Once he was back in his pasture, we’d chat over the fence (栅栏), covering such topics as hard days at work and exciting happenings
I posted Buster photos and stories on Facebook-he had quite a following. One admirer’s dying wish was to muster
| A．events | B．photos | C．topics | D．decorations |
| A．impossible | B．perfect | C．limited | D．improper |
| A．reduce | B．organize | C．gather | D．move |
| A．threw away | B．ate quickly | C．held up | D．gave away |
| A．happy | B．mean | C．old | D．weak |
China is willing to continue cooperation
Crowds gathered to say goodbye and catch one final look at Yang Guang and Tian Tian on Wednesday, who for 12 years have enraptured
Since Beijing and London started cooperation in 2011, the two sides have made positive outcomes
This has played an important role in enhancing
| A．making up | B．teaming up | C．packing up | D．giving up |
| A．rescued | B．recognised | C．applied | D．attracted |
| A．natives | B．survivors | C．masters | D．experts |
| A．results | B．reasons | C．means | D．comments |
| A．reducing | B．improving | C．organizing | D．quitting |
In the animal kingdom, killer whales (虎鲸) are social stars: they travel in different family groups, care for grandchildren, and even
| A．interrupt | B．copy | C．make | D．understand |
| A．rise to | B．be equal to | C．benefit from | D．depend on |
| A．instead of | B．as well as | C．in terms of | D．other than |
| A．keep | B．change | C．abandon | D．lose |
| A．research | B．evidence | C．information | D．image |
A. The main cause for animals and disappearing is often a disruption (扰乱) to die food chain due to hunting, habitat loss or even the introduction of invasive species.
B. With rising awareness of how we affect the natural environment, hopefully we can learn to protect these food chains and help them to thrive.
C. Nowadays, there are strict rules controlling the movement of animals and plants between countries but some parts of the world are still experiencing problems with invasive species introduced hundreds of years ago.
D. When people first explored the world, they took animal and plant species from their home countries to the places they settled in but they did not realize they were disrupting the natural food chains of the area they explored.
E. Many animals and plants are endangered in the world today, these endangered species are threatened with becoming extinct, meaning they will no longer exist on earth.
A. Brusatte said that becoming smaller was “a common way that mammals deal with climate change”. He added, “That’s not to say every species of mammal would get smaller, but it seems to be a common survival trick of mammals when temperatures rise pretty quickly. Which does raise the question: If temperatures do rise really quickly, might humans become shorter, might humans get smaller? And I think that’s certainly reasonable.”
B. Lister doubts that humans will be shorter as the climate heats. “We are not really controlled by natural selection,” he said. “If that was going to happen, you’d need to find large people dying before they could reproduce because of climate warming. That is not happening in today’s world. We wear clothes, we have got heating, we have got air conditioning if it is too hot.”
C. “The climate crisis may lead the human race to shrink in size, as mammals (哺乳动物) with smaller frames appear better able to deal with rising global temperatures,” a leading fossil expert has said. Prof Steve Brusatte, a professor at the University of Edinburgh also notes that animals in warmer parts of the world today are often smaller than those in colder areas.
D. Another study has showed that researchers studying human remains over the past million years have also suggested that temperature is a major predictor of body size change, while scientists studying red deer have said that warmer winters in northern Europe and Scandinavia may lead to the body size of these animals becoming smaller.
E. However, not all experts agree that rising temperatures cause mammals to shrink. Prof Adrian Lister, of the Natural History Museum in London, said the relationship shown by the recent human remains study is weak, while the strong relationship between temperature and mammal body size may often be down to the availability of food and resources.
A. It’s already affecting nearly every aspect of our lives and our children’s futures, our heat waves more deadly, our storms more intense, and our wildfires burn.
B. But the most important thing we can give them is hope that there are solutions, and everyone has something to contribute no matter how old they are.
C. As parents, many of us have had challenging conversations with our children. There’s one more to add to the list — climate change.
D. By taking the time to understand how we feel about climate changes ourselves and then listening to our children discussion about their hopes around the issue, we can help them figure out how they can be part of the solution.
E. When we talk to our kids, we have to be honest. Climate change is real and serious.
A. The giant panda used to have a population of 1, 114 in the 1970s. It now totals 1, 864 thanks to 52 protection areas.
B. China will continue its efforts of the wildlife protection. Key projects will be continually carried out to improve protection, including making the lists of wild animals and plants under State protection, and also fighting against illegal wildlife trade, which includes ivory(象牙).
C. In recent decades, a series of wildlife-protection movements have been carried out by the central government. Several species in danger of extinction have made impressive progress .
D. Another species was once thought to be extinct. In 1981, only seven crested ibises were found in Yangxian county, Shaanxi Province. Since then, breeding programs have helped the population reach 2, 000.
E. China has made great improvements in environmental protection during the past 70 years. Protecting wildlife is, without doubt, an important part.
8 . The Last Straw?
Every second, the world uses 160,000 plastic bags — that is a total of over five trillion per year. Up to 99 percent of these plastic bags hang around for at least 1,000 years and pollute Earth. And yet, plastic bags are hardly a necessity in our lives. Of all the changes we could make to create a more sustainable lifestyle, a total ban on plastic bags should be simple.
At the beginning of 2021, Shanghai put in effect a ban on all plastic bags in shopping malls and supermarkets, as well as a ban on non-degradable plastics in many other areas. Over the years, individuals and companies have worked to replace plastic items, such as cups and straws, with paper ones.
Customers complain that paper straws often become soft and break before they can finish their hot drinks. Experts, however, have repeatedly stressed plastic substitutes (替代品) are not the ultimate solution, and that our consumption habits need a bigger change.
In college, one of my environmental science professors promoted a type of waste-free living. She carried around a small glass jar with her, and in it was all her trash she collected for the entire year. She was able to do this by bringing her own cup to Starbucks, her own bags to the shops, and never buying anything that came wrapped in plastic. Her food waste also became compost.
Plastic bags are incredibly easy to forget about when they become increasingly common.
| A．Clearly she demonstrated our ability to live a completely healthy life without creating a great deal of plastic waste. |
| B．Plastic bag litter has even caused great problems in some areas. |
| C．If they’re free to use and easily disposed of, they’re a mere tool that we don’t have to think about. |
| D．Some of these decisions have been met with criticism. |
| E．Unfortunately, such a high level of pollution doesn’t come without consequences. |
A. However, there are some young minds working to clean up and protect the sea for future generations. While diving in Greece, young Boyan Slat noticed there was more plastic waste than fish and decided right then to dedicate his life to solving this problem.
B. The problem gets worse as plastic breaks down into very small pieces, or “micro plastic”, which is eaten by fish and leads to massive species loss. Humans also eat these fish, and micro plastic has even been found in tap water around the world.
C. Boyan thought working with the currents and gyres (漩涡) would help collect the waste, so he started the Ocean Cleanup Project-placing very long floating barriers in the Pacific.
D. Then currents concentrate the waste naturally so the waste can be collected and recycled.
E. Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down, so all the plastic ever produced still exists somewhere, 95% of which are not recycled, and large amounts enter the sea.
