【推荐1】In today’s world, almost everyone knows that air pollution and water pollution are harmful to people’s health. However, not all the persons know that noise is also a kind of pollution, and that is harmful to human health, too.

People who work and live under noisy conditions usually become deaf. Today, however, scientists believe that 10 percent of workers in Britain are being deafened by the noise where they work. Many of the workers who print newspapers and books, and who weave (织) cloth become deaf. Quite a few people living near airports also become deaf. Recently it was discovered that many teenagers in America could hear no better than 65-year-old persons, for these young people like to listen to pop music and most of pop music is a kind of noise. Besides, noise produced by jet planes or machines will make people’s life difficult and unpleasant, or even make people ill or even drive them mad.

It is said that a continuous noise of over 85 decibels (分贝) can cause deafness. Now the governments in many countries have made laws to control noise and make it less than 85 decibels.

In China, the government is trying to solve not only air and water pollution problems but also noise pollution problems.

1. What kind of people go deaf easily go deaf?

A．People who work and live under noisy conditions go deaf easily

B．People who go shopping go deaf easily

C．People who exercise every day go deaf easily

D．People who like to do housework go deaf easily

2. The passage is mainly about ________.

A．air pollution

B．water pollution

C．noise pollution

D．world pollution

3. According to the passage, a continuous noise of ________ decibels can make people deaf.

A．less than 85

B．less than 65

C．about 65

D．more than 85

4. 10 percent of the workers in Britain are being deafened because ________.

A．they are working in noisy places	B．they often listen to pop music
C．they live near airports	D．they are too busy to listen to others’ talk

5. The government of China is trying to reduce ________.

A．only the air pollution	B．only the air and water pollution
C．only the water pollution	D．the air, water and noise pollution

【推荐2】India has the world’s worst air pollution. Home to 21 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, its poisonous air kills more than one million people each year. That’s partly because the South Asian nation is the world’s second largest brick producer. Brick kilns(砖窑)— which account for 20% of black carbon emissions globally—make a significant contribution to its terrible air.

Indian architect Tejas Sidnal was shocked to discover the construction industry’s role in the pollution crisis. “That was a crazy eye opener,”he says, “As architects, we should take responsibility for so much air pollution.”Determined to make construction more sustainable and tackle India’s air pollution, Sidnal launched Carbon Craft Des2019. “We found a way to add value to this recovered carbon by using it as a pigment （颜料，色素）in carbon tiles（瓷砖，瓦片），”he says.

To create the carbon tiles, Carbon Craft Design partnered with Graviky Labs, an Indian company that previously created “Air Ink”, a technology that captures carbon soot from cars and factories, and converts it into ink and paint.” Graviky Labs views pollution as a resource,” company founder Anirudh Sharma tells CNN. “We are one of only a few companies in the world to capture these carbon emissions and turn them into new materials.”

Since launching its first tiles a year ago, Carbon Craft Design’s customers have included global fashion brands and architecture firms in India. In November 2020, the company retrofitted an Adidas store in Mumbai, covering the walls and the floor with its carbon tiles. Architect Manan Gala, whose firm Bombay Contractors designed the Adidas store, describes the carbon tile as a “winner” for the construction industry. “As well as being sustainable, the product has better strength than conventional cement tiles due to the carbon content, and the raw and rustic feel adds to the overall charm,” he says.

“Carbon Craft Design is currently rising investment and hopes to start distribution in Europe this year.” says Sidnal, adding that “We are flooded with inquiries from in and out of India.”

1. What does the author want to tell us by the figures in paragraph 1?

A．Global pollution crisis.

B．Brick kilns’ side effects in air pollution.

C．Benefits of bricks production.

D．Significance of environment protection.

2. What can we infer about Sidnal from paragraph 2?

A．He cares about crises.	B．He prefers profits.
C．He’s a responsible architect.	D．He’s crazy about construction.

3. What can we learn from paragraph 3 and paragraph 4?

A．Carbon tiles are stronger than traditional cement tiles.

