1 . The green, natural forest absorbs carbon dioxide from the air through photo- synthesis (光合作用). There is another way of dealing with the climate crisis. That is setting up fields of dark-colored solar panels (太阳能电池板), also known as “solar forests”, which replace power stations that use fossil fuels such as coal and gas to make electricity, thus mitigating harmful emissions (排放) of greenhouse gases.

But since they are both relatively dark, they absorb a lot of solar radiation. Some of the energy is used for photosynthesis in natural forests or to produce electricity in “solar forests”, but most returns to the atmosphere, heating it up. Then what would be the more effective land use option in terms of the climate crisis: planting a forest, or building solar panels? This issue has long been debated by decision-makers around the world. Now, we may have an answer, thanks to a new study.

First, the researchers compared the impact of a forest on the climate crisis in a dry area to that of a solar farm in a similar environment. The researchers found that the albedo effect (反射效应) of both of these “forests” was similar, but that the absorption or prevention of carbon emissions was very different. It turns out that it takes 2.5 years for the heat emitted by solar farms to be balanced by the carbon emissions that are avoided, thanks to the energy they produce. In the case of a natural forest of similar size, it would take more than 100 years of photosynthesis to balance its heating effect.

The researchers also studied how the heating-cooling relationship changed in other climates and found that in more humid environments, the heating effect of planting large numbers of trees is smaller. And the break-even point is reached within 15 to 18 years.

“In dry places, building solar forests seems far more effective in addressing the climate crisis. Meanwhile, forests absorb about a third of annual carbon emissions and play a vital role in the global rain cycle, in maintaining biodiversity and in many other environmental and social contexts. Preventing them from being cut down and planting more trees in humid areas are of great significance,” explains one of the researchers in the study.

What can be concluded from the last paragraph?

A．More trees should be planted in dry regions.

B．More methods should be adopted to address the climate crisis.

C．Fields of solar panels should be set up everywhere on the earth.

D．Building solar panels and planting trees should be effectively combined.

2 . Finding fish is going to get harder as climate change continues to heat the world’s oceans. A new study finds that warming seas over the past 80 years have reduced the sustainable catch of 124 species of fish and shellfish. Sustainable catch refers to the amount that can be harvested without doing long-term damage to the health of populations of some species.

Overfishing has made that decline worse, researchers say. Overfishing refers to catching so many fish that the size of the population falls. In some parts of the world, such as the heavily fished Sea of Japan, the decrease is as high as 35 percent. That’s a loss of more than one in every three fish.

Researchers examined changes in 235 populations of fish and shellfish between 1930 and 2010. Those fish populations spread far apart across 38 ocean regions. Temperature changes vary from one ocean site to another. But on average over that time, Earth’s sea-surface temperatures have risen by about half a degree Celsius.

On average, that warming has caused the sustainable catch to drop by 4.1 percent, the study found. About 8 percent of the fish and shellfish populations the team studied saw losses as a result of the ocean warming. However, about 4 percent of some populations increased. That’s because certain species have thrived in warmer waters. One example is a kind of black sea fish. It lives along the northeastern U.S. coast. As warming continues, these fish will reproduce faster until they reach their limit.

About 3.2 billion people worldwide rely on seafood as a source of food. That means it’s urgent for commercial fishing fleets and regulators to consider how climate change is affecting the health of all of those fish in the sea.

From which is the text probably taken?

A．A cooking guide.

B．A science magazine.

C．A news review.

D．A health brochure.

3 . Finding fish is going to get harder as climate change continues to heat the world’s oceans. A new study finds that warming seas over the past 80 years have reduced the sustainable catch of 124 species of fish and shellfish. Sustainable catch refers to the amount that can be harvested without doing long-term damage to the health of populations of some species.

Overfishing has made that decline worse, researchers say. Overfishing refers to catching so many fish that the size of the population falls. In some parts of the world, such as the heavily fished Sea of Japan, the decrease is as high as 35 percent. That’s a loss of more than one in every three fish.

Researchers examined changes in 235 populations of fish and shellfish between 1930 and 2010. Those fish populations spread far apart across 38 ocean regions. Temperature changes vary from one ocean site to another. But on average over that time, Earth’s sea-surface temperatures have risen by about half a degree Celsius.

