1 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one more word than you need.

A. conserve             B. wrinkly             C. stationary             D. exceptional             E. oddities             F. nursing       G. timely             H. sounding             I. generalize             J. comprise             K. rules

The Curious World of Bats

Not all bats are unbelievably adorable, like the one below. Many of them have     1     faces and large ears that help them “see” in the dark, using echo location (回声定位). But all bats are, without a doubt,     2     creatures.

Scientists are typically reluctant to     3     about bats because they make up such a large and diverse group of winged animals. With nearly 1, 500 species, bats     4     about one-fifth of all mammal (哺乳动物) species on Earth. But one thing that can be said about them as a group is that they are, in not- so-scientific terms, very odd. “They break all the     5    ,” said Cori Lausen, a bat expert at the environmental group Wildlife Conservation Society Canada.

Being able to fly is just one of their     6    , since mammals rarely fly. Apart from that, bats can also push their heart rate to extreme highs and lows-as slow as one beat per minute. Many bat species can go into a period of deep sleep, known as “torpor”, for a few hours a day or even for weeks to     7     energy when it’s cold or food is unavailable. And while most small mammals have short lives and lots of babies, some bats can live for two decades or more and typically have just one baby per year.

For how much energy they need, it’s also surprising that many bat species, including most of those in the US, rely on insects alone for food. They have to eat ridiculous quantities of them. A mom that is     8     a baby can catch more than 4,000 insects in one night.

Oddly, although bats can fly, they can’t easily take off from a(n)     9     position, like most birds and insects do. That’s one reason why they hang upside down-bats have to gain the momentum they need by falling. “For them, it’s not upside down,” Frick said. “It’s flight-side ready!”

While bats remain highly understudied relative to birds and other mammals, scientists are     10     the alarm. In North America, more than half of all bat species are at risk of severe population decline. Climate change, they say, threatens to only speed up their extinction.

2 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. army   B. available   C. displayed   D. reserves   E. straight   F. inserted G. additional   H. advocates   I. initiative   J. proven   K. existing

A new way to reduce poaching

Researchers are working on a pilot program backed by Russia’s Rosatom Corp to inject rhino horns (犀牛角) with radioactive material, a strategy that could discourage consumption and make it easier to detect illegal trade.

Poachers (偷猎者) killed 394 rhinos in South Africa for their horns last year, government data shows, with public and private game     1     lacking the resources needed to monitor vast tracts of land and protect the animals that live there. While the toll was a third lower than in 2019 and the sixth     2     drop, illegal hunting remains the biggest threat to about 20,000 of the animals in the country — the world’s biggest population.

Thousands of     3     sensors along international borders could be used to detect a small quantity of radioactive material     4     into the horns, according to James Larkin, a professor at the University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, who has a background in radiation protection and nuclear security. “A whole new     5     of people could be able to detect the illegal movement of rhino horn,” he said. Some alternate methods of discouraging poaching, including poisoning, dyeing and removing the horns, have raised a variety of opinions as to their virtue and efficacy.

Known as The Rhisotope Project, the new anti-poaching     6     started earlier this month with the injection of an amino acid (氨基酸) into two rhinos’ horns in order to detect whether the compound will move into the animals’ bodies. Also,     7     studies using computer modeling and a replica rhino head will be done to determine a safe dose of radioactive material. Rhino horn is used in traditional medicine, as it is believed to cure disease such as cancer,     8     as a show of wealth and given as gifts.

“If we make it radioactive, these people will be hesitant to buy it,” Larkin said. “We’re pushing on the whole supply chain.”

Besides Russia’s state-owned nuclear company, the University of Witwatersrand, scientists and private rhino owners are involved in the project. If the method is     9     feasible, it could also be used to curb illegal trade in elephant ivory.

“Once we have developed the whole project and got to the point where we completed the proof of concept, then we will be making this whole idea     10     to whoever wants to use it,” Larkin said.

