More than 40 percent of the species that help with pollination (植物传粉) are under threat due to the polluted environment. So some researchers have been searching for ways to protect the bees and other crucial pollinators while some engineers have thought perhaps an army of robotic pollinators could keep humans well-supplied in these foods. A team of researchers has recently designed a small drone capable of pollinating flowers. They tested their device on the large, pink flowers of lilies. And it worked.
Exciting as this success was, it is only the first step. The team has yet to figure out how to apply the concept on the massive scale. Could a fleet of robo-pollinators replace the bees?
“Although the answer isn’t a straightforward no, it would be a challenging leap to go from this one little drone pollinating one large flower to an army of drones spreading across fields of crops,” says Scott Swinton, an agricultural economist at Michigan State University.
“The successful pollination was fascinating,” Scott Swinton says, “but the device itself might damage the flowers. I wonder how you make sure you’re not doing more harm than good to flowers when you have a drone.”
“Furthermore,” he points out, “a lily is a particularly easy flower for a drone to pollinate. To make this more broadly applicable for smaller and more complex flower structures, the drones would need to be particularly agile.”
Still, Joshua Campbell, an expert at the University of Florida, says “Pollination systems are extremely complex and will always require insects. There is no substitute for bees.”
“As for the technology itself, it is a promising new development in existing drone technology,” he added. Yet he still sees some hurdles ahead before drones can be applied on a large scale.
1.What makes those scientists invent pollinating drones?
A. There are no satisfying pollinators.
B. Humans need more food supplies.
C. Pollinating species are being endangered.
D. Drone technology is well-developed now.
2.What problem does Scott think scientists have to solve for the robo-pollinators?
A. Making them look like bees. B. Using them in quantity.
C. Keeping them flying non-stop. D. Instructing them to tell plants.
3.The underlined word “agile” in Para 6 can be replaced by “________”.
A. cheap B. catchy
C. lovely D. smart
4.What’s the best title for the passage?
A. Will pollinating drones take over for honeybees?
B. What is leading pollinating honeybees to decline?
C. Why does pollinating need a money-saving option?
D. How did researchers invent pollinating drones?
The world is a greener place than it was 20 years ago. A study published in the journal “Nature Sustainability” said that recent satellite data reveals a greening pattern that is strikingly prominent in China and India. The study shows that human activity in China and India dominates this greening of the planet, thanks to tree planting and agriculture. The effect comes mostly from ambitious tree-planting programs in China and intensive agriculture in both countries.
“China and India account for one-third of the greening, ” said lead author Chi Chen of Boston University. “ That is a surprising finding, considering the vague idea of land degradation (毁坏) in populous countries from overexploitation, ” added Chen.
China alone accounts for 25 percent of the global net increase in leaf area with only 6.6 percent of global vegetated area. The greening in China is from forests (42 percent) and croplands (32 percent), but in India, it is mostly from croplands (82 percent) with minor contribution from forests (4.4 percent).
China’s outsized contribution to the global greening trend comes in large part from its programs to conserve and expand forests with the goal of preventing land degradation, air pollution, and climate change.
“Once people realize there is a problem, they tend to fix it,” said Rama Nemani, research scientist and co-author of the study. “In the 1970s and 80s in India and China, the situation around vegetation loss was not good. In the 1990s, people realized it, and today things have improved. Now we see that humans are contributing.”
Land area used to grow crops is comparable in China and India—more than 770, 000 square miles—and has not changed much since the early 2000s. Yet these regions have greatly increased both their annual total green leaf area and their food production.
This was achieved through multiple cropping practices, where a field is replanted to produce another harvest several times a year. Production of grains, vegetables, fruits and more have increased by about 35%～40% since 2000 to feed their large populations.
1.What did the study mainly find?
A. India and China are leading the global greening effort.
B. Intensive agriculture is the cause of global land degradation.
C. China and India has got the largest forest coverage in the world.
D. Agriculture is more helpful in expanding green areas than tree-planting.
2.How is China different from India in contributing to the global greening?
A. India reduced cropland to prevent the overexploitation.
B. India increased forest by planting around croplands.
C. China changed more lands into forest by planting trees.
D. China controlled the increase of its population.
3.What does Nemani think about humans in China and India in protecting the Earth?
A. Ambitious. B. Responsible.
C. Passionate . D. Tolerant.
4.What does the passage finally suggest humans should make good use of?
A. Forest. B. Trees.
C. Cropland. D. Food
Across Europe, where visitors can outnumber residents in the summer months, the complaints have started. Last week, in Barcelona, an open-top bus was spray-painted across its windscreen with the words “Tourism Kills Neighbourhoods”. The message is clear: such cities are under pressure. In tourists and residents’ battle for shared spaces, local authorities are uncomfortably in the middle. The tourism is one of the largest employers in the world, with one new job created for every 30 new visitors to a destination—but at what cost to locals’ quality of life?
More people are travelling than ever before, and lower barriers to entry and falling costs mean they are doing so for shorter periods. The rise of “city breaks”—48-hour bursts of foreign cultures—has increased tourist numbers. “Too many people do the same thing at the exact same time,” says Xavier Font, a professor at the University of Surrey, “For locals, the city no longer belongs to them.”
Compounding the problem is Airbnb, which has made tourists more casual in their approach to international travel, but added to residents’ headaches. Those permanent citizens who share their apartment blocks with Airbnb hosts have lost their patience, “No longer do we have to share the streets with tourists, we have to share our own buildings!” To ease the congestion around the main attractions, many cities are taking immediate action. Venice is proposing a new concept of “ detourism”: sustainable travel tips and alternative routes for exploring a different Venice. A greater variety of guidance for future visitors—ideas for what to do in off-peak seasons, for example, —can guide them from overcrowded landmarks. Repeat visitors have a better sense of the culture and it is much easier to integrate their behaviour with residents of the cities.
