1 . My wife always wanted a Vizsla, so when we got the house, the garden and everything sorted, we did some research and found a lovely breeder (饲养员) based in Scotland. He was in charge of everything, so a few months go by and the next thing I know, we’ve got a puppy!
I’ve grown up with animals all my life, and I’m so glad I have. I love the fact that I was never afraid of any animals. Although you do obviously have to be careful when introducing children to a dog they don’t know, because you don’t know how it’s going to behave, it always saddens me when I see children scared when they walk past Pedro. I think it’s great for kids to learn how to look after an animal.
And obviously for us, as a family, it’s brilliant because we take Pedro for so many walks. It’s a bit of a family bonding experience getting out in the fresh air; taking Pedro for a walk multiple times a day is just really lovely. Meanwhile, the most rewarding, I think, is just seeing how amazing he is with the kids. He is so calm, so protective, so loving, and we are his world.
I think the most challenging aspects with Pedro were when he was a puppy (小狗). He was pretty hard work. He was never aggressive, but he was quite bitey as puppies are, constantly pulling out your clothes and putting holes in them, which is very annoying. He chewed the furniture-my sofas are barely standing up; their wooden legs are almost in pieces. Obviously, the dog training in the house was quite stressful and his jumping at strangers in the park and running off was always quite scary.
As a new puppy owner, you’re overloaded with advice from social media, magazines, other dog owners and friends, so finding a source of information you trust is so important and can be a real turning point. I know what it’s like to be bombarded with conflicting information, so I would have really welcomed Royal Canin’s “One in a Billion” platform as a new puppy owner. It’s a one-stop shop for new dog owners: a single source of credible information that is so helpful in navigating the early stages of your puppy’s life.
1. What do we know about the author?| A．He is inexperienced in raising pets. |
| B．He is unsupportive of his wife’s desire. |
| C．He feels it a pity that children shy away from pets. |
| D．He thinks one should be cautious about raising pets. |
| A．Dangerous but loyal. | B．Playful and gentle. |
| C．Adorable but troublesome. | D．Annoying and fierce. |
| A．Dogs are man’s best friends. |
| B．It is worthless to have a dog. |
| C．Puppies are unfriendly to humans. |
| D．It is challenging to train a puppy. |
| A．To recommend a reliable platform. |
| B．To share a fun experience. |
| C．To offer evidence for an argument. |
| D．To advertise a practical product. |
2 . Google recently announced that it has begun using carbon-free electricity from a geothermal (地热能) project to power data centers in the state of Nevada.
Tim Latimer is chief and co-founder of Fervo Energy based in Houston, Texas. His company is working with Google on its geothermal project. Latimer said that getting electricity on the grid from geothermal resources is an event many new energy companies never reach. He added that he believes geothermal energy will become more well-known than in the past.
The International Energy Agency(IEA) has long suggested geothermal could be an answer to climate change. The IEA said in a 2011 document that geothermal could reach 3.5 percent of global electricity production each year by 2050. The Paris-based international group says geothermal energy could prevent almost 800 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
Fervo Energy is using this first test to launch other projects that will provide more electricity to the grid. The company is currently completing some work in southwest Utah for a 400-megawatt project. Google and Fervo Energy started working together in 2021 to develop geothermal power. The plant near Winnemucca, Nevada, is now operating and is sending about 3.5 megawatts to the grid.
Google announced in 2020 that it would use what it calls “carbon-free” energy every hour of every day, wherever it operates, by 2030. Many energy experts believe huge companies like Google can play a part in increasing the use of clean energy.
Terrell noted the company was also an early supporter of wind and solar projects, helping those markets grow to where they are today. “It’s a very similar situation. Now that we’ve set a goal to be 24/7 carbon-free energy, we have found it will take more than just wind, solar and storage,” Terrell said.
The United States leads the world in using heat from the Earth for electricity production. U. S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said earlier this year that advances in new geothermal systems will help introduce this form of energy to areas where it has been thought to be impossible. This makes it possible to find energy in more places.
1. What is Tim Latimer’s attitude to working with Google?| A．Supportive. | B．Disapproving. | C．Concerned. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Fervo Energy has launched many geothermal projects before. |
| B．Geothermal energy will take the place of solar energy. |
| C．Getting electricity from geothermal resources has been widely used. |
| D．Geothermal energy has the potential to tackle environmental problems. |
| A．CO2 emission is to blame for climate change. |
| B．Carbon-free electricity only exists in our dream. |
| C．Google is setting a good example in environmental protection. |
| D．Wind and solar projects are more important than geothermal project. |
| A．Geothermal: an answer to climate change |
| B．Google: a company launching a new project |
| C．IEA: an organization contributing to global warming |
| D．CO2: the leading factor to global warming |
3 . In 2021, scientists studying animal communication discovered that some dogs connect objects with words similarly to babies. Then what about cats, which are commonly believed to be unconcerned about human affairs?
