1 . One afternoon in 2022, something on the Internet caught my eye：a tiny hedgehog (刺猬) held by a big hand. The post read: “HELP! My hedgehog abandoned (抛弃) her two babies, and I cannot raise both of them because I have to go to school fulltime. Good home with experience needed as soon as possible!”
I had no experience with baby hedgehogs. I was an animal person through and through and had raised cats, dogs, birds, and guinea pigs. But this tiny animal was new to me, and it touched me that he was abandoned, that maybe I could love him and be the best mom for him.
I wrote the most heartfelt email I could. That was how I found my Louie. True to my word, he was my baby. Louie didn’t know he was a hedgehog. He never curled (蜷缩) into a ball, and he liked my two cats, no fear. The cats, however, were afraid of him, as he often moved into the room, running after the cats and blocking my way.
By the time he reached old age, Louie had only three feet. However, he still managed to climb the stairs to visit other animals. He helped me realize my dream of hedgehog photography, a hobby that began during childhood with cats and dollhouses. I love showing off his modeling.
Life has meaning because of the purpose we have. Louie needed a good home and mom, and in return, I got to be a good mother and be needed. Hedgehogs require great amounts of patience, trust, and knowledge—but the payoff (回报) is pretty great.
1. The author got Louie from .| A．a pet shop | B．a family friend |
| C．a hedgehog owner | D．a hedgehog rescue center |
| A．Frightened. | B．Relaxed. | C．Lonely. | D．Tired. |
| A．He disliked climbing stairs. | B．He enjoyed being left alone. |
| C．He always refused to be in photos. | D．He was active despite his difficulty in moving. |
| A．It was easier than expected. | B．It gave her a sense of safety. |
| C．It made her lose her patience. | D．It was satisfying and meaningful. |
2 . Since the rise in car ownership in the 1950s, the US has started building roads in cities and across the country to provide enough room for automobiles. Houston, like many cities, is turning back the clock to make room for passers-by, cyclists and parks.
Memorial Park in Houston, Texas was halved by the Memorial Drive Highway in the1950s. It has now been reunited. The highway is still there, but the road goes underneath the 1,500-acre park.
The restoration (修复) of Memorial Park is part of a larger plan that was made after the city suffered from a serious drought. It was thought that 80 percent of the forested canopy (树冠) was dead. One of the ways to fight that was to reintroduce native plants and animals.
The city hired the landscape architectural company, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, to work with the Houston parks and the Memorial Parks Conservancy. The architects, led by Woltz, were inspired by wildlife crossings in the Northwest US and explored the possibility of using this idea in Memorial Park. Over the years, the park was cut into 20 pieces that were divided by highways, roads and parking lots. The only crossing was a 12-foot bridge.
After 10 years of planning and constructing, the Kinder Land Bridge officially opened in early February, 2023. The bridge consists of 100 acres of greenery, and while designed for people, has reconnected wildlife corridors (廊道). The reconstruction added 45 acres of native Gulf Coast prairie (草原) that’ll increase biodiversity in the park. “This project is not just about creating a passage or a bridge. This project is about ecology, it’s about biodiversity and water management. This project is a bridge into Houston’s future.” said Shellye Arnold, president of the Memorial Park Conservancy.
