1 . You’ve heard that plastic is polluting the oceans — between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.
At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called “Strawpocalypse,” a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168,000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source (来源) of plastic pollution, but they’ve recently come under fire because most people don’t need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that’s part of Von Wong’s artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.
In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate (说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload’s worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled “Truckload of Plastic,” Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10,000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they’d been dumped (倾倒) from a truck all at once.
Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.
1. What are Von Wong’s artworks intended for?| A．Beautifying the city he lives in. | B．Introducing eco-friendly products. |
| C．Drawing public attention to plastic waste. | D．Reducing garbage on the beach. |
| A．To show the difficulty of their recycling. |
| B．To explain why they are useful. |
| C．To voice his views on modern art. |
| D．To find a substitute for them. |
| A．Calming. | B．Disturbing. |
| C．Refreshing. | D．Challenging. |
| A．Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety |
| B．Media Interest in Contemporary Art |
| C．Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies |
| D．Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures |
2 . Molai grew up in a tiny village in India. The village lay near some wetlands which became his second
When he was 16, Molai began to notice something
Molai
| A．dream | B．job | C．home | D．choice |
| A．nature | B．youth | C．culture | D．knowledge |
| A．precious | B．interesting | C．disturbing | D．awkward |
| A．waste | B．tension | C．pain | D．damage |
| A．Besides | B．However | C．Therefore | D．Otherwise |
| A．agreed | B．realized | C．remembered | D．predicted |
| A．noise | B．heat | C．disease | D．dust |
| A．directions | B．partners | C．help | D．shelter |
| A．labor | B．police | C．forest | D．finance |
| A．rebuilt | B．discovered | C．left | D．managed |
| A．Decorating | B．Observing | C．Watering | D．Guarding |
| A．tough | B．illegal | C．fantastic | D．beneficial |
| A．back | B．top | C．foot | D．side |
| A．cool down | B．keep off | C．purify | D．collect |
| A．returned | B．learned | C．failed | D．continued |
Melati and Isabel deeply love their home on the island, surrounded by tropical rain forests, green fields, and a vast ocean. Enjoying a swim at their local beach was once a daily pleasure for them. But when Melati was fifteen, and Isabel just ten, the sisters started to lose their enthusiasm for swimming in the waters near their borne. More often than not, plastic bags would be around them as they swam and some were scattered on the beach. They got really upset about that.
Melati didn’t think much about it until one day her teacher gave a lesson on some world heroes. Each of those people had sparked movements of positive changes in the world. They believed in the impact they could have and they did inspire more people to do something meaningful. After school, Melati walked home slowly in silence, concerned about the vast amount of plastic rubbish on the beach. The heroes crossed her mind. If they could do it, we could do it too, she thought. The idea lit her up. She couldn’t wait to share what she thought with Isabel and quickened her pace.
“So many plastic bags around! The beach is dirty and messy! It’s so terrible! We have lost the clean and beautiful beach. Can’t we do something to get it back?” Melati said heartily. Isabel felt a bit puzzled at what to do, but she also had a strong desire to do something. Picturing a beach as fascinating as before in mind, the pair jumped with joy.
They talked a lot, anxious to know how Dad and Mom would respond to their ideas. That night when the family sat by the dinner table, the sisters eagerly got their ideas across. While Mom and Dad listened to the girls carefully, their eyes shone. “How amazing that would be! We are so proud of you!” Dad exclaimed. Mom came up, gave them a thumb up and hugged the sisters.
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。
Melati and Isabel decided to make a positive impact straight away.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One month later, Melati received a call from the local newspaper.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . Michael Gonsalves, a chef of Golden Oak at Disney World, has a cuisine concept rooted in fresh, locally-sourced ingredients that originated from childhood harvesting produce from their family garden with his mom to eventually leading kitchens at Walt Disney World Resorts to employ a sustainable model.
