1 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写 1 个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处的括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Born in New Zealand, Helen    1     (live) in Guatemala for four years and then in the United States. When she was fifty, she had a dream: walking to the North Pole alone. On her journey, she was    2     (complete) alone except for her dog, Charlie, a Canadian husky. She walked 345 miles in temperature of -50℃. When she    3     (attack) by seven polar bears, it was lucky for her to have Charlie by her side.

2 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写 1 个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处的括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Arctic foxes live on the land and sea ice within the Arctic Circle,     1     the sun never rises to give warmth and light from October to February. Luckily, their long, fluffy tails act like a blanket to keep warm when they    2     (wrap) the tail around their body to sleep. Their feet also have a layer of thick fur,     3     helps cover footsteps. And their white coats make it difficult for predators such as    4     (wolf), polar bears, and golden eagles to spot them among the ice and snow.

5 . As giant panda Tian Bao walked toward the feast placed in his enclosure (围场) on Thursday at Pairi Daiza zoo in Belgium, fans waiting outside began to sing Happy Birthday in Dutch and French.

One of the fans, Nora Verhoeyen, said she traveled there for the birthday party from the city of Oudenaarde, transferring between three trains in the process. Verhoeyen has visited Tian Bao and four other giant pandas at the zoo many times. She also came after Tian Bao was born on June 2, 2016—the first giant panda baby born in Belgium.

“I like pandas. I like Tian Bao very much,” she mentioned. She said she cried a year ago, knowing that Tian Bao would go to China later last year. Under the loan agreement with the Chinese government, giant panda babies born outside China to parents loaned from China belong to China and should go back by the age of four to join the breeding program as part of the conservation of the species.

“Tian Bao’s departure for China has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. He is now expected to go to China at the beginning of next year,” according to the zoo’s founder and president, Eric Domb.

Giant panda keeper Robin Bouttefeux said that he prepared bamboo shoots, carrots and a cake made of soybeans, rice and corn for Tian Bao’s birthday. He said that every visitor loves Tian Bao. “He is my best friend,” he added. Bouttefeux, who has held the post for eight years, said that taking care of five giant pandas is a demanding job. “But it’s a nice job working with pandas every day,” he said.

Tian Bao weighed only 171 grams when he was born. He weighed 100 kilograms on Thursday. Domb said that everyone will be sad when Tian Bao leaves next year. But he and his colleagues also know that it is beneficial. Giant pandas are solitary (独立的) animals. Mothers and babies do not stay together for long in the wild. “If they were kept together beyond the point when a child is self-sufficient (自立的), it would eventually cause aggression”, according to a giant panda researcher, Elizabeth Dunn.

1. Why did fans sing a song for Tian Bao on Thursday?

A．To celebrate Tian Bao’s birthday.

B．To convey their sympathy for Tian Bao.

C．To draw people’s attention to giant pandas' preservation.

D．To express the unwillingness to say goodbye to Tian Bao.

2. What can we know about Tian Bao?

A．It is cute but aggressive.	B．It has been in Belgium for 6 years.
C．It is going back to China this year.	D．It has gained little weight since born.

3. Who is in charge of taking care of Tian Bao?

A．Nora Verhoeyen.	B．Eric Domb.
C．Robin Bouttefeux.	D．Elizabeth Dunn.

4. Where is this text probably taken from?

A．A travel brochure.	B．A textbook.
C．A science magazine.	D．A newspaper.

8 . 阅读下面短文，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。

Watering is key to growing plants well, so here we look at how to get it just right. This not only means providing the water our gardens need but using it wisely. Water is a precious resource and supplies in the UK are under pressure from the effects of climate change, population increase and the need to protect the environment. Generally, several aspects need to be considered.

When to water

Water in the mornings, if you can, as this is when the sun comes up and plants start to transpire (蒸腾) in sunlight, drawing water from the soil, through their roots, up their stems and to their leaves. Evening watering is also fine, as the cooler conditions mean less water is lost to evaporation (蒸发). Watering in the heat of the day is not a good idea, as much water is lost through evaporation from the surface of the soil. Plants will use water more efficiently if watered in the cooler parts of the day.

