1 . Conservationists have long known that using pandas, tigers and other charismatic(有号召力的) species to front their campaigns is a good way to raise money. But some people argue that focusing on these “flagship” animals can ignore equally threatened but less cute ones.
Now Jennifer McGowan at Macquarie University in Sydney and her colleagues suggest that we can have it both ways, after finding that funding for flagship species also helps other threatened species in the surrounding areas. McGowan’s team first drew up a list of 534 flagship species in wildlife-rich hot spots around the world. The biodiversity areas were each split into grids (网格) of 100 by 100 kilometre squares. The researchers then compared two conservation approaches across eight simulated scenarios(模拟场景) which assumed different levels of human activity and protected areas.
The first focused on protecting flagship species, while the second aimed to protect the maximum number of species in an area, regardless of their fundraising potential. Their study has found that targeting grid squares with flagship species also protected 79 to 89 per cent of the non-flagship species in that area. The figure rose to 97 per cent in some scenarios. “The findings could help when choosing which species to promote. Flagship species are very effective at getting the public to care,” she says.
Morgan Trimble, the author of a paper that has found scientists also have a bias towards charismatic animals, says the results don’t surprise her. “While I think it’s important that we don’t lose sight of the bigger picture --- conserving species is about conserving all the component parts of ecosystems, even the not-so-cute species --- I think highlighting flagship species in fundraising and education is a practical idea and appeals to human nature,” she says. Trimble also asks what the alternative to using flagship species would be: randomly picking species? McGowan’s study found a random approach to choosing where to spend conservation funds only protected 39 to 55 per cent of the non-flagship species.
1. What kind of animals do conservationists usually use to raise funds?| A．Less attractive animals. |
| B．Endangered flagship animals |
| C．Threatened but not necessarily cute species. |
| D．Charismatic but not necessarily threatened species. |
| A．It’s fair enough to focus on flagship species. |
| B．There are very few flagship species in grid squares. |
| C．Non-flagship species are poorly protected in general. |
| D．Flagship species are getting more than enough attention. |
| A．It needs to be further confirmed. | B．It is in line with her expectations. |
| C．It is beyond her comprehension. | D．It goes right against human nature. |
| A．How to choose a charismatic species |
| B．The effects of human activity on animals |
| C．How to best channel conservation efforts |
| D．The role of fundraising in saving animals |
2 . Mountain
A mountain is a landform that rises high above its surroundings. Taller than a hill, it usually has steep slopes and a rounded or sharp peak. Mountains are rarely found alone.
Some mountains were formed by the activity of volcanoes. Scientists believe that most volcanic mountains are made up of rock that melted deep within earth. The rock rose through Earth’s surface, or crust. It then flowed onto the surface in the form of lava.
Other mountains were formed by movements within Earth’s crust. The theory called plate tectonics explains this type of mountain building. Earth’s crust is divided into huge pieces called plates, which move very slowly. The continents sit on top of the plates and move with them. At times the plates strike against each other, forcing the rock upward. The Himalayas of Asia are an example of this type of mountain chain.
Mountain ranges are natural barriers to travel. Roads are difficult to build across them. Railroads need expensive tunnels to cross even low mountains.
Life is hard in mountain lands. The high places of the world are cold and have little soil, making farming difficult.
| A．Groups of mountains are called ranges. |
| B．However, many mountain areas are vacation spots. |
| C．The lava, along with volcanic dust, built up to form mountains. |
| D．These colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains. |
| E．Thus the continental crust is normally much thicker under mountains. |
| F．Therefore mountain ranges tend to divide the people on either side of them. |
| G．They were formed when a plate carrying India struck against the Asian plate. |
3 . Saitoti Petro is trying to change his neighbors' ideas about lions. Petro lives in northern Tanzania, where people and lions have lived together for as long as anyone can remember. But that relationship is uneasy.
Petro is one of more than 50 lion monitors in an area known as the Maasai Steppe. It is named after the Maasai people, who live there and work as herders feeding cattle. Each day, Petro walks around the area, helping herders protect their animals from lions. He and other monitors get support and training from a non-profit group called African People and Wildlife.
Over the past 10 years, African People and Wildlife has helped more than 1, 000 families build secure and modern fencing to protect their cattle. The fencing is partly made of chainlink fence and living trees. The method is experimental. However, the survival of lions and other large animals living in East Africa's grasslands may depend on it. The goal is to find a way in which people, their cattle and wild animals can use the land together.
Across Africa, the population of lions has decreased by 40 percent over the past 20 years. That number comes from the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The group says that scientists are considering putting lions on the list of endangered animals.
