Climate change is known to negatively affect agriculture and livestock, but there has been little scientific knowledge on which regions of the planet would be touched or what the biggest risks may be. New research led by Aalto University assesses just how global food production will be affected if greenhouse gas emissions are left uncut.
The researchers assessed how climate change would affect 27 of the most important food crops and seven different livestock, accounting for societies' varying capacities to adapt to changes. The results show that threats affect countries and continents in different ways; in 52 of the 177 countries studied, the entire food production would remain in the safe climatic space in the future. These include Finland and most other European countries.
Already vulnerable countries such as Benin, Cambodia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana and Suriname will be hit hard if no changes are made; up to 95 percent of current food production would fall outside of safe climatic space. Alarmingly, these nations also have significantly less capacity to adapt to changes brought on by climate change when compared to rich western countries. In all, 20% of the world's crop production and 18% of livestock production under threat are located in countries with low capacities to adapt to changes.
“If we let emissions grow, the increase in desert areas is especially troubling because in these conditions barely anything can grow without irrigation. By the end of this century, we could see more than 4 million square kilometres of new desert around the globe,” Matti Kummu, professor of global water and food issues at Aalto University says. “We need to lighten climate change and, at the same time, improve our food systems and societies' capacities to adapt to changes—we cannot leave the vulnerable behind. Food production must be sustainable.”
1. How does the author show the effect of climate change on the food production in paragraph 2?A.By raising questions. | B.By stating arguments. |
C.By analyzing research data. | D.By making comparisons. |
A.The measures to be taken. | B.The threat to the vulnerable countries. |
C.The assistance of rich countries. | D.The damage to crop production. |
A.He feels very desperate. | B.He cares more about others. |
C.He was in charge of the study. | D.He is worried about the vulnerable. |
A.Environment. | B.Technology. | C.Culture. | D.Politics. |
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【推荐1】Polar bears are strong creatures, standing up to nine feet tall and weighing up to one thousand pounds.
In early November 201 8 the polar bears were still on land. There was no sea ice on Hudson Bay, Weeks passed. By December, there was still barely any ice at all
The warmer climate affected the polar bears in important ways, In the 1980s, Hudson Bay bears were bigger and rounder, well fed.
In 2018, the water in Hudson Bay didn't freeze until December 12. That was very late.“Sea ice is finally forming," one scientist reported.“The polar bears are moving quickly offshore."The Arctic- the polar bears' habitat- is changing. Temperatures have gone up about 3 degrees Celsius since 1900.
A.They are built for the cold. |
B.The ice cover is becoming smaller, too. |
C.In the Arctic, winter used to come early. |
D.Thousands of polar bears live in the Arctic. |
E.So the polar bears had to wait longer to return to the sea. |
F.Recently they've been losing weight and becoming weaker. |
G.The fact is that our entire planet is getting warmer, not just the Arctic. |
【推荐2】As vulnerable (易受伤害的) states suffer, US is blamed for not donating its required money for the Green Climate Fund, or GCF.
In Kenya’s countryside, people are facing one of the most serious droughts in memory. Some regions have been without rain for two years, and more than half the crops and most of the farm animals have died. Up to 4 million people may require food aid in the coming months.
Kenya isn’t the only country to suffer the fallout from climate change in recent years. Countries least responsible for the climate crisis are most vulnerable to its effects. In South Asia, Bangladesh already spends $2 billion each year on climate-related damage, according to a report from the International Institute for Environment and Development. A dozen island nations are at risk of disappearing entirely.
The international community has realized the urgency. In 2010, the United Nations created an institution, the Green Climate Fund, or GCF, to support developing countries that aren’t historically responsible for causing the climate crisis to cut their emissions (排放物) and deal with climate impacts.
However, the UN climate fund now has warned that carbon-cutting projects in developing countries would have to be cut without more money coming in.
Campaigners have blamed the United States—one of the GCF’s founders—for the potential cuts. “If the GCF needs to limit its operations in the near future due to lack of funding, it’s hard to find any single country more at fault than the US,” Action Aid’s policy director Brandon Wu told Climate Home News.
In 2014, then-US president Barack Obama promised the GCF $3 billion but gave only $1 billion before the end of his term. His successor, Donald Trump, didn’t give any money to the fund and, so far, neither has President Joe Biden. The US owe s the fund $ 2 billion.
Last year, 46 climate and green groups signed a letter that urged the White House to give the $2 billion to the GCF. The climate and green groups also asked the administration to commit an additional $6 billion to bring the US in step with other donor countries.
In 2019,1 3 countries—mostly in Europe but including South Korea and New Zealand—announced a doubling or more of their contributions to the GCF to help fun d green projects for 2020-23.
