1 . Regarded as the “loneliest tree in the world”, the Sitka spruce (云杉) on uninhabited Campbell Island lately has kept good company with a team of New Zealand researchers who believe it could help unlock secrets of climate changes.

The nine-meter-tall spruce holds the Guinness Record title for the “remotest tree” on the planet. It is the sole tree on the shrubby, windswept island, 700 kilometers south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean. It’s the only tree for 222km around; its nearest neighbor grows on the Auckland Islands.

Although classified as an invasive species, for radiocarbon science leader at GNS Science, Dr. Jocelyn Turnbull, the tree could be a valuable tool to understand what is happening with the uptake of CO₂ in the Southern Ocean. In order to measure CO₂ concentrations, taking samples of the atmosphere is the best method, and can be complemented with radiocarbon dating samples of deep water. But it comes with limitations. “You can’t collect air that was there 30 years ago, because it is not there anymore,” Turnbull said, “So we came up with this idea of using tree rings. Plants, when they grow, take CO₂ out of the air by photosynthesis (光合作用) and they use that to grow their structures and the carbon from the air ends up in the tree rings.”

This is helpful when there is an abundance of established trees, but those are a rarity in the Southern Ocean. Enter the Sitka Spruce - the south most tree, and the team could find it would offer up good data. “It’s grown a lot faster than anything else in that region and the rings are bigger and easier to separate out and get a record form.”

As for the tree’s lonely status: the description may be in the eye of the beholder. “To get to the tree you have to walk through elephant seals and sea lions, penguins and albatross,” Turnbull said. “The tree doesn’t look lonely …it looks quite content actually.”

1. What is special about the tree?

A．It measures nine meters wide.

B．It is the only tree on a vast land.

C．It grows on the Auckland Islands.

D．It owns the Guinness title for the “loneliest tree”.

2. What can we learn from Paragraph 3?

A．CO2 builds up in the tree rings.

B．The Sitka spruce is a native species.

C．Samples from water are usually inaccessible.

D．Photosynthesis stops the plants absorbing air.

3. What may Turnbull support?

A．The tree coexists with a variety of animals.

B．The tree grows well because of suitable climate.

C．It’s unwise to use tree rings as an indicator of CO2.

D．It’s possible to measure previous CO2 concentrations directly.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Trees are of great significance to scientific research.

B．The “loneliest” tree in the world is not lonely at all.

C．Global warming has a far-reaching impact on creatures.

D．A remote Sitka spruce may help us learn about climate changes.

2 . Theoretically some trees could live forever, according to a recent essay that reviews growing evidence on long-lived trees.

Across the board, trees do not die so much as they are killed, write the authors of the review essay. Their killers are outer factors rather than old age alone. That is, there is no evidence that harmful genetic mutations (基因突变) occur over time or that trees lose their ability to continue to grow.

“Trees might live forever, but this does not happen,” says co-author Franco Biondi. “Tree killers include environmental risks such as droughts , wildfires, terrible weather and human behaviors such as woodcutting and fires set to clear forests for hunting or grassland.”

Tree longevity (长寿) interests researchers in part because trees and other plants remove carbon from the atmosphere, and older trees are thought to store more carbon than younger ones. The rings of old trees can also serve as an invaluable record of climate history, with wider rings indicating better years.

David Stahle, a geographer and tree longevity researcher at the University of Arkansas, takes issue with the belief that trees can possibly live forever. “The likelihood, all things being equal, that trees can live forever seems unlikely to me,” he says.

This hypothesis (假设) has become popular in the past 20 years as researchers continue to report having found little genetic evidence of aging in extremely old trees. And this is one of the review essay’s most important points. But evidence of aging could be out there and just not yet found.

1. What does the recent review essay mainly indicate?

A．There are a great variety of tree killers.	B．Trees could keep on surviving forever.
C．More trees die naturally than being killed.	D．Genetic mutations stop trees from growing.

2. Why does tree longevity interest researchers?

A．Because the way trees grow rings is more interesting.

B．Because trees make clearer climate records than other plants.

C．Because older trees contribute more to the environment.

D．Because younger trees are less likely to have genetic mutations.

3. What is Stahle’s attitude to the finding of the review essay?

A．Doubtful.

