2 . Elephants have four distinct personalities that help their herd survive in the African bush, scientists have found.

With their grey skin, mournful eyes and slow heavy pace, you could be forgiven for thinking elephants are uniformly blue creatures. But scientists have now discovered the largest living land animals have personalities to match their size. In a new study of African elephants, researchers have identified four distinct characters that are common in a herd -- the leaders, the gentle giants, the playful rogues and the reliable plodders.

Each of the types has developed to help the giant mammals survive in their harsh environment and is almost unique in the animal kingdom, according to the scientists. Professor Phyllis Lee and her colleague Cynthia Moss studied a herd of elephants in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya known as the EB family - famous for their matriarch Echo before she died in 2009. Using data collected over 38 years of watching this group, the researchers analyzed them for 26 types of behaviors and found four personality features tended to emerge.

The strongest personality to emerge was that of the leader. Unlike other animals, where leadership tends to be won by most dominant and aggressive individual, the elephants instead respected intelligence and problem solving in their leader. Echo, the matriarch and oldest in the group, her daughter Enid, and Ella, the second oldest female, all emerged as leaders.

The playful elephants tended to be younger but were more curious and active. Eudora, a 40-year-old female in the herd, seemed to be the most playful, consistently showing this trait through out her life while playfulness in some of the other elephants declined with age.

Gentle elephants, which included two 27-year-old females Eleanor and Eliot, caressed and rubbed against others more than the others.

Those that were reliable tended to be those that were most consistent at making good decisions, helped to care for infants in the herd and were calm when faced with threats. Echo and her youngest daughter Ebony seemed to be the most reliable. Professor Less said that elephants with these features tended to be the most socially integrated in the group while those who tended to be pushy and less reliable were more likely to split from the herd.

1. The reason why elephants have four distinct personalities is that ________.

A．scientists can distinguish them from each other more easily.

B．the four personalities can help them survived in Africa.

C．the elephants will be unique in the animals kingdom.

D．the elephants can avoid being caught by human beings.

2. From the passage we get to know that ________.

A．the researchers reached their conclusion by analyzing the data.

B．the research centered on the 26 types of behavior of the matriarch.

C．the scientists conducted the research by comparing elephants with other animals.

D．Professor Phyllis Lee and her colleague spent nearly 38 years tracking the herd.

3. In the EB family Echo and Eudora are ________.

A．mother and daughter	B．the two oldest female
C．the most gentle ones	D．leader and member

4. Which of the following is true about elephants according to the passage?

A．Not all the types can help the elephants survive in their environment.

B．Leadership tends to be won by the most dominant and aggressive elephant.

C．The playful elephants not only tended to by younger but also were more curious.

D．The reliable elephants are likely to rely on others to decide what to do.

3 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

A professor of public health at UCLA says that pet ownership might provide a new form of health care. As far back as the 1790s, the elderly at a senior citizens’ home in England     1    (encourage) to spend time with farm animals. This helped patients’ mental state more than the cruel therapies     2     (use) on the mentally ill at the time. In recent years, scientist have finally begun to find proof     3     contact with animals can increase a sick person’s chance of survival and has been shown     4     (lower) heart rate, calm upset children, and get people to start a conversation.

Scientists think that animal companionship is beneficial     5     animals are accepting and attentive, and they don’t criticize or give orders. Animals have the unique ability to be more social. For example, visitors to nursing homes get more social responses from patients when they come with animal companions.

Not only do people seem     6    (anxious) when animals are nearby, but they may also live longer. Studies show that a year after heart surgery, survival rates for heart patients were higher for those with pets in their homes than those without pets. Elderly people with pets make fewer trips     7     doctors than those without animal companions, possibly because animals relieve loneliness. Staying with animals is believed to create a peaceful state of mind,     8    (result) in a favourable environment for everyone.

Research confirms that the findings concerning senior citizens can be applied to restless children. They are more easy-going when there are animals around with, with     9     company they tend to calm down more easily. They involve     10     in playing with animals and the presence of animals comforts them greatly.