1. Why is the situation in Kenya mentioned in the second paragraph?A.To tell us the impact of climate change. |
B.To tell us the living conditions in Kenya, |
C.To tell us how Kenya deals with climate change. |
D.To tell us how the crops and the farm animals have died. |
A.Disease. | B.Poverty. | C.Mistake. | D.Consequence. |
A.$3 billion. | B.$ 6 billion. | C.$8 billion. | D.$9 billion. |
A.UN creates Green Climate Fund | B.GCF needs to limit its operations |
C.GCF to help fund green projects | D.UN climate fund starved of cash |
【推荐3】Finding fish is going to get harder as climate change continues to heat the world's oceans. A new study finds that warming seas over the past 80 years have reduced the sustainable catch of 124 species of fish and shellfish. Sustainable catch refers to the amount that can be harvested without doing long-term damage to the health of populations of some species.
Overfishing has made that decline worse, researchers say. Overfishing refers to catching so many fish that the size of the population falls. In some parts of the world, such as the heavily fished Sea of Japan, the decrease is as high as 35 percent. That's a loss of more than one in every three fish.
Researchers examined changes in 235 populations of fish and shellfish between 1930 and 2010. Those fish populations spread far apart across 38 ocean regions. Temperature changes vary from one ocean site to another. But on average over that time, Earth's sea-surface temperatures have risen by about half a degree Celsius.
On average, that warming has caused the sustainable catch to drop by 4.1 percent, the study found. About 8 percent of the fish and shellfish populations the team studied saw losses as a result of the ocean warming. However, about 4 percent of some populations increased. That's because certain species have thrived in warmer waters. One example is a kind of black sea fish. It lives along the northeastern U.S. coast. As warming continues, these fish will reproduce faster until they reach their limit.
About 3.2 billion people worldwide rely on seafood as a source of food. That means it's urgent for commercial fishing fleets and regulators to consider how climate change is affecting the health of all of those fish in the sea.
1. What does the new study discover?A.Overfishing is to blame for fish health. |
B.Warming seas cause fewer fish and shellfish. |
C.Seafood matters to people's health worldwide. |
D.The living regions of fish and shellfish are different. |
A.Survived narrowly. | B.Disappeared soon. |
C.Decreased sharply. | D.Developed quickly. |
A.About 8 percent of them suffered from a great loss. |
B.About 35 percent of them survived in the Sea of Japan. |
C.About 3.2 billion species have been saved up to now. |
D.About 80 species have died out because of warming seas |
A.Satisfied | B.Not interested |
C.Worried | D.Terrified |
【推荐1】More than 80 percent of global heat is absorbed by the ocean, which has a massive capacity to store and give off heat. High sea-surface temperatures are causing long-term damage to coral reefs (珊瑚礁). Corals are dying. The IPCC (政府间气候变化专门委员会) projects that up to 90 percent of coral reefs could disappear if global warming reaches 1.5℃. Another reason corals are in trouble is because of ocean acidification. Higher carbon dioxide levels have shift ed the chemistry of the ocean, making it more acidic, and corals and sea creatures have trouble growing in acidic conditions.
When ocean water warms, it expands in volume. This is a major cause of the rise in sea levels, along with the water added to the ocean by the melting of land-based glaciers (冰川). The sea level has risen by an average of 20 centimeters since the late 19th century, and the research by scientists studying the last 25 years of satellite data found that the ocean water is rising faster and faster. If it continues at its current rate, the rise in sea level by 2100 will be more than double the current estimates. Sea level rise leads to the destruction of coastal wetlands, flooding and damage to water ecosystems.
Temperature and precipitation (沉淀) are key elements of climate. A warmer climate means that more water rises from both the land and ocean, and a warmer atmosphere holds more of that water. Scientists have noticed that there are more heavy rainfall events. Additionally, higher water temperature in streams, lakes, and rivers lead to lower levels of dissolved oxygen in the water, which impacts the survival and populations of fish and other sea life.
Especially troubling are the extreme weather events that are happening more often around the world. Hurricanes are ramping up in intensity, particularly in North Atlantic. The year 2017 was a busy one for Atlantic hurricanes. Meanwhile, in the western United States, the state of California has had record-setting drought conditions, which began in 2012.
1. What does the author intend to tell us in Paragraph 1?A.Global warming has little damage to the land. | B.Ocean acidification affects the sea temperature. |
C.Coral reefs are in danger of disappearing. | D.Corals and sea creatures need critical surroundings. |
A.Sea level rise has positive effect on sea animals. |
B.By 2100 the sea level will rise 20 centimeters. |
C.Global heating is the direct cause of wetlands destruction. |
D.The rise of sea level is beyond our imagination. |
A.Increasing. | B.Failing. | C.Appearing. | D.Changing. |
A.High Sea-surface Temperatures to Creatures | B.Global Warming, What Damages It Causes |
C.Ways to Stop High Sea-surface Temperatures | D.Extreme Weather Events and Global Warming |
【推荐2】Beavers(海狸), like humans, change their surroundings to fit their needs. Known as nature’s engineers, they tear trees down to build homes to live in and dams to raise water levels for protection from endemics. Dams also slow water’s flow while blocking sediment(沉积物)that would otherwise flow downstream. The resulting wetlands often attract wildlife diversity where none had existed. There are challenges, though. Beaver dams sometimes cause flooding, and most people prefer trees alive and upright.
