Ford is turning McDonald’s coffee waste into headlights
Ford is recently including coffee chaff (谷壳) that comes off during the roasting process—into the plastic headlights housing (大灯外壳) used in some cars. It has asked McDonald’s, which doesn’t roast its own coffee, to connect it with suppliers.
In recent years, as consumers feel more concern for plastic pollution and carbon emissions, companies have made full commitments to reduce their influences on the environment. They’ve also been developing new, sustainable materials to build consumer products.
Traditionally, Ford uses plastic and talc(滑石粉) to make its headlights housing. The coffee version is more sustainable because it’s lighter and doesn’t use the talc which, as a mineral, isn’t renewable. Coffee chaff, on the other hand, is widely available, and much of it goes to waste. Eventually, Ford hopes to use the material for more parts.
Ford decided to work with coffee chaff a few years ago. But it’s been experimenting with organic materials for over a decade. The auto company has been using soy-based foam(泡沫) in its cushions since 2011. It also uses waste from wheat, coconut, tomato and other plants in its cars in order to help meet some of its sustainability goals, which include using more renewable materials. Once the Ford team figured out how coffee chaff could be used to build car parts, it reached out to McDonald’s because of the restaurant chain ‘s scale and its sustainability goals. Like Ford, McDonald’s also wants to bring renewable and recycled materials into its products. The partnership between Ford and McDonald’s is an example of how brands with different projects can work together.
“We’ve conventionally thought of cooperation as within the food industry,” said Lan Olson, senior director of Global Sustainability at McDonald’s. “The Ford partnership can help McDonald’s see what kind of larger impacts are possible when it works with a company in another field. This is just scratching(划开) the surface of trying to understand what’s possible,” Olson said.
1. Why is Ford applying coffee chaff to headlights housing?| A．To work with McDonald’s. | B．To do experiments in the lab. |
| C．To save resources and money. | D．To reduce environmental pollution. |
| A．Coffee of McDonald’s is so popular and has great potential. |
| B．Ford wants to cooperate with one in the food industry. |
| C．They have the same sustainability goals. |
| D．Different brands with different projects can work together. |
| A．Cooperation between the two brands just begins. |
| B．The cooperation is only on the surface. |
| C．Ford has a large influence on McDonald’s. |
| D．Only cooperation within the food industry is welcomed. |
| A．News. | B．Business. | C．Science. | D．Entertainment. |
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【推荐1】In recent years, the leaders and islanders of many small-island nations have warned that climate change is an existential threat to their homelands, fearing they could disappear under rising seas as the planet warms. But according to the latest research, small, low-lying islands dotted around the Pacific and the Caribbean—often seen as the places most vulnerable to global warming—can naturally adapt and raise themselves above disturbing waves.
A three-year study led by Britain’s University of Plymouth, which looked at coral reef islands such as the Maldives, found that tides move sediment (沉积物) to create higher altitude, a process that may keep islands habitable. These islands were formed hundreds of thousands of years ago by waves moving and piling up reef material or sediment to create higher ground—a natural defence mechanism that continues.
Low-lying island states are judged to be at greatest risk from increasingly powerful storms and rising oceans, with some making preparations to resettle their people within decades. Many are already building sea walls, appealing for international aid or setting up projects to repair damage caused by climate change impacts. The world’s tens of thousands of coral reef islands are mostly uninhabited, but are home to about one million people who largely rely on fishing or tourism for a living.
Scientists built a model coral reef and island in a laboratory tank with rising water levels and used computer models to reproduce how such islands respond to higher seas in reality. The results suggest that by choosing climate-adaptable infrastructure (基础设施) that allows for occasional flooding, like building on stilts (桩子) and movable houses, islanders with enough space could adapt to their shifting environment. Sea walls, however, are compromising the natural ability of the islands to adjust to rising sea levels. “If you stop the flooding of the islands, you also stop the movement of the sediment on top of the island,” said lead author Gred Masselink, professor of coastal geography at the University of Plymouth.
