1 . 4 Reasons Why Wild Animals Are So Important
As we know, the earth gives us food, medicines and materials, often through wild animals. These wild animals are important to our existence. Sadly, they are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. We need to change this loss of nature and create a future where wildlife and people thrive (蓬勃发展) again.
Wild animals keep balance in ecosystems.
Diversity (多样性) means healthier ecosystems and healthier wild animals.
When there is a wildlife issue, you’ll often hear the term biodiversity, which refers to the number of species in an ecosystem.
All of the food that we eat comes from an animal or plant. Living without various food sources causes our nutrition (营养) to suffer. Protecting wildlife and its natural habitats strengthens food safety for humans around the world.
Wildlife helps medical research.
Wild animals have helped us find important medicines that help with many diseases.
| A．All living things are interconnected. |
| B．Healthy ecosystems mean a lot of diversity. |
| C．Or we will lose these animals to future generations. |
| D．People worldwide depend on wildlife for their snack. |
| E．Wildlife provides important nutrients for the human race. |
| F．The human race has always turned to nature for medicine. |
| G．We should notice the influence caused by wildlife on culture. |
2 . Glowworms (萤火虫) once lit up summer nights; people read by their soft light and they have been celebrated by everyone from William Shakespeare to Crowfoot, a 19th-century North American chief. But glowworms have had their lights dimmed by a wave of tidiness in the countryside, the loss of wild grassland and light pollution.
Now hundreds of glowworms are being bred (饲养) in captivity for release in two locations this summer, in an attempt to recover the dwindling species. More than 500 glowworm larvae (幼虫) have already been set free on the grounds of The Elvetham in Hampshire, where wildflower grassland is being restored. Hundreds more larvae and some glowing adults will be released there again this summer and at Coombeshead Farm. The four-year reintroduction project is led by ecologist Derek Gow, who owns Coombeshead Farm. “Glowworms were once objects of joy,” said Gow. “Within a lifetime, people can remember parents bringing a bottle of glowworms into their bedroom. They lay in bed, watching them glow. However, we have turned their lights out.”
As for some species of glowworms, only the flightless female glowworms glow to attract male glowworms on summer nights. Although the males fly, the species is bad at spreading and so becomes trapped in small areas of suitable habitat. The larvae take two years to mature, which leaves them easily destroyed by increasingly intense grassland management.
A study found that glowworm numbers fell markedly around artificial lighting. Not only do night lights trick the female-seeking males, but they can cause the females to dim their lights. The flightless female will also not move away from light pollution.
Taran Matharu, a co-owner of The Elvetham, said he was inspired to fund the introduction after discovering the hotel could have inspired Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He contacted numerous insect breeders who told him it was impossible to breed glowworms before discovering Gow.
Gow hopes that, if successful on these two sites, glowworm reintroduction can become more widespread, with community keepers and conservation groups combining in a citizen-led restoration of the species.
1. Which is a reason for the decrease in the number of glowworms?| A．The disappearance of wild grassland. |
| B．The artificial lighting during the day. |
| C．The flightless nature of glowworms. |
| D．The outdated grassland management. |
| A．Performing. | B．Removing. | C．Declining. | D．Leaning. |
| A．The hotel’s lack of historical significance. |
| B．The controversial insect breeding at the hotel. |
| C．The reduction in the number of glowworms in nature. |
| D．The hotel’s potential connection with Shakespeare’s literature. |
| A．The Mysterious World of Glowworms |
| B．The Inspiring Journey with Glowworm Breeding |
| C．The Challenges of Restoring Glowworm Populations |
| D．The Efforts to Save Glowworms from the Declining Population |
3 . Astronaut Frank Rubio made history in September when his 371 days in orbit made him the American with the record for the longest spaceflight. But before he left the International Space Station, Rubio developed a little notoriety among his colleagues—all in good fun, of course.
The Red Robin tomato in question, which Rubio himself had tended as it experienced an unexpected humidity (湿度) drop, was part of a March 29 off-Earth harvest. As part of the Veg-05 experiment, astronauts were asked to eat and rate tomatoes grown under different light treatments. But before he could try his share, it floated away in a Ziploc bag in a module (舱) as large as a six-bedroom house.
“I spent so many hours looking for that thing,” Rubio joked during a September livestream conversation with senior NASA management. “I’m sure the dry tomato will show up at some point and prove me, years in the future.”
What may come as a relief to Rubio was that it ended up taking months—not years—to find the tomato. NASA crew members aboard the station took part in a livestream event on Wednesday to celebrate the International Space Station’s 25th anniversary, where astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli came clean about a recent discovery.
