1 . Earth Hour is an annual event, asking you to switch off all your lights for one hour in positive change for our planet. It is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature and it’s a big event usually at the end of March every year.
Earth Hour started in Australia in 2007, when 2.2 million people in Sydney turned off all unnecessary lights for an hour.
It’s true that switching off the lights for just one hour saves only a little power.
Why is it in March? At the end of March in the northern and southern hemispheres (半球), the days and the nights are almost of the same length.
A.But this is only the beginning |
B.The logo of Earth Hour is “60+” |
C.On this evening, people “go dark” |
D.There are many events people can join in |
E.Since then it has grown into an international event |
F.The idea is to raise the awareness of environmental issues |
G.At this time, the sunset time is similar in both hemispheres |
2 . A NASA climate research scientist, Cynthia Rosenzweig, who has spent much of her career explaining how global food production must adapt to a changing climate, was awarded the World Food Prize on Thursday.
“We basically cannot solve climate change unless we address the issues of the greenhouse gas emissions from the food system, and we cannot provide food security for all unless we work really hard to develop adaptable agricultural systems,” she told The Associated Press in an interview.
Rosenzweig, who describes herself as a climate impact scientist, grew up in Scarsdale, New York, a suburban area that she said led her to seek out life in the country. Later, she moved to Italy, and developed a passion for agriculture. After returning to the United States, she focused her education on agronomy (农学).
She worked as a graduate student at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in the early 1980s, when global climate models were beginning to show the effects of human-generated carbon dioxide on the global climate. As the only team member studying agronomy, she researched the impact on food production and has been working since then to answer those questions.
Rosenzweig’s work led to the Environmental Protection Agency’s first prediction of the effects of climate change on the nation’s agricultural regions in the agency’s assessment of the potential effects of climate change on the United States in 1988. She was the first to bring climate change to the attention of the American Society of Agronomy and she organized the first sessions on the issue in the 1980s. The research organization she founded, AgMIP, develops adaptation packages, which could include the use of more drought-tolerant seeds and improved water management practices.
Even the largest agribusiness corporations have shown a willingness to listen. Some models her colleagues have developed show how businesses could be effected by climate change and how they have a role to play in reducing the impact on climate.
“It’s really a global partnership of all the global food systems to come together to restrain climate change and maintain the food security for the planet,” she said.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 2?A.Plants can hardly cause greenhouse gas emissions. |
B.Issues of food security will result in climate change. |
C.Improving food systems will help address climate change. |
D.Some adaptable agricultural systems have been put into use. |
A.Modest. | B.Devoted. | C.Adaptable. | D.Warm-hearted. |
A.Rosenzweig’s contributions. | B.Rosenzweig’s challenges. |
C.Rosenzweig’s expectations. | D.Rosenzweig’s backgrounds. |
A.The models. | B.The practices. |
C.The colleagues. | D.The businesses. |
3 . 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 ecological environment in the Sanjiangyuan National Park in northwest China’s Qinghai Province
The park delivers over 60 billion cubic meters of high-quality freshwater downstream every year,
According to Losang Tsering,
The Sanjiangyuan region is a typical
1. How many people died in a landslide in 2003?
A.About two hundred. | B.Over one thousand. | C.About two thousand. |
A.Growing grass. | B.Cutting down trees. | C.Growing population. |
A.Growing more forests. |
B.Chopping down the old forests. |
C.Getting busy in protecting our country. |
5 . Scientists have recently discovered the world’s largest known field of sea grass. They did it using videos shot by some extraordinary helpers. The work should help protect the sea grass, and also shows off a powerful way to explore the ocean.
As a shelter for many sea creatures, sea grasses are flowering plants that normally grow in shallow waters near coasts. They grow in thick fields, known as seagrass meadows (海草床), which help clean the ocean water. More importantly, they are called “ocean lung”. They help in the fight against the climate crisis. That’s because they store huge amounts of carbon — the major source of global warming.
