Students at Huonville High School in Australia are riding bikes out of desire to fight climate change, carrying out a dizzyingly-thorough transformation of their school building into an energy efficient inspiration.
It’s paying off big time, as they’ve helped save $44, 000 in utility bills since they started their energy-saving project, but it’s also inspiring young people in the community. Recently the school won the Zayed Future Energy Prize of $133 ,000, some of which was used to turn a building into the Zayed Future Energy Hub, a clubhouse where 13 volunteers learn and teach about how renewable energy can be applied to our everyday lives.
Among all the efficiency adjustments, they set up solar panels on the roof, and replaced the old windows with double and triple glazed ones. They added improved insulation (隔热) and energy efficient curtains. They even have stationary bikes that create electricity to cook doughnuts.
The classroom was cold in the mornings, but the students wanted zero carbon emissions through their heating. So they went out and got a pellet stove, and then if that wasn’t enough, they went out and built a pellet mill (颗粒机) to make their fuel from waste sawdust.
Powering one small building on a high school campus or cooking doughnuts in renewable fat fryers is nice, but will do little on their own to slow global climate change. However, the Hub is much more about the big picture. Nel Smit, the volunteer teacher—head of the Hub, knows their biggest contribution is exciting the minds of the next generation.
“This little school in the Huon Valley is actually doing amazing things,” Smit said. “It’s raised awareness of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and opportunities in the community for engaging them around that sort of technology.”
1. What’s special about Huonville High School?| A．It attaches importance to riding bikes. | B．It promotes the idea of energy saving. |
| C．It encourages students to be creative. | D．It is powered entirely by solar energy. |
| A．It is a club center for volunteers. | B．It is the place to produce energy. |
| C．It is built at the cost of $133,000. | D．It is used to hold learning activities. |
| A．To save electricity bill. | B．To keep low carbon emissions. |
| C．To get rid of waste sawdust. | D．To test the pellet stove. |
| A．Saving a lot of energy. | B．Creating more great minds. |
| C．Educating the next generation. | D．Slowing global climate change. |
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【推荐1】Coca-Cola, which reportedly produced more than 3 million tons of plastic packaging in 2017, announced Thursday it wants to “help fix the world’s plastic waste problem one community (社区) at a time.”
The soda giant is doing so by providing $ 5.4 million for recycling programs in cities like Atlanta, Boston, Denver and Houston. In these cities, partners, like The Green Blue Institute and The Recycling Partnership, which receive the money, will work together to improve recycling rates.
“We focus on areas where we have the ability to make the biggest influence on communities through the funding and expert skills of Coca-Cola employees,” Carlos Pagoagoa, Coca-Cola’s group director of community partnerships, said in a statement. “In each city, local partners will work together to identify barriers to recycling on a local level and test a range of solutions,” he added. “We hope the learnings from these ‘model markets’ can offer solutions to other cities facing similar challenges.”
As part of the effort, The Recycling Partnership and the city of Atlanta, where the cola company’s headquarters are based, will send street teams out to open recycling carts and leave citizens cards informing them what they can and can’t recycle, and let them know how their efforts work.
“Two of the most urgent problems with recycling in the U. S. today are lack of access, followed by pollution in recycling,” Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership, said in a statement. “We know from the success of Atlanta in 2017 that the citizens want to recycle, and that communicating with them in the street works.”
Last year, Coca-Cola announced its task to collect and reuse a bottle or can for each one it sells, and increase the amount of its products out of recycled materials to 50% by 2030. The brand also aims to make all its packaging fully recyclable by 2025.
1. What does Coca-Cola company intend to do in the program?| A．Produce less packaging. |
| B．Help deal with plastic waste. |
| C．Pick up waste in communities. |
| D．Build a plant to recycle plastic waste. |
| A．How Coca-Cola conducts its program. |
| B．What organizations participate in the program. |
| C．How Coca-Cola chooses cities for the program. |
| D．What the local people do in Coca-Cola’s program. |
| A．Sort out various waste in the city. |
| B．Look into the cause of pollution. |
| C．Instruct local people what to recycle. |
| D．Hand cards to the locals in person. |
| A．Promising. | B．Difficult. | C．Pioneering. | D．Costly. |
【推荐2】Around the world, coral reefs (珊瑚礁) are in danger. Now, let’s check out a few ways conservationists are protecting these habitats.
