1 . Six Solar Terms in Summer
Lixia
Lixia is the first solar term in summer, signifying the beginning of the hot summer.
Xiaoman and Mangzhong
During Xiaoman, summer harvest crops such as wheat already bear fruits, and their seeds are full though they are not ripe yet. Thus, the solar term is named Xiaoman. The solar term Xiaoman is in late May. Summer begins to reach all parts of the country. Rainfall begins to increase further. Mangzhong means, "wheat with awn（芒）should be harvested soon, and rice seeds with awn can be sown".
Xiazhi
On the day of Xiazhi, the daytime in the Northern Hemisphere（半球）reaches its maxi-mum length.
Xiaoshu and Dashu
| A．The character shu means heat. |
| B．It predicts the busy farming activities of farmers. |
| C．The temperatures rise and summer drought begins. |
| D．The more northern a place is, the longer its daytime is. |
| E．People need to prepare for heat prevention and cooling. |
| F．It means the end of spring, and the beginning of summer. |
| G．It marks the hottest period with the highest temperatures in a year. |
2 . Masks that helped save lives during the Covid-19 pandemic （疫情）are proving a deadly risk for wildlife, with birds and sea creatures trapped in many facial coverings in animal habitats.
Single-use masks have been found on the ground, waterways and beaches worldwide since countries required （heir use in public places to slow the pandemic's spread. Worn once, the thin protective materials can take hundreds of years to break down. "Face masks aren't going away any time soon-but when we throw them away, these items can harm the environment and the animals who share our planet," Ashley from anima! rights group PETA said.
Monkeys have been found playing with used masks in the hills outside Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur. And in an incident in Britain, a seagull was saved in Chelmsford after its legs got caught in an abandoned mask for a week.
However, the biggest influence is in the water. More than 1.5 billion masks made their way into the world's oceans last year, accounting for around 6200 extra tons of ocean plastic pollution, according to environmental group OceansAsia. “Masks and gloves are particularly problematic for sea creatures," says George Leonard, chief scientist from NGO. "When those plastics break down in the environment, they form smaller and smaller particles （颗粒）.Those particles then enter the food chain and influence the entire ecosystem,“ he added.
Campaigners have urged people to deal with masks properly after using them. OceansAsia has also called on governments to increase punishment for littering and encourage the use of washable masks.
1. What bring（s） a great danger to wildlife now?| A．Waste masks. | B．Covid-19. |
| C．Polluted water. | D．Damaged habitats. |
| A．Important. | B．Attractive. |
| C．Common. | D．Troubling. |
| A．Monkeys learned to wear masks from humans. |
| B．Plastics are less harmful after becoming particles. |
| C．Used masks have a worse effect on sea creatures. |
| D．Waste masks are the main ocean plastic pollution. |
| A．Keep masks after they' re used. |
| B．Call on governments to stop littering. |
| C．Punish those who wear single-use masks. |
| D．Put used masks in the recycling box. |
3 . When it comes to sharks, many people think of their pointy fins and violent nature. But there is more to sharks than their sharp teeth: The creature appeared on earth 410 million years ago, before dinosaurs.
However, sharks are now at the edge of extinction. Numbers of sharks have decreased by 71% over the past 50 years, according to the research published in Nature. “Such sharp decreases are shocking even to experts, especially when compared to land animal statistics,” Sonja Fordham at Shark Advocates International told New Scientist magazine. “This data(数据) may be an underestimate(低估) of reality because of unreported fish catches,” noted Nathan Pacoureau, a researcher of the study team.
The study included 31 species; 24 now risk extinction, and 3 shark species are now classified as highly endangered. The study found the decrease hit the largest species first before influencing smaller ones over time, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It also said that shark finning and fishing worldwide have driven the decrease. “The Indian Ocean is the worst. There is almost no fishery management at all,” said Pacoureau.
“Overfishing of sharks destroys the health of entire ocean ecosystems as well as food safety for some countries,” said Nicholas Dulvy, a professor of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. “The researchers are calling on immediate action to ensure a brighter future for these animals,” according to the BBC.
