Giant panda Ya Ya arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Thursday from Memphis, Tennessee.
Ya Ya returned
In December, the Memphis Zoo
The zoo hosted a farewell party for the 23-year-old female panda on April 8, with hundreds of people
In January, Chinese netizens showed their concern for Ya Ya, who appeared somewhat malnourished (营养不良) in pictures and videos
In
In 2006, Ya Ya began to shed fur, a condition
2 . Grace and her family thought they had lost Thor forever when they moved to Windsor, Nova Scotia from British Columbia last August.
“We probably spent seven or eight months looking for Thor,” Grace said. “What made it worse was that there were rumors (谣言) going around that there was dogfighting in our area. We still always hoped that somebody had taken him to be a pet, but you just never knew.”
“It was terrible. My daughter Bronwyn would try to find Thor everywhere, which had been a Christmas present for her. Even while watching TV programmes, she would say, ‘Oh, look! That dog looks like Thor!’” Grace said. Then the family moved, and the hope became impossible.
But one day, the phone rang. It was their former vet in British Columbia, saying Thor was in a rescue shelter (收容所) in High River, Alberta. He had been found at a work camp in the northern part of the place and taken to south by a man planning to keep him. But the man was forced to turn him over to the shelter when he couldn’t keep Thor in his rented home. Luckily, the ring on Thor’s neck gave people some information.
Thor was flown to Nova Scotia last week. The family picked him up at the airport. “Thor was just lying in his box and looking down, and my daughter walked over and said, ‘Hey Thor.’ He immediately stood up, trying to greet my daughter. We let him out and he jumped on her as if he was giving her a big hug and he kissed her face. Then he sat down suddenly at her feet and rolled over for attention. He was cute.” Grace said.
1. Who helped Thor back home?A.The author. | B.The former vet. | C.Bronwyn. | D.Grace. |
A.He came back by air. |
B.He was killed in the dog fighting. |
C.He was given to Grace by Bronwyn. |
D.He moved to British Columbia with the family. |
A.A travel brochure. |
B.A geography text book. |
C.A news report. |
D.A health magazine. |
3 . An owl (猫头鹰) named Flaco escaped New York’s Central Park Zoo last week after his cage was broken. This set off a bird-hunt of police officers and park rangers (护林员). Zoo officials worried that Flaco, who had been kept in his zoo cage for 13 years, may have lost the survival abilities he needed in the wild. They placed some of his favorite treats in the open air to attempt to trap him.
Flaco was not fooled. Instead, he was sighted flying over5th Avenue, and Central Park’s skating rink. A number of New Yorkers came into Central Park to try to catch a glimpse of Flaco, taking photos with excitement.
But this week, zoo officials announced they accepted that Flaco remained in Central Park because he had been seen bringing up bones and fur from the park’s community of rats. “He has been very successful at hunting and consuming lots of rats in the park.” zoo officials told the New York Post.“ And that’s amazing. He’s hunting on his own. He’s flying better. Flaceo really seems to be enjoying himself out there.”
There is a caution attached to this story of an owl who is making it on his own in the city that never sleeps. Owls are nocturnal. They go around searching for food at night. They sleep during the day, or try to, like lots of people who work the overnight shift. Yet some New Yorkers who don’t know proper bird-watching behavior reportedly see Flaco sleep in a tree during the day, and begin to shout at him. It interrupts his sleep. Flaco can’t try to say “shh, shh” with the traditional New York reply. After all, a bird can’t give someone the bird.
1. Why were zoo officials concerned about Flaco’s ability to survive?A.Because his favourite food was too little. | B.Because he might be attacked by police. |
C.Because his cage was severely damaged. | D.Because he was kept in his cage for long. |
A.He has adapted to the wild. | B.He has found his previous home. |
C.He still faces great challenges. | D.He dislikes the rats in the park. |
A.Scary-looking. | B.Shy and quiet. |
C.Active at night. | D.Badly-behaved. |
A.Cautious. | B.Favorable. | C.Unclear. | D.Disapproving. |
4 . Gardening has been around for as long as humans have been growing food. Today it is known for its health benefits. Focusing attention on the tasks and details of gardening can reduce negative thoughts and feelings and make you feel better.
You can include gardening in your life in many ways.
Decide what you want to grow.
Grow plants indoors. You don’t need to own land to start gardening.
Not every plant will grow exactly how you want or expect. Almost every gardener will have problems growing and caring for their plants at some point.
A.Tending plants is an easy job. |
B.Get involved at a community garden. |
C.Do you have a favorite flower, fruit, or vegetable? |
D.Plenty of plants grow well indoors in pots or planters. |
E.Just spending time around plants eases stress for many people. |
F.Indoor gardens are an entertaining way to green up your home. |
G.Learn from your problems, and don’t let them keep you from continuing to garden. |
5 . A “fierce queen” named “128 Grazer” has been crowned the fattest bear of all of Katmai National Park in Alaska. Grazer, a mama bear to two litters of cubs(幼兽), has been a fixture(固定成员) of the park since 2005.
