1 . When I was young, we lived in an area known as Fruitland for the apple trees that grew there. Since my father was a _________ carpenter(木匠), our house was elegantly built. A porch(门廊) wrapped around the front and side of it. Past the soft green lawn, the _________ was surrounded by forest. During the hot summers, my brother, Curtis and I spent our days outside with old Belle, our father’s _________. We loved to play on a large pile of _________ that was left over from the construction of the house.

One morning when we went outside to play, we couldn’t _________ Belle. We searched everywhere, but useless. _________, we found her standing near the pile of rocks that was our playground. As we _________ the rocks, Belle growled(咆哮) at us. It seemed something _________ happened there. Feeling strange, we went back to the house, and told our mother about Belle’s _________.

Mother __________ to see for herself, but when she tried to come close to Belle, the dog again gave a __________ growl. Our mother told us to stay away. All day, Belle __________ by the pile of rocks, without water or food, in the hot sun.

When our father __________, he, too, went to check on Belle. There Belle grabbed his pants and __________ him to the rocks. To our __________, my father found a large copperhead snake there. Our beloved Belle had kept us safe.

1.

A．helpful

B．optimistic

C．skillful

D．realistic

2.

A．property

B．reward

C．business

D．wealth

3.

A．bird

B．dog

C．cat

D．horse

4.

A．sands

B．woods

C．rocks

D．steels

5.

A．ask

B．tell

C．inform

D．find

6.

A．Originally

B．Finally

C．Actually

D．Instantly

7.

A．removed

B．restored

C．approached

D．appreciated

8.

A．helpless

B．natural

C．exciting

D．unusual

9.

A．behavior

B．personality

C．habit

D．lifestyle

10.

A．gave up

B．came out

C．took up

D．broke out

11.

A．convincing

B．exciting

C．inspiring

D．warning

12.

A．worked

B．studied

C．walked

D．stayed

13.

A．returned

B．changed

C．left

D．slept

14.

A．sent

B．threw

C．pulled

D．invited

15.

A．surprise

B．sadness

C．regret

D．comfort

2 . Thirsty or stressed plants do not suffer in silence. Instead, they make high-pitched(尖锐的) sounds, according to a study published in the journal Cell.

The reason why you have probably never heard the plants’ sounds is that most humans are only able to hear sounds as high as 20 kilohertz (kHz), but the plants made sounds mostly between 40 and 80 kHz, Lilach Hadany, a co-author of the study at Tel Aviv University, tells Business Insider’s Marianne Guenot.

Plants, obviously, do not have organs to make sounds. Lilach says, the present popular theory on how they make noises centers on plants’ xylem(木质部), the tubes that transport water from their roots to their stems(根茎) and leaves. In the process of transporting, when an air bubble(气泡) forms or breaks in the xylem, it might make a little noise; bubbles are more likely to form when a plant is suffering from drought. But the exact process requires further study, Lilach explains.

To listen in to plants, Lilach and her co-workers placed tobacco and tomato plants in small boxes equipped with microphones. First, they stopped providing water to some plants in the boxes and cut the stems of others. Then, the microphones were used to pick up any noises made by the plants even though they couldn’t hear them. Researchers found that the sounds did show the specific types of stresses plants were experiencing. Thirsty tomato and tobacco plants made an average of about 35 and 11 sounds per hour, individually, while cut tomato and tobacco plants made 25 and 15 noises per hour.

In theory, these recorded sounds could help farmers know about which crops are most in need of water. “When more and more areas are exposed to drought due to climate change, efficient water use becomes even more important, for both food security and ecology,” Lilach with her co-workers write.

1. Why do humans fail to hear the sounds of plants?

A．The sounds are stressful.

B．The sounds are beyond human’s hearing range.

C．The sounds are low-pitched.

D．The sounds are between 20kHz and 40kHz.

2. What might cause thirsty plants to produce sounds?

A．Suffering from lack of air.

B．Stems and leaves transporting water.

C．More air bubbles gathering in the roots.

D．Air bubbles’ forming or breaking in the xylem.

