1 . Time is running short to address climate change, but there are possible and effective solutions on the table, according to a new UN climate report released in March.
Only swift, dramatic, and sustained emission (排放) cuts will be enough to meet the world’s climate goals, according to the new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body of climate experts that regularly summarize the state of this issue.
“We are walking when we should be running fast,” said Hoesung Lee, IPCC chair, in a press conference announcing the report in March. To limit warming to 1.5℃ above preindustrial levels, the target set by international climate agreements, annual greenhouse-gas emission will need to be cut by nearly half between now and 2030, according to the report. It calculates that the results from actions taken now will be clear in global temperature trends within two decades.
“We already have the technology and the know-how to get the job done,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of UN Environment Programme, during the press conference. “Stopping climate change will still be complicated, and long-term emission cuts may largely rely on technologies, like carbon dioxide removal, that are still unproven at scale. In addition to technological advances, cutting emission in industries that are difficult to transform will involve many factors.”
But in the near term, there’s a clear path forward for the emission cuts needed to put the planet on the right track. There are some of the tasks with the lowest cost and highest potential to address climate change during this decade, such as developing wind and solar power, cutting methane (甲烷) emission from fossil-fuel production and waste, protecting natural ecosystems that trap carbon, and using energy efficiently in vehicles, homes, and industries.
1. What is the author’s attitude towards tackling climate change?| A．Positive. | B．Worried. | C．Skeptical. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．It’s impossible to achieve the climate goal. |
| B．He knows how to cut emission efficiently. |
| C．The pace of global warming is speeding up. |
| D．He is dissatisfied with current emission cuts. |
| A．Policy. | B．Market. | C．Funding. | D．Technology. |
| A．Emission cutting is urgent. |
| B．Climate change is unstoppable. |
| C．Global warming is becoming complicated. |
| D．Meeting climate goals needs cooperation. |
2 . Surely one of the world’s most attractive rivers as well as being its longest, the mighty Nile River runs constantly ever northwards 6,650 kilometre (4,132 miles) from its origins in Africa to its mouth on the Uat-Ur, the Egyptian word for the Mediterranean Sea. Along its passage, it gave life to the ancient Egyptians, nourishing (滋养) them with its annual deep layers of rich black earth providing the basis for the agriculture, which supported the flowering of their culture.
Seneca, the Roman philosopher and statesman, described the Nile as a “remarkable sight” and an amazing wonder. The surviving records indicate this is an opinion widely shared by ancient writers who visited Egypt’s “mother of all men”.
The river gains its name from the Greek “Neilos”, meaning valley, although the ancient Egyptians called their river Ar, or “black” after its rich earth. However, the story of the Nile River doesn’t begin in the expansive delta (三角洲) of marshes (沼泽) and lakes of its Mediterranean exit, but in two distinct sources, the Blue Nile, which falls down from the Abyssinian highlands and the White Nile, which springs from equatorial Africa.
The Nile’s broad fan-shaped Delta is flat and green. At its farthest reaches, Alexander the Great built Alexandria, a busy port city and home to the Library of Alexandria and the famed Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Beyond the expanse of the Nile Delta lies the Mediterranean and Europe. At the far end of the Nile, sat Aswan, the gateway city to Egypt, a small, hot, garrison town for Egypt’s armies as they hotly contested the territory with Nubia over the centuries.
1. How did the Nile River contribute to the ancient Egypt’s civilization?| A．By supplying enough drinking water. |
| B．By providing transport to the country. |
| C．By offering support to the agriculture. |
| D．By developing its tourism to other states. |
| A．The origins of the river are delta of marshes and lakes. |
| B．The White Nile flows from the Abyssinian highlands. |
| C．The Greek name of the river has something to do with soil. |
| D．The Nile River originated from two distinct destinations. |
| A．Local market. |
| B．Business area. |
| C．Military station. |
| D．Cultural center. |
| A．The Nile River in Ancient Egypt. |
| B．The Culture of Egypt and Its river. |
| C．The Great Function of the Nile River. |
| D．Important Places along the Nile River |
One of my favourite things about spring is the arrival of different species of birds. My grandfather was a bird lover, and I picked up the birdwatching hobby at a young age, thanks to his influence. My husband John and I found it a relaxing way to enjoy nature; we like birdwatching when we go camping or hiking. Plus, I have a great love of nature photography, so when we sit out in the backyard of our home, I always have my digital camera with me. John is an artist, and he often paints the birds I photograph.
Usually when the yellow warblers (莺) come back from the south in springtime, they pass us by; we don’t typically see them hanging around our home. But not on this particular sunny day in spring. As soon as I finished my workday, I put on a light jacket and went out to the backyard to relax in my favourite way: by watching the birds.
