1 . On one October morning in 2021, Mark A. Michaels was observing a tree in a forest when he spotted a bird flying below the branches about 50 yards away. Based on the bird’s size and long neck, Michaels first assumed he was looking at a duck. But then he noticed it occasionally folding its wings during flight, something he says that ducks don’t do — but woodpeckers do. “Ivory-bill!” he recalls shouting, now certain that the bird was an ivory-billed woodpecker (象牙喙啄木鸟), a species that hasn’t been identified in the wild since 1944.

Despite his certainty, not everyone agrees this woodpecker remains in the wild. In September 2021, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) claimed that the ivory-billed woodpecker, along with 22 other species, is extinct. However, the data supporting the idea are debated. Debatable evidence presented at a meeting in January 2022 convinced USFWS that disagreement among scientists as to the ivory-billed woodpecker’s existence was considerable enough. As a result, on July 6, the agency issued a pause of extinction.

The ongoing case highlights some of the challenges researchers face in determining whether a species has actually gone extinct. According to guidelines issued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an organization that tracks species’ protection statuses, a species is extinct when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died. “But researchers typically don’t know when or if that last death has occurred,” says H. Resit Akcakaya, an ecologist at Stony Brook University.

Moreover, there are costs to making the wrong call about a species’ existence in the wild, he adds. Continuing to regard an actually extinct species as endangered can lead to undervalued extinction rates, and confuse the bigger protection picture, as well as misdirect financial resources away from protecting endangered species to searching for ones that no longer exist. On the other hand, declaring something extinct when it really isn’t can lead to further harm on a struggling species.

1. What convinced Mark that the bird was an ivory-billed woodpecker?

A．Its unique way of flight.	B．Its special living conditions.
C．Its similar appearance to ducks.	D．Its disappearance from the wild.

2. Why did the USFWS issue a pause of extinction?

A．USFWS is heatedly debating with the public.

B．The ivory-billed woodpecker has a high status

C．Mark is certain about his discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker.

D．Disagreement about the ivory-billed woodpecker’s existence is huge.

3. Which of the following may H. Resit Akcakaya agree with?

A．IUCN’s guidelines are practical and reasonable.

B．Researchers should track species’ conservation statuses.

C．The last death of an ivory-billed woodpecker has occurred.

D．It’s difficult to determine whether a species is extinct or not.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Determining a species’s existence will cost lots of money.

B．Numerous pictures of endangered species have been taken

C．Determining a species’s existence without mistakes is important.

D．Financial resources are removed from protecting endangered species.

2 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

As arranged by the Chinese and US sides, Female giant panda Ya Ya, having lived in the United States for two decades,     1     (return) to China on the afternoon of April 27, 2023.

Ya Ya was born at the Beijing Zoo on Aug. 3, 2000. She arrived at the Memphis Zoo in April 2003, along with giant panda Le Le as envoys (使者) of friendship. The Memphis Zoo announced in December 2022 that it would return Ya Ya to China,     2     (conclude) 20 years of cooperative research.

In February, a Chinese expert group arrived at the Memphis Zoo to check Ya Ya’s health. A veterinarian and a keeper from the Beijing Zoo reached the Memphis Zoo and worked with the experts from the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens,     3     had arrived earlier, to get familiar     4     the living habits and feeding conditions of Ya Ya. They also worked along with staff on the US side for Ya Ya’s breeding, nursing, and health assessment and made further preparations for her return     5     (ensure) a safe and sound trip.

“To better breed Ya Ya, we learned some     6     (gesture) and commands for behavior training from US keepers at Memphis,” said the Beijing Zoo keeper     7     (send) to Memphis.

Special care     8     (need) for an aging panda, and zoo staff take detailed notes on Ya Ya’s diet and     9     (careful) look at her mouth, back, and hands daily. Ya Ya is funny and likes to be close with people. She is so smart and     10     (adapt), and we believe she will quickly adapt to the new living environment.

3 . 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。

A passenger plane made a 360 fly-by mid flight so that travelers could see the aurora borealis(北极光), also known     1    the northern lights, on their journey.

Pictures taken from flight EZY 1806 from Reykjavik in Iceland to Manchester in England on Monday show    2    moment passengers were amazed by the dancing lights.    3     (share) on Twitter by Adam Groves, who was on the flight with his fiancée after their trip to the Icelandic capital, the pictures    4    (view) more than 391, 000 times up to now.

