There’s a trend that more city people decide that they want to grow crops and raise some live-stock (家禽). After all, there are few things more satisfying than biting into a bunch of tender, red carrots you grow yourself, or a fresh egg from the backyard.
Most gardeners understand that the soil in big cities is often polluted with lead and know to get their soil tested. But most are pretty clueless about how to prevent other types of pollutants, like heavy metals and asbestos(石棉)from getting into their vegetables.
Part of the problem is that “there might be pollutants that gardeners can’t test for,” says Brent Kim, a program officer. Most soil tests look for lead, cadrniunt(镉)and arsenic(砷). But they don’t test things like chemicals left behind by cars, which might have escaped into the soil.
So if you’re thinking of staring an urban garden, Kim says, once you’ve found a plot of land, you should learn what’s now an empty plot or a backyard might once have been a parking lot, a gas station or a chemical ground. “Knowing its past will give you some idea about what might be in that soil,” he says.
“People tend to think raised beds are going to solve their pollution problem,” Kim says. But polluted soil could easily kicked onto your plants, especially if the beds are low to the ground.
“Another consideration is that you have to be careful about the materials that you’re using to build a raised bed,” Kim says. Recycling wood from an old construction site might seem like a good, eco-friendly idea. But that wood could be treated with chemicals you don’t want touching your fruits and veggies, Kim says. And it’s always a good idea to use gloves while gardening, and wash all your produce thoroughly.
“I see these urban growing spaces as these oases(绿洲)in the middle of these urban environments,” Kim says. “They bring communities together, and they help people save money on fresh produce. Urban growing spaces are amazing. Let’s keep doing this, but let’s do it safely.”
1. What does the underlined word “clueless” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．unaware | B．careless |
| C．helpless | D．considerate |
| A．Build it on a parking lot | B．Keep it low to the ground |
| C．Know the history of the ground | D．Use recycled wood to build it |
| A．They are free from some tests | B．Their plants can be poisoned |
| C．They are environment-friendly | D．Their materials are all recycled |
| A．More fresh vegetables are produced by urban gardeners |
| B．Growing vegetables become a fashion in big cities |
| C．Big cities are short of soil for growing fresh produce |
| D．Urban gardeners may not realize the seriousness of polluted soil |
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【推荐1】California has been using recycled wastewater for many years. A team has used it to make ice surfaces for the game of hockey(冰球运动). It has been used to make snow for the sport of skiing. And farmers use it to water their crops. But it has not been used directly for drinking water.
Recently, California officials approved new rules to let water agencies recycle wastewater and put it right back into the pipes that carry drinking water to homes, schools, and businesses. It is a big step for California.
California’s new rules would let—but not require—water agencies to take wastewater, treat it, and then put it right back into the drinking water system. That means proving to people that recycled water is not only safe to drink but also not dirty. California would be just the second US state to permit this, following Colorado. It has taken officials more than 10 years to develop these rules, a process that included several studies by independent groups of scientists.
A project in San Diego is aiming to produce nearly half of the city’s water through recycling wastewater by 2035. And the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California aims to produce up to nearly 570 million liters(升)a day for its 19 million people. Adel Hagekhalil is with Metropolitan Water. He said the new rules will permit new projects that have not yet been considered.
California’s new rules require the wastewater be treated for all bacteria and viruses, even if they are not present in the wastewater. In fact, the treatment is so intense that it removes all of the minerals that make fresh drinking water taste good. That means the minerals need to be added back at the end of the process. Polhemus is a director of the drinking water group for the California Water Resources Control Board. “It’s at the same drinking water quality, and probably better in many instances,” he said, adding that it takes time and money to build these treatment centers. So, they will only be available for bigger cities at first.
