Over the last 50 years, the environmental movement has become so closely associated with the color green that it’s almost impossible to see a green poster, label or recycling bag without thinking about our plane’s future. But though that connection is the product of a very recent crisis, its origins go back some way. We have identified green with nature and its processes for thousands of years. Indeed, the very word “green” comes from the ancient Proto-Indo-European word ghre, meaning “grow”.
The human species has a special biological bond with green. Unlike most mammals, which are red-green color blind, we developed a third cone cell. This additional photoreceptor (光感受器) enabled our ancestors to spot ripe red and yellow fruits against the green ones, and to distinguish different green leaves from each other. In daylight conditions, human eyes are more sensitive to green than any other colors.
All over the world, people shared feelings with nature through green materials. Jade, for instance, was used to make objects that would guarantee a successful harvest. The Maya buried their leaders with jade masks for this reason. The ancient Egyptians, who were farming the banks of the Nile from about 8000 BC, identified their crops with green. Their term for the color was wadj, which also meant flourish (繁荣). Egyptian painters often described their god of agriculture, Osiris, as a bright green being.
While the future of our planet remains uncertain, many scientists are convinced that leaves will prove to be a decisive weapon in our battle against climate change. This is as it should be. After all, for early farmers waiting for schools to emerge from the soil and for modern-day activists determined to bring about a sustainable future, green was, and is, a color of hope—after a long cold winter or a drought-ridden summer, the arrival of green will signal a new beginning.
1. What has happened over the past 50 years according to the text?| A．People have been used to buying recycled paper bags. |
| B．A large number of posters have been designed by artists. |
| C．Many factories have closed down due to the serious pollution. |
| D．The environmental movement has greatly affected the Earth’s future. |
| A．They have a special bond with red. |
| B．Their eyes are more sensitive to red. |
| C．They lack a kind of photoreceptor cell. |
| D．Their brains have additional photoreceptors. |
| A．By making a comparison. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By raisin a question. | D．By using statistics. |
| A．Crucial. | B．Abstract. | C．Complex. | D．Distant. |
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【推荐1】Do you know that forests cover an estimated 38 percent of the total land surface of the European Union(EU)?And that these extensive areas covered with trees and underbrush need to be protected so they can continue to do good for the environment for the next generation? Now the EU has just come up with its ambitious new "Forest Strategy".
Forests can fight against climate change and prevent biodiversity loss. They can reduce the impacts of climate change by cooling down cities, protecting us from heavy flooding, and reducing drought impacts. They are valuable ecosystems that are home to a major part of the world's plants and animals. But forests also improve our health and well-being through functions like water regulation, erosion(侵蚀)control and air purification. And they serve as ideal settings for "recreation, relaxation and learning, as well as securing livelihoods".
This new European-wide forest conservation vision takes in an impressive commitment to plant a minimum of three billion additional trees over the next decade. This is an ambitious plan but a long overdue one because forests have been battered by severe weather and human impacts, particularly the demand for wood over the last ten years. As the EU Observer puts it, "extreme weather events and the increasing demand for forest services and products, driven by wood-based bioenergy and international trade, have accelerated tree cover loss in the last decade."
This EU strategy takes into account the complexity of forest sustainability(可持续性). Observation, knowledge exchange, ongoing monitoring and close cooperation between public and private organizations and individuals are also key elements in this new continent-wide forest protection strategy.
This is a future-focused blueprint, designed to protect these precious green areas, and ensure that the trees and greenery are here to stay!
1. Why are two questions raised in the beginning?| A．To show the EU's forest coverage. | B．To call on people to protect forests. |
| C．To encourage more forest expansion. | D．To explain the reason for the strategy. |
| A．The importance of forests. | B．The environmental role of forests. |
| C．The background of the strategy. | D．The urgency of the strategy. |
| A．Struck. | B．Controlled. | C．Damaged. | D．Removed. |
| A．Planting Trees for the World | B．Taking Forests into the Future |
| C．EU's Action to Protect the Earth | D．Irreplaceable Benefits of Forests |
【推荐2】When Malaika Vaz was a kid, living in Goa, India, she was constantly surrounded by nature. Among her childhood experiences, she recalls journeys to the Arctic and Antarctic, climbing mountains, diving, and windsurfing.
At some point in her late teens, Vaz realized adventure didn’t really mean anything if there wasn’t an intention to protect the natural spaces we were exploring in. Motivated by her passion for filmmaking, she began to seek a way that would both satisfy her appetite for adventure and allow her to advocate the protection of the species and ecosystems she interacted with.
