The moment you open your eyes in the morning, you can feel sweat running down your body, even if you’re barely moving at all. That’s what most people in China felt like this summer. In fact, the entire northern hemisphere(半球)saw high temperatures in July.
The Arctic Circle was no exception. Temperatures in the city of Norilsk, which is in the Arctic Circle, reached a record high of 32℃, the Atlantic reported. Temperatures there are usually just 10℃ at this time of the year.
The heat wave in the Arctic is mainly a long-term result of global warming, according to the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences. Actually, while the whole world is getting warmer, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. This is called the polar amplification effect(极地放大效应).
The most direct impact of Arctic warming is the melting of Arctic ice. According to NASA, Arctic sea ice is now disappearing at a rate of 13.2 percent every 10 years. NASA said that if this continues, the Arctic will have no ice by the year 2040. This has put some Arctic animals, like polar bears, in danger. The ice that the bears live on has shrunk, the Toronto Star reported. Melting ice can also cause sea levels to rise in the long term. Since 1993, sea levels have risen at a rate of 3.2cm every 10 years, the Guardian reported. Some countries, such as Tuvalu(图瓦卢)in the South Pacific Ocean and Maldives(马尔代夫)in the Indian Ocean, are at risk of disappearing into the sea.
1. What does the underlined word “This” in the third paragraph refer to?| A．The heat wave in the Arctic. | B．The result of global warming. |
| C．Getting warmer in the world. | D．The Arctic getting warm faster. |
| A．Sea levels rise in the long term. | B．The polar will become dangerous. |
| C．There will be an end of water shortage. | D．There will be no ice in the world by 2040. |
| A．Some countries in the ocean will disappear in 10 years. |
| B．China is the hottest in the northern hemisphere this summer. |
| C．The temperatures in Norilsk used to be lower than this summer. |
| D．The world gets warmer because of the heat wave in the Arctic. |
| A．Some countries may disappear into the sea. | B．Heat is hitting the Arctic. |
| C．The world is getting warmer than before. | D．Arctic animals are in danger. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Covid-19 and Climate Change
The World Health Organization officially declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020. This began a sudden drop in human activity, as much of the world went into lockdown and factories stopped operating, cars kept their engines off and planes were grounded.
Climate science can operate in real time.
The pandemic made scientists think about how to monitor greenhouse gas emissions-carbon dioxide in particular—in real time.
No dramatic effects on climate change happen.
We need to find ways to reduce emissions without the economic and social impacts of lockdown. Scientists have estimated that investing just 1.2% of global GDP in economic recovery packages could mean the difference between keeping global temperature rise below 1.5%, and a future where we are facing much more severe impacts—and higher costs. It’s essential that strong climate action is integrated into future investments.
| A．There have been many changes. |
| B．This isn’t a plan for climate action. |
| C．The risks may seem high，but the potential rewards are far higher. |
| D．They used information on lockdown as a mirror for global emissions. |
| E．This period has brought some entirely new and sometimes unexpected insights. |
| F．Unfortunately, green investment is not being made at anything like the level needed. |
| G．In the long term, the pandemic will have less effect on efforts to tackle climate change. |
【推荐2】As the climate warms, birds are shrinking and their wingspans are growing, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed 70,716 birds from 52 kinds of North American migratory（迁徙的）bird species collected over 40 years. The authors say the study is the largest of its kind and that the findings are important to understanding how animals will adapt to climate change.
"We found almost all of the species were getting smaller." said lead author Brian Weeks, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
"The species were pretty diverse, but responding in a similar wav." he said. "The consistency was shocking."
He said studies of animal responses to climate change often focus on shifts in geographical range or timing of life events, like migration and birth. But this study suggests body morphology（形态）is a crucial third aspect.
"That's one major implication," he said, "It's hard to understand how birds will adapt without taking all three of these things into consideration."
The findings showed that from 1978 to 2016, the length of the birds' lower leg bone shortened by 2.4%. Over the same time, the wings lengthened by 1.3%.
The evidence suggests warming temperatures caused the decrease in body size, which in turn caused the increase in wing length.
"Migration is an incredibly taxing thing they do," Mr. Weeks said, explaining that the smaller body size means less energy available for the birds to complete their long journeys.
