1 . Why we should spare parasites

Growing up, Chelsea Wood dreamed of becoming a marine biologist and studying large, exciting animals like sharks. Instead, she later found herself peering through a microscope at the organs of a snail. She had often plucked snails off rocks and collected them in buckets, but she had never looked inside of one. Seen through the microscope, they are surprisingly charming. “I couldn’t believe that I’d been looking at snails for as long as I had and missing all the cool stuff,” says wood. “I just totally fell in love with them.”

Nearly half of all known animals are parasites. One study projects that a tenth of them may be doomed to extinction because of climate change, loss of their hosts, and deliberate attempts at eradication. Though it seems few people care — or even notice.

    1    . But most parasites have evolved not to kill their hosts, and not all of them even cause noticeable harm to them.

Scientists warn of dire consequences if we continue to ignore the dangerous situation of parasites. Not only are some of them useful to humans [such as medicinal leeches, still employed in some surgeries], but they also play crucial roles in ecosystems, keeping some populations in check while helping to feed others.

Some experts say there’s an aesthetic argument for saving them.     2    . They’ve evolved clever means of survival, from becoming a fish’s tongue to controlling the minds of cockroaches.

We’ve barely begun to identify all the parasites. “That’s just not something that we’ve prioritized,” says Skylar Hopkins, an ecologist at North Carolina State University. So, Hopkins pulled together a group of scientists interested in parasites, and they started sharing what they knew.

Since parasites rely on other species, they can be easily hurt, Take, for example, the endangered pygmy hog-sucking louse. It only lives on another species that is itself endangered, the pygmy hog, which is disappearing fast. Then there’s the California condor louse. In the 1970s, desperate to save the California condor, biologists began raising them in captivity. Part of the protocol was to delouse every bird, on the assumption that parasites were bad for condors, though it’s not clear that they actually were.

While the death of parasites might seem like no big deal, ecologists caution that wiping them out could end up dooming the planet.     3    . Big predators would lose out too. Many parasites move into their next host by manipulating the host they’re in, which drives that host into a predator’s mouth so that the predator can be fed.

Even human health wouldn’t entirely benefit from wiping out parasites. The human immune system evolved alongside a group of parasites, and if we were to kill them off, our immune systems would then began attacking ourselves.

However, scientists aren’t out to save all parasites. The Guinea worm, for instance, should not be spared. It grows inside a person’s abdomen, causing harm to one’s health.

If anyone would want to get rid of all parasites, you’d think it would be Bobbi Pritt. As medical director for the Mayo Clinic’s human parasitology lab, Pritt identifies harmful parasites found all over the country and in every body part. Yet even Pritt has a soft spot for parasites. As a physician, she favors wiping out parasites that cause disease and suffering.     4    .

Ultimately, we do not want a war against all of them, because there’s still so much we don’t understand.

A．Without parasites keeping them in check, the populations of certain animals would explode.

B．Beyond their aesthetic or scientific importance, parasites are an integral part of the biosphere.

C．Parasites are sometimes rejected by the scientific communities that study the animal world because they rely on a host.

D．“But as a biologist,” she says, “purposefully trying to make something extinct just doesn’t sit well with me.”

E．Therefore, she has committed herself to finding more effective approaches to eliminate all harmful parasites.

F．If you get past their “gross” appearance, you may find parasites’ way of living strangely charming.

2 . Science may never know the secrets to memories of the California sea hare, a foot-long sea snail. But a research team claim to have made progress in _______ the simplest kind of memory a mollusk (软体动物) might form, and, with a swift injection, managed to _______ one sea snail’s memory to another.

The kinds of memories that start a defensive reaction in the snails are encoded not in the _______between brain cells, but in RNA molecules (分子), according to David Glanzman, a biologist at UCLA. To _______ the idea, Glanzman implanted wires into the tails of California sea hares and gave them a series of electric shocks. The procedure made the animals so _______ that when they were touched, they contracted parts of their bodies intensely. Glanzman compares the reaction to being nervous after an earthquake: the memory of the event causes a(n) _______ response to any loud noise. After sensitizing the sea snails, Glanzman took RNA out from them and _______ it into new sea snails to see what would happen. He then found the new ones are _______ sensitized, suggesting the “memory” of the electrical shocks had been transplanted. According to Glanzman and his research team, the experiment shows that _______ parts of the memory trace are held in RNA, rather than in the connectivity of brain cells.

