1 . A few years ago, Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, published the results of something called the Great Elephant Census, which counted all the savanna elephants in Africa. What it found rocked the conservation world: In the seven years between 2007 and 2014, Africa’s savanna elephant population decreased by about a third and was on track to disappear completely from some African countries in as few as 10 years.
To change that trend, researchers landed on a technology that is rewriting the rules for everything from our daily appliances to our cars: artificial intelligence. “AI can process huge amounts of information to tell us where the elephants are, how many there are,” said Cornell University researcher Peter Wrege. “And possibly tell us what they are doing.”
There are two kinds of elephants in Africa: savanna elephants, which were counted by Allen’s census, and forest elephants, which the census couldn’t account for because that elephant lives in thick rainforest. In the forest, Wrege says, losing a forest elephant is easy to do. “Sometimes you see them, let’s say, 15 meters away from you and then they move 5 meters into the forest and you can’t see them,” he said. “Somehow they just disappear.”
Wrege’s use of artificial intelligence in the rainforest has been less remarkable, but no less important. The networks on which his forest elephant count depends are still training, so he doesn’t have a precise forest elephant count yet. He has found that trying to count forest elephants depends on various factors. But the AI has uncovered some unexpected things. For example, it appears that elephants don’t go to some parts of the forest during specific times of the year. That’s important to know because it can inform the way conservation park managers position their forces. “You can say,” Wrege said. “OK, we know that elephants are not using this huge part of this park for these seven months. No poachers are going to find an elephant anyway. So we don’t need to send any anti-poaching teams there.”
1. What does the underlined part “that trend” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The use of Al in the forest. | B．The dependence on Microsoft. |
| C．The decrease of elephant population. | D．The progress of the conservation world. |
| A．The thick forest affects the normal use of AI. |
| B．It’s easy for them to disappear into the forest. |
| C．Conservation workers often get lost in the forest. |
| D．They move to different forests in different seasons. |
| A．It is taken advantage of by poachers. | B．It will be used to count other animals. |
| C．It has already made some useful discoveries. | D．It can count the exact number of forest animals. |
| A．They’re safe in all parts of the forest. |
| B．Poachers can be recognized by networks. |
| C．Protecting force can be better positioned in the park. |
| D．Park managers are training them to adapt to new conditions. |
1. Which of the following is not part of the eco-car?
| A．The air tank. | B．The fuel pump. | C．The luggage trunk. |
| A．His interest in light fiberglass. |
| B．His experience at a design fair. |
| C．His concern about the environment. |
| A．It’s quiet and safe. | B．It runs on regular fuel. | C．Its body is made of steel. |
3 . Dogs are likely to have complex (复杂的) feelings such as jealousy (嫉妒) and pride, according to a new scientific research.
Dogs feel very jealous when they find that they are unfairly treated. And they do not like seeing their owners being kind to other creatures, especially other dogs. They often react negatively (消极地) when their owners bring home new pets, the research found. “Dogs show a strong dislike to unfair treatment,” Dr. Friederike Range of the Vienna University said.
At first, people believed most animals are short of the “sense of self” , which is needed to experience so-called secondary feelings such as jealousy. These are more complex than feelings such as anger or joy.
Besides dogs research, another research includes cows, horses, cats and sheep, and all the results have shown that animals have far more “sense of self” than we thought.
Dr Paul Morris, a psychologist (心理学家) at the University of Portsmouth who studies animal emotions, told The Sunday Times, “We are learning that dogs, horses, and perhaps many other species are far more emotionally complex than we ever realized. They can suffer simple forms of many emotions we once thought only primates (灵长类) could experience.”
In research among dog owners, Dr Morris found almost all of them reported jealous behavior by their pets. The dog often tried to keep their owner away from a new lover in the early days of a relationship.
Behavioral experts suggest that owners should keep a close relationship with the dog as usual when a new pet or child comes along in order to prevent jealous activity from the dog.
1. What is true about dogs and humans according to the passage?| A．Dogs usually have more feelings than humans. |
| B．Dogs feel unhappy when their owners show kindness to other animals. |
| C．Humans are angry about their dogs’ negative feelings. |
| D．Dogs are often treated unfairly by humans. |
| A．dog owners | B．experts | C．dogs | D．primates |
| A．dog owners should be kind to their dogs if they want to bring home a new one |
| B．dogs have all the same feelings as human beings |
| C．dogs would love to have other animals around them |
| D．dog owners can keep more animals at home to make their dogs happy |
| A．a textbook | B．a magazine | C．a travel book | D．a news report |
4 . In the late 1990s scientists began to notice changes in Yellowstone National Park. Trees that had stopped growing for years began to grow again. Animals started behaving differently. Scientists believe it is the wolves that have caused these changes.
