1 . David Willard has been checking the grounds of Chicago’s lakefront exhibition center for dead birds for 40 years. One morning this year he found something horrible; Hundreds of dead songbirds, so thick they looked like a carpet. Nearly 1,000 songbirds died during the night after crashing into the center’s windows. According to bird experts, the result was caused by a combination of migration conditions, rain, and the exhibition hall's low lights and walls with windows.
Birds don’t see clear glass and don’t understand it’s a deadly barrier. When they see plants or bushes through windows, they head for them, killing themselves in the process. Birds that migrate at night, like sparrows, rely on the stars to navigate. Bright lights from buildings both attract and confuse them, leading to window strikes or birds flying around the lights until they die from tiredness—a phenomenon known as deadly light attraction.
But even in the best of circumstances, spring and fall are dangerous times for migrating birds. When they migrate over major cities, the risks increase. Hundreds or thousands of dead birds may appear on city streets after a wave of migrants has passed through. In all, about 100 million to 1 billion birds die each year in North America from crashing buildings.
The good news is that people can greatly reduce the danger with some simple methods. Window strikes are easily preventable, said Anna Pidgeon, an expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Architects can design windows with markings in the glass that birds can easily recognize, she said. People can paint their windows as well.
1. What caused songbirds to die according to Paragraph 1?| A．Bad migration conditions. | B．Human behaviors. |
| C．Crashing into plants. | D．A combination of external factors. |
| A．Birds dying due to being attracted by strong lights. |
| B．Birds getting attracted to bright lights and then getting lost. |
| C．Birds getting attracted to lights and then attacking each other. |
| D．Birds flying around the dim lights until they die from exhaustion. |
| A．Puzzled and unbiased. | B．Negative and suspicious. |
| C．Approving and supportive. | D．Compromising and critical. |
| A．To promote the use of dim lights in buildings. |
| B．To inform readers about bird migration patterns. |
| C．To explain the dangers birds face during migration. |
| D．To discuss the work of David Willard at the exhibition center. |
2 . If you think of a game of fetch, you might picture a dog running back and forth, eagerly recovering a ball. But a new study shows that they’re not the only pets that like the game: Cats play fetch, too, just on their own unique terms.
The researchers discovered almost 1,000 owners of 1,154 cats to find out if and why. According to their findings, nearly 95% of the cat owners reported that their cats fetched items naturally. One respondent said his cat returned the toy completely for no reason.
Fetching was mainly first noticed when cats were under I year old. What’s more, “cats who fetch largely determine when they engage in fetching activities and actively influence the play behavior of their owners,” according to the study. “So, it can say a bit about cats being in control of their interactions and being in control of their environments, even being in control of us. You might even go so far to say,” says Jemma Forman, the co-author of the study.
But the motivation for cats to fetch objects seems to be different from that for dogs. Cats are more likely to play on their own with objects similar to prey (猎物). For dogs, play is more social, involving either another dog or human.
In general, play has major advantages for both the pet and the owner, as it not only helps to prevent attack towards, the owner, but also models the act of preying on real animals, an important kind of play behavior. “So even if your cat doesn’t play fetch, obviously it’s a really good idea to try and engage them in any sort of play. Play does have a lot of benefits,” says Forman. “It’s about owner acceptance to your fur baby,” she says.
1. Why does the author mention dogs in Paragraph 1?| A．To offer basic information of dogs. |
| B．To make an outline for the passage. |
| C．To introduce the topic of the passage. |
| D．To conclude the meaning of the topic. |
| A．By raising questions. | B．By listing data. |
| C．By making a comparison. | D．By offering an example. |
| A．A social action. | B．A learning process. |
| C．A serious task. | D．A preying activity. |
| A．Cats Play Fetch, Too | B．Train Cats to Fetch |
| C．New Findings on Dogs | D．Dogs Play Fetch, Too |
3 . The tickbird and the giraffe have a connection relationship that some scientists describe as win-win relationship and some as parasitism (寄生). This interspecies partnership is imbalanced in favor of the giraffe because it can live without the tickbird, while the tickbird is dependent on the giraffe for food resource.
The giraffe is a large mammal that lives in Africa along with other large grass-eaters. All these and many others host the tickbird. This bird has long been thought to remove ticks (扁虱) from its host, to the benefit of both—the bird eats the ticks, and the host is relieved of blood-sucking, disease-carrying insects—but recent studies reveal that this process is less than good. A secondary benefit to a host from the tickbirds’ presence is a sort of early warning system, since the birds make a loud sound if they sight an enemy. This is of less benefit to the giraffe than to other hosts because the giraffe has the advantage of great height and keen eyesight and is fully capable of spotting predators without the bird’s assistance. The tickbird is likely of greater benefit in this capacity to the nearsighted rhino.
They cross through the host’s hair looking for insects as their food. According to the researcher Paul Weeks, reporting in the journal Behavioral Ecology, tickbirds can and do enlarge tick bites and other wounds on their host body to seek for food resource, making the host-tickbird relationship unfair. The host, like the giraffe, however, would have a hard time keeping tickbirds off itself. So they tolerate the birds who cling to their bodies and chow down selectively at the buffet on the giraffe’s body.