4 . Scientists in Antarctica have recorded,for the first time,unusually warm water beneath a glacier (冰川)the size of Florida that is already melting and contributing to a rise in sea levels.

The researchers,working on the Thwaites Glacier,recorded water temperatures at the base of the ice of more than 2℃,above the normal freezing point.Critically,the measurements were taken at the glacier's grounding line,the area where it transforms from resting wholly on bedrock to spreading out on the sea as ice shelves.It is unclear how fast the glacier is getting worse:Studies have forecast its total collapse in a century or in a few decades.The presence of warm water in the grounding line may support estimates at the faster range.

That is worthy of attention because the Thwaites,along with the Pine Island Glacier and several smaller glaciers, acts as a brake on part of the much larger West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which , if melted, would raise the world's oceans by more than a meter over centuries,an amount that would put many coastal cities underwater.

“Warm waters in this part of the world,as remote as they may seem,should serve as a warning to all of us about the potential terrible changes to the planet brought about by climate change,” said David Holland, director of New York University's Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.

Glaciologists have previously raised alarm over the presence of warm water melting the Thwaites from below.This is the first time,though,that warm waters have been measured at the glacier's grounding line.

To observe activity beneath the glacier,Dr.Holland's team drilled a hole -about 30 centimeters wide and 600 meters deep-from the surface to the bottom and then placed equipment that measures water temperature and ocean turbulence,or the mixing of freshwater from the glacier and salty ocean water.Collecting the data took about 96 hours in subzero weather.Warm waters beneath the Thwaites are actively melting it, the team found.

While scientists may not yet be able to definitively predict how soon glaciers like the Thwaites will melt, human-caused climate change is a key factor.The biggest predictor of “how much ice we will lose and how quickly we will lose it,”Dr.Holland said,”is human action.”

1. What does warm water found in the glacier's grounding line indicate?

A．Sea levels should be remeasured.

B．It may take a century for the glacier to melt.

C．The grounding line is getting shorter.

D．The glacier might disappear sooner

2. The Thwaites and other glaciers are important because ______.

A．they hold back ice

B．they are extremely large

C．they are located at bedrocks

D．they are collapsing

3. What can be inferred from the passage about the researchers’ viewpoints?

A．We can predict how much ice can be kept.

B．Human beings are to blame for the loss of ice.

C．Glaciers serve a more important purpose than expected.

D．More data needs to be collected to support the estimates.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The efforts made to avoid the presence of warm water.

B．The alarm voiced on the worsening situation of glaciers.

C．The tools employed to measure the temperature of Antarctica.

D．The prediction based on a scientific study of the grounding line.

5 . 　Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up. “There’s a cyclone coming, Em,” he called to his wife. “I’ll go look after the stock.” Then he ran toward the sheds where the cows and horses were kept.

Aunt Em dropped her work and came to the door. One glance told her of the danger close at hand. “Quick, Dorothy!” she screamed. “Run for the cellar!” Toto jumped out of Dorothy’s arms and hid under the bed, and the girl started to get him. Aunt Em, badly frightened, threw open the trap door in the floor and climbed down the ladder into the small, dark hole. Dorothy caught Toto at last and started to follow her aunt. When she was halfway across the room there came a great roar from the wind, and the house shook so hard that she lost her footing and sat down suddenly upon the floor.

Then a strange thing happened. The house circled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon. It was very dark, and the wind blew horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily. After the first few twists and turns, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle (摇篮). Toto did not like it. He ran about the room, now here, now there, barking loudly; but Dorothy sat quite still on the floor and waited to see what would happen.

At last she crawled over the swinging floor to her bed, and lay down upon it; and Toto followed and lay down beside her. In spite of the swinging of the house and the crying of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.

1. What does the underlined word “cyclone” in paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．deadline

B．flood

C．monster

D．tornado

2. Why did Aunt Em go into the hole in the floor when the cyclone approached?

A．To find the puppy Toto.	B．To find shelter from the cyclone.
C．To protect their fortune.	D．To get tools to help Henry.

