As university doors opened in September for a new year, an estimated six million people across the world took to the streets in a historic week of climate action. The power of this youth-led campaign reflected the urgency for action on the environment. So what now?
What you put on your plate matters: nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gases come from agriculture, and most of those are from meat and dairy. Meat and dairy consumption results in excessive (过度的) land use, industrial emissions, methane, water use and deforestation.
Forget fast fashion: keeping your clothes for as long as possible has much more than just monetary value. In the UK, clothing has the fourth-largest environmental effect after housing, transport and food.
For some freshers, this will be your first time living alone, which means doing your own washing, cooking and cleaning.
| A．So recycle your clothes or mend them. |
| B．Meat consumption delays industrial development. |
| C．And clothing has a bigger impact on environment than food. |
| D．Cutting out meat is an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint. |
| E．There are simple ways you can change your habits to live more sustainably. |
| F．Individual actions matter, as they provide an alternative to how we can live. |
| G．For freshers starting a new chapter at university, deciding how to live your life is vital. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】In a world as fast-changing and full of information as our own, all of us need to know how to learn well. Yet evidence suggests that most of us don’t use the learning techniques that science has proved the most effective.
The scientific literature evaluating these techniques goes back to decades and across thousands of articles. It’s far too extensive and complex for the average parent, teacher or employer to look through. Fortunately, a team of five leading psychologists have done the job for us.
Professor John Dunlosky and other psychologists closely examined 10 learning strategies and rated each from high to low utility(实用) on the basis of the evidence they’ve gathered. Here’s part of their conclusions:
In contrast to familiar practices, the effective learning strategies with the most evidence to support them aren’t well known outside the lab. Take distributed practice, for example. This strategy involves spreading out your study time, rather than engaging in one marathon. Cramming (死记硬背)information at the last minute may allow you to get through that test or meeting, but the material will quickly disappear from your memory. It’s much more effective to look through the material at intervals over time.
And the longer you want to remember the information, whether it’s two weeks or two years, the longer the intervals should be.
The second learning strategy that is highly recommended by Dunlosky is practice testing. Yes, more tests--but there not for a grade. Research shows that the mere act of calling information to mind strengthens that knowledge and aids in future retrieval (检索). While practice testing is not a common strategy--despite the strong evidence supporting it --there is one familiar approach that captures its benefits: using flash cards. And now flash cards can be presented in digital form. Both distributed practice and practice testing were rated as having “high utility” by Dunlosky.
1. How did the psychologists study and rate the learning strategies?| A．By analyzing the materials gathered in the past years. |
| B．By asking some students questions about their study. |
| C．By doing some experiments on the objects in the lab. |
| D．By asking parents and teachers to look through the articles. |
| A．small in amount | B．easy or quick to do |
| C．more than is needed | D．dealing with a lot of information |
| A．many students have benefited a lot from them | B．they were first put forward by John Dunlosky |
| C．only a small number of experts know about them | D．psychologists are studying whether they are effective |
| A．we should not study for long hours every day | B．reviewing what we have studied is of little help |
| C．the shorter the interval is, the better we’ll study | D．doing repetition at intervals is the best way |
| A．is a way to use flash cards to help study | B．is mainly used to help us remember well |
| C．helps know about students’ grades in time | D．is a way widely used to strengthen memory |
【推荐2】You should try your best to create your own family library so that you and your family are always learning. “It is a great mistake to think that education is finished when young people leave school. Education is never finished even if you grow older,” said Mrs Child in The Mother’s Book. “Collecting a library of books in your home is really helpful to your family.”
“What is really interesting about having so many books in your home is that a book you buy has a chapter about the deeper knowledge of your favorite subject at school,” said a university graduate. Researchers in a study try to find out what parents do has an influence on how well their children do on tests. One positive aspect they find is the availability of a large number of books at home. This has a stronger connection, especially when you read to your children every day. The more books your older kids have access to at home, the more likely they are just to be reading for fun, rather than having to wait for weekly trips to the library.
John Henry, one educated parent, said, “I have been homeschooling my children using the philosophy (哲理) of A Thomas Jefferson Education. This philosophy of learning is based on the reading of classic books.” Clinton Fadiman said, “When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than before.” Classic books also make you smarter and wiser! The wisdom comes in the examples in the lives of the characters.
“It is within your power to guide your children in their reading and to develop a strong wish in their hearts for good books. It is the most unfortunate if a person doesn’t have a wish for good reading. The reading habit, like charity, should begin at home,” said Mrs Child.