1. Which statement about the tickbird is TRUE?| A．It doesn’t rely on the giraffe for food. |
| B．It removes ticks from its hosts. |
| C．It makes gentle sounds when it spots an enemy. |
| D．It brings more benefit to its hosts than it gets from them. |
| A．Because the giraffe has no tick on its body. |
| B．Because the giraffe has its own warning system. |
| C．Because the giraffe is tall and has sharp eyesight. |
| D．Because the giraffe is strong enough to protect itself. |
| A．stick to | B．lead to | C．keep away | D．hold back |
| A．Tickbird and Giraffe: Unequal Relationship | B．Tickbird and Giraffe: Friendly Relationship |
| C．Tickbird and Giraffe: Mysterious Relationship | D．Tickbird and Giraffe: Conflicting Relationship |
4 . How much do you love animals? Maybe not as much as photographer Joel Sartore. He is traveling the world to take pictures of as many animals as he can find, which allows people to focus on the beauty and uniqueness of each animal.
Sartore is working to take photos of all 20,000 different types of animals living in the world’s zoos, aquariums (水族馆) and wildlife shelters. And he’s already taken nearly 15,000! He hopes his photos will raise awareness of these planet’s most endangered creatures, and that he can document them before they’re gone. “My job is to tell their stories and hope that the world cares in time,” he told The Weather Channel in 2022.
Sartore calls his project the Photo Ark, like the story of Noah’s Ark, in which a large boat is built to save every type of animal in the world from a flood. He founded the Photo Ark in 2006 in his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska.
He doesn’t just take his animal photos in the usual zoo environment, however — he puts each animal on a black or white background with studio lights. This helps him photograph their true colors, and lets people see a little mouse as clearly as a big elephant — and look each animal right in the eye. “When people connect to animals through eye contact, we’ve got a real chance at changing human behavior,” Sartore says.
The response has indeed been huge. Sartore has more than 1.6 million followers online and a best-selling series of Photo Ark books. He asks people to buy his books and photos, give money to the Photo Ark, and support zoos, aquariums and wildlife shelters near where they live.
1. According to the text, Sartore needs to take another ______ photos for his project.| A．5,000 | B．10,000 | C．15,000 | D．20,000 |
| A．To make a living in this way. | B．To help save animals in danger. |
| C．To meet his own interest in animals. | D．To offer another way to learn about animals. |
| A．Some are black and white. | B．They are about animals in danger. |
| C．They were taken in the natural habitat. | D．Some were taken in designed environment. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Doubtful. | C．Supportive. | D．Disappointed. |
5 . We all love butterflies. Their beautiful wings attract us, and their presence lights up our garden. Well, that’s our view of butterflies, but have you ever wondered what plants think of them?
The butterflies’ eggs lie on the underside of the leaves. The eggs themselves don’t damage plants. However, upon coming into contact with the eggs, the plants become oversensitive. It means that once a plant recognizes a pest, it will cause death in the contacted plant part. When these dead leaves or partial leaf parts break away from the plant, the eggs on them fall off. Along with the hypersensitivity response, plants also produce something special, which can attract animals to cat the eggs, thus preventing damage in the future.
After the baby butterflies come out of their eggs, the caterpillar (毛虫) stage begins. Most caterpillars feed on the leaves of the plants, damaging some of the plants in your own garden. Incredibly, they are major plant pests that bring about major losses to farmers. The next stage is pupa (蛹). The caterpillars begin their change into an adult. They don’t depend on the energy that the leaves provide. Finally, they become adult butterflies that have wings and move from one plant to the other. They feed on the sweet liquid produced by flowers.
While on their search for food, the butterflies carry pollen (花粉) on their body. They are key pollinators that place pollen from one flower to another in ecosystem. Plants that have flowers will create some special features to draw these pollinators’ attention. Certain plants have flowers giving off smells that can charm butterflies when they are looking for a mate. Some plants even have flat flowers to assist butterflies when landing.
Butterflies aid in pollination during their final adult stage. Thus, they change into beneficial insects to plants. This change makes butterflies an important friend of plants, despite being a hated enemy in previous life cycle stages!