3. Which of the following is True about Dorothy?

A．She managed to control the house.	B．She found herself flying in a balloon.
C．She turned baby crying loudly.	D．She remained undisturbed with Toto.

4. Which words can be used to describe Dorothy in the emergency?

A．Afraid and brave.	B．Curious and tired.
C．Flexible and calm.	D．Excited and thrilled.

6 . A rare hole has opened up in the ozone layer above the Arctic, in what scientists say is the result of unusually low temperatures in the atmosphere above the north pole.

The hole, which has been (racked from space and the ground over the past few days, has reached record dimensions, but is not expected to pose any danger to humans unless it moves further south. If it extends further south overpopulated areas, such as southern Greenland, people would be at increased risk of sunburn.

However, on current trends the hole is expected to disappear altogether in a few weeks.

Low temperatures in the northern polar regions led to an unusual stable polar vortex（极地漩涡），and the presence of ozone-destroying chemicals such as chlorine（氯）in the atmosphere -- from human activities - caused the hole to form.

“The hole is principally a geophysical curiosity." said Vincent-Henri Peuch. director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. "We monitored unusual dynamic（动态的）conditions, which drive the process of chemical depletion of ozone. Those dynamics allowed for lower temperatures and a more stable vortex than usual over the Arctic, which then triggered the formation of polar stratospheric（平流层的）clouds and the catalytic（催化的）destruction of ozone."

The hole is not related to the Covid-19 shutdowns that have dramatically cut air pollution and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. It is also too early to say whether the unusually stable Arctic polar vortex conditions are linked with the climate crisis, or part of normal stratospheric weather variability.

Peuch said there were no direct implications for the climate crisis. Temperatures in the region are already increasing, slowing the depletion of ozone, and the hole will start to recover as polar air mixes with ozone-rich air from lower latitudes. The last time similar conditions were observed was in spring 2011.

While a hole over the Arctic is a rare event, the much larger hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic has been a major cause for concern for more than four decades. The production of ozone-depleting chemicals has been dramatically reduced, under the 1987 Montreal Protocol 蒙特利尔协议），but some sources appear still to be functioning—in 2018. unauthorized emissions were detected from some areas.

New sources of ozone-depleting chemicals were not a factor in the hole observed in the Arctic, said Peuch. "However, this is a reminder that one should not take the Montreal Protocol measures for granted, and that observations from the ground and from satellites are central to avoid a situation where the ozone-destroying chemical level in the stratosphere could increase again.''

1. What is the possible meaning of the underlined word "depletion"?

A．replacement	B．consumption
C．increase	D．production

2. According to the passage, scientists are concerned about the hole because .

A．it is expected to be a threat to the mankind

B．the new hole is caused by air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions

C．it may encourage further scientific research and environmental awareness

D．it warns us of an oncoming climate crisis

3. What can be learned from the last two paragraphs?

A．The hole over the Arctic shares the same causes as the one over the Antarctic.

B．Human activities are highly responsible for producing ozone-destroying chemicals.

C．The Montreal Protocol has successfully prevented new emissions.

D．Some new illegal emissions are to blame for the hole over the Arctic.

4. The best title for the passage is probably .

A．Record-size Hole Opens in Ozone Layer above the Arctic

B．Actions Urgently Needed for a New Hole in Ozone Layer

C．Environmental Disaster and International Cooperation

D．How a Hole in Ozone Affects our Life on Earth

7 . One spring day. once the flowers have begun to open, a bee will hover (盘旋)and zip through your yard and dive-bomb your picnic table. While you're thinking about avoiding an attack, that bee is focused on something else entirely: me.

