1 . 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. |
2 . A couple of weeks ago, my husband got a text asking him to help cut down a tree. “This is not the time of year to cut down trees,” I said to my husband, “They are full of birds’ nests. Wait until fall, until the baby birds have flown away.”
The tree didn’t seem like an urgent issue to me or my husband, but it was worrying our neighbor and she wanted it gone. So, with some unwillingness and a chainsaw (链锯), my husband and our sons headed to our neighbor’s house early Saturday morning. About an hour later, I got a phone call from my 14-year-old son. He spoke in a trembling voice, which made me worried. I grabbed my keys, expecting to be told to meet my husband and sons at the emergency room. But no, everyone was safe. My son said that birds’ nests had fallen out of the tree and some baby birds had been hurt. So, I grabbed an old towel and a laundry basket.
I put the birds in the basket and headed for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. The people there are not astounded to see worried people with laundry baskets containing injured animals. They sighed at my story — they had heard many stories like this. They knew exactly how to help these birds. I was relieved that the birds would be fine, but I was still upset they had been needlessly traumatized (使受精神创伤).
A lesson from this experience is that we need to look at the whole picture. We must behave in ways that help meet needs without causing harm to others, Our efforts to move through our lives with more gentleness and care may make a big difference for someone, whether it’s a baby bird or a person.
1. Why did the author disagree with cutting down the tree at first?| A．The tree was growing well. |
| B．The tree caused her no trouble. |
| C．The tree was home to some baby birds. |
| D．The tree played a part in the ecosystem. |
| A．some little lives were hurt |
| B．he worried about his father’s safety |
| C．someone was sent to the hospital |
| D．he was unwilling to cut down the tree |
| A．Frightened. | B．Shocked. | C．Prepared. | D．Relaxed. |
| A．Treat Each Life Equally |
| B．Live in Harmony with Nature |
| C．Give Our Neighbors a Hand in Time |
| D．Help Others without Hurting Anyone |
3 . Whales, like all mammals（哺乳动物）, need air, and come to the surface to breathe through a blowhole. A drone（无人机） that floats over the blowholes of humpback whales as they are making annual journey along Australia’s east coast is being used by Australian scientists for collecting nasal mucus（鼻腔粘液）of whales.
Vanessa Pirotta, a biologist at Macquarie University says that nasal mucus indicates the health of the whale. “It is the biological mixture that you see as a whale takes a breath as it surfaces from the water,” she said. You can hear sounds of sharp breaths as a whale breathes because, after all, they are animals like you and I. So as they take a breath it is a lot of lung bacteria（细菌）coming out from their lungs（肺）, which we can collect to provide a brief idea of whale health.
Australian researchers have attached a special dish that is used in scientific tests to a drone which flies through the whale's nasal mist. As a whale comes to take a breath-you can actually see it coming to the surface on really good weather days -- the done then lowers, the dish is then opened, collecting nasal mucus for later research.
The research could help to solve one of the secrets of another impressive creature of the deep-the Southern Right whale. Its numbers have recovered on Australia’s west coast since hunting became suppressed but its population on the eastern seaboard is still stubbornly low.
In the past, studies into whale health had to rely on examining whales that were either killed or those whales that had been trapped on a beach. Drones allow scientists to collect nasal mucus from free-swimming whales to gather information in a safe way.
1. What is the drone mainly used to do?| A．To gather information for researchers. |
| B．To record new species of whales. |
| C．To make sure of the safety of whales. |
| D．To take photos of whales yearly journey. |
| A．By examining liquids from its breath. |
| B．By checking its lungs on a machine. |
| C．By listening to the sounds of its breath. |
| D．By studying its similarity with humans. |
| A．Commercial. | B．Rewarding | C．Hidden | D．Forbidden. |
| A．To describe the difficulty to track it. |
| B．To show the difference between eastern and western coast. |
| C．To stress the effect of increasing whale population. |
| D．To show the possible application of the research. |
For most Americans, plastic bags are a necessary part of any
5 . Carbon Footprint: Definition & Facts
You know you leave a footprint when you walk around with wet foot.
What is a carbon footprint?
Electricity
People use electricity in their homes to turn on lights, plug in(接通电源)kitchen appliances like a microwave, and even watch TV or play video games. When you use electricity in your home, you are not creating carbon dioxide, but the power plants that create your electricity do emit carbon dioxide. Power plants that use coal for energy create the most carbon dioxide.
The Environmental protection Agency (EPA) says that electricity is responsible for the largest part of most carbon footprints.
Gas Heating
Cars
Cars are another thing that contributes to your carbon footprint.
| A．Causes of carbon footprint. |
| B．But what is a carbon footprint? |
| C．Ways to reduce your carbon footprint. |
| D．The car you use would lead to climate change. |
| E．This happens because the gas that your car uses to run produces carbon dioxide. |
| F．The EPA says that gas heating is the second largest source of carbon dioxide emission. |
| G．Every time you use a fossil fuel, like coal or gas, you create a gas called carbon dioxide. |
6 . On the island of New Zealand there is a grasshopper-like species of insect that is found nowhere else on earth. New Zealanders have given it the nickname weta which is a native Maori word meaning “god of bad looks”. It’s easy to see why anyone would call this insect a bad-looking bug. Most people feel disgusted at the sight of these bulky(笨重的)，slow-moving creatures.
