1 . Scientists have discovered how plants manage to live alongside each other in places that are dark and shady. Plants in the deep darkness of a thick forest, where natural supplies are not very great in amount, won’t attempt to top their neighbors in growth as those in moderate (中度的) shade do. In deep shade conditions, it would be a waste of energy and harmful to survival because green shoots would never be able to top their larger neighbors in growth.
So how do plants prevent such growth in deep shade conditions? The secret lies in the clocks insides them, say scientists from the John Ines Centre and the University of Bristol.
They have discovered that when plants notice deep shade, this changes the expression of genes parts of the circadian clock (昼夜节律时钟) — the inner daily timer found in plants and other things. These clock parts perform an additional role in preventing plants from lengthening and overtopping neighbors.
The work identifies a previously unknown role of the circadian clock in controlling plant development and the findings may have possible effects on both natural plant populations and crops. Professor Antony Dodd of the John Innes Centre said, “The biological clock of plants plays a big part in their development and fitness. This work casts new light on a new role of the circadian clock in adapting plants to competition with other plants in their environments.” “It also gives us new insights into how plants adapt to very deep shade, where resources are very limited,” said Professor Kerry Franklin at the University of Bristol.
This work provides evidence for the firmness of the circadian clock in stressful environments, and information that may be useful in developing new generations of crops in a challenging climate.
1. What do plants normally do in moderate shade?| A．Struggle to preserve energy. | B．Compete for limited resources. |
| C．Try to outgrow their neighbors. | D．Depend on each other to survive. |
| A．By changing their gene expression. | B．By making them realize light change. |
| C．By helping them adapt to the darkness. | D．By controlling their growth in deep shade. |
| A．To share a new discovery about plants. | B．To introduce the role of the circadian clock. |
| C．To explain plants secret of living in forests. | D．To compare plants living in certain condition. |
| A．How plants face a challenging climate |
| B．Why plants respond to different shade levels |
| C．Why the circadian clock is vital to plants' growth |
| D．How plants become good neighbors in times of stress |
2 . Lapland's reindeer (驯鹿) grow well in winters of -30℃ and even colder. So when rain falls instead of snow during the coldest months in the Arctic,it makes food hard to get for them. Now one of the best-loved symbols of Christmas is probably dying out. Numbers have fallen by over half in the last two decades as the place warms at four times the global average rate.
The animals are used to pull sleigh (雪橇) rides for tourists. The rides are part of Lapland winter wonderland experiences in thousands of British tourists each year. But this year the working herd had to be moved 60 miles further north due to the absence of snow. As a result, they can't be provided in some areas, making it hard for people to earn a living.
Lapland is often described as Europe's last great wilderness, home to lynxes, brown bears, wolverines and golden eagles. Tourism is a big part of the economy, and the town of Rovaniemi is also the "official home of Santa Claus". But changing climate (气候) is threatening its tourism industry. A report by The Finnish Climate Change Panel warns of flooding and increased rainfall, with Rovaniemi most at risk. Firms that rely on snow "will have great effects on visit levels" and these industries may be forced further north.
Erkkila of the Arctic Husky Park in Rovaniemi says: "Tourists see pictures of the Santa Claus village covered in snow and when they get here they think, 'Is this the winter wonderland?'." The Husky Park bought a wheeled cart (车) six years ago as a replacement for sleigh rides when the snow fails.
In the past it was thought the Arctic was warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. But a report published last week by scientists showed the rate is actually four times the global average.
1. What causes the drop in Lapland's reindeer population?| A．Cold winter. | B．Polluted habitats. |
| C．Heavy snow. | D．Rising temperatures. |
| A．Rides. | B．Animals. | C．Experiences. | D．Tourists. |
| A．Lapland is home to various wildlife. |
| B．Increased rainfall threatens Rovaniemi. |
| C．Rovaniemi is official home of Santa Claus. |
| D．Changing climate affects Lapland's tourism. |
| A．They feel excited. | B．They are disappointed. |
| C．They enjoy themselves. | D．They prefer wheeled carts. |
Volunteers wanted for part-time work at local wildlife park
·A love for animals,
·Knowledge of wildlife.
·Fluency in spoken English.
·9 am to 3 pm five days a week.
