1 . Most birds, in particular, exhibit some degree of patterns and colours. Australia’s zebra finch (斑胸草雀), for example, was so named because of the zebra-like black and white bars on its tail. But it also has many other colours and patterns, from a bright orange bill to fine white spotting along its reddish-brown sides.
The zebra finch is Australia’s widely distributed grass-finch species, occurring throughout most of mainland Australia. It’s a common and familiar bird in the drier parts of the country.
When we see such a highly patterned bird we presume all individuals of that species have their spots and bars in the same places. But look closer and we’ll see that the quantity and design of these patterns varies between individuals. And every now and then a bird exhibits a more obvious feather variation. Occasionally, we see one that has larger than usual pale areas of feathers or, more rarely, has lost its normal patterning altogether.
Colouration and patterning in all animals is caused by a range of pigments (色素). Melanin (黑色素) is responsible for blacks and browns, and a lack of this pigment can cause a partial or total loss of an individual’s dark patterning. The two main terms that describe these abnormalities are albinism (白化病) and leucism (白色亚种). Both conditions are genetic and both can lead to a very similar physical appearance. Leucism, however, causes a lack of the pigment cells that produce melanin. But albinism causes the production of melanin pigment to be reduced or absent.
Can we distinguish between the two conditions without the help of a cellular biologist? Yes. Albino animals have fully unpigmented red eyes. Leucistic animals, on the other hand, never completely lose pigment from the eye, although they can have blue eyes due to a partial loss of pigment.
Why don’t we see more albino or leucistic birds? Because the lack of melanin reduces the strength and lastingness of the affected birds’ feathers, making them more easily broken. Additionally, the birds’ vision and hearing is negatively affected, making them less able to hunt. The brighter feathers and lack of patterning also make them easier for attackers to see.
1. What can be learned about Australia’s zebra finch?| A．It is one of the rarest birds in Australia. |
| B．It is mostly covered with bright orange feathers. |
| C．It acquires its name from its tail colours and patterns. |
| D．It has the same spots and bars in the same places. |
| A．Recall. | B．Suppose. | C．Deny. | D．Recommend. |
| A．By setting assumptions. | B．By presenting opinions. |
| C．By giving explanations. | D．By drawing conclusions. |
| A．They have quite good hearing. | B．They have completely red eyes. |
| C．They have easily broken feathers. | D．They have excellent hunting skills. |
“This Saturday, we’ll be visiting cats at the animal shelter. If you’d like to join us, here’s an application form”, said Ms. Delgado, the school librarian who had held the reading engagement event for students.
Ben loved cats and he had always wanted one, so he hurried to take an application form. Then Ms. Delgado added, “We’ll be reading to the cats and award readers who make most progress.” Ben stopped. Reading al oud can be a challenging task. Ben might feel his heart racing, his palms sweating, and his voice shaking as he read. He might stumble over words or lose his place in the text. He might feel like everyone was watching him and judging him. Still, he really wanted to visit the cats, so he took an application form anyway.
On Saturday, Ben arrived at the shelter with some of his classmates. “This is Max,” the shelter worker told Ben as she handed him a gray cat. Ben carried Max to a beanbag chair and sat down. Max settled onto his lap. He took a book he’d been working on and started reading. Max, very different from other cats walking around the room while the kids read, purred (发出呼噜声) on his lap as if he had understood what Ben read.
“I’m glad Max is staying and listening to my reading and he is the best cat ever,” Ben told Dad excitedly. “I’m glad you two are friends,” Dad said. All week, Ben’s heart was filled with anxiety as he waited for Saturday to arrive. He was eager to read to Max and the anticipation of spending time with his feline (猫咪的) friend made him restless and nervous. When it arrived, Ben got to read to Max again.
“What if someone adopts Max?” Ben asked Dad later. “I guess you’d read to a different cat,” Dad said. “But I don’t want a different cat. I wish we could adopt Max,” Ben said to Dad. He knew they couldn’t because Mom had allergies (过敏). Ben loved the cat so much that he even told his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Patel, about Max. “Max sounds like a special cat,” said Mrs. Patel.
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Week by week, Ben realized that reading seemed easier with Max’s company.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________But on Saturday, Ben couldn’t find Max at the shelter.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . This year saw the publication, in stages, of the sixth report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—a report which was depressing reading for many climate scientists, and in some ways offered a ray of hope.