“We were sitting on the right aisle of the plane and the lights were out of the left window, Groves explained.   “After two to three minutes of everyone on the left snapping away(抓拍), the pilot said he’d be doing an     5    (planned) 360 mid-flight so everyone on the right can also see the impressive lights.”

Auroras occur    6    (natural)in the sky when the sun    7    (launch) charged particles(带电粒子) toward the Earth through space. As they reach Earth’s atmosphere, the planet’s magnetic field guides them toward the poles     8    they interact with atoms. The famed dancing colors are created by a    9    (mix) of gasses in the atmosphere, green created by oxygen and purples, pinks and blues by nitrogen.

For those    10    (hope) to catch a glimpse of the aurora for themselves, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center has an aurora dashboard that tells people when and where to look for northern and southern lights.

4 . Dr. David Hetherington has spent over a decade looking at the feasibility (可行性) of reintroducing the Eurasian lynx (欧洲猞猁) to Scotland. In his new book, The Lynx and Us, Hetherington takes an in-depth look at the many issues surrounding this topic.

Hetherington begins there introduction discussion by establishing the history and ecology of the lynx, in relation to both human-lynx coexistence and geographical variations in distribution. Habitat and range requirements, prey (猎物) preferences and hunting methods are also detailed.

Armed with this background information, the reader is then taken through the nitty-gritty of lynx reintroduction by addressing the potential issues, many of which are based on human-wildlife conflict, such as safety and the impact of wild lynx, with much of the information backed up by conservation and research findings associated with the reintroductions of lynx in Europe. Hetherington addresses the significant problem of man-made barriers such as roads and rails. There are also considerations regarding prey species that are unused to having natural predators (捕食者) in their midst and the impact on prey populations.

The book looks at the feasibility of lynx reintroduction in the UK. While the reintroduction of lynx to Scotland is shown to be ecologically feasible, how desirable is it? Hetherington addresses each of the issues in-turn, using the significant knowledgebase that now exists regarding lynx ecology and the findings of research into lynx and their reintroductions elsewhere.

For anyone with an interest in lynx re wilding, The Lynx and Us is the “go-to” book.

Peter Cairns, director of there wilding charity SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, the book’s publisher, says, “With a growing national discussion about the advantages of restoring missing native species, it’s important that we all have access to balanced, factual information on which to base our opinions. That’s what this book sets out to provide.”

1. Which background information is absent from The Lynx and Us?

A．What lynx eat.	B．How lynx live.
C．How lynx and people coexist.	D．What lynx reintroduction will lead to.

2. Which of the following can best replace the underlined part “the nitty-gritty” in paragraph 3?

A．The most basic causes.	B．The most useful functions.
C．The most important details.	D．The most common methods.

3. What does Peter Cairns want to stress?

A．The popularity of The Lynx and Us.

B．The importance of The Lynx and Us.

C．The different ways of voicing our opinions.

D．The advantages of restoring missing native species.

4. What is the text?

A．A book review.	B．A research report.
C．A description of lynx.	D．An introduction to a scientist.

5 . In a paper published recently in the journal Seabird, a RSPB team documented the training, testing and performance of scent dogs(嗅觉犬) .

Scent dogs have regularly been used for conservation for decades. They are particularly effective at detecting birds that breed (繁殖) in holes and are only active aboveground at night.

Many seabirds show these same characteristics and some, including European storm petrels (海燕), are well-known for their strong scent. However, using scent dogs to detect seabirds has not been common practice in the UK.

The storm petrel is the UK’s smallest seabird. They spend most of their time at sea, only coming to land to breed in summer. They come ashore under the cover of darkness and nest underground in holes. Manx shearwaters (大西洋鹱) are similarly ocean-loving, breeding on land in the UK before going to the South American coast for winter.

These two species are threatened in the UK. However, surveying them is difficult due to their behaviours. The RSPB researchers tried to detect them by using their dogs.

Dog A, called Islay, was trained to locate and indicate storm petrel feathers. Dog B, called Dewi, is used to detect Manx shearwater holes. Dewi had learnt to distinguish between occupied and unoccupied holes and lie down to indicate occupied holes.

The study found that, with sufficient training and reward, Islay could find the precise location of the storm petrel and differentiate between storm petrel and shearwaters cents with 100% reliability. However, care was needed to ensure no combination of scents occurred. Similarly, Dewi had a high success rate in finding shearwater nest holes, although he was less successful at locating deep holes, probably because there was less shearwaters cent at the entrance.

Mark Bolton, RSPB principal conservation scientist and lead author of the paper, says, “The recent use of scent dogs to locate the nest holes of storm petrels on the, Isle of May is further evidence of the potential of scent dogs for seabird monitoring and I hope that this study will encourage more conservation practitioners to use scent dogs in their work.”

