1 . The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre has recently “rediscovered” an ancient shark skeleton that has been sitting in the museum’s collection for nearly 50 years. Could this shark be a part of a newly discovered ancient shark species?
This fossil’s original discovery was in 1975 on a farm just west of Morden, Manitoba. The skeleton was brought into the museum and was forgotten within the ever-growing fossil collection. The skeleton was hidden in the collections room for over 40 years and the center just recently found the fossil in its storage around eight years ago.
Adolfo Cuertara, the director of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, explained that “It’s a very special shark for many reasons. It’s highly possible that we are talking about a new species.” Although the shark has not been given a scientific name yet, the museum has unofficially named the skeleton, “Dave”, in honor of the farmer on whose land the skeleton was found.
After the fossil rediscovery, Dave was exhibited at the fossil center museum. Dave is around 15 feet long and is one of the largest well-preserved shark skeletons in the entire world. Within the paleontology (古生物学) world, complete shark fossils are extremely rare due to their soft cartilage (软骨结构) which disintegrates as they age. Dave’s shark species are filter feeders with no teeth, who receive their nutrition by absorbing it out of the water. Cuertara emphasizes Dave’s uniqueness by explaining, “The shape of the jaws and the skull and the kind of structures that it has, because the preservation is really amazing, is telling us that it is probably going to be a new species. The problem is now we need scientific papers and scientific research and this paper is underway.”
The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre is hopeful that more scientific research will provide more information on Dave’s ancient shark species. For now, Dave is currently on display at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre and the museum has the exhibit up to date with their current information.
1. Where probably could you find this article?| A．Science textbook of college. |
| B．Advertising brochure of museum. |
| C．Discovery column of magazine. |
| D．Bulletin board of animal world. |
| A．Die away. | B．Break down. | C．Build up. | D．Lie down. |
| A．The structure of skull and jaw. |
| B．The preservation of jaw and the skull. |
| C．The uniqueness of no teeth structure. |
| D．The rare soft cartilage. |
| A．Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre displays Dave ancient shark species. |
| B．Dave’s shark species is a new species of ancient shark. |
| C．Canadian Museum rediscovers a new ancient shark species. |
| D．Dave’s shark skeleton is in honor of the farmer who rediscovered it. |
2 . Frozen in time, a 125-million-year-old mammal attacking a dinosaur. A 39-million-year-old whale, the heaviest animal that ever lived. The oldest known jellyfish, from 505 million years ago. Paleontology (古生物学) produces newsworthy discoveries.
Fossils (化石), moreover, provide direct evidence for the long history of life, allowing paleontologists to test hypotheses (假设) about evolution with data only they provide. They allow investigation of present and past life on Earth. Flows of biological diversity, appearances of new life forms and the extinctions of long existing ones, would go undiscovered without these efforts. But the headlines over exciting new fossils greatly underestimate the true importance of paleontology. Its real significance lies in how such discoveries brighten the grand history of life on Earth. From its beginnings, more than three billion years ago, to the present day, fossils record how life adapted or disappeared in the face of major environmental challenges.
Paleontologists provide us with a unique vantage on modern climate change. They play an essential role in interpreting ancient environments, in reconstructing ancient oceans, continents and climates. Fossils provide key limitation on the climate models that are essential for predicting future climate change. And the fossil record gives important insights into how life will respond to predicted future climate conditions, because these have occurred before in Earth’s history.
In addition, paleontology has provided a fundamental contribution to human thought: the reality of species extinction and thus of a world that has dramatically changed over time. In documenting the history of life, paleontologists recognized that many extinction episodes could occur suddenly, such as the event 66 million years ago that ended the dinosaurs. The search for the causes of past mass extinctions started pioneering studies from across the scientific spectrum (科学界), focusing on potential future threats to humanity.
Not only do paleontologists know what happens to life when things go bad, they also know how long it takes for ecosystems and biodiversity to recover from these disasters, which can take far longer than modern humans have existed.
Paleontologists thus provide a unique perspective on the nature and future long-term ecological impact of the current human-produced biodiversity crisis, the so-called Sixth Extinction, and therefore the importance of protecting modern biodiversity. The very concept of a Sixth Extinction would not exist without paleontologists documenting the first five.