While taking some pictures of cardinals (红衣凤头鸟) and chickadees (北美山雀) at one of our feeders, I looked up and noticed this yellow warbler in our maple tree. The tree had recently begun to bud, and the bird’s yellow feathers looked striking against the yellow blooms, so I took this photo. Our backyard has a variety of trees and between my husband and me, we’ve documented almost 40 different species of birds. I’ve photographed most of them, but some can be a bit camera shy so I also keep a written list of what we see. Our more common visitors are cardinals, chickadees, hummingbirds and various sparrows.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
One day, I was watching the yellow warbler jumping among trees when a snake crawled towards it.
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At this time, I saw many small stones in the backyard.
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4 . UK summers are likely to regularly see temperatures above 40℃ even if humanity manages to limit global warming to 1.5℃, meteorologists (气象学家) have warned.
The UK is already seeing increasingly extreme weather, with 2022 the third warmest, fifth wettest and eighth sunniest year on record-the first to fall into the top 10 for all three variables. Data published in State of the UK Climate 2022 report revealed the average winter temperature for last year was 5.3℃, which is 1.6℃ higher than the 1981 to 2010 average.
That makes December 2021 to February 2022 the fifth warmest winter on record, while the average temperature last summer was 14.8℃, 0.4℃ above the 1981 to 2010 average.
Early August 2022 saw maximum temperatures hit 34℃ on six continuous days, with five “tropical nights” above 20℃, making it one of the most significant heatwaves to affect southern England in the past 60 years, the report’s authors said.
Comparing data from the Central England Temperature series, which goes back to 1772, the research found the early 21st century in this region has been 0.5℃ to 1℃ warmer than 1901 to 2000 and 0.5℃ to 1.5℃ warmer than 1801 to 1900.
Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, which publishes the report, said the world was already seeing extreme heat as a result of warming of 1.1℃ to 1.2℃ above pre-industrial levels.
“If you take that up by another 0.3℃, these (heatwaves) are just going to become much more intense—we’re likely to see 40℃ in the UK although we have never seen those kinds of temperatures (before),” she said.
“As we hit 1.5℃ of global warming, that’s going to not just become something that we see once or twice, it’ll start to become something that we see on a much more regular basis.” Mike Kendon, climate scientist at the Met Office and lead author of the report, said the figures indicated a new normal for the UK.
1. What does paragraph 2 intend to tell us?| A．The weather was not as wet as before. | B．The rise in temperature in winter is mild. |
| C．The weather has changed but not so serious. | D．Figures show signs of extreme weather. |
| A．Extremely hot weather appeared in southern England. |
| B．Early August 2022 had only a few days’ hot weather. |
| C．Six continuous days’ extreme weather brought little harm. |
| D．It became the wettest season in the past 60 years or so. |
| A．Periodic. | B．Normal. | C．Changeable. | D．Rare. |
| A．Extreme Weather Hit the UK | B．What Extreme Weather Looks Like |
| C．Where the Future Weather Will Go | D．What We Can Do with Extreme Weather |
The Forbidden City, also known as the Palace Museum, and Gu Gong in Chinese, lies at the city center of Beijing, and once served
The Palace Museum is becoming waste-free as the 720,000-square-meter structure has managed to reduce
While
“By launching the campaign, the Palace Museum is taking a science-based and meticulous approach to waste. The target is to minimize the generation of waste that needs
So far, approximately 3,000 museum staff members, 40,000 tourist guides, and 21 million visitors
Three sites in China˗˗an ancient tea-producing area, a nomadic livestock-rearing region and a rain-fed stone terrace farming system˗˗were formally recognised as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), for their unique ways of using traditional practices and knowledge while maintaining unique biodiversity and ecosystems.
An ancient tea-producing area (中国福建安溪铁观音茶文化系统)
Tea production in Anxi, Fujian, is believed to date from the 10th century, with its most famous tea, Tieguanyin, coming into
A Grassland nomadic system (中国内蒙古阿鲁科尔沁草原游牧系统)
The Ar Horqin grassland nomadic system in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region has a variety of ecosystems, such as forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers with important ecological
The Shexian Dryland Stone Terraced System (中国河北涉县旱作石堰梯田系统)
The Shexian Dryland Stone Terraced System in Hebei, is a rain-fed agricultural system dating back to the 13th century.
7 . On September 7, 1991, the costliest hailstorm (雹暴) in Canadian history hit Calgary’s southern suburbs. As a result, since 1996 a group of insurance companies have spent about $2 million per year on the Alberta Hail Suppression Project. Airplanes seed threatening storm cells with a chemical to make small ice crystals fall as rain before they can grow into dangerous hailstones. But farmers in east-central Alberta — downwind of the hail project flights — worry that precious moisture (水分) is being stolen from their thirsty land by the cloud seeding.
