1 . Millions of migratory(迁徙的)birds occupy seasonally favorable breeding(繁殖)grounds in the Arctic, but scientists know little about the formation, maintenance and future of the migration routes of Arctic birds and the genetic determinants of migratory distance. In a new study, a multinational team of researchers under the leadership of Dr. ZHAN Xiangjiang from the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences integrated two state-of-the-art techniques-satellite tracking and whole genome sequencing(基因排序)-and established a continental-scale migration system of peregrine falcons in Eurasian Arctic.

The researchers tracked 56 peregrine falcons from six Eurasian Arctic breeding populations and sequenced 35 genomes from four of these populations to study the migration of this species. They found that the birds used five migration routes across Eurasia, probably established between the last Ice Age 22, 000 years ago and the middle-Holocene 6, 000 years ago. “Peregrine falcons initiated their autumn migration mainly in September, and arrived at their wintering areas mainly in October, " said Professor Mike Bruford, an ecologist at Cardiff University. “Peregrine falcons that depart from different breeding grounds use different routes, and winter at widely distributed sites across four distinct regions. Individual birds that were tracked for more than one year exhibited strong path repeatability during migration, complete loyalty to wintering locations and limited breeding dispersal(扩散). ”

The researchers quantified the migration strategies and found that migration distance is the most significant differentiation. They used whole genome sequencing and found a gene-ADCY8, which is known to be involved in long-term memory in other animals in previous research- associated with differences in migratory distance. They found ADCY8 had a variant at high frequency in long-distance migrant populations of peregrine falcons, indicating this variant is being favorably selected because it may increase powers of long-term memory thought to be essential for long-distance migration.

“Previous studies have identified several candidate genomic regions that may regulate migration-but our work is the strongest demonstration of a specific gene associated with migratory behavior yet identified, ”Professor Bruford said. The researchers further looked at models of likely future migration behavior to predict the impact of global warming. If the climate warms at the same rate as it has in recent decades, they predict peregrine populations in western Eurasia have the highest probability of population decline and may stop migrating altogether.

“Our work is the first to begin to understand the way ecological factors may interact in migratory birds, ” said Dr. ZHAN Xiangjiang. “We hope it will serve as a cornerstone to help conserve migratory species in the world. ”

1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?

A．Five birds’ historical migration routes were rebuilt.

B．Peregrine falcons stick to the areas where they winter.

C．Two novel research methods of migration were invented.

D．Peregrine falcons leave for Arctic regions in September.

2. What can we infer about ADCY8?

A．It is a newly-discovered gene in the new study.

B．It serves as a fundamental part of long-distance migration.

C．It could be strengthened by the power of long-term memory.

D．It turned out to be more favored by birds than the other animals.

3. What is special about the new study?

A．It has discovered a new genomic region of birds.

B．It has predicted the rate at which the climate warms.

C．It analyses the reasons for the decrease of peregrine falcons.

D．It encourages attention to environmental effects on migratory birds.

4. Which would be the best title for this passage?

A．Researchers Help Conserve Migratory Species

B．Biologists Find Evidence of Migration Gene in Birds

C．How Long-term Memory Helps Long-distance Migration

D．How Ecological Factors Affect Birds’ Migratory Distances

2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

One day, my two brothers and I were coming back from the islands     1     we often risked going and got more fish than others. All at once, the sky     2    (cover) with clouds and in less than a minute we were in a terrible storm. A huge wave covered our boat and my younger brother     3    (fall) into the sea. My elder brother put his mouth     4    to my ear and cried out “Moskoe-strom!” The moment I heard the word I became very     5    (frighten). I knew what he meant by that one word well enough.

During the polar time of 1910-1911, both teams organized food bases in preparation     6    their journeys the next year. Then came the total     7    (dark) of the polar winter. Scott and Amundsen waited     8    (anxious) for spring.

Amundsen was the first to leave on 8 September, 1911. He had teams of dogs     9    (pull) the sleges and all his men were on skis. Because of this, he made     10    (rapidly) progress. Scott left on l November and soon had problems. First, his two sledges broke down and then the horses began to to have serious     11    (difficulty) with the snow and the cold. After a while, Scott and his men had to push the sledges     12    (them).

3 . Afroz Shah, a lawyer in Mumbai, hasn’t had a weekend off in four years. But he hasn’t spent this time preparing for court. His mission is to save the world’s oceans from plastic pollution.