Why depressing? Because the report confirmed what scientists have been saying for years: that human activity, particularly in the form of emissions (排放) of greenhouse gases, is responsible for the warming in the past few centuries, and that unless such emissions are greatly reduced, we will soon bring about our entire ecosystem’s destruction.
The report concluded that 1.5°C of global warming over the next couple of hundred years is already “baked in”. This makes the goals outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement—that nations agreed to keep warming below 2°C, and hopefully below 1.5°C-much harder to meet. Worse still, the IPCC report was followed later in the year by the COP27 summit (峰会), described by Prof Dann Mitchell, as “a complete failure, other than some commitment to loss and damage.”
And the ray of hope? The IPCC’s sixth report was broader in approach than previous studies—looking in-depth for the first time at the role played in warming by short-term greenhouse gases such as methane(甲烷), for instance.
“Reducing carbon emissions is always the best approach: stop the problem at its source,” said Mitchell. “But we also need other approaches to help with this. Methane is important, but it’s so short-lived-that’s why we haven’t been so bothered when compared with CO,.”
The IPCC working groups showed potential adaptation paths, and they are the other things we can do in terms of fighting climate change and relieving its worst effects, rather than simply reducing carbon emissions. This would include taking measures such as switching to a more plant-based diet (to reduce methane emissions), controlling population growth, reducing financial inequality and developing means by which we might remove CO, that’s already in our atmosphere, rather than simply preventing it being released.
1. Which of the following can best describe the sixth report by IPCC?| A．Seemingly contradictory. | B．Wholly promising. |
| C．Particularly hopeless. | D．Exceptionally new. |
| A．out of date. | B．to the full. |
| C．under discussion. | D．in progress |
| A．It has been long regarded as a major source of global warming. |
| B．Its role in global warming had been overlooked before the report. |
| C．Its boost to global warming is as much as other greenhouse gases. |
| D．It is considered as a new approach to reducing global warming. |
| A．2. | B．3. | C．4. | D．5. |
4 . Baggy has become the first dog in the UK—and potentially the world—to join the fight against air pollution by recording pollutant levels near the ground.
Baggy wears a pollution monitor on her collar so she can take data measurements close to the ground. Her monitor has shown that air pollution levels are higher closer to ground level, which has helped highlight concerns that babies and young kids may be at higher risk of developing lung problems.
Conventional air pollution monitors are normally fixed on lampposts at about nine feet in the air. However, since Baggy stands at about the same height as a child in a pushchair（婴儿车）, she frequently records pollution levels which are much higher than the data gathered by the Environment A gency.
The doggy data research was the idea of Baggy's 13-year-old owner Tom Hunt and his dad Matt. The English youngster noticed that pollution levels are around two-thirds higher close to the ground than they are in the air at the height where they are recorded by the agency. Tom has since reported the shocking findings to the government in an attempt to emphasise that babies are at higher risk of developing asthma（哮喘）.
Matt Hunt said he was "very proud" of his son because “when the boy gets an idea, he keeps his head down and gets on with it, and he really does want to do some good and stop young kids from getting asthma."
“Tom built up a passion for environmental protection at a very early age," Matt added. “He became very interested in gadgets（小装置）. About one year ago, he got this new piece of tech which is like a test tube. One Sunday afternoon, we went out to do some monitoring, and he said, why don't we put it on Baggy's collar and let her monitor the pollution？'So we did it."
Tom said, "Most of the time, Baggy is just like any other dog. But for the rest of the time she is a super dog, and we are all really proud of her."
1. With a monitor on her collar, Baggy can ____________.| A．take pollutant readings | B．record pollutant levels |
| C．process collected data | D．reduce air pollution |
| A．High places are free of air pollution. |
| B．Higher pushchairs are more risky for kids. |
| C．Conventional monitors are more reliable. |
| D．Air is more polluted closer to the ground. |
| A．To warn of a health risk. | B．To find out pollution sources. |
| C．To test his new monitor. | D．To prove Baggy's abilities. |
| A．Modest. | B．Generous. | C．Creative. | D．Outgoing. |
“Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…”
Danny sang while his fingers pressed and pulled skillfully at the guitar strings, delivering a slow and peaceful tune. A circle of audience had formed, nodding and moving slowly to the song.
