1 . Fungi (菌类) often appear naturally around trees, but a new study has found that growing edible mushrooms (types that can be safely eaten) in forests on purpose could be a good way to provide healthy food for millions of people and help the environment too.
Fungi are living things that feed on organic matter, such as dead plants. Mushrooms, mould and yeast are all types of fungi.
Paul Thomas and Alistair Jump, from the University of Stirling in Scotland, spent two years studying edible fungi that grow alongside trees. The pair discovered that while they are growing, fungi remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the soil. This is good for the planet, because too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is one of the main causes of climate change.
Thomas points out that forests around the world are often cut down to create fields for producing food, such as beef or wheat. Trees take in carbon dioxide as they grow, so chopping them down makes climate change worse. However, edible fungi thrive in the shade of trees. That means if fungi was being grown as a food crop, there would be no need to chop down forests. In fact, if fungi became very popular, more trees could actually be planted. Edible fungi contain lots of substances that are good for humans. Thomas’s idea is that other ingredients, such as meat, could be swapped for fungi in people’s diets. He estimates that growing fungi around trees could feed up to 19 million people each year.
Blue milk caps are a species of edible fungi that Thomas says could work particularly well. They can be grown on and around trees, exchanging useful minerals and nutrients in return for carbon. They are also very nutritious, and some studies have suggested that they can help to treat cancer.
1. How do fungi help the environment?| A．They release oxygen into the atmosphere. |
| B．They prevent soil from being washed away. |
| C．They provide shade for other plants and animals. |
| D．They absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. |
| A．Struggle. | B．Boom. | C．Weaken. | D．Shrink. |
| A．Disappointing. | B．Promising. | C．Controversial. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．The Nutritional Benefits of Edible Fungi |
| B．Fungi: A Sustainable Solution to Organic Food |
| C．The Role of Fungi in Fighting Climate Change |
| D．How Fungi Could Feed and Benefit the World |
2 . Both ants and human beings respond to isolation in similar ways. In isolated individuals of both species, researchers have observed that the immune system is less efficient.
Humans and other social mammals will experience high levels of stress when they are isolated from the group, which has a negative effect on both well-being and physical health. Isolated people tend to become anxious, depressed, lonely, and more subject to addictions. They will also have a weaker immune system, and the isolation will impact their health negatively overall. While these effects have been well studied in humans and mice, relatively little is known about how isolation affects social insects.
Ants are extremely social. They will live their entire lives as part of the same colony (群体) and their survival will be entirely dependent on their nest mates. This social function is so important to them that worker ants will abandon their reproductive capacity and devote themselves to tending to the needs of the queen and the colony.
Researchers paid attention to ants of the Temnothorax nylanderi, which is a European species that will create colonies inside acorns (橡实) and sticks. These colonies consist of a few dozen workers, and the researchers took individual members and isolated them for various periods of time, from an hour to 28 days. The study revealed three key aspects of the effects of isolation.
When the isolated workers were returned to the colony, they showed less interest in other adult ants, and instead chose to spend more time with the brood (幼雏). They were also less interested in cleaning themselves, which is a behavior noticed in most social animals that are isolated. This behavior increased the risk of parasite (寄生虫) infections. The third observation was related to the gene activity of the isolated individuals — genes that were responsible for stress response and immune system function were less active. Once again, this is something observed across all social animals. What this research tells us is that social behavior is something extremely ancient and it could be traced back to a very old common ancestor between animal and insect species.
1. How are humans influenced by isolation according to the researchers?| A．Their social circles shrinks quickly. |
| B．They are more likely to get into addictions. |
| C．Their immune system has been strengthened. |
| D．They are quicker to respond to stressful situations. |
| A．They remain devoted to their nest mates. |
| B．They are in a constant state of mental stress. |
| C．They are equally responsible for their colony. |
| D．They rely much on each other in order to survive. |
| A．The queen ant. | B．Their nest mates. |
| C．The baby ants. | D．Their whole colony. |
| A．Social isolation affects animals negatively. |
| B．Isolation changes the immune system of ants. |
| C．Ants react to social isolation similar to humans. |
| D．Animal and insect species share the same ancestor. |
3 . Next time you’re having trouble solving a tricky puzzle, consider asking a nearby bumblebee. A new study in the journal PLOS Biology finds that these humble insects can actually learn to solve puzzles from one another, suggesting that even some invertebrates(无脊椎动物) have a capacity for what we humans call “culture.”
