1 . Have you ever wondered what happens to your mobile phones and laptops after you throw them out to make way for a newer model? According to its latest Global E-Waste Monitor, India is the third top producer of e-waste in the world. E-waste in Indian landfill goes on to pollute soil and groundwater, affecting food supply systems and water sources.
Thankfully, the country has a new group of artists who are changing these thrown mechanical items-from mobile phones to old televisions- into large murals (壁画) and artworks to creatively show their concern for the waste problem.
Over the past quarter of a century, Mumbai’s Haribaabu Naatesan has transformed hundreds of tonnes of e-waste into art, integrating elements from nature and industry. “I get my waste material from friends, relatives and neighbours who know my interest in e-art and send me bags of thrown electronic appliances,” says Naatesan. Over his career, he has created huge murals for several companies. He has also showed his work at the India Art Fair, as well as several other national displays.
Another artist Vishwanath Davangere has also long worked with e-waste. He likes to take apart old laptops and reassemble (重新组装) them into birds, animals and plants. After retirement, he started pursuing this hobby more seriously and started selling his creations across the world. His most outstanding works include a robotic Egyptian statue with glowing red eyes and a Milky Way made from keyboard keys. He hopes to enable others to reconsider their own consumption habits and make more environmentally conscious choices.
“By giving e-waste a second chance, I aim to raise awareness about the environmental impact of electronic waste.” says Davangare, who today has a collection of more than 600 eco-art objects.
1. Why do the artists create artworks from E-waste?| A．To promote their artistic career. | B．To update electronic appliances. |
| C．To make profits for several companies. | D．To express their environmental concern. |
| A．His creations are displayed globally. | B．He gains support from people around. |
| C．He has been creating e-art for 10 years. | D．His works integrate technology and history. |
| A．Reliable. | B．Confident. | C．Devoted. | D．Generous. |
| A．E-waste Recycling Sweeping the World | B．Environmental Problems Worrying Indians |
| C．An Art Movement Turning Trash into Cash | D．Indian Creatives Transforming E-waste into Art |
2 . Released on Aug 30, a three-episode web series titled Escape From the British Museum has gone viral online for its touching and innovative narrative (叙事). The series follows the journey home of a Chinese jade teapot that has come to life as a girl. She runs away from the British Museum and comes across a Chinese journalist who helps the artifact return to China. The series, created by two Chinese vloggers, aims to raise broader awareness of Chinese artifacts that were stolen or looted (掠夺) from China and are displayed or stored in the British Museum.
The video series echoes the Chinese people’s call for the British Museum to return these Chinese artifacts. However, some UK media outlets said that the video series promotes nationalism (民族主义). In fact, every country whose artifacts are displayed or stored in the British Museum wants them back. These countries, such as Greece, Nigeria and Sudan, have already issued their demands for the return of artifacts. It’s fair enough to say these demands are shared. They can correct centuries-old wrongs by having the UK return artifacts to their rightful homes.
An opinion in the UK newspaper The Telegraph said that if the British Museum gives back its collection of artifacts, then nationalism will win over humanity’s common heritage. It also said that the artifacts were “lawfully acquired (合法取得)” by the UK. By “lawfully acquired”, does the writer mean the artifacts were acquired with the “help” of machine guns and warships? Or does he mean that the cultural artifacts of African, Asian and American countries should be kept in the hands of looters, rather than in their land of origin?
1. What is the video series Escape from the British Museum mainly about?| A．Cultural artifacts looted by the UK. |
| B．Hidden dangers in the British Museum. |
| C．The arguments about the British museum. |
| D．The journey of a Chinese artifact coming home. |
| A．Protests against UK’s nationalism. |
| B．The beauty of Chinese cultural artifacts. |
| C．The desire of stolen artifacts to be returned. |
| D．Efforts made by Chinese activists to get artifacts back. |
| A．To show the UK did something wrong in the past. |
| B．To stress China’s demands are shared by many countries. |
| C．To emphasize former colonized countries have grown stronger. |
| D．To highlight diverse artifacts are housed in the British Museum. |
| A．It’s totally unacceptable. | B．It’s a little bit reasonable. |
| C．It lacks enough evidence. | D．It shows the writer’s ignorance. |
3 . Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology who called herself a “forest detective”, was raised in mountains in Canada. Few scientists make much impact with their PhD thesis, but, in 1997, she did just that. Her research on the “wood wide web” made the cover of Nature and transformed our understanding of forests. What was then a challenge to traditional ideas is today widely accepted.