Although the situation looks depressing, the future of sharks is not doomed(注定)yet. 25 species have recovered because of long-term protection campaigns in the past decades. A couple of shark species have started to recover through science-based fishing limits. These examples provide living evidence that the world can set and meet biodiversity goals.
1. What can we know about sharks from the text?| A．They are faced with a bad situation. |
| B．They began to exist later than dinosaurs. |
| C．They are well preserved in the Indian Ocean. |
| D．They became an extinct species 5 decades ago. |
| A．They just focus on the largest species. |
| B．They may leave out unreported situations. |
| C．They disagree with some experts’ judgements. |
| D．They are only compared with those of land animals. |
| A．Overfishing. | B．Natural disasters. |
| C．The ocean pollution. | D．Food source shortage. |
| A．Hopeless. | B．Bright. | C．Dark. | D．Unclear. |
How much do you know about the Amazon rainforest? It is without doubt one of the true
The Amazon rainforest is in South America,
5 . You’ve heard that plastic is polluting the oceans — between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.
At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called “Strawpocalypse,” a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168,000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source (来源) of plastic pollution, but they’ve recently come under fire because most people don’t need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that’s part of Von Wong’s artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.
In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate (说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload’s worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled “Truckload of Plastic,” Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10,000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they’d been dumped (倾倒) from a truck all at once.
Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.
1. What are Von Wong’s artworks intended for?| A．Beautifying the city he lives in. | B．Introducing eco-friendly products. |
| C．Drawing public attention to plastic waste. | D．Reducing garbage on the beach. |
| A．To show the difficulty of their recycling. |
| B．To explain why they are useful. |
| C．To voice his views on modern art. |
| D．To find a substitute for them. |
| A．Calming. | B．Disturbing. |
| C．Refreshing. | D．Challenging. |
| A．Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety |
| B．Media Interest in Contemporary Art |
| C．Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies |
| D．Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures |
6 . Stephen Warren, study leader at the University of Washington, has been on the case of the green icebergs for more than 30 years. He first took samples from one of these green hunks of ice in 1988, near the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctic. Most glacial ice occurs in shades of white to brilliant blue. The bluer the ice, the older it is. Typically, compression (压缩)from accumulating layers of snow pushes air bubbles out of the ice, reducing the scattering of white light. The compressed ice absorbs most of the light except for blue, creating the blue color seen in the hearts of icebergs and glaciers.
The green ice was similarly bubble-free, and yet it looked green instead of blue. Warren and his team soon found that the green ice came not from glaciers, but from marine ice. That's the ice from the undersides of floating ice shelves.
At first, the team thought that organic material in the marine ice was causing the green color. But further research showed that the green marine ice didn't have a higher — than — usual amount of organic impurities. Now, a new study finds that a different sort of impurity may be the root cause of the green ice. Warren and his colleagues report that the marine ice at the bottom of the Amery Ice Shelf has 500 times more iron than the glacial ice above.
This iron comes from the rocks under the Antarctic Ice Sheet, which are turned into fine powder as glaciers move over them. The icebound iron oxidizes (氧化)as it contacts seawater. The resulting iron oxide particles take on a green color when light scatters through them. When icebergs break off the larger ice shelf, they carry this iron-rich ice with them. It's like taking a package to the post office. The iceberg can deliver this iron into the ocean far away, and then melt and deliver it to other living things that can use it as a nutrient.
