1 . Out in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 60 miles off the northwest coast of Africa, lie the Canary Islands. In the 1950s, the boom in package tourism showed promise as a new cash crop. But while the Canary Islands had the sunshine, warm climate and ease of access from Europe needed for this new industry, they were missing a vital element picture postcard sandy beaches.
So the developers on Tenerife in the Canary Islands constructed a breakwater (防波堤) over half a mile long. And then, from the Western Sahara on Africa’s northwest coast, they shipped in 270, 000 tons of sand. By 1973, the project was complete. As anticipated, tourists arrived. Along the engineered beach, rows and rows of tourists relax on beach chairs under umbrellas or walk across soft sand to cool down in the water.
Unanticipated was what their presence gave to one of the world’s most endangered fish species, angel sharks — visibility. The gentle wind creates tiny waves on the water’s surface, a magical cover for what lies beneath — an angel shark nursery. Female angel sharks regularly migrate to these ideally sheltered waters to give birth to pups (幼崽), who remain in the shallows for about a year. Feeding on small fishes, they grow to around the same length as a newborn human baby.
Surveys have shown that other beaches in the Canary Islands are also potential nursery sites. Interestingly, most of them have been remade to make them more attractive to people. Playa Chica has another long sweep of imported sand. It’s an attraction for divers as well as angel sharks, so the number of sightings of mature angel sharks of this shoreline is one of highest in the islands.
Normally, massive, environmentally disruptive projects are bad for wildlife. But what’s clear is that after the breakwater was built and the sand arrived, people followed, and in the calm, shallow waters they began to see baby angel sharks. And unlike how many an association between humans and wildlife ends-in conflict and dead animals, this time it led to conservation.
1. Why did the developers on Tenerife carry out the project?| A．To build a base for shipping. | B．To boost the local tourism industry. |
| C．To fight against the rising sea. | D．To protect the island’s eco-system. |
| A．It caused the disappearance of some fishes. |
| B．It made a magical tourist attraction. |
| C．It gave angel sharks a home. |
| D．It created conflicts between sharks and tourists. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Doubtful. | C．Unclear. | D．Intolerant. |
| A．To highlight the financial benefits of tourism. |
| B．To introduce potential human-wildlife coexistence. |
| C．To explain the situation of endangered species. |
| D．To emphasize the importance of wildlife conservation. |
2 . Most Popular UK Destinations for a Staycation
Looking for a cheap stay cation to brighten up your winter? Here are the most popular destinations in the UK.
Blackpool
Whether you’re seeking the thrills of Blackpool Pleasure Beach or are keen to catch a glimpse of Blackpool Tower, the city’s most appealing attraction, the seaside town offers various amazing views. It’s no wonder the town has gained 980.8 million views on TikTok. With accommodation price £75 for a night, you’ll have a golden opportunity to enjoy Blackpool's Illuminations (彩灯) display and the Seaside Trail.
Searborough
North Yorkshire’s Scarborough sees 49,500 monthly searches and 686.4 million views on TikTok. One of the local highlights is the annual St Nicholas Fair. While a one-night stay in Scarborough costs £85, the town offers holiday-makers opportunities to experience ancient British culture at the 12th-century castle ruins.
Swansea
The Welsh town sees 27,100 monthly searches and has 622.4 million views on TikTok. Swansea’s Waterfront Wonderland brings with it the Alpine Village and various amusement attractions. Spending a night here costs just 10 pounds more than in Scarborough. But if you book a week earlier, you can get a 5 percent discount in total. With Cardiff only being an hour’s drive from Swansea, you have the perfect opportunity to catch a game of ice hockey.
Bournemouth
Bournemouth isn’t called Sunny Bournemouth for nothing, as holiday-makers can enjoy breathtaking views along the Jurassic Coast. With a World Heritage Site within its borders, it’s no surprise to see this town with the high number of views on TikTok (868.3 million). A one-night stay will cost you £105, giving you the perfect opportunity to get relaxed.
