Microplastics: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
People joke that someone suffering from paranoia (妄想症) sees danger everywhere, thinking someone is out to get him. In the case of microplastics, you don’t need to have paranoia to be worried about them being everywhere, because they basically are!
What exactly are microplastics? They are particles (颗粒) of any type of plastic that are less than 5 millimeters in diameter (直径). They have resulted from the plastic pollution widespread in the world today.
When plastic is exposed to environmental forces, it breaks down into these tiny particles, which, in turn, do not disappear but continue to exist for hundreds or even thousands of years. Every piece of plastic that has ever been made is still on Earth today, except for what has been burned. Often mistaken for food, plastics and microplastics in oceans and on beaches are often consumed by marine animals, which is harmful. Research has linked microplastics to cancer and other problems in animals.
Whatever you think about these particles, taking them in is easier than you think. When you heat food in a plastic dish in the microwave, microplastics get into your food. The water from a plastic water bottle contains the particles as well. After taking surveys of microplastics in air, water and seafood, scientists estimate that people may easily be eating 5 grams of plastic a week. Researchers don’t know yet if or how this will affect humans. Microplastics have been found in human tissue samples, and no one yet knows how long they stay in the human body or what problems may arise.
Not until the amount of plastic waste in the world is reduced will microplastics decrease. So, while the evidence is still missing of the effect microplastics have on people’s health, reusing and recycling plastic is a no-brainer.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. What does the passage mainly tell us?
| A．Inequality still exist globally. | B．Pollution is severe in wealthy countries. |
| C．The rich pollute the world more. | D．Governments are responsible for pollution. |
| A．52%. | B．8.5%. | C．10%. | D．15%. |
| A．By expecting a positive return from companies. |
| B．By greenlighting companies’ business practices. |
| C．By facilitating more investment in the stock market. |
| D．By forcing companies to stop using traditional fuels. |
3 . More than three billion people rely on the ocean to make a living, most of whom are in developing countries. As the global population increases, the demand for seafood is expected to rise, too.
Although ocean ecosystems are stretched to the limit by climate change, overfishing and more, studies nevertheless suggest that seafood can be expanded sustainably to meet future food demands. Success will depend on small-scale fisheries. These fisheries can be remarkably efficient. Almost everything that hand-to-mouth fisheries catch is consumed. By contrast, around 20% of the fish caught by industrial ships is estimated to be wasted, mainly because of unwanted by-catch.
Small fishers rarely have the right resources to expand their operations, or even to survive. If they do scale up, they might lose some of their current advantages or engage in the same harmful practices as do large commercial fisheries. Managed with care, however, small fisheries could provide win-wins for livelihoods and the environment.
Most nations already have management policies for marine ecosystems that provide for small-scale fisheries. But small-scale fishers’ rights to access are often poorly defined, ineffectively enforced or unfairly distributed (分配). Government subsidies (补贴) also require reform. One estimate found that large-scale fishers receive about 3.5 times more subsidies than small-scale fishers do. Instead, subsidies and other funds should be directed towards small-scale fishers to let them expand their access to markets, while keeping them from adopting the negative practices of large-scale operations.
The total global loss and waste from fisheries is estimated at between 30% and 35% annually primarily due to a lack of technology, good manufacturing practices, and infrastructure such as decent roads and cold storage. Public and private investment in cold-storage facilities and processing equipment could help. One promising strategy is to pair international or national funding with direct contracts for feeding programmes linked to schools, hospitals and similar facilities. Such arrangements would provide small fisheries with large, consistent markets and storage infrastructure that boosts local consumption and does not incentivize (刺激) overfishing.
Moreover, simple incentive programmes could be conducted by funders, managers and local governments trying to promote sustainable fisheries. For example, local markets could display a rating system for individual fishers or small fisheries. This could include various elements of sustainability other than environmental ones — such as providing information on the type of fishing equipment, location of the catch and freshness. Promoting the rating as a social responsibility concept would inform consumers of the need to support sustainable fisheries.
Anyway, only joint problem-solving efforts can deliver seafood protein, sustainably, to a world that increasingly needs it.
