1 . They don’t call Vusi Sindane “the crazy cyclist” for nothing. The software engineer
When he worked in Limpopo, he saw
However, the pandemic
To
| A．completed | B．assigned | C．connected | D．admitted |
| A．invest | B．borrow | C．raise | D．leave |
| A．nowhere | B．overnight | C．firsthand | D．overhead |
| A．disciplined | B．disadvantaged | C．appointed | D．abandoned |
| A．kept up | B．raced up | C．put up | D．teamed up |
| A．public | B．rural | C．wide | D．urban |
| A．ceased | B．followed | C．assisted | D．designed |
| A．hand | B．head | C．knee | D．arm |
| A．quitted | B．left | C．drove | D．increased |
| A．intense | B．subjective | C．responsible | D．logical |
| A．asked | B．prepared | C．apologized | D．begged |
| A．generate | B．acknowledge | C．operate | D．tolerate |
| A．friend | B．gain | C．check | D．luck |
| A．traffic | B．police | C．attack | D．hope |
| A．returned | B．presented | C．recognized | D．defeated |
| A．win | B．cycle | C．stand | D．bend |
| A．ached | B．interrupted | C．reacted | D．stretched |
| A．respect | B．test | C．cure | D．motivate |
| A．exchange | B．struggle | C．confusion | D．benefit |
| A．set off | B．lived up | C．reached out | D．gave way |
Chinese achievements in pollution control, ecological recovery and protection, and green development China
According to the press briefing, China has been the fastest in improving air quality and the PM 2.5 level in cities at the prefecture level and above dropped by 34.8 percent from that of 2015. Days with good air quality reached 87.5 percent. Pollution of water bodies and the soil is also
The country has taken
1.介绍调查结果；
2.简单评论；
3.发表你的看法。
2.短文的首句已为你写好。
3.参考词汇：baking soda小苏打，soak浸泡，scrub搓洗
Recently, a website has conducted an online survey on three popular methods for cleaning white dirty socks.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . The winning artworks from the first Young Botanical Artist Competition are appearing in an exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London. The competition was open to young people aged 16 to 25 and received more than 1, 000 entries from people in 77 countries.
Botanical art is a special type of drawing or painting that helps botanists describe plants and fungi. It brings to life the tiniest details of grasses, flowers and trees, including their colour and shape, and has been an important scientific tradition for hundreds of years. In fact, Kew Gardens, which is 264 years old and home to 50, 000 plants, has always had a botanical artist in its team.
The theme of the competition was trees, and the winner of the 16 to 18 age group was Marianna Zych (aged 17) from Poland. Her entry, Prunus Serrula, shows the delicately peeling bark of the Tibetan cherry tree, which Zych created with watercolours after just one month of painting classes. The winner of the 19 to 25 category was Khanh Ly Nguyen from Vietnam, whose watercolour, Bauhinia Variegata Leaf, reveals the clear details of an orchid tree leaf.
Both will appear in an exhibition of 50 artworks at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens. All of the featured artworks were picked for their creativity and accuracy by a panel of judges that included botanical artists from around the world. The exhibition runs until April 2024 and visitors are also being asked to vote for the People’s Choice award, which will be announced in April.
Maria Devaney, who manages galleries and exhibitions at Kew Gardens, said botanical art is about inspiring curiosity and discovering the natural world. “It’s been wonderful to see such an enthusiastic response to the competition as a whole,” she said. Dr Shirley Sherwood, a writer and botanist who collects plant pictures, said she was delighted to see first-hand the next generation of talented botanical artists.