Today Vaz wears many hats in the filmmaking world, as a documentary director, producer, and presenter. After falling in love with manta rays (蝠鲼), she discovered they were being hunted illegally and started to dress herself as a seafood trader to get as close as possible to the issue. She traced sellers to figure out why the threatened species were being killed. She shared the shocking details in Peng Yu Sai, her Green Oscar-nominated film on the matter.
The subjects that grab her attention, Vaz admits, run the gamut. When she was asked to define her focus, she replied that she preferred variety. She always argues that the issues she looks into are more interrelated than they may initially appear. “I think that it’s exciting to dive into the different aspects of environmental stories,” she says.
Her work doesn’t stop at recording important stories; she also ensures the message is heard. From Vaz’s viewpoint, real improvement in planetary protection lies in the hands of each of us rather than just those of several environmentalists. “If you’re an engineer and you care about the natural world, you can change the kind of construction materials you use. If you’re a teacher loving nature, you can bring that into the learning for your class.” she says.
As a filmmaker, Vaz believes it’s important to figure out ways that attract the audience who can push for the protection of the natural world.
1. What did Malaika Vaz decide to do in her late teens?| A．Motivate children to get close to nature. |
| B．Make a film about her childhood experiences. |
| C．Develop a passion for an adventurous lifestyle. |
| D．Combine nature exploration with nature conservation. |
| A．The role of manta rays in the local economy. | B．Vaz’s personal life as a seafood trader. |
| C．The threatened species in India. | D．The illegal trade in manta rays. |
| A．Are quite popular. | B．Cover a wide range. |
| C．Make little progress. | D．Are hard to deal with. |
| A．Human beings are closely linked to nature. |
| B．Stories are effective in changing people’s behavior. |
| C．Everyone can make a difference to the environment. |
| D．Environmentalists play a big part in solving environmental issues. |
【推荐3】Cristina Mittermeier is a marine biologist, activist and multi-award-winning photographer who has given her life to ocean protection. Recognised as being one of the world’s most influential conservation photographers, Cristina has travelled to 132 countries to achieve her goal — to communicate the immediate need to protect wild places.
She began her career as a marine biologist, but soon realised that she could better work for the interests of the oceans and the planet through her camera than with scientific data. In her eyes, science is basic to understanding what is happening to our planet, but it fails to convey (传递) the emotions that make us care.
According to Cristina, photography allows us to humanise (使人性化) stories and create something meaningful, and she had an urgent need to share the difficult situation of the planet. For her, it’s all about the emotional connections we can establish with the subject matter. She loves creating pictures that engages people in conversations and makes them stop and think. Establishing a successful career as a photographer has not been an easy journey. She worked hard at teaching herself the basics of photography and then she went back to school to learn more about the underpinnings of fine art.
When asked what has inspired her focus on marine life, she replied, “The ocean is barely mentioned but it is the largest ecosystem on our planet and is the ecosystem that has the most influence on Earth. It absorbs at least 25% of all emissions and most of the heat on our planet. I want people to recognise that the ocean isn’t just hurt by climate change — it is our solution. If our oceans die — and they are dying — we will die with them. Life on Earth is not possible without a living ocean.”
1. What goal did Cristina intend to achieve in her travels?| A．To take more wonderful pictures. |
| B．To urge people to protect the wild places. |
| C．To work for the non-for-profit organization. |
| D．To become the world’s most influential photographer. |
| A．She was bored with her career as a marine biologist. |
| B．She can’t understand what is happening to our planet. |
| C．She can convey emotional information through her camera. |
| D．She wants to establish a successful career as a photographer. |
| A．Because of the marine life. |
| B．Because of the great emissions. |
| C．Because of her love for the ocean. |
| D．Because of the ocean’s importance. |
| A．Powerful. | B．Patient. | C．Responsible. | D．Intelligent. |
【推荐1】The therapy (疗法) program “changed my entire way of thinking, and I was able to apply it to other parts of my life as well,” says Genova, who spent 20 years conducting clinical research on anxiety disorders and other behavioral and public health issues before founding Socially Speaking, a social performance and anxiety coaching business.
Anxiety — as it refers to a set of disorders including social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, which Genova also has — affects more than 18% of the U.S. adult population each year. That makes it the most common mental illness in the country, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
“Anxiety is definitely becoming more common. Chances are, you know someone who suffers from it,” says Angelique Mason, a family nurse practitioner with Penn Medicine at Woodbury Heights in New Jersey, who often sees patients with a range of anxiety disorders.
