1 . In a heartwarming rescue operation off the coast of Houston-Galveston, a U.S. CoastGuard team discovered an unexpected passenger during a routine inspection of shipping containers. The team, led by Petty Officer 2nd Class McMahon, were astonished when they heard barking and scratching coming from one of the containers.
As they cautiously opened the container, they were greeted by the sight of a small, furry face — a dog trapped inside the dark space. The dog seemed remarkably calm and happy to be liberated from her limited quarters.
“As soon as we opened it, we could see the little dog’s face poking out,” McMahon said. “She just seemed happy more than anything, to be out of that dark space and in the arms of people that were going to take care of her.”
Further investigation by Coast Guard officials revealed that Connie had been trapped in the container for at least eight days, deprived of food and water. The container, filled with deserted vehicles intended for overseas sales, had likely originated from a junkyard.
“So based on that, they think that the dog most likely was in a junkyard, in a car. And that how she accidentally got put in the container,” Chief Petty Officer Corinne Zilnicki said.
Grateful for being in the right place at the right time, McMahon expressed the urgency of the situation. “It would take at least another week to get to where she was going and two weeks without food or water. I don’t think she would have made it,” he said.
Forever Changed Animal Rescue has taken her in, diligently working to nurse her back to health and prepare her for adoption.
1. What does the underlined word “liberated” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Chained. | B．Released. | C．Protected. | D．Inspected. |
| A．At a deserted parking lot. | B．Off the local coast. |
| C．In an unusable vehicle. | D．In a limited container. |
| A．Being sold overseas. | B．Starving to death. |
| C．Living with a family. | D．Being trapped in a junkyard. |
| A．An Unexpected Passenger | B．A Touching Rescue |
| C．An Abandoned Dog | D．A Remarkable Team |
2 . Composting At Home
Any gardener can benefit from adding nutrients and organic matter to the soil to help plants grow strongly and vigorously.
●Combine green and brown materials
●Water your compost pile
Usually rainfall is enough to keep it damp, but in a dry summer you might have to spray it with water. Don’t add too much water or the microorganisms in your compost pile will become waterlogged and be drowned.
●
Air is vital to the composting process, so it’s important to mix the ingredients in together, and never press them flat. You should turn the pile periodically with a garden fork and keep it damp. This step provides oxygen, and the dampness assures the survival of the microorganisms, which need moisture to live.
●Feed your garden with compost
When the compost pile no longer gives off heat and becomes dry, brown, and crumbly, it’s fully cooked and ready to feed to the garden. Add about 4 to 6 inches of compost to your flower beds and a thick layer to the top of pots at the beginning of each planting season.
Composting at home is easy and environmentally friendly.
| A．Stir your compost pile regularly |
| B．Harvest your finished compost |
| C．Plus, it’s a treat for your garden |
| D．If this happens, your pile will breakdown instead of compost |
| E．Almost anything you chop in the kitchen can go in the compost bin |
| F．One of the most popular and beneficial substances to add is compost |
| G．Once your pile is setup, maintaining it takes just a few minutes each week |
3 . Do you know how to cycle? It is a skill that, once learned, is never forgotten. For the majority of us, the art of balancing on two wheels was mastered during our childhood. Many still wear helmets, put feet on the pedals, and take a ride around the streets. And in recent years, cycling has become more and more popular. What attracts people to ride their bikes once again?
Cycling offers a lot of advantages that affect both our physical and mental health. For example, regular cycling can improve the function of our cardiovascular (心血管的)system, assist in the burning of extra body fat and strengthen our leg muscles. A long ride in the countryside helps us to clear our mind easily.
Riding a bike is a smart choice for getting to work, shopping, or sightseeing. You can save money that you would otherwise spend on fuels and fares. Unlike cars that struggle with parking, bikes can be easily locked up. Then, on the train, there are chances at stations and other people speaking loudly on their phones. Cyclists face neither of these problems. And if we’re worried about safety, there are cycle lanes in many cities, or we can wear light-colored clothes to improve our safety when cycling on the roads.
