1 . When most kids go to the beach, they’re too focused on making sandcastles and splashing around to notice litter, but several years ago, for 7-year-old Cash Daniels, noticing a plastic straw sparked a lifelong passion for saving the planet.

Cash, who is now known as the “conservation kid”, has always loved nature. He grew up fishing along the Chattanooga River, after all! But once he learned that 80 percent of all trash from land and rivers ends up in the ocean, he couldn’t sit back.

He started with cleanups along the river, something that quickly went from a family affair to a community effort with volunteers and neighbors. In 2019, Cash, together with a Canadian conservationist, Ella Galaski-Rossen, started a nonprofit called the Cleanup Kids. Despite living in different countries, they managed to create educational videos on their YouTube channel. “We hope to be a really big nonprofit that eliminates plastic in the U. S. and Canada,” Cash said. “We want to inform kids and adults in the landlocked states on how their actions are connected to the water and the ocean,” Cash said.

Cash was selected as one of America’s top 10 youth volunteers of 2021 by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. He also earned the title of National Honoree, where he received a$5,000 grant to go to a nonprofit of his choice, and he became the first person to win the Youth Conservationist Award two years in a row from the Tennessee Wildlife Federation.

“I want to travel the world, teach others, and help them feel connected to the ocean. Because if you are connected to the ocean-if you love it and what lives in it—you’ll want to protect it,” he said. “This is my fun, and it becomes more fun with every new discovery.”

1. Which can replace the underlined words “sit back” in paragraph 2?

A．Fall asleep.	B．Lose heart.
C．Turn a blind eye.	D．Lend a hand.

2. What is the purpose of starting the Cleanup Kids?

A．To recycle waste plastics.

B．To make instructive videos.

C．To spread marine knowledge.

D．To appeal for ocean protection.

3. Which of the following best describes Cash Daniels?

A．Sympathetic and devoted.	B．Initiative and talented.
C．Ambitious and humorous.	D．Determined and modest.

4. What does Cash Daniels story imply?

A．Passion fuels dreams.

B．Great minds think alike.

C．Helping others is of great fun.

D．Actions speak louder than words.

2 . No matter where you go, you’ll notice something strange about trees—the fact that their bottoms are painted white. Generally speaking, the purpose of whitewashing is to protect trees from heat and insects.     1    . Let’s check them out!

Blocking the sun

You might sometimes notice that some tree trunks’ surfaces get dry and crack easily.     2    . Simply put, they are exposed to the burning sun and the temperatures change wildly between day and night. Fortunately, painting a tree’s trunk white is similar to adding sunscreen, which helps block the sun.

Heat protection

    3    .White paint reflects the heat and allows trees to spend more time on transpiration (蒸腾) and growing their fruits. Additionally, when trees are cooler, they have less stress, which makes their stomata (气孔) stay open a bit longer for the exchange of gases.

Defending against pests

More often than not, a tree’s surface will crack, allowing insects to creep inside.     4    . Therefore, people whitewash trees using latex paint and water, which prevents insects from climbing up trees and entering inside through the cracks.

    5    

Last but not least, the surface of trees is painted white to make them more visible, specifically for those on the side of the road. Why is that important? Because accidents involving trees are extremely common, especially during the night, when drivers can not see them much more clearly.

A．Stopping accidents

B．Improving visibility

C．Whitewashing is a good way to solve the problem

D．The cause of this phenomenon has already been found

E．Whitewashing helps young trees remain cool in spring

F．However, there’re many other reasons for whitewashing trees

G．Bacteria will feed on the tree’s inner parts, eventually killing it

3 . A college professor at my university years ago shocked his class with a frog. He showed off a wood frog that was still alive but frozen solid. Then suddenly, he threw it against a wall and it broke into pieces. Everyone took a quick deep breath. Moments later, he explained that he hadn’t actually thrown the frog. For dramatic effect he had switched the frog for a large piece of ice. But the goal was to illustrate a point: That a wood frog does in fact freeze as solid as ice to survive the winter. Then it thaws again in the spring.

