1 . A worldwide shift from fossil fuel-powered cars to electric vehicles could significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that humans emit to the atmosphere. But current strategies for vehicle electrification (电气化) can also shift some pollution to communities already suffering under higher economic, health and environmental burdens, researchers warn.
California, which leads the United States by a mile when it comes to EV adoption, offers a window into this evolving problem. The state is aggressively seeking to reduce its carbon footprint and has made substantial increases in wind and solar power generation as well as in the promotion of electric vehicle purchases. One tool the state has used is the California Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, or CVRP, which kicked off in 2010 and offers consumers money back for the purchase of new EVs.
Now, an analysis of the CVRP’s impact on the state’s air quality from 2010 to 2021 reveals both good and bad news, researchers report May 3 in PLOS Climate.
The good news is that the CVRP is responsible for making a dent in the state’s overall CO2 emissions, reducing them by about 280,000 metric tons per year on average. The bad news is that the most disadvantaged communities in the state didn’t see the same overall improvement in air quality. Those communities in fact saw an increase in one type of air pollution, tiny particulates known as PM2.5. That increase may be indirectly related to putting more EVs on the road. Although electric vehicles themselves don’t produce PM2.5 from their tailpipes, increased electricity generation, if it’s not fossil fuel-free, can. Renewable resources, including rooftop solar cells, supplied about half of California’s electricity in 2022. But natural gas-fired power plants still provide a large part of the state’s power.
“Electric vehicles are often incorrectly referred to as ‘zero-emission vehicles’, but they’re only as clean as the underlying electric grid (电网) from which the energy is sourced,” Mejía-Duwan says. The most disadvantaged 25 percent of the state’s communities also contain 50 percent of the power plants, the team found.
1. What do we know from paragraph 2?| A．California takes the lead in environmental protection. |
| B．Wind and solar power generation has dominated California. |
| C．California’s carbon footprint has been reduced as planned. |
| D．The launch of CVRP is intended to promote electric vehicle purchases. |
| A．adjustment. | B．shift. | C．reduction. | D．increase |
| A．Putting more EVs on the road. | B．Increased electricity generation. |
| C．Warming climate. | D．Increased rooftop solar cells. |
| A．Zero emission for EVs can’t be ensured nowadays. |
| B．‘Zero emission’ isn’t good enough to describe EVs. |
| C．EVs, with no zero emission, shouldn’t be advocated. |
| D．EVs have a promising future as zero emission vehicles. |
Dude
The first time my husband Bart told me about his horse, Dude, I knew their bond had been something special.
Growing up on a family farm, Bart loved all animals. But Dude, a birthday gift Bart received when he turned nine, became his favorite. Years later when Bart’s father sold Dude, Bart grieved (悲痛) in secret.
One evening, as we took a walk, Bart suddenly asked, “Did I ever tell you Dude won the World Racking Horse Championship?”
“Rocking?” asked I.
“Racking, it’s a kind of dancing horses do.” Bart corrected, smiling gently. “Dude was the greatest and most intelligent racking horse ever. Whenever I whistled (吹口哨), he would run at me and dance.”
“Then why’d you let your dad sell him?” I asked.
Bart explained, “When I found a job away from home, Dad figured I wouldn’t be riding anymore, so he sold Dude without even asking me. Running a horse farm means you buy and sell horses all the time.”
“I’ve always wondered if that horse missed me as much as I’ve missed him. I’ve never had the heart to try to find him. I couldn’t stand knowing if something bad. . . .” Bart’s voice trailed off (减弱).
My heart ached for him. I didn’t know what to do. Then one day while walking through the pasture (牧场), a strange thought came to me — finding Dude for Bart. How absurd! I thought. I knew nothing about Dude, certainly not how to find him. The harder I tried to dismiss the thought, the stronger it grew.
One morning after that first “find Dude” thought, I met with our new neighbor, Mr. Parker, and started a friendly conversation. When he mentioned he’d once bought a horse from Bart’s dad, I interrupted. “You remember the horse’s name?” I asked.
“Sure do.” Mr. Parker said. “Dude. Paid twenty-five hundred dollars for him.”
I went wild with joy, barely catching my breath. “Do you know what happened to him?”
“I sold him for a good profit years ago.”
“Would you be willing to try to help me find him?” I asked. And then I explained the situation.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Mr. Parker agreed to join the search, promising not to say anything to Bart.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Getting out of the car, I asked Bart to whistle as he used to do to Dude.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . Splash (落水声)! Did you hear that? Can you guess what it is? Can you figure it out? If you guessed the ocean, then you’re correct! I believe that my organization, Reef Check, is the most worthy of receiving the Chocolate Heart money. Do you want to know why? Well, soon you’ll find out.
