Fun Facts about Pigeons
Pigeons are the most misunderstood of all creatures. Upon seeing a flock of pigeons, many people want
First, pigeons are highly skilled navigators (领航员). A pigeon can find its way back to its nest after
Another interesting yet not so admirable quality of pigeons is that they appear to be master procrastinators (拖延者). Scientific studies have shown that pigeons often delay the completion of a dull or troublesome task when an immediately
Next, we come to the unpleasant topic of pigeon droppings. Urban dwellers are used to seeing streets
Finally, it cannot be denied
So,
2 . International governments’ inaction concerning sustainable development is clearly worrying but the proctive（主动出击的）approaches of some leading-edge companies are encouraging. Toyota, Wal-Mart, DuPont, M&S and General Electric have made tackling environmental wastes a key economic driver.
DuPont committed itself to a 65% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the 10 years prior to 2010. By 2007, DuPont was saving $2.2 billion a year through energy efficiency, the same as its total declared profits that year. General Electric aims to reduce the energy intensity of its operations by 50% by 2015. They have invested heavily in projects designed to change the way of using and conserving energy.
Companies like Toyota and Wal-Mart are not committing to environmental goals out of the goodness of their hearts. The reason for their actions is a simple yet powerful realization that the environmental and economic footprints fit well together. When M&S launched its “Plan A” sustainability programme in 2007, it was believed that it would cost over £200 million in the first five years. However, the initiative had generated £105 million by 2011/12.
When we prevent physical waste, increase energy efficiency or improve resource productivity, we save money, improve profitability and enhance competitiveness. In fact, there are often huge “quick win” opportunities, thanks to years of neglect.
However, there is a considerable gap between leading-edge companies and the rest of the pack. There are far too many companies still delaying creating a lean and green business system, arguing that it will cost money or require sizable capital investments. They remain stuck in the “environment is cost” mentality. Being environmentally friendly does not have to cost money. In fact, going beyond compliance saves cost at the same time that it generates cash, provided that management adopts the new lean and green model.
Lean means doing more with less. Nonetheless, in most companies, economic and environmental continuous improvement is viewed as being in conflict with each other. This is one of the biggest opportunities missed across most industries. The size of the opportunity is enormous. The 3% Report recently published by World Wildlife Fund and CDP shows that the economic prize for curbing carbon emissions in the US economy is $780 billion between now and 2020. It suggests that one of the biggest levers for delivering this opportunity is “increased efficiency through management and behavioural change”-in other words, lean and green management.
Some 50 studies show that companies that commit to such aspirational goals as zero waste, zero harmful emissions, and zero use of non-renewable resources are financially outperforming their competitors. Conversely, it was found that climate disruption is already costing $1.2 trillion annually, cutting global GDP by 1.6%. Unaddressed, this will double by 2030.
1. What does the author say about some leading-edge companies?| A．They operate in accordance with government policies. |
| B．They take initiatives in handling environmental wastes. |
| C．They are key drivers in their nations' economic growth |
| D．They are major contributors to environmental problems. |
| A．The goodness of their hearts. |
| B．A strong sense of responsibility. |
| C．The desire to generate profits |
| D．Pressure from environmentalists. |
| A．They are bent on making quick money |
| B．They do not have the capital for the investment. |
| C．They believe building such a system is too costly. |
| D．They lack the incentive to change business practices. |
| A．It helps businesses to save and gain at the same time |
| B．It is affordable only for a few leading-edge companies. |
| C．It is likely to start a new round of intense competition |
| D．It will take a long time for all companies to embrace it. |
| A．They have greatly enhanced their sense of social responsibility. |
| B．They do much better than their counterparts in terms of revenues |
| C．They have abandoned all the outdated equipment and technology. |
| D．They make greater contributions to human progress than their rivals |
3 . Back in 2015 my colleague Adam Frank of the University of Rochester and I were having lunch near Columbia University's campus in New York City. As at Fermi's lunch 65 years earlier, the conversation was about the nature of spacefaring species. And inspired by Fermi's mental calculation, we were trying to craft an investigative strategy that made the fewest possible unsubstantiated assumptions and that could be somehow tested or constrained with real data. At the center of this exercise was the simple thought that waves of exploration or settlement could come and go across the galaxy, with humans happening to come into being in one of the lonely periods.
