China and India are leaders in improving global(全球的) tree cover, a new study based on NASA research showed.
They took a 31.8% part together of the total global new leaf area between 2000 and 2017. China played a major role, adding 25% to this increase, and India added 6.8%, followed by Canada and Russia. The study in the Nature Sustainability journal shows that more than 5.5 million square kilometers of green leaf area was added globally. Since 2000, there has been a five-percent increase in global green cover, it said.
“The greening over the last twenty years shows an increase in leaf area on plants and trees which is as large as the area of the entire Amazon rainforest," Chi Chen, a Boston University researcher and lead of the study told Nature Sustainability. Large plantation activities to protect forests in China contributed nearly 42% to the country's green cover, and agriculture added another 32%. In India, 82% of the increase in leaf area was because of agriculture.
“China and India take up one-third of the greening, but hold only nine percent of the planet's land area covered in green plants," Chi Chen told NASA Earth Observatory. “That is a surprising finding, considering the land degradation(退化) in countries with large populations.”
Boston University's research team first detected an increase in global green cover in the 1990s but were unsure about what contributed to the increase. Finally, with the help of NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites research, they managed to find out the increase in leaf cover from different areas and places.
1. Which country increased the largest part of the new leaf area?| A．India | B．China |
| C．Canada | D．Russia |
| A．To show how great the achievement was. |
| B．To show the importance of rainforest. |
| C．To explain what difficulties we have now. |
| D．To explain the reason for increasing forests. |
| A．China and India have large populations and land degradation problem |
| B．about 9% of the planet’s greening is in China and India |
| C．China and India are leading in the global green cover increase |
| D．the leaf cover area in China and India is still limited if viewed globally |
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【推荐1】I earned about the zero waste movement in 2010 after reading a book about it in the library. It was eye-opening and encouraged me to remove as much single-use package as possible.
But as I followed the advice，I met many challenges. It turns out that small town Ontario isn't nearly as progressive as San Francisco when it comes to allowing reusable containers in grocery stores.
That’s when I wished I still live in downtown Toronto which would give me access to many health food store that allowed reusable containers. It took a while, but finally I realized that my location give me one key advantage over city’s people. I now live at the center of food production, which means I can go directly to producers to get ingredients that are not only package-free but the freshest and most delicious.
“Zero waste should be thought as more of an ideal than an hard-and-fast rule. It’s so geographically independent on what is in your area, so I think it is about doing your best to make use of the resources you have.” said Celia Ristow, founder of a website. It is refreshing to see that fact accepted by others. It’s true that the best-known zero waste supporters are city’s people, who have access to many stores and restaurants that are willing to work with them.
However, wherever you are, it is impossible to find a places that meets all the ideals criteria. But that doesn’t mean we should stop trying. The food scene in my small town has changed greatly in the past six years and far more reusable choices have been available than before. We have a food co-op that allows for online ordering and home delivering, many locations for dropping off milk bottles, a growing summer farmer’s market and large pick-your own fruit farm.
I tell people and remind myself to remove what you can. Maybe the farmer’s market share are only seasonal, and you have to be perfect, in fact, as the saying goes, “Perfection is the enemy of progress.”
1. What advantage does the author have over city's people?| A．An access to delicious food | B．A chance to avoid wasting food |
| C．A direct access to farmer | D．A chance to refusing food containers |
| A．It should be viewed as a rule. | B．It requires you to start small. |
| C．It is more widely supported. | D．It has geographic limitation. |
| A．Making good use of what you have. | B．Finding some more zero waste methods. |
| C．Trying to improve your surroundings. | D．Buying supermarket produce once a week. |
| A．Zero Waste makes no place perfect | B．Zero Waste depends on where you live |
| C．Zero Waste is a hard-and-fast rule | D．Zero Waste calls on you to start small |
【推荐2】"The transfer(转变)of responsibility for handling climate change to the country's top environmental monitor will help promote and improve the critical process." said an official.
Li Gao,director-general of climate change,Ministry of Ecology and Environment(生态环境部),made the declaration during a news conference on Wednesday in Beijing.
After years of effort,China has achieved unique results in dealing with climate change.The carbon and greenhouse gas we have let off has decreased a lot in the past years.This shows that China is achieving its goal of reducing pollution by 2020,Li said.
"This lays a good foundation for the country to achieve the goal it set for 2030.",Li said.
