1 . Early fifth-century philosopher St．Augustine famously wrote that he knew what time was unless someone asked him．Albert Einstein added another wrinkle when he theorized that time varies depending on where you measure it．Today's state-of-the-art atomic（原子的） clocks have proven Einstein right．Even advanced physics can't decisively tell us what time is, because the answer depends on the question you're asking．

Forget about time as an absolute．What if，instead of considering time in terms of astronomy,we related time to ecology？What if we allowed environmental conditions to set the tempo（节奏） of human life？We're increasingly aware of the fact that we can't control Earth systems with engineering alone，and realizing that we need to moderate（调节）our actions if we hope to live in balance．What if our definition of time reflected that？

Recently，I conceptualized a new approach to timekeeping that's connected to circumstances on our planet，conditions that might change as a result of global warming．We're now building a clock at the Anchorage Museum that reflects the total flow of several major Alaskan rivers，which are sensitive to local and global environmental changes．We've programmed it to match an atomic clock if the waterways continue to flow at their present rate．If the rivers run faster in the future on average，the clock will get ahead of standard time．If they run slower，you'll see the opposite effect．

The clock registers both short-term irregularities and long-term trends in river dynamics．It's a sort of observatory that reveals how the rivers are behaving from their own temporal frame（时间框架），and allows us to witness those changes on our smartwatches or phones．Anyone who opts to go on Alaska Mean River Time will live in harmony with the planet．Anyone who considers river time in relation to atomic time will encounter a major imbalance and may be motivated to counteract it by consuming less fuel or supporting greener policies．

Even if this method of timekeeping is novel in its particulars，early agricultural societies also connected time to natural phenomena．In pre-Classical Greece，for instance，people“corrected”official calendars by shifting dates forward or backward to reflect the change of season．Temporal connection to the environment was vital to their survival．Likewise，river time and other timekeeping systems we're developing may encourage environmental awareness．

When St．Augustine admitted his inability to define time， he highlighted one of time 's most noticeable qualities：Time becomes meaningful only in a defined context．Any timekeeping system is valid，and each is as praiseworthy as its purpose．

1. What is the main idea of Paragraph 1？

A．Timekeeping is increasingly related to nature．

B．Everyone can define time on their own terms．

C．The qualities of time vary with how you measure it．

D．Time is a major concern of philosophers and scientists．

2. The author raises three questions in Paragraph 2 mainly to________．

A．present an assumption	B．evaluate an argument
C．highlight an experiment	D．introduce an approach

3. What can we learn from this passage？

A．Those who do not go on river time will live an imbalanced life．

B．New ways of measuring time can help to control Earth systems．

C．Atomic time will get ahead of river time if the rivers run slower．

D．Modern technology may help to shape the rivers’ temporal frame．

4. What can we infer from this passage？

A．It is crucial to improve the definition of time．

B．A fixed frame will make time meaningless．

C．We should live in harmony with nature．

D．History is a mirror reflecting reality．

2 . A six-year-old longing to keep a unicorn in her backyard figured she’d get the hard part out of the way first.

Last November, Madeline wrote a letter to the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control with a straightforward request. “Dear LA County, I would like your approval if I can have a unicorn in my backyard if I can find one. Please send me a letter in response.”

Director Mayeda replied two weeks later. The department does in fact license unicorns, she said, under certain conditions. Those include polishing the unicorn’s horn at least once a month with a soft cloth, feeding it watermelon at least once a week, covering it with only nontoxic and biodegradable sparkles and giving it regular access to sunlight, moonbeams and rainbows. And, because unicorns are indeed very rare to find, the department is also giving Madeline a toy unicorn to keep her company during her search, as a token of appreciation.

“It is always rewarding to hear from young people who thoughtfully consider the requirements of providing a loving home for animals,” Mayeda wrote in the letter. “I like your sense of responsible pet ownership to seek permission in advance to keep a unicorn in Los Angeles County.”

Mayeda told the Washington Post that this is the first time the department has received a request for a license for a unicorn or any mythical creature. They were impressed with the first-grader for wanting to ask permission in the first place, and doing her research to work out how to go about that. She and her colleagues deal with a lot of “life-and-death” issues on the job, whether that’s seeing cases of animal abuse or animals hurting people or making decisions about having to put down dangerous or sick animals. So Madeline’s letter has considerably brightened their spirits, and she is due to visit the department this week to discuss her unicorn license application. Safe to say, she’s in for a magical surprise.

1. Why did Madeline write the letter?

A．To apply to visit a unicorn.	B．To learn to provide animal care.
C．To ask permission to keep a pet.	D．To figure out how to find a unicorn.

2. What can we learn from paragraph 3?

A．Her application was disapproved.	B．Requirements should be met for the license.
C．She was presented with a live unicorn.	D．Guidance was given for her search.

