1 . Meat, milk, cheese — just some of the things provided by goats. But now we can also add fire safety to this list. As wildfires damage increasingly large areas of the planet each year, goatherds (牧羊人) may offer a way of reducing the risk.
Wildfires are made possible by hot, dry weather conditions as well as a supply of dead plants that serve as fuel. We may have limited control over the former factor, but we can control the latter. Reducing the fuel load lowers the possibility of wildfires occurring, as well as the amount of damage caused. This is where we can turn to goats to search for a solution, which are being used for landscape management in a number of places around the world, including Greece, Spain, Portugal, Chile and a number of parts of the United States.
Goats have an extremely powerful digestive (消化的) system. Many kinds of plants that are dangerous to other animals can be easily eaten by goats. It’s not just fully-grown plants that goats are able to deal with: any seeds that pass through a goat can’t survive and will not grow. Human clearance teams have to worry about getting to the hard-to-reach places where plants grow but goats don’t. They are skilled mountain climbers and when standing on their hind legs, they can reach up to two metres to the plants that humans would struggle to reach. Because of this, using goats can reduce both the possibility of workplace accidents and the amount of money spent on fire protection measures. Goatherds have been found to clear some parts of land for a third of the price of human control teams.
Cost and safety aren’t the only benefits. Goats are quieter than grass-cutting machines and people usually prefer to see goats eating grass rather than litres of herbicide (除草剂). Children are often attracted to see the goats at work and this provides an opportunity to educate people about preventing wildfires.
1. Why can goats help to prevent wildfires?| A．They are not afraid of bad weather. | B．They are easily controlled by goatherds. |
| C．They have the strongest digestive system. | D．They can remove dead plants causing fire. |
| A．The fire protection measures that people often take. |
| B．The reasons why goats are used to prevent wildfires. |
| C．The difficulty human clearance teams have preventing fire. |
| D．The effects goats have on the natural balance of mountains. |
| A．Herbicide will not be used to remove grass soon. |
| B．Children like goats because of their quiet character. |
| C．It’s a green way to prevent wildfires by using goats. |
| D．Herbicide works better than grass-cutting machines. |
| A．Firefighting Goats. | B．Clever Goatherds. |
| C．Damage Caused by Wildfires. | D．Ways to Prevent Disasters. |
Last summer, Hilda worked as a volunteer with dolphin trainers at a sea life park. Her job was to make sure the tanks were free of any items so that the trainers could train the dolphins to fetch specific items. However, one day after cleaning, one of the dolphins, Maya, presented Hilda with a candy wrapper from the tank. When Katherine, the trainer, saw this, she blamed Hilda for her carelessness. Upset but not discouraged by this event, Hilda decided to do some spying on Maya.
The next morning, Hilda arrived at the park early. She put on her scuba gear (水下呼吸器) and jumped into the tank for her usual, underwater sweep. Finding nothing in the tank, she climbed out of the water just in time to see Katherine jumping in on the other side. After what happened yesterday, Hilda knew what she was doing. She watched as Katherine performed her underwater search, but Hilda wasn’t surprised when she surfaced empty-handed.
During the tank sweeps, Maya had been swimming playfully, but now the dolphin stopped suddenly and swam to the back part of the tank where the filter (过滤) box was located. She stuck her nose down behind the box and then swam away. What was Maya doing back there? Hilda wondered. She jumped back into the water and swam over to take a look behind the box, and her question was answered. Hilda then swam across the tank following Maya’s path and emerged from the water to find Katherine removing her scuba gear. As Katherine turned around, her mouth dropped open. There was Maya at the edge of the tank with a comb (梳子) in her mouth waiting for her treat.
“Maya! Where did you get that?” demanded Katherine, taking the comb and throwing her a fish. “I know where she got it,” declared Hilda climbing out of the tank with a handful of items still wet from their watery, resting place. “What’s all this?” Katherine asked, obviously confused.
注意：(1)续写词数应为150个左右;
(2)请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
“This is Maya’s secret,” Hilda said with a big smile.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Now Katherine realized what had been going on.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . Parrots are prey animals, which means that other predators (捕食者) in the wild, such as hawks or snakes, are looking to make them into a meal. This one factor influences parrots’ behavior in your house more than any other.
