More than half the world relies on rice as a main food source. Yet the crop faces an worrying future as global warming increases the Earth’s temperature and adds to more storms, droughts and heat waves, because rice is sensitive (敏感的) to climate extremes and grows in places already experiencing many. Any disturbance to that food source can cause great problems.
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—which brought together 234 scientists to collect recent climate studies—warned that human-caused global warming is happening at an extraordinary pace and is adding to the deadly floods, heat and droughts that we’re already witnessing. And those events result in major risks to farming.
“Higher temperatures lead to increased water loss, resulting in soil drying, increased plant stress and impacts on agriculture, especially in regions where large amounts of rainfall are not expected,” the report states.
If greenhouse gases are not reduced, about a third of global land areas are expected to suffer from at least moderate drought by the end of the century, the report concludes. Some changes like sea-level rise are already locked in.
Rice is especially sensitive to these changes. Rice often grows in ecosystems, such as deltas (三角洲), that have low sea-level and are easy to be influenced by rising seas. Any additional temperature increase could cause sea water into the filed where a healthy crop can develop, scientists say.
A 2018 study in the Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science found that an increase in the frequency and seriousness of hot weather could reduce rice outputs by up to 40% by the end of this century.
“Most of the world’s rice is currently grown in regions where existing temperature is already close to the most suitable range for rice production,” the study states. “Therefore, any further rise in temperature or short period of high temperature during sensitive growth stages will be disastrous.”
1. Why is rice particularly weak to climate change according to the passage?| A．Rice requires large amounts of rainfall. |
| B．Rice is grown in regions with low sea levels. |
| C．Rice is hard to live in places with extreme climate conditions. |
| D．Rice is grown in regions with high levels of greenhouse gases. |
| A．Rising sea levels |
| B．Increased frequency of storms |
| C．Global warming and climate change |
| D．Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions |
| A．Pessimistic | B．Optimistic | C．Uncertain | D．Encouraging |
| A．Rice Output Is Decreasing Heavily. |
| B．Climate Change is Caused by Greenhouse Gas. |
| C．Climate Change Resuits in Low Output of Rice. |
| D．Greenhouse Gas Has Great Effect on Rice Growing. |
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【推荐1】Bobby Wilson is retired. Well, he’s supposed to be. But the Georgia farmer, “The Garden Man” named by his community, used his retirement savings to buy and operate a nonprofit farm — the Metro Atlanta Urban Farm — and he hasn’t slowed down since.
Years ago, Bobby Wilson saw a need for fighting hunger in his community. He worked hard all his life, but when it came time to retire, he knew his job wasn’t over yet. So he poured his time, money and energy into stepping up to fill that need and combat food insecurity. He dedicated his life to helping his community and to creating a healthier, more sustainable world for his grandchildren.
Wilson is on a mission. He’s on several missions, actually. While working for the University of Georgia for twenty years in gardening education, he saw a real need for affordable, nutritious food in his under-served community in the Atlanta metropolitan area. As food prices rise, the need has only increased. Families across the nation are feeling the pinch. It’s getting harder and harder for people to afford nutritious food. According to U.S. Hunger, one in ten households faces food insecurity. In Georgia, where Bobby Wilson lives, the problem is even more terrible, with one in eight people facing hunger. So Bobby Wilson is on a mission to help families in his disadvantaged neighborhood grow their own food on small tracts of land using sustainable practices. At a time when thousands of households are struggling to make ends meet, Wilson insists that people can save thousands of dollars if they grow their own vegetables. And he has set up a teaching farm on five acres of land in College Park, in the heart of the city, to show people how to do just that. Numerous volunteers are educated on the agriculture industry, including how to best acquire land and resources.
Asked about the principle of the farm, Wilson said, “It’s more than just a farm. It’s about justice, diversity, and inclusion. We are working for the community.”
