1 . Water is so low in large stretches of Italy’s largest river that local residents are walking through the middle of the expanse of sand and an old ship is resurfacing.
In a park near the central northern village of Gualtieri, cyclists and hikers stop in curiosity to observe the Zibello, a 50-meter-long ship that transported wood during the WWⅡ but sank in 1943. It was normally covered by the Po’s waters. “It’s the first time that we can see this ship,” said amateur cyclist Raffaele Vezzal. “I’ve never seen such a drought at this time of year—our main worry was our river flooding, but now we worry about its disappearance.”
The drying up of the Po, which runs 652 kilometers from the northwestern city of Turin to Venice, is jeopardizing the drinking water supply in Italy’s densely populated and highly industrialized districts and threatening irrigation in the most intensively farmed part of the country, known as the Italian food valley.
Northern Italy hasn’t seen rainfall for more than 110 days and this year’s snowfall is down by 70%. Aquifers (含水层), which hold groundwater, are exhausted. Temperatures of 2℃ above season average are melting the tiny snowfields and glaciers that were left on the top of the surrounding Alps, leaving the Po basin without its summer water reservoirs.
All these factors are leading to the worst drought in 70 years, according to the Po River Basin Authority (PRBA).
Meuccio Berselli, secretary-general of the Po River Basin Authority, is working on a plan to guarantee drinking and irrigation water to millions of households and to the Po valley farmers, who produce 40% of Italian food. The plan includes higher draining from Alpine lakes, less water for hydroelectric (水力发电的) plants and distribution of water in the upstream regions.
According to a state owned energy service system operator, 55% of the renewable energy coming from hydroelectric plants in Italy comes from the Po and its tributaries. Experts fear that a lack of hydroelectric power will contribute to increased carbon dioxide emissions (排放), as more electricity will have to be produced with natural gas.
1. What does the resurfacing of the Zibello suggest?| A．The drought of the Po is serious. | B．River flooding is worrying. |
| C．It has been recovered from damage. | D．Residents are preserving it |
| A．Indicating. | B．Increasing. | C．Endangering. | D．Providing. |
| A．It helps to generate renewable energy. |
| B．It may lead to environmental problems. |
| C．It will cause the Po to disappear quickly. |
| D．It deserves wide support and high praise. |
| A．A Wartime Ship Is Resurfacing | B．Italy Is Seeking Water Supplies |
| C．A Drought Is Threatening Farmers | D．Italy’s Largest River Is Drying Up |
2 . Pollution is one of the biggest problems in the world today. In many places, rubbish is thrown into lakes and rivers.
In some cities, the air is filled with pollution.
If we do not act to improve the environment, more living things will be killed by pollution.
If we can do these, we will make the world a better place to live in.
| A．This makes some old people and children ill. |
| B．As well as people, animals are also harmed by pollution. |
| C．We can make our lakes and rivers cleaner and cleaner. |
| D．It’s time for all of us to take action right away! |
| E．Because of this, these places have already been polluted. |
| F．Trees reduce dust and help keep the air clean. |
| G．A few of us should take action to protect the environment. |
3 . Bonobos (倭黑猩猩) display responsibility toward grooming (梳理) partners, which is similar to that of people working together on a task, a new study suggests. Until now, investigations have shown that only humans can work collaboratively toward a common goal supposed to require back and-forth exchanges and an appreciation of being responsible for a partner.
Biologist Raphael a Hessen of Durham University in England and colleagues studied 15 of the endangered great apes at a French zoological park. The researchers interrupted 85 instances of social grooming, in which one ape cleaned another’s fur, and 26 instances of self-grooming. Interruptions consisted either of a keeper calling one bonobo in a grooming pair to come over for a food reward or a keeper rapidly opening and closing a sliding door to an indoor enclosure, which typically signaled mealtime and thus attracted both bonobos.
Social grooming resumed (恢复), on average, 80 percent of the time after food rewards and 83 percent of the time after sliding door disruptions. In contrast, self-grooming or playing alone was resumed only around 50 percent of the time, on average.
Bonobos generally resumed social grooming with the same partner within one minute of an interruption, usually near the original grooming spot. Groomers frequently took up where they had left off on a partner's body. And bonobos more often cried, gestured or otherwise communicated when restarting social grooming if they had been the one responsible for staring the session or interrupting it for a food reward. That was especially true of higher-ranking bonobos in the community, suggesting some awareness of having broken a common commitment and wanting to signal friendly intentions when rejoining lower-ranking grooming partners. Still, it’s likely that bonobos think in less complex ways than people do about joint commitments. In previous studies, even 3-year old children were much less willing to interrupt joint tasks for rewards than bonobos were in the new experiments.
1. What does the underlined word “collaboratively” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．corporately | B．actively | C．successfully | D．entirely |
| A．shocked to stop grooming | B．curious about what happened |
| C．aware that it was time to take meals | D．attracted to come over for fun rewards |
| A．Groomers are responsible for interruption. |
| B．Young kids are more committed than bonobos. |
| C．People communicate with bonobos in more complex ways. |
| D．Lower-ranking bonobos like breaking a common commitment |
| A．Bonobos’ responsibility is better than people’s. |
| B．Bonobos show promise to complete a joint task. |
| C．Bonobos can complete the very same work as people. |
| D．Bonobos resume self-grooming faster than social grooming. |
4 . E-bikes are becoming more and more popular. It opens cycling to older people, those with disabilities, people who live in hilly cities where regular cycling requires serious effort.
Three things are needed to make e-bikes popular—a safe place to ride, good affordable bikes and a secure place to park. Safety comes first. For bike lanes (车道) to work, the network has to be continuous, not just forcing cyclists into the middle of a busy street. It should be well protected so that the cyclists won't feel they'll be knocked down by cars. It's necessary to provide good affordable e-bikes to customers either in physical stores or in online stores. Only in this way can people consider buying one as their means of transportation. Parking remains an avoidable problem if we want to encourage more people to ride e-bikes. In Netherlands or Copenhagen, large bike parking lots at train and bus stations encourage varieties of transport. People can easily find bike parking everywhere. This is going to be needed in other cities too for e-bikes to really become a form of transportation.
As a matter of fact, people have found that e-bikes are effective transportation choices. A recent study shows that people who ride e-bikes increase their travel distance from 2. 1 to 9. 2 km per day on average. That is sure to do good to their health. It's also believed that if just 15% of a city’s population turn to e-bikes, it would reduce the carbon emissions (排放) from transportation by 12%.
All of these lead me to conclude that e-bikes are a far better way of dealing with transportation emissions than electric cars. They won't work for everyone, but they don't have to.
1. What is the most important for cyclists?| A．Their safety. | B．Affordable bikes. | C．Good parking lot. | D．Fast transportation. |
| A．To show their good e-bikes. | B．To show their e-bikes are affordable. |
| C．To show cyclists have safe places to ride. | D．To show they offer good bike parking lots. |
| A．The rules of riding bicycles. | B．The advantages of riding bicycles. |
| C．The health benefits of riding bicycles. | D．The harmful influence of riding bicycles. |
| A．Worried. | B．Positive. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unconcerned. |
