Kenya-Giraffe Conservation
Preserve and protect Kenya’s Wildlife
After some difficult years, Kenya is back in fashion and welcoming travellers with open arms, with one main aim—help save and protect their unique wildlife. It isn’t just the elephant under threat, but it’s the smaller species that are also suffering, for example, Rothschild Giraffes. Now there are only 670 left in the wild and they need your help to survive.
How can you help?
Head out to the Soysambu Conservancy, which is home to more than 450 bird species and over 50 different mammals, including lions, zebra and more than 100 critically endangered Rothschild’s Giraffes.
Get stuck into general reserve conservation but primarily focus on the research and protection of their resident Rothschild Giraffes, which is the reserve’s main priority.
Your Daily Tasks
Work will be a combination of observational research and hands on work—five days a week.
Minimum number of weeks is 2. This project is perfect for anyone with a passion for nature, wildlife, and the great outdoors.
No previous conservation experience required.
Where will you live?
You will stay in the houses right in the middle of the reserve with other volunteers.
The weekends will be free time, so you can explore further up the Rift Valley, Lake El-menteita itself and beyond.
Interested in this; ready to enquire?
Find out more by filling out the form below and clicking send. The Leap Overseas should then be in touch shortly to help with your enquiry.
1.What does the project mainly focus on?
A. Inspiring people’s love for nature.
B. Studying and helping Rothschild Giraffes.
C. Providing people with conservation knowledge.
D. Instructing people to live in harmony with wildlife.
2.What is a must to participate in the project?
A. At least a two weeks’ free time.
B. The ability to handle emergency.
C. Related conservation experience.
D. Knowledge about wildlife protection.
3.What is the main purpose of the passage?
A. To look for volunteers.
B. To call on people to protect wildlife.
C. To collect money for wildlife protection.
D. To raise people’s environmental awareness.
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
I have an interest in photography and follow many photography Instagram accounts. Just like me, a friend of mine has a similar interest. The only difference is that he is a traveller and has taken hundreds of beautiful photos. He is really talented.
Having returned from one trip, he shared some of his latest photos. Blown away by the images, I asked him why he hadn’t started his own Instagram account of shots.
“It’s hard to start when there are already so many other websites devoted to travel photography with thousands of followers”, he explained. “What if I don’t get any followers or what if people don’t like my shots?”
“Yet how will you ever know if you don’t try?” I asked.
He just shrugged and quickly changed the subject. I knew this feeling well. The feeling of self-doubt.
That was when I was ten years old. I participated in a guitar competition. My grandfather helped me write a short speech to address the crowd and judges. But as the competition began, doubt consumed me and questions flooded my head. I thought to myself, “If I do say the speech, will the other girls laugh at me? Will the judges think I’m being silly for doing my own talk?”
Then with a shake in my voice I said, “My name is Heidi Ceci. I live in St. Catharines and I play the guitar.” Nothing more... and nothing less.
But the next girl walked up to the microphone and actually said a speech. I just stared at her in complete disbelief. No one seemed to be judging her for doing something different. In fact, they applauded louder for her than any other girl.
From then on, I never let fear and doubt rule my decisions. Whatever happens, I always take chances and have a try.
1.What stops the author’s friend starting his Instagram account of shots?
A. Having no time. B. Lacking money.
C. No desire to share. D. Doubt about himself.
2.Why did the author fail to say the prepared speech?
A. She was not allowed to say.
B. She was afraid of being laughed at.
C. She forgot the content of the speech.
D. She thought the speech was not good enough.
3.How did the author feel when she heard another girl’s self-introduction?
A. Surprised. B. Angry.
C. Excited. D. Curious.
4.What lesson can we learn from the text?
A. No one is perfect. B. It’s no use regretting.
C. Every one of us needs encouraging. D. It is important to being confident.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Alvin Irby, a former kindergarten and first-grade teacher, was at a barbershop when he saw one of his former students sitting in the shop with a bored look on his face. That’s when Irby realized that by pairing barbershops and books, he might be able to inspire young black boys to read.
Four years ago, he launched Barbershop Books as a way to not just get books into the hands of young black boys, but to also create community reading spaces in a place where kids go frequently. Since its inception in 2013, the program has created kid-friendly reading spaces in 50 barbershops in 12 states throughout the United States.