On average, that warming has caused the sustainable catch to drop by 4.1 percent, the study found. About 8 percent of the fish and shellfish populations the team studied saw losses as a result of the ocean warming. However, about 4 percent of some populations increased. That’s because certain species have thrived in warmer waters. One example is a kind of black sea fish. It lives along the northeastern U.S. coast. As warming continues, these fish will reproduce faster until they reach their limit.

About 3.2 billion people worldwide rely on seafood as a source of food. That means it’s urgent for commercial fishing fleets and regulators to consider how climate change is affecting the health of all of those fish in the sea.

What does the underlined word “thrived” in paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Survived narrowly.

B．Disappeared soon.

C．Decreased sharply.

D．Developed quickly.

4 . Finding fish is going to get harder as climate change continues to heat the world’s oceans. A new study finds that warming seas over the past 80 years have reduced the sustainable catch of 124 species of fish and shellfish. Sustainable catch refers to the amount that can be harvested without doing long-term damage to the health of populations of some species.

Overfishing has made that decline worse, researchers say. Overfishing refers to catching so many fish that the size of the population falls. In some parts of the world, such as the heavily fished Sea of Japan, the decrease is as high as 35 percent. That’s a loss of more than one in every three fish.

Researchers examined changes in 235 populations of fish and shellfish between 1930 and 2010. Those fish populations spread far apart across 38 ocean regions. Temperature changes vary from one ocean site to another. But on average over that time, Earth’s sea-surface temperatures have risen by about half a degree Celsius.

On average, that warming has caused the sustainable catch to drop by 4.1 percent, the study found. About 8 percent of the fish and shellfish populations the team studied saw losses as a result of the ocean warming. However, about 4 percent of some populations increased. That’s because certain species have thrived in warmer waters. One example is a kind of black sea fish. It lives along the northeastern U.S. coast. As warming continues, these fish will reproduce faster until they reach their limit.

About 3.2 billion people worldwide rely on seafood as a source of food. That means it’s urgent for commercial fishing fleets and regulators to consider how climate change is affecting the health of all of those fish in the sea.

1. What does the new study discover?

A．Overfishing is to blame for fish health.

B．Warming seas cause fewer fish and shellfish.

C．Seafood matters to people’s health worldwide.

D．The living regions of fish and shellfish are different.

2. What do we know about species of fish and shellfish?

A．About 8 percent of them suffered from a great loss.

B．About 35 percent of them survived in the Sea of Japan.

C．About 3.2 billion species have been saved up to now.

D．About 80 species have died out because of warming seas.

5 . Researchers at MIT and in China developed a simple, solar-powered water desalination (脱盐) system. They have made a breakthrough in getting fresh drinking water from sea water by using sunlight.

As the research paper published in Energy & Environmental Science explains, equipment applied in this system includes several layers of fiat evaporators (蒸发器) that turn water sources into fresh water through solar energy, as well as condensers (冷凝器) that cool the gas into the liquid. The authors of the paper are MIT students Lenan Zhang and Lin Zhao, Professor Evelyn Wang, and nine other researchers at MIT and at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.

How the system uses each of the multiple stages to remove salt from the water is critical to its efficiency. The heat released per stage will be used by the next stage. In this way, the team’s device can convert (转换) the energy of sunlight into the energy of water evaporation with an efficiency of 385 percent.

The device can be considered as a multilayer solar still. The heat is absorbed by its flat panels and then transferred to make water evaporate. The vapor then cools down and turns into liquid water on the next panel. As the water is collected, the released heat is transferred to the next layer.

The team’s 10-stage system produces pure water. Its quality is above the city drinking water standards. It also has the highest yield compared to other similar systems, at a rate of nearly six cubic decimeter per hour for every square meter of the solar collecting area. The system is distinguished from some others by the fact that there is no accumulated salt to be got rid of. Most materials of the demonstration unit don’t cost much and are easy to get.

Further experiments will be carried out on the device to optimize the choices of materials and test its durability under realistic conditions. Researchers will also work on the design of the device to make it more consumer-friendly. It is expected that the system could finally help developing regions that are short of electricity supplies but rich in sea water and sunlight handle water crises.

1. What contributes most to the high efficiency of the device?

A．The recycling of released heat.	B．The choice of materials.
C．The use of multilayer equipment.	D．The simplicity of the structure.