Lions can no longer be found on 94 percent of the land in Africa where they used to live. The biggest reason is that some grasslands have been replaced by farming and cities. It is the biggest risk to wildlife in Africa and around the world. But for lions, illegal hunting and killing are also great threats.
Petro's father said, "Now I love to see lions, but not too close to their homes." He also supports his son's effort to educate neighbors about avoiding conflicts with lions.
1. How do the Maasai people mainly make a living?| A．By killing cattle. | B．By raising animals. |
| C．By training lions. | D．By hunting wildlife. |
| A．To let people and animals live in harmony. |
| B．To make experiments on plants and animals. |
| C．To help local families to build a metal fence. |
| D．To create a safe living environment for lions. |
| A．Water shortage. | B．Illegal killing. |
| C．Animal trade. | D．Habitat loss. |
| A．Protect Animals from Extinction |
| B．Protect Personal Safety and Rights |
| C．Encourage People to Love Wild Animals |
| D．Prevent Conflicts between Lions and People |
4 . In the past five years, about 2.8 billion of school textbooks were sold per year, with total spending of 20 billion yuan ($3 billion), news magazine Outlook Weekly reported, citing data released recently by the National Press and Publication Administration.
If these textbooks are reused for one year, the costs saved can be used to help build around 40,000 Hope Schools in impoverished regions.
The figures show that in 2018, the number of retailed textbooks for primary and secondary schools was 2.93 billion copies, totaling 25.99 billion yuan. If all of them are reused, a total of over 20 billion yuan will be saved per year.
Zhao Dehua, in charge of a company recycling resources, said many college graduates sell the textbooks they have accumulated over the years at an average price of 1 yuan per kilogram. As these textbooks are mostly used to produce recycled paper, the cost is even higher than that of raw paper as the processing procedure of recycled paper is complicated.
At present, free textbooks related to music, art and P.E for the nine-year compulsory education have been reused, but account for less than a fraction of the total number of textbooks. Because of the supply chain obstruction, which increases the costs to match supply with demand, the lack of sound platform and service supporting system for the second-hand textbook trade, most of the textbooks used for compulsory education and higher education end up as waste.
“Every year, second-hand booksellers collect textbooks at a price of about 4,000 yuan a ton, which is more than twice the price of ordinary waste paper, but the number of people who come to collect second-hand books is still few,” Zhao Dehua said.
Besides, the incomplete policies and regulations might bring second-hand book sales platforms and sellers to legal risks.
“Establishing the system of textbook recycling can not only save resources, but also help to cultivate students’ consciousness and sense of responsibility,” said Zhu Pin, deputy head of a school of nine-year compulsory education in Jiangxi province. The school has set up a system for reusing the textbooks and the books are disinfected every week.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 4?| A．College students sell textbooks in order to make profits. |
| B．Recycled paper is mainly used for environmental considerations. |
| C．The cost of recycled paper is greater than that of raw paper. |
| D．Certain groups of collectors tend to choose second-hand textbooks. |
| A．It is blocked because of lack of funds. |
| B．The supply of recycled textbooks is not adequate to meet the demand. |
| C．The regulation of second-hand textbooks has not been carried out yet. |
| D．A large number of second-hand textbooks are not used properly. |
| A．The school frees recycled textbooks from bacteria regularly. |
| B．The school proposes regulations for wasting second-hand textbooks. |
| C．The school calls on students to participate in the system of textbook recycling. |
| D．The school requests the government’s support. |
| A．Textbooks recycled for less waste |
| B．Recycled textbooks used for compulsory education |
| C．Reusing textbooks good for environment and wallet |
| D．Reusing textbooks good for collection |
5 . On an autumn afternoon, a remote sheep farm in southern Greenland is quiet. The silence is abruptly broken when dozens of sheep come thundering across the hills overlooking the farm. Walking after them are Lars Nielsen and his 37-year-old son Kunuk Nielsen.
The Nielsen family has owned and run the farm since 1972. Kunuk says the summers now are longer than when he was a child and that drought has become a problem. The fields are not so green as those in the old days. He has to buy hay (草料) from European countries.
The effects of a warming climate are obvious on the land. While he intends to struggle on, his older brother Pilu has chosen a different path.
Pilu, 40, lives in Qaqortoq in the south of Greenland -- a town of about 3,000 people. Ten years ago, he got his helicopter pilot's license and is now part owner of a small company called Sermeq Helicopters. It caters to construction and telecommunication workers and an increasing number of foreign tourists.