3. What did Lilach and her co-workers find in the study?

A．Noises can be picked up by microphones.	B．Plants make more sounds in small boxes.
C．Cut plants suffer the same as thirsty ones.	D．Different sounds indicate plants’ stress types.

4. What’s the potential use of the sound recordings?

A．To harvest the crops.	B．To solve the food problem.
C．To locate the thirsty crops.	D．To prevent climate change.

3 . Environmental groups have long criticized the private jets(喷气式飞机) for being a large contributor to global carbon dioxide emissions, and last week, environmentalists made headlines by interrupting a private jet trade show in Switzerland.

Private jets often cover shorter distances than commercial ones. They are generally less efficient(高效的) and their emissions per passenger are much higher. According to data from European non-profit Transport and Environment, private jets can be 5 to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes, and 50 times more polluting than trains. Research made by Greenpeace showed that private jets in Europe alone emitted 3.39 million metric tons of CO₂ in 2022, nearly equal to the emissions from 753,000 gas-powered cars in the US driven for a year.

But experts say the private aviation(航空) industry can still play a role in the global fight against climate change, and some in the industry are looking at creative ways to diminish its environmental impact.

As a member of the International Air Transport Association(IATA), along with other major commercial airlines, Dubai-based private aviation company Jetex launched the 2050 Project: the zero carbon emissions.

“Jetex is always thinking about how to cooperate with everyone to deal with climate change,” said Dr. Suzanne, a professor of aviation at the University of Waterloo. “And now it is working on changing all of its locations into fully green ones in the future. Once it succeeds, it will offer a new approach to the environmental protection.”

Through a partnership with oil company Neste, in 2021 Jetex started offering sustainable aviation fuels(SAF), made from renewable waste, to passengers at its Helsinki Airport. That same year at its Paris Le-Bourget Airport, it began offering SAF produced by French company TotalEnergies, made from used cooking oil. A limited supply of SAF means it isn’t available at every airport, but the company says it wants to make SAF a fuel option to its travelers across all its locations worldwide.

1. What do we know about private jets according to the first two paragraphs?

A．They enjoy great popularity.

B．They charge passengers more.

C．They give off more carbon dioxide.

D．They travel farther than commercial planes.

2. What does the underlined word “diminish” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Expand.

B．Present.

C．Overlook.

D．Reduce.

3. What is Dr. Suzanne’s attitude to the “2050 Project”?

A．Indifferent.

B．Carefree.

C．Tolerant.

D．Supportive.

4. Which can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Private Jets’ Green Path.	B．The Birth of SAF.
C．The Future of Commercial Planes.	D．Jetex’s Cooperation with Others.

4 . Digging out potato tubers (茎块) is one of the greatest rewards gardens have to offer. Children in particular are surprised at seeing these tubers that almost magically become chips, mash (泥) or baked potatoes.

Happily, potatoes are very easy to grow. Seed tubers are placed in good garden soil, ideally with some compost (堆肥) for every square meter, in a sunny spot, about 10cm deep at 30cm intervals in rows 60-70cm apart.

Seed tubers are offered as earliest and second earliest and maincrop. The second earliest and maincrops can be stored for winter use but earliest are usually consumed in summer.

Seasoned potato growers buy early seed potatoes in February and place them in a cool, reasonably light place and let them sprout (发芽). It takes six weeks for small sprouts to form.

Early potatoes are typically planted from middle March in the South, but are likely to emerge before the first season finishes in May. The shoots are frost-sensitive requiring protection on cod nights with either earth or newspapers.

Second early and maincrop potatoes are planted in middle April—the frost risk will be low, but not absent, by the time they emerge. As the stems (茎) grow, soil should be drawn around them until the leaves meet in the row in early summer. At this stage, the potato field is a series of ridges (脊，垄). The tubers form in the ridge, protected from light that turns them green. Covering with black plastic or a thick layer of compost is also accessible instead of ridging, but plastic is not sustainable and slugs (鼻涕虫) can multiply in compost.

Once the flowers are fully open, it is time to dig plants when the tubers are the size of a hen’s egg. They grow rapidly but gradually lose their juicy new potato flavour, so harvest freely.

