As newer, more advanced technologies come out, huge amounts of electronics (电子产品) are thrown away, instead of being reused. These goods often end up in landfills, where the chemicals inside them may be a danger to the environment. Electronics can contain harmful materials. If these materials get into the ground or water, the pollution can cause serious problems. Most electronics require metals. These metals must be mined from the Earth. Often the mining process creates serious pollution.
A group known as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum is trying to make people more aware of the problems of e-waste. Recently, the WEEE Forum asked researchers from the United Nations (UN) to study a kind of e-waste that’s often not noticed because people don’t consider the goods to be electronics. The WEEE Forum calls this kind “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste.
The UN study shows that about 1/6 of all e-waste is “unable-to-be-seen”. Though it’s “unable-to-be-seen”, it’s certainly not a small amount. The “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste weighs about 9 billion kilograms. The WEEE Forum says that if this e-waste were put into 40-ton trucks and the trucks were then lined up, the line of trucks would be about 5,630 kilometers long.
The surprising kind leading the “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste group was toys. Worldwide, roughly 7.3 billion electronic toys are thrown away each year. These include goods like car racing sets, electric trains, and musical toys. They also include toys with electronic parts, like dolls that speak or games with electronic timers. In all, toys make up about 35% of “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste. But the problem is far larger than just toys. The report also shows that other everyday goods like home alarms, smoke alarms, power tools, and computer cables (电缆) are also big sources of “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste.
The WEEE Forum is hoping that as more people and governments become aware of e-waste, they will make a much greater effort to make sure electronics get reused.
1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．The amount of electronics. | B．The development of electronics. |
| C．The ways of reusing electronics. | D．The pollution of electronics. |
| A．People’s interest in electronics’ character. |
| B．People’s impression on electronics’ package. |
| C．People’s misunderstanding of electronics. |
| D．People’s struggle to adapt to electronics. |
| A．By showing numbers. | B．By providing examples. |
| C．By making a summary. | D．By making a comparison, |
| A．Designing advanced electronics. | B．Making electronics get reused. |
| C．Stopping giving away electronics. | D．Reducing electronics’ production. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】When did you last write a letter by hand? In a digital world, where sending a text or email is more convenient than using snail mail, is traditional pen and paper dying out? Some people claim that writing has many benefits. So maybe it’s not time to put away your pen yet.
These days, when people request things in writing, a typed, electronic document will be accepted.
There are everyday benefits to using pen and paper too. Scribbling notes, shopping lists or messages on the back of an envelope can still be useful, quick and portable.
| A．Some experts believe your brain benefits from using pen and paper |
| B．Doing this on a computer means it could be edited, saved and sent |
| C．However, a hand-written document can reflect your devotion and sincerity |
| D．So, while digital skills remain important, don’t quit your pens and pencils yet |
| E．Handwriting has became a fashion for a small group of people in recent years |
| F．Others agree that handwriting may improve fine motor skills in your hands and fingers |
| G．And putting pen to paper in a letter to a friend or loved one can probably have the most impact |
【推荐2】Teenagers who spend more time on after-school activities and less than two hours of screen time after school are more mentally (心理上) healthy, according to a study published in the journal Preventive Medicine. The new study was carried out by researchers from the University of British Columbia.
The study used information collected from more than 28, 000 seventh-grade Canadian students between 2014 and 2018. The students first answered questions about their usage of screen time after school, including how much time they spent watching TV, Netflix or something else. Then, students reported how many days they had taken part in after-school activities such as sports or arts programmes. After that, researchers asked students to describe their state of mind. For example, when given a statement such as “I start most days thinking that I will have a good day”, they could choose to what level they agreed with it on a scale (等级).
Some of the results were expected, researchers said in the study. Students with no after-school activities usually had high levels of screen time, for example. And they expected girls would score higher on negative indicators (消极指标) of mental health, as earlier research had found that they tended to have higher levels of anxiety (焦虑) compared to boys.
