1 . Our recommended list of environmental books covers a broad range of topics. These must-read environmental books are sure to spark the interest of the greenest books.
Silent Spring
Written by Rachel Carson, Silent Spring highlights the effects of pesticides (杀虫剂) on the environment, especially DDT, which was a very popular insecticide until it was finally banned in 1972. The book eventually led to a change in the United States’ pesticide policy and contributed to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference.
This book collects 11 speeches made by climate activist Greta Thunberg, highlighting the issue of climate change and its impact on future generations. Greta Thunberg was 15 when she started the School Strike for Climate, also known as Fridays for Future. She inspired protests worldwide.
The Uninhabitable Earth
This book by David Wallace Wells examines the disasters that have already occurred and looks ahead to the year 2100 and what climate change will do if we continue on our current path. Its opening line is incredibly telling: “It is worse, much worse, than you think.”
The End of Nature
Published in 1989, the book describes the relationship between nature and humans. It expresses the idea that nature was previously independent of humans but has now been affected by them in every way. According to author Bill McKibben, the idea of wilderness is lost, and nature is no longer complete.
1. Which book brought the environment to the government’s attention?| A．Silent Spring. | B．The End of Nature. |
| C．The Uninhabitable Earth. | D．No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference. |
| A．Curiosity. | B．Concern. | C．Annoyance. | D．Disappointment. |
| A．Nature will not exist any longer. | B．Wild animals are disappearing fast. |
| C．Human activities are destroying nature. | D．Climate change affects future generations. |
2 . People who experienced trauma (精神创伤) as a child or adolescent were found to be 48 percent more likely to have serious and repeated headaches as an adult than those who had not experienced trauma in their early years, according to research published in the journal Neurology. The finding came from the analysis of data from 28 studies, involving 154,739 people.
Overall, nearly one-third of the participants reported having experienced a traumatic event at least once before age 18, and 16 percent had been diagnosed as an adult with a primary headache disorder, which means that their headaches are the main problem, rather than a symptom (症状) of an underlying disease or condition.
The researchers categorized traumatic events as either threat-based (such as physical or emotional abuse, witnessing or being threatened by violence, and serious family conflicts) or deprivation-based (including neglect, financial trouble, parents’ separation, divorce or death, and living in a household with mental illness, alcohol or substance abuse). Physical abuse and exposure to family violence were among the most commonly reported traumas.
Of those who had experienced at least one traumatic event as a youth, 26 percent subsequently were diagnosed with primary headaches, compared with 12 percent of those who had not experienced trauma.
As the number of traumatic events experienced by a child or adolescent increased, so did the odds of their having headaches later in life. For example, those who had experienced four or more traumatic events were more than twice as likely to have a head ache disorder. Also, certain traumas — physical abuse and neglect — were linked to greater risk for headaches than other types of trauma.
The study found an association between trauma as a youth and headache disorder as an adult, rather than direct proof that one led to the other. But the researchers wrote that traumas experienced as a child or adolescent “are important risk factors for primary headache disorders in adulthood,” which one of the researchers described in a statement released by the American Academy of Neurology as “a risk factor that we cannot ignore.”
1. What does the research focus on?| A．The different types of trauma experienced by children. |
| B．The reasons why headaches are so common among adults. |
| C．The influence that childhood experiences have on later life. |
| D．The link between childhood trauma and headaches as an adult. |
| A．Witnessing violence. | B．Physical abuse. |
| C．The loss of a parent. | D．Criticism from teachers. |
| A．Complexity. | B．Frequency. | C．Seriousness. | D．Chance. |
| A．It causes headaches. | B．It deserves attention. |
| C．It can be prevented. | D．It can be life-threatening. |
3 . Once you get close enough to someone, it’s easy to assume they’ll be a friend for life—but friendships take work, too, and it’s important that you make time to cultivate these relationships as well.
1. “How do you think we’ve both changed since we became friends?”
There’s a good chance that you’ve been friends with those closest to you for some time, which means you’ve both changed in certain ways over the years. Shari, founder of Imperfectly Perfect Life, says it’s important to reflect on that change. “
2. “
“You don’t have to just focus on your own friendship. People vary greatly in what makes them feel most connected to others—for some it’s sharing something exciting together, while for others, it’s doing daily tasks together,” Julia, a clinical psychologist, notes.
3. “What is the best advice you’ve ever received?”
