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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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 . Every August the clustered carline thistle (蓟) is one of the only plants that flower in most of Spain’s dry Mediterranean habitats, making it a dominant plant on the local bees and other pollinators. But how can the thistle survive, much less flower, when its neighbors are reduced to twigs and dust?
Spanish National Research Council evolutionary ecologist Carlo s Herrera had an amazing discovery when one day he peered into a thistle blossom to see how much nectar was inside and lightly touched the flower. He discovered that even after hours in direct sun, the flower heads were routinely five degrees cooler than their surroundings during the heat of the day, with the difference approaching 10 degrees for some flowers on the hottest days.
Sanna Sevanto, a physicist and plant physiologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory says that Herrera’s finding is exciting and could confirm a risky plant survival strategy that has, until now, only been theorized.
Sevanto and other scientists have documented that to perform photosynthesis (光合作用), leaves need access to carbon dioxide, which enters through tiny pores (毛孔) called stomata on the leaf’s surface. When stomata open to let carbon dioxide in, some water escapes; this causes evaporative cooling that lowers the leaf’s temperature slightly.
But for the Spanish thistles, evaporative cooling could be the goal rather than just a side effect of photosynthesis. Herrera suggests the plant could essentially be sweating: sacrificing precious water, so scarce in Spain’s dry summers, to prevent its delicate reproductive organs from overheating. She added that some flower species have stomata on their petals, which Sevanto says would be an easy route for releasing water. Opening stomata in a drought is a big gamble, though, and she notes that, so far, “we have not observed a plant that would do it to cool themselves.”
As heat waves become more frequent and intense with climate change, it’s increasingly important to study unusual adaptations that help plants survive heat stress. But ultimately, “whether these plants will have water enough to keep the system working,” Herrera says, “that’s another story.”
1. What was Herrera’s discovery about carline thistle in August?| A．It was the only plant that blossomed. | B．It was the only plant that survived. |
| C．It had little nectar in the flower. | D．It had lower temperature in the flower head. |
| A．To cool the key organs. | B．To take in carbon dioxide. |
| C．To accelerate photosynthesis. | D．To reduce water content in leaves. |
| A．Advantage. | B．Risk. | C．Shift. | D．Evolution. |
| A．Suspicious. | B．Positive. | C．Objective. | D．Unconcerned. |
4 . In the 1950s and 60s, scientists around the world launched many creatures into space. The idea was to calculate the effects of spaceflight on living creatures in the hopes that humans could follow.
The Soviet Union sent a stray Moscow dog named Laika into space, and subsequently, it was honored as a national hero. Ham the chimpanzee was famously buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico following his contributions to the U. S. space program. And then there was France, which sent the first and so far only cat into space. So, who was this hero cat, anyway?
Félicette was one of 14 cats cited to the French space program. Each cat had electrodes implanted into their brain, and all were subjected to many of the same activities included in human astronaut training. French scientists decided to use cats as they already had a lot of neurological data on them. At the conclusion of training, the petite tuxedo Félicette got the green light.
On Oct. 18, 1963, Félicette, was strapped into a Véronique rocket and blasted from Algeria to nearly 100 miles above Earth. She experienced about five minutes of weightlessness followed by the terror of a turbulent, spinning descent via parachute.
Just 15 minutes later, the flight was complete. A helicopter crew dashed to the landing site, threw open the cabin, and found Félicette alive and well.
Two months later, scientists rewarded her heroism with euthanasia (安乐死) — they wanted to examine her body. Then, Félicette was all but forgotten.
So forgotten that in the 90s, when three former French colonies celebrated her story by issuing stamps with the cat’s likeness, they mistakenly turned her into a boy by using the wrong name — Felix.
But thanks to Londoner Matt Guy who came across the tale of Félicette that she wasn’t already properly recognized for her accomplishments, the story’s finally been set straight. His online pleas netted around $57,000 enough to fund a 5-foot tall bronze statue. On Dec. 18, 2019, the statue was finally unveiled at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France.
1. Why did scientists choose Félicette for their space program?| A．Because cats were more readily available than other animals. |
| B．Because cats had well-developed neurological system. |
| C．Because they liked her more than Laika and Ham. |
| D．Because they got rich research data about cats. |
| A．She became a national hero in France. |
| B．She was euthanized for scientific examination. |
| C．She was adopted by one of the scientists involved in the program. |
| D．She was remembered until a Londoner rediscovered her story. |
| A．He helped issue stamps with the cat’s likeness. | B．He built a status for Félicette by himself. |
| C．He raised money online in Félicette’s honor. | D．He discovered Félicette initiatively. |
| A．Félicette the first cat in Space finally got her due. | B．Félicette was forgotten in the history. |
| C．The first and only cat Félicette was sent into space. | D．Félicette was rescued bravely by humans. |
5 . A planet that suffers 475 C beneath a thick acid atmosphere may be the last place you'd expect alien (外星的) life in our solar system. But one NASA scientist claims that extraterrestrials (天外来客) are most likely hiding on Venus amid conditions that are unbearable for humans. The new theory was put forward by the research scientist Dr Michelle Thaller. She says that possible signs of life have already been seen within the carbon-dioxide filled atmosphere, adding that she was absolutely certain that life exists somewhere.
