1 . Gorillas (大猩猩) in films such as King Kong and Tarzan are wildly beating their chests when under threat. Researchers have tried to find out what the behavior might mean, and they doubt that the gorillas exhibit this behavior not to start fights, but to prevent themselves — and chest-beating could be used to advertise (展示) their body size to other gorillas.
Scientists observed 25 wild male mountain gorillas for over 3,000 hours. The research team used audio (音频) equipment to record the sound frequency (频率), rate, duration, and amount of chest beats. To determine each gorilla’s size, the researchers used cameras to photogragh and measure each gorilla’s back.
Although the rate, duration, and amount of beats did not correlate (相关) with the size of the gorillas, sound frequency did , the researchers report. The team also noticed that larger gorillas produced deeper-tone chest drumming. Previous research has shown that a gorilla’s larger body size is linked to reproductive success and social rank (地位). The chest-beating could be a way for the gorillas to advertise their size to others and, in turn, avoid fights that could result in serious injury or death.
Though gorillas can obviously observe size just by getting a good look at others, the researchers suggest chest beating is copper-bottomed when trying to communicate through a thick forest. The sounds gorillas created by beating their chests are powerful enough to travel long distance through thick forests and signal others their size and fighting ability.
Animal expert Anna Nekaris says it would be interesting to see if smaller gorillas can imitate the deep tones of larger ones in future studies. Nekaris says, “For now, the researchers will continue to study chest-beating to see if the action can pass on other information, such as dominance rank (优势等级), sex, and individual identity, to nearby gorillas.”
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about according to the research?| A．Its fingdings. | B．Its method. | C．Its samples. | D．Its purpose. |
| A．To declare war on other gorillas. | B．To celebrate their victory in a fight. |
| C．To welcome their companions. | D．To frighten other gorillas away. |
| A．Scientific. | B．Interesting. | C．Reliable. | D．Skillful. |
| A．If smaller gorillas can make deep-toned chest drumming. |
| B．If gorillas’ chest-beating contains other information. |
| C．If larger gorillas are better at using their body influence. |
| D．If gorilas have other communication skills. |
| A．Health. | B．Entertainment. | C．Science. | D．Sports. |
1. What is the talk mainly about?
| A．The story of a lost cat. | B．The life on the farm. | C．The Harry Potter series. |
| A．In an apartment. | B．On a farm. | C．On a boat. |
| A．10 years ago. | B．12 years ago. | C．14 years ago. |
| A．A visitor. | B．A farmer. | C．The staff in an animal shelter. |
3 . Haze (薄雾) and smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires covered most of the US Northeast for a second day — Wednesday, with New York City experiencing the world’s worst air quality over the last two days.
New York, the Big Apple became the Big Orange by midday Wednesday as the sky over the nation’s largest city fell into a deep hazy orange. Streets in Manhattan are like what they were like during the pandemic (流行病) as residents again wore masks and cared for warnings from health officials about the impact of PM2.5, which can lead to respiratory (呼吸的) illnesses.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Wednesday that the state was making one million N95 masks available to the public. Approximately 400,000 N95 masks would be distributed at New York state parks, and at subway stations and other locations in New York City, Hochul said at a press briefing. An additional 600,000 masks would be made available at Homeland Security stockpiles (囤聚的物资) for local governments to pick up, she said.
Hochul called the poor air quality “a very serious, dangerous situation”. She recommended that people across the state cancel outdoor activities. “Simply stay indoors. Outdoors is dangerous in just about every part of our state,” the governor said. Officials at the briefing said they had been monitoring any potential rise in respiratory illnesses or health issues due to the poor air quality.
The city’s air was more polluted than all the world’s major cities on Wednesday morning, according to data from Swiss technology company IQAir. Dubai and Delhi came in second and third, respectively. Mike Hardiman, a staff in the National Weather Service, told The New York Times the city “smells like cigars”.
1. Why do people wear masks in New York?| A．Because of health concern. | B．Because of the pandemic. |
| C．Because of officials’ demand. | D．Because of their habits. |
| A．New York has good welfare system. | B．N95 masks can settle the crisis. |
| C．The public’s support is vital. | D．The government took measures to handle the issue. |
| A．Camping. | B．Doing housework. |
| C．Fishing. | D．Climbing mountains. |
| A．The city is polluted by cigars. | B．Cigars have very good smell. |
| C．The air quality in the city is terrible. | D．There are too many smokers in the city. |
In July, my dad, mom and I flew to Whitehorse to care for my sick old grandfather. We planned to spend two months in the town of my youth.