1. Why did Bobby Wilson buy the Metro Atlanta Urban Farm?| A．To continue to work after retirement. | B．To provide healthy food for the community. |
| C．To show his grandchildren how to grow food. | D．To educate volunteers on the agriculture industry. |
| A．Struggling financially. | B．Suffering mentally. |
| C．Emotionally disturbed. | D．Physically challenged. |
| A．Committed and adventurous. | B．Generous and devoted. |
| C．Ambitious and knowledgeable. | D．Responsible and modest. |
| A．A Retired Farmer Spreads Knowledge of Farming |
| B．The Metro Atlanta Urban Farm-More Than a Farm |
| C．A Mission of Creating a Sustainable Agricultural World |
| D．The Garden Man Feeds a Community with Retirement Money |
【推荐2】Vacationers traditionally like to make use of every second of the day, People rush from site to site, eat all day, and feel tired at last. And when they get to their hotel room at night, they find it hard to sleep. Noisy traffic and flashing city lights aside, many people simply don’t sleep well when they’re away from their own bed. Fortunately, sleep tourism addresses these issues and more.
In order to help them sleep well, special sleep suites (套房) have been thoughtfully designed to offer quiet and darkness. Hotels are investing in artificial intelligence mattresses (床垫) that control climate and have cushions to relieve pressure points. The mattresses can also track sleep statistics and offer vacationers feedback on their sleep patterns.
Some feel that these sleep suites are a result of the problem that many people suffered from a loss of good sleep. “There has been heightened attention to sleep during that time, and likely, because so many people have struggled with this. Now, I think there’s just been a huge shift in our awareness and prioritization on wellness and wellbeing,” said sleep researcher Dr. Robbins.
Sleep suites are a huge advance in tourism and are now found in wellness hotels worldwide. Each offers different ways of helping tour its sleep. Many provide a menu of relaxing teas and a comfortable bed. You can even devote your trip to sleep wellness. Some spa hotels offer a lounger with headphones and mask, and energy healing.
No matter which sleep suite you choose, the goal is to sleep well so you can improve your health and wellbeing. Sinking into a comfortable bed should be the best part of a trip! The hope is that more hotels adapt to this wellness trend and return to the original purpose of a hotel room, which is sleep! Now you can tour around by day and have sweet dreams by night.
1. What is sleep tourism aimed at?| A．Relieving the vacationers’ pressure， |
| B．Improving vacationers’ sleeping quality. |
| C．Tracking vacationers’ sleeping statistics. |
| D．Collecting vacationers’ sleeping pattern. |
| A．They help change people’s sleeping habits. |
| B．They help shift people’s attention to vacation. |
| C．They are a product of people’s attention to health. |
| D．They are intended to raise people’s awareness of being healthy. |
| A．The advantages of sleep suites. |
| B．The development of modern tourism. |
| C．The special characters of sleep suites. |
| D．Some ways of sleep suites helping tourists sleep well |
| A．Vacationers can carry a comfortable bed with them. |
| B．Hotels can make a profit by offering a comfortable bed. |
| C．Comfortable accommodation helps vacationers sleep well. |
| D．Vacationers prefer to improve their health through travelling. |
【推荐3】If you haven’t taken down your Christmas tree yet, no worries. Here’s an idea: have you ever thought about eating it?
Julia Georgallis has some recipes. Over the last five years, she’s been preparing carefully for Christmas dinners in London with a friend. “How can we make something sustainable around Christmas time? What can we cat? What’s the thing that no one eats and that somehow represents Christmas? And then we just decided on Christmas trees,” Georgallis says.
She turned it into a book, How to Eat Your Christmas Tree. And her idea is that it’s not that odd. Some people enjoy Christmas wine. Some people like to go shopping and most people can get behind saving the planet.
“What I aimed for this book to do, really, was to get people thinking about the odd ways that they can be more sustainable in their daily lives,” Georgallis says.
“Eating Christmas trees isn’t going to save any animals in danger or freeze any ice caps. But if we start to think about everything that we do as a whole, then that builds up, you know, and that helps,” she says.
Most of the recipes in her book use the needles from the tree. “You’d use the needles like a herb,” she says.
“And different Christmas trees kind of have different flavors. They’re quite subtle, but they do have different flavors. So fir (冷杉), which is a really popular choice of Christmas trees, gives people better feeling and atmosphere. And then you have pine, which is a little bit more delicate.”
A warning: some Christmas trees are poisonous if eaten — like cypress and cedars. And be sure your tree wasn’t sprayed with pesticides (杀虫剂) and other chemicals. “So if you have any doubt that your Christmas tree might not have been grown to eat, then maybe don’t eat it,” Georgallis says.