Irby isn’t the first person to see the connection between barbers and books and boys. Hair stylist Courtney Holmes, launched a program a few years ago offering free haircuts to kids as long as they read to him while he cuts their hair.
That’s the kind of environment that Irby wants to promote with his program. The reading spaces created by Barbershop Books help to spark an interest in books by showing kids that reading is about more than just spelling and vocabulary skills, it’s about making reading a low-stress activity that can help them relax, laugh and have fun.
“Our belief is that if we can create positive reading experiences early and often for young black boys, then they will choose to read for fun because they will identify as a reader,” Irby noted, adding, “This is really what Barbershop Books is about, getting young black boys to say three words: I’m a reader.”
Irby’s idea is catching on, and it will continue to spread thanks in part to the National Book Foundation. Barbershop Books recently won the organization’s 2017 Innovations in Reading prize, which is given to Programs that use reading to make a social impact.
1.What happened to Alvin when he was at a barbershop?
A. He found it easy for black boys to get bored.
B. He offered a barbershop to his former student.
C. He thought of a way to make black boys readers.
D. He realized the importance of reading for black boys.
2.What is the function of Barbershop Books?
A. To attract more customers who love books.
B. To provide free haircuts to black book lovers.
C. To show the influence of reading on children.
D. To create a reading environment for children.
3.What can we infer about Irby according to the text?
A. His program has been recognized by society.
B. He is the first to connect barbers with reading.
C. He attaches great importance to school education.
D. All his life has been devoted to helping black children.
4.Which of the following can best replace the underlined word “inception” in paragraph 2?
A. Discovery. B. Success.
C. Popularity. D. Beginning.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
To save as much language diversity as possible in the face of its rapidly dying out, researchers suggest using “evolutionary trees”, a tool from conservation biology.
One of the world’s 7,000 languages disappears every other week, and half might not survive the 21st century, experts say.
When setting conservation goals, ecologists use evolutionary trees—diagrams that show how biological species are related to one another—to identify species that have few close relatives. Such species are said to be evolutionarily distinct. Similarly, recent advances in the construction of language trees make it possible to measure how unique a language is.
“Evolutionary trees have transformed our understanding of how life has evolved and helped us to decide which species most need conserving,” says Jonathan Davies, senior author of the new study.
“The rapid rate of language loss, as well as limited resources for preservation（保护）, means that we must choose carefully where to focus our efforts,” adds Max Farrell, a PhD student in Davies’ lab. “The more isolated (孤立的) a language in its family tree, the more unique information it contains and eventually contributes to language diversity.”
As a case study, they used this approach to rank 350 Austronesian languages, spoken in islands spread across Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
For each of these languages, the researchers combined measures of evolutionary distinctiveness (ED) and global endangerment (GE) to produce an “EDGE” score. The language with the highest score, which means it is extremely distinct（不同的） yet nearly dying out, was Kavalan, a language native to Tai Wan. The next-highest scores went to Tanibili, an endangered language in the Solomon Islands.
By building trees for other language groups, language specialists could target preservation efforts and help reduce the loss of language diversity in the future, the researchers say.
1.What can an evolutionary tree show in biology?
A. The relation among species.
B. The concept of each species.
C. The conservation measures of each species.
D. The different uses of different species.
2.Why do researchers build language trees?
A. To increase the variety of languages.
B. To make languages easier for new learners.
C. To aim their effort at endangered languages.
D. To choose the best way to study languages.
3.What does it mean if a language gets the highest EDGE score?
A. It is unique to a special area. B. It is widely used in the world.
C. It is similar to other languages. D. It is in danger of dying out.
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A. Evolutionary Trees, Symbols of Languages
B. Evolutionary Trees, Tools to Record Species
C. To Save Dying Languages, Use Evolutionary Trees
D. To Show Language Diversity, Choose Evolutionary Trees
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
We’ve always been fascinated by consistently successful people. Most of them were not born into success. And they simply continue to do things that help them realize their full potential. 1.
• Create and pursue goals. Successful people are objective.2. They know what they are looking for and why they are fighting for it. Successful people always create and pursue their goals.
• Take decisive and immediate action. Sadly, very few people ever live to become the success story they dream about.3. You can’t change anything or make any sort of real-world progress without taking action. So make the decision and take action immediately.
• Focus on being productive, not being busy. Busy people are heading to work, meetings, social engagements, etc. But it may be an illusion. They’re like hamsters (仓鼠) running on a wheel. The solution: Slow down. Put first things first.4. And always remember, results are more important than the time it takes to achieve them.
