Zlateh the Goat
This winter, for Reuven, it was a bad one, and after long hesitation he decided to sell Zlateh, the goat. She was old and gave little milk. Reuven told his boy Aaron to take the goat to the butcher in town.
Aaron understood what it meant, but he had to obey his father. Leah, his mother, wiped the tears from her eyes. Aaron put on thick clothes, and took along two slices of bread with cheese to eat on the road.
While the family said good-bye to the goat, Zlateh licked Reuven’s hand and she shook her small white beard. The sun was shining when Aaron left the village. Suddenly the weather changed. In his twelve years Aaron had never experienced a snow like this. His hands were numb, and he could no longer feel his toes.
Suddenly he found a haystack (干草堆) and dragged Zlateh after him. When he reached the hay, he made out a nest for himself and the goat. The moment she smelt the hay, she began to eat. Outside, the snow continued to fall. Aaron ate his two slices of bread and cheese. Then he milked her. The milk was rich and sweet.
The outside was still completely dark. He began to talk to Zlateh. “If the snow keeps on falling like this, we may have to stay here for days,” Aaron explained.
“Maaaa,” Zlateh bleated.
Aaron said patiently. “I need you and you need me. Isn’t that right?”
“Maaaa.”
For three days Aaron and Zlateh stayed in the haystack. Aaron had always loved Zlateh, but in these three days he loved her more and more. She fed him with her milk and helped him keep warm.
On the morning of the fourth day Aaron heard the ringing of sleigh (雪橇) bells. The peasant who drove the sleigh pointed out the way to him — not to the butcher, but home to the village. Aaron had decided in the haystack that he would never part with Zlateh.
注意：
1. 续写一段文字；
2. 词数应为100左右。
Aaron’s family and their neighbors had searched for the boy and the goat but had found no trace of them during the storm. Then came the fourth day.
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2 . History is filled with many legends of man — eating plants and trees. A man — eating flower was described in the ship’s log of Arkwright. He described this as a large flower with bright petals (花瓣) capable of releasing a special smell that causes the victim to rest on the large petals. Once the victim was in its trap, the flower would close over the victim and digest him alive.
There really are carnivorous plants that can catch and consume small insects, but are there or have there ever been meat-eating plants capable of catching humans, as some explorers have claimed? In this article, we’ll look at one of the most famous man-eating plants in the world and what discoverers and the locals had to say about it — Nicaraguan Vampire Vine.
Found in the swamps (沼泽地) of Nicaragua, local natives refer to this plant as “The Devil’s Snare”. It has been described as an octopus in general appearance. A naturalist called Dunstan spent two years studying the local plant and animal life and made this discovery in a swamp close to Lake Nicaragua. Dunstan was collecting specimens in the area when his dog let out a loud cry.
Unsure whether or not this was due to pain, terror, or a combination of the two, Dunstan rushed to the source of the dog and saw it in a network of roots. These were dark in color, somewhat black, and sent out a sticky gum that had a horrible smell. Dunstan used his knife to cut these tendrils (触须) immediately but was initially unable to do so. Not only were these difficult to cut with just his knife, but they actively fought back.
Dunstan did manage to save his dog, but both suffered injuries during this encounter. Dunstan’s both hands were swelling; his dog was covered in blood. The dog didn’t know which way to go and had trouble walking. Not much else is known about this plant, but the locals do fear it immensely and leave it well alone.
1. How did the man-eating flower attract victims to get close to it?| A．Set up a trap. | B．Show their beautiful appearance. |
| C．Send out a smell. | D．Provide them with petals to rest. |
| A．vegetarian | B．world-famous | C．cruel | D．meat-eating |
| A．It appears together with octopus. |
| B．It could strike back when attacked. |
| C．It had tendrils that could digest dogs. |
| D．It was found by Dunstan in Lake Nicaragua. |
| A．The dog wasn’t seriously hurt in the end. |
| B．Dunstan saved his dog without being hurt. |
| C．People learned more about this plant in detail. |
| D．The locals didn’t dare to get close to the plant. |
3 . There exist a great variety of national parks that are representative of the different regions of the world. To reveal and maintain the great diversity of the interactions between humans and their environment, and to protect living cultures and preserve the traces (痕迹) of those which have disappeared, these sites have been included in the World Heritage List.
