1 . On a recent sunny day, 13,000 chickens roam over Larry Brown’s 40 windswept acres in Shiner, Texas. Some rest in the shade of a parked car. Others drink water with the cows. This all seems random, but it’s by design, part of what the $6.1 billion U.S. egg industry bets will be its next big thing: climate-friendly eggs.

These eggs, which are making their debut now on shelves for as much as $8 a dozen, are still labeled organic and animal-friendly, but they’re also from birds that live on farms using regenerative agriculture — special techniques to cultivate rich soils that can trap greenhouse gases. Such eggs could be marketed as helping to fight climate change.

“I’m excited about our progress,” says Brown, who harvests eggs for Denver-based NestFresh Eggs and is adding more cover crops that draw worms and crickets for the chickens to eat. The birds’ waste then fertilizes fields. Such improvements “allow our hens to forage for high-quality natural feed that will be good for the land, the hens, and the eggs that we supply to our customers.”

The egg industry’s push is the first major test of whether animal products from regenerative farms can become the next premium offering. In barely more than a decade, organic eggs went from being dismissed as a niche product in natural foods stores to being sold at Walmart. More recently there were similar doubts about probiotics and plant-based meats, but both have exploded into major supermarket categories. If the sustainable-egg rollout is successful, it could open the floodgates for regenerative beef, broccoli, and beyond.

Regenerative products could be a hard sell, because the concept is tough to define quickly, says Julie Stanton, associate professor of agricultural economics at Pennsylvania State University Brandywine. Such farming also brings minimal, if any, improvement to the food products (though some producers say their eggs have more protein).

The industry is betting that the same consumers paying more for premium attributes such as free-range, non-GMO, and pasture-raised eggs will embrace sustainability. Surveys show that younger generations are more concerned about climate change, and some of the success of plant- based meat can be chalked up to shoppers wanting to signal their desire to protect the environment. Young adults “really care about the planet,” says John Brunnquell, president of Egg Innovations. “They are absolutely altering the food chain beyond what I think even they understand what they’re doing.”

1. The climate friendly eggs are produced ______.

A．at a considerably low cost	B．at the demand of regular shoppers
C．as a replacement for organic eggs	D．on specially designed farms

2. Larry Brown is excited about his progress in ______.

A．reducing the damage of worms	B．accelerating the disposal of waste
C．creating a sustainable system	D．attracting customers to his products

3. It can be learned from the last paragraph that young people ______.

A．are desperate to change their diet	B．are likely to buy climate-friendly eggs
C．are enthusiastic about new food	D．are amazed at environmental problems

4. John Brunnquell would disagree with Julie Stanton over regenerative products’ ______.

A．market prospects	B．nutritional value
C．standard definition	D．moral implications

2 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is ONE WORD MORE than you need.

A. voyaged     B. barely     C. renowned     D. abnormality     E. discipline     F. navigable G. unprecedented     H. eyed     I. Fortunately     J. accessible     K. degradation

For voyager and green promoter Zhai Mo, the 504-day non-stop voyage to the Arctic Ocean has stimulated his concern about the climate and awareness of his responsibilities.

Navigating more than 28,000 nautical miles (51,856 kilometers) in harsh conditions, Zhai, a (n)     1     Chinese explorer, returned to Shanghai on his aluminum sailboat on Nov 17, along with two crew members, becoming the first man to successfully circle, both ways, the Arctic Ocean without stop. “This non-stop Arctic Ocean circle route can be said to be     2    . We     3     both the northeast and northwest routes while previous explorers only chose one route. This is a self-challenge and transcendence in the history of human navigation,” the 54-year-old says.

Zhai undertook this task as an ambassador of the Chinese navigation science and marine public welfare, and also the ForNature Campaign of the United Nations Development Program. He set sail on June 30 last year to raise public awareness of global warming, climate change and land     4    . During the trip, he crossed the East China Sea, the Western Pacific, the Bering Strait, the Chukchi Sea, the East Siberian Sea and the Beaufort Sea. He saw dolphins, whales, walruses, sea lions and seals, as well as shoals of cod and wolf fishes.