Pilu says he loves his family's sheep farm. But he saw that warming temperatures were making remote areas of Greenland more accessible and wanted to look for other opportunities. His company's most popular tours include a visit to Greenland's glaciers.
The warming temperatures are also affecting traditional ways of life, particularly hunting. The sea ice is changing; it's becoming less so that hunting on ice becomes more difficult. When there's no sea ice, it's difficult to use dog sledges (雪橇)，and the whole culture around having dogs and dog sledges and doing traditional hunting on the ice is sort of diminishing.
Besides, many Greenlanders, like Pilu, are leaving the countryside for towns and the capital city Nuuk, where opportunities are greater. A report found that Nuuk's share of Greenland's population grew from 17.2% in 1977 to 29.2% in 2014. If there were enough houses in Nuuk, the share would even be bigger.
1. What problem does Kunuk Nielsen's farm face?| A．Lack of workers. | B．Less food for his sheep. |
| C．Less space forhissheep. | D．Lack of foreign markets. |
| A．By casting a shadow on its business. |
| B．By making it hard for locals to earn a living. |
| C．By promoting the development of its tourism. |
| D．By making more remote areas suitable for living. |
| A．Occurring. | B．Operating. |
| C．Adapting. | D．Decreasing |
| A．Housing pressure. | B．Climate change. |
| C．Weakeconomy. | D．Poor living conditions. |
6 . All animals play. running, rolling and wrestling with each other is a way for them to have fun, of course. But it also seems to be how they communicate and strengthen bonds with each other.
When a dog comes up to another dog, front legs bowed and his tail high, his buddy knows he wants to play. But new research shows that this play behavior is surprisingly similar when horses and dogs play.
To study interspecies communication, Elisabetta Palagi and her colleagues from the University of Pisa found 20 YouTube videos of dogs and horses playing where their interactions lasted at least 30 seconds. They analyzed the videos, looking for specific pattern of play.
They found that while playing, both dogs and horses often had relaxed, open mouths-which is common playful facial expression in mammals. Some also copied each other's movements, like pretending to bite, playing with an object, or rolling on their backs on the ground. A 2,000-pound horse can play with a relatively tiny dog because the two are able to communicate their intentions.
"It's an important study because it shows how two animals who look and behave so differently can nevertheless manage to negotiate how to play in a way that's comfortable for both," Barbara Smuts, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Michigan, told National Geographic.
It's even more noteworthy given the large size difference between horses and dogs. The dog is vulnerable (易受伤的) to injury by the horse, and the horse has a deeply rooted tendency to fear animals that look like wolves."
Next up, the researchers write, is exploring the development and shaping of interspecies communication that “can be at the basis of a universal language of play".
1. What is the focus of Elisabetta Palagi's study?| A．Behaviors of mammals. | B．Animal facial expressions. |
| C．Inter species communication. | D．Differences in animal languages. |
| A．High tails. | B．Openmouths. |
| C．Relaxedlegs. | D．Hardbites. |
| A．They feel less comfortable around other species. |
| B．Horses are often at risk of being injured by dogs. |
| C．Dogs manage to overcome their natural fear for wolves. |
| D．They communicate despite physical and behavioral differences. |
| A．How dogs learn to speak to other animals |
| B．Horses and dogs-- more similar than different |
| C．Horses and dogs share universal play language |
| D．The development of inter species communication |
Strange things were happening in the countryside of northeastern Hebei. For several days, the water in the village wells rose and
Later that afternoon, another big quake shook Tangshan again,
8 . Last year, the bushfires in Australia burned more than 12.35 million acres of land. At least 25 people were killed and 2000 homes destroyed. According to the BBC, that was the most casualties(伤亡) from wildfires in the country since 2009. The University of Sydney estimates that 480 million animals have died in South Wales alone.
Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst and climate researcher at Berkeley Earth, said warmer temperatures and extreme weather made Australia more susceptible to fires and increased the length of the fire season. "The drier conditions combined with record high temperatures in 2019 created main conditions for the disastrous fires. Australia's fires were worsened by the combination of those two. 2019 was the perfect storm for being the warmest year on record for Australia and the driest year on record for Australia," Hausfather added on Friday.
Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, said warmer ocean temperatures are also contributed to more variable weather around the world. Trenberth believes that global warming contributed to energy imbalances and hot spots in the oceans, which can create a wave in the atmosphere that locks weather patterns in places, causing longer rain events in Indonesia, for example, and at the same time contributing to drought in Australia. He said that once an area experiences drought conditions for two months or more, it increases the risk of fires catching and spreading. Those changing weather patterns due to global warming make drought events longer.
