Parks are the beating hearts of cities, providing crucial environments for wildlife of many sizes as well as areas of rest and recreation for local citizens. Accessible via public transport, and located near a university, a stadium and the National Library, Warsaw’s Pole Mokotowskie Park provides green space for many people.
One of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s five pathways to transformative change for water management is to restore species population, ecosystems and the benefits that nature provides to people by using each city’s advantage. As more urban centres seek new ways to unite greenery into the built environment, projects of all sizes and stages add to essential corridors and stopping points for a range of wildlife.
Tasked with improving Warsaw’s Pole Mokotowskie Park’s natural sustainability, architecture company WXCA looked at ways of enhancing the elements that were already in place to better support wildlife. One of the most visible means was the removal of thousands of square metres of concrete (混凝土). Removing concrete in and around ponds and other waterways allows the city’s features to shape themselves naturally, in reaction to both the surrounding environment and the weather. Doing so can support biodiversity by removing artificial constraints and flows. More than 13,000 square metres of concrete has already been removed, with more removal planned over the next year.
For the human users of the park, the designers created education, activity, and art spaces. The Grand Salon, a grassland surrounded by trees, is for large public gatherings, and a handful of pavilions (亭) spread throughout the space provide visible means of monitoring the quality of the air and water. They also contribute to the park’s ecosystem through rainwater harvesting. As the temperature consistently rises, city planners are using the leaves and branches of the plants and mixed use designs to reduce heat islands, improve air quality and prevent urban runoff.
1. What do we know about Warsaw’s Pole Mokotowskie Park?| A．It creates a new way to the city center. |
| B．It serves different community groups. |
| C．It reminds the public to protect the environment. |
| D．It shows the locals are living happily. |
| A．Providing stages to show off creativity. | B．Taking advantage of the city’s resources. |
| C．Encouraging people to get close to nature. | D．Supplying various wildlife with more room. |
| A．Limits. | B．Factors. | C．Methods. | D．Damages. |
| A．By offering some shelters. | B．By collecting rainwater. |
| C．By monitoring the air quality. | D．By reducing high temperature. |
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【推荐1】On the edge of the Saudi Arabian desert beside the Red Sea, a city called Neom is due to be built. The city-complete with flying taxis and robotic domestic help—is planned to become home to one million people. And what energy product will be used to power this city? Not oil. Instead, Saudi Arabia is banking on a different fuel—green hydrogen.
A large US gas company, Air Products & Chemicals, announced that as part of Neom it has been building a green hydrogen plant in Saudi Arabia for the past four years. The plant claims to be the world's largest green hydrogen project.
Experts say that green hydrogen could be an ideal power source for many industries.
In Japan, a new green hydrogen plant opened near Fukushima—an intentionally symbolic location given the plant's proximity to the site of the 2011 nuclear disaster. It will be used to power fuel cells.
Europe is also investing in green hydrogen. The European Union drafted a strategy for large-scale green hydrogen expansion. "Large-scale deployment (部署) of clean hydrogen at a fast pace is key for the EU to achieve its high climate ambitions", the European Commission wrote.
Green hydrogen is a promising zero-emission technology for aircraft. But Airbus recently released a statement saying that significant problems need to be overcome, including safely storing hydrogen on aircraft, the lack of a hydrogen facility at airports, and cost.
And on the ground, green hydrogen has been identified as an alternative to some road vehicles. In the UK, hydrogen trains, trucks and buses are welcomed.
There are even plans for smaller-scale hydrogen systems that can power individual homes. In Australia, the University of New South Wales has created a home-based system that uses solar energy to create and store green hydrogen, which is changed into electricity as needed.
1. What do we know about the city Neom?| A．It is located off the coast of the Red Sea. |
| B．It will be crowded with robotic taxis. |
| C．It will be powered by a unique power source. |
| D．It has the world's largest gas company. |
| A．Nearness. | B．Significance. |
| C．Remoteness. | D．Similarity. |
| A．Some experts state that it could be applied to almost any field. |
| B．The European Union took great interest in its fast- paced expansion. |
| C．It can be employed in all road vehicles as a zero-emission technology. |
| D．Storing it safely on aircraft was impossible to handle. |
| A．Advertisement. | B．Travel guide. |
| C．Science report. | D．Newspaper. |
【推荐2】By 2025, water shortage will be a big problem for about 1.8 billion people. In a world where water resource is increasingly short, nations cannot afford to waste it.
Waste water is rich in carbon and nutrients.
Imagine that outside one of these small cities lies a lovely piece of land: on the surface it is aesthetically (美学地) built and provides habitats for local wildlife. Beneath the surface is wetland that treats waste water and produces energy.