He says the birds most likely to survive migration were the ones with longer wingspans and smaller bodies.
The scientists aren't exactly sure why warmer temperatures cause birds to shrink. One theory is that smaller animals are better at cooling off, losing body heat more quickly.
1. What's the best title for the text?| A．All of the Birds Are Getting Smaller |
| B．Animals Are Adapting to Climate Change |
| C．Climate Change Is Causing Birds to Shrink |
| D．Scientists Are Finding Causes of Warm Climate |
| A．It took 40 years to collect 70,716 birds from North America. |
| B．Many birds are shrinking when responding to the climate change. |
| C．All migratory bird species were collected to do the important research. |
| D．So many researchers take part in the largest study to work out the findings. |
| A．Tiring. | B．Important |
| C．Easy. | D．Pleasant |
| A．The migratory birds aren't big. |
| B．The temperatures will be higher. |
| C．The scientists will go on further study. |
| D．The smaller animals will surely live longer. |
【推荐3】The climate of any place is the kind of weather it usually has over a long period of time. The houses we live in, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat depend on the climate of the place where we live.
Climate is a pattern (模式) that is not nearly as simple as we think, and it is affected by many factors. For example, the distance to the North or South Pole or to the equator really matters a lot. If you live near either of the poles, you live in a cold climate, for the place where you live does not get as much or as direct sunshine as a place farther away from the poles. In places close to the equator, the climate is very hot, for they are the parts where the sun shines almost straight down.
Whether rain or snow falls makes a great difference to the climate. In hot, dry deserts, little rain falls, but in a hot rainforest, the amount of rainfall is far larger than that in a desert, for there is a heavy rain almost every day, even several times per day. Though a rainforest and a desert may be the same distance from the equator, their climates are rather different from each other. How much rain or snow falls is considered by some to be determined by the winds, the surrounding mountains and the currents (水流) in nearby seas and so on. In short, it is a very complex natural phenomenon (现象).
1. This passage mainly talks about ______.| A．weather | B．different climate |
| C．climate and its determining factors | D．the difference between weather and climate |
| A．almost the same; the general term of weather |
| B．quite different; the average weather conditions at a particular place over a period of time |
| C．not the same; included by weather |
| D．very much alike; bigger and weather is smaller |
| A．the amount of rainfalls |
| B．the winds and the surrounding mountains |
| C．the currents in nearby seas |
| D．How much sunshine the two different places can get |
| A．simple | B．easy to understand | C．rather | D．difficult to understand |
【推荐1】When high temperatures are around the country, some things also go up.Here are four things expected to rise along with our desire to stay indoors and beat the heat.
1.Sales of goods that keep you cool
Malls are high on the list of places where people often go for free air conditioning outside home in summer.
2.
Pests like stink bugs(椿象)grow fast during summer heat waves,and many agriculture experts are expecting a repeat of last year's outbreak that harmed fruit and crops,particularly on the East Coast.
3.Energy bills
4.Violence
Heat waves may cause violence,right? "Not necessarily,"says Richard
Larrick,a researcher.He took a unique look at the relationship between violence and heat through baseball.Larrick and his research team examined 57,294 Major League Baseball games taking place between 1962 and 2017 and found that while heat may increase violence,there always has to be a motive."
| A．Pest population |
| B．Air pollution |
| C．Rising heat is the expected response in any summer. |
| D．As more energy is used,air quality problems may occur. |
| E．More and more people are worried about their expenses. |
| F．Heat does not directly lead to more violence in general. |
| G．So it's not a surprise that some sales jump during heat waves. |
【推荐2】China is set to join a growing number of countries that are taking strict measures on single-use plastic items, with multiple bans expected to come into force gradually within the next six years.
The new policy, announced Sunday, will first take effect in major cities, where many of the non-biodegradable（非生物降解的）plastics found in the world’s oceans originally come. The distribution of plastic bags is supposed to stop in large Chinese cities by the end of the year, whereas smaller cities and rural areas have until 2022.Among other items are single-use straws and many disposable（一次性的）items. The effort was described as a global “war on plastic”.