1. What can be inferred about Marianna from the third paragraph?| A．She has formally studied painting since childhood. |
| B．She is from Poland which is full of Tibetan trees. |
| C．She has limited experience in watercolor painting. |
| D．She is famous for revealing the details of tree leaves. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Indifferent. | C．Disappointed. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．The Historical Significance of Botanical Illustration |
| B．Young Talents Blossom at the Royal Botanic Gardens |
| C．The Evolution of Botanical Art in Modern Times |
| D．Gardening Tips from the Experts at Kew Gardens |
| A．On a fashion website. | B．In a gardening magazine. |
| C．In an academic textbook. | D．In a cooking review journal. |
5 . Mutual cooperation in which humans cooperate with wild animals is extremely rare. One such system involves the greater honeyguide, a small African bird that leads humans to sources of honey. Once a nest is found, the human honey hunters break into it to obtain honey and bee worms, and the birds benefit from consuming beeswax in the now-exposed honey comb. Both the birds and the humans use specialized sounds to communicate their availability to participate in this cooperative interaction.
The two areas studied by Spottiswoode and Wood are northern Mozambique, where the honey hunters are from the Yao cultural group, and northern Tanzania, where the honey hunters are from the Hadza culture. The Yao communicate with honeyguides using a short and high-pitched sound followed by a low sound ”brrrrhm“, whereas the Hadza use a melodic whistle. Thus, signal and response both vary geographically.
Spotiswoode and Wood propose that the geographic variation they have identified in this mutualism is the product of cultural codevelopment. To qualify as cultural, the cooperative behaviors would have to be acquired through social learning from individuals of the same species. Social learning, however, is less of a given on the honeyguide side. Instead, what is required of honeyguides is another form of vocal learning - comprehension learning — in which the meaning of a signal is learned. Comprehension learning is common in birds. Whether social learning is involved, however, is not so, obvious.
Honeyguides put in considerable effort helping their human partners find food and are faithfully rewarded by being given food in return. In some human cultures, honey hunters purposefully leave out honeycomb to reward honeyeaters, but in others the hunters go, to great length to deny the birds any reward, by collecting, burying, or burning any honeycomb exposed when they destroy a nest. The reason given for these acts is that keeping the birds hungry causes them to continue guiding.
A promising question for future research is whether geographic differences in human cultural preferences for rewarding or not rewarding honeyguides affect the preferences of individual birds for guiding versus taking advantage of the guiding of others.
1. What is the purpose of mentioning the two areas in Paragraph 2?| A．To show that honey hunting is very popular in their culture. |
| B．To explain that communication methods differ in geography. |
| C．To illustrate the differences between the Yao and the Hadza. |
| D．To show that birds can understand various human cultures. |
| A．To let them realize human’s power. |
| B．To make them keep providing help. |
| C．To cause them to burn honeycomb. |
| D．To use the honeycomb themselves. |
| A．Honeyguides have already had strong skills to learn from society. |
| B．Honeyguides have a genetic tendency to guide humans for honey. |
| C．Humans and honeyguides have a mutually beneficial relationship. |
| D．Human honey hunters will lose their jobs without honeyguides. |
| A．The impact of human cultural preferences on honeyguide behavior. |
| B．The further study on the cultural differences in human preferences. |
| C．The ecologically rewarding consequences of honeyguide behavior. |
| D．The influence of honeyguide behavior on human cultural practices. |
6 . Growing up on the shores of Lake Huron in the Canadian province of Ontario, Robert Berdan was never far from water. When he was in sixth grade, he received a toy microscope for Christmas. Some of the first things he saw through its lens were tiny creatures inside droplets he’d gathered from a local pond. He was fascinated with the microorganisms.
After eighth grade, Berdan upgraded to a more sophisticated model and realized it was a portal to another world. “The new microscope changed my life,” he says. “I could see so much more.” He begar studying photography and buying cameras to fit on his microscope. He captured images of ferns, mushrooms, and trees, and learned how to develop film. He also developed his microscopy skills so much so that he earned a doctoral degree in cellular biology and spent five years running a lab at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
But Berdan never forgot his two early passions - being immersed in nature and photographing its tiny details - and he decided to return to them. His subjects range from snowflakes to spruce trees. To see the latter under a microscope, Berdan collects a small branch and wields specialized tools to shave off paper-thin slices, which he dyes red or blue. For the final images, he often uses a process called focus stacking, in which similar photos with different focal planes are mixed together to achieve a more profound depth of field, and he sometimes sews photos together to create views.