A few days before we arrived, my grandfather called to say he was being flow n to Vancouver for another operation. My dad and mom had already booked the air tickets and their leave from work, so even though my grandfather wouldn’t be there, we made the trip north anyway.
Grandfather kept a puppy. It was the only companion of my grandfather while we were not in Whitehorse. He had adopted it from a local shelter(two years earlier and renamed him “Scruffy” because it looked untidy. Its fur was messy. Its ears were like two wings when it ran. While we were alone in my grandfather’s house with nothing to do, Scruffy saved us. The dog needed to be walked. Those walks were chances to re-visit where I’d grown up. I had left that small town behind as soon as I finished high school and had rarely visited home. Scruffy and I took my family to the school, where my picture still hung. We walked through the forest where I once rode my bike. With no one to talk to when my parents were occupied with their own business. I found myself chatting with Scruffy. He was too excited to see me. I gave him many nicknames: Scruffster, Scruff-man, Scruffmaster. He would happily respond to them all.
By the fall, we were back in Toronto and my grandfather was back in Whitehorse. My mom and her brothers took turns flying up to take care of him.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150个左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
We visited my grandfather again in November.
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After Grandfather’s death, we had to rehome Scruffy.
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The Torres del Paine region of Southern Chile is one of the best
And now it’s about to get even
Starting in 2023, Awasi has offered tourists unique puma sighting trips
6 . From Jilly Cooper to Winston Clurehill, horse riders have long supported the emotional benefit of the human-horse bond. Hernan Melville, the author of Moby Dick, once argued: “No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.”
When it comes to dogs, we have no doubt about it. But horses can tell when a human being is feeling unhappy, a study has found, although whether or not they care remains an open question.
The latest study, published in the journal Animal Cognition, sought to correct this. The question the researchers wanted to answer was; do horses understand a range of human emotions? To investigate this, they employed a technique often employed in studying baby cognition (认知); they showed the horses something that made no sense, and watched to see whether it puzzled them. One after another, the scientists put 28 horses in a room. Each horse was shown two pictures of the same person at the same time. In one picture the person had a happy face, in the other the person had a long face. At the same time they heard either a happy or sad voice.
From a human perspective, only one of the pictures made sense — the one with a voice that corresponded to the image. The other was “incongruent (不一致的)”. Were the horses similarly confused? It appears they were. What the scientists found was that on average the first time the horses saw the incongruent image, they spent longer looking at it.
Oceane Liehrmann, from the University of Turku in Finland, said this implied a level of emotional and cognitive complexity that we may not always credit to horses.
We don’t know whether horses themselves understand what it is to be sad, or experience the emotion. What the research suggested was that, however, it is possible they learn that it means something for a human — and that when we are sad they expect what we say to match how we look.
1. Why does the author mention Herman Melville’s words in paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic of the text. | B．To state dogs and horses are smart. |
| C．To point out philosophers’ ignorance. | D．To promote Herman Melville’s book. |
| A．By observing their behavior in a room. |
| B．By testing their reactions to different emotions. |
| C．By training them to respond to human emotions. |
| D．By showing them pictures and playing corresponding voices. |
| A．ignored the incongruent image and voice |
| B．were not confused and showed no reaction |
| C．recognized the incongruence and showed anger |
| D．were puzzled and spent more time looking at them |
| A．Horses Are the Cleverest Animal |
| B．Horses Have Strong Cognitive Ability |
| C．Horses Can Make Sense of a Human’s Long Face |
| D．Horses Can Understand Humans’ Emotions Clearly |
Stepping outside the railway station early
Yet, the breath taking beauty
After 1966, the year of the worst flooding in Venice’s history, the Italian Government started a project to save the city.
But Venice still needs attentive care. The city remains threatened on several fronts—mass tourism, the possible damage of city development
1. What is the ship captain going to do?
| A．Speed the ship. | B．Change the direction. | C．Stop the ship. |
| A．Sunny and nice. | B．Windy and rainy. | C．Stormy and cold. |
| A．Run for safety. | B．Stay in their rooms. | C．Call 911. |
9 . After my husband died, my world crashed around me. I was overwhelmed (淹没) by the responsibilities of earning a living and caring for my six children.
I was fortunate to find a wonderful housekeeper to care for the kids during the week, but from Friday nights to Monday mornings we were alone and frankly I was uneasy about it.