The transfer of duties of handling climate change to the ministry helps promote the country's efforts to control greenhouse gases and other pollution,he said.
The key task in handling climate change is to control carbon dioxide emissions(排放)from fossil fuels.Coal,a major source of energy in China,makes a great contribution to air pollution,he said.
The country has limited the expansion of industries with high energy consumption and pollution,promoted use of clean energy,and accelerated the adjustment of energy generation in its action plans for air pollution control in the past few years.These measures are also helping contribute to greenhouse emissions control,he said.
"Air pollution control measures in recent years have helped reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.The actions to improve air quality have played a significant role in helping us realize the goal of doing with climate change,"he said.
Meanwhile,controls over greenhouse gas emissions have also contributed to reduced air pollution.he added.
The transfer to the ministry provides a good way to handle climate change and control air pollution,he said."We will promote the work in our monitoring and setting of targets,as well as in policy making,"Li added.
1. Who will take responsibility for handling climate change?| A．Li Gao | B．The country's top environmental monitor |
| C．Beijing government | D．Ministry of Ecology and Environment |
| A．did not do well in dealing with climate change in the past years. |
| B．has already achieved its goal of reducing pollution by 2020 |
| C．has made great progress in handling climate change. |
| D．will be unable to achieve the goal it set for 2030 |
| A．The transfer to the ministry helps increase greenhouse gases and other pollution. |
| B．The key task in dealing with climate change is to forbid using fossil fuels. |
| C．The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions have also helped reduce air pollution. |
| D．The country has limited the use of clean energy. |
| A．doubtful | B．neutral | C．disappointed | D．optimistic |
【推荐3】As the effects of climate change become more disastrous, well-known research institutions and government agencies are focusing new money and attention on an idea: artificially cooling the planet, in the hope of buying humanity more time to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
That strategy, called solar climate intervention (干预) or solar geoengineering, involves reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space — abruptly reducing global temperatures in a way that imitates the effects of ash clouds flowing out from the volcanic eruptions. The idea has been considered as a dangerous and fancied solution, one that would encourage people to keep burning fossil fuels while exposing the planet to unexpected and potentially threatening side effects, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters.
But as global warming continues, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters, some researchers and policy experts say that concerns about geoengineering should be outweighed by the urgency to better understand it, in case the consequence of climate change become so terrible that the world can’t wait for better solutions.
One way to cool the earth is by injecting aerosols (气溶胶) into the upper layer of the atmosphere, where those particles reflect sunlight away from the earth. That process works, according to Douglas Mac Martin, a researcher at Cornell University.
“We know with 100% certainty that we can cool the planet,” he said in an interview. What’s still unclear, he added, is what happens next. Temperature, Mac Martin said, is an indicator for a lot of climate effects. “What does it do to the strength of hurricanes?” he asked, “What does it do to agriculture production? What does it do to the risk of forest fires?”
Another institution funded by the National Science Foundation will analyze hundreds of simulations (模拟) of aerosol injection, testing the effects on weather extremes around the world. One goal of the research is to look for a sweet spot: the amount of artificial cooling that can reduce extreme weather events without causing broader changes in regional rainfall patterns or similar impacts.
1. Why do researchers and government agencies work on cooling the earth?| A．To prevent natural disasters. |
| B．To imitate volcanic eruptions. |
| C．To win more time to reduce gas emissions. |
| D．To encourage more people to burn fossil fuels |
| A．There will be more volcanic eruptions. |
| B．More solar energy will go into space. |
| C．People will burn more fossil fuels to keep warm. |
| D．More disasters will endanger the future of the world. |
| A．He thinks more research remains to be done. |
| B．He is optimistic about the effect of cooling the earth. |
| C．He disapproves of the practice of solar climate intervention. |
| D．He is concerned about the reduction in agriculture production. |
| A．The rainfall pattern of a region. | B．The modest drop in temperature. |
| C．The injection amount of aerosol. | D．The number of extreme weather events. |
【推荐1】Would it surprise you to learn that, like animals, trees communicate with each other and pass on their wealth to the next generation?
UBC Professor Simard explains how trees are much more complex than most of us ever imagined. Although Charles Darwin thought that trees are competing for survival of the fittest, Simard shows just how wrong he was. In fact, the opposite is true: trees survive through their cooperation and support, passing around necessary nutrition “depending on who needs it”.