The wood frog is one of the most frequently studied animals on Earth that freezes. First, it’s liquid, it’s hopping around, then ice comes on it from the outside. Its skin gets frozen a little bit, its eyes glaze over, its brain freezes, and ice pushes blood to the frog’s heart before eventually that, too, is rock solid. This transition requires major changes in biochemistry. Ice slowly forms around the outside of organs and cells. At the same time, the frog’s liver pumps out incredible amounts of glucose — a sugary liquid that acts like antifreeze for vital organs — that flows everywhere including the insides of cells to keep them from dying.

But true supercooling in nature — and especially with human organs — comes with risks, says Shannon Tessier, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School who studies how suspended animation in nature can translate to human organ transplants.

Wood frogs and other animals that survive extreme conditions in nature have many applications in medicine, especially in the world of organ transplants, Tessier says. A human heart, for example, can only exist outside the body for about four hours. “So we’re trying to use the principles from wood frogs with high amounts of glucose and freeze a whole heart or other organ, keep it in suspended animation, safely awake it, and transplant it.”

1. Why did the college professor take a frog to the class?

A．To show off his amazing pet.	B．To switch a piece of ice with it.
C．To tell students some frog facts.	D．To conduct a special experiment.

2. What does the underlined word “thaws” mean in paragraph 1?

A．Freezes itself.

B．Comes to life.

C．Becomes warm.

D．Turns back into water.

3. What protects the frozen frog from dying?

A．Its icy cell.

B．Its vital organ.

C．Its warm blood.

D．Its sugary liquid.

4. Who will probably benefit from the frog’s principles according to Shannon Tessier?

A．The one who has to take a heart transplant operation.

B．The one who is applying for the Harvard Medical School.

C．The one who works on the development of a new medicine.

D．The one who plans to experience extreme conditions in nature.

4 . When your child begins to beg for a pet, you may draw back at the thought of the additional responsibilities. Parents usually think of all the work and responsibility having a pet could bring about.     1    

● Teach responsibility.

A family pet can help show children the importance of proper care in keeping their new friend happy and healthy.    2     Give your child a sense of responsibility by having them help meet these needs, whether they feel like it that day or not.

● Encourage exercise.

If you’ve ever been forced to keep up with a young dog or cat, you know how tiring it can be!    3     By encouraging your child to play with his or her pet, both of them will get the exercise they need to sleep soundly and live healthy and happy lives.

    4    

Teaching your child how to “play nice” with and show affection to another living being is an essential first step toward developing lifelong empathy (共情) for others. Learning how to be a good friend with a pet will teach one how to be more open and friendly to other people as well.

● Be practical.

While the benefits of pet ownership are clear, pets are definitely not for everybody. Raising pets requires a large amount of work and responsibility. You’d better make sure the whole family is aware of the requirement that come along with the pet.     5     It’s best to introduce the potential pet to your child before bringing him or her home to ensure that there is a healthy connection.

A．Treat others well.

B．Form a close bond with a friend.

C．Pets are great for helping "“break the ice”.

D．But you can use the pet’s energy to your advantage.

E．Also, some pets can be very aggressive with children.

F．All pets need to be fed, given fresh water, and exercised regularly.

G．However, allowing kids to keep a pet can teach you both some important lessons.

5 . A Malawian woman, Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, was recently awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa — the world’s leading award for grassroots environmental activists.

Gloria Majiga-Kamoto was then working for a local environmental organization with a program that gave goats to rural farmers, who would use the goat waste to produce low-cost, high-quality organic fertilizer (肥料). The problem? The thin plastic bags covering the Malawian countryside. “We have this very common street food, chiwaya, which is salty and served in little blue plastics,” Majiga-Kamoto says. “Goats eat the plastic for salty taste and they die because it blocks the ingestion (摄食) system.” For her, this was the moment when it all changed. All of a sudden, she started noticing how plastics were everywhere in the Malawian environment and food system-affecting people’s living and health.

“I remember back in the day when we’d go to the market and buy things like fish, you’d get it in newspapers,” the 30-year-old says. But thin plastics took off in the last decade or so as new producers sprung up in Malawi, selling products like thin plastic bags at cheap prices. In fact, the Malawian government decided to ban the importation, production and distribution of single-use plastic in 2015. But before the ban could go into full effect, Malawi’s plastics-producing industry appealed to the country’s High Court against the ban, causing it to be suspended.

