1 . Growing at high speed and absorbing huge amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide, could seaweeds be the key to fighting climate change? Scientists in Australia think so. In Australia, scientists are taking advantage of the power of seaweeds to absorb CO2 at a rate that equals to the Amazon rainforest!
Kelp (巨藻) is one of the most common seaweeds. It has many types and grows at great speed. Giant kelp, for example, can grow up to 50 cm per day. Seaweeds use photosynthesis (光合作用) to absorb CO2, and grow biomass. Seaweeds are thought to absorb nearly 200 million tonnes of our globe’s CO2 per year.
Pia Winberg, founder of Australia’s first land-based commercial seaweed farm, suggests that growing more seaweeds could be an essential tool in the fight against climate change. “If we used the infrastructure we have in the ocean and created seaweed islands, we would actually remove many climate change issues we have today,” she said.
The Great Southern Reef is an 8,000-km network of reefs in Australia. Golden kelp forms the backbone of the network. With many other species, including giant kelp and bull kelp, growing there, it is a good place for series of relevant projects. The Great Southern Reef project managed by an independent team of seience professionals is working to promote the recognition and management of Australia’s kelp forests. The project estimates that if these kelp forests were cultivated in just 0.001% of the ocean’s surface, the amounts of the CO2: they absorb could offset (抵消) the carbon emissions of the global aquaculture (水产养殖) industry.
Of seaweeds’ potential, there’s a long chain of wins with this.
1. What is the scientists’ attitude towards growing seaweeds to absorb CO2?| A．Doubtful. | B．Unclear. | C．Positive. | D．Negative. |
| A．It can grow 50 cm per day at most. |
| B．It is unique to the Great Southern Reef. |
| C．It is cultivated in commercial seaweed farm. |
| D．It absorbs nearly 200 million tonnes of CO: every year. |
| A．It is managed by an independent team of science professionals. |
| B．It has the largest network of reefs in Australia. |
| C．It is home to many species of seaweeds. |
| D．It works to protect Australia’s kelp forests. |
| A．Different species of seaweed absorb CO2 in different ways. |
| B．Bull kelp forms the backbone of the reefs network in Australia. |
| C．The Great Southern Reef absorbs as much CO2 as the Amazon rainforest. |
| D．Seaweed forests could be the key to fighting climate change. |
On one stormy afternoon last year, I was running home from school with my umbrella when I heard a bird start to sing. Out of curiosity, I went to have a look. Then I saw a brightly colorful bird nesting in a big tree. But the nest suddenly fell off.
With mercy and love, I decided to see if the bird had a chance to survive. Just as I went closer, I noticed a little head sticking out of the nest. I found that it had a wet broken wing, so it couldn’t fly. It looked so weak as if it were dying. So I placed it gently in my hand and covered it with my umbrella.
I carefully took it home and thought down the road how to explain this to my parents. What if they would not want it and throw it away? I could not take that chance, so I went out and put it in the back garden and gave it a warm blanket for the night.
In the following days, I went to school as usual, but somehow, I fell in love with biology class, especially when the teacher explained something about birds. I learned to feed the bird, and I hurried to care for it when the school was over. It was slowly recovering and growing. Holiday came at last. I couldn’t help telling my good friends about it. Then we secretly went to the back garden to look at my lovely bird. However, we were amazed to find that it had been missing.
Just as I thought where it had gone, a great surprise came all of a sudden. I found it staring at my cat in the distance. Catching sight of my appearance, it turned and came towards me. So I went to get it some water and birdseed. It was then that I found it grew into a big bird like a phoenix(凤凰) in the fairy tale. My friends all praised it, “What a beautiful bird it is!” Hearing their words, I felt truly proud. Fortunately, my care was not in vain but paid off.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Suddenly, my parents appeared in the back garden.
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Some days later, my friends and I wondered what to do with the bird.
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3 . Dogs are born to socialise with people because we raise them that way. Two-month-old dogs can already recognise when people are pointing at objects and will stare at our faces when they’re spoken to—both signs that dogs have an innate capacity to interact with us through body language.
“Although individual relationships with people might influence that behaviour, at least 40percent of this ability comes from genetics alone, “says Emily Bray at the University of Arizona. “Over the course of keeping dogs, there has been a clear selection for these social skills,” she says. “It’s something that’s deep in them and that comes out at a really young age even before they have much experience with humans.”
