1 . People have come to understand the enormous impacts-beneficial as well as harmful- plastics have on human lives and the environment. As polymer (聚合物) scientists committed to inventing sustainable solutions for real-world problems, we set out to tackle the issue of plastic waste by rethinking the way polymers are designed so we could make plastics with recyclability built right in.

Everyday items including milk jug, grocery bags, and takeout containers are made from a class of polymers called polyolefins. These plastics are really durable (耐用的) because the chemical bonds in those polymers are extremely stable. In a world set up for disposable (一次性的) items, durability is no longer a design feature but rather a design drawback. Imagine if half the plastics used today were recyclable through twice as many processes as they are now. Also conventional recycling requires careful sorting of all the collected materials, which can be challenging with so many different plastics. For example, separating paper from metal doesn’t require complex technology, but sorting a container from a milk jug of a different polyolefin is difficult to do without the occasional mistake.

In a study published in Science in October 2023, we described a series of polymers with only two building blocks-one soft polymer and one hard polymer-that behave like polyolefins but could be chemically recycled. Connecting two different polymers multiple times until they form a single, long molecule (分子) creates what’s called a multiblock polymer. By changing how much of each polymer type goes into the multiblock polymer, our team produced a wide range of materials with properties that covered all polyolefin types.

Using the same strategy but by adding hydrogen, we could disconnect the polymers back into their building blocks and easily separate them to use again. When we made new polymers out of these recycled plastics, they performed just as well as the original materials even after several rounds of chemical recycling. So we were able to create materials with similar properties of the plastics the world relies on. We believe this work is a step toward more sustainable plastics.

1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about concerning plastics?

A．Their multiple uses.	B．Their chemical properties.
C．Their recycling challenges.	D．Their classification criteria.

2. A key factor of producing diverse multiblock polymers is ______.

A．mixing building blocks with long molecules

B．integrating chemicals into the two polymers

C．combining two different multiblock polymers

D．adjusting the percentage of the two polymers

3. Which is a feature of multiblock polymers?

A．They are made from sustainable materials.

B．They can be recycled by adding hydrogen.

C．Their reliability outperforms traditional plastics.

D．Their properties change with rounds of recycling.

4. Which of the following might be the best title?

A．Designing for Recycling	B．Classifying Plastic Waste
C．Replace Plastics with Polymers	D．Technology Creates the Future

2 . More than 50 million people in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere follow pastoralism(游牧) as a way of life. The practice has survived for so long because it is designed to change with the environment. Pastoralists move with animals to find new lands and water, leaving behind eaten plants to regrow.

Mongolia is well known for its pastoralism. Agvaantogtokh and his family are herders(牧民). On horseback, he rides with nearly a thousand sheep and goats to help them find water. Sometimes, he and his wife, Nurmaa, stop to help struggling young ones, weak after a difficult winter.

For families like Agvaantogtokh’s, pastoralism is more than a profession. It is a cultural identity that connects generations. At its heart is the human connection to animals. While they consider the animals as their property, they also see them as living beings working alongside them.

Researchers say herders believe in “animal agency”. Agvaantogtokh lets his animals choose the food they eat and where they find water. To him, restricting an animal’s movement and asking it to eat the same thing each day is like putting a person in prison.

In Mongolia, weather extremes are a part of life. When Agvaantogtokh thinks about climate change, he is concerned about humans and animals. Continuous dry and warm weather affects Mongolia. Since 1940, the government says, average temperatures have risen 2.2 degrees Celsius. To keep their practice alive, pastoralists seek ways to modernize. In Mongolia, Lkhaebum recently began using a small vehicle to more easily search for horses. The family uses electricity and has other technologies including a TV and a washing machine. They also use a cellphone to follow the weather and access social media where herders share information.

One of the biggest threats to pastoralism comes from within. Nurmaa and Agvaantogtokh’s 18-year-old daughter studies medicine. Their son spoke about becoming a herder when he was a child, but not anymore. “I won’t regret anything if my child won’t be a herder,” Nurmaa said. “I would like them to do what they desire to do.”