1. What is the most attractive in Blackpool?| A．Blackpool Pleasure Beach. | B．Blackpool Tower. |
| C．The Illuminations display. | D．The Seaside Trail. |
| A．£ 70. | B．£ 85. | C．£ 85.75. | D．£ 90.25. |
| A．Blackpool. | B．Swansea. | C．Scarborough. | D．Boumemouth. |
3 . European shepherds (牧羊人) and ranchers (大牧场主) are taking the lead in forest fire prevention, by leading their animals to clear away underbrush that allows fires to grow too big, a new study shows.
In thinner forested areas, large herbivores (食草动物) were found in a study to be greatly effective in reducing forest fire risk. “In general terms, it is clear that wild and semi-wild herbivores like horses can reduce wildfire risk through their eating grass,” says Julia Rouet-Leduc, lead author of the study. “Such herbivores can be particularly effective in remote areas, where careful management can prevent wildfire and benefit wild nature in other ways.”
Smaller animals like goats and sheep are ideal for areas that lack natural predators (捕食者). There are no large predators in all of Italy, and without the risk of losing an expensive animal, the eating habits of these smaller animals kept on a farm make them perfect for clearing underbrush and things which larger herbivores can’t stomach.
But there were laws that prevent goats and sheep from entering woods in order to protect them. Since natural numbers of red deer, and other native herbivores have long since disappeared from European forests, the loss of sheep and goats meant that nothing prevented grass from spreading in forests, turning brushfires into dangerous disasters.
That’s why shepherds on Sardinia have written a letter to the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, asking not only to allow their animals to eat grass within the woods, but to create a restoration project of rural areas in Montiferru, where Italy’s worst wildfire in 40 years recently burned its way from the mountain tops to the sea.
Their plan is to bring in more shepherds to better control the fires, and encourage eco-tourism in the area, to incentivize the shepherds to stay. This is already seeing success through both private and public inspiring measures in Catalunya, Spain.
1. What do Julia Rouet-Leduc’s words mainly show?| A．Shepherds should keep large herbivores. |
| B．Herbivores can greatly help reduce wildfires. |
| C．Better management is needed to protect forests. |
| D．Wild and semi-wild herbivores lack natural predators. |
| A．They were not allowed by law. |
| B．They couldn’t feed well there. |
| C．They had been killed by hunters. |
| D．They had been eaten up by predators. |
| A．To ask permission to raise more sheep. |
| B．To protect woods from hungry goats and sheep. |
| C．To offer a way of protecting forests from wildfires. |
| D．To draw attention to Italy’s worst wildfire in 40 years. |
| A．Pay. | B．Prove. | C．Remind. | D．Encourage. |
4 . Joshua trees — some of the most unusual and famous plants of the American Southwest — have survived as a species for some 2.5 million years in the Mojave Desert. Now, they may face extinction due to climate change.
In a new study published in the journal Ecosphere, researchers and volunteer scientists surveyed nearly 4,000 trees in southern California’s Joshua Tree National Park to figure out where the oldest trees grew the best during historic periods of extreme heat and drought. Then, the researchers estimated (估算) how many of these Joshua safe areas would survive to the end of the century based on a range of climate change predictions.
The study authors found that if greenhouse gas emissions (排放物) are seriously limited and summer temperatures are limited to an increase of 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, about 19% of the park’s Joshua tree habitat (栖息地) would survive after the year 2070. If no action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and summer temperatures rise by 9 degrees Fahrenheit or more, however, only 0.02% of the tree’s habitat would survive to the end of the century, leaving the tree close to extinction.
One way to save the Joshua trees from extinction is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, even if the habitats survive, these trees will still be in danger because of wildfires, which have also been happening more often as the climate warms. According to the researchers, fewer than 10% of Joshua trees survive when wildfires rush through their habitats.