1. The passage mainly tells us that ________.| A．small fisheries can help the world if managed with care |
| B．the global demand for seafood is increasing dramatically |
| C．small-scale fisheries need to be commercialised urgently |
| D．people in developing countries are more reliable on fishing |
| A．what they catch is hardly wasted | B．their by-catch accounts for a larger share |
| C．they catch fish by industrial means | D．their operation is limited within a small area |
| A．They gain no support from governments. | B．They are expanding to meet local demands. |
| C．They have little access to good resources. | D．They impact marine ecosystems negatively. |
| A．To initiate a rating system for small fishers to evaluate the local markets. |
| B．To provide technology for small fisheries to boost their fishing efficiency. |
| C．To inspire a sense of social responsibility in large-scale fishers and consumers. |
| D．To facilitate direct cooperation between small fisheries and feeding programmes. |
  | ||
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| A．appealing to people to preserve ancient heritage |
| B．guiding people to invest in a sustainable business |
| C．attracting donations to National Geographic Society |
| D．publicizing the mission of National Geographic Society |
| A．support the most pressing employer | B．reduce the tax attached to the donation |
| C．make it a gift in the name of your friend | D．try your company’s matching gift programs |
| A．It needs no operating costs. | B．It is dedicated to protecting nature. |
| C．Its mission hasn’t been recognized. | D．Its employees needn’t pay income tax. |
5 . Sea levels along coastlines in the United States will rise about one foot by 2050, with larger increases on the East and Gulf coasts, according to a comprehensive new report by climate scientists.
Oceans have already risen about one foot in the last century, as climate change melts glaciers (冰川) and ice caps around the world. But the pace is
The report gives the most concrete and certain sea level
Sea level rise
The new report adds up all those factors to give
Sea level rise is happening more
William Sweet, a sea level rise expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and one of the authors of the new report, says cities that are not yet flooded should
Beyond 2050, the report makes clear that humans have a
| A．dying down | B．paying back | C．holding on | D．speeding up |
| A．records | B．extremes | C．predictions | D．solutions |
| A．flexibly | B．clearly | C．randomly | D．incredibly |
| A．continues | B．impacts | C．multiplies | D．varies |
| A．added | B．drained | C．spilt | D．needed |
| A．creatures | B．currents | C．ecosystems | D．voyages |
| A．stable | B．crucial | C．unlikely | D．worse |
| A．national | B．regional | C．apparent | D．approximate |
| A．dig | B．turn | C．collapse | D．dive |
| A．similar | B．scenery | C．distant | D．diverse |
| A．projected | B．obliged | C．permitted | D．noticed |
| A．sharply | B．mysteriously | C．unexpectedly | D．slowly |
| A．make sense | B．take notice | C．keep pace | D．stay proud |
| A．scheme | B．cancel | C．change | D．delay |
| A．promise | B．quarrel | C．choice | D．protest |
| A. applications | B. connections | C. emotions | D. identify | E. intervene | F. notifications |
| G. sacred | H. shared | I. specialize | J. stressed | K. technological |
Animal Communication
Many pet owners long to talk with their animals. After all, if pets were able to talk, people could take care of them more easily and have closer emotional
One such app is called MeowTalk. Using voice recognition software, this app recognizes different sounds a cat makes and offers English translations of them. For example, one type of sound might mean “feed me” while another could be translated “let me outside.” The app can use machine learning to assess its translations and improve at recognizing one particular cat’s voice. In other words, it can
In the future, MeowTalk could connect to a smart collar that would hear the cat meow and play the translation out loud. Perhaps if the cat is outside and needs to be let in, it could even send
For dogs, a Japanese company called Inupathy has developed a harness (保护带) with a heart rate monitor and an app. The heart rate monitor is used to assess a dog’s
The most obvious use of this technology is to help pet owners
There are other
Anyone who interacts regularly with animals could benefit from understanding their animals better. Thus these
7 . The water off the coast of northwest Greenland is a glass-like calm, but the puddles (水坑) on the region’s icebergs are a sign that a transformation is underway higher on the ice sheet.
Several days of unusually warm weather in northern Greenland have caused rapid melting, made visible by the rivers of meltwater rushing into the ocean. Temperatures have been running around 60 degrees Fahrenheit — 10 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year, scientists said.
The amount of ice that melted in Greenland between July 15 and 17 this year alone — 6 billion tons of water per day — would be enough to fill 7.2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Each summer, scientists worry that they will see a repeat of the record melting that occurred in 2019, when 532 billion tons of ice flowed out into the sea. An unexpectedly hot spring and a July heat wave that year caused almost the entire ice sheet’s surface to melt. Global sea level rose permanently by 1.5 millimeters as a result.
Greenland holds enough ice — if it all melted — to lift sea level by 7.5 meters around the world. The latest research points to a more and more threatening situation on the Northern Hemisphere’s iciest island.
“Unprecedented (史无前例的)” rates of melting have been observed at the bottom of the Greenland ice sheet, a study published in February found, caused by huge quantities of meltwater flowing down from the surface. This water is particularly concerning because it can destabilize the sheet above it and could lead to a massive, rapid loss of ice.
And in 2020, scientists found that Greenland’s ice sheet had melted beyond the point of no return. The rate of melting in recent years exceeds anything Greenland has experienced in the last 12,000 years, another study found — and enough to cause measurable change in the gravitational field over Greenland.
At the East Greenland Ice-core Project — or EastGRIP — research camp in northwest Greenland, the work of scientists to understand the impact of climate change is being affected by climate change itself.
