The African elephant will disappear within two decades if urgent action is not taken to save one of the world's most iconic animal species, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has warned in a new campaign fundraiser.
The population of these elephants—the largest animal currently walking the earth—has declined by 70 percent in the last 40 years, in large part because of the illegal ivory trade, which is the biggest driver of elephant poaching, according to the non-profit.
In fact, 20,000 elephants are killed every year to feed this trade—which is equivalent to one death every 26 minutes.
Once an elephant is killed, poachers harvest the ivory to meet a growing demand for products made from this material. Ivory can be turned into ornaments and decorations, as well as being used in traditional Asian medicine for its intended therapeutic value. Elephants are also sometimes killed to provide a source of meat.
This poaching takes place despite a global ban on ivory sales under the CITES multilateral treaty (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) which was introduced in 1990. Above the poachers are powerful organized criminal networks which commonly engage in corruption, money laundering and assassinations.
Part of the issue in policing the problem is that the governments of nations where Africans elephants live often lack sufficient resources to protect and monitor elephant herds, which often reside in remote and inaccessible habitats. When the animals are killed, they often suffer a brutal death.
African elephants are found in 37 countries across the continent and are categorized as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with a remaining population of around 415,000 in the wild, according to WWF.
These animals play a crucial role in the ecosystem, helping to maintain healthy habitats for many other species. This is because African elephants help to disperse seeds.
The population of African elephants—which are split into two subspecies—once numbered between three and five million during the last century. However, this figure has fallen dramatically as a result of poaching and other factors, such as habitat fragmentation or loss.
1.The word “poaching” (paragraph 2) probably means ________.
A.desperate desire B.severe damage
C.illegal hunting D.cruel killing
2.What is the main reason for the sharp decline in the number of African elephants？
A.They were hunted by other animals.
B.They failed to survive the natural disasters.
C.There is no suitable living environment.
D.They were illegally traded for ivory.
3.Which of the following can be learned from the passage?
A.Absence of bans or regulations on ivory sales is the biggest driver of elephant poaching.
B.Elephants living in remote habitats are less vulnerable than those living in nations with adequate resources.
C.If the African elephant disappear, the ecosystem there is likely to be ruined.
D.African elephant herbs usually migrated in large population.
4.What’s the best title for this passage?
A.African Elephants Will Be Gone in The Future
B.African Elephants, Leading Role in Ecosystem
C.The Population of African Elephants
D.Different Types of African Elephants
Chinese experts, based on the result of clinical trials, have __________ that Chloroquine Phosphate(磷酸氯喹), an antimalarial drug, has a certain _________ effect on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a Chinese official said here Monday.
The experts have "unanimously" suggested the drug be included in the next version of the treatment guidelines and __________ in wider clinical trials as soon as possible, Sun Yanrong, deputy head of the China National Center for Biotechnology Development under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), said at a press conference.
Chloroquine Phosphate, which has been used for more than 70 years, was selected from tens of thousands of existing drugs after _________ rounds of screening, Sun said. According to her, the drug has been under clinical trials in over 10 hospitals in Beijing, ___________ in south Guangdong Province and central China's Hunan Province, and has shown _______ good efficacy.
In the trials, the groups of patients who had taken the drug have shown better indicators than their parallel groups, in abatement(减轻) of fever, improvement of CT images of lungs, the percentage of patients who became _________ in viral nucleic acid tests and the time they need to do so, she said. Patients taking the drug also take a shorter time to recover, she added.
Sun gave an example of a 54-year-old patient in Beijing, who was _________ to hospital four days after showing symptoms. After taking the drug for a week, he saw all indicators __________ and the nucleic acid turn negative.
_________, no obvious serious adverse reactions related to the drug have been found among the over 100 patients enrolled in the clinical trials, she said.
On February 15, several departments including the MOST, the National Health Commission and the National Medical Products Administration called a video conference to _________ drug research and clinical experts’ opinions on the drug’s efficacy on COVID-19.
The expert team, led by Zhong Nanshan, a __________ respiratory specialist and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, agreed that Chloroquine Phosphate can be used to treat more COVID-19 patients, Sun said.
Previous in vitro (体外的) experiments showed that it can block virus _________ by changing the acidity and basicity value inside the cell and interfering receptors of SARS coronavirus. It also shows immune-modulating (调节) activity, which may __________ its antiviral effect in vivo (体内的) and is widely _________ in the whole body, including the lungs, after oral administration.
1.A.advocated B.assumed C.confirmed D.conserved
2.A.limited B.curative C.side D.potential
3.A.applied B.diagnosed C.recognized D.adapted
4.A.feasible B.reasonable C.authentic D.multiple
5.A.for instance B.as well as C.that is to say D.such as
6.A.unintentionally B.considerately C.scarcely D.fairly
7.A.negative B.neutral C.obvious D.positive
8.A.overlooked B.admitted C.accessed D.refused
9.A.promote B.flaw C.fail D.improve
10.A.In the meantime B.By contrast C.So far D.In consequence
11.A.turn down B.listen to C.engage in D.argue about
12.A.respectful B.conventional C.spiritual D.distinguished
13.A.invasion B.investigations C.infections D.cultivation
14.A.undermine B.enhance C.impose D.withhold
15.A.distributed B.reflected C.extinguished D.substituted
Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
A new era of computing may be upon us as Google claims its Sycamore computer has achieved quantum supremacy (量子霸权). But what is quantum supremacy, and what does it mean for the future?
