1 . Ship tourism to Antarctica is on the rise: More than 35,000 tourists are expected to visit Antarctic this summer. In 1992-1993, 6,750 visited Antarctica, according to the Antarctica Treaty. All of this tourism, however, is putting both tourists and the environment in great danger.
Among the tourist ships that visit the continent, the Explorer, a Canadian ship, was one of the first. Put to use in 1969, it was built to carry tourists to Antarctica. Last week, however, it became the first commercial passenger ship to sink beneath the waters. Fortunately, all of the passengers and crew members were rescued from the ship. However, the sunken ship endangered the Antarctic’s fragile(脆弱的) environment. The ship was estimated to be holding 48,000 gallons of fuel.
The accident was not unexpected. Both the US and UK had warned a conference of the Antarctic Treaty member countries in May that the tourism situation in this area was a potential disaster. The US said in a paper, people “should take a hard look at tourism issues now, especially those related to ship safety.” Although the Antarctic seas are relatively calm, floating ice causes a potential threat to ships. The owner of the Explorer blamed the sinking on a fist-like hole in the ship created by ice.
Many of the other large ships now visiting Antarctica are not designed especially against thick ice. Such ships generally can only come to the continent in summer. But the tourist rush is pushing ships into dangerous situations. “The increasing number of ships operating in Antarctic means that the ship are under great pressure to get there in time for the key visiting sites,” the British government wrote in a paper at the meeting of member countries.
As a natural frontier, Antarctica is in a messy legal situation. There are no obvious answers as to who is responsible for dealing with the threat that tourist may cause to human life and the environment.
There is no coast guard for Antarctica. Do we want it to become Disneyland, or do we need some controls?
1. Which of the following is true according to this passage?| A．Antarctica tourism has a history of about 17 years. |
| B．The number of tourists to the Antarctic is over 5 times as large as that of 17 years ago. |
| C．The tourism boom has caused holes in the floating ice in the Antarctic. |
| D．The Antarctica Treaty is responsible for the environmental problems. |
| A．led to a conference about the tourism situation in the Antarctic. |
| B．was caused by the rough seas |
| C．had been predicted |
| D．did harm to the Antarctic. |
| A．people had better not make a tour of the Antarctic |
| B．ships to the Antarctic should be built strong enough |
| C．there should be legal controls over tourism in the Antarctic |
| D．the Antarctic’s environment is fragile to be protected |
Sustainable Transport in Cities
Transporthas always shaped cities. In Medieval times crossroads gave birth to bloomingmarket towns. Many North American cities were created for the car. But how arethe cities of today being shaped by a need for more sustainable transport?
Manylocal governments are speeding up change through policy initiatives such asjoined transport, congestion charges and low emission zones, sustainablegaining and life-cycle costing, and opening data up to companies and academics.And these city level policies can move markets in more sustainable directions.
The least dense cities, for example, Houston, have per capita（人均价）carbonemissions nearly ten times higher than the densest, such as Singapore.
Light weighing and new engine and fuel technologies are helping to make existing road and rail vehicles more efficient.
| A．Many options require city - level investment in new facilities. |
| B．However, it is not yet clear which technologies and fuels cities will back. |
| C．Through their actions, city governments today are helping to shape the cities of the future. |
| D．For example, London is requiring all newly licensed taxis to be zero - emission capable from 2018. |
| E．City planners are using transport - oriented development to increase density while maintaining quality of life and property value. |
| F．Some cities, such as Delhi, are investing heavily in creating the mass transport systems needed to change how citizens travel. |
The United States government list of endangered species includes alligators, tigers, grizzly bears, some kinds of whales, and over three dozen species of butterflies. What has led to the scarcity of these animals, which may become extinct without vital protection?
One important factor is that many animals have been widely hunted and killed for food and for their beautiful skins. In accordance with the Endangered Species Act, it is illegal in the United States to hunt, sell, or collect endangered species. Thus, an expensive fur coat made from a tiger killed in Asia cannot be legally sold to a wealthy matron in New York or San Francisco.
Some predators, which kill useful, more common animals, are threatened by farmers who are concerned that predators will carry off chickens and young sheep, and because of this fear they trapped and killed them.
