Snow crab legs, the commonly-seen seafood, are no longer in the restaurant.
Considering a huge fall in numbers, Alaska cancelled (取消) its Bering Sea snow crab harvest for the first time in recorded history this year. The $132 million-a-year industry saw the state’s snow crab population drop 87%, from 8 billion in 2018 to 1 billion last year. Officials suggested that climate change might be to blame; But that’s only part of the story, says Wes Jones, an Alaska-based fisheries expert. Unexpectedly, the most immediate cause of snow crab death is something even experienced fishermen didn’t see coming: they eat each other. Back in 2017, Jones says, there’s a sharp increase of young snow crabs’ population, which continued into 2019, creating the largest population on record. At the time, the young crabs were too small for a legal harvest- they take four to five years to be fully developed. Meanwhile, Bering Sea temperatures were on the rise, causing the them to speed up their metabolisms (新陈代谢)，which meant they had to eat more.” It was a double blow (打击), he says, and the results were unavoidable for the crabs lacking its usual food source: “They basically ate each other.”
Snow crabs are only the latest victims of climate change in the Bering Sea. Rising temperatures have often led to unexpected results along the food chain. A sudden increase of sockeye salmon is one possible reason for the recent sharp drop of Alaska’s red king crab harvest. Meanwhile, the warming waters of the Bering Sea have opened the door for Pacific cod, a predator (捕食者) of young crabs.
It will be years before the Alaskan snow crab population recovers to harvest-worthy levels, says Jones. And that’s only if temperatures in the Bering Sea stay cool enough for the cold-loving young crabs—and climate change is making everything harder to expect. “You don’t know what will happen until it’s happened,” says Jones, like rising water temperatures and the mutual (相互的) killings.
1. Why did Alaska cancel its harvest for the Bering Sea snow crabs?| A．They were poisonous to eat at the dinner table. |
| B．They suffered a sharp decrease in their numbers. |
| C．They needed at least five years to be fully grown. |
| D．The fishermen wanted to sold them at higher price. |
| A．Taking each other as food. |
| B．Uncontrolled heavy fishing. |
| C．The sharp fall in their numbers. |
| D．Rising temperatures of sea water. |
| A．A lack of usual food sources and the mutual Killings. |
| B．A long period of growing up and a slow metabolic rate. |
| C．Their increase in numbers and the increased eating desire. |
| D．Rising temperatures in the sea and the increased predators. |
| A．To indicate the unexpected increase of these two species. |
| B．To direct the readers’ attention to the huge market of them. |
| C．To show the influence of climate change on the food chain. |
| D．To announce a good news brought about by climate change. |
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【推荐1】In 2013 Mr. Baugher planted 7,000 Fuji apple trees in the orchard (果园).Three years later,just when the trees should have been bearing fruit, he noticed that a few of them had yellow leaves. Within weeks they were dead. The next year，the problem spread to more than a few trees. By last year,2,000 of Mr Baugher’s 7,000 new trees were dead.
Mr. Baugher has the worst case of"rapid apple decline" (RAD)in the county, but he is not alone. The mysterious disease has been troubling growers across America's northeast for at least six years. Kari Peter, a fruit-tree specialist first observed massive die-offs in her research orchard in 2013. She came up with the term"RAD". But her attempts to explain it have not produced much fruit. The usual reasons for the death of tree-mould infestation, a known virus, disease, an early frost-didn't fit symptoms. Her investigation only ruled things out.
The dead trees tend to be younger: two to eight-years-old. They are nearing he prime of production. Dwarf trees, which are commonly used by commercial growers, seem to be the most subject. Historically, orchards held 600-700 apple trees an acre, but most are now high producing dwarf trees, which are more compact. Growers plant 1, 200-1, 500 trees per acre. Working with the Department of Agriculture Kan found a new hidden apple virus in the infected trees. But they cannot be sure if this new virus has any connection with the decline.
Researchers at Cormell University found that severe cold followed by drought (旱灾)could have weakened the trees leaving them subject to viruses.Other scientists think that herbicides may be to blame. Dan Donahue, a fruit-tree specialist says it could be any or all of those theories. In a recent sampling, he found that 64% of young trees had hidden viruses. These do not show symptoms, but they could affect vitality. Older, larger apple trees were better at shrugging off the viruses.
RAD is a big worry for the apple growers. Customer taste is changing. Traditional varieties like Red Delicious are no longer a customer favourite, so growers are having to invest in new varieties. Few of the orchard growers are able to absorb the economic losses.
