1 . For Cruz, who grew up in Peru’s mountainous region of Cuzco, fog represents a massive opportunity. As a boy, he had to hike for more than an hour every day across hills to collect water from the nearest source. But over time, he realized that during the rainy season, droplets of water would gather in the large leaves of banana trees. So one day he and his father tried to build a canal system with the leaves to collect water and it turned out a success. But afterwards, he moved to Lima at the age of 25.
There, shocked by the water shortages and expensive water supply that some of the city’s poorest residents were faced with, Cruz set up El Movimiento Peruanos sin Agua in 2005. The idea was to deploy the method he learned in his hometown on a larger scale, which would provide free, independently sourced and easily accessible water to those who needed it most. He began installing (安装) a traditional fog catcher model developed in the 1980s.
At the highest point of Los Tres Miradores, there is a curious set of large structures that resemble a fleet of ships in the sky. They are so-called “fog catchers”. Netted devices, made of high density Raschel polyethylene and spanning several meters wide, are lined up at the top of a misty mound and linked by a network of tubes that lead to storage containers. The 40 fog catchers there provide enough water for 180 families, whether to bathe, clean, drink or to irrigate crops on small garden patches.
Supporters believe that fog catchers have the potential to improve water supply for communities around the world among the ever-challenging circumstances. German researcher Lummerich says, “They are cheap, easy to construct.” In a world searching for water supply systems, it is one important puzzle piece that can make an essential difference locally.
However, there are some issues. For one, fog catchers require space, which is not always easy to come by in cities, let alone urban slums. At the same time, fog catchers must be properly cleaned and maintained to stay effective. Most crucially, appropriate climate conditions are required. Fog isn’t everywhere.
1. What does the underlined word “deploy” probably mean in paragraph 2?| A．Employ. | B．Adjust. | C．Design. | D．Study. |
| A．The reason why Cruz installed fog catchers. |
| B．The difficulties of constructing a canal system. |
| C．The installation and benefits of fog catchers. |
| D．The inspiration Cruz gained to build a canal system. |
| A．High costs. | B．Public opposition. |
| C．Space limitation. | D．Climate conditions. |
| A．Urban Areas: A Struggle for Sufficient Water |
| B．Innovative Water Collection Techniques in Peru |
| C．The Global Water Crisis and Possible Solutions |
| D．Fog Catchers: A Local Solution with Global Potential |
2 . When temperatures rise, humans sweat, dogs pant (喘息), and cats… don’t move enough to overheat? Well, partially. Cats, which need to maintain an internal body temperature of 101°F to 102°F, have several methods for keeping cool in sweltering weather.
It’s a misconception that cats sweat through their paws to cool themselves off. As summer wears on you might see moist paw prints, but as veterinarian Kimberly May told The Washington Post, “Any secretions (分泌物) there or from their nose, mouth, or tongue are not for sweating; they’re for protection and moisture and are insufficient to cool the blood.”
Instead, cats recreate the sweating process—which is similar to human’s via evaporation (蒸发)—by grooming themselves regularly. The saliva (唾液) from their tongues acts like sweat that cools their body when it evaporates—which is why you can also help cool your cat down by using a damp washcloth to lightly wet their fur. In extreme weather, cats will also pant, but unlike dogs who pant regularly to keep themselves cool, a panting cat is a sign of more dangerous over-heating or other serious diseases.
And if you’re tempted to shave your fur friend to help keep him cool—don’t!
“Fur acts as a thermal regulator to slow down the process of heat absorption,” James H. Jones, an expert in comparative animal exercise physiology and thermoregulation at the University of California at Davis, told The Washington Post.
Fur coats are highly evolved—in the winter they keep animals warm, but in the summer, they work both to protect delicate skin from the sun and slow dehydration, Jones notes that, according to research, shaved camels performed worse in the deserts than those with their fur undamaged.
But even with these methods for keeping cool, cats also need to stay indoors to keep comfortable. So even though they evolved from wild ancestors and are able to tough it out, leave the air conditioner or a fan on for your cats when you go out, and make sure to leave them plenty of water.
1. What is the common misunderstanding of how cats cool themselves off?| A．Cats pant regularly to keep themselves cool. |
| B．Cats rarely know how to cool themselves down. |
| C．Cats sweat through their paws to cool themselves off. |
| D．Cats produce secretions from their tongue for protection. |
| A．By making comparison. | B．By analyzing data. |
| C．By explaining cause and effect. | D．By listing numbers. |
| A．To show the camels are resistant to heat. |
| B．To emphasize the importance of the fur coats. |
| C．To illustrate the fur coats are highly evolved. |
| D．To prove the fur coats unnecessary in summer. |
| A．Changing people’s wrong views on cats’ cooling. |
| B．Telling us to help cats cool themselves in summer. |
| C．Uncovering the secrets of cats cooling themselves off. |
| D．Comparing cats with other animals on keeping cool. |
3 . While you’re hiding away the Christmas presents, animals are storing food for the winter! Many animals “cache” (贮藏) or hide food for time to come, similar to how we stock our pantries with food. In the winter months, caching allows animals to survive when food is scarce.
