Caught in a flood
Mary and her parents were downstairs in the living room. Mary was looking through the windows at the endless rain outside. It had been raining non-stop for three days. She had never seen a storm this bad. It was making her nervous. The wind roared and the rain beat on the roof and windows. Dad was listening to a weather report on the radio, while Mum was putting their important documents and disaster supplies into a bag.
“Mum, Dad,” said Mary suddenly, “I think we should leave here right away!”
“No,” said Dad. “It’s too late: The radio says the city has already been flooded.”
“We can drive our car through the floodwater. Let’s us leave! I’m really scared!” cried Mary. “We can’t do that, honey,” explained Mum, “otherwise the moving water could wash the car away!”
Mary walked to the door. She was curious to see how much water there was outside.
“Don’t open the door!” shouted Mum and Dad at the same time. “The water may flood in!”
Dad moved the dinner table against the door, in case the floodwater forced the door open. Mum waved to Mary to sit on the sofa. “Mary, don’t worry. Everything’s going to be OK,” she said softly, trying her best to comfort Mary. Her voice was calm, but Mary could tell she was worried too.
Without saying a single word, Dad walked to the sofa, sat down and hugged his wife and daughter. The sudden silence in the house seemed to make the wind and rain more frightening outside. What could they do?
注意:1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.续写部分分为两段,每段开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1:
All of a sudden, the floodwater forced the door open.
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Being upstairs, they breathed a sigh of relief.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1.曾经的情景(景美、水清、鱼儿 鸭子嬉戏、游客多);
2.后来的状况(湖水污染、游客乱扔垃圾);
3.当地政府已经采取措施来拯救,净月潭又恢复了美丽。
注意:
1.词数80左右;
2.可以适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。
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In addition to the obvious dangers they face, military working dogs are at risk of temporary and permanent hearing loss. Whether in training, during transport such as helicopter flights,
In an attempt
The system uses a snood-style (发网式的) device to uniformly distribute the pressure needed to keep the hearing protection
Even a short helicopter flight can affect a dog’s hearing, resulting in limited
A.Sunny. | B.Rainy. | C.Windy. |
5 . Even chess experts perform worse when air quality is lower, suggesting a negative effect on cognition(认知). Here’s something else chess players need to keep in check: air pollution.
That’s the bottom line of a newly published study co-authored by a researcher, showing that chess players perform objectively worse and make more suboptimal(次优的) moves, as measured by a computerized analysis of their games, when there is more fine particulate matter(颗粒物) in the air, notated as PM 2.5.
More specifically, given a modest increase in fine particulate matter, the probability that chess players will make an error increases by 2.1 percentage points, and the spectrum of those errors increases by 10.8 percent. In this setting, at least, cleaner air leads to clearer heads and sharper thinking.
“We find that when individuals are exposed to higher levels of air pollution, they make more mistakes, and they make larger mistakes,” says Juan Palacios, an economist in Sustainable Urbanization Lab.
“It’s pure random exposure to air pollution that is driving these people’s performance,” Palacios says. “Against comparable opponents in the same tournament round, being exposed to different levels of air quality makes a difference for move quality and decision quality.”
The researchers also found that when air pollution was worse, the chess players performed even more poorly when under time limitation. “We find it interesting that those mistakes especially occur in the phase of the game where players are facing time pressure,” Palacios says.
“There are more and more papers showing that there is a cost with air pollution, and there is a cost for more and more people,” Palacios says. “And this is just one example showing that even for these very excellent chess players, who think they can beat everything, it seems that with air pollution, they have an enemy who harms them.”
1. What effect does air pollution have on chess players?A.They make fewer good choices. | B.They perform subjectively worse. |
C.They suffer body discomfort. | D.They lose all games with computers. |
A.Magic. | B.Process. | C.Range. | D.Balance. |
A.His appeal for attention to chess players. |
B.His concern about air pollution. |
C.An example of chess players’ performance. |
D.Approaches to dealing with air pollution. |
A.Air pollution is a tough enemy chess players face. |
B.Chess players make more and more mistakes. |
C.There is a cost with air pollution for more people. |
D.Chess players perform poorly under time limitation. |
6 . The impact of the man-made climate crisis on Antarctica is scientifically undeniable: stable ice shelves are retreating, air temperature increased by 3 degrees Celsius. krill(磷虾)numbers are declining, melting ice is contributing to sea level rise, and polar bears and seals are getting displaced. “Antarctic biodiversity could decline substantially by the end of the century if we continue with business as usual.” Jasmine Rachael Lee, lead author of the University of Queensland study says.