Mr. Baugher found some relief in the Tree Assistance Programme, through which the federal government provides financial assistance to orchard-owners whose trees are damaged by natural disasters. The sudden death of apple trees may not seem as dramatic as a hurricane, but it is perhaps even more dangerous. Americans have given considerably more before in the defense of apple pie.
1. The underlined word"compact"is closest in meaning to .| A．complex | B．dense | C．remote | D．regular |
| A．It took her six years to come up with the term RAD. |
| B．Her research led to a breakthrough in apple cultivation. |
| C．She failed to find out the definite cause of RAD. |
| D．She was the first scientist to research apple trees. |
| A．extreme weather | B．a new virus | C．way of tree cultivation | D．location of the orchard |
| A．RAD adds to the pressure on the already struggling apple growers. |
| B．RAD doesn't qualify orchard growers for financial assistance. |
| C．The government needs to fund more research into RAD. |
| D．Apple growers should have stuck to traditional varieties. |
The skin of polar bears is black, which according to thinkquest.org allows them to absorb more heat from the sun. Polar bear fur is transparent , because it is made up of hollow guard hairs. Loc.gov explains that the reason polar bears display white fur is that when the sun hits the fur ,the hollow spaces in the hair scatter the light. Since none of the light is absorbed, the light reflected back appears white to human eyes.
Polar bears’ conservation status is considered close to extinction. Global warming is considered the main cause of the decline in polar population. Polar bears use ice floats to hunt for their food. However, these ice floats are melting so polar bears are starting to drown in the search for food ,and the food is becoming more difficult to get. Contrary to popular belief, polar bears do not eat penguins ,because polar bears are not found in the Antarctic region of the world. Polar bears are only found around the Arctic Circle. Polar bears do not drink water. They get all the water they need from the prey they eat.
FES. Gov specifies that polar bears are considered the largest land carnivores(食肉动物) in the world. The polar bear weight ranges between 700--1,500 pounds. Since the polar bear habitat is melting away, their main evolutionary advantages are fading. Polar bears are not able to use their camouflage(伪装) to find prey in habitats not covered with snow. Polar bears do not hibernate(冬眠). However, when the weather gets uncomfortable, or mothers give birth, polar bears
will dig themselves a hidden home.What can we do to help save the polar bears? We can donate to organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, reduce our carbon footprint, and send letters to politicians explaining to them that we need to set up more preserves to help save the polar bear habitat.
1. What do we know about the fur of the polar bears?
| A．It absorbs more heat from the sun. |
| B．It is black and hollow. |
| C．Light can pass through it. |
| D．It is white actually. |
| A．Hibernation habit | B．The function of their fur |
| C．Eating meat | D．Their weight |
| A．Polar bears face danger due to the melting of ice floats. |
| B．The biggest polar bears weigh about 1,000 pounds. |
| C．Polar bears never hibernate and do not need water. |
| D．Polar bears are the largest carnivores in the world. |
| A．Donating to wildlife conservation organizations. |
| B．Trying our best to reduce greenhouse gases. |
| C．Writing letters to make people protect polar bears. |
| D．Setting up more polar bear conservation organizations. |
【推荐3】The African elephant will disappear within two decades if urgent action is not taken to save one of the world's most iconic animal species, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has warned in a new campaign fundraiser.
The population of these elephants—the largest animal currently walking the earth—has declined by 70 percent in the last 40 years, in large part because of the illegal ivory trade, which is the biggest driver of elephant poaching, according to the non-profit.
In fact, 20,000 elephants are killed every year to feed this trade—which is equivalent to one death every 26 minutes.
Once an elephant is killed, poachers harvest the ivory to meet a growing demand for products made from this material. Ivory can be turned into ornaments and decorations, as well as being used in traditional Asian medicine for its intended therapeutic value. Elephants are also sometimes killed to provide a source of meat.
This poaching takes place despite a global ban on ivory sales under the CITES multilateral treaty (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) which was introduced in 1990. Above the poachers are powerful organized criminal networks which commonly engage in corruption, money laundering and assassinations.
Part of the issue in policing the problem is that the governments of nations where Africans elephants live often lack sufficient resources to protect and monitor elephant herds, which often reside in remote and inaccessible habitats. When the animals are killed, they often suffer a brutal death.
African elephants are found in 37 countries across the continent and are categorized as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with a remaining population of around 415,000 in the wild, according to WWF.
These animals play a crucial role in the ecosystem, helping to maintain healthy habitats for many other species. This is because African elephants help to disperse seeds.
The population of African elephants—which are split into two subspecies—once numbered between three and five million during the last century. However, this figure has fallen dramatically as a result of poaching and other factors, such as habitat fragmentation or loss.
