1 . Polar bears are icons of the Arctic. Detailed monitoring of their populations is crucial for their conservation—but because polar bears are so difficult to find, we are missing critical data about population size. Scientists have now developed a new tool to help: DNA analysis using skin cells left in the bears’ footprints in the snow.
The scientists were inspired by the techniques that can be applied to tiny, degraded DNA samples. With these techniques, it isn’t necessary to physically capture bears, which can be stressful and dangerous for both bears and humans. Instead, the researchers can turn to the snow tracks of polar bears and look at sources of DNA left in passing—environmental DNA. "The tracks usually contain fresh cells, and the DNA is intact because of the cold’ storage’ temperature, "said Dr. Melanie Lancaster of the World Wide Fund, lead author.
The scientists collected snow from individual tracks made by Alaskan polar bears in the wild. Additional materials like hair and saliva(唾液)were sampled, confirming that the tracks provided accurate genotype(基因型) 24 wild polar bear tracks were sampled. The researchers melted and filtered the snow to collect environmental DNA, then carried out micro-satellite analysis. Although the concentrations (浓度)of DNA taken from trucks sampled in the wild were very low, 13 of the wild polar bear samples could be genotype, identifying 12 different individuals.
This technique has huge potential to inform conservation of these animals, to better understand their populations and behavior. Although the sampling has a lower success rate, ease of collection means that it can significantly expand sample sizes.
"We hope this method will be taken up by the polar bear research community, with the involvement of hunters, volunteers, and local communities, as a new way to collect information on polar bears, "said Lancaster. "We also hope the method will be expanded to other animals living in snowy environments. "
1. Why do scientists develop the new method?| A．To improve the environment in the Aretic. |
| B．To protect humans from the polar bears attack. |
| C．To find solutions to global climate change. |
| D．To gather essential data for monitoring polar bears. |
| A．Unknown. |
| B．Undamaged. |
| C．Unusual. |
| D．Unstable. |
| A．They tracked and caught polar bears in the wild. |
| B．They recorded the bears’ behaviors with cameras. |
| C．They analyzed DNA from polar bears’ snowy footprints. |
| D．They compared the polar bears’ genotype with other animals? |
| A．Disapproving. |
| B．Favorable. |
| C．Uncertain. |
| D．Suspicious. |
2 . Since childhood, London-based artist Josh Gluckstein has been fascinated by the incredible diversity of our planet’s wildlife and inspired to make sculptures of animals from found materials. He often uses abandoned or recycled materials like clothing from junk shops or wood from old furniture. An important aspect of his practice is concern for the environment. “I have traveled through Asia, Latin America and East Africa, and have been fortunate enough to have some incredible wildlife encounters,” he says. “However, on my travels, even in the most remote locations, I was shocked by the huge amounts of plastic waste.”
Mach of the garbage that washes up on shorelines around the world is due to an unregulated (未受监管的) system in which richer countries export waste to developing countries because it is often cheaper than developing better infrastructures (基础设施) to handle it. Many of the thousands of shipping containers exported each year are often dumped illegally.
“I remember going to the Galapagos Islands and visiting a beach famous for a large population of sea lions. It was indeed incredible to see them in the wild, but on every inch of sand not covered by sea lions, there were plastic bottles and cans. It was a heartbreaking sight. I knew I wanted to create artworks that didn’t create waste or harm our planet,” Gluckstein says.
Gluckstein hopes his works will raise people’s awareness about the importance of protecting endangered species. His new series called “Gold” focuses on illegally hunted animals by applying gold leaves to their bodies. He plans to donate some of the sales of his sculptures to the world Wide Fund for Nature.
1. What do Gluckstein’s sculptures focus on?| A．Fashion. | B．Animals. | C．Sports. | D．Travel. |
| A．Poured, | B．Protected. | C．Sold. | D．Used. |
| A．Where he has toured. | B．How sad he was. |
| C．How he found sea lions. | D．Why he created eco-friendly sculptures. |
| A．They can bring him financial benefits. |
| B．They can make him famous as an artist. |
| C．They can help protect endangered animals. |
| D．They can improve people’s ability to appreciate art. |
3 . The animal kingdom is dotted with species that give birth to spotted young, from deer to birds and fish. Even species that we don’t typically associate with spots, such as lions, wear the pattern as babies, only to lose it later in life.
But what purpose do these spots serve, and why do only some species seem to have them? Kiyoko Gotanda, a biologist at Brock University, said it is likely so common because spots are useful in keeping babies hidden from their enemies.
