1 . In 2002, Huang Hui, a researcher of the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, went diving near Xisha. In addition to getting an irremovable suntan (晒黑), she was left with memories of a beautiful experience with clear water and abundant colorful corals (珊瑚). However, much of the breathtaking scenery of this reef has disappeared due to climate change and human activities. All of these factors led to the decline of the coral reef in the near shore waters. “We started to cultivate corals near the Xisha Islands in 2010, and restored more than 200,000 square meters of coral reefs,” Huang said.
In 2004, when Huang was attending the 10th International Coral Reef Symposium, she found herself the only representative from the Chinese mainland. She said she felt sad but she made up her mind to strengthen communication with other countries to improve China’s level and status in coral research. She visited top coral research institutes in the US and Australia, establishing long-term cooperation with some of the world’s top coral researchers. By far, Huang has worked on coral research and protection for 22 years. Now, China is in a leading position in terms of technology and coral planting scale.
Huang believes that people’s consciousness of coral protection matters most to the sustainable development of the coral reefs. “I want to call on more people to love nature and look at the ocean in awe,” Huang said.
Partly due to her efforts, Hainan Province released a law in 2017 banning reef exploitation (开发), trading and damaging.
Huang works as a consultant for customs and frontier police on coral protection and promotes coral protection in her local schools. Huang also provides online free training for divers to teach them proper behavior in the sea to protect coral reefs.
“A group of ‘folk scientists’ have also been trained with the hope that more people can gain awareness of the significance of coral reef protection and know how to protect them,” said Huang.
“I am 50, and when I become 60, I hope that not only a coral island will be built but a sustainable development pattern will also be created,” said Huang. “The ideal state is that the coral island should be able to support fishermen and preserve the ecosystem,” she added.
1. What impressed Huang most when going diving near Xisha in 2002?| A．A permanent sunburn on her skin. |
| B．A large quantity of colorful corals. |
| C．A sweet memory of her childhood. |
| D．The sudden disappearance of corals. |
2. What does Paragraph 2 mainly focus on?
| A．China’s advances in coral protection. | B．Huang’s devotion to coral protection. |
| C．Huang’s concern over coral protection. | D．People’s ignorance of coral protection. |
| A．Introduction of advanced technology. |
| B．Tough laws banning reef exploitation. |
| C．Public awareness of coral protection. |
| D．Communication with foreign countries. |
| A．Corals in South China Sea are in danger. |
| B．Scientist plants corals to save ecosystem. |
| C．China is taking the lead in planting corals. |
| D．Measures are to be taken to protect corals. |
2 . You may have recently seen a video from the Beijing Wildlife Zoo becoming a hit. What exactly was so interesting about this video? It shows a dog playing with big cats four to five times its size! Many people might wonder if this dog has a death wish, but it seems that the dog and the big cats are good friends.
The dog was actually raised alongside the lion and tiger cubs, making up an odd but loving family, according to zoo officials. As opposed to the common belief, cross-species friendship has been around for centuries. People have domesticated many animals, most notably cats and dogs, and formed bonds with them as pets. Perhaps you even have a pet yourself.
There are many other instances of cross-species friendships.
At an animal sanctuary in Santiago, Chile, a jaguar named Marina and a deer named Laura formed a friendship after they both came to the park. As neither animal had a mother, sanctuary staff said they instantly bonded when they met. Laura had been rescued from a slaughterhouse while Marina had been rescued from the street.
One possible explanation for these friendships is the environment of the zoo. Animals don’t hunt for their food and don’t need to worry about marking their territory or looking for mates in the way an animal in the wild would. “All those activities take time and energy, and if these needs are removed, the animals get bored,” Gordon Burghardt, a psychologist at the University of Tenessee, US, told The Atlantic magazine. “In this particular situation, the animal’s motivation to engage socially and playfully may be higher in its need hierarchy(等级)than eating.”
Marc Bekoff, former biology professor at the University of Colorado, US, told Slate magazine, “I think the choices animals make in cross-species relationships are the same as they’d make in same-species relationships. Some dogs don’t like every other dog. Animals are very selective about the other individuals who they let into their lives.”
