If you are able to step outside and hear many types of birds, you might have a feeling of well-being. A study shows that
The study
There could be some other reasons too. Ferraro states that in many
Ferraro and her team played
2 . In films and TV shows, police investigators dust crime scenes for fingerprints to catch criminals. Now, conservationists (环保主义者) are using a similar method to tackle the illegal overfishing of sharks and rays.
Overfishing is when too many of a particular type of fish are caught, putting that species in danger. Many sharks and rays are killed because of a high demand-and a high price-for their fins(鱼鳍). In some countries, the fins are used as an ingredient in shark fin soup, which some people believe can cure certain illnesses.
About 100 species of sharks and rays are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora(CITES), an agreement between 184 countries to limit sales of wildlife that may be at the risk of dying out. CITES has teams of people who visit ports and fish factories to look for evidence of protected species being illegally caught and sold. The idea is to punish those responsible and stop it from happening, but finding evidence is difficult. If a fish is already cut up and ready for sale, it’s hard to tell which species it was. Often, fish are sold before inspectors arrive.
Scientists have come up with a process that analyzes “fish dust”-tiny traces of fish that get left on the floor at ports and factories, even after the fish are no longer there. Using a process called metabarcoding(宏条形码技术), they examine the chemical that carries all the information about a living thing’s body and characteristics in the dust and can tell if it is from a protected species.
The scientists tested the method in Indonesia, where many sharks and rays are caught and sold. They studied dust from seven sites and found evidence of 61 species of sharks and rays. More than 80% of them were CITES-protected species. Dr. Andhika Prasetyo, the scientist who led the research, hopes the new method will be helpful in protecting endangered sea life.
1. Why is dusting crime scenes mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．To discuss overfishing in a broader context. |
| B．To introduce the initial purpose of the passage. |
| C．To bring forth something new with the familiar. |
| D．To show the difference between two professions. |
| A．The risk in saving wildlife and the opportunity to seize. |
| B．The mission of CITES and the trouble inspectors confront. |
| C．The number of endangered species and the way to save them. |
| D．The agreement made by countries and the responsibility each carries. |
| A．It scans the body of a fish to confirm its killer. |
| B．It guides the investigators to the remains of a fish. |
| C．It turns a fish into the dust and test its characteristics. |
| D．It identifies a fish by studying the chemical in the dust. |
| A．The evidence collected belong to over 61 species. |
| B．Scientists in Indonesia will carry out further studies |
| C．The dusting method is promising in protecting sea life. |
| D．More than 80% of sharks and rays have been in danger. |
A shop owner placed a sign above his door that said: “Puppies For Sale.”
Signs like this always have a way of attracting young children, and to no surprise, a boy saw the sign and approached the owner, “How much are you going to sell the puppies for?” he asked. The store owner replied, “Anywhere from $30 to $50.” The little boy pulled out some change from his pocket. “I have $2.37,” he said. “Can I please look at them?”
The shop owner smiled and whistled. Out came Lady, who ran down the aisle of his shop followed by five teeny, tiny balls of fur. One puppy was lagging (走得慢) considerably behind. Immediately the little boy singled out the lagging puppy and said, “What’s wrong with that little dog?”
The shop owner explained that the veterinarian had examined the little puppy and had discovered it didn’t have a hip socket. It would always be lame (瘸的). The little boy became excited. “That is the puppy that I want to buy.” The shop owner said, “No, you don’t want to buy that little dog. If you really want him, I’ll just give him to you.”
The little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner’s eyes, pointing his finger, and said, “I don’t want you to give him to me. That little dog is worth every bit as much as all the other dogs and I’ll pay full price. In fact, I’ll give you $2.37 now, and 50 cents a month until I have him paid for.” The shop owner said, “You really don’t want to buy this little dog. He is never going to be able to run and jump and play with you like the other puppies.”
注意：1. 续写词数应为 150 左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
“Well, I don’t walk so well myself.” said the little boy.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The little boy took the little lame dog home happily.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . As a young girl growing up in France, Sarah Toumi dreamed of becoming a leader who could make the world a better place. Her passion to help others was awakened when, from the age of nine, she accompanied her Tunisian father to his birthplace in the east of the country during holidays. There she organized homework clubs and activities for children.
Toumi witnessed first-hand the destructive effect of desertification (沙漠化). “Within 10 years rich farmers became worse off, and in 10 years from now they will be poor. I wanted to stop the Sahara Desert in its tracks.” A decrease in average rainfall and an increase in the severity of droughts have led to an estimated 75 percent of Tunisia’s agricultural lands being threatened by desertification.
Toumi recognized that farming practices needed to change. She is confident that small land areas can bring large returns if farmers are able to adapt by planting sustainable crops, using new technologies for water treatment and focusing on natural products and fertilizers rather than chemicals.