When Majiga-Kamoto and her fellow environmentalists heard about this, they were annoyed. She organized marches and rejected the plastic industry’s argument that the ban would hurt Malawi’s economy — and even debated with an industry spokesman on TV. Finally in 2019, Malawi’s High Court ruled in favor of the ban. The following year, the government began closing down illegal plastic producers.

Michael Sutton, executive director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, said, “Majiga-Kamoto’s fight with the plastic industry is a perfect example of the spirit of the prize.”

1. What made Majiga-Kamoto realize the problem?

A．Her experience with plastic-eating goats.

B．Her discovery of goat waste everywhere.

C．Her doubt about the safety of street food.

D．Her care for the farmers living in poverty.

2. What can we learn about Malawi?

A．It used to be extremely rich in fish.

B．It advocated using thin plastic bags.

C．It failed to ban single-use plastic at first.

D．It relied heavily on the plastic industry.

3. What was the purpose of Majiga-Kamoto’s acts in Paragraph 4?

A．To put the ban into effect.

B．To support the government.

C．To back the plastic industry up.

D．To promote Malawi’s economy.

4. Which of the following best describes Majiga-Kamoto?

A．Humble.

B．Generous.

C．Patient.

D．Committed.

6 . Transport is undergoing a massive transformation so it can meet society’s demands for a low- carbon economy. Introducing electric vehicles (EV) and declining gasoline use are helping, but zero-carbon hydrogen can speed up both the transition (转变) and long-term decarbonization of transport.

In the US, transportation produces the largest share of all greenhouse gas emissions (排放) in the economy at 29%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. More than 90% of transport fuel is petrol based, but if more vehicles used hydrogen, emissions of this kind would plummet.

However, hydrogen is not considered an ideal replacement for gasoline as an engine fuel for cars because it is harder to store safely. And while fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) that turn hydrogen into electricity can compete with EV performance-and even out-compete them on range and refill time, extra energy is needed to produce the hydrogen needed for fuel. Also, finding investment for storage, pipelines and fuel stations is still a challenge for many nations.

Currently, governments worldwide are backing green hydrogen projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in heavy industries like freight (货运), steel, and energy storage. But hydrogen transport will need rapid production methods to create the fuel needed for the world’s road fleet.

Thankfully, research is advancing all the time. Nanoscale (纳米级的) thin films are applied to improving the chemical process to rapidly harvest hydrogen from the seawater. The same technology has been successfully used in solar power devices with higher efficiency-to-cost rates. Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and as seawater makes up about 96% of all water on Earth, there is a virtually limitless supply.

Even wastewater and solid waste can create green hydrogen. Researchers at Princeton University are using sunlight to separate hydrogen from industrial wastewater. Chemical plants that currently face high costs for cleaning wastewater could transform it into clean hydrogen supplies.

1. What does the underlined word “plummet” mean in Paragraph 2?

A．Stop.

B．Decrease.

C．Continue.

D．Disappear.

2. What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．Ways of storing hydrogen safely.

B．Benefits of fuel cell electric vehicles.

C．Challenges of using hydrogen as car fuel.

D．Differences between gasoline and hydrogen.

3. What makes it more efficient to get hydrogen from the ocean?

A．The application of solar power devices.

B．The method of identifying water elements.

C．The invention. of the water transport system.

D．The use of the nanoscale thin-film technology.

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

A．Clean Energy Hydrogen Ready to Take Off

B．Traditional Fuels Bound to Reach a Dead End

C．How We Can Generate Energy from Hydrogen

D．What the Future of Transportation May Be Like

7 . Honeybees understand that “nothing” can be “something” that has numerical meaning, showing that they have a primitive grasp of the concept of zero, according to a newly-published study in Science.

Previous experiments have shown that honeybees have some facility for numbers, because they were able to count landmarks (地标) as they searched around for a sweet reward. But in these tests, the insects couldn’t count very high-only to about four. Still, that made researchers in Australia and France want to explore what else the bees could do with numbers.

Scarlett Howard at RMIT University in Melbourne attracted bees to a wall where they were presented with two square cards. Each card had a different number of black symbols, such as dots or triangles. Howard trained one group of bees to understand that sugar water would always be located under the card with the least number of symbols. “They could come and see two circles versus (与. . . 相对) three circles, or four triangles versus one triangle,” she explains. The bees quickly learned to fly to the card with the fewest symbols,

But then they got another test, The researchers presented the bees with a card that had a single symbol and a blank card that had nothing on it. The bees seemed to understand that “zero” was less than one, because they flew toward the blank card more often than you’d expect if they were choosing at random. “When we showed them zero-versus six, they did that at a much higher level than zero versus one,” Howard says. “So what tells us is that they consider zero as an actual quantity along the number line.”