Spotted young tend to be more common in species that live in habitats with some three-dimensional structures, Gotanda noted, and less common in environments that are uniform or featureless. Indeed, baby seals born on pack ice are pure white, and develop spots only when they leave the ice for rocky beaches. But in habitats with some cover, spots function as the sunlight passing through leaves or tall grass, making an animal hard to be discovered in its background.
“It is not as overt a pattern as something like a stick insect that becomes something else entirely, which can be clearly identified. But spots do create these three-dimensional effects that help some species hide better,” said Gotanda.
In other rarer cases, spots actually help babies stand out. Young garibaldi — orange marine fish found along the coast of California and Mexico — have bright-blue spots that advertise their lowly status to highly territorial (有地盘意识的) males. As the fish grow and start to engage in the social order, their spots fade.
In fact, many species grow out of their spots, and the reasons aren’t entirely understood. According to Gotanda, patterning is typically considered more energetically costly to produce than a single, solid color. But spots don’t take a lot of energy to grow and maintain at least in the case of white spots. There must be other reasons to explain their loss, he said.
1. Where are spotted baby animals more likely to appear according to Paragraph 3?| A．In the desert. | B．On the ice. | C．In the forest. | D．In the lake |
| A．Obvious. | B．Strange. | C．Hidden. | D．Complex. |
| A．Animals with spots on the body are more energetic. |
| B．Spotted animals often exist in uniform surroundings. |
| C．The growth of animal spots will consume lots of energy. |
| D．There are more to explore about the loss of animal spots. |
| A．How Are Spots Protecting Baby Animals? |
| B．Why Do So Many Baby Animals Have Spots? |
| C．Where Can You Find Baby Animals with Spots? |
| D．What Causes the Loss of Spots on Baby Animals? |
4 . 100-year-old Alfred Larson has been through a lot in his lifetime, but one thing that keeps him going is bluebirds.
When Alfred retired in 1978, he wanted to find a hobby or something to do that would keep him busy and provide him with a sense of purpose. When he read a National Geographic article about crafting wooden nest boxes for bluebirds to help improve their populations, he decided to give it a try. Alfred explained that he started building nest boxes on his ranch (大牧场) using left-over pieces of wood.
More than four decades later, Alfred is still going strong and promoting bluebird conservation efforts. Alfred is now monitoring nearly 350 nest boxes on six different trails (小路) in Southwest Idaho. He said, “I settled on a simple design that was easy to build and easy to monitor. I kept adding more boxes on these trails, and these birds responded.” Alfred’s boxes give bluebirds a lot of help in survival. “Without his work, we can’t see so many bluebirds now,” said Pearman, the author of Mountain Bluebird Trail Monitoring Guide.
To celebrate his achievements, filmmaker Matthew Podolsky worked with Alfred for weeks to create a 30-minute documentary—Bluebird Man. The film explores how everything led him to the work he does today and his efforts in bluebird protection. “I remember the first trip I took to the bluebird trail with Alfred, and I was very surprised by the speed with which he moved from box to box,” said Podolsky. “He was hiking across difficult and uneven terrain (地形). I often struggled to keep up with him. Sometimes we’d check more than 100 boxes and be driving home in the dark.”
The impact he’s had on the populations of bluebirds in North America will continue.
1. How did Alfred help save bluebirds?| A．By feeding them personally. | B．By preventing illegal hunting. |
| C．By making wooden nests for them. | D．By writing articles about them. |
| A．The number of bluebirds in Southwest Idaho decreases. |
| B．Alfred makes a big difference to bluebird conservation. |
| C．Climate change is threatening the survival of bluebirds now. |
| D．Alfred’s efforts have greatly inspired others to protect bluebirds. |
| A．How the natural habitat of bluebirds disappeared. |
| B．How bluebirds have survived in the past four decades. |
| C．What influence humans have on bluebirds. |
| D．What Alfred does every day to protect bluebirds. |
| A．To praise Alfred’s contribution. | B．To help people learn more about birds. |
| C．To advise people to protect the environment. | D．To show the living conditions of bluebirds. |
5 . Slobodchikoff, a biologist who has spent years working to better understand the calls of dogs, used that knowledge to help people who were having trouble with their pets.
A man reported his dog wanted to bite him. So Slobodchikoff went to the man’s house. He watched as the owner walked over to the dog, towered over the pet and then said, “Good dog!” in a low-pitched(音高) voice. “The dog ran into a corner,” Slobodchikoff recalled. The owner had scared the dog. Slobodchikoff recommended that the man should do the opposite. The owner took that advice—and ended up developing a great relationship with his pet.