B．Uninterested.

C．Reserved.

D．Favorable.

4. What does the last paragraph suggest?

A．The assumption has been proved true.	B．Evidence of aging trees might exist.
C．Tree research has grown in the past 20 years.	D．Some key points disappear in the review essay.

3 . Plant biologists have found a way that may enable poor farmers to do away with the need to purchase expensive hybrid seeds every year. Researchers at the University of California report that they have solved a long-standing problem of hybrid seeds by making exact clones of the hybrid plants from seeds.

For long, many crops have been grown from high-yielding, anti-disease or climate-tolerant hybrid seeds. But the seeds of hybrid crops do not produce plants with the same qualities during reproduction and hence farmers cannot save the seeds for the next growing season. They end up paying for new hybrid seeds each sowing season. The discovery, long sought by plant researchers, could make it easier to grow desirable high-yielding crops and make them available to the world’s farmers. Farmers could thus replant seeds from their own hybrid plants and enjoy the benefits of high production year after year, the scientists report.

While the discovery would help farmers, it would also impact the commercial interest of the hybrid seed industry. Siddiq, a former Deputy Director General in the Crop Science Division of the ICAR, said at first sight, this might seem like a setback for hybrid seed companies but there would be plenty of things they can still do. “Rice is grown over such a vast climatic and geographical range that specialized hybrids would have to be developed for each region,” he said. The companies, he said, would continue to improve their hybrids. “It will be interesting to see how all this plays out in the years to come.”

Currently, the high costs of producing hybrid seeds are a major barrier to farmers in developing countries, especially South Asia and Africa. Siddiq said if efficiently used, this method could potentially be a game-changer for poor farmers, who would need to purchase hybrid seeds just once and plant the progeny(后代) seeds from their own harvest in the following seasons.

1. What problem do the researchers aim to solve?

A．Farmers’ income.	B．Farmers’ costs.
C．Hybrid seeds’ cloning.	D．Hybrid seeds’ climate tolerance.

2. What is the disadvantage of the present hybrid seeds?

A．They have a pretty long growth cycle.

B．They tend to be affected by various diseases.

C．They have stricter requirements for sowing time.

D．They fail to reproduce plants with the same quality.

3. What’s Siddiq’s attitude to the commercial interests of the hybrid seed industry?

A．Hopeful.

B．Concerned.

C．Doubtful.

D．Anxious.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．The future of the hybrid seed industry.

B．The drawback of cloning hybrid seeds.

C．A method of cloning hybrid plants from their seeds.

D．A means of promoting the specialized hybrid seeds.

4 . Tree-planting, intended to help draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, has become a synonym (同义词) for climate action. In our constant focus on trees, we’ve developed a fixed understanding: Trees absorb carbon dioxide, end of story. The reality is that trees don’t grow well alone. They exist within complex communities, helped along by each other as well as the animals they coexist with. The woodland isn’t nature’s only carbon sink: Grasslands and oceans also help reduce the carbon level and rely on a healthy amount of biodiversity.

That’s what the paper, published in Nature, wants to get across. Co-author Oswald J. Schmitz, a professor of ecology at Yale University, said trees might not be able to do their carbon-uptake job efficiently without the right animals in their ecosystem. That’s because animals animate the carbon cycle through their behavior and roles in the ecosystem. He added that the very presence of wild animals could cause feedback effects that change the ecosystem’s capacity to absorb, release, or transport carbon.

In Serengeti, for instance, the sharp decline in wildebeest (角马) population s during the mid-20th century allowed grass to grow wildly, eventually promoting wildfires that consumed 80 percent of the ecosystem annually and led to a net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When disease management and bans on illegal hunting helped animal populations recover, a greater share of the carbon stored in plants was consumed by wildebeest and released as waste, keeping it in the system and restoring the grassland as a carbon sink.

Researchers rarely consider wildlife conservation as a strategy to increase an ecosystem’s carbon storage capacity, said Schmitz. “They think that animals either aren’t important enough or that you can’t take up carbon and conserve animals at the same time,” he said. “Our message is that you can and should. It can be a win-win for both biodiversity conservation and carbon uptake.” We need a full picture-with both trees and animals-to explore nature’s full potential.