However, the work has not yet found widespread ________. “Further work needs to be carried out to determine whether these phenomena are obvious and what is the ________ of such phenomena,” said Prof Vann at Cardiff University. “While a sea snail is a fantastic model, we must be very ________ in drawing comparisons to human memory processes, which are much more complex.”

Tomás Ryan at Trinity College Dublin, is ________. “This work takes us down an interesting road, but I have doubt about it and I don’t think they’ve transplanted a memory,” he said. “This work tells me that maybe the most basic behavioral responses involve some kind of change in the animal.”

________, Ryan added that such creative thinking about memory was in great need: “In a field full of acceptance but lacking ________, we need as many new ideas as possible.”1.

A．deleting

B．disturbing

C．refreshing

D．understanding

2.

A．transfer

B．adjust

C．compare

D．relate

3.

A．connections

B．conflicts

C．secrets

D．distances

4.

A．promote

B．test

C．eliminate

D．impose

5.

A．sensitive

B．adaptable

C．strong

D．relaxed

6.

A．necessary

B．peaceful

C．unconscious

D．impossible

7.

A．plunged

B．invested

C．translated

D．injected

8.

A．crazily

B．dangerously

C．scarcely

D．equally

9.

A．optional

B．essential

C．memorial

D．virtual

10.

A．association

B．recognition

C．innovation

D．publication

11.

A．depth

B．application

C．basis

D．description

12.

A．imaginative

B．careful

C．ambitious

D．speedy

13.

A．supported

B．persuaded

C．unappreciated

D．unconvinced

14.

A．Nevertheless

B．Eventually

C．For example

D．As a result

15.

A．expression

B．likelihood

C．suspicion

D．disturbance

3 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A．efficiency             B．employ             C．effective             D．chemicals             E．accelerating F．existing             G．projected             H．trapped             I．power                    J．simultaneously K．artificially

This past July was the hottest recorded month in human history. Heat waves smashed temperature records worldwide and even brought summer temperatures to Chile and Argentina during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. It’s more than just a matter of sweaty discomfort. In the U.S. alone, it kills more people each year than floods, tornadoes and hurricanes combined. As climate change worsens, access to     1     cooled spaces is rapidly becoming a health necessity.

Yet standard air-conditioning systems have     2     us in a vicious cycle: the hotter it is, the more people use the AC—and the more energy is used as a result. Nicole Miranda, an engineer researching sustainable cooling at the University of Oxford says: “it’s not only a vicious cycle, but it’s a(n)     3     one.” According to 2018 data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the worldwide annual energy demand from cooling is     4     to more than triple by 2050.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that humans cannot outrun climate change with the same air-conditioning technology we’ve been using. One well-known problem with current AC systems is their reliance on refrigerant     5    , many of which are potential greenhouse gases. About 80 percent of a standard AC unit’s climate-warming emissions currently come from the energy used to     6     it, says Nihar Shah, director of the Global Cooling Efficiency Program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Standard air-conditioning systems     7     cool and dehumidify through a relatively inefficient mechanism: in order to condense water out of the air, they overcool that air past the point of comfort. Many new designs therefore separate the dehumidification and cooling processes, which avoids the need to overcool.

Even with some of the best technologies available, the gains in     8     alone might not be enough to offset the widely expected increase in air-conditioning use. It will not work to simply replace every     9     air conditioner with a better model and call it a day. Instead, a truly cooler future will have to     10     other strategies that rely on urban planning and building design to minimize the need for cooling in the first place.

4 . One summer midnight several years ago, standing outside a wooden cabin in Michigan River, I looked up. The sky was filled with thousands of stars, the sight of which was almost enough to make me, a non-believer, offer a word of ___________ up into the star-filled sky. But to whom? Perhaps to Johan Eklof, author of The Darkness Manifesto.

As a bat scientist, Eklof’s work on bats requires a specific kind of darkness—the ___________kind, unpolluted by light. But this category of darkness is ___________. In the 1980s, Eklof tells readers, two-thirds of the churches in Sweden’s southwest housed bat colonies. Not any longer. “Today, forty years later, research I’ve done with my colleagues shows that this number has been reduced by a third, ___________ light pollution and other factors. Because the churches are all ___________ like carnivals(嘉年华) in the night,” he writes. “We are surrounding ourselves with light.”