1. What’s the writing purpose of paragraph 1?

A．To describe a magic process.

B．To recall a childhood memory.

C．To raise a potato-related topic.

D．To introduce a gardening award.

2. What can we learn about seed tubers?

A．The closer the intervals are, the faster they will grow.

B．The warmer the weather is, the better they will grow.

C．The earlier they are planted, the healthier they will grow.

D．The deeper they are planted, the stronger they will grow.

3. What helps potatoes grow in the long term?

A．Frost.

B．Plastic.

C．Ridges.

D．Slugs.

4. What’s the text mainly about?

A．How to cook potatoes.	B．How to grow potatoes.
C．How to harvest potatoes.	D．How to preserve potatoes.

5 . The Archeoplastica project was started by a group of Italian environmental activists who decided to collect and exhibit old plastic products found on beaches and elsewhere in the natural environment to show how plastic may remain complete and polluting for decades.

Since 2018, more than 200 items of plastic waste, dating back 30-50 years, have been exhibited in the Archeoplastica virtual museum, as well as at schools and other public places. These bottles and cans are marked with the dates from different times.

In selecting and displaying old plastic waste, such as a toy whale, the project aims to tell a timeless story about the ‘immortality’ of the plastic objects that have been accumulating (积累) in our seas and on our shorelines for decades. It is hoped that showing the items will improve awareness of the fact that plastic does not biodegrade (进行生物降解) and encourage people to change their behaviour. Plastic waste makes up around 80% of marine pollution, according to UNESCO.

One early report about a doll, still in good condition years after being lost, made people think about the problem of plastic among those who saw it. The impact of the early report about the doll led the team to start collecting more objects and setting aside ‘old’ items dating back 30 to 50 years.

Children, in particular, have responded strongly to the collection, leading to a travelling exhibition around schools. It is hoped the children will convey the message about plastic to their parents and others.

Archeoplastica’s founders believe that displaying these old items can improve awareness of the problem of disposable (一次性的) plastic in the sea and on beaches.

1. Why did they exhibit the plastic of different dates?

A．To make the exhibition formal.

B．To catch children’s eyes.

C．To show the history of nature.

D．To prove plastic lasts for decades.

2. How is the text mainly developed?

A．By collecting data.	B．By giving examples.
C．By raising questions.	D．By making comparison.

3. Why was the travelling exhibition held around schools?

A．To raise more environmental awareness.

B．To attract people to visit the beaches.

C．To make collecting plastic convenient.

D．To display as many works as possible.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Seas and Beaches	B．Environmental Activists
C．The Museum of Plastic Waste	D．The History of Plastic Products

6 . Facial recognition technology is mostly connected with uses such as the identification of human faces, but scientists believe they’ve found a new use for it — conserving seals (海豹).

A research team at Colgate University has developed SealNet, a database of seal faces created by taking pictures of seals in Maine’s Casco Bay. The team found the tool’s accuracy in identifying the ocean animals is close to 100%, which is a great achievement in an ecosystem home to thousands of seals.

Krista Ingram, a biology professor at Colgate, said the researchers are working on expanding their database to make it available to other scientists. She also said broadening the database to include rare species, such as the Hawaiian seal, could help save those species. And categorizing (分类) seal faces and using machine learning to identify them can also help scientists know clearly where in the ocean seals are. “Understanding their patterns really helps,” she said. “For moving ocean animals that move around a lot and are hard to photograph in the water, we need to be able to tell them apart,” she said.

SealNet is designed to detect the face in a picture, collect it and recognize it based on facial patterns such as eyes and nose shape. The Colgate team published its paper in April in the scientific journal. The paper said that the “image data that can be dealt with using SealNet software offers an important tool for ecological and behavioral studies of ocean animals in the developing field of conservation technology.”

Tjomme Dooper, head of partnerships and growth from IT company FruitPunch, said he was getting a few scientists to work on a challenge to make SealNet simpler. “What this does is help the biologists study the behavior of seals, and also population changes,” Dooper said. “Seals are an important indicator species for the ecosystem around them.”