“But the locals should learn to take tourists as a part of urban life. Tourists do not have to be considered passive players, but rather as visitors with rights and duties,” says Font, “Everyone has a part to play in promoting that change.”
1.What problem do the local authorities often have in a tourist city?
A. The challenge creating more business for local people.
B. The conflict taking place among tourists from different countries.
C. The dilemma between tourism and living quality of the locals.
D. The competitions among the most popular attractions.
2.Why do the local residents reject “city break” according to Paragraph Two?
A. Too many visitors have damaged the quality of life.
B. The locals fail to benefit from the city break economically.
C. The local authorities lack adequate operation guidance.
D. They are reluctant to share anything with coming tourists.
3.What is Airbnb most probably?
A. A new travelling map with more street information.
B. A solution by Font to improve the local living quality.
C. A small town having the same complaints about tourism.
D. A website to help travellers find a homestay.
4.Under the concept of Detourism, which of the following should be encouraged?
A. Developing a city break during on-seasons.
B. Shifting visitors from busy attractions.
C. Attracting more first-time visitors.
D. Taking tourism as a passive part of urban life.
Green Book—a touching story of friendship against all odds Need a warm break from cold Oscar films? Try “Green Book”, a film that leaves you feeling good instead of like a disaster victim. The lighthearted drama, about a road trip by two men—one white, one black—is absolutely optimistic. | |
| The movie, set in 1962, is based on the true story of two New Yorkers. Tony Lip is a bodyguard from Italy, where he’s famed for his ability to silence fights. Don Shirley, a black pianist, asked him to be his driver on a performance tour to the Deep South of America, where racism was most serious then. Lip is fine behind the wheel, but what’s more useful to his passenger is his talent for ending conflicts with his fists. Cities such as Birmingham, Ala., and Macon, were dangerous during the era of the early 60s. The book of the film’s title is “The Negro Motorist Green-Book”, which helped black travelers find safe accommodations. |
In the film, the ups and downs of their journey are told with the changing settings. They start out in Pittsburgh and Cleveland, in nice hotel rooms and at fascinating parties. It’s when they reach Louisville, Ky., that the first “Colored Only” hotel sign appears, and the attitudes turn hateful, even for the Italian. Anyway, a partnership is born during the trip: Shirley tickles the keys while Lip strikes the thugs(暴徒). The loving screenplay of “Green Book”—written by Lip’s son, Nick Vallelonga, and directed by Peter Farrelly — doesn’t shy away from Lip’s casual racism. Yet for all his kindness toward Shirley, Lip had a long way to go when it came to tolerance. “Green Book” could be accused by some critics of the story not being true. But the actors’ honest chemistry takes Farrelly’s movie to the next level. This small tale of American goodness deserves your full attention. |
1.What was “Green Book” originally in the 1960s?
A. A documentary recording the life of the blacks.
B. A guidebook for African-American road trippers.
C. A book teaching the blacks to to be tolerant.
D. A story about a black and a white on a tour.
2.What does “tickles the keys” suggest about Shirley in Para 3?
A. He performs in his tour.
B. He helps Lip to give the thugs a beat.
C. He gets used to Lip’s behaviors.
D. He drives the car.
3.Who does the author think highly of in the end?
A. The author of the film. B. Green Book in the 1960s.
C. The critics. D. The film actors.
假设你是李津，得知2019年女排亚俱杯（Asian Women’s Volleyball Club Championship）将于4月20日至28日在天津举行。请你写信给在天津某国际学校的英国朋友Chris，
内容包括：
（1）告诉Chris天津女排将代表中国参加比赛；
（2）解释值得学习的女排精神；
（3）邀请他一起去观看比赛。
注意：（1）词数不少于100；
（2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
（3）开头已为你写好，不计入总词数。
Dear Chris,
How is everything going? _________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Jin
阅读短文，并按照题目要求用英语回答问题。
During the years working in Peacekeeping Force(维和部队), I was sent abroad. As a senior analyst, my workdays were routinely twelve to sixteen hours long. Like all the old soldiers, we looked forward to receiving mails from home.
We soldiers received many “To any service member” mails from the States. Those mails were sent by the general public in our mother country to soldiers far away from home, as an expression of support. I never took any of those letters, since I wrote to my wife on a daily basis, as well as occasionally writing notes to my daughter Jenny’s classroom, and I didn’t feel I had time to write to anyone else.
After five or fix months of hearing from the mail—announcing the availability of “To any service member” mail, I decided to take a few of the letters. Because I planned, as time permitted, to drop them a line telling them “Thanks” for their support.
I picked up three letters, and placed them in my cargo pocket and went back to work. Over the next week or so, I started responding to the letters. When it came time to answer the third letter, I noticed it had no return address, but a California postmark, which made me think of home. I had missed spending Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s with my family. Homesickness seized me.
I opened the card and started to read the letter attached, which was a short one. About the third or fourth sentence down, it read, “My daddy is a soldier over there, if you see him tell him hi and I love and miss him.” This statement really touched me and made me miss my family even more. Looking down to the name of the sender, I sat in silence as tears filled my eyes.
1.Who will usually write “To any service member” mails? (No more than 8 words)
2.Why did the author decide to answer some “To any service member” mails later? (No more than 10 words)
3.What set the author missing his own family? (No more than 5 words)
4.How do you understand the underlined sentence in Paragraph4? (No more than 6 words)
5.At the end of the story, why did the writer sit in silence and cry? Please explain. (No more than 20 words)