Cycling can also be good for the environment. It cuts our carbon footprint, which means we make less pollution. It’s great for our planet and keeps the air clean around us. When we ride bikes, we don’t use fuel like cars do, and that’s really good for our environment.
Therefore, more and more people choose to ride for many benefits such as improving their health, easily going to work, saving money, protecting the environment, or a combination of these factors.
1. When do most people learn to ride?| A．In their free time. | B．After their retirement. |
| C．At their young ages. | D．During their adulthood. |
| A．It is a good way to save money. |
| B．It is a great idea to relax cyclists. |
| C．It is dangerous to cycle on the roads. |
| D．It is difficult to find a place park the bike. |
| A．Consumes more fuels. | B．Increases air pollution. |
| C．Causes fewer accidents. | D．Reduces carbon footprint. |
| A．Sports & Health. | B．Travel & Culture. |
| C．Science & Technology. | D．Animals & Environment. |
4 . Have you ever been hungry and sleepy and wished you could solve both problems at once? If you were a reindeer (驯鹿) , it would be easy. According to a new research, these talented deer can have a snooze while they eat their food.
Reindeer live in the Arctic and other northern regions where the winters are extremely dark and cold. Food can be rare in winter, so during the warmer months the deer must eat as much as they possibly can.
Like cows, reindeer use a process called rumination (反刍) to break down the tough plant they eat. This process involves passing the food back and forth between their mouth and the four “stomachs”, chewing it repeatedly until all the nutrients (营养) have been absorbed. In summer, all that chewing seems to leave very little time for sleep.
To find out their secret to getting enough rest, scientists fitted four reindeer with devices that monitored their brain waves. While the reindeer were ruminating, their brain waves were similar to the patterns shown during sleep. The animals sat or stood quietly with their eyes closed, and they were less likely than usual to react to. the movements of a neighbouring deer. “They were in a very relaxed state, ” researcher Melanie Furrer said.
The chewing movement made it hard for the researchers to tell whether, the animals’ brain waves were truly in sleep mode. But when they tested the deer again after rumination, the animals' brain activity showed that they felt rested.
If reindeer are kept awake for too long, they need extra “recovery sleep” to catch up. After ruminating, however, the deer did not need as much recovery sleep. Study co-author Gabriela Wagner said that ruminating serves two different purposes at the same time —eating and sleeping.
1. What does the underlined word “snooze” most probably mean?| A．Quick drink. | B．Short walk. | C．Light sleep. | D．Bad dream. |
| A．To keep awake. | B．To practice chewing. |
| C．To taste better plants. | D．To prepare for winter. |
| A．They sleep when drinking. | B．They sleep when ruminating. |
| C．They sleep when not moving. | D．They sleep when not thinking. |
| A．A health magazine. | B．A book review. |
| C．A science report. | D．A research plan. |
5 . Known for its beautiful natural environment, Guizhou contains a total of four World Heritage Sites, which is more than any other province in China.
The Fanjing Mountain, known as the “City of the Sky”, is famous for its Buddhist culture and the complex of temples. Compared with the world’s other mountains in the same latitude (纬度) zone, the Fanjing Mountain features the best-preserved animals and plants. It was listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2018.
Libo Karst, listed in the UNESCO World Heritage in 2007, is located in the southern borderland of Guizhou. Walking into Libo is a feast for the eyes. You would be amazed by one breathtaking sight after another, such as the Wolong Pond and the Laya Waterfall.
The Yuntai Mountain stands out like a piece of green agate (玛瑙) in its latitude zone. It is the oldest and best-preserved dolomite (白云石) karst landform in the world, which is extremely rare and highly valuable for scientific research. In 2014, the Yuntai Mountain was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its “uniqueness and typicality”.