What was noteworthy, researchers say, is that even among students who took part in after-school activities, 46% still went beyond the recommended screen time of two hours. At the same time, 67% of students who didn’t take part in after-school activities also had more than two hours of screen time. Together, this suggests high screen time among teenagers generally.
“The findings suggest that after-school activities are valuable for the happy growing of teenagers,” the study said. “While past studies have proved the importance of after-school activities for social and academic (学业的) development, the present study shows their importance for good mental health results.”
1. Which of the following came last when students took part in the new study?| A．Talking about their lifestyles. | B．Introducing their after-school activities. |
| C．Reporting their mental states on a scale. | D．Answering questions about screen time use. |
| A．They often have higher levels of satisfaction. |
| B．Few of them take part in after-school activities. |
| C．Anxiety has become a serious problem among them. |
| D．Too much screen time may be more harmful to them. |
| A．Earlier findings about screen time are wrong. |
| B．High screen time is common among teenagers. |
| C．No after-school activities mean no screen time. |
| D．Screens attract teenagers more than after-school activities do. |
| A．They are good for teenagers’ physical health. |
| B．They help to improve teenagers’ mental health. |
| C．They encourage teenagers’ social development. |
| D．They allow teenagers to become better learners. |
【推荐3】Except our sun, the lights we see in the sky are all stars light—years from Earth. It’s impossible to know how many stars exist, but astronomers think that in our Milky Way alone, there are about 300 billion.
All normal stars’ birth takes place inside H2-based gas and dust clouds. Over the course of thousands of years, gravity causes the clouds to shrink until they collapse (坍塌) under their own weight. It is the stars’ first stage of birth. As the clouds get smaller and smaller, they turn around faster and faster, increasing pressure creates rising temperatures inside the gas and dust clouds. And during this time, the stars enter what is known as the relatively brief T-stage that usually lasts millions of years.
When the temperature inside the clouds climbs to about 15 million degrees Celsius, nuclear fusion (核聚变) starts and they enter the next stage of life, known as main sequence. Stars spend 90 percent of their lives in their main sequence phase. Most of the stars, including the sun, are main-sequence stars. They exist in a state of nuclear fusion. This process sends out a huge amount of energy, keeping the star hot and shining brightly. This stage may take billions of years. For example, Earth’s sun is now around 4. 6 billion years old, and it will remain in its main sequence stage for several billion more years.
But there are different ways a star’s life can end, depending on how massive the star is. Less massive stars just burn out. But massive stars die with a Big Bang. While the massive stars may appear to get bigger and bigger on the outside, the matter inside will eventually become so dense (密集的) that they explode. Some of the remains may become neutron (中子) stars or even black holes if they are massive enough.
1. What do the underlined word “shrink” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．To become bigger and bigger. | B．To get smaller and smaller. |
| C．To grow heavier and heavier. | D．To turn hotter and hotter. |
| A．It exists in a state of nuclear fusion. |
| B．It has extremely low inside pressure. |
| C．It is the last stage of a star s life circle. |
| D．It is a relatively short period of a star’s life. |
| A．die with a big explosion | B．just burn out and disappear |
| C．usually end up in black holes | D．always grow into neutron stars |
| A．A research paper. | B．A biological magazine. |
| C．A popular science book. | D．An astronomer’s diary. |
【推荐1】The causes and effects of plastic pollution are truly everywhere.
Several million tons of rubbish end up in the world’s ocean every year, and much of it is improperly dropped plastic litter.
In the ocean, plastic pollution can kill the ocean animals directly through entanglement (缠住) in objects, and it can also kill them because of being mistaken for food. Studies have found that all kinds of species, both small and large, easily take plastic bits. Sunlight and seawater crack plastic, and the final breakdown of larger objects into microplastic makes plastic available to the small ocean animals. Such small pieces of plastic, which are less than 5 mm in length, make up a sizable part of plastic waste in the ocean by the movement of deep-sea currents (水流), which is creating microplastic “hot spots” in parts of the ocean.