3 . Directions:   Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box.   Each word can be used only once.   Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. carved          B. unknowingly            C. ecosystem          D. artificial          E. elemental F. changing       G. practically        H. wrinkled        I. unmoving          J. species       K. inspection

Magical Creatures: AN APPRECIATION OF AUTUMN MOTH (蛾)

Moths seem to have a bit of a bad reputation: to some they are ill indications or something scary, to others they are dull in comparison to our well-loved butterflies. But moths are an essential part of a(n)     1    , and important food sources for species like birds and bats. And for me, moths are far from dull.

My first meeting with an Angle Shades moth was nearly a non-encounter. I almost passed by without noticing it, thinking it was a fallen leaf on a fence post. But there was something about it that stopped me in my tracks. Its angular shape perhaps? Or the way it sat,     2    , despite the breeze. Closer     3     revealed cream and buff shell-shaped wings, painted with triangles of light pink and brown. Suddenly, it transformed from a(n)     4     leaf into a living thing before my eyes. I’ve been fascinated ever since.

The Canary-shouldered Thorn, with its hairy buttercup-coloured body and yellow and orange wings, reminds me of a fallen silver birch (白桦树) leaf. A night-flyer, it favours gardens and woodlands, and is often drawn to     5     light, meaning that your torch beam may be attracting moths as well as lighting your way in the dark. It’s also worth double-checking any leaves in farm houses, as these sheltered spots are a favourite hiding place of another overwintering     6    : the Herald moth. This elegant creature’s beautiful wings look as though they’ve been     7     by hand and painted with bronze.

There’s more to these imitators than fallen leaves. The Green-spotted Crescent, which     8     disappears on rough branches, has metallic green spots integrating with the moss (苔藓). Maybe I’ve already     9     crossed paths with one, though. As we dig out our big coats and slip on boots for walks beneath branches, how many moths are we missing? These clever creatures aren’t bad indications, but     10     parts of nature, with a gift for fancy-dress.

5 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. applications	B. connections	C. emotions	D. identify	E. intervene	F. notifications
G. sacred	H. shared	I. specialize	J. stressed	K. technological

Animal Communication

Many pet owners long to talk with their animals. After all, if pets were able to talk, people could take care of them more easily and have closer emotional     1     to them, so a number of companies are working on devices and apps that could translate what animals say.

One such app is called MeowTalk. Using voice recognition software, this app recognizes different sounds a cat makes and offers English translations of them. For example, one type of sound might mean “feed me” while another could be translated “let me outside.” The app can use machine learning to assess its translations and improve at recognizing one particular cat’s voice. In other words, it can     2     in understanding your cat in particular. This is important because cats do not all have a(n)     3     language, but individual cats frequently use particular sounds to mean certain things.

In the future, MeowTalk could connect to a smart collar that would hear the cat meow and play the translation out loud. Perhaps if the cat is outside and needs to be let in, it could even send     4     to the owner’s phone.

For dogs, a Japanese company called Inupathy has developed a harness (保护带) with a heart rate monitor and an app. The heart rate monitor is used to assess a dog’s     5    . This is possible because, like humans, dogs’ heart rates go up when they are excited or     6    . The harness also has a light that turns red when the dog is excited, but when the dog is relaxed, the light is blue.

The most obvious use of this technology is to help pet owners     7     with and provide for their pets better. The more owners know about their pets, the easier it is to meet their needs.

There are other     8     of technology that help us understand animals. For example, some sheep farmers are using artificial intelligence to scan and determine if they are in pain, which helps them find out sick animals. As a result, they can     9     more quickly to treat the animal.

Anyone who interacts regularly with animals could benefit from understanding their animals better. Thus these     10     developments might transform the way we interact with the creatures around us.

6 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. motivate       B. accidentally       C. highlighting       D. plantations       E. engaging F. apparent       G. purpose H. sensitive       I. increasingly       J. decent       K. treat

Ball- Rolling Bumble Bees Just Wanna Have Fun

Playtime isn’ t just for children. Lab- kept bumble bees roll small wooden balls around for no

    1     purpose other than fun, a new study reveals. It supports evidence that bees experience pleasure,    2     the importance of protecting them in the wild and treating them well in their natural habitats.