Parrots are most easily hurt when feeding on the ground. Membership in a group plays an important function in ensuring their safety and improving their chances of survival from attacks by predators. The most common predators of parrots include hawks, snakes, cats, monkeys, and bats. Some predators make attacks only during the day while others hunt in the night.
As prey animals, parrots are constantly watching out for danger and they instinctively (本能地) react to risks. Their first choice is to take flight. However, if this is not possible, they will fight with their powerful beaks to defend themselves.
Because their biggest enemy is the hawk, parrots are especially reactive to quick movements from above and behind. For this reason, it is wise to avoid quick, sudden movements near your bird. This is a built-in reaction not subject to logic or reason. Simple and relatively harmless household objects can draw extreme fear responses from a bird. For example, a balloon may represent a hawk or a vacuum hose (吸尘器软管) may be the same as a snake in your bird’s mind.
As prey animals, parrots are often frightened by exposure to new household items or strangers. It is important to expose your bird to safe experiences and changes starting at a very young age to build flexibility and improve their adaptability. Variety in diet and toys, travel, and exposure to new people and places all help to make your bird more flexible and adaptable to change.
1. What is important for parrots to better survive from attacks in the wild?| A．Living in a group. | B．Growing beautiful feathers. |
| C．Feeding on the ground. | D．Avoiding coming out at night. |
| A．To attack back. | B．To get away. |
| C．To protect the young. | D．To play dead. |
| A．It may explode suddenly. | B．It may be in a strange shape. |
| C．It may have a strong color. | D．It may move around quickly. |
| A．To explain wild parrots’ behavior. | B．To give advice on raising a parrot. |
| C．To call for action to protect animals. | D．To introduce a study on bird ecology. |
4 . Overlooking the Biblioteca degli Alberi is Milan’s “Vertical (垂直的) Forest”: two residential tower blocks built in 2014 that are covered in 800 trees,4,500 shrubs and 15,000 plants. If this forest was planted on the ground, it would cover 20,000 m2— the size of three and a half football fields.
Each year the trees will absorb 10,000 tons of CO2 and 57 tons of pollutants. They should also produce about 900 tons of oxygen. Boeri’s team of architects says the plants will also decrease the average air temperature, create noise barriers and boost biodiversity by creating a habitat for birds, insects and small animals.
It is not just physical wellbeing that is aided by large green structures in our cities. The team behind Sydney’s 100mhigh “vertical garden” claims it is a new form of “living architecture” that reminds us of “the restorative impact that nature has on our souls”. Just how restorative living near trees and plants is for our souls is open to debate; but studies in Germany have suggested that it can be extremely beneficial for our brains.
Scientists examined brain image sequences (顺序) of 341 elderly residents of Berlin, focusing particularly on the amygdala —the part of the brain that controls our fear responses and is responsible for stress and anxiety disorders. They found that there was strong connection between residents living within 1km of the forests on the edge of the city and those with the healthiest amygdala. A health y amygdala means being less likely to suffer from the stress and anxiety disorders controlled by this part of the brain. Mood and anxiety disorders are up to 56%higher in urban environments when compared to rural locations.
With two-thirds of the world’s population predicted to be living in cities by 2050, Milan’s Vertical Forest might show the world a way to create healthier, happier urban spaces.
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．The area of the city forest. | B．The way of building city forest. |
| C．The positive influence on the city forest. | D．The expected effect of the city forest. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Suspicious. | C．Objective. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．amygdala controls our fear responses |
| B．living near forests is beneficial for our souls |
| C．people near the forests are less likely to feel anxious |
| D．more residents will live in Vertical Forest in the future |
| A．Cities are turning suitable for people to live in. |
| B．There is a worldwide focus on how to improve biodiversity. |
| C．Milan’s Vertical Forest becomes an example of urban biodiversity. |
| D．The Vertical Forest covers the size of three and a half football fields. |
5 . For centuries, people thought that fish did not feel pain or emotions. Now research has shown that fish not only have feelings but can also sense others’ moods.
