1 . The sun was beginning to sink as I set off into the Harenna Forest. I was on my way to _________ a unique honey harvest. Here, in south-east Ethiopia, hand-carved beehives(蜂箱)are placed in the _________. Reaching them to get the honey is difficult—and often _________ .

I _________ beekeeper Ziyad over a wide stretch of grassland before entering a thick jungle. Ziyad began preparations. He _________ handfuls of damp tree leaves, wrapped them with string, and _________ the bunch to create a torch(火把). Then, with one end of a rope tied to his waist and the other end around the trunk of a tree, Ziyad began _________ . He stopped every few minutes to move the _________ higher up the tree trunk.

_________ , Ziyad got close to the hive which was around 20 metres above the ground. Sitting on a branch, he __________ towards it and blew smoke from his torch into a tiny hole in the hive. Suddenly, Ziyad let out a sharp cry. Within seconds, he’d __________ the trunk and was back on the ground.

It was too __________ to collect the honey. A cool summer had delayed __________ . Baby bees were still in the honeycombs(蜂巢). The adult bees were __________ and kept attacking as Ziyad escaped from the tree. He had to wait for the right __________ to go back up.

1.

A．share

B．collect

C．celebrate

D．witness

2.

A．courtyards

B．fields

C．treetops

D．caves

3.

A．urgent

B．dangerous

C．expensive

D．pointless

4.

A．searched

B．recognised

C．followed

D．invited

5.

A．gathered

B．cleaned

C．dropped

D．checked

6.

A．shook

B．lit

C．measured

D．decorated

7.

A．jumping

B．talking

C．testing

D．climbing

8.

A．hives

B．leaves

C．rope

D．honey

9.

A．Finally

B．Surprisingly

C．Naturally

D．Immediately

10.

A．backed

B．dived

C．shouted

D．inched

11.

A．cut off

B．gone up

C．slid down

D．held onto

12.

A．high

B．early

C．fast

D．close

13.

A．hatching

B．training

C．sowing

D．trading

14.

A．curious

B．hungry

C．bored

D．angry

15.

A．moment

B．equipment

C．person

D．order

2 . “Fast fashion” has been mentioned so often in the past two years. It refers to low-cost, quickly-made clothing that copies the latest high-quality fashions. Unlike the traditional clothing industry where designers plan their new lines every season, fast fashions are made and sold whenever new fashions appear. They are put in shops and online quickly to create a high demand.

However, environmentalists are getting more worried about the effects of fast fashion on the environment. More than 100 billion items of such clothing are made every year. This is expected to grow by 60 percent by 2030. The fast fashion business model is having adverse effects on the environment. Many of the clothes end up in landfills and are not recycled. The chemicals used to make the clothes are bad for the environment. These cause health problems for people working in clothes factories. There are reports that even children make many of these clothes.

The way people are buying clothes is adding to the problem of clothing waste. Many years ago, people went to stores and tried clothes on. People took more time and thought more carefully before they bought clothes. They also wore them for longer. Today, people order cheap clothes on the Internet so often and if they don’t like them, they send them back or throw them away. Some people say this is causing throwaway society. Some people buy clothes and never even wear them. The German media company Deutsche Welle wrote: “Every year in Europe, four million tons of clothing ends up in the trash. Less than one percent of this is recycled.” It seems that the fashion industry is wasting much.

1. Which of the following is a feature of fast fashions?

A．They are of high quality.

B．They are not seasonal.

C．They are difficult to make.

D．They are sold only in online shops.

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

A．Harmful.

B．Positive.

C．Obvious.

D．Little.

3. How does the author prove his opinion in the last paragraph?

A．By providing examples.	B．By listing data.
C．By making comparisons.	D．By raising questions.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The Meaning of Fast Fashion

B．Problems with Fast Fashion

C．Effects of Fast Fashion on the Environment

D．Clothing Waste in Fast Fashion

3 . Electric vehicles(EVs) are widely considered a strong weapon in efforts against global warming. But are they like what people believe? The Radiant Energy Group(REG) stated effects of EVs vary with countries. In some nations, EVs lead to the release of more carbon gases than gasoline cars. The group reckoned gas emissions(排放) caused by a gasoline vehicle and from charging an EV. Countries where charging an EV is cleaner than driving a gasoline-powered car use a lot of nuclear or solar power.