A honeybee has about six weeks to live. Today, like most days, her task is to fly as many as three miles from home, stick her long, straw-like tongue into a hundred or so flowers. When the bee has had her fill, she'll fly home. There the bee will deposit what she has got into the mouth of one of her co-workers, who will relay it to another, and so on for about 20 minutes, until the mixture is ready to be placed into the comb. Then she and her 50.000 or so mates will hover in the dark all night every night, flapping their wings to create hot, breezy conditions to remove the water from the mixture. Several sunrises later, they will seal me off in a golden cell of beeswax. In her lifetime, our bee may visit 4.000 flowers, and yet will produce only one-twelfth of a tea spoon of me.

The average American consumes nearly a pound and a half of me every year, in tea, on toast, and beyond. If I do say so myself, I am a timeless treasure. Literally—I never go bad.

Unfortunately, my good health is not guaranteed. The problem lies in the growth of industrial agriculture and the use of pest control chemicals, as well as changes in weather patterns, all of which reduce the number of flowers bees have to visit. I'd appreciate your letting your own garden grow just a little wild. My future depends on all of us fostering spring and summers wild flowers, thus helping the bees, who give so much—to you, to me—without ever asking for anything in return.

1. What does "me" refer to in the passage?

A．The flower.	B．The bee.
C．Water.	D．Honey.

2. What is the 2nd paragraph mainly about?

A．Bees' special talent.	B．Bees’ hard work.
C．Bees' living environment.	D．Bees' social behavior.

3. Which one of the following is true according to the passage?

A．A bee will always prioritize attacking picnic lovers.

B．Before "me" is sealed off in beeswax, the drying process can take a few nights.

C．The lifework of a bee satisfies the average demand of an American consumer annually.

D．Bees are more likely to visit those deliberately pest-controlled gardens.

4. What is the purpose of the passage?

A．To appeal for help for honeybees.

B．To talk about the history of a treasure.

C．To put forward techniques for gardeners.

D．To argue against the control of chemicals.

8 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word: for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Plants Scream in the Face of Stress

For the first time, researchers appear to have evidence that like animals, those plants deprived of water or     1     (force) to endure bodily harm can let out their pain. The study,     2     has yet to be published in a scientific Journal, adds another dimension to scientists     3     (grow) understanding of how plants detect and interact with their surroundings.

In recent years, it has become very clear that plants are more sensitive than researchers     4     (think). They respond when touched by insects and turn toward sources of light. "Plants are not just robotic stimulus-response devices," said Frantisek Baluska of the University of Bonn in Germany. "They're living organisms which have their own problems/'

Actually making their suffering hearable, however, is another matter entirely.     5     (test) that possibility, a team led by Itzhak Khait, a plant scientist at Tel Aviv University in Israel, placed microphones capable of detecting ultrasonic frequencies (超声波频率)four inches from tomato and tobacco plants. The researcher then either stopped watering them or cut their stems.

Measuring in the range of 20 to 150 kilohertz (千赫).the researchers found that even happy, healthy plants made the occasional noise. But when cut, tobacco plants emitted     6     average of 15 sounds within an hour of being cut     7     tomato plants produced 25 sounds.

    8     researchers aren't yet sure how plants produce these sounds, Khait and his colleagues proposed one possibility in their paper     9     as water travels through the plants' tubes, air bubbles will form and explode, producing small vibrations.

All this "screaming” caused by stress wasn't in a range detectable by human ears. But organisms that can hear ultrasonic frequencies—like mice, bats or perhaps other plants—    10     possibly hear the plants cries from as far away as 15 feet.

9 . If you like to take a walk in the woods in the United States or you prefer to decorate a tree at Christmas, you should know that climate change is making both of those activities a lot more ___________.

Looking at two ___________ and economically important species - the Douglas fir and the Ponderosa pine -scientists found that fires and drought _____________ by climate change make new growth difficult, especially in low-elevation forests, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Some forests in four regions in California, Colorado, the Northern Rockies and the southwestern part of the United States have crossed ''a(n) ___________ climate tipping(转折)point for post-fire tree generation, '' the study says.

Climate conditions over the past 20 years have _____________ changes that would have taken decades or even centuries to ___________ across broad regions of the country. This is leading to the sudden _____________ of trees and making these lands increasingly unsuitable for tree regeneration.

