1 . Imagine a plate holding two strawberries, similar in appearance. One came out of a supermarket box, meaning it was probably harvested before it is fully grown, immediately placed in a forced-air cooling unit, loaded onto a refrigerated truck and driven hundreds of miles. By the time it reached the plate two weeks may have passed. The other strawberry was picked from a garden minutes before being eaten.
The first one will probably not taste good as expected. The second is likely to be sweet; the flavor will remain in the mouth. Supermarket strawberries are not entirely without advantages: they are convenient and available even in winter. But the two berries differ from each other in the same way that hearing music in a concert hall differs from listening to an MP3. The home-grown fruit is an eatable case for planting a home garden.
Planting cool-weather greens can seem meaningless as well-stocked supermarket shelves are available all week. But the same could be said of cooking: cheap and good restaurants everywhere, so why bother to make your own meals?
That attitude fails to understand the basic appeal of gardening: it mistakes the product for the purpose. It is true that a garden can produce tomatoes and carrots that taste like themselves rather than the plastic they are usually packaged in. Finding some favorite vegetables in the shops can take some time, effort and expense; growing your own vegetables, rare or routine, ensures a reliable supply.
On the other hand, a garden, especially in the early years, can also produce frustration. Creative gardeners may plant the wrong crops for their soil. Little animals may have the habit of taking single bites of cucumbers, beans and tomatoes. And even expert gardeners can lose a season’s harvest to uncooperative weather.
No matter. The real joy of gardening is the time spent doing it. The deepest pleasure- -as with cooking, writing, bringing up children or almost anything worthwhile- -is in the work itself. A gardener’s memories center not around the food produced, but around long summer afternoons with hands in the dirt of a home garden, surrounded by family. To garden is to patiently and lovingly help life grow, in the ground and above it.
1. What might have caused the strawberries to taste different in paragraph 1?| A．Temperature. | B．Freshness. | C．Appearance. | D．Soil. |
| A．To promote supermarket strawberries. |
| B．To highlight the value of a home garden. |
| C．To stress the differences between them. |
| D．To provide suggestions on fruit shopping. |
| A．Regarding planting a garden as worthless. |
| B．Favoring what is grown in a home garden. |
| C．Enjoying food made by yourself at home. |
| D．Understanding what a garden is intended for. |
| A．Stores can never take the place of a garden. |
| B．Garden products are not for sale in the stores. |
| C．Gardens may fail to produce what you want. |
| D．Training is required for productive gardens. |
| A．Observe patiently how plants grow all summer. |
| B．Spend time taking care of a garden with family. |
| C．Make friends with gardeners in the neighborhood. |
| D．Labor lovingly to clean the dirt out of the garden. |
2 . Phil Wise’s heart raced as he opened one of the transport tubes. He and a team of scientists stepped back as a young Tasmanian devil(袋獾) named Oddity came out. Oddity took a cautious look around and then ran into the forest on Maria Island.
Wise is a wildlife biologist from the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program. The scientists working with this program study Tasmanian devils, monitor their health, and track the devils found in the wild. Because a rare disease is reducing the number of devils, Oddity and 14 others were raised on a preserve and then brought to Maria Island to be released into the wild.
Though they are raised in zoos all over the world, devils live wild only in Tasmania. They are important to the ecosystem because they eat dead animals they find, which helps clean up the environment. But a cancer called Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) is killing devils on mainland Tasmania, endangering the species. The goal of the scientists who released Oddity and the others was to create a population of disease-free Tasmanian devils on Maria Island. Oddity is a part of this “insurance population” of devils raised in zoos and wildlife preserves.
The scientists chose Maria Island for the release because there is no DFTD there. It is separated from mainland Tasmania by the ocean. Devils from the rest of Tasmania can’t get there, which prevents the facial disease from spreading.
Wise and his fellow scientists monitored Oddity and the 14 other Tasmanian devils. The animals did so well that 13 more devils were released. The 28 original Tasmanian devils have reproduced; there are now around 80 devils. Scientists are now figuring out their next move. According to Wise, the focus will soon shift to moving some of the healthy devils back to mainland Tasmania.
Wise says he is “extremely happy to know that animals are getting a chance to be free in the wild in an area that is free of DFTD. It is the ultimate aim of all who work to conserve threatened species.”