A mushroom is the part of a fungus (真菌) that sticks up above the ground. Thin, white threads grow from its stem deep into the soil. These threads are called hyphae (菌丝). Hyphae connect themselves to tree roots. They also stretch from root system to root system, like an underground network. This network may go for miles. Hyphae pick up nutrients and water from soil. The fungus threads that connect to tree roots share their nutrients and water with the trees. In return, they sip a bit of the sugar the trees make. Sharing helps both trees and mushrooms live. It’s also how trees communicate.
When a tree is being eaten by bugs, it makes chemicals to shoo them away, sort of like bug repellent (驱虫剂). The chemicals travel through the tree, down its roots, and into the hyphae network. Other trees connected to the network taste the chemicals. That tells them a nearby tree is under attack, so they start to make their own bug repellent. Trees do more than share warnings through the hyphae. They also help each other. In the fall, paper birch trees drop their leaves and can no longer make sugar. So, a fir tree that stays green all winter uses the network to send extra sugar to the birch until spring comes again. This system of sharing information and nutrients through the hyphae is sometimes called the “wood wide web”, because it works a bit like the Internet.
Local climate sets the stage for the wood wide web, researchers say. In cool temperature and boreal forests, where wood and organic matter decay slowly, network-building EM fungi rule. By contrast, in the warmer tropics where wood and organic matter decay quickly, AM fungi dominate. These fungi form smaller webs and do less intertree swapping, meaning the tropical wood wide web is likely more localized.
Ecologist Thomas Crowther’s results suggest that as the planet warms, about 10% of EM-associated trees could be replaced by AM-associated trees. Microbes in forests dominated by AM fungi deal with carbon-containing organic matter faster, so they could liberate lots of heat-trapping carbon dioxide quickly, potentially accelerating a climate change process that is already happening at a frightening pace.
1. What do we know about Suzanne Simard?| A．She was a professor and a forest detective. |
| B．Growing up in the countryside, she made the cover of Nature. |
| C．Like many other scientists, she made big influence on her PhD thesis. |
| D．Her idea of the “wood wide web” used to challenge people’s thoughts. |
| A．They facilitate tree communication. | B．They form an underground network. |
| C．They produce sugar and share it with trees. | D．They share nutrients and water with the trees. |
| A．They release warning signals through leaves. |
| B．They produce real bug repellent to kill insects. |
| C．They make use of hyphae to produce chemicals. |
| D．They send chemical signals through the network. |
| A．It might slow down carbon release. | B．It would break down organic matter. |
| C．It might speed up climate change. | D．It might lead to faster tree growth. |
4 . Alex Honnold is a poster child (榜样人物) for the sport of free soloing. For more than 20 years, the
But for Alex, there is nothing deep and meaningful about what he does by his own standards. It’s
Q: Regarding your early career, you defined yourself
Alex: I had been climbing for years in the gym,
Q: Did you feel like you had become so
Alex: I think it’s just the activity that gives me the most joy in life. It’s just like how some people love to go running or swimming. There’s a certain
Q: People might
Q: Since
Alex: Intimacy, connection, relationships. Or whether I am wasting my time. I mean in some ways about living with regrets that you didn’t do the right thing or that you haven’t done something
| A．careless | B．selfless | C．hopeless | D．fearless |
| A．art | B．music | C．sport | D．literature |
| A．hardly | B．rarely | C．merely | D．simply |
| A．put out | B．stand out | C．send out | D．come out |
| A．adventurer | B．explorer | C．experimenter | D．campaigner |
| A．to | B．as | C．for | D．on |
| A．and | B．for | C．but | D．so |
| A．charmed | B．addicted | C．attracted | D．accustomed |
| A．appeal | B．meaning | C．favour | D．interest |
| A．contribute to | B．devote to | C．look to | D．bring to |
| A．management | B．occurrence | C．consequence | D．discovery |
| A．apparently | B．obviously | C．eventually | D．definitely |
| A．potential | B．harmful | C．useless | D．crazy |
| A．joy | B．death | C．love | D．regret |
| A．worse | B．less | C．better | D．more |
5 . Scientists are increasingly looking at the mind-body connection, including how heart health might affect brain function. Past studies of adults have linked poor cardiovascular (心血管的) health to a higher risk of cognitive (认知的) decline, but there’s been little research on how heart health affects young brains.
