From the loss of wildlife to rising sea levels, we’re all well aware of the problems that climate change could cause. But while it may seem like such issues won’t affect most of us directly, it looks like future generations could grow up without something that many of us now take for granted: chocolate.
According to an essay published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, changes of the climate in the areas that produce cacao—the plant from which chocolate is produced—may mean that it will soon become extinct.
Most of the world’s cacao grows in countries close to the equator (赤道), with over half of it growing in the African nations of Ghana and Ivory Coast. It’s predicted that by 2050, climate change will have sped up the rate at which temperatures in these countries rise, making it extremely difficult for cacao to grow there. The problem doesn’t lie in increasing heat, but in lower humidity (湿度), as it’s believed that rainfall will stay at the same level if the temperature rises.
“In other words, as higher temperatures squeeze more water out of soil and plants, it’s unlikely that rainfall will increase enough to offset the moisture loss,” wrote Michon Scott, the essay’s author.
To help fight this problem, researchers from Berkeley University in the US are working on changing the DNA of cacao plants to allow them to survive in dryer conditons by using gene (基因) editing technology, according to US News. In the meantime, Mars, one of the world’s biggest companies of chocolate products, announced that it would spend 1 billion dollars helping reduce the effects of climate change.
“This is a world issue, and it requires everyone to work together,” Mars spokesperson Barry Parkin told Business Insider.
The message here is that if we all do our part, we may be able to prevent some of the worst influences of climate change. Or if we’re unlucky, chocolate will become a thing of the past.
1. What will make it hard for cacao to survive around the equator in the future?| A．The increasing heat. | B．The higher humidity. |
| C．The moisture loss in the soil. | D．The decrease of rainfall. |
| A．Make up. | B．Add up. | C．Dry up. | D．Use up. |
| A．It will work hard to plant cacao in greenhouses. |
| B．It will use the gene editing technology to plant cacao. |
| C．It will develop cacao that can survive in dryer conditions. |
| D．It will give financial support to help fight climate change. |
| A．Some new research and findings about growing cacao. |
| B．The influence that cacao plants have on climate change. |
| C．Problems cacao plants could face and the possible solutions. |
| D．The significance of working together to fight climate change. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】When John Todd was a child, he loved to explore the woods around his house, observing how nature solved problems. A dirty stream, for example, often became clear after flowing through plants and along rocks where tiny creatures lived. When he got older, John started to wonder if this process could be used to clean up the messes people were making.
After studying agriculture, medicine, and fisheries in college, John went back to observing nature and asking questions. Why can certain plants trap harmful bacteria (细菌)? Which kinds of fish can eat cancer-causing chemicals? With the right combination of animals and plants, he figured, maybe he could clean up waste the way nature did. He decided to build what he would later call an eco-machine.
The task John set for himself was to remove harmful substances from some sludge (污泥). First, he constructed a series of clear fiberglass tanks connected to each other. Then he went around to local ponds and streams and brought back some plants and animals. He placed them in the tanks and waited. Little by little, these different kinds of life got used to one another and formed their own ecosystem. After a few weeks, John added the sludge.
He was amazed at the results. The plants and animals in the eco-machine took the sludge as food and began to eat it! Within weeks, it had all been digested, and all that was left was pure water.
Over the years, John has taken on many big jobs. He developed a greenhouse — like facility that treated sewage (污水) from 1,600 homes in South Burlington. He also designed an eco-machine to clean canal water in Fuzhou, a city in southeast China.
“Ecological design” is the name John gives to what he does. “Life on Earth is kind of a box of spare parts for the inventor,” he says. “You put organisms in new relationships and observe what’s happening. Then you let these new systems develop their own ways to self-repair.”
1. What is the author’s purpose in mentioning Fuzhou?| A．To review John’s research plans. | B．To show an application of John’s idea. |
| C．To compare John’s different jobs. | D．To erase doubts about John’s invention. |
| A．Nature can repair itself. | B．Organisms need water to survive. |
| C．Life on Earth is diverse. | D．Most tiny creatures live in groups. |
【推荐2】About half a billion people depend on the ecosystems created and sustained by corals. And with climate change threatening coral’s survival, marine scientist Enric Sala had a goal that might have seemed impossible.
