1 . Hibernation (冬眠) is a classic topic of science fiction. In movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, or Passengers, crew members are put into a state of sleep to take year-long journeys to space. Now a new study from Washington University has shown that human hibernation may soon become a reality.
The research team carried out tests on rats — animals that do not naturally hibernate. They first identified a group of neurons (神经元) in a deep brain region, which were found to be involved in controlling body temperature during hibernation. They showed that, in mice, these neurons could be stimulated using ultrasound (超声波), which was delivered through a helmet without causing an injury.
When receiving the ultrasound, the mice showed a drop in body temperature of about3°C, and their heart rates fell by about 47%. When the ultrasound system was switched off, they woke up again. The result was “surprising and fascinating”, said Hong Chen, a professor who led the work.
Researchers are also trying to determine how to harness the power of hibernation to help humans. They believe that it could be key to addressing health conditions like heart disease, and Alzheimer’s. Furthermore, hibernation’s ability to slow aging, which was observed in bats, could benefit space exploration, enabling longer missions with less food requirements. Research in animals also suggests that bodies of hibernating astronauts might lose less bone and muscle, making them fit and ready to start challenging exploration soon after they wake up.
By unlocking the secrets of this remarkable process, researchers may uncover ways to improve human health, as well as gain new insights into the natural world. Therefore, the exploration of hibernation is an exciting area that is sure to yield numerous benefits in the years to come.
The scientists now plan to look at how lowered body temperature might affect the cognitive abilities of humans. “Our next experiments will test working memory in monkeys. This is important because while astronauts physically hibernate as they fly into deep space, their brain still needs to be working,” said Chen.
1. How did researchers put rats into hibernation?| A．By lowering their body temperature. |
| B．By activating specific brain neurons. |
| C．By putting a regular helmet on them. |
| D．By using ultrasound through an operation. |
| A．Employ. | B．Challenge. | C．Overlook. | D．Discover. |
| A．It improves people’s mental health. |
| B．It predicts a variety of heart diseases. |
| C．It helps astronauts keep physically fit. |
| D．It enables astronauts to build up muscle. |
| A．To point out the significance of the study. |
| B．To bring out the focus of follow-up studies. |
| C．To discuss other factors affecting hibernation. |
| D．To explain practical applications of the finding. |
2 . Being highly connected to a strong social network has its benefits. Now a new study is showing the same goes for trees, thanks to their underground neighbors. The study is the first to show that the growth of adult trees is linked to their participation in fungal (真菌) networks living in the forest soil. Though past research has focused on young trees, these findings give new insight into the importance of fungal networks to older trees — which are more environmentally beneficial for functions like capturing carbon.
“Large trees make up the main part of the forest, so they drive what the forest is doing,” said researcher Joseph Birch, who led the study. When they live in the forest soil, fungal networks act as a sort of highway, allowing water, nutrients and compounds to flow back and forth among the trees. The network also helps nutrients flow to resource-limited trees like family units that support one another in times of stress.
Cores taken from 350 Douglas firs (花旗松) showed that annual tree ring growth was related to the extent of fungal connections a tree had with other trees. They had much higher growth than those that had only a few connections. The research also showed that trees with more connections to many unique fungi had much greater growth than those with only one or two connections. “If you have this network that is helping trees grow faster, that helps capture more carbon year after year. These networks may help trees grow more steadily even as conditions become more stressful, and could even help protect them against death.” said Birch.
Birch hopes his findings lead to further studies in different kinds of forests in other geographical areas, because it’s likely that the connections among trees change from year to year. He said, “Knowing whether fungal networks are operating the same way in other tree species could inform how we reforest areas after harvesting them, and inform how we plant trees to preserve these networks.”
