Staten Island’s Fresh-kills, once a dumping ground (垃圾倾倒场) for New Yorkers, is now a breathtaking park. The first part was opened to the public in October. With its grassland, hills and waterways offering hiking and superb bird-watching, this is a great example of urban habitat restoration.
Fresh-kills, known for its stench, was in operation for 53 years. Locals used to avoid the place and had to hold their breath when they passed by. It was the world’s largest dumping ground and was so huge that it could be seen from outer space. Fresh-kills was closed 22 years ago, and 21 acres of it were opened in mid-October.
“I’m happy to see that this area has become a new green space. It is a home for local plants and animals and gives the residents of Staten Island a place to be outdoors, exercise and breathe fresh air. The newly opened park features walking paths, hiking trails, seven acres of native seed plots, a bird-observation tower, and a deck that overlooks the hills, grassland and waterways,” says a local called Adams. “I used to avoid approaching the place, but now I’m looking forward to exploring it.”
This project is entirely focused on environmental management. Solar panels provide lighting in the parking lot and restrooms, while the toilets are composting (堆肥), returning waste to soil. A complex system was used to decompose the landfill waste and to protect the new topsoil. There are also plans to reuse the gas and liquid byproducts of the decomposing waste. There was once 29,000 tons of trash dumped daily at Fresh-kills. Today, the site is totally transformed, home to 1,000 acres of grassland habitat that was seeded with native grass mix. This is attracting many birds that have not been seen for years. Locals will come to Freshkills to relax and connect with nature.
1. What does the underlined word “stench” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Fresh air. |
| B．Breathtaking scenery. |
| C．Abandoned grassland. |
| D．Unpleasant smell. |
| A．Unapproachable. |
| B．Attractive. |
| C．Crowded. |
| D．Dirty. |
| A．It is simple and easy. |
| B．It has caused much waste. |
| C．It is environment-friendly. |
| D．It is strongly opposed by the locals. |
| A．To introduce a transformed place. |
| B．To tell the history of a dumping ground. |
| C．To promote the local tourism. |
| D．To encourage readers to get close to nature. |
相似题推荐
Meal kits(餐具)cut food waste but packaging is a problem
Home delivery meal kits can slash(大幅消减)food waste by more than two-thirds, but suppliers need to switch to reusable packaging to make them environmentally friendly.
Beyond the cost of the waste itself, thrown-away food generates methane(甲烷)that contributes to climate change.
Meal kits can reduce transport emissions if they mean people take fewer trips to the supermarket. If people only went to buy goods that are unlikely to decay such as soap and toilet paper, they might only have to visit the supermarket once every couple of months. That delivery truck can carry meals for you and dozens of neighbors.
The study found that even if delivered meal kits reduced food waste to zero, they would still use up more energy overall than buying the same food from the supermarket unless the energy used for the meal kit packaging was cut by a fifth.
| A．However, meal kits are likely heading for the mainstream. |
| B．If it’s single-use and thrown away, the packaging is a killer. |
| C．In that case, you might replace dozens of car trips with one truck trip. |
| D．Meal knits arrive on your doorstep by truck filled with every ingredient you need. |
| E．Tailor-made meal kits save waste by providing precise quantities of fresh ingredients. |
| F．If food waste was a country, it would rank third in emissions behind the US and China. |
【推荐2】
| A．"Organic produce is always better, "Gold said."The food is free of pesticides(农药) ,and you are generally supporting family farms instead of large farms.And more often than not it is locally grown and seasonal, so it is more tasty." Gold is one of a growing number of shoppers buying into the organic trend, and supermarkets across Britain are counting on more like him as they grow their organic food business. |
| B．Market research shows that Gold and others who buy organic food can generally give clear reasons for their preferences - but their knowledge of organic food is far from complete.For example, small amounts of pesticides can be used on organic products.And about three quarters of organic food in Britain is not local but imported to meet growing demand."The demand for organic food is increasing by about one third every year, so it is a very fast-growing market, "said Sue Flock, a specialist in this line of business. |
| C．Many cities around the world today are heavily polluted.Careless methods of production and lack of consumer demand for environment-friendly products have contributed to the pollution problem.One result is that millions of tons of glass, paper, plastic, and metal containers are produced, and these are difficult to get rid of. |
| D．However, today, more and more consumers are choosing "green" and demanding that the products they buy should be safe for the environment.Before they buy a product, they ask questions like these: "Will this shampoo damage the environment?" "Can this metal container be reused or can it only be used once?" |
| E．Only a few years ago, it was impossible to find green products in supermarkets, but now there are hundreds.Some supermarket products carry labels(标签) to show that the product is green.Some companies have made the manufacturing(制造) of clean and safe products their main selling point and emphasize it in their advertising. |
| F．The concern for a safer and cleaner environment is making companies rethink how they do business.No longer will the public accept the old attitude of "Buy it, use it, throw it away, and forget it." The public pressure is on, and gradually business is cleaning up its act. |
【推荐3】Small-scale fisheries supply many people with food. Almost all of those in this trade rely on gillnets (刺网) to trap fish. But gillnets trap other things, for example, endangered animals such as turtles; dangerous ones, such as Humboldt squid; and ones that are both endangered and dangerous, such as several types of sharks. Everyone involved would be better off if this did not happen.