1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．Actions are needed to reduce carbon dioxide.	B．Trees are a quick solution to the climate crisis.
C．People are not thinking through trees properly.	D．Grasslands and oceans help maintain biodiversity.

2. What does the underlined word “animate” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Activate.

B．Restart.

C．Disturb.

D．Break.

3. What does the author want to say by mentioning wildebeest?

A．The conservation of animals is still a serious issue.

B．Animals can swing the ecosystem’s capacity to store carbon.

C．Human impacts bring about the reduction in wildlife populations.

D．The increase in animal species causes a decrease in carbon uptake.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．Animals Adjust Themselves to Climate Change

B．Woodland Isn’t the Only Carbon Sink on the Earth

C．The Serengeti Ecosystem Needs Urgent Improvement

D．Trees May Fail to Fulfil Their Duties without Animals

5 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

Hawthorn (山楂) trees or bushes are a familiar sight in the UK, where they are often found     1    (plant) along the edges of fields or used as garden boundaries. In May, they produce     2    (bunch) of white flowers, followed by fresh red berries.

    3     its name suggests, the plant has large thorns (刺),     4    (make)it possible for self-protection. Both the flowers and the berries can be used     5    (medical) and are a traditional remedy (疗法) for heart conditions.

The use of hawthorn as a herbal medicine to protect the heart can be traced back for centuries. Its use     6     modern times dates from an Irish physician, who used it to treat heart diseases. This doctor guarded his secret remedy closely, and it was not until after his death that his remedy was examined     7    (find) how it worked. And it turned out to be an active ingredient made from the bright red berries of hawthorn.

Hawthorn is now a popular heart remedy throughout Europe. It can help to protect the blood system that feeds the heart. Hawthorn can also contribute to mild chest pains     8    (relieve). Some specialists suggest it may also     9    (apply) to reduce the extra fat in the blood system.

Hawthorn is regarded as one of the     10    (safe) herbal medicines and although side-effects such as sweating and tiredness have been reported, they are extremely rare.

6 . Seagrass meadows(海草床) are wonder plants growing beneath the sea. They feed and shelter sea life and are masterful at storing carbon. Thanks to the assistance of tiger sharks, a huge seagrass meadow in the Bahamas Banks was recently discovered, offering the world a tool to fight climate change.

Seagrass has usually been detected by Earth-orbiting satellites that identify darker patches in the blue water. In this study, tiger sharks were selected as research tools due to their highly consistent associations with seagrass ecosystems. They spend 70% of their time in seagrass meadows. The team equipped eight tiger sharks with satellite tags (电子跟踪器), seven sharks with camera tags, and used a 360-degree camera on a shark for the first time ever.

The data researchers collected was astonishing. The world’s largest seagrass ecosystem, measuring at least 66,900 square kilometers, has been discovered. This reflects a 41% increase from previous estimates of global seagrass. Seagrass can capture (捕获) huge quantities of carbon by photosynthesis (光合作用) and stores it on the seafloor. In terms of climate change, this is excellent news; seagrass is 35 times faster a removing carbon than tropical rainforests. When referred to global seagrass carbon stock estimates, the study indicates that seagrass in the Bahamas may contain 19.2% to 26.3% of all the carbon stored in seagrass meadows on Earth.

Yet seagrass meadows are rapidly disappearing, with over 92% of meadows in the UK gone, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Scientists are collecting seeds and trying to grow new seagrass meadows through restoration projects. This new discovery offers optimism and proves the importance of the ocean for healing.

The sharks led us to the seagrass ecosystem in the Bahamas, which we now know is likely the most significant blue carbon sink(蓝色碳汇) on the planet. What this discovery shows us is that ocean exploration and research are essential for a healthy future. The untapped potential of the ocean is limitless. These meadows can be protected and can be replicated (复制,仿制), offering hope for climate change around the globe.

1. Why were tiger sharks chosen as research tools?

A．They are more flexible than other sea animals.

B．They can quickly adjust themselves to the deep sea.

C．They have a strong connection with seagrass ecosystems.

D．They can be easily equipped with experimental devices.

2. What are the numbers in paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．The decline of global seagrass meadows.

