1 . Tom Hanks was searching for shells on the island when the strong ocean waves washed a large part of the sand reef (沙洲) away. There was nothing between him and the shore leading to the village, but
He moved about, looking at the calm water before him,
An idea
He looked down at the sharks still
| A．sands | B．shells | C．water | D．wind |
| A．vague | B．clear | C．tough | D．soft |
| A．shout | B．noise | C．cry | D．burst |
| A．fish | B．coral | C．shark | D．human being |
| A．abused | B．supported | C．surrounded | D．attacked |
| A．flashed through | B．came by | C．cleared up | D．called for |
| A．under | B．by | C．over | D．against |
| A．flesh | B．bone | C．blood | D．cell |
| A．decrease | B．draw | C．free | D．stop |
| A．turned | B．cut | C．threw | D．broke |
| A．pushing | B．walking | C．chasing | D．fleeing |
| A．Naturally | B．Suddenly | C．Gradually | D．Constantly |
| A．jumped into | B．skipped over | C．dug into | D．looked over |
| A．crossed | B．met | C．hit | D．defended |
| A．astonished | B．excited | C．scared | D．impressed |
| A．blew | B．leaned | C．fought | D．crashed |
| A．dropped | B．rushed | C．swam | D．escaped |
| A．hard | B．dead | C．safe | D．alive |
| A．playing | B．eating | C．hunting | D．smelling |
| A．head | B．waist | C．feet | D．legs |
2 . Scientists believe they have found a new use for facial recognition technology: saving large ocean animals known as seals. Researchers at Colgate University in the U. S. state of New York have developed SealNet. The system is a database of seal faces created by taking pictures of many harbor seals in Maine’s Casco Bay.
The research team found the tool’s accuracy in identifying the mammals was close to 100 percent. The researchers are working on increasing the size of their database to make it available to other scientists, said Krista Ingram. She is a biology professor at Colgate and a team member.
Increasing the database to include rare species such as the Mediterranean monk seal and Hawaiian monk seal could help efforts to save those species, she said. Creating a list of seal faces and using machine learning to identify them can also help scientists know where in the ocean seals are, Ingram said. She said, “For marine mammals that move around a lot and are hard to photograph in the water, we need to be able to identify individuals. ”
SealNet is designed to identify the face in a picture. It recognizes the seal’s face based on information related to the eyes and nose shape, as it would a human. A similar tool called PrimNet, which is for use on primates(灵长类), had been used on seals earlier, but SealNet performed better, the Colgate researchers said. Seals and other ocean mammals have long been studied using satellite technology. Using artificial intelligence to study them is a way to bring conservation into the 21st century.
Facial recognition technology could provide valuable data, said Michelle Berger, an associate scientist at the Shaw Institute in Maine. Berger was not involved in the SealNet research. “Once the system is perfected I can picture lots of interesting environmental uses for it”, Berger said. “If they could recognize seals, and recognize them from year to year, that would give us lots of information about movement, how much they move from site to site. ”
1. How can the researchers benefit other scientists from the database?| A．By expanding their database. | B．By improving its accuracy. |
| C．By getting closer to seals. | D．By using more machines. |
| A．They always live in large groups. | B．They can’t adapt to new equipment. |
| C．They all have similar eyes and noses. | D．They often change their locations. |
| A．It’s really perfect. | B．It’s unreliable. | C．It’s of great benefit. | D．It’s very interesting. |
| A．New Technology to Protect Ocean Animals |
| B．Scientists Use Facial Recognition to Study Seals |
| C．A New System Taking More Pictures of Seals |
| D．Facial Recognition is Used to Preserve Ocean |
3 . She can’t vole, but she has the volte of confidence of young climate activists across the globe. Meet Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old architect of “School Strike for the Climate” .
At age 12, the Swede gave up meat and flying to reduce her carbon footprint. But the real trigger came when Sweden was hit by heat waves in 2018. Thunberg started skipping classes on Fridays to strike outside the Swedish parliament. Thanks to social media, her actions have spread and influenced millions of young people all over the world to organize and protest.