Nitrogen (氮) and carbon are shared through miles of underground fungi (真菌) networks, making sure that all trees in the forest ecological system give and receive just the right amount to keep them all healthy. This hidden system works in a very similar way to the networks of neurons (神经元) in our brains, and when one tree is destroyed, it affects all. Simard talks about “mother trees”, usually the largest and oldest plants on which all other trees depend. She explains how dying trees pass on the wealth to the next generation, transporting important minerals to young trees so they may continue to grow. When humans cut down “mother trees” with no awareness of these highly complex “tree societies” or the networks on which they feed, we are reducing the chances of survival for the entire forest “We didn’t take any notice of it.” Simard says sadly. “Dying trees move nutrition into the young trees before dying, but we never give them chance.” If we could put across the message to the forestry industry, we could make a huge difference towards our environmental protection efforts for the future.
1. The underlined sentence “the opposite is true” in Paragraph 2 probably means that trees ________.| A．compete for survival | B．protect their own wealth |
| C．depend on each other | D．provide support for dying trees |
| A．look the largest in size in the forest |
| B．pass on nutrition to young trees |
| C．seem more likely to be cut down by humans |
| D．know more about the complex “tree societies” |
| A．how “tree societies” work | B．how trees grow old |
| C．how forestry industry develops | D．how young trees survive |
| A．Old Trees Communicate Like Humans |
| B．Young Trees are In Need Of Protection |
| C．Trees Are More Awesome Than You Think |
| D．Trees Contribute To Our Society |
【推荐2】There is no benefit to doing more than five hours of high-intensity (高强度) exercise a week, a Harvard study has found, as it does not help to stave off an early death. However, pushing your body as hard as you can does not have any damaging health effects.
A 30-year Harvard study of 100,000 Americans looked at how exercise impacted a person’s risk of death. It found that doing 75 minutes of intense exercise a week, the recommended amount, reduces the risk of dying from disease by 31 percent. People who do twice this—two and a half hours of intense exercise a week—see slightly greater benefits, further reducing the threat of death by four percent. However, fitness enthusiasts who do more than four times the recommended amount of intense exercise every week—five hours—do not get any additional benefit.
The same trend is seen for moderate (适度的) activities, including walking. Ten hours of moderate exercise—four times the recommended weekly activity level—has no benefits, but also no harms.
Previous research had claimed that doing too much exercise could be harmful and may actually increase a person’s risk of early death by putting added pressure on their body. But the new study found that to be untrue, as even people doing more than five hours a week of intense activity showed no bad health effects.
“This finding may reduce the concerns around the potentially harmful effect of engaging in high levels of physical activity observed in several previous studies,” noted Hoon Lee, a study author. “Our study provides evidence to guide individuals to choose the right amount and intensity of physical activity over their lifetime to maintain their overall health.”
1. What does the underlined part “stave off ” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Approach. | B．Cause. | C．Prevent. | D．Record. |
| A．Twice the recommended amount has no benefit. |
| B．2.5 hours of it weekly can reduce death risk by 35%. |
| C．5 hours of it weekly can have harmful effects on health. |
| D．The recommended amount produces the greatest benefit. |
| A．It links heart disease to early death. |
| B．It disagrees with previous research. |
| C．It needs further research on more individuals. |
| D．It needs involvement with more kinds of exercise. |
| A．Exercise properly. |
| B．Go on a diet to stay healthy. |
| C．Go outdoors as much as possible. |
| D．Engage in high levels of physical activity. |
【推荐3】The Associated Press gardening expert Jessica Damiano recently reported about the many pictures of strangely shaped tomatoes sent to her from fans of her gardening advice. She said people sometimes question if the tomatoes are okay to cook. “The good news,” Damiano said, “is that their unusual appearance does not affect their taste or nutritional value.”
If you have ever cut open a tomato, you know they are divided into internal parts, called locules (子房室), which contain seeds and a substance called gel (凝胶). Most tomatoes have about four or five locules; other kinds of the fruit, like cherry tomatoes, contain two or three. But when a plant experiences temperature extremes, cell division in the developing fruit can go off track. Temperatures over 32℃ during the day and 27℃ overnight can lead the tomato to form an extra locule. But there is not enough room inside a tomato for the extra part, so it grows on the outside of the fruit. Not every tomato on an affected plant will be strange, however.
“Under the right conditions, this could affect one or two tomatoes per plant, depending on where they are in the development process and what the conditions are,” said Timothy McDermott. He is an assistant professor and extension educator at Ohio State University. “The likelihood of one of your tomatoes developing a locule oddity is estimated to be about one in a thousand,” McDermott said.
