1 . Countless stories have portrayed the deep connection between humans and horses, such as classic literary works Black Beauty and The Chronicles of Narnia. However, the extent to which horses comprehend their human companions remains a mystery. Recent research has shown that horses can distinguish between human expressions of happiness and sadness conveyed through facial movements or vocal tones.
The researchers brought 28 horses into a room one by one, each wearing heart rate monitors as their actions were recorded. The horse faced two screens playing two different videos: one showed a happy person and the other a sad person. A voice was played at the same time, sounding happy or sad.
When the picture and voice didn’t match—for example, if the voice was sad but the picture showed a happy person—the horse seemed puzzled and looked for a longer time, compared to the one that did match, as if it knew something didn’t make sense. “You could imagine that they have a particular box in their mind labeled ‘human sadness’ containing the characteristics of both a sad face and a sad voice, and that when we are sad, they expect what we say to match how we look,” said Doctoral Researcher Océane Liehrmann of the University of Turku, in Finland.
The researchers also saw that horses were more attentive to the screen displaying the happy face. They looked at it more often and for a longer time and their heart rates increased when they heard a happy voice and decreased when they heard a sad voice as well.
It is possible that the horses might have associated happy human expressions with positive memories from their past. Another theory is that seeing a happy person could actually make a horse feel happier—a process known as emotional contagion. “We don’t know whether horses themselves understand what it is to be sad. It is possible that they learn it means something for a human,” said Liehrmann.
1. How did the researchers carry out the experiment?| A．By comparing different horses’ expressions. |
| B．By monitoring horses’ odd behavior in the lab. |
| C．By summarizing the characteristics of the horses. |
| D．By observing horses’ reaction to human emotions. |
| A．Horses had a preference for happy people. | B．Horses were too nervous about the videos. |
| C．Horses recognized people’s identity quickly. | D．Horses looked excited at a voice of sadness. |
| A．Support. | B．Influence. | C．Outbreak. | D．Control. |
| A．Humans Impact Horses Hugely | B．Horses Dislike Sorrowful People |
| C．Humans and Horses Interact Closely | D．Horses Know When You are Happy |
2 . Concrete has served as the foundation stone of the construction industry for hundreds of years. However, the process of producing concrete is one of the most environmentally unfriendly processes in the world. In the process, not only is carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) released into the air by the energy used to heat the limestone, but the limestone itself also gives out a huge amount of the element.
Luckily, a number of start-ups throughout the world are using creative thinking to make the construction industry a whole lot more friendly for the planet.
A Canadian company called CarbonCure, has found a way to inject (注入) concrete with carbon dioxide itself. Not only does this trap the carbon dioxide into the concrete, keeping it from running away into the atmosphere, but it also creates a super strong material called calcium carbonate, which reduces the total amount of concrete that needs to be used.
California-based Brimstone, is creating carbon-negative concrete by doing away with limestone entirely and instead using silicate rock, a material that does not release carbon dioxide when heated. Instead, the process produces magnesium (镁) , which absorbs carbon dioxide, as the basis for their concrete.
Additionally, researchers at Australia’s RMIT University have recently released a study showing that adding coffee grounds instead of sand to concrete could make it much stronger, reducing both the amount of sand used, as well as the amount of concrete that would need to be used in the final product.
The biggest barrier at this point is convincing members of the industry that the new types of concrete are safe to be used, according to Stacy Smedley, director at a nonprofit focused on decarbonizing construction.
Hopefully these new solutions to the environmental problems of concrete will soon be widely adopted. Given the significant part the construction industry has in releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, great improvements can be made when more environmentally-friendly materials are used.