“We wanted to get into a time machine, go back hundreds of years and actually see a coral reef like they used to be everywhere, before we started exploiting them and polluting them and killing them all over the world, ” Sala said.
The goal was made possible during an expedition Sala led in 2009. The team traveled to a corner of the South Pacific Ocean, to see if the vibrant reefs there held any clues that could help them understand how to bring damaged reefs in other parts of the ocean back to health.
“The bottom was covered by thriving (茂盛的) coral. Vivid colors surrounded me - purples, reds, oranges, yellows and greens. It was so beautiful, ” Sala said.
His team presented their findings to officials in the island country of Kiribati. The government took steps to protect the waters from fishing and other human activity. But between 2015 and 2016, record levels of ocean warming damaged half the coral reefs the team had been studying.
After hearing that news, they lost hope for the health of coral reefs. Last year, they went in for another dive. Despite the reported conditions, the reef had somehow restored itself, filled with life and color once more. Sala and his team were overjoyed. This is something that Sala says can be owed to two key factors.
The first is, thankfully, half of the corals didn’t die. Despite the rise in temperatures, there were enough surviving corals left behind to help reproduce the reefs. The second was the Kiribati government’s decision to fully protect those waters.
“It has an abundance of fish. So they were eating all the algae (藻类) that would smother (窒息) the dead coral skeletons and make it impossible for the corals to come back. Luckily, other places like the Caribbean also witness the good change, ” Sala explained.
1. What unlikely goal does Sala have?| A．Schooling people to protect corals. |
| B．Preventing people from damaging corals. |
| C．Appealing to people to deal with climate change. |
| D．Going back to the past when corals were thriving. |
| A．Half of the damaged coral reefs restored themselves. |
| B．A flood of fish ate all the algae covering the dead corals. |
| C．The government protected waters and survival corals multiplied. |
| D．The government took measures to stop fishing and human activity. |
| A．It hardly offers enough nutrition to fish. |
| B．It has also suffered large losses of corals. |
| C．It is impossible for the corals to come back. |
| D．It has an abundance of algae. |
| A．How Did the Coral Reefs Restore? |
| B．Where Are the Damaged Coral Reefs? |
| C．What Does Biodiversity Show in the Ocean? |
| D．What Are the Disadvantages of Climate Change? |
【推荐3】The Monarch butterfly (帝王蝶) population has dropped to its second-lowest number on record in Mexican forests this winter. The forests are the insects’ winter home. The population decrease is worrying as the butterfly group is already considered at risk of disappearance.
Mexico’s government and the non-profit World Wildlife Fund (WWF) recently issued findings of their yearly joint study on the butterflies. The research shows that the Monarch butterfly presence has decreased to less than a hectare (公顷) of forest area. In the mid-1990s, Monarch butterflies could be found on around 18 hectares of the forests. The findings represent an almost 60 percent decrease in the Monarch butterfly population compared to last year’s study. It is also the second-lowest population finding since the first study took place more than thirty years ago.
Biologists blame the drop on higher-than-usual temperatures and dry conditions in the northwestern U. S. where the butterflies lay eggs. The weather conditions affect the growth of milkweed, the plant where the butterflies lay their eggs. When the young arrive, milkweed is their food for a time. In one of the planet’s famous wildlife migrations (迁徙), the butterflies travel south as many as 4,500 kilometers from places as far north as Canada. They spend the winter in warmer Mexico, where millions of the insects stay in trees that protect them from the rain and cold.
Monarch butterfly populations change year to year. As recently as 2021, the same study showed a 35 percent increase to cover around 2.8 hectares. Officials and activists called for more action to help the species. Such calls include the need to reduce threats of destroying milkweed and the need to protect forests. “We can’t lower our guard,” Jorge Rickards, head of WWF’s Mexico office, told reporters after releasing the latest data.
