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阅读理解4篇
教师详解版
A
Chinese Festivals
With a long history of thousands of years, China boasts a variety of traditional festivals, including those of ethnic minorities, each carrying unique cultural meanings and customs.
The Spring Festival
As the most important festival in China, the Spring Festival falls on the first day of the first lunar month. Before the festival, people usually clean their houses thoroughly to sweep away bad luck. On New Year’s Eve, families gather to have a rich reunion dinner, and many people stay up late to welcome the new year. Decorating doors with red couplets and setting off firecrackers are also essential traditions to celebrate the festival.
The Lantern Festival
Celebrated on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival marks the end of the Spring Festival celebrations. The most popular activity is hanging and appreciating colorful lanterns of different shapes and sizes. People also eat yuanxiao, a glutinous rice ball filled with sweet stuffing, which stands for family harmony and happiness. Besides, watching dragon and lion dances is a common way to enjoy the festival.
The Dragon Boat Festival
Falling on the 5th day of the fifth lunar month, this festival is in memory of Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet who loved his country deeply. He drowned himself in the Miluo River after his country was defeated, and local people rowed dragon boats to look for his body and threw zongzi into the river to prevent fish from eating it. Today, dragon boat racing and eating zongzi are the main customs of this festival.
The Mid-Autumn Festival
Celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival of reunion. On this day, the moon is round and bright, so families gather to appreciate the moon together. Eating mooncakes, a kind of round pastry with various fillings, is a traditional custom, as mooncakes symbolize family reunion and good wishes.
The March 3rd Festival of the Zhuang Ethnic Group
Also known as San Yue San, it is celebrated on the 3rd day of the third lunar month. The number “three” is regarded as a lucky number in the culture of the Zhuang ethnic group. People usually sing folk songs, hold antiphonal singing activities with their families or friends, drink rice wine and eat five-color glutinous rice. This festival also focuses on inheriting folk culture, which is an important part of the traditional culture of the Zhuang ethnic group.
1. Which activity is NOT a custom of the Spring Festival
A. Cleaning houses thoroughly
B. Hanging red couplets
C. Appreciating colorful lanterns
D. Having a reunion dinner
2. Which festival is held to honor a patriotic poet who loved his country deeply
A. The Lantern Festival
B. The Dragon Boat Festival
C. The Mid-Autumn Festival
D. The March 3rd Festival of the Zhuang Ethnic Group
3. What is the special meaning of mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival
A. Sweeping away bad luck
B. Respecting the elderly
C. Family reunion and good wishes
D. Celebrating the end of the festival
B
Many people believe that more exercise means burning more calories and losing more weight, but the reality often fails to meet their expectations. In controlled studies, exercise usually leads to less weight loss than calorie models predict. Even with regular aerobic exercise like walking, jogging and cycling, most people lose only about 3.5 pounds in six months.
One reason is that working out can increase people’s hunger, making them eat back the calories they burned. However, there is another more unexpected factor: energy compensation. A 2025 analysis suggested people only burned about a third of the extra calories their workouts theoretically demanded, as noted by Vincent Careau, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Ottawa. For example, a run that should burn 500 calories actually adds only around 165 calories to the daily total. This means the body compensates for more physical activity by reducing energy used in other aspects, though Careau says the extent and way of this compensation “still a mystery”.
The idea of energy compensation came from a 2012 study. It found that a hunter-gatherer group in Tanzania burned nearly the same number of calories as average sedentary people in industrialized countries, even though they walked much more daily to find food. This is explained by the constrained energy expenditure model: the body keeps total daily energy expenditure within a narrow range by cutting energy on other physiological processes.
Leanne Redman, an expert in human physiology and energy balance at the University of Sydney, notes that such compensation can happen in various ways. Some people may move less after exercise, like taking a nap or walking slower. Redman’s own 2021 study found that adults who burned about 1,800 calories per week through exercise lost only about half as much weight as standard calorie models would pensation can also involve deeper physiological changes, such as reduced energy for fidgeting, or lower activity of immune and thyroid hormones. Importantly, not everyone compensates in the same way—Redman found that only about half of the participants in her follow-up analyses showed clear signs of compensation, often because their bodies became more efficient at the exercise.
