1 . A dog spent the last four years of his life waiting at a crossroad in the Thai city of Khon Kaen as if waiting for someone. People originally thought the dog had been abandoned, but then realized that he looked healthy, so people asked around about him. It turned out that the dog had indeed been spending most of his time around that crossroad, but a woman had been coming round regularly to bring him food and water.
One day, while photographing the dog everyone called Leo, a reporter met the woman who had been taking care of him. She had come to drop off some food. After learning the story about the dog and the woman, the reporter decided to share the story on social media. The post soon went viral and the photos of Leo got shared hundreds of times. And the photos reached the eyes of Leo’s former old owner.
Nang Noi Sittisarn, a 64-year-old woman from Thailand’s Roi Et Province, almost had a heart attack when her daughter showed her a photo of the beloved dog named BonBon she had lost during a car trip. When she learned that he had been waiting for her in the same spot for the last four years，her heart melted(融化).
Auntie Noi told her daughter to drive her to where the dog was waiting. When she got there and called his name. BonBon，the poor dog started wiggling(扭动)his tail and came to her，but when she tried to take him home with her, he was unwilling to follow. She didn’ t want to force the dog to come with her so she agreed to leave him with his new master. However, she and her daughter will come to visit him regularly.
1. Why did the dog look healthy after separation from his former owner?| A．He walked around the crossroad constantly. |
| B．He was kept at a woman’s home all the time. |
| C．A local reporter brought him food and water. |
| D．A woman looked after him on a regular basis. |
| A．Changed surprisingly. | B．Spread quickly. |
| C．Appeared gradually. | D．Fell directly. |
| A．Shocked. | B．Regretful. | C．Touched. | D．Proud. |
| A．Unbelievable success is worth waiting for. |
| B．We should adjust ourselves to environments. |
| C．We need to learn to be faithful and thankful. |
| D．No one knows the result until the last minute |
2 . The worst outbreak of desert locusts (蝗虫) in decades is presently underway in the Horn of Africa. It is the biggest of its kind in 25 years for Ethiopia and Somalia — and the worst Kenya has seen for 70 years.
What we are seeing in East Africa today is unlike anything we’ve seen in a very long time. Its destructive potential is enormous, and it’s taking place in a region where farmers need every gram of food to feed themselves and their families. Most of the countries hardest hit are those where millions of people are already vulnerable (脆弱的) or in serious humanitarian need, as they endure the impact of violence, drought, and floods.
We have acted quickly to respond to this outbreak. The primary method of battling locusts is the aerial spraying of pesticides (杀虫剂). FAO’s “Locust Watch” service explains that “although giant nets, flamethrowers, lasers, and huge vacuums have been proposed in the past, these are not in use for locust control. People and birds often eat locusts but usually not enough to significantly reduce population levels over large areas.”
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has released $10 million from its Central Emergency Relief Fund to fund a huge scale-up in aerial operations to manage the outbreak.
But the window to contain this crisis is closing fast. We only have until the beginning of March to bring this infestation under control as that is when the rain and planting season begins. If left unchecked — and with expected additional rains — locust numbers in East Africa could increase 500 times by June.
We must act now to avoid a full-blown catastrophe. And we will. At the same time, we need to pay attention to a bigger picture. This is not the first time the Greater Horn of Africa has seen locust outbreak approach this scale, but the current situation is the worst in decades. This is linked to climate change. Warmer seas mean more tropical storms, generating the perfect breeding conditions for locusts.
1. What is implied in paragraph 2?| A．People in East Africa are suffering drought. |
| B．People in East Africa are going through floods. |
| C．The locust outbreak will cause crop failure. |
| D．The locust outbreak is worsening locals’ life. |
| A．We need a bigger picture to study the disaster. |
| B．It is the second outbreak of locusts in East Africa. |
| C．It is the largest outbreak of locusts ever in history. |
| D．The outbreak of locusts is fueled by global warming. |
| A．To analyse and compare. | B．To inform and call for. |
| C．To argue and discuss. | D．To introduce and assess. |
| A．A guidebook. | B．A health magazine. |
| C．A news report. | D．A chemistry paper. |
3 . Scientists say they have developed a system that uses machine learning to predict when and where lightning will strike. Researchers report the system is able to predict lightning strikes up to 30 minutes before they happen within a 30-kilometer area.