1. In what way do the new findings differ from the previous ones?| A．They reveal the value of fungal networks to adult trees. |
| B．They clarify misunderstandings of fungal networks. |
| C．They demonstrate a new way to capture carbon. |
| D．They confirm the benefits of fungal networks. |
| A．By acting as the center of family units. |
| B．By maintaining the balance of resources. |
| C．By fighting against diseases. |
| D．By bettering forest soil conditions. |
| A．Tree rings. |
| B．Cores from Douglas firs. |
| C．Douglas firs. |
| D．Fungal networks. |
| A．The fungal networks support one another in times of stress. |
| B．The fungal networks enable us to know more about reforestation. |
| C．The findings can apply to different kinds of forests in other geographical areas. |
| D．The fungal networks will help trees grow more steadily if conditions become more stressful. |
3 . There is hot, and then there is hot! Extreme heat is a period of high heat and humidity with temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit for at least two to three days. Extreme heat is responsible for the highest number of annual deaths among all weather-related hazards (危害).
It’s not your imagination. Summers have been getting hotter and hotter with extreme heatwaves occurring earlier and more frequently. But why is this happening and can we better predict heatwaves in advance to give people time to prepare?
“Climate change is here and it’s already been changing human behavior and causing significant influence in the society. As global temperatures rise, historically excessive (过高的) temperatures are more likely to occur.” says Craig Ramseyer, an assistant professor who studies climate modeling in the department of geography at Virginia Tech.
Ramseyer says heatwaves are the most concerning because of the lack of attention they normally receive. “Hurricanes, tornadoes, and flash floods drive more media attention because of the natural attraction with the visual impact of those types of hazards. However, heat does not tend to be as attractive and it becomes very difficult to communicate the danger to the public,” said Ramseyer. “Around the world, more deaths occur due to extreme heat than from hurricanes, flooding, and drought combined. It impacts the most helpless of our citizens who do not have enough access to air conditioning, water, and other important resources.”
Since the Earth is running warmer than it used to, Ramseyer says that when these heatwave-related weather patterns take place, it results in higher extreme temperatures than we used to experience 30 years ago.
“As a global community, we need to decrease carbon emissions as soon as possible. We have rapidly developing technologies that are going to help advance the process, but the faster the better, there is no time to waste.”
1. What can we learn from the article?| A．Extreme heat is a No.1 death cause. |
| B．People are suffering more extreme heat. |
| C．A 100-degree heat is an extreme heat. |
| D．Extreme heat is getting better over the years. |
| A．Climate change will soon affect human behaviors. |
| B．High temperatures happened frequently in history. |
| C．Air conditioning and water can stop the extreme heat. |
| D．Garbage sorting can less advance the climate change. |
| A．Extreme heat can be stopped by technology. |
| B．People have enough time to solve the climate problems. |
| C．The danger of extreme heat is not easily transferred to the public. |
| D．Heatwave-related weather patterns will decrease in the future. |
| A．Complaints about extreme heat. | B．Prevention of extreme heat. |
| C．Characters of extreme heat. | D．Technologies behind extreme heat. |
4 . Last year, the bushfires in Australia burned more than 12.35 million acres of land. At least 25 people were killed and 2000 homes destroyed. According to the BBC, that was the most casualties(伤亡) from wildfires in the country since 2009. The University of Sydney estimates that 480 million animals have died in South Wales alone.
Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst and climate researcher at Berkeley Earth, said warmer temperatures and extreme weather made Australia more susceptible to fires and increased the length of the fire season. "The drier conditions combined with record high temperatures in 2019 created main conditions for the disastrous fires. Australia's fires were worsened by the combination of those two. 2019 was the perfect storm for being the warmest year on record for Australia and the driest year on record for Australia," Hausfather added on Friday.
Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, said warmer ocean temperatures are also contributed to more variable weather around the world. Trenberth believes that global warming contributed to energy imbalances and hot spots in the oceans, which can create a wave in the atmosphere that locks weather patterns in places, causing longer rain events in Indonesia, for example, and at the same time contributing to drought in Australia. He said that once an area experiences drought conditions for two months or more, it increases the risk of fires catching and spreading. Those changing weather patterns due to global warming make drought events longer.