Saho Takagi, a researcher at Azabu University, doubted cats’ seeming unconcern. “Cats don’t appear to listen to people’s conversations, but in fact, they do,” said Takagi. According to previous research, cats understand human communication better than expected. Like dogs, they can use human pointing and stares to find food. They even can tell the difference between human facial expressions and states of attention, according to a 2016 study. However, cats can do more than that.
Another study showed that cats can discriminate their own names from the names of their cat companions (those that live in the same house). The researchers believed that cats learned to connect names with other cats by observing communication between their owners and their cat friends.
In a recently published study, Takagi and her colleagues compared two groups of cats: cats living with at least two other cats and cats living in “cat cafés” with up to 30 cats. Using a simple two-phase (阶段) test, they assessed the cats’ responses to hearing their names and seeing their faces on a monitor. Sometimes, the cat that appeared on the screen matched the name spoken; other times, the name and the image did not match. If cats knew the names of their cat friends, they would investigate by staring doubtfully at the monitor when the name and image did not match. House cats had a significantly longer stare than café cats, indicating that house cats generally expected a specific cat’s face upon hearing the cat’s name.
“This is the first evidence showing that house cats link human words and their social companions through daily experiences,” the researchers wrote. “However, we could not recognize the mechanism (机制) for learning. But with more and more scientists becoming interested in cats, who are much smarter than we assume, this question is sure to be solved.”
1. What’s people’s common understanding of cats?| A．They have their own language. | B．They can connect objects with words. |
| C．They show no interest in human things. | D．They can use human instructions to find food. |
| A．cats and dogs are all clever animals |
| B．cats’ ability to learn is stronger than dogs’ |
| C．cats and dogs can get along well with humans |
| D．cats’ ability goes beyond recognizing body language |
| A．Choose. | B．Protect. | C．Tell. | D．Learn. |
| A．How cats can recognize other cats’ face. |
| B．Whether cats are much smarter than expected. |
| C．Whether cats can understand human communication. |
| D．How cats link human words and their social companions. |
4 . Evolution (进化) can perform extraordinary makeovers; today’s airborne songbirds evolved from the wingless, earthbound dinosaurs that wandered millions of years ago. But some organisms seem to be unchanged — in other words, escape natural selection. The coelacanth, a modern-day fish, is nearly identical to its410-million-year-old fossils.
Scientists have long wondered how these species do so. It has been assumed that natural selection keeps some species unchanged by selecting for moderate or average qualities (stabilizing selection) rather than selecting for more extreme qualities that would cause a species to change (directional selection).
But a study published in the National Academy of Sciences USA contradicts this idea, showing that evolution constantly favors different qualities in seemingly unchanging animals to improve short-term survival. In the long term, though, “all that evolution cancels out and leads to no change,” says the study’s lead author, James Stroud.
Stroud and his colleagues studied for lizard (蜥蜴) specios; all relatively unchanged for 20 million years. The researchers caught members of these populations every six months for three years. They measured each lizard’s head size, leg length, mass and height, as well as the size of its sticky toes (脚趾头), noting which individuals survived. Stroud expected to observe stabılızıng selection at work preserving moderate qualities. Instead he saw clearer evidence of directional selection: some lizards with unique characteristics, such as stickier toes, survived better.
“The study offers a good explanation for why we see what we think is stabiliring selection,” says Tadashi Fukami, an ecologist studying evolution at Stanford University. Many new qualities are evolving in the short term, but they don’t provide a crucial advantage over the long term. In other words, species staying unchanged may simply have found the best possible combination of qualities for lasting success in their environment. So what happens when the lizards’ environment changes more dramatically? To help answer this bigger question, Stroud is still making trips to visit the lizards.
1. Why does the author mention the “coelacanth fish” in paragraph 1?| A．To demonstrate the power of evolution. | B．To add evidence to natural selection |
| C．To give an example of unchanged species. | D．To prove species' extraordinary makeovers. |
| A．Unsolved mysteries. | B．A common belief. |
| C．A sharp contrast. | D．Unique Characteristics. |
| A．By analyzing lizard fossils. | B．By tracking research objects. |
| C．By illustrating stabilizing selection. | D．By categorizing qualities of lizards. |
| A．Make trips to visit lizard experts. | B．Summarize average features of lizards. |
| C．Reveal the best combinations of qualities. | D．Examine lizards under extreme conditions. |
5 . Right now, summers are getting hotter, winters colder and the polar ice is melting at an alarming rate. Extreme weather events and natural disasters frequently occur. The climate time-bomb is ticking. Strict measures must be taken to tackle the problem.