There is also plastic pollution on land. Drainage systems become blocked with plastic bags and other items. Land birds have been found with plastic in their stomachs, and animals that normally feed in dumps—for example, the sacred cows of India—have had intestinal (肠的) blockages from plastic packaging. In addition, wind-transported microplastic has been found in many parts of the world, including the snow on high mountains, on Aretic beaches, sea ice and in Antarctica.
Given the global scale of plastic pollution, using more money on removing plastic items from the environment would not be considered. Most solutions to the problem of plastic pollution, therefore, focus on preventing improper disposal (处理) or even on limiting the use of certain plastic items in the first place. Fines for littering have proved difficult to be carried out, but various fees on plastic shopping bags are common, as is exchanging for new things by taking bottles to recycling centers. Awareness of the serious results of plastic pollution is increasing, and new solutions, including the increasing use of biodegradable plastics and a “zero waste” idea, are being accepted by governments and the public.
1. What do the underlined words “hot spots” in paragraph 3 mean?| A．Popular materials. | B．Rising temperatures. |
| C．Strange objects. | D．Heavily-polluted places. |
| A．The harm of plastic pollution to animals. |
| B．The way to deal with plastic pollution. |
| C．The process of microplastic being formed. |
| D．The effect of wind on the spread of plastic pollution. |
| A．They advise a fine on littering. |
| B．They give up using plastic items. |
| C．They take action with a “zero waste” idea. |
| D．They agree to increase the cost of removing plastic items. |
| A．Plastic Pollution to the Ocean |
| B．Environmental Protection on the Way |
| C．Plastic Pollution in the Ocean and on Land |
| D．Tasks on Keeping Plastic Pollution Away From Land |
【推荐2】Beijing has been suffering this year's most severe smog since Friday, which has forced schools to close and traffic confusion. Thick, choking smog has enveloped the capital for five days, with the air quality index(指标)in many monitoring stations increasing to 500, the highest possible reading. The city government encourages people to stay indoors when the reading is higher than 300.
Concentration of PM 2.5﹣particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5microns that causes health risk was 689 at 5pm on Tuesday in some southern Beijing monitoring stations, down from the peak reading of 945 on Monday.
The capital has also seen more road accidents due to the poor visibility, and traffic jam was around the city through most of Monday. Many expressways linking Beijing and neighboring cities in Hebei province were closed for hours.
The city environmental watchdog sent inspection teams to supervise measures to limit emissions(排放)on Tuesday. Of 545 companies they inspected, 12 had acted against orange alert restrictions, the capital's environmental protection bureau said.
For example, a Dongfeng Nissan factory to pause work on Tuesday. And a construction site at the China University of Political Science and Law left piles of building materials uncovered which could release dust in to the air.
All companies and construction sites against the regulations would be severely punished, the bureau said.
The smog covering a vast area across northern China has been caused by unfavorable weather, with no wind and high humidity, and an increased of coal in the heating season, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said.
1. We can infer from the first paragraph that ______.| A．the smog is the most severe on Friday. |
| B．people use envelopes in the capital. |
| C．people stay at home doing some reading. |
| D．the smog has taken place several times in Beijing this winter. |
| A．Using examples and data. | B．Describing processes. |
| C．Making comparisons. | D．Analyzing causes. |
| A．A sport magazine. | B．A newspaper report. |
| C．A book review. | D．A museum guide. |
【推荐3】Plastic waste has polluted the Arctic. Two new studies have spied bags, fishing rope and tinier bits of rubbish in the Barents Sea. This sea sits north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. It mixes with the Arctic Ocean, which is even farther north.
Plastic waste in the Arctic could harm wildlife and may hint that large volumes of human rubbish are collecting there, says Melanie Bergmann. She is one of the scientists who spotted the waste. She studies Earth’s oceans at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany. She first started counting bits of plastics in the Barents Sea because she kept spotting signs of the stuff there in images taken with deep-sea cameras.
Bergmann and her colleagues counted pieces of plastic from an icebreaker, a boat designed to break through large blocks of ice in very cold waters. They also tracked plastic pieces they saw during helicopter rides over Arctic waters. The team found 31 pieces of plastic. “That doesn’t seem like much, but it shows us that we’ve really got a problem, one that extends even to this remote area, far from civilization,” Bergmann says. She and her colleagues described their findings October 21 in Polar Biology.