1. What contributes to the survival of pastoralism?

A．Huge pastoralist populations.	B．Adaptation to the environment.
C．Herders’ desire to travel to new places.	D．Slow development of modernization.

2. What does pastoralism mean to Agvaantogtokh?

A．The distinct identity of animals.	B．A poorly-paid profession.
C．An out-of-date lifestyle.	D．The bond between man and animals.

3. What does “animal agency” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Animals’ living in cages.	B．Animals’ eating the same thing.
C．Animals’ struggling in shelters.	D．Animals’ moving around freely.

4. What is a big challenge for pastoralism?

A．Modern technology.	B．No government support.
C．Young people’s disinterest in it.	D．Lack of information exchange.

3 . Sri Nihal Tammana, age 13, of Edison, New Jersey, was named a winner of the 2022 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. The Barron Prize annually honors 25 outstanding young leaders who have made a significant positive impact on people, their communities, and the environment.

Nihal founded Recycle My Battery to promote and facilitate the recycling of used batteries. His nonprofit places free battery recycling bins(箱子)and educates young people and adults about battery recycling. In just three years he has built a team of more than 250 student volunteers across the globe who have recycled nearly 200,000 batteries and educated millions of people. Nihal learned at age 10 that 15 billion batteries are thrown away each year and that most end up in landfills(垃圾填埋地)where they pollute groundwater, harm the ecosystem, and can cause catastrophic fires. Inspired to tackle the problem, he began collecting used batteries from his community. He put them in free recycling bins at stores like Staples until he was told he was bringing too many and had to stop.

Undeterred, he reached out for help from Call2Recycle, the largest battery recycling nonprofit in North America. Call2Recycle agreed to assist and provided recycling bins for free, which were placed in schools, libraries, and other public places. Nihal’s organization now operates across the U.S. and is expanding to other countries including Canada, Switzerland, and India. “Earth gives us so much — oxygen, food, water — everything! So it’s important that we give something back when we can,” says Nihal.

The Barron Prize was founded in 2001 by author T. A. Barron. “Nothing is more inspiring than stories about heroic people who have truly made a difference to the world,” says T. A. Barron. “And we need our heroes today more than ever. Not celebrities, but heroes — people whose character can inspire us all. That is the purpose of the Barron Prize: to shine the spotlight on these amazing young people so that their stories will inspire others.”

1. What does Recycle My Battery intend to do?

A．Protect the earth from used batteries.	B．Promote used batteries across the globe.
C．Make money by collecting used batteries.	D．Stop people throwing used batteries away.

2. What does the underlined word “Undeterred” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Undiscouraged.

B．Unprepared.

C．Unsurprised.

D．Uninterested.

3. How did Call2Recycle help Nihal’s organization?

A．By making it go global.	B．By offering free recycling bins.
C．By providing financial support.	D．By buying more used batteries.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．The importance of recycling batteries.

B．The impact of batteries on the environment.

C．The achievements of the Barron Prize winners.

D．The inspiring story of a young environmentalist.

4 . Sri Nihal Tammana, age 13, of Edison, New Jersey, was named a winner of the 2022 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. The Barron Prize annually honors 25 outstanding young leaders who have made a significant positive impact on people, their communities, and the environment.

Nihal founded Recycle My Battery to promote and facilitate the recycling of used batteries. His nonprofit places free battery recycling bins(箱子)and educates young people and adults about battery recycling. In just three years he has built a team of more than 250 student volunteers across the globe who have recycled nearly 200,000 batteries and educated millions of people. Nihal learned at age 10 that 15 billion batteries are thrown away each year and that most end up in landfills(垃圾填埋地)where they pollute groundwater, harm the ecosystem, and can cause catastrophic fires. Inspired to tackle the problem, he began collecting used batteries from his community. He put them in free recycling bins at stores like Staples until he was told he was bringing too many and had to stop.

