Rising sea levels are threatening coastlines in China, for example in
The good news is
The development of electric vehicles is particularly
Ecological civilization has become the cornerstone (基石) of China’s long-term development strategy, much like climate action is
2 . He’s as big as a small golden dog and covered with scales (鳞片). He is the pangolin (穿山甲), an endangered animal.
According to the wildlife trade monitoring organization Traffic, about one million pangolins were killed from 2000 through 2013, mainly for their scales, which are used in medicine. Pangolins are sensitive creatures and picky eaters that only eat certain species of ants, a diet that’s very difficult to copy in the food chain.
“In the last decade, there’s been a huge growth trade in pangolins between continents, especially their scales,” says Dan Challender, chair of the pangolin specialist group. Previously, most pangolin killing happened within Asia, he says. This shift means that Asian pangolins are becoming difficult to find but that the value of the scales makes it worth the extra cost to take pangolins from Africa to Asia secretly.
All eight species of pangolins, four in Africa and four in Asia, are in danger of extinction due to the illegal trade. International trade in the four species of Asian pangolins has been banned since 2000. In the past few years, a ban on international commercial trade in all eight species has gone into effect. It was voted by 183 governments that are parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which is in charge of cross-border trade in wild animals and their parts.
Pangolins are eaten as bushmeat in western and central Africa and by some local groups in South and Southeast Asia. Their parts also are used in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa as traditional medicine. Typically dried, ground into powder, and put into pills, pangolin scales are used in a range of traditional medicines to help mothers who have given birth to babies to recover. But they are now endangered. Perhaps no pangolins can be seen when our next generation grow up.
1. What do you know about pangolins from Paragraph 2?| A．Their meat is very delicious. |
| B．Their scales are of great value. |
| C．They are smaller than young dogs. |
| D．They are on the top of the food chain. |
| A．Pangolins are cheaper in Africa. |
| B．No laws protect pangolins in Africa. |
| C．People in Asia can really save pangolins. |
| D．Pangolins have sharply decreased in numbers in Asia. |
| A．Pangolins have many different species. |
| B．The bans on pangolin trade are ineffective. |
| C．People used to take advantage of pangolins in different ways. |
| D．Governments have tried to contribute to the protection of pangolins. |
| A．Positive. | B．Uncaring. | C．Concerned. | D．Confident. |
Humans have always looked up at the stars and wanted to learn more about space.
In the mid-20th century, rockets that were
4 . Humans are not the only ones adapting to (适应) the effects of global climate change. Animals are also adapting to the environmental changes—some warm-blooded animals are beginning to “shapeshift (变身)” in response to shifts in climate, according to a recent study carried out by a team of researchers. The leader of the team is Sara Ryding, a researcher at Deakin University in Australia.
In the study, researchers have found new evidence that supports the theory that some warm-blooded animals are experiencing changes to their bodies due to the rising temperatures, resulting in larger legs, ears and beaks (喙) in some cases. The researchers have noted that warm-blooded animals living in colder climates have smaller legs, ears and beaks than animals of the same species living in warmer climates.
“When climate change is discussed in mainstream media, people are asking ‘Can humans overcome this?’ or ‘What technology can solve this?’” Ryding says.
She says that just like humans, animals also have to adapt to climate change, as shapeshifting for some of the warm-blooded animals is occurring over a far shorter time period.
“The climate change that we have created is putting much pressure on them, and while some species will adapt, others will not,” Ryding says.
Researchers have found body change in birds in Australia and North America. Certain species of Australian parrots have shown about 4%~10% increase in the size of their beaks since 1871, the reason for which is rising temperatures. In North America, the dark-eyed junco (灯芯草雀) also has seen an increase in beak size.
“Larger beaks help birds dissipate (驱散) extra body heat more effectively, which is useful as global temperatures rise. However, shapeshifting does not mean that animals are able to deal with climate change easily and that all is ‘fine’,” Ryding says. “It just means that they are struggling to adjust themselves to surviving it.”
1. What happens to some warm-blooded animals in warmer climates?| A．Some parts of their bodies are missing. |
| B．Their bodies become colder and colder. |
| C．Their bodies change into smaller ones. |
| D．Some of their body parts become larger. |
| A．To warn about the decrease of animal species. |
| B．To speak highly of animals’ ability to survive. |
| C．To explain why animals change the body shape. |
| D．To show the evidence of animals’ shapeshifting. |
| A．Climate change does little harm to bird species. |
| B．Climate change is still a big challenge for birds. |
| C．Birds can easily deal with global climate change. |
| D．Birds fail to adjust themselves to climate change. |
| A．All Animals Have to Adapt to Global Climate Change |
| B．Rising Temperatures Are Destroying Animals’ Bodies |
| C．Climate Change Is Making Some Animals Shapeshift |
| D．Warm-blooded Animals Inform Us of Global Warming |
5 . On the Yucatan Peninsula, people are working to protect and expand mangrove forests. The low trees grow in watery areas near ocean coasts. Years ago, mangroves were all along the Yucatan shores. Today, there are few.
