1 . At first glance the sea turtles look as if they were dead because they hardly move. But if you look closely enough, they show a slow glimpse of life. These turtles are all washed up in Massachusetts every December, on the windy beaches of Cape Cod Bay.
Shaver, chief of the Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery at Padre Island National Seashore in Texas, said, “If we don’t help save this species, we will lose a piece that enriches us. There’s a whole variety of things that can harm them: oil spills, boat strikes, red tides, and so on.” That is why all the urgent care they’re getting back up North is more important than ever.
Saving could never happen unless hundreds of pilots were willing to volunteer their time, their planes, and their fuel to rush the rescued turtles to willing rehab facilities (康复中心) all around the country.
On this particular mission, Andrews, vice president of a unique nonprofit called Turtles Fly Too, with his dad as a co-pilot, will fly more than 2,000 miles, from Boston, to Atlanta, then on to Gulfport and finally Dallas, dropping off 44 sick sea turtles along the way, in hopes that one day they’ll be well enough to be released. It is worth mentioning that the pilots that are flying these missions are pulling $1 million out of their pocket to fly these missions every year.
With good care and the help of volunteers, these turtles were finally ready to go home again. According to Andrews, “90% of the turtles that we’ve moved to the rehab facilities have ended up back in the ocean.”
“We humans have not always been kind to the sea and those that live in it. But on this day, it was humans-not me, but the hundreds of veterinarians, biologists, volunteers, and pilots—who all came together to give these critically-endangered sea turtles a second chance that they rarely got, ”Andrews added.
1. What happens to the turtles on the beaches of Cape Cod Bay?| A．They are dying out. | B．They are in danger. |
| C．They adapt to living onshore. | D．They are caught by humans. |
| A．Thrilled. | B．Annoyed. | C．Concerned. | D．Moved. |
| A．The pilots’ generous devotion. |
| B．The division’s urgent care. |
| C．The rehab facilities’ willingness to help. |
| D．The improvement of the turtles’ habitats. |
| A．It is unsatisfactory. | B．It costs too much. |
| C．It is controversial. | D．It quite pays off. |
2 . Humans have sailed the oceans’ surfaces for thousands of years, but their depths remain effectively uncharted. Only about a quarter of the seafloor has been mapped at high resolution (清晰度). Maps of most regions display only estimated depths and often miss entire underwater mountains or canyons (峡谷). So a group of researchers have turned to some deep-diving experts: Elephant Seals and Weddell Seals. Scientists have been placing trackers on these blubber y marine mammals around Antarctica for years, gathering data on ocean temperature and salinity (盐度).
For a new study, the researchers compared these dives’ location and depth data with some of the less detailed seafloor maps. They spotted places where the seals dove deeper than should have been possible according to the maps.
In eastern Antarctica’s Vincennes Bay, the diving seals helped the scientists find a large, hidden underwater canyon suddenly descending (下降) to depths of more than a mile. “The seals discovered the canyon, and the ship confirmed it,” says Clive McMahon, a researcher at the Integrated Marine Observing System in Australia and a co-author of the new study.
But seals can’t map the entire ocean floor. The trackers used in the study could pinpoint (为……准确定位) a seal’s geographical location only within about 1.5 miles, which allows for useful but not exactly high-resolution data. Plus, because the seals don’t always dive to the bottom of the ocean, they can reveal only where the bottom is deeper than in existing maps — not shallower. McMahon notes that scientists could improve on these data by using more precise GPS trackers and analyzing the seals’ diving patterns to determine whether they have reached the seafloor or simply stopped descending.
The current seal-dive data can still be valuable for an important task, says Anna Wåhlin, an oceanographer at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. The deep ocean around Antarctica is warmer than the extremely cold waters at the surface, and seafloor canyons can allow that warmer water to flow to the ice along the continent’s coast, Wåhlin explains. To predict how Antarctica’s ice will melt, scientists will need to know where those canyons are and how deep they go.
1. What’s the initial function of the device carried by the seals?| A．Collecting data about seawater. |
| B．Filming the images of the seafloor. |
| C．Recording the seals’ travelling routes. |
| D．Leading researchers to some remote areas. |
| A．It is impossible to fully uncover the secrets of the sea. |
| B．The existing depth estimates for the sea are inaccurate. |
| C．Seals’ ability to dive is worth further scientific studies. |
| D．It is urgent for scientists to map detailed seafloor maps. |
| A．The creative methods adopted in the study. |
| B．Major technical challenges faced by scientists. |
| C．New research directions inspired by the study. |
| D．The shortcomings of the approaches to the study. |
| A．The new study is potentially beneficial to other scientific fields. |
| B．The deep waters of Antarctica are colder than the surface waters. |
| C．Seafloor canyons slow down the speed of ice melting in Antarctica. |
| D．The seal-dive practice is valuable for mapping the entire ocean floor. |
3 . Johannes Fritz, a biologist, needed to come up with a plan, again, if he was going to prevent his rare and beloved birds from going extinct.