Lushan National Park, China
Mount Lushan, in Jiangxi, is one of the spiritual centres of Chinese civilization. Buddhist and Taoist temples, along with landmarks of Confucianism blend (融合) effortlessly into a strikingly beautiful landscape which has inspired countless artists who developed the aesthetic (美的) approach to nature found in Chinese culture. Special attention has been placed on protecting the cultural heritages and their settings as a whole.
Dinosaur Provincial Park, Canada
In addition to its particularly beautiful scenery, Dinosaur Provincial Park — located at the heart of the province of Alberta’s badlands — contains some of the most important fossil discoveries ever made from the “Age of Reptiles”, in particular about 35 species of dinosaur, dating back some 75 million years. These fossils are valuable materials for scientists to study the history of the earth.
Kaziranga National Park, India
In the heart of Assam, this park is one of the last areas in eastern India undisturbed by a human presence. It is inhabited by the world’s largest population of one-horned rhinoceroses, as well as many mammals, including tigers, elephants, panthers and bears, and thousands of birds.
Komodo National Park, Indonesia
These volcanic islands are inhabited by a population of around 5,700 giant lizards, whose appearance and attacking behaviour have led to them being called “Komodo dragons”. They exist nowhere else in the world and are of great interest to scientists studying the theory of evolution.
1. Why are these above parks included in the World Heritage List?| A．They are famous worldwide. |
| B．They have gorgeous landscape. |
| C．They are representative of the different regions. |
| D．They have important values and need protecting. |
| A．Know about religious culture. | B．Enjoy being with animals. |
| C．Study the theory of evolution. | D．Learn the history of the earth. |
| A．Lushan National Park, China. | B．Dinosaur Provincial Park, Canada. |
| C．Kaziranga National Park, India. | D．Komodo National Park, Indonesia. |
4 . Dormice (睡鼠), which prefer to sleep in the holes of old trees, are losing their tree holes. Centuries of wood harvesting have exterminated many of dormice from countries such as Poland, Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania. But one temporary solution is helping.
“We have to keep this connection between dormice and the forest,” says Tadas Bujanauskas, senior ecologist at Lithuania’s Neris Regional Park, “because if we let this go, it’s hard to get back.” Neris Regional Park’s dormouse nest box and conservation program began in 2005 as part of a sustainable forestry certification with the Forest Stewardship Council, based in Bonn, Germany. So far, park staff have installed 250 nest boxes throughout the park’s dense, old-growth oak forests.
A dormouse nest box resembles a standard birdhouse tied to a tree trunk. There’s enough space between the trunk and the entrance hole for the rodents, such as rabbits, to move in and out of their artificial lairs (巢穴), but so little that it’s difficult for predators such as owls to attack.
Best of all, nest boxes bring the previously mysterious creatures within reach for scientists. By placing cameras in nest boxes, researchers can check in on the animal whenever they want. As a result, they’ve logged all kinds of ecological data, such as sex, weight, birth rates, and diet of the houses’ inhabitants.
In addition to monitoring nest boxes, Bujanauskas and his colleagues seek out and protect individual trees that could provide habitat for dormice and other species in the future.
The U.K. has placed more than 26,000 nest boxes over 30 years to boost their hazel dormice population, which has fallen by 51 percent since 2000, according to Ian White, the dormouse training officer for the nonprofit People’s Trust For Endangered Species.
“Dormice are cute and they’re a nice animal to work with,” White says, “if we get the habitat right for them, it can actually benefit a broad range of other species.”
1. What does the underlined word “exterminated” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Wiped out. | B．Popped up. |
| C．Let down. | D．Put away. |
| A．They are installed by ecologists. |
| B．The U.K. has the most nest boxes on earth. |
| C．They offered an easier way to study dormice. |
| D．Dormice take birdhouses as their own nest boxes. |
| A．Living in harmony with dormice. | B．Protecting the habitat of dormice. |
| C．Installing more nest boxes for dormice. | D．Finding places more suitable for dormice. |
| A．Health and Lifestyle. | B．Sports and Entertainment. |
| C．Nature and Science. | D．Education and Art. |
Already famous at home, now China’s wandering elephants are becoming international stars. Major global media are recording
The fifteen elephants
Asian elephants, the continent’s largest land animal, are
6 . In the far North, fire season usually doesn’t start until June, when snow has melted away and summer lightning storms sweep into the region. So scientist Sander Veraverbeke was confused when in May of 2016 he saw little patches of fire on some satellite images from Alaska and the Northwest Territories.