Lightning is a strong burst of electricity in the atmosphere. Since it carries an extremely powerful electrical charge, it can be destructive and deadly. European researchers have estimated that between 6,000 and 24,000 people are killed by lightning worldwide each year. For this reason, climate scientists have long sought to develop methods to predict lightning.
The system tested in the experiments uses a combination of data from weather stations and machine learning methods. The researchers developed a prediction model that was trained to recognize weather conditions that were likely to cause lightning.
The model was created with data collected over a 12-year period from 12 Swiss weather stations in cities and mountain areas. The data, related to four main surface conditions: air pressure, air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed, was placed into a unique machine learning algorithm (算法), which compared it to records of lightning strikes. Researchers say the algorithm was then able to learn the conditions under which lightning happens.
The researchers test-ran the system several times. They found that the system made predictions that proved correct almost 80 percent of the time. “It can now be used anywhere,” the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology said in a statement.
The researchers plan to keep developing the technology in partnership with a European effort that aims to create a lightning protection program. The effort is called the European Laser Lightning Rod project. Scientists working on the project are experimenting with a laser technology that could someday control lightning activity, transferring lightning charges from clouds to the ground. They hope that such technology can one day be used as protection against lightning strikes. Possible uses could be at stations, airports or places where large crowds gather.
1. Why was the system developed?| A．To meet kids’ curiosity about lightning. |
| B．To show the power of lightning. |
| C．To keep track of lightning deaths. |
| D．To protect people from lightning. |
| A．It was based on a number of samples worldwide. |
| B．It adopted a different machine learning algorithm. |
| C．It used an effective method of collecting data. |
| D．It required low cost of predicting lightning. |
| A．Monitor lightning activity. | B．Prevent the occurrence of lightning. |
| C．Direct energy from lightning. | D．Generate electricity with lightning. |
| A．A System of Controlling Lightning | B．A Method of Forecasting Lightning |
| C．A Theory of Employing Lightning | D．A Model of Creating Lightning |
4 . Scientists say only enlarging the world’s nature reserve to help protect plants and animals may be useless. The main reason is that levels of human activity are rising in and around the nature reserves. In fact, recognizing spaces as protected areas is not reducing human activity there.
The researchers found that a lack of money to pay for land conservation (保护) is affecting conservation efforts. And it is a lack of communication between people who live in protected natural areas and outsiders. About 17 percent of the world is within protected areas, including the national parks, nature reserves and wilderness areas. Protected areas are important for supporting environments with many different kinds of plants and animals.
The researchers again found increasing human activity in most protected areas in every country. However, they said that human activity appeared to be more of a problem in nations with fewer roads and lower life standards on the Human Development Index (指数). The index uses information about life length, education and earnings to grade countries on human development.
Across the northern Australia, protected areas often proved effective at slowing human activity when compared with unprotected areas. But in South America, Southeast Asia and African countries, pressure from human activity inside protected areas was higher.
Experts say governments need to provide fund support to help protected areas. Simply recognizing a place as a protected area can’t be the beginning and the end of a conservation effort. Working with local people to take efforts is also important. If they’re not partners in the protected areas, then wildlife conservation is much more difficult.
1. What are protected areas mainly affected by according to the text?| A．Human activity. | B．Climate change. |
| C．Population growth. | D．Environmental pollution. |
| A．Record more roads in the world. |
| B．Improve education in all countries. |
| C．Grade countries on human development. |
| D．Lead more people to make money. |
| A．Enlarge protected areas. |
| B．Offer extra money and work with locals. |
| C．Attract more people to travel there. |
| D．Allow local people to farm there. |
| A．People May Cause Harm to Plants and Animals |
| B．Local People Should Focus on the Natural Environment |
| C．Nature Reserves in the World Should Be Increased |
| D．Nature Reserves May Not Protect Wildlife Safely |
5 . Lost cities that have been found
The White City
In 2015, a team of explorers to Honduras in search of “the Lost City of the Monke God” led to the discovery of the White City. It is believed that local people hid here when the Spanish conquerors (征服者) occupied their homeland in the16th century.
Canopus and Heracleion
The Egyptian cities Canopus and Heracleion, where Queen Cleopatra often visited, weren’t found until 1992. Artifacts (史前器物) showed that the cities once highly developed as a trade network, which helped researchers piece together more about the last queen of Egypt.
