1 . My real research started at the New York Botanical Garden. I met a person who is a paleobotanist (古植物学家), which means that he
Sycamore trees are called fossil species, which means they have been
It was fun trying to
What surprised me the most was the idea that
| A．cooks | B．studies | C．plants | D．keeps |
| A．animals | B．children | C．birds | D．seeds |
| A．alone | B．away | C．around | D．abroad |
| A．familiar | B．junior | C．unnecessary | D．typical |
| A．teachers | B．kids | C．parents | D．cleaners |
| A．absent | B．safe | C．separate | D．tired |
| A．break away from | B．go away with | C．look after | D．get in |
| A．die | B．learn | C．sleep | D．grow |
| A．search | B．dig | C．imagine | D．remove |
| A．Writing | B．Enjoying | C．Dreaming | D．Controlling |
| A．rivers | B．forests | C．oceans | D．companies |
| A．expresses | B．revises | C．improves | D．connects |
| A．communities | B．buildings | C．systems | D．nurseries |
| A．qualities | B．greetings | C．difficulties | D．comforts |
| A．lose | B．quit | C．challenge | D．survive |
2 . During the summer of 2021, I flew to Greece to learn more about the wildfires there. I wanted to hear people’s stories, to understand what it meant to be displaced by environmental disaster.
In a cafe for people surviving the fire, I met brave children who now have to live with terrible scars, physical and emotional. I met a man who could not even speak to me, his eyes filling with tears.
I was expecting to hear a lot about loss; I was not expecting to learn so much about the attribution (归因) of blame. I came to understand how desperately people needed to blame a tangible entity (实体) –a person, a group of people, the government. Indeed, this was understandable and reasonable. The outbreak and mishandling of the fire needed to be explored, looked into and dealt with.
What surprised me, however, was that the survivors were completely silent over any mention of the climate crisis and global heating. It was made clear to me that this subject was unacceptable. Survivors felt that these issues had nothing to do with what they had suffered, and that the people actually responsible needed to pay.
But when it comes to climate breakdown, blame did not come to just one person, one corporation, one country. In Greece, the fire didn’t rage so hard because someone had set off a spark—— it raged so hard because years of global heating had dried up the land, part of a set of unsustainable (不能持续的) practices and inaction that had set our planet on fire. And now the fires are even worse.
The more I spoke to people, including climate scientists, the more I came to see that there is often a gap that separates science from public awareness. In her book “Engaging With Climate Change” Sally Weintrobe says that “many people who accept global warming continue to regard it as a problem of the future”. To my astonishment, this seemed to apply even to people who had themselves been affected directly by wildfires.
1. What did the author hardly expect to learn in Greece?| A．Kids’ scars. | B．Economic loss. |
| C．Survivors’ blame. | D．Duration of the fire. |
| A．It was closely related to global heating. |
| B．They couldn’t accept its massive destruction. |
| C．The government should be responsible for it. |
| D．It resulted from someone’s setting fire to the forest. |
| A．Much attention has been given to it. |
| B．People don’t consider it serious now. |
| C．Scientists are urged to apply efficient way to it. |
| D．People should make their opinions about it heard. |
| A．To inform readers of wildfires in Greece. |
| B．To encourage readers to donate to survivors. |
| C．To equip people with surviving skills in wildfires. |
| D．To raise people’s awareness about the climate crisis. |
3 . Marine life (海洋生物) in Florida Keys is negatively influenced by two forces: human activity and climate change. The former involves fishing, tourism and diving while the latter causes a large increase in intense hurricanes. Fortunately, when the researchers of Florida Museum of Natural History started looking for sea urchins (海胆) on the ocean floor off the coast of Florida Keys in the summer of 2020, they uncovered their population had relatively been stable since the 1960s.
The researchers visited 27 sites along a 20-mile stretch of coast near Florida Keys looking for tracks that reflected the presence of burrowing echinoids (穴居海胆类动物). “The findings that burrowing echinoids have been highly resilient (有适应力的) against climate change and environmental pollution over the last 60 years was a huge discovery for us.” said study co-author Tobias Grun.
Grun said, “However, we know little about their current distribution, population size, and health. The reason is not the lack of interest by the scientific community but lies in that fieldwork is very expensive.”
As the climate crisis progresses, it’s important to understand why some marine creatures are more resilient in bearing the impacts of a worsening environment than others. Grun said, “Evolution may be at play. Some marine animals are very opportunistic. They can tolerate a wide range of abiotic factors like pH, temperature, and salinity, to name a few.”