3. Which of the following best describes Mayeda?

A．Imaginative.

B．Sensitive.

C．Flexible.

D．Convincing.

4. Why does the department think the letter “has brightened their spirits”?

A．Because it is the first application letter for a pet.

B．Because animal protection is a life-and-death issue.

C．Because they are worn out with their daily work.

D．Because they are touched with the girl’s deeds.

5 . I’ve been in an 18-year love-hate relationship with a black walnut tree.

It’s a unique tree. In late September or early October, falling fruits as hard as baseballs threaten the skulls (头骨) of you, your children, your neighbors and those that reside next door to them. Umbrellas in the yard are a must while dining in early August, and as for me, I wear my bike helmet while working in the garden.

The black walnut also releases a chemical substance through its roots as a competitive strategy. It’s poisonous to several common plants. There have been many new plant varieties that I brought home with hopes that maybe the black walnut would accept them, but they failed to flourish.

What does work are native plants that naturally grow in the area. Native plants are important to have around since they provide beneficial pollinators (传粉者) like birds, bees and butterflies with seeds and contribute to a healthy and biodiverse environment. Native plants for this area are generally easy to grow, so they experience less stress.

Have I thought of getting rid of this giant pain in my tiny backyard? Yes, however, getting rid of this tree standing at 50 feet with an 87-inch trunk is next to impossible. It’s also protected under the law. Rightfully so. Trees are important to the urban forest and for all of those that inhabit it.

Sometimes I think about my life without the black walnut. I can’t imagine a spring without the birds who arrive every year and loudly sing their songs before dawn. I’d miss falling asleep on lazy weekend afternoons as I look up into its leaves.

Every spring, I wonder what the season holds: What are the chances of being knocked unconscious while barbecuing? Like any good relationship, I’ll never be pleased. I’m stuck with this tree, so I’ll listen to its needs and give it the space it requires. In return, my walnut offers a habitat for wildlife and a reminder.

1. Why does the author wear a bike helmet while working in the garden?

A．To protect the injured skull.	B．To prevent herself from sunburn.
C．To avoid being hit by the nuts.	D．To reduce the chance of getting bitten by bees.

2. What is the tree’s survival strategy?

A．It attracts beneficial pollinators.

B．It lets out poison to drive away pests.

C．It produces a chemical fatal to some plants.

D．It competes for nutrition with similar species.

3. Which of the following DOESN’T account for the author’s love-hate relationship with the tree?

A．The volume of its fruits may bring inconvenience.

B．The tree outcompetes the native plants in the garden.

C．The tree is home to numerous birds and other creatures.

D．The presence of the tree takes up much space of the garden.

4. The author most probably got a reminder from the tree that ________.

A．it’s better to give than to take

B．trees and plants have their own ways to flourish

C．even a good relationship is not always trouble-free

D．acceptance, instead of resistance, is the better way to be

6 . At first, the grains of rice that Ingo Potrykus held in his fingers did not seem at all _________, but inside, these grains were not white, as ordinary rice is, but a very pale yellow — thanks to beta-carotene (胡萝卜素), a building block for vitamin A.

For more than a decade Potrykus had _________ creating a golden rice that could improve the lives of millions of the poorest people in the world, strengthening their eyesight and their _________ disease.

_________ imagining golden rice was one thing and creating one quite another. Year after year, Potrykus and his colleagues ran into one _________ after another until success finally came in the spring of 1999.

At that point, he tackled an even greater challenge. The golden grains _________ pieces of DNA borrowed from bacteria and flowers. It was what some would call Frankenfood, a product of genetic engineering. As such, it _________ a web of hopes and fears.

The debate began the moment genetically engineered crops (GM crops) were first sold in the 1990s, and it has _________ ever since. First to start major protests against biotechnology were European environmentalists and consumer-advocacy groups. They were soon followed by their U.S. counterparts (相对应的人事物).

The hostility is _________. Most of the GM crops __________ so far have been developed to produce a plant that is not harmed by chemicals used to kill weeds (杂草) in the fields. These genetically engineered crops are often sold by the same large, multinational corporations that __________ the weed-killing chemicals that farmers spray on their fields. Consumers have become suspicious (怀疑的).

The benefits did seem small __________ golden rice was developed. It is the first strong example of a GM crop that may __________ not just the farmers who grow it but also the consumers who eat it. In this case, those include at least a million children who die every year because they are weakened by vitamin-A deficiency (缺乏) and an additional 350,000 who go blind.

Many people __________ poverty and hunger look at golden rice and see it as evidence that GM crops can be made to serve the greater public good. They see a critical role for GM crops in feeding the world’s ever-increasing population. As former U.S. President Jimmy Carter put it, “Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy; __________ is.”

1.