This idea relates to Hart's original fact: that there is no evidence here on Earth today of extraterrestrial（外星的）explorers. But it goes further by asking whether we can obtain meaningful limits on galactic（星系的）life by constraining the exact length of time over which Earth might have gone unvisited. Perhaps long, long ago extraterrestrial explorers came and went. A number of scientists have, over the years, discussed the possibility of looking for artifacts that might have been left behind after such visitations of our solar system. The necessary scope of a complete search is hard to predict, but the situation on Earth alone turns out to be a bit more manageable. In 2018 another of my colleagues, Gavin Schmidt of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, together with Adam Frank, produced a critical assessment of whether we could even tell if there had been an earlier industrial civilization on our planet.
As fantastic as it may seem, Schmidt and Frank argue—as do most planetary scientists—that it is actually very easy for time to erase essentially all signs of technological life on Earth. The only real evidence after a million or more years would boil down to isotopic or chemical stratigraphic anomalies—odd features such as synthetic molecules, plastics or radioactive fallout. Fossil remains and other paleontological markers are so rare that they might not tell us anything in this case.
Indeed, modern human urbanization covers only on order of about 1 percent of the planetary surface, providing a very small target area for any paleontologists（古生物学家）in the distant future. Schmidt and Frank also conclude that nobody has yet performed the necessary experiments to look exhaustively for such non-natural signatures on Earth. The bottom line is, if an industrial civilization on the scale of our own had existed a few million years ago, we might not know about it. That absolutely does not mean one existed; it indicates only that the possibility cannot be completely eliminated.
1. The word “unsubstantiated”（in paragraph 1）is closest in meaning to ________.| A．unconscious | B．unknown | C．unnatural | D．unsupported |
| A．No other species have ever settled on Earth except human beings. |
| B．Extraterrestrial explorers come and go at increasingly short intervals. |
| C．No spacefaring species have visited the Earth since humans emerged. |
| D．Extraterrestrial explorers once built an industrial civilization on Earth. |
| A．turn to isotopic or chemical stratigraphic anomalies |
| B．find as many signs of technological life as possible |
| C．unearth more fossil remains than we do now |
| D．leave behind synthetic things like plastics |
| A．Human urbanization should be expanded for the sake of research. |
| B．We cannot say for sure that no civilization existed before ours. |
| C．Non-natural signatures on Earth have been studied exhaustively. |
| D．An industrial civilization came into being a few million years ago. |
4 . In 2012, James Cameron, creator of Avatar and Titanic, became the first person to reach the Challenger Deep. When he arrived at the deepest spot on Earth at 7 miles below sea level, he spent hours mapping the region and taking photos and samples.
“As human beings, we’re drawn to absolutes—the deepest, the highest, the coldest, the farthest,” he says. “And as a storyteller and curious monkey, I just wanted to see what was there.” The answer is obvious—plastic and more. “Our so-called civilization is using the ocean as its toilet,” Cameron says. “Unless this changes, ocean ecosystems are going to continue their rapid collapse.”
Despite decades of environmental studies, the impact of plastic and other forms of pollution on oceans are not entirely understood. Initial studies appear to indicate that ingesting(摄取) them—either directly or indirectly—could cause disease. Plastics can also release poisonous substances into the water, which could potentially impact animal populations.
But plastic is just one of the problems facing oceans that have yet to be fully understood. “Plastic waste in the ocean is horrifying but is only the most obvious of our many deadly waste streams, which include carbon that’s heating the atmosphere and making the ocean acidic, and the run-off nutrients from all the world’s agriculture, which is causing anoxic(缺氧的) dead zones the size of countries,” Cameron says.
Oceans, like the rest of the world, are impacted by the burning of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide—about 30 percent of which is absorbed by the sea. This absorption causes ocean acidification, where the pH level is altered to become more acidic. As a result, it’s harder for some creatures to form shells and skeletons and countless species at the base of the food web can struggle to survive, which, scientists say, has the potential to cause huge disruptions to entire ecosystems. Indeed, ocean acidification is thought to have played an important role in Earth’s worst-ever mass extinction event 252 million years ago.
The effect of climate change on the world’s oceans will likely worsen in coming decades. Last June, scientists announced carbon dioxide levels had reached the highest levels since human records began. The last time carbon dioxide levels were this high was during the Pliocene era, between 3 and 5 million years ago, when global temperatures were about 4 degrees Celsius warmer than they are today. Current climate models suggest that if greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current trend, we may be on course to see 4 degrees of warming by 2100.
As a result, understanding the role oceans have on global systems is becoming more and more important.