1. What can be learned from the second paragraph?| A．The reasons for the Monarch butterfly population decrease. |
| B．The findings of the research on the Monarch butterfly population. |
| C．The efforts Mexico’s government and World Wildlife Fund have made. |
| D．The effects of the Monarch butterfly population decrease on the environment. |
| A．Habitat loss. | B．Human hunting. |
| C．Weather conditions. | D．Their natural enemies. |
| A．Plant milkweed. | B．Keep the species in a reserve. |
| C．Promote public education. | D．Watch over the forests. |
| A．The Monarch Butterflies Are a Threat to Other Insects |
| B．The Monarch Butterfly Population Decrease Is a Concern |
| C．Mexican Forests Are the Winter Home of the Monarch Butterflies |
| D．The Monarch Butterflies Often Suffer When Travelling to Spend Winter |
【推荐1】You’re rushing to school and a man ahead of you suddenly falls down. Do you stop to help? In a study of bystanders, it was found that some people look away or keep on walking rather than stop and get involved.
“People tend to decide that no action is needed,” says Ervin Staub, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who studies the role of bystanders. “The first thoughts that come into your mind often stop you from offering help.”
Time and again, good and caring people fail to come to the assistance of others. They know they should act and however, for reasons they themselves don’t understand, people sometimes don’t respond. Why?
One thing we know is that the unclearer a situation is, the less likely people are to help. Let’s say you see something like vapors (水汽) coming out of a building. You ask yourself, “Is it steam (蒸汽) or smoke?” If you are not sure, you look to other people for a clue about how to react. If you see other people doing nothing, you think, “Of course, that’s just steam.” You don’t want it to be smoke, because then you would have to do something about it.
Another one is known as “the bystander effect”. This says that the more people there are observing an emergency, the less responsible each one of them personally feels. For example, if you are the only person in the world who can act to save someone in a dangerous situation, you are more likely to act. However, if you are one of 100,000 people who could save the situation, you would be happier if one of the other 99,999 people did it!
“If you notice trouble, force yourself to stop and judge the situation instead of walking away,” says Ervin Staub. Then try to involve other people; you don’t have to take on all the responsibility of being helpful. According to Staub, it is sometimes just a matter of turning to the person next to you and saying, “It looks like we should do something.” Once you take action, most people will follow you and also help.
1. According to Ervin Staub, when accidents happen, people’s first thoughts ________.| A．force them to give a hand | B．depend on others’ reaction |
| C．prevent them from helping | D．often lead to embarrassment |
| A．Many hands make light work. |
| B．More people, less responsibility. |
| C．The majority of people have the same idea. |
| D．People have a tendency to think twice before they act. |
| A．Call the ambulance as soon as you can. |
| B．Evaluate the situation and take action alone. |
| C．Stop and try to involve other people to help together. |
| D．Turn to others and ask them to take on the whole responsibility. |
| A．Stick to Your Decision. | B．Don’t Just Stand There. |
| C．It’s the Thought that Counts. | D．To Help or Not, it’s a Question. |
【推荐2】Pet lovers were very angry. Last May, a news article appeared online that said three states had passed laws limiting the number of pets each household could have to only two. The news spread quickly, as many people shared the article on Facebook and other social media sites. But pet owners had nothing to worry about — the article was made-up.
Many fake (假的) news articles are harmless, but others might have played a role in real-world events. When it comes to online news, even adults can have a hard time separating fact from fiction. Education experts say kids should start learning how to tell the difference early on.
Of course, there are plenty of reputable websites you can visit to read the news. Well-known news organizations, such as The New York Times and the Associated Press, have their own sites. But many other online “news” sources aren’t always trustworthy. And many students have trouble spotting when articles aren’t entirely true or are trying to persuade them to think in a certain way.
Real news organizations can make mistakes, especially when they have to report quickly on breaking news stories. But they usually print corrections.
Why would someone purposely publish an article that isn’t true? The most common reason is to make money. Websites are paid by the companies that post ads on them. Companies want to place their ads on sites that get a lot of visitors. So people create fake news articles with attention-grabbing headlines to try to get users to click on them.
Some of the biggest websites are trying to stop the flow of fake news. Last November, Facebook and Google banned fake news sites from advertising on their pages. Facebook is also working with fact-checking organizations to identify and flag fake articles. But experts say the best way to slow the spread of fake news is for people to be more skeptical (怀疑的) of what they read online.