First of all, Reef Check needs the money to repair and clean coral reefs (珊瑚礁) which are home to millions of sea animals. Reef Check hopes to educate the public about the value of reef ecosystems (生态系统) and the danger that sea animals and plants are facing. Based in Los Angeles, Reef Check has volunteer teams in more than 90 countries, making community volunteers, businesses, universities, and other non-profit organizations work together. It works to create a worldwide network of volunteer teams trained in Reef Check’s scientific methods that survey coral and rocky reefs and report on reef health. Also, Reef Check takes action to protect remaining ancient reefs and repair reefs in danger worldwide.
For example, imagine you are a poor sea animal, whose home just got destroyed or wasn’t clean. What would you do? What could you do? Nothing much, really. But that’s exactly Reef Check’s job! To clean and protect these homes for many sea animals!
Furthermore, in 1997, Reef Check carried out the first-ever survey of coral reef health that provided scientific evidence that our coral reefs were in danger because of overfishing, illegal fishing, and pollution. The results surprised many biologists who had not realized the seriousness of human influence on reefs. In August 2002, Reef Check presented its report, The Global Coral Reef Crisis — Trends and Solutions, at the World Summit in South Africa. The report warned that there was no reef in the world that remained untouched by human influence, such as overfishing, pollution, and climate change.
In short, everyone should have a home including animals from the sea. So don’t leave them out! Be generous and give them a home!
1. According to the passage, Reef Check is_____.| A．a team of scientists | B．a non-profit organization |
| C．an official department | D．a profitable company |
| A．Reefs are disappearing at a fast speed. | B．All sea animals are living on reefs. |
| C．Reefs are damaged or polluted by humans. | D．Reefs are protected well by governments. |
| A．Reefs facing danger. | B．Humans protecting reefs. |
| C．Sea animals living on reefs. | D．Organizations doing research. |
| A．To explain why Reef Check needs support. | B．To introduce a dangerous but important job. |
| C．To describe what Reef Check is. | D．To educate the public to care for the environment. |
4 . The forest was full of shadows as Sylvie hurried through it one summer evening in June. The child hurried the cow through the dark forest to her grandmother’s home.
Suddenly the air was cut by a sharp whistle not far away. Sylvie knew it wasn’t a friendly bird’s whistle. She hid in some bushes. But she was too late.
“Hello, little girl,” a young man called out cheerfully. “I’ve lost my way. Can I spend the night at your house?” he asked.
Sylvie didn’t answer. The stranger began walking with Sylvie as she followed her cow through the forest. She was glad when she could see her grandmother standing near the farm house. The stranger explained his problem to Sylvie’s grandmother.
“Of course you can stay with us.” she said. The young man explained he was a scientist, who collected birds.
“Do you put them in a cage?” Sylvie asked.
“No,” he answered slowly, “I shoot them and preserve them with special chemicals.”
“I’ve been looking for a white heron(苍鹭),” he said, “It’s a very rare white bird.”
But Sylvie’s heart began to beat fast. She knew that strange white bird! Early the next morning, she quietly hurried through the forest. She finally reached a huge pine tree, and climbed to the top. Sylvie’s bare feet and tiny fingers grabbed the tree’s rough trunk. Sharp dry branches scratched her like cat’s claws.
Suddenly, a bird with broad white wings landed on a pine branch next to her. The white heron smoothed its feathers and called to its mate. She knew the wild bird’s secret now.
Were the birds better friends than their hunters? Who can know?
1. What made Sylvie hide in some bushes?| A．A young man. | B．A missing cow. | C．A sharp whistle. | D．An unfriendly bird. |
| A．She was scared by the young man. |
| B．The white heron might be in danger. |
| C．She was familiar with that white heron. |
| D．The man would spend a night with them. |
| A．The young man killed the white heron. |
| B．Sylvie kept the secret of the white heron. |
| C．Sylvie and the scientist became good friends. |
| D．The young man knew where the white heron was. |
For weeks, Eva Hachey had fancied adopting a golden Chihuahua with a white spot on its forehead. As a chiropractic(脊椎按摩疗法)assistant, she always believed that there would be a bond between them as strong as one’s spine. “Animals will pick us. ” she often said, “They will come to us. That’s the drive of nature.”