1. The word “poaching” (paragraph 2) probably means ________.| A．desperate desire | B．severe damage |
| C．illegal hunting | D．cruel killing |
| A．They were hunted by other animals. |
| B．They failed to survive the natural disasters. |
| C．There is no suitable living environment. |
| D．They were illegally traded for ivory. |
| A．Absence of bans or regulations on ivory sales is the biggest driver of elephant poaching. |
| B．Elephants living in remote habitats are less vulnerable than those living in nations with adequate resources. |
| C．If the African elephant disappear, the ecosystem there is likely to be ruined. |
| D．African elephant herbs usually migrated in large population. |
| A．African Elephants Will Be Gone in The Future |
| B．African Elephants, Leading Role in Ecosystem |
| C．The Population of African Elephants |
| D．Different Types of African Elephants |
【推荐1】A butterfly-shaped island in the central Aegean hopes to become Greece’s first carbon-free tourist destination. Under a deal with the government, Volkswagen, a carmaker, has donated several new electric vehicles for use by Astypalea’s public services; it will sell others at cost price to its 1,200 year-round residents. In return, the government has offered more financial assistance for islanders to buy electric cars and will build a solar and wind-fuelled power plant to replace polluting generators.
Unlike other nearby islands, Astypalea is not connected to Greece’s electricity providers. With only 3,000 rooms for visitors in small hotels or flats, tourism is still low-key. Many residents make a living the old-fashioned way: raising goats, keeping bees and fishing. The island was selected for Volkswagen’s experiment after Nikos Komineas, the go-ahead mayor, contacted the transport ministry for help in finding an electric bus to try out on its rough roads.
Most islanders sound keen on the project. Mr Komineas expects the number of private cars on Astypalea to fall by a third over the next five years. Its residents, he says, will get around on electric minibuses, which will be free, linked to a mobile-phone app and available round the clock.
Some observers smell green washing in the project. A bid for a solar park that would generate half the island’s electricity within three years will not get under way before the tourist season ends. A single wind-fuelled engine will be set up only in 2026, assuming the licensing process goes smoothly. That is not normally the case in the Aegean, where islanders worry that tourists will go elsewhere if the view is spoiled by an engine 200 meters high. And even then, the solar and wind-fulled power unit is planned to cover only about 80% of summer demand. But it is a start.
1. Why has Volkswagen signed the deal with the government?| A．To control car prices. | B．To help generate electricity. |
| C．To promote public transport. | D．To build a zero-carbon island. |
| A．It has an aggressive leader. |
| B．It is out of the national electricity network. |
| C．It is a crowded tourist destination. |
| D．It has various goats, bees and fishes. |
| A．The experiment will come to nothing. |
| B．There are barriers in conducting the project. |
| C．Green tourism will become a trend in Greece. |
| D．The islanders are unwilling to change their lifestyle. |
| A．It’s pioneering. | B．It’s practical. |
| C．It’s destructive. | D．It’s costly. |
【推荐2】A Nigerian mom found out the hard way that jaundice (黄疸) is still a dangerous disease in Africa — but now she’s putting an end to the disease with her new tech startup, making cribs (婴儿床).
Virtue Oboro’s son, Tombra, was just 48 hours old when he had to be rushed to the NICU, suffering from jaundice, which causes yellow skin and can lead to permanent damage or even death. The treatment is fairly simple and widespread in developing countries: blue-light phototherapy (光疗).
Virtue’s hospital had no phototherapy devices, so Tombra had to receive a risky emergency blood transfusion (输血). Her son made a full recovery, but Virtue was changed by the experience. “I felt like some of the things I experienced could have been avoided,” the visual designer said. “I thought, is there something I could do to make the pain less for the babies and the mothers?”
What could a visual designer do? She designed the Crib A’Glow and named her new company Tiny Hearts. The mobile phototherapy unit is powered by the African sun, and costs one-sixth the price of a normal phototherapy crib — and is produced in her homeland of Nigeria. Virtue’s husband had some experience working with solar panels before, so he lent a hand to the visual designer, who was busy sailing in the unknown waters of a new profession. She worked with a baby doctor through the design process to ensure all the details would benefit the tiny babies.
The Crib A’Glow can now be found in 500 hospitals across Nigeria and neighboring Ghana. It has been used on 300, 000 babies already. Virtue, who has also become a 2022 awardee for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, says a further 200, 000 babies will be saved from jaundice by using the cribs in rural areas — no hospitals or electricity needed.