“Truly the whole process starts with menu planning,” he said. Creating one dish leads into the creation of many more through the end-to-end use of products. As chefs, they are always searching for the best ingredients. It is then their focus to ensure they appreciate and respect all that go into each and every one of them. For example, they source chicken that is naturally grown and fed on a natural plant forward diet, no hormones (激素) or additives — that’s used in many ways throughout menus from a simple grilled chicken breast to bone soup. Nothing goes to waste.
When they do have waste, even if minimal, they shift it from landfills to transform it into compost (堆肥) that’s then used across the Walt Disney World property. They also support Second Harvest, a local community food bank where healthy produce, prepared, but not served, meals eatable for human consumption are donated. Disney also works with pig farmers when they can’t distribute foods past the point of safety for human consumption. Besides, wildlife reservations love to get the meat because tigers and wild cats can still eat that.
Their operations are “on a path to a sustainable zero waste kitchen of tomorrow” where chefs learn the full-life cycle of plants from seed to plate and gain a better understanding and appreciation for the product and their craft.
Golden Oak at Disney has millions of bees that produce up to 300 pounds of honey per year, plus those bees help with cross pollination (授粉) of their gardens on a daily basis. They advocate a culture that helps develop not only the quality of food, but an appreciation for nature.
1. Where did Michael Gonsalves’ idea about cuisine come from?| A．His mom’s suggestions. | B．His dream of becoming a chef. |
| C．His interest in delicious food. | D．His labor experience as a child. |
| A．They are grilled to eat. | B．They are used to the fullest. |
| C．They are divided into groups. | D．They are selected by quality. |
| A．Give examples about zero waste. |
| B．Introduce the unique habit of wildlife. |
| C．Stress the importance of natural food. |
| D．Explain the operation mode of the food bank. |
| A．Disney World:New Cuisine Road |
| B．Michael Gonsalves:Creative Chef |
| C．Michael Gonsalves:Advocate of Food Diversity |
| D．Disney World:Pioneer in Environmental Protection |
Last month, a new bridge
Workers
Now the city is hoping
Some people
Polar bears are undergoing hunger in a world
Polar bears live in the environment too cold for most animals. For most of the year, they live and hunt on Arctic sea ice. Nature has prepared
Polar bears’ world is melting. Studies show that polar ice
Three million years may seem like a long time. But when you consider that planet Earth is more than 4. 5 billion years old, it is a pretty short period of time.
The blue whale,
The scientists believe
8 . Salad seeds (生菜种子) that went on a round trip to outer space and back grew at a slightly slower rate than the ones on earth, scientists found, thanks to thousands of young people who helped conduct an out-of-this-world experiment.
The project started in 2015, when British astronaut Tim Peake took a million seeds with him on his journey to the International Space Station (ISS). The seeds spent six months there before they were sent back to Earth in 2016. In a message sent from the ISS, Peake said the purpose of the science experiment was to find out if the conditions in space affected the seeds’ ability to grow.
Around 600,000 pupils at 8,600 schools in the UK were then asked to grow the rocket seeds that had been to space, along with regular seeds that had never left the planet. Peake described the experiment as “one of the largest and most inspirational experiments of its kind”.
The results of the study, which have just been published, found that the space seeds grew more slowly than the ones that had stayed on Earth. Researchers on the experiment said this was due to the stresses of space travel, such as the zero-gravity (零重力) atmosphere and high levels of cosmic rays (宇宙射线), which slowed the growth of the plants.
Now researchers are hopeful that if the seeds are properly protected, it might be possible to grow plants during future space tasks to other planets. Dr Jake Chandler, from University of London, who led the study, said, “The possibility of eating home-grown salad on Mars may be one small step closer.”
