1 . 阅读下面短文，有5处划线，从每题所给四个选项中选出与划线意义的最匹配选项。

In the animal kingdom, killer whales (虎鲸) are social stars: they travel in different family groups, care for grandchildren, and even ________ imitate human speech. Now, scientists are adding one more behavior to the list: forming fast friendships. A new study shows killer whales can ________ rival animals such as chimpanzees and macaques (a kind of monkey), and even humans ________ when it comes to the kind of “social touch” that is a sign of strong friendship. Some ocean animals ________ maintain social structures — including male dolphins (海豚) that learn the “names” of their close friends. But there is little ________ proof about wild killer whales. That’s where drone (无人机) technology came in.

1.

A．interrupt

B．copy

C．make

D．understand

2.

A．rise to

B．be equal to

C．benefit from

D．depend on

3.

A．instead of

B．as well as

C．in terms of

D．other than

4.

A．keep

B．change

C．abandon

D．lose

5.

A．research

B．evidence

C．information

D．image

2 . With its durability and its unique color and patterns, tortoiseshell (龟甲) has been used to make everything from jewelry to combs and dishware. Tortoiseshell does not come from tortoises. It comes from hawksbill (玳瑁) turtles, which are not particularly large compared to other sea turtles and grow up to about 45 inches in shell and 150 pounds in weight. Between 1884 and 1992, data shows that at least nine million hawksbills were killed and sold for their shells. But now, their international commercial trade is banned.

Brad Nahill, co-founder and president of turtle conservation group SEE Turtles and a National Geographic Explorer is leading an effort to use modern technology to fight the illegal trade of this age-old material. Tortoiseshell is widely and accurately copied with an artificial material, making it difficult to tell real from fake. SEE Turtles with its partners built an app to help. Named SEE Shell, the app uses Machine Learning to identify with 94 percent accuracy whether a photo of something with a tortoiseshell pattern is real or artificial. It’s the first mobile app to use computer vision to fight the illegal wildlife trade, and it will help inform conservation-minded shoppers and law enforcement.

The app is also valuable for the wealth of information it can provide. All images are uploaded to a private, centralized database, with GPS coordinates (坐标) for each, allowing SEE Turtles to identify hot spots for illegal sales. Through the app, scientists have already come across tortoiseshell products they didn’t know. The app will help local conservation groups identify illegal products.

SEE Turtles hopes to bring the technology to online platforms, which have seen a sharp rise in the illegal wildlife trade in recent years. This visual learning technology potentially can be adapted for other wildlife materials. For example, the ability to identify real elephant ivory in an instant would be particularly valuable. Nahill says, “There’s a whole world of possibilities for applying Machine Learning to conservation issues.”

1. What can we infer about hawksbills according to paragraph 1?

A．They’re valuable.	B．They’re adorable.
C．They’re expensive.	D．They’re endangered.

2. What do people fail to do by using SEE Shell?

A．Stop illegal tortoiseshell deals.

B．Identify illegal tortoiseshell products.

C．Locate spots for common illegal tortoiseshell sales.

D．Know exactly real tortoiseshells from artificial ones.

3. What does SEE Turtles expect the visual learning technology to do?

A．Be introduced to markets.	B．Be sold on online platforms.
C．Be applied to more aspects of protection.	D．Be updated a variety of images of wildlife.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．A Fight Prevents the Illegal Wildlife Trade

B．A Team Protects Nature from Being Destroyed

C．A Move Controls International Commercial Trade

D．A New App Helps Save Endangered Sea Turtles

3 . Fast fashion has been on the rise since the early 2000s.     1     However, it has harmful effects on the environment. Here are some facts about fast fashion that you may not know.

●100 billion pieces of clothing are produced each year. To keep up with changing fashions, a large amount of clothing is produced every year — 100 billion pieces to be exact.     2     This results in a huge amount of textile (纺织品) waste. About 85% of all textiles are thrown away every year, from clothes that lose their quality to clothes that go out of fashion.