1. What led to the restoration of the Memorial Park?| A．A company’s suggestion. | B．A terrible natural disaster. |
| C．The demand from the public. | D．The recovery of native plants. |
| A．They knew how to restore the Memorial Park. |
| B．They got the inspiration for rescuing animals. |
| C．They gained a sense of achievement for working. |
| D．They developed a new way to protect the landscape. |
| A．It is about 12 feet in length. | B．Its aim is to save water. |
| C．It benefits the wild animals. | D．Its birth is a short process. |
| A．A Highway Connects a Park in Houston |
| B．The Importance of Building Land Bridges |
| C．Efforts to Restore Parks in American Cities |
| D．Houston Creates a Creative Way to Restore Nature |
3 . One day last summer, my 9-year-old son Ben and I were riding the waves at a popular ocean beach on outer Cape Cod. As we were playing happily with our surfboard, I suddenly noticed an astonishing
We stared and pointed in
Ben’s words took my breath away, more than the dramatic waves and the amazing sight of the
He was absolutely
We each have a part to play in
How we
| A．show | B．change | C．sight | D．sign |
| A．stood | B．left | C．started | D．lay |
| A．fear | B．amazement | C．silence | D．confusion |
| A．seldom | B．never | C．always | D．again |
| A．beach | B．ships | C．swimmers | D．whales |
| A．confident | B．crazy | C．smart | D．right |
| A．home | B．family | C．performance | D．stage |
| A．secret | B．public | C．natural | D．native |
| A．ignore | B．remember | C．prove | D．imagine |
| A．forever | B．only | C．once | D．almost |
| A．sharing | B．creating | C．improving | D．finding |
| A．required | B．judged | C．expected | D．did |
| A．true | B．easy | C．funny | D．powerful |
| A．researches | B．dreams | C．communities | D．activities |
| A．compete with | B．connect with | C．hear from | D．separate from |
Lunch hour. Escaping from my office, I fled down Main Street in pursuit of freedom from the routine of the day. An old bell clanged(叮当作响)against the door of a dusty used bookstore when I pushed it open.
Looking through the horizon of shelves and lots of magazines, my eyes suddenly met his and my heart began to race. They were the blazing(闪烁) orange eyes of an African lion on the cover of a National Geographic magazine. I hadn’t seen those eyes in thirty years, but their impact on me hadn’t faded. As a kid I used to dream about Africa, living with wild animals.
The opportunity of spending a “gap year” volunteering in Africa or joining the Youth Corps had long since passed. Or had it? Yes, it’s true I couldn’t go to Africa for several months, but maybe I could volunteer in Africa for a few weeks.
Over the next several weeks I began to budget and save, determined to make it happen. The big day came. I arrived and met my boss, a young South African ranger(护林员)named Gary. He said, “Let me guess, you’re here because you dreamed of Africa.”
“Yes!” I smiled.
“Well it’s time to wake up. This is a working game reserve. These are wild animals.”
“Okay.”
“You’re going to have to get out of your comfort zone, take some risks, Have the courage of a lion.”
The next morning when we began our patrol(巡逻)in an open-air jeep, giant African elephants appeared in the morning mist. I was no longer dreaming in the pages of a National Geographic magazine. I was living them.
Moments later Gary parked the jeep and handed me a heavy shovel(铲子) and said, “Time to shovel dung(粪).” Elephant dung. Mountains of it. It will be used as fertilizer in the reserves sustainable vegetable garden.
Within fifteen minutes my back was aching, and my new work gloves were stretched out and so slippery with dung and sweat that they refused to stay on my hands. This wasn’t the dream of Africa I had.
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。
Paragraph 1:
I began to question myself.
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Paragraph 2:
But at that moment I remembered Gary’s words “step out of your comfort zone”.
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5 . Alyssa has a dog called Coby. Coby loves to sit out on her balcony (阳台) and
Sherwin lives in an apartment across the street from Alyssa. His kitchen window looks
One morning, Sherwin was eating breakfast with friends when he
Sherwin talked to Alyssa and they decided to create a
After weeks of interactions, Alyssa and Sherwin
“Seeing him enjoying his toy was awesome,” Sherwin said. “It was like we had
| A．help | B．watch | C．hear | D．let |
| A．greets | B．disturbs | C．ignores | D．calms |
| A．particularly | B．frequently | C．directly | D．largely |
| A．caught | B．left | C．prevented | D．found |
| A．stayed away | B．got away | C．gave up | D．looked up |
| A．frightened | B．confused | C．excited | D．satisfied |
| A．strange | B．annoying | C．dangerous | D．special |
| A．link | B．relationship | C．trust | D．street |
| A．words | B．treats | C．tools | D．costumes |
| A．sending | B．buying | C．making | D．eating |
| A．credit | B．pride | C．relief | D．delight |
| A．delayed | B．arranged | C．covered | D．dismissed |
| A．bonded | B．stopped | C．returned | D．relaxed |
| A．comforted | B．respected | C．known | D．observed |
| A．poorest | B．strongest | C．sweetest | D．bravest |
6 . If you think backyard and roof-top beehives (蜂箱) are helping save the bees, think again, experts say.
A recent study conducted in Montreal found that places with the largest increase in honeybees kept by humans had the fewest wild bee species—with small bees, which are only able to fly shorter distances to find food, appearing to be especially at risk.
