1 . Aviation is a big polluter. Cutting the sector’s impact on global warming is high on the agenda. Although many governments are regulating emissions from cars and trucks, air transportation is technologically rooted in old patterns.

Facing the reality that the sector will keep emitting a lot, ICAO has established an international carbon-trading plan—Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, or CORSIA. This encourages wide use of offsets (抵消) : aviation companies can buy emissions credits or invest in sectors that store carbon, such as forestry, to allow them to carry on as normal. CORSIA aims to keep CO2 emissions at 2019 levels through such purchases for emissions over that year’s baseline. ICAO predicts that increasing demand might reach 1. 7 billion tons by 2035, potentially making aviation the largest offset market in the world.

Yet offsetting faces a fundamental challenge: the size of the offset requires estimating flows of warming pollution that would have occurred if the carbon-removal project hadn’t existed, and comparing them against flows with the project in place. The former — a baseline that is unobservable — is a hotbed for shady accounting.

The vast majority of offsets today and in the expected future come from forest-protection and regrowth projects. The track record of reliable accounting in these industries is poor, because they lack convincing baselines. Even with oversight, forest projects are often troubled by wild assumptions, for example that trees would disappear completely from these areas in the absence of those projects, even when there are other forest protections in place. Such assumptions drive up baselines and flood the market with huge volumes of offsets. They make it easier for accountants to claim a net reduction in emissions even though the atmosphere sees little or no benefit. These problems are essentially unfixable. Evidence is mounting that offsetting as a strategy for reaching net zero is a dead end.

In our view, this approach could prove dangerously narrow. Removing aviation’s impact on global warming means upending the industry. The longer that reality is overlooked, the harder it will be to find effective solutions.

1. What does aviation refer to in the passage?

A．A project which needs revising.	B．A resource which needs trading.
C．A market which needs expanding.	D．An industry which needs reforming.

2. Why should aviation companies buy emissions credits?

A．To support the development of forestry.	B．To earn the largest profit in offset market.
C．To keep the levels of emission unchanged.	D．To make up for emissions over the baseline.

3. What can we infer from paragraph 4?

A．Too many offsets are filling the market now.

B．Some projects may cheat to create more offsets.

C．Offsetting contributes a lot to reducing emissions.

D．Trees would totally disappear without the projects.

4. What is the author’s attitude towards the CORSIA?

A．Disapproving.

B．Confused.

C．Favorable.

D．Unconcerned.

2 . As the world’s oldest living organisms, trees have been our silent companions. Although they inspire a large quantity of fancy tales, the richness of what they say is beyond description.

The German forester Peter Wohlleben spent decades working and learning their secrets. Feelings are rarely applied to trees, but Wohlleben has done so without hesitation. According to Wohlleben, that humans do not speak the trees’ language does not mean they do not communicate. Trees are badly misunderstood even if they communicate with chemical and electrical signals.

Wohlleben claims that trees are creatures as human beings. In one of 50 cases, Wohlleben’s team sees the special friendships between trees, as they can distinguish between one individual and another. This means that trees do not treat all other trees the same. For instance, Wohlleben saw two old beeches standing next to each other. Compared to the usual case, each one growing its branches turned away from the other rather than toward each other. This kind of partnership is well-known to foresters. They know that such tree pairs are really like a human couple. If they chop one down, they need to chop down both because the other will die anyway.

Trees were also found to keep each other alive in different ways. They pass food to nearby sick trees and send signals to warn others of dangerous insects. In one of his investigations, Wohlleben also discovered a beech tree cut about 400 to 500 years ago. The trunk is still alive and was found with green chlorophyll (叶绿素) under the thick bark. Since it has no leaves to create sugar, the only explanation is that neighbouring trees have supported this tree for more than centuries.

The trees that suffered through drought were found to consume less water in the spring so that they will have more water available in the summer months. This implies that a tree can learn and remember a drought its whole life, acting on that memory by being more cautious about its water consumption.

1. What is the function of the first paragraph?

A．To arouse readers’ interest.	B．To introduce a topic.
C．To present a new discovery.	D．To demonstrate a heated debate.

2. According to Wohlleben’s research, what can we learn about trees?

A．Trees communicate in the same way as humans.

B．Trees can’t tell friends and enemies apart.

C．Trees are loyal to their partners.

D．Trees can keep each other alive within limited periods.

3. Why do some trees consume less water in the spring?

A．Because they have more water available in summer

B．Because they have suffered through drought before.