1. What do we know about the storm petrel?

A．It is the smallest bird in the world.

B．It returns to land during the winter.

C．It breeds on the South American coast.

D．It is active at night and has a strong scent.

2. What could Islay do according to the study?

A．Distinguish the combination of scents.

B．Find the precise location of a small seabird.

C．Tell storm petrel and shearwaters cents apart.

D．Confirm the entrance to a shearwater nest hole.

3. What does Mark Bolton think of their study?

A．It is significant for the Isle of May.

B．It aids seabird monitoring and conservation.

C．It improves the detection capacities of dogs.

D．It delivers ground-breaking insights into seabirds.

4. What would be the best title for the text?

A．Scent dogs helping detect seabirds in holes

B．Scent dogs serving to find nests for seabirds

C．Scent dogs first used for guarding endangered animals

D．Scent dogs revealing scents of several kinds of seabirds

6 . Does your dog love to bury himself under your covers to sleep? Many dogs do. It is fun to think about why they might do this seemingly very human thing.     1    

Animals depend on resources.     2     Your bed is a den (窝) to your dog. Since the bed is a place where he often goes, it is part of his life. Being there makes him feel safe and happy.

When your dog is under the sheets, he feels surrounded. Feeling firm pressure can calm down anxious dogs. Some kinds of dogs even like to dig holes to relax. The pressure of the sheets probably makes his brain produce happy chemicals that give him a sense of safety and maybe even fun.

    3     This feeling is what he likes. He knows he is safe when you are there. You are a faithful friend and family member. You have marked the area as a safe zone. You spend a lot of time there.     4     Being near you when you sleep is very natural to your dog.

Dogs know that their choice of sleeping places is of great importance.     5     And the sheets give them a sense of security. Most of all, your dogs want to be under the sheets because that is where you are and the safest place is always with your family.

A．Actually, they are not afraid of danger.

B．Resources are things like food, water, and shelter.

C．In the same way, your family love you as well.

D．Their den is one of their most valuable resources.

E．Your presence also gives your dog a feeling of support.

F．As family members, you share responsibility to protect each other.

G．If you think about the way a dog sees life, it’s easy to imagine why he does so.

7 . On Wednesday, a search team called Endurance22 announced that it had located the wreck (沉船) Endurance. The Endurance was found 1. 87 miles below the ocean’s surface, about four miles south of its last known location.

Over a hundred years after it sank near Antarctica, the ship has been found. The ship sank after it got trapped in the ice in the Weddell Sea in 1915.

The discovered ship is still in excellent shape. The name can be clearly read on the back of the ship. Its wheel looks ready to be turned. Even though the ship is made of wood and is over 100 years old, it has survived with little damage. Scientists say that the small organisms (微生物) that normally break down wooden objects underwater don’t live in cold water around Antarctica.

The Endurance22 is led by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust. The team ran the project from an ice-breaking ship which was able to handle the difficult conditions of the Weddell Sea. To locate the Endurance, the team used two underwater robots called Sabertooths.

For the last two weeks, the Sabertooths robots have been scanning the seafloor in a 150-square mile area around the Endurance’s last known location. The Sabertooths were especially useful, since they could travel under the ice and go where the ship could not.

The robots were looking for anything sticking up above the seafloor. Last Saturday, the ship was found. After the ship was located, the Sabertooths used high-quality cameras and scanners to record the Endurance in detail.

The Endurance is expected to remain untouched. Antarctica’s waters are protected by an international agreement, which means the ship can’t be disturbed. The Endurance22 team plans to create a digital 3D model of the wreck site, using a careful scan they made. This will allow scientists to study the ship in detail without disturbing it.

1. What helped to keep the Endurance in good shape?

A．Special wood.

B．Sea sand.

C．Fine weather.

D．Cold water.

2. How did the robots locate the Endurance?

A．By searching the seafloor.	B．By breaking ice for researchers.
C．By picking up signals from the ship.	D．By diving undersea with scientists.

3. What plays the most important role in finding the Endurance?

A．Patience.

B．Weather.

C．Technology.

D．Luck.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Study the Endurance.	B．Explore the Weddell Sea.
C．Locate the Endurance.	D．Scan the seafloor.

8 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. Where is the man doing a project about the environment?

A．At a library.

B．At school

C．At a lab.

2. Why is the man talking to the woman?

A．To get information about a project.

B．To know about her job.

