1 . Laura Sharkey breeds mixed-breed dogs, but they’re not Goldendoodles, Chiweenies, Pomskys, or any other designer crosses. She doesn’t even aim for a specific build, size, or coat. “I’m not concerned with what they look like,” she says of her puppies. “I don’t want any genetic pressure other than health and state of mind.”
Sharkey and Eric a Pytlovany, both dog trainers, founded BosunDogs in 2019 after witnessing clients continually face severe behavioral challenges in adopted dogs. They regularly see owners face rehoming or even euthanizing (使安乐死) their pets due to health issues. “I would really love for all families who want a nice dog to be able to get a nice dog —and we don’t have that right now,” says Sharkey, who also owns WOOFS! dog-training centers in Arlington, Virginia. “I decided that the best way I could do that was to breed them.”
Sharkey is part of the growing functional-breeding movement, which raises dogs in small-scale settings to be friendly and healthy pets, with less focus on purebred (纯血统的) status. “I want to breed dogs for what I think is the actual highest function a dog has, especially in this country, which is as a companion animal,” says Sharkey.
In particular, Sharkey hopes to offer an alternative to purebred puppies, around a third of which are bred in high-volume kennels (犬舍). And while some of these facilities are regulated by the USDA and meet standards such as Purdue University’s Canine Care Certified, many don’t pay as much attention to selecting healthy breeding dogs and providing adequate puppy enrichment as small-scale breeders do, says Sara Reusche, owner of Paws Abilities Dog Training in Rochester, Minnesota.
Some concerned with the health and welfare of purebred puppies choose to adopt shelter animals as an alternative. But this route may not be feasible for everyone—especially in high-demand areas, such as the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, and West Coast. Twenty years ago, many U. S. shelters euthanized dogs to provide space for new intakes, explains Reusche.
1. Why does Laura Sharkey breed mixed-breed dogs?| A．She likes the dog’s appearance. |
| B．Mixed-breed dogs are easy to raise. |
| C．She aims for a specific build and size. |
| D．She cares more about dog’s health and inner nature. |
| A．To breed healthy dogs to accompany people. |
| B．To raises dogs in small-scale settings. |
| C．To adopt shelter animals as a pet. |
| D．To sell dogs to make money. |
| A．They are not so healthy. | B．They get balanced nutrition. |
| C．They are all very tender and mild. | D．They don’t meet certain standards. |
| A．popular | B．acceptable |
| C．dissatisfied | D．inconsistent |
2 . A British company has proposed releasing a GM(genetically modified) strain of the diamondback moth (菱形斑纹蛾), which has been developed to help reduce the population of these vegetable-eating insects.
Male diamondback moths carrying a deadly gene would be released which would cause their off springs (后代) to die almost immediately. Then the fall in their numbers could help to increase crop yields for farmers.
Oxitec, the company which came up with the idea, hopes to begin trials next year but faces opposition from groups who say the untested technology could threaten wildlife and human health.
“Mass releases of GM insects into the British countryside would be impossible to recall if anything went wrong. Changing one part of an ecosystem can have knock-on effects on others in ways that are poorly understood. This could include an increase in different types of pests. Wildlife that feeds on insects could be harmed if there are changes to their food supply” said Dr Helen Wallace, the director of Gene-Watch UK, who has sat on government advisory bodies.
Hadyn Parry, Oxitec’s chief executive, said there was demand from farmers for the technology and that using GM insects to kill the pests that feed on food crops is better for the environment than chemical sprays. The firm, which is supported by grants from the taxpayer, is developing a number of GM insects that would be used in Britain and around the world to protect crops and combat disease in humans.
Oxitec has contacted the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to ask what controls, if any, should be put in place around GM moth trials. A spokesman said that while its officials and advisers have discussed Oxitec’s plans, there is yet to be a formal application for a trial. Consequently the department has not reached a view on whether it should go ahead.
1. People strongly object to the idea mainly because they think _______.| A．the technology won’t be as effective as chemical sprays |
| B．the technology may bring about knock-on effects on insects |
| C．the technology won’t be well controlled |
| D．the technology may not be good for wildlife and human health |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Positive. | C．Doubtful. | D．Not mentioned. |
| A．struggle | B．avoid | C．fight | D．contract |
| A．Oxitec still hasn’t formed any plans to control the trials. |
| B．Oxitec has decided to begin the trial this year. |
| C．Taxpayers will not continue to support Oxitec’s research. |
| D．Farmers prefer GM insects to chemical sprays. |
3 . Most birds, in particular, exhibit some degree of patterns and colours. Australia’s zebra finch (斑胸草雀), for example, was so named because of the zebra-like black and white bars on its tail. But it also has many other colours and patterns, from a bright orange bill to fine white spots along its reddish-brown sides. It’s not uncommon to spot the bird in the drier parts of Australia.