When a human understands and shares the feelings of another person, this is called empathy (共情). Scientists have found that a chemical in the brain called oxytocin (催产素) is involved in our ability to connect with others.
A team of researchers tested zebra fish with a series of experiments. First, they placed the fish in two separate containers and gave one group a material that caused them to act fearful—either freezing or swimming irregularly. Even though the fish in the nearby container had not touched the material, they also began to freeze in fear. “They respond to other individuals being frightened… just like us,” said Ibukun, a co-author of the study. The scientists tried the experiment again with the changed fish whose brains would not produce oxytocin. These fish were much less likely to act anxious when they saw other fish showing fear. If researchers gave them an injection (注射) of oxytocin, their ability to empathize returned.
Finally, researchers played videos of fearful fish on one side of the container and relaxed fish on the other side. Normal fish moved closer to the side that showed the fearful fish, which might have been an attempt to comfort them. The changed fish did not move toward either side.
Looking at the normal fish’s brains, researchers saw activity in an area similar to the one humans and other mammals (哺乳动物) use when empathizing with others. This could mean that the ability to have empathy developed more than 350 million years ago, when fish and mammals shared a common ancestor.
1. How many experiments did the researchers do?| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．By modeling. | B．By comparison. |
| C．By describing. | D．By investigation. |
| A．Fish and humans use the same brain area when empathizing. |
| B．Fish always ignore others’ emotions. |
| C．It wasn’t long before fish had empathy. |
| D．Oxytocin plays a key role in empathy. |
| A．To test whether fish and mammals share a common ancestor. |
| B．To test whether fish have the ability to empathize. |
| C．To test whether fish can comfort other fish. |
| D．To test whether fish can produce oxytocin. |
6 . International airline Emirates says it successfully flew a Boeing 777 on a test flight with one engine running on a mixture of “sustainable” fuel.
The test flight took place Monday and lasted about an hour. “The plane took off from Dubai International Airport and then headed out into the Persian Gulf before returning to the airport. It was powered by two General Electric engines. One ran on the sustainable mixture. The other was powered by traditional airplane fuel to ensure safety. Emirates’ chief operating officer, Adel al-Redha, called the flight “a milestone moment for Emirates and a positive step for our industry”. The flight demonstrated the airline’s desire to deal with one of the industry’s biggest problems, carbon pollution releases related to air travel.
The mixture included fuel provided by Neste, a Finnish company, and US-based fuel maker Virent. Virent says it uses plant-based sugars to make the compounds needed for sustainable jet fuel. Neste’s fuel is made from vegetable oils and animal fats. Those fuels cut the release of heat — trapping carbon dioxide burned off by engines in flight. Airline flights release only one-sixth the amount of carbon dioxide produced by cars and trucks, the Washington-based World Resources Institute reports. However, airplanes are used by far fewer people per day than road vehicles. This means flying has a higher per-capita (人均) release of carbon emissions. But experts have noted that fuels considered sustainable can be three times or more the cost of traditional jet fuel. This added cost is likely to be passed onto flyers if sustainable fuels became more commonly used across the industry.
Airplane and engine manufacturers have been designing more environmentally-friendly versions in recent years. The general goal is to produce less-polluting engines to reduce fuel emissions in an effort to help limit the effects of climate change.
1. What do we know about the test flight?| A．Both engines ran on sustainable fuel. | B．One engine was powered by electricity. |
| C．One engine ran on traditional fuel. | D．Both engines were powered by electricity. |
| A．The price of “sustainable” fuel plane tickets will be higher. |
| B．Airline flights release more carbon dioxide than cars and trucks. |
| C．Flying has the same release of carbon emissions as cars and trucks. |
| D．Airplanes are used by much fewer people than road vehicles. |
| A．To reduce the cost of flights. | B．To deal with air pollution. |
| C．To help control climate change. | D．To create a milestone. |
| A．Education. | B．Technology. |
| C．Entertainment. | D．Science. |
7 . One key element of human language is semantics (语义). Scientists had long thought that unlike our words, animal vocalizations (发声) were involuntary, renecting the emotional state of the animal without conveying any other information. But over the last four decades, numerous studies have shown that various animals have distinct calls with specific meanings.