Another team has also been counting plastics in the area. Those scientists took water from the Barents Sea and counted the number of smaller bits of plastics, called microplastics.
Plastic in the ocean is dangerous to animals. Some may get caught in rope or bags. And wildlife may swallow bags and other plastic bits. That makes them feel full. But some may eventually starve because they are not getting the nutrients they need to live. Sometimes plastics also may break down in an animal’s body and release poisonous chemicals. If another animal later eats the one that swallowed plastic, it too can end up with poisonous chemicals in its body. This, in turn, can travel up the food web, endangering predators (肉食动物) — even people.
1. What can be learned from Para 1?| A．Europe is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean. |
| B．The Barents Sea is to the north of the Arctic. |
| C．The Arctic Ocean is polluted by plastic rubbish. |
| D．European countries are to blame for the pollution. |
| A．Human rubbish dumped in the sea. |
| B．Pictures taken by deep-sea cameras. |
| C．Sea water taken to the laboratory. |
| D．Wildlife spotted by helicopter. |
| A．Plastic is found in the remote sea. |
| B．The sea is covered with plastic. |
| C．Advanced tools are in great need. |
| D．People suffered from bad weather. |
| A．Animals may get choked by bags or plastic bits. |
| B．Animals may die of hunger if they swallow bags. |
| C．Plastic can release harmful gases to kill animals. |
| D．It is hard for plastic bags and bits to break down. |
At this very moment around the world, athletes are stepping almost naked into freezing cold rooms. Why on Earth are they doing this? Because it’s supposed to help them feel better.
The treatment is called whole-body cryotherapy. Basketball star LeBron James, soccer great Cristiano Ronaldo, and boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. have all tried it. The therapy works like this. You take off everything but your underwear. Then you put on warm socks and gloves and step into a small room that looks sort of like a shower, except your head sticking 16% out the top. Once you’re locked in, air cooled to below -200°F(-129°C) fills the room. That’s way colder than Antarctica. You stay in for two to three minutes.
Advocates believe the extremely cold air helps muscles recover faster and reduces other body pain. After his first cryotherapy sessions, Phil Mackenzie, a professional rugby player, felt noticeably better. He told Scientific American, ‘I felt refreshed right away. My sleep was better’. Soon, he was using it four times a week. Those who promote cryotherapy make all sorts of wild claims about its benefits. Supposedly, that extremely cold air can increase focus, improve skin tone, make you happier, burn calories, slow aging, and much more.
Is there any evidence to back up these incredible claims? Nope. Several small scientific studies have looked at whether the therapy can improve muscle recovery after exercise, with encouraging results. But there just isn’t enough evidence to show that the therapy works. The benefits some people experience may just be the placebo effect. That’s when a patient’s expectation that a treatment will work leads to an improvement.
The US Food & Drug Administration has actually issued a warning about whole-body cryotherapy. It cautions that the liquid nitrogen used to cool the room may make it difficult to breathe. Frost bite is another potential risk, which is why participants wear gloves and socks.
What do you think? Is it a chance for a better athletic performance worth the risk?
1. What can we learn about the therapy according to the first two paragraphs?| A．The whole-body cryotherapy can help athletes recover. |
| B．The therapy has won popularity with only great athletes. |
| C．People need to wear gloves and socks after cold air fills the room. |
| D．People need to stay in a freezing small room with almost nothing on. |
| A．To explain a rule. | B．To support an idea. |
| C．To present a fact. | D．To make a prediction. |
| A．Many celebrities have received the therapy. |
| B．Extremely cold air is beneficial to people’s health. |
| C．The therapy may have psychological benefit to them. |
| D．Scientific studies have proved the effect of the therapy. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Cautious. | C．Tolerant. | D．Indifferent. |
【推荐2】A French power producer, HDF Energy, expects its hydrogen energy power station in Namibia to produce electricity by 2024. And HDF Energy announced the plan for the southern African country publicly recently. This plant in Namibia would be Africa’s first. HDF Energy is also considering new projects across Africa.