And there he was, at. her local Society for the. Prevention of Cruelty to Animals(SPCA), in Fredericton; New Brunswick. The small aninat had been abused severely by his previous owners and was timid. “He’d come to me, then back away and growl, then come back to me again, ” Hachey said. “After 15 minutes, the attendant picked him up and put him in my lap. He started giving me kisses. He stole my heart in that moment.” She adopted the ten-month-old puppy on the spot and named him Bruno.
Bruno lived happily with Hachey and her 28-year-old daughter, Angel Hutchinson, for five months. The two women loved him so dearly that they officially regarded him as a family member. They fed him, walked him and bathed him, who, at an incredible rate, grew bigger and rounder, with joy sparkling in his eyes. But to Bruno, the best part of living with the two women was the “action-and-response” game played between them. Whenever Hachey or Angel made a movement or sign1, Bruno would immediately know what that meant and responded happily, and it always worked.
Then one evening, Hachey, 52, returned home at 8 p. m. from her job. And as usual, she ate supper in front of the TV in the living room. Around 10:30, a friend called just as Bruno went to huddle in his customary spot next to Hachey’s feet, ready to sleep for the night. Hachey and her friend chatted a bit, and then Hachey felt dizzy and had difficulty breathing. A sharp pain struck from her heart and she lost her consciousness.
Obviously sensing something odd, Bruno felt alarmed. His ears standing up, his eyes wide, he rose to his feet.
注意：1．续写词数应为150左右；
2．请按如下格式在答题卡上的相应位置作答。
1．续写词数应为150左右;
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Bruno began barking and jumping on and off the chair to wake Hachey.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When Hachey came to herself, she found the room was full of people.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“You should get a dog.” my therapist (治疗专家) said. A dog? I couldn’t even look after myself. I took a deep breath and carefully considered the idea of welcoming a canine (犬科的) friend into my life. This seemed like too easy a solution to the fact that I couldn’t leave the house without bursting into tears.
Adopting an animal during the height of the pandemic was far from easy. When I found Simba, his adoption profile made him out as the perfect puppy. I filed out the paperwork and had a few weeks to prepare for his arrival.
When he came home, it became increasingly obvious that Simba didn’t understand “no”, “stop it’ or “don’t do that”. He was the worst-behaved dog I’d ever seen. I was beginning to doubt my therapist’s advice.
At home, I found him sitting on my bed comfortably. Jumping from the sofa to the tea table was his favorite game every day. He fought tooth and nail to get a bite of my meals and ate anything that fell on the floor. What was worse, dog waste and urine were seen everywhere, which annoyed me most. But his curiosity and vigor really impressed me. Training him to behave well kept me busier than I’d ever expected.
I decided to start taking him for walks. I could barely leave the house before, but my heart couldn’t say no to Simba. Simba showed me what bravery looked like. He didn’t stop to consider every possible outcome of a situation. He simply went for it. If there was a dog at a park, he would run toward it. He always leapt forward and explored the unknown by sniffing here and there unless I called him. He loved adventure. I found myself mirroring his behavior after a while, jumping out of bed without a second thought. I began to find the motivation to get out of bed in the morning.
注意：1. 续写词数应为 150 左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Ten minutes later, Simba and I were walking in the nearby park.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
As time went by, I found myself totally changed.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lunch hour. Escaping from my office, I fled down Main Street in pursuit of freedom from the routine of the day. An old bell clanged(叮当作响)against the door of a dusty used bookstore when I pushed it open.
Looking through the horizon of shelves and lots of magazines, my eyes suddenly met his and my heart began to race. They were the blazing(闪烁) orange eyes of an African lion on the cover of a National Geographic magazine. I hadn’t seen those eyes in thirty years, but their impact on me hadn’t faded. As a kid I used to dream about Africa, living with wild animals.
The opportunity of spending a “gap year” volunteering in Africa or joining the Youth Corps had long since passed. Or had it? Yes, it’s true I couldn’t go to Africa for several months, but maybe I could volunteer in Africa for a few weeks.
Over the next several weeks I began to budget and save, determined to make it happen. The big day came. I arrived and met my boss, a young South African ranger(护林员)named Gary. He said, “Let me guess, you’re here because you dreamed of Africa.”
“Yes!” I smiled.
“Well it’s time to wake up. This is a working game reserve. These are wild animals.”
“Okay.”
“You’re going to have to get out of your comfort zone, take some risks, Have the courage of a lion.”
The next morning when we began our patrol(巡逻)in an open-air jeep, giant African elephants appeared in the morning mist. I was no longer dreaming in the pages of a National Geographic magazine. I was living them.