A team of villagers from the area is trying to renew the forests. Scientists and donations support the effort. The Mexican government helps pay training costs for the team. The villagers joined the renewal effort more than 10 years ago with scientist Jorge Alfredo Herrera. He told them how to dig canals (运河). The dig was going to be hard work and the pay was only four dollars a day. Recently, the workers finished the second part of the process: planting young mangroves near the city.
This mangrove renewal effort is similar to others around the world. Scientists and community groups are increasingly recognizing the need to protect and bring back the forests. Mangroves are a very important ecosystem to fight climate change. While these trees only grow on less than 1 percent of the Earth’s land, they can bury around five times more carbon in the sediment (沉积物) than a rainforest.
Yet, around the world, mangroves are being destroyed. From 1980 to 2005, as much as 35 percent of the world’s mangroves disappeared.
In Mexico, as in much of the world, development is the main threat to mangrove existence. The area of Cancun lost most of its mangroves to roads and hotels starting in the 1980s. Mangroves on the country’s southern Pacific Ocean coast also have been cleared to make room for fish farms. Oil industry operations in waters off the Gulf of Mexico threaten mangroves there too.
There have been restoration efforts around the world to protect mangroves. In Mexico, the successes have arrived slowly. Manuel Conzalez is a 57-year-old fisherman. He helped regrow many mangroves. González says storms do not cause much damage and the fish and wildlife have returned.
But the mangroves face a new threat. “In 10 years, you have a very nice mangrove for someone with a chainsaw (电锅) to come and take it,” Gonzalez said. “That’s something that hurts me a lot.”
1. What can be known about the renewal effort?| A．It was started by the government. | B．All parts of it have been finished. |
| C．It is guided by some villager. | D．It is hard work for little pay. |
| A．They can stop climate change completely. | B．They can act as a defence against storms. |
| C．They are efficient in storing carbon. | D．They can bring great financial benefits to the locals. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By presenting numbers. |
| C．By explaining concepts. | D．By drawing conclusions. |
| A．Not enough fish and wildlife have returned. |
| B．Powerful storms may do harm to many mangroves |
| C．The successes of regrowing mangroves arrive too slowly. |
| D．Mangrove forests may be destroyed by humans in the future. |
Detian Waterfall crosses from China to Vietnam, and joins the Ban Gioc Waterfall on the Vietnamese side. Shared by both China and Vietnam, it
This three-tier (层) waterfall is surrounded by picturesque karst peaks, sometimes a dream-like mist, and so on adding
The
During the visit, you can ride a bamboo raft
7 . Burning coal for energy adds planet-warming carbon dioxide(CO2) to Earth's atmosphere. As the planet heats up, experts warn that simply cutting greenhouse gas emissions（排放） will not be enough to avoid global warming. CO2 must also be remcved from the atmosphere.
Existing experimental machines that pull CO2 directly from the air are too expensive to be widely used. But a new effective technology to remove CO2 already exists. It is not expensive and easy. It is forests. Planting trees and watching forests are effective ways to clean the air.
Forests used to cover large areas of the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. In the state of West Virginia, coal mining left the land there bare, without trees. Over the years, coal mining and cutting forests took over 90 percent of the red spruce（云杉） forests.
Chris Barton works for the University of Kentucky. He started a group called Green Forests Work, aiming to put trees back on the roughly 400 , 000 hectares of land.
However, Barton explains the land has problems. "If you planted trees on these places, they just didn't grow. The ground was too hard. Water didn't infiltrate（渗透）. The trees can't root. Oxygen can't circulate in those environments. "Using heavy equipment, workers tear the ground. In this way, the trees put down roots.
Barton says not everyone believes the solution is a good idea. "We've had a lot of doubtful look at us twice from people. But after we do it, there's no question that it was the right thing to do. "And it has worked. Forests are coming back to the grounds.
Scientists say that, in West Virginia alone, restoring red spruce forests to the area could send what is equal to 56 million barrels（桶）of oil into the ground. But it will take time—a long time. Around the world, experts say, nature offers powerful tools to fight climate change. But patience is needed. Nature works, but slowly, in its own time.