●    3    Every piece of clothing is made from some kind of fabric (织物). Some clothes are made from natural fibres (纤维) such as cotton or wool, which require a large amount of water to produce. For example, more than 20,000 litres (L) of water are needed to get just one kilogram of cotton! Water is also used in other clothing production processes, such as giving colour to fabrics. It can take around 7,000 litres of water to produce one pair of jeans and 2.700 litres to produce a cotton shirt!

●Fast, cheap clothes mean poor working conditions for workers.   Fast fashion is made by factory workers in developing countries. Often working conditions are poor:     4     Fast fashion companies often place making money above workers health and well-being.

As consumers (消费者), we can all play our part in reducing the environmental influence of the fashion industry. We should take care of our clothes to make sure that they last as long as possible.     5     When we grow out of our clothes we can donate them instead of throwing them away.

A．That’s almost 12 pieces for every human being on the planet.

B．There are low pay, poor safety rules, and long working hours.

C．Fast fashion has made new fashionable clothes more affordable.

D．The fashion industry uses a lot of water, about 93 billion m³ every year.

E．Where possible, we can repair our clothes instead of buying new clothes.

F．The fashion industry has become the second largest polluter of clean water.

G．Consumers keep buying and throwing away clothes and create unnecessary waste.

4 . When glaciers melt, they leave behind infertile (贫瘠的) landscapes. But a new study found that within just three years, such exposed land was restored by llamas (美洲驼), whose activity enriched the soil and promoted plant growth. By the foot of Peru’s melting Uruashraju glacier, researchers partnered with local farmers to farm llamas on four specific plots. For three days a month from 2019 to 2022, the llamas grazed (吃青草) the plots, fertilizing them with waste and spreading seeds from droppings.

As is the case worldwide, glaciers are disappearing in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca mountains at an alarming rate. And as the ice melts, nearby ecosystems wither: They lose access to summertime supplies of freshwater and sometimes encounter harmful acidic minerals in rocks once covered by the glaciers.

Llamas may help count er some of these effects. Their transformation of the land, as seen in the new study, could reduce rock weathering and help the soil hold onto more dampness, thus limiting the acidic runoff that can poison farmers’ crops. Such pollution is one reason why local farmers partnered with the researchers. The animals’ behavior could one day even generate new grasslands as soil quality improves.

The idea that animal grazing may positively impact a landscape is not new. Nor is rewilding, the push to bring key species back to their native ecosystems, unique to the Cordillera Blanca mountains. In Finland, for example, the Indigenous Sami are working to reintroduce reindeer in deforested land, potentially restoring it. But the size and speed of the changes the llamas helped bring about surprised the researchers. From 2021 to 2022, the average amount of plant cover in the llama plots grew from about 9 percent to nearly 14 percent—faster than it did in four control plots. The research underscores the valuable roles animals play in shaping landscapes, says ecologist Kelsey Reider of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., “The animals themselves are doing a lot.”

1. What did the new study find?

A．Llamas could help improve ecology.	B．Llamas needed to be exposed to soil.
C．Llamas might survive poor situation.	D．Llamas were able to stop ice melting.

2. What does the underlined word “wither” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Expand.

B．Arise.

C．Integrate.

D．Worsen.

3. Why did the farmers work with the researchers?

A．Because they longed to be more learned.

B．Because they profited from the research.

C．Because they wanted to keep llamas away.

D．Because they failed to know llamas’ behavior.

4. What can we know from the last paragraph?

A．Llamas restore the forest in Finland.	B．Wildlife helps a lot in restoring nature.
C．The idea of rewilding isn’t common.	D．The research should collect more data.

5 . Carried by the wind, dust particles (微粒) from places such as the Sahara Desert can float halfway around the world before settling to the ground. As the plastics abandoned by humans break down into tiny pieces in the environment, they, too, travel through the atmosphere. Now scientists are a step closer to understanding how these microplastics travel in the globe — both locally and on long-distance flights.

