1 . Why do cats purr(发出咕噜声)?
We’ve all heard cats meow, but why do most of them purr?
When it comes to how cats purr, most people believe that the cat’s brain signals the muscles to vibrate(震动), which produces the noise.
According to Leslie A. Lyons, an assistant professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, cats often purr while stressed, for example, when they head to the vets or are recovering from an injury.
In a word, the purring of a cat may have more uses than just telling you they’re enjoying attention.
| A．When do cats purr? |
| B．How often do cats purr? |
| C．Then what causes this reaction? |
| D．So what are the benefits of this sound? |
| E．There are a number of theories out there. |
| F．The word purr refers to the constant loud noise. |
| G．It could even help to comfort in a similar way to a child sucking thumbs. |
2 . The fish eggs, all 200 of them, were settled and ready to go. The ground crew had counted the eggs carefully, and sealed them tightly within a plate filled precisely to the edge with seawater.
The countdown, and then—ignition (点火)! For two full minutes, the precious eggs suffered a violent shaking as the rocket’s engines exploded to life, and then rise to the heavens. These eggs were on their way to low Earth orbit. Next stop: the moon.
Well, they haven’t actually left yet. But after a recent simulation (模拟) designed to re-create the intense shaking of a typical takeoff, researchers in France found that the eggs survived. It’s a crucial discovery in the progress of the Lunar Hatch, a program that aims to determine whether astronauts could successfully raise fish on a future moon base.
Finally, Cyrille Przybyla, an aquaculture (水产养殖) researcher at the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea who led the research, dreams of designing a lunar fish farm that uses water already on the moon to help feed residents of the future Moon Village set to be established by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Przybyla’s hope is to offer lunar residents fresh, inviting, protein-rich fish—not just packets of freeze-dried food. “I proposed the idea to send eggs, not fish, because eggs are very strong,” he says.
Besides, Przybyla suggests there will be other benefits for astronauts who may one day find themselves raising animals in space. “From the psychological point of view, it’s better to have a reminder of Earth–you have a garden; you have a tank with fish,” he says.
Designing self-contained and self-supporting systems for food production beyond Earth will be crucial for future space exploration programs, says Luke Roberson, a researcher at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. And he says Przybyla’s study is “a great first step” toward showing that aquaculture is a practical part of that future.
1. What is Paragraph 2 writing about?| A．An experience. | B．An experiment. |
| C．An imagination. | D．An adventure. |
| A．To offer eggs to astronauts as food. |
| B．To test whether the eggs are strong. |
| C．To promote aquaculture on the moon. |
| D．To see the possibility of raising fish on the moon. |
| A．It can get rid of loneliness. |
| B．It diversifies the space food. |
| C．It gives astronauts something to do. |
| D．It helps astronauts remember the Earth. |
| A．How to Send Eggs to The Moon |
| B．A Great First Step towards Future |
| C．The Plan to Raise Fish on The Moon |
| D．A Practical Approach to Aquaculture |
3 . When many of his peers (同龄人) dreamed of becoming professional footballers, firefighters or music stars, José Adolfo Quisocala, now 14, set his sights on the world of finance from an early age.
By the age of seven, attending a state school in the Peruvian city of Arequipa, he decided he wanted to create a bank for children. He was motivated by seeing his peers skipping lunch because they had spent the little money they had on sweets or football cards. What drove him even more was the poverty he saw among children who were not attending his primary school.
The Bartselana student bank he founded now has more than 2,000 clients between the ages of 10 and 18. The children can withdraw money from the cashpoints of several banks using personal bank cards, which no one else can use, and monitor their balances online.
Seven years ago, José Adolfo managed to convince a handful of teachers and pupils that his idea could work. Then a student prize from his local town hall helped him get the support of a local cooperative to formally register his bank. Since then he has won awards nationally, then internationally.
The project of his student bank really took off when he came up with an innovative way for the children to earn money by collecting recyclable plastic or paper waste.
The children bring plastic bottles, used school exercise books and old newspapers to a kiosk (售货亭) at their school where it is weighed and their bank accounts are credited with the corresponding amount of money.
"He's making an incredible change in financial structuring and financial education that perhaps many adults could not have come up with," said Peru's environment minister, Lucía Ruiz.
