1 . For the past four years I had been having up to 30 seizures (癫痫发作) a day. It made me
Despite
One day, my friend Kerri asked if I wanted an assistance dog. I knew there were guide dogs for the
Soon after, I
It’s
| A．think | B．hide | C．suffer | D．learn |
| A．personal | B．countless | C．formal | D．impressive |
| A．sleeping | B．working | C．replying | D．breathing |
| A．warmth | B．fun | C．safety | D．independence |
| A．deaf | B．blind | C．injured | D．elderly |
| A．wrote | B．learnt | C．overheard | D．planned |
| A．warn | B．attract | C．follow | D．hit |
| A．burn out | B．break in | C．come on | D．drop by |
| A．saved | B．addressed | C．met | D．invited |
| A．rose | B．lay | C．struggled | D．played |
| A．sensed | B．caused | C．touched | D．cried |
| A．action | B．attack | C．guide | D．help |
| A．boss | B．teacher | C．partner | D．listener |
| A．risked | B．stopped | C．kept | D．saved |
| A．thankful | B．anxious | C．excited | D．patient |
2 . I opened the door of our campervan (房车). My two cats, Gatinha and Jon Snow,
A month earlier, Wade, 35, and I thought we were ready for our travel in
Knowing we couldn’t leave our two rescue cats behind, we decided to bring them with us. After doing some
For the first few days they
Looking back,
| A．jumped | B．bent | C．fell | D．stopped |
| A．shouted | B．stretched | C．folded | D．disappeared |
| A．heartbreaking | B．imaginary | C．breathtaking | D．disturbing |
| A．time | B．budget | C．energy | D．facility |
| A．quit | B．ignored | C．took | D．changed |
| A．library | B．school | C．home | D．hotel |
| A．make | B．save | C．collect | D．donate |
| A．practice | B．thought | C．discussion | D．research |
| A．common | B．fascinating | C．rare | D．natural |
| A．force | B．adapt | C．move | D．lead |
| A．focused on | B．messed up | C．stuck to | D．escaped from |
| A．dependent | B．anxious | C．confident | D．tolerant |
| A．Amazingly | B．Suddenly | C．Regretfully | D．Doubtfully |
| A．ordered | B．reminded | C．taught | D．trusted |
| A．exchanging | B．choosing | C．abandoning | D．experiencing |
3 . In 2014, Xu Yitang, a Beijing native who had been studying Peking Opera since childhood, went with friends for a birthday celebration to Beijing Zoo. Little did he know that a chance encounter at the aquarium there would excite a lifelong passion. As Xu Yitang stared at corals bathed in tank’s light, a sense of wonder crowded into his mind. Lost in the beauty and mystery of the creatures, he spent the entire afternoon in front of it. After that, he began to frequent the local market to learn about coral farming from merchants who sell ornamental plants, fish and corals. He also searched for information on relevant forums online. Before long, he had set up a small fish tank at home and started cultivating a coral.
Nowadays, Xu Yitang who has moved to the tropical island of South China’s Hainan province, works for a Sanya-based tropical biological laboratory belonging to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Each day, he spends several hours diving deep under the waves to observe and document the growth and development of the creatures that captured his heart all those years ago. Nicknamed “coral man”, he is actively engaged on such social media platforms as Sina Weibo, where he regularly shares visually beautiful photos and entertaining videos of corals. He aims to encourage individuals to take action in protecting coral reefs and the oceans as a whole from the destructive impact of climate change and human activities.
Unfortunately, with the strengthening of the greenhouse effect, rising sea temperatures have led to coral bleaching (白化) and decay. A coral reef’s beautiful colors come from the symbiotic algae (共生藻类) zooxanthellae that provide more than 90 percent of the energy through photosynthesis (光合作用). Coral bleaching occurs when coral expels the algae and dies due to the lack of nutrients.
In the laboratory, he would film educational videos to raise awareness and knowledge about corals, so that people can learn how to protect them effectively.
1. What changed Xu Yitang’s career choice?| A．Frequenting the local market. |
| B．Setting up a small fish tank at home. |
| C．Having an encounter at the aquarium. |
| D．Observing coral growth and development. |
| A．Xu is a diver in the lab. |
| B．Xu is a coral conservationist. |
| C．Xu spends few hours on his work every day. |
| D．Xu shares his videos for corals through social media platforms. |
| A．Rising sea temperatures. | B．Lots of nutrients in the water. |
| C．Coral farming practices. | D．Lack of sunlight in deep waters. |
| A．Critical. | B．Indifferent. | C．Objective. | D．Enthusiastic. |
Huang Yulong, a 22-year-old armed police soldier (武警战士),
Huang is one of the tens of thousands of people
On Aug 14, Chinese officials
Beijing plans to get better at
5 . Ant queens are famously long-lived, even though they shouldn’t be. Generally, animals that put lots of energy into reproduction sacrifice some time off their life. But ant queens produce millions of eggs and live an extraordinarily long time compared with worker ants that don’t reproduce.