Another way you can “gain a deeper understanding of your friend’s values, beliefs, and the lessons they’ve learned along their journey” is by asking them about the best advice they’ve ever received. “This provides an opportunity to share wisdom that has had a significant impact on their personal growth,” Natalie shares. “
4.“What are your biggest dreams for your life?”
| A．What life experience has shaped you the most? |
| B．Acknowledging your growth can enhance your friendship |
| C．When do you feel most connected to the people in your life? |
| D．It’s also good to acknowledge that even the closest friendships are not perfect |
| E．You should know what your friend actually envisions for themselves in the future |
| F．Additionally, it opens the door for meaningful conversations about life’s challenges |
| G．We’ve talked to different experts to get their best advice on how to create stronger bonds |
4 . At a desk between a hallway entrance and a classroom door, Marge Mangelsdorf gently urged Harlan to write down what he remembered. The two had just finished reading Hi! Fly Cuy, a popular children’s book about a boy and his pet bug. Now it was time for Harlan, a first grader, to go over the plot and characters with his tutor.
Mangelsdorf spends several days each week in empty classrooms like these, working with kids through Oasis Intergenerational Tutoring. The program, which pairs volunteers with students for 30-45 minutes each week, is overseen by a St. Louis-based nonprofit that promotes healthy aging through a mix of community involvement and continuing education. This model holds a unique appeal. Its workers are largely retired volunteers, who cost less in fees, making their continuing presence sustainable.
There is some proof of its effectiveness. In a 2023 survey of educators in schools where the program works, 80 percent of classroom teachers said they’d seen improvement in their students’ reading skills, and 67 percent said they’d perceived an improvement in those students’ attitudes at school.
Whatever the effects of tutoring on young kids, the program’s work is also meant to help their volunteers. When given the chance to be active and help others, seniors’ quality of life can dramatically improve. A 2020 Harvard University study found that adults over 50 who volunteered at least two hours per week were less likely to express loneliness, depression and hopelessness and more likely to be optimistic and purposeful. Putting them in direct contact with school-aged children might be the best way to make the best of their talents, especially given America’s growing number of seniors.
1. Why did Harlan write down what he remembered?| A．To finish writing a new novel. |
| B．To teach students how to read a novel. |
| C．To create a fantastic story for the old. |
| D．To review the content of Hi! Fly Guy. |
| A．It made fewer profits in 2023. |
| B．It builds a bridge between tutors and students. |
| C．It models after another community institution. |
| D．All of its workers are retired teachers from schools. |
| A．By giving examples. |
| B．By analyzing a questionnaire. |
| C．By making a contrast. |
| D．By presenting data. |
| A．Elderly workers benefit from the voluntary work. |
| B．The old suffer from many health problems. |
| C．Harvard University is in favor of the voluntary program. |
| D．Harvard University set up the voluntary program. |
5 . Four surprising ways algae (藻类) are driving innovation
Algae can be a double-edged sword. Increased human activity and climate change have caused explosions of algae populations in water bodies around the world sometimes choking entire ecosystems of sunlight and oxygen. Even though they are so closely associated with humanity’s negative impact on Earth, algae could also play key roles in helping fight pollution, viruses, and more.
Filtering (过滤) water.
With microplastic pollution documented in almost all water bodies, a recent study shows that through absorption, algae can help filter microplastics out of water.
Fueling air travel.
Fighting viruses.
Red algae can prevent the replication (复制) of some viruses, including COVID-19, according to a 2020 study.
In 2019, freshwater algae were launched into space to turn the carbon dioxide exhaled (呼出) by astronauts on the International Space Station into oxygen. Since algae are also high in protein, they could replace up to 30 percent of astronaut food in the future.
| A．Making space food more nutritious. |
| B．Making long-term space travel possible. |
| C．These are several ways algae are solving modern problems. |
| D．Some algae can also filter chemicals that can be used in fertilizers. |
| E．Brown algae have been shown to stimulate the body’s immune system. |
| F．Algae can produce more effective biofuels than traditional sources like soybeans. |
| G．It aims to harvest algae for energy while keeping the environment pollution-free. |
6 . The traditional Chinese solar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Grain Buds (小满), the 8th solar term of a year, begins on May 21 this year, and ends on June 5. It means that the seeds from the grain are becoming full but are not ripe. Let’s see what we can do during the “Grain Buds” period.
Eating herb of common sow thistle
Grain Buds is a season for eating the herb of the common sow thistle, which is one of the earliest edible potherbs in China. It tastes a little bitter, but also sweet. People in Ningxia Hui autonomous region like to eat it mixed with salt, vinegar, peppers or garlic. It tastes delicious and helps people feel refreshed. Some people boil the herb with water and then squeeze out the juice, which can be used to make soup.
Key period for flower management
This time is a good period of the quick growth of flowers. It is also a season when plant diseases and pests are at an all-time high, which makes caring for your garden even more critical. Flowers need a lot of water and extra care to stay healthy. Weeding should be done as they grow quickly and have to be extirpated in order to keep the soil loose and from competing with the flowers for nutrients.
