1 . New research shows that removing black rhinos’ horns (犀牛角) to make them less attractive to illegal hunters is reducing their territory (领地) sizes and making them less sociable with each other.

The study, published in the journal PNAS, found that de­horned South African rhinos have home ranges that are 45 per cent smaller than those of complete animals, and that they were 37 percent less likely to engage in social interactions.

“The big, dominant bulls that used to have very large territories that overlapped with a lot of females may now have much less territory and much less reproductive (繁殖的) success,” says Vanessa Duthé, who led the work at Switzerland’s University of Neuchâtel.

“It’s really hard to predict the effects of this,” she says. “It doesn’t mean that population success will necessarily decline, because it might open up gaps for younger males that would not have had the space or the means before.” Indeed, a University of Bristol study published last year showed that de­horning (去角) does not negatively affect populations overall.

But such unintended behavioral consequences necessarily feed into judgments about whether this highly invasive procedure is worthwhile. Remarkably, perhaps, there is little hard evidence either way. “No one’s put all the data together to say whether it’s a really effective measure,” says Duthé.

“What is clear is that the introduction of de­horning and a decline in illegal hunting has occurred at the same time,” she adds. “But de­horning has been accompanied by other conservation measures that may be more effective.”

“It’s incredibly complicated,” says Lucy Chimes, a member of the Bristol team. “There are so many other factors involved. You have to consider what other security measures are being carried out — fencing, patrols, staff numbers — and poverty levels surrounding parks, their nearness to national borders and whether there is community engagement.” Chimes is currently planning a project that aims to separate these and other factors. In the meantime, Duthé believes that de­horning is a worthwhile tool of last course of action. “A rhino that is behaving a little bit strangely is better than a dead rhino.”

1. What is the purpose of removing the horns of black rhinos?

A．To make them less sociable.	B．To protect them from being hunted.
C．To reduce their home ranges.	D．To affect their reproductive success.

2. What does the underlined phrase “invasive procedure” in paragraph 5 refer to?

A．The removal of rhino horns.	B．The loss of rhino territories.
C．The impact on rhino population.	D．The change of rhino behavior.

3. What is Chimes’ attitude toward the de­horning of black rhinos?

A．Supportive.

B．Opposed.

C．Unconcerned.

D．Uncertain.

4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．De­horning rhinos shows satisfying effects.

B．Various factors lead to the decline in illegal hunting.

C．De­horning is the last action researchers will take.

D．Rhinos are supposed to behave a little bit strangely.

2 . Blue jeans are as American as eating a hot dog at a baseball game. But have you ever stopped to wonder why most of us have blue jeans but not red, purple, or green jeans?

Jeans are made of denim, which is a type of strong cotton cloth. Jeans became wildly popular in the American West during the California Gold Rush. This period in the mid-1800s saw 300, 000 people pack up their lives and head west in search of fortune (财富). Searching for gold was difficult work, as people would dig into the side of mountains and look for gold that had made its way into rivers and streams, and they needed durable clothing to help them. Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis saw a chance not in gold, but in selling clothes to the tens of thousands of people arriving every year. They teamed up to create indigo — washed cloth.

So why did they use indigo(blue)to color their jeans? It has to do with the character of indigo. While most other colors penetrate (渗透) deep inside clothing, indigo stays on the surface of the threads (线). This means that when clothing colored with indigo is washed, some of the threads and coloring are removed. Over time and after much cleaning, jeans colored with indigo become softer and more comfortable as well as get that “worn in” look we all love.

Blue jeans are blue — or indigo — because they need to be tough and stand up to a hard day’s work, and also be soft and comfortable. And while many of those in search of gold never found their fortune, Levi Strauss’ blue jeans became wildly popular, and the company is still selling blue jeans 150 years later.

1. Why is Gold Rush mentioned in Paragraph 2?

A．To prove people’s hard lives then.

B．To tell us why blue jeans were created.

C．To share Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis’ story.

D．To show an important period in American history.

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

A．Bright.

B．Fashionable.

C．Strong.

D．Beautiful.

3. Why was blue used to color the jeans?

A．The color and threads could be removed easily.

B．The jeans could become much stronger.

C．It could color the jeans’ threads easily.

D．It penetrated deep inside clothing.

4. What can we learn from Levi Strauss’ success?

A．Success results from hard work.

B．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.

C．Failure is meaningful if we learn from it.

D．Fortune prefers those who use their judgement.