It reminds me of how the lives we live seem to follow roughly in the way put forward years earlier by the writers of science-fiction. I guess it’s “life imitating art”. When I was young there were stories about rockets going into space and even going to the moon, although there had never been a rocket into space at that time. Years later, Russia launched Sputnik, the first man-made object to go into earth orbit and later the US landed people and even a car on the moon.
When I was growing up there were also science-fiction stories about governments looking for solutions when the world’s natural resources were being over-extended, such as they are in the case of climate change. The solution in the stories was to assume that the cause of the problem was over-population and the solution, therefore, was to limit the number of people. Various plans were put forward for doing that, from limiting the birth rate to killing off anyone over a certain age. That age, if I remember correctly, was usually about 60 and when you reached that you were supposed to turn yourself over to a government facility where you would be put to death.
Still, a look at the old science-fiction stories provides an interesting and somewhat chilling approach to what is acknowledged to be a very serious and worsening world-wide problem. There is general agreement that urgent action is needed to stop us from literally making our world unfit to live on. The answers, at least so far, concentrate on managing those resources and the ways in which we use them However, I wonder if the day will come when life will imitate the art of the old science-fiction stories and someone will propose limiting the number of people on the planet as a way of making it more suitable for those who are left. It’s a grave thing to predict.
1. What does the author say about climate problems?| A．The problems can be tackled in a scientific way. |
| B．The problems are in urgent need of being resolved. |
| C．The explosion of extreme climates is under control. |
| D．The loss of natural resources leads to climate changes. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By using quotes. |
| C．By giving definitions. | D．By making contrast. |
| A．Removing overpopulated species. | B．Getting rid of seniors. |
| C．Over-extending natural resources. | D．Moving onto the moon. |
| A．Calm. | B．Serious. | C．Frustrated. | D．Anxious. |
6 . Any schoolchild knows that a whale breathes through its blowhole. Fewer know that a blowhole is a nostril (鼻孔) slightly changed by evolution into a form more useful for a mammal that spends its life at sea. And only a dedicated expert would know that while toothed whales, such as sperm whales, have one hole, baleen (鲸须) whales, such as humpback and Rice whales, have two.
Even among the baleen whales, the placing of those nostrils differs. In some species they are close together. In others, they are much further apart. In a paper published in Biology Letters Conor Ryan, a marine biologist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, suggests why that might be. Having two nostrils, he argues, helps whales smell in stereo (立体空间).
Many types of baleen whales eat tiny animals known as zooplankton (浮游动物), which they catch by filtering (过滤) them from seawater using the sheets of fibrous baleen that have replaced teeth in their mouths. But to eat something you first have to find it. Toothed whales do not hunt by scent. In fact, the olfactory bulb—the part of the brain that processes smell—is absent in such creatures. But baleen whales still have olfactory bulbs, which suggests smell remains important. And scent can indeed give zooplankton away. Zooplankton like to eat other tiny creatures called phytoplankton (浮游植物). When these are under attack, they release a special gas called dimethyl sulphide, which in turn attracts baleen whales.
Most animals have stereoscopic senses. Having two eyes, for instance, allows an animal to compare the images from each in order to perceive depth. Having two ears lets them locate the direction from which a sound is coming. Dr Ryan theorized that paired blowholes might bring baleen whales the same sorts of benefits.
The farther apart the sensory organs are, the more information can be extracted by the animal that bears them. The researchers used drones to photograph the nostrils of 143 whales belonging to 14 different species. Sure enough, baleen whales that often eat zooplankton, such as the North Atlantic right whale, have nostrils that are farther apart than do those, such as humpback whales, that eat zooplankton occasionally. Besides allowing them to breathe, it seems that some whales use their blowholes to determine in which direction dinner lies.