Grun added, “At this point, our data show that burrowing echinoids are more resilient than many other marine species and are doing comparatively well. That does not mean that we can push our luck and keep going the way we are right now. Our study provides some hope that these creatures are resilient, but much more work is needed to translate our findings into a larger scale. The reasons for their resilience are also widely unknown.”
1. Which has an effect on the marine life in Florida Keys?| A．Wildfire. | B．Pollution. | C．Fishing. | D．Flood. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Important. | C．Subjective. | D．Outdated |
| A．The goal. | B．The staff | C．The cost | D．The usage |
| A．It’s necessary to do further research. |
| B．It’s right to keep going the present way. |
| C．The reasons for sea urchins’ resilience are well known. |
| D．Fish are more resilient than other marine species. |
4 . It was a typical summer day in my small town, with the sun shining and the sky clear. I was sitting on my porch, enjoying the peaceful view of the rolling hills and the calm lake, when suddenly a strong wind blew in from the west. The peaceful sky turned dark as a storm approached.
I went inside, grabbing my raincoat and heading to the barn to secure the animals. The cows were nervous, sensing the approaching storm. I quickly tied them up and ran back to the house, just as the rain started to pour down. The wind was howling and the rain was pounding against the windows. Lightning and thunder followed, making the atmosphere even more electric. I sat by the window, watching the raging storm and praying that everything would be okay.
After what seemed like hours, but was only a few minutes, the storm passed. The clouds moved away, revealing a bright and sunny sky. I walked outside, taking in the fresh air and surveying the damage. The trees were bent over and some branches had been blown off. Our vegetable garden was flooded, but other than that, everything seemed to be fine. I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized that no serious damage had been done.
That evening, as I sat by the fireplace with a cup of hot coffee, I reflected on the experience. It reminded me that nature can be both powerful and unpredictable, but that we must persevere and adapt to whatever it throws at us. The next morning, as I watched the sun rise over the now-calm landscape, I felt a sense of pride knowing that my family and I had weathered the storm together.
1. What does the word “weathered” mean in the last paragraph?| A．enjoyed | B．survived | C．forecasted | D．changed |
| A．Angry | B．Relieved | C．Scared | D．Sad |
| A．Problem and solution | B．Cause and effect |
| C．in order time | D．by Comparison |
| A．The author explains how to prepare for and cope with a storm. |
| B．The author describes how a storm ruined his day and his garden. |
| C．The author compares and contrasts the different weather conditions in his town. |
| D．The author recounts how he and his family withstood a sudden storm and learned a lesson from it. |
5 . New Caledonian crows are well-known for using different types of tools for preying (捕食) from tree holes and other hiding places. While they firmly hold their tools in the bill, they need to put them down to eat. This is when crows are at risk of losing their tools by accidentally dropping them or having them stolen by other crows.
In an earlier study, researchers in the UK had discovered that crows keep their tools safe when not needed, using one of two “safekeeping” strategies—they either securely hold them trapped underfoot, or temporarily put them into a nearby hole or behind bark. But are crows more careful when handling particularly valuable tools?
“Many of us will fuss (大惊小怪) about a brand-new phone, making sure it does not get scratched, dropped or lost. But we may handle an old phone with a cracked screen quite carelessly,” said lead author Barbara Klump from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Germany.
Crows at one of the team’s long-term study sites use two different kinds of stick tools: complex hooked tools and basic non-hooked tools. The former are painstakingly crafted from a relatively scarce plant species, while the latter are simply twigs (细枝) sourced from the forest floor. “Hooked tools are not only more costly to obtain, but they are also much more efficient,” explained Barbara Klump. “Depending on the foraging (觅食) task, crows can get prey with these tools up to ten times faster than with non-hooked tools.”
In their new study, the researchers now discovered that New Caledonian crows are more likely to keep valuable hooked tools safe between uses than the more basic non-hooked tools. “It was exciting to see crows are just a bit more careful with tools that are more efficient and more costly to replace. This suggests that they have some conception of the relative value’ of different tool types,” noted study co-author James St Clair.
This is the first study to investigate how animals handle and store tools of different kinds, providing a new way to measure how much they value these objects.
1. Why are phones mentioned in paragraph 3?| A．To indicate the necessity of phones in our daily life. |
| B．To emphasize people’s attachment to their old devices. |
| C．To stress the similarity between humans and crows. |
| D．To show people’s improper attitude to old things. |
| A．It can be gotten easily. | B．It can be adjusted freely. |
| C．It can make crows’ foraging more productive. | D．It can prevent crows from danger. |
| A．Their secret hiding places. | B．Their unusual eating habits. |
| C．Their creation of complex tools. | D．Their treatment of valuable tools. |
| A．Crows Use Strategies to Gain Valuable Tools |
| B．Crows Learn to Use Special Tools for Preying |
| C．New Discovery of How Crows Make Tools |
| D．New Caledonian Crows Keep Favorite Tools Safer |
6 . For sharks, the Mesoamerican Reef, which stretches over 600 miles, is a busy highway. Sharks use it to find their way and it provides them with food and habitat.