And, of course, don’t even think about eating your artificial tree!
So, with all those instructions and with the appropriate tree, what could we cook? Well, Georgallis’ book has all sorts of recipes for different foods and drinks. Let’s open up the world’s cuisine with simple ingredients!
1. What’s the main purpose of Georgallis’ book?| A．To tell people not to buy real trees. | B．To inspire people to be more eco-friendly. |
| C．To teach people how to enjoy Christmas wine. | D．To encourage people to throw away odd traditions. |
| A．Artificial trees can also be cooked. |
| B．Eating Christmas trees does good to saving animals. |
| C．Different trees have different features and tastes. |
| D．All Christmas trees have their own ways to be cooked. |
| A．Tips for choosing Christmas trees. | B．Warnings for cooking Christmas meals. |
| C．Comparison between real and artificial trees. | D．Recipes for different foods with Christmas trees. |
| A．A diary. | B．A novel. | C．A scientific report. | D．A lifestyle magazine. |
【推荐1】From red apples and yellow lemons to blueberries and green melons, fruit comes in many different colors.
According to scientists, fruit colors actually come from their different pigments (色素), such as red or yellow carotenoid (类胡萝卜素) and blue or purple anthocyanin (花青素). These pigments appear in different amounts, depending on the fruit’s environment. This causes the fruit to turn a certain color,
| A．Why do different kinds of fruit have so many colors? |
| B．Animals have also had an impact on the evolution of fruit colors. |
| C．How does temperature influence fruit colors? |
| D．However, a darker color doesn’t mean a better kind of fruit. |
| E．These fruits tend to grow a lot it just one specific area. |
| F．So there tends to be more red fruit in areas where birds live. |
| G．Scientists studied more than 280 different fruit colors to find out how environment affects fruit colors. |
【推荐2】Every August the clustered carline thistle (蓟) is one of the only plants that flower in most of Spain’s dry Mediterranean habitats, making it a dominant plant on the local bees and other pollinators. But how can the thistle survive, much less flower, when its neighbors are reduced to twigs and dust?
Spanish National Research Council evolutionary ecologist Carlo s Herrera had an amazing discovery when one day he peered into a thistle blossom to see how much nectar was inside and lightly touched the flower. He discovered that even after hours in direct sun, the flower heads were routinely five degrees cooler than their surroundings during the heat of the day, with the difference approaching 10 degrees for some flowers on the hottest days.
Sanna Sevanto, a physicist and plant physiologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory says that Herrera’s finding is exciting and could confirm a risky plant survival strategy that has, until now, only been theorized.
Sevanto and other scientists have documented that to perform photosynthesis (光合作用), leaves need access to carbon dioxide, which enters through tiny pores (毛孔) called stomata on the leaf’s surface. When stomata open to let carbon dioxide in, some water escapes; this causes evaporative cooling that lowers the leaf’s temperature slightly.
But for the Spanish thistles, evaporative cooling could be the goal rather than just a side effect of photosynthesis. Herrera suggests the plant could essentially be sweating: sacrificing precious water, so scarce in Spain’s dry summers, to prevent its delicate reproductive organs from overheating. She added that some flower species have stomata on their petals, which Sevanto says would be an easy route for releasing water. Opening stomata in a drought is a big gamble, though, and she notes that, so far, “we have not observed a plant that would do it to cool themselves.”
As heat waves become more frequent and intense with climate change, it’s increasingly important to study unusual adaptations that help plants survive heat stress. But ultimately, “whether these plants will have water enough to keep the system working,” Herrera says, “that’s another story.”
1. What was Herrera’s discovery about carline thistle in August?| A．It was the only plant that blossomed. | B．It was the only plant that survived. |
| C．It had little nectar in the flower. | D．It had lower temperature in the flower head. |
| A．To cool the key organs. | B．To take in carbon dioxide. |
| C．To accelerate photosynthesis. | D．To reduce water content in leaves. |
| A．Advantage. | B．Risk. | C．Shift. | D．Evolution. |
| A．Suspicious. | B．Positive. | C．Objective. | D．Unconcerned. |
【推荐3】Cherry blossoms in Kyoto, Japan, reached peak bloom on March 26 this year — the earliest the event has occurred in 1,200 years of records. Why so soon?