1. What does the first paragraph serve as?| A．Explanation. | B．Introduction. | C．Comment. | D．Background. |
| A．Popular. | B．Resourceful. | C．Official. | D．Reliable. |
| A．People create fake news stories to make money. |
| B．The growing trend of fake news raises concerns. |
| C．It is necessary for kids to be able to spot fake news. |
| D．Most people can easily spot a fake news article. |
| A．Printing corrections quickly. |
| B．Limiting the use of headlines. |
| C．Encouraging readers to be doubtful about what they read online. |
| D．Developing a system to identify and flag fake news. |
【推荐3】Train travel can be a very fun experience. You can take in the beautiful scenery and have a relaxed travel experience without the trouble of air travel. Besides, trains are an environmentally friendly choice. Now, train travelers have an additional justification to go by rail. Deutsche Bahn, the national railway company, just cut the price of long-distance travel by 10 percent—a move which has drawn comparisons to the United Kingdom, where millions of people are now trying hard to deal with a 2.7% price increase.
This move, according to the company, came from the climate law passed by the government including a cut in the VAT—value added tax (增值税) -on train travel from 19 percent to 7 percent.
The new prices apply to trips over 50 kilometers, only if the passenger travels from one railway region into another one. Prices are also cut on special offers and additional services, such as fees for traveling with your bicycle.
Deutsche Bahn said, “We do not make any money from the tax cut, and are passing on all savings directly to ticket buyers.” According to Deutsche Bahn, this change is expected to bring in another 5 million passengers a year who’ll change to train traveling for the lower prices.
What actually causes it? Climate protection action. Decreasing the release of carbon from transportation is a key part of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and Germany is trying to meet its requirements to keep global wanning below 2℃.
In an effort to follow the new rules, Deutsche Bahn has planned on buying new trains by 2026 at a cost of $13.46 billion. Germany has already been greening its transportation. Hydrogen (氢) trains were introduced in Germany in 2018. The country is also testing power lines for eTrucks on the motorway.
1. What does the underlined word “justification” in the first paragraph mean?| A．Rule | B．Purpose | C．Reason | D．Condition |
| A．It is selfless | B．It is responsible | C．It is creative | D．It is big |
| A．The action from other countries in Europe. |
| B．The tax cut on train travel by the government. |
| C．The wish to attract more travelers to Germany. |
| D．The competition between means of transportation. |
| A．The importance of Germany’s climate law. |
| B．The development of Germany’s transportation. |
| C．Germany’s actions to offer better travel experience. |
| D．Germany’s moves to offer environmentally friendly transportation. |
【推荐1】Theoretically some trees could live forever, according to a recent essay that reviews growing evidence on long-lived trees.
Across the board, trees do not die so much as they are killed, write the authors of the review essay. Their killers are outer factors rather than old age alone. That is, there is no evidence that harmful genetic mutations (基因突变) occur over time or that trees lose their ability to continue to grow.
“Trees might live forever, but this does not happen,” says co-author Franco Biondi. “Tree killers include environmental risks such as droughts , wildfires, terrible weather and human behaviors such as woodcutting and fires set to clear forests for hunting or grassland.”
Tree longevity (长寿) interests researchers in part because trees and other plants remove carbon from the atmosphere, and older trees are thought to store more carbon than younger ones. The rings of old trees can also serve as an invaluable record of climate history, with wider rings indicating better years.
David Stahle, a geographer and tree longevity researcher at the University of Arkansas, takes issue with the belief that trees can possibly live forever. “The likelihood, all things being equal, that trees can live forever seems unlikely to me,” he says.
This hypothesis (假设) has become popular in the past 20 years as researchers continue to report having found little genetic evidence of aging in extremely old trees. And this is one of the review essay’s most important points. But evidence of aging could be out there and just not yet found.
1. What does the recent review essay mainly indicate?| A．There are a great variety of tree killers. | B．Trees could keep on surviving forever. |
| C．More trees die naturally than being killed. | D．Genetic mutations stop trees from growing. |
| A．Because the way trees grow rings is more interesting. |
| B．Because trees make clearer climate records than other plants. |
| C．Because older trees contribute more to the environment. |
| D．Because younger trees are less likely to have genetic mutations. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Uninterested. | C．Reserved. | D．Favorable. |
| A．The assumption has been proved true. | B．Evidence of aging trees might exist. |
| C．Tree research has grown in the past 20 years. | D．Some key points disappear in the review essay. |
【推荐2】The third-generation hybrid rice which was developed by Yuan Longping, the “father of hybrid rice”, and his team went through its first public yield (产量) and achieved high output. The final yield of the tested variety, G3-1S/ P19, came to 1046.3 kg per mu (about 667 square meters), based on two lands in Qingzhu Village in central China’s Hunan Province.