Reading Comprehension Questions
4.What does the underlined phrase “fails to meet their expectations” in Paragraph 1 mean
A. People lose more weight than they thought.
B. People lose less weight than they expected.
C. Exercise burns more calories than predicted.
D. Exercise has no effect on weight loss.
5.According to the passage, what is energy compensation
A. The body burns more calories when people exercise more.
B. The body uses less energy in other areas to balance more exercise.
C. People eat more calories after exercise to make up for the loss.
D. People become less active to avoid burning extra calories.
6.What can we learn from the 2012 study
A. Hunter-gatherers burn more calories than sedentary people.
B. Sedentary people in industrialized countries exercise less.
C. The body keeps total daily energy expenditure in a small range.
D. Walking more daily helps burn more calories.
7.Which of the following is true about energy compensation
A. It only happens in people who do aerobic exercise.
B. It always leads to no weight loss after exercise.
C. Everyone experiences the same level of compensation.
D. It can be both behavioral and physiological.
C
In a mountain valley in northern New Mexico, Indigenous beekeeper and National Geographic Explorer Melanie Kirby and her partner Mark Spitzig have been breeding “LongeviBEES” — a type of honeybee well adapted to the high desert and Rocky Mountain region. Unlike most commercial beekeepers, they don’t use synthetic chemicals to fight varroa mites, an invasive parasite that is the main cause of bee die-offs. Instead, they breed queens only after they have survived for at least two years, ensuring the bees are hardy enough to live on their own.
This is crucial because bees around the world are declining sharply due to parasites, pathogens, pesticides and shrinking habitats. In April 2025, American beekeepers reported losing 55 percent of their colonies — the worst loss ever. Bees, including honeybees and over 20,000 other species, pollinate about a third of the world’s food supply and more than three-quarters of flowering plants, making their survival vital.
For a long time, scientists like Karl von Frisch, a Nobel Prize winner, believed bees were mindless automatons guided only by instinct, as their brains are as small as a grass seed. However, recent experiments by researchers like behavioral ecologist Lars Chittka have changed this view. In 1990, Chittka and his team accidentally found that bees could count landmarks to find food. Now a professor at Queen Mary University of London, Chittka has designed more experiments showing bees can recognize patterns, differentiate symbols, identify human faces and even plan for the future.
Kirby’s thriving bees suggest a hopeful possibility: bees can adapt to challenging surroundings if humans let them. She once brought her bees to Addelina Lucero, who makes products from beeswax, with a simple instruction — leave the bees alone. Lucero later said, “They really can figure things out.”
What makes Melanie Kirby’s “LongeviBEES” different from other honeybees
A. They are raised with a lot of synthetic chemicals.
B. Their queens are bred only after proving their hardiness.
C. They are not threatened by varroa mites at all.
D. They can only live in the high desert of New Mexico.
9. Why are bees’ survival important according to the passage
A. They can help beekeepers make more money.
B. They are the most important insects in the world.
C. They pollinate a large part of the world’s food and flowering plants.
D. They can adapt to various challenging environments easily.
10. What did Karl von Frisch think of bees
A. They were intelligent and could solve problems.
B. They acted only by instinct and had no ability to think.
C. They could count landmarks to find food sources.
D. They were able to communicate with each other effectively.
11. What can we infer from the passage
A. Lars Chittka’s experiments proved bees are as smart as humans.
B. All commercial beekeepers use chemicals to protect bees.
C. Bees’ decline is mainly caused by human activities.
D.Leaving bees alone may help them adapt to their surroundings.
