1 . Sunflowers are huge plants with bright yellow flowers. They have a long history in North America. There is evidence that they were used for food and for medicine by Native Americans beginning around 1000 B. C. The seeds from sunflowers were likely brought to Europe by Spanish explorers around the late 16th century. Over time, they found their way to Eastern Europe. Today, Ukraine is the world’s leading producer of the plants. Sunflowers are grown for their seeds and to make oil.
If you start growing sunflowers from seeds, put them in room-temperature water for 2-8 hours before planting to start the growing process. Plant each seed into dirt 2.5 centimetres deep and 15 to 30 centimetres apart. Plant them after the danger of frost has passed or start indoors three weeks before your last frost date. Keep the soil wet, but not too wet, until the seeds begin to grow.
Sunflower plants can be moved outdoors when the danger of frost has passed in your area. Choose a place outside that will provide the plants with at least 6- 8 hours of direct sunlight each day.
As the plants grow, they will develop long roots that work their way deep into the ground. So, before planting, it is important to loosen the soil. Dig at least one third of a metre down and remove any rocks.
Mixa large amount of compost (堆肥) into the soil where the plant will grow. Compost provides important, lasting nutrients that will help the plants all season long. The sunflowers may not need additional nutrients if they are planted with compost. If compost is not added during the planting process, provide nutrients through a slow release, all-purpose fertilizer (肥料) one or two times during the growing season.
1. What can be known about the sunflower in Paragraph 1?| A．It originated in South America. | B．It was initially used to make oil. |
| C．It has a history of 3,000 years or so. | D．It was taken to Europe by British explorers. |
| A．Keep the seeds in water for 10 hours. |
| B．Plant seeds 2.5 centimetres apart. |
| C．Never put new plants in direct sunlight each day. |
| D．Plant seeds indoors 21 days before your last frost date. |
| A．It is friendly to roots’ growth. | B．It helps to hold water in the soil. |
| C．It guarantees adequate supplies of air. | D．It is more efficient in keeping temperature. |
| A．How to select sunflowers. | B．How to grow sunflowers. |
| C．When to fertilize sunflowers. | D．When to move sunflowers. |
2 . 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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 |
3 . A century ago, you needn’t travel far to find unique fruits or vegetables. Today, because of the widespread adoption of industrial farming practices, about 90 per cent of North America’s fruit and vegetable varieties have disappeared. With that goes resilience (适应力) against pests and future weather patterns, not to mention delicious flavors. But a group of Canadians have taken crop diversity into their own gardening gloves.
The rescue mission started in the early 1980s with about 100 backyard gardeners from B. C, Ontario and Quebec. To keep their favorite varieties spreading, the gardeners decided to save and share their own seeds. Soon 1, 000 of these growers were mailing seeds across the country.
In 1995, these gardeners formed Seeds of Diversity, a nonprofit focused on preserving Canada’s botanical (植物的) heritage. A little over a decade later, the group founded the Canadian Seed Library to house each crop variety. The Seed Library now stocks (贮存) more than 2, 900 seed varieties, stored in a closet at the nonprofit’s office in downtown Waterloo.
To keep the library well stocked, Seeds of Diversity operates an adopt-a-seed program; members pay between S50 and S250 - the cost of full sponsorship - to introduce a specifc variety into the seed library forever. Under the program, volunteers sign up for spring growing, and tiny envelopes are mailed to each taker; the rarest seeds are sent to the most experienced gardeners. At the end of the growing season, packages of fresh seeds are shipped back to Waterloo for drying, weighing and testing, before going into storage.
Bob Wildfong, the executive director of the organization, considers the purple striped pole bean, an old Mennonite variety from the Waterloo area, his current favorite seed. He says the humble bean signifies something he’s found most beautiful about seed saving: the links between people and families. “I’m growing this Mennonite bean, and it’s not from my family, ” Wildfong says. “But now it’s part of my life, and I would like someone else to adopt it so it becomes part of their life, too. ”
1. What can we infer based on the first paragraph?| A．Fewer Canadians are doing gardening now. |
| B．Varied crops can better fight pests and bad weather. |
| C．Today’s fruits and vegetables are less healthy than before. |
| D．Industrial farming practices have increased crop diversity. |
| A．The Canadian Seed Library was established in 1995. |
| B．Seeds of Diversity has members at home and abroad. |
| C．Seeds of Diversity makes money by charging its members. |
| D．The Canadian Seed Library is based in downtown Waterloo. |
| A．It costs the same to introduce different seeds into the library. |
| B．The volunteers of Seeds of Diversity can adopt any seed they want. |
| C．The growers dry, weigh and test the fresh seeds before storing them. |
| D．Seed sharing can strengthen personal connections between growers. |
| A．Growing More Crops | B．The Art of Gardening |
| C．Saving the Seeds | D．The Beauty of Nature |
4 . In order to get rid of goldenrod from the city, the government of Wuhan is encouraging residents to report any findings of the plant, which is classified as a harmful alien species.
Goldenrod is one of the most successful and widespread alien plant species. It is often referred to as “the flower of the devil”, as it spreads extremely fast and causes other plants to die.