1. What is the new application of facial recognition technology?

A．Protecting seals.

B．Operating machines.

C．Cleaning up oceans.

D．Identifying human faces.

2. What is the third paragraph mainly about?

A．The process of categorizing seal faces.	B．The ways of locating the ocean animals.
C．The challenge of recognizing rare species.	D．The benefits of broadening seal database.

3. What can we know about SealNet from the last two paragraphs?

A．It is used to publish papers.	B．It is still in need of improvement.
C．It is designed to picture seal faces.	D．It is causing seals’ population changes.

4. What is the author’s purpose of writing the passage?

A．To voice his views on SealNet.

B．To present a scientific research paper.

C．To introduce a new use of facial recognition.

D．To show the importance of developing technology.

7 . Imagine being able to pop to your local park and pick some tomatoes, potatoes or even bananas to take home for dinner. Sounds too good to be true, right? For residents of Andernach, German, it’s not just a dream—it’s their reality.

In 2010, Andernach began its edible(可食用的)city project, planting 101 varieties of tomatoes in public green spaces around the city centre. Its 30,000 residents are free to help themselves to whatever grows, as are any other visitors.   The town’s motto of sorts is “Picking is encouraged—help yourself!” Every year a new type of plant is highlighted. In 2011, 100 types of beans were planted, while 2012saw the introduction of 20 onion varieties.

It’s a community effort, as local citizens are encouraged to help plant and maintain the gardens. This offers an opportunity to socialise as well as to learn about planting, cultivating and harvesting food.

An Andernach resident spoke to DW,“I often drop by to pick some herbs that I’m missing at home. Everything is easily accessible. There aren’t any fences. You just take what you need. The only thing is that you have to be quick once the fruits are ripe or they’ll all be gone!”

Andernach may have been the first in German, but it isn’t the only edible city. It’s part of the Edible Cities Network, a project funded by European Union to connect green urban foot initiatives around the world. Other cities include Carthage in Tunisia, Havana in Cuba and Sempeter-Vrtojba in Slovenia. In February 2022, the first Edible Cities Network Conference took place. Dr Ina Saumel, principal investigator of the Edible Cities Network, called it “a unique opportunity to invite researchers of edible city solutions and practitioners to the same table.”

Ultimately, the Edible Cities Network aims to give people “greener, more edible and, above all, more livable cities.” It is a response to the pressures of global climate change, and a significant cause full of hope.

1. What can residents do in public green spaces according to the edible city project?

A．Sell the produce they grow there.

B．Learn knowledge about planting.

C．Grow whatever plant as they like.

D．Pay to pick some vegetables there.

2. Which words can best describe the edible city project in Andernach?

A．Novel and popular.	B．Creative and costly.
C．Common and fundamental.	D．Rare and unacceptable.

3. What can we know about the Edible Cities Network from Dr Ina Saumel’s words?

A．Andernach is the only city to carry it out.

B．European Union originally established it.

C．It helps combine theories with practices.

D．It invites people to share meals together.

4. What is the purpose of the Edible Cities Network?

A．To help residents relieve their pressure.

B．To involve residents in urban planting.

C．To increase the produce supply in cities.

D．To create environmentally friendly cities.

8 . 阅读下面短文, 在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Grand Canal, also called Da Yunhe, is a series of waterways in eastern and northern China that connect Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province with Beijing. Some 1, 800 km in     1     (long), it is the world’s longest man-made waterway. Strictly     2     (speak), not all of it is a canal, though. It was built to enable successive Chinese regimes(政权)     3     (transport)grain from the agriculturally rich Yangtze River and Huai River valleys to feed the capital cities     4     large standing armies in northern China.

The oldest part of the canal lies     5     the Yangtze and the city of Huaiyin in Jiangsu Province, which was     6     (origin)on the Yellow River when that river followed a course much     7     (far) to the south. This section, traditionally known as the Shanyang Canal, in recent centuries     8     (call) the Southern Grand Canal. This ancient waterway was first constructed as early as the 4th century BCE.