D
Coral reefs, home to a quarter of all marine life despite covering just 1% of the ocean floor, are facing an existential crisis driven by climate change. Rising ocean temperatures trigger coral bleaching, where stressed corals expel their symbiotic algae, turn white, and often die. The 2023 global bleaching event affected 84% of the world’s reefs, and scientists warn most could vanish by mid-century if carbon emissions continue. Marine ecologists Anya Brown and Rachael Bay are racing to unlock the secrets of coral survival. Bay, an evolutionary biologist, focuses on natural selection: she believes resilient corals with heat-tolerant genetic variants will adapt and persist, and the key is helping corals adapt fast enough to keep pace with climate change. Brown, however, takes a community ecology approach. She argues coral survival depends not just on individual adaptation, but on cooperation within complex ecosystems. In a 2019 study, she discovered that corals from mixed reefs survived white band disease far better than those grouped with their original reef mates, even within the same species. Resistant corals seemed to boost the immunity of weaker individuals. Further research revealed that healthy corals host unique, protective bacterial communities in their mucus. Brown hypothesizes corals share these beneficial microbes, transferring immunity to vulnerable neighbors. This challenges the traditional Darwinian view of survival as a zero-sum competition, instead framing it as a cooperative effort. If Brown’s theory holds, it could revolutionize reef conservation: instead of just breeding heat-tolerant corals, scientists could restore entire microbial ecosystems to help dying reefs recover. The pair’s work in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, is already testing these ideas, offering fresh hope for saving the world’s vanishing reefs.
12.What is the main threat to coral reefs according to the text
A. Overfishing in coastal areas
B. Climate change and rising temperatures
C. Pollution from plastic waste
D. Invasive species like starfish
13. How does Rachael Bay’s approach differ from Anya Brown’s
A. Bay focuses on individual coral adaptation, while Brown emphasizes ecosystem cooperation.
B. Bay studies deep-sea corals, while Brown focuses on shallow-water species.
C. Bay believes corals cannot adapt, while Brown thinks they can recover naturally.
D. Bay works in the Caribbean, while Brown conducts research in the Cook Islands.
14. What does the underlined phrase “zero-sum competition” in Paragraph 4 probably mean
A. A competition where all participants gain equally
B. A situation where one’s gain is another’s loss
C. A cooperative effort to achieve a shared goal
D. A competition with no clear winner or loser
15. What can we infer from the last paragraph
A. Brown’s theory has been fully proven by experiments.
B. Traditional conservation methods are no longer effective.
C. Restoring microbial ecosystems may help save coral reefs.
D. Most coral reefs will disappear by the end of the century.
答案与详细解析
【A篇】1. 答案：C解析：根据原文对春节的描述“Before the festival, people usually clean their houses thoroughly... On New Year’s Eve, families gather to have a rich reunion dinner... Decorating doors with red couplets”可知，A（彻底打扫房子）、B（贴春联）、D（吃团圆饭）均是春节习俗。C（欣赏彩灯）是元宵节的习俗，并非春节，故选C。
2. 答案：B解析：原文明确提到“The Dragon Boat Festival... is in memory of Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet who loved his country deeply”，即端午节是为了纪念爱国诗人屈原，屈原是热爱祖国的象征。A（元宵节）、C（中秋节）、D（壮族三月三）均不涉及纪念爱国诗人，故选B。
