1 . Making use of the wind, the water or, for more than half of all plant species, animals, plants disperse (散播) seeds far and wide. Frugivores — animals such as gibbons that feed on the fleshy fruits of plants — eat and then excrete (排泄) seeds away from the original tree. The African savanna elephant can carry seeds up to a record-breaking distance of 65 kilometres. This ability to shift geographical ranges will be crucial to plants when it comes to surviving climate change. However, just like all gibbon species, the African savanna elephant is endangered, its population down by 60 percent over the past 50 years.
Researchers in Denmark and the USA have published a new study into how the loss of seed-dispersing animals could affect the resilience (恢复力) of forests and other natural ecosystems. They found that, historically, the decline of seed-dispersing animals has had the greatest influence on plants across the temperate (温带的) regions of North and South America, Europe and southern Australia. “Our temperate ecosystems have lost a lot of the natural seed-dispersal function that they would have had,” explains Evan Fricke, lead author of the study, referring to large mammals that were once widespread in these regions.
Nevertheless, the poor conservation status of many seed-dispersing tropical animals puts plants in regions such as Southeast Asia and Madagascar most at risk today. Without the preservation of such animals, global seed dispersal could decline by a further 15 percent. “The direct implication of this decline is that many plant species will be unable to keep pace with a changing climate,” says Fricke. “That means the potential loss not only of plant biodiversity but of the ecosystem functions that those plants provide.”
As wildlife is lost, plants can no longer adapt and survive and forests become less sustainable, which reduces the amount of carbon they can store. They also lose their ability to support wildlife. Whole ecosystems are disrupted. The conclusion, Fricke says, is clear: we must conserve currently endangered species and restore the populations of important seed dispersers. “Independent of climate change, rewilding has the potential to benefit our ecosystems, but in a changing climate, it has the added benefit of increasing the climate resilience of those ecosystems,” he says.
1. The author mentions the African savanna elephant in Paragraph 1 to ________.| A．provide a solution | B．predict the ending |
| C．express an opinion | D．highlight the problem |
| A．They are vital and endangered. |
| B．They are being well conserved. |
| C．They are unrelated to whole ecosystems. |
| D．They are widespread across the temperate regions. |
| A．Seed-dispersing animals play an important role in preventing climate change. |
| B．The loss of seed-dispersing animals has hardly affected temperate regions. |
| C．Rewilding can promote the climate resilience of our ecosystems. |
| D．Plants disperse seeds by way of animals excreting them. |
1. 表示安慰；
2. 给出建议。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
Skyscrapers (摩天大楼) are the ultimate symbol of urban life. By 2050, almost 80 percent of the earth’s population could live in cities. The human population could increase to 9.1 billion people yet the amount of land available for farming will be the same. How to meet the increasing food needs of our planet could be a big problem.
Vertical farms, where urban farmers could grow crops in environmentally friendly skyscrapers, could be the solution. In spite of concerns over high costs, experts want to make these urban farms a reality and use these skyscrapers to grow crops. They believe that we can increase food production by changing our thinking from out to up.
Vertical farms would have many advantages, experts say. The food would be grown with minimal effects on the environment. Unlike traditional farming, vertical farming would not force animals out of their habitats by taking over large areas of land, nor would it pollute the air with the use of heavy farming equipment. Those farms would also reduce the cost and negative effects of transporting food over long distances. These have been well recognized.
Growing prosperity has led to many people demanding that all foods are available all year round. Indoor farming could produce crops constantly and crops would not suffer from weather-related problems like drought or flooding. In addition, the use of agricultural chemicals for controlling insects would be minimal.
Experts agree that new farming practices are needed to support the planet’s need for more and more food at affordable costs, both to the farmer and to the consumer. Vertical farms may be a small-scale answer, but the best ideas could be yet to come.
1. According to this passage, what could be a big problem?2. What would be the advantages of vertical farming?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Vertical farms could meet people’s demand for available food all year round, because it could produce crops constantly and crops would not be affected by any problems.