Paleontologists know that understanding life’s past is critical to anticipating and adapting to life’s and humanity’s future. Paleontology is important because it brings its unique and critical perspective to current challenges in climate change, biodiversity loss and the environment. Paleontologists can predict the future because they know the past.
1. The first two paragraphs are written to _______.| A．describe an event | B．raise a question |
| C．present an opinion | D．make a comparison |
| A．A positive effect. | B．A valuable suggestion. |
| C．A quick decision. | D．A comprehensive view. |
| A．Ecological recovery takes shorter than imagined. |
| B．Past lessons can help to predict the future threats. |
| C．Paleontologists can handle the biodiversity crisis. |
| D．Fossil studies focus on the causes of mass extinctions. |
| A．Paleontology: A Pioneering Study |
| B．Paleontology: A History Recorder |
| C．Paleontology Tells More About Nature Than Humans |
| D．Paleontology Is Far More Than New Fossil Discoveries |
3 . When the discovery of fossilized (化石的) footprints made in what’s now New Mexico was made public in 2021, it was an astonishing moment for archaeology (考古学), seemingly rewriting a chapter of the human story. Now new research is offering further evidence of their significance.
While they look like they could have been made yesterday, the footprints were pressed into mud 21,000 to 23,000 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating of the seeds of a water plant that were preserved above and below the fossils. This date dramatically pushed back the timeline of humans’ history in the Americas, the last land to be settled by prehistoric people. The 61 dated prints, which were discovered in the Tularosa Basin, near the edge of an ancient lake in White Sands National Park, were made at a time when many scientists think that massive ice sheets had stopped human passage into North America, indicating that humans arrived in the region even earlier.
However, some archaeologists questioned the age of the footprints established by those initial findings. They noted that water plants such as Ruppia cirrhosa — the one used in the 2021 study — can acquire carbon atoms from the water rather than the air, which can result in a misleadingly early date.
In a follow-up study published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers said they have produced two new lines of evidence to support their initial dates. “Even as the original work was being published, we were speeding up to test our results with multiple lines of evidence,” said Kathleen Springer, co-lead author on the new Science paper, in a news release. “We were confident in our original ages, as well as the strong evidence.”
When and how early humans first moved to the Americas has long been debated and remains poorly understood. Current estimates range from 13,000 years ago to more than 20,000 years ago. However, the earliest archaeological evidence for the region’s settlement is insufficient and often controversial, making the footprints especially important.
1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The purpose of the new research | B．The method of the dating |
| C．The significance of the footprints. | D．The efforts of the scientists |
| A．It goes against the prior knowledge. |
| B．The prints seem to be made recently. |
| C．The previous research method is improper. |
| D．The then massive ice sheets are misleading. |
| A．The doubt about the age of the footprints. |
| B．The new evidence of the fossilized footprints. |
| C．An agreement between the two sides of the debate. |
| D．Early humans hardship of moving to the Americas. |
| A．To explain the process of archaeological study. |
| B．To report the discovery of fossilized footprints. |
| C．To introduce a debate on the age of the footprints. |
| D．To present the progress of the footprint research. |
4 . More than 3,400 years after two ancient Egyptians were laid to rest, the jars of food left still smell sweet. A team of analytical chemists and archaeologists (考古学家) has analysed these smells to help identify the jars’ contents. The study shows how the exploration of smell can enrich our understanding of the past.
The 1906 discovery of the undisturbed tomb (墓穴) of Kha and Merit symbolized an important stage in Egyptology. The tomb remains the most complete non-royal ancient one ever found in Egypt, showing important information about how high-ranking individuals were treated after death.
Unusually for the time, the archaeologist who discovered the tomb resisted the temptation to open the sealed containers even after they were sent to the Egyptian Museum. The contents of many of these containers are still unknown, although there are some clues, says analytical chemist Ilaria Degano. “From taking with the museum keeper we knew there were some fruity smells in the display cases,” she says.