Seaweed Smackdown
Hot ocean temperatures can supercharge seaweed growth — and that’s not good for a reef. So, in Hawaii, scientists have used an underwater vacuum (真空吸器) to suck up lots of seaweed into the device’s long tube. In Australia, scientists are studying a low-tech solution: pulling seaweed by hand.
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Some polyps (珊瑚虫) are harmed by heat waves and pollution. Scientists cut parts of coral from a healthy reef. Then these polyps are taken to a nursery, which could be in shallow protected areas underwater. After about a year, the healthy coral parts are attached to damaged reefs. The nursery-grown corals can bring new life to a struggling habitat.
Sound Saver
Healthy reefs are noisy. Fish make different sounds, and thousands of shrimp create and pop bubbles with their claws to create a sound. The biologists play sounds of healthy reefs through underwater speakers. They found that six weeks of broadcasting healthy reef sounds doubled the amount of fish in the area.
Bleaching Killer
One of the biggest threats to coral reefs is bleaching. Here’s how it works.
| Thriving coral Most coral species survive by partnering with tiny algae (藻类), which make food for the coral by changing sunlight into sugar. |
| Under stress But when the ocean water gets too hot, the algae produce too much oxygen, which can hurt the coral. |
| Bleaching So corals kick out the algae. As the algae leave, the color disappears and the coral appears to turn white. This process is called bleaching. |
Biologists have discovered that many corals in the Red Sea have a species of algae in their tissue that’s found nowhere else, so they can survive heat waves. Biologists hope their work will inspire governments and environmental groups to protect these corals.
1. Which of the following might be the subtitle of Paragraph 3?| A．Underwater Nurseries. | B．Fishing Guides. |
| C．Seaweed Cleaners. | D．Colour Designers. |
| A．Breathing in more oxygen. | B．Changing the appearance. |
| C．Absorbing more sound. | D．Partnering with algae. |
| A．To present the serious damages to corals. | B．To explain the reasons for coral habitat loss. |
| C．To introduce the methods of coral protection. | D．To compare the effects of different solutions. |
【推荐3】American girl Radajere Oleita thinks she may have a solution for two of our country’s persistent problems: garbage and poverty.
Chip eaters drop off their empty bags from Lay’s, and other favorites. And they are often seen at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store.
Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has collected more than 800,000 chip bags and, as of last December, created 110 sleeping bags. Sure, it would be simpler to raise the money to buy new sleeping bags. But that’s only half the goal for Oleita — whose family moved to the United States from Nigeria a decade ago with the hope of attaining a better life — and her fellow volunteers.
And, of course, there’s the symbolism of salvaging bags that would otherwise land in the trash and using them to help the homeless.
| A．It’s a powerful reminder. |
| B．Chip eaters consume too much. |
| C．It’s called the Chip Bag Project. |
| D．The project was such a great success. |
| E．It takes about four hours to sew a sleeping bag. |
| F．That’s where Oleita and her volunteer helpers collect them. |
| G．She believes that they are dedicated to making an impact both socially and environmentally. |
After making small talk about what she wore for the shoot, she dived into the subject of her career. Selena declared 2012 the year of movies. She filmed three: Spring Breakers, a drama; The Getaway, an action flick; and Hotel Transylvania, a comedy. Each is a marked move away from the teen style that made her a household name.
Now that her Disney days are behind her, Selena is at that unstable point in a child star’s career where she is trying to grow up---both as a person(she turned 20 in July)and as an artist. “Being part of the Disney Channel was such a blessing, and I’m super happy with what my show accomplished, but acting is something I would like to take on more seriously.” She continued, “I don’t necessarily feel accomplished. I want to creat a whole different persona when it comes to acting.”
Selena has been working fulltime since she was seven years old and scored a role on Barney&Friends. In 2007, when she was offered the lead in Wizards of Waverly Place, Selena, her mother, and her stepfather uprooted from Grand Prairie, Texas, to LA, where they are settling now.
