1 . British sculptor Jason Taylor has made it his mission to use his talent to conserve our ecosystems by creating underwater museums. Over the years, the environmentalist has put over 850 massive artworks underwater worldwide. On February 1, 2021, Taylor launched his latest work---The Underwater Museum of Cannes.

“The main goal was to bring attention to the fact that our oceans need our help,” Taylor told Dezeen. “Ocean ecologies have been destroyed by human activity in the Mediterranean over the past few decades, and it is not obvious what is taking place when observing the sea from afar.”

The Underwater Museum of Cannes contains 6 sculptures featuring local residents of various ages. They range from Maurice, an 80-year-old fisherman, to Anouk, a 9-year-old student. Towering over 6-feet-tall and weighing 10 tons, the faces are sectioned into two parts, with the outer part like a mask. The mask indicates that the world’s oceans appear powerful and unbeatable from the surface but house an ecosystem that is extremely fragile to careless human activities.

Though the waters surrounding the sculptures now appear a pristine blue, the seabed was filled with old boat engines, pipes, and other human-made trash when the project began about four years ago. Besides removing the trash, Taylor also restored the area’s seagrass. Just one square meter of the seagrass can generate up to 10 liters of oxygen daily. The seagrass also helps prevent coastal erosion and provides habitats for many ocean creatures.

“The idea of creating an underwater museum was to draw more people underwater and develop a sense of care and protection,” Taylor told Dezeen. “If we threw unwanted waste near a forest, there would be a public outcry. But this is happening every day in our surrounding waters and it largely goes unnoticed.”

1. What are the underwater museums intended to do?

A．To make huge profits.	B．To raise awareness of protecting the ocean.
C．To show Jason Taylor’s talent.	D．To draw attention to endangered sea animals.

2. Why does the outer part of the sculptures look like a mask?

A．To popularize the features of the locals.

B．To remind people to protect themselves.

C．To reflect people’s protection of the ocean.

D．To stress the sensitiveness of the ecosystem.

3. What’s Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．How the project was started.	B．How the seagrass was restored.
C．What recovery effort the project made.	D．Why the surroundings were improved.

4. What can we infer from what Jason Taylor said in the last paragraph?

A．The situation of the ocean is easily ignored.

B．The destruction caused to the ocean is noticeable.

C．Forests play a more important role in ecosystems.

D．People have zero tolerance to damage done to nature.

2 . The planet is in trouble, and a gas-car ban just might help. But how will it affect you? Cars are not small investments. They make a big impact on our wallets — but also on the environment. That’s why when California announced a gas-car ban in August arid other states suggested they’d follow suit, there was a mixed response. Sure, reducing our use of gas by choosing more eco-friendly cars could slow climate change and help everyone live more sustainably, not to mention save money on gas in the long run. But what would happen to people’s cars? Would they have to buy an expensive new electric vehicle right now?

Well, let’s set a few things straight first: This isn’t a full-on ban. People living in or visiting California will still be able to drive gas cars, as well as buy and register used internal combustion engines (ICE) vehicles, well after the law takes effect. But in a little over a decade, residents will not be allowed to register new gas-burning cars. It will take more than a decade for the ban to take effect fully — 2035, to be exact.

Why is California banning gas cars? It’s all about the environment. More than half of California’s carbon pollution comes from the transportation sector, and eliminating ICE vehicles is a critical first step in, addressing the climate crisis. California has seen the impact of climate change firsthand in the form of natural disasters such as floods, mudslides, record-breaking droughts and extreme wildfires — all of which have increased in frequency and intensity in recent years.

However, new rules and laws can be fearsome, and hard to carry out at first. For example, electric vehicles (EVs) also don’t get as many miles per charge, making them difficult for long-distance trips and states with few charging stations. Related to that, the country needs more public charging stations. But, of course, the biggest barrier to more people getting excited about electric vehicles is price, which is currently higher than traditional vehicles due to their expensive batteries.

Still, Rauch is hopeful. “As someone who is focused on the health benefits of reducing pollution, I see the benefits as vastly outweighing the challenges,” she says. “At the end of the day, who doesn’t want their children and grandchildren to breathe clean air?”

1. What’s people’s attitude towards the gas-car ban?

A．They were totally in different to it.

B．They held mixed opinions towards it.

C．They had a flood of complaints about it.

D．They thought highly of it and welcomed it.