C．Because they don’t need so much water in the spring.

D．Because they can depend on the support from other trees.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Mysteries of trees are unfolded	B．Trees are our silent companions
C．Trees can adapt to the environment	D．Trees can form special relationships

3 . One long gray ship at the Port of Los Angeles is doing its part to combat climate change. On the ship, which belongs to Captura, a Los Angeles-based startup, is a system that takes into seawater and sucks out CO₂, which can be used for various purposes or buried. The decarbonated (不含二氧化碳的) seawater is returned to the ocean, where it absorbs more CO₂ from the atmosphere, in a small strike against the massive rise of the greenhouse gas.

After a yearlong experiment, Captura is planning to open a 1000-ton-per-year facility that will bury the captured CO₂ in rock formations under the North Sea. Equatic, another Los Angeles-based startup, is launching an even larger 3650-ton-per-year ocean CO₂ capture plant this year in Singapore.

Supporters say capturing CO₂ from the ocean should be easier and cheaper than a seemingly more direct approach: extracting it directly from the air. Direct air capture, which relies on fans to sweep air past absorbent chemicals, currently costs between $600 to $1000 per ton of CO₂ removed, largely because atmospheric CO₂ is so thin, making up less than 0.05% of the air. Earth’s oceans, in contrast, hold the gas at a concentration nearly 150 times higher, and absorb roughly 30% of all CO₂ emissions each year. Companies say they should ultimately be able to capture CO₂ at $100 per ton, or less.

Ocean capture advocates are seeking government support. In the US, direct air capture plants earn a $180 tax credit per ton of removed CO₂, but Ocean efforts currently don’t qualify. “A similar tax incentive (激励政策) for water-based CO₂ removal is absolutely needed,” says Ruben Brands, CEO of Equatic.

Even if the technology takes off, it will have to scale up massively to make a meaning contribution in offsetting (抵消) global emissions. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, by 2050 we will need to remove some 5 billion tons of CO₂ every year to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5℃. So far, the ocean capture companies are pulling out only thousands of tons. Matthew Eisaman, a chief scientist at Captura, says, “We have an enormous challenge ahead of us.”

1. How does the system in para. 1 work?

A．It converts seawater into CO2.

B．It releases CO2 into the atmosphere.

C．It absorbs seawater and extracts CO2.

D．It stores decarbonated seawater on the ship.

2. What makes extracting CO₂ from the ocean easier and cheaper?

A．CO2 in seawater is more absorbent.

B．CO2 is stored in solid form in seawater.

C．CO2 in the ocean is more readily accessible.

D．CO2 is naturally more concentrated in seawater.

3. What is the Ruben Brands’s attitude toward the new form of capturing technology?

A．Doubtful.

B．Objective.

C．Supportive.

D．Indifferent.

4. What would be the best title of the passage?

A．Combining Ocean CO2 Capture with Air Capture

B．Setting a New Example of Climate Change Solution

C．Analyzing Ocean CO2 Capture against Climate Change

D．Exploring Oceanic Solutions for Reducing CO2 Emissions

4 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Which pet may an outgoing person prefer?

A．A bird.

B．A dog.

C．A cat.

2. What may a cat owner be like?

A．Clever

B．Sociable.

C．Careful.

3. What does the speech mainly talk about?

A．Pet people’s personalities.

B．More outgoing dog people.

C．Less sociable cat people.

5 . In June a massive “heat dome” baked the famously temperate Pacific Northwest, subjecting parts of Washington State, Oregon and western Canada to extreme temperatures. It is virtually impossible that heat waves like this would have occurred without climate change. Scientists estimate it was a one-in-1,000-year event. “And that’s an ‘at least,’ ” says Kristie. L. Ebi. “It could be more rare than that.” If warming reaches two degrees Cabove preindustrial levels — the threshold (阈值) that most national governments have agreed to try to avoid in hopes of reducing climate change impacts, “that event could occur every five to 10 years,” Ebi says.

“In an average year in the U.S., heat kills more people than any other type of extreme weather,” says Kristina Dahl, a climate scientist. Hundreds of people died in the recent Pacific Northwest heat wave, according to estimates: there were at least 486 deaths in British Columbia, 116 in Oregon and 78 in Washington. A recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found there were more than 3,500 emergency department visits for heat-related illness this past May and June in a region that includes Oregon and Washington State.