1. What is the environmental issue associated with traditional concrete production?| A．The high demand for energy. | B．The processing of waste materials. |
| C．The mass release of carbon dioxide. | D．The use of non-renewable resources. |
| A．By using silicate rock as the basis. | B．By putting carbon dioxide into concrete. |
| C．By replacing sand with coffee grounds. | D．By absorbing carbon dioxide with magnesium. |
| A．Difficulty in making profits. | B．Convincing the public of the convenience. |
| C．Lack of funding for research. | D．Removing the industry members’ safety concerns. |
| A．To promote an alternative to concrete. | B．To advocate environmental protection. |
| C．To introduce new ways to produce concrete. | D．To emphasize the significance of creativity. |
1. What happened yesterday near Santa Barbara?
| A．There was another storm. | B．There was a traffic jam. | C．There was a fire. |
| A．On Tuesday. | B．On Wednesday. | C．On Thursday. |
| A．It will be more powerful. |
| B．It will move more quickly. |
| C．It will bring more rain and snow. |
1. What do the British like doing with birds according to the speaker?
| A．Eating them. | B．Watching them. | C．Hunting them. |
| A．They have increased their numbers. |
| B．They have allowed one type to take over. |
| C．They have changed their natural habits. |
| A．Gardeners. | B．Pet owners. | C．Nature lovers. |
1. What is the focus of the announcement?
| A．The warning of a natural disaster. |
| B．The place to buy food and drinks. |
| C．Some ways of entertainment at the hotel. |
| A．The beach. | B．The hotel rooms. | C．The underground floor. |
| A．Shoes. | B．Bags. | C．Food and water. |
| A．The government official. |
| B．The safety officer. |
| C．The hotel staff. |
I was eight years old and wasn’t aware of all the arrangements being made for our journey as a family to London in 1950. My mother was in great pain and wished to visit specialists in London. My father reluctantly had to sell our property in Queensland. The day before we boarded the ship, Father unwillingly said goodbye to his five-year-old cattle dog, Spider, who was loved by us all. Father’s friend Sandy was to be his guardian while we were overseas, as he had been getting to know Spider for many weeks.
Six weeks later, an airletter arrived from Sandy, giving my father the news that Spider had run away just two weeks after we had sailed. Sandy had advertised constantly on ABC and other regional newspapers. Despite many “sightings”, the dog was never found. It seems Spider just kept running and searching for us. As he was cattle dog, my father thought he would shoe or dingo-trapped, because of his appearance. But our family thought that Father held a secrets hope that Spider was still alive.
We sailed back to Australia two years later and re-established our home. My father immediately began his own search for Spider. One cold winter’s Saturday morning eight months after our return, my father had a call from an elderly lady living on her own on the outskirts of the town. As she told my father on the telephone, it was “just glimpses of a dingo-type dog in the shadows” of her disused tennis court. That was enough for my father to interrupt my homework.
We set off in his blue and black Jensen car which he had brought back from England. It was hardly the right vehicle for the rough roads we travelled that day. Five and a half hours later, we found the run-down old property. Sadly, she told my father that the “dingo dog” hadn’t been around for a few days. My father had a strange look in his eye. He put two fingers to his lips and did his special whistle for Spider.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Suddenly there was a sound in the bush.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Once home we had the task of getting all the prickles (刺) off him.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7 . People have come to understand the enormous impacts-beneficial as well as harmful- plastics have on human lives and the environment. As polymer (聚合物) scientists committed to inventing sustainable solutions for real-world problems, we set out to tackle the issue of plastic waste by rethinking the way polymers are designed so we could make plastics with recyclability built right in.
Everyday items including milk jug, grocery bags, and takeout containers are made from a class of polymers called polyolefins. These plastics are really durable (耐用的) because the chemical bonds in those polymers are extremely stable. In a world set up for disposable (一次性的) items, durability is no longer a design feature but rather a design drawback. Imagine if half the plastics used today were recyclable through twice as many processes as they are now. Also conventional recycling requires careful sorting of all the collected materials, which can be challenging with so many different plastics. For example, separating paper from metal doesn’t require complex technology, but sorting a container from a milk jug of a different polyolefin is difficult to do without the occasional mistake.
In a study published in Science in October 2023, we described a series of polymers with only two building blocks-one soft polymer and one hard polymer-that behave like polyolefins but could be chemically recycled. Connecting two different polymers multiple times until they form a single, long molecule (分子) creates what’s called a multiblock polymer. By changing how much of each polymer type goes into the multiblock polymer, our team produced a wide range of materials with properties that covered all polyolefin types.
