Men’s consumption habits are worse for the planet than women’s, according to a new study. For the study, consumption-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were measured for the average individual, the average single male, and the average single woman. These were 6, 9, 10, and 8.5 tonnes per capita per year respectively, and more than half of those amounts were due to food, holidays, and furnishings.
What’s interesting is that single men and women spend similar amounts of money on consumer goods, but men’s choices lead to 16% more GHG emissions than women’s. That is because they choose to spend money on things like cars and driving, rather than taking public transportation or trains, as women are more willing to do. More of men’s money goes toward alcohol, tobacco, and eating out, while women often spend money on clothes, home furnishings, and health-based purchases.
Curiously, there were no differences in the carbon footprints of men’s and women’s diets. While men tend to eat more meat, women make up for that in dairy products, which are also carbon-intensive foods.
Lead study author Mannikin Okayama says she wasn’t surprised by the findings because previous research had showed similar differences between single men and women regarding energy use. Instead, she expressed surprise at the fact that more studies haven’t been done on gender differences in environmental impact. “There are quite clear differences and they are not likely to go away in the near future.”
The purpose of the study was to examine where individuals could make changes to their consumption habits in order to shrink their carbon footprints. The researchers looked for ways that would require minimal additional spending, so as to be more accessible to a greater number of people. They found that only switching to plant-based diets and train-based holidays can reduce emissions by 40%.
Policy-makers would do well to pay attention to this if they want to get serious in the fight against global warming.
1. What do single men and single women have in common?| A．They take public transportation. | B．They choose carbon-intensive foods. |
| C．They spend money on the same things. | D．They are concerned about climate change. |
| A．Men seldom show interest in dairy products. |
| B．Single men and women are different in energy use. |
| C．The gender differences had existed for such a long time. |
| D．Lack of findings in gender differences in climate change. |
| A．Gender differences have long existed. | B．Global warming is getting much worse. |
| C．Reducing carbon emission is not so difficult. | D．Consumption habits vary from person to person. |
| A．The measures to reduce carbon emissions. |
| B．The new data about greenhouse gas emissions. |
| C．The consuming differences between single men and women. |
| D．The link between consumption habits and carbon footprints. |
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【推荐1】People representing over 100 countries met virtually in Kunming, China, last week to discuss how to protect Earth’s biodiversity(生物多样性). This CBD Meeting（also known as COP15）ran from October 11 to 15, 2021.
There are so many different species. Sadly, species are disappearing all the time. One recent study suggested that around a million species are in danger of extinction. Like the climate crisis, the world’s loss of biodiversity is caused mainly by humans, who don’t always cooperate. Climate change is playing a part. The biggest way humans are causing biodiversity loss is by taking over the homes that all kinds of plants and animals depend on and using them for things like farming, mining, or cutting down trees for wood. Humans are also harming the oceans by fishing too much, and by severely polluting the seas with plastic, oil, and other chemicals.
In 1992, the world’s countries began signing an agreement called the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The meeting is being held in two parts. Last week's meeting discussed plans and goals for protecting biodiversity through the year 2030, which led to a plan called the “Kunming Declaration”. An in-person meeting will be held in Kunming next May to formally agree to the plan. One of its big goals announced in Kunming is to cut dangerous chemical pollution from farming. The plan also includes asking governments to cut up to $500 billion of their support for activities that hurt biodiversity, like some methods of farming, and producing fossil fuels.
CBD organizers hope the world's countries are really ready to work on biodiversity problems this time. In 2010, over 100 countries agreed to a 20-Part Plan to protect biodiversity by 2020. But none of the plan's 20 goals had been consummated by 2020. Solving the problem doesn't depend on what countries say they'll do. It depends on what they actually do.
1. What mainly leads to the world's biodiversity loss?| A．The disappearance of wild areas. | B．Worldwide climate change. |
| C．The serious ocean pollution. | D．Lack of international cooperation. |
| A．It belongs to the 1992 CBD agreement. | B．It’ll raise $500 billion to protect nature. |
| C．It advises stopping using chemicals. | D．It’ll be approved officially in 2022. |
| A．Explained | B．Ignored. | C．Reached. | D．Assessed. |
| A．The new trend of biodiversity. | B．The Kunming CBD Meeting. |
| C．The challenges living things face. | D．The different species on the Earth. |
【推荐2】At Mia's “Reuse-a-Palooza” party, eight colored bins contained items of matching colors. Staff arranged them in rainbow order. Materials included pipe cleaners, buttons, rings, funnels and tubes.
Imagine the possibilities
Jewelry, sewing, instrument making, and Reuse-a-Palooza have been the most popular themes so far.
Get this party started
Every Creative Reuse party helps our planet. It is estimated that each participant uses between half a pound and one pound of materials. Creative Reuse's executive director Ash Andrews says, “
The results are in
| A．The small shop has no windows facing the street. |
| B．The inspired kids created one-of-a-kind masterpieces. |
| C．Creative Reuse's birthday parties have helped the environment. |
| D．Creative Reuse officially began offering birthday parties in 2018. |
| E．That is important to us as an environmentally focused organization. |
| F．But there are several other themes Creative Reuse offers for parties. |
| G．Teaching artists from Creative Reuse came to Mia's home for her party. |
1. According to the statistics, what is the world average of freshwater resources per person?
| A．6,122 cubic kilometers |
| B．241 cubic kilometers |
| C．3,642 cubic kilometers |
| D．244,973 cubic kilometers |
| A．Guyana | B．Iceland |
| C．Brazil | D．China |
| A．Suriname | B．Seychelles |
| C．Canada | D．Bhutan |
【推荐1】Will printed newspapers disappear one day? It’s quite possible. Here are some reasons.