Contact:
Qfwworld@163.com
注意：1. 词数80左右；
2. 请在答题卡的相应位置做答。
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4 . The Most Breathtaking Theaters in the World
Shakespeare's Globe Theater（London, UK）
The original Globe Theater was built by Shakespeare's company in 1599, but was destroyed by fire in 1613. A replica was built in 1997 just meters from the original site. The new 857-seat structure has several modern features. It has the first and only straw roof permitted in London since the great fire of 1666.
Shakespeare's Globe, 21 New Globe Walk, Bankside, London; +44 20 7902 1400
Margravial Opera House（Bayreuth, Germany）
Built in 1745, the UNESCO-listed Mareravial Opera House is regarded as the finest baroque theater in Europe. The stage has a depth of 27 meters and was the largest in Europe until 1871. Much of the original materials remain, along with original structures, such as the twin staircases.
Margravial Opera House, Opernstrasse 14. Bayreuth, Germany; +49 9 21 7 59 69 22
Teatro Amazonas（Manaus, Brazil）
There can't be many theaters located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, and the Teatro Amazonas is certainly the most breathtaking. The theater was built in 1895 and was designed by Italian architect Celestial Sacardim. Work took 15 years. largely thanks to the decision to source supplies from all over the world
Amazon Theater, Centro, Manaus, Brazil; +55 92 3622 1880
National Centre for the Performing Arts（Beijing, China）
The National Centre for the Performing Arts（NCPA）, built in 2007, is an arts centre in Beijing. Designed by French architect Paul Andreu, the NCPA is the largest theatre complex（建筑群）in Asia. The NCPA includes value in both ancient traditional Chinese architecture and modern architecture. It was specially designed to improve the red walls of ancient buildings and the Great Hall of the People in order to fit in with the surroundings.
NCPA, No. 2 West Chang'an Avenue, Xicheng District, Beijing; +86 010 6655 0989
1. Where does the theatre with its longest survival time lie?| A．In London. | B．In Bayreuth | C．In Manaus. | D．In Beijing |
| A．Shakespeare's Globe. | B．Margravial Opera House. |
| C．Teatro Amazonas. | D．National Centre for the Performing Arts. |
| A．It features modern architecture. | B．It receives worldwide supplies. |
| C．It is a multifunctional theatre | D．It matches its surroundings. |
5 . The green movement is catching on in many pockets of the world. This is especially true in the construction industry. Today's buzz words, which include global warming and zero emissions（排放）, are causing everyday people to look for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Purchasing an environmentally-friendly home is a good investment for those who care about their own health and the well-being of our planet. Based on this trend, entire districts, known as eco-communities, are being designed with the concept of green in mind. One of these communities is Dockside Green in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Its goal is to become the world's first zero-emission neighborhood.
Dockside Green is a mostly self-sufficient community along the harbor front of Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia. The community is home to around 2,500 people and it includes a variety of environmental features, some of which can't be found anywhere else.
The planners and builders of Dockside Green have the environment in mind with every choice they make. They ensure proper ventilation （通风） and guarantee residents clean air indoors. Building materials, such as paints and wood, are natural and green.
Energy efficiency is attached great importance to in eco-communities like Dockside Green. Not only do energy-efficient appliances reduce the environmental impact of heating, cooking and lighting, they also save residents money. Dockside Green claims that home owners use 55% less energy than the average Canadian.
Eco-communities also take the future into account by recycling waste and reducing carbon emissions. At Dockside Green, waste water is treated and reused on-site for flushing toilets, and a gas plant changes waste wood into a renewable form of gas for hot water systems, stoves and gas heaters. The community also reduces carbon emissions by using local suppliers for all their transport and maintenance（维修） needs, and residents are encouraged to join the community's car share program.
1. Who are likely to buy an environmentally-friendly home?| A．People interested in investment. | B．Those looking for carbon footprint. |
| C．Those concerned about their health. | D．People caring about their community. |
| A．an eco- community with over 2,500 people | B．a good investment for planners and builders |
| C．the world’s first zero-emission neighborhood | D．a self-sufficient community in British Columbia |
| A．Recycling waste and reducing carbon emissions | B．Encouraging people to join the car share program |
| C．Calling on people to reduce their carbon footprint | D．Equipping people with energy-efficient appliances |
| A．Climate scientists. | B．Natural gas companies. |
| C．Coal mining investors. | D．Architects and interior designers. |
6 . Craig grew up on “a gentleman's farm” in Colorado with horses, cows, and chickens. When he was 18, Craig was already running some of the businesses. He planned to earn a business degree in college, but on a fateful trip to Florida, he visited a friend who worked as a grounds-keeper at a zoo. “I just wanted to say hi, but he showed me around, and in the back, I saw lions and tigers in these cages that were so small that you 'wouldn't want to keep a dog in them,” he says. The animals were surplus(过剩)and would likely be euthanized(使安乐死).
