1. What does the man plan to do for a few days?
| A．Help the woman walk a dog. | B．Visit the woman. | C．Go on a business trip. |
| A．At around 6:00 a.m. | B．At around 8:00 a.m. | C．At around 8:00 p.m. |
| A．Go for a walk. | B．Make dinner. | C．Play with her friends. |
2 . At Marine Mammal Laboratory, laboratory director Herman put a dolphin through its paces. Using hand signals, Herman asked, “Is the ball in the pool?” The dolphin correctly pressed a lever for “YES”. Herman asked it to push the ball to a basket. It did. Then he signaled his pupil to do it again, but he removed the basket. Herman expected the dolphin to be confused. Instead, it carried the ball to the NO lever and stopped there. Herman was astonished. “This is a totally untrained, invented response,” he said, “We never dreamed the animal would ‘think’ the problem through like that.”
To get a closer look at these amazing creatures, Herman and his team spent a week on board the Jennifer Marie. Whenever they heard the cry “Dolphins!” they slipped into the water. The dolphins approached, curious about them, observing them with dark, liquid eyes. Dolphins love to imitate. If they swam on their backs, Dolphins did too. If they dived, Dolphins followed. This talent can be carried to extraordinary lengths. In one instance, a trainer blew a puff of cigarette smoke against the window of an observation tank. A young dolphin rushed to its mother, nursed briefly, and spat out a cloud of milk against the glass.
Herman said “We’re still in the early stages of learning about the intelligence of these animals and our ability to communicate with them.” Scientists are amazed at dolphins’ intelligence, but fear for the future of these trusting ocean creatures.
Dolphins’ trouble could be sharks, killer whales or, worse yet, a fishing vessel. Indeed, in the past three decades, commercial fishing, especially the biggest threat—the drift net fishing, has greatly decreased the world’s dolphin population. Every night in the North Pacific, hundreds of Asian fishing vessels put out these “curtains of death,” each up to 50 miles long. Floating with the currents, they sweep up all sea life in their path. People wonder what the world would be without dolphins.
1. Why did the dolphin stop at the NO lever?| A．It was confused. | B．It was unable to do the task. |
| C．It refused to listen to the order. | D．It found the basket wasn’t there. |
| A．To copy human behavior. | B．To threaten its playmate. |
| C．To show off its talent. | D．To drive the trainer away. |
| A．Further research on dolphins is essential. |
| B．Intelligent Dolphins could tackle their troubles. |
| C．Some measures should be taken to protect dolphins. |
| D．Drift nets are the biggest trouble for marine animals. |
| A．Dolphins: clever, naughty | B．Dolphins: intelligent, threatened |
| C．Dolphins: humans’ best friends | D．Dolphins: smartest marine animals |
3 . Wetlands occur wherever water meets land. Wetlands exist in every country and in every climatic zone. Healthy wetlands store carbon, regulate the water cycle, and support 40% of the world’s biodiversity.
Jiangxi Poyang Lake Nanji Wetlands
Nanji Wetlands is located in the southern part of the main lake area of Poyang Lake, covering a total area of 33,300 hectares. It is an incredibly valuable ecosystem and serves as a vital habitat for various wetland bird species, including many national first-class and second-class protected animals.
Anhui Shengjin Lake National Nature Reserve
The Anhui Shengjin Lake National Nature Reserve is a freshwater lake wetland, with an area of 33,333 hectares. It is primarily set up as the wintering grounds of rare birds. Within the reserve, there are a total of 142 bird species, including 66 species of migratory (迁徙的) birds. This reserve holds the distinction of being the largest natural wintering ground for the hooded crane (丹顶鹤) population worldwide.
Gansu Yellow River Shouqu Wetlands
The Gansu Yellow River Shouqu National Nature Reserve is located within Maqu county. It covers a total area of 203,401 hectares, with 132,067 hectares intended for wetland conservation. The primary objective of this reserve is to protect the highland wetland ecosystem, as well as the habitat of migratory birds, particularly the black-necked crane. In February 2020, it was officially approved as a Wetland of International Importance.
Guangdong Nanpeng Islands Reserve
Established in 2003, Guangdong Nanpeng Islands Reserve covers a total area of 35,679 hectares. In 2015, it was recognized and included in the International Important Wetlands Directory. The main focus of the reserve is to protect the unique underwater natural landscape, the ecosystems of the nearby coastal waters, the important rare and endangered marine (海洋的) animals.
1. Which wetland covers the largest area?| A．Nanji Wetlands. |
| B．Shengjin Lake National Nature Reserve. |
| C．Shouqu Wetlands. |
| D．Guangdong Nanpeng Islands Reserve. |
| A．To preserve natural landscapes. |
| B．To house rare birds in winter. |
| C．To reproduce hooded cranes. |
| D．To store freshwater. |
| A．Highland wetland ecosystem. | B．Marine ecosystems. |
| C．Underwater animals. | D．Bird habitats. |
4 . Without shiny black solar panels (太阳能板) on the roof, the residents in an apartment building in Illinois are enjoying the benefits of “community solar” — a program in which residents can buy electricity from nearby solar farms, reducing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions (排放) and receiving discounts on their electric bills.