1. What does the author mainly want to show in paragraph 2?| A．It’s necessary to create a family library. | B．Parents should set a good example at home. |
| C．Kids don’t need to go to the library any longer. | D．It’s important to let kids pass tests. |
| A．By imagination. | B．By questioning. |
| C．By referring to others’ words. | D．By presenting research figures. |
| A．East or west, home is the best. | B．One is never too old to learn. |
| C．He who makes no mistakes makes nothing. | D．Well begun, half done. |
| A．Where to Store Your Favorite Books at Home? |
| B．When to Read the classic Books to Your Children? |
| C．Which Is Better, a Home Library or a Public Library? |
| D．Why Not Have Your Own Library of Books at Home? |
【推荐3】Understanding and appreciating art can be hard if you don't have much experience with art. Don't worry. The following can help you get an appreciation for artwork enormously.
·Relax as you look at work
·
Avoid saying things like “Anyone could make that” and drop previous opinions you have about the artwork before you actually see it. Try to approach the art with an open mind and don't compare it with other works, especially if it's not in the same style.
·Ask yourself how the painting makes you feel
Instead of trying to focus on the technical aspects of the art, ask yourself how the art makes you feel.
·Research the artist's life
Some galleries have an informational plaque（铭牌）near the artwork that describes the artist. Read the informational plaque next to the artwork.
·Speak and talk with artists
Only if you like, you can find artists at their art shows. Take the time to speak to them.
Well now, if you still don't get art and can't appreciate it, try to create some artwork yourself. If you don't know where to start, you can look up tutorials online or take a local art class.
| A．Look at the artwork as objectively as you can |
| B．Talk with those who are interested in the work |
| C．If it makes you happy, sad, anxious, or excited |
| D．Since being nervous can actually affect how you enjoy art |
| E．As long as you understand the techniques used to create the art |
| F．This is a great way lo better understand the artist and his mind when they created the art |
| G．Getting their thought may give you a deeper understanding and appreciation of their work |
【推荐1】An environmental advocacy groups have launched Cut Carbon Not Forests, a campaign to expose the UK’s wasteful subsidies for companies that burn trees for electricity and to put pressure on policymakers to support reform. In the face of the climate emergency, and as the UK government seeks a “green recovery” from the coronavirus pandemic, the campaign led jointly by Biofuelwatch, Dogwood Alliance, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) and the Southern Environmental Law Center, calls for an end to these money, redirecting billions of pounds to fill a critical funding gap for genuinely clean and renewable energy solutions like solar and wind.
The UK is the largest user of biomass electricity in Europe, backed by more than £1 billion a year in government subsidies, paid out via a fee on energy bills. However, burning wood in power stations is no better for the climate than burning coal. Further, much of the wood in question is cut down and shipped in from sensitive forests overseas, destroying habitats and wildlife.
“The climate emergency requires us to build a genuinely clean-energy economy and end wasteful subsidies for dirty biomass energy,” said Almuth Ernsting, Co-Director of Biofuelwatch. “Cutting down trees, shipping them from forests overseas and burning them in power plants was never compatible with the need to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees; that’s even clearer today. It’s long past time to redirect this aid to genuine climate solutions like wind and solar energy.”
Research shows British public opinion aligns with a push toward biomass subsidy reform. YouGov polling found 82% of respondents were worried about the impact on wildlife if trees in forests were being cut down to supply power plants. Only 3% of respondents thought the government should promote biomass energy using trees shipped in from overseas forests, which is the UK’s primary source of supply. By contrast, a large majority said the government should promote solar and wind power.(332 words)
1. What is the campaign for?| A．More subsidies should be used in genuinely clean and renewable energy. |
| B．More subsidies should be given to companies that burn trees for electricity. |
| C．More subsidies should be used by the policy makers. |
| D．More subsidies should be used to cut down forest. |
| A．Because wood is clean and renewable energy. |
| B．Because cutting wood overseas is bad for habitat and wildlife. |
| C．Because burning coal is better for the climate. |
| D．Because wood is hard to grow. |
| A．Oppose. | B．Support. |
| C．Dislike. | D．Hate. |
| A．The government has done a good job in promoting the solar and wind power. |
| B．Cutting trees can cut down the Carbon emission |
| C．Most people in British support the campaign. |
| D．Trees shipped from overseas do no harm to the local environment. |
【推荐2】This summer we witnessed interview teams at the North Pole wearing short sleeve shirts due to the warm weather. A study published on Aug 29 revealed more concerning issues in the supposedly coldest area of the world. Zombie ice from a massive Greenland ice sheet was confirmed to be melting, which would eventually raise global sea levels by at least 10 inches (27 centimeters) on its own, reported Associated Press (AP).