The butterfly is an accidental victim of man’s effort to control his environment, For a long time collectors have searched for unusual specimens for their colorful butterfly collections; now, there is an additional, more Serious threat—widespread use of dangerous pesticides which farmers apply to their crops to control harmful insects.
With various animals being killed for food, for decoration, and for the protection of domesticated animals, or dying because of unfortunate contact with human environments, it is not surprising that some are becoming scarce, that the number of species on the endangered list is growing every year. Man is discovering that his world includes the other animals in it, and one can only hope his discovery is not coming too slowly or too late.
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4 . This summer we said goodbye to unnecessary plastic waste. Starbucks committed to
According to a new research out of the American Chemical Society, 20 percent of people who wear contact lenses throw them away in the toilet or sink. But as medical
The study found that the chemical and mechanical processing at these treatment facilities were unable to
It may seem like a small thing, but with over 45 million contact
So what is the right way to throw away contact lenses?
It turns out that properly dealing with contact lenses is pretty
This doesn’t mean that all eco-conscious contact-wearers must stick to glasses, though. Fortunately, in an effort to
| A．eliminating | B．deleting | C．producing | D．saving |
| A．role | B．function | C．impact | D．efficiency |
| A．terms | B．devices | C．tools | D．equipment |
| A．moreover | B．nevertheless | C．however | D．therefore |
| A．flexibility | B．possibility | C．capability | D．similarity |
| A．restrictedly | B．respectively | C．comparatively | D．fully |
| A．designers | B．manufacturers | C．wearers | D．destroyers |
| A．floating | B．following | C．flashing | D．flooding |
| A．sensitive | B．extensive | C．concrete | D．tricky |
| A．systems | B．resources | C．sources | D．energies |
| A．control | B．handle | C．repair | D．touch |
| A．reversed | B．processed | C．fixed | D．programmed |
| A．analyze | B．realize | C．minimize | D．maximize |
| A．initiatives | B．performances | C．events | D．conferences |
| A．consists | B．results | C．participates | D．specializes |
5 . In the 1990s, when an area of Brazilian rainforest the size of Belgium was cut down every year, Brazil was the world’s environmental villain (反派角色) and the Amazonian jungles the image of everything that was going wrong in green places. Now, the Amazon ought to be the image of what is going right. Government figures show that deforestation fell by 70% in the Brazilian Amazon region during the past decade. If clearances had continued at their rate in 2005, an extra 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide would have been put into the atmosphere. That is an amount equal to a year’s emissions from the European Union. Arguably, then, Brazil is now the world leader in addressing climate change.
But how did it break the vicious cycle (恶性循环)? The answer, according to a paper is that there was no silver bullet but instead a three-stage process in which bans, better governance in frontier areas and consumer pressure on companies worked.
The first stage ran from the mid-1990s to 2004. This was when the government put its efforts into bans and restrictions. The Brazilian Forest Code said that, on every farm in the Amazon, 80% of the land had to be set aside as a forest reserve. As the study observes, this share was so high that the code could not be followed --- or enforced. This was the period of the worst deforestation. Soybean prices were high and there were a vast expansion of soybean farming on the south-eastern border of the rainforest.
During the second stage, which ran from 2005 to 2009, the government tried to boost its ability to police the Amazon. Brazil’s president made stopping deforestation a priority, which resulted in better co-operation between different bits of the government. The area in which farming was banned was increased from a sixth to nearly half of the forest.
The third stage, which began in 2009, was a test of whether a system of restrictions could survive as soybean expansion continued. The government shifted its focus from farms to counties (each state has scores of these). Farmers in the 36 counties with the worst deforestation rates were banned from getting cheap credit until those rates fell.
By any standards, Brazil’s Amazon policy has been a success, made the more remarkable because it relied on restrictions rather than rewards, which might have been expected to have worked better. Over the period of the study, Brazil also turned itself into a farming superpower, so the country has shown it is possible to get a huge increase in food output without destroying the forest. Moreover, the policies so far have been successful among commercial farms who care about the law and respond to market pressures. Most remaining deforestation is by small holders who care rather less about these things, so the government faces the problem of persuading them to change their ways, too. Deforestation has been slowed, but not yet stopped.