The energy produced saved families from having to use firewood collected in the wild. This is not a dream project.
| A．This can provide ready access to clean water. |
| B．But that is exactly what we do. |
| C．A constructed wetland environment is already in practice on a small scale. |
| D．There is no longer any good reason to waste any type of water. |
| E．If collected and treated properly, it could provide “new water”, fertilizer, and energy. |
| F．This would reduce the need for fresh water for irrigation and energy for pumping. |
| G．Although waste water systems in large cities are effective, the whole procedure usually costs much. |
【推荐3】In the United States, people generate approximately 35 million tons of food waste every year, and as individual families, they waste about 30 percent of the food we buy. For the average four-person household with a monthly food budget of $1,000, that’s like throwing $300 straight into the garbage every month.
It’s not just the personal budgets that are affected by food waste, either - it contributes to the ongoing climate crisis as well. The yearly amount of water and energy wasted from uneaten food in America every year would be enough to power 50 million homes, and the amount of greenhouse gases produced from food waste was equivalent(相等的) to the carbon dioxide emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants, according to a 2021 report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
At home, the core issue is that people buy too much food and then throw so much out because the ingredients “do not match food preferences”,according to a 2020 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. It’s true that there are far more factors that contribute to waste within the food system than just the consumer behavior.“It’s so much bigger than a consumer problem,” said Pamela Koch, associate professor of nutrition education at Teachers College, Columbia University. But that doesn’t mean the personal efforts can’t still have an impact. “There’s so much that consumers can do," said Roni Neff, associate professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The process starts with “recognizing what we’re throwing out and what led to it,”Neff said. “If we understand our own patterns and what’s going on in our homes,” she continued, the next step is“figuring out how to set up the environment to make it as easy as possible to avoid food waste.”
1. What is the purpose of using figures in Paragraph 1?| A．To attract more cleaners. |
| B．To show the richness of food. |
| C．To tell the seriousness of the food waste. |
| D．To introduce the size of individual families. |
| A．Improving the climate crisis. | B．Reducing the personal budgets. |
| C．Increasing the greenhouse gases. | D．Changing coal-fired power plants. |
| A．Food system works well. |
| B．Food preferences are easy to satisfy. |
| C．Consumer behavior has been improved. |
| D．Personal efforts are encouraged to save food. |
| A．Fight against Food Waste | B．Study of Food Production |
| C．Save Money in Daily Life | D．Ways of Protecting the Environment |
【推荐1】There's lads of research that shows that spending time in nature is good for your health and well-being. But not everyone lives near a park. And not everyone can easily get outdoors. So, what happens when you bring nature into your home via TV? A new study finds that a virtual nature experience can have some of the same effects.
The researchers wanted to see if the same positive impacts of being out in nature would translate to experiencing nature virtually, study co-author Alex Smalley, PhD student and researcher on the Virtual Nature project in the U. K, tells Treehugger. “We were particularly interested in relieving boredom because it's a negative state commonly experienced by older people in care homes,” he says.
For the study, researchers brought 96 adults into a lab and caused boredom by having them watch a four-minute video of a man discussing his work at an office supply company. In a monotone(单一的) voice, the man described a conversation with a client, eating lunch at his desk, and how they determine the prices of products. Then, the study participants experienced scenes of an underwater coral reef scene from the BBC's “Blue Planet 11” series. They either watched it on TV, watched with a virtual reality headset using 360-degree video, or watched with a virtual reality headset using computer- generated interactive pictures.
Researchers found that all three methods minimized negative feelings like sadness and significantly lowered boredom. “I think we were most surprised that just watching nature on TV led to positive changes a Cross each of our measures, suggesting that even short, five minute bursts of watching natural history programming can have an effect on well-being.” Smalley says.
Originally; the impetus behind the study was to research benefits for people who were stuck indoors, such as those in nursing homes or people recovering from illness. But there are entirely new positive results in today's world due to COVID-19, “We never imagined a pandemic would mean the results might apply to such a wide part of the global population,” Smalley says. “We'd always recommend trying to get out into nature wherever possible but for those who can't, our findings suggest that digital experiences of nature could provide a short-term fix.”
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly focus on?| A．The analysis of the research results. | B．The purpose of the research. |
| C．The positive effects of being out in nature. | D．The negative state older people experience. |
| A．Some of them still remain to be further confirmed. |
| B．They fall short of researchers' initial expectations. |
| C．Some of them ate pot practical in times of COVID-19. |
| D．They are unexpectedly helpful to a wide range of people. |
| A．Profit. | B．Theory. | C．Motivation. | D．Application. |
| A．The Future of Virtual Nature in Nursing Homes |
| B．Suitable Methods of Enjoying Virtual Nature for sick People |
| C．Being Out in Nature Benefits Both Health and Well-being |
| D．Watching Nature on TV Boosts Mood and Eases Boredom |
【推荐2】The most commonly known use for ultrasound—high-frequency sound waves human ears can’t hear— is examining a fetus (胎儿) as a medical device during pregnancy. But there are plenty of other uses.
Many offices have occupancy sensors that use ultrasound to detect movements and keep the lights on when someone is in the space, and off when nobody is around. These sensors operate at frequencies such as 32 kilohertz, far above what the human ears can hear——which is a range from 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz.