The solar energy in community solar doesn’t actually flow into your home, but flows into your area’s power grid (电网), providing electricity to homes and businesses in your region, and you get the benefits of government solar rewards in the form of lower electricity bills.
Among those signing up for the program is Dickerson, 73, of Oak Park, Illinois. “Try it; you’ll like it,” he said. “You’ll save money, and you’ll feel good about saving the planet — at least a little bit.” Proudly showing charts of their electricity costs in a recent interview, Dickerson and his fellow members of the community green committee, said they’re all paying less with community solar for their individual homes as well as the community’s common space.
Community solar was pioneered in the mid-2000s as a way to bring clean energy to the many American households without access to solar panels for various reasons. “Community solar is about to boost everywhere in terms of access,” said Nicole Steele, a senior advisor in the U. S. Department of Energy. “It’s just another way to be part of the clean energy transformation and see the actual benefits.”
Dickerson and his neighbour Johnson have been protecting the planet since childhood, such as leaving no litter in the forest and sorting recyclables. Therefore, they found it easy to accept community solar. Now, the building’s green newsletter, edited by Johnson, is trumpeting community solar savings. “As a parent and grandparent, it’s kind of like a heritage,” Johnson said of this work. “How could I do something that’s bad for the world in which my grandchildren are going to live?”
1. How does community solar work?| A．By directly transporting energy to households. |
| B．By equipping residents’ rooftops with panels. |
| C．By storing electricity in nearby solar farms. |
| D．By providing electricity through the power grid. |
| A．To prevent greenhouse gas emission. |
| B．To reduce cost and help save the planet. |
| C．To experience a more convenient energy. |
| D．To get rewards from the local government. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Dismissive. | C．Conservative. | D．Approving. |
| A．Admitting shyly. | B．Stating critically. |
| C．Explaining secretly. | D．Announcing proudly. |
5 . Wildfires, when allowed to burn in areas without human development, can contribute to the restoration of the surrounding watershed(集水区), renewal of the soil, and resetting the clock for the ecosystem.
Many forests cannot sustain themselves without natural wildfire, including pine barrens, lodgepole pine forests and many more. These forests require canopy fires, which primarily affect the upper layer of plants in a forest, to reproduce because the trees in the forest are adapted to only produce seeds following a major fire event. Hence, fires can be restorative for the forest, and without them many of these forest types would decline on the landscape. How is a fire restorative for the watershed? It restores in many ways including, but not limited to, improving water quality, offering habitat for insects that serve as food for fish, promoting the growth of fire adapted plants, etc... Not to mention renewal of the soil chemistry which is vital to the forest and the watershed.(My attitude is that of someone who has studied wildfire and streams since the disastrous 1988 Yellowstone wildfires.) The science backs up how natural wildfire can be favorable through research publication after publication.
It’s like “resetting the clock” on the ecosystem, allowing it to smoothly all over again for another 200 years. By the way, a canopy fire such as Yellowstone in 1988 also results in the reproduction of younger trees after fire which act to stop the spread and progress of a potentially destructive wildfire immediately. Without it, future wildfires are very likely to become bigger and bigger.
The bottom line is that we may need today’s natural wildfires on our forested landscape to prevent more serious fire events in the future. That lesson was learned in 1988 Yellowstone wildfires which was a year of disastrous large-scale fires despite more than 50 years of thorough and tight fire monitoring.
1. What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Seeds. | B．Wildfires. | C．Trees. | D．Ecosystems. |
| A．Making wildfires easier to be spotted. | B．Reducing occurring rates of wildfires. |
| C．Stopping a major wildfire in its tracks. | D．Preventing potential wildfires completely. |
| A．We should accept wildlife on its own terms. | B．Fire monitoring in Yellowstone was successful. |
| C．Natural fires may reduce the risk of larger ones. | D．Serious wildfires are caused by human activities. |
| A．The beneficial effects of wildfires. | B．Impacts of wildfires on development. |
| C．The necessity of watershed preservation. | D．Measures to prevent large-scale wildfires. |
1. What disaster hit Nah a yesterday?
| A．A typhoon. | B．A snowstorm. | C．An earthquake. |
| A．700. | B．500. | C．160. |
| A．Her schoolmate. | B．Her father. | C．The police. |
| A．Music. | B．Sports. | C．Weather. |
7 . More than 170,000 people in California are unhoused. Even as the state has poured resources into fighting against the problem, the number of people without homes has ticked upward in recent years. On the surface, the state has one key advantage for people without a reliable roof over their heads: relatively consistent and livable weather. So one of my first thoughts when I heard news of a horricane attacking Los Angeles was just “What will happen to the city’s homeless population?”