“Removing grass is a way park rangers (护林员) are helping to protect the area from fire today,” Sweet, a plant ecologist at the University of California, said. “By protecting the trees, they’re protecting a host of other native insects and animals that depend on them as well.”
1. Why did the researchers survey some Joshua trees?| A．To predict the number of Joshua trees. |
| B．To know their past and predict their future. |
| C．To make sure they will be safe from disasters. |
| D．To set up more nature reserves for Joshua trees. |
| A．Their future is in humans’ hand. |
| B．Their numbers are dropping greatly. |
| C．They may adapt to rising temperatures. |
| D．They are suffering most from climate change. |
| A．Another way to save Joshua trees. |
| B．Another threat Joshua trees may face. |
| C．The importance of Joshua trees’ habitats. |
| D．The chance of fire happening to Joshua trees. |
| A．Skilled. | B．Challenging. |
| C．Creative. | D．Worthwhile. |
5 . A couple, Jake Williams and Charlotte Sinclair, were absolutely done with the long isolation (隔离), following a few years of COVID-19, and then they decided to launch (发起) a community plan. They started Talk the Walk and managed to make people get together, explore London on foot, and get to know each other.
The number one mission was to have fun — even if only a few people showed up for the free events. That’s what they expected when they started on Meetup.com. Suddenly they were getting hundreds of people responding with excitement.
200-300 people of various ages now regularly attend each event, which opens with the playing of icebreaker games. The couple designed the games to be easy for shy people, too, with “fun questions” breaking the nervousness. They picked interesting places to visit. Attendees were even surprised with an offer of chocolate.
“I’ve done some crazy things in my time working from home to stop loneliness, like dog sitting for people and joining gyms just so I can have more conversations with people,” Jake said.
“I think that it’s hugely impactful for people who have been affected by COVID-19, by being forced to work from home and having that isolation,” he continued.
They’ve seen older people talking with younger people, and people becoming friends — so much so that the strangers are now meeting on their own after becoming familiar.
Talk the Walk organised their last event last year, but said they’ll be back once it starts to warm up again.
Nearly 2,000 members in their Meetup community and followers on their Facebook Page are waiting for that day, but at the same time, this young couple might serve as your very own inspiration to connect people in your own communities.
1. What is the couple’s purpose in starting Talk the Walk?| A．To reduce the effect brought by COVID-19. |
| B．To encourage people to do physical exercise. |
| C．To find interesting activities in and around London. |
| D．To end loneliness and bring communities back together. |
| A．By giving attendees amazing presents. |
| B．By arranging easy games and activities. |
| C．By making the organised events enjoyable. |
| D．By choosing famous destinations to explore. |
| A．Talk the Walk is really needed. |
| B．New events will take place in no time. |
| C．Talk the Walk is popular with young people. |
| D．The couple moved people in the community. |
| A．Be active to get in touch with people |
| B．Take part in events after the long isolation |
| C．Couple answers loneliness with organised walks |
| D．Thousands of people show up for interesting events |
6 . If you mention “voice technology”, most people think of Siri, Alexa or Cortana. While personal artificial intelligence (AI) assistants are becoming increasingly popular in our everyday lives, they are just one use of voice tech, and are primarily designed for adults.
Irish tech company SoapBox Labs wants that to change. The company has developed speech recognition technology designed specifically for children, and it’s already in use across a range of applications, from toys to education apps.
Children’s voices differ from that of adults. “Typically, they have a higher pitch (音高), and may use different language or speech patterns, which regular voice technology cannot always pick up on.” explains Patricia Scanlon, the founder of SoapBox. “It’s understandable that an industry that has spent decades working on technology and only focusing on adults runs into a fairly significant problem when they try to apply it to children.”
Rather than making slight changes to the available voice technology already on the market, SoapBox builds its voice engine from scratch-focusing on children aged 2 to 12. The company says it created a data set to train its AI system, made up of thousands of hours of children’s speech collected in real-world noisy environments-kitchens, classrooms and cars-from kids of all ages, accents and dialects (方言)，from a total of 192 countries.
