1 . Floods can cause major damage to city infrastructure and even deaths.
Get informed, stay informed
One of the best ways to prepare yourself and your loved ones for a flood is to be aware of weather conditions.
Update your emergency kits
Be sure your emergency kit s are all up-to-date. Ensure they have the proper supplies needed to protect multiple family members. In your prepared bags, you should have 72 hours-worth of food and water along with other essential supplies.
Secure your home
Making sure loose items are secure can help to prevent both property damage to your home and bodily injury. Furniture items aren’t the only things that should be secured. Also, take the time to se cure electrical items to prevent them from falling into water.
Practice your emergency plan
Make sure your family has an emergency action plan ready to implement (实施) at any moment. Then, practice your emergency action plan with your entire family. This will help each member to directly understand their roles in the plan and give an opportunity to answer any questions that may arise.
Of course, natural disasters occur in an instant. Therefore, keep your entire family and all pet family members close and within sight at all times during an emergency situation.
| A．Pay close attention to the development of current storms |
| B．Floods are too powerful to be stopped |
| C．Keep all family members (pets too!) in sight |
| D．Invest in sandbags and keep them inside your home |
| E．Though floods are among the most dangerous of natural disasters |
| F．Never leave your family or pets behind when floods are coming |
| G．In particular, include life vests along with other waterproof survival items |
2 . How to Go Green
The idea of “going green” means that you’ll try to reduce your impact on the environment. It’s a great way to improve the planet.
Walk or bike to places if you live close enough.
Communicate digitally whenever possible, and only print out items when you absolutely must. When you do use paper, recycle it or save it to reuse the other side of it.
Buy second-hand products or borrow items instead of buying something new.
Buying things produces more waste and pollution, so try not to buy things you don’t need. When you do need something, shop at local second-hand market or use online resale shops.
Skip products that have a lot of packaging.
Products that come with a lot of packaging are bad for the environment because the packaging is waste. Even if you recycle the package, it’s still an unnecessary waste of resources.
| A．Cars use up a lot of gas |
| B．Limit your use of paper |
| C．Use reusable bags while you’re shopping |
| D．If you’re ready to go green, start from the following good habits |
| E．Do your best to pick products that have as little packaging as possible |
| F．In order to save money, cut down on the cost of paper you’re using |
| G．If you can, borrow items that you don’t use often, like tools, from a friend |
3 . Spiders are master builders, expertly turning silk into complex 3D webs that serve as their home and hunting ground. To gain a deeper understanding of their world, scientists have translated the structure of a spider’s web into music.
“The spider lives in an environment of vibrating (振动的) strings,” says Markus Buehler, the project’s principal investigator. “They don’t see very well, so they perceive their surroundings by detecting vibrations, which have different frequencies.” Such vibrations occur, for example, when the spider stretches a strand of silk during construction or when the wind or a trapped fly moves the web.
The researchers scanned a natural spider web to capture 2D cross-sections and reconstructed its 3D network using a mathematical model. They assigned different frequencies of sound to strands of the web, creating musical “notes” that they combined in patterns based on the web’s 3D structure to generate music. Then they made a harp-like (像竖琴的) virtual instrument and played the spider web music in several live performances around the world, creating an inspiring harmony of art and science.
To gain insights into how spiders build webs, the researchers also scanned a web during construction, transforming each stage into music with different sounds. “The spider’s way of ‘printing’ the web is remarkable because no support material is used, as is often needed in current 3D printing methods,” Buehler says. This knowledge could help develop new 3D printers that work like spiders, enabling them to construct complex structures without using additional materials for support.
The team is also interested in learning how to communicate with spiders in their own language. They recorded web vibrations produced when spiders performed different activities, such as building a web, communicating with other spiders or sending signals to admirers. “Now we’re trying to generate signals to basically speak the language of the spider,” Buehler says. “If we expose them to certain patterns of vibrations, can we affect what they do or can we begin to communicate with them? Those are really thrilling ideas, and I believe they could be achieved in the near future.”
1. What do we know about spiders?| A．They have good eyesight. |
| B．They adapt to surroundings quickly. |
| C．They spin a web similar to a musical structure. |
| D．They sense the environment through vibrations. |
| A．Steps to create spider web music. |
| B．Ways to recreate a web’s 3D network. |
| C．Challenges of combining music with science. |
| D．The potential applications of 3D printing methods. |
| A．3D printers can construct complex structures. |
| B．Spiders’ vibration patterns vary with activities. |
| C．Spiders build webs without using additional materials. |
| D．The web-building process can be translated into music. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Doubtful. | C．Uncertain. | D．Disapproving. |
1. Where did the woman learn about the turtles?
| A．From a program. | B．From the Internet. | C．From a friend. |
| A．200 meters. | B．29, 000 meters. | C．2, 000 meters. |
| A．It affects the number of eggs. |
| B．It decides baby turtles’ sex. |
| C．It changes the speed of hatch. |
| A．By banning the use of plastic. | B．By making nests for them. | C．By stopping hunting them. |
5 . If you are a dog owner looking to add a new cat to your home, it's important that you strategize how you will introduce the two species to each other in your household. The
The good news is that there is an effective way to make sure both of them
Your dog will know there's a
After a few days, let your dog stay in the room with the cat. When doing so, leave the door open, and make sure that it is after your dog has exercised as he will be
Always make sure the cat has a way to run away from the dog. Having a(n)
| A．last | B．relevant | C．remarkable | D．specific |
| A．give up | B．take part | C．turn out | D．get along |
| A．trends | B．examples | C．tips | D．interests |
| A．fascinated | B．involved | C．scared | D．separated |
| A．clean | B．leave | C．paint | D．ruin |
| A．new | B．nice | C．strong | D．terrible |
| A．food | B．toy | C．cat | D．owner |
| A．popular | B．familiar | C．satisfied | D．bored |
| A．braver | B．happier | C．calmer | D．stronger |
| A．eating | B．jumping | C．training | D．exercising |
| A．reward | B．tool | C．model | D．responsibility |
| A．large | B．attractive | C．limited | D．safe |
| A．excited | B．comfortable | C．embarrassed | D．angry |
6 . For many Generation Z students who are thinking about their future careers, the answer is clear: disposing of the climate crisis. Multiple surveys have found that enormous numbers of students and professionals under 25 are pursuing environmental-related degrees and careers.
