1 . The cold, wet weather of winter often puts out any wildfires that are still burning, but not in the far North areas, such as Alaska, Canada, and other parts of North America. Some forest fires just don’t die in these places. Think of the fires as “zombies” (僵尸): Scientists do. When summers are warmer than normal, some fires can hide through the winter. They burn dead plant matter and soils under snow. In May 2021, scientists reported their work to a scientific journal. The scientists saw that zombie fires are rare but they could become more common as the world warms, the study warns.
“Some years, new fires were starting very close to the previous year’s fire,” explains Rebecca Scholten. She studies Earth and environmental sciences at Vrije University Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The new fires made scientists wonder how often fires might survive the winter. The scientists started by combing through firefighter reports. Then they compared these with satellite images of Alaska and northern Canada. The scientists looked for fires that began close to fires from the year before. They also focused on blazes starting before the middle of summer. Random lightning or human actions spark most fires in the area, Scholten says. But those fires happen later in the year.
Zombie fires accounted for less than 1 percent of the total area burned by fires from 2002 to 2018. But it changed from year to year. Take 2008, for example. A zombie fire burned Alaska that year. It caused almost one-third of fire damage that year. One clear pattern emerged: Zombie fires were more likely to happen after very warm summers. High temperatures may allow fires to reach more deeply into the soil. Such deep burns are more likely to survive to spring.
The zombie fire threat could grow. The climate is warming. Forests in the far North already are warming faster. “We’re seeing more hot summers and more large fires and intense burning,” Scholten says. Plus, zombie fires could cause more issues. The fires release huge amounts of greenhouse gases. These trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere is a layer of gases that surround the Earth. Scholten’s research could help fire management. Firefighters would know to check for them after warm summers.
1. What may lead to zombie fires according to the passage?| A．wet weather | B．hotter summers |
| C．low temperatures | D．cold winters |
| A．Where flames broke out provided the clue. |
| B．Changing climate plays a role in the zombie fire threat. |
| C．Zombie fires are less likely to happen after very warm summers. |
| D．It is of little use comparing firefighter reports with satellite images. |
| A．It is important to understand zombie fires. |
| B．Zombie fires are likely to be under control soon. |
| C．Firefighters cannot do much to stop the zombie fires. |
| D．We still have much to learn about the warming climate. |
| A．“Zombie“ wildfires do great damage to land |
| B．“Zombie” wildfires release greenhouse gases |
| C．“Zombie“ wildfires sparked by human actions |
| D．“Zombie” wildfires reappear after wintering underground |
2 . Earthquakes strike suddenly at any time of the day or night, but there's no way to tell when. If an earthquake happens, it may cause many deaths, injuries and damage. So you need a good preparation ahead of time. Decide how and where your family will get together if separated. Choose an out-of-state friend or relative that the family members can call after the quake to report where they are and how they are. Know the safe places in each room: under the strong tables, desks, or against inside walls. Keep enough food, water and other things, including a flashlight, a radio, medicines and clothing.
During the earthquake, you should keep a clear head and never be too nervous to know what to do. Protect your head and neck with your arms. If possible, take a book, a pillow or any other things to protect yourself from falling glass and ruins. If you are indoors, you must immediately lie under any strong furniture. If outdoors, move to an open area away from trees, buildings, walls or power-poles. If you are in a narrow valley, move to the centre of it and look up for falling stones. If you are in a car, move to the side of the road and stop the car. Do not stop near buildings, power lines or on or under bridges. Stay in your car until the shaking stops.
Do not move a badly injured person unless he is in great danger after the earthquake. Do not use the telephone immediately unless there is a serious injury or fire. Turn on your radio for instructions and news reports. Be prepared for aftershocks. If you want to leave your home, post a message inside your home telling your family members where you can be found.
1. To prepare for an earthquake, we should make sure of ________.| A．when an earthquake may happen |
| B．the place where we can find our family |
| C．how to receive instructions and news reports |
| D．the money with which we can buy food and water |
| A．find a strong building to hide in |
| B．leave the car as soon as possible |
| C．go on driving quickly to leave the area |
| D．move to the side of the road and stop there |
| A．we should keep calm and know what to do clearly |
| B．the trees and walls can protect us if we are outdoors |
| C．we should protect our necks with a pillow or a book |
| D．falling glass can be used to help us |
| A．move an injured person quickly |
| B．use the telephone immediately |
| C．turn on the TV to get news reports |
| D．leave a message before leaving home |
“In wilderness(荒野) is the preservation of the world.” This is a famous saying from a writer regarded as one of the fathers of environmentalism. The frequency with which it is borrowed mirrors a heated debate on environmental protection: whether to place wilderness at the heart of what is to be preserved.