Undeterred, he reached out for help from Call2Recycle, the largest battery recycling nonprofit in North America. Call2Recycle agreed to assist and provided recycling bins for free, which were placed in schools, libraries, and other public places. Nihal’s organization now operates across the U.S. and is expanding to other countries including Canada, Switzerland, and India. “Earth gives us so much — oxygen, food, water — everything! So it’s important that we give something back when we can,” says Nihal.

The Barron Prize was founded in 2001 by author T. A. Barron. “Nothing is more inspiring than stories about heroic people who have truly made a difference to the world,” says T. A. Barron. “And we need our heroes today more than ever. Not celebrities, but heroes — people whose character can inspire us all. That is the purpose of the Barron Prize: to shine the spotlight on these amazing young people so that their stories will inspire others.”

1. What does Recycle My Battery intend to do?

A．Protect the earth from used batteries.	B．Promote used batteries across the globe.
C．Make money by collecting used batteries.	D．Stop people throwing used batteries away.

2. What does the underlined word “Undeterred” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Undiscouraged.

B．Unprepared.

C．Unsurprised.

D．Uninterested.

3. How did Call2Recycle help Nihal’s organization?

A．By making it go global.	B．By offering free recycling bins.
C．By providing financial support.	D．By buying more used batteries.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．The importance of recycling batteries.

B．The impact of batteries on the environment.

C．The achievements of the Barron Prize winners.

D．The inspiring story of a young environmentalist.

5 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Puppies that mainly eat dog food are more likely to have problems with their gut (下消化道) health in later life compared with those     1     (give) a diet of leftovers or raw meat.

Anna Hielm-Björkman at     2     University of Helsinki, Finland, and her colleagues surveyed more than 7000 dog owners in Finland about     3     they fed their pets between 2009 and 2019.

The researchers surveyed each dog owner multiple times in this period and also asked them whether their dog     4     (experience) any gastrointestinal problems that lasted three weeks or more-also known as chronic enteropathy (CE).

The team wanted to determine the effect that a dog’s diet at an early age had     5     its gut health in adulthood. According to Hielm-Björkman, dog diets in Finland can largely be split into three categories: dog food, their     6     (owner) cooked leftovers and non-processed food such as raw meat, fish and berries.

The researchers found that 22 per cent of dogs developed CE in adulthood,     7     (typical) at age one and a half.

Their diet as a puppy, aged between 2 months and 6 months,     8     (find) to correlate strongly with whether it developed CE in later life or not. Those that were mostly fed dog food were 29 per cent more likely to develop the condition compared with dogs mostly     9     (eat) raw foods. However, this type of study can’t establish whether the dogs’ diets were responsible for the     10     (high) rates of illness.

6 . A solar tree is a structure like a tree that generates solar energy using photovoltaic panels (太阳能光伏板). It helps solve an urgent global challenge: Replacing greenhouse gas-emitting energy sources like oil and gas with renewable energy. But the power generation potential of solar trees is relatively limited, and their primary purpose is to raise public awareness about renewable energy by getting people to notice and interact with solar energy in new ways.

Solar trees generally have a firm metal, plastic, or stone base that extends up and out into “branches” on which solar panels are mounted. Beyond this basic structure, there is great diversity in the design of solar tree units. The solar tree’s photovoltaic “leaves” absorb sunlight, converting it into electricity that is conducted down through the trunk-like central pillar of the structure to an inside battery. Many designs feature rotating (旋转的) panels that can move throughout the day in order to obtain the greatest amount of sunlight.

Solar trees help power homes, businesses, and public services. They can create shade to help reduce the urban heat island effect and provide shelter in severe weather such as rainstorms and heatwaves, creating greater urban adapting ability in the face of climate change. They also enhance public spaces, providing charging stations, and powering streetlights.

In comparison to other kinds of ground-mounted solar panel devices, solar trees don’t require much land. They make solar energy generation possible in areas with little land that can’t support vast solar arrays, as well as places that lack sufficient rooftop space for panels. However, solar panels are much cheaper than solar trees at present and have far greater energy generation capacity. Therefore, present solar tree designs often serve as a extra source rather than as a primary energy source.