A．typical

B．special

C．local

D．white

2.

A．dreamed of

B．come in handy

C．been reminded of

D．broken up

3.

A．attempt at

B．effort to

C．resistance to

D．majority of

4.

A．But

B．And

C．While

D．Since

5.

A．surprise

B．obstacle

C．norm

D．opposition

6.

A．achieved

B．stressed

C．overlooked

D．contained

7.

A．was caught in

B．was alive with

C．be conscious of

D．was honored by

8.

A．announced

B．maintained

C．escalated

D．applied

9.

A．brilliant

B．understandable

C．discharged

D．rewarding

10.

A．introduced

B．reminded

C．respected

D．overlooked

11.

A．toss and turn

B．give and take

C．produce and sell

D．demand and supply

12.

A．until

B．after

C．although

D．when

13.

A．feature

B．mark

C．build

D．benefit

14.

A．worried about

B．ashamed of

C．filled with

D．admired for

15.

A．terror

B．misery

C．starvation

D．crisis

7 . When it comes to black holes, we are caught between a rock and a hard place. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that all black holes give off thermal radiation(热辐射)and eventually evaporate(蒸发). In doing so, they seemed to be destroying information contained in the matter that fell into them, therefore going against a rule of quantum mechanics(量子力学): information cannot be created or destroyed.

Some argued that the outgoing “Hawking radiation” preserved the information. However, if this were the case, then given certain assumptions, the event horizon(视界)—— the black hole’s boundary of no return—— would become intensely energetic, forming a firewall. But such firewalls go against the theory of general relativity, which says that space-time near the event horizon should be smooth. The black hole firewall paradox was thus born.

Now, Sean Carroll at the California Institute of Technology and his colleagues have shown that the paradox disappears when the evolution of black holes is understood in the context of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

The quantum state of the universe is described by something called the global wave function(全局波函数). According to traditional quantum mechanics, whenever there are many possible outcomes for physical process, this wave function ”collapses“ to represent one outcome. But in the many-worlds Interpretation, the wave function doesn’t collapse-rather, it branches, with one branch for each outcome. The branches evolve independently of each other, as separate worlds.

In this way of thinking, the formation of a black hole and its evaporation due to Hawking radiation lead to multiple branches of the wave function. An observer monitoring a black hole also splits into multiple observers, one in each branch.

The new work shows that from the perspective of an observer in a given branch, space-time behaves as described by general relativity and the black hole has no firewall.

But does that imply loss of information? No, says team member Aidan Chatwin-Davies, also of Caltech. That is because the principle of preservation of information applies to the global wave function and not to its individual branches, he says. Information is preserved across all branches of the global wave function, but not necessarily in any one branch. Given this case, a black hole that doesn’t lose information and yet has a smooth, uneventful event horizon without a fire wall isn’t a contradiction.

Yasunori Nomura at the University of California at Berkeleyy has independently arrived at some similar conclusions in his work. He agrees that the many-worlds approach resolves the paradox around information loss from black holes. “Many worlds should be taken seriously,” he says.

1. Which word in the article is similar in meaning to the underlined word in Paragraph 2?

A．Assumption (Paragraph 2)	B．Interpretation (Paragraph 4)
C．Evaporation (Paragraph 5)	D．Contradiction (Paragraph 7)

2. According to the many-worlds interpretation, which of the following statements is true?

A．There is a firewall.	B．No observer will split.
C．No information is lost.	D．The wave function collapses.

3. The last paragraph is intended to __________.

A．introduce an independent scientist

B．support the many-worlds interpretation

C．question whether many worlds really exist

D．argue against the information loss from black holes

4. What is the article mainly about?

A．Rules of quantum mechanics.

B．A new understanding of the black hole.

C．Hawking’s interpretation of the black hole.

D．The development of the global wave function.

8 . The news that Derby has approved what promises to be Britain’s largest urban rewilding project so far is very welcome. The 320-hectare Allestree Park will, subject to detailed consultation, be given over to a range of habitats and perhaps even see the reintroduction of species such as dormice and red kites.

Urban rewilding - which is not the same as urban green space, however extensive - can take many forms. They _________ from aiming to slow down the rate of species loss by _________ swift (雨燕) and sparrow boxes to new apartment constructions (there are now 247m fewer house sparrows than there were in 1980) to designating areas the size of Allestree Park.

But in fact, some of the most successful projects have been _________. Canvey Wick, a disused area of the Thames estuary, returned to a “self-wilded rainforest” that is now home to nearly 2,000 invertebrate (无脊椎的) species, including at least three _________ thought to be extinct. Rivers _________ natural wildlife corridors, working their way through cities, then linking them to countryside. The Guardian columnist George Monbiot gives the example of the River Wandle, which in the 19th century supported up to 90 factories, and was described as “the hardest worked river for its size in the world.” Now it teems with (充满着) wildlife, and the local authorities have considered _________ beavers (海狸).

