1 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写一个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

The turtle dove is the UK’s fastest-declining bird species, according to a recent study. The data,     1     (record) by almost 1, 000 volunteers, farmers and county bird clubs, shows there are now nearly 2, 100 pairs left, down from some 125, 000 pairs in 1970. Loss of habitats and shooting in southern Europe     2    (think)to be driving the decline. There is hope, however, as the government     3     (work) with landowners to allow more food supplies in the habitats now.

2 . I had always wanted a dog. My parents told me when I was old enough and _______, I could have one.

One day I hopped off the bus, not knowing what awaited me inside. I walked through the door, and to my _______, a white and black puppy greeted me with many puppy kisses. A very special friendship was born that day.

She was a smart dog. We _______ play for hours, spending our days learning and growing together.

Eleven years we were together, best of friends. Unfortunately, arthritis (关节炎) and old age set in on her. My parents knew what had to be done, but they let me find and make the decision myself.

She was _______ so much and the medicine didn’t seem to help anymore. She could _______ walk. I looked into those deep brown eyes and _______ it was time to let her go.

I carried her into the vet’s (兽医诊所) and placed her on the table. She leaned her head forward and gave a lick to my hand as if to say, “I understand. Stay _______.” Her tail was wagging (摆动) in a circle as always.

The vet asked before giving the final shot, “Are you sure?” With a heavy heart and tear-filled eyes, I nodded yes. The final shot was given. My eyes fixed upon her wagging tail. In a matter of seconds, it _______. The vet listened for a heartbeat, and said, “It’s over.”

I took her home and buried her in the pasture, where she loved playing and chasing rabbits. It was the _______ thing I had ever done.

Recently I went back to her grave. Growing on her grave was a single wildflower. It was swaying in a circle, just like her. I know now that, that special friend will be __________ me always.

1.

A．confident

B．brave

C．creative

D．responsible

2.

A．relief

B．surprise

C．annoyance

D．confusion

3.

A．would

B．should

C．might

D．must

4.

A．suffering

B．expecting

C．paying

D．gaining

5.

A．even

B．almost

C．still

D．hardly

6.

A．insisted

B．realized

C．agreed

D．predicted

7.

A．honest

B．popular

C．strong

D．active

8.

A．stopped

B．expanded

C．hurt

D．rose

9.

A．greatest

B．hardest

C．wisest

D．warmest

10.

A．above

B．on

C．with

D．for

3 . “Flying insects don’t fly directly to lights from far away because they’re attracted to them, but appear to change course toward a light if they happen to be passing by due to a strange inborn biological response,” writes Samuel Fabian, a bioengineer, in a research paper.

Until now, the leading scientific hypothesis has been that insects use the moon’s light to direct the way at night and mistake artificial lights for the moon. But this idea doesn’t explain why insects that only fly during the day also gather around lights.

To find out what really happens, Samuel’s team track the precise movements of insects in the wild around lights using a high-speed camera. This revealed two notable behaviours. First, when insects fly above lights, they often invert (转向) themselves and try to fly upside down, causing them to fall very fast. Just after insects pass under a light, they start doing a ring road. As their climb angle becomes too steep, they suddenly stop and start to fall. Second, when insects approach a light from the side, they may circle or “orbit” the light.

The videos show that the inversions sometimes result in insects falling on lights. It can appear to the naked eye as though they are flying at the lights. “Instead, insects turn their dorsum toward the light, generating flight perpendicular(垂直) to the source,” the team write. It is common to the two behaviours that the insects are keeping their backs to the light, known as the dorsal light response (DLR). This DLR is a shortcut for insects to work out which way is up and keep their bodies upright, as the moon or sun is usually more or less directly above them, and this direction allows them to maintain proper flight attitude and control. They also find that the insects fly at right angles to a light source, leading to orbiting and unstable flights as the light’s location relative to them changes as they move.

Samuel’s team suggest that a possible outcome of the research could help the construction industry to avoid the types of light that most attract insects.

1. What does the research focus on?

A．Why insects gather around lights.

B．Where artificial lights lead insects to.

C．What biological response insects are born with.

D．How to design environment friendly artificial lights.

2. What can we learn about insects from the videos of their movements?

A．They fly directly to lights.	B．They circle close to lights.
C．Their flying speed is steady.	D．Their inversions can be controlled.