1. Brazil is considered to play a leading role in dealing with climate change because ________.| A．it has rainforest as large as Belgium. |
| B．it has cut down too much rainforest. |
| C．it has taken action to reduce deforestation. |
| D．it sent 3.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air. |
| A．a powerful weapon. | B．an effective solution. |
| C．an intelligent device. | D．a golden opportunity. |
| A．Brazil has successfully eliminated deforestation. |
| B．All the farmers care much about forest protection. |
| C．Small farm holders are a headache for the Brazilian government. |
| D．Both the food output and the forest in Brazil have greatly increased. |
| A．Cutting Down on Cutting Down. | B．Brazil, the World Leader in Farming. |
| C．Restrictions Outperforming Rewards. | D．Former Awareness Working Wonders. |
World leaders get some face-to-face time at the U.N. climate summit
Sometimes in diplomacy, the sideline(副业) is where all the action is. That was the case at the
The threat of terrorism
After years of heated debate, gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park.
Gray wolves once were seen here and there in the Yellowstone area and much of the continental United States, but they were gradually displaced by human development.
The disappearance of the wolves had many unexpected results. Deer and elk populations — major food sources (来源) for the wolf – grew rapidly. These animals consumed large amounts of vegetation , which reduced plant diversity in the park. In the absence of wolves, coyote populations also grew quickly. The coyotes killed a large percentage of the park’ s red foxes, and completely drove away the park’ s beavers.
The government spent nearly 30 years coming up with a plan to reintroduce the wolvers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carefully monitors and manages the wolf packs in Yellowstone. Today, the debate continues over how well the gray wolf is fitting in at Yellowstone.
| A．By the 1920s, wolves had practically disappeared from the Yellowstone area. |
| B．The disappearance of gray wolves brought about damage to the local ecology. |
| C．As early as 1966, biologists asked the government to consider reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone Park. |
| D．They hoped to keep the conflict between farmers and gray wolves to a minimum |
| E．Fourteen wolves were caught in Canada and transported to the park. |
| F．Elk, deer, and coyote populations are down, while beavers and red foxes have made a comeback. |
Acid rain is now a familiar problem in the industrialized countries in Europe. Harmful gases like Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are produced by power stations and cars.
Acid rain is also capable of dissolving some rocks and buildings made of soft rock, such as limestone, are particularly badly affected. The acid rain attacks the rock, and so carvings and statues are worn away more quickly.
The acid rain is said to be caused by pollution from oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. Car exhaust gases are also a problem. Local volcanic eruption make the problem even worse. Nevertheless, with enough money and effort, researchers say that many of the problems could be solved and the rate of dissolving reduced.
Mexico’s current lack of funds is also partly due to oil. The country has rich oil field and a few years ago, when oil was expensive, Mexico was selling large quantities of oil to the USA and earning a lot of money. The government was therefore able to borrow huge sums of money from banks around the world, thinking they would have no problem repaying their debts. However, the price of oil then dropped, and Mexico has been left owing enormous sums of money and with not enough income from oil sales to pay back the loans.
| A．However, the Mexican government does not have enough money to do the work, and needs to spend what money it has on the Mexican people. |
| B．That is enough to have caused some of the ancient carvings to become seriously damaged already. |
| C．So unless the price of rises, it is unlikely that Mexican will be able to afford to clean up the pollution and save its Mayan ruins from destruction. |
| D．These measures would reduce the pollution, but would not stop it completely. |
| E．The problem, however, is not a European one. |
| F．They dissolve in rainwater and this makes acid rain, which damages trees, rivers and streams. |
9 . In the classic novel The Day of the Triffids, giant plants terrorise humanity. Triffids can walk and are equipped with poisonous stingers, but their real power lies in their ability to communicate and so plot against us.
It sounds far-fetched, but since John Wyndham’s book was published in 1951, one aspect of this fiction has proved to be science fact: plants do talk to one another. It has long been known that insects such as pollinators (传粉者）and pests can distinguish between plants by the chemicals they release. What’s new is the idea that plants use their emissions to talk among themselves. “Plants release chemicals into the atmosphere—these can be viewed as a language in the sense that a plant releasing the chemicals can be viewed as ‘speaking’ and the plant receiving them as ‘listening’ and then responding,” says chemical ecologist James Blande at the University of Eastern Finland.
