Tall, young and active

November 14, 1963 was a cold morning. This was nothing out of the ordinary for the fisherman. They were used to the winter weather around Iceland. Suddenly, however, they saw something unusual. Thick, black smoke was pouring out of the sea.     1     (think) a boat was on fire, they raced toward it. Yet as they got closer, they realized it was     2     quite different. Magma (岩浆) was rubbing away from the ocean floor. The fishermen watched as a new island rose from the sea. This island, later     3     (name) Surtsey, joined the thousands of volcanic islands worldwide.

The island of Hawaii is one of the most well-known volcanic islands. Lava (熔岩) from multiple volcanoes built this island. One of these volcanoes is Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea began under the ocean over 1 million years ago. Magma broke through the Earth’s crust- that is, the outer layer of the earth.     4     the magma cooled, it formed an underwater mountain. About 100,000 years ago, the mountain rose     5     sea level. Eruption (喷发) then became more frequent and more violent. Layers of lava hardened into rock. Now, Mauna Kea     6     (measure) 9,966 meters from ocean floor to mountain peak, making it the world’s highest mountain.

Fortunately for Hawaiians, Mauna Kea volcano is quiet - for the time being.     7     volcano on the same island is anything but quiet. Kilauea is smaller than Mauna Kea. However, it has erupted nonstop since 1983 and is the world’s most active volcano,     8     produces between 300,000 and 600,000 m² of lava every day. Over the past two decades. It     9     (add) more than 540 acres to the island. In spite of the danger, it is a popular tourist attraction. Yet,     10     this popular tourist attraction contributes to the Hawaiian economy financially also comes at a cost. Kilauea is responsible for taking both lives and homes.

2 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

There are many reasons why some cats are bad-tempered; their temperament can be influenced by their upbringing or they are simply born that way. However, even the sweetest, most affectionate cats can suddenly become bad-tempered and behave out of character. According to veterinarian Dr Katrina Warren, the problem can generally be solved, but you’ll need to look for underlying issues.

Changes in a cat’s behaviour can often be explained by a health problem. Pain can cause cats to behave very differently, and it’s easy to mistake a problem as behavioural, when in fact it is medical. Should you observe a significant change in your cat’s behaviour, then a visit to the vet is the best place to start? Watch out for changes in eating, drinking or litter-box habits. Also hiding and avoiding being touched. Be sure to report all changes to your vet. There are many cat health problems that can be readily treated to ease symptoms and pain for your cat.

It pays to remember that cats don’t like to share or queue. Sharing of ‘resources’ such as litter trays and foodbowls can cause stress and anxiety for many cats. It’s always a good idea to provide each cat with their own litter box, food, water bowls and bed as a minimum. One litter box for each cat plus a spare is even better, as are multiple sleeping spots and extra scratching posts. A lack of space to hide from or avoid other cats, competition for territory and lack of individual attention can also add to household friction. If your cat is feeling anxious, offering it an elevated place to sit, such as a climbing tree, can be helpful.

Moving to a new house, the arrival of a new baby, new pets and other types of change can seriously impact cat behaviour. Cats are creatures of habit and tend to be territorial, so a change in routine may cause them to react in a number of ways, including withdrawal or aggression. Try to keep your cat’s environment as calm as possible and make sure there are places where they feel safe. Sometimes confining them to a single room with a litter box, bedding and home comforts can help them to settle.

Some cats simply do not like being touched and handled. These are often cats that received limited socialisation with humans when they were kittens. These cats do best in a quiet household without children and need understanding and patience to help build their confidence.

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3 . In February 1970, a group of activists gathered in Vancouver, Canada to discuss a planned nuclear test on the Alaskan island of Amchitka. They eventually agreed to sail to the test site and _________ against the explosion in person. At the end of the meeting, the chairman raised two fingers to the room and shouted “Peace!”. After a brief pause, one young attendee _________ with a monumental line: “Let’s make that a green peace”. The group were so _________ the phrase that they named their first boat the Green Peace.