Other products use ultrasound to deliver targeted sound, for instance allowing a museum to play a recording for visitors in one area of an exhibit without disturbing others nearby. Electronic repellents (驱虫剂) use ultrasound to keep rodents or insects at bay.
A similar product can even be used to disperse (驱散) teenagers; aging tends to reduce people’s ability to hear higher frequency sounds, so a noisemaker can annoy kids without adults even noticing. This has also let teens create smartphone ringtones their elders can’t hear.
Airborne ultrasound is not inherently (固有地) bad. But things can go wrong. A former colleague of Kevin’s used to hear strange sounds from his hearing aid when in rooms with occupancy sensors, likely because the hearing aid’s electronics improperly converted the ultrasound into audible noise. The noise was annoying, but not harmful. A similar problem tainted the research of one of our students, conducted in a room that, unbeknownst to him, had an ultrasonic room occupancy sensor in the ceiling.
One of us has conducted research in which carefully crafted ultrasonic signals secretly activate voice-control systems, even unlocking an iPhone with a silent “Hey, Siri” command, and telling it to make a FaceTime call.
Sound can also affect the physical world, as when a singer shatters a wine glass. Micro-electrical mechanical sensing chips—such as accelerometers used in car airbag systems and smartphones, and gyroscopes in drones—are susceptible to the same interference. Those systems can be attacked with sounds, crashing a drone mid-flight, or fooling a smartphone about whether it’s moving.
It’s well-known that sounds that are too loud can damage people’s ears and hearing. However, there’s little evidence of ultrasound causing bodily harm without prolonged, direct physical contact at high intensity. If you are accidentally subjected to extremely intense ultrasound (such as when holding an ultrasonic arc welder), you could experience an annoyance like a headache or a temporary loss of balance.
The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration warns of potential health risks from audible subharmonic by-products of ultrasound, so more than the ultrasound itself.
1. According to the passage, what happens as people get older?| A．They can hear sounds of frequency of 32 kilohertz. |
| B．They can hear sounds of frequencies which are lower than 20 hertz. |
| C．Their ears become duller and even completely deaf to high-frequency sounds. |
| D．They can hear noise that annoys a large number of kids. |
| A．Electronic devices can perform human commands. |
| B．Ultrasound has a clear effect on the physical world. |
| C．Both ultrasound and human-audible sounds can affect electronics. |
| D．The hearing aid’s electronics don’t change the ultrasound into audible noise. |
| A．Optimistic. |
| B．Worried. |
| C．Confused. |
| D．Reserved. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
【推荐3】In Australia, plenty of wild things can bite or sting(刺伤) you. Strangely enough, one of them is a tree. Now scientists have figured out what makes the tree’s sting so bad.
The rainforests of eastern Australia are home to a stinging tree known as Dendrocnide. Many people call it the gympie-gympie tree—a name given to the tree by native Australians. It’s covered with sharp, needle-like hairs that carry poison. If you touch a gympie-gympie tree, you won’t forget it anytime soon. The pain can stay with you for hours, days or weeks. In some cases, it’s been reported to stay for months.
Scientists have long looked for the source of this powerful sting. Now researchers at the University of Queensland have discovered what makes this stinging plant so painful. After carefully studying different kinds of gympie-gympie trees, the scientists were able to separate out different chemicals that the trees produce. This allowed them to identify a group of chemicals that they believed was responsible for the pain.
The researchers created artificial versions of these chemicals, which they call “gympietides”. Sure enough, when the scientists injected mice with gympietides, the mice licked(舔) at the places where they’d been injected, indicating that they hurt in those places. When the scientists studied the way gympietides were built, they found that they formed a knot-like shape. The shape makes the chemicals very stable, which helps explain why the pain stays so long.
The knot-like shape of the gympietides was similar to the shape of poisons produced by poisonous spiders and cone snails. The scientists were surprised to see three very different kinds of life all using similar poisons. Spiders and cone snails carry poisons because they catch food by stinging other creatures. It’s not clear how stinging helps the gympie-gympie tree.
Though the tree’s sting may stop some animals from eating it, it doesn’t stop all animals. Beetles and pademelons (small relatives of the kangaroo) are able to eat the plant without trouble.
1. Why is a touch on the stinging tree unforgettable?| A．Because it has so unusual an appearance. | B．Because it is extremely rare in existence. |
| C．Because touching it creates a quite strange feeling. | D．Because the pain caused by it doesn’t go away quickly. |
| A．How it produces poisons. | B．What poisons it produces. |
| C．How it benefits from the sting. | D．The consequences of its sting. |
| A．It produces the same poisons as spiders. | B．Poisonous as it is, it also has natural enemies. |
| C．Animals are wise enough to stay away from it. | D．Only one chemical in it causes pain to the toucher. |
| A．Scientists Discover Stinging Tree's Secret | B．Caution: Stinging Tree Can Bite and Poison You |
| C．Scientists Discover a Strange Species in Australia | D．Effective Ways to Avoid Being Hurt by Stinging Tree |
