Pollution
Pollution happens when the environment is dirtied, by waste, chemicals, and other harmful substances(物质).Pollution is a problem all over the world. But it is especially bad in large cities with a lot of industries and cars.
Wildfires, volcanoes, and industrial chemicals cause some air pollution. But most air pollution comes from burning fossil fuels (矿物燃料）These include coal, oil and natural gas. The burning of fossil fuels may release harmful gases. Air pollution may cause such diseases cancer and asthma. It also leads to polluted rain that can harm living things
Causes of water pollution are easy to see. People dump(倾倒) garbage and dirty water into river, lakes and oceans. Factories or cities sometimes release poisonous chemicals, and other wastes into water. These chemicals may make the groundwater unfit to drink.
Littering, or throwing garbage on the ground, is a form of land pollution. Litter can destroy the habitats of plants and animals. The buildup of dangerous chemicals in the ground is another form of land pollution. The chemicals may come from farms or factories.
Many governments, environmental groups, and ordinary people are working to control pollution. Governments have passed laws to keep people from releasing dangerous chemicals into the environment
| A．Farmers use chemical to help crops grow. |
| B．This type of pollution may be seen in big cities. |
| C．They also can harm fish and other forms of life. |
| D．These chemicals can spread to plants and animals. |
| E．In addition, air pollution may be a cause of global warming. |
| F．There are three main forms of pollution: air, water, and land. |
| G．Some companies and people are trying to use fewer fossil fuels. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Hundreds of scientists, writers and academics sounded a warning to humanity in an open letter published last December: Policymakers and the rest of us must engage openly with the risk of global collapse. Researchers in many areas have projected the widespread collapse as “a credible scenario(情景) this century”.
A survey of scientists found that extreme weather events, food insecurity, and freshwater shortages might create global collapse. Of course, if you are a non-human species, collapse is well underway.
The call for public engagement with the unthinkable is especially germane in this moment of still-uncontrolled pandemic and economic crises in the world's most technologically advanced nations. Not very long ago, it was also unthinkable that a virus would shut down nations and that safety nets would be proven so disastrously lacking in flexibility.
The international scholars’ warning letter doesn't say exactly what collapse will look like or when it might happen. Collapseology, the study of collapse, is more concerned with identifying trends and with them the dangers of everyday civilization. Among the signatories(签署者) of the warning was Bob Johnson, the originator of the “ecological footprint” concept, which measures the total amount of environmental input needed to maintain a given lifestyle. With the current footprint of humanity, “it seems that global collapse is certain to happen in some form, possibly within a decade, certainly within this century,” Johnson said in an email.
“Only if we discuss the consequences of our biophysical limits,” the December warning letter says, “can we have the hope to reduce their speed, severity and harm”. And yet messengers of the coming disturbance are likely to be ignored. We all want to hope things will turn out fine. As a poet wrote,
Man is a victim of dope(麻醉品)
In the incurable form of hope.
The hundreds of scholars who signed the letter are intent(执着) on quieting hope that ignores preparedness. “Let's look directly into the issue of collapse,” they say, “and deal with the terrible possibilities of what we see there to make the best of a troubling future.”
1. What does the underlined word “germane” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?| A．Scientific. | B．Credible. |
| C．Original. | D．Relevant. |
| A．worried | B．puzzled |
| C．surprised | D．scared |
| A．The signatories may change the biophysical limits. |
| B．The author agrees with the message of the poem. |
| C．The issue of collapse is being prioritized. |
| D．The global collapse is well underway. |
【推荐2】As Shanghai prepared to introduce mandatory(强制的) garbage sorting on July 1, games and toys that examined fun ways to spread information about the garbage sorting were to encourage younger people to take action.
A 15-second video of a game went on Chinese social media. In the video, players wearing VR(虚拟) headsets saw four different types of trash can in front of them, and had to throw different types of garbage into the right buckets(桶) to get points. Although it was not the only VR game in the place, visitors lined up around the booth to explore it because of the garbage-sorting theme.
“As a Shanghai, I am in great need of this game. Maybe I won’t need to check how to categorize(分类) each piece of garbage on my phone while going through all my garbage every day if I play this game more often, ” said ZhouZhou, a young Shanghai. But some social media users in Shanghai have complained about the difficulty of sorting different types of garbage.
Wu Xia, founder and CEO of VitrellaCore, the company that created the game, said the idea was to provide an interesting way of learning about garbage sorting. “It’s simple and easy to understand. People can practice sorting garbage without actually going through their trash, and it is a more effective method than using paper materials when training volunteers,” Wu said.