This opens up a whole new market, for which there’s growing demand. More than 8 billion digital voice assistants are expected to be in use, and there is an increased focus on adapting the tech for children.
SoapBox, which is selling a technology rather than a product, has attracted more than 50 clients from around the world. The technology can help a child learn to read or learn a language. It acts as a helpful adult, reacting immediately to the child and giving them one-on-one time, and it can also help to record a child’s progress and provide recommendations to a teacher or parent.
1. What makes SoapBox different from Siri?| A．Its use of voice tech. |
| B．Its creative use of AI. |
| C．It is designed for children. |
| D．It is used on many applications. |
| A．A lot of effort has gone into developing SoapBox. |
| B．Voice technology has much room for development. |
| C．There has been great demand for a system like SoapBox. |
| D．SoapBox understands adults’ voice better than that of children. |
| A．Recordings of 192 dialects. |
| B．Data from a previous system. |
| C．Speech from people of all ages. |
| D．Newly-collected speech of children. |
| A．Markets. | B．Suggestions. | C．Experiments. | D．Problems. |
7 . The Chinese Students and Scholars Association in the UK held a Spring Festival gala (庆典) on Wednesday in London to count down to the Chinese New Year. More than 900attendees, including representatives from British universities and education institutions, as well as Chinese students and scholars, joined to enjoy a feast of Chinese culture.
This year’s Chinese New Year falls on Saturday, and 2024 is the year of the dragon based on the Chinese zodiac. The dragon is considered by the Chinese people to represent dignity, prestige, and fortune.
The festival gala, with a theme of “Soaring Dragon’s Spring Melody”, featured Chinese folk music, dance, singing, martial arts performance and more.
During the event, Zheng Zeguang, China’s ambassador to the UK, made a speech to the attendees, highlighting major accomplishments achieved in the past year and stating China’s future development focuses.
He pointed out that China will determinedly pursue high-quality development and Chinese modernization to advance the great rejuvenation (复兴) of the Chinese nation. China will also call for an equal and orderly multipolar (多级的) world as well as for inclusive economic globalization that benefits all, Zheng noted. “Our motherland has bright prospects for future growth,” he said.
The ambassador praised Chinese students and scholars for being hardworking and behaving in a controlled way, saying that the number of Chinese students in the UK has significantly increased due to the transformation of China. “I hope you will carry on the tradition of patriotism. I hope you will ai m high and work hard. I hope you will unit e and help each other, as well as make friends widely. I hope you will grow into the backbone of the nation in the near future,” he said.
Alistair Fitt, vice-headmaster of Oxford Brookes University, extended warm wishes of good fortune and prosperity in the year of the dragon and expressed hope for progress in Sino-British relations. “I am very sure that our two great nations will continue to expand all of our very successful relationships,” he said.
1. What does the underlined word “prestige” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．The condition of being strange and alone. | B．The condition of being respected and admired. |
| C．The condition of being large and frightening. | D．The condition of being followed and monitored. |
| A．Advertising activities have been organized well in China to promote British universities. |
| B．Chinese students are most attracted by the scenery in the UK. |
| C．The education fees in the UK have been reduced. |
| D．Great changes have taken place in China. |
| A．His suggestions. | B．His surprises. | C．His arrangements. | D．His expectations. |
| A．Spring Festival gala brings joy to Chinese students in UK |
| B．Chinese students in UK count down to Chinese New Year |
| C．Warm wishes of good fortune expressed in year of dragon in UK |
| D．China’s ambassador to UK states China’s future development focuses |
8 . I moved from America to Italy 14 years ago and I have learned a lot along the way. Here are several money-saving tricks I have picked up from living in Italy — most of which can apply to wherever you live too!
Buy fewer groceries at a time.