Chishui Danxia is home to the largest Danxia landform area. The highlight of the tourist area, named Foguang Rock, is regarded as the greatest example of a Danxia landform in the world. When the afternoon sunlight hits it, it seems to glow like fire. There is a waterfall that is 42 meters wide and 269 meters high, which looks like a graceful white dragon. It was added to the UNESCO Wodd Heritage List in 2010.
1. What makes the Fanjing Mountain special in the same latitude?| A．Its high value for scientific research. | B．Its being called the “City of the Sky”. |
| C．Its rich Buddhist culture and temples. | D．Its best-preserved animals and plants. |
| A．Dolomite karst. | B．Danxia landform. |
| C．Laya Waterfall. | D．Foguang Rock. |
| A．The Fanjing Mountain. | B．Libo Karst. |
| C．The Yuntai Mountain. | D．Chishui Danxia |
6 . When nine-year-olds Ella Grace Rossen and Cash Daniels met in July 2019, they immediately connected. When their moms introduced them, they had no idea that the kids were about to become an environmental-activism powerhouse pair.
“We knew we could make a difference together, ” says Cash from his home in Ella agrees. “It was pretty much instant best friends.”
Within a short time, their meeting transformed into action, birthing the Cleanup Kids — a youth-led non-profit determined to make waves in environmental conservation.
Ella’s passion for the environment started with an early love of sharks and many first-hand encounters of cleaning up trash along the shores of Vero Beach. For Cash, the spark was ignited (点燃) at just seven years old, when a single plastic straw on the beach caught his eye, symbolizing a much larger issue. That’s when he became aware of the crisis facing thousands of turtles, seabirds and other wildlife, which risk death from consuming discarded plastic.
“My hope for the Cleanup Kids is that it’s not hundreds of kids, it’s thousands of kids who have joined us, and for that to have a chain effect,” says Ella. Member responsibilities include conducting at least one cleanup per month, documenting and photographing the collected trash, and sorting and recycling items. It’s a lot of work, and it hasn’t gone unrecognized. In 2022, out of more than 700 applicants from across North America, Cash and Ella were chosen as one of 25 projects to receive the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes.
How do you even begin to make that impact? Cash’s best advice is to start small. “I started with just a couple cleanups with my family. Don’t overdo it,” he says. “And just remember that kids may be only a small part of the population, but we’re 100 percent of the future.”
1. What do we know about Cleanup Kids?| A．It is aimed at making a fortune. |
| B．It is co-led by mothers and kids. |
| C．It helps kids make friends. |
| D．It focuses on environmental preservation. |
| A．Trash along the shores of Vero Beach, |
| B．A single plastic straw on the beach. |
| C．Turtles eating discarded plastic. |
| D．Death of the wildlife in the ocean. |
| A．Acknowledged. | B．Fruitless. |
| C．Wasted. | D．Inadequate. |
| A．A Cleaner Future |
| B．Friendship Between Two Kids |
| C．Young Geniuses in the World |
| D．Advice for Kids |
7 . Djukic is a biology and chemistry student at John Carroll University. She never thought that one day she would be in a classroom where an English teacher asked her to play a board game in order to learn about climate change.
Debra Rosenthal is the professor of the class. At first, Djukic said she was uncertain about Rosenthal’s board game idea. “I was just like: ‘this is interesting, but how much are we actually going to take away from it?”
Rosenthal thought her students would gain a greater understanding about how their own ideas and experiences affect climate change. Students do not compete against each other. They work together to choose the best plan of action. The game is different from board games such as Monopoly, where the goal is to win. Rosenthal said she hoped the games would give students a chance to talk about climate change in a new way.
“By playing the games, it’s a way to be social, to engage in conversation. There has to be a lot of energy around the table. It’s very collaborative. And in the game that I chose to play, they really were able to work together and try to come up with a solution so that the planet was not destroyed.”
During the class, she said, students laughed, disagreed and had to call for votes as a way to decide how to move forward in the game. Djukic said it was a “way to have fun...while also learning about such a serious subject.”