1. What's special about the iceberg found by Warren?| A．The iceberg was old. |
| B．The iceberg absorbed blue light. |
| C．The iceberg's heart was pure white. |
| D．The iceberg was bubble-free and green. |
| A．Impurities of marine ice. |
| B．Reflection of green plants. |
| C．Iron dust from marine ice. |
| D．Compression from layers of snow. |
| A．Deliver the package. |
| B．Bring marine life nutrients. |
| C．Oxidize the seawater. |
| D．Break off the large ice shelf. |
| A．A Study About Antarctic |
| B．The Colors of Icebergs |
| C．The Movement of the Icebergs |
| D．The Mystery of the Green Icebergs |
7 . Stingrays are an instantly recognizable fish, with their pancake-like bodies that swim gracefully through the water. Their flat bodies allow them to sit on the bottom of the ocean, river or lake, disguising themselves to predators (食肉动物) swimming above as they hunt their prey (猎物) on the floor. Their eyes sit on the top of their body, while their mouths are on the bottom. They each have a long tail with a toxin-filled barb (充满毒素的倒钩). When they feel threatened, they can lift their barbed tails upward and injure potential predators. Most species of stingrays sport dull colors that help with disguise, though some do have more lively colors. Stingrays eat prey like worms while freshwater stingrays eat insects as well.
As those creatures move through the water, they generate bioelectric fields. Stingrays are able to detect these bioelectric fields of the animals around them using a network of special sensory organs called ampullae of Lorenzini. These organs are small, fluid-filled electrical receptors that are located near the stingray's mouth and look like tiny black holes in the animal's skin. Once they've located and captured their prey with the help of these sensory organs, stingrays use their hard teeth to break the shells of their victims, and can even chew their meal.
In 2006, Australian television personality Steve Irwin died when a stingray's barbed tail pierced his heart. Irwin was being filmed for a show called "Ocean's Deadliest" when he swam too close to a stingray. However, death from stingrays is rare. A stingray's poison is generally only deadly when its barb pierces people's neck or chest. Otherwise, contact with a stingray's. barb anywhere else on the body causes pain similar to a jellyfish (水母) sting.
Scientists also believe that stingrays have the ability to detect the Earth's magnetic fields and the orientation of electric currents generated by objects in the water. They could then use that information to navigate in the open ocean. However, this ability could potentially cause problems for the animals as offshore energy technologies like wind and wave energy become more popular, thus disturbing stingrays' ability to accurately detect their surroundings. This could influence stingrays' feeding and migration patterns.
1. What can we know about stingrays?| A．They hardly feed on insects. |
| B．They have a big ball-like fat bod. |
| C．Their barbed tails serve as a defence. |
| D．Their body colors vary with the environment. |
| A．Hunting prey. | B．Frightening prey. |
| C．Protecting sensory organs. | D．Producing a bioelectric field. |
| A．To explain jellyfish stings cause death. |
| B．To show it was an occasional accident. |
| C．To prove photographing undersea is risky. |
| D．To stress stingrays are ocean's deadliest. |
| A．Stingrays' ability to detect magnetic fields. |
| B．The popularity of wind and wave energy. |
| C．Stingrays' feeding and migration patterns. |
| D．The technological impact. on stingrays' life. |
8 . Guanmei, a 65-year-old woman of the Dong ethnic group, is the inheritor of the Grand Song of Dong (侗族大歌), a national intangible cultural heritage in China. Her hometown Zaidai Village in Guizhou, southwestern China, is home to the Grand Song of the Dong ethnic group.
The Grand Song of Dong dates from more than 2,500 years ago. The way Dong singers use their vocal cords (声带) is different from how formally trained singers do. It is a folk chorus with multi-parts, no conductor, and no accompaniment. Organically growing from their natural surroundings, it is recognized internationally as “the sound of Nature.”
Before the Dong people had a writing system in 1958, the Dong culture, their history and stories were all recorded by means of songs. As a Dong saying goes, “Rice feeds the body and songs enrich the soul”. The Dong people sing right from their childhood. While not singing, they all work in their rice field.
Guanmei has been singing the Grand Song of Dong all her life, making her a famous singing teacher in her hometown and nearby areas. “The songs are our means of passing on wisdom, knowledge and life experiences to others. I will not exist in this world 100 years later, but Grand songs will. I’m honored to do this job, ” Guanmei said.
