1 . Las Vegas city in Nevada is built in a desert. The city may be known to the world for its partying. But officials have found that there are 21 square kilometers of useless grass. The grass is never laid on, played on or even stepped on. The grass is only there to look nice.
Now, the city is asking the Nevada state legislature (立法机构) to ban useless grass. It is trying to become the first place in America to ban that kind of grass often seen between streets, in housing developments and in office parks.
Useless grass nearly makes up 40% of all the grass in Las Vegas and it needs lots of water to survive. Grass needs four times more water than dry climate plants. By tearing out the grass, the city could reduce yearly water usage by 15%.
In 2003, the Southern Nevada Water Authority banned developers from planting grass in front of new homes. It also offered homeowners $30 for each square meter of grass they tear out. But fewer people are now using the program. Water usage has increased here by 9% since 2019. And last year, Las Vegas set a record of 240 days without major rainfall. The Colorado River provides much of Nevada’s drinking water. The river could lose more water as climate change affects it.
Water officials in other dry cities said water usage needs to be reduced. But they fear the reaction to reforms like the ones in Las Vegas if their communities do not accept them. Cynthia Campbell is the water resources adviser for the city of Phoenix in Arizona. “The city restrictions (限制) may get too hard for some residents (居民). They’ll say that is the point of no return for them,” Campbell said. “For some people, it’s a pool. For some people, it’s grass.”
1. Why does Las Vegas city try to ban useless grass?| A．To protect the local people. | B．To beautify the city. |
| C．To reduce water usage. | D．To reduce waste. |
| A．Allowing planting grass before new houses. |
| B．Awarding those who reduced water usage. |
| C．Praising those who signed on the program. |
| D．Encouraging the residents to tear out grass. |
| A．Many residents won’t follow the ban. |
| B．Reaction to the reform will vary personally. |
| C．Water officials should consider many factors. |
| D．Other measures should be taken to protect water. |
| A．Las Vegas Plans to Ban Useless Grass |
| B．A Method Is Adopted to Save Las Vegas |
| C．Choices between Beauty and Practice |
| D．Grass Is Important but Useless in Las Vegas |
2 . Most people agree that honesty is a good thing. But does Mother Nature agree? Animals can’t talk, but can they lie in other ways? Can they lie with their bodies and behavior? Animal experts may not call it lying, but they do agree that many animals, from birds to chimpanzees (大猩猩), behave dishonestly to fool other animals. Why? Dishonesty often helps them survive.
Many kinds of birds are successful at fooling other animals. For example, a bird called the plover sometimes pretends to be hurt in order to protect its young. When a predator (掠食动物) gets close to its nest, the plover leads the predator away from the nest. How? It pretends to have a broken wing. The predator follows the “hurt” adult, leaving the baby birds safe in the nest.
Birds called cuckoos (布谷鸟) have found a way to have babies without doing much work. How? They don’t make nests. Instead, they get into other birds’ nests secretly. Then they lay their eggs and fly away. When the baby birds come out, their adoptive parents feed them.
Chimpanzees, or chimps, can also be sneaky. After a fight, the losing chimp will put out its hand to the other chimp. When the winning chimp puts out its hand, too, the chimps are friendly again. But an animal expert once saw a losing chimp take the winner’s hand and start fighting again.
Chimps are sneaky in other ways, too. When chimps find food that they love, such as bananas, it is natural for them to cry out. Then others chimps come running. But some clever chimps learn to cry very softly when they find food. That way, other chimps don’t hear them, and they don’t need to share their food.
As children, many of us learn the saying “You can’t fool Mother Nature.” But maybe you can’t trust her, either.