Excess light is incredibly ___________ to the complex eco-systems nocturnal (夜间活动的) animals inhabit. It ___________ away the bats that Eklof studies. It frightens light-sensitive moths, leaving them easily ___________ to predation(捕食) or flying endlessly into lights that will never return their love. Baby turtles crawl away from the shoreline toward the lights of distant coastal cities and reef fish eggs go unhatched. Birds do not migrate ___________ and even they forget to sing. Modern advancements such as LED lights could significantly reduce some of the worst impacts, but they have not. At least, not yet.

It is worth mentioning that middle-aged writer like Eklof can ____________ for a darker world — for darkened campuses and unlit parking lots. But darkness is not safe for everyone. We need to address the social issues that make lighted places so ____________ in the first place.

The bottom line: We can change if we want to. Some of the solutions to light pollution— motion-detecting lights, shielded lights that do not ____________ light upward, artificial light with wavelengths that is similar to natural light—are already within our grasp, if we just ____________ them. “We could just turn it all off, but I guess we don’t want to,” said Eklof in a recent interview. “____________, it’s vital we find a middle way.”

Right now it is hard to know what that middle way might look like. In 50 years, every city could be equipped with an array of programmed and ____________ low-impact LED lights. Or we might have completely forgotten what darkness is—the sky filled with little moons.

1.

A．honour

B．gratitude

C．optimism

D．determination

2.

A．artificial

B．brilliant

C．faint

D．absolute

3.

A．achieved

B．distracted

C．enhanced

D．threatened

4.

A．resulting from

B．bringing about

C．judging by

D．contributing to

5.

A．decorated

B．restored

C．lit

D．faded

6.

A．effective

B．sensitive

C．positive

D．destructive

7.

A．scares

B．blows

C．pulls

D．turns

8.

A．accustomed

B．subject

C．available

D．restricted

9.

A．on duty

B．in turn

C．on time

D．in public

10.

A．stimulate

B．advocate

C．negotiate

D．account

11.

A．challenging

B．appealing

C．demanding

D．outstanding

12.

A．absorb

B．stretch

C．transform

D．reflect

13.

A．reach for

B．apply to

C．long for

D．adapt to

14.

A．Therefore

B．Furthermore

C．However

D．Instead

15.

A．fundamentally

B．scientifically

C．environmentally

D．economically

5 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

A New Orchid was Found in Japan

Nature is full of secrets. There are still many things to find out about it. One of those things was discovered last week in Japan. It is rare to find a new plant in Japan. An amateur naturalist came across a new species of orchid     1     other flowers in Tokyo. Scientists also found the flower elsewhere in other districts, an indication that the new species     2     deserve further investigation.

The newly-found orchid is beautiful. It is pink and white, it has a central stem, around     3     grow tiny, bell-shaped flowers, and its delicate petals (花瓣) look like they are made from glass. The flower is a neighbor to a(n)     4     (relate) orchid species common in Japan.

Sometimes unknown species are often living right under our noses — in parks, gardens and even in planters on balconies. That’s     5     researchers in Japan recently recognized this new species of orchid. Professor Kenji Suetsugu from Kobe University said the discovery of new species in usual places means it is necessary to keep exploring, even in everyday places that     6     (not look) so remarkable.

There are about 28,000 orchid species worldwide. The new orchid belongs to a class called Spiranthes. There are about 50 different kinds of Spiranthes. They are     7     (familiar) kind of orchid in Japan, for they appeared in a Japanese poem dating to 759 AD. Professor Suetsugu said he and his colleagues were “delighted     8     (identify) a new species”. He said it was exciting because it wasn’t found hidden deep in a rainforest or jungle. The discovery of the new orchid is good news. However, many orchids are on the endangered species list due to habitat loss. We need to protect natural environments to stop flowers     9     (disappear). The world will be far less colourful     10     we lose more orchids.

6 . Yvonne Morones, who has a pet dog named Scamp the Tramp, is talking with the Pet Journal about Scamp.

76

When I saw Scamp on Petfinder, all of a sudden I understood what love was like. I suddenly found I loved him because I fell in love with his face.

What did you know about him when you adopted him?

He’d been living on the street in Compton, California, and people were feeding him McDonald’s. And his name was Muffin Man, which didn’t seem to fit him at all.

What do you do to give him that bed head look?

It’s au naturel! He does get a mango shampoo and a coconut conditioner, but these gray dreads just appear on his head, back, and tail. The pet hairdresser says his hair is uncontrollable.

Scamp works with you as a social therapy dog too. How do people react to his unusual looks?

The first time he went to the senior center with me, the seniors just laughed and said, “Yvonne, what have you got there?” Then they fell in love with him. They’ll even write little adventure stories about Scamp. He just inspires people.