Machu Picchu
A Yale professor discovered “the Lost City in the Clouds” in 1911. Machu Picchu displays the Inca Empire at the height of its rule. Abandoned in the 16th century for unknown reasons, the city was hidden by the local people from the Spanish conquerors for centuries keeping it so well preserved.
Troy
The ancient city of Troy in Homer’s The Iliad was considered a fictional setting for his characters to run wild. But in 1871, explorations in northwestern Turkey exposed nine ancient cities layered (层叠) on top of each other, the earliest dating back to about 5,000 years before. It was later determined that the sixth or seventh layer contained the lost city of Troy and that it was actually destroyed by an earthquake, not a wooden horse.
1. Why did people hide in the White City in the 16th century?| A．To survive the war. | B．To save the land. |
| C．To protect their country. | D．To search for a lost city. |
| A．The White City | B．Canopus and Heracleion |
| C．Machu Picchu | D．Troy |
| A．It was built by Homer. | B．It consisted of nine cities |
| C．It had a history of 5,000 years | D．It was ruined by a natural disaster. |
6 . Buck did not know that there was trouble ahead, Trouble for every dog with strong muscles and warm long hair, from Seattle to southern California. Some men had found a yellow metal in the Arctic darkness, and thousands of other men were rushing there. These men wanted dogs that were heavy, with strong muscles for working hard and furry coats to protect them from the cold.
Buck lived at a big house in a sunny valley in California which was owned by Judge Miller. He was neither a house dog nor a kennel (狗窝) dog. The whole of Judge Miller's land was his. Buck was king---king over all the crawling, flying things of Judge Miller's lands, humans included.
His father, Elmo, had been the Judge's inseparable companion. And when he died, Buck took his father’s place. He was not so large---he weighed only sixty kilogram---for his mother, Shep, had been a Scottish sheepdog. Hunting and other outdoor activities had hardened his muscle, and swimming had made him healthy.
This was Buck in the autumn of 1897, when the discovery of gold in the Klondike brought Men from everywhere to the frozen north. But Buck did not read the newspapers. And he did not know that Manuel one of the gardeners helper, was not a good man. Manuel gambled (赌博) and wasted the little money he had. No one saw him and Buck go off on what Buck thought was a walk. No one saw them arrive at the railway station where Manuel sold Buck to a man who was waiting for him,
After two days ho was cried off the train in Seattle into a small, high-walled yard. There a fat man in a red sweater broke open the cage with a small axe (斧头)，while holding a club (棍棒) in the other hand. When there was a big enough opening, Buck jumped out like a red-eyed devil, straight at the fat man. But in mid-air, just as his teeth were going to close on the man, he received a shock that he had never felt before, It turned him over and onto the ground. He had never been struck by a club in his life, and he did not understand. He was smashed down a dozen times.
Buck saw that he stood no chance against the man with the club. He had learned the lesson, and for the rest of his life he never forgot it. It was his introduction into the world of primitive law.
In the end a small man called Perrault paid three hundred dollars for him, and he was led away with Curly, a good-natured Newfoundland dog.
1. What kind of dogs did the gold-seekers want?| A．Heavy house dogs with yellow hair. | B．Strong long-haired dogs. |
| C．Diligent dogs with yellow hair | D．Muscular kennel dogs. |
| A．he was king over all living things of Judge Miller's lands |
| B．he became the Judge's inseparable companion after his father's death |
| C．he had a good life with many outdoor activities to get strong and healthy |
| D．he was wanted by gold-seekers thanks to his strong muscles and long hair |
| A．Judge Miller owned a big house and a large piece of land in the Klondike. |
| B．Manuel bought and sold Buck because he needed money to support his life. |
| C．The fat man cruelly beat Buck with a club to teach him how to fight back. |
| D．Buck's introduction into the word of primitive law was obeying the fat man. |
| A．Fall into Trouble | B．Fight against a Man |
| C．Escape from Trouble | D．Believe in a Man |
| Islands that could disappear in your lifetime Island vacations are dreams for many tourists, but climate change has lifted ocean temperatures, raised sea levels and worsened storm severity. As a result, some islands are threatened and could disappear in the coming decades. | |
| Federal States of Micronesia 2019 Population: 112,640 The average rate of sea-level rise worldwide has been 3.1 mm per year since 1993. But the rate around Federated States of Micronesia is three times faster. The country is at risk of disappearing because of coastal flooding, erosion, and frequent storms. | Tuvalu 2019 Population: 11,508. Tuvalu is a small chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean. For more than 25 years, its representatives have raised alarms that climate change could raise sea levels enough to flood the islands. Even if waters never get that high, Tuvalu could still become uninhabitable as rising sea levels have polluted the nation’s groundwater resources with salt. |
| Marshall Islands 2019 Population: 58413 Residents of Marshall Islands, a chain of volcanic islands and coral atolls in the central Pacific Ocean, have known for years that they have to either build new artificial islands to relocate or raise the existing ones. | Shishmaref Alaska 2019 Population: 617 In 2016, people living in Shishmaref, Alaska, located near the Bering Strait, voted to relocate before melting ice and land erosion would forced them to. Alaska had granted the city $8 million toward the move, but officials say it will cost $200 million. |