1. Why did Wise and his team release the Tasmanian devils like Oddity?| A．To prevent DFTD killing them out. | B．To find out a treatment for DFTD. |
| C．To control the DFTD spread in zoos. | D．To protect Maria Island from DFTD. |
| A．Its wildlife diversity. | B．Its geographic location. |
| C．Its natural resources. | D．Its improved ecosystem. |
| A．Their safety was uncertain. | B．Their number was going up. |
| C．They hardly enjoyed freedom. | D．They recovered from DFTD. |
| A．A program studying Tasmanian devils. | B．A disease threatening Tasmanian devils. |
| C．A measure to save Tasmanian devils. | D．A habitat of wild Tasmanian devils. |
Nowadays, people are understanding the need to solve the climate and biodiversity problem. Poor ecosystems, forest fires, Covid-19 and more extreme weather events are showing us that the destruction of the natural world is greatly impacting on the planet.
Rainforest Concern
One of the most immediate threats to the bio-region is heavy industry, resulting in polluted rivers and the
To protect the cloud forests from threats, Rainforest Concern supports community reserves and has created a private reserve,
Four men once came to a wet place in the roadless forest to fish. They cast their tent upon pine-clothed rocks. On sweet-smelling branches they slept the sleep of unsuccessful fishermen, for the sun made them lazy and the rain made them wet in turn. Finally they ate the last bit of bacon and the last wonderful cake.
Immediately a little man volunteered to stay and hold the camp while the remaining three should go miles to a farmhouse for supplies. They looked at him dismally (沮丧地). “There's only one of you — the devil is your brother,” they said and disappeared down the hill. Then night came and the three had not returned. The little man sat close to the campfire and added branches. Suddenly he heard the coming rustle (沙沙声) of the dead leaves. The little man arose slowly to his feet, his clothes refused to fit his back, his pipe dropped from his mouth, and his knees struck each other. “Hah!” he cried. A low voice replied and a bear paced into the light of the fire. The little man supported himself upon a tree and recognized his visitor — a bear.
The bear was obviously an experienced fighter, for its fur had become deep yellow with age. There was confidence in his small pace and in his shining eyes. It rolled back its lips and exposed its white teeth. The fire enlarged the red of its mouth. The little man had never come across the terrible animal before and was too scared to breathe. “Ah!” The bear interpreted this silence as a gladiator (角斗士). It approached cautiously and slowly. As it came near, the boots of fear were suddenly upon the little man's feet. He cried out and then ran around the campfire. “Ho!” said the bear to himself, “this thing won't fight — he runs. Well, let me catch him.” It started strongly around the campfire. The little man screamed and ran violently. Twice around they went.
In desperation the little man flew into the tent.
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The little man went into giggling (咯咯笑).
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Coffee is probably the world's least expensive success power tool. Coffee builds better teams and improves leadership ability. Coffee also
The problem, of course, is the pace
What can you do? Well, take the time
1. What do we know about the man's new neighbors?
| A．They keep dogs at home. |
| B．They are noisy at night. |
| C．They are unfriendly. |
| A．He is afraid of the dark. |
| B．He can't sleep well at night. |
| C．He dislikes his new neighbors. |
7 . To understand the effect of ice melting around the world we first have to understand what an ice sheet actually is. Covering 5.4 million square miles in Antarctica and 656,000 square miles in Greenland (our two remaining ice sheets today), an ice sheet is actually a huge land of ice from the Ice Age. These sheets, over thousands of years, form by snow changing into ice over the winter, which doesn’t entirely melt during the summer. This ice, home to different species of animals, is now melting at a rate that cannot support the life it currently holds.
Many of these creatures rely on ice sheets as land for resting, hunting and protection, yet as the size decreases, they are forced out of their homeland in search of other land on which to live. Often this means journeys to search for food and an imbalanced ecosystem arises when different species are forced together onto the coast.
Since the 1990s, the deer population has dropped by 56 per cent—climate change has caused warmer temperatures over winter setting off rainfall instead of snow, which freezes more quickly underfoot and makes it harder to walk and search for food. In the summer, frozen layers of land melts and releases trapped diseases which bring death to animals. A similar situation has fallen on the polar bears who suffered a 40 per cent population loss between 2001-2010.
Quite apart from these problems, the threat of sea levels rising if the ice caps were to disappear is approaching. If the Greenland Ice Sheet melted, the sea level would rise around six meters, and if the Antarctic Ice Sheet melted, sea levels would rise by around 20 feet. As a matter of fact, sea levels have risen about eight inches since 1880, three of which we’ve gained over the last 25 years. This seemingly small amount has already caused dangerous flooding, loss of farmland and more deadly storms.
While we’re still a long way from losing the ice sheets all together, we’ve already lost too much for many ecosystems and humans to reasonably survive under, and if we don’t take climate change seriously now, we will certainly hit the point of no return.