1. What is the purpose of the VR game?| A．Just for fun. |
| B．Teach students to sort garbage. |
| C．Do exercise. |
| D．Keep fit. |
| A．It is too hard to sort garbage. |
| B．There are too many people lining up. |
| C．The VR game should be more interesting. |
| D．There are more ways to use paper materials. |
| A．successful | B．interesting | C．traditional | D．disappointing |
| A．Young people like VR games more. |
| B．Shanghai performs mandatory garbage sorting. |
| C．Games were used to help young people sort garbage. |
| D．Learning by playing VR games is practical for the young. |
【推荐3】A project in Gambia is empowering women and reducing dangerous waste at the same time.
The Waste Innovation Center, funded by the European Union’s Global Climate Change Alliance，shows women in the Brikama area how to recycle waste into useful materials and products, which they can then sell in local markets.
Wood-like waste is recycled into charcoal (木炭)，for example，which can be used to supersede firewood and reduce the number of trees that are cut down for firewood. Food waste is recycled into compost(混合肥料）to function as environmentally friendly fertilizers and plastic is turned into many useful things.
Supported by WasteAid UK and the Gambia Women’s Initiative (GWI), among others, the project provides women with skills they can use to become self-sufficient (自给自足的). Women learning at the center come from five communities, and some of them travel as far as 12 miles to learn these important skills that will provide them with an income, according to The Guardian.
Isatou Ceesay, who now leads the GWI，highlighted the need to focus on economic equality in her country, telling The Guardian, “In terms of education, women are the ones who are always behind. Boys are chosen to go to school. When we conduct our training, we find women can do a lot，but don’t know who they are, or how to implement (实施）things. ”
According to the World Health Organization’s Country Cooperation Strategy 2008—2013 report, the main environmental issue facing Gambia is poor waste management in urban areas.
Ndey Sireng Bakurin, executive director of the National Environment Agency, has voiced concern over health and environmental risks, such as water pollution, the increase of insects as well as flooding that occur as a result of poor waste management.
1. What does the Waste Innovation Center try to do?| A．Develop local markets in Brikama. |
| B．Teach women how to invent new things. |
| C．Keep women away from dangerous waste. |
| D．Help women in Brikama benefit from waste. |
| A．Replace. | B．Transform. |
| C．Burn. | D．Reserve. |
| A．don’t learn new things fast |
| B．aren’t interested in education |
| C．really hope for economic equality |
| D．are not fairly treated in the country |
| A．To summarize the previous paragraphs. |
| B．To provide some advice for the readers. |
| C．To add some background information. |
| D．To introduce a new topic for discussion. |
【推荐1】"It can't be done．" Boyan Slat heard this over and over when he first proposed a way to clean up millions of tons of plastic polluting our oceans． Almost anyone else would have given up in frustration and despair． But 20﹣year﹣old Slat hasn't： been discouraged but committed to his dream． "Human history is basically a list of things that couldn't be done， and then were done，" he says．Today， slat and his team at The Ocean Cleanup are well on their way to proving the critics wrong． Good news for the planet．
（1）_______
Slat， who grew up in the city of Delft in the Netherlands， was on a diving trip in Greece three years ago when he was deeply impressed by plastic， "There were more plastic bags than fish，" he says． "That moment I realized it was a huge issue and that environmental issues are really the biggest problems my generation will face．"
That fall， Slat， then 17， decided to study plastic pollution as part of a high school project． Soon， Slat learned that no one had yet come up with practical way to clean up this massive garbage patches． Most proposed solutions involved "fishing" up the plastic using ships equipped with nets﹣which， as Slat discovered， would likely take more than 1，000 years， cost too much， let off too much sea life along with the trash．
Slat proposed an alternative that mostly avoided these problems﹣a solar﹣powered system using a floating plastic tube which will go around the garbage and trap it is 600 meters long， A big screen hangs down from it， about three metres into the water． Wind， waves and ocean currents will push the trash toward the tube． （Fish can swim under the screen） A ship will pick up the trash and take it back to the shore to sort and recycle it into oil and other products． Best of all， Slat predicted his system could clean up the North Pacific Garbage Patch between California and Hawaii where a lot of floating garbage exists， within five to 10 years．
（2）________
The following， Slat entered the aerospace engineering program at the Delft University of Technology and officially announced his ocean cleanup concept at TEDx Delft． But nothing much moved forward，
Slat found himself continually absent﹣minded in classes， looking for ways． to improve his concept． "It wouldn't let go． I finally decided to put both university and my social life on hold to focus all my time on developing this idea． I wasn't sure if it would succeed， but considering the scale of problem I thought it was important to at least try．" He says．
With this family's blessing， Slat began in earnest organizing a team of volunteers and employees for The Ocean Cleanup， which now numbers about 100．
