1 . After years of heated debate, gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. Fourteen wolves were caught in Canada and transported to the park. By last year, the Yellowstone wolf population had grown to more than 170 wolves.
Gray wolves once were seen here and there in the Yellowstone area and much of the continental United States, but they were gradually displaced by human development. By the 1920s, wolves had practically disappeared from the Yellowstone area. They went farther north into the deep forests of Canada, where there were fewer humans around.
The disappearance of the wolves had many unexpected results. Deer and elk populations — major food sources (来源) for the wolf — grew rapidly. These animals consumed large amounts of vegetation (植被), which reduced plant diversity in the park. In the absence of wolves, coyote populations also grew quickly. The coyotes killed a large percentage of the park’s red foxes, and completely drove away the park’s beavers.
As early as 1966, biologists asked the government to consider reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone Park. They hoped that wolves would be able to control the elk and coyote problems. Many farmers opposed the plan because they feared that wolves would kill their farm animals or pets.
The government spent nearly 30 years coming up with a plan to reintroduce the wolvers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carefully monitors and manages the wolf packs in Yellowstone. Today, the debate continues over how well the gray wolf is fitting in at Yellowstone. Elk, deer, and coyote populations are down, while beavers and red foxes have made a comeback. The Yellowstone wolf project has been a valuable experiment to help biologists decide whether to reintroduce wolves to other parts of the country as well.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．Wildlife research in the United States. |
| B．Plant diversity in the Yellowstone area. |
| C．The conflict between farmers and gray wolves. |
| D．The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park. |
| A．Damage to local ecology. |
| B．Preservation of vegetation. |
| C．A decline in the park’s income. |
| D．An increase in the variety of animals. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Uncaring. | C．Positive. | D．Disapproving. |
2 . When rains fell in the Atacama Desert for the first time in centuries, scientists had expected to see life blossom (繁盛). Instead, almost everything died. The shocking discovery was published in the journal Scientific Reports. Found in northern Chile, the dry core of the Atacama Desert hadn’t experienced rain for the past 500 years. But three years ago, rain started to fall once again in the region.
A changing climate in the Pacific Ocean resulted in the desert’s dry core experiencing rain on March 25 and August 9, 2015, and it rained again on June 7, 2017. There was no evidence of rain in this region for the past 500 years, although climate models suggested it should occur every century.
The international team of scientists who studied the region were hoping for deserts springing to life. “Instead, we learned the contrary, as we found that rain in the dry core of the Atacama Desert caused a massive extinction of most native microbe (微生物) species there, ”said study co-author Alberto Fairén.
Before the rain fell, this region of the Atacama had been home to 16 different ancient microbe species. But after the rain fell, just two to four species were still found to be surviving in the resultant pool of water. The cause of the extinction event, believed to have been about 85 percent of life in the soil, was caused by the sudden influx of water. In particular, these microbes were adapted to survive in extreme dryness. They were unable to adapt quickly enough to the unexpected rainfall.
But it’s not all bad news. The team also found nitrates (硝酸盐) in the Atacama Desert that were indicative of a lengthy dry period, while also acting as food for the microbes. And we’ve recently found nitrates on Mars, which could be indicating a similar process there.
1. How did the scientists find their discovery according to Alberto Fairén?| A．Satisfying. | B．Astonishing. | C．Amusing. | D．Comforting. |
| A．Shortage. | B．Need. | C．Arrival. | D．Test. |
| A．The resultant pool of water was a wildlife habitat. |
| B．The team plans to turn the desert into a green land. |
| C．Scientists have observed lots of microbes on Mars. |
| D．The finding brought some hope to relevant studies. |
| A．Unexpected Rainfalls Hit a Desert Badly |
| B．A Science Magazine Increased in Popularity |
| C．Scientists Unlocked the Secret behind Drought |
| D．A Breakthrough Occurred in Space Exploration |
Whales have been facing serious danger for a long time.
First, due
Secondly, whaling activity is another killer. Historically, whaling has been popular in some overseas countries, such as England, Japan and Norway.
The fact that whales have become endangered animals is alarming us. Some
4 . A nighttime building fire in southern Taiwan Province that took hours to bring under control killed 46 people on Thursday. Officials in the city of Kaohsiung said at least 41 people were injured.
