If you live in one of the 40 million American households with a gas stove, it could be leaking even when it’s turned off.
According to a new study from Stanford scientists, many stoves are constantly giving out gases that can warm the planet and pose serious health risks when breathed in. The research found methane missions from gas stoves across the United States are roughly equal to the carbon dioxide released by half a million gas-powered cars in a year.
To estimate the impact of these emissions, researchers measured three key gases from stoves in 53 homes across seven California counties. The team chose two gases — methane and carbon dioxide — because of their contribution to climate change, and selected nitrogen oxides because of their known risk to human health. The scientists set up plastic dividing walls between the kitchens and other rooms and used instruments that measure wavelengths of light to determine the concentration of certain gases.
The team estimated that stoves release between 0.8 and 1.3 percent of the natural gas they consume as unburned methane. To their surprise, they found that more than three-quarters of the methane emissions happened when both old and new gas stoves were turned off. “Over a 20-year time scale, the global warming potential of methane leaks is 86 times greater than carbon dioxide,” Stanford reports.
The most significant health risks happen when the stove is lit, the authors note, because the process creates nitrogen dioxide as a byproduct. Increasing airflow by using a range hood can help reduce the personal health risk of natural gas-burning appliances, but most individuals report rarely using their ventilation system.
In a small kitchen, it only took a few minutes of unventilated stove use to generate emissions levels above national health standards. According to a meta-analysis from 2013, children living in homes with gas stoves were 42 percent more likely to experience symptoms associated with asthma, and 24 percent more likely to be diagnosed with lifetime asthma.
In addition to health risks, natural gas burning stoves also endanger the planet by releasing methane. The results of the study have furled efforts by scientists and activists to encourage Americans to switch to all-electric stoves and appliances.
1. Which gas leaking from stoves warms the earth most?| A．Methane. | B．Carbon dioxide. | C．Nitrogen oxide. | D．Nitrogen dioxide. |
| A．The measuring instruments. | B．The American families. |
| C．The team members. | D．The gas stoves. |
| A．When it is old. | B．When it is new. |
| C．When it is turned on. | D．When it is turned off. |
| A．Equip kitchens. | B．Switch to clean fuels. |
| C．Use sustainable energy. | D．Purchase electric stoves. |
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【推荐1】Bath or shower? How do you prefer to keep yourself clean? Whatever your daily ablutions, we know it’s important to have good personal hygiene. Nobody wants to smell, and nobody wants to catch your odour! A shower can bring you certain other benefits, but how often should we wash ourselves under a watery spray?
Although you might think taking a daily shower should be part of your cleaning ritual, there’s no hard and fast rule, although dermatologists agree that as a society, we shower too often. In fact, too much washing can deplete the vital oils in our skin. It can waste water as well. However, if you have a fitness routine that causes you to sweat, a more regular sprinkle of water is recommended to stop you ponging!
How often you shower is, of course, a personal choice. There’s nothing better than a hot, soapy scrub under the shower, and this doesn’t just have to be to clean yourself. Some people enjoy a shower to help them relax, warm up or to soothe any aches and pains. It’s also a good opportunity to wash your hair at the same time. Again, though, experts say we shouldn’t shower too often because, like your skin, your hair contains essential oils that you don’t want to lose through excessive scrubbing.
If the idea of a hot, steaming shower appeals, how about a freezing cold one instead? This might be a necessity if your boiler has broken, but some people choose this option because it has many health benefits, some experts claim. There is increasing evidence that braving an icy shower in the morning could keep illness at bay and may even help your brain stay sharp. A BBC podcast called Just One Thing with Michael Mosley, found the shock of being doused with cold water could have a positive impact on your body and brain.
1. What does the underlined word “ablutions” mean?| A．smells. | B．benefits. | C．aches. | D．showers. |
| A．Removing the vital oils. | B．Relieving aches and pains. |
| C．Helping your brain stay sharp. | D．Curing you of some deadly diseases. |
| A．Why do We Take a Shower? | B．Why do We Prefer Shower to Bath? |
| C．How do We Take a Shower? | D．How Often Should We Take a Shower? |
| A．Too much washing can waste a lot of water. |
| B．Both a cold and a hot shower are good for us. |
| C．Taking a cold shower is better than taking a hot one. |
| D．Neither a cold shower nor a hot one can keep you away from diseases. |
【推荐2】Assassin (暗杀者) bugs live up to their name. The insects expertly hunt and feed upon other small invertebrates (无脊椎动物), giving them a poisonous bite. Some species even hunt spiders and use a strange trick to gain the upper hand.