1. A plover protects its young from a predator by ________.| A．getting closer to its young |
| B．driving away the adult predator |
| C．leaving its young in another nest |
| D．pretending to be injured |
| A．Chimps are ready to attack others. |
| B．Chimps are sometimes dishonest. |
| C．Chimps are jealous of the winners. |
| D．Chimps can be selfish too. |
| A．Some chimps lower their cries to keep food away from others. |
| B．The losing chimp won the fight by taking the winner’s hand. |
| C．Cuckoos fool their adoptive parents by making no nests. |
| D．Some cuckoos often steal other birds’ newborns. |
| A．Do Animals Lie? |
| B．Does Mother Nature Fool Animals? |
| C．How Do Animals Learn to Lie? |
| D．How Does Honesty Help Animals Survive? |
In Rome there was once a poor slave whose name was Androclus. His master was a cruel man, and so unkind to him that Androclus ran away. He hid himself in a wild wood for many days; but there was no food to be found, and he grew so weak and sick that he thought he would die. So one day he climbed into a cave and lay down to wait for death, and soon he was fast asleep.
After a while, a great noise woke him up. A lion had come into the cave, and was roaring loudly. Androclus was very afraid, for he felt sure that the beast would kill him. Soon, however, he saw the lion was not angry, but that his foot were hurt.
Then Androclus grew so courageous that he started to examine the lion’s paw to see what was the matter. The lion stood quite still, and rubbed his head against the man’s shoulder. He seemed to say, “I know that you will help me.”
Androclus lifted the paw from the ground, and saw that it was a long, sharp thorn that hurt the lion so much. He took the end of the thorn between his fingers; then he gave a strong, quick pull, and out it came. The lion was full of joy. He jumped about like a dog, and licked the hands and feet of his new friend.
The two became such good friends that Androclus found his new life a very happy one. One day some soldiers found Androclus in the cave and took him back to Rome. It was the law at that time that every slave who ran away from his master should fight a hungry lion. For each of these occasions, a fierce lion was locked up for a while without food, and a time was set for the fight.
Paragraph 1When the day came, thousands of people crowded in to see the fight.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2
The people, who had expected to see the man killed by the lion, were filled with wonder.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . The Internet’s carbon footprint is as bad as air travel. While it is difficult to measure precisely, estimates place it at over two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions(排放)—the same as the air travel.
Information may appear to spread around the world unseen to our eyes, but it actually passes through enormous data centers placed strategically about the globe, which store, organize and deliver everyone’s data. These centers are extremely energy intensive. In the EU, they consume close to three percent of its total energy usage and also require lots of water to prevent their computers from overheating. In the US, about a fifth of data centers draw water from already stressed water sources.
A typical spam email(垃圾邮件)emits around 0.03g of CO2 emissions, though longer messages read on a laptop can go all the way up to 26g. Now multiply that by 333 billion(roughly the number of emails that get sent every day in 2022). That puts all those work emails into perspective. One study found if every British adult sent one less “thank you” email a day, it would save 16, 433 tons of carbon a year. It even predicted that the ICT industry could account for up to a fifth of the world’s energy consumption by 2025.
However, there are measures that we can take to reduce our digital carbon footprint. For instance, you can unsubscribe from marketing and other spam emails and only subscribe to newsletters that you still regularly read. Have regular data checks where you delete old contact lists and other documents that no longer have any use. Keep a clean inbox and delete emails you no longer need.
1. Why does the author make a comparison in the beginning?| A．To present the digital carbon footprint. |
| B．To emphasize the importance of air travel. |
| C．To advise people not to travel by airplane. |
| D．To inform the disadvantages of the Internet. |
| A．It enjoys a wide popularity. |
| B．It has various kinds of functions. |
| C．It causes large energy consumption. |
| D．It has quite a complex mode of operation. |
| A．To draw the readers’ attention. |
| B．To illustrate a certain information. |
| C．To highlight the change of CO2 emission. |
| D．To stress the importance of reducing CO2 emission. |
| A．Neutral. | B．Optimistic. |
| C．Unfavorable. | D．Concerned. |
5 . No matter how many times Sandy has rescued an animal, she never gets over the casual cruelty some people display toward unwanted pets. When she lost her own “angel” dog, she started Logan’s Legacy to help other pets in need.
Sandy recently received a phone call about a small dog, possibly a puppy, that had been abandoned on a street. Since she was too far to help on, she called a friend who lives nearby to get there as soon as possible. When her friend Tom arrived, he found a tiny dog curled(蜷缩)in a tight ball with the chain firmly tied to a tree. Someone had left food and water for her, but the puppy was too frightened to eat or drink. Once gathered up in a blanket and placed into the back seat of the car, she began to get weak quickly from dehydration(脱水)and exhaustion.