Lying at the feet of the street performer was his most adoring fan: One-Eyed, a white stray (流浪) dog with pieces of brown. Danny felt the name was suitable considering its physical disability. Usually, One-Eyed would bark loudly as Danny performed. Much to his annoyance, people often mistook the pair as owner and pet. At this time, Danny would reply, “My dog? No!”, eyes rolling at the idea. How he wished the dog would leave him alone instead!
On a snowy night, while Danny was performing, a bird flew downward, landing into the midst of the crowd. It cooed happily as if to harmonize with Danny. Unfortunately, that did not sit well with One-Eyed, which immediately bounced at it and the bird flew away desperately.
The unexpected chaos upturned Danny's hat, which could have been filled with notes and coins from his appreciative audience, leaving it ignored on the ground. "Argh! The hateful dog!” Danny broke down, thinking to himself, “Either the dog goes or I go!”
On the next night, Danny tried to find a new place and chanced upon the park. For a while his earnings were good unsurprisingly as there was a steady flow of visitors. However, that didn't last long. One-Eyed came along and appointed itself as Danny's guardian. "Argh! Here comes the hateful dog again!" That night, Danny hadn't made enough money he should have, all thanks to the troublesome dog.
Danny was almost mad with One-Eyed. “What should I do? Call an animal shelter?” Torn by this problem, he walked aimlessly by the lake of the park. With all his mind focused on how to get rid of the dog, Danny didn't watch his steps. Suddenly, he slipped and fell into the lake accidentally. Struggling in the icy water, he cried for help desperately, almost choking to death. Sensing the approach of death, Danny got into overwhelming panic.
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。
Just then, a familiar barking was heard in the distance.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“My hero! Thank you for saving me,” Danny said gratefully with watery eyes.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 . Birds’ bodies are becoming smaller in size in response to climate change, even in places like the Amazon rainforest that are relatively untouched by human hands, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances.
Researchers found that nearly all of the birds’ bodies have become lighter since the 1980s, losing on average about 2% of their body weight every decade. For an average bird species that weighed about 30 grams in the 1980s, the population now averages about 27.6 grams. The study also revealed that wingspan was getting bigger in the Amazon bird species studied.
These birds don’t vary that much in size. When everyone in the population is a couple of grams smaller, it’s significant. This is undoubtedly happening all over and probably not just with birds.
A lower body weight and increasing wing length means that birds use energy more efficiently, the researchers noted. For example, compared with a fighter jet with short wings that needs lots of fuel to fly, a glider plane with a thin body and long wings flies up into the air with much less energy.
The study concluded that a warmer climate was the driving force of these changes. The climate in Brazilian Amazonia, where the birds lived, had gotten hotter and wetter over the study period. Since 1966, rainfall increased by 13% in the wet season and fell by 15% in the dry, with temperatures increasing by 1 degree Celsius in the wet season and 1.65 degrees Celsius in the dry season. The change in climate might have made food or other resources insufficient.
Together, body proportions moved in the direction of more efficient flight and lower metabolic heat production and are consistent with a plastic or genetic adaptation to resource or thermal stress under climate change.
Animals are dealing with climate change in different ways.
1. What is the direct cause of birds’ changes?| A．A warmer climate. | B．A scientific advance. | C．A lack of sufficient food. | D．A lack of drinking water |
| A．To show planes fly with much less fuel. | B．To prove birds need much energy to fly. |
| C．To demonstrate birds’ efficient energy use. | D．To illustrate planes need lots of fuel to fly. |
| A．Animals’ other body part changes. | B．People’s attempts to protect animals. |
| C．Birds’ adaptation to climate change. | D．Animals’ ways to tackle climate change |
| A．Birds Nowadays Also Have to Adapt to Climate Change |
| B．The Climate Crisis Is Influencing Birds’ Body Shapes |
| C．It’s Our Duty to Take Measures to Protect Birds on the Planet |
| D．It’s Time to Raise Human Beings’ Awareness of Climate Crisis |
Illegal ivory (象牙) hunting once posed a significant threat to Kenya’s elephants. But now the giants of the animal kingdom
In the past years, Kenyan
In the last year, at least 179 elephants have died of thirst, while hunting has claimed the lives of fewer than 10, Kenyan Tourism and Wildlife Secretary Najib Balala told the BBC. “It is a red alarm.” he said of the crisis. Balala suggested that
8 . Avoid the supermarket shelves piled with cheese, cupcakes and pies. That is the message of an analysis that found these items are the worst when looking at both nutritional and environmental impacts of thousands of food and drink products sold in the UK and Ireland. So far, most studies have focused on the environmental impact of goods such as beef or beans, rather than tofu and other products that shoppers often buy. Where research has focused on such products, it has usually been for a small number of them.