2. Why did California decide to ban gas cars?

A．To deal with the severe transportation problem.

B．To prevent natural disasters from happening.

C．To follow the example of other states with gas-car ban.

D．To ease the influence of serious climate change.

3. Which is NOT a possible disadvantage of EVs?

A．Limited miles per charge.	B．Limited charging stations.
C．Higher prices at present.	D．More carbon pollution.

4. Where might this text be taken from?

A．A magazine.

B．A textbook.

C．A biography.

D．A research report.

3 . One of the greatest challenges in caring for such intelligent animals as chimpanzees (猩猩) is providing them with enriching experiences. Every day, the chimpanzees at Project Chimps receive morning and evening food-based enrichment devices, but caregivers are always looking for more ways to keep the chimps mentally engaged. With 79 chimpanzees, each with their distinctive personality, care staff often find that different chimps react differently to new enrichment.

Last year, we began inviting musicians to perform for chimps to see what they may respond. A violin performance received quite the response. Additional musicians were lined up to visit but the coronavirus has stopped the activities, which we hope to resume in the near future.

This past week, we brought an electric piano for the chimps to investigate. Some chimps, like twins Buttercup and Clarisse, were immediately interested and could not wait to tap out a few notes. Others, like Emma, were more interested in trying to take it apart.

29-year-old Precious has very little tolerance for the piano. She sat off to the side for a few minutes, but eventually she decided that was enough. She called an end to the enrichment session by throwing a handful of waste at the piano. Receiving her message loud and clear, we removed the piano.

We could never have guessed how 33-year-old Luke would react to it. As with many retired lab chimpanzees, Luke has some anxiety issues. He seems particularly distrustful of anything new, including people, food, and enrichment. But when we presented the chimps with the piano, Luke was the first to investigate. We could not believe our eyes—this usually anxious chimpanzee bravely chose to explore something new!

To us at Project Chimps, this is what it is all about: giving chimpanzees the freedom to choose. We are honored to be part of their journey.

1. Why do chimpanzees respond differently to new enrichment?

A．They are of different genders.

B．They have natural curiosities.

C．They are as intelligent as humans.

D．They have their unique characters.

2. Who showed the least interest in the piano?

A．Buttercup and Clarisse.

B．Emma.

C．Precious.

D．Luke.

3. What does the underlined word “resume” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．Continue.

B．Suspend.

C．Monitor.

D．Regulate.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．How caregivers care for the retired chimpanzees.

B．What care staff do to enrich chimpanzees’ daily life.

C．How chimpanzees are trained through various enrichment.

D．What Project Chimps does to observe and study wild chimps.

4 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Huangshan, which lies in Anhui province, is on the UNESCO World Heritage List and is one of the top scenic     1     (attraction) in China. HuangShan     2     (it) does not have good transportation links. Most travelers stop in either Tangkou or Tunxi for the nights before and after a visit to Huangshan.

Huangshan has 36 separate peaks, all     3     (rise) above 1,800 meters. Famous throughout Chinese artistic history, Huangshan represents the typical (有代表性的) mountain in Chinese paintings. So far, over 1,450 kinds of plants     4     (find) there.

The main thing to do in Huangshan is walk pround and take photographs of the scenery, which is spectacular (壮观的),     5     (beauty), different and changing in appearance with every change of weather.     6     same view looks quite different by day in fine weather and with cloud, early morning and late evening. Sunrise and sunset are famous but, of course, they depend     7     the weather.

When there is good weather and clear skies, watching the stars at night is     8     (fair) rewarding. If you are staying overnight at a hotel on the mountain then before dark     9     (come), find some good areas     10     you can get away from the hotel lights and look up. You are likely to view a sky full of stars.

5 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Everyone knows that bees are busy. There is even     1     saying in English that one can be “as busy as a bee”. However, little     2     (know) about how bees play. Now scientists from Queen Mary University of London have made an amazing     3     (discover). In their study, the researchers found that bees could relax after a busy day making honey — they play with balls. The insects particularly enjoyed     4     (play) with small, wooden balls. According to the researchers, the way bees play is similar     5     that we humans do. Younger bees rolled more balls than older bees, while adult males spent     6     (long) playing with balls than adult females. The ball-rolling bees are the first known insects to “play”.