Between 1950 and 2015, plastic production has risen from 2 million tons annually to 381 million worldwide, which has seen a rise in policies to reduce dependence on plastics. Extremely strict steps have been taken in many places.
Last August, the Pakistani government banned all single-use plastic bags in the country’s capital region, home to some 1.5 million people. While environmental protection groups celebrated the move, industry representatives warned it would come at a huge financial cost “They should first find new jobs for the plastic factory workers and then ban the bags,”38-year-old fruit seller Nazeer Abbasi told The Washington Post last year.
Last spring, the European Parliament voted to ban many single-use plastic items-including plates, straws and cups — by 2021. It also voted to increase recycling targets. Many E.U. member states already have built systems to encourage customers to return plastic bottle for recycling.
1. What are the multiple bans targeted at?| A．Recyclable glass bottles. |
| B．Reusable shopping bags. |
| C．Degradable plastic straws. |
| D．Disposable plastic plates. |
| A．By banning plastics once for all. | B．By taking measures step by step. |
| C．By conducting it in big cities only. | D．By performing it in small cities first. |
| A．He’s worried. | B．He’s annoyed. |
| C．He’s puzzled. | D．He’s disappointed. |
| A．To explain the causes of plastic pollution. |
| B．To offer tips about Chinese plastic production. |
| C．To share his own ideas about plastic recycling. |
| D．To introduce different bans on single-use plastics. |
【推荐3】A librarian in Indonesia’s Java island is lending books to children in exchange for trash they collect in a creative way to clean up the environment and get the kids to read more.
Each weekday Raden Roro Hendarti rides her three-wheeler with books piled up at the back for children in Muntang village to exchange for plastic cups, bags and other waste that she carries back.
She told Reuters she is helping to get the kids reading as well as make them aware of the environment. As soon as she shows up, little children, many accompanied by their mothers, surround her “Trash Library” and request for the books. They are all carrying waste bags and Raden’s three-wheeler quickly fills up with them as the books fly out. She’s happy that with her mobile service, the kids are going to spend less time on online games as a result.
“Let us build a culture of literacy from young age to lessen the harm of the online world,” Raden said. “We should also take care of our waste in order to fight climate change and to save the earth from trash,” Raden said.
She collects about 100kg of waste each week, which is then sorted out by her colleagues and sent for recycling or sold. She has around 6,000 books to lend and wants to take it to neighbouring areas as well.
Kevin Alamsyah, an 11-year-old reader, searches for waste lying in the village. “When there is too much trash, our environment will become dirty and it’s not healthy. That’s why I look for trash to borrow a book,” he says.
The literacy rate for above 15-year-olds in Indonesia is around 96 percent, but a September report by the World Bank warned that the outbreak of COVID-19 will leave more than 80% of 15-year-olds below the minimum reading proficiency level identified by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
1. Which of the following is not likely to be exchanged for a book from the “Trash Library”?| A．A plastic cup. | B．A new three-wheeler. | C．A waste bag. | D．A broken basin. |
| A．Meaningful. | B．Costly. | C．Interesting. | D．Unhelpful. |
| A．They are financially poor. | B．They read widely. |
| C．They would lose their identities. | D．They should do more reading. |
| A．Knowledge is power. | B．It is never too old to learn. |
| C．Kill two birds with one stone. | D．There is no royal road to learning. |
【推荐1】Have you tried to run or walk for exercise and then given up? If you answered yes, you should try a new kind of exercise: aquatic (水中的) exercise. Aquatic exercise is like exercise on land, but you do it in a swimming pool. More and more people are trying aquatic exercise now.
Aquatic exercise feels easier than exercising on land. Why? You weigh about 90% less in the pool. It is better for your knees than running or walking. Water is about 1,000 times thicker and heavier than air. To move through the water, your body has to work four times as hard. As a result, you can burn (燃烧) more calories (卡路里).
In fact, most people say they feel more relaxed in the water. They stop thinking about the things that make them worried. They feel in control (控制) of their bodies. The cool, quiet environment makes them feel good.
But what if you are afraid (害怕) of the water? No problem! There is nothing to worry about. Aquatic exercise is safe and easy to learn. It doesn’t require (需要) any special skills. You don’t even need to know how to swim. Aquatic exercise is fit for everyone.