Published in the journal PLOS Biology, the study finds population declines are likely for 65% of the continent’s plants and wildlife by the year 2100. The most vulnerable(脆弱的)species is the Emperor penguins. In October 2022, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed Emperor penguins as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act(ESA), as experts predict the flightless seabird will see a 26% to 47% dip in its population by 2050. “This listing reflects the growing extinction crisis and highlights the importance of the ESA and efforts to conserve species before population declines become irreversible(不可逆转).” said Service Director Martha Williams at the time.
Aside from Emperor penguins, other Antarctic specialists, like the Adélie penguin and dry soil nematodes, were also highly vulnerable. We urgently need a combination of global and local conservation action to best conserve Antarctic species. Global action and global voices to help relieve climate change—because the biggest threat to Antarctica is coming from outside of it. And then we need local actions to help protect biodiversity against local threats and give them the best chance of adapting to climate changes. This will help to save our iconic(代表性的)species like the Emperor penguins and all of Antarctica’s unique and highly adapted inhabitants. It will also help humankind, as we rely heavily on the priceless services the Antarctic provides in regulating our climate and capturing sea level in its ice sheets.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?A.The impact of climate crisis is usually denied. |
B.Conservation efforts are badly needed. |
C.Air temperature on Antarctic increases 3℃ annually. |
D.Sea level rise results in seabirds losing their habitats. |
A.To serve as a call to protect wildlife on Antarctic |
B.To reflect the growing population of wild species. |
C.To prove the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act. |
D.To highlight the severe impact of rising temperature. |
A.Reducing the chances of making a trip to Antarctic. |
B.Making joint efforts to relieve climate change. |
C.Attempting to provide essential nutrients to the ecosystem. |
D.Continuing to carry forward the Endangered Species Act. |
A.Plants and Wildlife on Antarctica Will Decline Quickly |
B.Antarctic Species Are Vulnerable to Human Threats |
C.More Action Should Be Taken to Protect Wildlife on Antarctica |
D.The Best Conservation Strategy Will Be Carried Out Soon |
7 . The coronavirus pandemic(新冠疫情)has brought with it the rise of a new kind of single-use plastic in the form of personal protective equipment (PPE), like face masks and gloves. Experts warned that these sharply increasing single-use items could cause a new wave of plastic pollution and kill wildlife.
The charity Ocean Conservancy reported that volunteers had collected more than 100,000 PPE items from coasts and waterways during the last six months of 2020. They sent out a survey to more than 200 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) coordinators and volunteers asking about their experience with PPE. The results show that it is a real problem. Volunteers collected 107,219 pieces of PPE in 70 of 115 participating countries. Of those surveyed, 94% reported seeing PPE at a cleanup, and 40% found five items or more. Further, 37% found the items had already sunk into the water.
“During one of our clean-ups in the canals of Leiden, our volunteers found a latex(乳胶)glove with a dead fish trapped in the thumb,” said Auke-Florian Hiemstra, a study coauthor from Leiden University. “Also, in the Dutch canals, we observed that a water bird was using face masks and gloves in its nests.” Other animals that have gotten tangled up in face masks include a fox in the UK, a pufferfish in Florida, and two crabs in France. Numerous dogs and cats have been observed eating PPE as well.
The danger posed by PPE goes deeper than what the eye can see. Luckily, there are ways that all of us can be part of the solution to the problem of PPE pollution. Hiemstra suggested using reusable PPE instead of single-use products. In that case, we should deal with them properly by cutting the ear loops to prevent animal entanglements(缠绕物)and throwing them away in a bin that is not overstuffed. “We definitely think it is important for citizens to understand how much PPE is ending up in the environment and impacting animals,” Hiemstra said.
1. What problem did experts mention in paragraph 1?A.The decline of wildlife due to overhunting. |
B.The shortage of personal protective equipment. |
C.The plastic pollution caused by anti-pandemic products. |
D.The increasing number of coronavirus patients. |
A.The leading cause of ocean pollution. |
B.Volunteers’ great efforts to protect the ocean. |
C.The large amount of PPE in the environment. |
D.Difficulties of cleaning up plastic waste in the ocean. |
A.PPE pollution has threatened many animals’ lives. |
B.Litter makes it hard for boats to pass through the canals. |
C.Water birds may not be affected by plastic pollution. |
D.PPE is attractive to dogs and cats due to its smell. |
A.Limiting the production of non-recyclable plastic. |
B.Cleaning the rubbish bin regularly. |
C.Raising the price of PPE items. |
D.Replacing single-use products with reusable ones. |
Once, my uncle brought home a cute little baby parrot. At first, I and my cousins were a little scared, because we didn’t know how to handle that little tender baby. My aunt eventually helped us out. She took it and kept it just as her baby. She fed it, she gave it occasional showers and eventually we became quite comfortable with it. Now there was another dilemma (困境) that we had — as we were not really aware of its gender (性别) we were unable to decide a name for the parrot. So finally my mom called it Mitthu. We agreed.