Many bird species use different alarm calls. Japanese tits, which nest in tree holes, have one call that causes their baby birds to get down to avoid being pulled out of the nest by crows, and another call for tree snakes that sends them jumping out of the nest entirely. Siberian jays vary their calls depending on whether an enemy is seen looking for food or actively attacking — and each call gets a different response from other nearby birds.
Two recent studies suggest that the order of some birds’ vocalizations may impact their meaning. Though the idea is still controversial, this could represent a basic form of the rules governing the order and combination of words and elements in human language known as syntax (句法), as illustrated by the classic “dog bites man” vs. “man bites dog” example.
Even if some birds share basic aspects of human language, we still know very little about what’s actually going on in their minds. Most animal communication research has focused on describing signals and behavior, which on the surface can look a lot like human behavior. Determining if the underlying cognitive (认知的) processes driving the behavior are also similar is much more challenging, as at the heart of this question is intentionality: Are animals merely reacting to their environment, or do they intend to convey information to one another?
1. What was scientists’ long-held belief about animal vocalizations?| A．They conveyed no emotion. | B．They were semantically related. |
| C．They varied greatly with species. | D．They expressed no intended meaning. |
| A．By listing data. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By providing definition. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．What birds’ vocalizations mean. | B．How rules govern human language. |
| C．What the two recent studies indicate. | D．How bird’s vocalizations are combined. |
| A．Shared aspects of human and birds’ languages. |
| B．Focus of most animal communication research. |
| C．Underlying, cognitive processes of birds’ vocalizations. |
| D．Insufficient knowledge about birds’ communication intentionality. |
8 . A new study published in Thursday’s edition of Cell reports that mosquitoes’ sense of smell is more complex than we once thought. And it may explain how they are so good at seeking us out in the darkness and lead to new strategies to fight against the potentially deadly diseases caused by their bites.
Until Meg Younger, co-author of the study, and her colleagues started studying mosquitoes, it’s long been known that mosquitoes rely on multiple clues to target humans, First, they will sense the CO2 in the breath from a distance that can be more than 30 feet. After the CO2, then they begin to sense human body smells. They follow the odors(气味) and, when they get very close, start to detect body heat. Once they land on the skin, they look for a place to bite with their legs.
In many parts of the world, their bites may lead to such diseases as dengue, Zika, chikungunya and malaria. The latter disease alone causes over half a million deaths each year around the globe.
“But most of what we know about mosquitoes’ sense of smell comes from the study of the brains of mice and fruit flies, where the pathways between the brain and smell detectors are fairly simple: Each neuron(神经元) in their smell detectors just responds to a single kind of smell and all the neurons for that smell are connected to the same part of their brains. Of course, there are countless different detectors responding to countless smells,” says Younger. “When we started looking inside mosquito brains, we found that each neuron can detect multiple smells.”
“It’s a great breakthrough,” says Josefina del Marmol, a scientist at the Harvard Medical School who wasn’t involved with the research. “It will change a lot about what we know of how mosquitoes interact with the world and give researchers additional ways to fight the bugs. But there’s more work to be done to test, neuron by neuron, which neuron actually responds to which human body smells.”
1. What can be learned about mosquitoes from paragraph 2?| A．They look for a place to bite with their eyes. |
| B．They can only detect humans within 30 feet. |
| C．They are first attracted by human body smells. |
| D．They are more sensitive to the CO2 in the breath. |
| A．Malaria. | B．Zika. | C．Dengue. | D．Chikungunya. |
| A．The pathways in the brains of mice are fairly simple. |
| B．A neuron in mosquitoes’ detectors can detect many smells. |
| C．All the neurons for a smell are connected to the same part of the brain. |
| D．The neurons in fruit flies’ brains just respond to a single kind of smell. |
| A．The process is not very complete. | B．The conclusion is not very reliable. |
| C．More specific tests have to be done. | D．The research method is too complex. |
9 . Queen Elizabeth is known for her devotion to her country, her close relationships with her family and, most importantly, her corgis.