1. What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?| A．The author’s feelings to the ocean. | B．Cameron’s movies and remarks. |
| C．The author’s discoveries under the sea. | D．Cameron’s observation and concern. |
| A．Several countries are suffering from anoxic dead zones. |
| B．More concern should have been given to the pollution on oceans. |
| C．Plastic is supposed to be the most serious environmental problem. |
| D．Ocean acidification removes the nutrients from agricultural products. |
| A．Decreases. | B．Destruction. |
| C．Diseases. | D．Discrimination. |
| A．To call on people to protect sea animals. |
| B．To compare current situations with the past. |
| C．To explain how serious the ocean problem is. |
| D．To prove pollution to be the cause of acidification. |
5 . Hibernation is a complex solution to a simple problem. In winter, food is scarce. To survive this seasonal starvation, animals, such as the arctic ground squirrel and black bear, hibernate so that physiological shifts keep them alive despite the lack of food, water and movement. Researchers and doctors alike are interested in how these hibernation tricks could help humans with their own health.
THREAT: Stroke
INSIGHT: Blood flow in the brain of a hibernating arctic ground squirrel drops to a tenth of normal. Typically such oxygen shortage would cause a stroke. But these squirrels can survive all winter because their metabolism lowers to 2 percent of its summer rate—requiring much less oxygen to maintain. If doctors could similarly lower the metabolism of a human patient immediately after a stroke—perhaps by cooling the body—they might prevent permanent brain damage, says Brian Barnes, a biologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
THREAT: Diabetes
INSIGHT: People who gain a lot of weight often stop responding to insulin, which regulates the amount of glucose that cells take up from the blood. Yet grizzly bears gain 100 pounds or more each autumn and somehow avoid diabetes. A recent study found that the grizzlies' fat cells become more sensitive to insulin as they prepare for the winter, allowing the bears to keep processing and storing sugar. Scientists at biotechnology company Amgen are now testing whether making slight changes to the same protein that controls sensitivity in diabetic humans could have similar results.
THREAT: Osteoporosis
INSIGHT: If a human were to lie still for long periods without food, his or her bones would slowly degrade. A black bear, however, emerges from its cave after winter just as strong as ever because its bone is recycled at 25 percent of normal levels during hibernation. Researchers at Colorado State University are now trying to identify the hormones that control this extreme limit on bone turnover. They aim to create a drug for people at risk for osteoporosis that similarly protects bone density.
THREAT: Heart Disease
INSIGHT: During heart surgery, a patient becomes short of oxygen when the heart stops beating. To cope, the body switches from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism. Unfortunately, the change creates lactic acid, which can kill cells if it builds up. Damage of this kind does not occur in hibernating arctic ground squirrels, likely because they break down more fats than sugars even after the heart has slowed to just one beat per minute. Researchers at Duke University and the University of Alaska Fairbanks are now working to identify how this species prioritizes fat as fuel in low-oxygen conditions. Finding a way to get heart surgery patients to do the same may reduce injury to organs during procedures.
1. What is the passage mainly about?| A．What humans can learn from animals that sleep for months on end. |
| B．What health threats humans are facing while they are under treatment. |
| C．How humans can survive from the same tough conditions as animals do. |
| D．How health threats can be avoided if humans are with certain animals. |
| A．stroke | B．diabetes | C．osteoporosis | D．heart disease |
| A．Metabolism usually consumes a small amount of oxygen. |
| B．Fat cells are less sensitive to insulin than other cells. |
| C．Lying still for a long time will affect bone density. |
| D．Doctors are seeking ways to keep patients' hearts beating in surgery. |
The illegal ivory trade (象牙贸易) has been a major problem in Africa for decades. Poachers (偷猎者) and hunters have killed hundreds of thousands of elephants to obtain this precious material. Now the areas in which they do it are taking action. The International Union for Conservation (保护) of Nature (IUCN) announced on Dec 3 that key states
Recently, top officials and experts from 30 states met to discuss how to protect Africa elephants. The conference,
In
According to the IUCN, 2011 saw the highest levels of poaching and illegal ivory trading in at least 16 years. Around 25,000 elephants were killed in Africa that year. “With an estimated 22,000 elephants illegally
At the meeting, key Africa states where elephants make
As the world sees more and more extreme weather patterns, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the effects of climate change. It is now a common topic of discussion and it has even found its way into the books we read. Because of this, a genre called climate fiction. or cli-fi, has found new life.