Has being awarded the world’s ugliest dog changed him?

He’s no longer Scamp the Tramp. He’s now Scamp the Champ. Now I have to get him a new dog tag.

1. What can be learned about Scamp the Tramp?

A．He loves fast food.	B．He looks unattractive.
C．He dislikes his new tag.	D．He used to live with seniors.

2. Which of the following best fits the blank numbered 76 in the passage?

A．Why did you go to Petfinder so often?

B．What did you often find on Petfinder?

C．Who brought you Scamp the Tramp?

D．How did you first meet Scamp the Tramp?

3. By “It’s au naturel!”, Yvonne means that ______.

A．Scamp turned gray after being adopted by her

B．Scamp is fond of being washed with shampoo

C．nothing has been done to change Scamp’s appearance

D．it is the pet hairdresser who has given Scamp his new look

7 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。1.

A．The possible existence of life on other planets.

B．Methods for building powerful new telescopes.

C．A technical problem that astronomers can’t solve

D．The discovery of planets orbiting distant stars.

2.

A．They studied variations in the appearance of the parent stars.

B．They were able to see the planets with a telescope.

C．They compared the parent stars to the Sun.

D．They sent astronauts on a mission into space

3.

A．Their surface features.	B．Their chemical composition.
C．Their temperature.	D．Their age.

4.

A．All the stars are orbited by their own planets.

B．We currently have a telescope that can be used to see other planets

C．By a very direct method,the astronomers measured subtle distortions.

D．By a very indirect method,the astronomers measured subtle distortions.

8 . Each one of us shares this planet with seven billion other individuals. And we all need transportation. The majority of cars, motorcycles, boats and planes cause pollution. They are also noisy. This is a serious problem in many cities. So inventors are coming up with innovative ideas to try to reduce the pollution and noise.

By Land

In many cities around the world, motorcycles are becoming increasingly popular. Currently, Vietnam has around 33 million motorcycles. China has almost 120 million. The convenience of these motorcycles comes at a cost. Air pollution is a growing problem. In large cities, people often complain it is difficult to breathe. They also complain about the noise.

To solve these problems, a U.S. company designed an environmentally friendly motorcycle. It uses electricity as fuel. You can drive it for 40 miles (64 kilometers) before recharging the battery.

It is also quiet and fast-60 miles (96 kilometers) per hour. This makes it a good choice for getting around a city.

By Water

The Italian city of Venice is a city with only a few roads. There are no cars in the city center. Instead of cars, water taxis and buses carry people along the city’s canals. The engines of these boats are simple and cheap. However, they cause pollution, particularly to the water. This causes damage to the city’s buildings.

English mechanics Dick Strawbridge and Jem Stans designed a solar-powered water taxi. The solar panels charge three electric batteries. These, in turn, provide power to the engine. The water taxi can carry six passengers. It can run for a day. In the future, solar taxis could be an alternative to Venice’s current taxis.

By Air

Designing an environmentally friendly airplane is a real challenge. Planes use an enormous amount of jet fuel. This means they cause significant air pollution, and they are very noisy. Some major airplane manufacturers have started to address the problems. They are using cleaner fuels, for example. However, Swiss engineers have gone one step further. They developed a solar airplane — the Solar Impulse. Solar panels cover its wings. These panels provide power to four electric motors and batteries. The batteries allow the plane to fly at night. This plane holds the world record for the longest solar-powered flight — 985 miles (1541 kilometers) from Arizona to Texas in the United States.

1. What do the three innovative ideas proposed have in common?

A．They aim to solve traffic problems in big cities.

B．They use cleaner energy and cause less pollution.

C．They aim to change traditional way of transporting goods.

D．They are good will of developed countries to help developing countries.

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．China owns the largest number of motorcycles.

B．There are no cars in the center of Venice city.

C．Solar-powered water taxi can run for a day with one battery at work.

D．The newly designed motorcycle can drive 60 miles after being charged.

3. According to the passage, the distinguished merit of Solar Impulse is ________.

A．lighter wings	B．less noise
C．powerful batteries	D．longest solar panels

9 . What do ants, bees, pigeons, and herrings have in common? All these animals swarm. Swarming occurs when large numbers of individual animals move, work, or cooperate as a group. They appear to know where they are going and what they are doing. Why are they doing this?