Researchers spent more than a year collecting microplastics from 11 national parks and wilderness areas in the western U.S. They examined the particles that settled on dry days and those that fell along with rain or snow. In addition to making clear how microplastics move around, the results, published on Thursday in Science, reveal the seriousness of the problem: more than 1 million kilograms of microplastics — the weight of 120 million to 300 million plastic water bottles — fall on protected lands in the country’s western region each year.

The new findings add to scientists’ concern over microplastic pollution’s potential impacts on the environment and human health. “We’re not supposed to breathe in this material,” says Steve Allen, a microplastics researcher at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, who was not involved in the new study. “Plastics in the environment “carry all sorts of pesticides (农药), heavy metals and all the other chemicals that we’ve made over time,” he adds. “They’re going to carry them directly into our lungs.”

Since their discovery in oceans in the 1970s, microplastics — which can be as large as a grain of rice or smaller than a particle of dust — have been found nearly everywhere researchers have looked: in cities, in Arctic snow, on remote mountaintops. Their presence in areas distant from the place where human live has pointed to them being carried by winds.

1. What do the scientists further understand now?

A．Why Sahara Desert is expanding to the south of Africa.

B．How plastic particles travel on the wind.

C．Why it is hard for plastics to break down.

D．How dust particles are spreading through the wind.

2. What do we know about the new study?

A．The results showed the amount of microplastics is huge.

B．Researchers collected microplastics across the U.S.

C．Researchers focused on plastic particles in dry days.

D．Numerous plastic water bottles were found each year.

3. What does Steve Allen say about plastics?

A．They should be recycled.	B．They do harm to weather.
C．They can be used to make all sorts of pesticides.	D．They carry harmful chemicals to human lungs.

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Dust Particles Is Harmful to Our Lungs	B．The Environment Is Threatened by Plastics
C．Microplastics Are Falling from the Sky	D．Microplastics Do Harm to Health

6 . This past summer I set out on a journey to Canada’s Arctic. When I left I was wrapped in a blanket of uncertainty and ______.

But when I first met the group members, I knew I didn’t have anything to ______. The group was amazingly ______ and I was soon part of a big family boarding on an amazing ______!

Approaching the Arctic, I was repeatedly ______ with its unusual largeness and its beauty. There I flew over vast glaciers (冰河) and stood on the frozen Arctic Ocean, ______   polar bears walk in search of seal holes, and _______ wait for a meal.

However, I also learned the pollutants carried by ocean from far away have a negative ______ on all Arctic inhabitants. And global warming has put polar bears at ______ because a warmer climate means that they have a shorter time to ______ seals on the ice.

During the journey, I talked with some ______ scientists about the ruins of homes once ______ by the ancient Thule people. I made good friends with people from different parts of world.

The Arctic is a land of incredible beauty which ______ to be preserved. I’ve learned why it is so important to ______ it. This journey has made me more determined to try to ______ that I do not leave negative or harmful footprints on either Earth or its people.

1.

A．relief

B．anxiety

C．pride

D．argument

2.

A．put up

B．prepare for

C．give up

D．worry about

3.

A．easy-going

B．well-behaved

C．sensitive

D．flexible

4.

A．failure

B．performance

C．adventure

D．conflict

5.

A．embarrassed

B．ashamed

C．amused

D．shocked

6.

A．watching

B．organizing

C．noticing

D．guessing

7.

A．painfully

B．patiently

C．unconsciously

D．doubtfully

8.

A．source

B．reaction

C．effect

D．development

9.

A．rest

B．ease

C．peace

D．risk

10.

A．hunt

B．explore

C．help

D．meet

11.

A．demanding

B．learned

C．modest

D．rigid

12.

A．classified

B．decorated

C．confused

D．occupied

13.

A．promises

B．benefits

C．deserves

D．intends

14.

A．take care of

B．make use of

C．run out of

D．became tired of

15.

A．deny

B．ensure

C．argue

D．overlook

7 . Color is important for all gardens, no matter what size. Kalanchoes (长寿花) offer kinds of colors, from energetic oranges, yellows and reds, to calming pinks and creams. They’re easy to care for.     1    . Here the plant experts reveal five ways to style a small outdoor space.