1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The advantages (优点) of aquatic exercise. |
| B．Weight change of one’s body. |
| C．Difference between land and water. |
| D．The ways to do exercise on land. |
| A．Difficult | B．Dangerous (危险的) |
| C．Relaxing. | D．Boring. |
| A．done in groups | B．fit for everyone |
| C．difficult to learn | D．done with special skills |
| A．Culture. | B．Health. | C．Nature. | D．Travel. |
【推荐2】We're so attached to plastic, but we're careless consumers. Waste plastic is entering our ecosystems and food chains with untold consequences. Cleaning up our polluted world of plastic may seem a noble, but thankless task. However, some people are seeing economic opportunity in the mission.
Plastic Bank, a social enterprise from Canada, is monetizing plastic recycling while empowering those most affected by the waste. It works to prevent waste plastic from entering oceans by encouraging people in developing countries to collect plastic from their communities in exchange for cash, food, clean water or school tuition for their children. After collection, plastic is weighed, sorted, chipped, melted into balls and sold on as“raw material”to be made into everything from bottles for cleaning products to clothing.
“I saw in large quantities; I saw an opportunity,”CEO David Katz told the audience at the Sustainable Brands Oceans conference in Porto, Portugal on November 14.“We reveal the value in this material,”he added.
Plastic Bank was founded in 2013 and launched on the ground operations in 2014 in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western, Hemisphere, where close to 60% of the population live under the poverty line. As result of poor waste disposal and recycling infrastructure (基础设施)，plastic waste enters rivers or is burned and poses the health threats to the local residents.
The company says i has over 2,000 collectors working in the country, with its full- time collectors on average 63% above the poverty line thanks to the income they make from the project. Through its app based payment system, many collectors now have bank accounts for the first time, and are able to ultimately escape ultra poverty.
“Nothing we're doing is against the laws of physics,”said Katz. “All the technology exists for us to solve and save the world. It's only creative thought.”
1. What is Plastic Bank aimed to do?| A．Test out creative ideas. |
| B．Discover new material. |
| C．Promote plastic recycling. |
| D．Stop people using plastic. |
| A．Purchasing- collecting—recycling. |
| B．Exchanging collecting—purchasing. |
| C．Collecting- exchanging—reproducing. |
| D．Persuading consuming—reproducing. |
| A．Haiti attaches great importance to recycling. |
| B．Many locals benefit greatly from the project. |
| C．Collecting is an efficient way to recycle waste. |
| D．The project has solved unemployment in Haiti: |
| A．Companies stand to ban plastic consumption |
| B．Technology finds its way to kick off poverty |
| C．David Katz speaks at the conference in Porto |
| D．Plastic Bank is fighting against plastic waste |
【推荐3】The Internet has become part of teenage life. There's a report on 3,375 students aged from 10 to 18 in seven Chinese cities. It says that 38 percent of them believe they use the Internet often. While most of them get useful information and use the Internet to help in their studies，some are not using it in a good way. Many are playing online games too much. A few even visit websites they should not look at. Bad things can happen if young people spend too much time on the Internet.
In order to help young people use the Internet in a good way，a textbook on good Internet behavior has started to be used in some Shanghai middle schools this term. It uses real examples to teach students all about good ways of using the Internet. It gives useful advice. For example, it's good to read news or find helpful information to study. Some students also make online friends. But if you are meeting a friend off line，let your parents know.
Teachers and parents all think the book is a very good idea. It will teach students how to be a good person in the online world. It will be a guide for teens to use the Internet and keep students away from bad sites.
1. From the report, about ______ students between 10——18 years old in the seven Chinese cities use the Internet often.| A．3,375 | B．1,280 |
| C．2,100 | D．3,000 |
| A．To make online friends. |
| B．To play online games. |
| C．To get useful information to help in their studies. |
| D．To visit websites they should not look at. |
| A．Because it helps with the students' studies. |
| B．Because it gives useful information for studying. |
| C．Because it is used in Shanghai middle schools. |
| D．Because it teaches students how to be a good person in the online world. |
| A．The Internet has become part of teenage life. | B．Students can't use the Internet. |
| C．Be careful when using the Internet. | D．How to be a good person. |