The moment she got some water and food, the puppy made a rapid recovery, and her lovely and sweet personality could finally shine! “We have named her CiCi,” Sandy added, “She is feeling so much better. She has been observed at my place and she is doing great. This sweet baby girl will never feel fearful again, and won’t ever be abandoned again.” After winning hearts at Sandy’s office, CiCi has been approved for adopting and will soon leave for her new life. Sandy and her fellow rescuers are trying their best to find her the perfect family to love her and treat her with the respect all living creatures deserve!
1. What did Sandy feel it hard to overcome?| A．The casual humanity. | B．The cruelty of humanity. |
| C．The kind human nature. | D．The weakness of kindness. |
| A．She suffered a serious illness. |
| B．She had nothing to eat or drink. |
| C．She got lost far away from home. |
| D．She was scared and in poor health. |
| A．She will stop taking medicine. |
| B．She will continue further treatment. |
| C．She will have a perfect match for home. |
| D．She will get on well with Sandy forever. |
| A．A Warm Home for CiCi |
| B．Dog Saved Heart Fulfilled |
| C．A Terrible Experience of CiCi |
| D．Saving Dogs Saving Themselves |
6 . A petting zoo is also called a children’s zoo. It is a place with domesticated (家养的) animals and some wild species.
Petting zoos have a long history. In addition to independent petting zoos, many general zoos have a petting zoo. In 1938, the London Zoo included the first children’s zoo in Europe and the Philadelphia Zoo was the first in North America to open a special zoo just for children.
Some petting zoos are also mobile (流动的) and will travel to a home for a child’s party or event. One of the first mobile petting zoos in Australia was Kindifarm. Because of its popularity, many Australians use the term “kindy farms” to describe petting zoos. In Australia, mobile petting zoos are allowed in schools and child care centers.
Petting zoos are popular with small children, who like feeding the animals. Food is supplied by the zoo.
| A．Not all animals are friendly. |
| B．It may help improve animals’ health. |
| C．After all, some foods don’t suit animals. |
| D．Visitors can feed them and even touch some of them. |
| E．People should protect themselves from the health effects of petting zoos. |
| F．For many children, these petting zoos give them the first chance to see and touch animals. |
| G．During the 1990s, Dutch cities began building petting zoos in many neighborhoods. |
7 . Sea life near Turkey is being harmed by a layer of brown foam (泡沫) on the ocean’s surface. The foam, which many people are calling “sea snot”, is natural, but it’s caused by pollution and global warming.
The actual name for the foam is mucilage (粘液). Scientists first noticed and described mucilage in 2007, when it was found near Turkey. Then, it was also found in other parts of the Aegean Sea, near Greece. Mucilage covers the ocean’s surface with a thick, slimy layer that gives it the nickname of sea snot.
This year’s appearance of mucilage is the worst ever recorded. It’s been developing for seven months and is now covering large parts of the Sea of Marmara. The Sea of Marmara is an inland sea, surrounded by land belonging to Turkey, and connected to the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea.
There are many different kinds of algae (海藻), and it’s natural and normal for algae to grow in the ocean or in other bodies of water. But when there is lots of food for the algae, and other conditions are just right, algae would boom, which results in algae growing quickly and in huge numbers. And in very bad situations, mucilage is the result.
There are two main causes of the present appearance of mucilage. One is the heavy pollution — waste water and chemicals — flowing into the Sea of Marmara. The second cause is higher water temperatures because of climate change.
By covering the ocean’s surface, mucilage stops sunlight from reaching all the sea life below. “This mucilage is now covering the sea surface like a tent,” says Muharrem Balci, who teaches biology at Istanbul University. Because there is so much algae, it takes up lots of oxygen from the seawater. That means that there’s very little oxygen left for the other sea life that depends on it. The BBC reports that divers in the area are seeing large numbers of dying fish. After a while, the mucilage falls to the bottom of the ocean, where it covers the sea floor, poisoning sea life that lives there. The mucilage has already been found as deep as 30 meters below the surface.