A new research analyzed the health data of 987 children, aged 11 and 12, from 21 US cities. The children took part in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, the largest long-term study of brain development and health in children in the United States. Researchers measured participants’ cardiovascular health using a tool known as Life’s Essential 8, a list for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health. Developed by the American Heart Association ( AHA), the list includes a healthy diet, not smoking, being physically active, getting enough sleep, keeping a healthy weight and controlling blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar.
Researchers looked at how the children’s cardiovascular health scores matched up with their scores from a cognitive test. They found that children with better cardiovascular health behaviors —— the list items related to diet, physical activity, smoking and sleep —— showed slightly better cognitive function. At the same time, children with better overall cardiovascular health that included all eight item s on the list also had higher cognitive function.
Dr. Augusto Cé sar F. De Moraes, the study’s lead researcher, said that the message of the study was “that if you see children with high blood pressure or obesity, it’s important to look at their brain health as well.” The findings, which were presented on November 11in Philadelphia at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions conference, are considered preliminary (初步的) until full results are published in a peer-reviewed journal.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The method of the research. | B．The participants of the research. |
| C．The findings of the research. | D．T he background of the research. |
| A．Going on a diet. | B．Keeping active works. |
| C．Going to bed early. | D．Keeping lower blood pressure. |
| A．It draws attention to children’s problem of obesity. |
| B．The participants are chosen from different countries. |
| C．The full findings have not been made public so far. |
| D．The researchers look at the mind-body connection in adults. |
| A．High blood pressure is affecting children’s brain health. |
| B．Better heart health may improve kids’ cognitive function. |
| C．Life’s Essential 8 is an important tool in cognitive research. |
| D．Cognitive decline will influence children’s cardiovascular health. |
6 . To protect people living in areas that are likely to suffer flooding and rising sea levels, a group of architects has designed a floating home.
The project is a collaboration between British architect firm Grimshaw and Dutch manufacturer Concrete Valley. Currently at the design stage, the home will be constructed using a concrete and glass framework, which sits on a floating pontoon structure. In the event of a tidal surge or flooding, the pontoon rises with the water level to keep the home safe. Fitted with solar panels and heat exchangers, the water home will be able to produce their own electricity during power cuts, in the event of a storm.
Other firms are exploring floating homes, too. In the UK, Baca Architects has partnered with manufacturer Floating Homes. Their design was originally an entry to a competition to reduce London’s housing shortage, and has since been turned into a prototype. Baca Architects is exploring ways to provide practical, affordable, flood-resistant additional city housing, which could occupy unnecessary docks, canals and other waterways throughout London, director Richard Coutts told the Guardian.
As the planet’s atmosphere warms, areas such as the Arctic are melting fast, contributing to rising sea levels and higher risk of flooding. The ocean is already reclaiming land in some parts of the world. With the global population set to reach 9.8 billion people by mid-century, extreme flooding could further add pressure to limited land, water, food and other resources. These challenges are at the heart of the Virtual Ocean Dialogues, an initiative by the World Economic Forum and Friends of Ocean Action. The online event provides a forum for more than 50 world leaders to address the most pressing challenges facing our oceans and develop ways to protect them.
While floating homes may be a common feature in parts of Asia and other developing regions, they are emerging as a way to relieve overcrowding and protect people in busy cities and urban areas which are likely to suffer from flooding.
1. What makes it possible to produce electricity in the floating home?| A．The concrete and glass framework. | B．The tidal power. |
| C．Solar panels and heat exchangers. | D．The floating pontoon structure. |
| A．Floating homes will be useful but costly. |
| B．Floating homes have been put into use in London. |
| C．Baca Architects’ design was to ease the housing burden at first. |
| D．There is a competition among firms in the UK to explore floating homes. |
| A．Restoring. | B．Reoccupying. | C．Redeveloping. | D．Reshaping. |
| A．Melting Oceans are Causing Rising Sea Levels |
| B．A Forum is Ongoing to Explore Floating Homes |
| C．Many Firms are Working Together to Reduce Housing Shortage |
| D．Floating Homes are Emerging to Protect People from Flooding |
7 . A personal trainer from the UK hopes to set a new world record by walking backward up and down Africa’s highest mountain.
Ben Stewart, 32, won’t be the first person to climb backward up Mount Kilimanjaro—two people have already done that—but nobody has walked backward both up and down the mountain. Stewart also hopes to set a record for the fastest time walking backward up and down Mount Kilimanjaro. He believes it will take him six days to get to the top of the mountain and two more days to get back down when he makes his attempt next February.