We tend to suppose all individuals of that species have their spots and bars in the same places. Look closer yet we’ll see that the quantity and design of these patterns vary between individuals. And somehow a bird exhibits a more obvious feather variation. Occasionally, we see one that has larger than usual pale areas of feathers or, more rarely, has lost its normal patterning altogether.
Colouration and patterning in all animals are caused by a range of pigments (色素). Melanin (黑色素) is responsible for blacks and browns, and a lack of this pigment can cause a partial or total loss of an individual’s dark patterning. The two main terms that describe these abnormalities are albinism and leucism. Both conditions are genetic and both can lead to a very similar physical appearance. Leucism, however, causes a lack of the pigment cells that produce melanin. But albinism causes the production of melanin to be reduced or absent.
Can we distinguish between the two conditions without the help of a cellular biologist? Yes. Albino animals have fully unpigmented red eyes. Leucistic animals, on the other hand, never completely lose pigment from the eye, although they can have blue eyes due to a partial loss of pigment.
Why don’t we see more albino or leucistic birds? Because the lack of melanin reduces the strength and lastingness of the affected birds’ feathers, making them more easily broken. Additionally, the birds’ vision and hearing are negatively affected, making them less able to hunt. The brighter feathers and lack of patterning also make them easier for attackers to see.
1. What can we learn about Australia’s zebra finch?| A．It is one of the rarest birds in Australia. |
| B．It is mostly covered with bright orange feathers. |
| C．It acquires its name from its tail colours and patterns. |
| D．It has the same spots and bars in the same places. |
| A．By giving explanations. | B．By presenting opinions. |
| C．By setting assumptions. | D．By drawing conclusions. |
| A．Total loss of patterns. | B．Genetically-born abnormalities. |
| C．Darkened feathers. | D．Abnormal formation of wings. |
| A．They have quite good hearing. | B．They have completely red eyes. |
| C．They have excellent hunting skills. | D．They have easily broken feathers. |
4 . One Saturday in June, I got off the train from Vienna at Altenberg station, in the midst of a gathering of bathers, such as often flock to our village at fine weekends.
I had gone only a few steps along the street and the crowd had not yet scattered when, high above me in the air, I saw a bird whose species I could not at first determine. It flew with slow, measured wing-beats, varied at set intervals by longer periods of gliding. It seemed too heavy to be a hawk; for a stork (鹳), it was not big enough and, even at that height, neck and feet should have been visible. Then the bird made a sudden turn so that the setting sun shone for a second full on the underside of the great wings which lit up like stars in the blue of the skies. The bird was white. By Heaven, it was my cockatoo (凤头鹦鹉)! The steady movements of his wings clearly indicated that he was setting out on a long-distance flight.
“What should I do? Should I call to the bird?” Well, have you ever heard the flight-call of the greater cockatoo? No? But you have probably heard pig-killing in the traditional method. Imagine the loudest long cry a pig could make, picked up by a microphone and amplified many times over by a powerful speaker. A man can imitate it quite successfully, though somewhat weak, by shouting at the top of his voice “O-ah”. I had already proved that the cockatoo understood this imitation and promptly “came to heel”. But would it work at such a height? A bird always has great difficulty in making the decision to fly downwards at a steep angle. To yell, or not to yell, that was the question. If I yelled and the bird came down, all would be well, but what if it sailed calmly on through the clouds? How would I then explain my song to the crowd of people?
Finally, I did yell. The people around me stood still, rooted to the spot. The bird hesitated for a moment on outstretched wings, and then, folding them, it descended in one dive and landed upon my outstretched arm. Once again I was master of the situation.