（3）_______
In answer to opposition， Slat and his team raised ＄100，000 from a crowdfunding campaign and began testing a 40﹣meter collecting barrier near the Azores Islands last March． In June， they released a 500+ page possibility study．
Over the next three to four years， Slat will push toward a fully operational large﹣scale project by testing a series of longer and longer barriers． He's currently seeking to crowd fund ＄2 million to finance it． Incidentally， The Ocean Cleanup is also working on a plan to stop plastic from washing into the oceans in the first place． "It's just the other problem that is equally important．" Slat says． "It's something everyone is able to help with， and we also have some technologies in the pipeline．"
As for school， Slat doesn't miss it ﹣ except maybe for the social﹣part， which he hopes to （恢复） a bit once his team takes on more of the workload． " I don't have time for things like that right now， but I really can't complain． I can imagine doing something more fun than being able to have an idea and then actually making it into a reality．" he says．
1. What is the function of the first paragraph？| A．An introduction to the main topic． |
| B．An overview of the whole article |
| C．The background information of the story |
| D．Raising a problem for later solution |
a． But is it possible？
b． Drowning in plastic
c． An idea wouldn't die
| A．a﹣b﹣c |
| B．c﹣b﹣a |
| C．b﹣a﹣c |
| D．b﹣c﹣a |
| A．One of his high school projects． |
| B．Others' opposition to his proposal． |
| C．Humans' failure in cleaning up the ocean． |
| D．The shockingly heavy plastic pollution in ocean． |
| A．It is powerful but only used in California and Hawaii |
| B．It is huge but causes great damage to sea lives |
| C．It makes full use of natural forces and is friendly to nature． |
| D．It was welcomed by all the public and worked very well． |
| A．"Human history is basically a list of things that couldn't be done， and then were done．" |
| B．"That was the moment I realized it was a huge issue and that environmental issues are really the biggest problems my generation will face．" |
| C．"I finally decided to put both university and my social life on hold to focus all my time on developing this idea．" |
| D．"It's something everyone is able to help with， and we also have some technologies in the pipeline．" |
| A．Explain a creative idea |
| B．Introduce a fascinating person． |
| C．Describe a social phenomenon |
| D．Praise a point of view |
【推荐2】Hardware in general, and smartphones in particular, have become a huge environmental and health problem in the Global South’s landfill sites(垃圾填埋场).
Electronic waste (e-waste) currently takes up 5 percent of all global waste, and it is set to increase rapidly as more of us own more than one smartphone, laptop and power bank. They end up in places like Agbogbloshie on the outskirts of Ghana’s capital, Accra. It is the biggest e-waste dump in the world, where 10,000 informal workers walk through tons of abandoned goods as part of an informal recycling process. They risk their health searching for the precious metals that are found in abandoned smartphones.
But Agbogbloshie legally should not exist. The Basel Convention, a 1989 treaty, aims to prevent developed nations from unauthorized dumping of e-waste in less developed countries. The e-waste industry, however, circumvents regulation by exporting e-waste labelled as “secondhand goods” to poor countries like Ghana, knowing full well that it is heading for a landfill site.
A recent report found Agbogbloshie contained some of the most dangerous chemicals. This is not surprising: smart phones contain chemicals like mercury(水银), lead and even arsenic(砷). Reportedly, one egg from a free-range chicken in Agbogbloshie contained a certain chemical which can cause cancer and damage the immune system at a level that’s about 220 times greater than a limit set by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Most worryingly, these poisonous chemicals are free to pollute the broader soil and water system. This should concern us all, since some of Ghana’s top exports are cocoa and nuts.
Some governments have started to take responsibility for their consumers’ waste. For example, Germany has started a project that includes a sustainable recycling system at Agbogbloshie, along with a health clinic for workers. However, governments cannot solve the problem alone, as there is an almost limitless consumer demand for hardware, especially when governments’ green policies are focused on issues like climate change.
Only the manufacturers can fix this. A more economically sustainable and politically possible solution is through encouraging hardware manufacturers to make the repair, reuse and recycling of hardware profitable, or at least cost-neutral.
1. What can we infer from Paragraph 2?| A．Electronic waste requires more landfill sites. |
| B．Electronic waste is too complex to get fully recycled. |
| C．Electronic products need to be improved immediately. |
| D．Electronic pollution is a burning question in Agbogbloshie. |
| A．Relaxes. | B．Abolishes. | C．Avoids. | D．Tightens. |
| A．The violation of EFSA’s standards. | B．The threat of polluted food worldwide. |
| C．The lack of diversity in Ghana’s exports. | D．The damage to chicken’s immune system. |
| A．Letting governments take on the main responsibility. |
| B．Reducing customers’ demands for electronic products. |
| C．Governments adjusting their green policies about e-waste. |
| D．Manufacturers’ developing a sustainable hardware economy. |