“Nobody’s really thought that invertebrates like bumblebees show evidence of culture,” says Alice Bridges, an ecologist at Anglia Ruskin University. “People assume that they’re mostly driven by inborn factors.” Bridges set out to prove them wrong. To study culture in bumblebees, she first drilled some bees to solve puzzle boxes. She trained some bees to head-butt the red switch to get the sugar water and trained others to push the blue switch. Then, Bridges placed these tutor bees into different colonies, along with the puzzle boxes.
It wasn’t all fun and games: Bridges got stung multiple times and the fourth sting sent her to the hospital. Bridges persevered, however, and the experiment ultimately played itself out. In colonies where the tutor bee had learned to push the red switch, the other bees usually pushed the red switch. In colonies where the tutor bee was trained to push the blue switch, their fellow bees tended to do the same. In the control colonies where there were no tutors, the bees sometimes learned how to open the boxes, but never as efficiently or reliably.
The conclusion, Bridges and her colleagues report in their new study today, is that bumblebees can transmit certain behaviors—culturally. “Maybe culture isn’t that unusual,” she says. “Maybe it’s not some pinnacle(顶峰) of cognition that only a few species have.”
“Many of us consider ourselves special because we have culture and we can learn,” says Jessica Ware, an entomologist. “The truth is that all we have found about animal culture means that human culture, once thought unique, did not appear ‘out of the blue’ but has obviously built on deep evolutionary(进化的) foundations.”
1. How did the bumblebees get the sugar water from the puzzle boxes?| A．By pressing a button. | B．By solving word puzzles. |
| C．By bursting open the boxes. | D．By turning the boxes upside down. |
| A．It contradicts the former research. | B．It shows that culture is unique to humans. |
| C．It has received wide recognition. | D．It has brought Bridges much trouble. |
| A．Slowly. | B．Suddenly. | C．Endlessly. | D．Regularly. |
| A．Can Insects Have Culture? |
| B．Can New Culture Be Created? |
| C．How Do Bumblebees Tutor Peers? |
| D．How Will Invertebrate Study Be Expanded? |
4 . Smaller than African savanna elephants, forest elephants feed on grass, leaves and fruit. The rainforests of Gabon are one of the last strongholds for forest elephants, whose numbers have suffered a dramatic decline in recent decades because of hunting.
Despite being remote and relatively untouched by people, Lope National Park and its elephants appear to be in trouble. The fruity yield (产量) of many species of trees at the park continues to fall, which seems to be causing forest elephants to go hungry. Because certain tree species depend on the animals to survive, the struggles of the elephant population could jeopardize the long-term sustainability of the forest.
Known as an Omphalocarpum procerum, the tree is dotted with doughnut-shaped fruit growing out of its trunk. The fruit has a tough shell that makes it distasteful for every animal species except elephants. The tree relies on elephants to disperse (传播) seeds through their dung (粪) and grows stronger in elephant-populated areas. The tree is rarely found where elephants no longer live. The elephants, in turn, depend on the highly nutritious fruit for their diet.
A 32-year survey recorded an 81 percent decline in the availability of the fruits that elephants eat. Examining Lopvé’s weather data for the previous three decades, researchers found that the average nighttime temperature had increased by about 1.5 degrees. The amount of rainfall also had decreased significantly. Climate change was making Lope hotter and drier. Researchers think this is the most credible theory as to why fruit has been declining.
They also found that, on average, the body condition of forest elephants had declined by a pronounced 11 percent from 2008 to 2018. The scarcity of fruit in Lope was the likeliest explanation. The lack of fruit makes it harder for elephants to get the nutrition they need. Lope’s elephants try to make up for the fruit shortage by suddenly entering people’s gardens in the middle of the night.
At Lope National Park, scientists now are investigating whether climate change is changing the elephants’ diet. As they continue their research, they thought: Could the fraying of the ancient bond between trees and elephants in a place as pristine as Lopé be a forewarning?
1. What does the underlined word “jeopardize” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Endanger. | B．Promote. | C．Achieve. | D．Ensure. |
| A．To state the effect of habitat loss on elephants. |
| B．To prove the importance of the species diversity. |
| C．To present the gradual process of forest decline. |
| D．To show the close relationship between the tree and elephants. |
| A．Frequent heavy rainfall. | B．The lack of fruit growers. |
| C．Inappropriate tree cutting. | D．The threat of climate change. |
| A．They visit human’s gardens for food. |
| B．They travel farther to search for fruit trees. |
| C．They start to eat other highly nutritious plants. |
| D．They carry fruit seeds to elephant-populated areas. |
5 . Researchers have just completed the first worldwide record of lake color. Roughly one-third of them are blue but that number may drop if global temperatures rise. If average air temperatures in summer rose just a few degrees warmer, some of those crystal blue waters could turn green or brown.
