1 . Which are the better pets, cats or dogs? Staff from New Horizon network team have carried out a study which lasted a fortnight and they published their conclusion on their home page last Friday — dogs are better pets than cats by a whisker.
Staff from New Horizon first listed the areas where cats fared better. These included having bigger brains compared to their body size, which is said to make them do better in complex functions such as memory and attention than dogs. Cats’second point was given for being more popular, with 204 million living in the top ten cat-owning nations compared to 173 million dogs in the ten countries where dogs are favored. Cats also get more attention from humans, with purrs (呼噜声) and miaows easily to be noticed. Although dogs can vary their barks, they cannot match the attention-seeking of cats. Additionally, cats can see in lower light than dogs and have a far wider hearing range and a sharper sense of smell. They are also said to be “greener” pets because their smaller appetites mean less area of land required to farm the food.
But in the other six categories examined — many of which related to getting on with humans — dogs had the edge.
Dogs have a longer shared history with humans, maybe as long as 135,000 years. Cats are relative newcomers to our homes. Similarly, dogs have a greater ability to bond with the 订masters. Even four-month-old puppies choose a human companion over another dog. Dogs scored a third point for their better powers of understanding and following human gestures. One study found that a dog called Rico had mastered the meaning of more than 200 words. The ab 山 ty to perform roles such as being a guide dog for the blind meant dogs were rated better than cats when it came to their problem-solving abilities. And they are easier to train.
With the scores tied at five-all, the deciding point fell on usefulness — with dogs coming out on top.
Dogs, studies show, help cut human stress, while taking them for walks keeps their owners fit and helps them meet new people. New Horizon says: “Dogs can hunt and guard. They can sniff out drugs and bombs; they guide blind and deaf people, find someone buried in ruins, and possibly even predict earthquakes.”
The study conducted by the staff and their conclusion went viral the moment it was released and has caused a heated discussion among pet owners. Some frowned at it, arguing that it had only involved character, intelligence and usefulness.
1. Which of the following is cats’advantage?| A．They are better at grasping their owners’ instructions. |
| B．They have larger brains than dogs. |
| C．They have a sharper sense of taste. |
| D．They affect the environment less. |
| A．considerably | B．in some aspects |
| C．a little bit | D．exactly the same |
| A．the study lasted a week |
| B．four-month-old puppies are more capable of picking a human companion |
| C．all the pet owners didn’t agree with the conclusion |
| D．people pet dogs to predict earthquakes |
| A．Cats beat dogs | B．Fight like cat and dog |
| C．Befriend with cats and dogs | D．Cats versus dogs |
2 . Sydnee Geril knows life wouldn’t be the same without her service dog Tulsa. After all, the pup has
Geril was diagnosed with cancer in October 2017. She underwent nine months of
Life threw Geril another
Unfortunately, when COVID-19 began, Geril had to
Now, Geril has her best friend at her side whenever she
| A．surprised | B．delighted | C．annoyed | D．depressed |
| A．Furthermore | B．Anyway | C．Overall | D．Therefore |
| A．Suddenly | B．Incredibly | C．Luckily | D．Consequently |
| A．discussion | B．research | C．practice | D．treatment |
| A．evidence | B．answer | C．comfort | D．effort |
| A．rescue | B．adopt | C．sell | D．beat |
| A．happy | B．regretful | C．afraid | D．confident |
| A．argument | B．chance | C．plan | D．challenge |
| A．continued | B．decided | C．pretended | D．hesitated |
| A．fast | B．short | C．complex | D．mental |
| A．learning | B．expecting | C．imagining | D．teaching |
| A．problem | B．mistake | C．success | D．help |
| A．encourages | B．alerts | C．changes | D．impresses |
| A．In addition | B．On the contrary | C．As a result | D．After all |
| A．start | B．try | C．keep | D．stop |
| A．enjoy | B．risk | C．delay | D．remember |
| A．absence | B．death | C．return | D．arrival |
| A．legs | B．head | C．fur | D．eyes |
| A．needs | B．aids | C．meets | D．feeds |
| A．show | B．forget | C．claim | D．realize |
3 . Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara were selected as the 2020 Pritzker Prize Laureates (获奖者), announced Tom Pritzker, Chairman of the Hyatt Foundation which sponsors the award that is often referred to as “architecture’s Nobel”. Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara have practiced architecture together for over forty years in a way that clearly reflects the objectives of the Pritzker Prize: to recognize the art of architecture and consistent service to humanity as evidenced through a body of built work.