Considering the urgent need to protect seagrass meadows and the challenges to spot them, scientists decided to have tiger sharks help the research.
Tiger sharks are inborn fast swimmers, and spend a lot of time in seagrass meadows. Between 2016 and 2020, the researchers attached cameras and other trackers to the fins of seven tiger sharks, and then let them go again. The cameras were designed to fall off after hours and float to the surface. Tracking signals helped find the floating cameras and collect the videos the sharks had taken while traveling for miles. Moreover, other tools were used, including satellite images, as well as images taken by divers and boats.
Putting all this information together, the scientists learned that the waters around the Bahamas are home to the largest seagrass meadow ever discovered. Different from previous studies, the program discovers how useful large underwater animals can be in helping to learn more about life under the sea. Oliver Shipley, a scientist from the team, says animals like tiger sharks are going to take us to new places that we didn’t know existed.
1. Why do seagrass meadows urgently need protection?A.Damaging them will worsen climate crisis. |
B.They determine the cleanliness of ocean water. |
C.Sea creatures can’t survive without their shelter. |
D.Their existence balances the underwater ecosystem. |
A.By tracking signals scientists sent. |
B.By bringing back cameras with videos. |
C.By carrying the recording equipment around. |
D.By spending a lot of time in seagrass meadows. |
A.Leading scientists. | B.Unusual research assistants. |
C.Multiple experimental tools. | D.Advanced theories. |
A.The Cooperation between Man and Animals |
B.The key to protecting the Sea—Tiger Sharks |
C.Sea Grass: An Undervalued Plant |
D.Ocean Lung Monitored in a New Way |
6 . Little was road testing his mountain bike outside of Columbus, when his
“He was really bony, and had a
An idea hit Little. He
“He was injured, so he wasn’t trying to
Today, Columbo is living a
A.hiking | B.riding | C.skipping | D.hunting |
A.air | B.center | C.distance | D.open |
A.burst | B.set | C.turned | D.left |
A.weak | B.broken | C.hairy | D.artificial |
A.poor | B.aggressive | C.fierce | D.stubborn |
A.finding | B.idea | C.suspicion | D.assumption |
A.punish | B.follow | C.forget | D.leave |
A.refer to | B.end up | C.die out | D.tear apart |
A.powerfully | B.desperately | C.casually | D.carefully |
A.long | B.short | C.back | D.front |
A.shoulders | B.head | C.arms | D.back |
A.fight | B.witness | C.wonder | D.remove |
A.urging | B.identifying | C.comforting | D.separating |
A.submitted | B.attached | C.accustomed | D.happened |
A.thankful to | B.cautious about | C.sympathetic to | D.keen on |
A.touched | B.annoyed | C.convinced | D.terrified |
A.keeping | B.training | C.walking | D.calming |
A.canceled | B.performed | C.scheduled | D.observed |
A.noisy | B.disturbing | C.specific | D.merry |
A.leader | B.company | C.defender | D.inspector |
World Ocean Day is an international day that takes place annually on 8 June. It is observed as a
The Day is now celebrated in over 100 countries with hundreds of special events broadcast across the globe. It
Young people are an important part. The Day provides them with a platform
8 . After taking a few steps back, Hadj Benhalima rushed toward the building, pushed himself upward with his foot against the wall and stretched out his arm. At the peak of his jump, he flipped off a light switch, and the bright lights of a nearby barbershop went off immediately.
This is what Hadj and his friends have been doing for the past two years: swinging around Paris and switching off wasteful shop signs at night, in an effort to fight against light pollution and save energy. And they are all enthusiastic about Parkour — a sport that consists of running and jumping over urban obstacles.
While climbing other people’s property to turn off their lights may strike some as a form of trespassing (非法入侵), the Parkour athletes insist their activities are only about enforcing seldom-respected rules.
