1. Which isn’t a factor that contributes to the increase of the population of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys?A.Rising public concerns. | B.Advanced technologies. |
C.Protective measures. | D.Improved living habitats. |
A.They only live in Yunnan province. |
B.Their population has dropped sharply since 1983. |
C.They are well-protected by the Wildlife Protection Station. |
D.Over 200 Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys have been rescued up to now. |
A.People rescue many injured animals in Yunnan. |
B.Infrared cameras have captured images of rare wildlife. |
C.Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys increase in high mountains. |
D.Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys are the most endangered animals. |
A.A textbook. | B.A newspaper. |
C.An advertisement. | D.An economic journal. |
6 . In the thick jungle of New Guinea is nature’s most amazing theater, a Carola’s parotia (天堂鸟) is showing off his red and yellow feathers in a display called a “butterfly dance.”
This brilliantly colored birds of paradise have developed over millions of years from ancient birds whose feathers were dark and boring in comparison. It seems to be a contradiction (矛盾) that such extreme feathers and colors could have been favored by the process of evolution. After all, these same brightly colored feathers that attract mates also make the birds much more noticeable to predators (捕食者). The answer lies in the safe environment in which the birds live, and a process of evolution known as sexual selection. Except for other pressures, birds of paradise begin to specialize in attracting mates. Over millions of years they have slowly undergone changes in their colors, feathers and other talents. Characteristics that made one bird more attractive than another were passed on and impove over time.
In the past, demand for the bird’s feathers resulted in a huge amount of hunting. At the peak of the trade in the early 1900s, 80,000 skins a year were exported from New Guinea to Europe ladies’ hats. Nowadays, few birds die for fashion or for traditional costumes: Ceremonial feathers are passed down from generation to generation. Although local people are still permitted to hunt the birds for traditional uses, they usually target older male birds, leaving younger males to continue breeding.
David Mitchell, a conservationist, is relying on the help of local villagers to record where the birds display and what they eat. He hopes to not only gather data, but also encourage protection of the birds’ habitat. The strategy seems to be working. For millions of years, these impressive birds have danced to find their mates. They will keep dancing for as long as the forest offers them stage.
1. Why do the birds of paradise evlove the bright cholors?A.To frighten away predators. | B.To execise and clean bodies. |
C.To show the possession of an area. | D.To attract a mate’s attention. |
A.Industrial development destroyed their habitat. | B.A high demand for feathers to use in hats. |
C.They were eaten by the predators. | D.They got sick after inteactions with human. |
A.To eat them. | B.To protect smaller birds. |
C.To make traditional costumes. | D.To keep their numbers down. |
A.Feathers of Love | B.Trouble in Paradise |
C.An Amazing performance | D.The Protection of Birds of Paradise |
7 . Bella, a 14-year-old cat from Huntingdon, UK, has claimed the Guinness Record for the world’s loudest purr (猫叫声) by a domestic cat, with a noisy purr
The Spink family has had Bella for almost 15 years, and they’ve always
One day, they decided to put Bella’s purring to the test―they
Measuring sound with a smartphone app and having it measured by a sound engineer can bring about totally
The standardized class-1 sound meter recorded Bella’s
It’s important to note that while Bella has
A.produced | B.measured | C.supplied | D.analyzed |
A.respected | B.preferred | C.recommended | D.supposed |
A.account for | B.wonder at | C.agree with | D.work out |
A.celebrate | B.promote | C.debate | D.complain |
A.downloaded | B.invented | C.restored | D.contrasted |
A.benefit | B.pressure | C.result | D.purpose |
A.attempt | B.donation | C.performance | D.system |
A.useless | B.available | C.different | D.possible |
A.confirmed | B.formed | C.improved | D.destroyed |
A.specifically | B.slightly | C.gracefully | D.impressively |
A.normal | B.straight | C.peak | D.major |
A.regard | B.switch | C.beg | D.claim |
A.set | B.carved | C.sought | D.mixed |
A.option | B.trend | C.object | D.title |
A.professional | B.meaningful | C.astonishing | D.demanding |
8 . Recently, Tuthill’s team have shown that an extremely frightening trick helps snow flies survive sub-zero conditions. When a leg begins to freeze, the insects can rapidly self-amputate (自行截肢) it, preventing ice from moving up into their bodies, the team reports in a paper posted online May 30 at bioRxiv.org.
Tuthill’s team used a thermal camera (热成像仪) to record 77 snow flies as they walked on cold plates. They found the insects kept walking even when their body temperature fell to an average of -7℃. More than half of the snow flies tested dropped at least one leg during the experiments.
This team also noticed a temperature rise in the flies’ legs just before they fell off. That rise is a sign of ice formation. Liquid water releases heat as it turns into ice. Neurons (神经元) in the leg may sense this temperature shift and make amputation happen, preventing the ice from spreading, the team suggests. The flies “have about half a second to get rid of their leg before that wave of ice crashes into their body and then freezes all of their internal organs,” Tuthill says. Snow flies didn’t lose their legs when the researchers pulled them hard — only in response to freezing.
“Other animals have invented different strategies to protect themselves from frost. Some insects produce antifreeze proteins; certain snails and frogs simply withstand ice forming in their bodies. The cool thing about snow flies is that they don’t actually follow either strategy” says Dr. Marshall, who provided feedback on the team’s manuscript, which has not yet been published. “They let ice form in their legs,” she says, and “self-amputate to get rid of it, which is just completely strange to me.”