As John Sauven of Greenpeace UK points out, there is a strong appeal in images of the wild, the untouched; more than anything else, they speak of the nature that many people value most dearly. The urge to leave the subject of such images untouched is strong, and the danger exploitation(开发) brings to such landscapes(景观) is real. Some of these wildernesses also perform functions that humans need—the rainforests, for example, store carbon in vast quantities. To Mr.Sauven, these ”ecosystem services” far outweigh the gains from exploitation.
Lee Lane, a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, takes the opposing view. He acknowledges that wildernesses do provide useful services, such as water conservation. But that is not, he argues, a reason to avoid all human presence, or indeed commercial and industrial exploitation. There are ever more people on the Earth, and they reasonably and rightfully want to have better lives, rather than merely struggle for survival. While the ways of using resources have improved, there is still a growing need for raw materials, and some wildernesses contain them in abundance. If they can be tapped without reducing the services those wildernesses provide, the argument goes, there is no further reason not to do so. Being untouched is not, in itself, a characteristic worth valuing above all others.
I look forwards to seeing these views taken further, and to their being challenged by the other participants. One challenge that suggests itself to me is that both cases need to take on the question of spiritual value a little more directly. And there is a practical question as to whether wildernesses can be exploited without harm.
This is a topic that calls for not only free expression of feelings, but also the guidance of reason. What position wilderness should enjoy in the preservation of the world obviously deserves much more serious thinking.
1. John Sauven holds that_____.
| A．many people value nature too much |
| B．exploitation of wildernesses is harmful |
| C．wildernesses provide humans with necessities |
| D．the urge to develop the ecosystem services is strong |
| A．The exploitation is necessary for the poor people. |
| B．Wildernesses cannot guarantee better use of raw materials. |
| C．Useful services of wildernesses are not the reason for no exploitation. |
| D．All the characteristics concerning the exploitation should be treated equally. |
| A．Objective. | B．Disapproving. | C．Sceptical. | D．Optimistic. |
CP: Central Point P: Point Sp: Sub-point(次要点) : Conclusion
A． | B． | C． | D． |
4 . Social distancing is not a new concept in the natural world, where infectious diseases are commonplace. Through specialized senses animals can detect certain diseases and change their behavior to avoid getting ill.
In 1966, while studying chimps (猩猩) in a Tanzanian national park, zoologist Jane Goodall observed a chimp named McGregor who had caught a highly infectious virus. His fellow chimps attacked him and threw him out of the troop. In one instance, McGregor approached chimps in a tree. He reached out a hand in greeting, but the others moved away without a backward glance.
“For a full two minutes, old McGregor sat motionless, staring after them,” Goodall notes in her 1971 book In the Shadow of Man. “It’s really not that different to how some societies react today to such a tragedy.”
Not all animals are so aggressive toward their ailing neighbors. Sometimes it’s as simple as avoiding those who may infect you.
When Kiesecker, a lead scientist in America, studied American bullfrog in the late 1990s, he found that bullfrogs could not only detect a deadly smell of infection in other bullfrogs, but healthy members actively avoided those that were sick. Bullfrogs rely on chemicals signals to determine who is sick or not.
Caribbean lobsters also shun diseased members of their community, well before they become infectious. It takes about eight weeks for lobsters infected with the deadly virus Panulirus argus mininuceovirus to become dangerous to others. Normally social animals, lobsters begin keeping away from the diseased as early as four weeks after infection – once the lobsters can smell certain chemicals released by sick individuals.
Overall, it’s important to note that, unlike us, animals don’t realize if they stay home, they might actually reduce the infection rate,” Kiesecker explains. “As humans, we have that ability. It’s a big difference.”
1. What can we learn about the chimps from Goodall’s observation?| A．They kept a distance from one another. |
| B．They became aggressive when infected. |
| C．The infected avoided contact with others. |
| D．The infected were forced to leave the group. |
| A．Avoid. | B．Cure. | C．Get rid of. | D．Get along with. |
| A．Humans are more sensitive to virus. |
| B．Humans are less likely to get infected. |
| C．Humans treat infectious diseases in a wiser way. |
| D．Humans can detect chemical signals more quickly. |
| A．Help Me Out |
| B．Leave Me Alone |
| C．Stay Away From Us |
| D．Stay Home Stay Healthy |
Cities are diverse ecosystems, and a large number of species share our urban areas. As our city spreads, we need think about
Because cities
When a bridge in Austin, Texas was repaired, engineers added small gaps running along the length of its bottom,
There are also structures built with the objective of
1. 活动目的；
2. 活动详情；
3. 活动反响。
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。
A Volunteer Activity
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7 . Earthquakes are common; thousands of them happen each day. But most are too
Man knows the
No one can stop natural earthquakes.
