1 . As the family of 16 Asian elephants started moving north, no one knew where they were heading, or why. At first, no one thought much about it. Elephants sometimes disappear beyond Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province, but they always return.
But that would be risky for this group, especially for the three baby elephants. Instead, officials mobilized (动员) an emergency task force to keep everyone, elephants and humans alike, safe. Drones tracked the elephants’ every move. Electric fences, road barriers, and new pathways helped them move toward safer routes. Tons of corn, pineapples, and bananas were used to trick them away from towns.
Some might argue that doing so much to keep a family of elephants safe was wasteful. But conserving our natural and human heritage is about encouraging good in the world.
| A．They have become global celebrities |
| B．They’re our past, present, and future |
| C．We need wildlife and ancient artifacts |
| D．Things, however, are different this time |
| E．Thousands of people volunteered to join the force |
| F．They presented a problem for government officials |
| G．These measures involved lots of manpower and resources |
2 . For the past 60 years, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) has protected animals, restored lost habitats and advocated for policy changes that benefit wildlife. Now, the conservation organization is trying a new approach.
This year, AWF launched the inaugural Benjamin Mkapa African Wildlife Photography Awards. The contest aims to reach a different audience. While photography competitions are nothing new, the AWF hopes that the exhibition of winning entries will encourage African people to take a more active role in conservation. Its CEO Kaddu Sebunya said, “Africans need to take the responsibility for the conservation of their heritage.”
Photographers of all ages and backgrounds, professional and amateur, were invited to submit to the competition. A judging panel (评选委员会), comprised of photographers, conservationists, activists and safari guides, selected photos from 12 categories including “Art in Nature” “Coexistence and Conflict” and “Conservation Heroes”.
The “Conservation Heroes” category had special appeal for Kenyan conservation photographer Anthony Ochieng Onyango. “I realized there was a communication gap because most of what was being communicated was data in scientific publications,” said Onyango, adding that images are a simple way for people to connect to complex issues.
While there were many entries in the AWF competition, there’s only one 19-year-old Cathan Moore from South Africa among the category winners. There’s a lack of opportunity for young aspiring photographers on the continent. AWF is seeking grants and partnerships to enable more African people to participate next year, and to make nature photography competitions more accessible to those unable to pay or buy expensive camara equipment, allowing people to use whatever camera they have and photograph wildlife in urban environments.
Sebunya hopes that the competition can open up a dialogue about conservation — and why it’s so important for Africa’s future. Many people in Africa look at conservation as a thing done by and for foreigners, said Sebunya. While he praised the work of international NGOs, he emphasized that it’s vital that African voices are heard and for local people to lead conservation efforts.
1. What is the main idea of the passage?| A．African people take photographs in order to protect wildlife. |
| B．AWF calls for people’s active involvement in wildlife conservation. |
| C．A communication gap exists between ordinary people and wildlife conservation. |
| D．AWF holds photography competition for the conservation of wildlife. |
| A．The winners’ works will be on display to promote wildlife conservation. |
| B．This year’s winners include quite a number of teenage photographers. |
| C．The judging panel includes both professional and amateur photographers. |
| D．People who are not skilled in photography can’t take part in the competition. |
| A．People’s lack of desire to connect to the issue. |
| B．The lack of scientific publications on the issue. |
| C．The lack of simple and direct ways to present the issue. |
| D．People’s lack of professional camera equipment. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Appreciative. | C．Skeptical. | D．Neutral. |
3 . Scientists in Australia thought they had developed a new tracking device to help them monitor magpies, but these intelligent birds had other ideas.
Initially, researchers planned a pilot study to learn more about the movements and social dynamics of magpie. The study was also designed to test the effectiveness of a new tracking device that would fit on small birds. “Instead, the birds outsmarted us,” explained Dominique Potvin, a zoologist at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Most trackers are too big to fit on small sized birds, and small trackers tend to be limited when it comes to data storage, battery life, and reusability. The new trackers, which weighed less than one gram, would charge and send data wirelessly without needing to recapture the birds. They were attached to a rigid belt that could only be released with a magnet. The design was meant to be durable, except for a weak point where the magnet needed to function. Once the trackers were on, researchers could attract the previously trained birds back to an outdoor ground “feeding station” where the trackers could charge, and the team could download the data.
The team placed trackers on five magpies using their special belt. However, just ten minutes after setting up the last magpie, they noticed something unusual: an adult female without a tracker was busy trying to remove the device from a younger bird, eventually succeeding. This pattern was repeated in the following hour, and by the third day all trackers had been removed.
Researchers are unsure if the same female magpie removed all the devices or if multiple birds cooperated. However, “what we have observed is the first documented case of rescue behaviour in magpies”, according to the paper — something the researchers hadn’t considered going into the project.