This is Grazer’s first time winning the contest, an achievement made easier by the fact that she has released her cubs and was able to focus on self-care. When females are caring for cubs, they are often nursing them, helping them hunt for salmon(三文鱼) and providing them protection — all of which detracts from the females’ ability to eat as much as possible, said Felicia Jimenez, a ranger at Katmai National Park.
The brown bears living along Alaska’s Brooks River have spent the summer fattening up on salmon, berries and grasses in preparation for their annual winter hibernation(冬眠). The bears enter hibernation around November and eventually experience a one-third loss of their body weight through the winter season, according to park officials.
The fixed competition has been making the fattest brown bears at Katmai National Park compete against each other since 2014. When the contest first began, it consisted of just a single day in which a few of the park’s most enormous bears competed with each other. By the next year, the contest had transformed into a “globally recognized” event that required more days and more competitors.
The popularity of Fat Bear Week allows park officials to direct attention to conservation efforts in the region, especially for the salmon run on the Brooks River, which the bears rely on for food. The health of the brown bears signifies the overall health of the local ecosystem, according to the park. “Without the ecosystem protected, there would be no Fat Bear Week,” Jimenez said.
1. What contributed most to Grazer’s winning the contest?A.Hunting for enough salmon. | B.Giving birth to her cubs. |
C.Concentrating on caring for herself. | D.Being a fixture in the park. |
A.Removes. | B.Weakens. | C.Strengthens. | D.Changes. |
A.The process of bears’ hibernation. | B.The reason for bears’ fattening up. |
C.The time of bears’ hibernation. | D.The way of bears’ fattening up. |
A.To choose the fattest bear globally. | B.To shoot the movie regarding bears. |
C.To draw attention to environment care. | D.To highlight the efforts to protect ecosystem . |
When Peter Sänger and Liang Wu got together, it
Their invention, the CityTree, acts as an air purifier, an interesting
The CityTree combines
The German green-tech start-up is now funded by the European Commission. A CityTree network of 15 brand new units will be set up and tested in a
7 . After most people complete their undergraduate degree, they either take a break or jump into a job. Few, like Brianna Craft, set out to save the world.
It started when she was a freshman sitting in an environmental studies class in 2006. Craft was shocked when the professor described the harm climate change was having on people. She records the moment in her new book, Everything That Rises: A Climate Change Memoir.
After graduation, Craft spent a year in AmeriCorps, focusing on protecting the environment. AmeriCorps is an organization connecting individuals and organizations to help communities tackle their toughest challenges. “That helped me figure out that my future was not in doing science,” she says. Instead, she wanted to work with people and policy.
She then had an opportunity to attend the UN climate negotiations (磋商). That, in turn, prepared her for her current role as a senior researcher at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). Her focus is to ensure that the lowest contributors to greenhouse gases and those most affected by climate change have a voice in international climate negotiations.
For five years, Craft attended and supported climate conferences around the world, leading to the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015. Craft says, “I wanted people to care about the work I did in the climate negotiations, and why we pushed so hard to form this agreement.” That led her to write Everything That Rises: A Climate Change Memoir.
Craft brings the viewpoint of an African American woman from a rural northwest community. She weaves (编织) together several storylines-including her difficult childhood with an irresponsible parent, her self-discovery in college and her work to help work towards climate agreements and ensure that even the smallest countries have a voice.
1. What motivated Craft to work on climate change?A.A course. | B.A book. | C.A scientist. | D.A program. |
A.She made achievements. |
B.She fell in love with science. |
C.She got inspiration for her book. |
D.She was clearer about her career path. |
A.She promotes equal rights to speak among countries. |
B.She focuses on removing greenhouse gases in London. |
C.She ensures climate negotiations are the UN’s top priority. |
D.She speaks for the countries producing the most greenhouse gases. |
A.Boring. | B.Risky. | C.Fruitful. | D.Well-paid. |
8 . Scientists have been able to track the entire life of a mammoth (猛犸象) that lived more than 17,000 years ago. The team figured out where in Alaska it likely was at any given point of its 28-year life.
To do so, the researchers closely studied a 1.8-meter-long mammoth tusk (象牙) dating back around 17,100 years. Mammoth tusks grow by adding layers of tissue almost daily, forming rings like a tree that can reveal detailed information.
The main thing the researchers analyzed was strontium isotopes (锶同位素), which can act almost like an ancient GPS. Different areas have different isotopic features, which start in minerals deep underground and make their way to the top of the land, into plants and water. Finally, they can be seen on the animals that consume those plants and water.
Previous studies had produced an isotopic map of Alaska by analyzing isotopes in the teeth of hundreds of small animals, which don’t travel far in their lifetimes and so represent a local area. The researchers can then compare isotopic signals from each part of the mammoth’s tusk to this map, to get an idea of where the mammoth most likely wandered throughout its life.
The scientists started from where its remains were found. Working backwards, the scientists then looked at the isotopic feature of where the mammoth was about a week before death, then searched the map for the best match in a nearby area. A model then worked backwards stepwise to determine the most likely routes the mammoth might have taken.
According to the research, the mammoth seems to have spent his early years in the Yukon River Basin and Alaska, constantly trekking between several territories in a predictable pattern. The team says that this behavior seems to be like modern elephants, moving regularly from place to place.