In a bid to bridge the gap, Micheal Clark at the University of Oxford and his colleagues analyzed more than 57,000 food and drink products sold in the UK and Ireland. The team took the ingredients (成份) data from eight retailers (零售商), including major supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s. However, precise figures on how much of each ingredient is in each product were only available for around a tenth of them. To estimate the rest, Clark and his colleagues trained an algorithm (算法) on the known products and used it to predict the composition of the unknown ones. Finally, the team linked all the ingredients to an existing database of environmental impacts, including emissions (排放), land use and water stress.
The results may come as no surprise: meat, fish and cheese products had highest environmental impact while fruit, vegetables, bread and sugary drink products had the lowest burden. Clark admits that none of this is exciting, given what we already knew from past research. “What is important is that you can start getting these impact estimates for products that people are purchasing, which then has a lot of effects,” he says.
One of those is eco-lables, which can help consumers to make greener choices. However, retailers have struggled in the past with the challenge of the large number of food. Clark is thinking about how to eventually turn the data into an app that could be used either by shoppers or by retailers wanting to reduce their environmental impact. “We’ve made that information available in a way that means people can start making informed decisions,” he says.
1. What is the purpose of Clark’s study?| A．To solve the environmental problems with some products. |
| B．To point out the mistakes of the previous research. |
| C．To focus on the important ingredients data from retailers. |
| D．To estimate the environmental impact of frequently-bought products. |
| A．The process of Clark’s study. | B．The result of Clark’s study. |
| C．The significance of Clark’s study. | D．The limitation of Clark’s study. |
| A．Surprising. | B．Worrying. | C．Meaningful. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．Nutritious food like beef and eggs. | B．Green food like carrots and bananas. |
| C．Healthy food like fish and tofu. | D．Fresh food like milk and chicken |
9 . In nature, octopuses (章鱼) hunt mainly with their sense of touch, using their eight arms to feel out their environment for hidden creatures. Researchers at the University of Minnesota recently studied a different way octopuses hunt—when they identify prey (猎物) based on sight. The study findings show that the marine creatures are quite consistent and methodical in how they approach prey.
Lead researcher Trevor Wardill and his team placed California two-spot octopuses into water tanks, hiding them in caves where they would have one eye looking out. They then placed either fiddler crabs or white shrimp in the tanks to see how the octopuses would try to catch them, capturing the interactions on video. The crabs and shrimp behave differently when trying to escape from predators (捕猎者), so using both species gave the researchers an opportunity to see whether this led the octopuses to use a different arm for hunting depending on the prey.
Wardill’s team found that the octopuses almost always used the same arm to grab their prey. Specifically, the second arm from the middle of the octopuses’ body, on the same side of their body as the eye, caught the prey. If they needed more arms to grab prey, they would use the ones next to the second arm.
The octopuses also attacked differently depending on the prey. When faced with crabs, an octopus would move suddenly on top of the crab with its whole body. However, when catching shrimp, the octopuses would take one arm and reach out very slowly toward the shrimp, then grab it and latch (缠住) onto it with its other arms to pull it in.
Wardill and his team hope to do more research. They want to study the octopus’s brain as it attacks pre y to develop a better understanding of what role the creature’s nervous system plays in selecting the arms it uses.
1. What is the recent study mainly about?| A．Octopuses’ ability to hide itself. | B．Octopuses’ way to track prey. |
| C．Octopuses’ hunting mode via eyes. | D．Octopuses’ method of perceiving the environment. |
| A．They adopt different strategies to hunt. | B．They stretch arms slowly to catch crabs. |
| C．They move suddenly to prey on shrimps. | D．They use the second arm to catch prey anytime. |
| A．Whether they’re nervous in hunting. | B．How their nerves work during hunting. |
| C．How they choose their arms in hunting. | D．Whether they use their brain during hunting. |
| A．Octopuses: Skillful Hunters | B．Octopuses: One-armed Predators |
| C．Octopuses: A Sharp-eyed Species | D．Octopuses: A Mysterious Creature |
1. What can we say about the weather on Sunday?
| A．It was fine. | B．It was hot. | C．It was changeable. |
| A．It’s beyond their expectations. |
| B．It’s a common phenomenon. |
| C．It’s caused by climate change. |