Celebrating silkworm deity birthday
Silkworm rearing is a traditional byproduct for people in regions south of the Yangtze River. People in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces regard this season as the birthday of the silkworm deity. Those who engage in the silk industry thank the deity by offering sacrifices and staging performances. They pray to the deity for blessings and a boom season for the silk business.
1. Which of the following is true about Grain Buds?| A．It is seen as the birthday of the flower deity. |
| B．It is an essential period to tend to the garden. |
| C．It means that the seeds from the grain are mature. |
| D．It begins on May 21 this year, and ends on July 5. |
| A．offer sacrifices to ancestors | B．pray for a close season |
| C．learn to count their blessings | D．give shows to thank the deity |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Economics. | C．Politics. | D．Culture. |
7 . In a groundbreaking discovery, bumblebees (大黄蜂) have shown a previously unseen level of cognitive (认知的) ability. A new study, published in Nature, shows that they can learn difficult, multi-step tasks through social interaction, even if they cannot figure them out on their own.
Led by Dr Alice Bridges and Professor Lars Chittka, the research team designed a two-step puzzle (谜题) box requiring bumblebees to perform two separated actions to get a sweet reward at the end. Training bees to do this was no easy task, and bees had to be helped along by the addition of an extra reward at the end of the first step. This reward in the middle was finally taken away, and bees later had to open the whole box before getting their treat. Then some trained bees repeated the whole process for demonstration.
Surprisingly, while bees that worked on their own had great difficulty in solving the puzzle, those allowed to watch a demonstrator bee finished the two steps easily — even the first — while only getting a reward at the end.
This study shows that bumblebees have a level of social learning previously thought to be unique to humans. They can share and learn behaviors that are beyond their individual cognitive abilities. Professor Chittka further notes the implications, “This challenges the traditional view that only humans can socially learn difficult behavior beyond individual learning. It raises the amazing possibility that many of the greatest achievements of the social insects, like the nesting architectures of bees or the agricultural habits of ants, may have initially spread by copying clever innovators, before they finally became part of the species-specific behaviors.”
This groundbreaking research opens new possibilities for understanding animal intelligence and the development of social learning. It challenges longstanding assumptions and helps us learn more about the cognitive wonders of insects, even suggesting the exciting possibility of advanced culture amongst seemingly simple creatures.
1. What is the purpose of the study?| A．To learn how to train bumblebees. |
| B．To compare bumblebees with ants. |
| C．To develop puzzles for bumblebees. |
| D．To test cognitive abilities of bumblebees. |
| A．By breaking it into two steps. |
| B．By providing an extra reward. |
| C．By demonstrating the process. |
| D．By making the puzzle interesting. |
| A．Both bees and ants are intelligent creatures. |
| B．Only humans are capable of social learning. |
| C．Individual learning may not be that important. |
| D．Bees’ nest-building may be a learned behavior. |
| A．Bumblebees — willing learners |
| B．Bumblebees — smarter than you think |
| C．Social learning — intelligence indicator |
| D．Social learning — universal across species |
8 . Science is increasingly central to our lives — from its role in creating day-to-day objects such as the smartphones in our pockets, to the big challenges of tackling disease, addressing climate change and focusing on biodiversity loss.
Many of the changes that the discipline brings are hugely beneficial, but they often come with potential downsides that demand public debate. Will artificial intelligence take people’s jobs or destroy elections with false news? How fast can we practically achieve a net zero economy?
For the crucial public debate that is needed on all this to take place, we must have a scientifically literate population. But there is a divide between the scientifically minded and those who choose not to engage with science.
It saddens me that our culture now views science as difficult, which discourages many from taking an interest in it. A British Science Association (BSA) survey recently suggested that only around a third of 14- to 18-year-olds find scientists inspirational or consider the subject to be relevant to their lives.
In fact, science is interlinked with every aspect of our existence and people from all walks of life and of all ages should be able to access it easily. The invention of the printing press was crucial to the Enlightenment because it democratised (普及) knowledge. So, in this increasingly science-centred world, the same attention should be given to popular science writing as is given to other forms of literature.
The Royal Society Science Book Prize is the only one in the world to promote popular science writing. Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, which was shortlisted (把……列入入围名单) for the prize in 1989, was written for readers who had no prior knowledge of physics and has since become a universally recognised text on the universe.
Democratising science has never been more important. There are so many scientific stories to be told that can help us better understand ourselves. A society equipped with a solid understanding of the issues of the day is a society more able to respond to them in a better way.