To survive the European winter, the northern bald ibis — which had once disappeared entirely from the wild on the continent—needs to migrate (迁徙) south for the winter, over the Alps, before the mountains become impassable. But shifting climate patterns have delayed when the birds begin to migrate, and they are now reaching the mountains too late to make it over the peaks, locking them in an icy death trap. Determined to save them, Mr. Fritz decided he would teach the birds a new, safer migration route by guiding them himself in a tiny aircraft. And he was confident he could succeed in this daring, unconventional plan—because he had done it before.
Mr. Fritz learned to fly, modifying a light aircraft so it would fly at speeds slow enough for his winged students to keep up. In 2004, Mr. Fritz led the first flock from Austria to Italy, and has since led 15 such migrations. Over that time, he has rewilded 277 young ibises, many of which then started to pass the route onto their own young. For now, however, the main worry is getting the birds to follow the aircraft. “While they have a strong bond with their ‘mothers’ and follow them around on the ground, flying is more difficult,” Fritz said.
“Fly Away Home was a huge hit with us biologists,” Mr. Fritz said, recalling the 1996 movie in which characters lead the migration of orphaned Canada geese in a hang glider. When Mr. Fritz declared he’d do the same with the ibises, he was initially laughed at. But through years of trial and error, he succeeded. He even learned to fly like a bird, he said. Mr. Fritz’s two sons, both now teenagers, followed their flying father and the migrating birds on the ground, and his family and colleagues witnessed the risks he was taking. But the inevitable risks are “necessary”, Mr. Fritz said. “It’s not so much a job,” he added, “but my life’s purpose.”
1. Why did Mr. Fritz guide the birds himself in a tiny aircraft?| A．He wanted to learn from them. | B．He showed them a safer flyway. |
| C．They needed to be fed in the air. | D．They were often lost on the way. |
| A．By listing concrete numbers. | B．By conducting a survey. |
| C．By performing experiments. | D．By making a comparison. |
| A．Imaginative and honest. | B．Generous and easy-going. |
| C．Energetic and open-minded. | D．Strong-willed and brave. |
| A．Fritz once starred in a film in 1996. | B．Fritz had no difficulty with his work. |
| C．Fritz thought what he did was rewarding. | D．Fritz was challenged by those around him. |
4 . Between 20 and 40 per cent of planet Earth is covered in grasslands, across every continent except for Antarctica. Grass is a low-growing, flowering plant with groups of narrow leaves growing from its base. Strong roots typically hold this plant’s leaves firmly to the ground.
One of the most common sights along stretches of grass is grass-eating animals. This is because many large animals rely on extensive grasslands to survive, and grass grows well with this regular trimming (修剪). The plants gain their energy from sunlight and require healthy cells to do so. If the leaves aren’t cut, the tips die and start to rot. When they are damaged with a clean cut, however, the cells are caused to grow quicker and produce new, healthy tissue. This is also why cutting your garden’s grassland regularly can make your grass look thicker and healthier.
Humans rely on grass for food, too. Many grasses, such as w heat or corn, are harvested as a main part of some diets. Meanwhile, grass is used indirectly to produce food in the form of livestock (牲畜). Cattle farmers require grass in their fields to feed cows and sheep before they are turned into meat for human consumption.
One of the most debated questions is how long ago grass evolved. Because grass doesn’t preserve well as a fossil, a definitive answer is hard to come by. Until recently, many scientists estimated that grass began to grow on Earth between 50 and 65 million years ago.
However, within the last decade, a piece of 100-million-year-old amber (琥珀) was found that appeared to contain the oldest grass fossil to date. Studies of fossilized dinosaur faces (粪便) also suggest that some dinosaurs lived at the same time that grass grew on the planet, incorporating it into their diets.
1. What is the function of the roots mentioned in Paragraph 1?| A．To fix the leaves to the soil. | B．To store water and nutrients. |
| C．To support the growth of the plant. | D．To protect the plant from animals. |
| A．By improving soil quality. | B．By encouraging cell growth. |
| C．By preventing the tips from dying. | D．By attracting more animals to eat them. |
| A．Grass doesn’t preserve well as a fossil. | B．There are no fossils of grass available. |
| C．There is no solid evidence of its evolution. | D．Scientists can’t agree on its origin. |
| A．The Variety of Grass | B．The Development of Grass |
| C．How Grass Change Life | D．How to Make Grass Grow Well |
5 . Cruise through many neighborhoods or parks around the world, and you will find no shortage of well-mowed expanses of grass. Lawns (草坪) do look attractive.