“The honeybee has been promoted as the symbol of helping the environment and the variety of living species on the earth, and really it’s not that,” says Gail MacInnis, a researcher at Concordia University. “You would never start keeping chickens to help save wild bird species.”
“Honeybees are among the most common insects in the world, but they aren’t native to many of the places where they are found,” says Sheila Colla, a professor at York University. “Honeybees are very successful invaders (入侵者),” Colla says. These bees can fly long distances and are able to effectively communicate with one another through dance language. Introducing honeybee hives to an area can be a problem for local wild bees, which often end up competing for the same food sources.
Should we stop keeping bees in the cities then? Colla gives us an answer in some way. “There is room for it in cities. It’s just right now we’re not managing it very responsibly in certain places,” she says. It is suggested that cities and towns that allow beekeeping should have caps on the number of hives and require people to register their bee hives. Beekeepers also need to understand the responsibility they’re taking on.
1. Why does Gail MacInnis mention “keeping chickens”?| A．To introduce a new topic. | B．To show how to save wild birds. |
| C．To make her idea easily understood. | D．To share chicken-keeping knowledge. |
| A．Competition for food. | B．Risk of being killed. | C．Less communication. | D．No habitat. |
| A．Saving the honeybees. | B．Building hives in cities. |
| C．Making room for honeybees. | D．Keeping honeybees responsibly. |
Our Garfield became a mostly indoor cat. He used to wander outside but we discovered he had a terrible sense of direction, so now he has to stay inside. He does not enjoy being on the inside looking out, but it’s safer for him so that’s how it has to be.
When Garfield isn’t sleeping, he’s either sitting on a windowsill (窗台) or sitting with his wet nose pressed against our glass door overlooking the deck (木质平台), like a prisoner behind bars. As he ages, he earns back his outside rights an hour per day because he shows us that he will stay close to the back deck.
When we let him out last week, a thunderstorm arose out of nowhere. By the time we heard the crack of lightning and remembered Garfield was outside, we opened the door to see nothing but strong wind and heavy rain. My daughter Janette put on her rubber boots and raincoat to check around the house, but Garfield was nowhere to be found. The thunderstorm obviously had scared him into a run in the wrong direction. Who knew where he would end up?
It took me forever to fall asleep that night. I prayed (祈祷) someone would protect him and help him find his way home. As I continued praying, I realized that in my daily prayers for my family, I rarely included Garfield. Now that he was gone, maybe forever, I realized what an important part of our family he was. I prayed for his safe return.
My husband Peter was the first one up at 6: 00 a. m. He checked the doorstep, but no Garfield was in sight. I saw my neighbor Heidi taking her dog out for a walk, and I asked her to please keep her eyes open for our cat. Janette and her three brothers all walked around the house that day looking like they had lost their best friend. Peter decided to look for Garfield around the neighborhood.
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。
Peter and I drove around to search the neighborhood.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was saying to myself “Never say never” when I heard something scratching the door at 10: 00 p.m.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8 . Just off the Florida Keys lies the world’s third-largest coral reef (珊瑚礁), which was once an energetic habitat for millions of plants and animals. But an outbreak of stony coral tissue loss disease threatens to destroy 20 of the 45 species found there, including larger reef-building corals.
“This disease that is burning through the Florida Keys is an unbelievable event that is happening,” said Andrew Stamper, conservation science manager at Disney’s Animals, Science and Environment. “It’s like a wildfire.” Stamper said that would endanger Florida’s fishing industry and food supply. “Unfortunately, we do not know exactly what is causing this,” he said.
In order to save the reef, scientists have moved some species hundreds of miles away to a lab in Orlando. Scientists work to simulate breeding (繁殖) conditions in the lab. The conditions are exactly the same as the living conditions of the coral. The work needs a lot of care, effort and attention to detail. LED lights exactly copy the sun and moon cycles. Volunteers feed the coral in water treated to mimic its real habitat.
“This essentially is a gene bank,” said Jim Kinsler, leader of SeaWorld Orlando. “We’re trying to protect the genetics of these corals so that their offspring(后代)can eventually be returned back to the Florida reef area.”