Not everyone has the time to study dog communications or the money to bring in an expert. Slobodchikoff thinks tech could help. He thinks a cell phone app or device that you could point at a dog. This would record video and audio(音频) of a dog’s behavior and then upload it.An artificial intelligence(AI)system would later analyze it.
The AI “ would translate this for you into English or any other language,” says Slobodchikoff. The result, he explains, may be something like “‘I’m hungry’ or ‘I need to go outside to pee’ or ‘I want to go for a walk.’”
To train the AI system, Slobodchikoff planned to get data directly from pet dogs, but for some reason, he hasn’t yet restarted the project to date, but hopes to soon.
Search an app store for a pet translator and you’ll find plenty. Some are completely unscientific and silly. MeowTalk, however, is a cat-translation app based on an AI model. In 2021, its creators reported that the AI model achieved 90 percent accuracy at identifying nine different emotional states in meows. These included angry, happy, hunting, pain and rest. The app picks conversational phrases based on these emotions, like “nice to see you,” or “let me rest.”
People who have tried the app say it doesn’t always work well. But better translations of barks and meows may be just around the corner.
1. What might the man do to calm the dog?| A．Tower over the pet dog. | B．Follow the dog to the corner. |
| C．Give the dog delicious food. | D．Speak in a high-pitched voice. |
| A．To analyze data. | B．To train a dog. |
| C．To record a dog’s behavior. | D．To collect data from a dog. |
| A．It can communicate with cats. | B．It can judge cats’ state of mood. |
| C．It can store 90 conversational phrases. | D．It can be used to track pet cats. |
| A．A biologist’s puzzle. | B．Slobodchikoff’s achievements. |
| C．Trials of animal translator technology. | D．The invention of Slobodchikoff. |
6 . Yang He, a 64-year-old man from Yichang, Hubei, has observed the changes in finless porpoises (江豚) population with his camera for six years. As a(n)
Every day, Yang wakes up early and drives to the
The Yangtze finless porpoise is so
However, the situation has changed as
Thanks to his camera, he once discovered and
| A．leader | B．admirer | C．hunter | D．advisor |
| A．banks | B．waves | C．beaches | D．sights |
| A．suddenly | B．patiently | C．formally | D．strangely |
| A．imagination | B．anxiety | C．strength | D．beauty |
| A．follows | B．listens | C．knows | D．exchanges |
| A．belongs to | B．focuses on | C．applies for | D．adapts to |
| A．addicted | B．connected | C．convenient | D．important |
| A．threaten | B．balance | C．protect | D．promote |
| A．crashing | B．trapping | C．tracking | D．preventing |
| A．in addition to | B．due to | C．in spite of | D．apart from |
| A．global | B．possible | C．effective | D．historic |
| A．creative | B．lucky | C．magic | D．valuable |
| A．catching | B．striking | C．kicking | D．drawing |
| A．inspired | B．approached | C．reserved | D．rescued |
| A．conquer | B．remind | C．document | D．identify |
7 . In an awe-inspiring incident, a young killer whale recently demonstrated remarkable intelligence by seeking assistance from a group of humans to save its trapped mother, which challenged our conventional understanding of wild predators (食肉动物).
The online viral video, shared by Alvin Foo, began with a young killer whale emitting distressing cries towards a group of people on a boat. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the concerned individuals promptly responded by contacting a rescue team. The young whale’s desperate request for help touched more people’s hearts and set a truly extraordinary chain of events in motion.
As the rescue team arrived, they were amazed to witness the young killer whale’s playful interaction with the humans. The whale appeared elated, seemingly understanding that assistance had finally arrived. This interaction between the mother killer whale and rescuers underlined the potential for mutual understanding beyond the boundary of traditional predator-prey relationships.
The young whale took on the role of a guide, leading the rescue team to its mother trapped in a fishing net. It navigated the water with purpose, as if fully aware that the humans possessed the means to save its mother. This display of intelligence left the rescuers in awe, highlighting the complex cognitive abilities of these magnificent marine creatures. With its guidance, the rescue team swiftly initiated the liberation process, carefully cutting the net to free the trapped whale. Astonishingly, they seemed to understand that the humans were there to help and did as asked.