“I was like, what the hell is going on?” says Veraverbeke, an Earth scientist at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
What he saw on the satellite images were “zombie fires,” remains of burns from the previous year that somehow stayed alive, smoldering underground, through the long, cold winter.
Zombie fires aren’t an entirely new phenomenon in the Arctic; fire managers have noted occasional flare-ups in past decades. But Veraverbeke’s team found that their occurrences are tightly linked to climate change, happening more often after hot, long summers with lots of fire and suggesting that these still-rare events could become more frequent.
“The sheer fact that this is happening is evidence for how quickly the region is changing,” he says.
Like all forests, the wooded stretches of the Arctic sometimes catch on fire. But unlike many forests in the mid-latitudes, which thrive on or even require fire to preserve their health, Arctic forests have evolved to burn only infrequently.
Climate change is reshaping that mode. In the first decade of the new millennium, fires burned 50 percent more acreage each year in the Arctic, on average, than any decade in the 1900s. Between 2010 and 2020, burned acreage continued to creep up, particularly in Alaska, which had its second worst fire year ever in 2015 and another bad one in 2019. Scientists have found that fire frequency today is higher than at any time since the formation of boreal (北极的) forests some 3,000 years ago, and potentially higher than at any point in the last 10,000 years.
1. Why did Sander Veraverbeke feel puzzled?| A．Because he saw something unusual from some newspaper pictures. |
| B．Because he didn’t realize there were zombie fires in the Arctic. |
| C．Because the fires started burning earlier than he previously expected. |
| D．Because there was much snow in Alaska and the Northwest Territories. |
| A．Burning | B．Releasing | C．Exploding | D．Weakening |
| A．They play a role in preserving the forests. |
| B．Zombie fires are a new discovery of Sander Veraverbeke. |
| C．Zombie fires tend to happen after hot summers with lots of fire. |
| D．They burned 50 percent of the area in the Arctic between 2000 and 2010. |
| A．To help readers learn about the Arctic. | B．To show concern about climate change. |
| C．To call on people to control zombie fires. | D．To warn readers of the dangers of zombie fires. |
7 . An argument will break down if one of the premises is not true or if the conclusion does not logically follow from them. For example, consider this argument:
The deer population in our state should be preserved. During the hunting season hundreds of deer are killed. Therefore, the hunting season should be discontinued.
To challenge this argument, the state’s wildlife commission might agree with both the major and minor premises but question whether the conclusion follows logically from them. True, the deer population should be preserved; true, deer are killed during the hunting season. However, in a state where deer have no natural enemies, herds become too large for the natural forest vegetation to support them. The overpopulated herds eat the leaves of the young trees, killing the trees, before dying of starvation themselves. The commission might conclude, therefore, that a limited hunting season helps preserve a healthier and more stable population of deer.
People who already agree with you need no persuasion, although a well-argued case for their own point of view is always welcome. But indifferent and doubting people will tend to resist your argument because they have minds of their own. To convince them, you will need to refute(驳斥)opposing arguments.
To give up a position that seems reasonable, the arguer has to see that there is an even more reasonable one. In addition to presenting your own case, review the chief arguments of the other side and explain what you think is wrong with them.
It is the best way to deal with the other side. Often it is useful to summarize the opposing position. Sometimes a better plan is to anticipate objections as you develop your detailed reasons for your argument. Wherever you decide to deal with opposing arguments, do your best to refute them.