Sales of electric cars are rising the fastest in Europe. Data from REG suggests EVs in Poland actually create more carbon emissions because their electrical systems depend so much on coal. In other European countries, however, EVs result in fewer emissions. The countries with the biggest carbon gas reduction use much clean power. The first was Switzerland at 100 percent carbon reductions over gasoline vehicles.

Germany and Spain create lots of electricity from the sun and wind. But the sun and wind don’t add to a country’s electrical system equally throughout the day. For this reason, carbon emissions saved by driving an EV aren’t fixed. Charging in the afternoon, when there’s more sun and wind, saves 16 to 18 percent more carbon than at night when electrical systems are more likely to be using gas or coal.

The gap in emissions between electric and gasoline-powered vehicles has narrowed in recent years. In Europe, carmakers have been required to meet EU CO₂ emissions of performance standards. They’ve made their gasoline engines more fuel-efficient. As a result, carbon emissions of new gasoline-powered cars in Europe have fallen an average of 25 percent in the past years. But EV sales in Europe are backed by government spending and rules against new gasoline engine cars after 2035. Major automakers have set targets to sell mainly EVs in Europe in the coming years.

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

A．Reduced.	B．Calculated.
C．Banned.	D．Predicted.

2. What affects carbon emissions of EVs according to paragraph3?

A．The country where they’re made.	B．Facilities producing clean power.
C．The time they are being charged.	D．Technology used by electrical systems.

3. What causes sales of EVs to rise quickly in Europe?

A．Support of official policies.	B．Concern about global warming.
C．Standards of gasoline car.	D．Advertisements from carmakers.

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

A．What Benefits Do EVs Bring?

B．Will EVs Replace Gasoline Cars in Europe?

C．How Do EVs Affect Carbon Emissions?

D．Do Electric Cars Really Help the Environment?

4 . Birds can serve as indicator species that help us understand how healthy an ecosystem is. Below are some tips especially helpful to reduce bird deaths and support our feathered friends in daily life.

Keep your cat indoors

Aside from habitat loss, the next biggest cause of direct death for birds is outdoor cats. We have seen people create enclosed patios, so their cats can get outside time without posing a risk to birds. If you want to take your cat out, you can also try using cat leads or cat backpacks to keep them close.

Make your windows more visible to birds

Window collisions kill up to a billion birds every year in the U.S.. A lot of people think that those collisions are occurring at the upper levels of high-rise buildings, but actually most of the collisions are occurring at the lower levels of these high-rise buildings. To make your windows more visible to birds, you can try putting up window film with dots (or lines) or adding a window screen or some kind of netting.

Turn off lights you’re not using

Many birds migrate at night. And as they go, they’re attracted by light. Lights will draw birds close to buildings, and sometimes, they collide. Bird collisions also happen during the daytime, because birds can’t see glass. So one of the things that you can help with, especially during migration, is to turn off any lights that are not used.

We’d love to hear from you. If you have a good lifehack, leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823 or email us at LifeKit@npr.org. Your tip could appear in an upcoming episode. The broadcast portion of this story was produced by Sylvie Douglis. It was hosted and reported by Audrey Nguyen.

1. From the passage, which of the following is the leading cause of direct death for birds?

A．Outdoor cats.	B．Collisions on buildings.
C．Harsh light.	D．Habitat loss.

2. From the passage, what can we do to help reduce bird deaths?

A．Keep our cats close to birds.

B．Clean our windows thoroughly.

C．Construct no more high buildings.

D．Turn on lights only when necessary.

3. Where does the passage probably come from?

A．A radio program.

B．A biology textbook.

C．A science report.

D．A tourist brochure.

5 . Suppose there are some coins on the table in front of you. If the number is small, you can tell right away exactly how many there are. You don’t even have to count them — a single glance is enough. Cichlids and stingrays, two kinds of fish, are astonishingly similar to us in this respect: they can detect small quantities precisely — and presumably without counting. For example, they can be trained to reliably distinguish quantities of three from quantities of four.