1. What does the underlined part “all this” in paragraph 3 refer to?| A．Beneficial scientific advancements. |
| B．Challenges facing human beings. |
| C．Potential downsides of science. |
| D．Disagreements between scientists and the public. |
| A．They have great respect for scientists. |
| B．They feel disconnected from science. |
| C．They know little about the Enlightenment. |
| D．They wish to land a career in the scientific field. |
| A．It won an international book prize. |
| B．It focused on important life issues. |
| C．It was written by a highly-honoured author. |
| D．It democratised knowledge about the universe. |
| A．The crisis of science in our modern life |
| B．We must rely on science to tackle our problems |
| C．Popular science books have never been more important |
| D．Public debate about science could never be more necessary |
9 . “The cure for anything is salt,” says a character in Karen Blixen’s short story The Deluge at Norderney. Everyday life has got a lot saltier since Blixen’s era — and salt is no longer the cure-all it once was. So what should we be doing about it?
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends capping your salt intake at 5g a day, and keeping it even lower if possible. That’s because, according to a large body of evidence, eating a lot of it is linked to high blood pressure, which in turn is a risk factor for heart disease. More recently, extra salt has also been associated with stomach cancer.
So is the answer to put down the shaker? It’s a bit more complicated than that: as the British Heart Foundation notes, 75% of the salt that we eat is added before our food even hits our plates. The UK was a world leader in salt reduction, with the Food Standards Agency enforcing (施行) strict limits on how much could be included in most products.
In 2010, however, as the government introduced “responsibility deals”, the food industry itself took the lead in the process, with limits becoming much more voluntary. Now, even brands that would like to reduce the salt content of their foods are hamstrung by what everyone else is doing: apart from being one of the cheapest forms of flavouring available, salt can also be used to bulk up (增重) foods by increasing their water content.
“As a work partner of mine said, leaving it up to the manufacturers (制造商) is like putting a mosquito in charge of a blood bank,” says Graham MacGregor, a professor of medicine. “Some supermarkets want better enforcement, but it has to come from above.”
The answer, then, is that this is one health concern that we should probably be collectively worrying about. You can take steps like cooking most of your meals and avoiding takeaways and ready meals. But it’s not an option for everyone. “If you really want to lower your salt intake, the best first step might be to write to your MP (国会议员),” says MacGregor.
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly focus on concerning salt?| A．Its potential danger to health. | B．Its daily recommended intake. |
| C．Its significance to everyday life. | D．Its curing ability for certain diseases. |
| A．Copied. | B．Restricted. | C．Doubted. | D．Criticized. |
| A．A win-win strategy. | B．An ill-intentioned policy. |
| C．A business-restricting practice. | D．A poorly thought-out initiative. |
| A．The food industry’s voluntary efforts. | B．The UK government enforcing strict laws. |
| C．The general public’s return to home cooking. | D．The WHO introducing minimum standards. |
10 . “Do we have permission to give your father a tracheotomy (气管切开术)?” I was a college student. My father had fallen into a coma (昏迷) a few weeks earlier and I was responsible for his medical decisions.
The call about the tracheotomy came the night before an exam. After a few hours of restless sleep, I was hardly in a state to take the exam. I told my professor what had happened the previous night and requested an alternative exam date, which was denied. This experience made me unwilling to be honest about my struggles. When I soon had to make the decision to take my father off life support, I told nobody.
Despite that sadness, I was able to make it through my studies and, eight years later, I became a professor myself. As a new teacher, I felt I needed to adopt a tough classroom persona (表面形象) to earn fellow teachers’ respect. My behavior wasn’t unlike that of the professor who had denied me the exam extension years earlier, and it did not reflect my actual character.
Then, the pandemic (大流行病) hit. I was too tired to keep up the act, and my students needed support. So, I shared the story about my father’s illness and death to acknowledge that life goes on outside of my classroom. I told my students I knew they might be suffering and wanted them to know that if they came to me needing help, I would understand.
The response was immediate and powerful. Students became unafraid to share their stories with me. I changed nothing about the way I delivered course material, but student exam scores improved, as did my teaching evaluations. Students could see that although I still pushed them to learn the material, I cared about their well-being and wanted them to succeed.
Exposing your imperfections, connecting with students on a deeper level, and creating space for them — and you — to grow will always be challenging, but it is worth it. I cannot know everything that is going on in every student’s life, but I can always choose sympathy.
1. What effect did the professor’s denial have on the author?| A．He lost confidence in himself. |
| B．He grew stronger in the face of challenges. |
| C．He became hesitant to ask for help from others. |
| D．He learned to be respectful of others’ choices. |
| A．He lowered his academic standards. |
| B．He adopted a tough classroom persona. |
| C．He stopped pushing his students to learn. |
| D．He shared his personal stories to bond with students. |
| A．A nice surprise. | B．An anticipated response. | C．A brave fight. | D．A slow change. |
| A．Set good examples for students. | B．Care about students’ mental health. |
| C．Respect students’ individual differences. | D．Focus on innovative teaching methods. |