''Climate changes is _____________ our forests now, not just in some distant future. Maybe in areas where there are really _____________ seed sources, there could be some trees, but it is becoming really hard to get these trees back due to climate change, '' said study co-author Kim Davis.

The problem probably won't get any better, as climate change is making intense wildfires much more ______________. Western foresters say there used to be a fire season. But devastating and ____________ fires have become a reality all year long. In 2018, fire cost California more than $9.05 billion, according to the USA insurance commissioner, the deadliest and most destructive wildfires season in the ________________ history.

A higher number of fires and low seed availability means a high probability that these trees in these regions won't come back, Davis said. This study ______________ on the driest and hottest areas of the Western forests, but researchers will next try to focus on how much will be impacted.

____________, there are some things people can do to ease some of this problem. Forest management plans that reduce high-severity burns can help. Increasingly, forest managers are considering allowing some fires to burn under more moderate conditions, Davis said, Forest ______________can also replant trees after fire, at least in the areas where climate conditions will allow.

1.

A．convenient

B．difficult

C．encouraging

D．frustrating

2.

A．ecologically

B．apparently

C．physically

D．financially

3.

A．destroyed

B．worsened

C．extended

D．established

4.

A．necessary

B．enormous

C．critical

D．invisible

5.

A．accelerated

B．delayed

C．eliminated

D．strengthened

6.

A．transform

B．spread

C．preserve

D．escape

7.

A．extinction

B．decline

C．tragedy

D．increase

8.

A．sustaining

B．abandoning

C．facilitating

D．endangering

9.

A．sufficient

B．limited

C．moderate

D．approximate

10.

A．occasional

B．common

C．essential

D．temporary

11.

A．astonishing

B．hopeless

C．costly

D．irreversible

12.

A．world

B．state

C．human

D．forest

13.

A．concentrated

B．depended

C．insisted

D．commented

14.

A．As a result

B．For example

C．In fact

D．What’s more

15.

A．savers

B．managers

C．researchers

D．advocates

10 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Sneakers (运动鞋) Made from Old Chewing Gum

Dutch fashion and shoe label Explicit Wear is hoping to solve one of life’s sticky situations—the annoyance of stepping in waste chewing gum on the pavement—while helping to keep Amsterdam’s city streets clean. The brand has partnered with local marketing organization Iamsterdam and sustainability firm Gumdrop     1    (create) a   limited edition sneaker for adults made from recycled gum collected from   the city’s pavements.

Chewing gum causes an incredibly serious ecological problem,    2    it is made from plastics that do not biodegrade ( 生物降解). It’s also the second     3    (common) form of roadside litter, after cigarette ends. An incredible 3.3 million pounds of gum are incorrectly thrown away on the sidewalks each year,    4    (cost) the city millions of dollars to clean up. Gumdrop plans to collect waste gum from the streets of Amsterdam, clean them, and turn them into Gum-Tec, the material that forms the base of the shoe.

The waste gum will be put to good use to make stylish kicks,    5    will also raise awareness for the anti-littering cause.    6    (price) at around $332, the shoes will come into the market sometime next month.

Available for preorder now, the new Gumshoe sneakers—offered in both a bubblegum pink and a black/red colorway—     7     (feature) long-lasting rubber outsoles (鞋子外底)   shaped   from   recyclable   compounds produced by Gumdrop, 20 percent of which are made from gum.

Nearly 2.2 pounds of gum     8    (use) in every four pairs of shoes. A map of Amsterdam is made into the bottom of the soles to remind people of the littering problem. Even better, the sneakers actually still smell like bubblegum,    9    the annoying stickiness. Just as good as any sneaker with a rubber sole, the Gumshoes help   get chewing gum off our streets and keep the dangerously non-biodegradable substance out of our eco-system.

To help spread their sustainability message,    10    Gumshoe’s creators are hoping to do is to expand their project to other major cities around the world.