1. The sea level around Federal States of Micronesia is rising as much as ______ or so a year.
| A．1.1 mm | B．3.1 mm | C．6.6 mm | D．9.3 mm |
| A．Federal States of Micronesia | B．Tuvalu |
| C．Marshall Islands | D．Shishmaref |
8 . Nature calms our stressed-out soul. Nature is the best medicine, but new research is showing how little time we need to set aside to harvest the benefits.
In one new study, researchers tried to find the most effective “dose” (药剂) of nature within the context of normal daily life. As more doctors prescribe (开药方) nature experiences for stress relief and other health benefits — sometimes referred to as a “nature pill”— the study's authors hoped to make the details of these treatments clear.
“We know that spending time in nature reduces stress, but until now it is unclear how much is enough, how often to do it, or even what kind of nature experience will benefit us,” says lead author MaryCarol Hunter in a statement. “Our study shows that for the greatest payoff, in terms of efficiently lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisone (压力荷尔蒙激素), you should spend 20 to 30 minutes sitting or walking in a place that provides you with a sense of nature.”
A nature pill can be a low-cost, low-risk way to curb the negative effects of urbanization and indoor lifestyle. To find the most efficient dosage, Hunter and her co-authors asked 36 city citizens to have nature experiences of at least 10 minutes three times per week over eight weeks.
Every two weeks, the researchers collected saliva (唾液) samples to measure levels of the stress hormone cortisone, both before and after the participants took a nature pill. The data showed that just a 20-minute nature experience was enough to significantly reduce cortisone levels. The effect was more efficient between 20 and 30 minutes, after which benefits continued to increase but at a slower rate.
That fits with the findings of another recent study, which found that spending 20 minutes in an urban park can make you happier, no matter whether you use that time to exercise.
For this study, 94 adults visited 3 urban parks in Mountain Brook, Alabama, completing a questionnaire about their subjective well-being before and after their visit. An accelerometer (加速计) tracked their physical activity.
A visit lasting 20 to 25 minutes showed the best results, with a roughly 64% increase in the participants' self-reported well-being, even if they didn't move a great deal in the park. That last point is particularly positive, since it means anyone can benefit from visiting a nearby park, whatever his or her age or physical ability.
“There is increasing pressure on green space within urban settings,” said a UAB professor Gavin Jenkins. “Planners and developers look to replace green space with residential (住宅的) and commercial property. The challenge facing cities is that there is increasing evidence about the value of city parks but we continue to see the disappearance of these spaces.”
1. The authors of the study expected to ______.| A．study the treatments of nature in detail |
| B．find an effective way to treat stress |
| C．introduce the benefits of “nature pill” |
| D．share some rewarding nature experiences |
| A．experience | B．realize | C．control | D．produce |
| A．We should stay in nature as long as possible. |
| B．Many health problems are caused by great pressure. |
| C．Lack of exercise may greatly increase cortisone levels. |
| D．A short period of time in nature is enough to reduce stress. |
| A．Big cities should provide more sports facilities (设施). |
| B．City developers should spare more green spaces. |
| C．Visiting parks benefits people's physical health. |
| D．City planners should invest more in the property. |
9 . Scientists have discovered a "monster black hole" so massive that, in theory, it shouldn't exist
It’s a stellar black hole---the type that forms after stars die, collapse, and explode. Researchers had previously believed that the size limit was no more than 20 times the mass of our sun because 8S these stars die, they lose most of their mass through explosions that expel matter and gas swept away by stellar winds
This theory has now been toppled by LB-1, the newly discovered black hole. Located about 15.000 light years away, it has a mass 70 times greater than our sun, according to a press release from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The findings were published by Chinese researchers in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
"Black boles of such mass should not even exist in our galaxy, according to most of the current models of stellar evolution," said Liu Jifeng, head of the team that made the discovery. "LB-1 is twice as massive as what we thought possible. Now theorists will have to take up the challenge of explaining its formation."