But how do you ask a cichlid for the result of “2+1” or “5-1”? The researchers showed the fish a collection of geometric shapes — for example, four squares. If these objects were colored blue, this meant “add one” for the following discrimination. Yellow, on the other hand, meant “subtract one.”

After showing the original stimulus (刺激物) (e.g. four squares), the animals were shown two new pictures — one with five and one with three squares. If they swam to the correct picture (i.e. to the five squares in the “blue” arithmetic task), they were rewarded with food. If they gave the wrong answer, they went away empty-handed. Over time, they learned to associate the blue color with an increase of one in the amount shown at the beginning, and the yellow number with a decrease.

“We deliberately left out some calculations during training,” Schluessel explains. “Namely, 3+1 and 3-1.” After the learning phase, the animals got to see these two tasks for the first time. But even in those tests, they significantly often chose the correct answer.” This was true even when they had to decide between choosing four or five objects after being shown a blue 3 — that is, two outcomes that were both greater than the initial value. In this case, the fish chose four over five, indicating they had not learned the rule “chose the largest (or smallest) amount presented” but the rule “always add or subtract one”.

1. How did the researchers tell the fish what to do?

A．They used different colors to represent different calculations.

B．They showed different numbers by various shapes.

C．They asked the fish for the result after showing geometric shapes.

D．They associated geometric shapes with colors.

2. What did the researchers intend to teach the fish in the training?

A．They can get food when swimming to the correct picture.

B．Blue means “add one,” and yellow means “subtract one”.

C．Math plays an important role in one’s life.

D．Five squares in the blue means food.

3. Why did the researchers left out some calculations during the training?

A．To prove that the fish finish the task by memorizing numbers.

B．To indicate the fish can do complicated tasks.

C．To show an important rule the fish had not learned.

D．To check whether the fish can apply this knowledge to new tasks.

4. What is the major finding of the research?

A．Some fish can perform math tasks by memory.

B．Cichlids and stingrays have simple math abilities.

C．All fish are smarter than we used to think.

D．Scientific training is the key to math.

6 . Warm Mineral Springs Park

Step into the past at the only natural warm spring in Florida! With a consistent average temperature of 85 °F year round, Warm Mineral Springs Park provides visitors with a number of recreation options. The spring is reported to have one of the highest mineral contents of any natural spring in the United States. With highly mineralized properties, internationally known for its healing qualities, the park attracts more than 130,000 visitors annually.

At Warm Mineral Springs Park, you will find a day full of relaxation. A variety of spa services are available to those who book in advance by calling (941) 426-1692. An on-site gift shop offers diverse items and souvenirs for purchase.

Pricing

Tickets are not refundable, cannot be exchanged, and cannot be reissued if lost or stolen. Same day re-entry is permitted. Residents include all of Sarasota County. Proof of residency includes driver’s license, water bill and tax bill. Entry pricing, including sales tax, is as follows:

Pass	Resident	Non-Resident
Adults (ages 18 and above)	$15	$20
Students (ages 6-17)	$11.25	$15
Children (ages 5 and younger)	FREE	FREE
Annual Pass	$1,125	$2,000
10 Visit Pass	$112.50	$150
30 Visit Pass	$150	$200

General Rules

To ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for all visitors, please respect the following rules:

♦ Children 10 years and younger must stay in the children’s area.

♦Children ages 11-16 must remain in the outer border.

♦You must be 17 years or older to swim in the middle.

♦No toys are allowed in the water.

♦No food or drinks in the water.

♦No visitors may block the entrance or exit ramps (坡道).

♦Devices for the producing or reproducing of sound are prohibited.

For Daily Programming, Contact: (941) 426-1692

Hours of Operation: Monday through Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Open every day, with the exception of December 25.

1. What makes Warm Mineral Springs Park unique in Florida?

A．The natural spring.	B．The recreation options.
C．The average temperature.	D．The mineral contents.

2. A student aged 16 from Sarasota entered the park twice last Sunday, and he paid ________.

A．$11.25

B．$22.50

C．$15

D．$30

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Visitors can purchase souvenirs all year round.