“When we passed through the Northwest Pacific Ocean on our way back, we encountered three typhoons within a week, which     5     happened in the past,” Zhai recalls.

Zhai didn’t see any floating ice during his one-week voyage in the Kara Sea while the previous meteorological data showed ice there.

“My own experience tells me that climate     6     is obvious now,” Zhai says.

The voyage, to enter the Arctic Ocean from the Bering Strait before making a round trip returning to Shanghai, was planned to take four months, but the return schedule was delayed for more than a year. “As soon as we entered the Bering Strait, we encountered a polar cyclone. A large number of ice floes and icebergs were blown to the coast. However, the Arctic Ocean can only be     7     near land, so we had been carefully crossing between ice floes and icebergs for a long time and the speed was only 1 to 3 knots,” Zhai says. But for Zhai, the most difficult part of the whole voyage was around 75 degrees north. The Arctic Ocean is known as the “dead channel”, Zhai says, adding that the location where the Titanic went down was on his route and dotted with countless icebergs. After entering the iceberg region, Zhai navigated the sailboat while the two crew members went on watch to report on the menacing ice. Despite the precaution, the boat hit an iceberg near Greenland, causing water seepage below the waterline that had to be dealt with. Meanwhile, compasses and electronic goods on the boat failed because of the magnetic field. “I had never encountered this situation in sailing before,” says Zhai.     8    , he took a fiber optic compass specially used for high latitude navigation, and managed to leave this area with visual aids. In addition to ice floes and icebergs, Zhai and his team also faced severe tests such as heavy fog, strong winds and huge waves. When sailing through the Chukchi Sea, the boat navigated around a large area of ice floes and heavy fog resulting in visibility of no more than 10 meters. They spent nearly 11 hours to get just 50 nautical miles. “We tried to leave as soon as possible during our voyage in the Arctic Ocean,” he says, adding that there was a constant danger of being trapped by the ice.

Zhai was attracted by sailing when holding an art exhibition abroad in 2000. In 2007, he got a second-hand sailboat with simple supplies, such as instant noodles, pancakes and potatoes, and started his voyage trip around the world.

After that 35,000-nautical-mile voyage, Zhai     9     an Arctic Ocean journey. “Navigation is a comprehensive     10    . You should know not only astronomy but also geography. You also need to be a carpenter, fitter, hammerer and painter, and should be able to survive in a harsh, outdoor environment,” Zhai says.

He adds that he hopes more young people would participate in navigation, to promote and publicize the ocean awareness and navigation spirit. He is preparing for the third voyage trip around the world next year or the year after that. “Antarctica is also a very big challenge. I hope to explore more unknowns, and I also want to launch a transoceanic sailing competition.”

3 .

A．Bring flowers.	B．Take a pot plant.
C．Buy postcards.	D．Send fruits.

4 .
1. According to the poster above, which groups of items will be the best for the Pearson family (father with chronic disease, mother, a 10-month-old infant, and a pet dog) to pack into their limited-size emergency supplies kit besides necessities such as food, water and clothes?

A．passport, paper cups, whistle, rain gear, flashlights

B．formula, blanket, medication, diapers, pet food

C．pet food, cottont-shirt, plastic sheeting, books

D．medication, bank account records, diaper, can opener, formula

2. According to the poster, why is it advisable for children to have a personal pack?

A．To provide more appropriate protection.

B．To create a sense of security and familiarity.

C．To make them feel more physically comfortable.

D．To simulate a seemingly school-like environment.

3. Which is TRUE about suggestions given in the poster?

A．Families should adjust the contents of the emergency supplies kit every other year based on needs.

B．There are no specific items in the poster that address the needs in different natural disasters.

C．All of the supplies in the emergency kit should not be stored in waterproof and portable containers.

D．Children should not be allowed to include their favorites books and stuffed animals in the kit.