According to records previously collected by Professor Yasuyuki Aono, Kyoto’s cherry blossoms had consistently flowered around April 10 to 17 for over a thousand years. The Washington Post reports that Japan’s most famous flowers have been trending toward blooming earlier each spring, with scientists blaming the phenomenon on increasing global temperatures. And this year, the peak has shifted all the way into the previous month. “The Kyoto Cherry Blossom record is incredibly valuable for climate change research. Even a slight drop or rise of springtime temperatures can be recorded by it,” research scientist Benjamin Cook said, noting that warmer temperatures typically mean cherry blossoms bloom earlier.
Cherry blossoms are influenced so easily by temperature that trees in Tokyo even bloomed in autumn after typhoons caused warmer weather in 2018. Meanwhile, Aono estimated that Kyoto has warmed by 3.4 degrees Celsius since 1820.While this year’s cherry blossom peak was Kyoto’s earliest in 1,200 years, this isn’t the case in other parts of Japan Tokyo reached peak bloom on March 22, which is three days earlier than average and the earliest date since 1953.
However, the global trend seems to be slowly pushing cherry blossoms into full bloom to earlier in the year regardless of where they’re planted. In 2019, scientist Patrick Gonzalez noted that the trend of earlier blooming seen among cherry blossoms in Washington was “consistent with human-caused climate change.”
Cherry blossoms are considered in full or peak bloom when 80 percent of the flowers have bloomed, which usually occurs within a week of the first flowers opening. Elements other than climate change may also be involved in the early blooming. Gonzalez offered the warning that “no research has examined all of the factors, and it is a long way to go.”
1. How does the author introduce the topic?| A．By stating a fact. | B．By giving an example. |
| C．By describing a custom. | D．By sharing an experience. |
| A．Cherry trees will die in cold weather. | B．Springtime temperatures are falling. |
| C．Cherry is sensitive to temperature change. | D．Early blooming also appeared elsewhere. |
| A．The studies have covered all factors. | B．Further scientific study is still needed. |
| C．Climate change is the only influential factor. | D．Causes of early blooming have been identified. |
| A．Climate changes in Kyoto of Japan | B．Cherry blossoms and climate changes |
| C．Traditions of admiring cherry blossoms | D．The fascinating cherry blossoms in Kyoto |
【推荐1】Temperatures around the North Pole have greatly increased in the last 50 years — changing a long-term natural cooling trend. Now the Arctic is warmer than at any time during the last 2000 years, according to a major new study.
The study, based on an analysis of tree rings and other things, provides compelling evidence that greenhouse gases released since the start of the industrial revolution are causing global warming.
An author, Darrel Kaufman said, “Scientists have known for a while that the current period of warming was coming after a long-term cooling trend. But our reconstruction quantifies the cooling with greater certainty than before.”
The research — published in the journal Science — comes from a team of British and American scientists who followed summer Arctic temperatures to the time of the Romans by studying natural signals in the landscape. Their reconstruction found that the Arctic got cooler in the summer months between 1 AD and 1900, thanks to a natural “wobble” (摇摆) in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
The wobble slowly increased the distance between the Earth and the Sun during the Arctic summer, reducing the summer temperatures by around 0.2 degree every thousand years and causing the “Little Ice Age” that led to freezing winters in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
But during the 20th century, temperatures began to rise greatly — though the amount of sunlight reaching the Arctic during the summer was continuing to fall. The decade between 1999 to 2008 was the warmest in the last 2000 years, the research found. The research has shown that Arctic temperatures rose three times faster during the 20th century than the rest of the Northern Hemisphere.
Some researchers have predicted that the Arctic could be free from sea ice in the winter within the next few decades if the temperatures continue to rise.