How to water

Watering thoroughly matters. It helps get the water down to the deeper root tips where it’s needed. But, equally important, the soil doesn’t have to be really wet all the time because plants roots need air as well as water to grow well. Otherwise, there might be no flower or fruit, and even a worse result might come along.

Other tips

To use water in the most economical way, it’s good to learn different plants’ watering requirements. For example, a container plant in hot sunny weather may need watering daily, whereas a mature shrub might only need a drink in extreme drought. Annual flowers and vegetables produced in the spring are likely to need more watering than self-sown or autumn grown plants as they have new and shallow root systems. So, don’t treat all the plants in the same way.

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9 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

For those consuming Asian food, using chopsticks     1    (be) almost second nature. About 20 to 33 percent of people in the world use chopsticks     2     a daily basis. Not all of those are disposable (一次性的),     3     no doubt many are.

Felix Böck, a student at the University of British Columbia, was eager to find a way to recycle wood from construction projects, and he had a particular interest in bamboo. One day he found a drawer in his friend’s house     4    (fill) with disposable bamboo chopsticks, and an idea hit him.

He decided to give     5     second life to disposable chopsticks by making them into home     6    (decoration) or other accessories (配件). He told the idea to restaurant owners,     7    (convince) them to install recycling bins in their restaurants. He cleaned the chopsticks, pressed them into square pieces and coated them with glue. The square pieces were then     8    (creative) arranged into household and office products. Böck’s company, called Chop Value, has repurposed chopsticks into desktops, cutting boards and even table games.

Since 2016 when the company     9    (found), Chop Value has rescued billions of chopsticks from landfills. Instead of an economy of the typical take-make-dispose model, Chop Value seeks to create one     10     transforms waste into a usable resource.

10 . Covered in lush fur, the thickest in the animal kingdom, sea otters (海獭) can live their entire lives in the ocean, feeding heavily upon seafloor animals such as shellfish. They are often seen to eat clams(蛤), which bury themselves in meadows of eelgrass (大叶藻场),   a wide-ranging plant species growing in water. Eelgrass meadows where sea otters dig for clams become partly bare, which is commonly a concern for ecologists.

As it turns out, the meadows with otters are healthier, with more eelgrass, according to a new study published in Science. That's because by gently disturbing the seabed, the otters make the plants flower and produce seeds. What's more, their digging provides more space and sunlight for seeds to settle and grow. The enhanced genetic diversity caused by sea otters could make eelgrass more adaptable to present and future threats.

The finding is a powerful example of how animals such as otters influence their ecosystems beyond predation (捕食), often in unseen and little-known ways, says study leader Erin Foster, a research associate at the Hakai Institute. It also means sea otters, an endangered species, are vital to their environments and give eelgrass, which is in danger worldwide, a better chance at staying healthy and surviving.

Seagrass habitats are also important for many fish, providing food for animals, absorbing, and filtering harmful pollution and bacteria from the water. "Genetic diversity typically strengthens the adaptability of species, and considering the challenges we're facing…this will be important for eelgrass meadows, and from this aspect, the impact the otters are having deserves our lasting concern," says Foster.

1. What do we know about sea otters?

A．They live part of their lives underwater.	B．They mainly feed on sea animals like fish.
C．They eat clams beneath eelgrass meadows.	D．They become a new concern for ecologists.

2. How does the author develop paragraph 2?

A．By giving opinions.	B．By presenting reasons.
C．By clarifying concepts.	D．By comparing results.

3. Why does the author mention the endangered condition of eelgrass?

A．To provide examples of sea otters' predation.

B．To show the urgency to protect the environment.

C．To highlight the role of otters in their ecosystems.

D．To warn against the potential risk of climate change.

4. What does Foster think of the impact otters have on underwater meadows?

A．Overestimated.

B．Noteworthy.

C．Temporary.

D．Unpredictable.