1 . Pacific Coast Range

Stretching along the west coast of North America from northern California to Alaska, the forests found along the Pacific Coast Range are the largest area of temperate (温带的) rainforest in the world. The forests are home to the coast redwood, the world’s tallest tree. Across the region, the forest understory (林下叶层) is wet and heavily vegetated.

Taiheiyo Evergreen Forests

Found in southern Japan, they are temperate rainforests of evergreen broadleaf trees. The forests can receive more than 100 inches of rain every year. The forests are covered by Japanese cedar and Japanese stone oak, while moso bamboo comprise the understory. The extent of the Taiheiyo forests has been reduced due to development and agriculture. Today,17%of the remaining forest is protected by national parks and other reserves.

Atlantic Oakwood Forest

The Atlantic Oakwood Forest covers the wettest parts of the United Kingdom. A species of oak tree (橡树) called sessile oak occupies the landscape. Unlike other temperate forests, these forests tend to have an open understory of grasses. Much of the historical range of the forest has given to agriculture and other development, though that has changed in recent decades.

Valdivian Temperate Rainforest

This forest is found on the west coast of Chile and Argentina, on the wet, western slopes (斜坡) of the Andes mountain range. With the coastline to the west, the peaks of the Andes to the east, and the Atacama Desert to the north, the region supports a number of plant and animal species found nowhere else in the world. Uniquely, the forest is covered by evergreen flowering trees, which are native to Chile and little known outside the region.

1. Which of the four forest areas occupies the most land?

A．Pacific Coast Range.	B．Taiheiyo Evergreen Forests.
C．Atlantic Oakwood Forest.	D．Valdivian Temperate Rainforest.

2. What do Taiheiyo Evergreen Forests and Atlantic Oakwood Forest have in common?

A．They have open understory grasses.	B．They’re home to extremely tall trees.
C．They’re of great historical significance.	D．They used to be affected by agriculture.

3. What is unique to Valdivian Temperate Rainforest?

A．Wet climate.	B．Coastal location.
C．Evergreen flowering trees.	D．Well-protected national parks.

2 . Growing plants at home is a fun and enjoyable activity to do and can be developed as a new hobby.     1     Let’s take a look.

Gardening reduces stress. Gardening is one of the most effective, and fun ways to free yourself from the physical, mental, and emotional stress you have been carrying since the beginning of the week. If you are overworking yourself during the weekdays or seeing yourself drowning in stressful thoughts, try to spend your weekends gardening at home.     2     The sweet smell of the wet soil and the plants’ fascinating colors has a calming effect on our minds.

    3     Just like plants that need sunlight to photosynthesize (光合作用), we also need to be exposed to sunlight. Our body produces or makes natural Vitamin D when the sunlight touches our skin. Gardening outdoors allows us to be exposed to sunlight and, in turn, the sunlight enriches us with Vitamin D. Vitamin D helps protect our body from getting diseases such as cancer.

Gardening is good for your heart. Gardening requires our body to move around by doing simple tasks such as digging the ground, planting seeds, pulling out weeds, and carrying a water container’s load.     4     They allows our body to burn calories and fats, and help strengthen our heart, reducing the risk of suffering from heart attack.

By spending our free time gardening and monitoring our plants’ growth, we are also taking care of ourselves as we gain lots of health and emotional benefits. It is a worthwhile activity because we get to see the results of our hard work when our plants start growing fonder and healthier. The way we take care of our plants reflects the way we take care of ourselves.     5    

A．Gardening is an act of self-love.

B．Gardening is good for your bones.

C．Gardening helps your body against diseases.

D．You will see a significant change in your mind.

E．These simple gardening tasks can be considered a low-level exercise.

F．It also has several positive health and emotional benefits that you can enjoy.

G．Returning home to a place full of beautiful plants helps us enjoy the freshness of the air.

3 . How to create an indoor garden

If you’re looking for a way to brighten up your home, consider creating an indoor garden.     1     We will share some basic tips on how to make yours look its best.

Know the type of plants you want

Deciding is probably the hardest part when it comes to creating an indoor garden because there are just so many plants to choose from. Start by thinking about what type of plants you want.

    2     Or maybe something that doesn’t need much attention or effort? Once you have an idea of the type of plant you want, you can start narrowing down your options.

Get the right potting soil and containers

Now that you know what type of plants you want, it’s time to get the right potting soil and containers. Make sure to get a potting mix that is specifically designed for indoor plants.     3     As for containers, you can really use anything as long as it has drainage holes.

Choose a bright location Once you have your plants and pots, it’s time to choose a location for your indoor garden.     4     This will help your plants grow and stay healthy. If you don’t have a spot that gets a lot of light, you can always use artificial lighting like grow lights.

