1 . Glover and her colleagues tested their hypothesis in the lab. In their experiment, they found that bees felt confused sometimes when the petals were very iridescent and that bees had no problem finding the flowers with more nectar when the petals were not very iridescent. The team shared its new findings in the March 21 Current Biology.
What does the underlined word “hypothesis” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
| A．Discussion. | B．Method. |
| C．Assumption. | D．Invention |
1. What did researchers study in two tests?
| A．The way of seagulls’ stealing food. |
| B．The effects of staring at seagulls. |
| C．The different food thieves. |
| A．They flew away immediately. |
| B．They stood still and looked at the food. |
| C．They made an attempt to steal food. |
| A．They snatched food violently. |
| B．They stole food secretly. |
| C．They attacked people aggressively. |
| A．By feeding them first. | B．By setting a big trap. | C．By staring at them. |
3 . It is late autumn—millions of gardeners across the northern hemisphere, pulled on their thickest sweaters, spent hours clearing large piles of leaves and packed them into plastic bags at the end of driveways.
In the US alone, nearly 10 million tonnes of garden waste go to landfill every year. That is a large amount of effort, not just from an environmental viewpoint but from that of our aching backs, too. So where does this advice come from? Well, it largely comes from the belief that thick fallen leaves can make plants under them unable to breathe, especially shorter grass. They shut down important photosynthesis (光合作用) and get in the way of the growth of the shorter grass. However, this received wisdom has recently been questioned by researchers at Wisconsin University.
The key finding of their new research was that although clearing fallen leaves is one of the most common gardening practices, it makes very little sense. In natural ecosystems, fallen leaves help return nutrients necessary for healthy plant growth to the soil, which greatly improves soil condition. Removing leaves year after year breaks this ecological (生态的) balance. Letting some leaves stick around to cover your garden is a great way to help your grass and the local ecosystem.
They further explained that if up to 50percent of your grass lawn (草坪) is covered by fallen leaves, you might as well go back indoors and put your feet up. The advantages of this light leaf coverage far outweigh the disadvantages—the leaves will quickly break down and help next year’s lawn grow far better than if you had cleared them. Only at over 50 percent coverage do the Wisconsin researchers recommend clearing.
So why not consider leaving the leaves? Save time, carbon and effort, and in exchange get a healthier lawn from this garden waste—that seems like a pretty good deal. And how many plastic bags could be saved by simply not binning fallen leaves every year? In the US alone, about 700 million.
1. What does the author describe in paragraph 1?| A．An amazing autumn game. | B．A common sight in gardens. |
| C．A hot attraction in the north. | D．An extreme weather event. |
| A．Fallen leaves need not be cleared. |
| B．Fallen leaves protect shorter grass. |
| C．Fallen leaves block photosynthesis. |
| D．Fallen leaves are hard to break down. |
| A．it ruins city image | B．it breaks gardening rules |
| C．it affects local economy | D．it causes ecological damage |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. | C．Unclear. | D．Worried. |
4 . There’s no doubt that football is the global sport. Though basketball, tennis, and other sports are popular too, nothing comes close to football. Being played in every country in the world, football provides dozens of superstars. The numbers are greater when compared to any other sport, and this drives the popularity of football up. Have you ever wondered when the sport started and became popular?
Football has its origin (起源) in China and has a history of more than 2,000 years. However, modern football originally appeared in Britain in the 19th century. Folk football matches had been played before in many cities and towns, but never on a professional level.
Football became a winter sport game played in different schools. The rules were carried out by each school, and this made it difficult for players to play an official game with each other. It all changed in 1849 at the University of Cambridge that invented a set of standard rules known as the Cambridge rules of football. From that moment, a new star sport was born.
By the early 20th century, football had spread all across Europe. In 1904, FIFA was set up. There are seven original members, including France, Denmark and Spain, FIFA became the governing body for many associations in Europe.
England’s international success improved the popularity of the sport in the country. The league (联赛) in Britain was set up in 1992. From the 1990s, it became a truly impressive piece of football organization, becoming the world’s top football league in the process.