1. What happened to Tombra shortly after he was born?| A．He suffered damage from a blood transfusion. | B．He came down with jaundice. |
| C．He received blue-light phototherapy. | D．He got separated from his mother. |
| A．It is solar-powered. | B．It is heavy. |
| C．It has been used worldwide. | D．It is expensive. |
| A．To highlight the importance of phototherapy devices. |
| B．To stress the shortage of cribs in rural hospitals. |
| C．To arouse people’s awareness of jaundice. |
| D．To predict the bright future of Virtue’s crib. |
| A．Tough and generous. | B．Hardworking and productive. |
| C．Caring and creative. | D．Sociable and determined. |
【推荐3】It’s not common that a grandmother aged 89 is crowned Queen of Icebergs in North America, but when it does happen it’s quite the sight.
On a recent trip to Iceland, Judith Streng became that grandma after her son attempted to take a photograph of her siting on an ice structure that looked like a throne (宝座) at Diamond Beach in Jokulsarloo. Shortly after Streng sat down to pose, the piece of ice broke off and floated into the water.
“I thought it was safe. One girl had been on it and then two girls at the same time, and it was very secure with them. When I got on it, it started to shake and a wave was coming in. A very large wave came in and made the throne kind of shake, and I could tell that I was slipping off,” Streng told ABC News.
Streng’s story went hot after her 24-year-old granddaughter Catherine tweeted a text message exchange she had with her father about the incident. “My grandmother almost got lost at sea in iceland today!”
Catherine, who teaches English in Seoul, Korea, explained via Twitter that her father described the scene vividly. He has a PhD in English, and described the event in the following words, “She climbed to the throne after a wave had pulled back and left it briefly exposed on the beach. Then a wave washed in and removed the ice throne, rocking it from side to side. When the wave left, it lifted the throne and carried her out into the sea with the tide.”
Luckily for the Streng family, Randy, a licensed boat captain from Florida with knowledge of water rescue strategies, witnessed the whole thing, and was able to save the day.
1. Where was the grandma when her son was taking a picture for her?| A．On a crown. | B．In an iceboat. | C．On an iceberg. | D．At Throne Beach. |
| A．By drawing a vivid picture. | B．By exposing the text message. |
| C．By exchanging Twitter accounts. | D．By talking with her father in Seoul. |
| A．Catherine. | B．Judith Streng. | C．Randy. | D．Her son. |
| A．Taking pictures must be very dangerous | B．An optimistic family who love icebergs |
| C．The licensed boat captain went hot slowly | D．A grandma floated out to the sea on an iceberg |
【推荐1】Now you can make polar bears your pen friends. First you need to find one, then tranquilize (使镇静) it and quickly give it a necessary tool before it wakes up. It’s an awkward first encounter — how many friendships do you know start with tranquilizers? — and admittedly a one-sided correspondence, but soon they’ll be sending messages daily.
Every morning, Jon Aars, a senior researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute, receives a bunch of emails from several female polar bears, letting him know where they are. Each year, Aars and his colleagues equip around 70 polar bears with a tracking collar (项圈) which continuously logs their movement. Once a day the collar makes a satellite call, sending the last 24 hours of data back to the Institute. “Data about their movement is very important in understanding how they might respond to climate change,” Aars explains.
A warm climate means a vast amount of sea ice is melting. Several seal species — polar bears’ main food — rely on sea ice, and more often than not, where sea ice can be found, so can polar bears. But these creatures are being forced to move. “We have seen that bears move much further north,” Aars explains.
The collar can also record body temperature, which can tell scientists if a bear has moved inside a habitat — an indication that the animal is going to give birth. Sea ice loss is also having an impact on where polar bears are born. “Important areas where they used to go to give birth to cubs (幼兽) are more or less lost,” says Aars. “Bears are now swimming as far as 200 kilometers to reach an island habitat,” he adds, “something they did not need to do 20 years ago.”
Aars hopes his research can reveal how to help his pen friends hold out a little longer. “What is important for us is that all this data tells us how they will respond in the future,” he adds.
1. What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 1?| A．Provide some key facts about polar bears. |
| B．Explain how to deal with wild polar bears. |
| C．Suggest ways to save tranquilized polar bears. |
| D．Describe how to get polar bears ready for tracking. |
| A．Guiding polar bears to sea ice. |
| B．Protecting polar bears from being hunted. |
| C．Labeling polar bears ready to give birth. |
| D．Collecting data on polar bears’ movement. |
| A．They are forced to move south. |
| B．They have trouble finding food. |
| C．Their habitats are too hot to live in. |
| D．Their cubs fail to adapt to the climate. |
| A．Polar bears — creatures on sea ice |
| B．Climate change — sea ice loss speeding up |
| C．Another wake-up call — polar bears facing extinction |
| D．Emails from the edge — polar bears sending messages to scientists |
【推荐2】It was a sight you don’t normally see: a jellyfish lying dead in the middle of a parking lot partly flooded in water. But this was no ordinary parking lot. This particular section downtown Annapolis, Maryland, is among a growing number of areas easily affected by frequent high-tide flooding in the seaside town.