B．The entrance or exit ramps aren’t available to visitors.

C．Activity zones are separated according to the age of visitors.

D．Each visitor to the park can relax himself through spa services.

7 . Lacking a nose, insects such as butterflies and bees use their antennae (触须) to detect smells. Those smells help them find food and more. What happens, though, when air pollution beats the smells on which these creatures depend? Those insects become less likely to visit a flower. That’s the finding of a new study.

People depend on insects to help the plants to make many of the fruits, nuts and vegetables we eat. Past studies showed urban air pollution might hide the smells insects use to find flowers. For instance, ozone(臭氧), an ingredient in smog, can break down the smells from flowers. Computer models predicted this would cause problems for insects seeking flowers for a meal. But scientists weren’t sure that would happen in real life.

James Ryalls and his team decided to find out if it would. Ryalls is a biologist at the University of Reading in England. Working in a field of black mustard plants, his group created a system made up of rings eight meters in diameter. Each area was open, so nearby insects could fly into it. The researchers pumped pollutant gases into these rings: Two rings received diesel fumes(柴油废气). Two more got ozone. Another two got both gases. A final pair of rings was a control and received no added gases.

The tests took place over two summers. During each field season, the scientists counted how many times insects visited the flowers in each ring. “The results were much more severe than we thought,” Ryalls says. Adding both the diesel fumes and ozone pollution “caused up to 90 percent less insects to be able to find the flowers that they need for food,” he says. This was in comparison to the pollutant-free rings. This surprised the scientists and made them worried about the food resources of humans.

1. What is the finding of the new study?

A．Insects have noses.	B．Insects can feel smells.
C．Smells are helpful for insects to get food.	D．Polluted air makes insects hard to find food.

2. What does the underlined word “ingredient” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Part.

B．Shape.

C．Flower.

D．Colour.

3. What can we know about the tests?

A．Seven rings had gasses.	B．They lasted two summers.
C．They were led by a biologist.	D．They were done on the playground.

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

A．Save Flowers.	B．Poor Insects.
C．Tests by Researchers.	D．Environment and Food.

8 . Throughout history, many species of animals have been threatened with extinction. When Europeans first arrived in North America, more than 60 million buffalo (水牛) lived on the continent. Yet hunting the buffalo was so popular during the 19th century that by 1900 the animal’s population had fallen to about 400 before the government stepped in to protect the species. In some countries today, the elephant faces a similar challenge, as illegal hunters kill the animals for the ivory in their tusks.

Yet not all animals with commercial value face this threat (威胁).The cow, for example, is a valuable source of food, but no one worries that the cow will soon be extinct. Why does the commercial value of ivory threaten the elephant. while the commercial value of beef protects the cow?

The reason is that elephants are a common resource, while cows are private goods. Elephants wander freely without any owners. The hunter has a strong motivation to kill as many elephants as he can find. Because illegal hunters are numerous, each has only a slight motivation to preserve the elephant population. By contrast, cattle live on farms that are privately owned. Each farmer makes great effort to maintain the cattle population on his farm because he harvests the benefit of these efforts.

Governments have tried to solve the elephant’s problem in two ways. Some countries, such as Kenya and Uganda, have made it illegal to kill elephants and sell their ivory. Yet these laws have been hard to put into effect, and elephant populations have continued to dwindle. By contrast, other countries, such as Malawi and Namibia, have made elephants private goods and allowed people to kill elephants, but only those on their own property.

With private ownership and the profit motive now on its side, the African elephant might someday be as safe from extinction as the cow. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle pointed out the problem with common resources: “What is common to many is taken least care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than for what they possess in common with others.”

1. Why does the author mention buffalo in paragraph 1?

A．To introduce a similar threat to elephants.

B．To provide an example of species extinction.

C．To offer an explanation for government policies.

D．To present the statistics of the buffalo in America.

2. Why do elephants face threats while cows are safe?

A．They are under different law protection

B．They attract different groups of hunters

C．They contain different commercial value

D．They represent different ownership types

3. What is paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．Bans on killing elephants for ivory

B．Effective laws for elephant protection.