“We might have found something that someone had been looking for quite a while,” Moghbeli said as she and her crewmates shared a laugh. “Our good friend Frank Rubio who headed home has been blamed for quite a while for eating the tomato. But we announce him to be innocent because we found the tomato.”
Rubio’s name has finally been cleared.
Rubio has long since returned to Earth. He boarded the Space Station more than a year earlier for what they thought would be a six-month mission. However, issues with a Russian Soyuz capsule requiring a replacement more than doubled his stay in space.
1. What does the underlined word “notoriety” in paragraph I mean?| A．A situation of competition. | B．Being famous for something bad. |
| C．Being admired for some reason. | D．A good relationship with others. |
| A．He lost his test object by accident. | B．He ate up all the harvest. |
| C．He destroyed the Veg-05 experiment. | D．He messed up a module of the space station. |
| A．His dream of setting a record. | B．His love of the space work. |
| C．Unexpected problems to be fixed. | D．A decision to make up for his mistake. |
| A．A tomato missing in space. | B．The longest spaceflight record. |
| C．A famous American astronaut. | D．The International Space Station. |
1. What was the weather like that night?
| A．Stormy. | B．Windy. | C．Cloudy. |
| A．Under the bed. | B．Under the sofa. | C．Under the table. |
| A．It was hit by lightning. |
| B．Its screen flashed rapidly. |
| C．It was damaged by the woman. |
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. |
6 . Advanced machinery has changed agriculture greatly, but many tasks are still done by hand. Manual pickers can select and handle ripe produce more precisely, which reduces damage, while machines require a lot of upfront (预付的) investment. But in a warming world, farm labour has its own cost in the form of heat stress which can lead to serious diseases.
Data from the EU's Earth monitoring program showed that the seven years before 2022 were the hottest on record. According to one study, at least 65 workers died from heat-related illness on US farms between 2002 and 2021. Another study concluded that American crop workers were 20 times more likely to die as a result of heat stress than other civilian employees.
The average number of unsafe summer working days in the US is expected to double by 2050. The threat is worse in southern Asia and western Africa, where the impact of global warming on human health and productivity is expected to be most extreme. The accumulated global cost in terms of output and working days lost due to heat stress is estimated to reach 2,400 billion dollars by 2030, according to the International Labour Organization.
Some countries have made laws to prevent heat illness. California was the first US state to bring in a large number of rules to protect outdoor workers in 2005. On days above 26 degrees Celsius, employers have to provide shelter for workers during rest periods. When temperatures rise above 35 degrees, workers must have regular breaks. Since the rules came into force, the number of reported deaths from environmental heat exposure in California has fallen from 10 in 2005 to 3 in 2019.
A new federal standard to fight against heat risks across the US is currently in the works (在筹备中). But campaigners say many farm workers, especially immigrants, may be afraid to raise concerns for fear of losing their jobs. They also worry that doctors are unaware of or may fail to recognize the long-term damage from repeated exposure to heat stress, an ongoing threat for millions of agricultural labourers around the world.
1. What is one advantage of manual pickers compared with advanced machinery?| A．They have a good effect on agriculture. |
| B．They help farm crops ripen earlier. |
| C．They reduce the loss of agricultural produce. |
| D．They cut the cost of heat stress. |
| A．The year 2022 is the hottest in history. |
| B．American civilians are free of heat stress. |
| C．US workers have heat-related diseases easily. |
| D．American farmers have suffered from heat stress badly. |
| A．To show the effect of laws to avoid heat-related diseases. |
| B．To remind us of the danger of global warming. |
| C．To praise the efforts to protect outdoor workers. |
| D．To help the farm workers to be protected. |
| A．Heat risks. | B．Unemployment. |
| C．The new federal standard. | D．Exposure to heat stress. |
7 . Resting on a branch in the dark is a Xingu screech owl with piercing eyes. Created by British artist Sarah Ball, the artwork refers to the scientific name of this species only found in the indigenous Xingu region of Brazil. The striking work is unique not just for its subject matter, but for how it was made: It was created with ash (灰烬) left behind after wildfires in the Amazon rainforest.
It’s part of a project called “From the Ashes”, an exhibition that ran in February in London. “Featuring 29 indigenous and non-indigenous artists, all the works were created using ink, colour and pastels produced from ash and charcoal (木炭),” said Migrate Art, the London-based social enterprise (企业) that created the project, whose goal is to help fix damage from the fires by raising money.
