1 . People hate mosquitoes due to their blood-sucking tendencies. Scientists, too, are troubled by mosquitoes and have been researching ways to keep them away.
A team of researchers from Virginia Tech in the US looked into different kinds of soap. They invited volunteers to test how four different soap flavors attract mosquitoes. After analyzing the mosquitoes behavior, the researchers discovered several chemicals in the soap that can influence the mosquitoes’ “choice of food”. Two chemicals, one with the smell of coconut and another with the scent of flowers, can keep the insects away.
The team also found that what matters to mosquitoes is not just the chemicals, but rather the combination of chemicals with each person’s smell. For example, people who attract mosquitoes can be more attractive to them after using one type of soap. They can also repel mosquitoes by using another kind of soap. The finding were “remarkable”, said senior author Clement Vinauger in a news release, adding that he would choose a coconut-scented soap to keep mosquitoes away.
How these insects manage to find humans has also made scientists curious. According to a new study published in Current Biology, researchers built a “canteen” for hundreds of mosquitoes. In the 20-by-20-meter facility, there were six pads that had the smell of different humans. The pads were heated to mimic sleeping humans.
They found that the insects can track scents up to 60 meters. Also, mosquitoes are most attracted to a kind of chemical called carboxylic (羧基的) acid, which is usually produced by bacteria on human skin. The smell of one participant wasn’t attractive to the insects, and researchers believed it was due to the person’s diet, which is mainly plant-based foods. By analyzing the chemicals that either attract or repel mosquitoes, scientists are able to improve mosquito repellent. With more studies, scientists believe changing a person’s diet could one day make them “mosquito-proof”. This is especially beneficial for regions where mosquitoes carry diseases, such as malaria, CNN reported.
1. Which of the following can explain the underlined word “repel”?| A．Rely on. | B．Give off. | C．Drive away. | D．Decide on. |
| A．The principle of drawing a conclusion. | B．The process of conducting the research. |
| C．The findings of the scientists involved. | D．The significance of this experiment. |
| A．Chemicals are what matter most to mosquitoes. |
| B．People dislike mosquitoes mainly because they carry disease. |
| C．A Plant-based diet can possibly protect people from being bitten by mosquitoes. |
| D．Mosquitoes are not sensitive to carboxylic acid that is produced by human skin. |
| A．Animals. | B．Medicine. | C．Entertainment. | D．Science. |
2 . 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. |
3 . When Alex Lin was 11 years old, he read an article about e-waste. The article said that people were dumping (倾倒) their e-waste in places it should never go. This was dangerous, the article said, because e-waste contains poisonous chemicals. These harmful substances can get into crops, animals, water supplies — and people.
“I was really worried,” Alex remembers. He showed the article to a few of his classmates. They were worried, too. “What if it’s happening here? We could be poisoning the environment and not even know it.”
“Maybe we can help,” Alex said. They made this their next project. First, they had to find out what the situation was in their town. So they sent out a survey. What they found amazed them: Of the people who answered the survey, only one in eight even knew what e-waste was, let alone how to properly dispose of (处理) it. One man had dug a huge hole in his backyard and dumped about 50 old Mac computers inside it.
Alex and his friends went into action. They advertised in the local newspaper, asking residents to bring their unwanted electronics to the school parking lot. The drive lasted two days, and they collected over 21,000 pounds of e-waste.
The next step was to set up a permanent e-waste drop-off center for the town and to find a company to recycle the waste. That was when Alex and his friends learned another scary fact about e-waste — some recycling companies don’t dispose of e-waste safely themselves. Instead, they ship it overseas to countries where local environmental laws are not enforced (施行) and kids their age work at picking apart and burning e-waste with no protection. After a while, these kids get very sick. “We checked carefully online to make sure the company we chose didn’t do this,” Alex says.
Because of the work of people like Alex and his team, more and more people are getting the message about safe disposal of e-waste.
1. What concerned Alex and his classmates?| A．Their town was polluted on purpose. |
| B．People were ignorant of e-waste in their town. |
| C．Many good electronic devices were thrown away. |
| D．There were many low-quality electronic devices. |
| A．Comforting. | B．Amusing. | C．Misleading. | D．Alarming. |
| A．To find a safe e-waste disposal method. | B．To learn more about the danger of e-waste. |
| C．To select a responsible recycling company. | D．To interpret international environmental laws. |
| A．We might make a difference if we care. | B．We can start small but should dream big. |
| C．We should respect the wisdom of crowds. | D．We should borrow nothing from tomorrow. |
1. What has the highest temperature been in Argentina?
| A．About 45 degrees Celsius. |
| B．About 42 degrees Celsius. |
| C．About 31 degrees Celsius. |
| A．By turning on an air conditioning for them. |
| B．By asking them to drink much water. |
| C．By taking them to do a water sport. |
| A．A weather expert. | B．A local leader. | C．A weatherman. |
| A．Cloudless. | B．Rainy. | C．Cloudy |
6 . 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 |
7 . Chaudhary quietly weaves together lengths of ropes, binding them with grass collected from the riverbank. She skillfully shapes the materials into a jewelry box. Meanwhile, she’s instructing a group of women to work out the materials. The ropes used were once the lifeline for climbers tackling Nepal’s mountains and were then discarded (扔掉). They are now finding new life, transformed by skilled hands into items to sell.