Snow flies that amputated their freezing legs survived more than a minute longer than flies that didn’t, the team found. That extra time may not seem like much. But in the wild, when night is falling and the temperature is dropping and the insects are “looking eagerly for a place to settle down.” Tuthill says, it could be the difference between life and death.
1. What is the finding about snow flies?A.Reducing body temperature in advance. |
B.Surviving by cutting off one frozen leg. |
C.Loving to be covered by ice in cold days. |
D.Recovering from self-amputation very soon |
A.Each of them was kept complete. |
B.Their legs fell off before ice formation. |
C.Amputation took about half a second. |
D.They stopped walking when temperature fell. |
A.Self-amputation is a common strategy. |
B.Animals have shared strategy against frost. |
C.Snow flies’ strategy makes her surprised. |
D.Cold weather helps animal be smarter. |
A.Nights in the wild kills plenty of insects. |
B.Extra time means much to insects in cold weather. |
C.Temperature is in charge of life and death. |
D.Snow flies enjoy the same length of life time. |
9 . Many news reports focus on climate change these days. Extreme heat, wildfires, floods, homeless polar bears... How do you feel when reading worrying news about climate change? You may believe that people are becoming insensitive to the warming planet, accepting that it is only getting worse.
A research team at Pennsylvania State University, US, reported otherwise. To record how the news can impact people’s emotions, participants were first exposed to negative news stories about climate change for three days. They then continued to read negative news headlines for seven days. In the first three days, the participants experienced greater fear and less hope, which can potentially hurt an audience’s belief that they can do anything to tackle the problem.
However, during the seven-day-long exposure, the fear peaked and then held steady (稳定的). “We saw the opposite pattern in our second study. The more exposure people had to these threatening news stories each day, the more likely they are to think that they can make a difference in tackling climate change,” Christofer Skurka, the paper’s lead author told the Pennsylvania State University website.
According to the researchers, one possibility is that when the public hears about climate change threats, they may convince themselves that they have control over the situation. They will then believe that their actions may make a difference.
Knowing that everyone is able to help is only the first step. According to a study that analyzed information from 430 different studies, what motivates people the most to change their behavior is social comparison. For example, if a person’s neighbors follow a low-carbon lifestyle, such as driving electric cars, the person may feel social pressure and become more likely to follow this behavior. This happens because people usually judge their own behavior and follow social norms (规范). Another effective motivation is providing financial rewards to consumers, helping them save money.
“There are so many routes to our goals,” Matthew Goldberg, the co-author of the study, told Scientific American. As Goldberg pointed out, future research like this can help policymakers decide how best to encourage people to ward more climate-friendly habits.
1. How did the participants react to negative news in the second study?A.They found the news unbelievable. |
B.They lost hope in tackling climate change. |
C.They experienced greater fear for the future. |
D.They felt a strong sense of social responsibility. |
A.Effective policy. | B.Healthy lifestyle. |
C.Social influence. | D.Financial support. |
A.Responses to climate change education. |
B.T he effectiveness of community initiatives. |
C.T he impact of social norms on environment. |
D.Ways to encourage climate-friendly behavior. |
A.Doubtful. | B.Optimistic. | C.Objective. | D.Indifferent. |
10 . As reported in the journal Nature, one system can directly remove carbon dioxide from sources ranging from flue gas (烟道气) to the atmosphere by using electricity to induce a water-and-oxygen-based electrochemical reaction. This technological achievement could turn direct air capture (捕获) from edge industry into a promising front for climate change relief.
Most carbon-capture systems involve a two-step process: First, high-pH liquids are used to separate the carbon dioxide, which is acidic, from mixed-gas streams such as flue gas. Next, the carbon dioxide is regenerated from the solution through heating or by injecting a low-pH liquid.
“Once the carbon dioxide is trapped in these solvents (溶剂), you have to regenerate it,” says Haotian Wang, assistant professor at Rice University. “There are literally no chemicals produced or consumed with our process. We also don’t need to heat up or pressurize our device, we just need to put it into a power outlet and it will work.”
Another drawback of current carbon-capture technologies is their reliance on large-scale, centralized infrastructure. By contrast, the system developed in the Wang lab is an extensible, modular, point-of-use concept that can adapt to a variety of scenarios. “The technology can be scaled up to industrial settings-power plants, chemical plants-but the great thing about it is that it allows for small-scale use as well: I can even use it in my office.” Wang says.
Also the reactor can continuously remove carbon dioxide from a simulated (模拟的) flue gas with efficiency above 98% using a relatively low electricity input. Wang notes that the process has “no carbon footprint or a very limited footprint” if powered by electricity from renewable sources such as solar or wind. “This is great news considering that renewablel electricity is becoming more and more cost-effective,” Wang says.
1. What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 2?A.Add up some opposite reasons. | B.Offer basic evidences to the topic. |
C.Summarize the following paragraphs. | D.Provide some background information. |
A.It involves a two-step process. | B.It creates some chemicals. |
C.It is simple and easy to operate. | D.It needs to be used in big plants. |
A.By making comparisons. | B.By listing many numbers. |
C.By providing research results. | D.By analyzing causes and effects. |
A.Unclear. | B.Favourable. | C.Objective. | D.Disapproving. |