In 2012, Toumi consolidated (巩固) her dream of fighting the desert. She moved to Tunisia, and set up a programme named Acacias for All to put her sustainable farming philosophy (理念) into action. “I want to show young people in rural areas that they can create opportunities where they are. Nobody is better able to understand the impact of desertification and climate change than somebody who is living with no access to water.”
By September 2016, more than 130, 000 acacia trees had been planted on 20 pilot farms, with farmers recording a 60 percent survival rate. Toumi estimates that some 3 million acacia trees are needed to protect Tunisia’s farmland. She expects to plant 1 million trees by 2018. In the next couple of years, Toumi hopes to extend the programme to Algeria and Morocco.
1. How did Toumi’s holiday trips to Tunisia influence her?| A．They made her decide to leave the country. |
| B．They helped her better understand her father. |
| C．They aroused her enthusiasm for helping others. |
| D．They destroyed her dream of being a teacher. |
| A．Low rainfall. | B．Soil pollution. | C．Cold weather. | D．Forest damage. |
| A．To create job opportunities for young people. |
| B．To help the children obtain a basic education. |
| C．To persuade the farmers not to use fertilizers. |
| D．To promote the protection of their farmland. |
| A．Saving Water in Tunisia | B．Holding back the Sahara |
| C．Planting Trees of Native Species | D．Fighting Poverty in North Africa |
Taklimkan Desert,
Sand dunes (沙丘) in
One morning, Ann’s neighbor Tracy found a lost dog wandering around the local elementary school. She asked Ann if she could keep an eye on the dog and she planned to find its owner. Ann agreed, but she said that she could watch it only for the day because she needed to take care of her son. At the time, her son Thomas was 10 years old, who was recovering from a heart operation.
Later, Tracy took photos of the dog, printed off 400 FOUND fliers, put them in mailboxes and began to find the dog’s owner. Meanwhile, Ann bought some pet supplies, warning her son not to fall in love with the dog. However, her son was filled with excitement as he knew that his mother got a dog back home. He planned to provide the dog with some food everyday.
Four days later, Ann and her son were still looking after the dog, whom they had started to call Riley. During the four days, they took care of the dog carefully, provided some food, took a shower and played with it, and they had already become the best friends.
The evening of the fifth day, when Ann arrived home from work, the dog threw itself against the door and barked madly at her. As soon as she opened the door, Riley dashed into the boys’ room where Ann found Thomas suffering from a heart attack. Riley ran over to Thomas, but as soon as Ann bent over to help him, the dog went silent.
The doctor said if it hadn’t come to get his mother in time, Thomas would have died. Luckily, with the doctor’s help, Thomas could go home tomorrow morning.
“Mum, can we keep it if we can’t find its owner? Even we can ask for permission if we find the owner,” Thomas asked his mother when they came back home.
“Well, since no one has called to claim it, we decide to keep it,” his mother replied. Hearing that, Thomas was excited.
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。
However, the next day, Ann was told a man named Peter recognized his lost dog.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Peter’s car came and Thomas stood silently beside his car.
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7 . Increased human activity and climate change have caused a rise of algae (藻类植物) in water bodies around the world—sometimes choking ecosystems of sunlight and oxygen. In more extreme cases, they can produce dangerous poisons that can sicken or kill people and animals. But the plenty of algae could prove crucial as our population rises beyond eight billion people worldwide because algae are crops that don’t need land, freshwater, or fertilizer to fill nutritional gaps.
And even though they are so closely associated with human’s bad impact on Earth, algae could also play vital roles in slowing climate change and helping fight against pollution, viruses, and more. With microplastic pollution documented in almost all habitats related to water, a study showed that algae can help filter microplastics from water. Algae can also filter chemicals that can be used for fertilizer.
Algae can produce more effective biofuel than traditional sources. Rescarchers at a German algae growing facility are already using it to fuel plane. Researchers believe this and other sustainable fuels could reduce carbon released from airplanes by up to 80 percent.
Animal feed containing a kind of red algae reduces harmful methane(甲烷)released from cattle by more than 80 percent. The addition works by changing the environment in a cow’s stomach, stopping the production of methane before it can be released.
Red algae can stop the copies of some viruses, and have been shown to stimulate the body’s immune (免疫的) system and could become a powerful anti-HIV medicine.
In 2019, freshwater algae were launched into space to change the CO2 breathed out by astronauts on the International Space Station into oxygen. Since algae are also high in protein, they could replace up to 30 percent of astronaut food in the future.