C．To do research on greenhouse effect.

3. What will the man do next?

A．Solve the woman’s problem.

B．Move some books.

C．Do some reading.

9 . When fireworks are lit in celebration of the New Year, wild birds often experience lasting harmful effects. An international team of researchers tracked Arctic migratory(迁移的) geese as they traveled in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands over eight New Year periods to study the impacts of fireworks. Data from 347 geese showed that birds suddenly leave where they are sleeping on New Year’s Eve and fly farther away from where people are.

Geese’ lives were disturbed by the noise and flashes and these geese ended up resting two hours less and sometimes flying nonstop as far as 310 miles compared to the nights when there were no fireworks.

Geese spend their winter in Western Europe to escape extreme Arctic winters in their breeding grounds. Still, winters here are maybe not severely cold, but rather dark. As predators(食肉动物) are around in the dark, geese can only search for food in the light hours. During the night, they usually settle on small lakes to save energy and rest in relative safety. During New Year’s Eve, geese are heavily scared, as the fireworks sounds and flashing lights are unexpected to them and they view them as a threat to their life.

But their changed behavior didn’t end with the fireworks. The geese didn’t return to their original sleeping locations and spent more time searching for food to store energy for days after the celebrations ended.

The researchers hope that the findings will be used to improve fireworks management. They want to provide decision makers with real numbers to support their discussions. As already stated above, they suggest that some measures should be taken for geese to escape fireworks’ disturbance during New Year’s Eve—nationwide regulations regarding nature reserve areas and some centralization of fireworks displays, as well as lighting public fireworks in urban areas away from where the geese live.

1. What may the author think of the situation of geese during the New Year?

A．Worrying.	B．Promising.
C．Touching.	D．Amusing.

2. What can we know about geese from paragraph 3?

A．They enjoy flying in the dark.

B．They spend the winter in the Arctic.

C．They are terrified of fireworks.

D．They usually search for food at night.

3. What is the researchers’ advice on protecting geese?

A．Setting up goose parks in the city.

B．Banning fireworks during New Year’s Eve.

C．Persuading people into buying silent fireworks.

D．Setting off fireworks far from geese’ habitats.

4. In which section can this text be found in a newspaper?

A．Travel.

B．Nature.

C．Culture.

D．Education.

10 . Ben raced out of school. He jumped over piles of snow on the road and ________ down a toboggan (雪橇) run in the park. Looking ________ the mountain he saw something moving. Could it be a horse?

At dinner Ben said firmly, “I saw horses on the mountain today.” “Then they must be ________ by all this snow,” his father said. “We have to do something.” Ben said ________. But how could they get horses down through the deep snow? The family had a ________ meeting. Someone suggested using a helicopter to lift horses out. But they’d probably break their legs when ________. Finally Ben said “We’ll just have to dig a tunnel.” “Then we need a lot of people shoveling (用铁锹铲).” Dad said. Ben could ________ he was warming to the idea.

“We’ll find some!” said Ben. He ________ his coat and boots.

Ben went from door to door asking everyone to come and help. Then the family took the snowmobile up the mountain. On the remote mountain path was ________ and deep snow. At last they reached the ________ where the horses stood. The two horses looked pretty bad. Ben ________ them a sugar cube from his pocket. They started shoveling, ________ temperatures reaching -40°F. Ben’s fingers were frozen, and his nose felt numb. Suddenly, a group of snowmobilers with shovels and hot chocolate followed Ben and his father’s ________ up the mountain. For the next week, people came and shoveled every day, and a deep, narrow path very slowly ________ down the mountain. The abandoned horses were ________.

1.

A．walked

B．travelled

C．slid

D．wandered

2.

A．into

B．up

C．across

D．over

3.

A．panicked

B．delayed

C．surrounded

D．trapped

4.

A．directly

B．frankly

C．urgently

D．patiently

5.

A．dull

B．special

C．planned

D．hurried

6.

A．crashing

B．landing

C．climbing

D．skipping

7.

A．declare

B．guarantee

C．convince

D．see

8.

A．grabbed

B．removed

C．wrapped

D．examined

9.

A．artificial

B．little

C．fresh

D．permanent

10.

A．habitat

B．platform

C．ending

D．clearing

11.

A．recovered

B．fed

C．rewarded

D．fuelled

12.

A．braving

B．predicting

C．estimating

D．measuring

13.

A．tips

B．tracks

C．signals

D．strategies

14.

A．worked its way

B．set up

C．set off

D．pushed its way

15.

A．refreshed

B．abused

C．freed

D．cured