But as with on-land highways, this superhighway can be dangerous. Overfishing, commercial development and illegal practices are endangering the species. “We’re seeing a continued decline in shark populations. Our goal is to turn that round.” says Rachel Graham, founder of Mar Alliance, a non-profit organization focused on conserving sharks.
By monitoring sharks, Mar Alliance can collect important knowledge on the species to help inform conservation and push for political action. But rather than acting in opposition to the local fishing community, MarAlliance enlists their help.
“They are the ones who are on the sea every single day,” says Graham, “and they’re the ones who decide the species’ future.”
MarAlliance employs up to 60 fishermen across its range, mostly on a project basis, training them to collect data, record and release fish. Not only does this provide an alternative income to fishing communities, making them less dependent on natural resources, but it also teaches them about the benefits of a healthy ocean ecosystem and how to fish sustainably.
Among them, Ivan Torres, who used to catch sharks to sell locally as food, has learned how critical they’re to the whole ecosystem, saying he’d never fish sharks any more.
If this attitude change continues to spread throughout fishing communities, Graham has hope for the shark populations. “The primary threat to sharks is unquestionably overfishing,” she says, “By reforming the industry, populations can bounce back.”
In 2020, Belize outlawed the use of gillnets, large panels of netting of trapping large sealife. The ban’s impact is already noticeable with a recorded 10-fold increase in shark populations.
But such regulations need to be copied along the whole superhighway for long-lasting impact, and countries need to find a sustainable balance between fishers and the fished. “We need to find a win-win strategy between fisher livelihoods and shark survival,” Graham emphasizes. “I hope that through education and providing an economic alternative for fishing communities, MarAlliance will help ensure safe passage for sharks along the reef”.
1. Which of the following best describes the Mesoamerican Reef for sharks?| A．Romantic but messy. | B．Vital but insecure. |
| C．Adventurous but beautiful. | D．Unfamiliar but reliable. |
| A．MarAlliance. | B．The fishers. |
| C．Monitoring authorities. | D．The sharks. |
| A．A stricter fishing ban. | B．The insurance payout he earned. |
| C．An offer of extra work. | D．The fishing communities’ intervention. |
| A．Solution to overfishing. | B．Difficulties facing MarAlliance. |
| C．Impact of existing regulations. | D．Features of international cooperation. |
Most polar bears could die out by the end of the century due to global warming,
Lack of food leads to another problem: Mother bears may not be fat enough to produce milk for their babies. Some bears could stop
Arctic sea ice usually melts in spring and summer, and then grows in winter. But now, the ice is taking
But the study also notes that it is still possible
8 . With the weight of its tall buildings, streets and people, New York City is sinking at an average rate of 1 to 2 millimetres each year, a new study says.
The sinking is called “subsidence”. That natural process happens everywhere as ground is compressed (压紧). But the study sought to estimate how the huge weight of the city itself is hurrying things along.
Over 1 million buildings are spread across five boroughs (自治区). The research team found that all those structures add up to 1. 5 trillion metric tons of concrete, metal and glass, equal to the mass of 4, 700 Empire State buildings pressing down on the Earth.
The rate of compression is different throughout the city. Midtown Manhattan’s skyscrapers are largely built on rock, which compresses very little. But some parts of Brooklyn, Queens and downtown Manhattan are on looser soil and sinking faster, the study said.
While the process is slow, parts of the city will eventually be under water. Researchers reached conclusions using satellite imaging, data modeling and mathematical calculations. It will take hundreds of years before New York becomes Venice, which is famously sinking into the Adriatic Sea. But parts of New York are more at risk. A researcher said Manhattan is at risk because of the borough’s large weight.
The ocean is rising at a similar rate that the land is sinking. So the Earth’s changing climate could speed up the process for parts of the city to go under water. Already, New York City is at risk of flooding because of large storms. Storms like Sandy in 2012 caused the ocean to expand inland and flooded neighbourhoods after a lot of rain.
New York City is not the only place sinking. San Francisco, California, is also at risk because of pressure on the ground and the area’s active earthquakes. In Indonesia, the government is preparing for a move from Jakarta, which is sinking into the Java Sea. The government is building a new capital being constructed on the higher ground of an entirely different island.