When a sad Craig returned to Colorado, he called the Denver Zoo about taking the animals, but Denver's zookeepers also had a surplus. Then it occurred to him: Perhaps he could bring the animals to the family farm. He was only 19, but he studied local regulations and formed a nonprofit organization. He next wrote zoos nationwide offering to help if they planned to euthanize animals.
After about five years, he bought a second, larger property before moving to the shelter's current location northeast of Denver. The goal, he says, is to provide the animals with plentiful space and to treat them with dignity and respect. “We have prides of lions that live together, just like they would in the wild,” he says. “They're wandering free and playing and doing what they want. We just give them medical care and food.”
Craig opened the shelter to visitors in 2002. Although he was originally unwilling, Craig now sees it as an opportunity to educate more people. “We want the public to know, if they hear about some guy driving around in his Ferrari with a tiger or a lion, they should say, What are you doing? That animal is going to end up dead or in some dirty roadside zoo.” The shelter receives 150,000 guests a year. Given his goal of treating the animals with respect-the shelter prohibits feeding and hands-on human contact -visitors observe the animals from a 30-foot-high, 1.5-mile-long elevated walkway.
1. What made Craig decide to help animals?| A．The need to run his farm. |
| B．The influence from his friend. |
| C．The concern for animals to be euthanized |
| D．The plan to earn a business degree from a college. |
| A．To draw visitors. |
| B．To play with animals. |
| C．To live a comfortable life. |
| D．To offer animals more space. |
| A．By riding a car. |
| B．By taking an elevator. |
| C．Through contact with animals. |
| D．From the passage above the ground. |
| A．Admirable. | B．Well-paid. | C．Boring. | D．Appealing. |
Climate change has been a hot topic nowadays. There is little doubt
Although I
8 . As people get older, the types and numbers of friends they have tend to change. As young adults, humans have large groups of friends. With age, they often prefer to spend their time with just a few close, positive individuals. Researchers long believed that this aging attraction toward meaningful relationships was unique to humans, but a new study finds that chimps (大猩猩) also have similar tendencies.
Rosati and her colleagues used 78,000 hours of observations made over 20 years from the Kibale Chimpanzee Project in Uganda. The data looked at the social interactions of 21 male chimps between 15 and 58 years old. The researchers only studied male chimps because they show stronger social bonds and have more social interactions than female chimps.
Researchers found that wild chimpanzees share a similar pattern of social aging with humans. Rosati says, “They prefer strong, mutual social bonds and interact with others in more positive ways as they get older.” The older chimpanzees preferred spending more time with chimps that they had become friends with over the years. They would sit close to these long-time companions and groom (梳毛) each other. By contrast, younger chimps had more one-sided relationships where they would groom a friend, but the action wasn’t returned.
Older male chimps were also more likely to spend more time alone. The researchers said that they showed a shift from negative interactions to more positive ones, preferring to spend their later years in nonconfrontational (非对抗性的), positive relationships. Researchers call the preference a “positivity bias”.
Researchers theorize that chimps, like humans, are able to change their social focus as they age. “We propose that this aging pattern may be the result of shared changes in our abilities to regulate our emotions with age,” Rosati says. “This shared pattern between chimpanzees and humans could represent an adaptive response where older adults focus on important social relationships that provide benefits and avoid interactions that have negative consequences as they lose competitive fighting ability.”