Incidence of anxiety was on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic (流行病), but that global health crisis (危机) and following financial and social disorders just threw gas on the anxiety fire for a majority of Americans. An October 2020 survey from the American Psychiatric Association found 62% of Americans feel more anxious than they did at the same time the previous year, a sizable increase over APA surveys conducted over the past three years, in which the number had ranged between 32% and 39%.
Moe Gelbart, director of behavioral health at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, California, mentions that “we’re experiencing the highest rates of anxiety we have ever seen. Reasons include fear of the unknown and feelings of helplessness and lack of control.”
Lawrence Lovell, a licensed mental health adviser based in New York City, and founder of Breakthrough Solutions, points to a 2021 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation that found during the pandemic 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, up from 1 in 10 who reported those symptoms from January to June 2019.
1. What do we know about Genova?| A．She has been free from anxiety. |
| B．She thinks anxiety affects most young people. |
| C．She set up Socially Speaking 20 years ago. |
| D．She benefited from the therapy program. |
| A．The worldwide financial crisis. | B．The COVID-19 pandemic. |
| C．The increase of adult population. | D．The lack of skilled family nurses. |
| A．More Challenges on the Way | B．More Health Advisers in Need |
| C．Anxiety Affects You? | D．Patients Suffer from Anxiety |
| A．Global mental health. | B．America’s pandemic control. |
| C．Tips for relieving anxiety. | D．Types of disease symptoms. |
【推荐2】Last December, Warner Bros announced that its entire 2021 slate (提名) of releases would be going digital in the US, its most important market. It’s likely the same will happen in Britain too. This means that most people will be watching the most blockbusters (大片) such as Dune and the fourth Matrix film, not in cinemas, but on the small screen.
However, it’s not just about the pandemic. COVID has merely accelerated existing trends, because film streaming and the role of Big Tech in the film industry is shaking up the entire economics of filmmaking.
Today, the biggest players in the film industry are streaming services. There’s Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, and US telecoms company AT&T, which owns Warner, has its own streaming service in the US called HBO Max, which is expected to launch worldwide this year.
And this changes everything. For instance, though Hollywood has always had some creative accounting practices, it now seems completely reasonable that films do not have to make a profit in order to be successful. Why? Because instead of worrying about selling tickets to individual films, these companies are much more interested in maintaining your monthly subscription (订阅) fee, with their investments paying off not in the short term at the box office, but in the long run.
Streaming is also changing the form of what we watch. For instance, when Disney decided to make Star Wars spin-off (周边产品) The Mandalorian, it made it as an eight-part TV show, not a movie. This wasn’t a trick to save money. But it’s because the more important thing for streaming services is increasing the time you’ve spent watching. If you watch as the show is released week-by-week, you’ll have to keep subscribing for two whole months in order to follow it through to its conclusion.
Perhaps the strangest transformation though is the business models behind the streaming services. For everyone aside from Netflix, film and TV is just a valuable form of advertisement for where they really make their money.
The only reason Apple has a streaming service is because it’s a source of recurring (循环的) interests. Over time a monthly fee is more valuable than a one-off iPhone purchase, and is more likely to lock you into another iPhone purchase in the future, if they can watch Apple TV on it.
Disney actually makes most of its money from the selling of its resort holiday packages to its Disney theme parks. What Disney really wants you to do is book a pricey trip to Disney World in Florida. Disney+ is really about making your kids fall in love with their characters.
And what about Amazon? It is all about Amazon Prime, the company’s subscription service that bundles (免费附送) its streaming offerings with its other products and services, such as free shipping on goods. Once the company had hooked you in with the promise of some blockbuster films and TV shows… Well, you’ll suddenly find yourself buying a lot more from Amazon too.
1. According to the passage, what’s the consequence of Warner Bros’ announcement last December?| A．People in US and Britain will not watch blockbusters in cinemas. |
| B．There is no need for people to pay for films after they going digital. |
| C．All Warner Bros’ film release will go digital in 2021. |
| D．A majority of viewers will watch new films online instead of in cinema. |
| A．Steaming services are now having power over the film industry. |
| B．Streaming companies don’t care about what users watch. |
| C．The film industry no longer makes a profit from its films. |
| D．The film industry is now only focusing on short-term profits. |
| A．To overcome the inconvenience caused by the pandemic. |
| B．To help them sell their products with appealing services. |
| C．To get consumers to become more familiar with their products. |
| D．To provide consumers with more choices and better services. |
| A．Consumers can book Disney theme park trips on Dinsney+. |
| B．Disney began making TV shows to reduce the cost of production. |
| C．Apple may attract potential customers with its Apple TV+. |
| D．Amazon offers subscription services in order to promote its films. |
【推荐3】Whether you’re a citizen, consumer or investor, it is fast becoming a key life skill to make out greenwashing, a word meaning a company claims that its products are environmentally friendly but actually not green at all. Misleading, or not proved claims about benefits to climate can make it harder for people to make informed decisions. They can also weaken real efforts by companies to clean up their act and deal with the climate crisis.