Zombie ice is the kind of ice that is still attached to thicker areas of ice but is no longer getting fed by larger glaciers. Since glaciers are getting less snow to make up for the amount of ice melted, once the zombie ice is melted, it cannot be re-formed.
Scientists decided to look at the balance of the ice. In perfect equilibrium (平衡), snow in the mountains of Greenland flows down and thickens the sides of glaciers, balancing out what’s melting on the edges, according to AP. But in the last few decades, there is less refill and more melting, creating an imbalance.
Study co-author William Colgan at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland told AP that 3.3 percent of Greenland’s total ice volume will melt eventually. “Starying would be a good phrase” for what’s happening to the ice, Colgan added.
With a great number of natural resources buried under the earth, areas of melted ice revealed treasures that attracted the world’s richest men. According to CNN, in early August, there was a “treasure hunt” in Greenland. Billionaires, including Bill Gates and others, financially backed KoBold Metals, a US-based mineral exploration company, to explore the rare metals under the glaciers in Greenland. The company told CNN that since there were enough minerals to power hundreds of millions of electric vehicles, the critical resource is capable of powering the green energy transition.
While investors are taking advantage of global warming, experts express their concerns that the mineral exploration is likely to worsen the local environment, running out of the world’s resources at a faster rate.
1. What do we know about zombie ice?| A．It’s made up by nearby glaciers. | B．It’s independent from large glaciers. |
| C．It will melt away from the ice cap. | D．It has increased sea levels by 10 inches. |
| A．Why more zombie ice can’t be created. | B．How zombie ice was formed in the past. |
| C．What the melting of zombie ice can lead to. | D．How zombie ice functions in the ecosystem. |
| A．The ice has brought about starvation. | B．The ice is refilled more than before. |
| C．The ice is becoming gradually thinner. | D．The ice has been good to skate on. |
| A．To explain a natural phenomenon. | B．To comment on the “treasure hunt”. |
| C．To call for environmental protection | D．To report on the melting zombie ice. |
【推荐3】Whales are celebrated for being the largest and most intelligent creatures in the ocean. Now, biologists have discovered that they also capture (捕获) tons of carbon from the atmosphere, a service with an economic value of US $1 trillion for all the great whales, according to a new study published by the International Monetary Fund. The study points out that protecting whales, normally viewed as a human good, also has a monetary motivation.
“The carbon capture potential of whales is truly incredible,” said the report. “Our conservative estimates put the value of the average great whale at more than US $2 million, and easily over US $1 trillion for the current stock of great whales.” Whales absorb carbon in their bodies during their long lives, some of which stretch to 200 years. When they die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean, taking the carbon with them. According to the study, each great whale traps around 33 tons of carbon dioxide on average. A tree during the same period only contributes to 3 percent of the carbon absorption of the whale.
Whale populations are today a smidgen of what they once were. It is estimated that there are slightly more than 1.3 million whales in the ocean, a quarter of their pre-whaling number of 4 to 5 million. Some species in particular, like the blue whale, are only 3 percent of what they used to be. “We can create financial methods to promote the restoration of the world’s whale populations,” said the report’s authors. “Rewards could help those who pay significant costs as a result of whale protection.”
With the Paris Agreement coming into force next year and the effects of climate change ever more widespread, we must prevent the harm to whales. Researchers analyzed that unless new methods are put forward, it would take over 30 years to double the number of current whales, and several generations to return them to their pre-whaling numbers. “Society and our own survival can’t afford to wait this long,” they said.
1. What does the new study reveal about whales?| A．They are money-makers for good. | B．Their intelligence is unquestionable. |
| C．They are a natural climate solution. | D．Their survival is threatened by carbon. |
| A．To indicate all matter regarding green efforts. | B．To illustrate whales are friendly to the oceans. |
| C．To highlight whales’ carbon capture potential. | D．To emphasize the importance of tree planting. |
| A．Climate change intensifies. | B．Whale populations stay low. |
| C．Our survival is endangered. | D．Whale protection is a priority. |
| A．Protect whales to protect the planet | B．How to restore whale populations |
| C．Live in harmony with ocean giants | D．Whales can guarantee our survival |