B．“Air Ink” was specially created to produce carbon tiles.

C．Global fashion brands and architecture firms join Graviky Labs.

D．Many companies can transform carbon emissions into new materials.

4. What is Sidnal’s attitude towards “Carbon Craft Design”?

A．Cautious.

B．Doubtful.

C．Self-critical.

D．Hopeful.

【推荐3】The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modern traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest problems is pollution. To pollute means to make things dirty. Pollution comes in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it.
Man has been polluting the earth. The more people, the more pollution. Many years ago, the problem was not so serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in one place, man moved to another place. But this is no longer true.
Man is now slowly polluting the whole world.
Air pollution is still the most serious. It’s bad for all living things in the world, but it is not the only one kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily.
Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air. Pollution by SO₂ is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. It is caused by heavy traffic. We are sure that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.
The earth is our home. We must take care of it. That means keeping the land, water and air clean. And we must take care of the rise in pollution at the same time.
1. _______, our world is becoming much smaller.

A．Because of the rise in pollution

B．Thanks to science development

C．Because the earth is being polluted day and night

D．Because the earth is blown away by the wind every year

2. Hundreds of years ago, life was __________ it is today.

A．much easier than	B．as easy as
C．much harder than	D．as hard as

3. Pollution comes in many ways. We can even hear it. Here “it” means _______.

A．rubbish(垃圾)	B．noise pollution
C．air pollution	D．water pollution

4. Air pollution is the most serious kind of pollution because _______.

A．it makes much noise

B．it makes us angry more easily

C．it makes our rivers and lakes dirty

D．it’s bad for all living things in the world

5. Which of the following is NOT true?

A．Many countries are making rules to fight pollution.

B．The pollution of the earth grows as fast as the world population does.

C．The problem of pollution is not so serious because there are not so many people living on the earth.

D．If people could go to work by bus or bike instead of car or motorbike, it would be helpful in fighting against the problem of SO2.

【推荐1】Amy Zhang, aged 21 , knows her parents have been pushing her to get her driver's license. Yet the college senior has no intention of getting it. A driver's license always struck her as a symbol that she was growing up. “I want to have independence and be an adult. But I didn't want to leave my childhood behind. ” she says. Contrary to the popular belief in the 1980s that a driver's license was a marker of independence, Zhang's viewpoint is increasingly common. When it comes to becoming an adult, more American adolescents now say “Don't rush me".

Many educators and parents view this slowdown with concern. They see a generation of young people growing up ill-prepared for life. Teachers say more students seem unable to function without their parents. And parents realize their 20-year-old hardly know how to do the laundry, and seems uninterested in driving anywhere.

But other researchers argue that the change in youth behavior reflects a reasonable adaptation to a culture and society changed from former generations. Instead of simply growing up more slowly, they are redefining what it means to transform into an adult. It is natural that people would start to grow up “slower".

Some researchers have noticed something more fundamental—a change in the definition of adulthood itself. For many young people today, becoming an adult has less to do with external markers—the house, the marriage, the job—than with how they feel internally. It's the acceptance of oneself, making independent decisions, and financial independence. Kelly Williams says in her best-selling book, “These individual actions add up to a generation that is different. ”

Members of this age group today tend to make decisions about work, education, parenthood with care, and when they are ready. They are more politically active, engage in more volunteer work and more connected globally than former generations. Indeed, many of the decisions young people make today are less about adulthood than about the world they are inheriting.

1. What can be concluded from Amy Zhang's case?

A．More American adolescents lack a broader vision.

B．American adolescents seem in no hurry to be an adult.

C．More young people don't accept American car culture.

D．American parents are too strict with their children.

2. What challenge are the young Americans facing according to Para 2?

A．Failing to express their concerns timely.

B．Losing curiosity about the world.

C．Lacking essential daily skills.

D．Being tired of traditional education.