The project is expected to cost about $181 million. Once operated, it will supply electrical power, 24 hours a day throughout the year. It will increase the electricity supply to Namibia, which imports 40 percent of power from neighboring South Africa. Namibia is one of the world’s sunniest and least densely-populated countries. It wants to use its great potential for solar and wind energy to produce green hydrogen power. And Namibia wants to become a renewable energy center in Africa.
Hydrogen power is considered clean when it is made with reproducible power. It is seen as an important way to reduce carbon-based fuels in the energy industry. The project will use solar panels(电池板)to produce electricity. Electrolyzers produce hydrogen which can be easily stored by using electricity to separate hydrogen from oxygen in water.
Another company named Hyphen Hydrogen Energy is in talks with Namibia’s government to secure an agreement for a planned hydrogen project. European Union says they also plan a deal with the country to support its green hydrogen industry. The German government has already agreed to invest $41.8 million in Namibia’s hydrogen plan. European nations are trying to reduce their dependence on Russian energy. Obeth Kandjoze, director-general of Namibia’s National Planning Commission said EU financial support was likely to be limited, but a financial deal could bring in other investors.
1. What do we know about Namibia according to the text?| A．It has the longest sunny days in the world. |
| B．It is the renewable energy center of Africa. |
| C．It owns Africa’s first hydrogen energy power station. |
| D．Its power supply highly depends on neighbouring countries. |
| A．Environmental-friendly. | B．Harmful. | C．Widely-applied. | D．Low-cost. |
| A．To seek high profit from the industry. |
| B．To reduce the air pollution in Namibia. |
| C．To supply enough electricity to Namibia. |
| D．To decrease their power import from Russia. |
| A．The storage of hydrogen is the toughest part of the project. |
| B．The power station will solve the power shortage in Namibia. |
| C．The hydrogen project in Namibia may attract more investment. |
| D．The application of hydrogen energy is popular around the world. |
【推荐3】This is the moment a harpoon (鱼叉) was fired in space striking a target almost dead centre. It was filmed 400km above the Earth. It’s the latest experiment from the Remove DEBRIS spacecraft. Led by Surrey University, it’s a mission that’s testing out the technologies that could clean up space junk. It was absolutely a success. And the goal of the experiment was to hit the target.
There are approximately 23,000 pieces of debris (残骸) larger than a softball orbiting the Earth. They travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft. Much more debris—too small to be tracked, but large enough to threaten human spaceflight and robotic missions—exists in the near-Earth space environment. Since both the debris and spacecraft are traveling at extremely high speeds, an impact of even a tiny piece of orbital debris with a spacecraft could create big problems.
In 2016, the crack in the window of the International Space Station was thought to have been caused when a tiny bit of paint hit it. Larger objects could do even more harm. Scientists are particularly worried about a European satellite the size of a double-decker bus that stopped working in 2012. It’s now threatening other satellites in its path and needs to be removed from its orbit.
Last year, the Remove DEBRIS spacecraft tested a net, proving it could catch a passing satellite. It’s the first mission to try and address this problem. And it’s also used its on-board cameras to track a rolling target—essential for hunting down any casual space litter. Its final test will be in the coming weeks. It’s set to bum up as it returns to Earth, preventing it from becoming a piece of space junk itself.
The hope is now that future missions can be scaled up so the celestial (天空的) deep clean can begin.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．Space harpoon missed hitting its target object. |
| B．Space junk was becoming dead center in space. |
| C．Remove DEBRIS succeeded conducting its hunting test. |
| D．Remove DEBRIS demonstrated the use of space harpoon. |
| A．A decline speed of spaceflight. | B．The pressure of Robotic missions. |
| C．A serious impact on orbital debris. | D．Potential danger to all space vehicles. |
| A．To make a comment. | B．To draw a conclusion. |
| C．To make a comparison. | D．To provide an illustration. |
| A．Being tested again. | B．Becoming space debris. |
| C．Burning to ashes completely. | D．Returning to Earth successfully. |
