Climate change will bring and has already brought a wide variety of threatening destruction to human existence. Some of these are well-known and already operative, like the wildfires racing along California’s freeways or the permanent droughts that have been upsetting Mediterranean farmers. But are these all terrible disasters we can come up with that are brought about by climate change?
Absolutely not. None of the challenges posed by our warming climate has appeared larger in the popular imagination than sea-level rise, as global populations and wealth are heavily concentrated in low-lying coastal cities. The best available models suggest that 37 million people currently live in places that will be below high tide by 2050-in an optimistic low-carbon-emissions scenario (设想).
Or rather, that’s what such models suggested before this week. On Tuesday, a new study revealed that those alarming statistics were wildly inaccurate. The actual impacts of sea-level rise are going to be much, much worse.
Previous estimates of the impact that rising tides would have on coastal cities relied on essentially a three-dimensional map of Earth obtained from satellite readings. But those readings were fundamentally unreliable because they often measured the planet’s upper surfaces — such as treetops and tall buildings — rather than its ground level. These mistakes led scientists to overestimate the elevation (海拔) of many regions of Earth.
In a new study published by the journal Nature Communications, scientists from Princeton, University detail this methodological problem, then use artificial intelligence to determine the previous literature’s error rate. Their research yields some amazing updates to our conventional understanding of what the next century has in store for our coastlines.
In its optimistic scenario, the Princeton study projects that lands currently occupied by 150 million people will lie below high tide in 2050. But as warming destroys many of the world’s agricultural regions, climate change could accelerate migration from rural areas to coastal cities.
The new study does include one piece of slightly encouraging news. While previous models suggested that 28 million humans currently live in places that already lie below high tide, the actual number is closer to 110 million — which means seawalls and other barriers have proven sufficient to keep many cities dry even as sea levels have risen around them. Still, the scale of barrier construction necessary to save low-lying cities from collapse is now, apparently, far greater than previously understood when the task already looked terribly expensive, particularly for developing countries.
If the Princeton researchers’ projections are correct, avoiding mass death and suffering in the coming decades will require not only rapidly reducing carbon emissions and strengthening construction of seawalls but also furthering mass migrations away from low-lying cities and islands and toward higher ground.
1. The first paragraph is mainly intended to ________.| A．lay emphasis on the seriousness of climate change | B．show various disasters caused by climate change |
| C．call on people to fix attention on climate change | D．introduce the topic of this passage |
| A．the three-dimensional map produced by satellite is not accurate |
| B．the Princeton study reveals an optimistic picture of sea rising |
| C．some measures are mentioned by the writer to deal with sea rising |
| D．more people are likely to live in coastal cities in the coming years |
| A．it’s cheap to construct seawalls as well as other barriers |
| B．the scale of barrier construction is much greater than before |
| C．seawalls do have the function to prevent coastal cities being drowned |
| D．developed countries have less trouble in dealing with rising sea levels |
| A．How to protect cities from rising seas. | B．Climate change is endangering human existence. |
| C．Rising seas are going to drown more cities. | D．Less emission of carbon, fewer fires and droughts. |
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【推荐1】By the end of the century, if not sooner, the world’s oceans will be bluer and greener thanks to a warming climate, according to a new study.
At the heart of the phenomenon lie tiny marine microorganisms(海洋微生物) called phytoplankton. Because of the way light reflects off the organisms, these phytoplankton create colourful patterns at the ocean surface. Ocean colour varies from green to blue, depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton. Climate change will fuel the growth of phytoplankton in some areas, while reducing it in other spots, leading to changes in the ocean’s appearance.
Phytoplankton live at the ocean surface, where they pull carbon dioxide(二氧化碳) into the ocean while giving off oxygen. When these organisms die, they bury carbon in the deep ocean, an important process that helps to regulate the global climate. But phytoplankton are vulnerable to the ocean’s warming trend. Warming changes key characteristics of the ocean and can affect phytoplankton growth, since they need not only sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow, but also nutrients.
Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a scientist in MIT’s Center for Global Change Science, built a climate model that projects changes to the oceans throughout the century. In a world that warms up by 3℃, it found that multiple changes to the colour of the oceans would occur. The model projects that currently blue areas with little phytoplankton could become even bluer. But in some waters, such as those of the Arctic, a warming will make conditions riper for phytoplankton, and these areas will turn greener. “Not only are the quantities of phytoplankton in the ocean changing. ” she said, “but the type of phytoplankton is changing.”
And why does that matter? Phytoplankton are the base of the food web. If certain kinds begin to disappear from the ocean, Dutkiewicz said, “it will change the type of fish that will be able to survive.” Those kinds of changes could affect the food chain.
