1 . UK supermarkets are producing more plastic waste despite promises to cut down, new re-search suggests, as sales of bags for life increase to 1.5 billion.
Retailers (零售商)were responsible for more than 900,000 tons of plastic waste in 2018, according to a report from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released Thursday. Seven of the 10 largest supermarket chains reported a higher plastic packaging tonnage in 2019 compared to last year, although exact figures for this year have not been released.
Compared to 2018, this year the number of sold eco-friendly bags for life rose by about 25%, the report stated. Campaigners said the rise showed that the bags are now being used by many as a replacement for single-use carrier bags.
Campaigners recommend that supermarkets increase the price of bags for life to 70 pence ($0.9). They point to the 90% reduction in bags for life sales in Ireland, where prices are set at 70 cents ($0.77). However, in an ideal world bags for life would be removed completely, enforced by a government ban, said campaigners.
“It's shocking to see that despite unprecedented (空前的)awareness of the pollution crisis, the amount of single-use plastic used by the UK's biggest supermarkets has actually increased in the past year,” said Juliet Phillips, EIA ocean campaigner. He added, “Our survey shows that grocery retailers need to tighten up targets to drive real reductions in single use packaging and items. We need to address our throwaway culture at it's root through systems change, not materials change. Substituting one single-use material for another is not the solution.”
The report reveals that plastic use among suppliers is also to blame, and supermarkets have failed to make them reduce plastic packaging. Tesco has led the way in this area, threatening to delist (退市)products for suppliers who fail to cut excessive plastic. Campaigners are urging other supermarkets to do the same.
Plastic waste is a global issue and various countries have taken action to reduce its impact.
1. What does the new research in the UK find?| A．What results in more plastic waste. | B．Why customers use more bags for life. |
| C．How many plastic bags have been used now. | D．How UK supermarkets cut down plastic waste. |
| A．It decreased slightly. | B．It became more serious. |
| C．It got controlled well. | D．It was out of control. |
| A．Banning the use of bags for life. |
| B．Charging more for producing plastic bags. |
| C．Taking practical steps to reduce plastic waste. |
| D．Changing the materials to make plastic bags. |
| A．It required suppliers to cut down plastic packaging. |
| B．It found out a replacement for single-use carrier bags. |
| C．It called on consumers to use fewer plastic bags. |
| D．It forced supermarkets to fight against plastic pollution. |
2 . On Scotland’s Isle of Skye, scientists have identified two areas with evidence of ancient life forms. They believe the markings are, in fact, footprints from dinosaurs that lived 170 million years ago. Those prints date to the middle of the Jurassic Period, a time from which few dinosaur fossils have been recovered. Researchers reported this month on their study of about 50 fossilized footprints at the two sites. The markings are just a few hundred meters apart from each other. They are said to show dinosaurs walking in different directions.
At least three kinds of dinosaurs left the footprints. Steve Brusatte, the leader of the research team, is a paleontologist with the University of Edinburgh. “The tracks are located on flat rocky surfaces near the beach, so they are only exposed at low tide," he said. “The tide laps across them, back and forth, every day. ”
One set of markings came from a two-legged, meat-eating dinosaur that researchers say was about the size of a car. They say its footprints have three toes. The creature, with sharp claws, appears to be from a group of dinosaurs called theropods. Bigger, three-toed footprints came from large-bodied, two-legged plant-eaters called ornithopods. The researchers are especially interested in markings left by another creature: an early member of a group of heavily built, four-legged plant-eaters called stegosaurs.
“I suspect this stegosaur was about the size of a cow, which is fairly small for a stegosaur. Whether that's because it's a primitive, smaller species or a juvenile of a bigger species, we're not sure," Brusatte said. The researchers noted that the findings were an important window into the many kinds of dinosaurs on the Isle of Skye. “Skye has emerged as one of the most important windows into Jurassic dinosaur evolution. We know that dinosaurs were diversifying with a frenzy in the Middle Jurassic, but there are few fossil sites of this age anywhere in the world," Brusatte added.
1. What do the "ancient life forms" refer to in the first paragraph?| A．Dinosaurs dating to the middle of the Jurassic Period. |
| B．Dinosaurs living far away from each other. |
| C．The fossilized footprints discovered this month. |
| D．The fossilized footprints discovered in the middle of the Jurassic Period. |
| A．leaves | B．swallows | C．touches | D．surpasses |
| A．The influence of the markings discovered in Skye. |
| B．The dinosaurs related to the footprints discovered in Skye. |
| C．The dinosaurs with different appearances. |
| D．The dinosaurs with different habitats. |
| A．The findings contribute to learning more about dinosaurs in Skye. |
| B．There are a few fossil sites in other places in the world. |
| C．There were a wide range of dinosaurs living in the area. |
| D．Skye plays an important part in Scotland. |
3 . Despite what so many people would love to believe, NASA hasn’t discovered any evidence of past or present intelligent life on Mars. So, when the Curiosity rover (好奇号探测器) found something suspicious on the Red Planet’s surface, they were not only surprised but also a little bit worried.