3. 答案：C 解析：根据原文“Eating mooncakes... is a traditional custom, as mooncakes symbolize family reunion and good wishes”可知，月饼的特殊含义是象征家庭团圆和美好祝福。A（扫除坏运气）是春节打扫房子的意义；B（尊敬老人）并非文中任何节日的内涵；D（庆祝节日结束）是元宵节的意义，故选C。
【B篇】4. 答案：B解析：根据原文第一段描述“Many people believe that more exercise means burning more calories and losing more weight, but the reality often fails to meet their expectations. In controlled studies, exercise usually leads to less weight loss than calorie models predict”可知，人们认为“运动越多，燃烧卡路里越多，体重下降越多”，但实际情况是运动带来的体重下降比卡路里模型预测的要少。由此可推断，“fails to meet their expectations”意为“人们的体重下降比预期的少”。A（人们体重下降比想象的多）与原文不符；C（运动燃烧的卡路里比预测的多）不符合原文表述；D（运动对体重下降没有影响）错误，原文提到运动能带来一定体重下降，只是效果不及预期，故选B。
5. 答案：B解析：根据原文第四段对能量补偿的描述“This means the body compensates for more physical activity by reducing energy used in other aspects”可知，能量补偿指身体通过减少其他方面的能量消耗，来平衡更多的身体活动。A（人们运动越多，身体燃烧的卡路里越多）是人们的错误认知，并非能量补偿；C（人们运动后吃更多卡路里来弥补消耗）是体重下降不及预期的另一个原因，不是能量补偿；D（人们变得不那么活跃以避免燃烧额外卡路里）只是能量补偿的一种行为表现，并非完整定义，故选B。
6. 答案：C解析：根据原文第五段描述“The idea of energy compensation came from a 2012 study... This is explained by the constrained energy expenditure model: the body keeps total daily energy expenditure within a narrow range by cutting energy on other physiological processes”可知，2012年的研究发现，坦桑尼亚的狩猎采集者虽然日常步行更多，但燃烧的卡路里与工业化国家的久坐人群几乎相同，这一现象可用约束能量消耗模型解释，即身体会将每日总能量消耗控制在一个较小的范围内。A（狩猎采集者比久坐人群燃烧更多卡路里）与原文不符；B（工业化国家的久坐人群运动更少）原文未提及，研究未对比两组人的运动量；D（每天多走路有助于燃烧更多卡路里）与研究结果相反，故选C。
7. 答案：D解析：根据原文第六段描述“Leanne Redman... notes that such compensation can happen in various ways. Some people may move less after exercise, like taking a nap or walking slower... Compensation can also involve deeper physiological changes, such as reduced energy for fidgeting, or lower activity of immune and thyroid hormones”可知，能量补偿有多种形式，既包括运动后午睡、走路变慢等行为上的变化，也包括坐立不安减少、免疫和甲状腺激素活动降低等生理上的变化。A（它只发生在做有氧运动的人身上）原文未提及，未限制能量补偿的运动类型；B（它总会导致运动后没有体重下降）错误，原文提到运动能带来一定体重下降；C（每个人的补偿程度都相同）与原文“not everyone compensates in the same way”不符，故选D。
【C篇】 8. 答案：B解析：根据原文第二段描述“Unlike most commercial beekeepers, they don’t use synthetic chemicals to fight varroa mites... Instead, they breed queens only after they have survived for at least two years, ensuring the bees are hardy enough to live on their own”可知，Melanie Kirby的“LongeviBEES”与其他蜜蜂的不同之处在于，它们的蜂后只有在证明自己足够坚韧（存活至少两年）后才会被培育。A（它们用大量合成化学物质饲养）与原文不符；C（它们完全不受瓦螨威胁）过于绝对，原文未提及；D（它们只能生活在新墨西哥州的高沙漠地区）错误，原文说它们适应高沙漠和落基山脉地区，并非只能生活在一处，故选B。
9. 答案：C解析：根据原文第三段描述“Bees, including honeybees and over 20,000 other species, pollinate about a third of the world’s food supply and more than three-quarters of flowering plants, making their survival vital”可知，蜜蜂的存活至关重要是因为它们为世界上大部分食物和开花植物授粉。A（它们能帮助养蜂人赚更多钱）原文未提及；B（它们是世界上最重要的昆虫）过于绝对；D（它们能轻松适应各种具有挑战性的环境）与原文不符，原文说蜜蜂需要人类适当放手才能适应，故选C。
10. 答案：B解析：根据原文第四段描述“For a long time, scientists like Karl von Frisch, a Nobel Prize winner, believed bees were mindless automatons guided only by instinct, as their brains are as small as a grass seed”可知，Karl von Frisch认为蜜蜂是没有思维的自动机械，只受本能支配。A（它们聪明且能解决问题）是Lars Chittka实验得出的结论，并非Karl von Frisch的观点；C（它们能通过数地标找到食物）是Chittka团队的发现；D（它们能有效相互交流）原文未提及是Karl von Frisch的看法，故选B。
11. 答案：D解析：根据原文最后一段描述“Kirby’s thriving bees suggest a hopeful possibility: bees can adapt to challenging surroundings if humans let them. She once brought her bees to Addelina Lucero... with a simple instruction — leave the bees alone. Lucero later said, ‘They really can figure things out’”可知，放手让蜜蜂自己生活，它们可能会适应周围环境。A（Lars Chittka的实验证明蜜蜂和人类一样聪明）过于绝对，原文说蜜蜂比人们想象的聪明，并非和人类一样；B（所有商业养蜂人都用化学物质保护蜜蜂）中“all”过于绝对，原文说“most commercial beekeepers”；C（蜜蜂数量下降主要由人类活动引起）原文未明确提及，原文只列出了下降的多种原因，故选D。
【D篇】12. 答案：B 解析：细节理解题。定位原文：第一段明确提到 “Coral reefs... are facing an existential crisis driven by climate change. Rising ocean temperatures trigger coral bleaching...”，直接点明气候变化和气温上升是珊瑚礁的主要威胁。 - 排除干扰项： - A（过度捕捞）、C（塑料污染）、D（棘冠海星等入侵物种）均未在文中被列为主要威胁，仅棘冠海星在文末作为次要问题提及，故排除。