4 . When we’re on the treadmill (跑步机), we’re more likely to bethinking about whether we’re going to make it another mile than’what’s in our workout clothing. But our favorite sports ch ab are likely to be made from synthetic (合成的) fabrics, all of which are essentially plastic often created with harmful chemical additives. Now, a study conducted by the University of Birmingham shows the chemical additives from our workout clothing are available to be absorbed through our skin.

Previously, researchers have tended to focus on our exposure to plastic through diet,but the new study raises awareness that humans can be expesed to plastic chemicals through our skin, too. And because harmful chemicals accumulate lowly and stick around in our bodies, repeared and multi-source exposure can result in having high concentrations of chemicals inside us, potentially contributing to health effects.

The Birmingham study focused on a class of compounds(化合物)called brominated flame retardants(BFRs), which are used to prevent burning in a wide range of consumer products including fabries, and are linked to adverse health effects such as hormonal disorders and mental problems.

It’s known that sweat contains oil. Researchers found the oil has a chemical nature that encourages the chemicals in plastic to dissolve and spread.“In short, oil substances in our sweat help the bad chemicals to come out of the microplastic fibers and become available for human absorption,”says Dr. Abdallah of the Urnversity of Birmingham. An easy way to avoid exposure to these chemicals is to wear clothing made of sustainably produced textiles, which dont contain the bad chemicals associated with plastic materials. Check fabric labels for items that are mostly organic cotton, he mp or merino wool. Visit brand websites to see if they make an effort to list their suppliers, and where their products come from, including their dye houses and mills. Abdallah says he minimizes synthetic fabrics in his home, meanwhile wearing natural fibers like cotton. “Why be exposed to these chemicals even at low levels?”he says.“Why not avoid the risks?”

1. What is found in the study by the Birmingham University?

A．Sports clothes are fit for treadmill exercise.

B．Plastic produces harmful chemical additives.

C．Gym clothes may release poisonous chemicals.

D．People are exposed to chemicals through plastic.

2. What does the underlined word“adverse in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Unknown.

B．Harmful.

C．Similar.

D．Beneficial.

3. What role does the oil in sweat play in the absorption of chemicals?

A．It frees bad chemicals out of clothes.

B．It produces bad chemicals with plastic.

C．It prevents harmful chemicals spreading.

D．It keeps chemicals in the fibers of clothes.

4. What does the author suggest about our workout clothing?

A．Choosing famous brands.	B．ontacting the suppliers.
C．Visiting the chemical plants.	D．Wearing pure cotton clothes.

5 . Aarav Anil, the 17-year-old student With a passion for robotics from Bengraluro, invented a smart spoon that can help people with Parkinson’s disease eat with dignity.

Aarrav’s interest in creating a smart spoon came from seeing his uncle Arjun who has Parkinson’s disease struggling to feed himself. This disease affects the brain and leads to involuntary shaking. Hence, food kept spilling out of his mouth and onto his clothing.Aarrav wanted his uncle to be able to eat by himself with dignity.

Aarrav took to his room with microcontrollers, motors,sensors and a 3-D printer. Not everything went smoothly.“It was frustrating not being able to find the tiny electronics parts I needed here in India. I had to order some from China.but they took ages to arrive.”Aarrav said.Through tireless efforts. Aarrav made a first model but the handle was too slippery for his uncle to use so he had to change it.Then the prototype (维形) went to be tested at the RV College of Physiotherapy in Bengaluru.

“I’ve been fine tuning the design based on the college’s feedback — that it needs to be waterproof so that it can be washed without damaging all the electronics inside; and that it must be detachable (可拆卸的) so it can be cleaned and replaced by a fork.” Aarrav said. The trials being conducted at the college are expected to be completed by early 2024 and the results will be published in a medical journal.

Aarrav hopes that his smart spoon will begin to be manufactured on a small scale when the testing is complete.While other smart spoons already exist and two US companies are already producing their own versions,the cost is too high for most Indians. Aarrav’s version is estimated to cost around 580). His hope is that everyone with Parkinson’s disease will have access to a smart spoon.

1. What can Aarav’s invention help people with Parkinson’s disease do?

A．Maintain their physical balance.

B．Boost their mood and relieve stress.

C．Feed themselves much more easily.

D．Rid them of uncontrollable shaking.

2. What is emphasized about the invention of the smart spoon in Paragraph 3?

A．Its popularity.

B．Its challenges.

C．Its functions.

D．Its application.

3. Which can best replace the underlined word “tuning” in Paragraph 4?

A．Adjusting.

B．Publicizing

C．Outlining.

D．Simplifying

4. Which of the following best describes Aarrav?

A．Industrious and sociable.	B．Intelligent and humble
C．Sensitive and conservative.	D．Ambitious and caring.