It was rebuilt in 607 CE. and has been used ever since.

China’s first great canal system,     9     created a northeast-southwest link from the Yellow River to the Huai River, was built beginning in 605 during the Sui Dynasty(581-618). Known as the New Bian Canal, it     10     (remain)the chief waterway throughout the Tang Dynasty(618-907)and the Northern Song Dynasty(960- 1127).

9 . Cheetahs died out in India over 70 years ago. Now a new project is trying to bring cheetahs back to India. Eight of the animals were turned loose in Kuno National Park last week.

Long ago, Asian cheetahs used to roam across India.     1     One of the main reasons was that much of their natural land was taken over by humans. Cheetahs were also commonly hunted for their spotted skins.

    2    . Last Saturday, that finally happened. The cheetahs — five females and three males — were raised by the Cheetah Conservation Fund, and were a gift from Namibia’s government. The cheetahs that were released aren’t Asian cheetahs, but African cheetahs. There may be as few as 12 Asian cheetahs still living in the wild, and these live in Iran.       3    . Currently, there are only about 8, 000 left. Some scientists believe that getting cheetahs going in India again will help make sure that cheetahs don’t die out completely.

To get the cheetahs used to staying in Kuno, at first the females will be kept in a closed-in area of about 3. 7 square miles.     4    .

“Project Cheetah” is expected to cost India about $ 11 million during the next five years. The goal is to build up a population of about 40 cheetahs. A second group of 12 cheetahs is being prepared in South

Africa, and should arrive in October.     5    . And not everyone believes that it’s going to work.

A．Thus, people were in danger

B．But the project is really an experiment

C．But by 1952, they were declared extinct

D．Then they’ll get used to being near humans

E．That will help keep the males from going too far

F．Since 1952, there have been efforts to return cheetahs to India

G．But even African cheetah numbers have been going down sharply

10 . Chinese astronauts have successfully grown rice seedlings(幼苗)aboard the Tiangong space station and this experiment may offer key insights into how astronauts can grow food to support long—term space missions, experts said on Monday. This experiment is the first to produce the complete life cycle of the plant, which begins with a seed and ends with a mature plant producing new seeds.

The breakthrough was conducted in the Wentian space laboratory, which was launched into orbit on July 24, 2022. Three astronauts were conducting the experiment smoothly and testing the plants according to the plan.

“The rice seedlings are growing very well,” said Zheng Huiqiong, a researcher of the task, adding that the experiment also contained seedlings of a small flowering plant often used by scientists to study mutations(变异). “The astronauts will keep monitoring the plants, and if it is successful, they will collect the newly produced seeds and bring them back to Earth for further studies,” she noted

The flowering stage is crucial for plant reproductive development. “We want to investigate how microgravity can affect the plant flowering time and whether it is possible to use the microgravity environment to control the related process,” she said.

Since the 1980s, China has been taking seeds of rice and other crops to space to help them mutate and produce higher yields once they were planted on Earth. But growing rice in orbit is a different challenge due to the tough conditions of space such as microgravity and lack of air.   

Rice has been a main food for astronauts since the early days of space exploration. Freeze—dried chicken and rice was the menu for the Apollo 11 mission, which carried the first humans to land on the moon in July 1969.

“But if we want to land on and explore Mars, bringing food from Earth is not enough to provide for the astronauts’ long journey and mission in space. We have to find a food source for long term space explorations,” Zheng added.

1. What’s the significance of Chinese recent space rice experiment?

A．It enables human beings to move to another planet.

B．It helps people get a better idea of the human life cycle.

C．It inspires more other countries to do space explorations

D．It makes it possible to carry out long—term space missions

2. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．The mutation.

B．The experiment.

C．The exploration.

D．The space mission.

3. Why have crop seeds been brought to space since the last century?

A．To promote genetic changes and increase crop harvest.

B．To figure out how to create an earth—like environment.

C．To study the impact of microgravity on crop growth.

D．To develop new crop species with strong ability to adapt.

4. Where is the text most probably from?

A．A medical report.	B．A fashion magazine.
C．A science newspaper.	D．A history book.