Over the last 50 years, the _________ movement has become so closely associated with the colour green that it’s almost impossible to see a green poster, label or recycling bag without thinking about our planet’s future. But though that connection is the product of a very recent crisis, its _________ go back some way. We have _________ green with nature and its processes for thousands of years. Indeed, the very word “green” comes from the ancient Proto-Indo-European word ghre, meaning “grow”.

The human species, which emerged in the green forests and grasslands of Africa about 300, 000 years ago, has a special _________ link with green. Our eyes might even have _________ specifically to see the green in plants. Unlike most animals, who are red-green colour blind, we humans developed a third cone cell, an additional photoreceptor enabling our _________ to spot ripe red and yellow fruits against a backdrop of green leaf, and to distinguish different green leaves from each other. In daylight conditions, human eyes are more ____________ to green than any other colour.

With the rise of farming, we started to use green as a(n) ____________ for nature and its processes. Archaeologists have recently found an extraordinary store of green jewels in the Levant, ____________ some 10, 000 years. The researchers believe that these objects, many of which had come from hundreds of miles away at great cost, were chosen because they ____________ young leaves and might have been used by early farmers to pray for rainfall or fertilise crops.

The ancient Egyptians, who were farming the banks of the Nile from about 8000 B.C., ____________ use green as identification for their crops. Egyptian painters often represented their god of ____________, Osiris — who was responsible for flooding the Nile’s banks, filling the soil with nutrients and pushing the first green shoots up through the fields — as a bright green being.

4 . With vigorous promotion and extensive participation over the past two years, waste sorting is a new trend that has reshaped the image of campuses across Beijing.

“In the past, sanitation workers sorted the garbage next to the trash cans near the dormitory, _________ a disgusting odor. On windy days, the trash was blown everywhere and we always _________ around it with our hands covering our noses,” says Sun Jiajing, a sophomore at Beijing Forestry University. “Now, we are more active in classifying waste.”

Since a revised guideline on household waste disposal in Beijing was _________ on May 1, 2020, many students have seen their campuses take on a new look that is more pleasant, tidy and appealing.

At Beijing Forestry University, about one in four students are trash-sorting volunteers.

In the Beijing No 20 High School, bins to recycle waste are placed on each floor and students on duty will set their wits to turning trash into _________.

“I received training on trash classification before taking on the role as head of the trash-sorting station. My job is to remind everyone to classify waste and recycle to the best _________,” says Ding Shuyi, a student at the school.

As China pushes _________ the “double reduction” education policy, which aims to ease the burden of _________ homework and off-campus tutoring for primary and middle school students, understanding of waste sorting has been fused into academic teaching via various innovative approaches.

“Our Chinese teachers encourage students to write poetries _________ on waste classification, math teachers lead them to do math on topics such as water conservation, while our music teachers choreographed a ‘waste sorting’ dance with the students,” says Zuo Chunyun, principal of a primary school in the suburban Tongzhou district of the capital.

Zuo adds that students in senior classes will join trash-sorting projects and map out _________ in the form of handwritten newspapers and mind maps. Decorations made from recycled materials are exhibited in the school’s corridors.

The same scene can be seen in Qianjin Primary School, Haidian district. “Garbage can be turned into __________,” says Wang Liping, the principal. “We have raised 100,000 yuan ($15,760) of charity funds by encouraging students and their parents to recycle waste, and the money was used to purchase movie screens for schools in Hotan, Xinjiang.”

According to Liu Jianguo, a professor at Tsinghua University, the implementation of garbage sorting depends on the __________ participation and unremitting efforts of society, which is conducive to the__________ of social civilization.

“Wide participation of students and school staff will help promote garbage sorting to become a new fashion in society,” adds Liu.

Official data shows that over 90 percent of the residents in Beijing have participated in waste classification, and about 85 percent can __________ categorize the garbage. But still, relevant departments are __________ to further raise the ratio.

“Our next move will be more precise supervision of groups that did __________ poorer jobs in sorting out garbage,” says a staffer with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Management.