1. Why did Tim Peake take seeds to ISS?| A．To explore the secret to gravity. |
| B．To have astronauts grow salad in ISS. |
| C．To promote young kids’ interest in salad. |
| D．To test the space’s influence on seeds’ growth. |
| A．Encouraged. | B．Disappointed. | C．Confused. | D．Concerned. |
| A．Health. | B．Science. | C．Education. | D．Business. |
| A．Space study, a hot topic |
| B．Salad growing, a hit among students |
| C．The conditions in space affect the seeds’ growth |
| D．Man’s exploration to Mars, a big step forward |
9 . When Don Lyons, director of a seabird restoration program, visited a small valley in Japan, he found a local variety of rice called “cormorant rice”. The grain actually got its name from the seabirds that nested in the trees around the ponds used to supply water to the rice fields. Their droppings (粪), rich in nitrogen (氮) and phosphorus (磷), were washed into the water and eventually went to the rice fields.
The phenomenon that Lyons encountered is not a new one. What is new is that scientists have now calculated an exact value for seabird droppings. Given that 30 percent of the species of seabirds are endangered, researchers published a study that estimates the annual value of seabirds. “I see that people just care about something when it brings benefits and when they can see the benefits,” says Daniel Plazas-Jiménez, a seabird researcher.
To show the benefits seabirds provide, scientists set out to put a price tag on the animals’ droppings. The estimated value of seabird droppings as an organic fertilizer (肥料) against the cost of replacing it with human-made chemical fertilizers was around $474 million. The scientists then estimated that 10% of the profits coming from coral reefs depend on seabird nutrients. According to the United Nations, the annual economic returns of commercial fisheries on coral reefs are about $6.5 billion. So, 10% of this value is around $650 million per year.
The richness of seabird droppings in South America, particularly on the Chincha Islands has been documented for centuries. People there were the first to recognize seabirds’ agricultural benefits. At one point, an estimated 60 million birds built 150-foot-high mounds (堆) of droppings. However, only an estimated 4 million seabirds now live on the Chincha Islands. This loss is part of a global trend.
By the early 1840s, seabird droppings became a full-blown industry; they were commercially mined, transported and sold. The industry crashed around 1880 and reappeared in the early 20th century. Today, interest in seabird droppings is resurgent as consumer demand for organic agriculture and food processing has risen. However, the decline of seabird populations caused by human activities and global warming is absolutely a terrible shock to some areas’ economy.
1. What was the probable reason for people’s naming their rice variety after seabirds?| A．Because seabirds fed on this variety of rice. |
| B．Because seabirds nested around the rice fields. |
| C．Because seabirds contributed a lot to the rice’s growth. |
| D．Because seabirds and the rice depended on the same ponds. |
| A．To discover the phenomena related to seabirds. |
| B．To measure seabirds’ production of droppings. |
| C．To identify the endangered seabird species. |
| D．To promote efforts to protect seabirds. |
| A．Around $474 million |
| B．Around $600 million |
| C．Around $1.1 billion |
| D．Around $6 billion |
| A．People invest more in the industry related to seabird droppings. |
| B．People’s enthusiasm for seabird droppings grows stronger. |
| C．The interest rates of buying seabird droppings are higher. |
| D．The production of seabird droppings becomes lower. |
10 . In the last 100 years, the global temperature has gone up by around 0.75℃. Such a small increase is causing sea levels to rise and
Sea levels in the UK have increased by around 10 cm in the last 100 years and experts
As a result of the changing
The biggest
| A．attacking | B．ignoring | C．threatening | D．discovering |
| A．limitation | B．reduction | C．increase | D．improvement |
| A．extinction | B．escape | C．change | D．development |
| A．argue | B．explain | C．doubt | D．predict |
| A．Surprisingly | B．Consequently | C．Immediately | D．Usually |
| A．climate | B．height | C．period | D．environment |
| A．forcing | B．allowing | C．causing | D．helping |
| A．animal | B．species | C．plants | D．population |
| A．wasted | B．needed | C．supplied | D．stored |
| A．produces | B．includes | C．requires | D．provides |
| A．transporting to | B．searching for | C．planting in | D．cutting down |
| A．questions | B．activities | C．procedures | D．disasters |
| A．challenge | B．disadvantage | C．adventure | D．influence |
| A．consider | B．deny | C．stop | D．hate |
| A．time | B．energy | C．inspiration | D．knowledge |