3. What's the new marker of adulthood in some researchers' view?

A．How a person feels inside.	B．A happy marriage.
C．A successful and highly-paid job.	D．How much property they own.

4. What's the best title for the passage?

A．Where the new generation is to go?	B．How Americans interpret adulthood?
C．What helps youth be independent?	D．Why adolescents say “Don't rush me"?

【推荐3】It has been seen as a hi-tech bike-sharing boom that entrepreneurs hope will make them rich while transforming China's traffic-jammed cities.

But, occasionally, dreams can turn less pleasant. In the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, more than 500 bicycles for hire have been found dumped in huge piles on the streets, according to reports. Pictures showed vehicles nearly three metres high, with small parts on the ground. City streets around the country have seen an explosion of the colourful bikes that users can rent on demand with a smartphone app and then park wherever they choose.

The sharing economy is taking off in China, where ride-sharing and Airbnb are increasingly commonplace. From Shanghai to Sichuan province, bike-sharing are being started in an effort to reduce traffic jam and air pollution by putting a country once known as the “Kingdom of Bicycles” back on two wheels.

Companies such as Ofo and Mobike, with their yellow and orange bikes, have been in a cut-throat battle for customers. But problems have arisen when clients have abandoned their cycles. “Some people these days just have really bad character,’’ a man named He，who lives near where the piles appeared, told the Southern Metropolis Daily. When they're done using (the bike) they just throw it away somewhere, because they've already paid. Residents told the paper that hikes had been piling up over the past week, either parked random by careless users or piled by local security guards trying to clear narrow residential alleys and footpaths.

Zhuang Chuangyu, a representative at Shenzhen's municipal people s congress, said the city needed to step up regulation of the bike-sharing industry in order to improve conditions and safety standards, especially since schoolchildren often used the bikes.

In 1980, almost 63% of commuters cycled to work, the Beijing Morning       Post reported in 2015, citing government data. But by 2000 that number had decreased to 38% and today it stands at less than 12%. Car use, meanwhile, has rocketed. In 2010 China overtook the US to become the worlds largest car market, with 13.5 m vehicles sold in just 12 months.

1. The underlined word “Dreams” in Paragraph 2 does not include .

A．entrepreneurs making a lot of money

B．hike-sharing boom

C．vehicles being used well

D．transforming China’s traffic-jammed cities

2. What is mentioned about the sharing economy?

A．It refers to smart phones and apps.	B．China has taken a step in it.
C．Airbnb has been a common thing.	D．It is widespread across China.

3. What can we infer from the fourth paragraph?

A．Ofo and Mobike are yellow and orange bikes.

B．Ofo and Mobike have really bad character.

C．Ofo and Mobike cause the clients to abandon their cycles.

D．Ofo and Mobike are in competition with each other.

4. Which of the following may the author agree with?

A．Careless users and local guards are to blame for the piling bikes.

B．Many users lack proper behavior in using the bikes.

C．Regulations should be strict for schoolchildren.

D．China overtook the US becoming hack on two wheels.

【推荐1】China's ban on the domestic sale and processing of ivory(象牙) and its products took effect on Sunday, at the very beginning of 2018, making good on a commitment Chinese authorities made last year.

The move, which effectively closes one of the world's largest ivory markets, has been supported by conservationists as a crucial step toward combating elephant poaching."This ban alone won't end the poaching of elephants," Ginette Hemley,senior vice-president of the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement. "It's equally critical that China's neighbors follow suit and shut down ivory markets across Asia. Only then can we ensure the open trade doesn't simply shift to other countries for newly-poached ivory."

China's ban on the domestic ivory trade follows a similar measure adopted in the U.S. in 2016, when the Fish and Wildlife Service set a ban to reduce the movement of ivory within U.S. borders. Both the U.S. and China had been negotiating on their proposed ivory regulations since 2015.