First of all, printed newspapers aren’t the only way to get information. You can find the same information on the Internet. Besides, you can read a lot of information online for free, which makes the Internet even more attractive.
Lots of people are becoming Internet users and most of Internet users read news online. For example, I usually get new information about events that happen in the world by reading short messages on Twitter. As far as I know, students in our university hardly read newspapers. One can argue that older generations may have been used to reading printed newspapers and do not want to change anything, but research proves the opposite. According to a study, the number of Internet users aged between 70 and 75 has increased greatly within four years. This fact sounds strange, but some of Internet users are over 73 years old.
Where do newspapers get their money? The answer is “advertisers”. It is quite expensive especially when you have a lot of other opportunities. Online advertisements are becoming more and more popular. It is good to both sides because it is easier to track (追踪) how many clicks have been made on this link than to find out how many people have actually read a newspaper and paid attention to advertisements.
Also, printed newspapers are not environmentally friendly. They need tons of wood, lots of electricity and many delivery (运输) ways to produce and transport the papers.
1. The first reason for the possibility of printed newspapers’ disappearance in the near future is that_________.| A．newspapers are not available to everyone. |
| B．newspapers is the only source of information. |
| C．the news in the printed newspapers is very boring. |
| D．the Internet provides a lot of the same information free of charge. |
| A．Old people also love new things. |
| B．Newspapers are losing their aged readers. |
| C．More old people are used to reading newspapers. |
| D．Old people are willing to change their bad habits. |
| A．They are not good for the environment. |
| B．They are cheaper and cheaper because of the Internet. |
| C．An increasing number of people become Internet users and read news online. |
| D．Advertisers prefer online advertisements because it is easier to track how many clicks have been made. |
| A．How people read news today. | B．Why the Internet is important. |
| C．Why printed newspapers may die away. | D．How people get information today. |
【推荐2】When you are learning English, you find it not clever to put an English sentence, word for word, into your own language. Take the sentence “How do you do?” as an example. If you look up each word in the dictionary, one at a time, what is your translation? It must be a wrong sentence in your own language.
Languages do not just have different sounds, they are different in many ways. It’s important to master the rules for word order in the study of English, too. If the speaker puts words in a wrong order, the listener can’t understand the speaker’s sentence easily. Sometimes when the order of words in an English sentence is changed, the meaning of the sentence changes. But sometimes the order is changed, the meaning of the sentence doesn’t change. Let’s see the difference between the two pairs of sentences.
“She only likes apples.”
“Only she likes apples.”
“I have seen the film already.”
“I have already seen the film.”
When you are learning English, you must do your best to get the spirit(实质) of the language and use it as the English speaker does.
1. From the passage we know that _______when we are learning English.| A．we shouldn’t put every word into our own language |
| B．we should look up every word in the dictionary |
| C．we need to put every word into our own language |
| D．we must read word by word |
| A．difficult to understand different sounds |
| B．possible to remember the word order |
| C．important to master the rules in different ways |
| D．easy to master the rules for word order |
| A．is the same as “Only she likes apples.” |
| B．is different from “Only she likes apples.” |
| C．means “She likes fruit except apples.” |
| D．means “She doesn’t like apples.” |
| A．the meaning of an English sentence always changes with the order of the words |
| B．The order of words can never change the meaning of an English sentence |
| C．sometimes different order of words has a different meaning |
| D．if the order of words is different, the meaning of the sentence must be different |
【推荐3】If humans ever hope to live on the Mars, the settlers will need to produce a series of organic compounds (有机化合物), from fuels to drugs, which are too expensive to ship from Earth.
Chemists from University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have a plan for that.
For the past eight years, the researchers have been working on a system combining bacteria and nanowires (细菌和纳米线) that can catch the energy of sunlight to change carbon dioxide (CO,) and water into building blocks for organic things. Nanowires are thin wires about one-hundredth the width of a human hair, used as electronic parts, and also as solar cells.
“On Mars, about 96% of the atmosphere is CO2. Basically, all you need is these nanowires to take in the solar energy and pass it on to these bacteria to do the chemistry for you,” said project leader Peidong Yang, professor of chemistry and the S.K. and Angela Chan Distinguished Chair in Energy at UC Berkeley. “For a deep space task, you care about the weight, and biological systems have the advantage that they self-reproduce: You don’t need to send a lot. That’s why this version is highly attractive.”
The only other requirement, besides sunlight, is water, which on Mars is relatively more than enough in the polar ice caps and likely lies frozen underground over most of the planet, said Yang.
It works like photosynthesis (光合作用), which plants naturally employ to change CO2 and water into carbon compounds, mostly sugar and carbohydrates. Plants, however, have a quite low efficiency (效率), usually changing less than one-half percent of solar energy into carbon compounds. Yang’s system is comparable to the plant that best changes CO2 to sugar, which is 4～5% efficient.
1. What is the function of the new biological system?| A．Reducing air pollution on Mars. |
| B．Carrying many organic things to Mars. |
| C．Helping to produce organic compounds on Mars. |
| D．Making building blocks without sunlight. |
| A．There’s plenty of CO2, water and sunlight on Mars. |
| B．Mars is much easier to land than other planets. |
| C．Spaceship technology has developed a lot. |
| D．Lots of oxygen was found on Mars. |
| A．It doesn’t need carbon dioxide and water. |
| B．It can be replaced by plants in space. |
| C．Its efficiency is higher than natural photosynthesis’s. |
| D．It functions based on rules different from photosynthesis. |
| A．Life. | B．Science. | C．Health. | D．Education. |