"By joining that with recycling and the handling of waste, a serious problem in our country, he's scoring a double goal because he's not just designing a financial opportunity for children and teenagers but also helping to reduce the amount of waste in the country."
1. What mainly motivated José to create a bank for children?| A．The lunch his peers had in school. |
| B．The wish to help poor children. |
| C．His dream of becoming professional footballer. |
| D．No money to buy sweets and football cards. |
| A．It employs children and teenagers. |
| B．It gains profits from a local cooperative. |
| C．It earns money by collecting recyclable waste. |
| D．It benefits both the children and the environment. |
| A．It helps children attend school. |
| B．It joins banking with recycling of waste. |
| C．It allows clients to withdraw money. |
| D．It designs a financial opportunity for children. |
| A．Creative and clever. | B．Brave and heroic. |
| C．Adaptable and generous. | D．Thoughtful and sensitive. |
4 . Wildlife corridors are like safe highways for animals. These untouched areas let species move about freely to feed, breed, and migrate (迁徙) without disturbance from humans. The Vital Ground Foundation and Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) bought 80 acres in northwestern Montana. The area was bought from a landowner committed to protecting open spaces over development. The area will be used to maintain wildlife habitats for species throughout the state’s northwestern corner and is particularly important for grizzly bears.
“In 2015, new science on grizzly bear connectivity identified this area as one of a few remaining connection points for grizzly bears in northwest Montana,” says Grossman, U.S. program manager for Y2Y. “Last year, the opportunity became available to work with the landowner in the area. With the rapid development of the real estate (房地产) market, we knew we needed to act quickly.”
“At the local area, this project conserves open spaces for wildlife movement,” Grossman says. She points out that grizzly bears are an umbrella species. This means that if they are doing well, most other wildlife in the ecosystem is also doing well. Bears can help us conserve habitats for a full range of plants and animals that make a functioning ecosystem that all of us need to survive. That is why this project focuses on the needs of bears.
It often becomes more difficult to preserve wildlife corridors like these. In Montana where this land has been purchased, property values have increased and land has been sold and developed quickly. Once development happens, it’s harder to conserve land and keep areas connected. “However, this change in the real estate market has led to some landowners reflecting on their values and vision for the community. In this way, it creates an opportunity for us to be able to work with people who want to see these areas remain high quality wildlife habitats, rural and undeveloped,” Grossman says.
1. Why did the authorities buy the land in northwestern Montana?| A．To help develop the local economy. |
| B．To better preserve wildlife habitats. |
| C．To construct highways in rural areas. |
| D．To prevent endangered species migrating. |
| A．To explain a natural phenomenon. |
| B．To provide some advice for readers. |
| C．To add some background information. |
| D．To introduce a new topic for discussion. |
| A．Their population has declined sharply. |
| B．They play a critical role in the ecosystem. |
| C．They affect living habits of other wildlife. |
| D．Human activities harm them seriously. |
| A．Land development. | B．Community structure. |
| C．Damaged ecosystem. | D．Geographic locations. |
5 . Angus, Doris, Gabriel and Kamil are some of the 21 names that have been chosen to be given to storms in the UK in the 2016/17 season.
The Met Office, the UK's national weather service, decided to give storms boys' and girls 'names in 2015 in the same way as they did in America.
The Met Office hopes that naming big storms will make people more aware(意识到） of them and how dangerous they can be. Derrick Ryall, from the Met Office, said,“We have seen how naming storms elsewhere in the world raises people's awareness of storms before they break. ”
In the past,the same UK storm could be given different names by different organizations. “We noticed that many organizations during the last couple of winters started giving names to them.Think back to the St Jude's Day storm in 2013,and the so-called(所谓的）Hurricane Bawbag in Scotland in 2011.But it led to confusion(混淆），”a Met Office spokeswoman said.