Degano and her colleagues placed various artefacts (人工制品) inside plastic bags for several days to collect some of the chemical substances they released. Then the team used a special machine to identify the components of the smells from each artefact. They found some chemicals associated with dried fish, and some chemicals common in fruits. The findings will feed into a larger project to reanalyse the tomb’s contents and produce a more comprehensive picture of burial customs for non-royals that existed when Kha and Merit died, about 70 years before Tutankhamun became the Egyptian ruler.
Aside from showing more about past civilizations, ancient smells could make museum visits more inviting. Usually, people admire exhibits with their eyes in museums. “Smell is a relatively unexplored gateway to the collective past for museum visitors,” says Cecilia Bembibre at University College London. “It has the potent alto allow us to experience the in a more emotional, personal way, through our nose.”
1. What can we describe the 1906 discovery of Kha and Merit’ tomb as?| A．A landmark in Egyptology. | B．A turning point in human history. |
| C．A breakthrough in archaeology. | D．A mirror of ancient non-royal life. |
| A．Pressure. | B．Ambition. | C．Desire. | D．Tendency. |
| A．protect them from harm | B．gather their smells |
| C．test the special machine | D．back up a larger project |
| A．They bring them back to the past. |
| B．They give them emotional support. |
| C．They change their view on civilizations. |
| D．They add to their experience. |
5 . New research confirms that human footprints found in New Mexico are probably the oldest direct evidence of human presence in the Americas, a finding that upends what many scientists knew about human habitation and migration (迁徙).
The footprints were discovered at the edge of an ancient lakebed in White Sands national park. According to the new paper published in the journal Science, they date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago. Actually, the estimated age of the footprints was first reported in Science in 2021, but some researchers raised concerns about the dates. Questions focused on whether seeds of water plants used for the original dating may have absorbed ancient carbon from the lake — which could, in theory, throw off radiocarbon dating by thousands of years. But the new study presents two additional lines of evidence for the older date range. It uses two entirely different materials found at the site, ancient pollen (花粉) and stone grains.
The reported age of the footprints challenges the once conventional wisdom that humans did not reach the Americas until a few thousand years before rising sea levels covered the Bering land bridge between Russia and Alaska, perhaps about 15, 000 years ago. “This is a subject that's always been controversial because it's so significant. It's about how we understand the last chapter of the peopling of the world,” said Thomas Urban, an archaeologist (考古学家) at Comell University, who was involved in the 2021 study but not the new one.
Thomas Stafford, an independent archaeological geologist in New Mexico, who was not involved in the study, said he “was a bit suspicious before” but now is convinced. The new study isolated about 75, 000 grams of pure pollen from the same stone layer that contained the footprints. ‘Dating pollen is laborious but worthwhile,” said Kathleen Springer, a research geologist at the US Geological Survey and a co-author of the new paper.
Ancient footprints of any kind can provide archaeologists with a quick look of a moment in time. While some archeological sites in the Americas point to similar date ranges — including necklaces carved from giant animal remains in Brazil — scientists still question whether such objects really indicate human presence. “White Sands is unique because there's no question these footprints were left by people,” said Jennifer Raff, a scientist at the University of Kansas, who was not involved in the study.
1. The underlined word “upends” (paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to “_______”.
| A．comprises | B．connects | C．challenges | D．compares |
| A．It shows the footprints were made by the Russians. |
| B．It offers more convincing lines of evidence for dating. |
| C．It confirms that the ancient humans enjoyed living by the lake. |
| D．It reveals the footprints are much younger than previously thought. |
| A．necklaces are valuable objects for archaeologists to date animals |
| B．human footprints are often sure signs of human presence |
| C．ancient objects in Brazil are excluded from the study |
| D．White Sands is one important archaeological site |
| A．Scientists Discovers New Species of Humans in Americas |
| B．Humans Reached Americas 15, 000 Years Earlier Than Believed |
| C．American Archaeologists Unearthed Valuable Manmade Objects |
| D．New Research Confirms Early Human Presence in Americas |
6 . A previously hidden corridor buried deep in the 4500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt has been mapped in detail for the first time-and researchers have also taken a glimpse inside using tiny camera called endoscopic camera (内窥镜照相机).