An international ban on the commercial ivory trade was established in 1990 — but that rule hasn't exactly achieved all its aims."Wildlife experts had thought that the international ban on ivory trade would slow or even stop the killing of elephants for their tusks. However, the killing got worse. That's mostly because the ban didn't cover older ivory," Joyce, a journalist, reported, noting that ivory taken from elephants before the ban was still legal to trade. "So people are still killing elephants but passing off their ivory as old."That has had disastrous effects for elephants. Over the span from 2007 to 2014, for instance, there was a decline of roughly 144,000 animals in seven years.

Still, there have been some signs of hope for the campaign against elephant poaching: Prices for the animals' tusks in China had dropped from $2,100 per kilogram in 2014 to just $730 per kilogram in March 2017. And this, at least, is offering conservationists reason for cautious optimism — assuming the China’s ban is enforced effectively.

1. What did Ginette Hemley mean?

A．The poaching of elephants will never be banned.

B．China should put a more effective ban on ivory trade.

C．Other countries in Asia should ban ivory trade.

D．China’s neighbors will threaten China’s ivory market.

2. What happened after an international ban was established?

A．More old elephants were killed.

B．More ivory was sold as old ivory.

C．The number of elephants increased

D．People pulled off old elephants’ ivory.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．The China’s ban will close the world largest ivory markets.

B．The measure in the U.S reduced ivory trade in China.

C．Prices for ivory have dropped about 65% in the last three years.

D．China is offering hope for the future of elephants.

4. How do conservationists feel about the China’s ban?

A．It’s disappointing.

B．It’s promising.

C．It’s demanding.

D．It’s history-making.

【推荐2】BEIJING Oct.16 (Friday) (Xinhua)—The Chinese government will make more support policies to lift the country’s 70 million poor people above the poverty line by 2020, President Xi Jinping announced on Friday ahead of the 23rd International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Addressing the Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum in Beijing, Xi said China will work to fight the hard battle against poverty. In his speech, Xi drew on his personal experience in the 1960s working as a farmer in a small village in northwestern Shaanxi Province, where he was struck by the poor living conditions in rural China. But over the past several decades, China has made remarkable progress in poverty relief.

China has lifted more than 600 million people out of poverty in the past 30 years, accounting for about 70 percent of those brought out of poverty worldwide. It was the first developing country to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target of reducing the population living in poverty by half ahead of the 2015 deadline. “Despite the achievements, China remains the world’s biggest developing country, and narrowing the urban-rural gap remains a big challenge for us,” Xi said.

As of the end of 2014, China still had 70.17 million people in the countryside living below the country’s poverty line of 2,300 yuan (376 U. S. dollars) in annual income by 2010 price standards. The president said poverty alleviation will be a major part of China’s post-2015 agenda. While struggling to reduce poverty at home, China has also actively supported the cause in other developing countries. Over the past 60 years, China has provided 166 countries and international organizations with nearly 400 billion yuan in assistance.

China has also announced seven times it would exempt, without any conditions, the matured inter-governmental interest free loans owned by heavily-indebted poor countries and least developed countries. At a United Nations summit last month the goal of eliminating poverty in 15 years was laid out and China pledged an initial 2 billion U.S. dollars to establish an assistance fund to help developing nations fight poverty.

In a video message for Friday’s Forum, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised China’s remarkable achievements in poverty alleviation, saying the UN welcomes those significant and generous proposals from President Xi and looks forward to further progress with an indispensable partnership with China.

Saturday also marks China’s second National Poverty Relief Day.

1. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A．President Xi once worked as a farmer in a small village.

B．China has made great contributions to poverty relief in the past decades.

C．China has announced to exempt loans owned by heavily-indebted poor countries and developed countries.

D．The UN thinks highly of China’s extraordinary achievements in poverty relief.

2. The underlined word “alleviation” in the Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ________.

A．relief

B．line

C．reform

D．rise

3. According to the text, National Poverty Relief Day falls on ________.

A．Oct.16

B．Oct.15

C．Oct. 17

D．Oct.14

4. The passage is most likely to be taken from ________.

A．a magazine

B．a newspaper

C．a research paper

D．a brochure