According to the Met Office, there is a name for each letter of the whole alphabet (字母表），except for Q, U, X, Y and Z. That is the same as the naming tradition used in America. And not all storms will be big enough to get names-only those expected to cause great damage(损失）。
If there are more than 21 storms in a year,the Met Office will start again with another name beginning with “A”。 However, according to Met Office spokeswoman Lindsay Mears, "It's less possible we would get through the whole alphabet in one season. We had 14 storms in the very bad winter of 2013/14, and if the naming system had been in operation then we wouldn't have used the whole alphabet. ”
1. Why are storms in the UK named?| A．To increase public awareness of them. |
| B．B. To remind people of their short stay. |
| C．To follow what other countries did. |
| D．To meet the needs of its people. |
| A．There are many storms to name in a year. |
| B．organizations named storms differently |
| C．some storms' names are similar to others' |
| D．some storms' names are hard to understand |
| A．Storms will be given names whatever their sizes. |
| B．Serious storms will be given boys' names. |
| C．21 letters will be used to begin the names. |
| D．21 names will be given at most in a year. |
| A．There are not too many big storms yearly. |
| B．Action will be taken to prevent storms. |
| C．There are usually 14 storms in a year. |
| D．The naming system will not change. |
6 . Fossils discovered in Liaoning province have challenged the theory that the Archaeopteryx is the earliest known bird.
Research of the fossils led by Pascal Godefroit and his team from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences revealed that the dinosaur bird Aurornis xui, like the Archaeopteryx, existed nearly 150 million years ago. Godefroit told British-based Daily Mail, “The evolutionary development shows that dinosaur birds were already diversified in northern China during the Middle-Late Jurassic.”
The study, published in the journal Nature, showed that Aurornis xui was 50 cm in length and had tiny teeth used for hunting and defense, similar to other dinosaurs. Godefroit said the results support a “single origin of powered flight”, which suggests that all dinosaurs that became birds took flight around the same time, and eventually lost hunting and defensive features, like teeth, during adaptation.
Hu Dongyu, a professor at Shenyang Normal University, pointed out that fossils of some dinosaurs show that the legs initially had long feathers, which suggests they assisted wings in flight. “But the long feathers on the legs degenerated as the wings became strong enough. This is not the first time that fossil evidence has showed the evolution path from dinosaurs to birds,” said Hu. “The initial question was whether these dinosaur birds existed before the Archaeopteryx, but as we dig deeper into them, the age became irrelevant. And now the bone of contention is whether all these dinosaur birds are dinosaurs or birds.”
One fossil, found in Liaoning in 2009 and studied by scientists led by Xu Xing from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, showed that the earliest dinosaur bird was Anchiornis huxleyi, a flying dinosaur that lived 160 million years ago. Another fossil studied by Xu and his colleagues, also believed to be a dinosaur bird, was named Xiaotingia zhengi. “Aurornis xui, Anchiornis huxleyi and Xiaotingia zhengi are similar dinosaur bird fossils,” Hu added. “The earlier research suggested that all dinosaur birds were dinosaurs, not birds. However, recent research suggests the opposite. So there is a long way to go to draw a conclusion.”
1. What is the topic of the text?| A．The origin of birds. | B．The adaptability of birds. |
| C．The time when dinosaurs appeared. | D．The reason why dinosaurs died out. |
| A．The speed of its flight. | B．The force of its defense. |
| C．The length of its feathers. | D．The feature of its teeth. |
| A．The bones of birds. | B．The focus of debate. |
| C．The similarity of theories. | D．The conclusion of research. |
| A．They were dinosaurs. | B．They need further study. |
| C．They could fly like birds. | D．They existed before the Archaeopteryx. |
7 . A handful of old mobile phones lay in a grey bucket. These outdated devices, which are about to be chopped into thousands of pieces, will be given a second life as recycled e-waste. But many phones won't.
According to the latest estimates, the world gets rid of approximately 50 million tonnes of waste annually. E-waste is full of dangerous materials that can cause damage to human health and the environment if not managed properly. But only 20 percent of global e-waste is recycled.The rest ends up in landfill, or burned—or is not recycled at all.
And yet,Switzerland is a good example of how to deal with the growing environmental issue. The country collects and recycles roughly 7S percent of this discarded material. This is thanks to a strong voluntary take-back system, where consumers can take e-waste to a reclining collection point or any electronic shop retailer（零售商）. A recycling station can be found within at most 300 meters from any residential area. Everyone gets involved. Switzerland's e-waste system is unique and can't be easily copied-due to a strong recycling culture within the country.