The thin fragment was suspicious enough to guarantee its own name, with NASA’s Curiosity rover team calling it the “Pettegrove Point Foreign Object Debris,” named for the location where it was discovered. With no idea what it was or where it came from, the rover’s handlers began to worry that it might actually be a piece of the rover itself, suggesting some unseen damage or other issue with the robot. Thankfully, those concerns seem to have been unfounded.
In a new update from NASA the object has now been identified as a natural piece of rock rather than a piece of any man-made craft or vehicle. The team analyzed the bizarre object with a tool called the ChemCam RMI. The instrument uses a laser (激光器) to sniff out the makeup of anything it’s pointed at, and the results for this particular piece of debris revealed that it’s actually just a very thin piece of rock.
NASA describes the inspection: The planning day began with an interesting result from the previous plan’s ChemCam RMI analysis of a target that was referred to as “Pettegrove Point Foreign Object Debris” (PPFOD), and speculated to be a piece of spacecraft debris. In fact it was found to be a very thin flake of rock, so we can all rest easy tonight—Curiosity has not begun to shed its skin!
How this particularly thin sliver of rock got to where it is—and why it seems to be a different colour than the surrounding sand and debris —remains unexplained, but at least the rover isn’t falling apart.
1. What attitude does NASA hold towards the newly found thin fragment?| A．Positive. | B．Surprised. | C．Interested. | D．Amazed but worried. |
| A．Its finder. | B．Its location. | C．Its researcher. | D．Its shape. |
| A．Strange. | B．Changeable. | C．Normal. | D．Common. |
| A．How this particularly thin sliver of rock got to where it is. |
| B．Why it seems to be a different colour than the surrounding sand and debris. |
| C．Whether the rover is falling apart. |
| D．None of them. |
4 . The animal kingdom is full of beautiful and attractive creatures, and it is inviting to purchase exotic animals and call them pets. But undomesticated(未驯化的) pets may affect the health and safety of both the animals and the people who keep them.
The umbrella cockatoo, for instance, is a type of parrot, which can live up to seventy years. It is often purchased as an exotic pet. It requires a very large living place and a great deal of attention. When its specific needs are unmet, the bird commonly bites itself or becomes aggressive. Similarly, the ball python one of the most popular pet snakes, requires special conditions to survive. Like the umbrella cockatoo, the snake's long lifespan—up to forty years—presents serious practical challenges to any owner, no matter how devoted.
Exotic pet owners are most likely identified as animal lovers who purchased their animals in order to feel a deep connection to the natural world. However, the mere ownership of such an animal means it's probable that the person participated in the illegal trade. This trade—the capture and sale of wild animals——is often cruel to species. Countless animals suffer and die each year.
The problems continue when exotic pets are sold to non-professional owners. When they find they cannot care for them, owners take their exotic pets into the wild and abandon them, as proved by the case of Burmese pythons in Florida. This non-native species multiplied quickly seriously threatening the Florida ecosystem. Also , exotic pets pose a danger to their owners: some emerging infectious diseases, which thousands of people per year are stricken with, and especially occurred in children.
Wild animals are undoubtedly attracting, but they should be admired in their own natural environments. Penning animals as exotic pets harms their quality of life. Pet ownership of any kind is a serious responsibility, and that's why animal lovers should choose domesticated animals that will Boom under the care of humans.
1. What can we infer about exotic pets in paragraph 2?| A．They can live longest in the animal kingdom. |
| B．They need professional care from the owner. |
| C．They require special training from their owner. |
| D．They can’t have a satisfying life under human care. |
| A．To get high income. |
| B．To build a bond with nature, |
| C．To help prevent illegal pet trades. |
| D．To make exotic pets' life comfortable. |
| A．Improving the native ecosystem. |
| B．Increasing the number of rare species. |
| C．Losing control of illegal wildlife trading. |
| D．Putting humans and exotic wildlife at risk. |
| A．Wild animals are more dangerous than ordinary pets. |
| B．It's inappropriate to keep undomesticated exotic pets. |
| C．Exotic pets should be kept in better conditions. |
| D．Rules of the exotic pet trade should be updated. |
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6 . Coffee chains create a lot of waste, from disposable take-away cups to the used grounds that are sent to landfills. Starbucks has started to try recyclable alternatives to the disposable cups. But the used coffee is often unnoted.