Communities face a delicate balancing act, learning to coexist with beavers. Last winter, many people enjoying Winston Path became beaver fans as one furry family transformed Swallow Pond into an oasis for birds, frogs, turtles and deer.
Yet such activity caused concern. As beavers worked, they raised water levels about five feet. The increased depth allows beavers to survive underwater if the pond ices over. But county officials were concerned about how higher water would affect the soil bank supporting Winston Path.
To find a good balance between protecting the path and the beavers, the county introduced a “beaver baffle”- a pond leveler. Beavers often rush to fill holes in their dams. Baffles stabilize water levels by creating a hidden exit for high water to escape through the dam, unnoticed by the beavers.
People love the beavers but they also love the mature trees. Recently, Catherine Jones,18, organized a tree-caging event-putting wire cloth around large tree trunks to discourage beavers from biting them. It also protects people from injury due to random trees falling. “We cover the trees we don’t want them to eat, while planting periodically others they like,” said Jones. “We need to learn to give up a little of our wants to share the Earth’s resources.”
Swallow Pond’s 2023 project will restore proper water depth and improve wildlife habitat without creating problems for the path. The balancing act continues.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?A.Where beavers’ favorite surroundings are. |
B.What effects beavers have on their habitat. |
C.Why beavers are called nature’s engineers. |
D.How beavers help attract wildlife diversity. |
A.Swallow Pond would flood often. |
B.Sediment would flow downstream. |
C.The popular path might be damaged. |
D.Beavers might have to live underwater. |
A.They build beaver dams. | B.They fill holes in the dams. |
C.They cover all the trees. | D.They plant trees beavers like. |
A.Biological diversity. | B.Harmonious coexistence. |
C.Prevention of natural disasters. | D.Preservation of wildlife habitat. |
【推荐3】Batteries are extremely useful. Many ordinary household items are powered by single-use batteries including TV remotes, toys, flashlights, and even smoke detectors. But what happens when the batteries are used up and have to be replaced? Many of them end up in the trash where the chemicals can get into the soil causing environmental damage. In fact in Australia, 97 percent of single-use batteries end up in landfills.
While batteries can be traditionally recycled, this involves using high heat to melt the metals that can then be reused. The method doesn’t allow for the repurposing of other elements that actually have to be mined. It is allowing valuable resources to go to waste.
Envirostream — a part of the battery recycling company Lithium Australia — came up with an innovative way to turn old batteries into plant fertilizer. While some of the chemicals in batteries are poisonous, the company engineered a new method that takes the micronutrients like zinc and manganese oxide out of the alkaline (碱性的) batteries by crushing (碎) them and removing the poisonous elements. Lithium Australia has tried to find a solution for these waste batteries that is better for the environment and creates better value.
The company began field trials in 2020, testing a fertilizer supplement made from the upcycled batteries on wheat and found that it compared well to commercial fertilizers. After that, they tested the fertilizer in soil that was lacking in the minerals. Now, the fertilizer has been successfully applied to growing tomatoes, avocados, and cotton crops.
Going from powering remotes to powering plants completes a cycle for elements that come from the earth to then go back to the earth. Recycling batteries for useful components and keeping them out of landfills is good for the planet.
1. What can we learn about single-use batteries?A.It is costly to extend their service life. |
B.Few of them are properly disposed of. |
C.They will be replaced by rechargeable ones. |
D.They are useful because of their convenience. |
A.Removing the poisonous chemicals of batteries. |
B.Taking micronutrients out of batteries. |
C.Melting the reusable metals in batteries. |
D.Reusing mineral elements of batteries. |
A.It may have a more promising future. |
B.It might be more suitable for the alkaline soil. |
C.It needs tests before being used for more plants. |
D.It may lead to an increase in agricultural production. |
A.The widespread use of batteries. |
B.Various ways to deal with old batteries. |
C.The urgency of recycling used batteries. |
D.A new way to turn old batteries into plant fertilizer. |
【推荐1】One of the most important things in the world is friendship. In order to have friends, you have to be a friend. But how can you be a good friend at school?
Listen—Listen when they are talking. Don’t say anything unless they ask you a question. Sometimes it’s not necessary for you to have anything to say;they just need someone to talk to about their feelings.