Stewart says he started walking backward to challenge himself, and climbed his first mountain backward in 2019. Three years later, he completed the UK’s Three Peaks Challenge—climbing the highest mountains in England, Wales and Scotland—all while walking backward.
He said he wanted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro because it’s the highest mountain that can be climbed without mountaineering equipment. However, Stewart will have a team of around 30 people with him to make sure he doesn’t fall off!
There is a danger, though, that Stewart could damage his neck by looking over his shoulder for so long, so he is using a special neck training device to prepare.
Stewart is using his climb to raise money for the British Heart Foundation, a heart disease research charity. He is doing this in memory of his grandfather, who died of a heart attack at age 65. Stewart told ITV News that his grandfather might have lived longer with “the right kind of research, the right kind of medication.”“But now he’s on my shoulder and in my ear,” said Stewart, “telling me I can do these amazing things.”
1. What does Ben Stewart do to reduce the damage to his neck during walking?| A．Conduct related research. | B．Take preventive medicine. |
| C．Do some special training. | D．Use mountaineering equipment. |
| A．He completed the UK’s Three Peaks Challenge in 2020. |
| B．He will take the challenge to climb Kilimanjaro on his own. |
| C．He was inspired by his grandfather to set a new world record. |
| D．He’ll be the first person to climb backward up and down Kilimanjaro. |
| A．Ambitious and loyal. | B．Careful and reliable. |
| C．Persistent and curious. | D．Determined and caring. |
| A．To explain the reason for Ben’s climbing. |
| B．To stress the significance of Ben’s action. |
| C．To draw attention to heart disease research and medication. |
| D．To provide detailed information on Ben’s climbing experience. |
8 . According to the United Nations, 60 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come directly from the way that we currently produce our electricity.71 percent of the earth is covered in water yet only around 1.5 percent of the global energy is produced through wave power. That’s what inspired Eco Wave Power CEO, Inna Braverman to take on the challenge.
Two weeks after she was born in Ukraine in 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred and she got hurt, suffering from breathing arrest and a clinical death. But thanks to her mother, who was a nurse, she was saved. Growing up, she felt it her purpose to find green and sustainable energy.
Inna found that previous wave energy developers have decided to pursue offshore technologies, contributing to huge installation and maintenance costs, incredibly vulnerable stations in storms, and consequently lack of funding. Her innovative version, however, is to install the power station on land. The only part of the system in the water is the floaters which bob up and down with the waves. These push compressed air into a tank where the energy is stored to produce electricity. The floaters are attached to existing man-made structures such as banks, piers, and breakwaters.
The simplicity of the design makes it cheaper to install and maintain as well as being better protected from rough weather and therefore, insurable. Once a commercial plant producing 20 megawatt s or more (enough for 20,000 homes) is in place, the unit cost significantly reduces. “Our price of energy decreases to about $0.05 US (€0.05) per kilowatt hour, which is comparable to the prices of onshore wind,” Inna explains.
A pilot station was installed in Gibraltar in 2016. It was the first wave energy system to be connected to the grid in Europe. More tests of the wave energy system have been arranged in different countries and regions.
1. What do we know from the first two paragraphs?| A．Inna was inspired by a UN program to focus on green energy. |
| B．Inna’s early experience enabled her to explore green energy solutions. |
| C．Inna came up with the idea of green energy thanks to her mother. |
| D．Green and sustainable energy solutions are greatly influenced by the nuclear disaster. |
| A．To demonstrate the environmental impact of wave energy. |
| B．To highlight Inna Braverman’s innovative approach to wave energy. |
| C．To outline the challenges faced by other wave energy developers. |
| D．To provide information about wave energy production around the world. |
| A．Its maintenance on the sea floor. | B．Its dependence on government funding. |
| C．Its installation on land. | D．Its exclusive focus on offshore technologies. |
| A．Eco Wave Power: Pioneer in Sustainable Energy |
| B．Chernobyl Survivor’s Vision: Endless Power for the Future |
| C．Land-Based Wave Power: Innovation for Green Electricity |
| D．Onshore Energy: Eco Wave Power’s Fight Against Gas Emissions |
9 . Ideally, childhood is a time of growth and learning. But for many children around the world, this time is cut short when they are forced to work, sometimes in dangerous conditions. As a result, June 12 is recognized as the annual World Day Against Child Labor.