Aurore Avargues-Weber, a researcher with the University of Toulouse, points out even very young children have trouble understanding that zero is a number. “It’s easy for them to count ‘one, two, three, four,’ but zero, it’s not something to count,” she explains. What’s more, the brains of bees are incredibly tiny brains compared with the brains of humans. Even so, the bees can understand the abstract concept of an empty set and she says she found that very surprising.

1. What did the earlier studies find about bees?

A．They could fly higher than expected.

B．They could understand some numbers.

C．They could remember a reward well.

D．They could explore local landmarks.

2. What did bees learn to do in Howard’s first test?

A．Distinguish circles from triangles.

B．Draw various symbols on the cards.

C．Identify the smaller of the two numbers.

D．Locate sugar water with symbol shapes.

3. Why did bees fly to the blank card more frequently?

A．They were told the location of the reward.

B．They chose to do it thoroughly by chance.

C．They preferred the card with nothing on it.

D．They thought of zero as an actual number.

4. Why are young children mentioned in the last paragraph?

A．To argue that bees have a surprising memory.

B．To show that bees’ gift for numbers is amazing.

C．To explain that bees learn as well as young children.

D．To confirm that bees are smarter than young children.

8 . Two hours west of a perfectly sunny summer’s day in Clackamas, Oregon a foggy breeze awaited me on the Lincoln City coast. After a year of volunteering remotely with Ocean Blue Project, today is a long-awaited beach cleanup.

I didn’t expect to take away more than just trash from the beach cleanup. At first glance, the beach appears clean. However, beach cleanups require much more attention than a quick look over. Within just a couple of hours, 71 of us volunteers managed to pick up 171 pounds of debris. Actually, we’ve got much more than that.

Beach cleanups connect us to nature and provide an escape from the world for a little bit. They also provide a learning opportunity outside of the participation part. When you sit over a pile of—let’s face it—garbage, you pick out one by one the pieces left behind by others. You see first hand the impact we’re having on our environment and account for what is left behind the most. Each cigarette butt and plastic bottle sets the tone for how we should be approaching our everyday lives, which is to stop pollution.

Personally, the time spent by the ocean and away from my phone fills me with peace and calmness as I focus my attention only on the moment, looking for the little devils trying to pollute the ocean. With a pound or two less out of the ocean, I always feel a bit more optimistic about the world to come.

This boots-on-the-sand way of making a difference grants me a feeling of accomplishment and purpose. Rather than pondering the dire task of saving the planet or researching and writing ways to do so, I get to physically make a difference. And there’s nothing that can replace that instant gratification of making positive change for your community and your planet.

After the cleanup, my eyes are now expertly trained to spot loose trash and inorganic materials anywhere I step. Imagine what a huge difference we could all make collectively if we simply stopped and picked up that water bottle or wrapper off the ground instead of passing it by.

1. Which of the following can best describe the author’s first beach cleanup with Ocean Blue Project?

A．Effortless and far-reaching.	B．Annoying but rewarding.
C．Painstaking but fruitful.	D．Demanding and inefficient.

2. According to the text, which of the following is the benefit from our doing beach cleanups?

A．Maintaining good physical health.

B．Gaining great insight into oceans.

C．Developing researching ways to save the earth.

D．Improving our mental health.

3. What does the underlined word “gratification” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Satisfaction.	B．Gratitude.
C．Impression.	D．Curiosity.

4. What is the most suitable title for the text?

A．What I’ve Learned from a Beach Cleanup

B．How Well I Performed in a Beach Cleanup

C．How Much Attention a Beach Cleanup Requires

D．Why Volunteering with Ocean Blue Project Matters

9 . The world’s top climate scientists of the IPCC have just released a landmark report, warning about the future of the planet. The headline—burning fossil fuels is already heating up the planet faster than anything the world has seen in 2,000 years.