1. What does the underlined word “vulnerable” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Unnoticeable. | B．Beneficial. |
| C．Significant. | D．Sensitive. |
| A．Piling-up sediment creates a natural defence for small islands. |
| B．Disturbing waves keep the islands unlivable. |
| C．A computer model is used to provide more space for islanders. |
| D．Sea walls prevent the disappearance of small islands. |
| A．Casual. | B．Joyful. |
| C．Unconcerned. | D．Defensive. |
| A．Small Islands May Not Disappear Under Rising Sea. |
| B．Climate Change Poses Threats to Small Islands. |
| C．The Climate-adaptable Infrastructures of Small Islands. |
| D．The Perfect Solution to Rising Seas for Small Islands. |
【推荐2】Even as we humans keep polluting the world. Nature somehow keeps finding a way to help correct our mistakes. First, there is a molecule(分子)that helps reduce global warming. Now, a team of Yale students may have discovered something equally amazing — plastic eating fungi(真菌).
Pestalotiopsis microspora(微孢子)is the only known fungus to be able to survive only on plastic. The plastic is so hard that it takes thousands of years to break down on its own.
The best part is that these fungi can do the job even in an oxygenless environment, which means that it could work perfectly even at the bottom of a landfill.
The discovery was the result of an effort between three Yale students who were part of the Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory Program, allowing a selected group of students to visit Ecuador’s rainforest and seek out fungi and bacteria that live inside plants without harming them, which could hold medical or scientific promise. The samples are then brought back to the University’s lab where they do wide testing to see if they are of any practical or scientific use.
In 2008, a student named Pria Anand gathered specimens for one purpose — to find a microbe that could eat plastic. That’s when she came across the Pestalotiopsis microspora. Though she did show the unbelievable characteristics of the fungi, she was unable to get the desired results by the time she graduated, in 2010.
Luckily for her Jonathan Russell, a 2011 graduating student, picked up right where she had left off. By combining her work with research performed by another of Pria’s classmates, Jeffery Huang, he was able to separate the enzyme(酶)in the fungus that is the most effective in breaking down plastic.
Hopefully, experts will take it up from here and make the project a reality and help reduce plastic!
1. What is the main character of Pestaltiopsis microspora?| A．It helps reduce global warming. |
| B．It needs less oxygen to produce. |
| C．It can break down plastic. |
| D．It can be buried in a landfill. |
| A．Jonathan continued to study what Pria failed |
| B．Jonathan drove to pick up Pria when she got off |
| C．Jonathan came across Pria at an unexpected place |
| D．Jonathan invited Pria to go on with her research |
| A．There are some kind of fungi that can eat plastic. |
| B．These fungi can only work in an oxygen environment. |
| C．The discovery was made by chance. |
| D．A group of students made the discovery that fungi can break down plastic. |
| A．Fungi Love Plastic |
| B．Plastic Is Eaten by Fungi |
| C．Fungi Are Eaten by Plastic |
| D．Fungi Are Hidden in Plastic |
【推荐3】For breeding (繁殖) birds, timing is everything. Most species have just a narrow window to get the food they need to feed chicks. Now, after analyzing data that span from 1975 to 2017, a science team suggests that as the climate warms, birds are not only breeding earlier, but their breeding windows are also narrowed—some by as many as 4 to 5 days.
On average, the beginnings and ends of the breeding periods are occurring earlier in the year. However, the ends are shifting back faster than the beginnings, resulting in an average breeding window that is 1.7 days shorter in 2017 than it was in 1975. During that same period, Finland’s average temperature rose by 0.8℃, suggesting many bird species are actively responding to changing temperatures, Hällfors, who led the team, says.
“It’s good for the species if it’s able to follow the optimum conditions as the climate changes,” she says. However, the shorter breeding windows mean more birds are breeding earlier in the season—a risky time for chicks’ survival, especially if the weather turns suddenly cold. In addition, because many late-season species are shifting their breeding windows up, that could mean more competition for food and nesting sites early on, leaving some chicks to go hungry.