Using their antennae (触须), assassin bugs tap spiders, which appears to confuse them long enough to let the bugs make a poisonous strike, researchers reported on September 29. The findings provide insight into some of the complex hunting tactics that predators (捕食性动物) evolve when targeting dangerous prey (猎物) .
Assassin bugs spend their lives in a place most insects avoid: spider webs. The bugs silently creep along the spider’s silk, taking care to make their movements seem harmless before violently killing the web’s architect, seizing the spiders with their front legs and injecting them with poison.
While watching two species of assassin bugs hunt spiders, ecologists Anne Wignall and Fernando Soley took note of the bugs’ habit of lightly knocking their antennae on spiders once the bugs were within striking distance.
“It struck us early on that tapping prey was a really strange thing to do,” says Wignall. Spiders could easily defend themselves and kill the bugs. “Watching the bugs spend so much time and effort on avoiding detection, only to practically tap the spiders on the shoulder was absolutely fascinating.”
To figure out why the bugs tap, Wignall and Soley tested the behavior of 30 spiders in the laboratory. The researchers copied the bugs’ antennae tapping by gently brushing the spiders’ leg with a dog hair. After the tapping, the team measured the spiders’ responses to movements on the web, copying a struggling insect.
Tapped spiders were far less aggressive than those that weren’t tapped, fully ignoring the movements four times as often. Tapped spiders also attacked about 25 percent as often as their untapped counterparts.
Wignall thinks that the assassin bugs are reducing spiders’ aggression levels by imitating the types of physical touch that these typically solitary (独处的) spiders experience near fellow spiders. “Whenever they do come across another spider, it’s usually because it’s a close relative in the nest, or a potential mate. Both of which are situations in which aggression would not be a good idea,” she says.
Zoologist Ondřej Michálek, who was not involved with the study, says that the researchers have a “completely valid theory.” Many spiders avoid cannibalism (同类相食) by using special touch signals that could be copied by skilful predators, thus tricking the spiders, he says.
1. What is unusual about assassin bugs?| A．Their bite is poisonous. | B．Their movements make little noise. |
| C．They don’t avoid spiders’ webs. | D．They kill their prey violently. |
| A．They used a great deal of time and effort. | B．They were able to defend themselves. |
| C．They deliberately touched the spiders. | D．They were able to kill the spiders. |
| A．They are keen on physical touch. | B．They are pretending to be spiders. |
| C．They are usually solitary. | D．They are looking for a mate. |
| A．Why animals use complex hunting tactics. | B．Why assassin bugs tap their prey. |
| C．Assassin bugs have a poisonous bite. | D．Assassin bugs-a dangerous predator. |
【推荐3】According to a new study, putting preschooler(学龄前儿童) in bed by 8 p.m. could reduce their chances of becoming overweight or obese later in life by half. Preschoolers are children around the age of 4 or 5.
The World Health Organization says obesity can lead to serious long-term health problems like diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Researchers from the Ohio State University’s College of Public Health have found that young children who go to bed after 9 p.m. are twice as likely to be obese later in life. The researchers wrote their findings in The Journal of Pediatrics.
The lead author of the study is Sarah Anderson. She is a professor of epidemiology(流行病学). Anderson says that, for parents, the results of the study support the importance of creating a bedtime routine.
She says that having a usual bedtime routine is something “families can do to lower their children’s risk” of becoming overweight.
Researchers used data from 977 children for the study. These children are part of a larger project called the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. The project follows healthy babies born in 1991 in 10 cities in US.
When these children turned 15 years old, the researchers looked at their rates of obesity. Of those with the earliest bedtimes, only one out of 10 was obese. Of those who went to bed between 8 and 9 p.m., 16 percent became obese. And out of those with the latest bedtimes, 23 percent became obese.
The World Health Organization reported in 2014 that the number of overweight babies and young children worldwide had increased from 31 million in 1990 to 44 million in 2012. If that trend continues, the WHO warns, there will be 70 million obese children in the world by 2025.