However, Switzerland faces the same global challenges as every nation.The built-in lithium batteries（锂电池）aren't easy to take out. The only way to remove these potentially dangerous components is with a bar and hammer. This poses a significant risk to those handling the goods. As such, producers need to be more transparent(信息透明的) and show more clearly where the harmful substances are, and how they can be removed.
Once the battery is removed, e-waste is sorted into different component parts—-metals, plastics and other materials. Roughly 70 percent of the device can be recycled. The material that cannot be recycled is used for other purposes like construction material or is burned to generate energy. Mobile phones—from a material perspective (角度), from a value perspective，and also from an environmental impact perspective -are very important.
For the past 15 years, Switzerland has been actively encouraging and supporting electrical waste disposal practices. They are happy to share their knowledge, experience, lessons learned, and they are happy if other people pick up on it.
1. What can we know about the global e-waste?| A．Only 20% of the e-waste is useful. |
| B．It is becoming an environmental problem. |
| C．Most of it has been given a second life. |
| D．It has been the major cause of pollution. |
| A．It is unique and easy to copy. |
| B．It features many devoted volunteers. |
| C．It gains great support and understanding. |
| D．It is complicated and not easily accessible. |
| A．Remove harmful substances. |
| B．Use less dangerous components. |
| C．Offer customers free bars and hammers. |
| D．Help make the removal easier and safer. |
| A．How to fight against e-waste. |
| B．Why E-waste gets out of control. |
| C．How to be champion of recycling. |
| D．How to lead an Eco-friendly lifestyle. |
8 . Climate change could turn the Arctic Ocean into a high-speed ice superhighway. Large pieces of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean are becoming thinner as old ice melts. The new ice that's replacing it travels farther and faster than the older ice does. As the new ice travels, it carries dirt, organisms and pollution along for the ride, new research shows.
Researchers have been tracking the movements of Arctic ice for several years. They noticed that the area covered by ice making the trip from one side of ocean to the other has grown larger and larger. The movement means that far-away reaches of the Arctic are becoming more connected, notes Robert Newton, from Columbia University.
The speedy ice is a problem, he explains. The reason: It increases the risk of spreading pollution from some environmental disasters, such as oil spills. An oil spill during the summer could become trapped in this autumn ice. The ice could then quickly move from one country's waters to another's, he notes, rapidly spreading the spill's impact on the environment.
Between when it forms and melts, the ice can get pushed across the Arctic Ocean by winds and ocean currents. These forces more easily pushed young, thin ice along than old ice. Newton and colleagues wondered what the impact would be on these ice rafts and the pollution they held. Less ice could mean less space to carry a large load of pollutants. But a less crowed Arctic might let the ice travel farther and faster.
In the study, the researchers put together pictures of the Arctic, which came from satellites far above the surface. They used the computer software that can recognize the edges of sea ice. This allowed them to follow the movements of the ice from formation to melting. To help them do that, they also included tracking buoys on the ice that had been equipped with GPS devices.
About 60% of Arctic ice travels less than 100 kilometers from its birthplace, they found. The rest covers an area equal to tens of thousands of square kilometers. It can travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers. And that ice is moving faster as well.
1. What does the text focus on?| A．Climate change is becoming more serious. | B．The Arctic ice travels fast and carries pollution. |
| C．It's difficult to follow the movements of the ice. | D．The Arctic is likely to be covered by the ice. |
| A．It travels much faster than before. | B．It is much easier to pollute than before. |
| C．It results in more environmental disasters. | D．It makes pollution more likely to be spread. |
| A．To find out how far the ice can go. |
| B．To make it clear how the ice comes into being. |
| C．To learn about the original situation of the Arctic. |
| D．To see how a moving ice connects itself with another. |
| A．Using computer software. | B．Taking photos of the Arctic. |
| C．Keeping track of ice. | D．Collecting pictures through satellites. |
9 . The famous French beauty company L’Oreal has promised that by 2030, 95 percent of its ingredients will come from renewable plant sources and be respectful of the environment. Asked what is driving the beauty industry to clean and green beauty, Laurent Gilbert, one of L’Oreal’s directors said, “Natural science has made progress in the past years, so that we can change to natural ingredients.”