Lake color offers clues to the stability of lake ecosystems. Factors such as water depth and how the nearby land is used also matter. Lake color depends in part, too, on what’s in the water. Compared with blue lakes, green or brown lakes have more algae (水藻) and organic matter. That’s according to Xiao Yang, a hydrologist who works at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Changing lake colors, he says, could also change how people use those waters.
Yang was part of a team that analyzed the color of more than 85,000 lakes around the world. They used satellite photos from 2013 to 2020. Storms and seasons can temporarily affect a lake’s color. So the researchers focused on the most frequent color observed for each lake over the seven-year period. The scientists then looked at local climates during the same time period. They wanted to see how climate might be linked to lake color.
Average summer air temperatures and lake color were linked, the researchers found. Lakes were more likely to be blue in places where summer temperatures averaged less than 19℃. Up to 14 percent of lakes that are blue were near that threshold (门槛), though. That means just a bit more warming might tip them away from blue. Scientists think the planet could average 3 degrees Celsius warmer by 2100. If so, that could turn another 3,800 lakes green or brown.
Green or brown waters could be unappealing for play or it might cost more to clean it for drinking. But in fact, the color changes might not mean the lakes are any less healthy. If you were a certain type of fish species, you might think this is great.
1. What is a feature of green or brown lakes?| A．Weak ecosystem. | B．High mineral content. |
| C．Increased organic matter. | D．Decreased water temperature. |
| A．Why the color of most lakes is blue. |
| B．The consequences of lake color change. |
| C．How climate change affect creatures living in water. |
| D．The relationship between air temperature and lake color. |
| A．14 percent of the world’s lakes are blue. |
| B．3,800 lakes worldwide are green or brown. |
| C．Many lakes may experience severe ecological damage. |
| D．Some lakes are close to the critical point of color change. |
| A．Lifestyle. | B．Environment. |
| C．Technology. | D．Business. |
6 . A new study suggests that pollution of all kinds kills nearly 9 million people worldwide each year. Air pollution from industrial processes and the expansion of cities accounted for about 75% of the deaths, researchers found. The study was based on examinations of worldwide death rates and pollution levels.
The study separated traditional pollutants from modern pollutants. Examples of traditional pollutants are indoor smoke or wastewater. Modern pollutants include air pollution from vehicles or industrial activities and poisonous chemicals. The researchers found that deaths from traditional pollutants are dropping worldwide. But they remain a major problem in Africa and some other developing countries. In some countries, state programs to cut indoor air pollution and improvements in sanitation (卫生) have helped reduce death rates. In Ethiopia and Nigeria, for example, such efforts cut deaths by two-thirds between 2000 and 2019, the study found.
Modern kinds of pollution are rising in most countries, especially developing ones, the researchers said. Deaths caused by modern pollutants — heavy metals, agricultural chemicals and carbon emissions—are “skyrocketing,” said study co-writer Rachael Kupka. She heads the New York-based Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. Kupka said deaths linked to modern pollutants had risen 66% since 2000.
“Nine million deaths is a lot of deaths,” Philip Landrigan told The Associated Press about the study’s results. He is director of the Global Public Health Program at Boston College in Massachusetts. “The bad news is that it’s not decreasing,” Landrigan added. “We’re making gains in the easy stuff, and we’re seeing the more difficult stuff, outdoor industrial air pollution and chemical pollution, still going up.”
The study makes several suggestions for ways to cut the number of deaths. These include creating better recording and reporting methods and stronger government policies to reduce pollution linked to industrial activities and vehicle emissions.
“We absolutely know how to solve pollution problems,” said the study co-author Richard Fuller. “What’s missing is political will.”
1. What can be learned from the study about pollution?| A．Air pollution killed 9 million people last year. |
| B．Cutting indoor air pollution is the best policy. |
| C．Traditional pollution is very serious in Nigeria. |
| D．Traditional pollutants cause less death than before. |
| A．Improving. | B．Increasing. | C．Reducing. | D．Worsening. |
| A．It is easy to fight modern pollution. | B．Outdoor air pollution is decreasing. |
| C．Modern pollution still concerns people. | D．It is hard to tell the reasons for pollution. |
| A．Methods to reduce pollution. | B．Government’s response to pollution. |
| C．Suggestions for industrial activities. | D．The damage caused by vehicle emissions. |
7 . Scientists believe they have found a new use for facial recognition technology: saving large ocean animals known as seals. Researchers at Colgate University in the U. S. state of New York have developed SealNet. The system is a database of seal faces created by taking pictures of many harbor seals in Maine’s Casco Bay.