And look! Thunberg became the poster child of climate action. She addressed the 2018 UN climate conference and this year’s World Economic Forum. Encouraged by Thunberg, 1. 4 million students across 125 countries took to the streets in the first Global Climate Strike for Future on March 15. Thunberg was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in March 2019, and a few months later she became the youngest individual ever to be honored as Time’s Person of the Year.
Then she entered the spotlight again. Invited to speak at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York City, which took place in September 2019, Thunberg traveled across the Atlantic on a zero-carbon sailing boat, accompanied by her father and a supporting crew.
She said at the UN Climate Action Summit:“For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight …You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you. ”
Nevertheless, Thunberg has her share of critics too. The objectors attack her for what she has done, calling her a “weirdo” and regard the Greta Thunberg effect as a useless fantasy.
1. What does the underlined word “trigger” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Breakthrough. | B．Cause. | C．Intention. | D．Solution. |
| A．Her popularity. | B．Her future plan. |
| C．Her speeches. | D．Her achievements. |
| A．The science is still not clear about climate. |
| B．Great progress has been made in politics and solutions. |
| C．She is not satisfied with the measures that the government took. |
| D．Future generations haven’t achieved much and failed the government. |
| A．Responsible and ambitious. | B．Selfless and generous. |
| C．Easy-going and creative. | D．Considerate and cautious. |
A sea creature renowned as the sunflower sea star was once
Scientists at the University of Washington are trying to understand
The sickness that killed them is known as sea star wasting syndrome. Jason Hodin, the top
The university’s neuroscience department is also working on the study,
So far, researchers think the sea stars are able to survive in
5 . Steven Strauss was skeptical when he first heard about a poplar tree (杨树) bio-engineered to suck more carbon dioxide out of the air. So when two entrepreneur — Maddie Hall and Patrick Mellor — asked him to help test out the idea, Strauss was interested but hesitant. “If it works, it would be a wonderful thing”, he said, “But typically in research on agriculture or forestry, it works in the lab or the greenhouse, but tells you nothing.”
Four years later, these two entrepreneurs have raised $30 million for Living Carbon, a company that aims to plant between 4 million and 5 million poplar trees by the spring of 2024, using photo-synthesis enhanced seeds. Eventually, the company hopes to enter the carbon offset market, selling credits to companies that need to reach net-zero emission goals to help fight global warming.
One of the field trials will be conducted in a forest at Oregon State University, where Strauss is a distinguished professor of forest biotechnology. Other locations are throughout the United States, including the site of an abandoned mine in Pennsylvania with degraded soils.
Co-founders Hall and Mellor hope the trials will prove that the taller poplar trees can store as much as 27 percent more CO₂ than ordinary trees. The company’s next step will be to show that the CO₂ can be stored in wood, outlasting the poplar’s lifespan, which can reach up to 200 years.
The Department of Energy, which provided Living Carbon with a $500,000 grant in 2021, predicted that the company’s approach could remove billions of tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere if successfully scaled up. Investors have since lined up, including Toyota Ventures and Singapore’s state-owned Temasek.
Hall, the CEO of Living Carbon, has described high hopes for the project. “Today Earth no longer has the ability to avoid carbon as quickly,” she wrote in a blog post,“And now it’s time for the big suck.”