C．Methods of making elephants private goods

D．Government policies on the elephant’s problem

4. What can we learn from Aristotle’s words?

A．People hold little regard for others’ property

B．People want to profit from common resources

C．People care more about their own possession

D．People tend to take what they own for granted

9 . From the lush green hill you can see Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, in the distance. Populations of deer, rabbits and turtle live here. The air is stinky and the only signs that we are standing above a 24-metre (79 feet) deep landfill are the methane gas pipes rising from the grass.

Ljubljana is the first European capital to commit to going zero-waste. But fifteen years ago, all of its refuse went straight to landfill. “And that is expensive,” says Nina Sankovic of Voka Snaga, the city’s waste management company. “It takes up space and you’ re throwing away resources.”

So the city decided to change course.

It began in 2002 with separate collection of paper, glass and packaging in Roadside container stands. Four years later the city began collecting biodegradable waste door to door; separate collection of biowaste is set to become mandatory across Europe in 2023, but Ljubljana was nearly two decades ahead of the curve.

In 2013, every doorstep in the city received bins for packaging and paper waste. And, most controversially, scheduled collections of the residual waste were cut by half-forcing people to separate their rubbish more efficiently.

The results have been impressive. In 2008, the city recycled only 29.3% of its waste and was lagging behind the rest of Europe. Today that figure is 68%, and its landfill receives almost 80% less rubbish, putting it at the top of there cycling leader board of EU capitals. The Slovenian capital now produces only 115kg of residual waste per capital annually(the European city with the lowest figure is the much smaller Treviso, Italy, at 59kg).

1. What is the usage of the pipe rising from the grass?

A．A sign to show there is a deep landfill.	B．To emit gas rising from the grass.
C．To discharge methane from the deep landfill.	D．A water pipe to water grass.

2. What is the meaning of the underlined word “mandatory” in Paragraph 4?

A．Compulsory.

B．Typical.

C．Normal.

D．Reasonable.

3. What is the author’s attitude to the change of Ljubljana?

A．Favorable.

B．Intolerant.

C．Doubtful.

D．Unclear.

4. In which section of a newspaper may the passage appear?

A．Society.

B．Geography education.

C．Tourism.

D．Environmental protection.

10 . The yogurt that’ s past its sell-by date. The banana in your lunch that turned brown. The leftovers in the fridge that you forgot to eat. For most people, all that food goes right into the garbage can.

Eight to ten percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (放) are related to food waste, according to a report by the U. N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “When you throw away an egg or a sandwich,” says Yvette Cabrera, food waste vice director at the Natural Resources Defense Council ( N. R. D. C. ) ,“you’ re also throwing away all the resources that went into producing those things.”

That includes not only all the water, land, and fertilizer (化肥) that went into producing that food, but also the massive amounts of fossil fuels used to power the farms, transport the food, and create the packaging.

Then there’s the issue of what happens to food after it’s thrown out. More food ends up in U.S. landfills than any other type of trash. Food rotting in landfills produces methane (甲烷), a greenhouse gas that’s roughly 25 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, which is produced by burning fossil fuels.

Food waste is a difficult problem to solve, though, in part because it happens for different reasons depending on the country. In developing nations,40 percent of food is lost before it ever reaches people’s homes, because many of those countries lack the technology and tools to preserve food.

It's another story in wealthier countries, where most of the food is wasted in people’s kitchens. Americans, for example, throw out a quarter of their groceries each year, on average, according to the N. R. D. C. That's like going to the grocery store, leaving with four bags of groceries, and then throwing one of them into the garbage before you get home.

1. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The problem of food waste.	B．The awareness of food saving.
C．The necessity of food diversity.	D．The ways of preservation.

2. What does the underlined word “That” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．The leftovers in the fridge.	B．The packaging for products.
C．The thrown egg or sandwich.	D．The resources to produce food.

3. What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 4?

A．Provide a persuasive example.	B．Add more background information.
C．Discuss a more serious consequence.	D．Summarize the previous paragraphs.

4. In what stage does food waste mainly happen in developed countries?

A．Storage.	B．Transportation.
C．Processing.	D．Consumption.