The researchers     7     (experiment) on 45 bumblebees in a specially designed test area. The bees were given two choices. The first was to fly     8     (direct) to get a sugary treat. The second was to get to the treat by going around different coloured wooden balls. Most of the bees decided to play with the balls and then get their treat,     9     showed that bees are more thoughtful than people believed. “Bees are a million     10     (mile) from the mindless, unfeeling creatures they are traditionally believed to be,” said one of the researchers.

6 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词，或括号内单词的正确形式。

“Animals are a who, not a what,” animal advocates say. Animal rights activists, including Jane Goodall, want writers —     1     take guidance from the Associated Press Stylebook — to stop referring to an animal as “it.”

Animals are a part of some of the most important     2    （story）being told right now, but they are not always given     3     voice. We have learned much about how intelligent, social, complex and unique as individuals they are, and we know they are important. But many times, they     4    （describe）as if they are merely objects whose lives and interests don't deserve further     5    （consider）on our part.

Jane Goodall points out that when she     6    （start）her research, she was told that her findings and approaches, such as     7    （give）names to chimpanzees, were wrong. She was told that the belief that they have emotions was also     8    （correct）.

“But we know that animals feel joy, pain     9     grieve; We are not separate     10     other species,” Goodall adds. We must recognize that every individual nonhuman animal is a ‘who,' not a ‘what.'

7 . A change to organic dairy farming around the nature reserves could significantly reduce damage done to the areas by nitrogen produced by solid waste from cows, according to a research.

Concentrated animal farming near Natura 2000 areas was banned in 2002. However, 800 farms still remain in the outer edge of these protected areas, some of which are particularly damaging to the environment.

Researchers looked at 34 organic farms to see how organic farming practices compared with those large-scale factory farms. They found that cows at organic farms produced 22% less nitrogen in their waste, while the amount of emissions per hectare(公顷)was 53% lower.

“The reason why organic farming is less polluting is that farms generally have fewer cows and don’t use fertilizer,” said researchers. Organic cows are also put out to grassland more often and aren’t given concentrates(精饲料)to the same degree, which also limits emissions.

While organic dairy farms would make a good protective barrier against nitrogen around the nature reserves, this doesn’t hold true for organic chicken and pig farms, the research showed.

“Despite the good it would do, not many dairy farmers are likely to make the change,” researcher Gerard Migchels said. “The organic sector is currently relatively small. Growth is only possible if there is enough market demand. That would make it possible to come to a realistic price for organic milk,” he said.

In 2019, some 40,000 cows in the Netherlands were farmed organically, accounting for just 1% of the Dutch herd of 3.8 million.

According to a government report, 46% of nitrogen compound(复合物)pollution around nature reserves is down to agriculture, to which dairy farming contributes 60%. The new law on nitrogen emissions aims to reduce pollution by 40% by 2025 and 74% by 2035.

1. What can we infer about organic dairy farming around nature reserves from the text?

A．It helps dairy farmers collect nitrogen.	B．It is relatively environmentally friendly.
C．It has replaced traditional dairy farming.	D．It saves dairy farmers a great deal of trouble.

2. What is special about organic cows?

A．They eat less grass.	B．They are often larger in size.
C．Their waste contains less nitrogen.	D．Their waste can also serve as fertilizer.

3. How might Gerard Migchels feel about the current situation of organic dairy farming?

A．Rather hopeless.	B．Fairly content.
C．Particularly surprised.	D．Kind of sad.

4. What’s the author’s main purpose of writing this text?

A．To introduce the benefit of organic dairy farming.

B．To compare different types of farming practices.

C．To seek financial support for organic dairy farming.

D．To encourage people to drink more organic milk.

8 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Xiechi Lake, also known as Yuncheng Salt Lake in China’s Shanxi Province,     1     (become) popular on social media websites in the past few years.

Now, China wants to transform that online     2     (popular) into real-life tourism. “As the Chinese ‘Dead Sea’, floating here is     3     unforgettable experience, and one you can’t find anywhere else,” reads a tourism advertisement     4     (sponsor) by the Yuncheng Salt Lake Tourism Development Company. Yuncheng Salt Lake is a sulfate (硫酸盐) lake. “If the sulfate in your water is greater than the calcium (钙), all the calcium is used up,     5     leaves you with large amounts of sulfate and you have a sulfate lake,” explains geography professor Bernie Owen. Xiechi is also a “closed basin” lake,     6     (mean) it doesn’t flow out to a river or ocean, which explains how its salt content stays so high. It is possible for salt lakes to freeze over, although not as     7     (quick) as other lakes — after all, think about what happens when we spread salt over icy roads. Saltwater freezes at     8    (low) temperatures than fresh water.