Quantum supremacy is a scientific term. It means that a quantum computer has solved a problem that a classical computer would take too much time and energy to do.
1. (publish) in the journal Nature on Oct 23, Google tasked a computer with finding mathematical probabilities of different “events”. The events were specific values from a random number generator. Sycamore successfully picked out strings (系列) of numbers that were 2. (likely) to occur than others, running the test 1 million times in 200 seconds.
In their research, Google claims that the world’s best supercomputer would have taken 10,000 years 3.(solve) the same problem. However, Google’s claims were questioned by rival company IBM, who argued the same test 4. have been completed in 2.5 days by its Summit supercomputer.
What is quantum computing? The major difference between quantum and classic computers is in how they record and transmit information. Classic computers, from your laptop to your phone to a NASA supercomputer, use bits. Each bit has a state of either zero or one (on or off) and completes each operation one-at-a-time.
However, quantum computers, like Google’s Sycamore, use quantum bits – called qubits (量子位). These can be both zero and one at the same time, allowing them to hold more data and work together to solve problems simultaneously.
Google’s experiment has been applauded 5. a major breakthrough. It is a stepping-stone toward a big dream.
Currently, quantum computers are within the next decade. Tech reporter Jacob Ward told NBC News, “This could revolutionize our every little real-world value, but that can all change whole lives. We’re talking about the development of new medicines, materials, artificial intelligence, all of which, right now, 6. (depend) on a very limited language of computing.?”
While quantum may not be close to 7. (change) our everyday lives right now, it has been compared to the first rocket to reach space. It may be a generation 8. quantum computers become mainstream, so who can say what humans might achieve with the new technology?
Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
The 2020 Championships Wimbledon have been canceled 1. public health concerns linked to the coronavirus epidemic. The Championships 2.(schedule) to be held from Monday, June 29 through Sunday, July 12. The134thtournament will be held (hold) between June 28 and July 11, 2021. “This is a decision we have not taken lightly and we have done so with the highest regard for public health and the well-being of all those3. come together to make Wimbledon happen,” AELTC chairman Ian Hewitt said. “It 4. (weigh) heavily on our minds that the staging of The Championships has only been interrupted previously by World Wars but, 5.(follow) thorough and extensive consideration of all scenarios, we believe that it is a measure of this global crisis and 6. it is ultimately the right decision to cancel this year’s Championships, and instead concentrate on 7. we can use the breadth of Wimbledon’s resources to help those in our local communities and beyond.
请根据下图写一篇100-120词的短文。
要点：
1. 简要描写图画内容。
2. 说明图画的含义。
3. 谈谈你的看法。
注意：短文的开头已给出（不计字数）
In the picture, we can see that
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请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：每个空格只填1个单词。
In the United States, engineering is a profession that has been dominated historically by men. Even today, it’s still true that few women become civil or chemical or mechanical engineers, but that’s something www.EngineerGirl.org aims to change. Young women who visit the web site can find out about a great career choice they might not have considered.
“Women are very much underrepresented in engineering and in engineering education programs and then of course, down the road, in the engineering workforce. So only about 20 percent of engineering undergraduate degrees go to women, and then only about nine percent of working engineers are women.”
Mary Mattis in the National Academy of Engineering says the EngineerGirl website aims to reach young women around ages 11 through 14, when they are just getting old enough to start thinking about their futures.
“We know from the research that middle-school girls are at a critical point in their lives, and that it’s a time when we need to reach them, both with an understanding, increasing their awareness of interesting fields in engineering, what a wonderful productive and exciting career you can have as an engineer. But we also need to reach them at that time because you have to take certain courses, and you can’t start thinking about taking those courses when you’re a junior in high school.”
Engineering is a demanding course of study — there is a lot of science and mathematics, for many girls and even boys, that can be challenging. But Ms. Mattis says that the EngineerGirl website stresses that engineering can also be fun and exciting.
“It’s about designing things. It’s about changing the world for people. It’s about making a difference. And, in addition, you can make a good living; you can be independent economically by becoming an engineer. All of those things are messages that girls need to get.”
While most engineers go into traditional fields such as mechanical and electrical engineering, the EngineerGirl site also highlights unusual engineering careers in fields such as sports engineering and — believe it or not — chocolate engineering.
“There’s a section called ‘why be an engineer,’ and that talks about the many opportunities and increasingly different opportunities like with bio-engineering and environmental engineering, some fields that might appeal to girls who want to make a difference or have a meaning for their careers beyond earning an income.”Even if you are not a girl in the target age group, there’s a lot of interesting information on the site, including biographies of some notable women engineers.
Title | Website1.Girls to learn Engineering |
Present2.for the engineering profession in the USA | The majority of men take up the profession throughout3., while only a small number of women work as engineers. |
4.of the website | To make young women5.of interesting fields in engineering and what productivity and6.the career of being engineers can bring them. |
7.of being engineers | * It can be fun and exciting. |
Other fields concerning engineering | Various opportunities are talked about like bio-engineering and engineering10.to sports, and even chocolate. |