13. 答案：A 解析：细节对比题 。 定位原文： - 第二段：“Bay, an evolutionary biologist, focuses on natural selection: she believes resilient corals with heat-tolerant genetic variants will adapt and persist...”（Bay聚焦个体珊瑚的自然选择与基因适应） - 第三段：“Brown... argues coral survival depends not just on individual adaptation, but on cooperation within complex ecosystems.”（Brown强调生态系统内的合作） - 排除干扰项： - B：两人均研究浅海珊瑚，无深海/浅海的研究对象差异，排除； - C：Bay认为珊瑚可以适应，与原文完全相反，排除； - D：两人均在库克群岛开展研究，并非研究地点不同，排除。
14. 答案：B 解析： 词义猜测题。定位原文：第四段 “This challenges the traditional Darwinian view of survival as a zero-sum competition, instead framing it as a cooperative effort.” 词义推理： - 句中用 “instead” 形成对比：传统达尔文主义的“零和博弈”与后文的“合作”相对，说明“零和竞争”指一方获益则另一方受损，无共赢的竞争关系，对应B选项。 - A（所有参与者平等获益）、C（合作实现共同目标）与“竞争”语义矛盾，排除； - D（无明确胜负的竞争）不符合“零和”的核心定义，排除。
15. 答案：C 解析：推理判断题。 定位原文：最后一段 “If Brown’s theory holds, it could revolutionize reef conservation: instead of just breeding heat-tolerant corals, scientists could restore entire microbial ecosystems to help dying reefs recover.” - 推理判断： - 原文明确提出：恢复完整的微生物生态系统，可能成为拯救珊瑚礁的新方法，对应C选项。阅读理解4篇
学生版
A
Chinese Festivals
With a long history of thousands of years, China boasts a variety of traditional festivals, including those of ethnic minorities, each carrying unique cultural meanings and customs.
The Spring Festival
As the most important festival in China, the Spring Festival falls on the first day of the first lunar month. Before the festival, people usually clean their houses thoroughly to sweep away bad luck. On New Year’s Eve, families gather to have a rich reunion dinner, and many people stay up late to welcome the new year. Decorating doors with red couplets and setting off firecrackers are also essential traditions to celebrate the festival.
The Lantern Festival
Celebrated on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival marks the end of the Spring Festival celebrations. The most popular activity is hanging and appreciating colorful lanterns of different shapes and sizes. People also eat yuanxiao, a glutinous rice ball filled with sweet stuffing, which stands for family harmony and happiness. Besides, watching dragon and lion dances is a common way to enjoy the festival.
The Dragon Boat Festival
Falling on the 5th day of the fifth lunar month, this festival is in memory of Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet who loved his country deeply. He drowned himself in the Miluo River after his country was defeated, and local people rowed dragon boats to look for his body and threw zongzi into the river to prevent fish from eating it. Today, dragon boat racing and eating zongzi are the main customs of this festival.
The Mid-Autumn Festival
Celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival of reunion. On this day, the moon is round and bright, so families gather to appreciate the moon together. Eating mooncakes, a kind of round pastry with various fillings, is a traditional custom, as mooncakes symbolize family reunion and good wishes.
The March 3rd Festival of the Zhuang Ethnic Group
Also known as San Yue San, it is celebrated on the 3rd day of the third lunar month. The number “three” is regarded as a lucky number in the culture of the Zhuang ethnic group. People usually sing folk songs, hold antiphonal singing activities with their families or friends, drink rice wine and eat five-color glutinous rice. This festival also focuses on inheriting folk culture, which is an important part of the traditional culture of the Zhuang ethnic group.
