1 . UK summers are likely to regularly see temperatures above 40℃ even if humanity manages to limit global warming to 1.5℃, meteorologists (气象学家) have warned.
The UK is already seeing increasingly extreme weather, with 2022 the third warmest, fifth wettest and eighth sunniest year on record-the first to fall into the top 10 for all three variables. Data published in State of the UK Climate 2022 report revealed the average winter temperature for last year was 5.3℃, which is 1.6℃ higher than the 1981 to 2010 average.
That makes December 2021 to February 2022 the fifth warmest winter on record, while the average temperature last summer was 14.8℃, 0.4℃ above the 1981 to 2010 average.
Early August 2022 saw maximum temperatures hit 34℃ on six continuous days, with five “tropical nights” above 20℃, making it one of the most significant heatwaves to affect southern England in the past 60 years, the report’s authors said.
Comparing data from the Central England Temperature series, which goes back to 1772, the research found the early 21st century in this region has been 0.5℃ to 1℃ warmer than 1901 to 2000 and 0.5℃ to 1.5℃ warmer than 1801 to 1900.
Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, which publishes the report, said the world was already seeing extreme heat as a result of warming of 1.1℃ to 1.2℃ above pre-industrial levels.
“If you take that up by another 0.3℃, these (heatwaves) are just going to become much more intense—we’re likely to see 40℃ in the UK although we have never seen those kinds of temperatures (before),” she said.
“As we hit 1.5℃ of global warming, that’s going to not just become something that we see once or twice, it’ll start to become something that we see on a much more regular basis.” Mike Kendon, climate scientist at the Met Office and lead author of the report, said the figures indicated a new normal for the UK.
1. What does paragraph 2 intend to tell us?A.The weather was not as wet as before. | B.The rise in temperature in winter is mild. |
C.The weather has changed but not so serious. | D.Figures show signs of extreme weather. |
A.Extremely hot weather appeared in southern England. |
B.Early August 2022 had only a few days’ hot weather. |
C.Six continuous days’ extreme weather brought little harm. |
D.It became the wettest season in the past 60 years or so. |
A.Periodic. | B.Normal. | C.Changeable. | D.Rare. |
A.Extreme Weather Hit the UK | B.What Extreme Weather Looks Like |
C.Where the Future Weather Will Go | D.What We Can Do with Extreme Weather |
2 . In the past few weeks, Richard Eckersley has noticed a change in the type of people who come into his shop. In 2017, the former Manchester United footballer set up Earth. Food. Love in Tones, Devon, with his wife, Nicola. It’s the UK’s first “zero waste” store—the food is in big jars and boxes and people bring their own containers. “A lot of new people are coming in-people who have not necessarily been interested in environmental issues before”, he says.
Recently, the government called for supermarkets to introduce plastic-free passageways. But Eckersley says many customers are already way ahead of politicians. He and Nicola have helped people set up similar stores in Wales, Birmingham, and Bristol. Ingrid Caldironi had a similar idea. She set up a plastic-free shop in London last year, which has been so popular that it is soon moving to a bigger site.
Eckersley and Caldironi are members of an anti-plastics movement in the UK that has been growing as a result of the BBC’s Blue Planet series and a general worry about the damage plastic is doing to the environment. But big supermarkets have so far not tried very hard to reduce their plastic waste. Sian Sutherland, founder of the movement “A Plastic Planet”, says, “The most exciting thing is that politicians and industry are no longer saying that recycling will solve the problem. Banning the use of plastic packaging for food and drink products is the only answer.” Walking down the passageways of the supermarket where everything from pizza to fresh fruit and vegetables is covered in plastic. Sutherland says immediate action is needed.
Plastic pollution is causing widespread global damage. More than one million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute, and most end up in landfill or the sea. The contamination is so wide that tap water around the world also contains plastic.
1. What is special about Earth. Food. Love?A.It gives away boxes of food. | B.It is a store without plastic bags. |
C.It has few new customers. | D.It is the UK’s first supermarket. |
A.Its popularity. | B.Its products. | C.Its profits. | D.Its similarity. |
A.Pollution. | B.Acceptance. | C.Influence. | D.Application. |
A.The impact of BBC’s Blue Planet series on anti-plastics movements. |
B.Rising anti-plastics movement alongside increasing environmental concerns. |
C.A guide to setting up plastic-free stores to promote recycling in the whole UK. |
D.Richard Eckersley’s personal journey in waste reduction and pollution prevention. |
Autumn Equinox (秋分) lies at the midpoint of autumn,
By Autumn Equinox, most of the areas in China
In South China, there is a custom
On that day, people try to make eggs stand
Three sites in China˗˗an ancient tea-producing area, a nomadic livestock-rearing region and a rain-fed stone terrace farming system˗˗were formally recognised as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), for their unique ways of using traditional practices and knowledge while maintaining unique biodiversity and ecosystems.
An ancient tea-producing area (中国福建安溪铁观音茶文化系统)
Tea production in Anxi, Fujian, is believed to date from the 10th century, with its most famous tea, Tieguanyin, coming into
A Grassland nomadic system (中国内蒙古阿鲁科尔沁草原游牧系统)
The Ar Horqin grassland nomadic system in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region has a variety of ecosystems, such as forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers with important ecological
The Shexian Dryland Stone Terraced System (中国河北涉县旱作石堰梯田系统)
The Shexian Dryland Stone Terraced System in Hebei, is a rain-fed agricultural system dating back to the 13th century.