The fire started early Thursday morning local time. A statement by the fire department described it as “extremely fierce.” Flames and smoke poured from the lower floors as firefighters tried to control the fire.
The number of dead rose during the day as rescue workers searched the building which combined businesses and homes. By late afternoon, officials confirmed 32 people had died, while 14 people, who showed no signs of life, were among 55 taken to the hospital. In Taiwan, official confirmation of a death is made at the hospital.
Firefighters could be seen spraying water into the middle floors of the 13-floor building. One woman, who was not identified, said on Taiwanese television that her 60-to-70-year-old parents were still inside as rescue efforts continued. Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that officials said the building’s age and waste blocking many areas made search and rescue efforts more difficult.
Many of the people living in the 40-year-old building were retired and lived alone in apartments as small as 13 square meters, local media reported. The building had 120 living spaces on the upper floors. It also had a closed movie theater, disused restaurants and karaoke businesses below them, the Central News Agency said. Mayor Chen Chi-mai said the building was partly abandoned.
The United Daily News, a major newspaper, said fire extinguishers(灭火器) had been put in place last month. But there were only three on each floor because the residents could not pay for more.
The fire appeared to have started on the ground floor. Investigators were examining a first-floor tea shop whose owner reportedly fought with his girlfriend the day before. They had not ruled out that the fire may have been set on purpose, The United Daily News reported.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to Paragraph 3?
| A．No signs of life were found when rescuers came. |
| B．The exact number of victims could not be confirmed. |
| C．There are hidden dangers in the building itself. |
| D．The building is used for business and residential purposes. |
| A．the fire made lots of firemen in trouble |
| B．all the victims have been properly relocated |
| C．the accident caused many injuries and deaths |
| D．the local hospital has organized blood donations |
| A．Why was the building partly abandoned? |
| B．How do the residents live in the small apartments? |
| C．Why weren’t there enough fire extinguishers in the building? |
| D．What happened to those on the ground floor that morning |
| A．The waste in the building. |
| B．Narrow rescue space |
| C．Too many retired old people. |
| D．The TV station’s live broadcasting. |
5 . Carbon dioxide emissions from transportation are now thought as the top source of green-house gases. One of the most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to reconsider how much, and how often, you travel.
Going car free for a year could save about 2. 6 tons of carbon dioxide, according to a study from the University of British Columbia. How can you stop using a car? Try taking a train, bus or better yet, riding a bike.
But let’s be realistic. You will likely need to use a car this year. So, when you do, here are some tips to make your trip more climate-friendly. Driving efficiently can help to reduce emissions. Go easy on the gas and brakes and drive like you have an egg under your foot. Regularly service your car to keep it more efficient. Keeping your tires pumped correctly can re-duce emissions. Low tire pressure will hurt your fuel economy. Air conditioning and frequent city driving can make emissions go up. So cut down on these as often as possible. Use cruise control (定速巡航) on long drives-in most cases, this can help to save gas. Don’t weigh your car down with extra things that you don’t need on your trip.
Fly often? Taking one fewer long round-trip flight could reduce your personal carbon footprint significantly. If you use public transportation often and fly less, your carbon foot-print might still be relatively sustainable, but if you drive and fly a lot, your emissions will be sigher. If you can’t avoid flying, you can offset them by donating money to sustainable proacts, such as supplying efficient stoves to rural homes, or projects which help farmers deal with crop waste environmentally.
1. What does the author think of going car free?| A．Efficient. | B．Costly. | C．Impractical. | D．Reliable. |
| A．Maintaining your car properly. | B．Using cruise control in the city. |
| C．Stepping hard on the gas and brakes. | D．Geiting rid of all the necessary loads. |
| A．Make up for. | B．Team up with. | C．Set foot in. | D．Put up with. |
| A．How to save fuel when driving cars | B．How to reduce your carbon footprint |
| C．Reduce carbon footprint by all means | D．Lower carbon footprint in transportation |
Caught in a flood
Mary and her parents were downstairs in the living room. Mary was looking through the windows at the endless rain outside. It had been raining non-stop for three days. She had never seen a storm this bad. It was making her nervous. The wind roared and the rain beat on the roof and windows. Dad was listening to a weather report on the radio, while Mum was putting their important documents and disaster supplies into a bag.