Some animals, such as bobcats and mountain lions, leave dead animals’ bodies for short periods of time buried beneath surrounding vegetation. Other animals, such as rodents and birds, store seeds for long periods of time in places they’ll return to weeks or even months later.
Hiding food throughout an animal’s home range is known as scatter hoarding. This keeps the caches low and less enticing to any potential thieves. However, this technique requires a good memory, as the food is often in dozens, if not hundreds, of different locations.
Another caching technique involves animals collecting food in only a couple of places, referred to as larder hoarding. These caches are often found in cavities such as a hollow tree or a hole in the ground. They are easier to find but require lots of defensive measures.
Here are some of the animals that cache in the Peach State:
Birds such as chickadees, nuthatches, titmice and jays can store hundreds of seeds in a single day. Each seed is placed in a different location, and they usually remember where each is, even months later. Flying squirrels store a variety of seeds, nuts and acorns in their nests and in trees. These nocturnal squirrels will even bury seeds in the ground. It is believed that a single lying squirrel can store over 15,000 seeds in a year! Moles trap live earthworms underground. The mole bites the earthworm’s head off, and colder temperatures slow the earthworm down. If the weather warms up before the mole has a chance to consume its prey, however, earthworms can regrow their heads and tunnel their way to freedom.
1. In what respect are the first two paragraphs similar?| A．Using comparison as a method of exposition. |
| B．Stressing the importance of storing to animals. |
| C．Revealing differences in food storage among different animals. |
| D．Discussing the threat seasonal change brings to animals’ survival. |
| A．Familiar. | B．Harmful. | C．Appealing. | D．Suffient. |
| A．It is a test for animals’ memory. |
| B．It is time-saving and eco-friendly. |
| C．It can easily ensure caches’ safety. |
| D．It bring animals convenience as well as risk. |
| A．Moles take earthworms as their only food resource. |
| B．Chickadees adopt scatter hoarding to store their seeds. |
| C．A flying squirrel is better at storing seeds than any bird. |
| D．Earthworms have no chance of survival once bitten by moles. |
1. What is the talk mainly about?
| A．What to do to protect animals. |
| B．Whether to keep animals in zoos. |
| C．How to improve zoos’ environment. |
| A．Allowing wild animals to be killed. |
| B．Protecting animals in a well-founded area. |
| C．Teaching people more about wild animals. |
| A．They do harm to animals. |
| B．They are poorly founded. |
| C．They can give animals protection. |
| A．A scientist. | B．A teacher. | C．A zookeeper. |
1. What is the woman complaining about at first?
| A．The food. | B．Her pet dog. | C．The weather. |
| A．Turn the tap off in time. |
| B．Collect the used water. |
| C．Avoid washing clothes frequently. |
| A．Living a healthy lifestyle. |
| B．Reducing living costs. |
| C．Protecting the environment. |
6 . Ways to Have an Eco-friendly New Year
New Year is a time of great joy, but it can also lead to over-consumption. It is important to have an eco-friendly New Year. Do you want to do something to help protect the planet in the New Year?
Wrap gifts in an eco-friendly way. It is appealing to wrap gifts in shiny wrapping paper.
Make home-made decorations. Spending time making decorations with friends and family is a great activity in cold days. Your home will become beautiful with home-made paper stars made out of old newspapers. And sticking paper cuts to windows will be impressive. Also, try to use a cookie cutter to cut out anything you want, stars or even deer.
Avoid food waste. Plan meals ahead and think about what you will do with leftovers.
| A．Just let your imagination run wild. |
| B．Give gifts that make new memories. |
| C．You want your loved ones to send gifts to you. |
| D．But it is non-recyclable and goes straight to waste. |
| E．Here is how to cut back on unnecessary purchases. |
| F．And if no one likes something, there is no need to buy it. |
| G．Buy as much as you can in case a large number of guests arrive. |
7 . A new study warns that more than a fifth of all reptile (爬行动物) species are threatened with extinction, which may have a bad impact on the planet.
The largest ever analysis of the state of the world’s reptiles, published in Nature, has showed that 21% of the reptile species are facing extinction. The study says from lizards to snakes, such a loss could have disastrous impacts on ecosystems around the world.
Although many reptiles live in dry environments such as deserts, most species occur in forests, where they suffer from threats such as logging of land for agriculture.30% of the forest-dwelling reptiles are at risk of extinction, compared with 14% in dry habitats. Hunting is also a major threat to reptiles, especially turtles and crocodiles, many of which are at risk of extinction. Another major contributing factor is the introduction of invasive species.
“If we removed reptiles, it could change ecosystems fundamentally, with unfortunate knock-on effects, such as increases in pest insects,” said Neil Cox, co-leader of the study. “Biodiversity, including reptiles, supports the ecosystem services that provide a healthy environment for people.”
Our hope is that this first-ever assessment of the world’s 10,000-plus reptiles helps put them in the spotlight and goes some way to highlighting this diversity, and just how much we have to lose. As well as controlling rats, mosquitoes and other pests, reptiles deliver many other benefits. “They help spread seeds, especially in island environments,” said researcher Hoffmann. “We’ve also achieved many medical advances from studies of reptiles.”