They were awarded for their generosity toward their colleagues, commitment to excellence in architecture, responsible attitude toward the environment, ability to be cosmopolitan while embracing the uniqueness of each place in which they work, for all these reasons and more, according to the 2020 Jury Citation.
As architects and educators since the 1970s, Farrell and McNamara have created spaces that honor history while presenting their mastery of the urban environment and craft of construction. Their works never repeat or copy, but are decidedly of their own architectural style.
Their native Ireland, an island dotted with mountains and hills, breeds their acute sensitivities to geography, such as the changing climate and nature, in each of their sites. The campus of UTEC Lima, one of their works, for example, is located on a challenging site with a highway sunk in a valley on one side and a neighborhood on the other. The result is a vertical building responding to both site and climate needs. Its open spaces are designed to deliberately welcome the cool wind from the ocean and minimize the need for air-conditioning.
According to McNamara, architecture anchors us and connects us to the world as a framework for human life. She adds that possibly no other space-making discipline(科目) can do this. Farrell continues, “At the core of our practice is a real belief that architecture matters. It is a cultural spatial phenomenon that people invent. ”
1. What do we know about the Pritzker Prize?| A．It is personally sponsored by Tom Pritzker. |
| B．Its goal is to provide continuous service for mankind. |
| C．It aims to identify the architectural art through buildings. |
| D．It has been set up for more than forty years as “architecture’s Nobel”. |
| A．Global. | B．Special. |
| C．Creative. | D．Environment-friendly. |
| A．To show its geographical location. |
| B．To show the challenge of building it. |
| C．To show the two architects’ sensitivities to geography. |
| D．To show how to minimize the need for air-conditioning. |
| A．It is important to human life. |
| B．It is a crucial practice to all architects. |
| C．It is invented by people in the cultural field. |
| D．It is better than any other space-making discipline. |
4 . Since the first factories began manufacturing polyester (聚酯) in the 1950s, humans have produced about 9. 1 billion tons of plastic. And about 12 percent has been burnt, releasing harmful gases into the air. Most of the rest has ended up in landfills and in the natural environment. Plastic inhabits the oceans, cities and national parks, in large or tiny pieces.
Carbios is among the companies that are attempting to commercialize a type of chemical recycling, which breaks down polymers into their fundamental moleculars, called monomers (单体). Those monomers can then be recombined into polymers that are as good as new.
But some experts warn that chemical recycling may face many of the same issues that already plague the recycling industry, including competition from cheap plastics made from the raw materials. For the past several years, Carbios has been improving a method that uses an enzyme (酶) found in a microorganism to convert polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common ingredient in plastic bottles, into its monomers.
Enzymatic recycling’s promise isn’t limited to PET: the approach can be applied to other plastics. In early experiments, it took weeks for enzymes to process just a part of a batch of PET. In 2020, Alain Marty, chief science officer at Carbios, announced they’d developed an enzyme that could stand warmer temperatures and change nearly an entire batch of PET into monomers in a matter of hours.
Most PET produced globally is used for textile fibers, which, because they often contain mixed materials, are rarely recycled. Mats Linder, leader of Stena Recycling in Sweden, said he’d like to see recycling technologies focus on these and other parts of the recycling industry where conventional recycling is coming up short.
As it happens, Carbios is working to do just that. Gregg Beckham, a senior research fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, believes the global plastic problem will call for a diverse mix of technological solutions. He thinks enzymatic recycling and other recycling technologies are advancing rapidly, and he’s optimistic that they’ll have a role to play.