Bray and her colleagues tested these types of skills in 375 eight-week-old dogs that were chosen to become service dogs. Bray says, “It was the earliest age when the dogs could carryout such experiments because they were only just old enough to be motivated by food rewards.”
The researchers found that pointing at food hidden under a cup helped the dogs to find it nearly 70 percent of the time. The success rate was high from the start, meaning they weren’t learning to follow pointing, but had already known to do so. In a control test, the randomly selected dogs couldn’t find food hidden under one of the two cups at a higher rate, indicating that they weren’t simply smelling it. Much of the variation in different dogs’ abilities to follow finger-pointing is explained by genetics. Using statistical analyses based on the dogs’ parents and other relatives, the researchers found that genetic factors were responsible for much of these variations.
The team also ran another experiment in which the researchers spoke “baby talk” to the dogs and found that the dogs fixed their eyes on the person for more than 6 seconds on aver-age, representing an understanding that the researchers were communicating with them.
1. What does the underlined word “innate” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Weak. | B．Natural. | C．Secret. | D．Complete. |
| A．To serve humans. | B．To take part in tests. |
| C．To entertain researchers. | D．To learn human body language. |
| A．Food smell. | B．Their genes. |
| C．Their habits. | D．Professional training. |
| A．Randomly. | B．Confusedly. |
| C．Sensitively. | D．Absentmindedly. |
4 . Buying furniture is easier than ever. You can even order a new table and chairs online without ever leaving home. But did you ever think about how furniture is made? The process begins with trees but now researchers have found a better way: growing it in a lab instead of a forest. Instead of cutting down trees and adding to deforestation, Velasquez-Garcia said, “If you want a table, then you should just grow a table.”
The research group found a way to actually grow plant tissue (组织) — wood and fiber — in a lab that is similar to the way cultured meat is grown. While there is still a long way to go to actually grow a table, the team was able to grow structures from cells from zinnia leaves.
Making furniture and other items from biomaterials could eliminate cutting down trees in forests. “The way we get these materials hasn’t changed in centuries and is very inefficient,” said Velasquez-Garcia. “This is a real chance to avoid all that inefficiency.”
There are other benefits to using lab wood too. Lab grown wood can be handled to take on any shape — like 3 D printing — so it may be possible to build a table without glue or screwing parts together.
Beckwith, a mechanical engineering PhD student, was inspired by a visit to a farm to try to make land-use more efficient and environmentally sound. “That got me thinking: Can we be more strategic (战略上的) about what we’re getting out of our process? Can we get more yield for our inputs?” she told MIT News. “I wanted to find a more efficient way to use land and resources so that we could let more farmlands remain wild, or to remain lower production but allow for greater biodiversity.”
Today, the two largest uses of trees are to make wood products and paper. When new biomaterials become readily available, forests will lose their economic value and will be preserved for their environmental, health, and recreational value. These researchers, like Velasquez-Garcia, are speaking for the trees.
1. What does the author think of growing furniture according to Paragraph 1?| A．It turns out to be convenient. |
| B．It’ll cut down daily expense. |
| C．It might have a bright future. |
| D．It’s as important as making furniture. |
| A．Risk. | B．Fancy. | C．Remove. | D．Delay. |
| A．To make large profits. |
| B．To keep biodiversity. |
| C．To increase production. |
| D．To use wild resources. |
| A．Wide use of new biomaterials. |
| B．Less use of wood products and paper. |
| C．Making effective forest laws. |
| D．Caring more for the environment. |
5 . One of the crucial issues for mankind to solve before landing humans on Mars is that they must find usable water on the barren, reddish planet for the explorers to consume.
A recent finding by Chinese scientists based on data obtained by China’s Martian rover (探测器) Zhurong may have brought that goal closer to reality.
According to data obtained by the rover, they have identified hydrated (含水的) materials at Zhurong’s landing site in the southern part of an impact basin called Utopia Planitia. “These hydrated minerals are associated with bright-toned rocks and are interpreted to be duricrust (铝铁硅钙壳) developed locally. The duricrusts suggest that formation with substantial liquid water originates by either groundwater rising or subsurface ice melting,” reads a paper published in the newest issue of the scientific journal Science Advances.
Liu Yang, lead author of the paper, said their findings indicate that liquid water activities might have been more active than previously thought during the Amazonian Period, which began about 3 billion years ago and remains ongoing. “There is likely to be a large amount of usable water in hydrated minerals around the landing site of Zhurong as well as the vast areas in Mars' northern lowlands,” he added.