“It is super cool,” says Elizabeth Tibbetts, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Michigan. “We usually think about insects as being so different that they lack complex behaviors.” But not everyone is convinced the behavior is in fact play.

Lars Chittka, a behavioral ecologist at Queen Mary University of London, and his colleagues    3     came across the new evidence. The team was studying how bumble bees learn complex behaviors from their comrades by training the insects to move wooden balls to specific locations. If a bee moved a ball to the right place, it got a sugary     4    . The researchers noticed that some bees moved the balls even when no reward was offered. They just seemed to like going back to them and playing around with them and rolling them all over the place. The careful design of the experiments has convinced him the bees are indeed     5     in play.

Because play implies a capacity to experience emotions, documenting it in insects could have    6     implications. Insects are     7     being raised for animal feed, and there are no regulations governing their welfare. Honey bees are also known to become stressed and more     8     to disease and bee communities collapse when industrialized beekeepers transport them long distances on trucks to     9     and vast fields without diverse flowers nearby, Chittka says. The researchers hope their findings might also     10     greater fellow feeling for — and protection of — wild insects.

7 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. artificial   B. reflect C. remains D. accidentally E. overtaken F. recover G. disappearance   H. functionally     I. scheme   J. adaptations   K. preserved

A Mammoth Project

A US company called Colossal has raised 11 million dollars to bring mammoths (猛犸象) back from extinction. Mammoths died out about 3,700 years ago but their bodies are sometimes     1     in ice. This allows scientists to     2     their DNA, which could hold the key to bringing mammoths back to life.

A team of scientists at Colossal plan to use information from mammoth     3     to edit the DNA of Asian elephants — their closest living relatives. The team will focus on DNA that is linked to bushy hair and other     4     for cold weather. These were what helped mammoths survive on the Arctic steppe — ancient chilly grasslands. By adding this DNA to egg cells from Asian elephants, they hope to create an elephant-mammoth mix, which could develop into a baby either inside a living Indian elephant or in a(n)     5     organ.

Colossal hopes that the first set of calves could be born this way in six years. “We want something that is     6     equivalent to the mammoth, that will enjoy its time at - 40°C and do all the things that elephants and mammoths do, in particular knocking down trees,” said Church, the founder of Colossal. It’s hoped that the destructive habits of the hybrids (杂交种) could help restore areas of Arctic steppe that have been     7     by trees since mammoths became extinct. That can help keep the world cooler.

Arctic grasslands     8     more heat from the Sun than forests and can absorb more of the gases released by human activity. However, not everyone agrees with the     9    . Professor Adrian says the extinction of mammoths had little to do with the     10     of steppe grasslands. He points out that it would take thousands of mammoths to have an effect on the environment.

8 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. adequate       B. continentally       C. dominated       D. enforcement       E. historically       F. home G. location        H. performing        I. reuniting          J. sought                 K. status

Locally Extinct Rhino Is Back in Chad

Pigs don’t fly yet, but rhinos do.

Six black rhinoceroses were flown from South Africa to Zakouma National Park in Chad last week,     1     the threatened animal with a land it has not walked on in nearly five decades.

Chad is one of several African countries that have recently     2     to start their own small black rhino populations in an attempt to protect the species from extinction. It is a participant in the African Rhino Conservation Plan, which hopes to significantly grow the number of rhinos in Africa over the next five years.

Up until the mid-20th century, black rhinos     3     the landscape of Chad, grazing (吃草) and attracting tourists. But they also attracted poachers, who hunted them for their horns, which are displayed as     4     symbols. The population of black rhinos is down 97.6 percent since I960. Some estimate that as few as 5,500 are left on the continent according to the African Wildlife Foundation.

Cathy Dean, chief executive officer of Save the Rhino, an advocacy group, said six black rhinos were not significant in the context of the 5,000 or so that exist     5    . But it’s a good sign that Chad has a safe place to house rhinos now.

According to the African Wildlife Foundation, 98 percent of the current black rhino population exists in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Namibia. South Africa, which is     6     to 40 percent of the rhinos, has already moved some of them to other countries, like Botswana.

