1 . A Sweet Soul

Hopie was a beautiful black and white dog. She was such a gentle soul. She was let out of the house in extreme heat and attacked by another dog. I tried to save her but it was too late. My heart breaks every day missing her.

Hopie used to follow me around the yard when I was mowing (割) the grass; even if it was hot. She’d take a break and go back in the shade for a while, but always felt like she had to stay near me and she’d come back and walk along behind me.

After I lost her I couldn’t even bear to go out and mow the grass. One day I finally realized I had better get out there and do it because it was looking like a field. As l walked along slowly thinking of her and missing her, a black and white dragonfly (蜻蜓) started following me and then flying in front of me. It finally landed on the handle of the mower right near my hands and just sat there looking at me. I said out loud, “Hopie, is that you?” and the dragonfly just sat there and continued to look straight at me.

I have not ever seen a dragonfly with those colors: black body, white eyes and black and white wings. I knew in my heart that it was my Hopie coming to tell me. She was still there watching over me and tears came to my eyes. 1 told her I loved her and she flew away up into the sky as free as she could be. I still miss her every day and every time I see a dragonfly, I think of her.

1. According to paragraph one, what happened to Hopie?

A．She was saved by the author.	B．She was killed by another dog.
C．She saved another dog’s life.	D．She was lost on a hot day.

2. What’s the author’s purpose in paragraph two?

A．To make us know his dog got used to hot weather.

B．To show us that he had a beautifully managed yard.

C．To tell us the sweet memories shared with Hopie.

D．To tell us how annoying it was to be followed by Hopie.

3. Why couldn’t the author bear to go out and mow the grass?

A．It was very hot out there in the yard.

B．He couldn’t help missing his dog, Hopie.

C．His yard had no grass at all.

D．There were so many annoying dragonflies.

4. Why did the author imagine the dragonfly as his dog, Hopie?

A．The dragonfly behaved like his dog.

B．He was lacking in the common sense.

C．The dragonfly looked the same as Hopie.

D．How happy he was to see Hopie again.

5 . Out in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 60 miles off the northwest coast of Africa, lie the Canary Islands. In the 1950s, the boom in package tourism showed promise as a new cash crop. But while the Canary Islands had the sunshine, warm climate and ease of access from Europe needed for this new industry, they were missing a vital element picture postcard sandy beaches.

So the developers on Tenerife in the Canary Islands constructed a breakwater (防波堤) over half a mile long. And then, from the Western Sahara on Africa’s northwest coast, they shipped in 270, 000 tons of sand. By 1973, the project was complete. As anticipated, tourists arrived. Along the engineered beach, rows and rows of tourists relax on beach chairs under umbrellas or walk across soft sand to cool down in the water.

Unanticipated was what their presence gave to one of the world’s most endangered fish species, angel sharks — visibility. The gentle wind creates tiny waves on the water’s surface, a magical cover for what lies beneath — an angel shark nursery. Female angel sharks regularly migrate to these ideally sheltered waters to give birth to pups (幼崽), who remain in the shallows for about a year. Feeding on small fishes, they grow to around the same length as a newborn human baby.

Surveys have shown that other beaches in the Canary Islands are also potential nursery sites. Interestingly, most of them have been remade to make them more attractive to people. Playa Chica has another long sweep of imported sand. It’s an attraction for divers as well as angel sharks, so the number of sightings of mature angel sharks of this shoreline is one of highest in the islands.

Normally, massive, environmentally disruptive projects are bad for wildlife. But what’s clear is that after the breakwater was built and the sand arrived, people followed, and in the calm, shallow waters they began to see baby angel sharks. And unlike how many an association between humans and wildlife ends-in conflict and dead animals, this time it led to conservation.

1. Why did the developers on Tenerife carry out the project?

A．To build a base for shipping.	B．To boost the local tourism industry.
C．To fight against the rising sea.	D．To protect the island’s eco-system.

2. What was an unexpected result of the project?

A．It caused the disappearance of some fishes.

B．It made a magical tourist attraction.

C．It gave angel sharks a home.

D．It created conflicts between sharks and tourists.

3. What is the author’s attitude toward the engineered beach?

A．Favorable.

B．Doubtful.

C．Unclear.

D．Intolerant.

4. What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To highlight the financial benefits of tourism.

B．To introduce potential human-wildlife coexistence.