1. When was it that Selena arrived at the low-key coffee shop?
| A．At ten. |
| B．At ten to nine. |
| C．At ten past nine. |
| D．At thirty past nine. |
| A．Selena went into her film career as soon as we met in the coffee shop. |
| B．Three famous films filmed in 2012 have shown her teen style. |
| C．The film Hotel Transylvania is an action flick filmed in 2012 |
| D．Each of the three films marks Selena’s move away from her teen style. |
| A．She thought of playing in Disney a blessing. |
| B．She didn’t feel very satisfied with her show in Disney. |
| C．She found her not accomplished in her performance in Disney. |
| D．She believed her being part in Disney Channel a blessing. |
| A．moved | B．picked | C．changed | D．informed |
【推荐2】Suck in capital city traffic with no clear way to avoid the cars around is, an Oklahoma ambulance was at the mercy of is surrounding rush-hour drivers as I tried to make its way to a series of emergency calls on Saturday-one involving a young girl with cancer, who had traveled all the way from London for her treatment.
That was until a certain 6-foot-9-inch do-gooder drove his car through the lanes and skillfully placed it so that the ambulance would be freed from the web of vehicles: Kevin Durant, a famous NBA player.
“All of a sudden, I see a silver sports car making way for us to get through and guide all the Traffic,” Radford, a, doctor on the ambulance, said. “Once we actually get through all the traffic, this silver car comes over to the side and the driver waves to us.”
According to Radford, Durant' s kindness led the doctors to make it to their second emergency call on time, too, enabling that young girl with cancer to get to her treatment safe and sound, For his part, Durant shied away from being regarded as a hero for his actions, saying what he did was entirely ordinary.
“I just thought it was SO cool that someone like Durant would take the time to assist an ambulance getting to an emergency call,” Radford said. "Everything he did was amazing; Durant is the hometown hero.”
For his heroism, Durant will be honored by the Oklahoma Emergency Medical Services Authority (OEMSA) as an “Everyday Hero”, an award that's given out four times a year.
“Durant' s actions are exactly how we think citizens should help doctors reach their calls for emergencies. He is a great example of doing one's part to help those in need, and he handled it with such modesty,” an OEMSA representative said.
1. Kevin was regarded as a hero mainly because .| A．he answered emergency calls for doctors |
| B．he cured a young girl from London of cancer |
| C．he guided an ambulance through rush-hour traffic |
| D．he solved the problem of traffic jam in Oklahoma |
| A．It is widely known for heavy traffic. | B．It has poor emergency medical services. |
| C．It has the best cancer experts in the world. | D．It gives "Everyday Hero" award to citizens. |
| A．Warm-hearted and modest. | B．Quick-minded and careful. |
| C．Athletic and intelligent. | D．Merciful and reliable. |
| A．Better City, Faster Service | B．Big Boy, Small Kindness |
| C．Larger City, Heavier Traffic | D．Ordinary Girl, Good Luck |
【推荐3】The Bus Crash Angel
My wife Susan and my daughter Alyce was once involved in a serious traffic accident. When I arrived on the scene of accident, I saw my daughter was standing on the corner crying, covered in tiny pieces of glass but uninjured. Susan wasn’t so lucky. But she was alive. It turned out she had broken nearly every bone in her body.
More than two years later, when Susan and I were at an event at our temple, we were lucky enough to find an African American woman there who had lent us a helping hand. She had seen Alyce standing by the side of the wrecked car, crying, and approached her, asking, “Is that your mom in there?”
Alyce nodded, and the woman said, “Let’s pray together.” Sweet, innocent Alyce looked at this woman wearing a cross around her neck and said, “OK, but you should know I’m Jewish.” The woman smiled. She took Alyce’s hand, held it to her chest, and said, “That’s OK. In here we’re all the same.”
After the accident, she said, she had continued to pray for our family. We had our picture taken together, and we realized we had never been formally introduced, so I told her my name was Doug, and she paused, as if maybe she hadn’t heard me. I repeated, “Doug, like Douglas.” She looked at us and said, “Wait, your name is Susan?” Susan nodded. “And your name is Douglas?” The woman put her hand over her heart. “Oh my goodness,” she said. “My name is Susan Douglas.”
1. Which of the following statement is true?| A．The author’s wife and daughter lost their lives in a serious traffic accident. |
| B．Alyce refused to pray with the woman. |
| C．The African American woman volunteered to help Alyce. |
| D．The Dougs met Susan Douglas in the temple as planned. |
| A．both she and Alyce wanted to reach the author at that time |
| B．she and Alyce were both angels in this unexpected bus crash |
| C．despite their different religious belief, she and Alyce had the same wish |
| D．it was a coincidence that she and the author’s wife had the same first name |
| A．disappointed | B．surprised | C．honored | D．confused |
