1 . Disastrous floods in eastern Libya killed at least 5,100 people, according to local authorities. The disaster comes after a series of deadly floods around the world this month, from China to Brazil to Greece. In every case, extremely heavy rain was to blame.

The enormous loss of life on many continents strengthens the extreme danger caused by climate-driven rainstorms, and the need for better warning systems and basic facilities to protect the most vulnerable (脆弱的) populations.

Climate change makes heavy rain more common, even in dry places where the total amount of rainfall is small. That’s because a hotter atmosphere can hold more moisture. Everyday rainstorm, as well as bigger storms such as hurricanes, are increasingly dangerous as a result. In Libya, a storm called Daniel swept in from the Mediterranean over the weekend and resulted in a jaw-dropping 16 inches of rain in just 24 hour, according to the World Meteorological Organization. That is far too much water for the ground to absorb, especially in a dry climate where the soil is dry and is less able to suck up water quickly.

The massive amount of rain caused widespread flash flooding, and damaged at least one dam near the coastal city of Derna. That released torrents of water powerful enough to sweep away entire neighborhoods. In Brazil, flooding from a hurricane last week killed more than 20 people and left a large piece of southern Brazil underwater. Cities around the world are hurrying to improve their basic facilities to handle increasingly common heavy rain.

The disasters in the last two weeks also stress the vulnerability to climate change of people who are not wealthy or who live in places that are at war. While extreme rain has caused floods around the world recently, the number of the death is significantly higher in places where there isn’t money or political will to maintain basic facilities and enough weather warning systems.

1. What led to the floods in Libya?

A．Extreme rainfall.	B．Wet climate.
C．Severe hurricane.	D．Broken facilities.

2. What does the underlined phrase “suck up” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Separate.

B．Supply.

C．Store.

D．Absorb.

3. How do the floods affect people?

A．They lead to people’s union.	B．They cost people their lives.
C．They inspire people to struggle.	D．They make people become strong.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Floods linked to climate change.	B．Floods in Libya and their causes.
C．The needs of disaster preparedness.	D．Climate change impact on poor areas.

2 . During the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, there was a lot of talk about the environmental efforts taken. Athletes slept on beds made from recycled cardboard. The medals were produced out of old appliances such as smartphones and laptops. Over 90% of Japanese cities, towns and villages participated in the two-year effort to collect recycled materials to produce 5000 medals. Eighty tons of small electrical devices were collected to make this project successful.

With the 2024 Olympics Games underway in Paris, new environmental efforts are coming into play. Observers will sit on chairs made of plastic recycled from local bins. This decision was made due to a lack of unused raw materials to make new seats, so the eco-construction firm Le Pave turned to make the seats out of waste. Around 11,000 seats will be made from recycled materials.

The plastic collection for Paris 2024 has been carried out in the region’s schools, and over five million coloured bottle caps have been recovered. Moreover, 80% of the 100 tons of recycled plastic needed to make the seats come from the yellow bins collections. This is all part of the Paris 2024 “zero waste” strategy to limit single-use plastic usage and encourage a circular economy.

The Olympic Games organizers are planning to make the Paris 2024 Games the greenest Olympic Games yet. They intend to employ a carbon-neutral approach that will lessen the climate impact of the Games by predicting, avoiding, reducing and balancing emissions and encouraging others to get involved. The Summer Games have emitted 3.6 million tons of carbon emissions in previous years. The Paris 2024 Games has set a carbon budget of 1.5 million tons which includes the emissions from construction, transportation and operations of the Games.

These plans are ambitious but are achievable. If Paris 2024 successfully reduces emissions and promotes a circular economy, it might set the standard for future Olympic and Paralympic Games, regardless of where they are held.

1. What were the 2020 Olympics medals made from?

A．Raw metal.	B．Recycled cardboard.
C．Reused plastic.	D．Used electronic devices.

2. What is the purpose of the Paris 2024 “zero waste” strategy?

A．To stop carbon emissions.	B．To make seats for athletes.
C．To collect coloured bottle caps.	D．To restrict single-use plastic usage.

3. What do the underlined words “carbon neutral approach” in paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Limitation to single-use plastics.	B．Reduction of carbon emissions.
C．Promotion of recycling in school.	D．Encouragement of a circular economy.

4. What is the author’s attitude to the plans for the Paris 2024 Games?

A．Favorable.

B．Intolerant.

C．Doubtful.

D．Unclear.

4 . After being driven to near extinction, wolves are back in Washington state.

Wolf 32M, called The Old Guy by wolf specialist Ben Maletzke, lived some 12 years as the patriarch (族长) of the Teanaway Pack, kicking off the recovery of wolves in Washington. The pack’s territory was roasted by wildfire in 2014. But wolf 32M and his family remained in existence, bringing the call of the wild back for the first time in a century. These wolves are what Maletzke calls stepping stones in recovery — the animals that could help lead the way to new territory not yet repopulated by wolves.