The results of the study are not all doom and gloom. Scientists have found, surprisingly, that if they set out to protect places where threatened birds, mammals and amphibians (两栖动物) live together, they’ll meanwhile protect many more threatened reptiles.
1. Which is the main concern raised by the new study?| A．The overpopulation of reptiles. | B．The loss of reptiles. |
| C．The sharp increase in reptile species. | D．The disastrous influence of reptiles on nature. |
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．Their benefits. | B．Their habitats. |
| C．Their living habits. | D．Their health problems. |
| A．Disappointing. | B．Odd. | C．Satisfactory. | D．Amazing. |
8 . Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is essential to meeting international climate goals, scientists say. Without it, it’s all but impossible to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to limit global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius, the primary targets of the Paris climate agreement.
Yet carbon dioxide isn’t the only climate-warming gas that needs a sharp cutback in the atmosphere. Experts are turning their focus to methane (甲烷) as well.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine hosted a workshop dedicated to atmospheric methane removal, which is the process of removing methane emissions directly from the air. The workshop included presentations by dozens of researchers and policy experts addressing questions about the science and effectiveness of methane removal, potential side effects and unintended consequences and the ways it should be governed and regulated.
These presentations will be used to inform a forthcoming NASEM report on atmospheric methane removal. The study will examine the global need for methane removal, viable options for carrying it out and potential risks and benefits, while outlining a road map for future research. The subject is more complicated than carbon dioxide removal, which has received more attention and research.
Methane has a far shorter lifetime in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, yet it’s a much more powerful greenhouse gas while it lasts. The world already has warmed by more than 1 degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, and scientists estimate that methane may be responsible for as much as 0.5 degrees.
Reducing methane emissions at their sources is a growing priority. However, Methane removal, by comparison, is more complex. For one thing, methane is far less abundant in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, meaning methane capture systems must process much larger quantities of air in order to make a meaningful difference. For another, there are also uncertainties about unintended side effects of some emerging technologies. Adding chlorine (氯) to the atmosphere, for instance, can actually increase the lifetime of methane in the atmosphere if it isn’t carefully dosed. It can also attack the Earth’s protective ozone layer. Besides, chlorine-based methods could decrease certain other types of climate-warming gases in the atmosphere in addition to methane.
1. According to the passage, what is not the issue of the workshop?| A．The effectiveness of methane removal. | B．The side effects of removing methane. |
| C．The predictable results of methane removal. | D．The method of controlling methane removal. |
| A．To persuade the readers to focus on the presentation. |
| B．To inform the readers of the significance of the study. |
| C．To call on the people to reduce the Methane emission. |
| D．To discuss about the problems that may arise from the removal. |
| A．The carbon dioxide has a longer lifetime in atmosphere. |
| B．The methane is harder to be caught because of its traits. |
| C．Scientists have doubts about the effectiveness of the methods. |
| D．The new technologies may bring about the negative effects. |
| A．The NASEM faces a great challenge | B．The methane contributes to global warming |
| C．The government reports on methane removal | D．The scientists explore pulling methane out of air |
| A．Snowy. | B．Stormy. | C．Sunny |
10 . Each year, my kindergarten students in Armour, South Dakota, learn to identify hundreds of birds by sight and more than 50 species by their song or call. It started out simply enough. Bird-watching is my hobby, so about six years ago, I started sharing my love for birds with my students. I’ve always felt like it’s important to get kids outside and away from so many screens, and I consider this doing my part. And guess what? They absolutely love it!
Kindergartners are pretty amazing at identifying birds, especially by their songs. I find that younger children are naturally tuned into nature and have great curiosity about it. This became quite obvious once I began teaching about birds. You wouldn’t believe how easily these 5-years-olds learn to identify different species.
With every year that I’ve done this, the kids immediately get hooked. Then we have this common passion to share and build on it throughout the year. I’ve found that my students’ love of birds is a great way to get them more interested in writing, reading and story problems in math.
So how do I do it? With identification(识别), I use a flash-card approach. We also use a Bird Bingo game that the kids love. Then I introduce one or two bird songs a day. Learning about bird songs is a lot like learning a foreign language. It teaches students to think in a different way by learning to recognize different sounds. The best part is that it makes them more aware of nature and which birds are in their area.
If you want to try teaching bird songs to your students, I’d suggest starting with the common backyard birds. Check out the All About Birds website, where you can look up the species, find photos and even play the bird songs right there!
1. What inspired the author to start teaching kindergartners about birds?| A．His love for bird-watching. |
| B．The science teaching standards. |
| C．The students’ curiosity about nature. |
| D．The students’ talent in identifying birds. |
| A．Annoyed. | B．Amazed. | C．Disappointed. | D．Discouraged. |
| A．Interested. | B．Challenged. | C．Encouraged. | D．Praised. |
| A．By listening to bird songs. |
| B．By studying bird photos on a website. |
| C．Through writing and reading exercises. |
| D．Through flash cards and a Bird Bingo game. |