It’s a calling he found in 2015 after moving to a community in Mumbai called Versova Beach. He had played there as a child and was upset to see how much it had changed. The sand was no longer visible because it was covered by a layer of garbage more than five feet thick — most of it was plastic waste. The unsightly(难看的)mess Shah had stumbled upon is part of a global environmental crisis. It’s predicted that by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean.

In October 2015, Shah began picking up trash from the beach every Sunday morning. At first, it was just him and a neighbor, and then he began recruiting others to join in. Word spread and with the help from social media, more volunteers got involved. He’s now spent 209 weekends dedicated to this mission, inspiring more than 200,000 volunteers to join him in what’s been called the world’s biggest beach clean-up. By October 2018, Versova Beach was finally clean and Shah’s clean-up expanded to another beach, as well as a stretch of the Mithi River and other regions of India. So far, the movement has cleared more than 60 million pounds of garbage — mostly plastic waste — from Mumbai’s beaches and waterways.

While he continues to work as a lawyer during the week, Shah now devotes nearly all of his free time to this cause. He also works with coastal communities to tackle plastic pollution at one of the sources. In areas lacking sufficient waste management systems, Shah and his volunteers educate and assist villagers in reducing, managing, and recycling their plastic waste.

1. What has kept Shah busy at weekends over the four years?

A．Handling legal cases.	B．Cleaning up the beach.
C．Swimming in the ocean.	D．Fishing on the coast.

2. Why was Shah upset after moving to Versova Beach?

A．The beach no longer existed.

B．The community was in a mess.

C．Many fish in the ocean were killed.

D．There was severe plastic pollution.

3. How did Shah carry out his mission?

A．By raising money to recycle plastic waste.

B．By encouraging others to join his clean-up.

C．By appealing to people not to throw garbage.

D．By devoting all his time to collecting garbage.

4. Which of the following best explains the underlined word “tackle” in the last paragraph?

A．Report.

B．Predict.

C．Deal with.

D．Cover up.

4 . A researcher with the Australian Antarctic Division left a camera near a large group of emperor penguins. Then two of the birds walked over to check the camera out. The camera was rolling when the penguins started to look into its lens (镜头), resulting in a very cute penguin "selfie (自拍)". That's according to Amy B. Wang of the Washington Post.

Explorer Eddie Gault placed the camera near the Auster Rookery during his visit to Australia's Mawson research station. The Australian Antarctic Division posted a short video from the camera—happy penguins on its social media pages. They wrote that it offered a "bird's eye view of life in Antarctica"!

At the start of the video, we can only see the feet of a penguin. It appears to kick the camera over so its lens faces the sky. As the penguin looks into the camera, another comes into view. The buddies come towards the lens and cock their heads. Then they straighten up and shake their heads. It is as though they have decided that this strange object is not worth their time.

Penguins are "naturally curious" animals, the Australian Antarctic Division writes on its Facebook page.

Other animals have also been known to get involved in the art of the selfie. An eagle in Western Australia once picked up a camera that was supposed to be recording fresh-water crocodiles. It filmed itself flying and touching at the lens.

Then there is a monkey that accidentally started a year-long lawsuit (诉讼) when it took a funny photo of itself with a camera owned by David Slater. He is a British wildlife photographer. Slater published the image of the monkey in a book, which caused People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to take him to court for breaking the copyright of the so-called "selfie monkey".

Slater said himself that the monkey had pressed the shutter on his camera, which proved to be the heart of the case against him.

As for the Antarctic penguins, the camera was already rolling when they decided to "strike a pose", so the Australian Antarctic Division should be able to avoid a possible lawsuit. But if you happen to be in the Antarctic and see two penguins taking top-down Instagram shots of their latest meal, you know who is responsible.

1. The underlined word "rolling" in Paragraph 1 probably means _____.

A．flashing

B．moving

C．recording

D．turning

2. According to Paragraph 3, which picture correctly shows the penguins' behavior?

A．	B．
C．	D．

3. David Slater faced a lawsuit because _____.

A．he used the monkey's selfie in a book

B．the monkey pressed the button on his camera

C．the monkey took a photo of him with his camera

D．he published a photo of the monkey on the Internet

4. Where can you probably read the passage?

A．In a law book.	B．In a research report.
C．In a photographer's diary.	D．In a wildlife magazine.