Wolves used to live in Yellowstone. But many people thought wolves would kill animals kept on farms, such as cows and sheep, and they would harm crops, too. In 1926 the last wolf in Yellowstone was killed.
For the next 70 years Yellowstone did not have any wolves. Scientists decided to bring them back to the area in 1995. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service brought in 15 gray wolves from Canada. Today between 250 and 300 wolves live in Yellowstone—and they have already left their mark.
Wolves have been hunting and eating elk. The elk leftovers (驯鹿被吃剩的部分) provide food for animals such as bears. With fewer elk, plants can grow better and taller. This new plant growth provides more trees for birds and more plant food for beavers. The number of beavers in northern Yellowstone has increase greatly since wolves were reintroduced.
Wolves have such a big effect on Yellowstone because they are a keystone species. Keystone species are species on which a large number of other plants and animals depend. The removal of a keystone species can lead to the death of other species.
However, not every one is happy with the wolves’ return. Farmers want to limit the number of wolves in the area, because if there are too many wolves, they may have not only their cows and sheep killed by wolves, but also their cats, dogs, and horses.
Still, many scientists believe that Yellowstone is starting to look more like it did before people began to kill wolves there.
1. Which of the following is true according to the passage?| A．Wolves have played an important role in Yellowstone for 70 years. |
| B．Wolves in Yellowstone had all been killed by the mid-1920s. |
| C．Yellowstone can hold no more than 300 wolves today. |
| D．Yellowstone had no wolves at the beginning of the 20th century. |
| A．they have brought about changes to Yellowstone |
| B．they have made marks where they can get food |
| C．they have left a lot of footprints in the park |
| D．they have marked out the areas of their own |
| A．Plants grow taller and better |
| B．Beavers have increased greatly |
| C．The number of elk is reduced |
| D．Cows and sheep are killed on farms |
| A．wolves can depend on themselves to find food |
| B．a national park should introduce foreign animals |
| C．a national park should have different kinds of animals |
| D．wolves are necessary for many other animals and plants to live |
| A．Yellowstone Park Adventure | B．Wolves Back to Park |
| C．Great Changes in Yellowstone | D．Wolves Are Important |
5 . On an island in northern Norway, the sun doesn’t set from May 18 right through to July 26. The locals, having spent the long polar night from November to January, when the sun doesn’t rise at all, make the most of these months, with no regard to conventional timekeeping. The island intends to exchange its watches for flower garlands (花环) and declare itself the world’s first time-free zone.
“There’s constant daylight, and we act accordingly,” says islander Kjell Ove Hveding in a statement. “In the middle of the night, which citizens might call ‘2 am’, you can spot children playing soccer, people painting their houses or mowing their lawns, and teens going for a swim.”
Now they want to make it official. Islanders gathered at a town hall meeting to sign a petition (请愿) for a time-free zone and on June 13, Hveding met with a Norwegian member of parliament (国会) to hand over the locals’ signatures and to discuss the practical and legal challenges.
“To us, getting this in writing would simply mean formalizing the lifestyle we have been living for generations,” he says.
Islanders hope to be free of traditional opening hours and to introduce flexibility in school and working hours. Fishing and tourism are the main industries on this island with a population of little more than 300 people. Local fisher and women often spend days on the ocean for their catch, with little regard to timetable.
It’s clear that they mean business. When visitors cross the bridge to the island from the mainland, they aren’t greeted with padlocks (symbolizing love locks) like on similar bridges worldwide. The bridge is covered with watches, as people prepare for entry to the land time forgot.
1. What do the islanders normally do at midnight from May 18 to July 26?| A．Do daily work or have fun. | B．Sleep like outside people. |
| C．Struggle with strong light. | D．Turn watches into flowers. |
| A．It is difficult to describe. | B．It has been a long tradition. |
| C．It is a new kind of lifestyle. | D．It proves practical and legal. |
| A．Visitors actually prefer watches on bridges. | B．Visitors are ready to enter a time-free island. |
| C．The islanders intend to treat tourism as business. | D．The islanders are serious about being free of time. |
| A．An island wants to be a time-free zone officially. | B．Islanders in Norway have been free from time. |
| C．It’s time to lead a life without the limit of time. | D．An island won’t be open to the world any longer. |
In 2000, when I was around seven years old, all my family were coming back from a T-ball game, which was our usual weekend adventure, but unlike every other weekend, a surprise was waiting for us in our driveway—two adult geese and a small goose. Obviously startled by our return, the adults flew away in panic, with their baby, too young to fly, left in place, tiny and delicate.