1. The new research shows that _______.| A．greenhouse gases are causing global warming |
| B．the Arctic has been free from sea ice in the winter |
| C．the Arctic keeps a long-term natural cooling trend |
| D．the Earth will be too hot for human beings to live on |
| A．shows an interesting phenomenon |
| B．is quite convincing |
| C．causes global warming |
| D．is rather surprising |
| A．recent cooling is more obvious than before |
| B．people fail in stopping the climate changes |
| C．the Arctic has been continuously cooling before |
| D．the Arctic is getting cooler in the summer months |
| A．the wobble causes the temperature in the Arctic to rise |
| B．Arctic temperatures rise more slowly than before |
| C．global warming cannot be prevented by human beings |
| D．the Arctic would be cooling without greenhouse gases |
| A．The “Little Ice Age”. |
| B．A Long-term natural cooling. |
| C．The warmest Arctic in 2000 years. |
| D．A natural “wobble” in the Earth’s orbit. |
【推荐2】In 2018, the state of California was on fire. Alexandria Villasenor, who was 13 at the time, witnessed the destruction of Northern California’s Camp Fire, which would go on to burn more than 150,000 acres of land. Villasenor was scared. “That’s when I found out how important climate education was,” she reflected. “And just how much we lacked climate education these past couple of years.”
Villasenor, now 15, is determined to have a bigger conversation. She quickly realized the fight requires international, government-level changes. For her, what started as local concern turned into a year-long protest in front of the United Nations’ New York City headquarters and a global campaign for more compulsory climate education. She sat on a bench in front of the headquarters, pleading for the world’s leaders to take climate change seriously.
Her action received national attention, with millions of other students around the world joining in the movement. “It’s completely unacceptable to not learn anything about our planet and our environment in school, after all the young people would ‘inherit’ the Earth.” Villasenor said, “That’s why I think that climate education is so important, and that’s why I focus a lot on it now.”
Right now, Villasenor is working with the Biden-Harris administration on its climate plan, which has promised to center the needs of young people and communities most impacted by climate change. She even spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. “That was definitely a huge moment when I realized that people were listening to the voices of me and youth climate activists,” Villasenor said.
When she isn’t connecting with her fellow youth activists or holding elected officials accountable to the climate concerns of their young voters, Villasenor is like most other teens. “My favorite thing to do, of course, is sleep.” she said. “I like to read a lot. I like fantasy books, normally. I also like to write.”
1. What made Villasenor realize the lack of climate education?| A．The state of California. | B．The fire disasters in America. |
| C．150, 000 acres of land scaring her. | D．The severe Camp fire in California. |
| A．To talk with more local people to change their mind. |
| B．To convey her belief loudly to more global students. |
| C．To protest to leaders at home and abroad to make changes. |
| D．To call on local people to fight with the leaders. |
| A．That she is working with the Biden-Harris administration on its climate plan. |
| B．That her and other youth climate activists’ opinions caught people’s attention. |
| C．That she can sleep and read in her spare time. |
| D．That more schools have set up climate courses. |
| A．The 15-year-old activist fighting for better climate education. |
| B．Climate education deserves everyone’s attention around the world. |
| C．How to prevent camp fire. |
| D．Young activists make their voices heard. |
【推荐3】Cynthia Rosenzweig was awarded the World Food Prize. She played a leading role in modelling (建模) the effects of climate change on food production. As a climate research scientist, she has spent much of the career explaining that global food production adapts to a changing climate.
Cynthia, who describes herself as a climate scientist, grew up in a village near New York, an area that led her to live in the country. She moved to Italy with her husband-to-be in her 20s and developed an interest in agriculture. After returning to the United States, she focused her education on agricultural science.
She worked as a graduate student at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in the early 1980s, when global climate models were beginning to show the effects of human related CO2 on the global climate. As the only team member studying agriculture, she researched the effect on food production and has been working since then to answer those questions. She completed the first experiment of how climate change will affect food production in North America in 1985 and globally in 1994.
Cynthia has studied how farmers can deal with climate change and how agriculture worsens the problem. For example, she wrote a research paper that said global agri-food systems create nearly one-third of the total global greenhouse gases caused by human activity. She added that greenhouse gases come from many parts of food production, including the clearing of forests for farmland.
1. What helps Cynthia win the World Food Prize?| A．The great success in space research. |
| B．The important role in agricultural studies |
| C．The study of climate effects on food production |
| D．The scientific research on global climate change |
| A．The research information. | B．The chief achievements |
| C．The family members. | D．The life experiences. |
| A．Hard-working | B．Humorous. | C．Easy-going. | D．Graceful |
| A．Forests should make room for farmland. |
| B．Food production also affects climate change. |
| C．Farmers rely on climate for food production |
| D．Agriculture is the main source of greenhouse gas. |