L’Oreal says it will draw on recent developments in Green Sciences to get the best that nature has to offer through technology. Up to now, 80 percent of the Group’s materials have been easily biodegradable, 59 percent have been renewable, and 34 percent have been natural or of natural origin. And 29 percent of the ingredients used in their products were developed following the rules of Green Chemistry.
“We have already used active ingredients which are plant-based. The way we are getting and producing ingredients will change. For example, we are now fully getting vitamin C from biotechnology processes, which was not the case in the past,” Gilbert added.
As part of their sustainability program, the brand had also promised to use less plastic. It said, “By 2030, 100 percent of the plastics used in L’Oreal’s products’ packaging will be from recycled sources. We have a strong policy to help reach that goal. Besides making it recycled, we are trying to move to a new kind of packaging.”
“All our promises are global. We have two research centers in India, one in Bengaluru and one in Mumbai. Those are really important to those goals. The Bengaluru one is being specialized in natural ingredients. It will give support to this change,” says the research center, which was set up in India in 1994.
To achieve these aims, L’Oreal has brought all of its resources in Green Science together, including recent progress in agricultural economics, together with new developments in biotechnology, Green Chemistry and modelling tools. The Group is also building strong relationships with universities, new companies and its own material supplies.
1. What plays an important role in L’Oreal’s decision to change its ingredients?| A．The support from the local government. | B．The development of natural science. |
| C．The call for smart spending habits. | D．The research on target markets. |
| A．By listing data. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By telling personal stories. | D．By showing causes and effects. |
| A．To bring convenience to customers. | B．To avoid damage to its products. |
| C．To cut the cost of packaging. | D．To reduce plastic use. |
| A．Develop new resources and join hands with different groups. |
| B．Limit the number of factories in developed countries. |
| C．Grow more plants and invite plenty of professionals. |
| D．Keep the traditional way of producing materials. |
10 . Spider monkeys know that the best way to find food is in a group. But when they divide to hunt for fruit, there’s no random(随意性) pairing off. Researchers have found that they use collective computation(群体计算) when they break up into teams.
Typically, the older females lead the rest of the younger monkeys, having the final say in group activities. But that’s not the case for wild spider monkeys living in a protected area near Punta Laguna, Mexico.
When they’re ready to search for food, the monkeys form teams without a single leader picking who goes into which group. Instead, each monkey decides which group to join and when to move to another group. The result, say researchers, is that the monkeys are collectively computing good team sizes given the availability(可获性) of food in the forest.
“The spider monkeys seem to be collecting information about resources by forming these small teams, so that as a group they know their environment better than anyone does on its own,” lead study author, Gabriel Ramos-Fernandez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said.
To study the animals’ behavior, researchers spent two years recording 47 different spider monkeys for five hours each day. For hunting for food, they usually formed groups of 2 to 17 monkeys. Researchers worked together with the scientists at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico to find out how a spider monkey decided to stay with or leave a group. Their study found that the monkeys’ decisions were influenced by the decisions of the other monkeys on the team. They would feel out their teammates about the best size and then make their own decisions accordingly.
The results produced teams of many different sizes, which were helpful in finding fruit in the forest. The researchers said that collectively computed sizes were sometimes not a perfect match based on the food that was available. They suggest a similar study should be used to examine how other groups or systems work, such as flocks of birds or schools of fish.
1. How do spider monkeys living near Punta Laguna differ from the typical ones?| A．They can live better even in bad weather conditions. |
| B．The sizes of their teams are decided by each of them. |
| C．The older monkeys play a leading role in a team. |
| D．They usually take turns to look for food. |
| A．Spreading the word. |
| B．Winning all the games. |
| C．Making the final decisions. |
| D．Getting the most delicious food. |
| A．Its teammates’ choices. |
| B．The sudden danger that appears. |
| C．The unfair treatment from teammates. |
| D．Its disappointment with the amount of food. |
| A．Spider monkeys can’t offer help to each other in a group. |
| B．Spider monkeys’ collective computation is not always useful. |
| C．The researchers will do a further study about spider monkeys. |
| D．Birds also use collective computation when they form groups. |