High-tide floods, also known as sunny-day floods, occur when tides reach anywhere from 1.75 to 2 feet above the daily average high tide and start spilling onto streets. These floods are usually not related to storms.They typically occur during high tides. The gravitational pull of the Moon drives the tides. Winds can also influence how high the tides come in. Then there are the climate patterns like El Nino (厄尔尼诺现象), which lead to higher-than-normal sea levels along both the U. S. East and West coasts. And, of course, the most powerful driver is sea level rise itself. Because of rising seas driven by climate change, the frequency of this kind of flood has dramatically increased in recent years. The ocean is rising at about 3.3 millimeters, or 0.13 inches a year, mostly due to the melting of land-based ice and the heated expansion of ocean water, according to NASA.
Defenses are built in response to the high-tide floods. Half a mile up the road from Downtown Annapolis, the U. S. Naval Academy is beating back water: a seawall built alongside the river, flood walls protecting campus buildings, and classroom floors and walls made of concrete or painted cinder block — materials more resistant to flooding than carpet, wood and drywall.
Still, David Kriebel, a professor of ocean engineering at the U. S. Naval Academy, said, the water is rising fast, and much of this flood protection will only last for a few decades. At that point, additional measures will have to be taken. “You can build walls, you can add inflow preventers and you can protect areas that are worth protecting, but eventually, water’s going to find its way through the holes,” he said. “You’re not really meant to hold hack the tides.”
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To introduce the main topic. | B．To share an unusual finding. |
| C．To warn people to protect animals. | D．To make a phenomenon convincing. |
| A．Winds. | B．Climate change. |
| C．Moon’s gravity. | D．Certain climate patterns. |
| A．Curious. | B．Uncertain. | C．Confident. | D．Worried. |
| A．The Future World: Worth the Wait | B．Climate Crisis: Solutions on the Way |
| C．Rising Waters: Beating Back the Tides | D．Downtown Annapolis: Emerged under Water |
【推荐3】Eating a juicy steak is worse for the environment than frying up some tofu: that should come as no surprise. Going vegan can greatly cut the carbon footprint of your diet. But what about the fewer calories, and lower levels of protein, found in most plant-based foods when compared with meat?
To make the relative carbon impact of foods easier to understand, The Economist proposes a banana index (指数). It compares popular foodstuffs in three aspects—weight, calories and protein—compared to the humble banana, a fruit of middling nutritional value and impact on weather conditions.
Indexing greenhouse-gas emissions to a single food gives a sense of how different foodstuffs rank. Unfortunately for carnivores (食肉动物), beef is bad for the environment no matter how you slice it. Producing one kilogram of mince (馅) causes as many emissions as 109kg of bananas (call it a “banana score” of 109). As for nutritional value, beef’s banana score falls to 54 (one calorie of beef mince causes 54 times as much carbon emissions as one calorie of banana). By protein, it scores seven.
Poultry (家禽) scores 11 bananas by weight and four by calorie. However, as a source of protein, it is more carbon-friendly than bananas: poultry protein emits just three-fifths of the same amount of banana protein. The same applies to salmon. Unsurprisingly, plant-based alternatives to meat do even better: a meat-free burger, for instance, scores just one-fifth of the emissions of bananas per gram of protein.
Our banana index relies on average emissions for a given food. In the real world some producers are more climate-friendly than others, and some foods travel farther to consumers. Our banana index also does not capture other environmental impacts, such as land and water use (though here too, beef tends to perform poorly).
Voting in Europe suggests that most consumers want to be more climate-friendly—and with food production responsible for perhaps a quarter of global emissions, eating with the climate in mind would make a difference. Three-quarters of the respondents said they want labels that would explain the climate impact of their food. In the meantime, our banana index might help.
1. What’s the most likely reason for bananas to be chosen as an object of reference?| A．Bananas have fewer calories and less protein. |
| B．Bananas are a humble fruit. |
| C．Bananas have the least impact on the environment. |
| D．Bananas are of medium climate effect and nutrition. |
| A．Beef | B．A meat-free burger | C．Poultry | D．A banana |
| A．Its drawbacks | B．Its benefits |
| C．Its practical meanings | D．Its principles |
| A．An approach to assessing nutritional value of food |
| B．A way to measure the climate impact of food |
| C．A great indicator of greenhouse-gas emissions |
| D．A big helper in deciding what to buy |