Why did lawns become so popular?
What environmental problems are lawns causing?
Lawns are homogenizing the environment, not only in terms of biodiversity but also visually. You compare countries’ and cities’ urban landscapes around the world, and they look exactly the same.
You have to find your own local solution. We can take inspiration from the natural plant communities around us. In suburban and rural areas, that might mean having a meadow or prairie. In other places, it might be a savanna like environment or mountain plants. You can have a “grass-free” lawn; with only low-growing plants that create the same effect as a lawn, and you can walk on it.
How can we persuade people to adopt these alternatives?
When people see them, they appreciate them and like them.
| A．So it is all about education. |
| B．What are these alternatives? |
| C．And it is understandable fondness. |
| D．What are the inspirations of lawns? |
| E．However, they choke out biodiversity. |
| F．Lawns came to be seen as a symbol of civilization and a way of life. |
| G．Lawn upkeep takes resources, fertilizer and pesticide that enter groundwater and runoff water. |
6 . There are many reasons why some cats are bad-tempered. It’s commonly believed that their temperament can be influenced by the way they are born or raised.
Changes in a cat’s behaviour can often be explained by a health problem. Pain can cause cats to behave differently. It’s easy to mistake a problem as behavioural, which in fact is medical. Should you observe a significant change in your cat’s behaviour, then a visit to the vet is the best place to start.
It pays to remember that cats don’t like to share or queue. Sharing of ‘resources’ such as litter trays and foodbowls can cause stress and anxiety for many cats. It’s always a good idea to provide each cat with their own litter box, food, water bowls and bed. A lack of space to hide from or avoid other cats, competition for territory and lack of individual attention can also add to household friction.
Moving to a new house, the arrival of a new baby, new pets and other types of change can seriously impact cat behaviour. Cats are creatures of habit and tend to be territorial.
| A．Some cats simply do not like being touched and handled. |
| B．Watch out for changes in eating, drinking or litter-box habits. |
| C．When your cat seems lonely, you can hold it gently in your arms. |
| D．If so, offering the cat a high place to sit, such as a climbing tree, can be helpful. |
| E．So a change in routine may cause them to react, including withdrawal or aggression. |
| F．Don’t forget their incredible sense of smell, which is a useful tool of communication. |
| G．In fact, even the sweetest cats can suddenly become bad-tempered and behave out of character. |
7 . In 2014, an art student from university went to Beijing Zoo. Little did he know that a chance encounter with corals (珊瑚) there would start a lifelong passion. Until today, Xu Yitang, a Beijing native, has settled in Hainan province, where he serves as a coral conservationist. For Xu, who had been studying Peking Opera since childhood, becoming a coral conservationist was an unexpected turn of events.
After he first saw corals at the zoo, he began to frequent the local market to learn about coral farming from sellers of coral products. He also learned diving and underwater photography to get a closer look at corals for research purposes. Each day, he spends several hours diving deep under the waves to observe and document the growth and development of the creatures and shares photos and videos of corals on social media platforms. His goal was to raise awareness and knowledge about corals, so that people can learn how to protect them effectively.
As he studied deeper into the creature, he learned that corals are known as “underwater gardens” of the ocean, providing a home for a quarter of all ocean life. Unfortunately, with the strengthening of the greenhouse effect, rising sea temperatures have led to coral bleaching (白化). Xu felt an increasing sense of urgency and responsibility to protect them.
While pursuing his passion to protect corals, he met his life partner, Liu Xiwen, through their shared hobby of diving in Hainan. “Unlike many young people who care about their dress and appearance, he is simply focused on protecting corals,” says Liu about Xu.“Despite his skin injury from spending long hours in the seawater, his attitude is different from what I’ve seen in most young people in Beijing, and it’s attractive to me.”
1. What can we learn about Xu Yitang from the first paragraph?| A．He majored in coral protection. |
| B．He was born in Hainan province. |
| C．He worked in Beijing as a coral expert. |
| D．He found his love for corals by chance. |
| A．To record his exploring process. |
| B．To spread knowledge about corals. |
| C．To introduce his diving experience. |
| D．To show off his photography ability. |
| A．The pollution of ocean environment. |
| B．The development of ocean farming. |
| C．The damage to underwater gardens. |
| D．The increase in ocean temperatures. |
| A．Emotional. | B．Devoted. |
| C．Public-spirited. | D．Curiosity-driven. |
8 . Plastic, which is now common, contains endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs (内分泌干扰物), that has been linked to increased risk of many chronic diseases. Parental exposure to EDCs, for example, has been shown to cause metabolic (新陈代谢的) disorders, including obesity and diabetes, in the later generations.