4. In addition to vertical farms, what else do you think can help solve the food shortage? (In about 40 words)
4 . Emojis are everywhere. They offer effective and fun ways to interact with others. Used well, they can become an engaging and creative addition to communication.
One well-chosen emoji can replace many words of text.
Emojis are clear, colorful, and designed to convey a single message memorably — which has been shown to increase interest and engagement. They stand out among text, especially when the recipient is working quickly or on the move.
Many emojis mean the same thing to everyone, everywhere.
Emojis can help you to show your human side, making you seem friendlier and more approachable. What’s more, the brain reacts to images of faces, and to real faces, in a very similar way.
Alongside all the potential benefits of emojis that we’ve listed above, there are also dangers you’ll need to guard against.
| A．Here are some of the reasons why emojis are so popular. |
| B．Many employees in some western countries are using emojis at work. |
| C．An emoji is often easier and quicker to understand than a written explanation. |
| D．So they can break through language barriers, and promote easy communication. |
| E．For example, you could select an emoji of a house to set your status as “working from home.” |
| F．A poorly chosen emoji can cause problems, because some of the images are not universally understood. |
| G．For example, the crossed fingers emoji means good luck in some places, but it’s seen as an impolite sign in others. |
5 . A person could be forgiven for believing 20 years ago that the Internet would soon revolutionise academic publishing, because it became possible for publishers to spread scholarly work at the click of a button — much cheaper than the traditional subscription-based (订阅) model. Recognising the opportunity, many scholars and librarians started to advocate a new, open access model, in which articles are made freely available online to anyone. The result would be a true online public library of science.
However, more than two decades later, the movement has made little progress, and the traditional subscription-based model remains entrenched.
Fortunately, things are changing. A big shoe dropped when the University of California (UC) Libraries, on of the biggest library systems, declined to renew its contract with Elsevier, a leading scientific publisher. Elsevier wanted the libraries to pay two fees: one for its package of licensed journals and the other for the use of Elsevier’s open access model. UC Libraries wanted the licensed journals fee to cover the open access fee; they also wanted open access to all UC researches published in Elsevier journals. When the two sides couldn’t come to terms, the libraries walked away.
Actually, the open access revolution is more likely to be led by research funding agencies, who can use their purse power to promote open access. A team of funders, Coalition S, insisted that any research they fund should be published in a journal that makes all of its articles freely and immediately available to the public, which is called Plan S.
Now that some librarians and funders are flexing their muscles, what should academics do? The worst response would be to complain that Plan S deprives (剥夺) them of academic freedom. Some thoughtful academics might worry that a shift to open access would affect their promotion. After all, subscription journals are more familiar and more prestigious (有威望的) in the current system. However, if enough academics support open access, the system could reach a tipping point beyond which subscriptions no longer signal prestige. Reaching that point would take considerable time and efforts, but it is possible.
When the journal system started in 1665, it was kind of a form of open access. Journals allowed academics to learn openly from one another. It was only in the 1900s that the journal system became thoroughly commoditized (商品化). Now is the time to bring it back to its roots.
1. What does the underlined word “entrenched” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?| A．Unpopular. | B．Unfixed. | C．Unchanged. | D．Unknown. |
| A．The number of published researches. |
| B．The charge for open access model. |
| C．The duration of the contract. |
| D．The way of payment. |
| A．Academics think open access model will help them get promoted. |
| B．Publishers are willing to abandon the subscription model gradually. |
| C．Establishing a true online public library of science requires joint efforts. |
| D．Open access model will soon take the place of subscription-based model. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Indifferent. | C．Doubtful. | D．Supportive. |
6 . When I was little, my dad would let me sit beside him o the porch while he painted. He would tell me how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you’ve got magic.