Wolves spread to new territory to find mates and begin packs of their own. It is this pack dynamic that wildlife biologists are counting on, in time, to urge wolves into areas where they do not presently live. “We just need a couple to pick up and go,” Maletzke says.

All along, the Teanaway pack has stayed mostly out of trouble probably, helped by a lot of range riding (牧区巡逻) intended to help reduce conflicts over wolf recovery by keeping wolves away from cattle. “He is an example of wolves living and doing what they do, even around people,” Maletzke says of wolf 32M.

Story Warren, a student at the University of Montana, was just a girl when she first saw 32M’s tracks in the Teanaway River Valley — an exciting encounter that helped generate a serious interest in wildlife that now fuels her studies. To her, the return of the wolf is about more than the species; it is about recovering something even bigger: hope.

“Growing up in my generation, there is so much bad ecological news, a lot of hopelessness about climate change and loss of biodiversity and extinctions,” Warren says, “To have something as wild as wolves coming back to Washington is very encouraging for me — just to know such an amazing and powerful creature exists.”

1. Why does Maletzke call Wolf 32M family “stepping stones”?

A．They are nearly dying out.	B．They are victims of wildfire.
C．They are worth protection.	D．They are pioneers in wolf recovery.

2. What function does paragraph 3 serve?

A．To present a result.	B．To clarify a concept.
C．To offer an explanation.	D．To make a prediction

3. What can be learned from the example of the Teanaway pack?

A．Wolves face a lot of trouble.

B．Wolf recovery counts on its population.

C．Certain measures to ensure cattle safety are required.

D．Wolves should be forbidden from human residence.

4. What does Warren think of the coming back of wolves?

A．It fuels more studies on wildlife.	B．It clears up bad ecological news.
C．It worsens climate change.	D．It excites hope for the ecosystem.

6 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。续写的词数应为150左右。

On the plains of northwest Oklahoma, you can see for miles: nothing but grass, masses of evergreen trees and steep red-rock canyons(峡谷). But with my telescope, I could see the helicopters, one after another clearly, dumping water on a wildfire in the far distance. I wasn’t concerned by the small cloud of smoke snaking skyward. It had to be at least 50 miles away, even across the South Canadian River.

That afternoon, my uncle Larry, my cousin Tony and I had driven to this 4, 000-acre farm for a three-day hunt. I took a few pictures of bushy trees and grand canyons. Then I sent some of them with my cellphone to my wife, Ande, who was 60 miles away. “There’s nothing to worry about. Just have a nice day.” I typed. She had seen the fire on the news and called a few minutes earlier to warn me. Anyway, I didn’t want her to be worried.

The wind had picked up, blowing hard from the southwest. We climbed into the vehicle, with Larry driving, to look for places to hunt the turkeys the next day. We headed north along a small road and stopped here and there to look for signs of turkeys.

We drove for about a mile before Larry turned to head back south, toward the farmhouse. As we did, my eyes went wide. A wall of flames was racing toward us, maybe three quarters of a mile away. “Get us out of here!” I screamed. Larry speeded up the vehicle, bouncing hard along the small road. How had the fire jumped over the river? The flames would be on us in no time. With a fence blocking the way, we jumped out of the vehicle. Then I made a phone call to Ande. “We’re surrounded by fire,” I shouted over the howling wind. “Call 911! We need a helicopter to get us out of here.” The connection went dead.

Paragraph 1:

I looked around, but I couldn’t see Larry and Tony.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:

When I woke up, I found myself in a helicopter.

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7 . 阅读下面材料, 在空白处填入1个适当的单词或所给单词的正确形式。将答案填写在答题卡的相应位置。

World Soil Day     1     (hold) every year on 5 December as a means to focus attention on the importance of soil health and to advocate for the sustainable management of soil resources. The UN General Assembly declared     2     first World Soil Day in 2014.

As we all know, the     3     (result) of climate change are increasingly unpredictable. Knowing the land, therefore, becomes essential in order to prevent damage     4     can do harm to soil health.

World Soil Day 2022 and its campaign, “Soils: Where food begins”, aims     5     (raise) awareness of the importance of maintaining ecosystems and human well-being by     6     (address) the growing challenges in soil management, increasing soil awareness and encouraging societies to improve soil health.

Soil nutrient loss is a major soil degradation (退化) process threatening nutrition.     7     is recognized as being among the most critical problems at a global level for food security and sustainability all around the globe. Agricultural production will have to increase by 60% to meet the global food demand in 2050     8     up to 58% more food could be produced through sustainable soil management.

Our lives depend     9     soils-the mix of mineral and organic matter combined with air, water, and microbes. Without     10     (health) soils, every living creature on Earth is at risk.