Using the same strategy but by adding hydrogen, we could disconnect the polymers back into their building blocks and easily separate them to use again. When we made new polymers out of these recycled plastics, they performed just as well as the original materials even after several rounds of chemical recycling. So we were able to create materials with similar properties of the plastics the world relies on. We believe this work is a step toward more sustainable plastics.
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about concerning plastics?| A．Their multiple uses. | B．Their chemical properties. |
| C．Their recycling challenges. | D．Their classification criteria. |
| A．mixing building blocks with long molecules |
| B．integrating chemicals into the two polymers |
| C．combining two different multiblock polymers |
| D．adjusting the percentage of the two polymers |
| A．They are made from sustainable materials. |
| B．They can be recycled by adding hydrogen. |
| C．Their reliability outperforms traditional plastics. |
| D．Their properties change with rounds of recycling. |
| A．Designing for Recycling | B．Classifying Plastic Waste |
| C．Replace Plastics with Polymers | D．Technology Creates the Future |
1. What does the speaker mainly talk about?
| A．Must-see books. |
| B．Places to travel. |
| C．Important travel experiences. |
| A．The rock. | B．The islands. | C．The ancient city. |
| A．The coast. | B．Sand stones. | C．Its culture. |
| A．In the early morning. |
| B．At late night. |
| C．At noon. |
1. How much in total will be used in earthquake relief?
| A．£60 million. | B．£100 million. | C．£160 million. |
| A．By contacting the radio program. |
| B．By calling a charity organization. |
| C．By leaving personal information at a website. |
| A．To forecast the weather of this week. |
| B．To praise sponsors in the disaster relief. |
| C．To update information about the earthquake. |
10 . Every year, as the surface water temperature off the United States mid-Atlantic coast rises steadily from late spring through the summer, a pocket of uncharacteristically cool and crisp water gets trapped at the bottom of the ocean. Packed with nutrients this thick band of cold water, known as the mid-Atlantic cold pool, is a vital home for shellfish species. Extending at its seasonal peak from Nantucket, Massachusetts, to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the cold poll creates a diverse ecosystem ranging from algae(海藻)to fish — and some of the most valuable shellfish fisheries in the United States.
Now, however, two pressures have scientists worrying about whether the cold pool will last. The first is no surprise: climate change. Over the past five decades, climates change has destabilized the cold pool, causing it to warm and shrink. Compared with 1968, the cold pool is now 13℃ warmer and has lost more than one-third of its area.
The second concern is 1ess certain. In 2023, the US federal government approved plans to install(安装)98 wind turbines(涡轮机)off the New Jersey coast, covering an area of more than 300 square kilometers. Yet putting so many turbines to the seafloor could have unexpected consequences for the cold pool. That’s why Travis Miles, a researcher at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, and his colleagues are investigating. So far, Miles and his colleagues can’t definitively say what will happen to the cold pool, saying more research is needed to assess how climate change and offshore wind, together, could affect the cold pool. However, their initial analyses suggest the cold pool should be fine — at least in normal conditions.
New Jersey’s offshore wind plans are strongly opposed mainly by fossil fuel-industry funded efforts. Miles worries that an overabundance of caution or fear of potential impacts, including on the cold pool, might slow down the development of renewable energy. “...it’s quite clear that climate change is far more damaging than installing wind farms,” he says. “I don’t think any scientist would argue with that.”
1. What do we know about the mid-Atlantic cold pool?| A．It forms in early spring. | B．It’s a band of cold near-bottom water. |
| C．It serves as a habitat of most sea species. | D．It extends from Nantucket to New Jersey. |
| A．Break down. | B．Get polluted. | C．Dry up. | D．Become smaller. |
| A．supportive | B．dismissive | C．overcautious | D．skeptical |
| A．The Cold Pool Plays a Role on species |
| B．Opinions Divide on Offshore Wind Farms |
| C．Scientists Eye Potential Risks to the Cold Pool |
| D．Renewable Energy Helps to Race Against Climate Change |