| A．extreme | B．weak | C．frightening | D．frequent |
| A．real | B．exact | C．big | D．small |
| A．moves | B．shakes | C．jumps | D．breaks |
| A．get | B．put | C．set | D．fall |
| A．off | B．on | C．into | D．behind |
| A．burst | B．struck | C．destroyed | D．buried |
| A．Except | B．Besides | C．Instead of | D．Because of |
| A．lonely | B．later | C．themselves | D．itself |
| A．follow | B．copy | C．come | D．enter |
| A．quakes | B．deaths | C．difficulties | D．results |
| A．information | B．questions | C．dangers | D．frights |
| A．as a result | B．in fact | C．for example | D．as well |
| A．invented | B．discovered | C．found | D．bought |
| A．nation | B．direction | C．item | D．pace |
| A．improved | B．repaired | C．protected | D．used |
| A．where | B．when | C．what | D．why |
| A．persuade | B．tell | C．express | D．point |
| A．frighten | B．prepare | C．prevent | D．rescue |
| A．worst | B．best | C．most | D．fastest |
| A．However | B．But | C．And | D．So |
8 . El Nino, a Spanish term for “the Christ child”, was named by South American fisherman who noticed that the global weather pattern, which happens every two to seven years, reduced the amount of fishes caught around Christmas. El Nino sees warm water, collected over several years in the western Pacific, flow back eastwards when winds that normally blow westwards weaken, or sometimes the other way round.
The weather effects both good and bad, are felt in many places. Rich countries gain more from powerful Nino, on balance, than they lose. A study found that a strong Nino in 1997 helped American’s economy grow by 15 billion, partly because of better agricultural harvest, farmers in the Midwest gained from extra rain. The total rise in agricultural in rich countries in growth than the fall in poor ones.
But in Indonesia extremely dry forests are in flames. A multi-year drought (干旱）in south-east Brazil is becoming worse. Though heavy rains brought about by El Nino may relieve the drought in California, they are likely to cause surface flooding and other disasters.
The most recent powerful Nino, in 1997-98, killed around 21,000 people and caused damage worth $36 billion around the globe. But such Ninos come with months of warning, and so much is known about how they happen that governments can prepare. According to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), however, just 12% of disaster-relief funding in the past two decades has gone on reducing risks in advance, rather than recovery and rebuilding afterwards. This is despite evidence that a dollar spent on risk-reduction saves at least two on reconstruction.
Simple improvements to infrastructure (基础设施）can reduce the spread of disease. Better sewers (下水道）make it less likely that heavy rain is followed by an outbreak of the disease of bad stomach. Stronger bridges mean villages are less likely to be left without food and medicine after floods. According to a paper in 2011 by Mr Hsiang and co-authors, civil conflict is related to El Nino’s harmful effects—and the poorer the country, the stronger the link. Though the relationship may not be causal, helping divided communities to prepare for disasters would at least reduce the risk that those disasters are followed by killing and wounding people. Since the poorest are least likely to make up for their losses from disasters linked to El Nino, reducing their losses needs to be the priority.
1. What can we learn about El Nino in Paragraph 1?| A．It is named after a South American fisherman. |
| B．It takes place almost every year all over the world. |
| C．It forces fishermen to stop catching fish around Christmas. |
| D．It sees the changes of water flow direction in the ocean. |
| A．Agricultural harvests in rich countries fall. |
| B．Droughts become more harmful than floods. |
| C．Rich countries’ gains are greater than their losses. |
| D．Poor countries suffer less from droughts economically. |
| A．more investment should go to risk reduction |
| B．governments of poor countries need more aid |
| C．victims of El Nino deserve more compensation |
| D．recovery and reconstruction should come first |
| A．To introduce El Nino and its origin. |
| B．To explain the consequences of El Nino. |
| C．To show ways of fighting against El Nino. |
| D．To urge people to prepare for El Nino. |
9 . Animal-rights activists often complain that cute beasts get more sympathy than equally deserving ugly ones. If so, one would think a lovely creature like the mink (貂)would be easy to protect. Yet in the Netherlands, mink is the only animal that can still legally be farmed for their fur. That is about to change. On August 28th the government brought forward to this year a ban on mink-farming that had been scheduled to take effect in 2024. The timetable was sped up not because mink had become more adorable, but because they can contract covid-19 and spread it to humans.