Be striking. Colorful plants are mood-boosting as well as a great way to lift a small outside space. Kalanchoe is a flowering succulent (多肉) that comes in a range of lively shades and looks delightful when grouped in large pots or window boxes.     2     , or on the other hand soft pinks to feel relaxed.

Think big. When space is limited, people tend to choose lots of small containers, but a few large pots can fool the eye into believing there’s more room than there is. Try planting taller plants, such as roses or hydrangeas, alongside smaller species, like kalanchoes.     3    .

Indoors out.   Making your outside space clean needn’t be costly.   Houseplants, like kalanchoes, will happily live outside in pots or window boxes from May to September when there is no risk of frost, so you can simply move them outside for a more colorful life.

Make it easy.     4     . Succulents, such as kalanchoes, are perfect for“ hands off”   gardeners as they will flower happily in pots on balconies for 100 days with very little watering.

Just choose a sunny spot and away you go!

    5     . Place different flowers such as petunias, pansies or kalanchoes into a window box or hanging basket for instant garden attraction. The more unusual kalanchoe varieties, such as “Magic Bells”, with its pretty flowers of pale green, bell-shaped flowers, or “Dorothy”, with its long stems and orange flowers, will add color, interest and texture (质地).

A．Be style smart

B．Not all plants need a lot of attention

C．It is a great choice for the summer garden

D．Choose oranges and reds for an energy burst

E．You can find kalanchoes from most garden centers

F．Thus, you can create depth and a sense of richness

G．Given a little attention, they will reward you much flowering

8 . After tracking flowers on a prairie (草原) in Minnesota for 21 years, scientists reported that the plants reproduce more successfully in the year following a carefully controlled burn. Understanding the relationship between prairie plants and fire is important for preserving this ecosystem which is becoming rapidly smaller, says Stuart Wagenius, a conservation scientist.

Fire provides an additional advantage for the narrow-leaved purple coneflower (紫锥花), as Wagenius and his colleagues say. To really bloom (开花), they need a little help: Enter the fire. Between 1996 and 2016, Wagenius says his team tracked nearly 8,000 purple coneflowers on the Staffanson Prairie Preserve. In 9 of those years, they conducted controlled burns over 400 times. “In the summer after a burn, many more plants flower,” Wagenius says. “It is just a huge flowering festival.”

Purple coneflowers and many other prairie plants were previously known to bloom energetically after fires. However, the researchers said that fire also stimulated purple coneflowers to bloom at the same time in the summer after a burn. This meant that instead of being unconnected, the purple coneflowers were surrounded by potential mates and went on to produce nearly double the number of seeds compared with other years. Wagenius says it’s not yet clear exactly how fires signal the flowers to get busy.

The new findings may help the people who manage prairies to better understand the different ways that fire affects the plants growing in these habitats, said Kathryn Yurkonis, a grassland ecologist who was not involved in the research. However, Yurkonis added, it remains to be shown how the fires influence the purple coneflower population. “This paper implies that making more seeds would mean more seeds would land on the soil and enter the population of plants — but they don’t actually examine that step,” she said. “I’d be curious to see whether this actually translates to more purple coneflowers.”

1. What is the basis for the research?

A．Prairies are easy to disappear.	B．Plants on a prairie are diverse.
C．Fire relates positively to prairie plants.	D．Without fire, flowers won’t bloom.

2. What does the author intend to convey with figures cited in paragraph two?

A．Wagenius’s team was committed indeed.

B．Samples of flowers were rich in number.

C．Time spent on the research was long.

D．The findings were relatively convincing.

3. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．The result of plants being unconnected.

B．The influence of fires on prairie plants.

C．The process of prairie plants’ growing after fires.

D．The reason for plants’ blooming at the same time.

4. What is Kathryn Yurkonis’s attitude to the research finding?

A．Uninterested.

B．Prejudiced.

C．Objective.