Climate experts stress that climate change is not the only factor in the severity(严重) of wildfires. How land is managed can also impact the amount of fuel available for fires. Practices like controlled bums and other factors can impact the risk to people and property, such as warning systems and the type of development in a given area. Changing those policies has great potential to limit future damage from wildfires along with changes to how fire management resources are dispatched(派遣).
1. What are the numbers about in paragraph 1?| A．The causes of Australian fires. | B．The results of Australian fires. |
| C．The damaged areas of Australian fires. | D．The property destruction of Australian fires. |
| A．Very quickly to adapt to. |
| B．Very seriously to focus on. |
| C．Very likely to be influenced by. |
| D．Very easily to be protected against. |
| A．Longer dry weather contributes to global warming. |
| B．Global wanning is also a main cause of the bushfires. |
| C．Warmer ocean temperatures leads to the fires directly. |
| D．The imbalanced energy leads to the temperature rising. |
| A．To stress the effects of Australia fires. |
| B．To show the methods for land management. |
| C．To predict the seriousness of Australia fires. |
| D．To provide some advice about reducing fire damage. |
5 . The San Diego County Water Authority has an unusual plan to use the city’s San Vicente Reservoir(水库)to store solar power. The project could help unlock America’s clean energy future.
Perhaps ten years from now, large underground pipes will connect the lake to a new reservoir built about 1100 feet higher. When the sun is high in the sky, California’s rich solar power will pump (泵水) water into that upper reservoir. When the sun goes down, the force of water would produce 500 megawatts (百万千瓦)of electricity for up to eight hours. “It’s a water battery!” says Neena Kuzmich, director of engineering for the water authority.
The technology that San Diego puts forward is already in use at more than 40 sites in the US. Some of them were built during the 1970s to store electricity produced by nuclear power plants. Now, the need to store power from renewable sources is bringing this old technology back.
Water batteries have many competitors, when it comes to storing energy. However, they have their own advantages. Water batteries are a proven way to store large amounts of power. The San Vicente project would store about as much electricity as the batteries in 50, 000 of Tesla’s Model 3 cars. They also don’t require hard-to-find battery materials. The biggest problem with them is that it is hard to find places to build them. They need a great deal of water, land to build two reservoirs and permission to damage the landscape.
Kelly Catlett, director of an environmental organization, says, “We won’t support projects that build new damns on rivers and damage ecosystems. But San Diego’s plan looks like something different, because it uses an existing reservoir and doesn’t damage any streams.”
1. What’s the main idea of Paragraph 2?| A．What a water battery is. | B．How the project will work. |
| C．Why reservoirs are needed. | D．What the clean energy future is. |
| A．They can power Tesla’s cars. |
| B．They can store renewable sources. |
| C．The battery materials are easy to get. |
| D．The technology applied is a new breakthrough. |
| A．Damage caused to nature. | B．The shortage of solar power. |
| C．Limited ability to store energy. | D．Proper places for construction. |
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Worried. | C．Supportive. | D．Doubtful. |
6 . Last year, Americans spent more than $22 billion on chocolate. But the tasty treat comes at a far greater cost than this.
That’s because farmers often cut down trees in the rainforest when they need more land to plant cacao trees. This leads to climate(气候)change. In turn, climate change hurts cacao crops(产量). This puts chocolate at risk. But experts are developing solutions to ensure its future.
Chocolate comes mainly from the Cocoa Belt, a narrow piece of land along the equator. In the Cocoa Belt, it is hot and rainy. The conditions are perfect for growing cacao. But in recent years, climate change has a bad influence on the weather in the Cocoa Belt. As a result, cacao trees produce fewer beans. Climate change has also led to the spread of disease that harms trees.