Mahsum Daga, a local fisherman, told the reporter, “Do you know what it does to shellfish? When they open up, it prevents them from closing up again because it gets in the way. All the seasnails here are dead.”
1. What do we know about mucilage?| A．It generally doesn’t last long. | B．It was first noticed near Turkey. |
| C．It is the result of algae poisoning. | D．It is mainly formed in inland seas. |
| A．Shoot up. | B．Stand out. | C．Break down. | D．Take off. |
| A．The reason for the formation of mucilage is difficult to explain. |
| B．Mucilage is doing much more harm than good. |
| C．The present situation of mucilage needs attention. |
| D．Mucilage puts sea life in danger in different ways. |
| A．Sea life in Turkey is in great danger of extinction. |
| B．A new kind of poisonous algae is found in Turkey. |
| C．Turkey’s coastal waters are covered with mucilage. |
| D．Mucilage is likely to cause great damage to Turkey. |
8 . Dairy (奶品场) packaging has been changing a lot for so many years. Now, businesses are using technology to create more sustainable (可持续的) packaging options along the whole supply chain.
Ian Olmstead, program manager at Dairy Australia, says, “We’re trying to make sure the plastics we use are designed in a way that allows them to be recycled. Then we have partnerships in place that support the processes for recycling, and seek to increase the food-grade recycled content that can be used again in dairy packaging.”
Brownes Dairy — Australia’s oldest dairy has worked with Tetra Pak to make its next change. Brownes’ senior marketing manager, Nicole Ohm, says it has been important to create a product that not only is recyclable, but starts life in a sustainable way, too. “The start of life is just as important as the end of life,” she says. “Being able to make an effective change at the start of life just makes for a greener result.”
Milk packaging is made of three covers. Recyclable cardboard sits in the middle, with polyethylene (聚乙烯) plastic on both sides acting as a protection. Historically, these outer covers have been made from plastic, but Brownes’ new packaging will use a renewable resource: sugarcane, a kind of plant. “The plant-based protections behave in the same way,” Ohm says, “and so does the recyclability.” “Being Australia’s oldest dairy carries a level of responsibility,” Ohm says. “Even though we are very old, we are not at all traditional—we are very advanced.”
When it comes to plastic packaging, the dairy industry faces many challenges. Recyclable material must be food safe, for example. And one plastic milk bottle might contain a number of different plastics, from the bottle itself to its cover. Even the glue on the label becomes part of the recycling challenge that needs to be got over.
Dr Stephanus Peters is a managing partner at PEGRAS, a global technical solutions consulting company. Peters explains the problem PEGRAS has been asked to solve: make it easier to take away non-recyclable parts from milk bottles to avoid pollution. “You always have a little bit of glue left,” he says. “We have to take away the glue before the bottle can be recycled. If successful, this advance could be used in every industry.”
1. What change does Nicole Ohm expect to happen in dairy packaging?| A．It will be of excellent quality. | B．It will help keep the milk fresh. |
| C．It will reduce the cost of products. | D．It will be environmentally friendly. |
| A．It has more covers. | B．It is much more protective. |
| C．It uses plant-based materials. | D．It has a renewable middle cover. |
| A．The recycling may require a lot of steps. | B．The recycling may cause more pollution. |
| C．The recycling may take a mass of money. | D．The recycling may impact on food safety. |
| A．Set up a plastic-free dairy business. | B．Make its company a sustainable one. |
| C．Rid packaging of non-recyclable parts. | D．Come up with a type of recyclable glue. |
9 . Almost all new parents struggle to get enough sleep while caring for their newborns. For some penguin parents, though, periods of sleep are especially short.
Researchers recently found that Chinstrap penguins only sleep for about four seconds at a time in order to protect their eggs and newborn chicks. They do this thousands of times throughout the day.
The short “microsleeps” total around 11 hours each day. The microsleeps appear to be enough to keep the parents going for many weeks.
Niels Rattenborg is a sleep researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Germany. He helped write the new study. He said these penguins blink “their eyes open and shut, and they do it 24/7 for several weeks at a time. What’s surprising is that they’re able to function okay and successfully raise their young”.