Zakouma National Park will be responsible for protecting the rhinos from poachers and providing them with a(n)     7     environment to live in.

Transporting the animals to create a new population is a plan that can prove effective, Ms. Dean said “Some subspecies are     8     really well, with an annual growth rate at 9 percent or even higher,” she said in an email.

But moving the rhinos to a place where they once were and no longer are isn’t enough. The population must be managed and protected, and law     9     must play a role, Ms. Dean said. There should also be biological management, guided by effective monitoring. The rhinos cannot be dropped into a(n)     10     and expected to mate.

9 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. appears     B. changing     C. dependent       D. dim       E. discovery       F. exclusively G. reflect       H. review        I. sexually        J. underlying       K. vigorously

Undercover Wings

The nocturnal（夜间活动）dot-underwing moth（蛾）may use shape -shifting patterns on its wings as a way to attract mates in the dark. In a study published last September in Current Biology, scientists report the    1    on males' forewings of three patches（色斑）that change darkness and size when viewed from particular angles. In females, the entire forewing darkens.

Although butterfly and moth species that are active during the day are known to employ visual effects to communicate, researchers had thought their nocturnal cousins relied almost    2    on chemical signals because of the lack of light. But these    3    wing patterns, now found for the first time in a nocturnal moth, suggest the insects may also use visual signals. Because only the males have this pattern, researchers say it is likely a（n）    4    selected mechanism.

Jennifer Kelley, an ecologist based at the University of Western Australia, and her colleagues first noticed the visual phenomenon while looking at museum moth specimens（标本）for another project. "As soon as we figured the effect was angle-    5    , we knew that to understand how it works, we had to understand the    6    physics," Kelley says. The group contacted Gerd Schröder-Turk and Bodo Wilts, who are physicists at Murdoch University in Perth and the Adolphe Merkle Institute in Switzerland respectively.

Together the researchers found that when the wings are viewed from above, they    7    available light directly, like a dull mirror. When viewed from an angle, however, they let some of the light through to reveal a deeper layer of darkness, which    8    as patches on the male's wings. If the insects were to beat their wings    9    —a common behavior among males approaching potential mates—the patches would flash on and off, creating a striking signal even in very    10    light.

10 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. consumed   B. assessing   C. attracted     D. mirror     E. particularly   F. sources    G. motivate   H. ranging   I. encounter   J. densities   K. deliberately

Plastic “Food” Endangering Turtles

Endangered green turtles are confusing plastic for food, according to scientists. Sea turtles mostly find their food visually, by     1    the color and shape of an object to work out if it is edible. Some of their favorite foods look like plastic.

Emily Duncan, a postdoctoral researcher in marine conservation commented in a statement: “The     2    of this plastic might include things like black trash bags.”

Researchers studied 34 turtles who had washed up on the beaches of on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, and found they were     3    to pieces of plastic which looked like sheets or threads, and were black, clear or green. The team were able to look at the gastrointestinal tracts (胃肠道) of 19 turtles. All of them had eaten plastic,     4    from 3 to 183 pieces in total.

Smaller turtles had eaten more plastic than bigger animals. That could be because of their naivety. The team concluded that green turtles,     5    younger individuals, who feed in the coastal waters of Cyprus, regularly     6    and eat plastic so much that the vast majority of animals contain some plastic in their gastrointestinal tracts at the time of their death.

The findings     7    past studies which show other species of turtle get mixed up between food and waste.

The problem doesn’t just affect green turtles. Extremely high     8    of plastic are found in oceans across the world, leading to all sea turtles, at least 36 percent of sea birds, and many fish species being found to have taken in plastic waste.

Professor Brendan Godley, who leads the Exeter Marine research strategy at the University of Exeter and co-authored the work, commented: “Research like this helps us understand what sea turtles are eating, and whether certain kinds of plastic are being     9    more than others.”

It’s important to know what kinds of plastic might be a particular problem, as well as highlighting issues that can help     10    people to continue to work on reducing overall plastic consumption and pollution.