1. According to the passage, the risk of obesity ______.| A．can be cut by half if children go to bed by 9 p.m. |
| B．can lead to low blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease |
| C．is the highest at the age of 4 or 5 |
| D．is higher for those children who sleep late at night |
| A．heavy | B．light | C．fat | D．slim |
| A．The research is organized by the World Health Organization. |
| B．The result shows that children sleeping before 8 p.m. have the lowest rate of obesity. |
| C．The findings are based on the data provided by The Journal of Pediatrics. |
| D．The research is funded(提供资金) by the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. |
| A．Objective(客观) | B．Disappointed | C．Positive | D．Satisfied |
【推荐1】When your pen is broken, the batteries (电池) in your toys run out, or you have some leftover food, what will you do with these things? You will probably throw them all into one bin. But actually, all of these pieces of rubbish need to be sorted (分类) separately.
Rubbish sorting is a big problem worldwide. In recent years, some Chinese cities have been working hard on it. Shanghai has worked with Alipay to create a “green account (账户)” service. Account owners get points by correctly sorting their rubbish. Through the Alipay app, they can exchange the points for milk, phone cards or other products. The city is asking all people living there to sort their rubbish into four groups: wet, recyclable, harmful and dry.
Wet waste is something you don’t want but that pigs can eat. Plastics, glass, paper and other things that can be reused are recyclable waste. Harmful waste includes things like medicine, batteries and bulbs. Finally, any waste that’s not wet, recyclable or harmful will go in the “dry waste” bin.
Many other Chinese cities are also sorting their rubbish in this way. For example, Shenzhen has been doing this since 2012. Students there also receive waste-sorting guidebooks that they must study. In fact, there are still many workers specially working for sorting rubbish by hand in China. There is still a long way to go. But it’s never too late for every Chinese to learn how to sort rubbish properly and protect the environment.
If you don’t sort your rubbish, all of it will go to a landfill (垃圾填埋场) and be buried together. These landfills can take up much ground that could be used for planting. The electronic waste you throw away, such as batteries or used mobile phones, can cause pollution. Other pieces of rubbish, like the metal part of a pen, can be used to make other things if they are properly recycled.
1. Shanghai creates the “green account” service in order to ______.| A．work with the Alipay app. | B．punish those who don’t sort rubbish. |
| C．exchange useful products. | D．encourage people to sort their rubbish. |
| A．wet. | B．recyclable. | C．harmful. | D．dry. |
| A．why we should sort rubbish properly. | B．where our rubbish can be dealt with. |
| C．how some waste can be recycled. | D．what waste can cause pollution. |
| A．There is still a long way to go in rubbish sorting. |
| B．There are many workers sorting rubbish by hand. |
| C．Students have to take waste-sorting classes in school. |
| D．Shenzhen has been doing rubbish sorting for a decade roughly. |
【推荐2】When nine-year-olds Ella Grace Rossen and Cash Daniels met in July 2019, they immediately connected. When their moms introduced them, they had no idea that the kids were about to become an environmental-activism powerhouse pair.
“We knew we could make a difference together, ” says Cash from his home in Ella agrees. “It was pretty much instant best friends.”
Within a short time, their meeting transformed into action, birthing the Cleanup Kids — a youth-led non-profit determined to make waves in environmental conservation.
Ella’s passion for the environment started with an early love of sharks and many first-hand encounters of cleaning up trash along the shores of Vero Beach. For Cash, the spark was ignited (点燃) at just seven years old, when a single plastic straw on the beach caught his eye, symbolizing a much larger issue. That’s when he became aware of the crisis facing thousands of turtles, seabirds and other wildlife, which risk death from consuming discarded plastic.
“My hope for the Cleanup Kids is that it’s not hundreds of kids, it’s thousands of kids who have joined us, and for that to have a chain effect,” says Ella. Member responsibilities include conducting at least one cleanup per month, documenting and photographing the collected trash, and sorting and recycling items. It’s a lot of work, and it hasn’t gone unrecognized. In 2022, out of more than 700 applicants from across North America, Cash and Ella were chosen as one of 25 projects to receive the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes.
How do you even begin to make that impact? Cash’s best advice is to start small. “I started with just a couple cleanups with my family. Don’t overdo it,” he says. “And just remember that kids may be only a small part of the population, but we’re 100 percent of the future.”