1. What does paragraph 1 mainly tell us about the recycled wastewater?| A．Its qualities. | B．Its functions. |
| C．Its target users. | D．Its disadvantages. |
| A．They made some new rules on pollution. |
| B．They spent ten years recycling wastewater. |
| C．They tried to make wastewater safe to drink. |
| D．They requested water agencies to speed up treating water. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Favorable. | C．Pessimistic. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．The Process of Recycling Wastewater Is Complicated |
| B．California Tries to Reduce the Wastewater Generation |
| C．California Permits Turning Wastewater to Drinking Water |
| D．New Wastewater Treatment Projects Have Been Approved |
【推荐2】According to a 2010 report, up to 14 million tons of plastic（塑料） from 192 nations went into the sea that year. That’s more than twice the weight of the Pyramid of Khufu (胡夫金字塔). Plastics stay forever in waterways and the oceans, and sea animals. An amount of (大量的) plastic is harmful to sea animals. Much plastic trash(垃圾) is washed up on the shore, which does harm to the environment.
Angela Haseltine Pozzi didn’t like seeing that on the beach near her home in Bandon. She wanted to call on her community to clean it up. So she started an organization called Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea. Since 2010, more than 10,000 volunteers have collected 21 tons of trash from Oregon’s 482 kilometers of shoreline. Using plastic from the beach cleanup, Ms. Pozzi and her staff and many volunteers create sculptures of sea animals.
Ms. Pozzi gives credit to everyone who helps. However little it is, their effort is highly thought of. Some people have picked up the plastic, and others have sorted the items by color. Still others have washed each piece of plastic trash. Ms. Pozzi is responsible for the detail work. More than 70 works of art have been created. Four travelling exhibits have displayed the sculptures in more than 18 places. Most sculptures are about 19 feet tall and take from six months to a year to complete. One of the first is Henry the Giant Fish, a 15footlong fish made of used bottle caps, toys and lighters, which received a great honor.
The Washed Ashore sculptures, hopefully, will make people aware of how so much plastic ends up in the oceans. Now, the Washed Ashore team is working on a sculpture of a dolphin, with plans for more sculptures. "Until we run out of plastic on the beach, the work will continue." Ms. Porzzi says.
1. Why is the Pyramid of Khufu mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．To present the harm of the trash. |
| B．To show the amount of the plastic. |
| C．To describe the shape of the sculpture. |
| D．To prove the popularity of the Pyramid |
| A．Praises.. | B．Trusts. |
| C．Organizes. | D．Influences |
| A．The first sculpture needs improvement. |
| B．The plastic on the beach will be used up. |
| C．More plastic has entered the ocean since 2010. |
| D．Teamwork leads to the success of the sculptures. |
| A．Art to Save the Sea |
| B．Trash on the Shore |
| C．Special Sculptures on Display |
| D．Ms. Pozzi,a Talented Artist |
【推荐3】Plastic bags are a popular container in much of the world, but they are also a major source of pollution which need hundreds of years to break down, and as they do, tiny pieces can poison soil, lakes, rivers and oceans. So, environment experts urge people to reuse and recycle plastic bags.
Maryland artist Allita Irby just does so. It all starts with the morning newspaper, and the plastic bag that the paper comes in. The mixed media artist recognized its rich possibilities three years ago. “As I was taking the newspaper out, I felt the texture (质地) of these bags. I just looked down and realized it takes three to make a braid (发辫). I’ll just put a few main materials in just to make it strong enough.” Since then, Irby has been using plastic bags to create abstract lines in her art works.
Before using plastic bags in her pieces, Irby used natural materials like feathers, leather and dried plants, all of which contain elements that represent her Native American ancestry and identity, like her piece called “Navaho Bundles”. “I was making a hair style, a Navaho hair style when the hair was heavy and it was looped back on itself. I took the piece and looped it back onto itself and secured it with a tie.
Ms. Irby’s neighbors praise her ability to turn wastes into treasure. Some people, like Charlotte Hogan, asked the artist to teach them how to create art from used plastic bags. Aleta Meyer expressed surprise, “ I’ve never given any more thought to what to do with a plastic bag. This is definitely different.” Shirley Watts plans to show others her art. “I want to make a masterpiece that I can put in a frame and put it on my wall and then I know that I did it,” she said.
Allita Irby says anyone can do it and all you have to do is open your eyes and bring the outside in.