1. What can be inferred from the first paragraph?| A．Polyester has been made for a century. | B．Most plastic is not recycled. |
| C．People should stop using plastic. | D．Most plastic is buried in landfills. |
| A．Trouble. | B．Inspire. | C．Influence. | D．Determine. |
| A．Many companies have been using this method. |
| B．Enzymatic recycling can only be used to break down PET. |
| C．It was Carbios that invented enzymatic recycling. |
| D．Great progress has been made in enzymatic recycling. |
| A．Enzymatic recycling is costly but effective. |
| B．Carbios is the pioneer in recycling plastic. |
| C．Enzymatic recycling has a bright future. |
| D．Chemical recycling technologies are limited. |
More than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries have sounded the alarm on climate change. In a paper
The scientists also gave some instructions to fight against global warming,
The scientists say the climate crisis is
6 . A smoke bomb from a party started a major blaze (火焰) near Los Angeles in September,just one of many recent wildfires ignited (引燃) by people. Now, an analysis of satellite data shows human-caused blazes spread much faster and kill more trees than ones ignited by lightning.
Fire has always been a part of California’s natural history. But several centuries of human settlement have created new conditions that promote its spread.Studies have shown human ignition is to blame for 84% of all wildfires in the United States,and 97% of all those that threaten homes.
Human-caused fires always seemed more extreme, says Stijn Hantson,a fire ecologist at the University of California,Irvine,who led the new research. But measurements of how fast they spread and their impacts on ecosystems (生态系统) in California had not been explored, he notes.
To examine those differences, Hantson and his colleagues analyzed satellite data for 214 wildfires in California between 2012 and 2018.Human-caused fires typically spread about 1.83 kilometers per day, more than twice as fast as lightning-ignited burns,the team reports.The faster spreading fires also burned more violently and killed “double or triple” the trees as lightning-caused ones.
However, there is no fundamental difference in the chemistry of a human-caused blaze. “A fire is a fire” Hantson says. “It’s the surrounding things that matter.” Causes of fires ranging from improperly thrown cigarettes to sparking (冒火花) power lines could ignite a blaze on any given day, he says, while lightning strikes and dry thunderstorms only happen seasonally.
The researchers tracked meteorological data and found that human-caused fires were more likely to start on days with extreme weather conditions,and were more associated with drier,less-forested landscapes. This adds to scientists’ understanding of how humans are extending the fire season, says Nathan Mietkiewicz, an ecologist with the National Ecological Observation Network.
1. The author uses some data in paragraph 2 to show that ________.| A．wildfires are mostly caused by humans |
| B．most wildfires threaten people’s homes |
| C．wildfire is a part of California’s natural history |
| D．wildfires break out frequently in the United States |
| A．To prove how extreme human-caused fires are. |
| B．To find out the causes and solutions of wildfires. |
| C．To explore the speed and effects of wildfires caused by humans. |
| D．To examine the differences between a human-caused blaze and a nature-caused one. |
| A．By giving examples. |
| B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By analyzing cause and effect. |
| D．By giving definitions. |
| A．Human-caused fires and lightning-caused fires are basically different. |
| B．Lightning strikes and thunderstorms can always lead to wildfires. |
| C．Wildfires only happen in dry,less-forested areas. |
| D．Humans are to blame for the extended fire season. |
7 . A bike path in Krommenie, a city in the Netherlands, isn’t just helping people get around — it’s also producing energy. The path, named SolaRoad, is paved (铺) with solar cells (太阳能电池), which use the power of the sun to make electricity.
The project was created to show that the places where people ride, walk, or drive can also serve to produce energy. And the solar-powered path is doing a better job than expected. So far, it has created enough electricity to power three houses for a year.
Many cities already cover rooftops with solar panels (太阳能板). By using renewable (可再生的) sources of energy, urban areas can decrease their dependence on fossil fuels, like coal, oil, and natural gas. Renewable sources of energy don’t get used up or create pollution as fossil fuels do.
Roads could provide an even larger space than roofs to harvest energy from the sun. Sten de Wit, one of the researchers behind SolaRoad, says, “In the Netherlands, we have about 140,000 kilometers of roads. It’s a huge area, more than all of the rooftops combined.”