The extra-locule change is not the only strange looking caused by extreme heat. Conditions including flower drop, halted fruit formation and ripening can also arise when plants are grown outside their usual temperature limit.
Attach a piece of 40 to 50 percent shade cloth to sticks put into the ground around the plant. Leave it in place from 12 to 4 p. m., when the sun is at its strongest. Then remove it to avoid problems caused by a lack of sunlight. And, when harvesting your crop, remember: the funny-looking tomatoes taste just as good!
1. Why do fans send Jessica Damiano strange-looking tomatoes?| A．To confirm their security. | B．To acquire their formation. |
| C．To inquire their cooking way. | D．To make business deals with her.. |
| A．The functions of the locules. | B．The causes of unusual shapes. |
| C．The classification of tomatoes. | D．The process of tomatoes’ growth. |
| A．Their size. | B．Their value. | C．Their shape. | D．Their taste. |
| A．Remove the shade at noon. | B．Put sticks around the plant. |
| C．Provide shelter if necessary. | D．Throw away the strange ones. |
Parts of the reason for the condition is the large reduction in supply, caused by a continuous drought in the west African countries of Ivory Coast and Ghana, where more than 70 percent of the world’s cocoa is produced. Additionally, a certain disease known as frosty pod has destroyed 30 to 40 percent of global cocoa production. As a result, many farmers have turned to more profitable and easier grown crops like corn. This means that even if conditions improve, cocoa production may never get back to normal.
Meanwhile, the world is only getting hungrier for chocolate. The biggest increase in demand is from the residents of emerging market countries like India. Though their consumption is nowhere close to the amount European devour, their newly acquired amount for the treat, is making a huge dent (凹痕) in an already tight market.
There is also the growing desire for dark chocolate, which contains more than 70 percent cocoa compared to normal chocolates. Experts believe that if consumption continue at this pace, cocoa deficits (差额) could swell to one million tons by 2020 and to an even more worrisome, two million tons, by 2030.
Not surprisingly, cocoa prices have risen by 60% since 2012, a cost that manufacturers have offset by raising the prices of everyone’s favorite candy. As the situation worsens, the price of chocolate can only rise—so be sure to enjoy piece of the sweet treat, like it is your last!
1. The underlined phrase “supply—demand imbalance” probably means .
| A．People consume more chocolate than production |
| B．Farmers grow more cocoa than people’s demand |
| C．More and more people like eating chocolates now |
| D．Chocolates are becoming more and more expensive |
| A．The weather is changeable in the west Africa |
| B．A certain disease spread around the world |
| C．Many farmers don’t grow any longer |
| D．It is impossible for conditions to be improved |
| A．In Asia | B．In Africa |
| C．In Europe | D．In America |
| A．Chocolate will become cheap sooner or later |
| B．The farmers will produce more cocoa in 2030 |
| C．The price of chocolate will be going up all the way |
| D．Dark chocolate will be more popular than common one |
【推荐2】Microsoft’s second console is now official, and it's called the Xbox Series S.
What is the Xbox Series S?
Earlier this year, Microsoft released the Xbox Series X. This next-generation console is due out just before Christmas, and promises amazing 8K pictures. It is aimed at buyers on a budget.
Xbox Series S, features
The first thing to note is that it's an all-digital console with no disc tray to keep costs down. Sony has already offered up much the same with its new PS5. And Microsoft responded to this trend with its all-digital Xbox One S, which came out last year.
The new console comes with a new — version handle. And rather than being all-black like the Series X, the Series S has a white design with a large dark circle on its front.
Xbox Series S release date
Microsoft will release the Xbox Series S for sale on November 10. That's the same day that the new-version Xbox Series X will come out. They'll also be on sale for Black Friday, November 27, so we may see some free presents available then.
Xbox Series S price
The new Xbox Series S is the cheaper of Microsoft's next-generation consoles. It'll cost you £249 in the UK, or $ 299 in the USA. That's far cheaper than the Xbox Series X, which is set to retail at £449 or $ 499.