1. The first paragraph is written to offer _______.
| A．the conditions of making plastics | B．the background of the story |
| C．the reason for using plastics | D．the importance of plastic bags |
| A．will never use plastic bags herself | B．pays much attention to her hair style |
| C．was born in a Native American family | D．only uses plastics to make art works now |
| A．They are similar to Navaho hair styles. |
| B．They are actually tools used in daily life. |
| C．They offer Irby the inspiration to recycle plastic bags. |
| D．They are made of natural materials. |
| A．They live in the same neighborhood. | B．They are all mixed media artists. |
| C．They are active in protecting the environment. | D．They learn art from the same master. |
| A．Watts follows Irby to make art works. |
| B．Meyer says she’ll never make plastic arts. |
| C．Irby thinks what it needs is to discover beauty. |
| D．Hogan thinks they are the best ones for churches. |
【推荐1】The coronavirus pandemic has brought with it the rise of a new kind of single use plastic in the form of personal protective equipment (PPE), like face masks and gloves. Experts warned that these sharply increasing single-use items could cause a new wave of plastic pollution and kill wildlife.
The charity Ocean Conservancy reported that volunteers had collected more than 100,000 PPE items from coasts and waterways during the last six months of 2020. They sent out a survey to more than 2020 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) coordinators and volunteers asking about their experience with PPE. The results show that it is a real problem. Volunteers collected 107,219 pieces of PPE in 70 of 115 participating countries. Of those surveyed, 94% reported seeing PPE at a cleanup, and 40% found five items or more. Further, 37% found the items had already sunk into the water.
“During one of our clean-ups in the canals of Leiden, our volunteers found a latex glove with a dead fish trapped in the thumb,” said Auke-Florian Hiemstra, a study coauthor Iron Leiden University. “Also, in the Dutch canals, we observed that a water bird was using face masks and gloves in its nests.” Other animals that have gotten tangled up in face masks include a fox in the UK, a pufferfish in Florida, and two crabs in France. Numerous dogs and cats have been observed eating PPE as well.
The danger posed by PPE goes deeper than what the eye can see. Luckily, there are ways that all of us can be part of the solution to the problem of PPE pollution. Hiemstra recommended using reusable PPE instead of single-use products. In that case, we should deal with them properly by cutting the ear loops to prevent animal entanglements (缠绕物) and throwing them away in a bin that is not overstuffed. “We definitely think it is important for citizens to understand how much PPE is ending up in the environment and impacting animals,” Hiemstra said.
1. What problem is mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．Single-use products tend to be used less widely. |
| B．Anti-pandemic products bring about pollution. |
| C．More and more patients are infected with coronavirus. |
| D．Personal protective equipment is in remarkably short supply. |
| A．To analyze the leading cause of ocean pollution. |
| B．To state volunteers’ great efforts to protect the ocean. |
| C．To highlight the large amount of PPE in the environment. |
| D．To present difficulties of cleaning up plastic waste in the ocean. |
| A．PPE pollution has become a threat to many animals. |
| B．Litter makes it hard for boats to pass through the canals. |
| C．PPE is appealing to dogs and cats on account of its smell. |
| D．On no account will water birds be affected by plastic pollution. |
| A．Hiking the price of PPE items. |
| B．Cleaning the rubbish bin on a regular basis. |
| C．Restricting the production of non-recyclable plastic. |
| D．Replacing throw-away products with recyclable ones. |
【推荐2】If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars, we would go in darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal (夜间活动的) species on this planet. Instead, we are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun’s light. This is a basic evolutionary fact, even though most of us don’t think of ourselves as diurnal beings. Yet it’s the only way to explain what we’ve done to the night: We’ve engineered it to receive us by filling it with light.
The benefits of this kind of engineering come with consequences -- called light pollution -- whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky. Ill-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night and completely changes the light levels -- and light rhythms -- to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some aspect of life is affected.
In most cities the sky looks as though it has been emptied of stars, leaving behind a vacant haze (霾) that mirrors our fear of the dark. We’ve grown so used to this orange haze that the original glory of an unlit night -- dark enough for the planet Venus to throw shadows on Earth -- is wholly beyond our experience, beyond memory almost.