1. What can we know about algae from the first paragraph?| A．Better late than never. | B．Every coin has two sides. |
| C．All is well that ends well. | D．Two heads are better than one. |
| A．They avoid climate change. | B．They absorb pollutants in the air. |
| C．They reduce microplastics in the water. | D．They filter most poisonous chemicals. |
| A．Change animal feed into methane. |
| B．Store carbon released from airplanes. |
| C．Help researchers to create traditional sources. |
| D．Create biofuel and reduce methane in cows’s stomach. |
| A．By helping fight against diseases. | B．By increasing human’s strength. |
| C．By producing more oxygen than other plants. | D．By replacing much food for astronauts. |
8 . A robot created at Standford University is diving down to shipwrecks (沉船) in a way that humans can’t do. Known as OceanOneK, the robot allows its operators to feel like they’re underwater explorers, too.
OceanOneK resembles (像) a human diver from the front, with arms, hands and eyes that capture the underwater world in full color. The back of the robot has computers and eight multidirectional thrusters (推进器) that help it carefully explore the sites of fragile shipwrecks. When an operator at the ocean’s surface uses controls to direct OceanOneK, the robot’s touch-based feedback system causes the person to feel the water’s resistance.
The idea for OceanOneK came from a desire to study coral reefs in the Red Sea at depths beyond the normal range for divers. While OccanOneK was designed to reach maximum depths of 656 feet, researchers had a new goal:1 kilometer, hence the new name for OceanOneK. The researchers changed the robot’s body by using special foam to increase buoyancy (浮力) and fight the pressures of 1, 000 meters more than 100 times what humans experience at sea level. OceanOneK also got two new types of hands and increased arm and head motion.
During OceanOneK’s deep dive in February, team members discovered the robot couldn’t rise when they stopped for a thruster check. Flotations on the communications and power line had collapsed, causing the line to pile on the top of the robot.
OceanOneK’s descent was a success. It dropped off a memorial marker on the seabed that reads, “A robot’s first touch of the deep seafloor — A vast new world for humans to explore.” Khatib, a professor, called the experience an “incredible journey.” “This is the first time that a robot has been capable of going to such a depth, interacting with the environment, and permitting the human operator to feel that environment,” he said.
1. What can we learn about OceanOneK?| A．Its eyes are colorful. |
| B．It functions automatically. |
| C．It looks like its operator from the front. |
| D．It is remotely controlled to explore underwater. |
| A．By listing data. | B．By raising questions. |
| C．By reasoning and analyzing. | D．By presenting an argument. |
| A．Successful operation. | B．Deep diving. |
| C．Pressure resistance. | D．Flexible exploration. |
| A．A Creative Explorer | B．The Ambitious Exploration |
| C．A Self-driven Seeker — A Robot | D．A Deep-Sea Explorer — OceanOneK |
| A．A city. |
| B．The weather. |
| C．A forecaster. |
10 . According to Dr. John Swaddle, a professor at the Institute for Integrative Conservation at William & Mary, hundreds of millions of birds die every year from window collisions(碰撞).
However, if you put decals(贴花纸) or colorful stickers outside of your windows, the birds are more likely to see the barrier and therefore avoid it. Remember: never inside your window; always outside of your window.
“Double-glazed(双层的) windows reflect a lot of light, especially when you view them from a slight angle, as a flying bird would do,” Swaddle told Salon. He is the corresponding author of a recent study which tries to figure out how this basic reality of physics impacts on a bird’s experience as it flies near a standard window. For their experiment, researchers had birds perform repeated and controlled flight trials near windows with film(薄膜) products, BirdShades film and Haverkamp film, respectively.
“In our collision avoidance trials, BirdShades increased window avoidance by 47% and the Haverkamp increased avoidance by 39%. But neither product was effective when the films were applied to the internal surface of windows,” the authors concluded.
When breaking down the problem of avoiding window collisions from a bird’s point of view, Swaddle explained, “The light and reflected imagery from the external surface of the glass is sufficient to obscure a film or decal that is stuck to the inner surface from being seen clearly.”
If you want to protect birds from easily avoidable deaths without buying window film products, there are other solutions. Swaddle recommended “pleasing fritted glass that could be used in new construction and which is also bird-friendly”. Besides, he notes that screens can be helpful as well, not only by limiting reflectiveness but by providing birds with a cushion if they make impact. It is also possible to use everyday household objects to signal to birds that there are barriers — netting, bits of string, colorful stickers, and paint. These can all be used to this effect.
1. Which of the following can work to reduce bird window collisions?| A．Choosing double-glazed windows. |
| B．Avoiding opening windows at night. |
| C．Covering the inner windows with decals. |
| D．Sticking decals to the outer side of windows. |
| A．The bird-friendly film products and glass. |
| B．The efficient measures of collision avoidance. |
| C．The bird behaviors when hitting the bright window. |
| D．The link between light reflection and bird window collisions. |
| A．Protect. | B．Use. | C．Shade. | D．Find. |
| A．Solutions to reducing the window cost. |
| B．Other ways to avoid bird collisions. |
| C．Bird-friendly objects to attract birds. |
| D．Environmentally friendly glass products. |