Zhurong is the core component (核心部分) of Tianwen-1, the country’s first inter-planetary mission, and is also the sixth rover on the Red Planet, following five from the United States. It is tasked with surveying Mars ’landforms, geological structures, soil characteristics, potential locations of water and ice, and atmospheric and environmental characteristics, as well as magnetic, gravitational and other physical fields.
As of Thursday, Zhurong has worked on Mars for nearly a year — far outliving its three-month life expectancy (预期寿命) and obtained a great deal of data, mission controllers said, adding it still has sufficient energy and is in good condition
1. What does the underlined words “that goal” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Collecting materials on Mars. | B．Landing humans on Mars. |
| C．Obtaining consumable water on Mars. | D．Testing Rover Zhurong on Mars. |
| A．Mineral amount. | B．Water source. |
| C．Planet developments. | D．Soil characteristics. |
| A．Abundant water is stored on Mars. |
| B．Landing site is the only water location. |
| C．Water activities began 3 billion years ago. |
| D．The findings indicate decrease of water formation. |
| A．It is the first rover on Mars. | B．It can continue to serve on Mars. |
| C．It searches for minerals on Mars. | D．It is expected to outlive 3 months. |
6 . If you think you have been hearing buzzing in San Mateo County, California, lately. you’re right. And it’s this buzzing that could help to save the honeybee in California. Beekeeping is becoming a popular backyard hobby for people who live in San Mateo.
“My brother in Ireland has bees,” explained John Lenihan about the idea to start keeping bees in his town. “His kids loved it, so I thought I’d see if mine were interested.”
Turned out they were. Since 2015, his daughter, Delaney, 12, and son, Jack. 10, have harvested (收获) honey from their backyard and sold it from a sidewalk table outside Nini’s Cafe. They also joined the Beekeepers’ Guild of San Mateo County, a group of honeybee keepers that holds classes and meetings to support beekeepers in the area. According to the Guild’s last recorded survey in 2013, the county is home to 688 colonies (群) some that have lived there since 2004.
But it’s not all good news. The E. L. Nino Bee Lab website explains: “In the United States alone, about 30% of honeybee colonies are lost each winter because of different reasons, including pests, pathogens and poor nutrition.”
“Bees are still losing colonies each year,” said Elina L. Nino, who works for the lab. “But right now, education plays an important role in the honeybee’s protection.”
Kendal Sager, a beekeeping educator, said she makes about 50% of her money from teaching kids about bees. She also sells honey from her own Los Altos-based farm: Kendal’s Bees.
“Without bees, our almond supply would dry up,” Sager explained after teaching a pre-K class in San Mateo. “They are easy to keep, easier than chickens. Backyard colonies help to save the honeybee. They can live through winter in my town.”
1. What encouraged John Lenihan to keep bees?| A．The dangerous situation bees were in. | B．His thought of developing a new hobby. |
| C．His brother’s experience of keeping bees. | D．The popularity of keeping bees in his town. |
| A．They enjoyed sharing how to keep bees with their cousins. |
| B．They set up organizations to support beekeepers. |
| C．They called on other people to protect bees. |
| D．They showed great interest in bees. |
| A．Bee colonies are still disappearing. |
| B．Bee colonies are well protected. |
| C．Human activities mainly lead to the loss of bees. |
| D．Most beekeepers have received a good education. |
| A．It makes her life much busier. | B．It is a win-win choice. |
| C．It has become less popular nowadays. | D．It gives her a chance to get close to nature. |
7 . Dean Moberg works at Sea World, where he rescued birds and animals. More often than not, Dean
When people see a crane that
Sometimes, a hurt crane will be
Dean write down exactly where he
Saving sand hill cranes with serious injuries isn’t
It takes a great deal of patience, determination, and love for these special birds to get
| A．saves | B．loves | C．remembers | D．raise |
| A．receives | B．refused | C．needs | D．offers |
| A．show off | B．learn from | C．pick up | D．look for |
| A．hungry | B．frightened | C．angry | D．bored |
| A．help | B．follow | C．train | D．free |
| A．hurts | B．holds | C．impresses | D．worries |
| A．Suddenly | B．Quickly | C．Finally | D．Usually |
| A．sad | B．excited | C．lucky | D．shy |
| A．study | B．treatment | C．advice | D．service |
| A．keeps | B．stops | C．finds | D．drops |
| A．owners | B．families | C．food | D．work |
| A．possible | B．dangerous | C．interesting | D．easy |
| A．broken | B．lost | C．powerful | D．new |
| A．well | B．fat | C．ready | D．clean |
| A．honest | B．serious | C．caring | D．proud |
8 . The Amazon rainforest is a noisy place, with many different animals competing to make themselves heard, But who has won the corn petition? The male white bellbird may be the loudest bird on Earth.