This shift in career aspirations (抱负) among the world’s youngest workers is a reflection of the heightened sense of climate awareness among Generation Z and even Generation Alpha — the generation of children born between 2011 and 2025. A 2021 Pew Research survey found that among Generation Z individuals, 76 percent of them cited climate change as one of their biggest social concerns, and 32 percent participated in at least one major environmental action last year.
Seeing the demand for climate action and training among students, universities are matching their interests with initiatives like the university of Southern California’s Sustainability Across the Curriculum programme. The programme aims to teach students from all disciplines how their majors intersect (与……相关联) with sustainability and the environment.
Christopher Schlottmann, the global curriculum coordinator (课程协调员) at New York University’s Environmental Studies programme explains to The Guardian that the long-standing opinion that environmental careers don’t pay well is also changing. “There’s a general belief that if you do good for the world, nobody’s going to pay you to do it. I don’t think that’s that accurate,” he says. “If you understand how climate change works, then a bank should actually really want to talk to you because they want to reduce their risk.”
The United States Bureau of Labour Statistics predicts that job opportunities for environmental scientists and “related specialists” will grow by eight percent over the next decade. This change is expected to be pushed along by the establishment of the proposed Civilian Climate Corps, a programme which would help young people fight the climate crisis and conserve public lands with training and job placement.
Climate change is a tough challenge, but climate awareness and determination grow with each generation and this progress demonstrates that the youngest citizens are staking (拿……当赌注) their future on a healthier planet.
1. Which word has similar meaning with the underlined phrase “disposing of” in Paragraph 1?| A．Delivering. | B．Applying. |
| C．Handling. | D．Promoting. |
| A．Generation Alpha is smarter than Generation Z. |
| B．Generation Alpha is the most concerned about environmental issues. |
| C．Young generation has grown to choose environmental-related careers. |
| D．The climate crisis won’t be settled unless people take effective action. |
| A．Generation Z won’t change environment at all. |
| B．Environmental careers will play an increasingly important role. |
| C．No one can change climate as it is a natural phenomenon. |
| D．The bank will pay you if you choose environmental-related careers. |
| A．Critical. | B．Indifferent. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Hopeful. |
7 . Kay Day, an 87-year-old UK woman, adores elephants. But Day, suffering from dementia (痴呆),rarely left her nursing home room and hadn’t seen a real elephant for a really long time.
Day is so crazy about elephants that her room is decorated with elephant photos. Day dreamed of seeing an elephant up close again and never thought it would happen. However, Day’s dream became a reality after her nursing home, the Blakelands Lodge care home inMarston Moretaine, took her on a special journey to the Whipsnade Zoo.
“Kay doesn’t join in many activities and tends to spend quite a lot of time alone,” said Carla Blakelands, the Lodge activity manager. “We sat and discussed wishes and found out she would love to see an elephant. We discussed different options and we found the Elephant Experience at Whipsnade Zoo, so we contacted them about our resident.”
Day was so excited about going to the zoo that she marked off the days on her elephant-themed calendar. Day’s carers and family came along on the trip to assist and watch her experience the exciting day. Day was able to pet the Asian elephants and she said that the elephants’ trunk is her favorite part of the animal. “It’s such a wonderful feeling to have an elephant take some food out of your hand, put it in his trunk, curl it up and put it in his mouth,” she told BBC.
Day expressed her gratitude to the people who organized the trip and said it was one of the best days of her life. “I could sit here forever with an elephant sitting by my side,” she said.
Elephant keeper My Eriksson said that the zoo was honored to have played a role in making Day’s dream come true and that it was amazing to meet someone who is as crazy about elephants as the zookeepers at Whipsnade Zoo.
1. What can we say about the Blakelands Lodge care home?| A．It funds the Whipsnade Zoo. | B．It has a special love for elephants. |
| C．It seldom organizes outings. | D．It cares about its residents’ wishes. |
| A．She has no relatives. | B．She is fairly easy-going. |
| C．She enjoys being alone. | D．She likes group activities. |
| A．She fed the elephants. | B．She argued with her family. |
| C．She arranged an interview. | D．She worked as a zookeeper. |
| A．Annoyed. | B．Grateful. | C．Puzzled. | D．Nervous. |
1. What’s the weather like yesterday?
| A．Rainy. | B．Sunny. | C．Misty. |
| A．Positive. | B．Slow. | C．Lasting. |
| A．Geography. | B．History. | C．Art. |
| A．Excited. | B．Unhappy. | C．Annoyed. |
As awareness of the human impact on the environment
In many cases, your choices will depend
Save water. Every drop of tap water you use consumes energy. It might just be water, but a lot of fossil fuel (矿物燃料) is consumed in processing it. You can turn the tap off while
Wear the right clothing. Your choice of clothing can make a big
1. Why does the woman grow her own garden?
| A．To kill time. |
| B．To develop a new hobby. |
| C．To eat healthy food. |
| A．Fruits. | B．Vegetables. | C．Grains. |
| A．Picking strawberries. | B．Watering plants. | C．Eating vegetables. |