The corridor was first discovered in 2016,but researchers didn’t want to damage the monument to gain access. The pyramid is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing, and was, for millennia, the world’s tallest human-made structure at 146 metres. It was built around 2560 BC during the reign of the pharaoh (法老) Khufu.
Using a technique called cosmic-ray muon radiography (宇宙射线μ子成像), an international team of researchers was able to certify that the corridor was 9metres long, with across section of about 2 metres by 2 metres.
Cosmic-ray muon radiography tracks the level of muons (μ介子) passing through the pyramid. In the technique, researchers use muon detectors which are placed at various points around the monument. Muons are partially absorbed by the stone used to build the pyramids, which means the method allows researchers to identify cavities (洞) inside the structure.
This approach has been used to map the internal structures of pyramids since 1971,when it was first used at Giza. Using their precise map of the corridor, the researchers identified an opportunity.
“We knew the cavity was there, but of course it’s totally different when you see it,“ says Procureur. “We felt strange when we saw this.” Still, Procureur was glad of one thing. “It’s a controversial opinion, but I’m relieved the cavity was empty. I wouldn’t have liked to participate in opening a tomb.”
1. Why didn’t the researchers want to damage the monument to gain access to the corridor?| A．Because it is the world’s tallest structure. |
| B．Because it is the largest pyramid in the world. |
| C．Because it was built around 2560 AD during the reign of the pharaoh Khufu. |
| D．Because it is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing. |
| A．Confirm. | B．Imagine. | C．Approach. | D．Reach. |
| A．It was first used at Giza in 1917. |
| B．It tracks the size of muons passing through the pyramid. |
| C．It has been used to map the external structures of pyramids. |
| D．It allows researchers to identify cavities inside the structure. |
| A．There was nothing in the cavity. |
| B．The corridor was the same as previously thought. |
| C．Procureur was interested in participating in opening a tomb. |
| D．The cavity used to be the tomb of the pharaoh Khufu. |
7 . While DNA from animal bones or teeth can cast light on an individual species, environmental DNA enabled scientists to build a picture of a whole ecosystem.
A core of ice age sediment (沉积物) from northern Greenland has yielded the world’s oldest sequences of DNA. The 2 million-year-old DNA samples revealed the now largely lifeless polar region was once home to rich plant and animal life — including elephant-like mammals known as mastodons (乳齿象), reindeer, hares, lemmings, geese, birch trees and poplars, according to new research published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
The finding is the work of scientists in Denmark who were able to detect and restore environmental DNA — genetic material drop into the environment by all living organisms — in tiny amounts of sediment taken from the Copenhagen Formation, in the mouth of a strait in the Arctic Ocean in Greenland’s northernmost point, during a 2006 expedition.
They then compared the DNA pieces with libraries of DNA collected from both extinct and living animals, plants and microorganisms. The genetic material revealed dozens of other plants and creatures that had not been previously detected at the site based on what’s known from fossils and pollen records.
“The first thing that blew our mind when we’re looking at this data is obviously this mastodon and the presence of it that far north, which is quite far north of what we knew as its natural range,” said study co-author Mikkel Pedersen.
The mix of temperate (温带) and Arctic trees and animals suggested a previously unknown type of ecosystem that has no modern equivalent — one that could act as a genetic road map for how different species might adapt to a warmer climate, the researchers found.
Love Dalen, a professor at the Centre for Palaeogenetics at Stockholm University, said the finding “pushed the envelope” for the field of ancient DNA. “Also, the findings that several temperate species (such as relatives of spruce and mastodon) lived at such high latitudes are exceptionally interesting,” he added.
Further study of environmental DNA from this time period could help scientists understand how various organisms might adapt to climate change. “It’s a climate that we expect to face on Earth due to global warming and it gives us some idea of how nature will respond to increasing temperatures,” he explained.