1. What is the key to reading the mammoth’s tusk?A.The length of the tusk. | B.The age of the mammoth. |
C.The area the mammoth lived in. | D.The tissue found in the tusk’s layers. |
A.Plants and water are main carriers of isotopes. |
B.The isotopes in the tusk came from the underground. |
C.It was difficult to analyze the isotopic features of an area. |
D.The researchers were surprised to find isotopes in the tusk. |
A.By explaining the significance of tusks. | B.By recording the animal species of Alaska. |
C.By offering researchers a map to compare with. | D.By proving the possibility of analyzing isotopes. |
A.Looking for food. | B.Escaping from dangers. |
C.Making a long journey. | D.Sending warning signals. |
9 . Plastic is everywhere in our modern world. Its toughness makes it an extremely useful material from household items to vehicle parts, but that same toughness makes it hard to break down for recycling or disposal (处理). However, Japanese scientists at the University of Tokyo have developed a new plastic material that can be broken down more easily and can self-heal and remember past shapes.
Based on a kind of plastic called an epoxy resin vitrimer, which is brittle (脆性的), the new plastic boasts a huge range of advantages. Once scratched with a knife, it can completely patch itself up after being heated to 150 ℃ for just 60 seconds. When shaped into the shape of a crane, then flattened, it can fold itself back into the crane shape by being heated up. It does all of this much faster than others of its type.
The new plastic can also break down easier. Even if it’s discarded (丢弃) into the environment, it still poses less of a, problem than other kinds of plastic, which the team demonstrated by placing it in seawater for 30 days. It biodegraded by 25% and released molecules (分子) that are essential food for marine life.
The new plastic is more resistant to breaking. It can also repair itself, and can recover its original memorized shape. It even biodegrades safely in a marine environment, according to Shota Ando, a researcher of the study.
The material can be used in a variety of applications, “Infrastructure materials for roads and bridges are often composed of epoxy resins mixed with compounds such as concrete and carbon,” said Ando. “By using the new plastic, these would be easier to maintain as they would be stronger and healable using heat. Unlike conventional epoxy resins, this new material is hard but stretchable, so it could also be expected to strongly bond materials of different hardness and stretch.”
1. What is the author’s purpose in writing paragraph 1?A.To introduce the topic of the text. | B.To show the disadvantages of plastic. |
C.To highlight the importance of plastic. | D.To indicate his views on previous plastic. |
A.Change itself. | B.Shape itself. | C.Repair itself. | D.Burn itself. |
A.It is safe for animals in the ocean. | B.It can provide nutrition for animals. |
C.It can change its shape when frozen. | D.It is more brittle than previous plastic. |
A.Research Of New Molecules | B.An Interesting Scientific Study |
C.The Widespread Application Of Plastic | D.A New Environmentally Friendly Plastic |
10 . Landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom has designed a new green roof on the Rangsit Campus of Thammasat University, about 25 miles north of central Bangkok, Thailand. Her imaginative work challenges the common thinking that urbanization has a negative impact on the planet, whether flooding, excess (过度的) energy use, disrupted (扰乱) biodiversity or the heat island effect.
The 236, 806-square-foot structure, which opened in December 2019, includes a flood water management system and Asia’s largest rooftop organic farm. It combines modern landscape architecture with traditional agricultural knowledge, creating a green and friendly environment.
The green roof, containing an H-shaped landscape, looks like a futuristic hill with a brick building beneath it. The hill features a complex pattern of zigzagging terraces (之字形梯田) of planted beds, leading all the way down to the bottom. When rainwater hits the roof, it flows down the zigzags while being absorbed by the soil in the beds, The excess water is directed into four storage ponds — with a capacity of up to 3 million gallons. The process slows down the flow speed of rainwater runoff compared to a normal concrete rooftop. This keeps the area from flooding during heavy rains.
The roof’s terraces are filled with organically grown crops, including a drought tolerant variety of rice, many local vegetables and herbs. The farm can supply the canteens on campus with a large amount of rice, herbs and vegetables a year. The food waste is composted (把……制成堆肥) to fertilize the farm, and water from the storage ponds is used to water plants, creating an entirely localized and circular system.
The farm serves as an outdoor classroom and a source of local jobs, too. Farmers offer workshops on sustainable agriculture and nutrition as part of the university’s sustainability curriculum. “Students and community members are invited to participate in seasonal seeding, harvesting, and so on,” says Voraakhom. “The urban farm is training a new generation of organic farmers with real-world skills. It also promotes a sense of community.”
1. What can we say about Voraakhom’s work?A.It’s short-lived. | B.It’s creative. |
C.It’s demanding. | D.It’s time-consuming. |
A.To store more water. |
B.To plant diverse vegetables. |
C.To slow the speed of water flow. |
D.To make it look more attractive than other buildings. |
A.It uses food as fertilizer. | B.It benefits the environment. |
C.It improves students’ lifestyle. | D.It produces vegetables and fruits. |
A.Students can learn hands-on knowledge on the farm. |
B.Farmers working on the farm can become professors. |
C.The farm prevents government from offering people jobs. |
D.The farm harms the relationship between university and community. |