The research team found the tool’s accuracy in identifying the mammals was close to 100 percent. The researchers are working on increasing the size of their database to make it available to other scientists, said Krista Ingram. She is a biology professor at Colgate and a team member.
Increasing the database to include rare species such as the Mediterranean monk seal and Hawaiian monk seal could help efforts to save those species, she said. Creating a list of seal faces and using machine learning to identify them can also help scientists know where in the ocean seals are, Ingram said. She said, “For marine mammals that move around a lot and are hard to photograph in the water, we need to be able to identify individuals. ”
SealNet is designed to identify the face in a picture. It recognizes the seal’s face based on information related to the eyes and nose shape, as it would a human. A similar tool called PrimNet, which is for use on primates(灵长类), had been used on seals earlier, but SealNet performed better, the Colgate researchers said. Seals and other ocean mammals have long been studied using satellite technology. Using artificial intelligence to study them is a way to bring conservation into the 21st century.
Facial recognition technology could provide valuable data, said Michelle Berger, an associate scientist at the Shaw Institute in Maine. Berger was not involved in the SealNet research. “Once the system is perfected I can picture lots of interesting environmental uses for it”, Berger said. “If they could recognize seals, and recognize them from year to year, that would give us lots of information about movement, how much they move from site to site. ”
1. How can the researchers benefit other scientists from the database?| A．By expanding their database. | B．By improving its accuracy. |
| C．By getting closer to seals. | D．By using more machines. |
| A．They always live in large groups. | B．They can’t adapt to new equipment. |
| C．They all have similar eyes and noses. | D．They often change their locations. |
| A．It’s really perfect. | B．It’s unreliable. | C．It’s of great benefit. | D．It’s very interesting. |
| A．New Technology to Protect Ocean Animals |
| B．Scientists Use Facial Recognition to Study Seals |
| C．A New System Taking More Pictures of Seals |
| D．Facial Recognition is Used to Preserve Ocean |
8 . She can’t vole, but she has the volte of confidence of young climate activists across the globe. Meet Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old architect of “School Strike for the Climate” .
At age 12, the Swede gave up meat and flying to reduce her carbon footprint. But the real trigger came when Sweden was hit by heat waves in 2018. Thunberg started skipping classes on Fridays to strike outside the Swedish parliament. Thanks to social media, her actions have spread and influenced millions of young people all over the world to organize and protest.
And look! Thunberg became the poster child of climate action. She addressed the 2018 UN climate conference and this year’s World Economic Forum. Encouraged by Thunberg, 1. 4 million students across 125 countries took to the streets in the first Global Climate Strike for Future on March 15. Thunberg was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in March 2019, and a few months later she became the youngest individual ever to be honored as Time’s Person of the Year.
Then she entered the spotlight again. Invited to speak at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York City, which took place in September 2019, Thunberg traveled across the Atlantic on a zero-carbon sailing boat, accompanied by her father and a supporting crew.
She said at the UN Climate Action Summit:“For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight …You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you. ”
Nevertheless, Thunberg has her share of critics too. The objectors attack her for what she has done, calling her a “weirdo” and regard the Greta Thunberg effect as a useless fantasy.
1. What does the underlined word “trigger” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Breakthrough. | B．Cause. | C．Intention. | D．Solution. |
| A．Her popularity. | B．Her future plan. |
| C．Her speeches. | D．Her achievements. |
| A．The science is still not clear about climate. |
| B．Great progress has been made in politics and solutions. |
| C．She is not satisfied with the measures that the government took. |
| D．Future generations haven’t achieved much and failed the government. |
| A．Responsible and ambitious. | B．Selfless and generous. |
| C．Easy-going and creative. | D．Considerate and cautious. |
9 . I’d been telling Sandy about my children, Emma and Tucker, aged seven and four. Sandy, in turn, was telling me about her four children: Jane, Joe, Christopher and eighteen-month-old Kim. She seemed so pleased to have kids move into the neighborhood. That was, until the door opened and out ran Emma and Sam.
Sam was our shiny black dog we had adopted three years earlier. Sam loved to hang with the kids, serving as both playmate and protector. But Sandy began to back up as Sam approached, I had never met anyone who feared dogs. As I saw her reaction, I quickly grabbed Sam by the collar and made him sit.