C．To explain the situation of endangered species.

D．To emphasize the importance of wildlife conservation.

6 . Studies have shown that gardening and garden-based activities have positive impacts on childhood development, including better eating habits and stress relief.     1     . Here are some tips on how to create a great garden with your kids.

Involve them from the very beginning

Take your kids to the store and give them options to pick from. This will allow them to select plants that they can handle and are appropriate for your home conditions. Then give them tasks suitable to their age. For example, younger kids can be assigned to water plants or just cut yellow and brown leaves.     2     . Although you might want to step in when you see your children feeding a plant with too much water, some of the most lasting lessons come from just trying things out.

Pick the perfect plant

To make sure your garden is a success, assess both your home environment and your kids’ attention span.     3     .

Instead, think about your goal: Growing something tasty? Filling your home with flowers? Then ask your kids to choose plants in their favorite colors.

    4    

Another way to get kids excited about gardening—and to raise lifelong nature lovers in the process—is to adopt eco-friendly methods. Seeds from ripe peppers or tomatoes can be saved and planted. Potato “eyes” can be planted and grow into potato plants.

Reuse household items as planting vessels (容器). Almost anything can be used as planters, from old food containers to kids’ toys.     5     . For example, a plastic bottle in front of a hot window could be damaged by the heat soon.

A．Above all, let them make mistakes

B．Use leftovers to feed hungry plants

C．Make gardens environment-friendly

D．Taking care of the plant is a great way to learn

E．Gardening may even help them become better science students

F．Just make sure that your planters will hold up in the environment

G．Don’t just pick up a plant because you like how it looks or the price is right

8 . Alongside her impressive musical career, Leona Lewis is also the owner of a vegan (素食主义的) coffee shop, Coffee And Plants. She has great enthusiasm for the coffee shop and reveals the drink flavors that they’ve been working on lately. “We’ve just rolled out our new pumpkin drink at the coffee shop. It’s called Pumpkin Pie, and it’s really good! We use all real pumpkin puree, not flavored syrup.”

Coffee And Plants is a real passion project for Lewis, being fully plant-based. She has a long history of animal activism (行动主义), starting with going vegetarian (素食者) at the age of 12 after going on shopping trips with her mum and seeing protesters with animal testing signs. “I was so upset, I said, ‘Mum, I have to help the animals’,” she says. “That became my mission as a kid, and it’s fed into every aspect of my life.”

Her animal activism grew alongside her fame: in 2011 she supported a campaign to ban the use of wild animals in circuses, and in 2013 she released a cruelty-free makeup line with The Body Shop. When it came to opening a coffee shop, making it plant-based was a no-brainer.

“I wanted it to be plant-based because I’m plant-based,” she says. “I would often go into coffee shops and see milk cartons piled up high and think, how many cows are being milked for this? The dairy industry and mass farming—it’s so cruel and harms the environment too.”

Environmental awareness is also at the heart of Coffee And Plants, with all cups being recyclable. But ultimately, Lewis is hoping for a more widespread mindset shift. “What we really try and get people to do is actually bring in their own bottles to refill, or we encourage them to sit in and have a coffee in a cup instead,” she explains. “We need a mindset shift where we start to think, OK, we shouldn’t really be using stuff that just goes in the bin.”

1. What does the phrase “rolled out” underlined in the first paragraph mean?

A．improved

B．discovered

C．denied

D．launched

2. Why did Lewis decide to be a vegetarian?

A．She hated to eat animal meat.	B．She wanted to protect animals.
C．She was inspired by her mom.	D．She was given a great mission.

3. What is the author’s purpose in mentioning the release of a cruelty-free makeup line?

A．To show Lewis influence on business.

B．To compare Lewis’ different activities.

C．To prove that the makeup line is plant-based.

D．To give an example of Lewis’ animal activism.

4. Which of the following statements may Lewis agree with?

A．People have to start using reusable things.

B．The mind shift is quite easy to accomplish.

C．People shouldn’t use cups in the coffee shop.

D．Only vegetarians can go into the coffee shop.

9 . Artificial Intelligence (AI) has greatly sped up how long it takes to sort, label and analyze(分析) animal sounds—as well as to figure out which aspects of those sounds might carry meaning. One day we’ll be able to use AI to build a chat box that translates complex(复杂的) animal sounds into human language. Project CETI is just one organization working toward this goal.