1. What do we know about whales’ nostrils according to the first two paragraphs?| A．They are adapted ones. | B．They are developed merely for smell. |
| C．They are not easy to detect. | D．They are fixed universally in numbers. |
| A．The teeth that baleen whales have. |
| B．The smell that phytoplankton send. |
| C．The sound waves that zooplankton create. |
| D．The chemical signals that zooplankton give off. |
| A．By quoting a theory. | B．By using examples. |
| C．By making contrast. | D．By making inferences. |
| A．The sense of smell. | B．The possibility to attract food. |
| C．The ability to locate food. | D．The ability to communicate. |
7 . In mainland Britain, people who has ever attempted to grow berries or nuts — or indeed feed the bird — will know, doing so is identical to an opening move in a game of chess with local grey squirrels, a game the squirrels tend to win. Grey squirrels are also fond of the occasional bird’s eggs or the young birds, and enjoy tearing and eating the bark of young broadleaf trees, which can either kill the trees or leave them open to infection. This, apart from affecting biodiversity and the landscape, harms the wood industry. The loss — in damaged timber, lost carbon revenue and tree replacements — is not insignificant: £37 a year in England and Wales.
Grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), introduced from North America in 1876, have nearly replaced the native red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in Britain by outcompeting them for food and habitat. They are larger, and stronger, and resistant to squirrel pox virus, while reds are not. About 3 million now live in the UK; the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the grey squirrel among the top 100 most harmful invasive species in the world.
In Britain, significant efforts have been made to stop grey squirrels’ progress, including trapping, shooting, and releasing pine martens into their habitats. The latest move, a workable system for which was thought to be a decade away, is forbidding the breeding of grey squirrels. However, legal challenges brought so many delays that the invasive grey squirrels. population expanded to an unmanageable level and wiping out was abandoned. The main issue in Britain was thought to be more technological than legal — designing a drug that targets only grey squirrels to prevent them breeding. Another possibility in the years ahead is to use DNA editing to ensure grey females are born unable to give birth.
Obviously, there is a hint of xenophobia (仇外) in some discussions about the introduction of grey squirrels to Britain nearly 150 years ago which has had an impact on the local ecosystem, posing a threat to native species. It’s also worth noting that reds — which also tear bark and take eggs — were seen as pests until the early 1930s, and extensively killed. There is, too, a strong argument that ecosystems evolve naturally, and it may be impractical and unrealistic to intervenes or even resist it. The attraction of controlling the breeding of the grey squirrels is that it is less inhumane, and aims for balance rather than uprooting.
1. What does the author focus on in paragraph one?| A．The harm of grey squirrels. |
| B．The cutting habits of grey squirrels. |
| C．The effect of grey squirrels on the wood industry. |
| D．The game between the British and grey squirrels. |
| A．Their huge number. | B．Their unique origins. |
| C．Their breeding ability. | D．Their physical qualities. |
| A．To offer more labour. | B．To invest more money. |
| C．To perfect the law. | D．To take advantage of technology. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Indifferent. | C．Favorable. | D．Doubtful. |
8 . Several security guards of residential compounds in Beijing and workers were seen shoveling snow and some parked vehicles were covered by thick overnight snow. The first snowfall of winter arrived in Beijing early Monday, covering the Chinese capital with a mantle (披风) of white overnight and plunging (使……下降) the city into freezing temperatures, with even colder weather coming this week in northern China.
Snowfall reached 5.8 mm on average by early Monday, with the highest snowfall of 10.2 mm recorded in Fangshan district, Beijing Meteorological (气象的) Service data showed. Beijing typically sees its first snow of the season between late November and February, or even none at all. More snowfall is expected this week, with temperatures seen further sliding to as low as -20°Celsius. The Chinese capital last saw such similarly extremely cold weather on Jan. 7, 2021, when the temperature dropped to -19.6℃.
The cold snap (寒潮) in Beijing this week, compared with the autumn-like conditions a week ago, mirrored the sharp swings in temperatures recently. In October, Beijing experienced one of its warmest Octobers in decades in a year of weather extremes.
On Monday, the government warned of road icing in large parts of the city of nearly 22 million, with authorities shutting some expressways or partially closing sections. By 10 a. m. local time, 62 out of a few hundred flights had been cancelled at the Beijing Capital Airport. Railway authorities enforced speed limits on lines connecting Beijing and Guangzhou in southern China, causing delays in some passenger trains. By 7 a. m. Monday, more than 180 bus routes in Beijing had been suspended.
The official Beijing Daily reported that vegetable stocks were enough, hitting this year’s highest daily market volume of 23,800 tons, as merchants stocked up (备货) ahead of time. Huang, a Beijing resident working in the internet sector, said the snow in Beijing came early. “Normally, it doesn’t snow until the Spring Festival,” Huang said, referring to the start of the Lunar New Year, which typically falls in January or February.