1. What is Strauss’s first attitude towards Hall and Mellor’s idea?| A．Favorable. |
| B．Critical. |
| C．Suspicious. |
| D．Neutral. |
| A．To bio-engineer poplar trees to help fight global warming. |
| B．To sell carbon credits to make a big fortune in the market. |
| C．To complete the task of planting poplar trees by the spring of 2024. |
| D．To conduct some field trials for fundraising in an abandoned mine. |
| A．Over 27 percent CO₂ can be stored in ordinary trees. |
| B．Much CO₂ will be removed if successfully scaled up. |
| C．Most CO₂ in the atmosphere can reach up to 200 years. |
| D．No CO₂ will be produced or gathered on the earth today. |
| A．Scientists Are Searching for Ways to Bioengineer Poplar Trees |
| B．A Start-up Hopes Super Poplar Trees will Suck up More CO₂ |
| C．Two Entrepreneurs Succeed in Co-working with Foreign Investors |
| D．Authorities Predict the Company will Have a Promising Future |
6 . Every day, little Laika searched for food and shelter through the streets and markets. One day, a man was approaching her and held out some food in one hand. Laika sniffed (闻) and slowly crept (爬) towards the treat. Whoosh! Laika was caught in the dogcatcher’s net. She struggled to get free but it was no use. The scientists needed homeless dogs for some tests.
Life in the laboratory was difficult. Machine after machine, the scientists tested how Laika would handle the situation. The scientists liked Laika as she always stayed calm and did whatever they asked her to. Soon, Laika became one of the three dogs considered for a special mission in space. A rocket would be launched in less than a month and there would be a dog on board. No person or animal had been to outer space. Vets and scientists were unsure if it was safe. Dr. Vladimir Yazdovsky recalled that before heading to the launch pad, he took the dog home to play with his children. “I wanted to do something nice for her. I was afraid she had little time left to live.”
In October 1957, the rocket was ready. A special space suit was made just for Laika. The scientists said a teary goodbye and wished Laika good luck. Then, they put her in a tiny cabin in the rocket that was specially set up for her. Soon the engines roared to life. The noise was deafening and Laika’s heart pounded. However, there was no turning back.
A small crowd watched as the gleaming rocket sped up through the sky and out of sight. People across the country cheered for the world’s first true astronaut who carried on such a difficult and dangerous job. This tiny hero paved the way for many human astronauts to come. After a few other flights with dogs, the Soviet Union put the world’s first human—Yuri Gagarin—into space on April 12, 1961.
1. What can be inferred about Laika?| A．She wasn’t ready to go with the dogcatcher. |
| B．She wasn’t used to the life in the laboratory. |
| C．She had been taken good care of by its owner. |
| D．She didn’t get along well with the scientists. |
| A．He wanted to give her some food. | B．She was needed to play with children. |
| C．He wanted to keep her as a pet. | D．She was needed for scientific tests. |
| A．They felt sorry for their strict training. | B．The loud noise would make her deaf. |
| C．She probably wouldn’t come back alive. | D．She would suffer heat problems in the rocket. |
| A．She was small enough for the space task. | B．She could get used to noisy environment. |
| C．She helped to make human space tasks possible. | D．She was able to continue living in the space task. |
7 . Thousands of emperor penguins pack together on the ice of Atka Bay in Antarctica, mostly unaware that among them lives a 3-foot-tall autonomous robot called ECHO. The birds occasionally notice the unmanned and remote controlled ground vehicle out of curiosity but quickly move on from the object, which acts like a mobile antenna(天线)for an observatory monitoring about 300 of them each year.
Penguins dominate the South Pole, but the climate crisis could threaten their very existence. A study published last year reported 98% of the emperor penguin population could all but disappear by 2100 due to the impact of climate crisis in Antarctica. “As top predators, emperor penguins serve as ideal species to study in an unsteady ecosystem,” said Zitterbart, associate scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Surprisingly little is known about these penguins because Antarctica isn’t the easiest place for scientists to access. Although it’s crucial to learn more about the penguins and their ecosystem, Zitterbart and his team didn’t want to introduce a harmful human footprint in an already vulnerable environment or negatively affect the colony.
A successful trial run of ECHO this year is already showing how that may be possible.
Since 2017, Zitterbart and other researchers have been tagging 300 penguin chicks with a system similar to how dogs and cats are microchipped. But the small sensors worn by the penguins don’t have their own power supply, so they can only be read from about a meter or two away.