Building on studies done both by himself and by others, to try to avoid the accidental netting of turtles, Jesse Senko, a marine-conservation biologist at Arizona State University, has been investigating the idea of fitting LEDs to nets to avoid netting other unwanted by-catch (误捕的鱼) without discouraging target animals. And, as he reports in Current Biology, it seems to work.
Dr. Senko and his team set up an experiment in the Gulf of Ulloa, in Mexico, in which they cooperated with local fishermen to employ over 10,000 meters of nets that had had nets battery-powered waterproof green LEDs fixed onto them every ten meters. Half of these lights were lit. The other half were left unlit, as controls. Each lit net was paired with an unlit one, and the two were used alongside one another at major fishing locations. The fishers’ target fish were large groupers (石斑鱼). Dr. Senko was interested both in what else got caught and whether the lights decreased catches of the target species.
On the latter point, to his relief, they did not. On the former, the lit net s caught 95% fewer kilograms of shark-related species. In particular, several threatened species turned up less often in the lit than the unlit nets.
The advantage from the point of view of fishermen was that they needed to spend a lot less time clearing these dangerous by-catches from their nets. And, crucially, the LEDs concerned are cheap, hard-wearing, and easy to fix. There are also plans to make them solar powered, for easy recharging. Here, then, is an environmental-protection idea from which everyone wins.
1. What is the problem with gillnets?| A．They are costly to maintain. | B．They trap unwanted by-catches. |
| C．They discourage target catches. | D．They only trap dangerous species. |
| A．The principle of the experiment. | B．The results of the experiment. |
| C．The purpose of the experiment | D．The process of the experiment. |
| A．Fixing LEDs to gillnets is a win-win idea. |
| B．Fishermen benefit the most from the idea. |
| C．The Lit-net catches more threatened species. |
| D．The LED-net just catches less target species. |
| A．Critical. | B．Unclear. | C．Hopeful. | D．Doubtful. |
【推荐1】Storytelling is an ancient art form that has been used to hand down legends, tales and factual stories. Perhaps the first thing that springs to mind when you think of storytelling is the fantasy land that took shape in your mind while Mom or Dad told you stories about princes, castles and monsters, with a unique voice for each character.
Storytelling does not just take place at bedtime or round a campfire, however. It can take some other forms, either via the books we read or the films we watch. But they usually have some elements in common: rather than a list of dry facts, stories have plots and they introduce characters. We respond to stories, particularly when there is emotional detail.
And unlike what we suppose, storytelling is not just a form of entertainment, but a form of learning as well. Long before reading and writing became widely spread and available, oral storytelling had already been a form that the wisdom and knowledge of the people were passed down from elders to children. A good story engages our curiosity, emotions and imagination.
Storytelling helps with learning also because stories are easy to remember. Research has found that learning obtained from a well-told story is remembered more accurately, and for far longer, than from facts and figures.
And above all, stories have a transformative power to allow us to see the world in a different way than we do if we just encounter it on our own. Stories are an entry point to understanding a different experience of the world.
This aspect of storytelling-presenting a different perspective of the world—is important when it comes to connecting with each other. It gives us an opportunity to learn from another person’s experience and it can shape, strengthen or challenge our opinions and values. So, when someone tells us their own personal story, we catch a glimpse (瞥见) of a view of the world that may be slightly or significantly different from our own. When we see the world as they see it, or walk in their shoes, the experience can inspire empathy (共情；同理心) with them.
1. What occurs to us the moment we think of “storytelling”?| A．A child's imaginary world. |
| B．Voices of Mom or Dad. |
| C．An ancient art form. |
| D．Factual stories. |
| A．Form and style. |
| B．Facts and figures. |
| C．Emotional and physical details. |
| D．A series of events and characters. |
| A．It carries more wisdom and knowledge. |
| B．It is more widely available to young learners. |
| C．It satisfies our imagination and releases our emotions. |
| D．It makes what is learned more precise and longer lasting. |
| A．By offering us more opportunities to know people. |
| B．By helping us stay connected with the contemporary world. |
| C．By allowing us to understand the world the way they see it. |
| D．By enabling us to tell reality from imagination. |
| A．The History of Storytelling |
| B．The Power of Storytelling |
| C．The Forms of Storytelling |
| D．The Art of Storytelling |
【推荐2】Researchers have just completed the first worldwide record of lake color. Roughly one-third of them are blue but that number may drop if global temperatures rise. If average air temperatures in summer rose just a few degrees warmer, some of those crystal blue waters could turn green or brown.