Aslak Grinsted, a climate scientist at the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute, said that they have been trying to get flights into the camp but the warmth is destabilizing the landing site.
Before human-caused climate change kicked in, temperatures near 32 degrees Fahrenheit there were unheard of. But since the 1980s, this region has warmed by around 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit per decade — four times faster than the global pace — making it all the more likely that temperatures will cross the melting point.
1. The passage is mainly written to ________.| A．alert people to the rapid melting of Greenland’s ice sheet |
| B．arouse people’s awareness of protecting the environment |
| C．inform people of the large amount of ice Greenland holds |
| D．reveal to people the cause and effect of the rise in sea level |
| A．Climate change. | B．A rise in sea level. |
| C．Global warming. | D．The melting of ice. |
| A．It repeated a record melting of the ice sheet several years ago. |
| B．Its amount was the largest ever and lifted sea level permanently. |
| C．It was enough to fill 7.2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. |
| D．Its melting rate was so rapid as to result in an unexpectedly hot spring. |
| A．climate change is a result of human activities |
| B．the study of climate change is being made easier |
| C．the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet is reversible |
| D．temperatures increase 1.5°F or so each decade globally |
| A．Dustbins for garbage sorting. | B．Benefits of recycling rubbish. |
| C．Charges for colored dustbins. | D．Reasons for protecting the environment. |
9 . China’s policy of planting trees is likely playing a significant role in tempering its climate impacts. An international team has identified two areas in the country where the scale of carbon dioxide absorption by new forests has been underestimated. Taken together, these areas account for a little over 35% of China’s entire land carbon “sink”, the group says.
A carbon sink is any area that absorbs more carbon than it releases, such as forests, thereby lowering the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.
China is one of the world’s major sources of human-produced carbon dioxide. But it has stated an intention to peak the emissions before 2030 and then to move to carbon neutrality by 2060.
“Achieving China’s net-zero target by 2060 will involve a massive change in energy production and also the growth of sustainable land carbon sinks,” said co-author Prof Yi Liu at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. “The afforestation (植树造林) activities described in our Nature paper will play a role in achieving that target,” he said.
China’s increasing leafiness has been evident for some time. Billions of trees have been planted in recent decades, to tackle desertification and soil loss.
The new study modifies estimates for how much CO2 all these extra trees could be taking up as they grow. The latest analysis examined a host of data sources. These consisted of forestry records, satellite remote-sensing measurements of vegetation greenness, soil water availability, and observations of CO2, again made from space but also from direct sampling of the air at ground level.
The two previously under-appreciated carbon sink areas are centred on China’s southwest, in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces; and its northeast, particularly Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces.
Prof Shaun Quegan from Sheffield University, UK, studies Earth’s carbon balance but was not involved in this research. He said the extent of the northeast sink was not a surprise to him, but the southwest one was. But he cautioned that new forests’ ability to draw down carbon declines with time as the growth rate declines and the systems move towards a more steady state.
Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a non-profit think-tank working on climate change and energy issues, said, “However, although the forest sink is bigger than thought, no one should mistake this as providing a ‘free pass’ way to reach net zero. For one thing, carbon absorption will be needed to make up for ongoing emissions of all greenhouse gases, not just CO2; for another, the carbon balance of China’s forests may be compromised (折中) by climate change impacts, as we’re seeing now in places such as California, Australia and Russia.”
1. The word “tempering” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to “_______”.| A．assessing | B．solidifying |
| C．lessening | D．authorizing |
| A．It finds that China has stopped its desertification by planting trees. |
| B．It is based on data from both the ground and the satellites. |
| C．It warns that China will peak its emissions before 2030. |
| D．It overlooks the roles that the land carbon sinks play. |
| A．forest sinks absorb less carbon dioxide when they are growing |
| B．new forests are very likely to guarantee the target of carbon neutrality |
| C．the southwest sink won’t draw down as much carbon as the northeast one |
| D．many other factors need to be taken into account when assessing the forest sink |
| A．Greenhouse Gas Emission Largely Reduced |
| B．Roles of Carbon Sinks Proved by New Study |
| C．China’s Forest Carbon Absorption Underestimated |
| D．Climate Impacts Balanced Due to China’s Afforestation |
| A．China’s pet market. | B．Smart pet devices. |
| C．Automatic pet feeders. | D．Pet products companies. |
| A．To provide shelter for pets. | B．To encourage more people to raise pets. |
| C．To bring pet owners convenience. | D．To keep pet owners safe from their pets. |
| A．Guo is very optimistic about his company. |
| B．China is seeing a decline in its pet economy. |
| C．Smart pet houses can detect pets’ health problems. |
| D．Guo’s company is a must-see destination for pet owners. |