“AI could eventually get us to the point where we understand animals, but that’s hard to deal with and long-term,” says Karen Bakker, a researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. “Some species have been on the planet longer than humans. Some species could go extinct before we figure out their language,” Bakker adds. “Besides, the idea of walking around with an animal translator may seem cool, but many animals might not be interested in chatting.”

“Why would a bat want to speak to you?” she asks. What interests her is what we can learn from how bats and other creatures talk amongst each other.“We should listen to nature and ask the animals’ requirements in order to better protect them,” she argues. For example, a system set up to record whales or elephants can also track their locations. This can help our boats avoid whales or protect elephants from poachers (偷猎者).

Protection is one goal driving Project CETI. “If we understand sperm whales better, we will be better at understanding what’s troubling them,” says Gašper Beguš, a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley. Learning that a species has something very similar to language or culture could also inspire people to work harder to protect it.

When we protect an animal that has some version of language or culture, we’re not simply protecting nature and we’re also saving a way of life. Marine biologist Denise Herzing says that animals are supposed to have a healthy environment so that their cultures can develop well.

1. What can we infer from Paragraph 1?

A．We can tell the complex animal behavior.

B．We will find ways to talk with animals.

C．We can share our language with animals.

D．We need conduct more research on animals.

2. Bakker thinks that understanding animals’ language fully is ______.

A．difficult.

B．costly.

C．harmful.

D．worthless.

3. How can we protect the animals effectively according to Paragraph 3?

A．By learning about their needs.	B．By setting up shelters for them.
C．By mapping out their locations.	D．By living peacefully with them.

4. Which statement does Herzing probably agree with?

A．Animals’ culture should be given up.

B．Saving nature means saving ourselves.

C．Short-term and long-term goals need to be set.

D．Animals should be in a healthy natural world.

10 . Thai wildlife officials have laid out a plan to bring peace to a central Thai city after at least a decade of human-monkey conflict （冲突）.

The monkeys that hang around Lopburi are a major tourist draw. But after years of conflicts with residents and visitors, and several failed attempts to bring peace with population controls, local people and businesses have had enough.

The monkeys often try to take food from humans, sometimes leaving people with injuries. In March a woman got her knee hurt after a monkey pulled her off her feel, and another man was knocked off a motorcycle by a hungry monkey.

The authorities hope to catch some 2,500 monkeys and place them in massive wildlife preserves, said Athapol Charoenshunsa, the director-general of the Department of National parks, Wildlife and plant Conservation. They’ll work with wildlife experts to find a way for a limited number of monkeys to stay freely in the city, he added.

“I don’t want humans to have to hurt monkeys, and I don’t want monkeys to have to hurt humans,” he told reporters during a news conference in Bangkok. “I expect the first period of the operation to start within weeks, and I believe the wildlife preserve will be able to contain （容纳） thousands of them and will solve the problem very quickly.”

Athapol said they are also working in other areas of Thailand that are facing problems with monkeys. He said 52 of the country’s 77 provinces often report monkey problems.

The monkeys are said to be a symbol of the province, about 140 kilometers north of Bangkok, where the ancient Three Pagodas temple celebrates a yearly “Monkey Buffet” festival. However, some have complained about the city’s monkey troubles on tourists and residents feeding the animals, which they say drew monkeys into the city, helped with their numbers, and got them used to getting food from humans.

1. What does the underlined phrase “have had enough” mean in Paragraph 2?

A．They are fond of those moneys.	B．They hope to feed more monkeys.
C．They are troubled by those monkeys.	D．They want to protect those monkeys.

2. How will the authorities deal with those monkeys?

A．Cut off the monkey’s food supply.	B．Catch them for use as research subjects.
C．Enclose them in a zoo to entertain tourists.	D．Cut down the numbers of them in the town.

3. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The significance of those monkeys.

B．People’s different opinions on those monkeys.

C．The environmental problems caused by those monkeys.

D．Reasons why monkeys become a symbol of the province.

4. Which is the most suitable title for the text?

A．Thailand Residents Suffered from Too Many Tourists

B．Thailand Decides to Limit Monkeys in Tourist Town

C．Monkeys Serve Special Meaning in the Thailand Town

D．People in Thailand Try to Improve the Life of Monkeys