阅读理解 - 英语学科知识与教学能力（初级中学）

中等

Birds are a critical part of our ecological system. But more than ever, birds are threatened by human pollution and climate change.
We need the birds to eat insects, move seeds and pollen around, transfer nutrients from sea to land, clean up after the mass death of the annual Pacific salmon runs, or when a wild animal falls anywhere in a field or forest.
How could we enjoy spring without the birds flitting busily in our garden or dropping by to check out the flowers in our urban window box? Can you contemplate America without the soaring bald eagle, or even those scavengers like the pigeons and gulls that clean up discarded food scraps on our city streets and waterfronts? How diminished our lives would be without them?
Scavenging eagles and condors need hunters to behave responsibly and bury, or remove, the remains of any shot deer peppered with fragments of lead bullets. Loons, ducks and other water birds will be poisoned by lead bullets and lead fishing sinkers if we allow such objects to drop in their feeding space.
All sea and shore birds, even the puffins and guillemots of the otherwise pristine Aleutians, need us to make sure that no other heavy metals, like mercury and cadmium, are dumped in rivers and make their way across the oceans.
Birds like the terns, knots and shearwaters that migrate between the far north and deep, deep, south of our planet need people everywhere to cease and desist from filling in their wetland fuel stops and rest stations, and from constructing golfing resorts and factories in their feeding and breeding grounds.
Seabirds are among the most endangered vertebrate species on the planet, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifying 97 species as globally threatened, and 17 in the highest category of critically threatened. Of greatest concern are the pelicans of the southern oceans and the spectacular, but slow-breeding albatross.
Plastic bags must be eliminated from natural environments so sea and shore birds don’t mistakenly carry such debris back to feed their chicks, with invariably lethal consequences. The albatross, cormorants and herons need us to stop over-fishing and compromising their normal food supply.
The pelicans, penguins and all the birds that inhabit, or visit, our coastlines need us to ensure that we do not dump oil into gulfs and bays, or release so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that the oceans turn acidic and we lose the mussels and oysters, the mass of calcareous plankton that feeds so many creatures, and the coral reefs that nurture enormous numbers of edible species.
Think about it: We share this small green planet. As they fly, feed and nest, the birds monitor the health of the natural world for us, provided that we, in turn, make the effort to access that key information.
The birds and humans are both large, complex and ultimately vulnerable organisms that inhabit the top of the food chain. At the end of the day, their fate will be our fate.

📖 知识点：税收筹划概述 👁️ 浏览量：1258 📅 更新时间：2025-03-08

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中等

Passage 2

Birds are a critical part of our ecological system. But more than ever, birds are threatened by human pollution and climate change.
We need the birds to eat insects, move seeds and pollen around, transfer nutrients from sea to land, clean up after the mass death of the annual Pacific salmon runs, or when a wild animal falls anywhere in a field or forest.
How could we enjoy spring without the birds flitting busily in our garden or dropping by to check out the flowers in our urban window box? Can you contemplate America without the soaring bald eagle, or even those scavengers like the pigeons and gulls that clean up discarded food scraps on our city streets and waterfronts? How diminished our lives would be without them?
Scavenging eagles and condors need hunters to behave responsibly and bury, or remove, the remains of any shot deer peppered with fragments of lead bullets. Loons, ducks and other water birds will be poisoned by lead bullets and lead fishing sinkers if we allow such objects to drop in their feeding space.
All sea and shore birds, even the puffins and guillemots of the otherwise pristine Aleutians, need us to make sure that no other heavy metals, like mercury and cadmium, are dumped in rivers and make their way across the oceans.
Birds like the terns, knots and shearwaters that migrate between the far north and deep, deep, south of our planet need people everywhere to cease and desist from filling in their wetland fuel stops and rest stations, and from constructing golfing resorts and factories in their feeding and breeding grounds.
Seabirds are among the most endangered vertebrate species on the planet, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifying 97 species as globally threatened, and 17 in the highest category of critically threatened. Of greatest concern are the pelicans of the southern oceans and the spectacular, but slow-breeding albatross.
Plastic bags must be eliminated from natural environments so sea and shore birds don’t mistakenly carry such debris back to feed their chicks, with invariably lethal consequences. The albatross, cormorants and herons need us to stop over-fishing and compromising their normal food supply.
The pelicans, penguins and all the birds that inhabit, or visit, our coastlines need us to ensure that we do not dump oil into gulfs and bays, or release so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that the oceans turn acidic and we lose the mussels and oysters, the mass of calcareous plankton that feeds so many creatures, and the coral reefs that nurture enormous numbers of edible species.
Think about it: We share this small green planet. As they fly, feed and nest, the birds monitor the health of the natural world for us, provided that we, in turn, make the effort to access that key information.
The birds and humans are both large, complex and ultimately vulnerable organisms that inhabit the top of the food chain. At the end of the day, their fate will be our fate.

📖 知识点：税收筹划概述 👁️ 浏览量：1258 📅 更新时间：2025-03-08

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中等

Passage 1

Millions of Americans lie awake at night counting sheep, or have a stiff drink or pop an allergy pill, hoping it will make them drowsy. But experts agree all that self-medicating is a bad idea, and the causes of chronic insomnia remain mysterious.
Almost a third of adults have trouble sleeping, and about 10 percent have symptoms of daytime impairment that signal true insomnia. Sufferers readily cite the resulting problems: walking around in a fog, as memory and other cognitive functions slowly. Dozing off at the wheel or at work. Depression. Lack of energy. But for all the complaints, scientists know surprisingly little about what causes chronic insomnia, its health consequences and how best to treat it, a panel of specialists brought together by the National Institutes of Health concluded Wednesday.
Two things are clear, the panel found: Chronic insomnia is a major public health problem. And too many people are using unproven therapies, even while there are a few treatments that do work.
Among the panel findings: Cognitive/behavioral therapy一a psychology-based treatment that trains people to reduce anxiety and take other sleep-promoting steps—is very effective, and doesn't cause side effects. But it can be hard to find health providers trained in the techniques. Insomniacs should check with board-certified sleep specialists and psychologists.
Newer prescription sleep pills called Sonata, Ambien and Lunesta work without many of the side-effect concerns of older agents known as benzodiazepines (苯二氮类镇静药). One study of Lunesta showed effectiveness with six months of use, but more research on long-term use of all three is needed, as chronic insomnia can linger for years.
The most commonly used treatments are alcohol and over-the-counter sedating antihistamines (抗组胺剂) like Benadryl. Alcohol use actually disrupts quality sleep，and antihistamines can cause lingering daytime sedation and other cognitive problems.
The most common prescription insomnia medicine is an older, sedating antidepressant called trazodone, even though there’s no good evidence that it offers more than a two-week benefit, and it comes with side effects.

📖 知识点：税收筹划概述 👁️ 浏览量：1258 📅 更新时间：2025-03-08

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