1. What do we know about Cleanup Kids?| A．It is aimed at making a fortune. |
| B．It is co-led by mothers and kids. |
| C．It helps kids make friends. |
| D．It focuses on environmental preservation. |
| A．Trash along the shores of Vero Beach, |
| B．A single plastic straw on the beach. |
| C．Turtles eating discarded plastic. |
| D．Death of the wildlife in the ocean. |
| A．Acknowledged. | B．Fruitless. |
| C．Wasted. | D．Inadequate. |
| A．A Cleaner Future |
| B．Friendship Between Two Kids |
| C．Young Geniuses in the World |
| D．Advice for Kids |
【推荐3】In the west of the Greek capital Athens, the fish market of Keratsini is busy early in the morning, with trucks waiting nearby to be loaded with fishes. But on his fishing boat, Arapakis sorts out something different—bottles, boots, plastic pipes and fishing nets, all dragged from the bed of the Aegean Sea.
“We are swimming in plastic,” said Arapakis, whose family has fished for five generations. “By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea,” he said, as recent reports noted.
That morning’s plastic catch weighed “about 100 kilograms,” said the founder of Enaleia, a nonprofit that encourages fishermen to collect marine (海洋的) waste caught in their nets. Since its establishment in 2018, it has worked with more than 1,200 fishermen in Greece to raise concern over the degradation of the marine environment.
Active in 42 ports throughout Greece, Enaleia provides fishermen with large bags for marine waste that they can put in garbage cans once back at port. For every kilogram of plastic they deliver, they receive a small amount of money, which is enough for a drink. Since October, fishing crews have dragged out 20 metric tons of plastic and old fishing equipment each month. Nearly 600 tons have been collected over the last five years. The collected plastic is transported to a recycling plant in the industrial area of Megara near Keratsini, to make new products such as socks, swimwear or furniture.
Arapakis said he went about the cleanup project after a trip to Greece’s Cyclades islands, where he saw fishermen throwing the waste gathered by their nets back into the sea.
Arapakis is convinced there has been a “mentality change” among Greece’s fishermen. “Previously we caught large quantities of plastic, but we only kept the fish. All waste was thrown into the sea,” said Mokharam, team leader on the Arapakis family’s boat. “The project brings practical benefits for fishing boats. In the past, the anchor was often caught by waste, especially nets, and the engine would go out. But now things have changed,” he added.
1. What can we learn about Arapakis from the first 2 paragraphs?| A．He was a successful fish trader. | B．He collected waste from the sea. |
| C．He liked swimming in the sea. | D．He had a large family to support. |
| A．Impact. | B．Worsening. | C．Improvement. | D．Research. |
| A．It will be sold at a high price. | B．It will be exchanged for food. |
| C．It will be thrown back into the sea. | D．It will be well dealt with for reuse. |
| A．Fishing is a tough job for fishermen. | B．The sea in Greece is seriously polluted. |
| C．He thinks highly of the cleanup project. | D．He still feels ashamed for fishermen’s behavior. |
【推荐1】In the Hollywood movie The Martian, actor Matt Damon plays an astronaut who grows food on Mars (火星) to survive alone on the red planet.
After seeing the movie, Washington State University physicist Michael Allen and University of Idaho food scientist Helen Joyner decided to carry out a case study helping students figure out how to farm on Mars. In the case study, students had to imagine they were mining on Mars and decide how to feed themselves there before starting on the journey. They got advice from Allen and Joyner on how to select crops and take the challenges of growing crops over long periods on Mars. Students used a scoring system to select three foods to plant on Mars.
Allen found the results impressive: among 30 students, “no two people have ever gotten the same answer”, he said.
Human travelers to Mars will likely have to make use of resources on the planet rather than take everything they need with them on a spaceship. This means farming their own food on another planet, one that has a very different ecosystem (生态系统) from Earth’s.
One challenge for those who would like to live on Mars is the fact that there can be no farming tools. Like real astronauts, students taking part in the study cannot take farming tools with them. As Joyner put it to his student astronauts, “You are starting with nothing.” Besides, students also have to deal with a very limited choice of diet. “If you had to eat a single food for the rest of your life, could you do it?” Joyner asked.
But Allen believes the case study is about more than farming and eating on the Red Planet. “I’m not teaching about growing food on Mars,” Allen said, “I’m teaching about living with choices. I’m teaching about problem solving.”