Now, researchers have shown how one ant species pulls off this anti-aging technique. When queens and hopeful queens of the species Harpegnathos saltator speed up to reproduce, a part of what’s called the insulin (胰岛素) signaling pathway gets blocked, slowing aging, the researchers report in the Sept. 2 Science. That molecular pathway has long been connected with aging in mammals, including humans.
“There’s been a nced to understand why queens, or reproductives, in social insects can live for so amazingly long,” says Marc Tatar, a biologist at Brown University in Providence,R. L, who was not involved with the study. Some ant species have queens that survive 30 times as long as their workers.
In a rare behavior for ants, when a queen H. saltator dies, some female workers begin competing in fights for the chance to replace her. These hopeful royals develop ovaries (卵巢), start laying eggs and transition into queenlike forms called gamergates. When a worker transitions to a gamergate, her life span becomes five times as long as it was. But if she doesn’t end up becoming queen and returns to a worker, her life span shortens again.
The researchers exploited this behavior to investigate the molecular strengthening of anti-aging in these ants. H. saltator gamergates, it turns out, extend their life spans by taking advantage of a split in the insulin signaling pathway, the chain of chemical reactions that drive insulin’s effects on the body. One branch of this pathway is involved with reproduction, while the other is connected with aging.
1. What do you know from Paragraph 1?| A．Ant queens live unexpectedly longer. |
| B．Worker ants live longer than other ants. |
| C．Female animals live longer than male ones. |
| D．Animals in reproduction live longer than others. |
| A．They speed up to reproduce. |
| B．The molecular pathway contributes to it. |
| C．The insulin signaling pathway gets blocked. |
| D．They’ve invented advanced anti-aging techniqucs. |
| A．The ant group will be dismissed. |
| B．A gamergate will finally replace it. |
| C．The hopeful royals will surely become queens. |
| D．The female workers use thcir own ovaries to lay eggs. |
| A．The secret of anti-aging. |
| B．The life span of an ant queen. |
| C．The ant queen’s secret of long life. |
| D．The process of a gamergate to become a queen. |
Around 160 experts attended the International Forum on Cave Temple Conservation in Chongqing
The carvings run the risk of damage over time as a result of weathering and climate change. Li Qun, director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration,
The Chongqing forum was held to improve the preservation of cave temples and uncover their value and historical significance,
Experts agreed
“Water and wind are the primary factors causing damage to the cave temples and stone carvings
7 . During the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, there was a lot of talk about the environmental efforts taken. Athletes slept on beds made from recycled cardboard. The medals were produced out of old appliances such as smartphones and laptops. Over 90% of Japanese cities, towns and villages participated in the two-year effort to collect recycled materials to produce 5000 medals. Eighty tons of small electrical devices were collected to make this project successful.
With the 2024 Olympics Games underway in Paris, new environmental efforts are coming into play. Observers will sit on chairs made of plastic recycled from local bins. This decision was made due to a lack of unused raw materials to make new seats, so the eco-construction firm Le Pave turned to make the seats out of waste. Around 11,000 seats will be made from recycled materials.
The plastic collection for Paris 2024 has been carried out in the region’s schools, and over five million coloured bottle caps have been recovered. Moreover, 80% of the 100 tons of recycled plastic needed to make the seats come from the yellow bins collections. This is all part of the Paris 2024 “zero waste” strategy to limit single-use plastic usage and encourage a circular economy.
The Olympic Games organizers are planning to make the Paris 2024 Games the greenest Olympic Games yet. They intend to employ a carbon-neutral approach that will lessen the climate impact of the Games by predicting, avoiding, reducing and balancing emissions and encouraging others to get involved. The Summer Games have emitted 3.6 million tons of carbon emissions in previous years. The Paris 2024 Games has set a carbon budget of 1.5 million tons which includes the emissions from construction, transportation and operations of the Games.
These plans are ambitious but are achievable. If Paris 2024 successfully reduces emissions and promotes a circular economy, it might set the standard for future Olympic and Paralympic Games, regardless of where they are held.