1. Which activity is NOT a custom of the Spring Festival
A. Cleaning houses thoroughly
B. Hanging red couplets
C. Appreciating colorful lanterns
D. Having a reunion dinner
2. Which festival is held to honor a patriotic poet who loved his country deeply
A. The Lantern Festival
B. The Dragon Boat Festival
C. The Mid-Autumn Festival
D. The March 3rd Festival of the Zhuang Ethnic Group
3. What is the special meaning of mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival
A. Sweeping away bad luck
B. Respecting the elderly
C. Family reunion and good wishes
D. Celebrating the end of the festival
B
Many people believe that more exercise means burning more calories and losing more weight, but the reality often fails to meet their expectations. In controlled studies, exercise usually leads to less weight loss than calorie models predict. Even with regular aerobic exercise like walking, jogging and cycling, most people lose only about 3.5 pounds in six months.
One reason is that working out can increase people’s hunger, making them eat back the calories they burned. However, there is another more unexpected factor: energy compensation. A 2025 analysis suggested people only burned about a third of the extra calories their workouts theoretically demanded, as noted by Vincent Careau, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Ottawa. For example, a run that should burn 500 calories actually adds only around 165 calories to the daily total. This means the body compensates for more physical activity by reducing energy used in other aspects, though Careau says the extent and way of this compensation “still a mystery”.
The idea of energy compensation came from a 2012 study. It found that a hunter-gatherer group in Tanzania burned nearly the same number of calories as average sedentary people in industrialized countries, even though they walked much more daily to find food. This is explained by the constrained energy expenditure model: the body keeps total daily energy expenditure within a narrow range by cutting energy on other physiological processes.
Leanne Redman, an expert in human physiology and energy balance at the University of Sydney, notes that such compensation can happen in various ways. Some people may move less after exercise, like taking a nap or walking slower. Redman’s own 2021 study found that adults who burned about 1,800 calories per week through exercise lost only about half as much weight as standard calorie models would pensation can also involve deeper physiological changes, such as reduced energy for fidgeting, or lower activity of immune and thyroid hormones. Importantly, not everyone compensates in the same way—Redman found that only about half of the participants in her follow-up analyses showed clear signs of compensation, often because their bodies became more efficient at the exercise.
4.What does the underlined phrase “fails to meet their expectations” in Paragraph 1 mean
A. People lose more weight than they thought.
B. People lose less weight than they expected.
C. Exercise burns more calories than predicted.
D. Exercise has no effect on weight loss.
5.According to the passage, what is energy compensation
A. The body burns more calories when people exercise more.
B. The body uses less energy in other areas to balance more exercise.
C. People eat more calories after exercise to make up for the loss.
D. People become less active to avoid burning extra calories.
6.What can we learn from the 2012 study
A. Hunter-gatherers burn more calories than sedentary people.
B. Sedentary people in industrialized countries exercise less.
C. The body keeps total daily energy expenditure in a small range.
D. Walking more daily helps burn more calories.
7.Which of the following is true about energy compensation
A. It only happens in people who do aerobic exercise.
B. It always leads to no weight loss after exercise.
C. Everyone experiences the same level of compensation.
D. It can be both behavioral and physiological.
C
In a mountain valley in northern New Mexico, Indigenous beekeeper and National Geographic Explorer Melanie Kirby and her partner Mark Spitzig have been breeding “LongeviBEES” — a type of honeybee well adapted to the high desert and Rocky Mountain region. Unlike most commercial beekeepers, they don’t use synthetic chemicals to fight varroa mites, an invasive parasite that is the main cause of bee die-offs. Instead, they breed queens only after they have survived for at least two years, ensuring the bees are hardy enough to live on their own.
This is crucial because bees around the world are declining sharply due to parasites, pathogens, pesticides and shrinking habitats. In April 2025, American beekeepers reported losing 55 percent of their colonies — the worst loss ever. Bees, including honeybees and over 20,000 other species, pollinate about a third of the world’s food supply and more than three-quarters of flowering plants, making their survival vital.
