This story starts with my two kids. We were hiking in the Oakland woods when my daughter noticed some plastic litter in a creek. She looked at me and said, "Daddy? That doesn’t go there”.
When she said that, it reminded me of my summer camp. On the morning of that camping day, right before they’d let our anxious parents come through the gates, our camp director would say Quick! Everyone pick up five pieces of litter, "We got one hundred kids each picking up five pieces, and pretty soon, we got a much cleaner camp. So I thought, why not apply that crowdsourced cleanup model to the entire planet? And that was the inspiration for Literati. The goal is to create a litter-free world. Let me show you how it started. I took a picture of a cigarette using Instagram.
Then I took another photo. and another. And at the end of a few days, I had 50 photos on my hone and I had picked up each piece, and I realized that I was keeping a record of the positive impact I was having on the planet. That’s 50 fewer things you might see, or you might step on, or some bird might eat. So I started telling people what I was doing, and they started participating. I realized that Litterati was more than just pretty pictures; we were becoming a community that was collecting data. Each photo tells a story. It tells us who picked up what, a geo-tag tells us where and a time stamp tells us when. Gradually, the community grew.
Litter —it's blending into the back ground of our lives. But what if we brought it to the fore front? What if we understood exactly what was on our streets, our sidewalks and our school yards?
How might we use that data to make a difference?
1. From the text we can tell Litterati is probably_______| A．a hi-tech company | B．a reading software |
| C．a non-profit app | D．a well-known magazine |
| A．Many hands make light work. | B．A good beginning is half done |
| C．Birds of a feather flock together. | D．A candle lights others and consumes itself. |
| A．To present the reasons for so much litter |
| B．To appeal to people to use garbage classification. |
| C．To tell readers what measures to take to handle litter |
| D．To show more statistics about what they have done with litter |
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【推荐1】Volunteering offers great help to people in need, but the benefits (好处) can be even greater for you, the volunteer.
Volunteering is good for your mind and body.
If you’re considering a new job, volunteering can help you get experience in your area of interest and meet people in the field.
| A．Volunteering increases self-confidence |
| B．Volunteering connects you to others |
| C．Even if you're not planning on changing your job |
| D．While some people are naturally outgoing |
| E．It provides many benefits to both mental and physical health |
| F．Many people volunteer in order to make time for hobbies outside of work |
| G．Volunteering can also reduce the risk of heart disease |
【推荐2】Our local Community Youth Club is a very popular organization with young people in my town. I have been a member for four years now and I’ve taken part in a lot of interesting projects. These include fun activities such as holiday camps and discos. We have organized sports competitions and we even made a video.
But it isn’t all just enjoyment, we have also started doing social work to help people in our neighbourhood. We have organized activities for small children during the holidays. We have also formed a social support group to help young people stop smoking.
We are particularly proud of the most recent group we have created. It organizes regular visits to the local old people’s home. This idea came from a school visit to an old people’ home. My class spent an afternoon at a home and everyone found the visit very rewarding.
The old people at the home were very excited by our visit. They were very talkative(健谈的) and they told us their personal stories. During our visit ,the home was filled with the sound of laughter. We sang songs and played games with the old people and had tea together. But we realized that life wasn’t always easy. Some of them were in poor health and were very unhappy. They couldn’t go outside the visits by children brought some sunshine into their lives.
Many young people like me do not live with our grandparents and we have very little contact with elderly people. As a result, many young people don’t know what they are like and we have a lot of wrong ideas about them. We have little or no idea of the kind of lives they lead in their homes. After this visit, my friends and I decided we should do something to help improve the quality of their lives.
Since the creation of our visiting group, over twenty volunteers(志愿者) have joined us. Up to now, we have organized three group evenings and a concert. But it is the individual(单独的) visits which are the most important. Club members regularly visit old people and everyone finds the experience rich and rewarding.
1. The writer _____.| A．works at an old people’s home | B．lives with her grandparents. |
| C．lives in an old people’s home. | D．regularly visits old people. |
| A．only organizes leisure activities for young people |
| B．has made a video about life in an old people’s home |
| C．has arranged a school visit to the local old people’s home |
| D．mainly does social work. |
| A．are not interested in how old people live | B．do not want to get to know old people |
| C．have very little contact with old people | D．live with their grandparents |
| A．take the old people to the beach | B．only visit the elderly on sunny days |
| C．make the old people feel happy | D．take the old people outside |
【推荐3】The Red Cross is known for doing some of the most heroic acts in the world. There are Red Cross societies in 190 countries all over the world. Their task is to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of sudden serious situations by organizing the power of volunteers and asking people to donate.