But that’s how science works sometimes. The team didn’t get the data they wanted, but their experiment still produced interesting results.
1. Which is one of the purposes of the research?| A．To test magpie’s intelligence. | B．To design a creative device. |
| C．To compare different magpies. | D．To try out a new tracker. |
| A．It is for single use. | B．It is powered by the sun. |
| C．It is very convenient. | D．It is attached to a magnet. |
| A．By rubbing them on the ground. | B．By getting help from other magpies. |
| C．By waiting for the belt to loosen. | D．By going back to the feeding station. |
| A．Unexpected. | B．Misleading. | C．Unreliable. | D．Misunderstood. |
4 . Students at Huonville High School in Australia are riding bikes out of desire to fight climate change, carrying out a dizzyingly-thorough transformation of their school building into an energy efficient inspiration.
It’s paying off big time, as they’ve helped save $44, 000 in utility bills since they started their energy-saving project, but it’s also inspiring young people in the community. Recently the school won the Zayed Future Energy Prize of $133 ,000, some of which was used to turn a building into the Zayed Future Energy Hub, a clubhouse where 13 volunteers learn and teach about how renewable energy can be applied to our everyday lives.
Among all the efficiency adjustments, they set up solar panels on the roof, and replaced the old windows with double and triple glazed ones. They added improved insulation (隔热) and energy efficient curtains. They even have stationary bikes that create electricity to cook doughnuts.
The classroom was cold in the mornings, but the students wanted zero carbon emissions through their heating. So they went out and got a pellet stove, and then if that wasn’t enough, they went out and built a pellet mill (颗粒机) to make their fuel from waste sawdust.
Powering one small building on a high school campus or cooking doughnuts in renewable fat fryers is nice, but will do little on their own to slow global climate change. However, the Hub is much more about the big picture. Nel Smit, the volunteer teacher—head of the Hub, knows their biggest contribution is exciting the minds of the next generation.
“This little school in the Huon Valley is actually doing amazing things,” Smit said. “It’s raised awareness of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and opportunities in the community for engaging them around that sort of technology.”
1. What’s special about Huonville High School?| A．It attaches importance to riding bikes. | B．It promotes the idea of energy saving. |
| C．It encourages students to be creative. | D．It is powered entirely by solar energy. |
| A．It is a club center for volunteers. | B．It is the place to produce energy. |
| C．It is built at the cost of $133,000. | D．It is used to hold learning activities. |
| A．To save electricity bill. | B．To keep low carbon emissions. |
| C．To get rid of waste sawdust. | D．To test the pellet stove. |
| A．Saving a lot of energy. | B．Creating more great minds. |
| C．Educating the next generation. | D．Slowing global climate change. |
5 . The Adélie penguin, who has been named Pingu, was discovered by a local resident Harry Singh “looking lost” on the shores of New Zealand, over 3,000 kilometers away from its natural habitat.
“At first I thought it was a soft toy,” Singh told the BBC. “But suddenly the penguin moved his head, so I realized it was real. It didn’t move for one hour... and looked exhausted.” He then called penguin rescuers as he was concerned that it was not getting into the water, making it a potential target for any predatory (捕食性的) animals wandering on the beach.
On arriving at the scene, Thomas Stracke, who has been rehabilitating (康复) penguins on New Zealand’s South Island for the last 10 years, was shocked to find that the penguin was an Adélie — a species that lives exclusively on the Antarctic peninsula. Stracke said, “It is quite unusual since they are known only living in the Antarctic area. Fortunately, apart from being a bit starving and severely dehydrated, he was actually not too bad, so we gave him some fluids and some fish smoothie.”
It is only the third recorded incident of an Adélie penguin being found on New Zealand’s coast — the previous were in 1962 and 1993 — and although sitings remain incredibly rare, if they become more common it could be a worrying sign, say experts.
“I think if we started getting annual arrivals of Adélie penguins, we’d go actually, something’s changed in the ocean that we need to understand,” Otago University zoology professor Philip Seddon told The Guardian. “More studies will give us more understanding where penguins go, what they do, what the population trends are like — they’re going to tell us something about the health of that ocean ecosystem in general.”
Pingu has now been released into a bay on the Banks Peninsula, and it is hoped he may be able to make the journey home.
1. What happened to Pingu?| A．He was hunted by local people. | B．He lost his food and looked upset. |
| C．He was finding a new natural habitat. | D．He landed New Zealand by accident. |
| A．Introduce a new topic to discuss. | B．List numbers to prove an opinion. |
| C．Add some background information. | D．Summarize the previous paragraphs. |
| A．The number of penguins is on the decrease. |
| B．The health of ocean ecosystem should be concerned. |
| C．More studies about penguins have been undertaken. |
| D．Adélie penguins have built habitats in New Zealand. |
| A．Unexpected Arrival of Rare Penguin | B．Dangerous Situation of Adélie Penguins |
| C．Amazing Discovery by Local Resident | D．Magical Travel to New Zealand |
6 . In general, it is a very good thing for animals to sleep with people. Pets who share their human’s bed tend to have a higher trust level and a tighter bond with the humans that are in their lives.