3. DLR makes insects ____________.

A．balance their flying	B．keep their route straight
C．decide their body positon	D．shorten their flight distance

4 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Parrots usually live in large groups and they like to eat fruit. They     1     (find) in countries like Brazil, Australia and India. There are different kinds of parrots, but they all have strong beaks and feet,     2     they use for climbing and holding food. The biggest parrots can live for up to 80 years. They are     3     (noise), but they are clever birds and it is easy to teach them to talk. Some zoos have parrot shows, where you can see birds doing things they have learned.

5 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空，在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Several mass extinction events have occurred in the course of our planet’s history. Scientists say that previously the     1     (reason) for extinction have varied, but human actions will be to blame for the sixth extinction which has already started to happen. It is clear that human activity negatively affects almost every natural thing on Earth from destroying different species of plants and animals     2     creating various types of greenhouse gases. In fact, species are being wiped out at a     3     (fast) rate now than any time in history.

7 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

The skin of a small fish from Thailand is almost completely clear. As it swims, its muscles move,    1    (result) in reflections of many colors. After shining different kinds of light and lasers onto the fish in a laboratory, researchers made a    2     (discover) that the small structures in its muscles are what turns light into rainbow colors. Other creatures can also create the rainbow effect when colors change. Usually, they have outer surfaces    3    reflect the light, like a butterfly’s wings.

8 . Many people would answer the question of what makes us human by insisting that we are cultural beings. There is no doubt that we are. But one definition of culture is the totality of traditions acquired in a community by social learning from other individuals, and many animal species have traditions. Can we then say that some animals are cultural beings too?

One approach to study culture in animals is the so-called Method of Exclusion (排除), in which scientists investigate behavioral variations across populations of one species. In a famous study, scientists learned that chimpanzee (黑猩猩) behaviors were socially passed on as they were present at some sites but not at others, despite having same ecological settings. For example, chimpanzees in Tai National Park in Ivory Coast are well-known for their nut-cracking skills. Chimpanzees in Gombe national part in Tanzania, on the other hand, do not crack nuts, although nuts exist in their environment too.

However, when applying the Method of Exclusion, one has to be very careful. There are other factors that could also explain the pattern of behavioral evaluation. For example, some of the chimpanzee techniques scientists evaluated occur in only one of the three subspecies. So it’s quite possible that these behaviors also have an innate component. This would mean that one chimpanzee subspecies uses a new technique not out of cultural tradition, but because the behavior is fixed to specific genes. Another factor that has to be excluded is of course the environment Chimpanzees in Mahale do not fish algae (水藻), simply because algae does not exist there.

But when we exclude all the variations that can be explained by genes or environment, we still find that animals do show cultural variations. Does that mean there is no real difference between them and us after all? Not exactly: There is a fundamental difference between human and animal culture. Only humans can build culturally on what generations before us have learned. This is called “cumulative culture”. We don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel. This is called the “ratchet (棘轮) effect”. Like a ratchet that can be turned forward but not back, people’s cultural techniques evolve.

It is likely that behaviors we see today in chimpanzee cultures could be invented over and over again by individual animals themselves. In contrast, a child born today would not be able to invent a computer without the knowledge of many past generations.

1. Why does the author mention the example of the chimpanzees in two parks in Paragraph 2?

A．To prove that culture does exist in animals.

B．To justify the uniqueness of the research method.

C．To compare how chimpanzees behave in different parks.

D．To stress the importance of environment in studying culture.

2. What does the underlined word “innate” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Advanced.

B．Inborn.

C．Adaptive.

D．Intelligent.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Cumulative culture is what sets humans apart from animals.

B．Culure in animals is as worthy to be valued as human culture.

C．Animals don’t have the ability to invent behaviors in a community.

D．The “ratchet effect” decides if humans can build on past experiences.

9 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

A study showed how much dogs love their owners. In the experiment, the-researchers first /measured how many tears    1    (produce) by dogs when they were just spending time at home with their owners. The team then repeated the experiment, this time with dogs that were reunited with their owners    2    being apart for five hours. The results showed dogs only shed tears during the reunions. The team now wants to find out    3    dogs have a similar emotional response when reunited with other dogs.

10 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Schloss and her partner set out to find out     1     people like certain colors more than others. Their studies suggest that color preference     2     (cause) by how someone feels about objects of that color. For example, people often like blue     3     it reminds them of clear skies and clean water. On the other hand, people tend to shy away from brown because they are reminded of the food that has gone bad.