Urban rewilding, _________, won’t make a massive difference to global heating, with only 6% or so of Britain is actually built on it. But giving nature freer rein (控制) in parts of towns and cities could help to mitigate (缓解) flooding, and to slow species loss. Importantly, about 83% of us live on the portion of the UK’s land that is classed as urbanised, and access to nature has also been shown to improve psychological well-being. One recent Canadian study found that adding just 10 trees to a city block had a big effect on people’s _________ of their health; research is beginning to find that increasing biodiversity can heighten that impact. And on a more general scale, those who _________ wildness are more likely to fight for it.

The pressure for development means that there will always be tension with __________ interests: the Swans-combe Peninsula in Kent, another self-wilded area that is home to 1,992 species of invertebrates, including 250 of conservation concern, is now __________ for the London Resort, including a theme park expected to destroy 76 hectares of priority habitat which forms a vital part of the ecological network. This loss would be __________ losing 140 football pitches (球场) __________ of nationally important habitat.

In these mid-pandemic, post-Brexit, austerity-bitten (财政紧缩的) times, the financial arguments can be hardest to __________ for councils short of cash, but the evidence that “we need nature as much as it needs us”, in the words of Jo Smith of the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, is surely __________. With a bit of imagination, flexibility and commitment, many more urban areas could follow Derby’s example.

1.

A．differ

B．originate

C．range

D．develop

2.

A．transporting

B．attaching

C．leading

D．transforming

3.

A．mature

B．established

C．reputational

D．accidental

4.

A．specifically

B．fundamentally

C．previously

D．primarily

5.

A．bring about

B．serve as

C．contribute to

D．rely on

6.

A．breeding

B．launching

C．introducing

D．favoring

7.

A．by contrast

B．for instance

C．in itself

D．in the meanwhile

8.

A．appreciations

B．perceptions

C．insights

D．recovery

9.

A．encounter

B．sustain

C．create

D．promote

10.

A．recreational

B．political

C．industrial

D．commercial

11.

A．qualified

B．maintained

C．reserved

D．cultivated

12.

A．linked to

B．inseparable from

C．dismissed as

D．equivalent to

13.

A．value

B．profit

C．benefit

D．worth

14.

A．approve

B．counter

C．settle

D．consider

15.

A．fundamental

B．essential

C．overwhelming

D．obvious

10 . When Mexican scientist of the evolution of animal behavior, Laura Cuaya, moved to Hungary for her postdoctoral studies in Budapest, she brought her pet dog, Kun-kun, along for the ride. Cuaya couldn't help noticing how locals warmed to dogs. This prompted her naturally curious scientific mind to start asking questions. “Here people are talking all the time to Kun-kun, but I always wonder if Kun-kun can recognize that people in Budapest speak Hungarian, not Spanish?” So she set out to find an answer through a scientific study.

Cuaya and her colleagues decided to use brain images from MRI scanning to shed light on her hunch. They worked with dogs of various ages that had, until the experiment, only heard their owners speak just one of the two languages, Spanish or Hungarian. Not surprisingly, getting the dogs to happily take part in the experiment took some creative coaxing and animal training! The researchers first needed to teach Kun-kun and her 17 fellow participating dogs including a labradoodle, a golden retriever and Australian shepherds, to lie still in a brain scanner. Their pet parents were always present, and they could leave the scanner at any point.

The research team played children's book classic The Little Prince in both Spanish and Hungarian while scanning the dogs' brains with an MRI machine. They were looking for evidence that their brains reacted differently to a familiar and unfamiliar language. The researchers also played scrambled versions of the story to find out if dogs could distinguish between speech and non-speech.

The images reveal that dogs' brains show different patterns of activity for an unfamiliar language than for a familiar one — the first time anyone has proved, researchers say, that a non-human brain can distinguish between two languages. This means that the sounds and rhythms of a familiar language are accessible to non-humans.

Interestingly, the team also found that the brains of older dogs were more skilled at detecting speech “suggesting a role for the amount of language exposure”. They suggest that dogs have refined their ability to distinguish between human languages over the long process of domestication.

1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?

A．The background of the study.	B．The significance of the study.
C．The concern of the researcher.	D．The introduction to the researcher.

2. What did Cuaya consider when choosing dogs for study?

A．Age limits.

B．Brain patterns.

C．Language exposure.

D．Owners' commands.

3. The results of the study are ________.

A．practical

B．contradictory

C．compromising

D．groundbreaking

4. Which of the following can be the best title?

A．Dogs Can Tell Foreign Languages	B．Dog Brains Have Different Patterns
C．Old Dogs Know More About Human Speech	D．Dogs Can Differ Speech From Non-Speech