Venus is often described as Earth's twin due to its similar size and structure. But their conditions couldn't be further apart, as astronomers believe it would be impossible for humans to exist on Venus. Positioned 67 million miles from the Sun, Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system, suffering temperatures that can even melt lead. Its atmosphere also adds to the uninhabitable situation.
Despite this, scientists have long debated whether Venus' clouds may host microbial (微生物的) life forms that can survive. Many scientists think that photosynthesis (光合作用) is possible on the planet's surface as Venus receives enough solar energy to pass through its thick clouds.
However, Professor Dominic Papineau, a biologist at the University College of London, believes Dr Thaller's views are “difficult to realistically assume”. He explained, “For life-related chemical reactions to take place, liquid water is necessary. Hence, to find extraterrestrial life, we need to find liquid water, and to find extraterrestrial fossils requires looking for special rocks that were associated with liquid water in the past.”
This makes life on Venus today difficult to realistically assume, because its surface is too hot, although Venus might have had liquid water in its past. Even still, both Professor Papineau and Dr Thaller agree that the icy moons of our solar system could also be sites of potential microbial life. NASA suggests there are 290 “traditional moons” in our solar system-excluding 462 smaller minor planets.
1. What can we know about Venus?| A．Its atmosphere is thin acidic. |
| B．It is much bigger than Earth. |
| C．It is 77 million miles from the Sun. |
| D．Venus and Earth are considered as twins. |
| A．Photosynthesis can happen on Venus's surface. |
| B．Thick clouds make photosynthesis in Venus hard. |
| C．Liquid water is important for the extraterrestrials. |
| D．Some rocks can prove life exists on Venus. |
| A．The surface temperature of Venus is high. |
| B．It's very easy to confirm life on Venus. |
| C．Venus might have liquid water now. |
| D．Many icy moons go around Venus. |
| A．Education. | B．Science. | C．Culture. | D．Sports. |
6 . The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s longest reef, measuring 2,027 km. Running parallel (平行的) to the coast of Queensland, Australia, the reef is home to many species of fish.
The Great Barrier Reef took thousands of years to form, and has existed for thousands of years, but in just a few short decades we humans have made remarkable progress in killing it. The balance of this ecosystem is being destroyed. Poisonous coastal pollution, overfishing and unsustainable tourism all contribute to the damage done. However, the biggest threat of all is climate change, which causes coral bleaching (珊瑚白化) and other problems.
Coral bleaching is a process that causes coral to turn white in color when exposed to certain stressors, such as changes in temperature or light. As water temperatures rise due to climate change, the algae (海藻) living inside coral becomes poisonous and is expelled from the coral, causing it to lose its color and a major source of food. Not only do the algae produce coral’s color, they also provide 90%of the coral’s energy. Thus, without the algae, most corals will die.
Unfortunately, coral bleaching events are now occurring at an alarming rate. Mass coral bleaching events in the Great Barrier Reef have been recorded in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2016, 2017 and 2020, and they are now expected to become an annual occurrence. The Great Barrier Reef is believed to have lost over 50% of its corals since 1995 and as global warming continues, this number will continue to increase rapidly.
In 2015, the Australian government formed a plan for the protection and preservation of the Great Barrier Reef until 2050. While the plan contains many great aims to improve water quality and restore the reef, there are no measures to deal with the root cause of the issue-climate change.
Solving the most important problem of our generation will require many solutions, such as supporting the use of renewable energy, keeping fossil fuels in the ground, protecting forests, reducing plastic production and preventing unsustainable business practices.
Repairing the damage done to the Great Barrier Reef — and other ecosystems around the world — will be no easy job, but we believe that individuals, businesses and governments will make a change and then there will be hope in the future.
1. What can we know about the Great Barrier Reef?| A．It is a lifeless coral reef structure. |
| B．It has the most preserved ecosystem. |
| C．It is a threat to the survival of human. |
| D．It has been affected by various factors. |
| A．Taken out. | B．Given away. | C．Driven out. | D．Washed away. |
| A．Coral reefs are experiencing growth. |
| B．The loss of corals is expected to decrease. |
| C．Coral bleaching takes place more frequently. |
| D．The government has taken steps to stop coral bleaching. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. | C．Doubtful. | D．Indifferent. |
7 . A small car around the size of a Mini Cooper, the Seagull is a fast-charging electric vehicle (车辆) (EV) produced by BYD. It’s hardly a luxury car but it’s well-equipped, with a power driver’s seat and cruise control. The best part? Its base model costs about $10,700 in China. That’s about a third of the cost of the cheapest EV you can buy in the US. In 2018, Trump put, and Biden has since continued, a special 25 percent tax on Chinese-made cars, on top of the ordinary 2.5 percent tax on foreign-made cars, which perfectly shows that however motivated the Biden government might be by climate concerns, it is much more motivated by a desire to help American carmakers.