Italians tend to buy more fresh food — and buy it in smaller quantities. We have just what we know we’ll consume in a few days, before anything has a chance to spoil and go to waste.
Eat seasonally.
I love strawberries, cantaloupe and watermelon, but in Italy, I can only get them in the summer, when they’re ripe. Out of season, these fruits would have to be imported.
Cook more meals at home.
I live in a small town where we have no fast-food restaurants other than a pizzaria that does carry-out. OK! Not only do we save money on expensive restaurant meals, but we get more quality family time by cooking, eating and cleaning up together.
Yes, bigger cities have more options for fast food, delivery and carryout.
| A．Of course, it takes a little more meal planning. |
| B．We also end up having healthier meals. |
| C．Another way Italians save is by growing their own produce. |
| D．It takes a long time to transport goods from foreign countries. |
| E．McDonald’s plans to open 200 new restaurants and hire 12000 staff in Italy by 2025. |
| F．They’d be a lot more expensive, of lesser quality and quite possibly grow n in an industrial greenhouse. |
| G．But even where the community is less closely connected, cooking and sharing meals with family and friends is still a big part of the social structure in Italy. |
9 . In today’s society, kids are interested in films, music and video games. However, many parents are looking for exciting, protected and educational hobbies which their kids can get pleasure from.
One of the several reasons why collecting coins is a hobby that is fantastic for children is that it is an activity that can be enjoyed by oneself or as a family activity. It can teach them the significance of collecting potentially worthwhile items.
In terms of coin-collecting supplies, a lot of parents choose to obtain coin-collecting starter kits (入门套件). Coin-collecting starter kits may be different.
Depending on kids and their age, parents can educate them on collecting coins and the possibilities it holds. For instance, even if kids are just interested in collecting coins for entertainment, they must know that their coins collected may turn lucrative (赚钱的) one day. Of course, for that to take place, all coins collected need to be properly stored and cared for.
As previously stated, collecting coins is an excellent, protected and fun hobby for children of all ages to take pleasure in.
| A．There are a number of choices |
| B．Kids can learn how to save money from it |
| C．Coins collected by kids can be handed to their parents |
| D．But a lot come equipped with how-to guides or coin albums |
| E．Not only can this hobby be a single activity that is educational for children |
| F．Depending on kids’ age, parents can supply them with useful guides for collecting coins and coins resources |
| G．An additional reason why collecting coins is a hobby excellent for youngsters is that it is relatively affordable |
10 . The TV series Wolf Pack starring Sarah Michelle Gellar is centered around the lives of a group of Los Angeles teenagers, whose lives are changed forever when a supernatural creature is freed after a series of unexplained wildfires break out.
Not much is known about Gellar’s character on the show, except for the fact that she is playing Kristin Ramsey, an expert who moves to Los Angeles to find the person who started the wildfires. She spoke to Fox News Digital about her big return to TV, and explained why she thought she was drawn to projects featuring monsters (怪物).
“For me, it’s always about the stories, and in talking today, we have discovered that the superhuman allows you to tell the most human stories because it really allows you to use these monsters to explore emotions, fears and anxieties that you can’t experience in other worlds,” Gellar explained.
“I think it’s a really important conversation that people will be along for the ride, but then realize what the meaning is behind all of it,” she added. Gellar’s co-star, Rodrigo, agreed with her, saying he hoped audiences could look at the deeper meanings behind the monsters on the show and realize they were all metaphors (隐喻) to discuss in our own inner monsters.”
Gellar recently told SFX Magazine she was very proud of the show.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The cause of wildfires. | B．A creature’s activity. |
| C．A group of teenagers’ lives. | D．The plot of Wolf Pack. |
| A．Rich experiences. | B．Monsters in the story. |
| C．Wildfires in a show. | D．Discussion with each other. |
| A．Satisfied. | B．Frightened. | C．Moved. | D．Disappointed. |
| A．Lifestyle. | B．Nature. | C．Science. | D．Entertainment. |