Acharya, working with the cleaning campaign, owns a waste processing business in Kathmandu, also an advocate for sustainable waste management. “Aluminum and other metal waste go through the recycling process, but we found no way to recycle ropes and gas cans,” she says. It struck her that the non-recyclable waste could be reused, but it wasn’t until she met Maya Rai that a solution emerged. Rai, leading Nepal Knotcraft Centre, helped connect Acharya with Chaudhary’s team of craftswomen in hopes of turning the mountain waste into economic opportunity. “While this seems insignificant compared to waste in the mountains, it’s a start. We aim to connect local expertise, mountain waste and local economy,” says Acharya, proudly displaying a mat made from ropes left on Mt. Qomolangma by climbers. Her goal is to ensure that no waste collected from mountains ends up in a landfill again.
Finished crafts are sold at outlets and exhibitions. The craftswomen are paid according to how many items they make and sell. With flexible hours, the project gives women an opportunity to earn money even as they maintain household responsibilities.
Eventually, Acharya hopes to expand the program to involve more women and process more waste. But progress has been slow. “We still have not found a sustainable business plan to make crafts in large quantities, ”she says. Now, she is searching for cooperators to make a model that serves not only the mountain but the communities. “After all, we are trying to craft a sustainable future.”
Each rope turned into a decorative item is a way to help local women earn a living and keep mountains clean.
1. What is the author’s purpose in mentioning Chaudhary in paragraph 1?| A．To lead in the topic with her example. |
| B．To spread her environmental consciousness. |
| C．To show her patient instructions to the women. |
| D．To speak highly of her outstanding weaving skills. |
| A．A business involving waste processing. |
| B．A team transforming waste into treasure. |
| C．A campaign advocating sustainable management. |
| D．A solution connecting expertise, waste and economy. |
| A．Selling crafts at outlets can earn more money. |
| B．Removing mountain waste generates a sense of pride. |
| C．Cooperating with local experts helps promote skills. |
| D．Work-life balance can be achieved due to flexible hours. |
| A．Hesitant. | B．Positive. | C．Suspicious. | D．Disapproving. |
1. What did the man do just now?
| A．He took some photos. | B．He did some reading. | C．He shared an article online. |
| A．Seafood will be polluted. |
| B．Ships won’t sail properly. |
| C．The beauty of the ocean will be damaged. |
| A．A reusable bag. | B．A metal straw. | C．A glass bottle. |
| A．Stop buying bottled water. |
| B．Organize beach cleanup events. |
| C．Participate in club activities every month. |
| A．Snowy. | B．Sunny. | C．Rainy. |
10 . In the hands of a skilled stylist, your hair can help you boost your self-confidence, express your unique personality, and maybe even attract a romantic partner. In the hands of Matter of Trust, however, your hair might be able to do something even more meaningful: help save the environment.
For more than 20 years, Matter of Trust has been collecting hair and fur from hair salons, and farmers around the world for the purpose of making “hair mats” that can assist with oil spill cleanups.
Typically, oil spills on land are cleaned up using polypropylene (聚丙烯) mats that are effective but might cause environmental problems. After all, polypropylene is a non-biodegradable (不可生物降解的) plastic that’s made from fossil fuels; using it to clean up oil therefore requires drilling for even more oil. Hair and fur, on the other hand, are of no poison, biodegradable, sustainable, and can absorb more oil.
To date, Matter of Trust has produced more than 40,000 hair mats and more than 300,000 booms, reports CNN. Matter of Trust’s products have been used to clean up not only oil spills, but also non-emergencies like oil leaks from vehicles and machines. In both cases, oil can flow into soil and water, which can harm people, plants, and wildlife, according to Matter of Trust.
Although it’s an elegant solution, it isn’t perfect. Hair mats can only be used once, for instance, and can only be dealt with through incineration (焚化) or composting (堆肥). And in the case of composting, the resulting compost isn’t suitable for growing food.
Still, hair mats are a surprisingly effective tool in the fight for a cleaner planet. And because Matter of Trust hasn’t patented its designs, all that’s needed to produce them are hair cuttings—of which there are plenty, according to Gautier, who says there are about 900,000 qualified hair salons in the U.S. alone, each of which can easily cut at least a pound of hair per week.
“Anyone can make a hair mat,” she told CNN. “It creates green jobs, it cleans water, it reduces waste, and it’s promoting sustainable resources.”
1. Which of the following is NOT the function of your hair based on this text?| A．It can help you keep healthy. | B．It can promote your social contact. |
| C．It represents your personal image. | D．It can help protecting environment. |
| A．Polypropylene mats are poisonous. |
| B．Hair mats are cheaper than polypropylene mats. |
| C．Hair mats are sustainable and environmentally friendly. |
| D．The raw materials for polypropylene mats are hard to find. |
| A．It’s impractical. | B．It’s of short-term effects. |
| C．It’s worthy to be applied. | D．It increases global employment. |
| A．Gautier will apply for a patent for Matter of Trust. |
| B．More and more hair salons will be opened in America. |
| C．Everyone will take action to make hair mats to clean the earth. |
| D．Hair mats have good prospects for development. |