The basic environmental argument for electric cars is simple: Burning petrol in internal combustion enginest (内燃机) produces CO2. Electric cars emit (排放) less per mile traveled both because some electricity is generated through clean sources like wind, solar, and because electric motors are far more efficient than petrol engines. EVs are slightly more carbon-intensive (密集) to produce in the first place, but most estimates suggest the lower per-mile emissions of EVs quickly make up for the extra emissions involved in their creation.
But is this still true for Chinese EVs? China still gets more than 60 percent of its electricity from coal, compared to less than 20 percent in the US. So, does this mean that BYD’s cheap EVs are bad for the environment? Hardly. Close to 90 percent of the emissions of a fossil fuel vehicle (化石燃料汽车) are from the combustion of the fuel. Besides, EVs of whatever origin are getting cleaner over time as the electrical grid (电网) gets cleaner. That means EVs will do even more for the environment as the years go on.
The biggest factor for China is that they control all the upstream material supply chain for lithium batteries (锂电池). Even if your EV’s battery is made by a plant of Panasonic in the US, the raw materials for that are processed in China first. “Part of why they’re so successful is they’ve been thinking outside the box on cost reduction for a long time,” an expert says.
1. What can be inferred from the first paragraph?| A．Chinese EVs are a threat to American electric cars. |
| B．American government has placed a ban on Chinese EVs. |
| C．The seagull provides luxury experience at a reasonable price. |
| D．Climate concerns are the only driver of EV development in the US. |
| A．They are no better than typical gas vehicles. |
| B．Their power is generated in green ways. |
| C．They are eco-friendly in the long run. |
| D．Their production causes no pollution. |
| A．Lower carbon emission. | B．The advanced technology. |
| C．The low budget marketing. | D．The control of raw materials for batteries. |
| A．EVs: opportunity and challenge. | B．Chinese EVs: powering ahead. |
| C．Green cars: a long way to go. | D．Petrol vehicles: faded glory. |
8 . 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. |
| 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. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Objective. | C．Supportive. | D．Indifferent. |
| 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 |
The golden pheasant (红腹锦鸡) , known for its bright feathers,
Normally, golden pheasants act in small groups in dense forests
Golden pheasants mainly feed on grain, berries and seeds as well as other kinds of vegetation. They will also eat small
They are very timid birds and will hide in dark forests and woodlands, resting in very high trees at night. Despite their flying abilities, golden pheasants often look for food on the ground,
10 . Every tropical (热带的) forest looks different, particularly in the eyes of an ecologist, and Peter Ellis has been lucky enough to visit a fair few. One in particular holds a special place in his heart: the rain forests of Gabon. He first visited as a Peace Corps volunteer. “It completely changed the way I think about conservation and our relationship with nature,” he says.
These days, Ellis is the global director of natural climate solutions science at the US-based conservation organization — The Nature Conservancy, where he’s presently investigating the role that logging (cutting down trees) can play in tropical forests. Logging for forest conservation may sound contradictory, and it often is. But logging in a tropical forest looks different to the practices we might expect to see. “We might imagine it as a wasteland of stumps (树桩) after a clear cut,” says Ellis. Instead, only a few trees are actually removed. A sustainably logged forest is the one that remains a breathing, rich, tropical rain forest full of trees and wildlife, thus helping keep a large part of the biodiversity while ensuring that more damaging industries don’t take its place. It can also provide a means of basic livelihood for the local people.
The two years that Ellis spent in the Gabon rain forests opened his eyes to a different method of land management. “The locals took me out into the forest and taught me the names, usages and spiritual significance of all the trees and other plants in the forest,” he says. “Science is about exact, designed experiments, but it’s also about asking the right questions. And the people who live in those places and protect the ecosystem are more likely to help us learn what the right questions to ask are.”
Tropical forests are essential to our planet’s future as they support high levels of biodiversity and act as crucial carbon sinks (碳储存器). “We need to honour, and protect them so that they can do their job to help save us all” says Ellis.
1. What does Peter Ellis think of his first visit to the rain forests of Gabon?| A．It was poorly arranged. | B．It made little difference to his life. |
| C．It brought him far-reaching influence. | D．It was physically challenging for him. |
| A．Logging balances the rain forests. |
| B．Logging means a complete clear-out. |
| C．Logging brings huge profits to the locals. |
| D．Logging encourages the local damaging industries. |
| A．Conduct many experiments. | B．Consult experienced local people. |
| C．Get involved in designing procedures. | D．Spread more knowledge about wildlife. |
| A．To stress the importance of biodiversity. |
| B．To introduce Ellis’s ideas about the future. |
| C．To provide further information about Ellis. |
| D．To call on people to preserve tropical rain forests. |