1. What is the main reason for the different compression rates in New York?| A．Different measurement methods. | B．Different geological(地质的)conditions. |
| C．Different building materials and styles. | D．Different climate changes and impacts. |
| A．Its huge weight. | B．Its distance to the sea. |
| C．Its similar position. | D．Various frequent natural disasters. |
| A．To keep the reader’s attention. |
| B．To improve the atmosphere. |
| C．To show the issue is common. |
| D．To point out the negative effect of sinking. |
| A．New York City Is Slowly Sinking | B．The Flavour of New York City |
| C．Here Comes a Future Venice | D．The Problems Caused by Dropping |
9 . Gently holding a baby hummingbird (蜂鸟) between her hands, Lattouf says, “Hello, cute little guy. Are you very hungry?” It’s the newest patient at Lattouf apartment in Mexico City where she has nursed hundreds of the tiny birds back to health over the past decade. Under Lattouf’s caress (爱抚), the bird relaxes little by little.
This is often how Lattouf’s days have gone since she turned her apartment into a clinic (诊所) for sick, injured or baby hummingbirds. Most of the hummingbirds are in the bedroom where Lattouf sleeps. They stay there until they are strong enough to fly and feed themselves. Then she moves them to a neighboring room to prepare them to finally be freed.
With dozens of the tiny birds buzzing overhead, Lattouf explained that she began caring for them a year after surviving colon (结肠) cancer in 2011. It started with one hummingbird that had an eye injured by another bird. A veterinarian (兽医) friend encouraged her to try to help it. The bird became her close partner, staying on her computer screen while she worked. “It wrote me a new life,” she said of the nine months when the bird lived with her. It helped pull Lattouf out of the sadness and loneliness she had experienced after her husband’s 2009 death followed by her cancer. Later, friends began bringing her more hummingbirds.
Lattouf says she never turns away a bird. “Most come to me as babies. Many come to me broken,” she said. Some have injuries to wings after running into things or falling from nests. Some get sick because of drinking polluted water from hummingbird feeders, which are popular in the city. Now the demand for her services has jumped because someone put a video about her work on the social platform TikTok that has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.
The city is filled with threats to hummingbirds like constant construction projects that replace flower gardens with concrete. But Lattouf remains optimistic. “We do everything possible,” she said.
1. What do we know about Lattouf?| A．She tried to save hummingbirds. | B．She wanted to be a nurse. |
| C．She liked to live in Mexico. | D．She used to be a doctor. |
| A．Her love for hummingbirds. | B．Her needs for a partner. |
| C．Her encounter with an injured one. | D．Her friend’s encouragement. |
| A．She has worked hard. |
| B．She has shared videos about the tiny bird. |
| C．More people get to know her services by TikTok. |
| D．She has accepted every injured hummingbird. |
| A．Brave and realistic. | B．Outgoing and active. |
| C．Generous and optimistic. | D．Humorous and energetic. |
10 . While many animal populations seem to dwindle, one species that is moving in the opposite direction of such loss is America’s native wildlife — wood stork.
The wood stork is the only stork that breeds in North America. In 1984, it was declared an endangered species after its population decreased sharply to just 5,000 mating pairs. At the time, scientists predicted that the bird would become completely extinct by 2000. Today, it numbers 10,000 mating pairs, and the Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing a delisting of the wood stork as an endangered species. So how did the population bounce back?
The success is in part down to the resourcefulness of the wood stork. The wood stork’s native home was in the Everglades in Florida, but it migrated north as the Everglades were being destroyed by development of mankind. Wetland preservation and restoration, protection of nesting areas, and management of water flows began with the approval of the wood stork’s first recovery plan in 1986. In the following year, former Savannah Coastal Refuges biologist John Robinette noticed stork nests in Georgia as stork populations moved to safer wetlands.
According to Stephanie Kurose, a senior policy specialist at the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Endangered Species Act is also to thank for this recovery. She said, “The act saved the wood stork and it helped preserve and rebuild vital habitats throughout the southeast, which has improved water quality and benefited countless other species who call the area home.” “The Endangered Species Act has saved 99 per cent of the species that were on the list since 1973. A hundred types of plants and animals have been delisted as their populations become stable again.
If the wood stork is delisted, it will remain protected by other laws and a monitoring plan will be put in place to ensure the population remains stable.
1. What does the underlined word dwindle probably mean?| A．Boost. | B．Change. | C．Decline. | D．Explode. |
| A．Its population shows a rising trend. | B．It has become completely extinct. |
| C．It is widely distributed worldwide. | D．It is the most endangered species. |
| A．Climate change of Earth. | B．Popularity of water sports. |
| C．Impact of human activities. | D．Arrival of other wild animals. |
| A．People have safer water to drink. | B．A list of species have been saved. |
| C．The local economy has boomed. | D．The wood stock has flown away. |