Unfortunately, over the weekend she lost the last of her royal corgis, Willow. According to The Daily Mail, the 15-year-old dog had to be put to death after suffering a cancer-related illness. This marks the first time that the 91-year-old Queen is without a corgi in the royal household since World War Ⅱ.
In 2015, Monty Roberts, the Queen’s dog trainer, shared some details with Vanity Fair about her pets. Roberts encouraged Queen Elizabeth to continue breeding (繁殖) corgis, but, in her old age, she didn’t want to leave any young dog behind. She did, however, adopt a full-grown Corgi named Whisper in 2017, after its owner, who was a gatekeeper at the palace, died.
It was also said that Queen Elizabeth was worried she’d trip over the dogs playing at her feet. It was a pretty real fear. Former royal staff Paul Burrell claimed that he was once tripped by nine corgis while walking them down the steps at the palace.
Willow was a dog with equally blue blood, although she never found social media stardom. It was a 14th-generation child of Susan, the corgi who was gifted to Elizabeth on her 18th birthday by her father, King George Ⅵ.
One of Willow’s most memorable moments was posing with James Bond at the 2012 London Olympics. Holly, Queen’s another corgi, also starred in the video, but she passed away more than a year ago, at the age of 13.
This is truly the end of an era, as Queen Elizabeth has owned more than 30 corgis throughout her life. At one point, she had 13 at once.
“She was sad for each loss of her corgis over the years, but she has been particularly upset about Willow’s death,” a Buckingham Palace source told The Daily Mail. “It is probably because Willow was the last link to her parents and a pastime that goes back to her own childhood.”
1. What happened to Willow over the weekend according to The Daily Mail?| A．It was killed in a car accident. | B．It was put to death. |
| C．It had an unsuccessful operation. | D．It was found to have cancer. |
| A．She was too weak to take care of the dogs. |
| B．She became tired of those crazy little dogs. |
| C．She was afraid that she’d trip over the dogs. |
| D．She was worried about the dogs after her death. |
| A．Noble ancestor. | B．Bad mood. |
| C．Cold heart. | D．Terrible disease. |
| A．The end of an era. | B．Her control over the country. |
| C．A tie with her parents. | D．The hardship in her childhood. |
10 . Sometimes it takes a crisis (危机) to bring friends together. When Hurricane (飓风) Maria went through the island of Cayo Santiago in 2017, the monkeys living there became kinder toward each other, according to a study published in the journal Current Biology.
The findings show the monkeys made more friends and became more patient to one another. Although the hurricane destroyed two-thirds of the plants on the “Monkey Island”, the increased competition for resources caused the monkeys to become more amicable, which helped them widen their friendship circles.
“We expected the monkeys would use their closest partners to deal with the destruction of the hurricane and so would strengthen their existing relationships,” said lead author Testard.
But that was not what happened. Instead, the monkeys built new relationships, rather than strengthening their old ones, which surprised the researchers. Monkeys that were the most lonely before the storm increased social connections the most afterward. The study showed that monkeys often befriended the friends of their friends. This “easy” way to making friends is often mirrored in human society.
The findings could also indicate how people might deal with the increasing threat of climate change. The monkeys are close evolutionary relatives to humans and share many features of their biology and behavior with human beings. The climate crisis has increased the likelihood of extreme weather events and natural disasters. Humans can learn a thing or two from studying how the monkeys cope with the unpleasant effects of climate change.
The main takeaway the study offers humans: go beyond your close-knit circle of friends and form a broader social network to survive tough times. “Our best friends can give us many things. But sometimes, what we need is a social network where everyone is just friendly enough,” Testard says.
1. What does the underlined word “amicable” probably mean?| A．Attacking. | B．Frightening. | C．Friendly. | D．Energetic. |
| A．They shared the limited resources. | B．They took advantage of old bonds. |
| C．They established new relationships. | D．Isolated monkeys were most popular. |
| A．Its process. | B．Its result. | C．Its purpose. | D．Its significance. |
| A．Ups and Downs of the Monkey Island |
| B．Connection between Humans and Monkeys |
| C．A Crisis Leads to New Monkey Friendships |
| D．Learn from Monkeys for Broader Social Network |