In 2013, researchers studied the changing conditions in the Cocoa Belt. They said that by 2050, it will be harder to grow cacao in 90% of places where it is now planted. But Christian Bunn of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture says chocolate won’t disappear anytime soon. Plans to protect it are already taking shape.
One solution to the problem is cross-breeding(杂交). Scientists have developed new cacao trees that stand up to disease. Some even produce more cacao.
Weather stations will also help. Groups are building them in Africa. Around 70% of cacao is grown there. lnformation from the stations will help farmers know when to plant trees. “Years back, farmers would follow farming rules that go with the seasons,” Bunn said. “Those rules don’t always apply anymore.”
These fixes could help farmers grow more cacao on less land. That could help end the push to clear rainforest. That’s good for chocolate, and a sweet deal for the planet.
“Everything has a side effect,” Bunn said. “We have to be smarter about our food.”
1. What causes a drop in cacao crops according to the text?| A．Climate change. | B．Less farmland. |
| C．Water pollution. | D．Higher costs. |
| A．Go with. | B．Protect against. | C．Die from. | D．Bring about. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Uncaring. | C．Positive. | D．Confused. |
| A．Solutions to Saving Chocolate | B．Steps to Protect Rainforest |
| C．New Ways to Plant Cacao Trees | D．Side Effects on Traditional Farming |
Located in Ordos, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Kubuqi Desert (库布齐沙漠) is the closest desert to China’s capital Beijing. It was once known as the “sea of death”. However, in the past 30 years, the government, social organizations and local farmers
Historically, Kubuqi was a rich city filled with water and grass. But due
The 102,000 residents in the desert have enjoyed the benefits of managing with desertification. Meng Keda,
8 . I used to think my life was perfect. My mom had her dream job and a beautiful office and I had my own room with a computer and a garden to look after. But one Sunday, everything changed. A hurricane
But something
We started a new
I
Looking back, I realize that the hurricane
| A．visited | B．exchanged | C．approached | D．swept |
| A．affected | B．changed | C．destroyed | D．cleaned |
| A．invisible | B．unexpected | C．impossible | D．awkward |
| A．mind | B．contact | C．aid | D．sense |
| A．belief | B．request | C．wealth | D．kindness |
| A．really | B．obviously | C．naturally | D．clearly |
| A．sold | B．rented | C．showed | D．opened |
| A．business | B．project | C．tradition | D．life |
| A．destinations | B．gatherings | C．journeys | D．memories |
| A．family | B．survivors | C．community | D．supporters |
| A．soon | B．never | C．already | D．also |
| A．fortune telling | B．story telling | C．mind reading | D．house keeping |
| A．brought about | B．resulted from | C．made up | D．gave out |
| A．rescued | B．unearthed | C．enriched | D．recorded |
| A．legend | B．effort | C．party | D．disaster |
9 . Desertification, the process by which fertile (肥沃的) land becomes desert, has severe impacts on food production and is worsened by climate change.
Africa’s Great Green Wall is a project to build an 8,000- kilometre-long forest across 11 of the continent s countries. The project is meant to contain the growing Sahara Desert and fight climate change.
First proposed in 2005, the project aims to plant a forest from Senegal on the Atlantic Ocean in western Africa to Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti in the east.
| A．But the project faces many problems. |
| B．That is only 4 percent of the programme’s goal. |
| C．However, it is difficult to work on the Great Green Wall. |
| D．A quarter of Africa is under threat of food shortage. |
| E．Some progress has been made in recent years in the east of the continent. |
| F．Supporters hope that the project will create millions of green jobs in rural Africa. |
| G．The U.N. says up to 45 percent of Africa’s land is impacted by desertification, worse than any other continent. |
In a world that is full of different kinds of colors, red quite stands out. In China, people call this color China Red,
This expression fully shows Chinese people’s special love for red. So why are the Chinese really fond of it? One reason
In a word, red is popular in China and it’s more than just a color. It carries the rich culture of this nation. And you’re welcome