1. Which of the following is not used to show the seriousness of the snowfall in paragraph?| A．By listing out numbers. | B．By illustrating a viewpoint. |
| C．By citing data from the authority. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．From hot summers to mild winters. |
| B．From dry conditions to heavy rainfall. |
| C．From autumn-like conditions to a sudden coldness. |
| D．From constant snow to unexpectedly warm temperatures. |
| A．introduced | B．obeyed | C．happened | D．improved |
| A．Organized community support groups. | B．Increased storage of essential supplies. |
| C．Created emergency shelters for the homeless. | D．Offered discounts and sales to boost business. |
9 . The world is warming up and humans are the cause, and that means it’s up to us to stop it. The burning of oil and coal is one huge cause, and clean energy (能源) sources are needed greatly if we’re going to make any meaningful changes. But where is all of this clean energy going to come from? Denmark seems to have an idea.
In Europe, Denmark provides more oil than any other country, but that’s going to change. The country has promised to stop oil production within the next 30 years, but that means it’s going to need to get its energy from somewhere else. To that end, Denmark has planned to build a man-made island off its coast.
As Fast Company reports, the plan will include the building of the island itself as well as up to 600 wind turbines (涡轮机) to pick up ocean winds and change them into electricity (电). The island will have a size of 20 football fields and will have turbines around it and send power to huge batteries (电池) that can store power for whenever it’s needed. All told, the island should be able to provide power for as many as three million homes, but as more batteries are added, that stored power could be provided for even more homes and businesses.
“The island is expected to cost about $34 billion, which is really a lot of money. However, as countries begin to use more green energy, the ones that produce more of it will have the chance to sell it to other countries. As oil and coal burning is not allowed worldwide, those that don’t produce enough green energy might be forced to buy up power from their greener neighbors,” said Fast Company.
1. Which of the following words can best describe Denmark’s action?| A．Worrying. | B．Brave. | C．Responsible. | D．Confusing |
| A．An energy center. | B．A living center. |
| C．A research center. | D．A tour center. |
| A．The project will get paid back in the long run. |
| B．The project will attract more countries’ attention. |
| C．They have collected enough money for the project. |
| D．They need other countries’help to finish the project. |
| A．Denmark will become a greener country. |
| B．Denmark is going to stop providing oil. |
| C．Denmark will sell its green energy to other countries. |
| D．Denmark will build a man-made island to produce energy |
10 . The public nowadays has a misunderstanding of forest fires, believing that fires should be kept out of every type of forest. Many of us can recall Smoky the Bear’s famous warning: “Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires”. However, that’s not always the case. Under the right conditions, and when conducted safely, fire can create many environmental benefits as well as help prevent larger, uncontrollable wildfires.
After a forest fire, many wildlife species will move into recently burned areas to feed on these newly available foods. Some reptiles and amphibians such as the snake prefer forests frequently burned by fire. As Herbert Stoddard put it, “One of the most harmful things modern man has done to birds has been his attempt to exclude fire from fire-type pine (松树) forests. Within a few years most forests choke up with bushes, lose their prairie-like vegetation (草原般植被) and can no longer support birds which depend on periodic burning for their food supply and proper cover.”
If you are asked to picture the forest floor, what do you see? Pine needles, cones, leaves, branches might come to mind — all sources of fuel. If these fuel sources build up without any type of removal, the ‘fuel load’ can lead to fires which are huge disasters to forests and people alike. In contrast, prescribed fires can be used by forest professionals every couple of years to keep forest fuels at a proper and manageable level. They can also greatly reduce the spread of pest insects and disease and remove unwanted tree and plant species. Plus, they can create and maintain important wildlife habitats rich in grasses and promote the growth of trees, wildflowers and other various plants.
Many organizations work to promote fire on the landscape. Smoky Bear even has an updated warning: “Only YOU can prevent wildfires,” as the Forest Service has over the last few decades developed policies and measures to include prescribed fire as a useful tool, as well as continuing their work to prevent and fight wildfires.
1. What can benefit birds according to Herbert Stoddard?| A．Forest bushes. | B．Periodic burning. |
| C．Fuel sources. | D．Pine forests. |
| A．Frequent. | B．Wild. | C．Planned. | D．Damaging. |
| A．To keep the forest in balance. | B．To keep the fuel rich in the forest. |
| C．To put out wildfires. | D．To remove tree and plant species. |
| A．To prevent the use of prescribed fire in the forest. |
| B．To promote the complete exclusion of fire from forests. |
| C．To educate people on positive aspects of controlled fires. |
| D．To encourage the public to remove sources of forest fuels. |