Norman Stienwand, who farms in that area, has been addressing public meetings on this issue for years. “Basically, the provincial government is letting the insurance companies protect the Calgary-Edmonton urban area from hail,” Mr. Stienwand says, “but they’re increasing drought risk as far east as Saskatchewan.”
The Alberta hail project is managed by Terry Krauss, a cloud physicist who works for Weather Modification Inc. of Fargo, North Dakota. “We affect only a very small percentage of the total moisture in the air, so we cannot be causing drought.” Dr. Krauss says. “In fact, we may be helping increase the moisture downwind by creating wetter ground.”
One doubter about the safety of cloud seeding is Chuck Doswell, a research scientist who just retired from the University of Oklahoma. “In 1999, I personally saw significant tornadoes form from a seeded storm cell in Kansas,” Dr. Doswell says. “Does cloud seeding create killer storms or reduce moisture downwind? No one really knows, of course, but the seeding goes on.”
Given the degree of doubt, Mr. Stienwand suggests, “It would be wise to stop cloud seeding.” In practice, doubt has had the opposite effect. Due to the lack of scientific proof concerning their impacts, no one has succeeded in winning a lawsuit against cloud-seeding companies. Hence, private climate engineering can proceed in relative legal safety.
1. What does the project aim to do?| A．Conserve moisture in the soil. | B．Forecast disastrous hailstorms. |
| C．Prevent the formation of hailstones. | D．Investigate chemical use in farming. |
| A．Managers of insurance companies. | B．Farmers in east-central Alberta. |
| C．Provincial government officials. | D．Residents of Calgary and Edmonton. |
| A．To compare different kinds of seeding methods. | B．To illustrate the development of big hailstorms. |
| C．To show the link between storms and moisture. | D．To indicate a possible danger of cloud seeding. |
| A．Scientific studies have proved Stienwand right. | B．Cloud-seeding companies will continue to exist. |
| C．The doubt about cloud seeding has disappeared. | D．Private climate engineering is illegal in Canada. |
8 . Growing up in Louisiana, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, Barry Guillot loved exploring the wetlands with his friends when he was a child. However, as he grew older, a growing concern about the disappearance of wetlands took root. “Imagine if the New Orleans Saints, our football team, were playing on a field that was actually wetlands,” Barry says. “By halftime, that football field would be gone.”
In 1988, Barry became a middle school science teacher. With the intention of bringing home to his kids the importance of wetlands, he founded the LaBranche Wetland Watchers Service-Learning Project, “adopting” a small part of LaBranche Wetlands near their school.
Wetland Watchers activities are tied to academic subjects. Water-quality monitoring, for example, teaches students to use graphs to compare data from different time periods — part of the math curriculum. After Hurricane Katrina, the salinity (amount of salt in the water) was four times as high as before. Students made graphs to show that. As part of English composition, they wrote about seeing jellyfish (水母) , which had never come that far before because jellyfish live only in salty water.
“We obtained more than we would just sitting behind a desk with a book, because you’re out there and you’re getting all wet and muddy and having fun as you learn,” says Kurt, a seventh grader.
Barry is very proud of his students. “It’s amazing what middle school kids can accomplish when they get the chance,” he says. One of his seventh graders wrote, “If the animals and plants could talk, I think they would say we’re their heroes. That’s the way I feel when we do our work in the wetlands.”
1. Why is “football field” mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．To explain wetlands are limited. | B．To express Barry’s love of football. |
| C．To stress the urgency of saving wetlands. | D．To show Barry’s worry about his football team. |
| A．The necessity of making graphs. | B．The importance of hands-on learning. |
| C．The connection of the activities to schooling. | D．Relationship between teachers and students. |
| A．They are messy. | B．They are challenging. |
| C．They are dull. | D．They are rewarding. |
| A．They will teach like Barry. | B．They will ask for more chances. |
| C．They’re full of a sense of achievement. | D．They’re acknowledged as great heroes. |
1. Why is the mother unwilling to keep a young dog?
| A．It costs money. |
| B．It needs extra care. |
| C．It affects her sleep. |
| A．Easy to teach. |
| B．Bright and friendly. |
| C．A good companion. |
1. What did NASA call the area?
| A．The Light of Venezuela. |
| B．The Lightning Capital of the World. |
| C．The Never-ending Storm of Catatumbo. |
| A．The warm ocean current. |
| B．The strong mountain winds. |
| C．The special geographical location. |
| A．About 12%. | B．About 30%. | C．About 70%. |
| A．The man is afraid of lightening very much. |
| B．The locals are surprisingly fearless of lighting. |
| C．About 12,000 American people get hit in their lifetime. |