Climate experts stress that climate change is not the only factor in the severity(严重) of wildfires. How land is managed can also impact the amount of fuel available for fires. Practices like controlled bums and other factors can impact the risk to people and property, such as warning systems and the type of development in a given area. Changing those policies has great potential to limit future damage from wildfires along with changes to how fire management resources are dispatched(派遣).
1. What are the numbers about in paragraph 1?| A．The causes of Australian fires. | B．The results of Australian fires. |
| C．The damaged areas of Australian fires. | D．The property destruction of Australian fires. |
| A．Very quickly to adapt to. |
| B．Very seriously to focus on. |
| C．Very likely to be influenced by. |
| D．Very easily to be protected against. |
| A．Longer dry weather contributes to global warming. |
| B．Global wanning is also a main cause of the bushfires. |
| C．Warmer ocean temperatures leads to the fires directly. |
| D．The imbalanced energy leads to the temperature rising. |
| A．To stress the effects of Australia fires. |
| B．To show the methods for land management. |
| C．To predict the seriousness of Australia fires. |
| D．To provide some advice about reducing fire damage. |
9 . Do you think alien beings exist somewhere in the universe? It seems like Mars, our closest neighbor, has inspired the most science fiction as the place where aliens are most likely to come from. Recent Mars probes (探测) have shown us that there is no life on that planet—at least not now. But that does not mean that life does not exist elsewhere—after all, the universe is really big. A lot of scientific research is going on in the search for “extraterrestrial life”.
Think about it—why should the seven billion people on this little planet be the only living beings in the universe? It would, in fact, seem logical that this is not the case. So scientific research in this matter is based around the idea of finding other planets that have environments that can support life —environments similar to the Earth. The search is on for the evidence of the existence, or earlier existence of life: from very wise beings to simple organisms (有机物).
So far, there have been a number of theories as to which planetary bodies may have an atmosphere that can support such life and therefore deserve closer attention. As for places within our own Milky Way Galaxy, it has been assumed over the decades that Mars and Venus, as well as some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, may have been hosts for life. Now, as technologies have improved and we can obtain measurements of the composition of the atmosphere on extra-solar planets, the chances of finding “alien” life forms are increasing.
There has been a theory that some of the planets in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Gliese 581 may be able to support life. In 2007, scientists discovered exoplanet Gliese 581c—and felt that its atmosphere was most suitable for supporting life. But further research revealed that it would not. Now, attention has been turned to Gliese 581d, at the outer edge of the star’s habitable zone. The main standards for deciding whether a planetary body can be life-supporting are atmospheric conditions which allow the existence of water. Gliese 581 is about 20. 4 light years away from the Earth, so even if life does exist there, the distance would mean that communication would be unlikely.
Having said this—who says alien life forms (if they exist) need water?
1. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Life existing outside of the Earth. |
| B．The evidence of the existence of life. |
| C．Other faraway planets in the universe. |
| D．Creatures known from science fictions. |
| A．Modern scientific theories. | B．Atmospheric conditions. |
| C．Environments similar to the Earth. | D．Advanced technologies. |
| A．the atmosphere of Gliese 581c was most suitable for life |
| B．it is not certain whether alien life forms need water or not |
| C．the 7 billion people on the Earth are the only beings in the universe |
| D．the distance of 20. 4 light years makes it impossible to find life on Gliese 581d |
| A．Do Aliens Exist? | B．Is Mars Suitable for Life? |
| C．Are Alien Life Forms Various? | D．Can We Communicate with Aliens? |
10 . Deep sea fishing, sometimes called sport or big game fishing, is a form of fishing. This type of fishing can be a real challenge and is also meant to be enjoyable.
Once the boat arrives on site, a number of techniques can be used to fish. Some people like to use nets, while others prefer to spread bait in the water to attract fish, and to hook them individually. Spear fishing is also possible with some species.
If a fish is landed, there are a number of options for dealing with the fish. Some people take the fish home to eat. Others think that the catch is the fun part.
Going on a fishing charter (租船 )can be an enjoyable experience for people who like fishing and being out on the water.
| A．Deep sea fishing is adventurous |
| B．Besides, it provides a source of food |
| C．So they make the most of time on charters |
| D．Fishermen have to be strong and quick on their feet |
| E．Many charters provide all of the equipment people will need |
| F．The goal with deep sea fishing is to reach deeper parts of the ocean |
| G．They set the fish free afterwards so that it can live to fight another day |