The human body functions best at 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C). The body has mechanisms to rid itself of excess heat, most notably sweating. But at a certain point, that fails to work, causing loss of consciousness. People can eventually acclimatize to some level of heat. If you live in a hot climate or work in hot conditions for a period of weeks or months, your body becomes more efficient at sweating and cooling itself down. This process takes time, however.

As the planet warms, heat waves like these this year are becoming frighteningly common and catching climate scientists off guard. “Even a lot of our climate models that project out how frequent extreme heat will be in the future wouldn’t have necessarily predicted this level of heat for that part of the country,” Kristina Dahl says. “But then to realize that I am seeing it in my lifetime, and living it right now, is really terrifying.”

1. What does Ebi’s saying imply in Paragraph 1?

A．Heat dome has affected at least three regions.

B．Temperature reaches the threshold immediately.

C．Heat waves affect the Pacific Northwest greatly.

D．Severe weather could become frighteningly common.

2. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．Many areas are badly affected by heat waves.

B．Heat waves pose a major risk to public health.

C．More people died of illnesses in this summer.

D．Latest news on heat waves are widely reported.

3. What does the underlined word “acclimatize” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Adapt.

B．Settle.

C．Respond.

D．Object.

4. According to Kristina Dahl, the extreme heat ________.

A．ruins his normal daily life.

B．gets scientists prepared to it.

C．fails to be accurately forecast.

D．should be examined frequently.

6 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

My best friend, Cocoa, and I live in a senior-citizen apartment complex in a lovely small town. Cocoa is a ten-year-old poodle(卷毛狗) and I am a sixty-nine-year-old lady, so you can see we both qualify as senior citizens.

Years ago, I promised myself that when I retired I would get a chocolate poodle to share my golden years. From the very beginning, Cocoa has always been exceptionally well-behaved. I never have to tell him anything more than once. He is extremely neat—when taking toys from his box to play, he always puts them back when he is finished. I have been accused of being obsessively neat, and sometimes I wonder if he mimics me or if he was born that way, too.

He is a wonderful companion. When I throw a ball for him, he picks it up in his mouth and gives it back to me. He does many amusing things that make me laugh, and when that happens, he is so delighted that he just keeps it up. I enjoy his company very much.

But almost two years ago, Cocoa did something that challenged comprehension. Was it a miracle or a coincidence? It is certainly a mystery.

One afternoon, Cocoa started acting strangely. I was sitting on the floor playing with him when he started pawing and sniffing at the right side of my chest. He had never done anything like this before, and I told him, “No.” Usually, one “no” is sufficient, but not that day. He stopped briefly, then suddenly ran toward me from the other side of the room, throwing his entire weight—eighteen pounds—at the right side of my chest. He crashed into me and I yelled in pain. It hurt more than I thought it would have.

Soon after this, I felt a lump (肿瘤). I went to the doctors, and after X-rays, tests and lab work were done, they told me I had cancer.

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。

When cancer starts, a wall of calcium(钙) builds to which the lump or cancer attaches itself.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Was Cocoa just aware of what he was doing?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7 . Dogs have a different way of seeing the world compared to human beings. As a result of this, they heavily rely on their body language to pass their messages to people.     1     . You will be shocked at some of these signs from your dog, because believe it or not, there are some that you might have never thought of.

    2     when you see your dog raising its paw. This is a behavior displayed mostly by puppies and other small dogs. Whenever puppies want to eat, they will raise their paws or put them out for their mother. So when it does the same to you, it just means they need some attention and affection.

If you pay close attention to your dog, you will notice that at some point it will curl up just like a fox. In such cases, the paws will be curled up underneath their bodies and their tail will be well wrapped around them. This shows that the dog is probably feeling cold. Curling up helps them keep more body heat.    3    .

    4    . But unfortunately this mostly means that the dog lacks some important nutrients. It could also mean that they are trying to digest their food well considering how fibrous（含纤维的） grass is. You should also be very careful because this could also indicate that your dog has worms in their intestines（肠道） or is dehydrated and it is trying to get water from the grass.     5     .

A．Dogs may sometimes be grass-eating animals

B．Eating grass is not the most uncommon thing for a dog

C．Read the text to find out more on what your dog is trying to tell you

D．It’s a sign that they want to play or simply need something from you

E．You may feel the joy of your dog or feel it cute to see such baby-like gesture

F．If this happens a lot, take your dog to the vet to ensure their safety

G．If you see your dog doing this, throw a blanket over them to help them feel warmer

8 . The Maasai people are the most easily identifiable in Kenya with their very colorful clothing and ornaments on the body. They live a nomadic life, raising and hunting animals near some of Kenya’s most visited wildlife parks.     1    

It is a tradition for a young Maasai man, called a moran in the Maasai language, to kill a lion alone with a spear to show that he is a man. With the kill, a moran would be able to win a “lion name” and admiration among young women.     2     Instead, the young Maasai will take part in a javelin (标枪) throwing competition at an event called the Maasai Olympics.