“Mum, Dad,” said Mary suddenly, “I think we should leave here right away!”
“No,” said Dad. “It’s too late: The radio says the city has already been flooded.”
“We can drive our car through the floodwater. Let’s us leave! I’m really scared!” cried Mary. “We can’t do that, honey,” explained Mum, “otherwise the moving water could wash the car away!”
Mary walked to the door. She was curious to see how much water there was outside.
“Don’t open the door!” shouted Mum and Dad at the same time. “The water may flood in!”
Dad moved the dinner table against the door, in case the floodwater forced the door open. Mum waved to Mary to sit on the sofa. “Mary, don’t worry. Everything’s going to be OK,” she said softly, trying her best to comfort Mary. Her voice was calm, but Mary could tell she was worried too.
Without saying a single word, Dad walked to the sofa, sat down and hugged his wife and daughter. The sudden silence in the house seemed to make the wind and rain more frightening outside. What could they do?
注意：1．续写词数应为150左右；
2．续写部分分为两段，每段开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1:
All of a sudden, the floodwater forced the door open.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
Being upstairs, they breathed a sigh of relief.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1．曾经的情景(景美、水清、鱼儿 鸭子嬉戏、游客多)；
2．后来的状况(湖水污染、游客乱扔垃圾)；
3．当地政府已经采取措施来拯救，净月潭又恢复了美丽。
注意：
1．词数80左右；
2．可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
8 . Even chess experts perform worse when air quality is lower, suggesting a negative effect on cognition(认知). Here’s something else chess players need to keep in check: air pollution.
That’s the bottom line of a newly published study co-authored by a researcher, showing that chess players perform objectively worse and make more suboptimal(次优的) moves, as measured by a computerized analysis of their games, when there is more fine particulate matter(颗粒物) in the air, notated as PM 2.5.
More specifically, given a modest increase in fine particulate matter, the probability that chess players will make an error increases by 2.1 percentage points, and the spectrum of those errors increases by 10.8 percent. In this setting, at least, cleaner air leads to clearer heads and sharper thinking.
“We find that when individuals are exposed to higher levels of air pollution, they make more mistakes, and they make larger mistakes,” says Juan Palacios, an economist in Sustainable Urbanization Lab.
“It’s pure random exposure to air pollution that is driving these people’s performance,” Palacios says. “Against comparable opponents in the same tournament round, being exposed to different levels of air quality makes a difference for move quality and decision quality.”
The researchers also found that when air pollution was worse, the chess players performed even more poorly when under time limitation. “We find it interesting that those mistakes especially occur in the phase of the game where players are facing time pressure,” Palacios says.
“There are more and more papers showing that there is a cost with air pollution, and there is a cost for more and more people,” Palacios says. “And this is just one example showing that even for these very excellent chess players, who think they can beat everything, it seems that with air pollution, they have an enemy who harms them.”
1. What effect does air pollution have on chess players?| A．They make fewer good choices. | B．They perform subjectively worse. |
| C．They suffer body discomfort. | D．They lose all games with computers. |
| A．Magic. | B．Process. | C．Range. | D．Balance. |
| A．His appeal for attention to chess players. |
| B．His concern about air pollution. |
| C．An example of chess players’ performance. |
| D．Approaches to dealing with air pollution. |
| A．Air pollution is a tough enemy chess players face. |
| B．Chess players make more and more mistakes. |
| C．There is a cost with air pollution for more people. |
| D．Chess players perform poorly under time limitation. |
9 . Commercial airlines alone contribute around 3% of total global carbon emissions. But the industry is actively looking for green solutions in the form of sustainable jet fuel, and in one case, that fuel may have had a previous life as your household food waste. In a study released this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers detail a method of transforming food waste into sustainable jet fuel that can be used in existing engines.