Ants are a good example of swarming animals. Swarms of ants can do many difficult tasks. For example, they can find the shortest path to the best food source. It may appear that individual ants build nests and defend their homes, but ants aren’t clever architects or soldiers—at least not as individuals. If you watch an ant try to accomplish something, you will be impressed by how inept it is. Although individual ants don’t appear to be very intelligent, as colonies they are, thanks to swarm intelligence.

Swarm intelligence is the collective behavior of large groups. The key feature of swarm intelligence seems to be that no one is in charge. In the case of ants, there appear to be no leaders. No ant seems to be telling any other ants what to do. There is a queen ant, but her only role is to lay eggs. Yet, a colony of half a million ants functions perfectly without any managers at all. Furthermore, no single ant seems to have any knowledge about the big picture—the main goals or objectives. The swarm relies on lots of interaction between individuals who all follow the rules. One of these rules is to stay close together. When individuals stay close together, they communicate and share a lot of information.

Different animals have different methods of interaction. For example, ants leave a trail of pheromones for other ants to follow. A key component of bee interaction is movement. When bees need to move their hive, scout bees go out in search of a suitable place to live. When they return, they each do a type of dance. The “happier” the bee is about the new location, the faster the dance is. In addition, the dance includes a code with directions to the new location. The excited dancers excite other scout bees. These bees then fly out to check. They come back, get close together, and dance with the other excited bees. The bees will not move until they are all “excited”, or in agreement about the best location. Once a large enough group of bees all agree, they convince the thousands of other bees. Then they all fly together to the new site.

Some scientists are applying the wisdom of animals to solve human problems. Thomas Seeley, a biologist at Cornell University, uses swarm intelligence in his meeting. Seeley doesn’t tell his staff what to do or make all decisions. Instead, he asks his staff to identify all the possibilities, discuss their ideas, and then vote by ballot. Seeley wants his staff, like the bees, to focus on the group’s needs, not on the individual ideas. “It gives a group time to let the best idea emerge and win.” Seeley says that running meetings using swarm intelligence ideas can lead to better decisions. It can also reduce conflict among the staff.

In nature, animals use swarm intelligence for survival. For these animals, working together is a matter of life or death. For humans, there is much to learn from swarm intelligence to make our lives more efficient.

1. According to paragraph 2, “inept” means ________.

A．awkward

B．appealing

C．isolated

D．smart

2. In the case of ants, which of the following statements about swarm intelligence is TRUE?

A．There should be a leader although he may not be in charge.

B．It won’t work if individuals don’t understand the collective goals.

C．Every individual should be very familiar with the rules and with each other.

D．Team member should stick together and communicate what they know.

3. According to paragraph 4, what can be inferred about bees?

A．They communicate within their group through pheromones.

B．Failure in reaching agreements seldom occurs in an intimate team.

C．They head towards the new location when majority of bees agree.

D．The way they dance reflects how satisfied they are with the location.

4. According to Thomas Seeley, swarm intelligence is useful for us in ________.

A．boosting team spirit	B．eliminating conflicts
C．encouraging best ideas	D．solving interpersonal problems

10 . Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

A rare hole has opened up in the ozone layer above the Arctic, in     1     scientists say is the result of unusually low temperatures in the atmosphere above the north pole.

The hole has reached record dimensions, but is not expected to pose any danger to humans     2     it moves further south.     3     it extends further south to overpopulated areas, such as southern Greenland, people will be at increased risk of sunburn. However, on current trends the hole is expected to disappear altogether in a few weeks.

Low temperatures in the northern polar regions led to an unusual stable polar vortex (极地漩涡), and the presence of ozone-destroying chemicals such as chlorine (氯) in the atmosphere - from human activities-caused the hole     4     (form) .

It is now too early to say     5     the unusually stable Arctic polar vortex conditions are linked with the climate crisis, or part of normal stratospheric weather variability. Peuch said there were no direct implications for the climate crisis. Temperatures in the region are already increasing,     6     (slow) the destruction of ozone.

    7     a hole over the Arctic is a rare event, the much larger hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic has been a major cause for concern for more than four decades. The production of ozone-destroying chemicals     8     (reduce) dramatically, under the 1987 Montreal Protocol (蒙特利尔协议) , but some sources appear still to be functioning.

New sources of ozone-destroying chemicals were not a factor in the hole     9     (observe) in the Arctic, said Peuch. “However, this is a reminder that one should not take the Montreal Protocol measures for granted, and that observations from the ground and from satellites are central to avoiding a situation     10     the ozone-destroying chemical level in the stratosphere could increase again.”