1. What is the common opinion about the friendship between animals?| A．It’s easier for dogs and cats to become friends. |
| B．Animals tend to play with peers of the same species. |
| C．The friendship between animals is not solid and reliable. |
| D．It’s common that animals of different species can become friends. |
| A．To present a truth. | B．To explain a phenomenon. |
| C．To introduce the topic. | D．To provide a proof. |
| A．The existing tradition. | B．The influence by mates. |
| C．The animals’ inner social drive. | D．The animals’ raisers’ instruction. |
| A．To appeal to people to treasure animals. |
| B．To inform readers of a special friendship. |
| C．To demonstrate the history of bringing up pets. |
| D．To compare friendship between cross-species and same-species. |
3 . Humans have been living and working on the space station for 20 years. Their meals are packaged, though sometimes astronauts receive fresh treats from resupply missions. The longer that packaged food is stored, the more it loses nutrients like vitamin C and vitamin K.
Astronauts have successfully grown 10 different crops on the space station since 2015 and had the chance to sample each one. The International Space Station hosted a party for astronauts on Friday as they celebrated the harvest of the first Chili (辣椒) grown in space. The crew finally had a chance to taste the peppers after initially kicking off the plant experiment on the space station in July.
Plant Habitat-04 is one of the most complex plant experiments on the orbiting laboratory to date because peppers take much longer to grow than the previous experiment plants. After growing for four months, the peppers were harvested on Friday.
Peppers provide a great source of vitamin C, as well as other key nutrients. Pepper plants self-pollinate, so they are easy to grow, and they are a pick-and-eat crop that doesn’t have to be cooked. They are also safe to eat raw.
A side effect of life in zero gravity is that astronauts often lose some of their taste and smell, so spicy or well-seasoned foods are a favorite. Adding fresh greens or peppers to the menu allows astronauts to liven up their regular meals. But growing and tending to the plants can also produce other benefits.
Astronauts have described the joy from seeing—as well as smelling and caring for—leafy green plants on the space station that remind them of Earth.
“Growing colorful vegetables in space can have long-term benefits for physical and psychological health,” said Matt Romeyn, principal investigator for the experiment.” We are discovering that growing plants and vegetables with colors and smells helps to improve astronauts’ well-being.”
1. What does underlined “kicking off” in the 2nd paragraph mean?| A．Launch. | B．Complete. | C．Quit. | D．Announce. |
| A．The technology. | B．Growing process. |
| C．The varieties of plants. | D．Growing time required. |
| A．They are delicious. | B．They restore their appetite. |
| C．They help kill diseases. | D．They improve their memory. |
| A．The Fun in the Space Life |
| B．The Common Goal in the Space Mission |
| C．The First Chili Peppers Grown in Space |
| D．A Research Finding from the Space Mission |
4 . Chase Poust is a 7-year-old boy. He and his dad Steven, and his 4-year-old sister, Abigail were out for a family boating trip on Florida’s St. Johns River near Mandarin Point. Chase and Abigail were swimming at the back end of the anchored boat while Steven was on deck (甲板) fishing.
It was an idyllic (悠闲的) outing — until a strong wave came. It was too strong for Abigail to hold onto the boat. Instantly realizing his sister would be swept away, Chase let go of the boat as well to try and reach her.
Steven jumped into the water but after realizing he couldn’t keep up with both kids, he was faced with a hard decision. “I told them I loved them because I wasn’t sure what’s going to happen,” Steven told News-4 JAX. “I tried to stick with both of them. I wore myself out. She drifted away from me.”
Directing Chase to swim to shore for help, Steven stayed behind, keeping as close as he could to Abigail as the life-vest that was keeping her above the waves floated further and further from his reach.
It was a tough go for the 7-year-old, but rather than attempting to swim all out, Chase wisely paced himself. Stopping to float or dog paddle when he was tired, he’d rest and then set off again. It took Chase an hour to reach the shore. Once on solid ground, he ran to the nearest house and called for help.
Rescuers arrived soon to search for Steven and Abigail. Miraculously, the two were found and rescued about an hour later-more than a mile away from the family’s abandoned boat.