The games are global, Djukic said. That is because she and her classmates said they were able to see how one player’s decision about agriculture affected another player on the other side of the world.
She said the games showed her that “in the game of climate change and the climate crisis, no individual wins.” “It’s either we all suffer from this, or we all somehow collaborate to work our way out of this and turn the clock back on climate change.”
1. What is the purpose of Rosenthal’s class arrangement?| A．To inspire the competition among students. |
| B．To entertain the students with the board game. |
| C．To stress the damage caused by climate change. |
| D．To encourage student’s viewpoints about climate change. |
| A．Cooperative | B．Competitive | C．Creative | D．Exclusive |
| A．Agriculture is of vital importance to the world. |
| B．The world is a community of shared future. |
| C．Man with strong will can conquer nature. |
| D．Climate change is a tough problem to solve. |
| A．Climate change calls for teamwork. |
| B．Climate change leads to global impact. |
| C．A board game helps students understand climate issues. |
| D．A good teacher gives students lifelong benefits. |
8 . Research found gophers (囊地鼠) might improve conditions for root growth inside their underground tunnels. This could help the root-eating gophers get enough food in areas that don’t naturally contain lots of roots. If gophers aid the growth of food in this way, it might be counted as a type of farming.
Gophers spend a lot of energy digging their tunnels. Two researchers, Jack Putz and Veronica Selden from the University of Florida, got curious about where they got all this energy. So in 2021, the two investigated some gophers in Florida. They studied roots near 12 gopher tunnels to estimate how much root mass a gopher would encounter as it dug a meter of tunnel. Then the researchers calculated how much energy those roots would provide. They found digging cost the gophers about as much energy as the roots provided.
They also examined gopher tunnels. Poop (粪便) was spread along the tunnels. Gophers also seemed to have taken a few bites out of the roots. All suggested the gophers bad provided conditions conducing to root growth. Their poop served as fertilizer. And biting also encouraged root growth. They now think this amounts to a form of farming.
But the idea meets doubts. “I don’t think you could call it farming,” biologist Pynne says, “Biting roots and pooping mightn’t be signs of farming. Gophers could just be doing what all animals do,” Biologist Ulrich Mueller says. “If gophers could be regarded as farmers, then most animals are farmers. These animals also create good growing conditions for the plants they feed on. Take cows, for example. Their poop fertilizes the grass. But farmers don’t consider cows as their colleagues.” Selden understands the doubts but thinks what qualifies the gophers as farmers and sets them apart from other animals is that they develop and maintain this ideal growing environment.
Putz hopes their research makes people kinder to gophers. “If you put in ‘gopher’ online, you’ll see many ways to kill them,” he says. If people see gophers as useful animals, they might treat them better.
1. What did the researchers find about gophers?| A．They dug holes on the farm. | B．They bedded roots in the tunnel. |
| C．They helped improve farming methods. | D．They acquired energy from roots. |
| A．Belonging to. | B．Pointing to. | C．Favouring. | D．Balancing. |
| A．To show farmers depend on them. | B．To present they benefit root growth. |
| C．To deny gophers are viewed as farmers. | D．To prove their poop can serve as fertilizer. |
| A．Treat them as explorers. | B．Avoid hurting them. |
| C．Publicize them online. | D．Protect their habitats. |
9 . For thousands of years, humans have used names to communicate with one another. We also give names to animals, especially ones we love, such as pets. Until now there has been little evidence of animals naming one another, but a new study suggests that elephants use specific noises to identify other elephants.
A few animals, including parrots and dolphins, have been known to use sounds that are similar to names. Each dolphin invents a signature whistle that is unique to it, and other members of its species communicate with it by simulating this special call. The new study, led by Michael Pardo of Colorado State University, shows that wild African elephants use names in a way that is not just copying sounds and is much closer to the way humans use names.