At present, solar trees aren’t designed as large-scale solar projects, which limits their ability to contribute to the low-carbon energy transition. Still, their varied designs are appealing. This makes solar trees effective at displaying and thereby educating people about solar energy, and promoting a business or organization’s commitment to renewable energy.

1. What is the main purpose of building solar trees?

A．To beautify the urban environment.	B．To draw public attention to solar energy.
C．To replace non-renewable energy resources.	D．To provide charging services in emergencies.

2. What do we know about a solar tree?

A．It stores energy in its own battery.

B．It can adjust its height automatically.

C．It is made of environmentally friendly materials.

D．It transforms sunlight into electricity by its metal base.

3. What does the third paragraph mainly talk about?

A．The design features of solar trees.	B．The ways of saving energy in cities.
C．The benefits of solar trees to humans.	D．The difficulties of promoting solar trees.

4. What is the advantage of solar trees over other ground-mounted solar panel devices?

A．They occupy much less land.	B．They are cheaper to manufacture.
C．They are more effective in generating energy.	D．They can work in various weather conditions.

7 . A new form of real estate(不动产)is appearing along the beaches of South Africa and on the dry islands off its coast-tiny white beach huts. With good ventilation and a sea view, they are just big enough to fit a family of African penguins. Their unique selling point: a safe and cool place for penguins to breed.

African penguins, unlike their relatives that live in snow and ice, live well in the cold currents of the South Atlantic Ocean. But when they come to land, their thick black coat absorbs the heat, and they desperately look for cover-both for themselves and their fragile eggs.

Historically, the penguins dug burrows in layers of guano-accumulated seabird and bat feces- that lined Africa’s penguin colonies, but in the 19th century, traders started selling guano(鸟粪)as fertilizer, leaving the penguins and their eggs increasingly exposed to predators and the baking sun. This, combined with other threats such as egg poaching, overfishing and climate change, has caused African penguin populations to plummet. In 2019, they were thought to be less than 20,000 breeding pairs, down from an estimated 1.5 to 3 million birds in 1900.For more than a decade, the species has been listed as endangered by the IUCN.

To date, the African Penguin Nest Project has installed more than 1,500 nests across five of South Africa’s penguin colonies, and plans to expand into Namibia next year, the only other country with breeding populations of the species.

“This is still just a drop in the bucket,” says Graham, who anticipates they will need to deploy at least 4,500 more ceramic homes to protect penguins currently nesting in exposed areas. “The goal is that every penguin that needs a nest will get one.”

1. What is the reason for building the beach huts?

A．To beautify the beach.	B．To conduct research.
C．To house the penguins.	D．To balance the ecology.

2. How many factors have affected the penguin populations according to the text?

A．Four.

B．Five.

C．Six.

D．Seven.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “plummet” in Paragraph 4?

A．Innovate.

B．Increase.

C．Swing.

D．Decline.

4. Which column may the text appear in a newspaper?

A．Culture.

B．Environment.

C．Technology.

D．Art.

8 . In 2014, an art student from university went to Beijing Zoo. Little did he know that a chance encounter with corals (珊瑚) there would start a lifelong passion. Until today, Xu Yitang, a Beijing native, has settled in Hainan province, where he serves as a coral conservationist. For Xu, who had been studying Peking Opera since childhood, becoming a coral conservationist was an unexpected turn of events.

After he first saw corals at the zoo, he began to frequent the local market to learn about coral farming from sellers of coral products. He also learned diving and underwater photography to get a closer look at corals for research purposes. Each day, he spends several hours diving deep under the waves to observe and document the growth and development of the creatures and shares photos and videos of corals on social media platforms. His goal was to raise awareness and knowledge about corals, so that people can learn how to protect them effectively.

As he studied deeper into the creature, he learned that corals are known as “underwater gardens” of the ocean, providing a home for a quarter of all ocean life. Unfortunately, with the strengthening of the greenhouse effect, rising sea temperatures have led to coral bleaching (白化). Xu felt an increasing sense of urgency and responsibility to protect them.