“Some previous (先前的) high-yielding hybrid rice in China took 160 to even 180 days from sowing to harvesting, while the period was shortened to around 125 days for the new type. This is one of the most important characteristics (特征) of the third-generation hybrid rice that can reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers, thus reducing cost and improving production efficiency (效率).’’ said Qian Qian, the deputy director of the China National Rice Research Institute.
Unlike the previous two generations that required a large amount of water and fertilizers as well as demanding growing conditions and technological support, the third-generation hybrid rice is easier to be cultivated (种植) by ordinary farmers. So the soil, altitude and climate of the test site were not “ideal conditions” carefully selected beforehand.
At present, Yuan’s team has nine third-generation hybrid rice under trial, which are expected to achieve commercial (商业性的) seed production in the following three to four years and hope to apply the technology into the research of sea rice. The third-generation hybrid rice has the strength to promote a greener development of China’s rice production with higher quality and yield.
1. How did the author convince the readers of the high output of the third-generation hybrid rice in paragraph 1?| A．By using statistic. |
| B．By comparing with previous generations. |
| C．By mentioning Yuan Longping. |
| D．By explaining cause and effect. |
| A．It needs less fertilizers. | B．It saves water. |
| C．Its growing period is shorter. | D．It costs less to grow. |
| A．It has a promising future. |
| B．It can be planted in the sea. |
| C．It has been cultivated by ordinary farmers. |
| D．It will not bring benefit in finance in the near future. |
| A．The Development of China’s Rice |
| B．The Road to Modern Hybrid Rice |
| C．Yuan Longping-The “Father of Hybrid Rice” |
| D．The Third-generation Hybrid Rice-The High Output Rice |
【推荐3】Scientists have discovered how plants manage to live alongside each other in places that are dark and shady. Plants in the deep darkness of a thick forest, where natural supplies are not very great in amount, won’t attempt to top their neighbors in growth as those in moderate (中度的) shade do. In deep shade conditions, it would be a waste of energy and harmful to survival because green shoots would never be able to top their larger neighbors in growth.
So how do plants prevent such growth in deep shade conditions? The secret lies in the clocks insides them, say scientists from the John Ines Centre and the University of Bristol.
They have discovered that when plants notice deep shade, this changes the expression of genes parts of the circadian clock (昼夜节律时钟) — the inner daily timer found in plants and other things. These clock parts perform an additional role in preventing plants from lengthening and overtopping neighbors.
The work identifies a previously unknown role of the circadian clock in controlling plant development and the findings may have possible effects on both natural plant populations and crops. Professor Antony Dodd of the John Innes Centre said, “The biological clock of plants plays a big part in their development and fitness. This work casts new light on a new role of the circadian clock in adapting plants to competition with other plants in their environments.” “It also gives us new insights into how plants adapt to very deep shade, where resources are very limited,” said Professor Kerry Franklin at the University of Bristol.
This work provides evidence for the firmness of the circadian clock in stressful environments, and information that may be useful in developing new generations of crops in a challenging climate.
1. What do plants normally do in moderate shade?| A．Struggle to preserve energy. | B．Compete for limited resources. |
| C．Try to outgrow their neighbors. | D．Depend on each other to survive. |
| A．By changing their gene expression. | B．By making them realize light change. |
| C．By helping them adapt to the darkness. | D．By controlling their growth in deep shade. |
| A．To share a new discovery about plants. | B．To introduce the role of the circadian clock. |
| C．To explain plants secret of living in forests. | D．To compare plants living in certain condition. |
| A．How plants face a challenging climate |
| B．Why plants respond to different shade levels |
| C．Why the circadian clock is vital to plants' growth |
| D．How plants become good neighbors in times of stress |