For the study, the researchers recorded 625 sounds made by wild African elephants in Kenya that they called "rumbles (隆隆声)”. This is the most common type of call produced by elephants, and it can travel long distances-as far as 3. 7 miles. It takes place at a very low frequency, which means humans can't hear it.
The researchers analyzed the sounds using computers and found that certain rumbles were directed at specific elephants to get their attention They found that all the elephants in the herd used the identical call to get a particular elephant's attention -these calls were not just nicknames used by one of the elephant's friends. Also. unlike the way dolphins communicate. the rumbles were not just imitations of the elephant they were trying to communicate with.
The researchers then played back some of the recorded rumbles to the elephants. They found that elephants responded more to their own name than to other calls. coming toward it more quickly or calling back faster. Cartlin O'Connell-Rodwell, an elephant expert, said, "The study shows that elephants can still keep in touch with one another even across a large area. "She told Live Science, "The rumbles ere magical, which allow them to spread out much further and still have very close tabs（密切关注） on individuals. "
1. What does the underlined word "simulating" in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Copying. | B．Inventing | C．Transforming. | D．Receiving. |
| A．By making certain rumbles heard by people. |
| B．By using specific languages like people’s. |
| C．By making specific noises with a high frequency |
| D．By using names in a way closer to people’s. |
| A．It records 625 sounds from several species. |
| B．It is subjective in the analysis of sounds. |
| C．It is carried out with the help of computers. |
| D．It shows dolphins' calls travel long distances. |
| A．Elephants communicate with noses across a large area. |
| B．Rumbles are important in elephants’ communication |
| C．Elephants may be last on the way to their habitats |
| D．Rumbles enable elephants to stand nr play closer. |
10 . The Luling Mountains in Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, used to be a deserted area without even a single tree. Now, it is a leafy paradise for birds, and tourists are flooding in. The huge transformation has occurred thanks to the consistent efforts of Tian Wangui, 67, and his wife Lu Min, 63, over nearly half a century.
In 1982, the couple contracted(承包)the land-use rights of the two mountains near their home. They intended to plant fruit trees in the mountains to make a living. Back then, the mountains were deserted with no trees at all. To help the seedlings(树苗)they planted survive in the barren(贫瘠的)land, the couple had to carry water to the mountains on their backs. They also bought whatever seeds were available from a nearby forest farm and spread them every spring, hoping to afforest the mountains. With such an extensive planting method, however, they initially failed to see many seeds take root in the barren soil. But the couple didn’t give up.
The couple’s perseverance finally paid off. They discovered that some tree species were tough enough to survive, including pine and mulberry. Now, more than 50,000 trees of over 20 species cover the land they contracted, following their consistent efforts to sow tree seeds year after year.
As the mountains became lush(郁郁葱葱), Tian and Lu were charged with a new task-patrolling(巡逻)their nearly 67 hectares of forest every day to prevent fires. The patrol even didn’t stop on the eve of last year’s Chinese Lunar New Year. Instead of watching the CCTV Spring Festival Gala on Jan. 21st like most Chinese, the couple went to patrol the mountains with the families of their son and daughter. “Many people set off fireworks to mark the arrival of the new year, so the holiday is a time when we have to stay cautious against fire threats,” Tian said.
The couple has no plans to quit their work, and they hope their children will follow in their footsteps. “We cherish the mountains and trees as we cherish our own children,” Lu said. “Even as we grow old, they will continue to patrol the woods and watch over the birds.”
1. What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?| A．The mountains. | B．The forest farm. |
| C．The poor couple. | D．The tough condition. |
| A．More than 20 species were sowed every year. |
| B．Pine and mulberry cannot survive on the land. |
| C．Their continuous efforts eventually worked. |
| D．They bought 50,000 trees according to the contract. |
| A．Honest and hardworking. | B．Curious and brave. |
| C．Determined and persevering. | D．Friendly and intelligent. |
| A．They regard the mountains as their children. |
| B．They want their children to succeed their career. |
| C．They can earn much money from the mountains. |
| D．They have a life-long contract with the government. |