Lake color offers clues to the stability of lake ecosystems. Factors such as water depth and how the nearby land is used also matter. Lake color depends in part, too, on what’s in the water. Compared with blue lakes, green or brown lakes have more algae (水藻) and organic matter. That’s according to Xiao Yang, a hydrologist who works at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Changing lake colors, he says, could also change how people use those waters.
Yang was part of a team that analyzed the color of more than 85,000 lakes around the world. They used satellite photos from 2013 to 2020. Storms and seasons can temporarily affect a lake’s color. So the researchers focused on the most frequent color observed for each lake over the seven-year period. The scientists then looked at local climates during the same time period. They wanted to see how climate might be linked to lake color.
Average summer air temperatures and lake color were linked, the researchers found. Lakes were more likely to be blue in places where summer temperatures averaged less than 19℃. Up to 14 percent of lakes that are blue were near that threshold (门槛), though. That means just a bit more warming might tip them away from blue. Scientists think the planet could average 3 degrees Celsius warmer by 2100. If so, that could turn another 3,800 lakes green or brown.
Green or brown waters could be unappealing for play or it might cost more to clean it for drinking. But in fact, the color changes might not mean the lakes are any less healthy. If you were a certain type of fish species, you might think this is great.
1. What is a feature of green or brown lakes?| A．Weak ecosystem. | B．High mineral content. |
| C．Increased organic matter. | D．Decreased water temperature. |
| A．Why the color of most lakes is blue. |
| B．The consequences of lake color change. |
| C．How climate change affect creatures living in water. |
| D．The relationship between air temperature and lake color. |
| A．14 percent of the world’s lakes are blue. |
| B．3,800 lakes worldwide are green or brown. |
| C．Many lakes may experience severe ecological damage. |
| D．Some lakes are close to the critical point of color change. |
| A．Lifestyle. | B．Environment. |
| C．Technology. | D．Business. |
【推荐3】Towns across Italy have been racing to launch clever plans aimed at attracting new residents to revive (复兴)their fortunes in recent years. From abandoned homes selling for little more than a euro, to ready- to-occupy houses at knockdown prices, there has been a rush of competition.
The picturesque town of Presicce in the sunny region of Puglia is the latest to enter the game with a very tempting offer. Officials say they will pay people up to 30,000 euros to buy an empty house and take up residency. Even better, the houses up fbr sale as part of the deal are priced from around 25,000 euros.
Authorities in Presicce hope the cash motivation will breathe new life into their depopulating town, where newborns are fewer each year.
Presicce dates back to the middle Ages, flourishing during the Renaissance as a prosperous place known for its fine wine, cheeses and cattle trade. It gains a reputation as Puglia’s “town of green gold” for green olive trees and olive oil. Its location is incredible, surrounded by the nature of the Salento area and close to beautiful beaches and clear waters of Santa Maria di Leuca.
“There are many empty homes in the historical center built before 1991 which we would like to see alive again with new residents,” says local councilor Alfredo Palese. It is a pity witnessing how our old districts full of history, wonderful architecture and art are slowly emptying. The details of the deal are currently being finalized, Palese adds, and authorities are ready to launch applications in upcoming weeks when information will be available on the town hall website.
According to Palese, a 2019 merger (合并)with the nearby town Acquarica to create the larger town Presicce-Acquarica has provided them with extra money to ensure the project can continue for years to come. “After the merger, as per Italian law, our wider territory will be blessed with more public funds, roughly 1,000,000 euros per year for several years forward, which we intend to invest to revitalize (振兴) the old district, ” says Palese.
Together, Presicce and Acquarica now have some 9,000 inhabitants, but only half of the population live in the older part of the community.
The town hall has already launched other plans to attract more residents, including tax benefits to set up new business activities and baby bonuses for families with kids.
1. What problem do many Italian towns face according to the text?| A．Population decline. | B．Financial crisis. | C．Falling tourism. | D．High living cost. |
| A．Risky. | B．Informal. | C．Attractive. | D．Conditional. |
| A．To show Presicce’s past glory. |
| B．To recommend a travel destination. |
| C．To point out the economy of Presicce. |
| D．To stress the importance of reviving Presicce. |
| A．An Italian town’s welfare system. |
| B．An Italian town’s recovery strategy. |
| C．An Italian town’s long-term plan. |
| D．An Italian town’s current situation. |