Lucyna Halupka, an ecologist at the University of Wroclaw, calls the study “a very important paper” because it’s one of the few ways to measure the breeding period duration. For 2 decades, she says, many scientists studying birds and climate change have looked only at the earliest, median (中间的), or mean laying dates for specific groups of birds. However, she reminds that because the study is limited to Finland, the findings may not apply universally; future studies should examine how breeding seasons move in other regions where the effect of climate change is different. They should also try to determine how shifting breeding windows affect population sizes, she says.
1. What did the scientists find?| A．The weather in Finland becomes warmer. |
| B．It is becoming more difficult for birds to breed. |
| C．The birds in Finland spend fewer days breeding. |
| D．There isn’t enough food for some chicks in Finland. |
| A．Exact. | B．Proper. | C．Changeable. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．It is carried out in a different way. |
| B．It is helpful for people to protect the birds. |
| C．It opens a window for people to learn about these birds. |
| D．It demonstrates the living situation of the birds on earth. |
| A．Scientists Revealed the Secrets of Birds’ Breeding |
| B．Scientists Take Steps to Protect the Birds in the Wild |
| C．Birds Play a Role in Fighting Against Global Warming |
| D．Birds’ Breeding Windows Are Affected by Global Warming |
【推荐1】“Tie an Italian’s hands behind his back, and he’ll be speechless.” This old joke conveys a rigid image of Italians: they are talkative and emotional, and all their arm movements supposedly go to prove it.
Susan Goldin-Meadow of the University of Chicago has a rather different view. Emotions come out in lots of ways: facial expressions, posture, tone of voice and so on. But people are doing something different when they use gestures with speech, which she sums up in the title of her new book, “Thinking With Your Hands”.
In effect, everyone gestures, not just Italians. Conference interpreters gesture in their little booths (隔间), though no one is looking. People born blind gesture when they speak, including to each other. All this suggests that cognition (认知) is，to some extent, “embodied”; thinking is not all done in your head. Gestures that accompany speech are a second channel of information. People who say they believe in sexual equality but gesture with their hands lower are not indicating women’s shorter stature (身高); they can be shown to have prejudices of which they may be unaware.
Child development is the focus of Goldin-Meadow’s book. Some students who fail at a tricky mathematics problem may gesture in a way that indicates they are on the point of getting it. They should be taught differently from the ones whose gestures suggest that they are entirely at sea. Goldin-Meadow believes that gesturing could play a larger role in education by addressing the student’s needs better.
This is well explained in the book’s last section. Teachers are encouraged both to use gestures themselves and to observe those their students make. Parents are taught to fill in the word a child is most likely to be missing when they gesture rather than adding information. Children with language delays caused by brain injuries at birth, but who gesture as much as their peers, are likely to catch up verbally (口头上) by the age of about 30 months. Those who gesture less are more likely to need early intervention.
1. What is the purpose of the joke in the first paragraph?| A．To show that Italians are talkative and emotional. |
| B．To set a humorous tone for this article. |
| C．To illustrate the relationship between gestures and speech. |
| D．To correct people’s wrong impression of Italians. |
| A．People’s gestures are not consistent with their speech. |
| B．Gestures help the speaker tell lies more easily. |
| C．People use gestures to hide their real intentions. |
| D．Gestures can express what the speaker really thinks. |
| A．Desperate. | B．Confused. | C．Incapable. | D．Frightened. |
| A．Practical advice. | B．Educational theory. |
| C．Typical examples. | D．Research conclusions. |
【推荐2】Having a microchip implanted in a man's brain may be common in sci-fi movie plots, but it may soon become an actual possibility.
Elon Musk -a US tech tycoon, founder of Space X- has been working on this technology. On Aug 28, Musk gave a display of the chip, which was implanted into the head of a pig named Gertrude.
The chip, developed by Musk's company Neuralink, is the size of a coin. But don't let its size fool you. The tiny chip has over 3,000 electrodes （电极）attached to flexible threads, which can monitor about 1,000 neurons （神经元）.It collects neural signals from an area of the brain, and then transmits those signals wirelessly to nearby computers, according to MSN. That enabled researchers to monitor Gertrude's brain activity while she was walking around in the display.