5 . The cumulative rainfall in Henan province during the four days was the highest since the province has records, the provincial meteorological service said. The rain was heaviest in the provincial capital, Zhengzhou, for a short period on Monday and Tuesday. Northern, western and central parts of Henan also experienced downpours, the service said. Zhengzhou's biggest one-hour precipitation (降水量) —201. 9 mm between 4 and 5 pm on Tuesday—was also the highest on the Chinese mainland. The previous record was 198. 5 mm in the village of Linzhuang in Zhumadian in August 1975, the National Meteorological Center said. The city's precipitation during the four days exceeded that of its average annual precipitation, the center said.

Chen Tao, chief forecaster at the National Meteorological Center, said abundant water vapor (水蒸气) brought by Typhoon In-Fa and the province's special geographical features led to Henan's rain. “Partly affected by the typhoon, large amounts of water vapor have been transported to China's inland areas, including Henan,” he said.

From Thursday to Monday, rain was forecast to continue in Henan. However, rainfall will gradually subside in Zhengzhou and the province's northern and central regions, though the storms will increase the risk of mountain torrents and other geological disasters. By Monday, lighter rain is forecast for parts of Henan, the provincial weather service said. However, local authorities are still urged to be vigilant and prepare to prevent or cope with flooding and other possible disasters.

Predicting such weather events remains a challenge worldwide because it involves many meteorological phenomena, the center said. “The formation of this kind of extreme weather, including rainstorms and high temperatures, is complex,” Chen said. “We still lack effective solutions and methods for such forecasting”, he said. “We are now putting a lot of effort into tackling the difficulty. We believe that as the technology improves, we can better forecast the events.”

1. What message does the author mainly want to convey in the first paragraph?

A．heavy rain fell in Zhengzhou.

B．The rain in Henan lasted four days.

C．Zhumadian also suffered the similar heavy rain.

D．Henan experienced the biggest rainfall of all time.

2. What can be indicated from Chen Tao's words?

A．It is not easy to forecast the extreme weather.

B．The rain of Henan is mainly caused by Typhoon In-Fa.

C．The center hasn't put a lot of effort into solving the problem.

D．Rainstorms and high temperatures can account for the heavy rain.

3. What does the underlined word “vigilant” probably mean?

A．Relaxed.

B．Alert.

C．Reluctant.

D．Communicative.

4. Where might the text be most probably taken from?

A．history book.

B．A novel.

C．A news report.

D．A science magazine.

6 . In January 1958, Rachel Carson received a letter from her fiend Olga Owens Huckins. Huckins lived in an area of Massachusetts where the state was trying to get rid of mosquitoes. They had used planes to spray a mixture of fuel oil and DDT (a pesticide, which can kill pests such as insects, weeds and rodents) all over the area around Huckins home. DDT was supposedly harmless but the morning after the spraying. Huckins found several of her favorite birds dead outside her house. And the spraying did not even kill all of the mosquitoes, in fact that summer there were more of them than ever before. Huckins asked Carson if she knew someone in Washington that could help prevent future spraying.

Carson had been hearing about DDT since a Swiss chemist discovered it could be used to kill insects in 1939. To many people, DDT seemed like a miracle substance. Farmers were excited about saving their crops from pests. Doctors and others were excited about saving people's lives by killing disease-carrying insects. But to Carson. DDT appeared to be dangerous to all living creatures.

The more Carson found out about DDT and other pesticides, the more she realized that she needed to help stop future spraying. Carson decided to write a book about pesticides. She said, “There would be no future peace for me if I kept silent.” She called her book Silent Spring.

Carson had spent her life studying, observing, and writing about nature. She was a trained biologist and a talented writer who knew how to present scientific information in compelling stories. Before Silent Spring, she had written other books from the perspective of fish birds, islands and oceans. Carson knew that all things in nature exist in a delicately balanced ecosystem. In Silent Spring, Carson wrote that. although the ecosystem can adjust to changes, it needs time. Carson believed that people u the 1950s were using pesticides carelessly Nature didn’t have time to adjust, wrote Carson, because so any pesticides had been used in such large quantities in such short tame.

1. Why did Huckins write a letter to Rachel Carson?

A．To tell her some bad news.	B．To turn to her for help.
C．To advise her to write a book.	D．To ask her some questions.