“I have to get the kids ready to go to their grandmother’s,” Sandy said as she backed away from me, graciously trying to remove herself from the situation.
Suddenly her door opened, and out ran her kids. “Don’t go near it!” she screamed. The kids were circled around their mom, closely watching Sam. Emma showed Joe the proper way to slowly approach a dog. Sam accepted Joe’s affection. The kids were won over, but I knew it would take some time before Sandy would change.
From that time forward, we were careful not to let Sam cross the street to our neighbors without my company. One day, the kids were across the street playing together. Then I noticed the eighteen-month-old heading toward a little hill. Seeing a car approaching, I screamed, “Watch the baby!”
Sam stormed out the door and ran across the street toward the baby. He ran up the hill, stopping just short of knocking into her. He gently pushed her away from the approaching car. The kids, too involved in play to realize the seriousness of the situation a few minutes ago, ran toward her and Sam. The kids all cheered that Sam had come to play.
Within a year, Sam made friends with all the neighbors, and almost every family on our street had a dog. Even Sandy would occasionally come and give Sam a hug.
1. How did Sandy feel at the coming of the new neighbors?| A．Excited that her kids could have friends. | B．Curious why they had adopted a dog. |
| C．Fearful that the dog might hurt her kids. | D．Unsure whether the kids could fit in well. |
| A．They held him by the collar to make him sit. | B．They formed a circle to protect their mom. |
| C．They prepared to withdraw from the dog. | D．They looked at Sam with watchful eyes. |
| A．By running behind and barking to warn. | B．By rushing to Sandy’s house to get help. |
| C．By rushing around to her front to push her. | D．By jumping to the front of the coming car. |
| A．A Considerate Act Helps Fit in Well | B．A Doggy Push Reaches Far Beyond |
| C．Dogs Work Magic in Crucial Moments | D．Dogs Are Children’s Best Safety Guards |
10 . Steven Strauss was skeptical when he first heard about a poplar tree (杨树) bio-engineered to suck more carbon dioxide out of the air. So when two entrepreneur — Maddie Hall and Patrick Mellor — asked him to help test out the idea, Strauss was interested but hesitant. “If it works, it would be a wonderful thing”, he said, “But typically in research on agriculture or forestry, it works in the lab or the greenhouse, but tells you nothing.”
Four years later, these two entrepreneurs have raised $30 million for Living Carbon, a company that aims to plant between 4 million and 5 million poplar trees by the spring of 2024, using photo-synthesis enhanced seeds. Eventually, the company hopes to enter the carbon offset market, selling credits to companies that need to reach net-zero emission goals to help fight global warming.
One of the field trials will be conducted in a forest at Oregon State University, where Strauss is a distinguished professor of forest biotechnology. Other locations are throughout the United States, including the site of an abandoned mine in Pennsylvania with degraded soils.
Co-founders Hall and Mellor hope the trials will prove that the taller poplar trees can store as much as 27 percent more CO₂ than ordinary trees. The company’s next step will be to show that the CO₂ can be stored in wood, outlasting the poplar’s lifespan, which can reach up to 200 years.
The Department of Energy, which provided Living Carbon with a $500,000 grant in 2021, predicted that the company’s approach could remove billions of tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere if successfully scaled up. Investors have since lined up, including Toyota Ventures and Singapore’s state-owned Temasek.
Hall, the CEO of Living Carbon, has described high hopes for the project. “Today Earth no longer has the ability to avoid carbon as quickly,” she wrote in a blog post,“And now it’s time for the big suck.”
1. What is Strauss’s first attitude towards Hall and Mellor’s idea?| A．Favorable. |
| B．Critical. |
| C．Suspicious. |
| D．Neutral. |
| A．To bio-engineer poplar trees to help fight global warming. |
| B．To sell carbon credits to make a big fortune in the market. |
| C．To complete the task of planting poplar trees by the spring of 2024. |
| D．To conduct some field trials for fundraising in an abandoned mine. |
| A．Over 27 percent CO₂ can be stored in ordinary trees. |
| B．Much CO₂ will be removed if successfully scaled up. |
| C．Most CO₂ in the atmosphere can reach up to 200 years. |
| D．No CO₂ will be produced or gathered on the earth today. |
| A．Scientists Are Searching for Ways to Bioengineer Poplar Trees |
| B．A Start-up Hopes Super Poplar Trees will Suck up More CO₂ |
| C．Two Entrepreneurs Succeed in Co-working with Foreign Investors |
| D．Authorities Predict the Company will Have a Promising Future |