Mingati Samanya, at the age of 69, is one of the Maasai elders. During his youth, Samanya killed two lions to show he was a man.     3     Samanya is now among the elders who are trying to push the young Maasai to do something different to prove themselves, which includes participating in javelin throwing, jumping and other activities in the community Olympics.

    4     In the past, they killed lions and didn’t get any benefit from it. Right now, when the morans throw a javelin, run or jump, they get not just medals, but also some money.     5     Thanks to the Maasai Olympics and its appealing practice in particular, the lion population in parts of the Kimana Sanctuary (保护区) near Mount Kilimanjaro has increased 10 times over the last 20 years.

A．It can help provide for their families.

B．Quite often women also join in the events.

C．That is how he had the “lion name” Mingati.

D．Here comes how they protect the rights of the Maasai.

E．But the Maasai seem to be ending the tradition.

F．However, their hunting has often been taken as a threat to the lions.

G．On a Saturday, the morans near Kimana will compete for rewards.

9 . Architects often spend months or even years perfecting a design to express their ideas more clearly, convey additional information, or outline the right proportions for a building. However, the urgent issue of climate change is placing new demands on their work. For example, in July, Super Typhoon Doksuri battered China, affecting more than 2.66 million people in Fujian Province alone.

Green architecture that conserves energy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions offers a solution, and concerted efforts have been made in diverse research fields over the past three decades to minimize heat loss. In addition, new buildings have to be tailored to the needs of people’s lifestyles.

Ren Jun, a professor at Tianjin University’s School of Architecture, who designed the first near-zero energy house in China in December 2019, said, “You can construct low-energy, environmentally-friendly houses, but if the interior design and environmental quality don’t meet residents’ requirements, these properties won’t be suitable to live in.”

The near-zero energy house, located-in Banbidian village in Beijing’s southern district of Daxing, won the International Design Award in the United States in January last year. The 400-square-meter property, which stands at the entrance to the village, runs on solar power gathered from rooftop panels, with the addition of a small amount of power from the grid (电网).

Ren said the first obstacle to conserving energy in the property was heat retention, which he attempted to achieve by keeping the indoor temperature at a certain level. The property is divided into five areas: a solar garden in the front yard, a central lounge, a water courtyard, a sponge zone, and a back room. For the exterior walls, Ren used three types of insulation (隔热层), including plastic foam, each about 25 centimeters thick.

Ren also looked for ways to deal with emissions at the house. He decided to install a ventilator, which pipes air that is polluted and replaces it with fresh air from outside in every room at the property.

Ren said it would take three to five years before more ultralow or near-zero energy buildings appeared in Chinese cities.

1. Which is not an important factor for designing green houses?

A．Energy consumption.	B．Carbon emission.
C．People’s lifestyle.	D．Architecture style.

2. What can we conclude about the nero-zero energy house?

A．The house consumes little electricity.

B．The house is deliberately designed to keep heat.

C．The house is equipped with many intelligent facilities.

D．The house is the first International Design Award-winning building in China.

3. What did Ren do to build up the house?

A．He designed the house in five stories to trap heat in it.

B．He applied 75 centimeters of plastic foam to exterior walls.

C．He tailored the interior design to the demand of local people.

D．He installed a ventilator to cut down carbon dioxide emissions.

4. Which is the best title for the passage?

A．Green Homes Offer Hope amid Climate Change

B．Green Houses Feature Near-Zero Energy Consumption

C．Ren Jun Won the International Design Award

D．China Strives for Low Carbon Strategy with Green Houses

10 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. Where did Bruce see a red squirrel?

A．At his garden.

B．In a farm.

C．In the wild.

2. How many red squirrels were there in Britain in 2007?

A．About 3,500,000.

B．About 150,000.

C．About 25,000.

3. What mainly caused the decreases in the number of red squirrels?

A．Introduction of grey squirrels.

B．Some unknown disease.

C．Lack of food.

4. How did Bruce manage to take such wonderful photos?

A．By practicing a lot.

B．Through his tutor’s guidance.

C．With the help of his grandpa.