Whatever colour changes the ocean experiences in the coming decades will probably be too gradual and unnoticeable, but they could mean significant changes. “It’ll be a while before we can statistically show that the changes are happening because of climate change,” Dutkiewicz said, “but the change in the colour of the ocean will be one of the early warning signals that we really have changed our planet.”
1. What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?| A．The various patterns at the ocean surface. |
| B．The cause of the changes in ocean colour. |
| C．The way light reflects off marine organisms. |
| D．The efforts to fuel the growth of phytoplankton. |
| A．Sensitive. | B．Beneficial. | C．Significant. | D．Unnoticeable. |
| A．Phytoplankton play a declining role in the marine ecosystem. |
| B．Dutkiewicz’s model aims to project phytoplankton changes. |
| C．Phytoplankton have been used to control global climate. |
| D．Oceans with more phytoplankton may appear greener. |
| A．To assess the consequences of ocean colour changes. |
| B．To analyse the composition of the ocean food chain. |
| C．To explain the effects of climate change on oceans. |
| D．To introduce a new method to study phytoplankton. |
【推荐2】Industrial emissions (排放) of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming greenhouse gases have raised the global average temperature by about 0.8°C since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. But studies have disagreed about what impact the rise is having on the world’s species, says Mark Urban, an ecologist at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Some have estimated that as many as 54% of species could eventually become extinct as a result of the climate change, but others have suggested no significant impact.①
Such disparate result might originate from the limited nature of some individual studies, possibly because they focused only on a few species or a relatively small geographical region, says Urban.② To address these limits, Urban used statistical methods to help blend the results of previous studies into an apples-to-apples comparison that estimates the risk of extinction of species worldwide.
③He chose to analyze only the results of studies that had assessed extinction risks of more than one species. Then he researched into the details, such as the regions in which species considered, whether those species were limited to one small region or were widely spread, and whether the species were free to move as climate changed or were blocked by barriers such as mountain ranges or urban development.④
Effects of climate change aren’t always immediate, Urban says, and the risks of extinction he’s estimated are the long-term results of species not being able to find a suitable habitat. Maybe the habitat will merely shrink to a size that can’t support the species, or maybe it will disappear entirely. In some cases, he notes, a species might not be able to outpace the shift in its range, dying out before it can reach a new homeland. For over the generations that rapid warming might kill them off before they can spread to a suitable new habitat.
1. What is the passage aimed to tell us?| A．It is the Industrial Revolution that raised the global average temperature. |
| B．Mark Urban is an ecologist at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. |
| C．The climate change contributes to almost all the species dying out. |
| D．Global warming is not a main factor accounting for species extinction. |
| A．① | B．② | C．③ | D．④ |
| A．the rising temperatures | B．human activities |
| C．their low birth rates | D．the loss of their habitats |
【推荐3】Scientists say seagrasses can be a valuable tool in fighting climate change. But many of these plants are being harmed as mining and fishing pollute the seawater.
In March, scientists went on an expedition (考察) to an area in the Indian Ocean thought to contain the largest field of underwater seagrass in the world. The team collected data to learn more about what affects the health of seagrasses.
Studies have shown that a big benefit seagrasses bring is that it can store up to two times the amount of carbon that forests do. If seagrasses can stay heathy and grow, they can remove carbon dioxide, or CO2, from the environment. CO2 is one kind of greenhouse gas that scientists have linked to rising temperatures in Earth’s atmosphere.
The Indian Ocean expedition, led by environmental group Greenpeace, traveled to Saya de Malha near the island nation of Seychelles. The field of seagrass at Saya de Malha is about the size of the European nation of Switzerland. Because the area is far from coastlines, it has stayed well protected from pollution and digging activities that can harm sea life. The seagrasses are also closer to the surface, meaning they take in more sunlight. This environment provides shelter and rich feeding grounds for thousands of different living things in the ocean.
Among those taking part in the expedition were scientists from Britain’s Exeter University. They say they were able to collect some of the firsthand field data on the area’s wildlife, including its little-studied seagrass beds. The team gathered up pieces of grass floating in the water to examine later in the laboratory. It isn’t yet known how much carbon is being stored in Saya de Malha. But experts estimate that worldwide, the root systems of seagrasses trap more than 10 percent of the carbon buried in oceans sediment (沉积物) per year. Therefore, the carbon-storing abilities of seagrass have massive implications (影响) for worldwide efforts to limit climate change.