1. What can we know about environmental DNA from the passage?| A．It makes it easier to understand individual species. |
| B．It is a collection of DNA from all kinds of living things. |
| C．It includes DNA of mammals living 2 million years ago. |
| D．It was first discovered in sediment from northern Greenland. |
| A．By looking at the data of mastodon. |
| B．By detecting DNA samples at the site. |
| C．By analyzing fossils and pollen records. |
| D．By comparing the newly-found DNA with existing ones. |
| A．broke the limit | B．laid a foundation |
| C．raised a new question | D．attracted wide attention |
| A．Northern Greenland faces species extinction |
| B．Oldest DNA reveals a solution to global warming |
| C．Northern Greenland faces increasing temperatures |
| D．Oldest DNA reveals a 2 million-year-old ecosystem |
8 . Humans evolved from apes. This is what we learned in biology class. But what came before apes? Chinese scientists have discovered fossils that could enrich the evolutionary story of how humans evolved from fish.
According to four articles published in the journal Nature in late September, Chinese researchers found fish fossils that provide the “missing link” about the origin of the jaw, a key feature that 99.8 percent of vertebrate (脊椎动物) species have.
Zhu Min, a lead researcher of the studies from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the findings drew a large amount of interest in the science world due to the importance of jaws in animal evolution.
However, the rise of the jaw had been a mystery due to a lack of sufficient fossil evidence to support that jawed vertebrates lived 450 million years ago.
The latest findings made by Zhu’s team presented a set of five surprisingly well-preserved fish fossils that included three whole-bodied fish, helping scientists paint a more accurate evolutionary picture of the origin of the jaw. The fish fossils were discovered at two sites in Chongqing and Guizhou, whose strata (岩层) date back to the Silurian Period that began around 440 million years ago.
These fossils show that jawed fish were already thriving (繁荣) in the world’s ancient oceans at that time. Later on, more diverse and larger jawed fish evolved and began to spread around the world, paving the way for some fish to eventually go on land and evolve into other animals — including humans.
“These fossils provide an unprecedented (前所未有的) opportunity to peek into the ‘dawn of fish’ and help scientists trace many human body structures back to these ancient fish thus filling some key gaps in the evolutionary history of how fish evolved into humans,” Zhu said.
1. In which column of a magazine will you most probably read the passage?| A．Your Voice. | B．Animals. |
| C．Science Study. | D．History. |
| A．Because jaws are a key trait of all vertebrate species. |
| B．Because jaws are significant in animal evolution. |
| C．Because the rise of the jaw had been a mystery. |
| D．Because there is a lack of sufficient evidence. |
| A．Around 440 million years ago. |
| B．Around 450 million years ago. |
| C．When jawed fish began to spread around the world. |
| D．When fish evolved into humans. |
| A．Who Are Our Ancestors? | B．What Came Before Apes? |
| C．The Origin of the Jaw | D．Key Gaps in Evolution |
9 . A rich burial was unearthed by archaeologists at La Almoloya, southeastern Spain that is the cradle of the El Argar civilization, which lived in the region during the Bronze Age.
La Almoloya was a primary center of politics and wealth in the El Argar territory, and although the discovery was made in 2014, experts are now taking a closer look at the sociological and political context of the unearthed treasure.
The remains of a woman, along with a man who may have been her husband, were discovered in the forested hills of the area. Radiocarbon dating suggests the burial happened around 1700 BC. The pair were found with 30 objects containing precious metals and semi-precious stones, including the silver diadem (王冠), which encircled the skull (颅骨) of the woman.
Experts believe that the man in the grave was probably a warrior; wear and tear on his bones indicate he spent a lot of time on horseback, and his skull had deep scars from a facial injury, while gold plugs through his earlobes indicated he was someone of distinction.
The woman, named the “Princess of La Almoloya”, was buried a short time after the man, with vast quantities of jewellery: bracelets, earlobe plugs and rings, to name a few. The grave goods of the woman were worth tens of thousands of dollars in today’s money.
“We have two ways of interpreting this,” says archaeologist Roberto Risch of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. “Either you say, it’s just the wife of the king; or you say, no, she’s a political personality by herself.”
Risch is a co-author of a study that was recently published about the important findings, that noted the building under which the grave was found was of equal importance—a building specifically dedicated to governing purposes in Western Europe. A wide hall was excavated (挖掘), with high ceilings, a raised platform, and a capacity for more than 50 people to sit on benches that lined the walls. “It’s a building where people could be sitting listening to each other, or to someone explaining something,” says Risch, “There is no evidence of food and no clear-cut religious artefacts, so it doesn’t look like a home or a temple.”