Wetas are natural creatures; they come out of their caves and holes only after dark. A giant weta can grow to over three inches long and weigh as much as 1.5 ounces. Giant wetas can hop up to two feet at a time. Some of them live in trees and others live in caves. They are very long-lived for insects and some adult wetas can live as long as two years. Just like their cousins grasshoppers and crickets wetas are able to “sing” by rubbing their leg parts together or against their lower bodies.
Most people probably don’t feel sympathy for these endangered creatures but they do need protecting. The slow and clumsy wetas have been around on the island since the times of the dinosaurs and have evolved and survived in an environment where they had no enemies until rats came to the island with European immigrants. Since rats love to hunt and eat wetas the rat population on the island has grown into a real problem for many of the native species that are unaccustomed to its presence and poses a serious threat to the native weta population.
1. How can wetas produce pleasant sounds?| A．By rubbing their body parts. | B．By coming out only at might. |
| C．By moving slowly on the ground. | D．By hopping up to two feet at a time. |
| A．They are increasing in number. | B．They are decreasing in number. |
| C．They are very active in the daytime. | D．They have a short life for insets. |
| A．the dinosaur's | B．the weta's | C．the island's | D．the rat's |
| A．A literature magazine. | B．A travel guide. |
| C．A business journal. | D．A biology textbook. |
7 . One afternoon, while staying with friends at their house there, my husband and I decided to go for a walk along the traffic-free country road in the area. We met a beautiful Golden Retriever. He seemed exceptionally friendly so we stopped to play with him, throwing a stick which he retrieved（取回）several times happily. When we continued our walk, he followed us. I couldn't deny that we were enjoying his company.
After about twenty minutes, we found ourselves walking along a dirt road in an unfamiliar area. One house, almost hidden by tall trees, seemed somehow strange. I wanted to get as far away from that place as possible.
Just then, the door to the house opened and five dogs rushed out, barking as they ran toward us. I felt terrified and couldn't move. All of a sudden, our new friend appeared between the dogs and us. He faced them-all five of them-barking and baring his teeth. I was amazed to see the attacking dogs stop in their tracks ten feet away from him. Our protector held them there while we escaped.
At a safe distance, we looked back and saw the five dogs heading back toward their house. But the Golden Retriever was nowhere in sight. I felt an ache in my heart; I missed our friend already.
With a feeling of emptiness, we made our way back to the house, hoping the whole way that we would see him again. But it was not to be.
When I told our friend about the encounter, her eyes flew wide open as she exclaimed, "It was an angel!"
To this day I have no doubt, A four-legged angel protected us.
1. While meeting the house hidden by tall trees, the author may feel| A．curious | B．frightened | C．peaceful | D．exited |
| A．Loyal. | B．Brave. | C．Cruel. | D．Lovely. |
| A．A Romantic Walk | B．A Beautiful Encounter |
| C．A Four-Legged Angel | D．A Terrible Experience |
Thousands of years ago, Britain
9 . Next time your plane lands, listen to the sound of the tyres hitting the ground. The reason why the tyres don’t explode is that they are made of natural rubber. The tyres of cars, motorbikes and trucks are also often made of the same material.
Natural rubber comes from trees. Workers cut the trunks of the trees and collect a white liquid called latex(胶乳). In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, huge numbers of rubber tyres were planted in countries including Malaysia, Burma and Brazil. More than a century ago, scientists discovered how to make man-made rubber, but natural rubber is much stronger and can last much longer. Nearly half the rubber which is produced each year is natural rubber and there is always a need for more.
Rubber trees are not easy to grow. They are affected by changes in temperature, too much or not enough rain, high winds and disease. Some trees survive while others die and it’s all down to their genes. Two British organizations, the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre(TARRC) and The Genome Analysis Centre(TGAC), have been working together to look at rubber trees. They have now discovered the ‘genome’ of the rubber tree. This is the way genes fit together in very long chains of DNA. The genome contains all the information the plant or animal needs to grow. The genome for a plant, such as a rubber tree, is smaller than a human genome but it is still very long, which is why it has been so difficult to find. As Ewan Mollison of TARRC says, the work has been like putting a picture puzzle together where all the pieces show blue sea and blue sky.
Now scientists can use the rubber tree genome to produce stronger trees. In the future, it will be possible to grow trees which survive climate change and disease.
1. Where were the first rubber trees planted?| A．In Europe and South Africa. |
| B．In Africa and Northeast Asia. |
| C．In Southeast Asia and South America. |
| D．In North America and Europe. |
| A．Disease and soil condition. | B．Climate change and disease. |
| C．Soil condition and geographic location. | D．Geographic location and climate change. |
| A．To develop stronger rubber trees. | B．To change the DNA in rubber trees. |
| C．To grow rubber trees in more countries. | D．To improve the quality of man-made rubber. |
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In recent year, more and more people often wear a mask when they walked their dogs. Interestingly, their dogs which also wear a mask. That is why air pollution has become more and more serious in some areas, which have led to severe consequences. To solve this problem, firstly of all, we should raise the public awareness protecting the environment. Secondly, the government ought to punish the illegal acts severely. Thirdly, we must do my best in our daily life to protecting the environment. Only in this way can human beings and animals share a pleasant planet or live a happy life.