The world drinks around 2 billion cups of coffee a day, producing 6 million tons of used grounds every year. When they go to landfills, the grounds release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
UK Bio-bean has found a way to turn that waste into a valuable resource. At Bio-bean, used coffee grounds are processed to remove paper cups or plastic bags, and then passed through a dryer and a further screening process. They are finally processed into the fuel. Coffee Log.
"Coffee is highly calorific and lends itself to being a really fantastic fuel," says May. director of Bio-bean. "They burn about 20% hotter and 20% longer than wood logs do."
While these fuels release greenhouse gases when burned, if they replace other carbon-based fuels. Bio-bean estimates that the recycling process reduces emissions （排放）by 80% compared with sending the grounds to landfills.
Founded in 2013 Bio-bean grew rapidly, launching coffee collection services across the UK and building the world's first coffee recycling factory only two years later. In 2016 they launched their first product, Coffee Log, and are now ready to launch their first natural flavouring ingredient into the food and drink industry.
“We've really managed to succeed with our innovation because we've managed to get to scale. What started as a good idea is today the UK's largest recycler of coffee grounds. We are turning 7,000 tons of those grounds per year into the fuel," says George May. "Despite being delayed by the COVID-19, we plan to expand our operation into northwestern Europe within the next five years."
1. What do the first two paragraphs suggest?| A．It’s necessary to limit coffee consumption. |
| B．Drinking coffee is popular around the world. |
| C．Measures should be taken to recycle coffee waste. |
| D．Coffee grounds are the main cause of global warming. |
| A．A solid fuel. | B．A natural food. |
| C．A cup of hot coffee. | D．A tree trunk. |
| A．It is a high-tech company with a long history. |
| B．It is a promising recycler of coffee grounds. |
| C．It is started to produce coffee and fuels. |
| D．It's developing faster than Starbucks. |
| A．Give accurate measurement. | B．Cover a wide range. |
| C．Do mass production. | D．Classify different grades. |
7 . It’s a popular belief that a fish’s memory lasts for only seven seconds. It may seem sad to think that they don’t remember what they’ve eaten or where they’ve been, and they don’t identify you or any of their friends -- every moment in their life would be like seeing the world for the first time.
But don’t be so quick to feel sorry for them. A new study has found that fish have a much better memory than we used to think. In fact, certain kinds of fish can even remember events from as long as 12 days ago. In the study, researchers from Mac Ewan University in Canada trained a kind of fish called African cichlids to go to a certain area of their tank to get food. They then waited for 12 days before putting them back in the tank again. Researchers used computer software to monitor the fish’s movements. They found that after such a long break the fish still went to the same place where they first got food. This suggested that they could remember their past experiences.
In fact, scientists had been thinking for a long time that African cichlids might have a good memory. An earlier study showed that they behaved aggressively (挑衅地)in front of certain fish, perhaps because they remembered their past “fights”. But until the latest findings, there was no clear evidence.
Just as a good memory can make our lives easier, it also plays an important part when a fish is trying to survive in the wild. “If fish are able to remember that a certain area contains safe food, they will be able to go back to that area without putting their lives at risks,” lead researcher Trevor Hamilton told Live Science.
For a long time, fish were placed far below chimpanzees, dolphins and mice on the list of smart animals. But this study has given scientists a new understanding of their intelligence.
1. According to the article, people commonly believe that _______.| A．fish can only remember part of their past experiences |
| B．fish can remember things that happened long time ago |
| C．a fish’s memory lasts for only seven minutes |
| D．fish don’t recognize any of their friends |
| A．They remember where to get food and survive |
| B．They can avoid their enemies and fight |
| C．They can easily find safe places |
| D．They can recognize their helpful mates |
| A．African cichlids tend to treat other fish aggressively. |
| B．African cichlids may remember things for 12 days. |
| C．African cichlids don’t belong to the list of smart animals. |
| D．African cichlids usually go to a certain area for food. |
| A．Fish having very bad memories. | B．Fish being smarter than we thought. |
| C．How fish improve their memory. | D．What we can learn from fish. |
8 . Atoms and molecules in the air move constantly.
Air flows around a high-or low-pressure system in much the same way as water swirls (旋涡) around a hole. In the Northern Hemisphere, air that moves into a high-pressure system flows outward in a clockwise pattern. Air flowing upward in a region of low pressure moves counterclockwise.
Air is more dense (密集的) in a region of high pressure, so the air pushes out toward less dense regions. The air mass begins to warm as it goes down, which prevents the formation of clouds. The presence of clouds indicates that rain may be present in the air.