The discovery at La Almoloya shed new light on the politics and gender relations in one of the first urban societies of the West. Previous findings have revealed that women were considered adults at a much younger age than boys were. Excavated grave goods have highlighted that girls as young as six were buried with knives and tools, but boys would be in their teens by the time they would be buried alongside such objects.
Additionally, the graves of some women from EI Argar were reopened generations later to bury other men and women, an unusual practice that experts believe would have been a very high honor. “What exactly their political power was, we don’t know,” Risch adds. “But this burial at La Almoloya questions the role of women in [Bronze Age] politics... it questions a lot of conventional wisdom.”
1. The woman discovered at La Almoloya ________.| A．proved to be a princess during the Bronze Age |
| B．was buried long after her husband’s death |
| C．lived in an ancient society called El Argar |
| D．was holding a silver diadem when unearthed |
| A．he had gold plugs through his earlobes | B．he was buried next to the woman |
| C．he was buried with knives and tools | D．he had injuries and scars on his bones |
| A．have been used for political meetings | B．have served some religious purposes |
| C．be the first temple built in Western Europe | D．be specially dedicated to food trading |
| A．Women were buried with more riches than men in the Bronze Age. |
| B．The role of women in Bronze Age politics had been overestimated. |
| C．Women may have been powerful rulers in the El Argar civilization. |
| D．Women were considered adults at a much younger age than boys. |
10 . For over a century, throwing a pie into someone’s face has been a comedy element, thanks in part to Keystone. Established in 1912 by director Mack Sennett, the studio had a hand in making pie-throwing common.
This phenomenon can be traced back before the earliest days of pre-1920s silent film. The fun of seeing an elegant dessert hit an actor, and watching them react with either anger or confusion, soon made its way to the screen. In 1913, Sennett’s “Fatty” launched the first such missile in a Keystone film. Soon, the studio became known for pie-throwing trick, and the high-flying desserts flew so freely that the studio needed its own bakery to make them.
The answer turned out to be right across the street. Sarah Brener owned a variety store there, but she also supplied the studio with its pies. Sometimes, they were delicious. Charlie Chaplin said that Brener’s pies were the best in town. But often, they had to be specially made for films. As pie fights in film grew more complicated, Brener’s bakery was soon making nothing else.
Filmmakers preferred custard (蛋奶沙司) pies for throwing. They were appropriately messy and, likely less painful than a cherry pie would be to the face. But by the time the 1920s rolled around, people had grown tired of them.
Widespread pie-throwing faded, but it didn’t die completely: Comedic films and animation alike have been peppered with pieing ever since, from Bugs Bunny to the Three Stooges. In 2015, a part of film history had been re-discovered: “The Battle of the Century”, where 3,000 pies sailed through the air. It was supposed to be the pie fight to end all others, but in 1965 the film “The Great Race” promised viewers “the greatest pie fight in history.” Thousands of real pies were used.
Now, the Keystone building is a storage facility, and Brener’s bakery is long gone. But the studio’s influence lives on in film, in the occasional throwing of a pie, and on a plate on the corner of the mere remaining building that reads:“This was the birthplace of the motion picture comedy.”
1. Which of the following is true about pie-throwing?| A．By1912 it had become surprisingly common. |
| B．The audience was angry or confused while seeing it. |
| C．It stimulated citizens’ great demand for pies. |
| D．Keystone contributes to its being part of a comedy. |
| A．changed its sales policy | B．specialized in making pies |
| C．sold a variety of food besides pies | D．made its pies famous nationwide |
| A．pie-throwing was no longer appealing |
| B．more pies are used in modern films than in silent ones |
| C．viewers are dissatisfied with seeing just one scene of pie-throwing |
| D．pie-throwing can still be found in some kind of films |
| A．The future development of comedic films. | B．The history of pie-throwing in films. |
| C．The fascinating past of Keystone. | D．The birthplace of motion picture comedies. |