1. What made Michael Allen and Helen Joyner carry out the case study?| A．A trip. | B．A book. | C．A movie. | D．A lecture. |
| A．start with everything | B．try different tools |
| C．watch the movie | D．select three foods |
| A．They have a limited choice of diet. | B．They have a lot of farming tools. |
| C．They have to take part in the study. | D．They have to select crops on Mars. |
| A．how to look for foods on Mars | B．to know more about Earth |
| C．how to solve problems | D．to learn about gardening |
| A．a research on how to farm on Mars | B．a Hollywood movie The Martian |
| C．how to survive alone on Earth | D．how to design a scoring system |
【推荐2】Remembering names is an important social skill. Here are some ways to master it.
Recite and repeat in conversation.
When you hear a person’s name, repeat it. Immediately say it to yourself several times without moving your lips. You could also repeat the name in a way that does not sound forced or artificial.
Ask the other person to recite and repeat.
You can let other people help you remember their names. After you’ve been introduced to someone, ask that person to spell the name and pronounce it correctly for you. Most people will be pleased by the effort you’re making to learn their names.
Admit you don’t know.
Admitting that you can’t remember someone’s name can actually make people relaxed. Most of them will feel sympathy if you say, “I’m working to remember names better. Yours is right on the tip of my tongue. What is it again?”
Use associations.
Link each person yon meet with one thing you find interesting or unusual. For example, you could make a mental note: “Vicki Cheng — tall, black hair.” To reinforce (加强) your associations, write them on a small card as soon as possible.
Limit the number of new names you learn at one time.
When meeting a group of people, concentrate on remembering just two or three names. Free yourself from remembering every one. Few of the people in mass introductions expect you to remember their names. Another way is to limit yourself to learning just first names. Last names can come later.
Go early.
Consider going early to conferences, parties and classes. Sometimes just a few people show up on time. That’s fewer names for you to remember. And as more people arrive, you can hear them being introduced to others — an automatic review for you.
1. How will most people feel when you try hard to remember their names?| A．They will be moved. | B．They will be annoyed. |
| C．They will be delighted. | D．They will be discouraged. |
| A．write them down | B．say it to yourself several times |
| C．go early to parties | D．spell and pronounce the name correctly |
| A．Tips on an important social skill. |
| B．Importance of attending parties. |
| C．How to make use of associations. |
| D．How to recite and repeat names. |
【推荐3】Sunflowers are something most of us usually think about in August, but with the arrival of the seed catalogs(分类), winter is a good time to start thinking about which ones you might want to grow this coming year. Most gardeners are familiar with the tall giant sunflowers. But there are three or four dozen other varieties.
First, you need to understand that sunflowers don’t all bloom at the same time. In my trials I grouped. them according to bloom time. Early means they bloom in late July or early August. The mid-season ones bloom in mid-August. The late season sunflowers usually flower from late August to early September.
For the early sunflowers, in my trials Pacino was one of the best one year, but was not as striking this past year. It has yellow flowers, about four inches across, and is about two fee high. Other low-growing, early choices are the yellow Sunspot, Del Sol, or Dwarf Yellow Spray. The latter has a lot of branches as its name indicates. Double Dandy is an early, low, red and yellow combination.
For the mid-season choices, this past year my best performers included three varieties that attain heights of five feet—the red-orange Claret, the strikingly dark red Moulin Rouge, and the gold Sunny. Two four-foot sunflowers that I’d recommend for home gardens are the red-yellow combination Ring of Fire, an All-America Selections Award winner, Lemonade, with its interesting mix of light and yellow petals(花瓣).
If you are looking for a late season variety, my favorite is Titanic, a double gold, four-foot tall variety that bloomed much of September and into October in my trials this past year. Other good choices include the light yellow Valentine, the gold Soraya, and the double gold Giant Sungold. This winter, as you leaf through(翻阅) the seed catalogs as the the snow gently falls outside your window, think about summer sunflowers. Thoughts of these flowers are sure to warm the coldest of winter days.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．There are many different varieties of sunflowers. |
| B．The writer likes the tall giant sunflowers best. |
| C．You can try to grow sunflowers in winter. |
| D．Sunflowers only bloom in August. |
| A．Sunny. | B．Claret. |
| C．Moulin Rouge. | D．Dwarf Yellow Spray. |
| A．It is two feet high and about four inches across. |
| B．The color of it is a combination of red and yellow. |
| C．It can only be planted in the southern areas of America. |
| D．It usually blooms much of September and into October. |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