For a long time, scientists like Karl von Frisch, a Nobel Prize winner, believed bees were mindless automatons guided only by instinct, as their brains are as small as a grass seed. However, recent experiments by researchers like behavioral ecologist Lars Chittka have changed this view. In 1990, Chittka and his team accidentally found that bees could count landmarks to find food. Now a professor at Queen Mary University of London, Chittka has designed more experiments showing bees can recognize patterns, differentiate symbols, identify human faces and even plan for the future.
Kirby’s thriving bees suggest a hopeful possibility: bees can adapt to challenging surroundings if humans let them. She once brought her bees to Addelina Lucero, who makes products from beeswax, with a simple instruction — leave the bees alone. Lucero later said, “They really can figure things out.”
What makes Melanie Kirby’s “LongeviBEES” different from other honeybees
A. They are raised with a lot of synthetic chemicals.
B. Their queens are bred only after proving their hardiness.
C. They are not threatened by varroa mites at all.
D. They can only live in the high desert of New Mexico.
9. Why are bees’ survival important according to the passage
A. They can help beekeepers make more money.
B. They are the most important insects in the world.
C. They pollinate a large part of the world’s food and flowering plants.
D. They can adapt to various challenging environments easily.
10. What did Karl von Frisch think of bees
A. They were intelligent and could solve problems.
B. They acted only by instinct and had no ability to think.
C. They could count landmarks to find food sources.
D. They were able to communicate with each other effectively.
11. What can we infer from the passage
A. Lars Chittka’s experiments proved bees are as smart as humans.
B. All commercial beekeepers use chemicals to protect bees.
C. Bees’ decline is mainly caused by human activities.
D.Leaving bees alone may help them adapt to their surroundings.
D
Coral reefs, home to a quarter of all marine life despite covering just 1% of the ocean floor, are facing an existential crisis driven by climate change. Rising ocean temperatures trigger coral bleaching, where stressed corals expel their symbiotic algae, turn white, and often die. The 2023 global bleaching event affected 84% of the world’s reefs, and scientists warn most could vanish by mid-century if carbon emissions continue. Marine ecologists Anya Brown and Rachael Bay are racing to unlock the secrets of coral survival. Bay, an evolutionary biologist, focuses on natural selection: she believes resilient corals with heat-tolerant genetic variants will adapt and persist, and the key is helping corals adapt fast enough to keep pace with climate change. Brown, however, takes a community ecology approach. She argues coral survival depends not just on individual adaptation, but on cooperation within complex ecosystems. In a 2019 study, she discovered that corals from mixed reefs survived white band disease far better than those grouped with their original reef mates, even within the same species. Resistant corals seemed to boost the immunity of weaker individuals. Further research revealed that healthy corals host unique, protective bacterial communities in their mucus. Brown hypothesizes corals share these beneficial microbes, transferring immunity to vulnerable neighbors. This challenges the traditional Darwinian view of survival as a zero-sum competition, instead framing it as a cooperative effort. If Brown’s theory holds, it could revolutionize reef conservation: instead of just breeding heat-tolerant corals, scientists could restore entire microbial ecosystems to help dying reefs recover. The pair’s work in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, is already testing these ideas, offering fresh hope for saving the world’s vanishing reefs.
12.What is the main threat to coral reefs according to the text
A. Overfishing in coastal areas
B. Climate change and rising temperatures
C. Pollution from plastic waste
D. Invasive species like starfish
13. How does Rachael Bay’s approach differ from Anya Brown’s
A. Bay focuses on individual coral adaptation, while Brown emphasizes ecosystem cooperation.
B. Bay studies deep-sea corals, while Brown focuses on shallow-water species.
C. Bay believes corals cannot adapt, while Brown thinks they can recover naturally.
D. Bay works in the Caribbean, while Brown conducts research in the Cook Islands.
14. What does the underlined phrase “zero-sum competition” in Paragraph 4 probably mean
A. A competition where all participants gain equally
B. A situation where one’s gain is another’s loss
C. A cooperative effort to achieve a shared goal
D. A competition with no clear winner or loser
15. What can we infer from the last paragraph
A. Brown’s theory has been fully proven by experiments.
B. Traditional conservation methods are no longer effective.
C. Restoring microbial ecosystems may help save coral reefs.
D. Most coral reefs will disappear by the end of the century.

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