We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet (磁铁). The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being “captured” by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms. Migrating at night, birds tend to collide with brightly lit tall buildings.
Frogs living near brightly lit highways suffer nocturnal light levels that are as much as a million times brighter than normal, throwing nearly every aspect of their behavior out of joint, including their nighttime breeding choruses. Humans are no less trapped by light pollution than the frogs. Like most other creatures, we do need darkness. Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself.
Living in a glare of our own making, we have cut ourselves off from our evolutionary and cultural heritage-the light of the stars and the rhythms of day and night. In a very real sense, light pollution causes us to lose sight of our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best measured against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way -- the edge of our galaxy -- arching overhead.
1. According to the passage, human beings ________.| A．prefer to live in the darkness |
| B．are used to living in the day light |
| C．were curious about the midnight world |
| D．had to stay at home with the light of the moon |
| A．provide examples of animal protection |
| B．show how light pollution affects animals |
| C．compare the living habits of both species |
| D．explain why the number of certain species has declined |
| A．light pollution does harm to the eyesight of animals |
| B．light pollution has destroyed some of the world heritages |
| C．human beings cannot go to the outer space |
| D．human beings should reflect on their position in the universe |
| A．The Magic Light | B．The Orange Haze |
| C．The Disappearing Night | D．The Rhythms of Nature |
【推荐3】Darrell Blatchley, a marine biologist and environmentalist based in the Philippine city of Davao, received a call from the philippines’ Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (渔业与水产资源局) early Friday morning reporting a death of a young whale.
When the necropsy (尸检) was performed, Blatchley told NPR, he was not prepared for the amount of plastic they found in the whale’s stomach. “It was full of plastic- nothing but nonstop plastic,” he said. “It was filled to the point that its stomach was as hard as a baseball.” “That means that this animal has been suffering not for days or weeks but for months or even a year or more.” Blatchley added.
Blatchley is the founder and owner of the D’ Bone Collector Museum, a natural history museum in Davao. In the coming days, the museum will display all the items found in the whale’s system.
Blatchley and his team work with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and other organizations to assist in rescue and recovery of marine animals.
“Within the last 10 years, we have recovered 61 whales and dolphins just within the Davao Gulf,” he said. “Of them, 57 have died due to man --whether they took plastic or fishing nets or other waste, or gotten caught in pollution-- and four were pregnant.”
Blatchley said he hoped that the latest incident would launch the issue of plastic pollution in the Philippines and across the globe. “If we keep going this way, it will be more uncommon to see an animal die of natural causes than it is to see an animal die of plastic.” he said.
1. What can be inferred from the second paragraph?| A．The whale was starved to death. |
| B．Blatchley didn’t make preparations for the necropsy. |
| C．The dead whale must have swallowed a baseball. |
| D．Blatchley was shocked at what he found. |
| A．Uncommon. | B．Inspiring. |
| C．Worrying. | D．Puzzling. |
| A．Natural Death or Merciless murder. |
| B．Stand Up for Protecting Whales. |
| C．Plastic Threatening Our Existence. |
| D．A Whale Found Dead of Plastic. |
【推荐1】Do you have full confidence in your memory? There has been a discussion about whether it is shi or si in the sentence “Thus when Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man...” (“故天将降大任于是/斯人也”). Most people chose si as what they learned at school. However, People’s Education Press, a leading publisher of Chinese textbooks, claimed on Oct 26 that all its textbooks say shi.
Supporters of si feel shocked and say they’ve experienced the “Mandela Effect” — the situation in which a large number of people believe that an event occurred when it didn’t. Many people believed that former South African president Nelson Mandel died in the1980s in prison. However, Mandela was alive and well, eventually passing away in 2013. US researcher Fiona Broome set up a website to explain her observation of this phenomenon first, coining the term.
Some often joke that our memories have been changed by a strange force. In fact, psychologists have looked into the reasons for the Mandela Effect, as reported on the US-based website Verywell Mind. For example, your mind may fill in gaps missing in your memory to make more sense of it, which is called confabulation (虚构症). However, try not to feel bad — this is not lying, but rather remembering details that never happened.