1. What were the 2020 Olympics medals made from?| A．Raw metal. | B．Recycled cardboard. |
| C．Reused plastic. | D．Used electronic devices. |
| A．To stop carbon emissions. | B．To make seats for athletes. |
| C．To collect coloured bottle caps. | D．To restrict single-use plastic usage. |
| A．Limitation to single-use plastics. | B．Reduction of carbon emissions. |
| C．Promotion of recycling in school. | D．Encouragement of a circular economy. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Intolerant. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
1. What is the woman doing?
| A．Reading a newspaper. | B．Watching a documentary. | C．Reading news on the Internet. |
| A．They get along well with the owner. |
| B．All of them are from animal parks. |
| C．The number of them is 17. |
| A．He treats lions like house cats. |
| B．He lives with dozens of lions. |
| C．He feeds cats to lions. |
| A．It’s disappointing. | B．It’s amusing. | C．It’s amazing. |
9 . Although it is often called the koala “bear“, this lovely animal is not actually a bear at all. It is a marsupia (有袋目哺乳动物), and like kangaroos, a female koala carries her baby in her pouch (育儿袋) for about six months.
Koalas live in four states only in eastern Australia, where the eucalyptus (桉树) trees they love are most plentiful. In fact, they rarely leave these trees, their sharp claws easily keeping them high up in the air. During the day they sleep for up to 18 hours. When not asleep, they feed on eucalyptus leaves, especially at night. Koalas do not drink much water and they get most of their water from these leaves. Each animal eats a large amount for its size—about two and a half pounds of leaves a day, even storing snacks of leaves in pouches.
The koala bears were widely hunted during the 1920s and 1930s and their populations decreased suddenly. Helped by reintroduction, they have reappeared over much of their former range, but their populations are smaller. Koalas need a lot of space—about a hundred trees per animal—which is a pressing problem, as Australia’s woodlands continue to get smaller because the trees they live on are being cut down to make farms. Also, forest fires, caused by heat waves, are destroying the forests the koalas live in.
It has been estimated (估算) that there are only 100,000 koalas left in the wild, with the lowest estimates being no more than 43,000. The koala can only eat eucalyptus leaves and lives nowhere else except Australia, so in order to survive, human effect on its limited environment must be controlled, or this attractive creature faces certain extinction.
1. What can be learned about koalas?| A．They eat most of the day. | B．They belong to the bear family. |
| C．They feed on eucalyptus leaves. | D．They use the pouch to store water. |
| A．Koalas’ populations fell slowly. | B．Koalas faced great danger. |
| C．Koalas got well preserved. | D．Koalas had enough space to live in. |
| A．Many of them died in fire. |
| B．They can’t adapt to the global warming. |
| C．Their living environment is gradually being worsened. |
| D．Farmers are burning the eucalyptus trees koalas live on. |
| A．How to increase koalas’ populations. |
| B．How to make good use of limited environment. |
| C．How to help koalas get used to new living environment. |
| D．How to reduce human effect on koalas’ living environment. |
10 . Tomatoes taste great. With a lot of vitamins, they are good for you, too! People around the world enjoy this amazing fruit.
Not all tomatoes are red. They can be yellow, orange, pink or white. All tomatoes are green before they are ready to be picked. Then the tomatoes turn their true color. That’s when they are ready to eat!
Tomatoes first grew in the Americas. The Incas (印加人) grew them over 1,000 years ago. They were introduced to Europe by the Spanish in the early 16th century. The Spanish and Italians seem to have been the first Europeans to accept them as food. In France, people grew tomatoes in the garden just to enjoy their beauty. Many people there thought tomatoes would make them sick. It was years before some of them would eat tomatoes.
Tomatoes are fruits. They grow from seeds. They won’t grow in cold weather. But with water, sunlight and warmth, tomatoes grow fast. They can grow in pots or in the ground. As the plant grows taller, people may tie it to a stick. Next is the blooming stage. Flowers appear. The flowers turn into fruit. Some kinds of tomatoes can be picked in about six more weeks. Some tomatoes are large. One kind of tomato can weigh as much as two pounds.
You can eat raw tomatoes. First, wash them. Then, cut them up for salads or sandwiches. Tomatoes can be cooked, too. They can be grilled, boiled, or even fried. Do you use ketchup (番茄酱)? It is made from tomatoes. Tomatoes don’t have a smell. But they taste great in foods around the world. Many dishes from India use tomatoes. Italians use them to make spaghetti sauce and pizza, too.
1. What can we know from the passage?| A．Tomatoes come in different colors. | B．Tomatoes grew in Europe first. |
| C．Tomatoes can grow in all weathers. | D．Tomatoes have a special smell. |
| A．Time. | B．Board. | C．Set. | D．Flower. |
A．  | B． | C． | D． |
| A．Family. | B．Food. | C．Science. | D．Health. |