1. What advantage does the Xbox Series S have?| A．Its size is bigger. | B．Its price is lower. |
| C．It has more function. | D．It looks more attractive. |
| A．On November 10. | B．Earlier this year. | C．On November 27. | D．On Christmas. |
| A．To show a design. | B．To promote a technique. |
| C．To advertise a product. | D．To introduce a company. |
【推荐3】My elephant adventures began in 1984 when, with our one-year-old daughter, my husband and I crossed the jungle in a jeep, slicking behind a lorry for comfort and company. The elephants standing like watchers on either side of the forest highway had us praying for our safety. One elephant made loud noise and angrily pawed (抓) the ground, warning us off. We raced away before they could attack.
It was wise to keep elephants at a distance. We heard stories of tourists whose jeeps were overturned, and a couple of photographers were killed because they moved too close. Elephants are misleading animals. They give people an impression of being quiet and kind, so tourists think it’s safe to picnic in the jungle (丛林). Yet angry elephants have knocked them down in seconds before they could take off.
Elephants might make life unpredictable and dangerous. It’s difficult for inexperienced environmentalists to even, begin to grasp this reality. I’ve heard city people say “ We humans are encroaching (侵害) on their forests.” But what’s the solution?
When a poor farmer borrows heavily to plant a crop, he’ll do anything to protect it His life depends on it Elephants ruining an about-to-be-harvested com field cannot expect to be welcomed like special guests. The battle between beast and farmer is violent.
Experts are working on solutions to human-elephant conflicts (冲突). Some are sure to fail to like the plans to build electric fences around human settlements. Elephants rapidly figure them out and come in, around and over them.
There are more questions than answers, for sure. But as my husband said, “More people die in car accidents every single day, in every city on the earth. But they won’t take cars off the roads, will they?” So we need to seek practical ways of preventing elephant accidents.
1. What is the writer’s purpose in writing Paragraph 1?| A．To tell readers her family’s experience of elephant adventure. |
| B．To show readers elephants are angry and dangerous, |
| C．To introduce the topic of the whole passage. |
| D．To describe how her family keep away from elephants. |
| A．They think elephants are quiet and kind. |
| B．They haven’t heard the stories of elephant killing people. |
| C．They like elephants too much. |
| D．They think they can race away in seconds. |
| A．Welcome elephant like special guests. | B．Fight with elephants for his harvest. |
| C．Stop planting crops. | D．Depend on elephants for his life. |
| A．It is a good idea to build electric fences around human settlements. |
| B．It is impossible to find a solution to settle human-elephant conflict. |
| C．We should first reduce car accidents to prevent elephant accidents. |
| D．It is our duly to protect elephants rather than kill them. |
【推荐1】Typically, a person sitting in the driver's seat of a car opens the door with the hand closest to it. It makes sense since doors are designed to be opened that way. Pull the handle(把手) and immediately the door is open. But if you happen to do that at the wrong time, you may create an obstacle(阻碍) for a passing cyclist without knowing it. Then the cyclist will be sent falling off the bike, and the car door is likely to be damaged by the fast-moving bicycle.
The car door design and long-time habits have made the process instinctual but clearly the solution is for the person getting out of the vehicle to check for traffic. Luckily, there's a simple way to solve the problem: the Dutch reach. In other words, instead of using your left hand, reach for the door latch(门锁) with your right hand. This will force you to turn your body and look into your side view mirror to see whether any car or bike is coming.
''It's just what Dutch people do,'' said Fred Wegman, the former managing director of the National Institute for Road Safety Research in the Netherlands. ''All the Dutch are taught it. It's part of regular driver education.''
The technique dates back about 50 or 60 years, and it was very popular between the 1960s and the 1980s. But it didn't really become known as the Dutch reach until American physician named Michael Charney started the Dutch Reach Project in 2016 in an effort to popularize the practice in the United States. According to The Times, he was motivated by the death of a 27-year-old who rode into an open car door and died just five blocks from his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Charney's efforts may be paying off. Both Massachusetts and Illinois now include the Dutch reach in their drivers’ manuals(手册).
1. What is the first paragraph intended to show?| A．The poor design of the car door and handle. |
| B．A common conflict between cars and bicycles. |
| C．A main cause of traffic accidents related to cyclists. |
| D．Possible risks connected with opening the car door. |
| A．Difficult | B．Possible |
| C．Natural | D．Dangerous |
| A．By making the person open the car door more easily. |
| B．By forcing the person to check for approaching traffic. |
| C．By reminding the person of the traffic lights frequently. |
| D．By helping the person see the side view mirror more clearly. |
| A．Its popularity among Dutch people. |
| B．Its appearance in drivers’ manuals. |
| C．A project started in the year 2016. |
| D．The death caused by a traffic accident. |
【推荐2】In today's world, most workers are highly specialized, but this specialization can come at a cost——especially for those on the wrong team. New research by Harvard's Growth Lab uncovers the importance of teams and coworkers when it comes to one's productivity, earning potential, and stays of employment. The research analyzed administrative data on the 9 million inhabitants of Sweden. It found that to earn high wages and returns on education, workers must find coworkers who complement, but not substitute them.