Help them—If your friend is ever in need of something, be there to help them. You should try to put them first, but make sure you don’t do everything they want you to do. Try to take an extra pencil or pen with you to classes in case they forget one. Have a little extra money in your pocket in case they forget something they need.
Be there for them—Try to make something for your friends to help make them feel better in hard times. Making cards and encouraging them are among the nicest things you can do for friends. Marilyn Monroe, a famous U.S. actor, once said, “I often make mistakes. Sometimes I am out of control. But if you can’t stay with me at my worst, you are sure not to deserve to be with me at my best.” Always remember this! If you don’t want to stay with your friends when they’re in hard times, then you don’t deserve to be with them when they’re having a good time!
Try to organize some activities with your friends ahead of time. Go shopping, go for ice cream, have a party, go to the movies and so on. Take time to know each other even better by doing something you both enjoy. By planning things together, you both can have a good time. And you’ll remember these things when you’re all old!
1. While your friend is talking to you about his or her feelings, you should .A.give him or her some advice | B.just listen unless asked |
C.calm him or her down | D.share your feelings as well |
A.Life without a friends is death. | B.A friend is easier lost than found. |
C.A friend in need is a friend indeed. | D.A man is known by his friends. |
A.Make plans. | B.Enjoy yourself. |
C.Understand your friends. | D.Play with your friends. |
A.How to find a good friend. | B.How to help friends in trouble. |
C.How to be a good friend. | D.How to make more friends. |
【推荐2】One of the biggest challenges that traditional educators face is how to unlock students’ love of learning. Once students overcome their fear or unwillingness, they will be on the track of becoming motivated learners.
In order to help students discover the joy in learning, some teachers are turning to a simple but effective strategy called gamification-using game-related elements such as activities and rewards to promote students’ engagement in class. With an origin in educational psychology, this approach is designed to reach students by making the learning process funny and interesting.
What’s more, researches show that gamification can also make assignments less stressful. Without too much pressure, students will associate learning with curiosity and joy. Accordingly, they feel like continuing the journey because positive feelings have boosted their confidence.
But like any other strategies, gamification has its drawbacks when used incorrectly. It is very likely that some students only focus on winning rewards but have no interest in understanding concepts or learning new skills-exactly the opposite of the desired outcome. To avoid this, teachers can help prevent students from becoming wrongly motivated by choosing suitable rewards. Instead of class parties or snacks, try rewards that help students develop a passion for academic subjects.
For example, have students earn points towards a class field trip by behaving and doing their assignments, or pair subjects that a student dislikes with fun books or activities to encourage motivation. That way, they associate fun with reading, math, or other skills. More examples include competing on a leader-board, holding a talent show, or playing other team-building games. All activities and rewards need to be carefully selected and well arranged.
If you’re having a hard time getting your class interested in learning, talk with them together or individually about what motivates them and include it into your student engagement strategies.
1. What can we learn about gamification from the first two paragraphs?A.It improves students' critical thinking. |
B.It advocates a traditional teaching style. |
C.It motivates students to be active learners. |
D.It promotes the use of video games in class. |
A.Favorable. | B.Worried. | C.Doubtful. | D.Objective. |
A.Set learning goals for different students. |
B.Associate learning process with assignments. |
C.Encourage teamwork by holding class parties. |
D.Select suitable rewards for teaching activities. |
A.The analysis of a teaching strategy. |
B.The future influences of gamification. |
C.A discovery about motivating learners. |
D.Recent research on education system. |
As far as we can determine, human beings do not need to be forced to speak; most babies seem to possess a sort of instinctive drive to produce speech like noises. How to speak and what to say are another matter altogether. These actions are learned from the particular society into which the baby is born; so that, like all conduct that is learned from a society—from the people around us—speech is a patterned activity.
The meandering(漫目无地的)babble(咿呀学语)and chatter of a young child are eventually channeled by imitation into a few orderly grooves that represent the pattern accepted as meaningful by the people around him. Similarly, a child’s indiscriminate(不加分辨的)practice of putting things into his mouth becomes limited to putting food into his mouth in a certain way.
The sounds that a child can make are more varied and numerous than the sounds that any particular language uses. However, a child born into a society with a pattern of language is encouraged to make a small selection of sounds and to make these few sounds over and over until it is natural for him to make these sounds and not others.
1. For an adult, the process of speaking usually involves___________________ .
A.conscious selection of sounds | B.imitation of those around him |
C.a drive to make noises | D.unconscious actions |
A.express ideas in words | B.make speech like noise |
C.convey meaning | D.imitate sounds around them |
A.instinctive drive | B.selection | C.automatic activity | D.patterned activity |
A.not as varied as those used in language |
B.more varied and numerous than those in any language |
C.far fewer than those needed to form a language |
D.completely different from the sounds of language |
A.makes varied sounds |
B.carefully considers each sound he makes |
C.makes only certain sounds naturally |
D.imitates people around him |