1. What was the author’s cockatoo like?| A．It looked like a hawk. | B．It was blue and shiny. |
| C．Its neck and feet were long. | D．It was white with great wings. |
| A．By waving at it quickly. | B．By singing a song loudly. |
| C．By screaming his head off. | D．By using a powerful loudspeaker. |
| A．Flew about. | B．Came back. | C．Came around. | D．Landed on the ground. |
| A．He knew birds very well. | B．He could speak with his bird. |
| C．He liked showing off in public. | D．He often surprised people around him. |
| A．In a park. | B．In a zoo. | C．In a pet store. |
1. Why did the zoo build a new monkey park?
| A．It was too small for the additional monkeys. |
| B．It needed a treehouse to be more interesting. |
| C．The zoo needed to change its park to get more visitors. |
| A．Watching the turtles. | B．Watching the monkeys. | C．Feeding the turtles. |
| A．In the park. | B．In a car. | C．In the zoo. |
7 . Scientists have been surprised and impressed with the long-distance travel of a bird recently, a common cuckoo (布谷鸟) which flew from southern Africa to Mongolia.
Onon is a common cuckoo. It’s one of 5 cuckoos who were tagged last summer in Mongolia, far to the north of China. Though cuckoos originally came from Africa, until recently scientists weren’t sure that cuckoos from Mongolia flew to Africa for the winter.
In June, 2019, scientists attached tiny trackers to five cuckoos. These satellite tags allowed the scientists to follow the movements of the birds on a map. Sure enough, Onon spent the winter in southern Africa — in Zambia.
This spring, Onon returned to Mongolia, amazing scientists once again with his long-distance flying. In just a couple of months, Onon flew more than 12,000 kilometers. It crossed 16 countries, flying at an average speed of 60 kilometers per hour.
Long migrations are common among sea birds, but cuckoos are land birds. “It was one of the longest animal migrations which has been recorded for a land bird,” said Chris Hewson, one of the project’s lead scientists.
At times, Onon stopped for a few hours or a few days. But some of the long stretches, like crossing the Indian Ocean, had to be done without stopping. The birds have to travel through strong winds and storms, make sure they find enough to eat, and avoid being eaten themselves.
Luckily, cuckoos seem to have a good sense of weather patterns, allowing them to fatten up as much as possible right before they leave. They also seem to be good at finding helpful winds that allow them to travel long distances without getting too tired. Still, flying such long distances isn’t easy. Onon is the only one of the five tagged cuckoos who made it all the way back to Mongolia.
1. Why were satellite tags attached to five cuckoos?| A．To make them safe. | B．To position the birds. |
| C．To draw a detailed map. | D．To observe them in winter. |
| A．Delighted. | B．Astonished. | C．Puzzled. | D．Annoyed. |
| A．Because it is very dangerous. | B．Because it is well-known. |
| C．Because it is a place to go. | D．Because it is rich in food. |
| A．Cuckoos’ advantages. | B．Cuckoos’ senses. |
| C．Cuckoos’ habits. | D．Cuckoos’ will. |
8 . A new study reveals that pigeons (鸽子) can tackle some problems just like artificial intelligence, enabling them to solve difficult tasks that might challenge humans. Previous research has theorized that pigeons employ a problem-solving strategy, involving a trial-and- error approach, which is similar to the approach used in AI models but differs from humans’ reliance on selective attention and rule use. To examine it, Brandon Turner, a psychology professor at the Ohio State University, and his colleagues conducted the new study.
In the study, the pigeons were presented with various visual images, including lines of different widths and angles, and different types of rings. The pigeons had to peck (啄) a button on the right or left to indicate the category to which the image belonged. If they got it correct, they received food; if they were wrong, they received nothing. Results showed that, through trial and error, the pigeons improved their accuracy in categorization tasks, increasing their correct choices from about 55% to 95%.
Researchers believed pigeons used associative learning, which is linking two phenomena with each other. For example, it is easy to understand the link. between “water” and “wet”. “Associative learning is frequently assumed to be far too primitive to. explain complex visual categorization like what we saw the pigeons do,” Turner said. But that’s exactly what the researchers found.
The researchers’ AI model tackled the same tasks using just the two simple mechanisms that pigeons were assumed to use: associative learning and error correction. And, like the pigeons, the AI model learned to make the right predictions to significantly increase the number of correct answers. For humans, the challenge when given tasks like those given to pigeons is that they would try to come up with rules that could make the task easier. But in this case, there were no rules, which upsets humans.
What’s interesting, though, is that pigeons use this method of learning that is very similar to AI designed by humans, Turner said. “We celebrate how smart we are that we designed artificial intelligence: at the same time, we regard pigeons as not clever animals,” he said.