5 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. technical     B. attributed     C. confined     D. observations     E. sensation     F. totaling     G. anticipatory H. consistent     I. precisely     J. suspicious     K. attached

For centuries, people have described unusual animal behavior just ahead of seismic (地震的) events: dogs barking endlessly, cows halting their milk, toads leaping from ponds. A few researchers have tried to prove a link, but most such attempts have relied largely on anecdotes and single     1    .

Now researchers at the University of Konstanz, along with a multinational team of colleagues, say they have managed to     2     measure increased activity in a group of farm animals prior to seismic activity. During separate periods     3     about four months in 2016 and 2017, the researchers     4     these highly sensitive biologgers and GPS sensors, which can record accelerated movements in any direction, to six cows, five sheep and two dogs living on a farm in an earthquake-prone area of northern Italy to keep track of the activities and the nervousness of animals. “Only now can we do continuous biologging,” says study co-author Martin Wikelski. “Because the     5     possibilities are finally there.”

The paper’s statistical analysis showed animals’ activity significantly increased before magnitude 3.8 or greater earthquakes when they were housed together in a stable — but not when they were out to pasture (吃草). Wikelski says this difference could be linked to the increased stress some animals feel in     6     spaces. Analyzing the increased movements as a whole, the researchers claim, showed a clear signal of     7     behavior hours ahead of tremors.

Besides, it showed that the farm animals appeared to anticipate quakes anywhere from one to 20 hours ahead, reacting earlier when they were closer to the origin and later when they were farther away. This finding is     8     with a hypothesis that animals somehow sense a signal that spreads outward. It holds that in the days before an earthquake, shifting tectonic plates (地壳板块) squeeze rocks along a fault line, causing the rocks to release minerals that force ions into the air, and then the animals react to this novel     9    .

Not involved with the new study, Wendy Bohon, a geologist from Washington, D.C., is     10     of the air ionization idea. Heiko Woith, a geologist at GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences, says the time frame was still too short and points out that limited data collection in many studies makes it impossible to determine whether a measured signal was related to a quake or was simply noise.

6 . Here’s how the Pacific Northwest is preparing for “The Big One”. It’s the mother of all disaster drills for what could be the worst disaster in American history. California has spent years preparing for “The Big One”— the inevitable earthquake that will undoubtedly bring about all kinds of damage along the famous San Andreas fault. But what if the fault that runs along the Pacific Northwest delivers a gigantic earthquake of its own? If the people of the Cascadia region have anything to do with it, they won’t be caught unawares.

The region is engaged in a multi-day earthquake-and-tsunami drill involving around 20, 000 people. The Cascadia Rising drill gives area residents and emergency responders a chance to practice what to do in case of a 9. 0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami along one of the nation’s dangerous and underestimated faults.

The Cascadia Earthquake Zone is big enough to compete with San Andreas (it’s been called the most dangerous fault in America), but it’s much lesser known than its California cousin. Nearly 700 miles long, the earthquake zone is located by the North American Plate off the coast of Pacific British Columbia. Washington, Oregon and Northern California.

Cascadia is what’s known as a “megathrust” fault. Megathrusts are created in subduction zones(俯冲带)— plate tectonic(板块构造)boundaries where two plates converge(相交). In the areas where one plate is beneath another, stress builds up over time. During a megathrust event, all of that stress releases and some of the world’s most powerful earthquake occur. Remember the 9. I earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean off Sumatra in 2004? It was caused by a megathrust event as the India plate moved beneath the Burma micro-plate.

The last time a major earthquake occurred along the Cascadia fault was in 1700, so officials worry that another event could occur any time. To prevent that event from becoming a severe disaster, first responders will join members of the public in rehearsals that involve communication, evacuation, search and rescue, and other possible situations.

Thousands of casualties(伤亡人员) are expected if a 9. 0 earthquake were to occur. First, the earthquake would shake metropolitan areas including Seattle and Portland. This could cause a tsunami that would create damage along the coast. Not all casualties can necessarily be prevented - but by coordinating across local, state, and even national borders, officials hope that the worst-case situation can be prevented. On the exercise’s website, officials explain that the report they prepare during this rehearsal will inform disaster management for years to come.