1. What is an ice sheet according to the passage?| A．It is an area where ice never melts in summer. |
| B．It is a land of ice that covers all Greenland. |
| C．It is a large area of ice that exists for centuries. |
| D．It is an ice world for animals used to cold. |
| A．It makes it easier to travel to other land. |
| B．It increases the population of sea animals. |
| C．It makes their surroundings more comfortable. |
| D．It causes hunger and illness among animals. |
| A．Ice Sheet will soon disappear from the Earth. |
| B．Sea levels are rising faster in recent years. |
| C．Greenland will be the first to lose all its ice. |
| D．All natural disasters happen due to sea level rise. |
| A．Effect of Melting Ice Sheets | B．Ice, Sea and Animals |
| C．Greenland and Antarctica | D．Changes of Sea Levels |
8 . Next time you watch videos in high resolution, pause for thought. Your decision may be having an unnecessary impact on the environment.
Watching videos on a smartphone in high resolution produces eight times as much carbon as viewing in standard definition, according to a report from the Royal Society. It adds that the difference in resolution is unlikely to be noticed on small screens anyway and suggests that the users should make a sensible choice in some circumstances.
“Avoiding streaming in unnecessarily high resolution will help reduce emissions,” the report says. “Platforms and regulators should consider limiting streaming resolution.” It recommends that, as part of a move “responsible streaming”, video should be turned off for many YouTube users who are only listening to the content. A previous study found that such a move could save between 1 per cent and 5 per cent of YouTube’s total emissions.
The authors do not calculate how much a person’s carbon footprint would be reduced by watching videos in lower resolution. However, they admitted that digital technology also plays a significant role in reducing emissions, such as by enabling people to communicate virtually rather than travel to meet face to face. “Digital technology lets us do things differently and it has huge potential to help reducing emissions—if used responsibly,” said Adrian Friday, professor from the University of Lancaster, who is a member of the working group for the report.
Using laptops, tablets, smart TVs and other devices for longer before upgrading will also reduce emissions, the report says. “Protecting and repairing phones is good practice to help keep them longer. Getting a phone or other device second-hand, or passing it on, and sharing equipment are other good ways.”
1. What’s the disadvantage of the high-resolution device according to this passage?| A．It can’t be upgraded in time. | B．It requires a larger screen. |
| C．It may not benefit the environment. | D．It functions rather slowly. |
| A．Replacing old laptops frequently. | B．Travelling to meet face to face. |
| C．Sharing equipment with others. | D．Streaming in high resolution. |
| A．communicating virtually is totally impractical. |
| B．YouTube is a popular platform around the word. |
| C．digital technology has more disadvantages than advantages. |
| D．digital technology should be used reasonably. |
| A．Art & Culture | B．Science & Tech | C．Entertainment | D．Economy |
| A．Rainy. | B．Sunny. | C．Windy. |
10 . Drug development is a risky and costly business. Many possibly effective drugs fail to cut the mustard during the experiments. One reason is that drugs which work on lab animals may not work quite so well in human tests. Being able to pick winners and losers as early as possible would save money, and the One Health Company thinks it may have found a way. It is offering to help medical groups test their cancer drugs on sick pets.
There are several benefits. By treating animals with existing cancers, it hopes to avoid a problem with modern animal research, which is that the “model” animals and diseases that are used to test drugs are not always good stand-ins (替身) for the natural illness. For example, mice used to test cancer drugs may have had their tumours (肿瘤) placed into their bodies, or their immune systems weakened with drugs.
Another plus is that pet owners tend to be great caretakers who are very knowledgeable about their four-legged friends and are likely to report even small changes in behaviors. Lab animals are checked far less often.
Perhaps the most useful aspect of using pets for drug experiments, however, is that there is no law on animals’ medical records. One Health has been able to get 98% of records on animals from hospitals—a number that is impossible for humans. That allows the company to find the right animals for a drug experiment.
Based on the benefits above, the company hopes that pets will prove useful in other diseases in addition to cancers. Horses, for example, seem to be good stand-ins for humans when it comes to arthritis (关节炎). Cats, meanwhile, may prove instructive in breast cancer research.
1. What do the underlined words “cut the mustard” in Paragraph1 probably mean?| A．Meet the requirements. | B．Reduce the pain. |
| C．Affect the test results. | D．Tell the differences. |
| A．It makes sure the animals with natural diseases are used. |
| B．It makes sure the model animals are checked regularly. |
| C．It makes sure most animals’ medical records are available. |
| D．It makes sure the model animals are in healthy condition. |
| A．How to help sick pets at a low price. | B．How to improve drug experiments. |
| C．How to save the drug business. | D．How to treat some pet diseases. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