2. What is the main idea of Paragraph 4?

A．What the device is for.	B．How solar energy is collected.
C．How the device works.	D．What makes the device.

3. What makes the device different from other systems?

A．The quality of water it produces.	B．Its zero accumulation of salt.
C．Its stable and high production level.	D．The low cost of its condensers.

4. What does the underlined word “optimize” mean?

A．make cheap

B．make perfect

C．make diverse

D．make beautiful

5. Why will researchers carry out further experiments on the device?

A．To make it suitable for use by consumers.	B．To make it environment-friendly.
C．To check its performance in labs.	D．To reduce its cost.

7 . When Jane Goodall was young, reading and exploring nature were her ideas of fun. Her mother encouraged her to learn and ask questions. Goodall dreamed of seeing the habitats of her favorite animals on her own.

In 1957, Goodall visited a farm in Kenya, Africa. There, she met a famous paleoanthropologist (古人类学家), Louis Leakey. He was looking for someone to study chimpanzees, which could tell us about early human history. Once he got to know Goodall, he knew she was the perfect person for the job.

Goodall arrived in Tanzania, East Africa, in 1960, and journeyed to the Gombe Stream Game Reserve. She learned early on that studying chimpanzees wouldn’t be easy. To observe them up close, she had to take months to gain their trust. To her, the chimpanzees were complex creatures with lives surprisingly similar to humans’. She rejected the practice of identifying chimpanzees by numbers and gave each of them a human name. Goodall was observing chimpanzees she’d named David Greybeard and Goliath. She watched as they made tools out the roots of grass to pick termites (白蚁) out of a nest. Until then, people thought humans were the only species that used tools. Because of Goodall’s discovery, chimpanzees are now accepted as intelligent and social animals.

Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 to provide conservation and environmental education. In the late 1980s, her focus changed to something much larger. Deforestation (滥伐森林) and climate change were affecting the world’s natural habitats. The plants that the chimpanzees depended on for food were in danger. The fight she began against habitat loss continues today, through animal preserves and research sites.

Throughout her life, Goodall’s work has protected the lives of people and animals around the world. And she encourages young people to join this struggle for a better world. Goodall says that the world will be a better place if people do some help.

1. Why did Louis Leakey pick Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees?

A．Jane Goodall’s mother inspired him to do that.	B．Louis Leakey wanted to know animals’ history.
C．Jane Goodall had fun in exploring the unknown.	D．Jane Goodall was just the right one for the work.

2. What significant discovery did Jane Goodall make?

A．Chimpanzees could use simple tools.

B．Chimpanzees could follow humans’ commands.

C．Chimpanzees had the ability to swim and fish for food.

D．Chimpanzees lived in large societies similar to humans.

3. What made Jane Goodall change her focus according to paragraph 4?

A．The reasons for chimpanzees’ using tools.	B．The Jane Goodall Institute’s establishment.
C．Fewer habitats and unfriendly climate change.	D．The change of her main interest.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Jane Goodall’s early career.	B．Jane Goodall’s research techniques.
C．Jane Goodall’s focus on chimpanzees’ using tools.	D．Jane Goodall’s discoveries and conservation work.

8 . What does the woman recycle?

A．Glass.

B．Paper.

C．Plastic.

9 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Researchers have been applying artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor biodiversity and enhance efforts to protect some species from     1     (threaten). Unlike conventional methods, AI has the capacity     2     (analyze) massive amounts of data effectively.

Species are disappearing     3     a rate much faster than that millions of years ago, with up to one million species on the edge of     4     (extinct). In response, the United Nations set a goal in 2020 to safeguard at least 30% of Earth’s land and oceans. “AI is imperfect     5     could promote important discoveries,” says Nicolas Miailhe, paris-based founder of the Future Society, an international non-profit organization     6     aims to better govern AI. “We badly need human practitioners to design models and interpret data.”

Besides     7     (monitor) biodiversity in real time, AI can also be used to model the impacts of human activities on an ecosystem. Although it     8     (document) that human activities have resulted in biodiversity loss, little is known about which environmental factors have the largest impact.

“Long-term statistics will play     9     essential role in connecting changes in biodiversity with environmental changes,” says Luisa Orsini, who     10     (study) evolutionary bio-systems at the University of Birmingham, UK.