In 1860, Swiss businessman and social activist, Jean Henri Dunant, saw the effects of wars, and countries not prepared or able to deal with the suffering of those who had been injured in the Battle of Solferino during the Second War of Italian Independence. Dunant organized a group of volunteers to help bring water and food to the injured, to help with medical treatment, or to write letters to the families of those who were dying. After that moment, he knew that more had to be done, and he wrote the book, A Memory of Solferino, which encouraged the public to create an organization which would help the wounded. His writing encouraged more people to support him in creating the International Federation of the Red Cross. And in 1863, the International Committee of the Red Cross was founded.
The modern-day Red Cross does more than nursing soldiers during wartime. The group began to spend most of its time on disaster relief and epidemic(流行病) treatment. It has achieved even greater service in humanitarian(人道主义的) programs that serve continuously in both peace and war.
One of the easiest ways you can help the Red Cross is to make sure you are able to donate blood and make an appointment at the Red Cross website. But, donating blood isn’t the only way you can help out — the Red Cross also encourages you to donate your time if you can, along with other things the modern-day Red Cross wants you to know.
1. What does the underlined word “alleviate” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Lighten. | B．Report. | C．Express. | D．Find. |
| A．To make more people know the Red Cross. |
| B．To ask more people to help the wounded. |
| C．To let people see the effects of wars. |
| D．To call on people to stop wars. |
| A．To introduce the Red Cross website. |
| B．To explain the Red Cross’s future work. |
| C．To encourage people to offer help in the Red Cross. |
| D．To show how the Red Cross helps needy people. |
Ship tourism to Antarctica is on the rise: More than 35,000 tourists are expected to visit Antarctica this summer. In 1992-1993, 6,750 visited Antarctica, according to the Antarctica Treaty.
All of this tourism, however, is putting both tourists and the environment in great danger. Among the tourist ships that visit the continent, the Explorer, a Canadian ship, was one of the first. Put to use in 1969, it was built to carry tourists to Antarctica. Last week, however, it became the first commercial passenger ship to sink beneath the waters. Fortunately, all of the passengers and crew members were rescued from the ship. However, the sunken ship endangered the Antarctic’s fragile environment. The ship was estimated to be holding 48,000 gallons of fuel.
The accident was not unexpected. Both the US and UK had warned a conference of the Antarctic Treaty member countries in May that the tourism situation in this area was a potential disaster. The US said in a paper, people “should take a hard look at tourism issues now, especially those related to ship safety.” Although the Antarctica seas are relatively calm, floating ice causes a potential threat to ships. The owner of the Explorer blamed the sinking on a fist-like hole in the ship created by ice.
Many of the other large ships now visiting Antarctica are not designed especially against thick ice. Such ships generally can only come to the continent in summer. But the tourist rush is pushing the shops into dangerous situations. “The increasing number of ships operating in Antarctica means that the ships are under great pressure to get there in time for the key visiting sites,” the British government wrote in a paper at the meeting of the member countries.
As a natural frontier, Antarctica is in a messy legal situation. There are no obvious answers as to who is responsible for dealing with the threat that tourist may cause to human life and the environment.
There is no coast guard for Antarctica. Do we want it to become Disneyland or do we need some controls?
1. Which of the following is true according to this passage?| A．Antarctica tourism has a history of about 17 years. |
| B．The tourism boom has caused holes in the floating ice in the Antarctica. |
| C．The Antarctica Treaty is responsible for the environmental problems. |
| D．The number of tourists to the Antarctica is over 5 times as large as that of 17 years ago. |
| A．It led to a conference. | B．It was caused by the rough seas. |
| C．It had been predicted. | D．It did harm to the Antarctica. |
| A．People had better not make a tour of the Antarctica. |
| B．Ships to the Antarctica should be built strong enough. |
| C．There should be legal controls over tourism in the Antarctica. |
| D．The Antarctica’s environment is fragile to be protected. |
5. a fist-like hole
6. a natural frontier
7. a messy legal situation
【推荐2】Perhaps people have never realized that fashion materials should be one of the worst destroyers on our environment in countries across the world.