Now we are discovering that air pollution can disrupt these communications. In one study, Blande and his colleagues put individual bumblebees into a box containing paper flowers resembling those of black mustard (芥末). When the scientists injected the scent of real black mustard flowers that grew in either a clean or polluted atmosphere the bumblebees’ reactions were unequivocal: they were immediately attracted to the unpolluted scent, while that from polluted air left them flying around aimlessly.
It’s not just the clarity of plant language that gets disrupted，the “loudness” is affected, too. To find out how much things have changed since pre-industrial times, Jose Fuentes at the University of Virginia and his colleagues made a computer model that included historic air pollution levels. It revealed that scents(气味)produced by flowers that could once be picked up kilometres away now travel as little as 200 metres.
Even between clean and dirty environments today, a similar reduction in signal can be seen. Take lima beans. When one plant is attacked by spider mites, it emits chemical signals that make others nearby produce more sugary nectar. This, in turn, attracts predatory mites, which eat the attackers. If the atmosphere is clean, Blande found, the beans easily communicate with neighbours growing 70 centimetres away. But in polluted conditions, their warning cries can’t be heard more than 20 centimetres away.
1. The writer mentions the novel The Day of the Triffids in order to_________.| A．show how far-fetched the novel is |
| B．introduce the topic of the passage |
| C．warn readers of a possible danger |
| D．illustrate a new discovery of plants |
| A．familiar | B．unpredictable |
| C．different | D．inter-related |
| A．The scent of plants can’t travel in a shorter distance in polluted air |
| B．Classic novels are usually based on some proved scientific facts. |
| C．It was in pre-industrial times that pollution came into existence. |
| D．Warning cries made by insects are getting softer and softer. |
| A．Chemical signals vary with the age of plants. |
| B．Pollinators and insects either damage or benefit plants. |
| C．Pollution has an impact on the communication between plants. |
| D．Plants communicate with each other by means of what they emit. |
10 . How Plants Branch Out to Access Water
New research has discovered how plant roots sense the availability of water in soil and then adapt their shape to acquire water. The discovery could enable crops to be bred which are more adaptive to changes in climate conditions, such as water scarcity, and help ensure food security in the future.
These findings, published in the journal Science, describe a new mechanism discovered by cooperating teams at the universities of Nottingham and Durham.
Roots are critical for plants to acquire water and nutrients from the soil. Water is essential for plant growth, yet changing climatic conditions makes acquiring water from soil even more challenging. Plants are able to adapt to different soil moisture(湿润) conditions by altering their root architecture, but up until now, it was not understood how this is done.
The researchers discovered that plant roots lacking a branching master gene were no longer able to branch out. They found that when roots are exposed to moisture, the certain gene remains active and promotes root branching, but when exposed to air, the gene is inactivated, blocking root branching.
Professor Sadanandom explained: ''Plants are relatively immobile and therefore their growth is very much dependent on their environment. Our research has identified the particular protein which can inactivate root branching, therefore limiting plant growth and development. ''
''This is hugely exciting as it opens up the possibility for us to help develop plants that could continue to branch roots even in challenging conditions such as water scarcity. ''
Professor Bennett concluded: ''Water is critical for plant growth, development and their survival. By studying how plant roots change their branching in response to water availability, we have uncovered a novel mechanism. This represents a major step forward and opens the way for breeders to develop new crops better adapted to climate change and helping deliver global food security. ''
It is absolutely imperative to ensure food security worldwide. Crop production must double by 2050 to keep pace with global population growth. This target is even more challenging given the impact of climate change on water availability and the drive to reduce fertilizers to make agriculture become more environmentally sustainable. In both cases, developing crops with better ability to acquire water would provide a solution.
1. The findings of the research may have a positive effect on several global issues EXCEPT ________.| A．solving water scarcity | B．increasing crop production |
| C．preserving the agriculture | D．ensuring food security |
| A．branch out without a special gene | B．grow in challenging conditions |
| C．alter inactivated roots | D．breed soluble nutrients |
| A．fascinating | B．influential |
| C．enormous | D．urgent |
| A．Why plants have different abilities to adapt to soil moisture conditions. |
| B．How a branching master gene responds to a particular fertilizer. |
| C．How plant roots alter their shape according to the soil moisture. |
| D．How the particular protein inactivates root branching when exposed to water. |