With that important matter out of the way, let’s turn to you— is it good for you to sleep with a pet?
That may be true for many of us, but recent studies have shown that pets in the bedroom could be beneficial for some of us. Adults with depression or anxiety may benefit from having their pet in the bed. The pet is a big pillow, a big blanket, which decreases their anxiety.
Despite the new science, we still need to think twice about bringing our dogs or cats into our beds.
| A．It’s a big display of trust on their part. |
| B．It is particularly harmful in people with sound sleepers. |
| C．Teenagers may benefit from sleeping with a pet as well. |
| D．And it didn’t appear to affect the quality of their rest. |
| E．They are destructive because they pull you out of deep sleep. |
| F．Those are not animals that we would want to have in bed with us. |
| G．Experts have traditionally said no because you might not get quality shut-eye. |
7 . It sounds impossible for a 500-pound bear to break into a house through a small window. But the animal known as Hank the Tank is no ordinary bear: He has used his extraordinary strength to force into at least 28 garages in South Lake Tahoe and is responsible for 152 reports of conflict behavior with the local people over the past seven months.
“This smart bear does not break into a garage where trash is kept,” the police department said in a statement. “He hangs out in the neighborhood quite often because he has been continuously rewarded with food stored in garages.”
The most recent incident occurred late last week, when local police officers were called to a home on Catalina Drive when Hank broke into another garage and the police department has planned a special trapping effort to remove Hank the Tank from the neighborhood. After he’s caught, it will decide whether he can be placed in a controlled habitat or whether he should be killed. “We hope that Hank can avoid the sad ending of another famous bear from the Tahoe area,” it said.
Like Hank the Tank, the 500-pound bear named the Safeway Bear had lost its fear of people. It was known for driving away Kings Beach get-togethers, helping itself to a birthday cake and other treats. In 2020, it was caught on camera stealing food from a grocery store at Lake Tahoe’s northern shore.
The bear was eventually trapped and sent to a remote wild habitat in El Dorado County. Its tracking collar was found in the woods in the spring of 2021, leading biologists to hope that it had successfully gotten used to a natural diet and lost weight, allowing the collar to slip off.
But the truth was very heart-breaking. The big bear was reduced to a shell of its former self and was killed at a campground where a family gathering included small children.
“The action of the shooter was the most humane outcome for this bear,” said one of the biologists.
1. What do the police officers probably suggest the public do?| A．Avoid mixing food leftovers with garbage. |
| B．Replace small windows with bigger ones. |
| C．Call the police once they see Hank the Tank. |
| D．Put food outside to help the trapping effort. |
| A．El Dorado County. | B．Kings Beach. |
| C．Catalina Drive. | D．Lake Tahoe. |
| A．It had a hard life in the Tahoe area. |
| B．It lost its ability to live in the wild. |
| C．It successfully got used to a natural diet. |
| D．It stole food and killed people on the beach. |
| A．Opposed. | B．Skeptical. | C．Supportive. | D．Unconcerned. |
8 . The huge billboard at the side of the highway is no joke; transporting firewood in certain areas is a crime, punishable by a four-thousand-dollar fine. The reason? Emerald Ash Borer disease, or EAB disease, a new addition to the long list of dangerous foreign pest infestations（虫害）on American soil. It was in 2002 when the Emerald Ash Borer beetle（甲虫）was first discovered in Michigan. Not long after, the pest was found in Ohio. Originally from Asia, this green beetle probably found its way to North America through a wooden box made of ash wood and immediately settled into a local ash tree. In little time, the species managed to kill millions of ash trees.
To date, much work is underway to stop ash trees ending up in the same group as elm and chestnut trees, which are all dying out in many areas. Ash Borer Infestations are particularly troublesome because they are difficult to identify until the ash tree is heavily infested. In addition, other ash trees in the area surrounding the source will probably also be infested, making control a hard task.
Researchers are working on many issues related to the control and removal of this harmful beetle. For example, it has been discovered that Asian ash trees are not destroyed by this native borer. It may be that, Asian ash trees have developed genes（基因）to protect them from the insect; therein, perhaps, lies the secret to controlling this pest. Insecticide（杀虫剂）treatment is also being explored on several fronts. Research is underway to determine which insecticides are proving to be the most successful. The proper application of the insecticides is being debated.