To create the experimental bike path, the SolaRoad team laid down concrete slabs (混凝土板) with rows of solar cells above. A layer of strong glass covers and protects the cells. Sunlight passes through the glass and into the cells, which turn the sunlight into electrical energy.
Although the bike path was expensive to build, with the energy it produces, it could pay for itself within 15 years. By building solar-powered bike paths and roads, cities could produce enough energy to power streetlamps, traffic lights, and even electric cars. Most people don’t notice that the bike path is different from a traditional street. Sten de Wit says, “That is exactly what we want: it does whatever it has to do to be a proper road while harvesting solar energy at the same time.”
1. What do we know about renewable sources of energy?| A．They are friendly to the environment. |
| B．They are only fit for urban areas. |
| C．They are more expensive than fossil fuels. |
| D．They provide more energy than fossil fuels. |
(
=concrete slabs 
= solar cells 
=strong glass)A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Not all people consider SolaRoads are useful. |
| B．SolaRoads look the same as traditional roads. |
| C．Most urban areas can’t afford to build SolaRoads. |
| D．The solar-powered bike path is worth the effort. |
| A．New solar cells take the place of traditional solar panels. |
| B．A bike path in the Netherlands produces energy from the sun. |
| C．A new kind of solar-powered bike gets ready to amaze you. |
| D．A new way of making solar cells promises cheaper power. |
8 . Many monarch butterflies hurry along Chicago’s streets. They’re looking for milkweed, which monarch butterflies and about 450 other species feed on. It’s greatly needed, because the American Midwest doesn’t have as many monarch butterflies as before.
Each year, as summer days grow cooler, the monarch butterflies living east of the Rocky Mountains will fly to the forests of Mexico. But the number of monarch butterflies preparing to make the journey has fallen rapidly. The reasons include buildings spreading out over a wide area, chemical use, and more. However, researchers from the Field Museum in Chicago said, “Cities aren’t just the enemy of insects — they can be useful habitats (栖息地), too. That’s especially true for insects like monarch butterflies that can survive with small areas of habitat.”
The researchers studied the milkweed situation in some U.S. cities along the butterfly’s flyway. They calculated (计算) how much milkweed is growing in these cities. They also found many areas that could grow a bit of milkweed, especially within “non-forested green spaces”. No one is suggesting growing milkweed in a soccer field, but yards, roadsides, and vacant lots (空地) all would be OK. Even if only 2% of these green spaces were turned into milkweed areas, the researchers said these cities could hold millions of additional plants. “Cities could support about 30% of the milkweed needed to save monarch butterflies,” said a researcher.
The team found that the people they spoke with reacted actively to growing milkweed. There is already an indication that planting efforts paid off: In 2018, monarch populations were the highest in 10 years, which is in part because of cities’ efforts to grow milkweed and other butterfly-friendly plants.
1. What can be learnt about milkweed?| A．It draws more and more insects. | B．It usually grows along Chicago’s streets. |
| C．It grows widely in the American Midwest. | D．It’s important for monarch butterflies’ survival. |
| A．Cities used to be a good place for insects. | B．Monarch butterflies are very popular in cities. |
| C．Monarch butterflies depend too much on cities. | D．Cities can be monarch butterflies’ good habitat. |
| A．When to save monarch butterflies. | B．How to save monarch butterflies. |
| C．Who to save monarch butterflies. | D．Why to save monarch butterflies. |
| A．idea. | B．promise. | C．sign. | D．doubt. |
9 . When Yang Fan was taking a walk around the Yuliang Island, she saw a black swan (天鹅) in the grass. Yang Fan knew that swans could be fierce (凶猛的). But as she got close to this one, it didn’t move.
She was sure that the swan needed help. So Yang covered the bird’s head with her jacket to keep its cool, picked it up carefully, and held it in her arms. She decided to send it to the Animal Care Center, but the center was across the Han River, far from the park. She didn’t know how to carry the swan there. Luckily, some strangers driving by gave her and the swan a lift to a nearby bus stop.