1. What does the new study find about chimps?| A．Male chimps show more interactions than females. |
| B．Old chimps don’t care about friends as much as young ones. |
| C．Chimps concentrate more on meaningful relations with age. |
| D．Chimps share aging problems similar to human beings. |
| A．By studying the data provided by other researchers. |
| B．By making scientific investigations and observations. |
| C．By setting up models on the computer in the lab. |
| D．By monitoring both the humans’ and chimps’ behavior. |
| A．Inability to regulate emotions. |
| B．Eagerness to build closer relationships. |
| C．Loss of competitiveness in strength. |
| D．Failure to adapt to the changeable nature. |
| A．A short story collection. | B．A popular science magazine. |
| C．A graduate research paper. | D．A biology textbook. |
9 . Although billions of locusts(蝗虫) appearing on East African countries greatly panicked farmers in 2020, they managed to see through this unexpected crisis. “Their success primarily results from a technology-driven anti-locust operation,” said Mr. Cressman, an officer in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Normally, these locusts live alone across the deserts of North Africa, Southwest Asia and the Middle East. But when rains arrive, they change from a slightly brown into a deep yellow and form groups of more than 15 million insects per square mile. Such quantities of locusts can consume the equivalent amount of food in a single day as more than 13 000 people.
Locust trackers in Sudan and Eritrea find the insects by using a tablet-based program to transmit data to authorities so experts can design appropriate control strategies. But people who want to use this system might encounter a technological problem: The version of the tablets that the locust-tracking program was written for is not manufactured and newer tablets are unsuitable for the software.
Rather than rewriting the locust-tracking software for newer tablets, Mr. Cressman thought creating a simple smartphone app would make anyone collect data like an expert. He sought help from Dr. Hughes, who had already created PlantVillage to track a crop pest. Borrowing from this blueprint Dr. Hughes and his colleagues completed eLocust3m, which anyone with a smartphone can use. The app presents photos of locusts at different stages of their life cycles, which helps users diagnose what they see in the field. The locations are then automatically recorded by GPS and algorithms(算法) double check submitted photos. If necessary, pesticide-spraying aircraft will take position.
The F.A.O. estimates that this effort in East Africa has prevented the loss of agricultural products with a commercial value of $ 1.5 billion, saving the livelihood of 34 million people.
1. What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 2?| A．Summarize the previous paragraph. | B．Provide scientific data for readers. |
| C．Add some background information. | D．Introduce a new topic for discussion. |
| A．The low adaptability of the software. | B．Too many versions of new tablets. |
| C．The complex process of transmitting data. | D．The urgency of rewriting the software. |
| A．Cressman created a smartphone app. |
| B．ELocust3m is based on PlantVillage. |
| C．Operating ELocust3m needs much training. |
| D．Users should record where they find locusts. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
10 . Cats certainly know the sound of their food can being opened, but do they know their own name? Cats might be skilled in knowing how to always land on their feet, keep themselves clean, and strategically knock things off the counter, but do they know their own names?
“While cats might not always understand what exactly we’re saying. They definitely can learn to associate sounds with good or bad outcomes,” says Mikel Delgado Cat Behavior Expert with Rover. “When you talk to your cat,they probably respond most to your tone of voice. People tend to talk to their pets in higher-pitched voices which are good at getting their attention.”
Cats can also recognize noises that indicate food or attention is coming. They associate those sounds with a positive experience, so they learn to recognize what they mean.
Delgado adds, “Over time, our pets do learn to associate their name with certain things-like attention, or food. You can help your cat learn their name faster by not using lots of different nicknames, which might be confusing to your pet and they may not always realize that you are speaking to them, “Your cat is more likely to respond to their human's voice versus a stranger’s voice.” says Delgado.
You can train a cat to respond to words the same way dogs do. In order to train,Delgado says you first need to identify what motivates your cat, like a particular treat or toy. Then start with something simple such as sit.
“Over time, your cat makes the connections between their behavior, your response or the sound, and the treat,” says Delgado. “Then when they want a treat, you might notice that they offer the behavior you trained-such as sitting or rolling over-which is why it’s a good idea not to train your cat to do annoying things.”
1. What do the underlined words mean in paragraph 1?| A．Stand straight. | B．Escape safely. | C．Find home. | D．Make friends. |
| A．Do Cats Know Their Name? |
| B．Do Cats Know Their Owner? |
| C．Can Cats Be Trained Liked Dogs? |
| D．Can Cats Recognize Noises? |
| A．Cats tend to prefer the voice of strangers. |
| B．Nicknames will help your cat recognize you. |
| C．Cats actually respond to people’s tone of voice. |
| D．Cats can predict what will happen by sounds. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Health. | C．Education. | D．Science. |