This year, Seychelles began looking at its coastal seagrass carbon supply for the first time. And at least 10 countries have said seagrasses would play a part in their climate action plans.
1. The harm to seagrasses is mainly done by ________.| A．frequent harvesting | B．global climate change |
| C．over-crowded living space | D．pollution linked to human activities |
| A．carbon storage | B．rainfall increase |
| C．oxygen production | D．temperature reduction |
| A．They stay quite close to coastlines. | B．They are in danger of being polluted. |
| C．They cover an area as large as Europe. | D．They benefit local sea creatures greatly. |
| A．Caution: It Is Really Urgent to Preserve Seagrasses |
| B．A New Tool to Fight Climate Change Has Been Found |
| C．Scientists Study How Ocean Seagrasses Can Fight Climate Change |
| D．Scientists Find What Is to Blame for the Declining Health of Seagrasses |
【推荐1】Hollywood’s only Chinese-American superhero has stirred up heated debate on social media after she spoke out against discrimination in American show business.
Chloe Bennet, a Chinese-American actress who stars in Marvel’s trending TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., explained on social media why she changed her last name from Wong to Bennet, arguing that Hollywood is “racist” and wouldn’t cast her with a last name that made them “uncomfortable.”
“Changing my last name doesn’t change the fact that my BLOOD is half Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin, or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese,” replied Bennet.
Bennet’s remarks come after Ed Skrein stepped down from his role as Major Ben Daimion in the upcoming Hellboy movie for fear that his participation would be “whitewashing” a character of Asian descent(后裔).
Racial barriers have been an essential problem in Hollywood. According to research conducted by the University of Southern California in 2015, nearly three-quarters of all characters in the top 100 films of 2014 were white, while only 5.3 percent of Asian artists can share the same privilege. In another report released in 2017, only 3.4 percent of over 1,000 surveyed films had an Asian director.
“Asian artists can hardly stand out in Hollywood. Most roles starred by Asians are fixed and stereotyped, as if all Asians are good at math and martial arts. There is an invisible discrimination lurking(潜伏) in show business, as the difference of your skin color may bring disparity in your income and opportunities,” said Alex She, a New York-based Chinese-American photographer and movie maker.
Bennet’s experience has led to heated debate on both Chinese and foreign social media.
1. What’s the best title of the passage?| A．Racial discrimination worsens in Hollywood |
| B．Chinese-American actress voices for equal rights in Hollywood |
| C．Chinese-American actress changed her name |
| D．Chinese-American actress makes a fame in Hollywood |
| A．Because she doesn’t like it |
| B．Because her parents suggested it |
| C．Because using an English name is a trend in Hollywood |
| D．Because the racism in Hollywood’s show business made her no choice |
| A．brave and courageous | B．selfish and cocky |
| C．stubborn and aggressive | D．overcautious and timid |
| A．Netizens’ support to Bennet’s works |
| B．Netizens’ opinion on Bennet’s experience |
| C．Bennet’s achievement in Hollywood |
| D．Bennet’s family background |
But holidays are expensive and, for those on low wages or living on benefits, they are often unobtainable. Even the cheapest holidays require travel and other additional costs that are difficult for many families to meet.
For working parents, the long summer break can be a very difficult problem for childcare. When an annual leave allowance amounts to only five weeks, there is a need to spread this across the year. Couples can find themselves taking leave in turn in order to care for children who are on holiday. For some, this makes even an affordable family holiday difficult.
The schools that I visit in Nottingham are full of experienced staff committed to giving our children a caring and inspiring learning environment. The number of children receiving free school meals is quite large in Nottingham and many schools have breakfast clubs to make sure that children get a healthy start to the day. Most schools undertake programs of group or individual educational support. Schools also have an important role in sofeguaiding children's welfare through the ongoing touch and support with their pupils. During the long summer holidays, much of this is missed.
While teachers are holidaying in the UK, many of their pupils spend the whole six weeks on the street where they live. The lack of free school meals for six weeks can result in pressure on a family budget and an inability to afford the inspiring experiences that help children to continue their learning.
In setting out its plans for a five-term year, Nottingham City Council (委员会)is seeking to reduce the summer holiday down to four and a half weeks, with a more balanced five terms of roughly eight weeks, each followed by a two-week break. We believe this will give real “down time" for school staff and pupils alike but will be short enough not to cause a real break in learning.
We acknowledge that this change may be difficult for some school staff, particularly whose own children are educated in other authorities. However, this must be weighed against the benefits for city children for whom we all have the greatest duty of care.