On the bus, no one seemed surprised by “the unusual passenger”. Instead they were worried. Someone helped Yang Fan call the center on the way. And Li Tao, an animal-care manager, picked her up at the bus stop and drove them to the center. There, the animal doctors found that the swan was poisoned, caused by eating something used to kill mice. The swan was well looked after at the center. She even made a friend—a little dog. Thanks to people’s love and care, luckily, she was cured (治愈) two months later.
“It’s a moving story. Yang Fan travelled about two hours and it was really a long way.” Says Li Tao. “And all the strangers wanted to give her and the swan a hand.” He adds, “I am happy to see that more and more people have realized the importance of protecting the wild life since Xiangyang began to build the civilized (文明) city.”
1. Which is the correct order of the things that happened to the swan?①She was found by Yang Fan.
②She ate something wrong.
③She was cured.
④She made friends with a dog.
⑤She was sent to the Animal Care Center.
| A．①②⑤③④ | B．①⑤②④③ |
| C．②①⑤④③ | D．⑤②①③④ |
| A．困住 | B．中毒 | C．射伤 | D．掉队 |
| A．Yang Fan didn’t try her best to save the swan. |
| B．The swan could be helped in a much better way. |
| C．Li Tao cared more about the swan than Yang Fan. |
| D．People went out of their way to protect the wild life. |
| A．Ways to Protect the Animals |
| B．More Animal Care Centers Are Needed |
| C．A Swan Meets a City Full of Love |
| D．Efforts the Animal Doctors Have Made |
10 . By human standards, a few vertebrate (脊椎动物) species have incredible longevity. Some tortoises live for nearly 200 years. Bowhead whales can live even a decade or two longer. But now there’s a new champion: the Greenland shark — which has been swimming in the seas for almost three centuries according to conservative estimates. The shark which grows to more than 6 meters (20 ft) can live up till 272 years, and possibly a hundred years more than that.
Julius Nielsen is a marine biologist and PhD student at the University of Copenhagen. While on a research vessel in Greenland where such sharks were accidentally caught, Nielsen became curious about the creatures.
“And perhaps the biggest of all the mysteries was how long these sharks actually live. Because it has been expected that they can get very old, and that’s based on some observations of very, very slow growth… so the longevity could be exceptional and extreme, but it has just never been possible to investigate.”
That’s because Greenland sharks don’t have the same body structures used for valuing the age of most fish or even other sharks. So Neilsen and colleagues used a new technique based on the lens of the eye. The centers of the lenses can be analyzed by radiocarbon (放射性碳) dating to determine about when the shark was born. They tested 28 female sharks.
“And what we found was that the biggest shark in our analysis, and also the oldest shark, was estimated — the most likely single year age was almost approximately 390 years,” Nielsen said. “That makes the Greenland shark the longest-living vertebrate known to science.” And at the upper limit, it’s possible that the shark is more than 500 years old. The study is in the journal Science.
Also shocking: the researchers estimate that the sharks live at least a century before they reach sexual maturity. “And of course it is absolutely amazing and difficult for a human mind to understand that sexual reproduction begins so late in life.”
In the paper Nielsen and his colleagues said, “And the thing about Greenland sharks is just we don’t know how many sharks are out there.” With a century to do it, humans could accidentally wipe out the entire next generation of these sharks during their long, slow adolescence.
1. What does the first paragraph mainly show?| A．Sea tortoises is called the star of longevity. |
| B．All vertebrate species have incredible longevity. |
| C．Bowhead whales can live longer than a hundred years. |
| D．The Greenland shark can live much larger than we thought. |
| A．It has been confirmed that the Greenland shark can live over 3 centuries. |
| B．The longevity of the Greenland shark confused Julius Nielsen most. |
| C．It is hard to estimate the longevity of the Greenland shark for the same body structures with other animals. |
| D．Humans have understood that sexual reproduction begins so late in life. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Positive. | C．Ironic. | D．Amazed. |
| A．Uncover Existing Longest Sharks |
| B．Global Warming Makes Longest Sharks |
| C．King of Longevity — the Greenland Shark |
| D．Champion of Hunting—the Greenland Shark |