Rain associated with low-pressure systems holds true in much of the Northern Hemisphere.
| A．This movement creates air pressure. |
| B．So we can predict rain from the clouds. |
| C．But the air pressure changes little in tropical climates. |
| D．The higher the air pressure is, the faster the winds blow in and outwards. |
| E．Humidity in the rising air of a low-pressure system becomes water droplets. |
| F．This swirling air results in winds around or near the high-and low-pressure boundaries. |
| G．High-pressure systems have light or no clouds, indicating fair weather without rain. |
9 . Olympic host cities are generally considered to be equipped with advanced technology and expensive facilities. Now, people can just go there for a little Olympic-level entertainment.
Athens, Greece (1896 and 2004)
Home to the first modern Olympic games in 1896, Athens' history of the Olympic tradition dates back several thousand years. Every four years, the Olympic torch is lit at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens before beginning its long journey to the new host city. Visitors can walk through the Olympic Velodrome in the Olympic Sports Complex and step back in time at the 50,000-seat stadium.
Barcelona, Spain(1992)
These days Barcelona is among the world's most visitable cities even without Olympic fame, but that isn't always the case. The telecommunications tower built for the games by Spanish architect Calatrava is also an iconic(图像的） device of the city's skyline, and its Olympics stadium- Montjuic Stadium is regularly used to host A-list musical performances like The Rolling Stones, Madonna, and Beyonce.
St Moritz, Switzerland(1924 and 1948)
Appropriately, the town that invented Alpine tourism has hosted the Winter Olympics twice, and continues to make use of its many sports facilities-if you can afford to get there. Stay at the Kulm Hotel for the easiest access to the Kulm Country Club, where guests can skate on the same lake used by mid-century Olympians, or test your courage on the Olympia Bob Run, one of the few places where you can ride a full-speed Olympic bobsled(双人雪橇） on a run constructed entirely of ice.
Sydney, Australia (2000)
The turn-of-the-century Sydney Summer Olympics were named the "Green Games" by the International Olympic Committee (10C) and were designed to introduce a more environmentally conscious way of hosting the event. The structure that best shows Sydney's efforts to be an example of continuing Olympic development is the ANZ Stadium.
1. Where does the host city get the Olympic torch lit?| A．At the Panathenaic Stadium. |
| B．At the Olympic Sports Complex. |
| C．At the Montjuic Stadium. |
| D．At the ANZ Stadium. |
| A．Those fond of ice-sports. |
| B．Those fond of listening to opera. |
| C．Those interested in popular music. |
| D．Those interested in Olympic history. |
| A．Their designers are from Spain. |
| B．They are thought poorly of by the IOC. |
| C．They are hosted in an environmentally friendly way. |
| D．Their design intention is proposed by Sydney authority. |
10 . One of the costs of being a lover of old trees is the all-too-frequent loss of a beautiful soul you've grown fond of.Last summer was harder than most for old trees and their human supporters.The spring's nonstop rains flooded soils and caused root systems of many large,old trees to rot in part.Then,when the summer came,trees could not tap deep sources of water that would normally have maintained(维持）them.Many valuable old trees died.
When I volunteered on the Mount Rainier Tree Commission,I heard from many people concerned about their trees.We had little to offer them.That's because public and private urban tree resources and programs were aimed almost entirely at planting trees and not at all maintaining trees.No state or province program that I could find provided any financial resources for maintaining tree health. Small and under resourced cities such as ours were on their own.
This is backward.Scientists are learning that large,old trees are the most valuable,especially in cities.They put on wood fastest and take the most carbon out of the air. They harbor the most wildlife.They can lower summer temperatures by 20 degrees or more.In a recent study,researchers found that Boston would get more benefit from keeping the trees it has alive than from planting new trees.There's reason to think this finding would apply in other cities,too.
Now,our public and private tree programs often ignore old trees until it is too late.As long as we abandon our old trees,planting more is merely to keep pace with growing losses. We want trees to help protect us,but we leave them unprotected.Consider this in the human world:Nobody would send a baby into the world and expect it to just make it. Children need caring for and it's why we have schools and child health-insurance programs.We could get so much more out of our trees if we just put a little more into them.
1. What does the underlined part in paragraph1 suggest?| A．Strong determination to plant trees. |
| B．Real regret at growing old trees. |
| C．Great concern about tree problems. |
| D．Deep love for valuable old trees. |
| A．The urban tree programs were faced with financial problems. |
| B．The author's knowledge of maintaining tree health was limited. |
| C．The focus of the tree resources and programs was on tree planting. |
| D．The organization the author volunteered on was short of tree experts. |
| A．comparing different cases |
| B．presenting research findings |
| C．referring to scientists' sayings |
| D．carrying out some experiments |
| A．To stress the importance of tree insurance programs. |
| B．To show the close connection between trees and babies. |
| C．To advocate protecting trees as humans care for babies. |
| D．To persuade human beings to pay more attention to babies. |