6 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

The Charm (魅力) of Schoolyard

In the charm of school life, where classrooms are seats of knowledge and the schoolyard becomes source of memory, there are a fund of stories mixed with humor, warmth, and teacher-student relationships.   

Mr. Smith was a country teacher, but not an ordinary one; he was a storyteller, a mentor (人生导师) , and a friend to all his students. His classroom was a world of its own, full of colorful characters and brilliant ideas. One day, during the noon break, a student named Alice noticed a wandering kitten padding (潜行) through the familiar grounds where many schoolyard tales were born. Alice took her to Mr. Smith, who had magical Tricks for handling even the smallest things. With Mr. Smitt’s permission, Alice and her classmates built a shelter for the kitten in a corner of the campus.

The days turned into weeks, and the kitten grew under the tender care of Mr. Smith and his students. Once in a while, she became a temporary resident of the classroom, much to the delight of the whole class. They named her “Schoolyard”, a name that generalized the spirit of their school days.

As the year progressed, Schoolyard became not just a kitten, but a tie connecting each of them and a thread of continuity in their lives. She played on desks, slept in chairs, and hid in folders, thus becoming an unofficial mascot (吉祥物) of the classroom. The students found comfort in her presence, and Mr. Smith, joy in watching them grow through her company.

As graduation neared, Mr. Smith gathered his students for one last lesson. He told them that they would soon be exploring new horizons. He reminded them that life was full of unforeseeable twists and tums along with unexpected potentials, just like the appearance of a kitten in their schoolyard. At the moment, the students were greatly touched and deep down there arose a strong love for those memorable warmth and hearty laughter of their school days.

Thereafter, Mr. Smith and the students agreed to meet here once again in ten years.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。

A decade later, Mr. Smith greeted his former students at the school gate.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Isn’t that our Schoolyard?” cried Alice, gazing at the classroom door.   

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7 . For the past 18 years, my daughter has been around me all the time. Now that she is in college, the _______ of our relationship has totally changed and our relationship is completely _______. I’m not going to be there every morning to have breakfast with her. I won’t know when she’s mad or when she’s happy. Here’s a little story of our new _______.

A week ago, my daughter wanted to _______ so she called me during the day as I was in meetings. I _______her later on, but she was in class. At midnight, she reached out _______ to ask if we could talk. Well, guess what? I was _______ . I thought we would talk the next day, but she was not   _______ .

Research shows that parents are _______ when their children are grown up, but for me that is when I start to get concerned. I am always left to________ , how can I, as a parent, remain ________to my daughter to guide, support and love through life's changes?   

We may have to ________ the way we communicate. My daughter encouraged me to go digital. That’s how I ventured into the world of social media, following her updates and occasionally sharing my own experiences. Through this   ________ presence, the physical gap is ________and I feel I still have an active role in her life. This experience serves as a reminder that ________, however scary, holds the promise of growth in our shared journey.

1.

A．problem

B．progress

C．goal

D．context

2.

A．cold

B．special

C．different

D．casual

3.

A．normal

B．idea

C．approach

D．solution

4.

A．catch up

B．take over

C．check out

D．break away

5.

A．visited

B．touched

C．tried

D．emailed

6.

A．by taxi

B．by text

C．in private

D．in person

7.

A．stupid

B．angry

C．excited

D．asleep

8.

A．available

B．interested

C．ready

D．guilty

9.

A．saddest

B．busiest

C．happiest

D．best

10.

A．decide

B．wonder

C．investigate

D．distinguish

11.

A．kind

B．appreciative

C．sensitive

D．relevant

12.

A．voice

B．ignore

C．shift

D．continue

13.

A．human

B．virtual

C．physical

D．permanent

14.

A．widened

B．formed

C．broken

D．bridged

15.

A．college

B．relationship

C．change

D．communication

8 . 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。

The market for wearable technology in the past few years has been on a rapid rise. We seem to have too much attachment to data accessible on those devices.     1     is it a good thing that we’re relying on technology more often than not, recording every step we take? Can those tools really maximize your workout benefits? The real questions surround not the     2     (wear), but the wearer.

The challenge for athletes     3     (look) to up their game with data is finding the type of information that is most helpful. If you are hoping to run faster and want to try moderating your pace based on heart rate “zones,” a wearable can help you do so. However, for professionals and those who are new     4    working out, less is more.