5 . Why we should spare parasites

Growing up, Chelsea Wood dreamed of becoming a marine biologist and studying large, exciting animals like sharks. Instead, she later found herself peering through a microscope at the organs of a snail. She had often plucked snails off rocks and collected them in buckets, but she had never looked inside of one. Seen through the microscope, they are surprisingly charming. “I couldn’t believe that I’d been looking at snails for as long as I had and missing all the cool stuff,” says wood. “I just totally fell in love with them.”

Nearly half of all known animals are parasites. One study projects that a tenth of them may be doomed to extinction because of climate change, loss of their hosts, and deliberate attempts at eradication. Though it seems few people care — or even notice.

    1    . But most parasites have evolved not to kill their hosts, and not all of them even cause noticeable harm to them.

Scientists warn of dire consequences if we continue to ignore the dangerous situation of parasites. Not only are some of them useful to humans [such as medicinal leeches, still employed in some surgeries], but they also play crucial roles in ecosystems, keeping some populations in check while helping to feed others.

Some experts say there’s an aesthetic argument for saving them.     2    . They’ve evolved clever means of survival, from becoming a fish’s tongue to controlling the minds of cockroaches.

We’ve barely begun to identify all the parasites. “That’s just not something that we’ve prioritized,” says Skylar Hopkins, an ecologist at North Carolina State University. So, Hopkins pulled together a group of scientists interested in parasites, and they started sharing what they knew.

Since parasites rely on other species, they can be easily hurt, Take, for example, the endangered pygmy hog-sucking louse. It only lives on another species that is itself endangered, the pygmy hog, which is disappearing fast. Then there’s the California condor louse. In the 1970s, desperate to save the California condor, biologists began raising them in captivity. Part of the protocol was to delouse every bird, on the assumption that parasites were bad for condors, though it’s not clear that they actually were.

While the death of parasites might seem like no big deal, ecologists caution that wiping them out could end up dooming the planet.     3    . Big predators would lose out too. Many parasites move into their next host by manipulating the host they’re in, which drives that host into a predator’s mouth so that the predator can be fed.

Even human health wouldn’t entirely benefit from wiping out parasites. The human immune system evolved alongside a group of parasites, and if we were to kill them off, our immune systems would then began attacking ourselves.

However, scientists aren’t out to save all parasites. The Guinea worm, for instance, should not be spared. It grows inside a person’s abdomen, causing harm to one’s health.

If anyone would want to get rid of all parasites, you’d think it would be Bobbi Pritt. As medical director for the Mayo Clinic’s human parasitology lab, Pritt identifies harmful parasites found all over the country and in every body part. Yet even Pritt has a soft spot for parasites. As a physician, she favors wiping out parasites that cause disease and suffering.     4    .

Ultimately, we do not want a war against all of them, because there’s still so much we don’t understand.

6 . Science may never know the secrets to memories of the California sea hare, a foot-long sea snail. But a research team claim to have made progress in _______ the simplest kind of memory a mollusk (软体动物) might form, and, with a swift injection, managed to _______ one sea snail’s memory to another.

The kinds of memories that start a defensive reaction in the snails are encoded not in the _______between brain cells, but in RNA molecules (分子), according to David Glanzman, a biologist at UCLA. To _______ the idea, Glanzman implanted wires into the tails of California sea hares and gave them a series of electric shocks. The procedure made the animals so _______ that when they were touched, they contracted parts of their bodies intensely. Glanzman compares the reaction to being nervous after an earthquake: the memory of the event causes a(n) _______ response to any loud noise. After sensitizing the sea snails, Glanzman took RNA out from them and _______ it into new sea snails to see what would happen. He then found the new ones are _______ sensitized, suggesting the “memory” of the electrical shocks had been transplanted. According to Glanzman and his research team, the experiment shows that _______ parts of the memory trace are held in RNA, rather than in the connectivity of brain cells.

However, the work has not yet found widespread ________. “Further work needs to be carried out to determine whether these phenomena are obvious and what is the ________ of such phenomena,” said Prof Vann at Cardiff University. “While a sea snail is a fantastic model, we must be very ________ in drawing comparisons to human memory processes, which are much more complex.”