I understood what he was saying, but I never felt what he was saying until one day when I was up in the sycamore tree to rescue a kite stuck in the branches. It was a long way up, but I thought I’d give it a shot. I started climbing. Then I looked down. And suddenly I got dizzy and weak. I was miles off the ground! But the kite was still beyond my reach. I caught my breath and forced myself to concentrate on the kite as I climbed up.
When I had the kite free, I needed a minute to rest. That’s when the fear of being up so high began to lift, and in its place came the most amazing feeling that I was flying. Just soaring above the earth, sailing among the clouds.
Then I got to notice how wonderful the breeze smelled. It seemed like sunshine and wild grass and rain! I couldn’t stop breathing it in, filling my lungs again and again with the sweetest smell I’d ever known.
I never got over the view. I kept thinking of what it felt like to be up so high in that tree. I wanted to see it, to feel it, again. And again.
It wasn’t long before I wasn’t afraid of being up so high and found the spot that became my spot. I could sit there for hours, just looking out at the world. Sunsets were amazing. Some days they’d be purple and pink, some days they’d be a blazing orange, setting fire to clouds across the horizon.
It was on a day like that when my father’s notion (观念) moved from my head to my heart. The view from my sycamore was more than rooftops and clouds and wind and colors combined.
1. Why did the author climb up the sycamore tree?| A．To practice climbing skills. | B．To get a trapped kite. |
| C．To prove her courage. | D．To play in the tree. |
| A．well-planned and interesting | B．adventurous but rewarding |
| C．competitive and imaginative | D．unusual but painful |
| A．she could enjoy more than good views |
| B．her father encouraged her to do so |
| C．it could help her to concentrate |
| D．the tree had the sweetest smell |
| A．The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. |
| B．Beautiful things don’t ask for attention. |
| C．Positive action leads to happiness. |
| D．Practice makes perfect. |
It’s a tragic story that
8 . A good meal has a positive impact on one’s mood. Those who feast on Christmas buffet almost enjoy an immediate rise in their blood sugar. That will prompt a flood of chemicals that act as happy hormones to rush through their brains.
But the pleasure goes deeper. Tyrosine and tryptophan are needed for the production, respectively, of dopamine, a neurotransmitter (神经传递素) that controls feelings of pleasure and reward, and serotonin, another such, which helps regulate mood. And cranberries are high in vitamin C, which is involved in converting dopamine to noradrenaline, another neurotransmitter, and a lack of which seems to be associated with depression.
With mental-health disorders rising, a growing number of scientists are investigating how food or nutritional supplements affect the mind. But separating the brain’s nutritional needs from those of the rest of the body is difficult. Not possible for now, at least. And, compared with other fields, nutritional science is understudied. That is partly because it is hard to do well. Randomised controlled trials (rcts), used to test drugs, are tricky. Few people want to stick to an experimental diet for years. Instead, most nutritional science is based on observational studies that try to establish associations between particular foods or nutrients and diseases. They cannot be used to definitively prove a causal ( 因 果 关 系 的 ) connection between a disease and a particular contributing factor in a diet. But as with smoking and lung cancer, put together enough of these kinds of trials and causal narratives begin to emerge.
It is now clear that some diets are particularly good for the brain. One recent study concludes that sticking to the “Mediterranean diet”, high in vegetables, fruit, pulses and wholegrains, low in red and processed meats and saturated fats, decreases the chances of experiencing strokes, cognitive impairment and depression. Other recent work looking at a “green” Mediterranean diet high in polyphenols found it reduced age-related brain atrophy. Another version, the mind diet, emphasises, among other things, eating berries over other kinds of fruit and seems to lessen the risk of dementia.
Scientists think such diets may work by reducing inflammation in the brain. This, in turn, may affect areas such as the hippocampus, which is associated with learning, memory and mood regulation—and where new neurons grow in adults. Studies in animals show that when they are fed a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids (from walnuts, for example), flavonoids (consumed mainly via tea and wine), antioxidants (found in berries) and resveratrol (found in red grapes), neuron growth is stimulated and inflammatory processes are reduced. This fits with research suggesting that those who regularly eat ultra-processed, fried and sugary foods, which increase inflammation in the brain, heighten their risk of developing depression.