Moments later Gary parked the jeep and handed me a heavy shovel(铲子) and said, “Time to shovel dung(粪).” Elephant dung. Mountains of it. It will be used as fertilizer in the reserves sustainable vegetable garden.
Within fifteen minutes my back was aching, and my new work gloves were stretched out and so slippery with dung and sweat that they refused to stay on my hands. This wasn’t the dream of Africa I had.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
I began to question myself.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
But at that moment I remembered Gary’s words “step out of your comfort zone”.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Chinese rescue teams helped save at least six people, among whom
The Zhejiang Rescue Team of Ramunion said that its members worked with Turkish soldiers and local rescuers
In Antakya in the country’s south, the Chinese official rescue team, together with local rescuers, carried a pregnant woman out of the
Chinese rescuers and experts participated in the entire rescue,
Seven rescuers from the Zhejiang Rescue Team of Ramunion, a non-governmental organization (NGO) from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, arrived in Turkiye on Feb. 8, 2023.
They immediately headed to Iskenderun after teaming up with a nine-member local logistics (后勤) support team. The Ramunion workers threw
9 . Living in a city is a well-known risk factor for developing a mental disorder, while living close to nature is largely beneficial for mental health and the brain. A central brain region, the amygdala (大脑杏仁核) involved in stress processing, has been shown to be less activated during stress in people living in rural areas, compared to those who live in cities, indicating the potential benefits of nature. “But so far the hen-and-egg problem could not be solved, namely whether nature actually caused the effects in the brain or whether the particular individuals chose to live in rural or urban regions,” says Sonja Sudimac.
To achieve causal evidence, the researchers from the group examined brain activity in regions involved in stress processing in 63 healthy volunteers before and after a one-hour walk in Grunewald forest or a shopping street with traffic in Berlin. The results revealed that activity in the amygdala decreased after the walk in nature, suggesting that nature has beneficial effects on brain regions related to stress.
“The results support the previously assumed positive relationship between nature and brain health, but this is the first study to prove the causal link. Interestingly, the brain activity after the urban walk in these regions remained stable and showed no increases, which argues against a commonly held view that urban exposure causes additional stress,” explains Simone Kühn, head of the group.
The authors show that nature has a positive impact on brain regions involved in stress processing and that it can already be observed after a one-hour walk. This contributes to the understanding of how our physical living environment affects brain and mental health. Even a short exposure to nature decreases amygdala activity, suggesting that a walk in nature could serve as a preventive measure against developing mental health problems and reducing the potentially disadvantageous impact of the city on the brain.
In order to investigate beneficial effects of nature in different populations and age groups, the researchers are currently working on a study examining how a one-hour walk in natural versus urban environments impacts stress in mothers and their babies.
1. What does the hen-and-egg problem refer to?| A．A problem hard to clarify. |
| B．A problem easy to deal with. |
| C．A problem common to be seen . |
| D．A problem unnecessary to solve. |
| A．By quoting authoritative experts. |
| B．By interviewing healthy volunteers. |
| C．By researching on a previous theory. |
| D．By comparing volunteers’ amygdala activities. |
| A．Confirming nature’s benefits to brain health. |
| B．Supporting a commonview of urban exposure. |
| C．Revealing the link between age and mental health. |
| D．Identifying the causes of mental health problems. |
| A．Benefits of a regular walk in nature. |
| B．An appeal for living in urban regions. |
| C．Nature’s positive effects on different groups. |
| D．Relationship between nature and brain health. |
10 . While ”televet“ services have been available for some years now, their popularity has exploded since COVID.
Televet consults can be done over the Internet through typed chats or video calls, or can be conducted over the phone.
There are a range of consults that can be safely and easily done remotely, including some post-operation checks, behavioral consults and weight clinics. Owners generally feel more relaxed when reporting from their home.
It is sometimes useful for owners to send photos and videos for the vet to assess. When possible, these should be uploaded prior to the consultation starting to ensure the vet has had time to view them. Photos must be taken in good lighting and the animal should be still to avoid blur(模糊).
As well as those services offered by an owner’s clinic, there are also online vets who ar not connected with clinics. This sort of service can be especially useful during non-working hours, when an owner needs advice but their regular clinic is closed.
| A．And it can save them time and trouble. |
| B．They have become an instant hit around the globe. |
| C．They were once seen as more of an American offering. |
| D．Otherwise, it might make the images trickier to interpret. |
| E．Televet services have both advantages and disadvantages. |
| F．Nevertheless, in-person consults will never be completely replaced |
| G．For owner and vet alike, remote consultation can be more convenient |