Biomass (生物质), such as manure (粪便) and food waste, can be transformed into bio-fuels, which are renewable liquid fuels made from organic matter. Derek Vardon, a senior research engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), says that their fuel worked as a mixture of 90% conventional petrol jet fuel and 10% alternative jet fuel required by the industry currently. They also show they could push it to a 70/30 mixture, which will be possible in real world with more time and testing.
Major airline companies are eager to get involved in sustainable aviation fuel because some sustainable solutions, such as battery-operated commercial planes, just aren’t possible yet with current battery technology. A battery-powered plane would be too heavy to fly long distances, so fuel that works in the same way as the fuel we have is a simpler way to trade out emission-heavy fossil fuels.
Vardon says that because the wet waste used in the process would normally go to a landfill (垃圾填埋场) and break down to release greenhouse gases, the process of making and using sustainable aviation fuel could actually have a negative carbon footprint when scaled up.
Commercial airlines are on board to find an affordable and sustainable solution to the carbon-intensive process of air travel. Airlines are looking to hit aggressive sustainability goals by 2050, including decreasing net carbon dioxide emissions by 50%.
1. Which of the following is used for sustainable airline power?| A．Fossil fuel. | B．Liquid fuel. | C．Battery power. | D．Biomass. |
| A．Fuel-powered planes are likely to travel lighter and farther. |
| B．Biofuel is environmentally friendly and sustainable. |
| C．It’s convenient to create the proper fuel mixture. |
| D．Biofuel proves less costly and easier to produce. |
| A．taking off. | B．holding a meeting. |
| C．participating in. | D．appearing on stage. |
| A．Alternative Energy to Fossil Fuel. |
| B．How to Get Fossil Fuel Sustainable. |
| C．Changing Food Waste into Airplane Fuel. |
| D．How to Decrease Carbon Dioxide Emissions. |
10 . The impact of the man-made climate crisis on Antarctica is scientifically undeniable: stable ice shelves are retreating, air temperature increased by 3 degrees Celsius. krill(磷虾)numbers are declining, melting ice is contributing to sea level rise, and polar bears and seals are getting displaced. “Antarctic biodiversity could decline substantially by the end of the century if we continue with business as usual.” Jasmine Rachael Lee, lead author of the University of Queensland study says.
Published in the journal PLOS Biology, the study finds population declines are likely for 65% of the continent’s plants and wildlife by the year 2100. The most vulnerable(脆弱的)species is the Emperor penguins. In October 2022, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed Emperor penguins as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act(ESA), as experts predict the flightless seabird will see a 26% to 47% dip in its population by 2050. “This listing reflects the growing extinction crisis and highlights the importance of the ESA and efforts to conserve species before population declines become irreversible(不可逆转).” said Service Director Martha Williams at the time.
Aside from Emperor penguins, other Antarctic specialists, like the Adélie penguin and dry soil nematodes, were also highly vulnerable. We urgently need a combination of global and local conservation action to best conserve Antarctic species. Global action and global voices to help relieve climate change—because the biggest threat to Antarctica is coming from outside of it. And then we need local actions to help protect biodiversity against local threats and give them the best chance of adapting to climate changes. This will help to save our iconic(代表性的)species like the Emperor penguins and all of Antarctica’s unique and highly adapted inhabitants. It will also help humankind, as we rely heavily on the priceless services the Antarctic provides in regulating our climate and capturing sea level in its ice sheets.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．The impact of climate crisis is usually denied. |
| B．Conservation efforts are badly needed. |
| C．Air temperature on Antarctic increases 3℃ annually. |
| D．Sea level rise results in seabirds losing their habitats. |
| A．To serve as a call to protect wildlife on Antarctic |
| B．To reflect the growing population of wild species. |
| C．To prove the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act. |
| D．To highlight the severe impact of rising temperature. |
| A．Reducing the chances of making a trip to Antarctic. |
| B．Making joint efforts to relieve climate change. |
| C．Attempting to provide essential nutrients to the ecosystem. |
| D．Continuing to carry forward the Endangered Species Act. |
| A．Plants and Wildlife on Antarctica Will Decline Quickly |
| B．Antarctic Species Are Vulnerable to Human Threats |
| C．More Action Should Be Taken to Protect Wildlife on Antarctica |
| D．The Best Conservation Strategy Will Be Carried Out Soon |