For hundreds of thousands of Cascadia residents, “The Big One” isn’t a question of if, only when. And it’s never too early to get ready for the inevitable.

1. What does “The Big One” refer to?

A．A gigantic geological fault in America.

B．A large-scale drill to prepare for disasters.

C．A massive and destructive natural disaster.

D．Mass destruction caused by the earthquake.

2. What is the purpose of the Cascadia Rising drill?

A．To prepare people for a major earthquake and tsunami.

B．To increase residents’awareness of upcoming disasters.

C．To teach people now how adapt to post-disaster life.

D．To cope with the aftermath of a possible earthquake.

3. What happens in case of a megathrust earthquake according to the passage?

A．Two plates merge into one.	B．A variety of forces converge.
C．Boundaries blur between plates.	D．Enormous stress is released.

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．A large-scale drill is supposed to prevent deaths in the earthquake.

B．San Andreas fault once delivered a 9. 1 earthquake in the Indian Ocean.

C．No massive earthquake is expected to strike Califomia in the near future.

D．Disaster-relief efforts at different levels may help reduce possible losses.

7 .

“Black Blizzard(暴风雪)”by Maurine V. Eleder This suspenseful story follows two young girls, at home alone, when a dust storm arises. Despite their young age, Betty and Mary Ann quickly take action when the severe dust storm hits. They begin taking measures to block the dust from coming into the house, which would make the air unbreathable. Although they are frightened, they take comfort thinking they can just wait out the storm inside their home. Unfortunately, Betty realizes her beloved horse is caught out in the “black blizzard.” One wrong move in the blinding storm, and Fancifoot could injure himself- or worse. Betty faces the difficult decision of leaving her younger sister to brave the storm or risking Fancifoot’s life to remain in safety Teachers could use this text to teach the history of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s or to teach thescience behind the causes and effects of soil erosion.

“Tornado Coming!” by Dick Donley If your students love the nail-biting tale “Black Blizzard,” they’ll love “Tornado Coming!” as well. Because this story includes a tornado, a young kid, a small dog, and a strange neighbor, you might be reminded of another tale you’ve read before. However, there are no talking scarecrows(稻草人) or flying monkeys in this story! Matt is home alone with Buster when he hears the siren(警报)warning of a tornado. Mentally ticking through the safety tips he learned in school, Matt heads for the storm cellar (防风地窖)with the tornado forming at his back. With only moments to spare, Matt realizes he must leave his little dog in the safety of the storm cellar to run to the aid of his unpleasant neighbor, Mrs. Laney. After the storm passes, Matt doesn’t wake up to find himself in Australia; however, he does find himself in a pretty odd place. This text weaves helpful tornado safety measures throughout a narrative story. For a creative follow-up activity, teachers could assign different natural disasters to small groups for research. Then, groups could use their research and the model text “Tornado Coming!” to incorporate safety tips within their own short stories about their assigned natural disaster.

1. The target readers of this passage are teachers who ______.

A．want to help students learn about natural disasters

B．take an interest in stores related to natural disasters

C．have the need to equip children with safety measures

D．are looking for inviting and inspiring children’s stories

2. We can learn from the texts that______.

A．Betty and Mary are too young to fight against the storm alone

B．Betty is torn between saving Fancifoot’s life and protecting Mary

C．Matt offers Mrs. Laney timely help at the cost of losing his little dog

D．Students can add safety tips for other natural disasters to “Tornado Coming!”

3. What do the two books have in common?

A．Both involve a natural disaster, little kids, an animal and a neighbor.

B．They touch upon the theme of caring for others and self-reliance.

C．Helpful safety measures are highlighted in the narratives.

D．The main characters suffer pain and face a dilemma.

8 . My family lost everything in the little-known flood of Baton Rouge, Louisiana last year that the Red Cross called the “Worst US disaster since Hurricane Sandy.”

It began raining in mid-August. Then it rained some more, got more powerful, and didn’t stop for days. There was talk that the local rivers were going to crest (到达顶点)and cause some pretty serious flooding. We lived somewhat close to the Amite River, but our senior neighbors told us that our neighborhood hadn’t flooded in over 100 years.