As of 2020, around 160 million children worked as child laborers, which means that one child in 10 was a child laborer. Overall, child labor has decreased over the past 20 years, but in recent years, this progress has stalled. Child labor is distinguished from ordinary housework, helping with a family business or working to earn pocket money after school. Work done by children is classified as child labor when it harms the child physically, mentally, socially or morally, or when it hinders(阻碍) the child’s education.
About 79 million children are engaged in hazardous child labor. Sometimes this means the work is extremely dangerous because of heavy machinery or exposure to chemicals. Hazardous child labor can also involve harsh conditions, long hours, or exposure to various kinds of abuse.
The primary goal of the World Day Against Child Labor is raising awareness of the issue and encouraging individuals, organizations and governments to take action. Fighting child labor is a complex task. It involves social workers who identify child laborers and take action to provide these children and their families with other options. But it also involves change in communities as a whole, challenging the social norms(行为准则) that can lead adults to make their children work.
Child labor and poverty often go hand in hand as parents feel that removing their children from school is necessary to earn money so the family can survive. So, measures or policies meant to fight poverty are also tied to preventing child labor. Being harmful to children and to communities, child labor hinders children from growing into healthy, educated citizens who could make a difference in society. By highlighting the problem and offering a variety of solutions, the World Day Against Child Labor can make the situation a bit better.
1. What does the underlined word “stalled” in the second paragraph mean?| A．Slowed | B．Speeded | C．Stopped | D．Disappeared |
| A．Helping parents with the daily housework. |
| B．Assisting family business during the holidays. |
| C．Earning money for one’s camp trip after school. |
| D．Working in a shoe store every weekday afternoon. |
| A．The consequences of child labor. | B．The main types of child labor. |
| C．The seriousness of child labor. | D．The reasons against child labor. |
| A．Social workers. | B．Parents. | C．Governments. | D．Communities. |
10 . In times of intense stress, people sometimes let it out with a scream and a new study suggests that plants might do the same. Researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel has found that plants let out ultrasonic (超声的) screams when damaged or stressed by drought.
The noises, falling within a range of 20 to 100 kilohertz, are too high-frequency for humans to hear, but other plants and some animals perceive them. Insects might be listening for sounds from stressed plants to assess their condition before laying eggs on their leaves. A moth (蛾) may decide against laying eggs on a plant that sounds water-stressed.
Researchers attached recording devices directly to plants to listen for secret sounds inside their stems (茎). In drought, air bubbles formed, burst and caused vibrations (振动) within the tissue that normally carries water up the plants’ stems. The process was picked up by the attached recording devices, but researchers wanted to know if any plant sounds could travel through the air.
So the team placed microphones 10 centimetres from stressed-out tomato and tobacco plants. They subjected one set of crops to drought and another to physical damage. A third group was untouched.
The microphones did pick up distinct sounds. On average, drought-stressed tomato plants let out about 35 ultrasonic screams per hour, while those with cut stems made about 25. Drought-stressed tobacco plants let out about 11 screams per hour, and cut crops made about 15 sounds in the same time. The average number of sounds from untouched plants fell below one per hour.
The researchers also attempted to identify each plant group just based on its screams. Using a type of artificial intelligence calculations, the team picked out distinct features in each set of sounds and successfully sorted their plants into three kinds: “dry, cut or untouched.”
If it is not too costly to set up the recording in a field situation, farmers might be able to hear these stress signals too. In future, enabling farmers to listen for water-stressed plants could “open a new direction”, which will be increasingly important as climate change exposes more areas to drought.
1. The moth is mentioned in paragraph 2 to show __________.| A．moths need enough water when laying eggs |
| B．some animals are able to hear plants scream |
| C．some insects are picky about their surroundings |
| D．wildlife species depend on each other when stressed |
| A．Plants’ sounds couldn’t be detected by humans. |
| B．Plants can be grouped according to their features. |
| C．Plants’ screams are related to stress types in a way. |
| D．Air bubbles contribute to the lack of water in plants. |
| A．Supporting evidence for the research result. |
| B．Potential application of the research findings. |
| C．A further explanation of the research methods. |
| D．A reasonable doubt about the research process. |
| A．Plants’ Vibrations: Way to React to Stress |
| B．Stress Signals: Secret Newly Found in Plants |
| C．Green Screams: Plants Make Noises When Stressed |
| D．Ultrasonic Screams: Discovery Opens a New Chapter |