In an effort     9     (boost) Xiechi Lake’s international profile, China is reportedly taking steps to get it recognized     10     a UNESCO World Heritage site.

9 . Shining just 12 light-years from Earth, the star Tau Ceti so resembles the sun that it has appeared in numerous science- fiction stories and was the first star astronomers ever searched for signs of intelligent life, half a century ago. In 2012 Tau Ceti grew still more interesting when astronomers reported five possible planets somewhat larger than Earth circling closer to the star than Mars orbits (围绕……运动) the sun—one of which is in the star’s habitable zone. Newly released images taken by the Herschel Space Observatory provide even more insight about Tau Ceti’s solar system: greater detail about its dust belt.

Dust arises when asteroids and comets (小行星和彗星) crash into one another, so its location reveals where these dust- creating objects—which are too small to be seen directly—orbit a star. In Tau Ceti’s case, “it’s quite a wide dust belt,” says Samantha Lawler of the University of Victoria in British Columbia. As her team reported in November, the belt’s inner edge is roughly two to three astronomical units (AUs) from the star, which is the position of our own sun’s asteroid belt. (An AU is the distance from Earth to the sun.) Tau Ceti’s dust belt extends out to 55 AU, which would be just beyond our system’s main Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, the zone of small bodies whose largest member is probably Pluto. Presumably full of asteroids and comets, Tau Ceti’s dust belt most likely lacks a planet as large as Jupiter, Lawler says. The gravity of such a massive planet would have driven away most small space rocks.

Within a year a new series of radio telescopes in Chile called ALMA should provide a sharper view of the disk, especially of its inner edge. The ALMA images will help astronomers confirm whether the star’s five proposed planets are indeed real. If the disk overlaps the planets’ hypothesized (假设的) orbits, then they probably do not exist; they would have kept away most asteroids near the star, removing the source of dust.

If those planets do exist, however, Lawler’s team suggests that Tau Ceti’s planetary system may resemble what our solar system would have looked like had the four giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune- never formed: small planets orbiting close to the star, and nothing but asteroids, comets and dust beyond.

1. According to astronomers, the five possible planets of Tau Ceti________.

A．resembled Earth in size

B．functioned like a solar system

C．were located in Tau Ceti’s habitable zone

D．were nearer to Tau Ceti than Mars to the sun

2. Which of the following is true of Tau Ceti’s dust belt?

A．It is narrower than the asteroid belt in our system.

B．The bodies inside it are all smaller than Jupiter.

C．The gravity of Tau Ceti makes it get denser.

D．It is over 55 astronomical units in width.

3. According to the passage, the five planets are most likely to exist if________.

A．they don’t move into the dust belt while orbiting Tau Ceti

B．they have kept away most asteroids and comets

C．they don’t crash into any asteroid or comet

D．they can be seen clearly by ALMA

4. It can be inferred from the passage that Tau Ceti’s dust belt________.

A．is useful because it stops asteroids or comets crashing into the star

B．makes Tau Ceti different from the sun because it extends farther

C．is interesting because it keeps other planets away from Tau Ceti

D．plays a role in helping decide whether the five planets are real

10 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The world is in a climate crisis. We need to change how we get our power, which     1     (mean) we need to end the use of fossil fuels, like oil and gas. The European Space Agency (ESA) has started on work that could provide     2     (million) of homes with clean and reliable energy. It has approved     3     three-year project to test huge solar farms in space. These solar farms are expected     4     (send) energy wirelessly from space into peopled homes. An ESA spokesperson said one solar-farm satellite could create the same amount of electricity     5     a power station on Earth. She added that the satellites will be around 1.7 km in     6     (long) and their aim is to have many of these giant satellites     7     (place) in low-Earth orbits. They could cut our use of fossil fuels and reduce energy shortages.

The ESA project     8     (call) Solaris. Josef Aschbacher,     9     is currently the director-general of the ESA, said that Solaris could be of great significance. “We humans are consuming large quantities of fossil fuels. We need to change the way we produce energy. We especially need to reduce the fossil fuel part of our energy production,” said Josef. “It would be     10     (absolute) fantastic if we could do it from space. It would be a solution to lots of problems.”