Local news said that the nearby high school may get a little bit of water inside from the rising river. We thought we had a couple of days to plan on how we were going to shelter in place because of the weather forecast.

On the 13th of August I woke up, walked outside and headed toward the direction of the river. Some of the lower areas were collecting water but there was no standing water anywhere near my house or even my neighborhood. I went back home and told my wife we should probably get some supplies in case this got serious; that maybe we should even pack a car in case we needed to leave though I was fairly certain there was nothing to worry about.

About 30 minutes into slowly packing there was a loud banging on my front door. It was my wife’s cousin. I opened the door and she said, “What are you doing?! Get out of the house!” I looked behind her and noticed my entire yard underwater and the waterline only about a half-inch from going over my doorstep and into my house.

I was floored. The river wasn’t supposed to crest until the next day. I thought we had more time.

I yelled at my wife, “We have to get out of the house. Now!”

We packed up both our cars in about 10 minutes with only our most precious memories. Everything else we had built during a 10-year marriage was left behind. We evacuated about 5 miles east away from the river to my wife’s grandmothers.

After being there for about an hour someone came to the front door and said, “You guys ned to get out. The river is coming.”

Sure enough, her yard was flooding too.

We evacuated a second time in as many hours to her cousin’s house even further east. After only an hour we were told again that the river was on the way and we had to leave.

1. The author realized the arrival of the flood when ______.

A．the rain started to fall heavily and non-stop

B．the nearby high school was slightly affected

C．there was standing water in some lower areas

D．he was informed by his wife’s cousin at the door

2. What does the author mean by saying “I was floored” in the 6^th paragraph?

A．He was clam enough to cope with the flood.

B．He became trapped by the rising floodwater.

C．He was shocked by the early arrival of the flood.

D．He lost his temper with his wife for being unprepared.

3. From the story, what do we know about the author’s evacuation?

A．He didn’t take action immediately despite his neighbor’s warning.

B．He trusted the weather forecast so that he prepared himself in advance.

C．He and his wife brought some supplies and valuable belongings with them.

D．He was forced to leave the temporary homes again and again to avoid danger.

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Mutual Support in Disasters	B．Baton Rouge Flooding
C．How to Survive a Flood	D．Methods of Predicting Floods

9 . As plastic waste increases rapidly around the world, an essential question remains unanswered: What harm, if any, does it cause to human health?

A few years ago, as microplastics began turning up in the organs of fish and shellfish, the concern was focused on the safety of seafood. Shellfish were a particular worry, because in their case, unlike fish, we eat the entire animal — stomach, microplastics and all. In 2017, Belgian scientists announced that seafood lovers could consume up to 11,000 plastic particles (粒子) a year by eating mussels (贻贝), a favorite dish in that country.

By then, however, scientists already understood that plastics continuously fragment small pieces in the environment, tearing over time into fibers even smaller than a strand of human hair — particles are so small that they easily fly in the air. A team at the U.K.’s University of Plymouth decided to compare the threat from eating polluted wild mussels in Scotland to that of breathing air in a typical home. Their conclusion: People will take in more plastic by breathing in or taking tiny, invisible plastic fibers floating in the air around them—fibers from their own clothes, carpets, and soft covering on furniture — than they will by eating the mussels.

So, it wasn’t much of a surprise when, in 2022, scientists from the Netherlands and the U.K, announced they had found tiny plastic particles in living humans, in two places where they hadn’t been seen before: deep inside the lungs of surgical patients, and in the blood of unknown donors. Neither of the two studies answered the question of possible harm. But together they signaled a shift in the focus of concern about plastics toward the cloud of dust particles in the air, some of them are so small that they can get into deep inside the body and even inside cells, in ways that larger microplastics can’t.

Dick Vethaak, a professor of ecotoxicology (生态毒理学), doesn’t consider the results alarming, exactly—“but, yes, we should be concerned. Plastics should not be in your blood.” “We live in a multi-particle world,” he adds, referring to the dust, pollen (花粉), and smog that humans also breathe in every day. “The trick is to figure out how much plastics contribute to that particle burden and what does that mean.”