“I investigate anything that might have possibilities,” he says. And he encourages others to do the same with a microscope. “Any tool that amplifies our ability to see will enhance our creativity,” he notes “Our observations can potentially lead to new discoveries and solutions.”
1. What inspired Berdan to pursue his passion for microscopic photography?| A．Working in a cellular biology lab. |
| B．Earning a doctoral degree in cellular biology. |
| C．Tiny microscopes from a local pond. |
| D．Childhood experiences near Lake Huron. |
| A．Berdan’s childhood experience with microscopes. |
| B．Berdan’s reason for studying for a doctoral degree. |
| C．Berdan’s transition from amateur to professional. |
| D．Berdan’s hard work of running a lab in Edmonton. |
| A．Expands. | B．Decreases. | C．Mixes. | D．Changes. |
| A．He has received formal training in photography and microscopy. |
| B．He mainly focuses on capturing images of various microscopes. . |
| C．He experiments with different ways to enhance the depth of field. |
| D．He is the most skilled biologist in capturing mushrooms and trees. |
7 . Despite the freezing weather outside, ice cream never loses its charm. Do you want one? Here are some famous ice cream brands, there must be one that suits your taste.
Baskin Robbins
Baskin Robbins has been around for over 70 years. And with their many locations of ice-cream shops and the ability to purchase pints in grocery stores, these ice cream products are highly accessible. Baskin Robbins is known for their’ wide array of ice cream flavors, ranging from classics like Pralines n’ Cream to unique offerings such as Secret Admirer, Cherries Jubilee, and Skillet Cookie Crumble. They even make delightful ice cream cakes that are perfect for your junior’s birthday parties.
So Delicious
So Delicious is unique in that it is a dairy-free brand. They make non-dairy coffee creamers, cheese, and ice cream products. If you are on a dairy-free diet, this brand is for you. They make so many types of non-dairy ice cream with bases including almond milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, soy milk, oat milk, and their new concoction “wonder milk. ”Their flavors range from buttery pecan, to oat milk coffee chip, and dark chocolate truffle.
Magnum
Magnum ice cream carries many frozen ice cream products sold in grocery stores as well as a non-dairy line of ice creams. They are most known for their signature hard chocolate shell that appears in ice cream pints as well as on many of their ice cream frozen bars. They also carry a variety of ice cream pints in flavors such as Double Cookie Crumble, Milk Chocolate Vanilla, and Double Red Velvet.
Adirondack Creamery
Adirondack Creamery was launched in New York and sources local cream for their wide line of ice cream flavors. Some of these flavors include Kulfi Pistachio Cardamom, Syrian Date and Walnut, and Black Raspberry. They pride themselves on avoiding the use of additives and sell their products in some grocery stores- although they also have overnight nationwide delivery if you are not a local resident.
1. What is Baskin Robbins famous for?| A．A limited selection of flavors. |
| B．Being highly accessible to people. |
| C．A variety of ice cream flavors. |
| D．Being perfect for birthday parties. |
| A．It is a brand providing free dairy. |
| B．It is a brand making various milk. |
| C．It is a brand favored by milkman. |
| D．It is a brand free of dairy products. |
| A．In New York. | B．From Syria. | C．All over the US. | D．Internationally. |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧), 并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词：
2.只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Last weekend, my friends and I decided to go to skiing together. As we arrived, we could see the slopes cover in a blanket of white, which waited for us to overcoming them. We eager rented our skis and snowboards and made our way to the beginner’s slope. Some of us were experiencing skiers, when others were trying it for the first time. We encouraged each other but shared tips on how to manage the slopes. As we slid down hill, a sense of joy filled the air. We challenged us to tackle more challenging runs. Skiing together not only allowed us to enjoy the thrill of the sport but strengthen our friendship.