Led by Changcheng Zhou, a professor of biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of California, the researchers investigated the impact of fathers’ exposure to a phthalate called dicyclohexyl phthalate, or DCHP (邻苯二甲酸二环己酯), on the metabolic health of first generation (F1) and second generation (F2) in mice. Phthalates are chemicals used to make plastic more durable.
The researchers found that fathers’ DCHP exposure for four weeks led to high insulin (胰岛素) resistance and impaired insulin signaling in F1. The same effect, but weaker, was seen in F2 .
“We found fathers’ exposure to EDCs may have intergenerational and transgenerational detrimental effects on the metabolic health of their later generations, ”Zhou said. “To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to demonstrate this.”
In the case of fathers’ exposure in the study, intergenerational effects are changes that occur due to direct exposure to a stressor, such as exposure to DCHP of fathers (F0 generation) and his F1 generation. Transgenerational effects are changes passed down to later generations that are not directly exposed to the stressor (for example, F2 generation).
“This suggests that fathers’ DCHP exposure can lead to sex-specific transgenerational effects on the metabolic health of their later generations,” Zhou said.
Zhou stressed that the impact of exposure to DCHP on human health is not well understood, even though DCHP is widely used in a variety of plastic products and has been detected in food, water, and indoor particulate matter.
“It’s best to minimize our use of plastic products,” Zhou said. “This can also help reduce plastic pollution, one of our most pressing environmental issues.”
1. Why are phthalates added to plastic?| A．To beautify it. | B．To make it long-lasting. |
| C．To reduce its cost. | D．To increase its weight. |
| A．Negative. | B．External. | C．Distinct. | D．Adventurous. |
| A．Bury plastic waste. | B．Watch out for the food they eat. |
| C．Use fewest plastic products. | D．Never produce plastic products. |
| A．Plastic contains endocrine disrupting chemicals |
| B．Plastic pollution is a pressing environmental issue |
| C．DCHP is widely used in a variety of plastic products |
| D．Chemicals in plastic may impact two generations’ health |
9 . A recent study, led by Professor Andrew Barron, Dr. HaDi MaBouDi, and Professor James Marshall, illustrates how evolution has fine-tuned honey bees to make quick judgments while minimizing danger.
“Animal lives are full of decisions,” says Professor Barron. “A honey bee has a brain smaller than a sesame (芝麻) seed. And yet it can make decisions faster and more accurately than’ we can. A robot programmed to do a bee’s job would need the backup of a supercomputer.”
Bees need to work quickly and efficiently. They need to make decisions. Which flower will have a sweet liquid? While they’re flying, they face threats from the air. While landing, they’re vulnerable to potential hunter, some of which pretend to look like flowers.
Researchers trained 20 bees to associate each of the five different colored “flower disks” with their visit history of reward and punishment. Blue flowers always had sugar juice. Green flowers always had a type of liquid with a bitter taste for bees. Other colors sometimes had glucose (葡萄糖). “Then we introduced each bee to a ‘garden’ with artificial ‘flowers’. We filmed each bee and timed their decision-making process,” says Dr. MaBouDi. “If the bees were confident that a flower would have food, they quickly decided to land on it, taking an average of 0.6 seconds. If they were confident that a flower wouldn’t have food, they made a decision just as quickly. If unsure, they took on average 1.4 seconds, and the time reflected the probability that a flower had food.”
The team then built a computer model mirroring the bees’ decision-making process. They found the structure of the model looked very similar to the physical layout of a bee brain. “AI researchers can learn much from bees and other ‘simple’ animals. Millions of years of evolution has led to incredibly efficient brains with very low power requirements,” says Professor Marshall who co-founded a company that uses insect brain patterns to enable machines to move autonomously, like nature.
1. Why does Professor Andrew Barron mention “a supercomputer”?| A．To illustrate how a honey bee’s brain resemble each other. |
| B．To explain how animals arrive at informed decisions fast. |
| C．To demonstrate how a robot could finish a honey bee’s job. |
| D．To emphasize how honey bees make decisions remarkably. |
| A．Easily harmed by. | B．Highly sensitive to. |
| C．Deeply critical to. | D．Closely followed by. |
| A．Their judgments about reward and punishment. |
| B．Their preference for the colors of flower disks. |
| C．Their confirmation of food’s presence and absence. |
| D．Their ability to tell real flowers from artificial ones. |
| A．The power of bee brains is underestimated. | B．Biology can inspire future AI. |
| C．Autonomous machines are changing nature. | D．AI should be far more efficient. |
10 . 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. |