8 . As temperatures soar, electric bills often go through the roof. That’s because people tend to turn on their air conditioners during the long, hot summer months.

It’s been predicted that by 2050 about 75 percent of the world’s homes could have air conditioners. If that’s true, the energy required to cool buildings will double. For that reason, researchers continue to look for solutions to keep air-conditioner usage to a minimum. Some innovations are being used already or are in the process of being developed. Certain building materials can feel cooler because of their ability to absorb heat and release it slowly. Other buildings use water cooling systems to cool them. However, these aren’t the only methods. Science has a few more tricks up its sleeve.

Researchers at Purdue University have developed the world’s whitest paint. This paint can keep a building’s exterior surface cooler than the surrounding temperature. On hot days, walls absorb heat and often become 10 to 20 degrees Celsius hotter than the air around them. But walls painted with Purdue’s white paint reflect 98.1 percent of the heat and send it back into space. This creates a cooling effect.

Purdue professor Xiulin Ruan believes that the super-white paint could have a more powerful cooling effect than many home air conditioners. Researchers hope to have the paint on the market in five to 10 years.

Yi Zheng of Northeastern University has created a “cooling paper”. This material reflects the sun’s rays while pulling heat out of a building’s interior, and the paper can be recycled. He and his team discovered that the paper helps bring down a room’s temperature by about 6 degrees Celsius. Zheng hopes that the cooling paper will someday be used on roofs and within building materials.

Now and in the future, perhaps some of these energy-efficient methods will make it easier to beat the heat.

1. Why does the author mention the air conditioners at the beginning of the passage?

A．To describe a fact.	B．To support an idea.
C．To provide examples.	D．To introduce the topic.

2. What do we know about Purdue’s white paint?

A．It has been on the market.

B．It is the world’s coolest paint.

C．Walls painted with it reflect most of the heat.

D．It can keep the whole building’s surface cooler.

3. What can we infer according to Yi Zheng?

A．The surface of a buildings is better covered with paper.

B．Buildings will be built mostly with cooling paper someday.

C．The cooling paper will be practical and eco-friendly building materials.

D．The cooling paper can bring down a room’s temperature more than air conditioners.

4. Which of the following would be the best title?

A．Purdue’s White Paint: A New Material to Cool Buildings

B．Cool Buildings: Innovative Ways to Keep Buildings Cool

C．Cool Building Materials: Solutions to Fight against Climate Change

D．Future Air Conditioners: New Energy-efficient Methods to Beat the Heat

9 . A drought is a period of time when an area or region experiences below-normal rainfall. The lack of enough rainfall, either rain or snow, can cause reduced soil wetness or groundwater, diminished steam low (减少的水流), crop loss, and a general water shortage. Droughts are the second-most costly weather events after hurricanes.

The early effects of a drought maybe difficult to identify right away, so it may take weeks or months to determine that a drought has started. The end of a drought is hard to identify for the same reason. A drought may last for weeks, months, or even years. Sometimes, drought conditions can exist for ten years or more in a region. The longer a drought lasts, the greater the harmful effects it has on people.

Droughts affect people in several ways. Clean drinking water is significant for all life, and sources of water may narrow during a drought. Without the presence of water, people must bring in enough water from elsewhere to survive. Water is also needed for crops to grow. When not enough rainfalls to naturally water crops, they must be watered by irrigation (灌溉). Irrigation is possible only when there is enough water in nearby rivers, lakes, or streams, or from groundwater. During a drought, these water sources are diminished and may even dry up, preventing crops from being irrigated and causing them to die off.

One person studying these problems is Alexandra Cousteau, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer whose latest plan is Blue Legacy. She started Blue Legacy to raise awareness that we live on a water planet and must take care of it. Cousteau, the granddaughter of the well-known ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, believes that water will be a key issue in this century. She predicts that water problems such as drought, storms, floods, and degraded water quality will create “water refugees”, people moving in search of water. Cousteau stresses that we must do all we can to protect Earth’s valuable freshwater resources.

1. What is the function of the first paragraph?

A．To introduce what a drought is.	B．To compare droughts with hurricanes.
C．To explain why a drought occurs.	D．To raise awareness of some disasters.

2. Among all disasters, what is special about droughts?

A．They cause the greatest harms.	B．They are hard to spot in no time.
C．They usually end for no reason.	D．They influence people’s living.

3. What does the third paragraph mainly tell us?

A．Crops cannot grow without water.

B．Irrigation is impossible during a drought.

C．There are many ways to prevent droughts.

D．Droughts influence living and agriculture.

4. Why is “water refugees” mentioned in the last paragraph?

A．To popularize Blue Legacy.

B．To tell we live on a water planet.

C．To persuade people to look for water.

D．To stress the importance of water resource.