According to a new study, the bird's all is twice as loud as the screaming piha (尖声伞鸟) The bellbird’s call is at least nine decibels (分贝) (dB) louder than that of the piha, and can reach 125 dB. That similar to what you'd hear standing next to speakers at a rock concert. Jeff Podos, an American biologist, and his teas published paper in the journal Current Biology. But they didn't set out to find the world’s loudest bird, Co-author Cohn-Haft brought a specimen (标本) of a male white bell bird back for his museum after a research trip.
Coin-Haft found male white bell bird had thick abdominal muscle (腹部的肌肉)―leading him to believe this had something to do with their loud calls, Discovering no one had published a study about bell birds, the team set out into the rainforest to record the sounds of male pihas and bell birds, female’s (雌鸟) don’t have loud voice at all.
They divided their calls into three types; the male pihas’call. The male bell birds’Type 1 song―which is quieter and longer and the male bell birds’Type 2 song, which is louder and shorter. The pihas calls proved to be the softest, and the typed bell bird calls the loudest. There’s a reason the Type 2 song is so simple and lasts for a very short time―reaching such high decibels takes n lot of strength.
The study finds the male may have developed this behavior to attract female. The louder birds are probably filter. It’s likely female use the loudness to judge the male, probably preferring louder male,
1. What encouraged the researchers to study the bell bird?| A．Earlier research on the bird. | B．A specimen of a male bell bird, |
| C．The hair - raising call of the bird | D．A trip to find the world's loudest bird. |
| A．It can be produced by the female bird | B．It sounds longer than the Type l song. |
| C．It required great power | D．It copies pihas’calls. |
| A．To attract females | B．To control their land, |
| C．To warn other birds of dangers. | D．To frighten their natural enemies |
| A．The competition of noises in Amazon | B．Tidy about the world loudest bird. |
| C．Differences between bell birds and pihas | D．Two types of voiced made by bell birds. |
9 . Bergl doesn’t consider himself the next Thomas Edison, He’s just a man loving animals, Africa and adventure, Yet, Bergl might have invented a tool as great as the light bulb (灯泡) ―a tool that uses modern-day technology to solve an almost prehistoric (史前) problem.
The tool is called the SMART. It is designed to be waterproof (防水的) , shockproof and poacher (偷猎者) proof. Bergl worked with worldwide wildlife groups to develop it in 2011. Since then it has been seen in more than 55 countries where poachers have forced the best-known but most endangered animals to nearly die out .
SMART works as a very simple smart phone―it lets the user record what they see, like animal sightings. changes in animals and illegal activities If a park ranger (管理员) sees something that is very important, that information can be sent to the cloud (云) and sent out to the base camp so they can take action and stop the killing
Bergl and his workmates travel to African wildlife reserves now and then They teach park rangers in some of the most remote countries how to use SMART. “SMART makes collection of information easier It allows us to pay attention to the things that really important. according to what the information is telling an,”Aid Skim Young, manager of the Etosha National park in Namibia, “thanks to SMART, most of Africa’s endangered animals seem to be coming back.”
Bergl never plans to make money from his small but great invention. SMART is free and doesn’t even have a patents(专利).
1. What can we learn about SMART?| A．It looks like a light bulb. | B．It was invented by Bergl alone. |
| C．It is used to prevent pouching. | D．It can help deal with water problems. |
| A．How SMART was created | B．What SMART is like. |
| C．Why SMART got popular. | D．How SMART works. |
| A．It is very helpful. | B．It is easy to hold |
| C．It doesn’t cost much. | D．I will be used widely. |
| A．He dislikes taking risks in life. | B．He’s determined to succeed in life. |
| C．He’s a creative and giving person | D．He never wants to depend on others. |
On 15 May, the China National Space Administration (CNSA)
Zhurong is named after the god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology (神话). The rover
Zhurong landed in a part of Mars
China has received worldwide praise for the