Tomás Ryan at Trinity College Dublin, is ________. “This work takes us down an interesting road, but I have doubt about it and I don’t think they’ve transplanted a memory,” he said. “This work tells me that maybe the most basic behavioral responses involve some kind of change in the animal.”

8 . In the winter of 1985, my hometown, Buffalo, experienced a blizzard — not an uncommon occurrence for the region. But this was a big one, and the city’s mayor, Jimmy Griffin, was at pains to persuade people to stop trying to go about their business as conditions worsened. He urged Buffalonians to “relax, stay inside, and grab a six-pack,” which must be the best advice in an emergency situation.

There’s something cartoonish about the threat of a blizzard, in which nature’s anger assumes a fluffy form and tries to kill you. It’s the meteorological equivalent of getting attacked by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. And yet, kill it does, through car accidents and heart attacks and other misadventures, usually involving people trying, unwisely, to do something.

Mr. Griffin, therefore known as Jimmy Six-Pack, understood this. The Snow Gods reserve special hatred for those who don’t respect their ability to bring human activity to a standstill. The snow cares not for your deadlines or your happy hour plans. It wants only to fall on the ground and lie there. And it wants you to too.

Needless to say, you should. A snowstorm rewards indolence and punishes busy bees, which is only one of the many reasons it’s the best natural disaster there is.

Time has partly buried my childhood memories of Buffalo’s mighty blizzard of 1977, but I still recall the great drifts that climbed over houses, the spectacle of a world made surprisingly new. It’s a vision that often comes back to my mind every now and then, as we face the terrible prospect of a climate changed by human appetites — the future winters, damp and snow less, that may well await us. So let us all now pause, perhaps over a six-pack, and bear witness as the climate changes us.

10 . For millions of years, Arctic sea ice has expanded and shrunk in a rhythmic dance with the summer sun. Humans evolved in this icy world, and civilization relied on it for climatic, ecological and political stability. But now the world comes ever closer to a future without ice. The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that 2019’s minimum arctic sea ice extent was the second lowest on record. Arctic summers could become mostly ice-free in 30 years, and possibly sooner if current trends continue. As the northern sea ice declines, the world must unite to preserve what remains of the Arctic.

Although most people have never seen the sea ice, its effects are never far away. By reflecting sunlight, Arctic ice acts as Earth’s air conditioner. Once dark water replaces brilliant ice, Earth could warm substantially, equivalent to the warming caused by the additional release of a trillion tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere and declining sea ice threatens wildlife, from the polar bear to algae that grow beneath the sea ice, supporting the large amount of marine life.

To avoid the consequences the scientific community should advocate not just for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, but also for protecting the Arctic from exploitation. The Antarctic shows the way. In the 1950s, countries raced to claim the Antarctic continent for resources and military installations. Enter the scientists. The 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year brought together scientists from competing countries to study Antarctica, and countries temporarily suspended their territorial disputes (争议). In 1959, 12 countries signed the Antarctic Treaty to preserve the continent for peaceful scientific discovery rather than territorial and military gain.

Sixty years later, we must now save the Arctic. A new Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS) Treaty would protect the Arctic Ocean as a scientific preserve for peaceful purposes only. Similar to Antarctica, MAPS would prohibit resource exploitation, commercial fishing and shipping, and military exercises. So far, only 2 non-Arctic countries have signed MAPS; 97 more need to sign on to enact it into law. Scientists can help—just as they did for the Antarctic—by giving statements of support, asking scientific organizations to endorse (支持) the treaty, communicating the importance of protecting the arctic to the public and policy-makers, and above all, by convincing national leaders to sign the treaty. In particular, Arctic nations must agree that recognizing the arctic as an international preserve is better than fighting over it. In 2018, these countries successfully negotiated a 16-year moratorium on commercial fishing in the Arctic high seas, demonstrating that such agreements are possible.

Humans have only ever lived in a world topped by ice. Can we now work together to protect Arctic ecosystems, keep the northern peace, and allow the sea ice to return?