However, all possible solutions require a great deal of study and research. In the meantime, careful steps must be taken. Methodical identification of infested trees is taking place. Identified trees are being cut down and destroyed to get rid of the beetle colonies（群）. In the end, this puts a huge drain（消耗）on city budgets, as tree removal can be extremely expensive.
Even though it will be expensive to deal with this problem in the short term, the costs of doing nothing could be far higher, since we could lose an entire species of tree.
1. What can we learn about the Emerald Ash Borer beetle?| A．It is a newly found species. |
| B．It can be used to fight foreign pest infestations. |
| C．It is native to North America. |
| D．It can cause damaging harm to American ash trees. |
| A．They affect Asian ash trees most frequently. |
| B．They are difficult to identify and get rid of. |
| C．They break out at certain times every year. |
| D．They spread slowly in a small area. |
| A．Gene activation. | B．Insecticide use. |
| C．Removing infested trees. | D．Introducing the beetle’s enemies. |
| A．Healthy trees should be relocated and protected. |
| B．Protecting the ash tree should be done at any cost. |
| C．Government budget for tree removal should be cut. |
| D．Measures that have side effects should be avoided. |
9 . A new study has found that water in the air, not just heat, is important in measuring global warming. The researchers say, when considering humidity and heat, the temperature increase is two times greater than earlier estimates.
The researchers also note, temperature by itself is not the best way to measure the effects of climate change and using temperature underestimates conditions in the tropical areas of the world.
The study was published on January 31 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers team show that the energy created in extreme weather, such as storms, is related to the amount of water in the air. For this reason, they decided to use a special atmospheric measurement to show the amount of heat in an area of air. It is expressed in a scientific measurement for temperature known as degrees Kelvin.
Ramanathan is one of the writers of the study. He is a climate scientist at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “There are two factors of climate change: temperature and humidity. And so far, we have measured global warming just in terms of temperature,” he says. “Warm air can hold more water than cold air. For every degree Celsius that air temperature increases, it can hold seven percent more water. When the water vapor in the air becomes liquid, it releases heat or energy. That’s why when it rains, now it pours.”
Ramanathan added that water vapor is a powerful heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere that increases climate change. From 1980 to 2019, the average world surface air temperature increased by 0.79 degrees Celsius. But when they considered energy from humidity, their temperature measurement had increased by 1.48 degrees Celsius. In the tropics, the warming was as much as 4 degrees Celsius.
Wuebbles is a climate scientist at the University of Illinois. He was not part of the study. But Wuebbles said the idea makes sense because water vapor is important in extreme rainfall. He said, “Both heat and humidity are important.”
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?| A．The combination of water and heat decreases average surface temperature. |
| B．The reason why it pours is that cold air can hold more water than warm air. |
| C．Scientists adopt temperature degrees Kelvin as a special atmospheric measurement. |
| D．Scientists used both temperature and humidity to measure global warming in the past. |
| A．By making comparisons. | B．By taking examples. |
| C．By analyzing reasons. | D．By giving definitions. |
| A．Critical. | B．Objective. | C．Skeptical. | D．Appreciative. |
| A．Extreme Weathers Are Closely Related to Air Heat Amount |
| B．A New Study Focuses on Global Warming Solutions |
| C．Humidity Is Also Important in Measuring Climate Changes |
| D．Two Climate Scientists Develop a Scientific Method |
10 . When I was a child, I was always climbing up the conker tree in our back garden or tackling oaks (橡树) in Epping Forest. And I’ve never lost the
Writing the Wolf Brother books about stone age hunter-gatherers kept it
I didn’t
My favourite trees for climbing are some secluded (僻静的) oaks with low branches for that tricky first hoist (拉高), as well as one
When I’m feeling
| A．hope | B．urge | C．chance | D．time |
| A．alive | B．awake | C．alone | D．aware |
| A．hit | B．break | C．strike | D．beat |
| A．branch | B．leaves | C．roots | D．trunk |
| A．diaries | B．notes | C．marks | D．books |
| A．fast | B．slowly | C．cleverly | D．stupidly |
| A．pick up | B．give up | C．put out | D．set out |
| A．trees | B．houses | C．woods | D．mountains |
| A．shelter | B．place | C．way | D．escape |
| A．moved | B．thankful | C．cheerful | D．amazed |
| A．truly | B．typically | C．nearly | D．completely |
| A．care | B．notice | C．understand | D．doubt |
| A．contact | B．relations | C．meetings | D．communication |
| A．training | B．trusting | C．startling | D．surprising |
| A．excited | B．delighted | C．ambitious | D．anxious |
| A．longer | B．shorter | C．sadder | D．happier |
| A．and | B．but | C．otherwise | D．still |
| A．in | B．for | C．on | D．at |
| A．continued | B．changed | C．repeated | D．stopped |
| A．nobody | B．somebody | C．nothing | D．something |