The instant the mother whale was finally freed, an eruption of joyous cries filled the air. The emotional outpouring conveyed the immense gratitude of both the mother whale and the young whale to the humans who had intervened. As the rescue team made their way back to shore, the two whales swam alongside them. This heart-warming sight emphasized the lasting impact of the rescue. The bond formed through this extraordinary rescue operation was well obvious, proving that the profound connections can be established between various species. The journey back to safety symbolized the victory of compassion over adversity.
1. What can we learn about the video from paragraph 2?| A．It spread widely. |
| B．It went unnoticed. |
| C．It documented humans’ requesting help. |
| D．It recorded passive response to the rescue. |
| A．Tired. | B．Excited. | C．Frightened. | D．Confused. |
| A．Wise and cooperative. | B．Complex and mysterious. |
| C．Curious and careful. | D．Wild and rude. |
| A．Adversity is a good discipline. |
| B．It is urgent to protect wildlife. |
| C．Different species can coexist in harmony. |
| D．Human intervention poses a threat to whales. |
The giant panda is unique to China.
Among the panda reserves in the national park. we
Giant panda volunteer programs in the panda bases give you
Giant Panda National Park is
9 . It has been nearly 11 days since the earthquake and its aftershocks struck the Turkey-Syria border, and rescues are still underway. As teams of doctors, firefighters, police officers, construction workers tried to search through the rubble (瓦砾) of fallen buildings, they were uncovering surviving people as well as animals. Ali Cakas saved a scared cat from the rubble, and the kitty has been glued to his side ever since.
A video shows the man, still in uniform and protective equipment, taking a picture with the cat on his shoulder. The black-spotted cat clearly has an appreciation for his hero, as he does not move from the firefighter’s side even for a moment. “We named it Enkaz which means rubble in Turkish, because we brought it out of the ruins,” the firefighter says. “It might sound a little off-putting, but we wanted it to be a memory this way.”
As heart-warming as this rescue has been, people online have also found a way to sympathize (同情) with the cat while showing respect for Cakas. “Uh...not for nothing but I would also not leave this guys side,” said Twitter user Paula Matiz. Another person admitted, “I don’t know who is cuter...the man or the kitty.” They all agree that Cakas has done something truly wonderful, saving the life of a sweet cat.
So far, no one has come forward to claim Enkaz, but the firefighter is keeping him safe, in the meantime, providing food and shelter. “I see sadness in this cat,” the firefighter said after rescuing him. “I keep it by my side in case the owner comes, but if the owner doesn’t come out, I’m thinking of taking him with me. It will be a memory.” Fortunately, Enkaz has found a safe shelter after everything he has been through, so we hope this is the start of a beautiful relationship between the cat and his rescuer.
1. What is Ali Cakas?| A．A doctor. | B．A policeman. |
| C．A firefighter. | D．A construction worker. |
| A．To memorize the event. | B．To support the residents. |
| C．To celebrate the rescue activity. | D．To entertain the firefighters. |
| A．They sympathize with him. | B．They criticize him. |
| C．They admire him. | D．They ignore him. |
| A．Keep it with him. | B．Give it to a shelter. |
| C．Send it back into the wild. | D．Sell it to a pet store. |
“She needs me.” Those were the exact words I spoke to my husband when I spotted Dottie, a little dog we found at a local shelter eight years ago.
Dottie leaned (倾斜) away when I tried to pet her and refused to let me hold her. While the other dogs jumped and barked, Dottie returned to the back of the cage, curled up in a ball, hoping us to leave her alone.
On the entire drive home, Dottie was in fear. So, upon arrival at our house, we got right to work. I held her as much as possible, touching her head and softly singing in her ear. We learned that she loved belly touch, so every time we passed by, we would offer a gentle touch. Eventually, we noticed her presenting her belly as we walked by her. I knew we were making real progress when I found her quietly sleeping on a chair one day, her head resting on one of my shoes. My heart melted (融化) as I realized she had brought it there because it contained my smell, and she wanted it nearby.
Ever so slowly, our little dog came to life. She began to play with toys, enjoy walks, and rest on our laps. There was no special treatment, no fancy food or toys. All we did was love her. And she grew well. She was so broken when we first met her that we had no idea what her true personality would be. But now we found a sweet, playful, loving soul.
One day, a few years after her adoption, I was busy doing housework around the house, doing laundry and climbing the stairs from the basement up to the main floor. When I finished, I sat down and enjoyed a well-deserved break. That’s when I realized I hadn’t seen Dottie for a while. I called to her and began searching. My heart raced and my pace quickened as I began checking under beds and behind sofa.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Suddenly, I remembered the door to the basement.
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I held her in my arms tightly, telling her how sorry I was.
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