As you refute opposition arguments, try to establish common ground with readers who at first do not agree with your views. If you can show that you share their values, they may be able to switch to your position without giving up what they feel is important. For example, to persuade people emotionally opposed to shooting helpless deer, a state wildlife commission would have to show that it too cares about preserving deer and does not want them to die needlessly. Having established these values in common, the commission might be able to persuade people that a carefully controlled hunting season is good for the deer population because it prevents starvation caused by over-population. However, if those opposed to hunting want to persuade the commission to ban the hunting season, they would need to show that the commission could achieve its goals by some other means, such as expanding the deer preserve or allowing the deer and the food supply to come into a natural balance.
1. What does the underlined word premises mean in the first paragraph?| A．establishments | B．commercials |
| C．assumptions | D．prejudices |
| A．have the hunting season | B．make the hunters happy |
| C．protect the rest of the herds | D．create their natural enemies |
| A．present your case first | B．summarize the position of the other side |
| C．review your own views | D．pretend to be indifferent |
| A．One may give up a position when he sees a more reasonable one. |
| B．You’d better anticipate the possible objections before you give your reasons |
| C．Deer should be preserved but overpopulation will do harm to them. |
| D．Those opposed to hunting don’t have good reasons |
There are many scenic spots in the world. Some are the best form of architecture ever built and seen. The Great Wall, Taj Mahal, the Pyramids of Egypt and Petra
Not many people know the only piece of construction that can
Taj Mahal is a beautiful piece of architecture of all times, which was constructed by
One of the best
Petra is another place
9 . When the monthly electricity bill came home, parents always couldn’t believe their eyes, as the amount was much more than needed.
Switch off the lights. Assign one day in a week for a “turn off” practice, for a few hours. Tell the kids the significance of using less electricity and how it impacts the environment.
Use energy-efficient transportation. When parents and their children are out on vacation, have a cycling outing. When the whole family rides bicycles together, it not only serves as a great bonding exercise, but it also teaches the children about eco-friendly transportation options.
Play a game.
| A．Watch an environmental film. |
| B．Talk with children about their opinions. |
| C．Play some games related to environmental protection. |
| D．Lecturing kids about environmental issues won’t help. |
| E．It makes them aware of the environmental effect of cars. |
| F．Light up some candles and play a board game to keep the children occupied. |
| G．So parents should urge their children to take up environment -friendly projects. |
10 . The number of birds coming through your neighborhood is changing, and so is the timing of their migrations (迁徙). Birdwatchers noticing these differences are playing a big part in understanding how climate change and severe weather events are affecting bird population.
John Rowden is director of community conservation at the National Audubon Society, which aims to protect birds and their environment. He said, “Birders have to be much more alert (警觉的) to when birds are coming through than they used to be, since birds may be coming through much earlier or much later.”
Rowden said, “Birdwatchers are increasingly seeing birds in their areas that are usually found elsewhere. And they are seeing fewer of the birds that usually travel through. Although we have seen these birds, it doesn’t mean they’ll always be there. They are declining in numbers because we’re throwing so many things at them, so we need to do what we can to help them.”
“At least 314 species of American birds are expected to lose 50 percent or more of their range by the end of the century. Those species are listed by the Audubon Society as climate-threatened or endangered,” Rowden added.
Environmentalists say there are a few easy steps people can take to help struggling bird populations. These include planting native species, which leads to more native insects for the birds to eat. During spring and fall migration seasons, people can help migrating birds by keeping outdoor lights turned off and covering reflective surfaces like large windows. People also should make indoor plants less visible to passing birds.
Geoff LeBaron, director of the Christmas Bird Count at the National Audubon Society, says he has seen the effects of climate change firsthand. “I’ve been a birder since I was a little kid,” he said. “It’s clear that climate change is affecting and will continue to affect birds on a global scale, and it’s a question of whether or not they can adapt to what the climate is throwing at them.”
1. What do the birdwatchers find?| A．Local birds are increasing in their areas. | B．50 percent of American birds have disappeared. |
| C．Climate change affects animal population greatly. | D．The number and timing of migrating birds are changing. |
| A．To deal with climate change. | B．To do research on bird population. |
| C．To watch the migrating birds in time. | D．To help birds migrate successfully. |
| A．Paragraph 5. | B．Paragraph 4. | C．Paragraph 3. | D．Paragraph 2. |
| A．It’s hopeless. | B．It’s normal. | C．It’s worrying. | D．It’s promising. |