Dutch farmers normally raised about 2.5 million minks a year, making the Netherlands the world's fourth-largest producer after Denmark, China and Poland. In April, a couple of minks and the farm hands who tended them were diagnosed with covid- 19. Genetic tracing showed that at least two workers had probably been infected by mink, rather than the other way around. The affected animals were destroyed and stricter hygiene rules imposed, but by summer the virus had spread to a third of the country's farms. In June, parliament voted to shut down the industry as soon as possible, and the cabinet agreed.
That was a win for the Netherlands Party for the Animals, which has four seats in the 150-memeber parliament. In 2013, it helped pass the law that gave mink farmers until 2024 to get out of the business.
Now the party and its supporters object to the generous compensation （补偿）the government has offered for bringing forward the deadline: $150 million, or $1 million per farmer. Some members of parliament claim that the compensation paid for destroying the infected minks was higher than the market price for their fur.
Fur farmers any modern standards allow minks to be raised humanely, and that they are not a big reason for the spread of the virus. But minks tend to live by themselves instead of living in groups: animal-rights advocates say they cannot be raised humanely in small cages. As for covid-I9, the worry is that mink could serve as a medium for it to attack human immunization （免疫）programs. The industry's value is modest （framers put it at $150 million 0 $200 million, activists at under $100 million）, and polls show the public overwhelmingly opposes it. "In a democratic country, that widespread belief has to translate into a political decision to ban fur farming," says Esther Ouwehand, leader of the Party for the Animals. The farmers accept they are shutting down. The remaining argument is over money.
1. According to the passage, why did animal - activists have an unexpected win for protecting minks?| A．Because mink's cute appearance won people's heart. |
| B．Because the minks could act as a host for an infectious disease. |
| C．Because the government carried out an act earlier than planned. |
| D．Because the farmers stopped raising minks, considering the great reward. |
| A．The farm-raised minks were born with the virus. |
| B．The fanners were infected with covid-I9 by minks. |
| C．The minks contracted covid- 19 from their caregiver. |
| D．The affected minks had contact with the virus in nature. |
| A．Minks can be easily bred by humans without bringing any harm to them. |
| B．It is acceptable to shut down mink fur industry because it isn't profitable. |
| C．Objection to fur industry is a main reason behind this governmental decision. |
| D．The amount of money to make up for the loss of the mink farmers was too high. |
| A．Cuteness Wins |
| B．An Unexpected Win |
| C．Winter for Minks |
| D．Farmers v.s. Activists |
10 . TerraCycle is a company that has recycled and upcycled (升级改造) just about any garbage it can get its hands on. It upcycles things like pens and markers into dust bins and picnic tables and cigarette ends into railroad ties.
Now, TerraCycle wants to help families waste even less with a new book Make Garbage Great: The TerraCycle Family Guide to a Zero-Waste Lifestyle. The book is part wake-up call, part history lesson, part how-to, and part DIY arts and crafts instruction.
In an effort to help people do what they can to curb their contribution to the tons of waste created every day, Make Garbage Great gives the history of various materials, discusses why those various materials are a problem, and gives tips and DIY projects to recycle or upcycle each material.
There is a chapter each on plastics, metals, paper, glass, wood, rubber and organics. Each chapter is filled with tons of tips and ideas for reducing the amount of waste you create and for responsibly handling the waste you end up creating in your home. If you’re a conscious consumer, some of the information you may already know, but there are also tips in this book that will help you recycle more than you thought you were able to. It has information on where you can take old sneakers, pillows, and all that electronic waste that seems to pile up quicker and quicker each year.
Whether the book inspires you to get a little clever at dealing with your waste or simply inspires you to think before you buy or before you throw, anyone who is concerned about the amount of waste our culture creates will find some ideas here. Even the physical book itself is a bit of an inspiration. It’s printed on tree-free paper and is a reminder that there is usually a sustainable (可持续的) alternative to many of the products that we waste.
1. What is the book intended to do?| A．To advertise for the company. |
| B．To help families make money. |
| C．To instruct people to learn arts. |
| D．To help families reduce waste. |
| A．It is intended for housewives. |
| B．It is environmentally friendly. |
| C．It is well received all over the world. |
| D．It is not different from other paper books. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Objective. |
| A．Live A More Healthy Life? |
| B．Want A Zero-waste Lifestyle? |
| C．TerraCycle — A Responsible Company |
| D．Make Garbage Great — A Key to Success |