• 5. If you’re selling a product line, don’t keep it so complicated. And if you’re trying to make a decision about something, don’t waste all your time evaluating every last detail of every possible option. Choose something that you think will work, give it a shot, and keep pressing forward.
A. Keep things simple.
B. Do one thing at a time.
C. It will be hard in the beginning.
D. They have realistic targets in mind.
E. Here are some things they do differently.
F. And that’s because they never take action.
G. Focus on making small, continuous improvements.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
27- year - old Ross OC Jennings has become an online celebrity for his bagpipe-playing (演奏风笛) photos across the globe. He calls ______ the First Piper.
The seed for the world traveling idea ______ him when he attended a travel expo in London, where he met adventurers who shared their ______ from across the globe. Ross was attracted by their stories.
The ______ began on a night in Tunisia in May 2014 by chance. Ross ______ his bags without knowing much about the North African country. ______ Tunisia, he traveled across Western Europe, the mountains of China, played in front of the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodians ancient temples. But his greatest ______ was in Kenya.
On the way to Nairobi, Ross arrived at a famous ______ sanctuary (禁猎区) and hotel in Kenya. He begged the hotel owners to ask if he could play the bagpipes there. They answered ______, “Of course the house was built by a Scotsman.” “the minute I started playing all these giraffes started _____ towards me, rocking. It was the most ______ audience I’ve ever had.
Ross has three ______ when traveling. First, pipe in a school to interact with students; second, challenge himself to play in a dramatic place; and last, play in public. His Facebook is filled with ______ taken from around the world.
Ross’s journey is all ______ thanks to his unique music career, which started at the ____ of thirteen when he was offered the chance to play bagpipes at school. After leaving university, he ______ “the last thing I wanted to do was work behind a desk”. Inspired by the travel expo and equipped with his bagpipes, he made his wish to ______ a real desk.
____ planning what to do in the countries Ross visits, the plans seem to find him. He said, “Chance is a big part of it. That’s why I partly, intentionally, don’t try to plan too much.” The music connects people in uncommon and wonderful ______. “Without having this dripping in clichés（陈词滥调）, it is amazing how ______ does connect people and how it makes people smile,” Ross said.
1.A. herself B. himself C. yourself D. themselves
2.A. occurred to B. got to C. referred to D. moved to
3.A. opinions B. feelings C. problems D. experiences
4.A. journey B. flight C. memory D. challenge
5.A. destroyed B. informed C. packed D. caught
6.A. Allowing B. Following C. Knowing D. Borrowing
7.A. appearance B. consequence C. existence D. performance
8.A. panda B. giraffe C. tiger D. elephant
9.A. warmly B. merely C. carefully D. unconsciously
10.A. climbing B. visiting C. walking D. escaping
11.A. puzzling B. embarrassing C. amazing D. frightening
12.A. mistakes B. edges C. rules D. posters
13.A. photos B. articles C. comments D. messages
14.A. suitable B. possible C. flexible D. responsible
15.A. end B. expense C. mention D. age
16.A. considered B. realized C. classified D. regretted
17.A. avoid B. serve C. shake D. handle
18.A. More than B. Or rather C. Rather than D. Would rather
19.A. eyes B. cases C. paths D. ways
20.A. instrument B. travel C. beauty D. music
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
I’m proud to tell you the news you heard from is true. As is proved, some UK primary schools will use 36 math textbook, exercise books, and teachers’ guides publishing by the Shanghai Century Publishing (SCP). The textbooks will be used in both Shanghai or the UK at the same time. It is the first time that a developed country has been adopted Chinese textbooks in such systematic and large-scale way. The textbooks had been listed as a sample by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics of the UK. British publisher Harper Collins, the UK publisher of the textbooks, will be responsibly for the promotion of the schoolbooks, it has been permitted by SCP. We should, without doubt, take pride in yourselves.
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
假定你是中学生李华，计划端午节邀请外教Thomas去你家做客。请给Thomas写一封邮件，内容包括：
1.出发时间，地点及交通方式；
2.活动：包粽子，讲述节日来源等。
注意：1.词数：100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇： 粽子：Zongzi
Dear Thomas,
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
Yours Sincerely,
Li Hua
难度: 中等查看答案及解析