1. What is the economical and effective way to remove CO2 from the air?| A．Inventing new and powerful machines. | B．Cutting greenhouse gas emissions. | C．Making use of natural gases instead of coal. | D．Planting trees and protecting forests. |
| A．Cry. | B．Repair. | C．Destroy. | D．Cover. |
| A．oxygen is not enough for trees to grow there |
| B．too many rocks had made it hard to plant trees |
| C．coal mining has spoiled the land through years |
| D．there is no water for trees to grow there |
| A．a painful process | B．a slow process | C．a creative process | D．a learning process |
The world's oldest known wild bird is a 70-year-old albatross (信天翁)
The Midway Atoll (环礁)
In 1956, when Wisdom was about five, she was banded by a scientist, Chandler Robbins. In 2002, when Mr. Robbins returned to Midway, he was
Albatrosses normally have just one partner. But Wisdom has lived so long
Wisdom laid her most recent egg in late November of last year. Since then, she and Akeakamai had taken
Now Wisdom and Akeakamai are keeping busy,
9 . Humans take first place when it comes to making long-term changes to the earth, but we aren’t the only species to make a mark with infrastructure(基础设施）．A new look at an 1868 map has shown that beaver dams (河狸坝）in Michigan have been holding strong for at least 150 years.
The map is the work of Lewis Henry Morgan, who first traveled to Michigan in the late 1850s for his railroad work and started studying the beavers in what is now the city of Ishpeming. The resulting book, 1868’s The American Beaver and His Works, had a map that included 64 beaver dams and their ponds (池塘）．It was Carol Johnston of South Dakota State University who realized the value in Morgan’s map to modern ecologists (生态学家）. She created an updated version using air photos and compared the two, discovering that about 72 percent of the dams and ponds still exist.
While not all of the dams are still in active use, the findings show the unusual engineering abilities of the North American beaver. The fact that so many structures are still standing after all this time is truly impressive; they are even older than many of humankind’s most beloved structures, including the Eiffel Tower. “The findings prove that beaver works have been changing the North American landscape for centuries,” Johnston says.
For more, check out Morgan’s work in full on the Internet Archive, which includes lovely passages like this one, “As the dam is not a necessity to the beaver, his normal living place being rather natural ponds and rivers, and holes in their banks, it is an amazing fact that he should have voluntarily worked himself, by means of dams and ponds of his own construction, from a natural to an artificial way of life.”
On that note, don’t forget that International Beaver Day is April 7. These guys deserve some serious praise.
1. Which word best describes the beaver dams according to the text?| A．Huge. | B．Common. |
| C．Simple. | D．Strong. |
| A．Helping scientists study environmental changes. |
| B．Helping railroad builders avoid dangerous areas. |
| C．Helping Johnston remap Michigan’s rivers. |
| D．Helping researchers study how ponds are formed. |
| A．Beavers are dying out. | B．Beavers are born engineers. |
| C．Beavers are teamwork animals. | D．Beavers are important to humans. |
| A．Morgan’s joy of figuring out the dams’ function. |
| B．Morgan’s wish to start International Beaver Day. |
| C．Morgan’s pride in finding beavers’ natural habitat. |
| D．Morgan’s surprise at beavers’ willingness to build dams. |
10 . Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one. That seems to be the case when it comes to the issue of wind turbines (涡轮机）killing birds.
According to a study conducted at a wind farm on the Norwegian archipelago of Smøla, changing the color of a single blade(叶片）on a turbine from white to black resulted in a 70-percent drop in the number of bird deaths.
In the past few years there has been a huge increase in global wind power, with more than 60 GW of new generating capacity(发电量）added worldwide in 2019. If the turbines are placed correctly, wind power is cheaper, cleaner and more sustainable(可持续的). Not to mention that a turbine farm is easier on the eye than a huge power plant.
But these farms aren’t good for everybody - especially not for local bat and bird populations. The US Fish and Wildlife Service calculated that nearly 300,000 birds were killed by wind turbines in 2015, which is a lot fewer than those that die as a result of hitting electrical power lines each year. Yet it still remains an environmental issue, even as bird deaths from turbines seem to be going down as the industry moves to larger turbine blades that move more slowly.
Studies have suggested that birds may not be skillful at noticing obstructions to their flight path, and adding different colored fan blades can increase birds’ chances of spotting a rapidly turning fan.
At the Smøla wind farm, regular checks of four particular wind turbines found the four turbines killed 18 birds that flew into the blades over six years. In 2013, on each of the turbines in the test group, a single blade was painted black. Over the next three years, only six birds were found dead due to hitting the wind turbines.
Researchers said the results are a step in the right direction toward better, more sustainable treatment of our flying friends.
1. Why have wind turbines killed birds?| A．Their blades are too large. | B．They are too high in the sky. |
| C．They are too close to each other. | D．Their colors are unnoticeable. |
| A．What future wind turbines will look like. |
| B．Why wind power is more and more popular. |
| C．How much wind power has been produced. |
| D．Which way of generating electricity is cheaper. |
| A．Ways. | B．Sights. |
| C．Guides. | D．Blocks. |
| A．Man is learning to protect nature. |
| B．Birds like colorful things. |
| C．Birds are good at choosing flight routes. |
| D．Human activities lead to environmental problems. |