Everybody enjoys wearing warm fashionable sweaters, but they never realize how much harm they have done to the environment. Studies suggest that 70 percent of the damage to the grasslands is due to overgrazing(过度放牧). Because of that, tile balance of nature is broken, extreme weather occurs frequently, species are under serious threat, and finally grasslands are becoming desert gradually. The major real cause driving this activity is that human beings demand for cheaper wool to make fashionable clothing.
What you might not know is that the natural fibers for making clothes are often taken from trees in ancient forests or other plants such as bamboo and cotton. This means that the clothes we buy and wear are contributing directly to destroying forests and habitats. In fact, cotton is by no means a fully environmentally friendly crops on the planet. For a start, it uses so much water to. produce, which leads to the freshwater shortage across the globe. It can take 2,700 liters of water to make just one cotton T-shirt. Additionally, growing cotton requires high levels of pesticide and other dangerous chemicals that often pollute waterways and soil. As for man-made fibers, the damage done by them is far worse than other materials.
In recent years, retailers (零售商)have increased the number of fashion collection secession even-each month or week. Throwaway culture is known as "fast fashion" due to low prices. Every year, 100 billion new garments made from new fibers are produced, many of which soon end up in landfill(垃圾填埋场). A dress might cost a few pounds for the consumer, but there is a hidden cost to the wider environment including ecosystems and other species.
1. According to the passage, the real destroyer on the grasslands is .| A．overgrazing | B．human beings’ need |
| C．unbalanced nature | D．change of weather |
| A．The cotton fiber. | B．The tree fiber. |
| C．The man-made fiber. | D．The bamboo fiber. |
| A．Opposed. | B．Approved. | C．Neutral. | D．Sympathetic. |
| A．Damage to Our Environment | B．Throw away Culture |
| C．Destroying Forests and Habitats | D．Fashion Materials, the Hidden Environment Destroyer |
【推荐3】A new analysis of photographs from the International Space Station has identified a shift in the kind of lighting technologies that European countries are using at night to brighten streets and buildings. Researchers have found that the old warm high-pressure street lights are rapidly being replaced by cooler LED lights. The University of Exeter study claimed that “this phenomenon is widely increasing the risk of harmful effects to ecosystems”.
LED lighting was promoted as being intended to reduce emissions, but its usage has raised energy consumption. One explanation of this is that the increase in power efficiency and the associated decrease in economic cost have driven increased demand for lighting, therefore, any efficiency gains have been balanced out by increased consumption of light.
The study also claimed that previous research into the effects of light pollution have underestimated the impacts of blue light radiation. Chief among the health consequences of blue light is its ability to reduce the production of melatonin (褪黑素) that regulates sleep patterns in humans and other organisms. Scientific studies have warned that increased exposure to artificial blue light can worsen people’s sleeping habits.
The increase in blue light radiation in Europe has also reduced the visibility of stars in the night sky, which may have impacts on people’s sense of nature. Blue light can also alter the behavioral patterns of animals including bats and moths, as it can change their movements towards or away from light sources.
David Smith, of the conservation charity Buglife, said, “Light pollution can dramatically impact animals. We should consider light from a wider biological perspective than that of just humans and focus on better quality lighting that is harmonious with our natural world. Better quality and lower levels of lighting would help save energy, and lower financial costs, while also making our environment safer for living beings. Authorities can dim (使昏暗) the lights during night hours, and change the bandwidths (带宽值) of their LED bulbs to produce less harmful blue light.”
1. What is the phenomenon described in Paragraph 1?| A．The increasing use of LED lights. |
| B．The rising demand for public lighting. |
| C．Old street lights producing lots of emissions. |
| D．Artificial lights at night wasting much energy. |
| A．Eyesight. | B．Social behaviors. |
| C．Learning ability. | D．Sleep patterns. |
| A．improve. | B．change. |
| C．form. | D．consume. |
| A．To stress the importance of saving energy. |
| B．To persuade authorities to avoid using LED lights. |
| C．To provide suggestions on reducing light pollution. |
| D．To show ways of improving the quality of LED bulbs. |