Though the technology is still in its early stage, it is encouraging for humans. This technology would solve a lot of brain injuries and is essentia] for Al symbiosis, which will allow the human brain to combine with an artificial intelligence.
When the device can be applied to humans, its main goal will be to help those who have mobility difficulties. Musk hopes this technology can also be used to help those with hearing and eyesight issues.
Although such a device could repair those problems, putting it into practice is by no means a piece of cake. Currently, the device can transmit signals from about 500 neurons in the pig's brain. Compared to 80 billion neurons in a human brain, this number is tiny. And to cover the whole human brain also means the electrodes have to be much smaller.
Also, implanting the chip into the brain poses a potential danger. There is a risk of the immune system attacking this foreign body.
Right now, the hope of controlling the brain via controlling a few neurons seems overly optimistic. "There are many technological challenges ... to overcome before Neuralink can put its devices to the purposes," Yuan Lanfeng, an associate professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, told China Daily.
1. What do we know about Elon Musk's microchip?| A．It was inspired by sci-fi movie plots. |
| B．It is able to collect wireless signals. |
| C．It is tiny in size but powerful in function. |
| D．It has been implanted into a human's brain. |
| A．The operation of the chip in Gertrude’s brain. |
| B．The attachment of electrodes to flexible threads. |
| C．The development of neurons inside Gertrude's brain. |
| D．The transmission of signals from a nearby computer |
| A．To monitor animals’ brain activity. |
| B．To help people with mobility issues. |
| C．To develop a cure for immune system problems. |
| D．To contribute to the research on Al technologies. |
| A．Worried. | B．Excited. | C．Optimistic. | D．Challenged. |
【推荐3】When you’re on a fishing boat, you may see flocks of birds following in your track, hoping to catch a snack. Now scientists say they can use those birds’ behavior to track illegal fishing boats.
Here’s how it works: Researchers attached data recorders to the backs of 169 albatrosses (信天翁) in the Southern and Indian oceans. The devices weighed only an ounce and a half, but they included a GPS and were able to detect the presence and intensity of radar signals coming from boats. That information was then transmitted by satellite, so the researchers could track the location of the birds-and thus the radar-emitting boats-in real time.
The scientists then cross-checked that data against the known locations of boats, gathered from a system that boats use to declare themselves, called the Automatic Identification System (AIS). And differences appeared frequently.
More than a third of the times the birds’ recorders detected radar signals, and therefore a boat, no such boat appeared in the official log (航海记录)—meaning that the vehicles had likely switched off their Automatic Identification Systems—something the researchers say probably happens in illegal fishing operations.
The work suggests birds could be an effective boat-monitoring tool—as long as illegal fishing operations don’t target the birds. Fortunately, such a task would be difficult.
“Around fishing vessels, you can get hundreds of birds at any one time that are all flying around. So it’s not really possible to target a specific bird. And the birds with recorders on are not marked in any way. So it’s difficult for fishermen to pick out a specific bird," said study author Samantha Patrick, a marine biologist at the University of Liverpool.
Patrick’s bigger concern is that albatrosses often get hooked on fishing lines. And though regulations have been established to protect against that happening—with success—illegal boats don’t necessarily obey. So scientists might be underestimating the risk posed to albatross populations. But this system could mean that those illegal boats may have a tougher time flying under the radar.
1. What behavior of albatrosses can be used to track illegal fishing boats according to scientists?| A．Seeking snacks on a boat. |
| B．Following a boat to catch food. |
| C．Monitoring the location of the boats. |
| D．Keeping an eye open for illegal activities. |
| A．To carry a GPS. |
| B．To record the birds’ behavior. |
| C．To help satellite transmit information. |
| D．To detect radar signals from boats. |
| A．They are probably fishing illegally. |
| B．They needn’t declare themselves. |
| C．They don’t want to emit radar signals. |
| D．They want to avoid being followed by albatrosses. |
| A．Birds—Humans’ Friends |
| B．Data Recorders—A Helper to Albatrosses |
| C．AIS—A System to Declare Locations of Boats |
| D．Albatrosses—A Tool to Monitor Illegal Fishing Boats |