The basic problem is a lack of clarity. Indeed, when it comes to spottıng greenwashing, it can actually be more helpful to focus on the color grey—because it is the many grey areas that have helped make greenwashing appear in particular places. These grey areas might be around measurements, definitions, best practice, standards or regulations. Even the language we use is very imprecıse, leaving lots of room for vagueness, confusion or complete cheating. For instance, what do words such as “green”, “sustainable” and “eco” even mean? You have no standards, measurements or definitions to judge by.
These problems are increasingly important when it comes to the greenwashing of investment products, such as pensions and investment funds. In recent years, there has been a sharp rise in consumer demand for funds that invest according to environmental, social and governance (管理) criteria, often referred to as ESG funds. According to the financial data provider Morningstar, the value of assets (资产) held in UK funds grew from £29bn at the beginning of 2017 to £71bn by the end of 2020.
With that much money at risk for high profits, misleading claims can effectively hamper the flow of money and resources into really green new plans and businesses, preventing global efforts from dealing with the climate emergency. “I describe it as the ‘teenage years’ of responsible investing, with a lot of experimentation, and a lot of people trying out new things.” says Ashley Hamilton Claxton.
1. Which of the following can be called greenwashing?| A．A product that is claimed to benefit the climate. |
| B．A product that is claimed to be green while not the case. |
| C．A product that can be washed in a green way. |
| D．A product that is absolutely environmentally friendly. |
| A．There are no such words as “sustainable”. | B．The language isn’t grammatically right. |
| C．The product’s description is not clear. | D．The company doesn’t say it’s “green” and “eco”. |
| A．Stop. | B．Clarify. | C．Put. | D．Divide. |
| A．Much money enables high profits. |
| B．Responsible investing is still at its early stage. |
| C．More money is invested in real green businesses. |
| D．A lot of people are unwilling to try out new things. |
【推荐1】Founded in 1998 by Andrzej Adamcio, the company called Anmet was originally started to provide manufacturing companies with solutions for metals recycling. In 2014, Adamcio began to recognize that there was a growing need for solutions, for recycling composite wind turbine blades (复合风力发电机叶片) at the end of their life spans. Using his experience in metals recycling, Adamcio began to work on ways to recycle glass and carbon fiber composite blades, and today, wind blade recycling has become one of Anmet’s main focuses and a major area for growth going forward.
In the long term, Anmet’s recycling solution involves the physical repurposing (赋予新用途)of glass fiber wind turbine blades. The company’s services start on-site: representatives will travel to a wind farm and dismantle the blade into sections, followed by transport of the parts back to the Anmet’s facility for reconstruction into architecture or infrastructure products. There are several environmental advantages to this type of recycling. For example, repurposing blades rather than completely destroying them via burning, breaking them into pieces or other means costs less energy, is less costly and produces less emissions and dust.
The company has filed patents for other infrastructure solutions currently going through testing at Rzeszow University of Technology, including geotechnical blocks (岩土工程砌块) for road slope strengthening. Replacing typical steel or steel-strengthened concrete road barriers with repurposed glass fiber wind blade components enables greater resistance to damage from corrosive(腐蚀性的) soil environments. The blocks can be adapted in shape to fit the needs of a particular situation. So far, Anmet has built and trialed early models of these blocks, and is working toward registering them for construction use within the European Union, with hopes of extending into the U.S. market as well.