Hours passed one after another, and night eventually fell. However, with it also came a deep chill and a fear of watchful animals. It was apparent that the gosling needed protection, warmth, and food to make it to the morning, so we had to help it, and we brought him onto our back yard.
We all pretty much slept with one eye open till morning came. And then another morning. And still another. Each morning, we would try to drive the goose away to his parents, who kept coming back to our yard. He wouldn’t go to them, though, and neither would they come close enough to claim him. We kept this up for five days, but no luck. Realizing the young goose had clearly decided we were his family by then, we had to give him a name, calling the little guy Peeper, because he would often follow us around the yard making a peeping(唧唧叫) noise, nonstop. Besides, we decided that Peeper was a boy. I don’t know why; it just felt right.
A year passed and we settled into a routine. Peeper slept on our back yard each night and, in typical goose fashion, used it as a latrine(公共厕所). My dad would spray off all the goose droppings daily. Part of this ceremony included Dad throwing Peeper up into the air so he could flap its wings and flew a loop(圈) around the house, and then came back again once the porch was clean.
Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months.
Paragraph 1:
Before we knew it, the little thing had grown into a big bird with two powerful wings.
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Paragraph 2:
It came as a total surprise to me when, in 2020, an adult goose made his way back to my family home.
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1. 环境保护的重要性；
2. 你在活动中的表现；
3. 你的感受。
注意：1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Lucas,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
8 . A young Dutch inventor is widening his effort to cleanup floating (浮动的) plastic from the Pacific Ocean. He has developed a floating device (设备) to trap plastic waste moving into rivers before it reaches the oceans.
Boyan Slat was just 18 years old when he invented a system for catching waste in the ocean. He also founded an environmental group called “The Ocean Cleanup”. Its purpose is to develop the system. Last year, Slat showed the next step: a floating device which is called Interceptor. It removes plastic out of rivers. The device is powered by energy from the sun. “The 1,000 rivers are responsible for about 80% of plastic going into the world’s oceans,” said Slat. Three of the machines have already been used. Each machine costs about $775, 660, but the cost might drop as production increases.
Since they were used, the machines have been doing very well, collecting the plastic bottles and all the rubbish in the rivers. According to Slat, it is necessary to close “the tap”, which means preventing more plastic from reaching the ocean in the first place. He wanted to clean them all in the next five years. “This is not going to be easy, but if we do get this done, we could truly make our oceans again, ”said Slat.
The device is designed to be safe in rivers. Its nose is shaped to change directions to keep it away from larger floating things. It works by guiding plastic waste into an opening in the front of the device. The waste is then carried inside the machine where it is dropped into containers. The devices ends a text message to local operators that can come and empty it when it is full.
1. What do we know about Interceptor?| A．It needs solar power to work. | B．It is mainly used in the oceans. |
| C．It is being under test. | D．It can help sort waste. |
| A．The waste. | B．The oceans. |
| C．The machines. | D．The rivers. |
| A．To ensure the device’s safety. | B．To send operators text messages. |
| C．To empty the waste. | D．To serve as containers. |
| A．A novel. | B．A magazine. |
| C．A diary. | D．A guidebook. |
9 . Over the years, thanks to my life’s obstacles, I understood the meaning of faith and the strong will to survive. It was Hurricane Ike that made me fully
Mom had a twoweek
In the early hours of September 11th, some neighbors were planning to
As Ike pushed farther inland, we
We wouldn’t be allowed to return home
| A．reserve | B．explore | C．appreciate | D．improve |
| A．meeting | B．journey | C．schedule | D．vacation |
| A．closely | B．constantly | C．warningly | D．differently |
| A．adventure | B．supplies | C．equipment | D．consensus |
| A．put away | B．get through | C．test out | D．suffer from |
| A．since | B．when | C．while | D．until |
| A．relevant | B．abundant | C．peaceful | D．dangerous |
| A．set out | B．headed for | C．settled down | D．looked ahead |
| A．lost | B．reduced | C．produced | D．provided |
| A．clearer | B．higher | C．lower | D．wilder |
| A．passed | B．stood | C．followed | D．gone |
| A．advocating | B．filling | C．leaving | D．kicking |
| A．by | B．before | C．after | D．until |
| A．in spite of | B．instead of | C．apart from | D．ahead of |
| A．laughter | B．will | C．strength | D．faith |
1. Where will the recycling campaign be held?
| A．In a school. | B．In a radio station. | C．In a recycling center. |
| A．At 8:00 am on July 8th. | B．At 10:00 am on July 10th. | C．At 10:00 am on July 18th. |
| A．To use them to play games. |
| B．To put them in the special recycling bins. |
| C．To learn how to sort household rubbish. |
| A．By making a call. | B．By listening to the radio. | C．By reading the newspapers. |