1. What is the purpose of the new study?| A．To test a theory. | B．To evaluate a model. |
| C．To employ a strategy. | D．To involve an approach. |
| A．Draw circles. | B．Correct errors. | C．Copy gestures. | D．Identify images. |
| A．They are of equal intelligence. |
| B．They are good at making rules. |
| C．They respond rapidly to orders from humans. |
| D．They employ simple ways to get things done. |
| A．Pigeons’ trial-and-error method is revealed |
| B．Pigeons outperform humans in tough tasks |
| C．“Not smart” pigeons may be as smart as AI |
| D．AI models after pigeons’ learning approach |
9 . Of all the creatures on the planet, the narwhal is one of the strangest looking. It’s a whale which has a large protruding tusk coming out of its head; that’s how it got, its nickname, the unicorn of the sea. They live in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Canada, Russia and East Greenland. However, experts say some populations of narwhal could be extinct by 2025, and it’s all because of noise pollution.
Narwhals rely on echolocation, which they use to find food and navigate their surroundings. The animal produces a sound wave which bounces off an object. They pick this reflected sound up through their lower jaw, and information on features like size and speed passes to their ears. However, increase in human marine activity, as well as climate change, has resulted in the Arctic Ocean becoming noisier, which means it’s more difficult for narwhals to rely on sound. Susanna Blackwell, who studies the effects of underwater noise on marine animals, told the BBC that there is noisier activity in the Arctic Ocean than ever because, as sea ice melts, new navigation routes are opening. And while icebergs breaking and creaking have been part of the ocean soundscape for hundreds of years, man-made noise is much harder for animals to adapt to, particularly as these changes are so sudden.
Research published in Science Advances in 2023 recorded the reactions of narwhals to the simulated (模拟的) noises of oil expeditions made by a patrol vessel (巡逻船). The scientists tagged and tracked the creatures and found that, on hearing these sounds, they ended deep dives and stopped clicking, the echolocation signal they use for finding food underwater. This is the same reaction narwhals have to orcas, who hunt them, meaning human-made noise could trigger the creature’s “threat button”.
So, what can we do? Charlotte Findlay, a postdoctoral fellow at Aarhus University, says “noise is actually quite easy to solve. We need to either turn it off or turn it down.”
1. What can we learn about the narwhal from the first paragraph?| A．It has a large tusk from its jaw. | B．It currently faces the risk of dying out. |
| C．It lives in the southern hemisphere. | D．It sounds different from other whales. |
| A．Narwhals navigate their surroundings by echolocation. |
| B．Sea ice melting makes the ocean noisier than ever. |
| C．Man-made noise has a greater impact on marine animals. |
| D．Narwhals are not used to icebergs breaking and creaking. |
| A．A patrol vessel was applied in the research. | B．Orcas are the natural enemy to narwhals. |
| C．Noises would change the echolocation signal. | D．Scientists tagged narwhals under the water. |
| A．Survival of Narwhal threatened by man-made noise. |
| B．Experts predicting the extinction of the narwhal. |
| C．New research set to solve underwater noise pollution. |
| D．Narwhal population affected by underwater noise pollution. |
In the heart of the forest, there was an annual event that all animals looked forward to—the Great Forest Race. The big animals, like the majestic deer, the powerful bears, and the swift foxes, always dominated the race. They believed that their size and strength were the keys to victory.
Among the small animals, there was a brave rabbit named Hopper who had always dreamt of winning the Great Forest Race. Hopper was small, but he had quick feet and a determined spirit.
The day of the race arrived, and the forest was filled with excitement. The big animals took off, their powerful legs carrying them swiftly through the forest. The small animals, led by Hopper, followed closely behind.
As the race progressed, the big animals began to slow down. Their size and strength, which they had thought were advantages, became obstacles as they struggled to navigate the twisty paths and steep hills of the forest.
Hopper, on the other hand, bounded gracefully over the obstacles. His small size allowed him to weave through the trees with ease, and his determination kept him going strong.
One by one, the big animals began to fall behind. They watched in amazement as Hopper and the other small animals passed them by.
Finally, the small animals, led by Hopper, had not only participated but had also triumphed in face of adversity. The big animals realized that they had been wrong to underestimate the small animals. They had judged them based on their size, without considering their skills or determination.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
From that day forward, the big animals treated the small animals with respect.
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The Great Forest Race became a symbol of unity and cooperation.
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