1. The passage is probably written by .
| A．an experienced teacher | B．a working parent |
| C．an inspired student | D．a city council member |
| A．environments | B．holidays | C．wages | D．benefits |
| A．2 weeks | B．4.5 weeks | C．5 weeks | D．6 weeks |
| A．obtain the cheapest holidays without additional costs |
| B．get a chance to spend six weeks a term with teachers in school |
| C．benefit more from the caring and inspiring learning environment |
| D．have more school days to receive free school meals |
| A．working parents can enjoy a five-week break to care for their children |
| B．the suggested plans for a five-term school year can hardly be carried out |
| C．the long summer holiday gives teachers and students real "down time" |
| D．some school staff will say “ No" to the plans for a shorter summer holiday |
【推荐3】Who cares if people think wrongly that the Internet has had more important influences than the washing machine? Why does it matter that people are more impressed by the most recent changes?
It would not matter if these misjudgments were just a matter of people’s opinions. However, they have real impacts, as they result in misguided use of scarce resources.
The fascination with the ICT(Information and Communication Technology) revolution, represented by the Internet, has made some rich countries wrongly conclude that making things is so “yesterday” that they should try to live on ideas. This belief in “post-industrial society” has led those countries to neglect their manufacturing sector (制造业) with negative consequences for their economies.
Even more worryingly, the fascination with the Internet by people in rich countries has moved the international community to worry about the “digital divide” between the rich countries and the poor countries. This has led companies and individuals to donate money to developing countries to buy computer equipment and Internet facilities. The question, however, is whether this is what the developing countries need the most. Perhaps giving money for those less fashionable things such as digging wells, extending electricity networks and making more affordable washing machines would have improved people’s lives more than giving every child a laptop computer or setting up Internet centres in rural villages, I am not saying that those things are necessarily more important, but many donators have rushed into fancy programmes without carefully assessing the relative long-term costs and benefits of alternative uses of their money.
In yet another example, a fascination with the new has led people to believe that the recent changes in the technologies of communications and transportation are so revolutionary that now we live in a “borderless world”. As a result, in the last twenty years or so, many people have come to believe that whatever change is happening today is the result of great technological progress, going against which will be like trying to turn the clock back. Believing in such a world, many governments have put an end to some of the very necessary regulations on cross-border flows of capital, labour and goods, with poor results.
Understanding technological trends is very important for correctly designing economic policies, both at the national and the international levels, and for making the right career choices at the individual level. However, our fascination with the latest, and our under valuation of what has already become common, can, and has, led us in all sorts of wrong directions.
1. What are the effects of people’ misjudgments on the influences of new technology?| A．It stimulates innovation. | B．It affects their personal opinions. |
| C．It influences their use of resources. | D．It leads to improved technology. |
| A．It leads to competition between rich and poor countries. |
| B．It results in a lack of access to technology in developing countries. |
| C．It increases the cost of computer equipment in rich countries. |
| D．It promotes global digital cooperation. |
| A．donating for technology is always the better option |
| B．the author does not provide opinions on this matter |
| C．donating for technology and basic needs should be balanced |
| D．donating for basic needs should be prioritized over technology |
| A．Significance of information and communication technology. |
| B．Serious consequences of over-emphasizing high technology. |
| C．Technological trends guiding economic policy making. |
| D．How to use donation money in the new age. |
【推荐1】For an increasing number of students at American universities, Old is suddenly in. The reason is obvious: the graying of America means jobs, coupled with the aging of the baby-boom generation, a longer life span means that the nation’s elderly population is bound to expand significantly over the next 50 years. By 2050, 25 percent of all Americans will be older than 65, up from 14 percent in 1995.The change poses profound questions for government and society, of course. But it also creates career opportunities in medicine and health professions and in law and business as well. “In addition to the doctors, we’re going to need more sociologists, biologists, urban planners and specialized lawyers,” says Professor Edward Schneider of the University of Southern California’s (USC) School of Gerontology(老年学).
Lawyers can specialize in “elder law”, which covers everything from trusts and estates to nursing-home abuse and age discrimination. Businessmen see huge opportunities in the elder market because the baby boomers, 74 million strong, are likely to be the wealthiest group of retirees in human history. “Any student who combines an expert knowledge in gerontology with, say, an MBA or law degree will have a license to print money,” one professor says.
Margarite Santos is a 21-year-old senior at USC. She began college as a biology major but found she was “really bored with bacteria.” So she took a class in gerontology and discovered that she liked it. She says, “I did volunteer work in retirement homes and it was very satisfying.”