Football is obviously the most popular sport in the world. It is impossible for any other sport to take its place, especially with leagues spending billions of pounds every year to stay in the focus.
1. What is the author’s purpose of writing paragraph 1?| A．To describe the level of football. |
| B．To introduce the topic of the text. |
| C．To debate the main idea of the text. |
| D．To introduce famous football leagues. |
| A．In China. | B．In France. |
| C．In Britain. | D．In Spain. |
| A．The rules always changed. |
| B．There were no common rules. |
| C．The season made players hard to win. |
| D．Officials made players misunderstand the rules. |
| A．By time order. | B．By space order. |
| C．By listing numbers. | D．By giving examples. |
5 . Scientists have done a lot of research on sleep. They’ve shown that sleeplessness can lead to both weight gain and poor performance in school. Might it also affect your moods (情绪) or your behavior? A team of scientists based in Shanghai, China decided to investigate.
To do that, they took advantage of data (数据) from what’s known as the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Begun in 2015, this study followed over 10, 000 U. S. kids into adulthood. All were 9 to 10 years old when they started taking part. ABCD researchers have been collecting records from parents on how much their kids sleep on a regular basis. The scientists also have been surveying whether a kid might have a habit of getting into fights or breaking rules. They even note whether students have difficulty focusing their attention.
Wei Cheng, a mathematician from China, teamed up with other researchers, making a detailed study of the ABCD data. Cheng’s group found out that kids who on average slept less than 7 hours a night were more likely to have behavior problems than kids who slept more. Kids who missed out on sleep also had more mood problems, including depression. Feeling sad or blue for longer than a week or two can be a sign of depression. Poor sleepers were also more likely to have stomach problems and headaches.
According to Kyla Wahlstrom, a professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, at night, your brain sorts information to link related facts but it takes the brain longer to organize negative (消极的) moods than positive ones. If you don’t get enough sleep, your brain might not have time to finish tidying up. If the brain runs out of time, you’re left with negative moods. That may explain why Cheng’s group found out not getting enough sleep was connected with mood problems, says Wahlstrom.
1. What does the underlined word “that” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The data. | B．The good performance. |
| C．The ABCD Study. | D．The investigation. |
| A．By analyzing the data collected by others. | B．By observing the American kids’ behavior. |
| C．By gathering information on American kids. | D．By recording the American kids’ sleeping time. |
| A．To stress the importance of enough sleep. | B．To encourage people to sleep more at night. |
| C．To introduce the danger of negative moods. | D．To further explain the findings of Cheng’s group. |
| A．Keeping Fit by Sleeping Well | B．Making Yourself a Perfect Sleeper |
| C．Remove Bad Moods by Having a Good Sleep | D．Putting Yourself in a Positive State of Mind |
6 . What Is Your Pet Trying to Tell You
Animals want our attention, and sometimes they’re quite obviously about asking for it. Unusual behaviors are often our pets’ way of telling us to stop what we’re doing and play with them. It’s why Fido constantly chases his tail and why Kitty keeps rolling around. A desperately bored pet may have “bad” behaviors to get a reaction-even a negative one!
Feed me.
Sure, your dog loves you, but that’s not why he’s licking(舔)your face. A puppy learns to lick his mother’s mouth to get a little leftover food, so Spot isn’t kissing you in our sense of the word; he just wants a snack.
I’m stressed.
Cat owners also misinterpret their furry friends’ kisses. While a cat might lick you to show love, sometimes she’ll do it to ease herself. One way to tell if her licking is stress-related is to see if it goes on for an extended period of time. Birds also overclean when they feel anxious. Some will even drag out their own feathers.
My tail tells all.
Dogs wag(摇)their tails to the right when they see something or someone they want to approach, and to the left when they see something they want to avoid. When frightened, dogs curl their tails in, while cats wrap theirs around themselves. And if a cat’s tail looks like a question mark, she’s eager to play.
1. What does a dog show if it kisses its owner?| A．Hunger. | B．Love. | C．Fear. | D．Sadness. |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．They will drag others’ feathers. |
| B．They will approach someone they like. |
| C．They will clean their feathers more than necessary. |
| D．They will stare at their owners for a longer time. |