Chinstrap penguins usually lay their eggs in November in nests made up of small rocks. As with many other kinds of penguins, mated pairs share parenting responsibilities. One parent usually watches the eggs and chicks alone while the other goes off fishing for family meals.
Adult penguins do not face many natural enemies in the mating season. But large birds called brown skuas eat the penguin eggs and small chicks. Other adult penguins may also try to steal the small rocks from nests. So, penguin parents must always be on guard.
For the first time, scientists followed the sleeping behavior of Chinstrap penguins in an Antarctic mating colony. They did this by attaching devices that measure brain waves. They collected data on 14 adults over 11 days on King George Island off the coast of Antarctica.
Won Young Lee is a biologist at the Korean Polar Research Institute. He thought of the idea for the study when he saw mating penguins often blinking their eyes and possibly sleeping during his long days of field observations. But the team needed to record brain waves to confirm the animals were sleeping.
“For these penguins, microsleeps have some restorative functions,” he said. He added that they would not survive without it.
The researchers did not collect sleep data outside the mating season. But they suspect that the penguins may sleep for longer periods at other times of the year.
1. What’s the main idea of the passage?| A．Penguins keep awake for weeks when having chicks. |
| B．Penguins must have at least 11 hours’ sleep every day. |
| C．Penguins don’t have enough sleep because of antarctic climate. |
| D．Penguins can only sleep very short for the sake of their chicks’ safety. |
| A．They keep their eyes open when they are sleeping. |
| B．The short but repetitive sleep habit of theirs works well. |
| C．It does no harm to them when they keep awake for weeks. |
| D．They can function well even if they don’t have enough sleep. |
| A．They paired, compared and collected. | B．They followed, observed and recorded. |
| C．They attached device, filmed and analyzed. | D．They read, researched and concluded. |
| A．They didn’t follow them all the year round. |
| B．Their study didn’t include other species of penguins. |
| C．The number of the penguins they studied was not big enough. |
| D．Their equipment was not advanced and their data was not accurate. |
10 . Health officials in Canada are very busy these days. They are placing chickens at fixed points all along their border with the United States of America. That’s an enormous distance of 2,500 km.
It’s not a practical joke, nor have the Canadians gone mad. They are using these chickens to see if the deadly West Nile virus is lurking around. The virus infects birds, so they think that the chickens have a good chance of catching the virus. Or the virus will catch the chickens.
Countries around the world are realizing something important. That it may just be possible to stop certain kinds of people from entering their land, but it is very difficult to try and stop viruses that travel from one end of the earth to another. When they travel to new places, they adjust very easily to those climates and sometimes start destroying the local plant and animal life. These biological polluters are called smart polluters.
These smart polluters can be carried across borders of countries unknowingly. Just as we humans are travelling across the globe more often than earlier, these biological polluters have also started journeying much more. They slide into aircraft through their wheels. They bore their way into objects that air travelers may be carrying from one country to another.
Suddenly, a lot of things become clearer. Like why the customs officials in many foreign countries prevent you from bringing in a small plant, or a decorative item made of wood that is in its natural form… They tell you that it’s in the rules.
They have these rules because they know that these varieties of plants that are special to specific places have the power to spread new diseases among native plants and animals. They are called biological polluters and they always create problems in places where they do not belong. They could be special varieties of plants, bugs or even animals.
1. Why did the author talk about what Canadian officials’ are doing?| A．To introduce a successful case | B．To arouse readers’ curiosity |
| C．To describe a phenomenon | D．To introduce the topic |
| A．Tiger mosquitoes from Asia are busy biting Americans. |
| B．Pandas from China are wining millions of American’s hearts. |
| C．The small lobsters from Mexico are taking over most of lakes in America. |
| D．Tree snakes from New Guinea are busy eating up bird varieties in the country of Guam. |
| A．A lot of profit can be made from introducing foreign species. |
| B．People want to add more species to their surroundings. |
| C．People nowadays travel overseas more frequently. |
| D．There are more domestic flights than before. |
| A．To convince | B．To warn | C．To inform | D．To entertain |