1. How does a plant respond to butterflies’ eggs?| A．It tries to get rid of them. | B．It tries to appeal to them. |
| C．It grows a little better with them. | D．It protects them from being eaten. |
| A．In the period of egg-laying. | B．In the period of pupa. |
| C．In the period of caterpillar. | D．In the period of adult. |
| A．Describe the process of pollination. |
| B．Show how flowers attract butterflies. |
| C．Stress the importance of pollination. |
| D．Explore how adult butterflies develop. |
| A．Why do flowers need butterflies’ pollination? |
| B．How do plants defend themselves from pests? |
| C．Are butterflies’ life cycles similar to the plants’? |
| D．Are butterflies beneficial or harmful to plants? |
The 1975 film Jaws was a great success,
7 . When I was young, we lived in an area known as Fruitland for the apple trees that grew there. Since my father was a
One morning when we went outside to play, we couldn’t
Mother
When our father
| A．helpful | B．optimistic | C．skillful | D．realistic |
| A．property | B．reward | C．business | D．wealth |
| A．bird | B．dog | C．cat | D．horse |
| A．sands | B．woods | C．rocks | D．steels |
| A．ask | B．tell | C．inform | D．find |
| A．Originally | B．Finally | C．Actually | D．Instantly |
| A．removed | B．restored | C．approached | D．appreciated |
| A．helpless | B．natural | C．exciting | D．unusual |
| A．behavior | B．personality | C．habit | D．lifestyle |
| A．gave up | B．came out | C．took up | D．broke out |
| A．convincing | B．exciting | C．inspiring | D．warning |
| A．worked | B．studied | C．walked | D．stayed |
| A．returned | B．changed | C．left | D．slept |
| A．sent | B．threw | C．pulled | D．invited |
| A．surprise | B．sadness | C．regret | D．comfort |
8 . “They’re all in trouble,” says Kenyan ecologist Paula Kahumbu. “All elephants are in major, major trouble.”
Populations of the three species have reduced: savanna elephants, the largest land animals on the planet; forest elephants, their straight-tusked cousins; and the smaller-eared, Asian elephants, about a third of which live in fixed zone.
And we’re to blame. We’ve expanded (扩张) into elephant habitats, building homes and roads, cutting down forests and planting crops. More cruelly, people have a strong desire for ivory items that come from a dead elephant’s tusk. Although elephants are difficult to count, one study suggests that the African continent may have been home to some 26 million elephants at the beginning of the 19th century. That number has dropped sharply, becoming dangerously low in the past five decades, with the rise of poaching. Now there are as few as 415, 000 elephants in Africa. In Asia, there may likely be only 50, 000 in the wild.
Poaching doesn’t just destroy animals, says Kahumbu, CEO of the Kenyan conservation organization WildlifeDirect; it damages society. That’s why her organization monitored poaching cases in Kenyan courts, launched a campaign called Hands Off Our Elephants, and educates children on the value of wildlife. Kahumbu’s goal is great and urgent: to change “the whole national consciousness (意识) about conservation.”
Now, she’s taking her message to an international stage with Secrets of the Elephants, a four-part series on National Geographic and Disney. It explores the hidden lives of Elephants in four habitats — Asia, plus African forests, deserts, and savannas — as well as the people who are racing to save the animals.
1. What situation are the elephants facing?| A．In peace. | B．At ease. | C．In danger. | D．Under control. |
| A．Human activities. | B．Climate change. |
| C．Disease outbreak. | D．Food shortage. |
| A．To collect money. | B．To protect the forests. |
| C．To monitor elephants. | D．To raise the public awareness. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Positive. | C．Negative. | D．Critical. |
Preserving more habitats for China’s giant pandas is providing a giant payoff.
The results,
Because of this, Chinese officials began making significant efforts to save the panda from
“
10 . Facial recognition technology is mostly connected with uses such as the identification of human faces, but scientists believe they’ve found a new use for it — conserving seals (海豹).
A research team at Colgate University has developed SealNet, a database of seal faces created by taking pictures of seals in Maine’s Casco Bay. The team found the tool’s accuracy in identifying the ocean animals is close to 100%, which is a great achievement in an ecosystem home to thousands of seals.
Krista Ingram, a biology professor at Colgate, said the researchers are working on expanding their database to make it available to other scientists. She also said broadening the database to include rare species, such as the Hawaiian seal, could help save those species. And categorizing (分类) seal faces and using machine learning to identify them can also help scientists know clearly where in the ocean seals are. “Understanding their patterns really helps,” she said. “For moving ocean animals that move around a lot and are hard to photograph in the water, we need to be able to tell them apart,” she said.
SealNet is designed to detect the face in a picture, collect it and recognize it based on facial patterns such as eyes and nose shape. The Colgate team published its paper in April in the scientific journal. The paper said that the “image data that can be dealt with using SealNet software offers an important tool for ecological and behavioral studies of ocean animals in the developing field of conservation technology.”
Tjomme Dooper, head of partnerships and growth from IT company FruitPunch, said he was getting a few scientists to work on a challenge to make SealNet simpler. “What this does is help the biologists study the behavior of seals, and also population changes,” Dooper said. “Seals are an important indicator species for the ecosystem around them.”
1. What is the new application of facial recognition technology?| A．Protecting seals. | B．Operating machines. | C．Cleaning up oceans. | D．Identifying human faces. |
| A．The process of categorizing seal faces. | B．The ways of locating the ocean animals. |
| C．The challenge of recognizing rare species. | D．The benefits of broadening seal database. |
| A．It is used to publish papers. | B．It is still in need of improvement. |
| C．It is designed to picture seal faces. | D．It is causing seals’ population changes. |
| A．To voice his views on SealNet. |
| B．To present a scientific research paper. |
| C．To introduce a new use of facial recognition. |
| D．To show the importance of developing technology. |