As it was growing, its wings started growing long, but my family was too possessive (占有欲强的) and caring towards Mitthu that they trimmed (修剪) its wings. They said if it flew, it wouldn’t be able to survive outside.
As time went by, we grew, so did Mitthu...It had by now started talking quite a lot...I was amazed by the way my aunt cared for it. She fed it anything and everything they had before eating. Mitthu was never kept in a cage from the beginning...it is still not kept in a eage... at first its wings were trimmed to protect it...but now as it has grown quite a lot, even its wings are not trimmed...
I sometimes wonder, it has the whole sky to fly, it is neither in a cage nor its wings are trimmed, then why isn’t it flying at all? Maybe it is now quite attached to us and doesn’t want to leave us, or maybe it doesn’t want to leave this comfortable life and go away and face the hard reality of life. The answer may be anything, depending on how we view the situation.
But as I grew older, I realized that the life of Mitthu is not really very different from that of mine. I was cared too and thus was protected from really getting along with outside world. I made my house my world, just as it was taught to me. I guess so did Mitthu. The comfort of my hope became, and I guess Mitthu’s as well, the invisible chain that never actually will let us fly.
注意:
1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。
I guess not just I, but most of the girls feel the same.
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The parrot flew today.
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9 . In the 1990s and 2000s, Costa Rica and Panama experienced a rise in malaria(疟疾) cases. The massive loss of amphibians (两栖动物) in the region from a fungal (真菌的) disease may have contributed to the malaria increase.
The spread of the fungal disease was a slow-motion disaster, leading to a decades-long wave of amphibian declines globally. From the 1980s to the 2000s, the wave moved from northwest to southeast across Costa Rica and Panama. An analysis of ecological surveys, public health records and satellite data suggests a link between the amphibian die-offs and an increase in human malaria cases.
On average, each county had 0.8 to 1.1 additional cases of malaria per 1,000 people per year for about six years, beginning several years after the amphibian losses, Michael Springborn, an environmental economist of the University of California, Davis, and colleagues found.
Springborn and colleagues wondered if the impacts that the fungal disease has on the decline of at least 500 species globally stretched to humans. The team turned to Costa Rica and Panama, where the fungus moved through ecosystems in a somewhat uniform way along the narrow area of land on which the two countries sit, Springborn says. The researchers worked out when the fungus arrived at a given place and then looked at the number of malaria cases in those places before and after the die-offs. Malaria cases rose in the first couple of years after the decline and remained high for six years or so before going down again for unknown reasons.
Studies on the connections between biodiversity loss and health might “help motivate conservation by highlighting the direct benefits of conservation to human well-being,” says Hillary Young, a community ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Humans are causing wildlife to be lost at a rate similar to that of other major mass extinction events,” she says. “We are increasingly aware that these losses can have major impacts on human health and well-being- and, in particular, on risk of infectious disease.”
1. What directly brought about the rise in malaria cases?A.The extinction of fungus. | B.The death of amphibians. |
C.The spread of a fungal disease. | D.The lack of wildlife conservation. |
A.The number of amphibians dropped dramatically. |
B.The fungus has little impact on human well-being. |
C.The county’s population multiplied after the amphibian decline. |
D.Malaria cases show relevant changes when amphibians became fewer. |
A.By studying the features of the fungus. |
B.By comparing the number of malaria cases. |
C.By finding out the track of fungus’ movement. |
D.By working out the reason for the amphibian die-offs. |
A.Humans should keep wildlife at a distance. |
B.Humans cause the major mass extinction events. |
C.Human well-being is closely connected with wildlife. |
D.Human health has no relationship with conservation. |
A herd(兽群) of 14 wild Asian elephants
At about 8 pm on August 8, these elephants crossed the Yuanjiang River with artificial guidance, according to the headquarters (总部) in charge of observing their migration.
The herd could not have crossed the Yuanjiang River without help as the water level rises in the rainy season. More efforts will be made
It
Wild Asian elephants, a species in