In March, the artworks were auctioned (拍卖) in London with estimates for individual pieces ranging from £2,000 to over £50,000, according to Simon Butler, founder of MigrateArt. “We keep 20% of what we make. The rest of it goes to the indigenous Xingu community, primarily for firefighting equipment,” he said.
Butler visited the Amazon rainforest two years ago. Witnessing the areas of the forest that had been burnt down, which he described as a “red desert that looked like the end of the world”, motivated him to create change through art. He collected the burnt remains of the rainforest, and shipped it back to London to be made into art materials. The materials were then sent to artists around the world. British artist Piers Secunda used black ink to create a painting titled Smoke In The Jungle. The collection also includes works made by members of the indigenous community.
“The sale of my work to help the Xingu Reserve buy firefighting equipment to extinguish Amazon fires is the best use of my time and resources that I can imagine,” said Secunda. “These art advocacy actions are grains of sand which build a pile. For now, the pile is small, but it is growing and will become substantial.”
1. What is the author’s purpose of describing the artwork in paragraph 1?| A．To detail the artist’s motivation. | B．To discuss climate change effects. |
| C．To highlight its unique creation method. | D．To provide insights into a new bird. |
| A．They will be stored by Simon Bulter. |
| B．Migrate Art will cooperate with more artists. |
| C．Artists will make more contribution to the poor. |
| D．Indigenous Xingu community will afford firefighting equipment. |
| A．By visiting Amazon rainforest. | B．By watching relevant information. |
| C．By talking with rainforest protectors. | D．By appealing to artists to create related works. |
| A．Promising. | B．Uncaring. | C．Demanding. | D．Controversial. |
1. Why does Jim ask Mary to keep silent?
| A．To find birds. | B．To avoid scaring birds. | C．To listen to his words. |
| A．Once a week. | B．Once a month. | C．Twice a month. |
9 . In the vast desert plains of northwest Namibia, rhino (犀牛) trackers start a journey to monitor the desert-adapted black rhinos. These creatures, known for their poor eyesight, walk freely in this remote region.
Led by Sebulon Hoeb, the principal field office r of Save the Rhino Trust Namibia, the tracker carefully approach a grazing rhino named Matty 2. identified by his partner Ebson Mbunguha. Despite the windy conditions working in their favor, they maintain a safe distance, aware of the potential danger of encountering these massive animals.
Every day and night, devoted trackers and local community ranger s patrol (巡逻) the vast expanse of land, totaling 25, 000 square kilometers, where the desert-adapted black rhino thrives. Armed with extensive knowledge of the rhinos’ behaviors and characteristics, they carefully document their observations, contributing to conservation efforts and fighting poaching (偷猎), which remains a constant threat due to the high demand for rhino horns.
Despite challenges, Namibia’s community conservation model has succeeded in protecting the rhino population. By prioritizing the preservation of wildlife and ensuring local communities to benefit from their natural resources, Namibia has become a lighthouse of conservation efforts in Africa. Save the Rhino Trust, established in 1982, has played a vital role in this achievement, witnessing a remarkable recovery in the black rhino population.
The significance of community conservation is stressed by Namibia’s commitment to environmental protection, written in its constitution since gaining independence in 1990. With the establishment of shared conservancies covering over 20% of the country’s territory, Namibia has pioneered a sustainable approach that balances conservation with economic development.
For the rhino rangers who devote their lives to safeguarding these iconic creatures, the job is rewarding. Living under the vast southern sky, they bear weeks of tented living, braving the dangers of tracking rhinos on foot. Despite the challenges, their serious commitment ensures the continued survival of the desert-adapted black rhino, a testament to the power of community-driven conservation efforts in preserving Earth’s oldest mammals.
1. What is the primary role of the rhino trackers?| A．To relocate rhinos to other habitats. |
| B．To record the exact population of rhinos. |
| C．To offer rhinos food when necessary. |
| D．To learn about the current situation of rhinos. |
| A．They favor windy conditions. | B．They will go extinct. |
| C．They are easy to approach. | D．They can be violent. |
| A．Limited. | B．Fruitful. | C．Inconsistent. | D．Unnoticed. |
| A．The community-driven rhino conservation efforts. |
| B．The challenges facing rhino trackers in Namibia. |
| C．The history of rhino poaching in Africa. |
| D．The dangerous situation of rhinos. |
1. What have the man’s family started to do?
| A．Use cars that run on natural gas. |
| B．Recycle plastic bottles and metal cans. |
| C．Bring shopping bags to the supermarket. |
| A．The man’s aunt. | B．The man’s uncle. | C．The man’s cousin. |