While pursuing his passion to protect corals, he met his life partner, Liu Xiwen, through their shared hobby of diving in Hainan. “Unlike many young people who care about their dress and appearance, he is simply focused on protecting corals,” says Liu about Xu.“Despite his skin injury from spending long hours in the seawater, his attitude is different from what I’ve seen in most young people in Beijing, and it’s attractive to me.”

1. What can we learn about Xu Yitang from the first paragraph?

A．He majored in coral protection.

B．He was born in Hainan province.

C．He worked in Beijing as a coral expert.

D．He found his love for corals by chance.

2. Why does Xu Yitang share photos and videos of corals on social media?

A．To record his exploring process.

B．To spread knowledge about corals.

C．To introduce his diving experience.

D．To show off his photography ability.

3. What contributed to the coral bleaching?

A．The pollution of ocean environment.

B．The development of ocean farming.

C．The damage to underwater gardens.

D．The increase in ocean temperatures.

4. Which of the following best describes Xu Yitang?

A．Emotional.	B．Devoted.
C．Public-spirited.	D．Curiosity-driven.

9 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What does the speaker mainly talk about?

A．Must-see books.

B．Places to travel.

C．Important travel experiences.

2. Which tourist attraction comes first in the list?

A．The rock.

B．The islands.

C．The ancient city.

3. What is Petra famous for?

A．The coast.

B．Sand stones.

C．Its culture.

4. What is the best time to visit Petra?

A．In the early morning.

B．At late night.

C．At noon.

10 . Washing machines are one of the greatest inventions of the last few centuries.They have made life easier. Unfortunately, washing machines also contribute to the environmental issues of energy use and micro-plastics flowing into the oceans. That is why the washing machine manufacturer (制造商), Samsung, and the outdoor-wear company, Patagonia, are working together to make a change.

For Patagonia, the issue of micro-plastics has been on its mind for years — its woolen jackets release many microfibers. As for Samsung, new requirements throughout the world have forced many producers to start thinking about ways to help reduce the number of micro-plastics. There are currently more than 14 million tons of micro-plastics floating in the oceans. Though people previously think of things such as plastic bottles and fishing lines when it comes to plastics in the ocean, thousands of micro-plastics are released into seas with every wash.

The issue is a sort of catch-22. In order to reduce energy costs, manufacturers try to make their machines more efficient. These machines use hotter water and are designed to create more friction (摩擦) between the clothing in the machine. However, both of these things lead to the release of more micro-plastics. So, using Patagonia clothes as test cases, Samsung came up with a two-fold solution: One is a technology called Eco-bubbles, which creates more bubbles to make the detergent (洗涤剂) more powerful, and the other is a water purifier that can filter (过滤) out more micro-plastics.

The cooperation between the two companies is proof of how complicated protecting the environment can be. On the one hand, clothing that is well-constructed and durable is a weapon in the fight against fast fashion. On the other hand, the material used to make those clothes and the way they are washed can also add pollutants to the environment.The same goes for washing machines. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. The fight against climate change requires creative thinking and learning how to attack a problem from many angles. This will certainly lead to even more strange and fruitful cooperation between the environmentally conscious companies.

1. What is Samsung’s purpose in partnering the outdoor clothing company?

A．To limit the use of micro-plastics.

B．To solve the issue of energy waste.

C．To find a solution to micro-plastic pollution.

D．To produce high-efficiency washing machines.

2. What does the underlined word “catch-22” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．A tricky situation.	B．A questionable fact.
C．A possible dream.	D．A practical method.

3. Which of the following will reduce the release of micro-plastics during washing?

A．Using hotter water.

B．Creating more friction.

C．Using powerful detergents.

D．Adding a water purifier to washing machines.

4. What does the cooperation between the two companies show?

A．The difficulty in fighting against fast fashion.

B．The complexity of environment conservation.

C．The influence of humans’ active action.

D．The importance of creative thinking.