1. What was Anmet’s initial focus?| A．Manufacturing wind turbine blades. | B．Dealing with metal recycling. |
| C．Recycling wind turbine blades. | D．Extending life spans of wind blades. |
| A．Build wind blades without using carbon fiber. |
| B．Repurpose retired wind blades for infrastructure. |
| C．Reconstruct wind farms into architecture. |
| D．Deal with wind blades using energy-consuming ways. |
| A．Take apart. | B．Break through. | C．Cut in. | D．Turn down. |
| A．They are filled with steel or steel-strengthened concrete. |
| B．They can scarcely fight against corrosive soil. |
| C．They can be adjusted for a special circumstance. |
| D．They have been used in road building in the USA. |
【推荐2】Laughter comes in many forms, from a polite and quiet laugh to a great hearty laugh. Scientists are now developing an AI system to recreate different laughs in proper social contexts. The team behind the laughing robot Erica said that the system could improve natural conversations between people and an AI robot. “We think that one of the important functions of conversational AI is empathy(共情),” said Dr Koji Inoue, the lead author of the research. “So we decided that one way a robot can empathize with its users is to share their laughter.”
The team have set out to teach their AI system the art of conversational laughter. They gathered training data from more than 80 daily dialogues between male subjects and the robot that was initially operated by four actresses remotely. The dialogue data was grouped into social laughs (where polite or embarrassed laughter isn’t involved) and laughter of joy. Based on the audio files, the algorithm(算法) learned the basic characteristics of social laughs, which tend to be softer, and merry laughs, with the aim of mirroring these inappropriate situations.
“Our biggest obstructor in the work was identifying the actual cases of shared laughter because as you know, most laughter is actually not shared at all,” said Inoue. “We had to carefully decide exactly which laughs we could use for our analysis and we couldn’t just assume that any laugh can be responded to. It was really not easy work.” The team said laughter could help create robots with their own distinct character although it could take more than 20 years before it would be possible to have a casual chat with a robot like we would with a friend.
“One of the things we’d keep in mind is that a laughing robot or algorithm will never be able to understand you or the meaning of laughter,” points out Prof. Sandra Wachter of the Oxford Internet Institute. “But with their development, they might get very good at tricking you into believing they understand what’s going on.”
1. Why did Inoue’s team develop the AI system?| A．To better understand human empathy. |
| B．To promote the social skills of robots. |
| C．To explore the differences between laughs. |
| D．To assist robots in identifying people's moods. |
| A．Repeat the details of the 80 dialogues |
| B．Distinguish people by hearing their laughs |
| C．Recreate a scene played by the four actresses |
| D．Master the features of laughs provided by data. |
| A．Potential. | B．Barrier. | C．Alternative. | D．Division. |
| A．Are AI systems going beyond human ability? |
| B．Can conversational AI really understand us? |
| C．Laughing robots are round the conner. |
| D．Robots become laughing masters. |
【推荐3】Researchers studied data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States and looked at the relationship between cups of coffee drunk per day and both total body fat percentage and abdominal or trunk fat.
They found that women aged 20 — 40 who drank two or three cups of coffee per day had the lowest level of obesity, 3.4% lower than people who did not consume coffee. Among women aged between 45 — 69, those who drank four or more cups had an obesity percentage 4.1% lower.
Overall, the average total body fat percentage was 2.8% lower among women of all ages who drank two or three cups of coffee per day.
The findings were consistent whether the coffee consumed was caffeinated or decaffeinated and among smokers/non-smokers and those suffering from chronic diseases when compared to those in good health.
In men, the relationship was less significant although men aged 20 — 44 who drank two or three cups per day had 1.3% less total fat and 1.8% less trunk fat than those who didn’t consume coffee.
Around 7 million tons of coffee is consumed globally every year. Dr. Lee Smith, senior author of the study, said: “Our research suggests that there may be active compounds in coffee other than caffeine that manage weight and which could potentially be used as anti-obesity compounds.”
“It could be possible that coffee, or its effective ingredients could be integrated into a healthy diet strategy to reduce the burden of chronic conditions related to the obesity,” Dr. Lee Smith added. “It’s important to interpret the findings of this study in light of its limitations — the study was at a specific point in time so trends cannot be established. However, we don’t believe that someone’s weight is likely to influence their coffee consumption.”
1. What can be inferred from the text?| A．Coffee has less effect on men than women in fat according to the findings. |
| B．The women aged 20 — 44 like to drink two or three cups of coffee per day. |
| C．The researchers found that the coffee consumers preferred caffeinated coffee. |
| D．Trends will be established to limit people’s weight by their coffee consumption. |
| A．The caffeine. | B．The decaffeinated. |
| C．The effective compounds. | D．The rich nutrition. |
| A．Developing a new coffee. | B．The treatment of obesity. |
| C．The treatment of heart disease. | D．The study of physical differences between the sexes. |
| A．A diary. | B．A guidebook. | C．A novel. | D．A magazine. |