Scientists are now scratching their heads at how LB-1 got so huge.
The Chinese team has proposed a number of theories. LB-1' sheer size suggests that it “was not formed from the collapse of only one star," the study said--- instead, it could potentially be two smaller black holes orbiting each other.
Another possibility is that it formed from “fallback supermova.” This is when a supernoma---the last stage of an exploding star---ejects material during the explosion, which then falls back into the supernova, creating a black hole.
This fallback formation is theoretically possible, but scientists have never been able to prove or observe it. If this is how LB-1 formed, then we may have "direct evidence for this process” for the first time, the study said.
There are several types of black holes and stellar black holes like LB-1 are on the smaller side, according to NASA. Supermassive black holes are much bigger---they can be billions of times the mass of our sun,
Scientists believe supermassive black holes may be connected to the formation of galaxies, as they often exist at the center of the mass star stems but it is still not clear exactly how, or which form first.
1. Why does the writer write the article?| A．To report the great achievement Chinese scientists have made in black hole theory, |
| B．To inform the readers of the basic knowledge about the black hole, |
| C．To share with the readers the new development of the black hole discovery, |
| D．To demonstrate the significance of discovering new black holes for science. |
| A．It is the biggest black hole ever discovered, |
| B．It lost only a small part of its mass through explosion. |
| C．It couldn't have been formed from the collapse of one star, |
| D．Its discovery may lead to some breakthrough in the “fallback formation theory". |
| A．If the sun in our galaxy dies some of its mass will be taken away by stellar winds. |
| B．A massive supernova will be formed and then exploded if the sun in our galaxy dies. |
| C．"The Milky Way" was formed after a supermassive black hole collapsed and exploded. |
| D．If “the Milky Way" dies, a supermassive black hole will be formed after its death. |
The term “crocodile tears” refers to insincere sadness. This term has an etymology dating back several centuries. As early as the fourth century, crocodile tears are referenced in the literature with the meaning of insincere sorrow. It is said that crocodiles weep while eating their hunted animals because they are sad; however, this sadness is not honest.
The term crocodile tears became widely popular after it was documented in a fifteenth-century book titled The Voyage and Travel of Sir John Mandeville, Knight. A passage from the book reads: “These crocodiles kill men and they eat them weeping.”
As you may already know, crocodilians(鳄目动物) likely feel bad about little—especially feeding. However, the assumption of the crocodile-tears metaphor may be true. In a 2007 paper published in BioScience titled “Crocodile Tears: And they eat them weeping”, researchers observed 7 crocodilians in cages during feeding time at a reserve (4 caimans and 3 American alligators). The researchers observed the crocodilians outside of water at feeding stations to better find out whether tearing developed.
Five of the 7 crocodilians developed something like tears in their eyes before, during or after feeding. The researchers suggest that these crocodile tears occur because a crocodilian hisses (发出嘶嘶声) while it eats, and this hissing forces air through the spaces in the bone behind the nose and out the eye, in the process picking up nasolacrimal secretions (鼻泪管分泌物.)
In humans, crocodile tears is a medical condition that causes a person to tear up while eating. Crocodile tears typically occur because of a temporary loss of facial control due to damage of the facial nerve. Specifically, when the facial nerve grows again, it does so incorrectly thus resulting in tears during chewing food.
1. The underlined word “etymology” in Paragraph 1 refers to ________.| A．a reference book containing articles on various topics |
| B．the origin and history of a particular term |
| C．a printed sheet of paper that are given free to advertise |
| D．the application and influence of a new theory |
| A．is a medical condition that causes a crocodile to tear up |
| B．became widely popular as early as the fourth century |
| C．refers to pretended sadness |
| D．proved to be only an assumption |
| A．crocodilians especially feel bad about feeding |
| B．not all the 7 crocodilians developed tearing |
| C．the crocodilians were carefully observed inside water |
| D．crocodile tears occur because a crocodilian hisses after it eats |
| A．what the real truth is about crocodile tears |
| B．when the term “crocodile tears” got popular in literature |
| C．how researchers made the experiment on crocodilians |
| D．why crocodile tears typically occur in humans |