    5    

In addition to watering, you’ll also need to add substance to your plants about once a month. This will help them grow and stay healthy. Just be sure to follow the instructions on the package. Don’t overdo it.

A．Give fertiliser monthly.

B．How exactly can we make one?

C．Follow the instruction correctly.

D．But don’t worry, we’re here to help.

E．This will help your plants grow strong.

F．Do you want something that will blossom?

G．Look for a spot in your home that gets a lot of natural light.

4 . Greenhouse gas emissions would rise if all farms in England and Wales went organic. Though the emissions of each farm would go down, much more food would have to be imported, as the amount they would produce would decrease greatly.

“The key message from my perspective is that you can't really have your cake and eat it,” says Laurence Smith, now at the Royal Agricultural University in the UK, who was part of the team that ran the numbers. Smith is a supporter of organic farming and says “there are a lot of merits of the organic approach”, but his analysis shows that organic farming has downsides too.

Farming and changes in land use, such as cutting down forests, are responsible for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions. That means reducing farming emissions and the land needed for farming is required to limit further global warming.

Smith and his colleagues found that emissions per unit of food are, on average, 20 per cent lower for organic crops and 4 per cent lower for organic animal products. However, organic harvests per hectare (公顷) are also lower on average. For wheat and barley, for instance, harvests are just half of those of conventional farms. This means 1.5 times as much land would be needed to grow the same amount of these foods.

The estimated increase in emissions varies greatly, depending on where the extra farmland comes from. If only half comes from turning grassland into farms, the increase could be as low as 20 per cent. If grassland that would otherwise have been reforested is turned into farmland, emissions could nearly double.

This doesn't necessarily mean people should stop eating organic produce, says Smith. People might choose organic food for other reasons, such as to reduce their pesticide exposure (though contrary to popular belief, organic farmers do use pesticides) or for the sake of wildlife.

Going 100 per cent organic could also harm global biodiversity. The extra land used for farming would mean the land available for wildlife would be smaller and more fragmented (碎片化的).

Smith says the best option may be to use some organic and conventional farming methods at the same time.

1. Why may greenhouse gas emissions increase if a country goes organic?

A．Organic farms take longer to build.

B．The agricultural output will increase greatly.

C．The emissions of each farm unit will increase.

D．Greater demand for imported food will be created.

2. What does the underlined word “merits” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Changes.

B．Challenges.

C．Advantages.

D．Differences.

3. What did Smith and his colleagues find?

A．Organic harvests per unit are greater than traditional harvests.

B．Organic farming needs more farmland to feed a country.

C．Global warming could be brought under control.

D．Land was not used in a responsible way.

4. What is Smith's proposal?

A．Stopping using pesticides.

B．Eating less organic produce.

C．Going back to traditional farming.

D．Adopting mixed farming methods.

5 . High on the top of California's White Mountains, the hard conditions make it difficult for life to take root. But for a certain type of tree — and for those who have travelled here to study it — this place is a perfect place.

These bristlecone pines are the oldest individual trees in the world. Researchers like Andy Bunn have come to learn from the ancients. "It's remarkable to sit here and have your hand on one of these trees and know that it was growing when the Pyramids were built." Bunn added.

"By studying samples (样本) from the trunks, it's possible to discover their hidden history. Each annual tree ring is like a time capsule of the environment for that year from which it was formed," said Matt Salzer, a scientist at the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree Ring Research. "And it contains many different types of information — chemical information, the information on growth, and climate information."

"If you're trying to look at people in the past through time, tree rings give you a way to do it in a way that makes sense in a human life," said University of Arizona Professor Charlotte Pearson. She first became fascinated with the bristlecones after reading about an ancient volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini. "It blew my mind that trees on the other side of the world could possibly be used to date this thing within a single year," she said excitedly.

The oldest known living bristlecone is estimated to be over 4, 800 years old. For Bunn, the climate record written in the rings offers guidance for how we might think about what's happening in the present as we plan for the future. "What we're seeing increasingly is that a lot of the climate events that we are experiencing and living through right now have no example in the paleoclimate (古气候) record," he said. “So, we really are moving into unknown field."

1. Why does Bunn mention the Pyramids in Paragraph 2?

A．To state the trees' age is very old.	B．To prove his discovery is important.
C．To attract readers' attention.	D．To stress the hard living condition of the trees.

2. What's the third paragraph mainly about?

A．The result of the research.	B．The process of the research.
C．The method of the research.	D．The significance of the research.

3. What do the underlined words "It blew my mind" in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．It confused me.	B．It surprised me.
C．It defeated me.	D．It disappointed me.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Paleoclimate record is hard to find.

B．There are lots of unknown things about pines.

C．Studying the tree rings is important for climate research.

D．There were frequent occurrences of the extreme climate events.