9 . In today’s world, where the consequences of climate change are becoming increasingly evident, the need for energy conservation has never been more pressing.
Use your laptop more than your desktop
Laptops use an average of 20 to 50 watts of electricity to run, whereas desktop computers use an average of 60 to 200 watts of electricity to run. The reason for this is that laptops run off of battery power and desktops are continuously plugged into a power source that drains energy.
Charge your phone in airplane mode and before bedtime
While charging, switch your phone to airplane mode, so that the phone does not slow down the charging process by continually burning energy trying to connect with cell phone towers and plot your location with its GPS function. When you switch to airplane mode your phone charges more quickly.
The brighter the screen setting, the more power it uses and vibration uses more energy than a ringtone.
Unplug mobile phone and laptop chargers
Always unplug electronics and appliances when not in use.
Reduce your carbon footprint by organizing your files and eliminating unnecessary data from cloud storage! Companies offering cloud data storage need warehouses filled with servers running nonstop. These data centers consume massive amounts of energy since they require AC systems to avoid overheating.
| A．Low Power Mode also saves battery life |
| B．Delete unwanted files from cloud storage |
| C．Saving energy is now easier with these tips from UNICEF |
| D．Therefore, energy conservation has never been more pressing |
| E．Unused electronic appliances may produce harm to the environment |
| F．Deenergization will save you energy, money, and can prevent electrical fires |
| G．Make sure to unplug your laptop from the power source once it’s fully charged |
10 . Photosynthesis (光合作用) is a unique skill of green plants — they turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and food via sunlight. A group of Chinese scientists, however, “copied” the process on animals.
To understand the new breakthrough, it is important to know how photosynthesis works. Plants take in carbon dioxide and water from the air and soil. Within the plant cell, the water is oxidized. This transforms the water into oxygen and the carbon dioxide into glucose (葡萄糖). The plant then releases the oxygen back into the air and stores energy within the glucose molecules.
In the study, the researchers from Zhejiang University developed an independent and controllable photosynthetic system, according to the study published in Nature in early December. They separated thylakoids, a part of the cell where light reactions take place in plants, from young spinach (菠菜) leaves. The scientists then wrapped the thylakoids with the cover of animal cells, which made the implanted thylakoids more acceptable to foreign bodies.
The mice used in the study were suffering from arthritis (关节炎) meaning cells in their cartilage had degenerated and could not be repaired by themselves. With the thylakoids implanted into the mice and exposed to light, the mice recovered. Their metabolism (新陈代谢) returned to normal.
In arthritis, the patients usually have energy loss since fewer energy-carrying molecules are generated. The implant, however, can correct the imbalance by storing more energy via photosynthesis.
The researchers also claimed that their tests would have medical usage. “It can be used as part of solution for degenerative diseases because the natural photosynthesis system may repair cells. It may also delay the aging process in cells. The study showed an exciting achievement that opens up possibilities of metabolism engineering,” commented one of the paper’s reviewers Francisco Cejudo from the University of Seville in Spain, reported Xinhua.
1. Why does the author mention the way photosynthesis works in Paragraph 2?| A．To help us understand how scientists apply the principle to animals. |
| B．To explain to us the definition of photosynthesis. |
| C．To prove plants’ ability to release the oxygen back into the air. |
| D．To show us how plants turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen. |
| A．To lead to light reactions. | B．To provide them with nutrition. |
| C．To prevent them from degeneration. | D．To help them work better in foreign bodies. |
| A．By repairing a broken metabolism. | B．By getting rid of degenerated cells. |
| C．By helping maintain energy balance. | D．By offering energy-carrying molecules. |
| A．Suggestions for future studies. | B．The significance of the study. |
| C．The limitations of the study. | D．Other findings of the study. |