5 . Most of us have heard of the 3Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. It is the core principle of a sustainable (可持续的) life, but few of us can apply it in our own lives. Now, there’s a “lab” you can explore and discover a way toward living sustainably.
3R Lab is located in Xuhui district, Shanghai. It offers exhibitions, activities and goods that showcase the 3R principle. The key to a sustainable life, according to Vincent T. M. Fong, the 32-year-old from Hong Kong who created the lab, is to make it a long-term promise. “A sustainable life should be sustainable itself in the first place. You can’t lead a sustainable life on a whim. Small and comfortable changes are exactly what you need,” Fong said.
The lab regularly hosts ugly fruit markets, offering these strange fruits which are often thrown away by traditional markets and consumers at a quite attractive price. “They’re thrown away simply because of their appearance. Buying fruit regardless of how they look reduces food waste significantly in our daily life,” Fong commented.
A water tank with two types of straws is another equipment in the lab. “One type is made from normal plastics widely used in our daily life while the other is from PHA, a new replacement for plastics, and the water is sourced from the Suzhou River,” explained Ni Li, an employee of the lab. Visitors can see how the PHA straws degrade (降解) into a thin layer in just one month, while the others remain unchanged.
“Leading a sustainable life does not necessarily mean sacrifice,” said Fong. Consuming ugly fruit and using degradable plastics are small changes that are good for the environment and easy to stick to. Only in this way can the 3R principle become part of our lives, he added.
After working there for six months, Ni, who wasn’t mindful of the 3R principle before arriving at the lab, now uses her cup every time she buys a coffee. “The job has reshaped my life,” Ni said.
1. What does the-underlined phrase “on a whim” in the second paragraph probably mean?A.In a rush. | B.On a regular basis. |
C.Without any reason. | D.As a common practice. |
A.To reduce food waste. | B.To promote healthy eating. |
C.To sell new kinds of fruit. | D.To provide more affordable fruit, |
A.The water pollution caused by plastics. | B.The degradation of PHA straws. |
C.The interaction between two types of straws. | D.The disappearance of normal plastic straws. |
A.She avoids going to traditional markets. | B.She has devoted less time to her hobbies. |
C.She has got rid of a few bad habits. | D.She is leading a low carbon life now. |
Earthquakes are quite common. In fact, thousands of earthquakes are happening almost at every moment.
As one of the most deadly
Besides the great damage and deaths
7 . On September 7, 1991, the costliest hailstorm (雹暴) in Canadian history hit Calgary’s southern suburbs. As a result, since 1996 a group of insurance companies have spent about $2 million per year on the Alberta Hail Suppression Project. Airplanes seed threatening storm cells with a chemical to make small ice crystals fall as rain before they can grow into dangerous hailstones. But farmers in east-central Alberta — downwind of the hail project flights — worry that precious moisture (水分) is being stolen from their thirsty land by the cloud seeding.
Norman Stienwand, who farms in that area, has been addressing public meetings on this issue for years. “Basically, the provincial government is letting the insurance companies protect the Calgary-Edmonton urban area from hail,” Mr. Stienwand says, “but they’re increasing drought risk as far east as Saskatchewan.”
The Alberta hail project is managed by Terry Krauss, a cloud physicist who works for Weather Modification Inc. of Fargo, North Dakota. “We affect only a very small percentage of the total moisture in the air, so we cannot be causing drought.” Dr. Krauss says. “In fact, we may be helping increase the moisture downwind by creating wetter ground.”
One doubter about the safety of cloud seeding is Chuck Doswell, a research scientist who just retired from the University of Oklahoma. “In 1999, I personally saw significant tornadoes form from a seeded storm cell in Kansas,” Dr. Doswell says. “Does cloud seeding create killer storms or reduce moisture downwind? No one really knows, of course, but the seeding goes on.”
Given the degree of doubt, Mr. Stienwand suggests, “It would be wise to stop cloud seeding.” In practice, doubt has had the opposite effect. Due to the lack of scientific proof concerning their impacts, no one has succeeded in winning a lawsuit against cloud-seeding companies. Hence, private climate engineering can proceed in relative legal safety.
1. What does the project aim to do?A.Conserve moisture in the soil. | B.Forecast disastrous hailstorms. |
C.Prevent the formation of hailstones. | D.Investigate chemical use in farming. |
A.Managers of insurance companies. | B.Farmers in east-central Alberta. |
C.Provincial government officials. | D.Residents of Calgary and Edmonton. |
A.To compare different kinds of seeding methods. | B.To illustrate the development of big hailstorms. |
C.To show the link between storms and moisture. | D.To indicate a possible danger of cloud seeding. |
A.Scientific studies have proved Stienwand right. | B.Cloud-seeding companies will continue to exist. |
C.The doubt about cloud seeding has disappeared. | D.Private climate engineering is illegal in Canada. |
A.Rainy. | B.Sunny. | C.Cloudy. |
A.A food shop. | B.A terrible picnic. | C.Tomorrow’s weather. |
1.为什么需要关爱宠物;
2.如何关爱宠物。
注意:
1.写作词数应为80左右
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Care for Our Pets
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