The research offers a tool to assess the right and wrong coworkers in fields of expertise. The right coworkers are those with sills you lack, yet needed to complete a team. The wrong coworkers are those who have the same skill set as you and eventually lower your value to the employer. For example, those with a degree in architecture are best assisted by workers with engineering, construction, or surveying degrees, and negatively impacted by those with landscape or interior design degrees.
“We tend to think of sills as something personal that individuals can market to a company, ” said Frank Neffke, Growth Lab Research Director “However, this vision of sills is too simplistic. One person's sills connect to another person's sills, etc. ,and the better these connections are, the more productive workers will be, and the more they will earn” Neffke adds that the benefits of working with complementary coworkers are not the same for all workers. Those with higher levels of education seem to benefit much more from working in complementary teams than workers with lower levels. Over the past 20 years, workers with college degrees or higher have been increasingly able to find better matching coworkers.
Complementary also drives careers. The research shows that people tend to stay longer in organizations with many complementary workers and tend to leave those with many workers who substitute them. These results hold true for up to 20 years of one's career.
The research also supports several well-known facts, such as cities and large firms pay higher wages. Workers are more likely to find better fitting teams in cities, and large firms often allow workers to specialize.
1. Which group of workers can make up the best team?| A．Those who can substitute each other. | B．Those who come from the same place. |
| C．Those who are expert in the same field. | D．Those who have the complementary sill |
| A．A landscaper. | B．A house agent. |
| C．A constructor. | D．Another architect. |
| A．dependence relationship | B．struggling spirit |
| C．physical quality | D．educational level |
| A．What workers your employer need most |
| B．How coworkers impact the value of your skills |
| C．How coworkers get higher wages and a long-term job |
| D．How complementarity improves your mental potential |
【推荐3】A new coffee culture is forming in and around San Francisco, California. A growing number of coffeehouses there are barring paper cups. Instead, they are using glass containers or creating “bring your own cup” policies. The movement started among neighborhood cafes in an effort to reduce waste. Now it is gaining support from large businesses in the city—and around the country.
Famous cook Dominique Crenn is opening a cafe in San Francisco next year that will not use to-gabags, throw-away coffee cups or any plastic. Diners who plan to buy a to-go drink from boutique Crenn will be asked to bring their own coffee cups, a spokeswoman said.
The Blue Bottle coffeehouse company uses about 15,000 to-go cups each month at its 70 shops across the U.S. The company recently said it wants to “show our guests and the world that we can get rid of disposable (一次性的) cups”.
Blue Bottle plans to stop using paper cups at two of its stores next year. The move is part of a promise to produce “zero waste” by the end of next year.
Larger coffee and fast-food businesses around the U. S. are feeling a sense of urgency (紧急) to be more environmentally friendly, said Bridget Croke. She is with the New York-based investment company Closed Loop Partners. It is working with Starbucks and McDonald’s to develop a substitute (替代品) for the disposable coffee cup.
Today’s to-go cups for hot drinks are not only made from paper, they also have plastic to prevent leaking. This makes them hard to recycle, Croke said. She admitted that it is not likely that large national food and drink companies will stop using disposable cups totally or ask all customers to bring their own.
So, her company is looking for other solutions. In partnership with Closed Loop, Starbucks and McDonald’s paid $10 million to develop the “single-use cup of the future”. The result is expected to be recyclable and to break down naturally.
1. What does the underlined word“barring”in the first paragraph mean?| A．Using. | B．Inventing. | C．Improving. | D．Banning. |
| A．They will desert throw-away cups. |
| B．They’ve decided to improve service. |
| C．They want to attract more customers. |
| D．They will open some new coffee shops. |
| A．They are made from wood. |
| B．They are needed in great quantity. |
| C．The hard to recycle. |
| D．They encourage people to drink more coffee. |
| A．Refuse to offer cups to consumers. |
| B．Invent environmentally friendly cups. |
| C．Run together with another company. |
| D．Spend a lot on the development of new coffee. |