Besides Hubei province, the plant has also been found expanding in other provinces such as Jiangxi and Zhejiang. Although local authorities have tried to get rid of the plant, it is proving to be a difficult task. Goldenrod represents just one of the alien species that are aggressive towards the country’s native species. Statistics show that by 2020, nearly 800 kinds of alien species had invaded the country, among which 638 species have invaded the country’s agricultural and forestry ecosystems, causing direct economic losses of about 200 billion yuan ($31.36 billion).
At the United Nations Biodiversity Conference held in Kunming, Yunnan province, the invasion of alien species was the subject of discussions, as it was regarded as one of the two most important factors leading to the loss of biodiversity, the other being human-caused ecological damage.
China passed its Biosecurity Law on April 15, 2021, which provides the legal basis for preventing the invasion of alien species and protecting biodiversity in the country. The relevant departments also strictly carry out port inspections and quarantines so as to keep harmful organisms out of the country, and they strengthen early warning and monitoring systems so as to address the invasion as early as possible.
However, while government departments are making every effort to prevent and control the situation, the participation of the people should not be ignored. It is also necessary, as Wuhan is doing, to encourage people to pay attention to invasive species and actively play a role in keeping them at bay. Preventing any invasion by an alien species and protecting biodiversity should not just be the government departments fighting alone, but also a people’s war.
1. What can we learn about goldenrod from the text?| A．It originates in Wuhan. |
| B．It does harm to people’s health. |
| C．It is a great threat to the surrounding plants. |
| D．It causes an economic loss of about $31.36 billion. |
| A．China’s efforts to stop the invasion of alien species. |
| B．Relevant departments’ warning of goldenrod. |
| C．The legal basis to protect biodiversity. |
| D．The importance of port inspections and quarantines. |
| A．Keeping the invasive species out of the country. |
| B．Building some barriers for the species. |
| C．Preventing the flowers from growing fast. |
| D．Keeping the alien species safe at the port. |
| A．Business. | B．Culture. | C．Environment. | D．Opinion. |
5 . Do you look forward to spring each year? What is spring like in your mind?
Many of us already know that there’s a difference between annual and perennials(多年生植物). Some plants, called annuals, grow from seeds, produces flowers, and die all in one year.
Are these ancient species of non-flowering plants still in existence today? You bet they are! And you’re probably familiar with many of them. They are various species of conifers(松柏类植物).
That a plant doesn’t flower doesn’t mean that it can’t be beautiful, though.
| A．Most plants flower at a fixed season each year. |
| B．There are some plants, though, that don’t flower at all. |
| C．They include woody trees you know by name such as pines, firs and cedars. |
| D．Actually, plants producing flowers are more beautiful than those which don't. |
| E．Perennials, on the other hand, can live for many years and flower many times. |
| F．Besides warmer weather, it usually comes with color and beauty in the form of flowers. |
| G．If you see pine trees on a snow-covered hillside, you can appreciate their evergreen beauty. |
6 . As we sip our coffee and read the daily headlines, climate changes can seem like a distant threat. But travel a few thousands miles to the source of your caffeine fix, and the threat is all too real.
The coffee farmers are now seeing violent downpours that drown their plants in Mexico, where the climate used to be stable and mild, but the temperature now see-saws between extreme cold and heat, which greatly affects their harvest. Unfortunately, farmers across South America, Asia and Africa are also watching coffee plants decrease as droughts and downpours attack their crops as a result of global warming. The consequences of all this could soon work their way through the pipeline to your local coffee shop.
The problem arises, in part, from refinement (改进) of our taste. Two main breeds of commercial coffee Arabica and Robusta gain special reputation. The former is by far the world’s favourite, accounting for about 70% of the coffee we drink. However, the Arabica plants have been bred from a very small stock taken from the mountains of Ethiopia-giving it very little genetic diversity and making it particularly difficult to adapt to climate change. Besides, the plant grows best between a very narrow range of relatively mild temperatures (18 to 22℃ ) and needs gentle, regular rainfall. The delicate Arabica plants just can’t cope with the new and unpredictable conditions that come with global warming.
All of these paint a depressing picture for the future. Researchers predict that the land suited to farming Arabica could drop by as much as 50% by 2050. Classic coffee-producing region, such as Vietnam, India and most of Central America, will be hit particularly hard. Some of the farmers feel that the subject has almost become taboo, “We talk very little about climate. We already know how it is—and that there is nothing we can do.”
1. What does the author imply at the beginning?| A．The origin of coffee is at risk. |
| B．Coffee consumers like reading newspaper. |
| C．The origin of coffee is visited by consumers. |
| D．Coffee consumers do care about the weather very much. |
| A．They become victims of extreme weather. |
| B．Those in Mexico suffer the greatest loss. |
| C．Some of them take measures to cut the losses. |
| D．They try to meet the market demand for coffee. |
| A．Its market share is low. |
| B．It can only be planted in Etiopia. |
| C．It has disease-causing genes. |
| D．It has high demands for environment. |
| A．easily understood. | B．rarely mentioned. |
| C．hardly avoided. | D．heatedly discussed. |