More than a decade ago, Paris City Hall issued orders requiring stores to turn off all signs and window displays from 1 am to 6 am, but they are widely ignored with little consequence. “for 10 years there has been no follow-up, no control, no punishment,” said Anne-Marie Ducroux, the head of the National Association for the Protection of the Sky and the Night Environment.
That is why Hadj and his friends have taken matters into their own hands. The group often gathers in the so-called Golden Triangle neighborhood, in western Paris, which is the center of French luxury.
Enforcing the orders in place of the authorities certainly enters a legal grey area. But the Parkour athletes say all the police officers they have met during their rounds have allowed their action — as long as it causes no damage.
And it seems that their efforts have produced the desired result, because Hadj says he has noticed that in recent months, several shops have stopped leaving their lights on after his group targeted them. He hopes others will follow suit. “At least, I’ll sleep better,” he said.
1. What are Hadj Benhalima and his friends trying to do at night?A.To practice their Parkour skills. |
B.To remove possible urban obstacles. |
C.To turn off unnecessary store lights. |
D.To ensure the safety of their neighborhood. |
A.They are too strict to follow. |
B.They have achieved the desired effect. |
C.They put great pressure on stores. |
D.They are not carried out effectively. |
A.Worried. | B.Supportive. | C.Doubtful. | D.Unconcerned. |
A.Why Parkour is so popular among young people in Paris. |
B.Why it is difficult to fight against light pollution in Paris. |
C.How the lighting of shop signs affects the night view of Paris. |
D.How young people in Paris help save energy through Parkour. |
9 . Meet Retro, a cloned rhesus monkey born on July 16, 2020. He is now more than 3 years old and is “doing well and growing strong,” according to Falong Lu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who published a study in the journal Nature Communications that describes how Retro came to be.
Retro is only the second species of primate (灵长类动物) that scientists have been able to clone successfully. The same team of researchers announced in 2018 that they had made two cloned cynomolgus monkeys, which are still alive today. “We have achieved the first live and healthy cloned rhesus monkey, which is a big step forward, although the efficiency is very low compared to fertilized embryos (受精胚胎),” said Lu. “Currently, we haven’t had the second live birth yet.”
The first animal to be cloned — Dolly the sheep — was created in 1996 using a technique called SCNT, where scientists essentially reconstruct an unfertilized egg by joining a somatic cell nucleus (体细胞核) with an egg in which the nucleus has been removed. The Chinese team improved the technique further to clone the rhesus monkey.
During hundreds of failed cloning attempts, they realized that, in the early cloned embryos, the outer part did not develop properly. To address this problem, they performed a process called inner cell mass transplantation, which involved putting cloned inner cells into a non-cloned embryo, and that allowed the clone to develop normally. “We think that there might be additional… abnormalities to be fixed. Strategies to further enhance the success rate of SCNT in primates remains … our main focus in the future,” Lu said.
The researchers said that being able to successfully clone monkeys might help accelerate biomedical research given that there are limitations on what scientists can learn from lab mice. Research on nonhuman primates, which are closer to humans, has been crucial for lifesaving medical advances, including the creation of medicines against Covid-19, according to a report by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
1. What can be learned about Retro?A.It is the second live cloned rhesus monkey. | B.It represents a major scientific breakthrough. |
C.It is a cloned monkey from a fertilized embryo. | D.It has outlived the cloned cynomolgus monkeys. |
A.The purpose. | B.The process. | C.The difficulty. | D.The method. |
A.Give the clone space to grow. | B.Fix additional abnormalities. |
C.Change a non-cloned embryo. | D.Help inner cells develop properly. |
A.To present the recent progress in cloning. | B.To reveal challenges in cloning monkeys. |
C.To call for research on nonhuman primates. | D.To stress the importance of medical advances. |
1. How does the woman feel at first?
A.Curious. | B.Surprised. | C.Excited. |
A.Flowers. | B.Mushrooms. | C.Trees. |
A.Two. | B.Three. | C.Four. |
A.On Thursday. | B.On Friday. | C.On Saturday. |