That’s where ECHO comes in. The robot acts like a receiving station with wireless receivers, automatically collecting data from the penguins’ sensors. With ECHO, the researchers don’t miss out on a chance to collect data when the birds return to the colony to feed their chicks and no longer have to search through a crowd of 20,000 birds to find the tagged ones because ECHO picks up on them automatically.
Tracking the penguins allows the team to determine where the penguins go when they dive off the sea ice into the ocean and understand their food hunting strategies. “In the next stage, we will extend ECHO’s data collection to include penguins’ reproductive behaviors that scientists haven’t been able to collect before,” said Zitterbart.
1. What’s emperor penguins’ reaction to ECHO?| A．Defensive | B．Frightened. | C．Undisturbed. | D．Unfriendly. |
| A．Cutting carbon dioxide emission in Antarctica. |
| B．Studying penguins without polluting the land. |
| C．Having access to more knowledge about Antarctica. |
| D．Involving more scientists in studying emperor penguins. |
| A．How they produce young. |
| B．Where they search for food. |
| C．When they dive into the deep sea. |
| D．Why they can survive the extreme cold. |
| A．Emperor penguins are dying out. |
| B．Uncover more mystery of penguins. |
| C．Technology brings life back to Antarctica. |
| D．Meet the robot in the Antarctic penguin colony. |
8 . My dog, Nala, loves rolling around in a patch of grass any chance she gets. And it always cracks me up to watch her have the time of her life.
She’s enjoying a smell.
She’s covering up her own scent. According to Dr. Austin, there is another theory that dogs may roll in grass to cover their own scent, as more of an inherited predatory instinct.
If you notice your dog rolling around in the grass, it’s probably just her having the best time ever. I’m not sure about you,
| A．In other words, they want to smell like the environment so they don’t scare off prey |
| B．but that grass may look extra appealing to your dog |
| C．I’ve always wondered why she actually does it |
| D．She’s scratching an itch |
| E．It’s important to remember how incredibly powerful your dog’s nose is |
| F．but now I’m even thinking about joining mine next time |
| G．She’s cooling off |
1．表达安慰;
2．中国救援队已到达进行援助;
3．表达希望和对其重建家园的信心。
注意(不能出现本学校名称)提示：土耳其 Turkey
Dear friends:
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10 . Rabbits are a courageous little species able to live on every continent, except Antarctica. Alongside the beginning of 2023, the new Year of the Rabbit has started!
Cultural image of rabbits in China
Rabbits are instinctively quiet but agile (敏捷),which suits traditional Chinese aesthetic values of being gentle and cultivated. There is a view of rabbits in Chinese culture as being smart and gentle.
Legend has it that there is a Jade Rabbit living on the moon which is the pet of Chang’e, a goddess widely known in China. This can explain why rabbits are regarded as an auspicious sign.
Also, in ancient China, it was common sense that the more children you had, the luckier and happier you would be. This belief made the rabbit a popular sign of good fortune.
Cultural image of rabbits in the West
Similarly in the West, rabbits are full of vitality and fertile in nature, with populations growing to enormous sizes in short amounts of time. Rabbits are also considered to be incredibly lucky in the West, with several traditions illustrating how to gain the animal’s good luck for yourself.
A hunter being able to catch a rabbit in the first place is also a sign of good luck. Another tradition for good luck found in North America and the UKKis to say the word “rabbit” on the first morning of every month.
So, now it is the lucky animal’s turn on the Chinese zodiac.
| A．This is shown by the phrase “dong ru tuo tu” |
| B．We are all familiar with the phrase “shou zhu dai tu” |
| C．Maybe now is the best time to talk about this adorable animal in the eyes of different cultures |
| D．May the Year of the Rabbit bring you some good fortune, too! |
| E．Rabbits also pop up in other areas of Western culture |
| F．A stuffed rabbit’s foot is supposed to bring good fortune |
| G．They are well-known to be able to reproduce and thrive in sometimes difficult and surprising conditions |