1. What happened during the family boating trip?| A．Chase went out fishing alone. | B．The boat ran into an anchored boat. |
| C．Steven fell off the boat by accident. | D．Abigail was washed away by a wave. |
| A．He couldn’t stick with both kids. | B．He didn’t know how to swim. |
| C．He couldn’t find rescuers nearby. | D．He wasn’t sure what might happen. |
| A．To hold Abigail tightly. | B．To look for helpers. |
| C．To wait calmly in the water. | D．To give the life-vest to Abigail. |
| A．Brave and clever. | B．Innocent and kind. |
| C．Proud and patient. | D．Honest and helpful. |
5 . Everywhere you look, people are looking at screens, and then half an hour has gone by before they realize it.
Researchers at the University of Washington conducted in-depth interviews to learn why we can’t stop checking our phones. They found a series of reasons, common across age groups, that start and end habitual smartphone use. Hiniker and her team interviewed three groups of smartphone users: high school students, college students and adults who have graduated from college. The 39 interviewees were smartphone users in the Seattle area between the ages of 14 and 64.
In general, interviewees had four common reasons for using their phones:
■During unoccupied moments, like waiting for a friend to show up.
■Before or during boring and repetitive tasks.
■When in socially awkward situations.
■When they are expecting a message.
The group also had common reasons that ended their phone use:
■Meeting competing needs from the real world, like meeting up with a friend or needing to drive somewhere.
■Realizing that they had been on their phones for half an hour.
■Coming across content they’d already seen.
The team was surprised to find that the reasons were the same across age groups. "This doesn't mean that teens use their phones the same way adults do. But I think this desire to turn back to your phone plays out the same way across all these groups. The high school students would say ‘Anytime I have a dead moment, if I have one minute between classes I pull out my phone. ' And the adults would say 'Anytime I have one dead moment, if I have one minute between seeing patients at work. I pull out my phone.’”
1. When is a man most likely to use his smartphone?| A．When he is talking with a friend. |
| B．When he is late for a friend’s party. |
| C．When he is given a challenging task. |
| D．When he is taking the lift with a stranger. |
| A．They liked to read the same thing again. |
| B．They used smartphones in the same way. |
| C．They used smartphones nonstop for a long time. |
| D．They shared the same reasons for smartphone use. |
| A．Influence of Smartphone Addiction. |
| B．Ways to Stop Smartphone Addiction. |
| C．Difference in Smartphone Use across Age Groups. |
| D．Research on the Strong Desire for Smartphone Use. |
6 . My daughter is a middle school student who still plays with her American Girl dolls. Dolls have been a huge part of her life ever since she was a baby. When she got her first doll at the age of 5, she spent hours brushing its hair and changing its clothes. Some people think my daughter should stop doing that as a teenager. But I think quite differently.
Considering the less attractive activities that are out there and what else she could be doing, I find playing with dolls seems like a nice choice. It’s better than playing computer games or something alike. I’ve also noticed it doesn’t make any difference to her social life. She has her friends and spends time with them.
Playing with dolls is helpful for my daughter. “When I play with them, ” my daughter told me, “it makes me feel that I can express problems going on in my life and that I’m not the only one who has those problems. They’re in their lives, too, and they have to live with them.” I’m glad she finds a safe place to stay when she faces school test, changeable social groups, and a changing body in middle school.
Moreover, the girl dolls can be encouraging. Most come with an amazing back story. For instance, Luciana is interested in science and technology and wants to become an astronaut. How cool it is to set an example for kids!
So next time, when someone tries to judge my young teen for playing with her dolls, I’ll remember all the ways she benefits from them. And when she grows too large for them, I hope she saves her dolls and brings them out one day in the future so that her own kids can get the benefits of playing with them, even into their teen years.
1. What does the author say about her daughter?| A．She has a lasting interest in dolls. |
| B．She likes collecting some special dolls. |
| C．She has got bored with her childhood dolls as a teenager. |
| D．She spends too much time with dolls instead of her friends. |
| A．Developing her social skills. |
| B．Doing poorly in school exams. |
| C．Missing other amazing activities. |
| D．Avoiding some harmful activities. |
| A．Playing with dolls gives her a sense of responsibility. |
| B．Playing with dolls helps reduce her stress in life. |
| C．She has problems different from other teenagers. |
| D．She has been worried about her school life. |
| A．a scientist | B．a friend |
| C．a doll | D．a girl |