B．The impact of climate change on sea life.

C．The rapid increase in the amount of carbon on Earth.

D．The potential value of the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem.

3. What are scientists doing to protect seagrass?

A．Planting more seagrass meadows.

B．Developing new technology to collect seeds.

C．Mapping the distribution of seagrass meadows.

D．Encouraging people to join in restoration projects.

4. Which could be the best title for the text?

A．The New Way of Removing Carbon

B．The Significance of Ocean Exploration

C．A New Discovery: World’s Largest Seagrass Meadow

D．Tiger Sharks: Scientists’ Essential Helper to Study Climate

7 . Growing flowers is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance.     1     All you really need to grow your own flowers is a potato, a plastic bottle, a rose, and plenty of fertilized soil. You might wonder what the potato and the plastic bottle are for. Even though this unusual combination might be strange to you, it really works incredibly well.

    2    The second step is to remove all leaves and thorns from it and give it a diagonal(斜的) cut around 3 centimeters below the head of the rose. It is important that the rose stays in shape so be careful when preparing the rose. You can then place it in a vase and store it like that for a few days.

The third step is to drill a small hole in a potato.     3     So when the rose is put in, it is tightly secured and does not move around. After you are done with the potato, you have to place plenty of fertilized soil on the bottom of a pot or a similar container.     4     Then you have to place them carefully on the soil. Once you find the right position, you have to fill up your pot with the remaining soil. The potato should be located around 5 centimeters below the surface of the soil. .

The final step is to cut out the bottom of the plastic bottle and then place it around the rose.     5    

A．It should be just the size of the rose.

B．You really don’t need to be a gardening professional.

C．First of all, you need to choose a rose you really like.

D．There is a simple trick that can be used to help roses grow.

E．Once you, have prepared the soil, place the rose in the potato.

F．Flowers are expensive, so why not grow them in your own garden?

G．Now all you need to do is water the soil occasionally and have some patience.

8 . With no special equipment, no fences and no watering, two abandoned agricultural fields in the UK have been rewilded (重新野化), in large part due to the efforts of jays, which actually “engineered” these new woodlands. Researchers now hope that rewilding projects can take a more natural and hands-off approach and that jays can shed some of their bad reputations.

The two fields, which researchers have called the New Wilderness and the Old Wilderness, had been abandoned in 1996 and 1961 respectively. The former was a bare field, while the latter was grassland—both lay next to ancient woodlands. Researchers had suspected that the fields would gradually return to wilderness, but it was impressive to see just how quickly this happened, and how much of it was owed to birds.

Using aerial data, the researchers monitored the two sites. After just 24 years, the New Wilderness had grown into a young, healthy wood with 132 live trees per hectare, over half of which (57%) were oaks. Meanwhile, the Old Wilderness resembled a mature woodland after 39 years, with 390 trees per hectare.

“This native woodland restoration was approaching the structure (but not the species composition) of long-established woodlands within six decades,” the researchers explained in the study.

Part of this reforestation was done by the wind, and researchers suspect that previous ground disturbance may have aided the woodland establishment—which is good news, as it would suggest that agricultural areas may be reforested faster than anticipated. However, animals—Eurasian jays, thrushes, wood mice, and squirrels—also played an important role in helping the forests take shape. This handful of species provided much of the natural regeneration needed for the forest to develop. Jays, in particular, seem to have done a lot of heavy lifting.

1. What does the underlined word “shed” in Paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Be opposed to.

B．Be ashamed of.

C．Get used to.

D．Get rid of.

2. Which aspect of the changes in the two fields impressed the researchers?

A．The scale of the woodlands.

B．The diversity of the fields.

C．The rate of the changes.

D．The frequency of the wilderness.

3. What does the author want to tell us by providing some data in Paragragh 3?

A．The woodland restoration was approaching the structure of long-established ones.

B．Much of the wilderness of the fields was owed to birds.

C．Previous ground disturbance aided the woodland establishment.

D．How quickly the fields returned to wilderness over time.

4. What does the last paragraph mainly talk about?

A．The essential role of humans in the reforestation.

B．The factors that contribute to the reforestation.

C．The importance of woodland establishment.

D．The threats faced by a handful of wild animals.