1. With the aging of America, lawyers can benefit ________.| A．from the adoption of the “elder law” |
| B．from presenting their professional services to the elderly |
| C．by enriching their professional knowledge |
| D．by winning the trust of the elderly to promote their own interests. |
| A．Retirees who are business-minded. |
| B．The volunteer workers in retirement homes. |
| C．college graduates with an MBA or law degree. |
| D．Professionals with a good knowledge of gerontology. |
| A．Retirees are more generous in spending money. |
| B．They can employ more gerontologists. |
| C．The elderly possess an enormous purchasing power. |
| D．There are more elderly people working than before. |
Electronic trash, or e-waste, is piling up faster than ever in American homes and businesses. People do not know what to do with old televisions or computers so they throw them in the trash.
National Solid Waste Management Association (NSWMA) state programs director Chaz Miller says the large amount of electronic waste Americans product is not unexpected.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates more than 400 million consumer electronic items are dumped each year, and there is a push by more states to ban the waste from landfills (垃圾填埋场) and create recycling programs. They can be torn apart and sorted for useable parts. Mike Fannon who runs the plant in Baltimore says, “There are lots of valuable metals that can be recovered and reused instead of just putting them in the landfill, and in certain components there are some materials that should not really be in the landfill.”
Fannon says nearly 20 percent of electronic waste is recycled nationwide. Thirteen years ago, it was only about 6 percent. Recycling rates continue to rise as more communities have banned electronics from landfills in order to keep e-waste poisons like lead (铅) and mercury (汞) out of garbage dumps.
This year several states like Vermont imposed a ban on electronic waste in landfills. More than 25 other states have also adopted bans on e-waste in landfills. Chaz Miller says more can be done to boost electronic waste recycling.
“We can do much better,” noted Miller. “I think clearly our goal should be to do as well as we do recycling newspapers.”
1. Which of the following does NOT belong to e-waste?
| A．Old televisions. | B．Old computers. |
| C．Old cell phones. | D．Old newspapers. |
| A．Because it can not be recycled. |
| B．Because the landfills are already full. |
| C．Because it might damage the environment. |
| D．Because it can be shipped to other countries. |
| A．Recycling it. | B．Selling it. |
| C．Burying it. | D．Breaking it. |
| A．Chaz Miller works for EPA. |
| B．Miller is optimistic about the future of e-waste. |
| C．At present, less than 10 percent of e-waste is recycled. |
| D．All states in the US have banned e-waste from landfills. |
【推荐3】As far back as the age of dinosaurs millions of years ago, turtles(海龟) wandered around the Earth. Even nowadays, it is generally assumed that turtles are the world's steadiest creature.
However, a new research shows 61 percent of the 356 species of turtles are already threatened or no longer exist. The destruction of their homes, disease, climate change and other reasons have caused their population to drop sharply. In a new study published in the journal BioScience, a team of scientists from various institutions claims that turtles are one of the most threatened among the major vertebrate(脊椎动物) groups.
This could, the authors say, have serious consequences for the ecology. Turtles contribute to the health of many environments, including desert, wetland, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and the decline may lead to bad effects on other species, including humans, they explain. Whit Gibbons, seruor author and professor at the Utuversity of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, says in a statement that the intention of the study is to inform people about the vital ecological roles of turtles.
One of the important qualities of turtles is how diverse they are when it comes to food. This allows them to have a major impact on food webs of their homes all over the world. In some areas, the density(密度) of the turtle population makes them an important part of the ecosystem. With their gathering, other species that feed on them and their eggs are sure to have a large pool of food.
For plants, turtles are also extremely important as they distribute the seeds of many plant species. When they eat some seeds are not destroyed by the digestive process and instead make their way out of the animals' body. Some turtles are the main dispersal(传播 ) agents of certain plants and their seeds.
These are only a few yet very vital roles that turtles play in the ecological landscape. Unfortunately, many species are in serious decline and in danger of disappearing completely.
1. What does the new study aim to do?| A．To save the grand vertebrate groups on earth. . |
| B．To warn people of turtles' terrible situation. |
| C．To make the importance of turtles' roles known. |
| D．To claim turtles may be related to dinosaurs. |
| A．Speed up these plants' disappearing. |
| B．Put an end to these plants' seeds spreading. |
| C．Allow more. seeds to grow into plants. |
| D．Give these plants no chance of survival. . |
I:Introduction P:Point Sp: Sub-point(次要点 ) C:Conclusion
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Turtles Are Sure to Stop Existing. |
| B．The Ecology Will Change with Turtles. |
| C．Decline of Turtles Threatens the World. |
| D．Turtles' Dying Out Worldwide Matters a Lot. |