The Internet may be another reason why we have Mandela Effect events, as the news we read can be false from the beginning. In 2018, Science journal published a study of over 100,000 news stories discussed across Twitter. It showed that false news can spread faster and reach more people than the truth. As a powerful way to spread information, the Internet might be the main reason for falsehoods to enter our minds.
1. What’s the author’s purpose of telling the saying “Thus when Heaven is …”?| A．To show our memories can be wrong. |
| B．To provide solutions to the discussion. |
| C．To raise readers’ interest in the discussion. |
| D．To introduce the topic of the Mandela Effect. |
| A．Creating. | B．Misunderstanding. | C．Forgetting. | D．Changing. |
| A．Attitudes to a particular event. |
| B．A kind of psychological effect. |
| C．The benefit of good memory. |
| D．The effect of Mandela’s death. |
| A．False news travels much faster than true stories. |
| B．The Internet can also cause Mandela Effect events. |
| C．It is harder than ever to read false news at present. |
| D．The Internet can make false information avoidable. |
【推荐2】Asking for help is hard, but others want to help more than we often give them credit for, says Stanford social psychologist Xuan Zhao.
We shy away from asking for help because we don’t want to bother other people, assuming that our request will feel like an inconvenience to them. But oftentimes, the opposite is true: People want to make a difference in people’s lives and they feel good happy even when they are able to help others, said Zhao.
There are several common reasons why people struggle to ask for help. Some people may fear that asking for help would make them appear incompetent or weak. Some people are concerned about being rejected, which can be embarrassing and painful. Others may be concerned about burdening and inconveniencing others. These concerns may feel more relevant in some contexts than others, but they are all very relatable and very human.
When people are in need of help, they are often caught up in their own concerns and worries and do not fully recognize the prosocial motivations of those around them who are ready to help. This can introduce a persistent difference between how help-seekers and potential helpers consider the same helping event. The researchers consistently observed that help-seekers underestimated how willing strangers and even friends would be to help them and how positive helpers would feel afterward, and overestimated how inconvenienced helpers would feel.
We love stories about spontaneous (自发的) help, and that may explain why random acts of kindness are popular on social media. But in reality, the majority of help occurs only after a request has been made. It’s often not because people don’t want to help and must be pressed to do so. Quite the opposite, people want to help, but they can’t help if they don’t know someone is suffering or struggling. A direct request can remove those uncertainties and unlocks opportunities for positive social connections and emotional closeness.
1. One of the reasons some people hesitate to ask for help is that ______.| A．they fear appearing weak or incapable. | B．they enjoy handling challenges independently. |
| C．they don’t want to make others embarrassed. | D．they don’t believe in the power of social connections. |
| A．They are unwilling to help strangers. | B．They willingly offer to help others. |
| C．They lack motivation to help others. | D．They are often underestimated by researchers. |
| A．People are often pressed to help others. |
| B．Stories about spontaneous help are not true. |
| C．It is better to directly ask for help if necessary. |
| D．People are unwilling to help unless requested. |
| A．Benefits of Offering Help | B．Ways of Asking for Help |
| C．Reasons Why People Need Help | D．Shocking Truths About Asking for Help |
【推荐3】People spend about a third of their lives sleeping. That might sound like time is wasted but it’s not. Even in a deep sleep period, the brain is busy. It’s hard at work sorting memories getting rid of harmful wastes and more. This time of rest also helps the body build stronger bones. Well-rested people tend to be happier during the day.
Experts recommend that teens get about nine hours of sleep each night. But surveys show that teens are getting less and less sleep. Only about one-third of 18-year-olds now report getting at least seven hours of sleep per night.
Research suggests that people who use screens in bed have a harder time falling asleep. Surely new screen technology could lessen that effect.
| A．And that is a problem. |
| B．There are many reasons for their choice. |
| C．Plus they tend to deal with stress better. |
| D．But experts suggest putting away electronics at least 30 minutes before bed. |
| E．However, the majority of them are still full of energy. |
| F．It’s hard to say exactly why teens have become more sleep-deprived. |
| G．But losing sleep to screens isn’t just a matter of choosing to stay up late. |