The task of relocating the lab-grown coral to the sea is also a detailed task. Kinsler, who is part of a team of private and public partners operating the Florida Coral Rescue Center, said, “It’s the first time that many of them have been involved in rescuing an entire ecosystem,”
“We think the real challenge is just growing them out to a size, so we can test them in those waters, test their disease resistance (抵抗力), and then breed the successful corals by the hundreds of thousands literally,” said Andrew Walker, president of the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida.
1. What do we know about the Florida Keys?| A．It owns the world’s largest coral reef. |
| B．A disease broke out among people there. |
| C．The world’s third-largest coral reef is close to it. |
| D．It is now the habitat of millions of plants and animals. |
| A．The root of the disease is unclear. |
| B．A wildfire broke out in the Florida Keys. |
| C．The disease will spread across the Earth. |
| D．The disease has caused a great loss to the locals. |
| A．Copy. | B．Contrast. | C．Escape. | D．Feature. |
| A．To restore the coral in the lab. |
| B．To sell the coral in the normal size. |
| C．To make more people involved in protecting the ecosystem. |
| D．To produce masses of disease-resistant coral back to the sea. |
9 . Tina often discussed with her parents whether they should get a pet dog. However, they always
One day, when they were walking along a narrow path to look for mushroom, a painfilled howl (嗥叫) rang through the trees. Tina and her parents got
“That’s a dog.” Tina headed off in the
“Wait, Tina!” Her dad reached for her arm but
“Even if it is, it’s still hurt,” Tina said as she headed deep into the forest. “We’ve got to help it.”
Tina’s parents
Tina’s mother had grown up in a family of hunters and was well
They took the dog home, and Tina’s dad treated his
| A．dreamed | B．concluded | C．guaranteed | D．regretted |
| A．anticipate | B．investigate | C．distribute | D．afford |
| A．disappointed | B．energetic | C．defensive | D．delighted |
| A．core | B．direction | C．means | D．schedule |
| A．missed | B．ignored | C．forgot | D．dropped |
| A．conflicted with | B．interacted with | C．went after | D．called on |
| A．balance | B．sight | C．danger | D．condition |
| A．blamed | B．purchased | C．separated | D．caught |
| A．examine | B．protect | C．emphasize | D．applaud |
| A．explore | B．polish | C．connect | D．free |
| A．Suddenly | B．Fortunately | C．Gradually | D．Secretly |
| A．afraid | B．proud | C．aware | D．anxious |
| A．wound | B．head | C．illness | D．tail |
| A．shelter | B．forest | C．market | D．kitchen |
| A．assessed | B．challenged | C．changed | D．invested |
An injured bald eagle (秃鹰) that can’t fly is living out the rest of his days at a bird national park in Missouri.
Last month, one of his caretakers noticed something strange. Keeper Kerstin saw Murphy the eagle protecting a large low-lying land in the ground. The spot was carefully decorated with leaves and branches, and featured a smooth, round stone right in the center.
Later that day, Keeper Kerstin saw Murphy sitting on the stone as if it were an egg, and he continued to do so day after day. Male bald eagles take an equal part in raising young, so this is very natural behavior for a male.
“Every so often he rearranges the sticks in his nest, and cackles (咯咯叫) at any other eagle that come too close. We wish Murphy all the luck in the world, but we’re not telling him the reality of the situation,” the nonprofit wrote on Facebook. “We have vet to see a stone hatch (破壳)!”
Many viewers have guessed that Murphy is lonely and needs a mate, but the keepers insist he is choosing to do this on his own.
“Murphy is not lonely! He is housed with 4 other bald eagles — 2 males and 2 females,” a keeper said.
“He is not welcoming help with his nest, nor is he seeking it! He has not chosen a mate, so he very clearly wants to do this on his own. He does not want anything (real eggs) but his stone. Eventually he will get bored and give it up, but we love watching him care for it now. No need to feel bad for him! He is perfectly satisfied!”
Last week, an eagle nest containing two chicks (雏鸟) near Ste. Genevieve, Missouri was blown down by very high winds. One chick died in the fall, but the other was found and saved by a faithful nest watcher, who brought the chick to the center’s wildlife hospital.
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。
To save the chick, the staff decided to give Murphy a chance of raising a real baby.
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The wonder happened and Murphy fed the baby!
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