Kind-hearted, Guanmei has been volunteering to teach the Grand Song of Dong to the Dong children for over 30 years. Now she has more than 300 students. Guanmei is pleased to see the village children come to her house willingly when they have free time.
“Nowadays, more and more young people leave the village and settle in cities. Decades later, the Dong children out of the village might know nothing about Grand songs. We should do something just now. It’s our mission. What is once lost might be lost forever,” added Guanmei.
1. What makes the Grand Song of Dong known as “the sound of Nature”?| A．The outstanding conductor. |
| B．The special musical instrument. |
| C．The attractive natural environment. |
| D．The inspiration from nature. |
| A．The Dong singers are professionals. |
| B．The Dong culture before 1958 has been largely lost. |
| C．Singing is of vital importance to the Dong people. |
| D．They have a written language with a history of over 2,500 years. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Sympathetic. |
| C．Optimistic. | D．Satisfied. |
| A．To call on young people to return to the Dong village. |
| B．To guide the Dong children to learn the Grand Song of Dong. |
| C．To show a woman’s efforts to keep the Dong culture alive. |
| D．To instruct people to appreciate the Grand Song of Dong. |
9 . When it comes to global warming, we know that the real problem is not just fossil fuels — it is the logic of endless growth that is built into our economic system. If we don't keep the global economy growing by at least 3% per year, it will get into crisis. That means we have to double the size of the economy every 20 years, just to stay afloat. It doesn't take much to realise that this need for fast growth makes little sense given the limits of our planet.
Rapid climate change is the most obvious symptom of this contradiction, but we're also seeing it in the form of deforestation (滥伐森林) and mass extinction, with species dying as a result of the loss of their habitats. It was unthinkable to say this even 10 years ago.
The question is what to do about it. How can we redesign the global economy to bring it in line with the principles of ecology? The most obvious answer is to stop using GDP to measure economic progress and replace it with a more thoughtful measure-one that accounts for the ecological and social impact of economic activity. Outstanding economists like Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz have been calling for such changes for years and it's time we listened.
But replacing GDP is only the first step. While it might help refocus economic policies on what really matters, it doesn't address the main driver of growth: debt. Debt is the reason that the economy has to grow in the first place. Because debt always comes with interest, it grows fast — so if a person, a business, or a country wants to pay down debt over the long term, they have to grow enough to at least match the growth of their debt. Without growth, debt piles up and eventually lead to an economic crisis.
1. What does rapid climate change mainly result from?| A．The limits of our planet. |
| B．Mass extinction of species. |
| C．Logic of growth in economy. |
| D．The loss of some species' habitats. |
| A．Endless growth. | B．The real problem. |
| C．Global warming. | D．The global economy. |
| A．Redesigning the principles of ecology. |
| B．Concentrating more on saving natural resources. |
| C．Stopping using GDP to measure economy progress. |
| D．Using a new measure focusing on economic activity. |
| A．It drives economy to grow. |
| B．It helps avoid economic crisis. |
| C．It grows faster than the interest does. |
| D．It piles up when good growth of economy happens. |
10 . As the world seeks to slow the pace of climate change and preserve wildlife, trees undoubtedly hold a major part of the answer. Yet the mass destruction of trees--deforestation-continues, sacrificing （牺牲）the long-term benefits of standing trees for short-term gain.
So, what are the factors leading to deforestation? Farming, animal raising, mining, and drilling combined account for more than half of all deforestation.
Luckily, a movement is under way to preserve existing forest ecosystems and restore lost tree cover. Organizations and activists are working to fight illegal mining and logging. As consumers, it makes sense to look for sustainably produced sources.
| A．Yet the effects of deforestation reach much farther. |
| B．Globally, forests are disappearing at an alarming rate. |
| C．Wildfires and urbanization also account for a small part, |
| D．Deforestation affects people and animals and even the wider world. |
| E．With these joint efforts, many conservationists see reasons for hope. |
| F．Deforestation is responsible for around 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions. |
| G．Some deforestation is caused by a combination of human and natural factors. |