The IPCC is a U. N. body of 195 member states that assesses the science related to the climate crisis on behalf of governments every few years. This is the group that defines the scientific consensus. Hundreds of scientists work on a series of reports, which take years to produce. Governments have to sign off on them. And this one is just the latest big reassessment of the climate that the IPCC has done, but it’s the first one that is done in eight years. It also has the clearest, most confident conclusions that have ever been seen in an IPCC report.

According to the report, the greenhouse gases that we have already put into the air have warmed up the planet so far by almost 2 °F compared to the pre-industrial times. This warming trend appears to be accelerating as the greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere. And if we keep burning fossil fuels, by 2100—so within the lifetime of a child that’s born today—the planet could be 5 to 7°F hotter.

And one new thing in this report is that it tries to put numbers on what that means. So, for instance, they say heat waves so extreme used to only happen once every 50 years. Now they’re happening almost five times more often. Extreme droughts could double or four times in frequency. In some cases, extreme storms could become three times more frequent and drop 30% more rainfall in a day.

The scientists say preventing the worst effects will demand a U-turn away from use of fossil fuels. And it depends on us collectively. If every country, every business shifts away from burning gas, coal and oil over the next 30 years or so, we could probably limit this warming trend to a total of less than 3.5°F.

1. What’s the author’s probable purpose of introducing the IPCC in Paragraph 2?

A．To make its work better known.	B．To respect the scientists’ commitment.
C．To make the report more convincing.	D．To appreciate its great achievements.

2. What do you think of the current warming according to the report?

A．It results from extreme weather.	B．It is running out of fossil fuels.
C．It is badly speeding up.	D．There is no way to slow it down.

3. How do the scientists support their conclusion in the report?

A．By defining scientific consensus.	B．By using statistics and inference.
C．By quoting authority figures.	D．By modeling climate change.

4. What do the scientists expect people to do?

A．Make joint efforts to stop the use of fossil fuels.

B．Take positive attitudes to our planet`s future.

C．Follow the global warming trend collectively.

D．Develop new approaches to using fossil fuels.

10 . Imagine driving down a 10-lane highway and knowing that, high above your head, a mountain lion is quietly going along its way. This remarkable image could soon be the reality for drivers on one of California’s busiest roads, as the world’s largest wildlife overpass(天桥) begins construction in April.

The history-making project will comprise a green bridge built across the 101 highway near Los Angeles, creating a passage between two parts of the Santa Monica Mountains. The overpass will allow safe passage for lizards, snakes, mountain lions, etc. with an acre of local plants on either side and vegetated sound walls to dampen light and noise for night-time animals as they go across.

The project, nearly a decade in the making, comes at a crucial time. Beth Pratt, a conservation leader with the National Wildlife Federation, feels as if she is running the last mile of a marathon. Pratt has spent most of the last decade planning the project, persuading transportation officials of its importance, and bringing donors to fund it.

The project is breaking records in many ways: not only is it the largest crossing in the world, but it’s also an engineering wonder. Robert Rock, a landscape architect who led the design, says this nature-centered type of construction makes it unusual among other wildlife bridges and underpasses around the world, which are typically made of cement(水泥)and steel. This one is designed to integrate into the environment on both sides — and send a message to the people driving below.

About 300,000 cars pass through this area each day, and Pratt calls it an opportunity for millions of Angelenos to see how humans can live more harmoniously with nature.“Someone could be in rush-hour traffic, and there could be a mountain lion right above them,”she says. “I think that’s such a helpful image, and one that inspires me that we can right some of these great wrongs.”

1. Why is the overpass built?

A．To attract visitors to watch the wildlife.

B．To help animals cross over a highway.

C．To bridge two mountains near Los Angeles.

D．To allow more traffic during rush hours.

2. What does Pratt think of the overpass project?

A．It is a long journey.

B．It comes a little late.

C．It has little official support.

D．It has brought economic benefits.

3. What does the author try to stress about the overpass by mentioning Rock?

A．It stands out among similar structures.

B．It does harm to the local environment.

C．It has got little attention from engineers.

D．It has inspired constructions worldwide.

4. What might Pratt expect of the overpass?

A．It’ll transform the image of the state.

B．It’ll provide pleasant habitats for animals.

C．It’ll be a reminder for us to care about nature.

D．It’ll create job opportunities for the local people.