One Friday evening I came home from work to find a big beautiful German shepherd (牧羊犬) on our doorstep. Where did this obviously well-cared-for dog come from? Even though he seemed gentle, he was powerful. The children took an instant liking to “German” and begged me to let him in. I agreed to let him sleep in the basement until the next day. That night I slept peacefully for the first time in many weeks.
The following morning, we tried to find German’s owner with no results. German, meanwhile, made himself part of the family, wrestling (摔跤) with the kids and playing in the yard. Saturday night he was still with us.
On Sunday I had planned to take the children to the park. I left German behind in case his owner came by. When we stopped at a gas station, we were amazed to see him running after us. No way was he going to be left behind. So he jumped into the car and settled down in the back. He stayed again Sunday night.
Monday morning, I let him out for a run while the children got ready for school. He didn’t come back. We thought we’d never see him again. We were wrong. On Friday evening, German was back again. We took him in, and again he stayed until Monday morning, when our housekeeper arrived.
It went like this for almost 10 months. We grew to love German and look forward to his coming. When we saw him come to attention and perk up (竖起) his ears, and heard that low growl (咆哮) begin deep in his throat, we knew we were protected.
Each week, between German’s visits, I grew a little braver on my own, but every weekend I enjoyed his company. Then one Monday morning we patted his head and let him out for what turned out to be the last time. He never came back.
I still think of him often. He came when I needed him the most and stayed until I was strong enough to go on alone. I’ll never forget him.
1. When the author’s husband died, __________.| A．she couldn’t raise the six children on her own |
| B．she couldn’t relax on the weekends |
| C．she hired a housekeeper to always look after the children |
| D．she was so busy working and looking after the children that she had no time to feel lonely |
| A．Her children loved him. |
| B．He was a beautiful dog. |
| C．She thought he could protect her family. |
| D．It was too late and she was afraid he had no place to sleep. |
| A．The German shepherd was angry that the author left him behind. |
| B．It didn’t take long for the German shepherd to get along well with the author’s children. |
| C．The author decided to take her children and the German shepherd to the park that Sunday morning. |
| D．The author was too occupied that weekend to go find the dog’s owner. |
| A．naughty and cruel | B．strong and aggressive |
| C．gentle and intelligent | D．good-natured and protective |
10 . Meteorites (陨石) can offer clues about what the early solar system was like. But finding them is far from difficult. Now, some scientists are turning to drones (无人机) and machine learning to help spot freshly fallen meteorites much more efficiently. “A team of six people on a meteorite-hunting expedition can search about 200,000 square meters per day,” says Seamus Anderson, a planetary scientist in Australia.
Around 2016, Anderson began toying with the concept of using drones to take pictures of the g round to look for meteorites. That idea blossomed into a Ph.D. project. In 2022, he and his colleagues reported their first successful recovery of a meteorite spotted with a drone. They’ve since found four more meteorites at a different site. Drone-based searches are much faster than the standard search way. “You’re going from about 300 days of human effort down to about a dozen or so,” he says.
Anderson and his workmates have used drones to search for meteorites in remote parts of Western Australia and South Australia. The team is tipped off about a fall site by networks of ground-based cameras that track meteoroids flashing through the Earth’s atmosphere. The researchers have to do a series of fun but difficult work before the hunt. They pack a four-wheel drive vehicle with drone and computer equipment, battery charging stations, generators, fuel, food, camping equipment, tables, chairs and much more. The drive to the fall site can take more than a day, often on rough or nonexistent roads. Anderson says, “You hope you don’t pop a tire.”
After arriving, the team flies its primary drone at an altitude of about 20 meters. Its camera takes an image of the ground once every second, and the scientists download the data every 40 minutes or so when the drone lands to receive fresh batteries. A typical day of flying can net over 10,000 images, which are then divided digitally into 100 million or so smaller sections. Those “tiles”, each 2 meters on a side, are fed into a machine learning algorithm (算法) that has been trained to recognize meteorites based on images of real land rocks which are spray-painted black.
1. Why do the scientists study meteorites?| A．To spot the planetary course. | B．To promote machine learning. |
| C．To test the functions of drones. | D．To explore the past of solar system. |
| A．Their barriers. | B．Their causes. |
| C．Their efficiency. | D．Their concept. |
| A．Fun and light. | B．Smooth and flexible. |
| C．Difficult and unpleasant. | D．Complicated and tough. |
| A．By dividing them in half. | B．By storing them for analysis. |
| C．By combining them into a picture. | D．By linking them with a digital printer. |