Earlier this month, Sara Hall, a professional marathon runner competing in the U.S. Olympic marathon trials, actually     5     (throw) away her GPS watch midrace     6     (avoid) distraction. Similarly, for beginner runners, it’s more important to learn to listen to your body’s signals — tiredness,     7     (ache), bursts of energy —     8     to track your pace or heart rate. Depending on what those goals are, there might be ways to achieve them that are more cost     9     (effect), more fun, more convenient. Dr. Ethan Weiss, a physician at the University of California tells his patients that a different item    10    (attach) at your wrist, like a leash, is more likely to pull you toward more activity.

9 . Any schoolchild knows that a whale breathes through its blowhole. Fewer know that a blowhole is a nostril (鼻孔) slightly changed by evolution into a form more useful for a mammal that spends its life at sea. And only a dedicated expert would know that while toothed whales, such as sperm whales, have one hole, baleen (鲸须) whales, such as humpback and Rice whales, have two.

Even among the baleen whales, the placing of those nostrils differs. In some species they are close together. In others, they are much further apart. In a paper published in Biology Letters Conor Ryan, a marine biologist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, suggests why that might be. Having two nostrils, he argues, helps whales smell in stereo (立体空间).

Many types of baleen whales eat tiny animals known as zooplankton (浮游动物), which they catch by filtering (过滤) them from seawater using the sheets of fibrous baleen that have replaced teeth in their mouths. But to eat something you first have to find it. Toothed whales do not hunt by scent. In fact, the olfactory bulb—the part of the brain that processes smell—is absent in such creatures. But baleen whales still have olfactory bulbs, which suggests smell remains important. And scent can indeed give zooplankton away. Zooplankton like to eat other tiny creatures called phytoplankton (浮游植物). When these are under attack, they release a special gas called dimethyl sulphide, which in turn attracts baleen whales.

Most animals have stereoscopic senses. Having two eyes, for instance, allows an animal to compare the images from each in order to perceive depth. Having two ears lets them locate the direction from which a sound is coming. Dr Ryan theorized that paired blowholes might bring baleen whales the same sorts of benefits.

The farther apart the sensory organs are, the more information can be extracted by the animal that bears them. The researchers used drones to photograph the nostrils of 143 whales belonging to 14 different species. Sure enough, baleen whales that often eat zooplankton, such as the North Atlantic right whale, have nostrils that are farther apart than do those, such as humpback whales, that eat zooplankton occasionally. Besides allowing them to breathe, it seems that some whales use their blowholes to determine in which direction dinner lies.

1. What do we know about whales’ nostrils according to the first two paragraphs?

A．They are adapted ones.	B．They are developed merely for smell.
C．They are not easy to detect.	D．They are fixed universally in numbers.

2. What plays a role when baleen whales hunt zooplankton?

A．The teeth that baleen whales have.

B．The smell that phytoplankton send.

C．The sound waves that zooplankton create.

D．The chemical signals that zooplankton give off.

3. How is the concept of stereoscopic senses explained in paragraph 4?

A．By quoting a theory.	B．By using examples.
C．By making contrast.	D．By making inferences.

4. What is the position of nostrils related to according to the last paragraph?

A．The sense of smell.	B．The possibility to attract food.
C．The ability to locate food.	D．The ability to communicate.

10 . It’s no secret that reading good news feels a lot better than reading bad news. Like, would you rather bite into a lemon, or sip on a fresh glass of lemonade?

    1    The world is full of problems and conflicts and we need to stay informed and alert (警觉的) to what’s going on around us. While reading traditional, more negative news is important, consuming good news is also part of staying informed.     2    And it also brings meaningful benefits, like reduced stress and anxiety, higher rates of engagement, community building skills, and inspiration for creating a better world. Plus, knowing what to look for in the good news landscape is a key part of improving our media literacy skills and being thoughtful news consumers.

In fact, good news, known as solutions journalism, is becoming more popular, as publishers and news stations discover the benefits of sharing positive stories. Good Good Good is one of them.     3     A team of reporters and editors there work daily to deliver stories that make readers feel hopeful and equipped to do more good with possible solutions.

“If it bleeds, it leads.” has long been a saying used in the media to describe how news stories about violence, death and destruction draw readers’ attention.       4     The thing is, however, there’s also good stuff out there—the delightful and kind parts of humanity. “Beautiful stories are happening worldwide.    5    When you do find them, the world can suddenly feel like a very different place. Good news is a vital part of how we learn about the world and solving the world’s problems.” Hervey, one of Good Good Good’s editors said.

A．Share good news with people around you.

B．It’s just that we don’t hear as much about them.

C．But the “bad news” has its place in the world.

D．It provides a more balanced view of the world.

E．And so, negative news stories are everywhere on news media.

F．Heartwarming stories make you cry and feel good.

G．The news media company is devoted to providing good news intentionally.