City agencies quickly took action. As it became clear that the Los Angeles region could experience an extreme downpour and subsequent flooding, outreach teams fanned out across the river bank and dam areas across the city that have become home to a significant unhoused population, offering support to move them into shelters and motels (汽车旅馆).
Despite that, it’s obvious that the effects of climate change will hit the most vulnerable (脆弱的) hardest. We see this globally as extreme weather events hit countries that have contributed the least to the problem.
The most notable connection between climate change and the US housing crisis is the threat extreme weather poses to unhoused people. More unhoused people are affected as climate change drives increasingly unpredictable weather. People without homes know how to respond to expected seasonal events. But events like a near-hurricane in Los Angeles or a wildfire in ‘Maui can catch populations with limited access to information off guard.
Another link worth considering is the way in which climate change creates more homelessness and further stresses on housing systems. Hurricane Katrina, for example, displaced 800, 000 people. Four years later, 12,000 people remained without shelter.
Housing has been — and will continue to be — a key issue in Maui too as it recovers from the wildfire that killed more than 100 people. Maui has already had a housing crisis, the result of a high cost of living driven in large part by the tourism industry. And, now, many more are left looking for places to stay. Ashley Kelly, the chief operating officer at Hawaii’s Family Life Center, said: “Finding housing for any new clients is just not possible right now.”
1. What contributes to the increase of the unhoused population in California?| A．Its mild weather. |
| B．Its inclusive local culture. |
| C．Its limited basic facilities. |
| D．Its relaxed state policies. |
| A．They built dams to prevent flooding. |
| B．They moved homeless people to safe places. |
| C．They sought low-cost housing from city agencies. |
| D．They surrounded the river bank to keep people away. |
| A．Mysterious. | B．Exceptional. | C．Changeable. | D．Difficult. |
| A．Ways of Americans relocating disaster-affected populations. |
| B．The significance of timely weather updates for the homeless. |
| C．The link between climate change and the housing crisis in the US. |
| D．Approaches of homeless Americans to dealing with natural disasters. |
注意：
1.写作词数应为 80个左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。
How to Have a Low-carbon Spring Festival
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Plastic production is energy intensive (能源密集型) and consumes fossil fuels. When burnt, waste plastic gives off heat-trapping gases and other pollutants. Once such emissions (排放) reach a certain level, it results
China’s efforts
Over the past decade, China
China has also made great
10 . Despite heavy illegal hunting of rhinos, South Africa’s Kruger National Park is still a natural paradise. One of the largest remaining lion populations in Africa lives there. Yet there is something the local animals fear even more than the big cats.
Liana Zanette of Western University in Ontario and her colleagues were able to show that animals react most strongly to human voices and flee in response. For their experiment, the team placed camera traps and loudspeakers at water holes in the national park, which allowed the researchers to influence and record the behavior of a total of 19 mammal species. They played the animals sounds of normal conversations of humans in four South African languages, dogs barking, gunshots and lion sounds.
The study group found that animals were twice as likely to flee and yacated an area faster when they heard human voices than when they heard lions or gunshots. This was true for 95 percent of the animal species observed, including giraffes, leopards, hyenas, zebras, kudu, warthogs, impalas and rhinos. Only elephants were significantly more likely to run from lions than from humans.
The same was true of the time that animals spent at water holes: they usually stayed longer when lion sounds were played to them than when human voices were heard. Wild dogs, leopards and buffalo were the only animals who stayed at water holes longer when they heard humans, and the difference was not statistically significant for these species. “There is a notion that animals get used to humans when they are not being hunted. But we’ve shown that’s not the case,” Clinchy says. “Fear of humans is deeply rooted and common, so we need to seriously address it for conservation reasons.”
The team is now investigating whether its customized sound systems can be used to help endangered species, such as the southern white rhino, away from known poaching(偷猎) areas in South Africa. Initial tests of keeping rhinos away from such areas through the use of human voices have been successful.
1. What can we know about South Africa’s Kruger National Park?| A．Rhinos are effectively protected in the park. |
| B．Lions are the biggest threat for local animals. |
| C．Human voices cause fear in the local wildlife. |
| D．It is a natural paradise without illegal hunting. |
| A．Occupied. | B．Left. | C．Encountered. | D．Filled. |
| A．Elephants are more afraid of humans than lions. |
| B．Giraffes react most strongly to lions or gunshots. |
| C．Rhinos were more likely to run from lions than gunshots |
| D．Wild dogs stayed at water holes longer when hearing humans |
| A．Human Voices: a surprising deep-rooted fear in wildlife |
| B．Lions: the primary source of threat for the local animals |
| C．Lion Sounds: the potential use for wildlife protection |
| D．Humans: the impact on decreasing rhino population |