2. Which of the effects the spraying of the mixture in Massachusetts had is right?

A．It killed pests such as insects, weeds and rodents around Huckins' home.

B．It killed all of the mosquitoes.

C．There were more birds than ever before

D．It had bad effects on ecosystem.

3. Who would not be happy with DDT?

A．Gardeners.

B．Farmers.

C．Doctors.

D．Biologists.

4. What's the best title of the passage?

A．Rachel Carson's research on nature	B．Rachel Carson's life
C．Rachel Carson's Silent Spring	D．DDT's bad effects on ecosystem

7 . 语法填空

In ancient China, many people built walls around their states to protect their land. It was Emperor Qin Shihuang who had the walls     1    (join) up. The project cost much money and hundreds of thousands of people worked on     2     wall. On the top of it, it is wide enough for five horses or ten men     3    (walk) side by side. Along the wall are watchtowers,     4     soldiers used to keep watch.

I’m a new senior secondary school student. I feel excited because this school     5    (different) in many ways from the former one. Previously, we had     6    (fix) classrooms where students sat in rows. But now it is different. We go to different classrooms for different subjects of our own     7    (choose).

In Tibet, she saw an antelope that told her they were being killed     8     mercy by people for their wool and were now an endangered species.     9    (feel) sad, Daisy traveled to Zimbabwe with the carpet to see the elephants there. Much to her relief, the     10    (Africa) living there protected the elephants well and their number was growing.

8 . Hundreds of scientists, writers and academics sounded a warning to humanity in an open letter published last December: Policymakers and the rest of us must engage openly with the risk of global collapse. Researchers in many areas have projected the widespread collapse as “a credible scenario(情景) this century”.

A survey of scientists found that extreme weather events, food insecurity, and freshwater shortages might create global collapse. Of course, if you are a non-human species, collapse is well underway.

The call for public engagement with the unthinkable is especially germane in this moment of still-uncontrolled pandemic and economic crises in the world's most technologically advanced nations. Not very long ago, it was also unthinkable that a virus would shut down nations and that safety nets would be proven so disastrously lacking in flexibility.

The international scholars’ warning letter doesn't say exactly what collapse will look like or when it might happen. Collapseology, the study of collapse, is more concerned with identifying trends and with them the dangers of everyday civilization. Among the signatories(签署者) of the warning was Bob Johnson, the originator of the “ecological footprint” concept, which measures the total amount of environmental input needed to maintain a given lifestyle. With the current footprint of humanity, “it seems that global collapse is certain to happen in some form, possibly within a decade, certainly within this century,” Johnson said in an email.

“Only if we discuss the consequences of our biophysical limits,” the December warning letter says, “can we have the hope to reduce their speed, severity and harm”. And yet messengers of the coming disturbance are likely to be ignored. We all want to hope things will turn out fine. As a poet wrote,

Man is a victim of dope(麻醉品)

In the incurable form of hope.

The hundreds of scholars who signed the letter are intent(执着) on quieting hope that ignores preparedness. “Let's look directly into the issue of collapse,” they say, “and deal with the terrible possibilities of what we see there to make the best of a troubling future.”

1. What does the underlined word “germane” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Scientific.	B．Credible.
C．Original.	D．Relevant.

2. As for the public awareness of global collapse, the author is________.

A．worried	B．puzzled
C．surprised	D．scared

3. What can we learn from this passage?

A．The signatories may change the biophysical limits.

B．The author agrees with the message of the poem.

C．The issue of collapse is being prioritized.

D．The global collapse is well underway.

9 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空．在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

There     1    (be) a dramatic rise in the number of extreme weather events over the past 20 years,    2    (cause) largely by rising global temperatures,according to a new report from the United Nations. From 2000 to 2019, there were 7,348 major natural disasters around the world,    3    (result) in USD 2,970 billion in economic loss．Much of this increase can be due to climate change. The findings show a critical need     4     (invest) in disaster prevention.

10 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Earth is home to millions of different species. Some can be very small, like bacteria and viruses, which are so small that we cannot see     1     (they) with only our eyes. By contrast, the largest animal species so far found on our planet is the blue whale,     2     can grow up to almost 30 meters in length. The toughest species is probably the water bear. This tiny organism can survive temperatures from 150℃ to a below freezing -272℃.     3     (survive) in their environment, each species has developed its own unique physical characteristics.