1. Which of the following words can replace “tricky” in Paragraph 3?| A．Rare. |
| B．Tough. |
| C．Traditional. |
| D．Contradictory. |
| A．By keeping at an experimental diet for years. |
| B．By carrying out randomized controlled trials. |
| C．By identifying a particular contributing factor. |
| D．By comparing findings of certain kinds of trials. |
| A．A diet rich in fruit is good for cognitive abilities. |
| B．People fond of sugary foods may be a risk lover. |
| C．Red grapes add fuel to inflammation in the brain. |
| D．Drinking tea can solve age-related brain problems. |
| A．The links between diets and diseases. |
| B．The significance of Mediterranean diet. |
| C．The function of various neurotransmitters. |
| D．The influence of nutrients on mental health. |
As the saying goes, “time waits for no man”. Time is always against us, and we just can’t stop it. Maybe that’s why some of us are always running late for appointments. But if timekeeping is not what you’re good at, don’t stress. There might be a good reason for your lack of punctuality.
People’s attitudes to being on time vary. Some clock-watch and make sure they’re bang on time for a meeting. It is, after all, rude to be late, and if you can make it on time, why can’t everyone else? But if, like me, you want to make every second count, you might try to squeeze as much as you can into the time you have available. However, when your schedule doesn’t run to plan, your punctuality inevitably slips.
People who lack promptness have been described as “time benders”. Author Grace Pacie told the BBC that “they’re the people who don’t want to be late, but they have a strange resistance to being early, and they don’t allow enough time.” They assume their journey to an appointment will always go smoothly, and the train will always be on time!
Perceptions of unpunctual people are almost always negative — even if sometimes wrong. Experts say: Being consistently late might not be your fault. It could be your type. The punctually-challenged often share personality characteristics, such as optimism, low levels of self-control, anxiety, or a penchant for thrill-seeking. It is also possible people are late so not to be conspicuous and to avoid the anxious wait for others to turn up.
Maybe we latecomers should make more of an effort and follow the advice I heard to not “try” to be on time but “decide” to be on time.
1. What does “time benders” refer to?2. What are the personality characteristics of time benders?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
According to Grace Pacie, time benders don’t care about being late so they don’t allow enough time.
4. What do you usually do to be on time? (In about 40 words)
10 . The beginning of the Year of the Dragon has foreshadowed a “Song of Ice and Fire” with the emergence of Sora, a text-to-video AI model. Videos generated by Sora display strong consistency when it comes to characters and backgrounds, and support continuous shots of up to 60 seconds, including highly detailed settings and multiple camera angles.
However, film insiders noted that currently, AI-generated 60-second videos cannot support the creation of a full-length movie, and the idea that AI tools will “bomb” the film and television industry is so far unfounded. Meanwhile, experts say not to worry excessively, as the integration of AI will help optimize certain occupations, attract more innovative talents and bring new possibilities to the film and television industry.
From the age of film stock to the digital age, from practical effects to digital effects, from 2D to 3D, Sora, like any technological revolution in the century-long history of film, will improve production efficiency, update production and may even create new genres and trends in filmmaking.
Facing the panic signals that AI tools will threaten the global film industry, film insiders argued that the fundamental DNA of film is art and that human creativity cannot be replaced.
| A．With OpenAI’s iteration speed, producing AI videos dozens of minutes long is not far off. |
| B．It is also likely to be incorporated into film and television education and training in the future. |
| C．Film and television are closely linked to technological advancements, which stimulate creativity. |
| D．Sora will undoubtedly prompt changes in existing industrial production and may even replace some jobs. |
| E．Sora is undoubtedly “more of an opportunity than a challenge” for the global film and television industry. |
| F．Creativity and film production requires the integration of emotional experiences and individual memories. |
| G．This implies that with just a text description, ordinary people using Sora may be able to become “great directors”. |