1. What does the word “fragment” in para. 3 probably mean?

A．break into

B．take in

C．pick out

D．make up

2. The study done by a team at the U K.’s University of Plymouth shows that ________.

A．microplastics from things in our daily life ant more poisonous

B．people eating polluted mussels are more likely to get diseases

C．invisible plastic fibers are more harmful to the environment

D．the influence of microplastics in mussels is less than thought

3. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

A．microplastics in polluted wild mussels can cause serious diseases

B．there’s no need to worry about the plastics found in human blood

C．we can avoid breathing particles by figuring out particle burden

D．more attention should be paid to the dust particles than plastics

4. Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?

A．Are Microplastics Harmful to Us?

B．Should Microplastics be in Our Blood?

C．Can Microplastics Get into Our Bodies?

D．Do We Know Anything about Microplastics?

10 . Most people have seen animals solve problems in one context or another Whether it’s a dog getting food out of a puzzle toy, a squirrel (松鼠) breaking into a “squirrel-proof, bird feeder, or — in what is hopefully a rarer experience — a bear opening a door to get to the food inside!

Do all individuals within a species come up with ________ solutions to problems? Or are some individuals more innovative than others? In ungulates (for example, goats and horses), social outsiders are more likely to innovate than their ________ groupmates: if an individual spends time on the outer areas of their group, they are more likely to succeed at a problem-solving task.

________, in some species of primates (灵长类动物) and birds, it has been shown that individuals with low social standing — that is, those who regularly lose fights, and who don’t have ________ of access to valuable resources — tend to innovate more.

The above examples tie into the theory that the individuals who are least able to gain access to good quality ________, such as food and shelter, are the most likely to innovate. This “bad competitor” theory suggests that individuals innovate because they must do so to ________. Imagine you’re a goat who can’t get access to the feeding container because you’re not in the in-group. You’d probably be more ________ to figure out how to open a container with food inside than your more popular (and well-fed) groupmates.

However, while there is support for this theory in some species, many species show opposing patterns. ________, being a “bad competitor” doesn’t seem to be a general driver of innovation across species. ________ appears to have a more general influence on animal innovativeness. A meta-analysis (综合分析) across 37 studies of animal innovation found that being brave (that is, approaching ________ objects and exploring new environments) was linked to innovative behavior. For example, brave Carib grackles (a species of bird) and ungulates are more likely to innovate than their more easily frightened groupmates. ________ has also been linked to innovation in a variety of species, from zebra finches (斑胸草雀) to Asian elephants.

Both make instinctive sense. The more likely an individual is to ________ with a new problem (that is, the braver they are, and the more time they spend trying to solve a problem (that is, the more persistent they are), the more likely they are to find a(n) ________.

Regardless of the reason individuals innovate, once an individual finds a solution to a problem, ________ a problem involving resource access, their behavior can spread like wildfire. Other individuals pay attention when a groupmate innovates, and ________ the problem-solving behavior.

1.

A．instant

B．comprehensive

C．fair

D．creative

2.

A．friendly

B．popular

C．close

D．faithful

3.

A．Similarly

B．Inevitably

C．Apparently

D．Gradually

4.

A．purpose

B．priority

C．pressure

D．potential

5.

A．services

B．materials

C．goods

D．resources

6.

A．pretend

B．compete

C．survive

D．evolve

7.

A．reluctant

B．excited

C．motivated

D．confused

8.

A．Thus

B．Besides

C．Still

D．Meanwhile

9.

A．Emotion

B．Gender

C．Appearance

D．Personality

10.

A．living

B．novel

C．endangered

D．ideal

11.

A．Persistence

B．Intelligence

C．Performance

D．Confidence

12.

A．conflict

B．compare

C．interact

D．identify

13.

A．position

B．object

C．solution

D．chance

14.

A．absolutely

B．fortunately

C．definitely

D．particularly

15.

A．copy

B．change

C．influence

D．evaluate