D．Opposed.

9 . We often hear about how air pollution is changing earth temperatures. New evidence from a mountaintop in China now suggests that pollution can also change the amount of rain and snow falling in some places.

Usually, more precipitation ( 降水量) falls in mountainous places than in flat areas upwind (逆风的) from the mountains. In recent years, however, many mountainous areas in the USA have been getting 25 percent less precipitation than normal. Mountains that are downwind of cities have experienced the biggest drops.

Some British scientists have theorized that pollution moves from the cities into the mountains, affecting rainfall. To get answers, scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (耶路撒冷) turned to a mountain in China called Mount Hua. The mountain is 2, 060 metres tall and lies about 120 kilometers east of the Chinese city of Xi’an. Since 1954, meteorologists (气象学家) have been collecting details about rainfall, humidity, and visibility (能见度) in the area. Scientists compared rainfall on Mount Hua with rainfall in the nearest city, Huayin, on days with varying levels of visibility using these data. When the air was clear and people could see 20 km away, the scientists found that 65 percent more rain fell on the mountain than in the city. But when smoggy, allowing only 8 km of visibility through the haze (薄雾), the mountain received just 20 percent more rain than the city did. The new data support the theory.

Some scientists believe that there are other explanations for the numbers. For example, some believe that naturally occurring particles (颗粒) in the air rather than particles produced by pollution are affecting visibility. This is the first study to observe a connection between rainfall and changes in visibility due to air pollution. However, more studies are needed to confirm the link.

1. The scientists carrying out the study on Mount Hua are most probably from        ．

A．China

B．the USA

C．Israel (以色列)

D．Britain

2. In the third paragraph “these data” don’t include the information about        ．

A．the population there

B．the amount of rainfall

C．the humidity

D．the visibility

3. From the last paragraph, we can learn that        ．

A．scientists haven’t paid enough attention to weather changes

B．not all scientists believe that there is a connection between visibility and rainfall

C．the low visibility must be caused by the heavy air pollution

D．air pollution may not be the only reason for the change of the visibility

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The factors affecting the amount of rainfall.

B．The effect of air pollution on earth temperatures.

C．A weather study carried out on a mountain in China.

D．Air pollution reducing precipitation.

10 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

It was a chilly autumn evening. Sarah, a tired businesswoman, left her workplace and drove home. When she turned a corner, she spotted a puppy in the middle of the road. The dog was muddy and trembling. His eyes held a glimmer of both hope and despair. Sarah couldn’t ignore the poor puppy. Approaching him cautiously, she coaxed (哄) him and brought him home.

Over the next few days, Sarah tried her best to look for the dog’s owner, but in vain. It seemed that the dog had been abandoned, with no collar or tags to identify its owner.

She determined to take care of the dog, which she named Max. She kept him in the backyard, feeding him, providing water and watching him chase his tail in the yard. The puppy trusted in her slowly with Sarah’s gentle care and patience. Sarah had a happy feeling she never had before.

As days passed, Sarah became more comfortable with Max’s presence. When she was working, Max would sit calmly by her side. When she woke up in the morning, Max would sit near her bed with a playful bark, demanding his daily walk. The early morning air was cool, and the rising sun cast a warm glow on them. Sarah realized that Max had been a great comfort to her.

As days turned into weeks, Sarah grew more attached to Max. She found herself looking forward to coming home every day, excited to see her furry friend waiting at the door. Then, she would lovingly prepare Max delicious meals. His eyes, once filled with sadness, now sparkled with gratitude. He would eagerly follow her around the house wherever she went. Max became more than just a pet; he became a loyal friend and a source of happiness for Sarah, who had discovered a newfound balance between her career and personal life. They became inseparable.

One evening, as Sarah and Max were out for their regular evening walk, something unexpected happened. A social media post attracted her attention. A lady named Emma was anxiously looking for her missing dog, Buddy.

注意：
1．续写的词数应为150左右;
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Her heart sank as she saw the photo of a dog.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sarah arranged the bittersweet reunion.

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