As the name suggests, climate fiction refers to stories with a central theme of climate change or global warming. These kinds of books can help us imagine what the world might be like in the future because of major climate change events. Adeline Johns-Putra is a professor of literature at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou and has edited many books on climate fiction. “It’s part of a pattern,” Johns-Putra told Smithsonian Magazine. “It’s a feedback loop, as these books feed into our awareness and that feeds into our demand to read these books.”
The genre is also gaining popularity with high school and college students because it looks at topics that are relevant to what’s really happening today. Also, many cli-fi novels tend to have dystopian themes, which are very popular in young adult novels. In 2015, cli-fi author Sarah Holding wrote for The Guardian that cli-fi “reconnects young readers with their environment”, which helps them appreciate it more, “especially when today, a large amount of their time is spent in the virtual world”.
Cli-fi has also helped to inspire students to pursue science majors, with some universities even offering courses specifically focusing on climate fiction. “These books aren’t going to save the world in any straight form or way,” Johns-Putra commented. “But they’re certainly going to help us think about how the world gets saved.” As Atwood wrote in her dystopian cli-fi novel MaddAddam, “People need such stories, because however dark, a darkness with voices in it is better than a silent void.”
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8 . Last October I was on a diving holiday in the Philippines with seven other advanced divers. I dived off the boat slowly sinking to about 20m.
After nearly 45 minutes, the sound of my breathing was drowned out by a low rumble like an engine and I felt deep powerful vibrations(震动) as if a big boat with a propeller was passing overhead. The dive instructor’s eyes were wide with confusion too. We both swam next to each other staying close to the side of the reef(礁石). The situation felt sinister.
Then we were enveloped by clouds of white sand that mushmoomed up around us. Could it be a giant turtle(海龟) racing past us? They are normally slow movers so this was very weird behavior. The vibration became so intense that I could feel it in my bones and then the sound turned into a deafening roar. Suddenly, a few meters below us, breaks began forming and the sand was sucked down. That’s when I got what it was. The noise was the sound of the earth splintering open and grinding against itself.
The instructor and I held hands and looked into each other’s eyes. I felt comforted by his presence. I was numb(麻木的) for terror but clear-headed. My body went on high alert, ready to react. But I have no power over whatever this is.
The only option is to stay very still and let it do whatever its going to do. It took enormous willpower to resist the urge to swim to the surface, which is not sensible as situation on the surface at that time was ambiguous with potential threats pending. Soon we saw other divers.
The sound and vibration lasted only two or three minutes and when they stopped I heard the swoosh of sand falling over the seabed. We all held hands before resurfacing to avoid decompression sickness, which can be fatal. When up, it was a huge relief to see all the divers and we all shared incredulous looks before pulling out our breathing tools and shouting, ”What was that?”
Back on the boat, we rushed to check the news and discovered we had witnessed a huge earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. It released more energy than 30 Hiroshima bombs, though it seemed that we were not at the epicenter(震中). I was high and felt lucky surprisingly not because of my recent survival miracle, but to have experienced nature at its most stunning and its most frightening.
1. How did the author realize that they met with an earthquake?| A．By feeling the violent shake under the sea. |
| B．By witnessing a normally-slow turtle quickly moving by. |
| C．By seeing the seafloor crack. |
| D．By checking the news and be informed of the event. |
| A．Because the instructor gestured him not to rise. |
| B．Because he was numb in body. |
| C．Because he could sense the unclear water situation. |
| D．Because he tried to avoid unexpected danger above. |
| A．At the beginning of the event, a big boat passed by causing big vibration. |
| B．All the divers used the reef as the protection against the violent vibration. |
| C．I felt relieved as the instructor was experienced in handling situations like this. |
| D．Powerless to fight nature, I was tame when under the water. |
| A．Because he was not at the epicenter of the earthquake. |
| B．Because he finally survived a huge earthquake. |
| C．Because he could witness a rare natural phenomenon. |
| D．Because he didn’t suffer from decompression sickness. |
9 . A weather map is an important tool for geographers. A succession of three or four maps presents continuous picture of weather changes. Weather forecasters are able to determine the speed of air masses and fronts (冷暖空气团接触的锋) to determine whether an individual pressure area is deepening or becoming shallow and whether a front is increasing or decreasing in intensity. They are also able to determine whether an air mass is retaining its original characteristics or taking on those of the surface over which it is moving. Thus, a most significant function of the map is to reveal a summary picture of conditions in the atmosphere at a given time.
All students of geography should be able to interpret a weather map accurately. Weather maps contain an enormous amount of information about weather conditions existing at the time of observation over a large geographical area. They reveal in a few minutes what otherwise would take hours to describe. The United States Weather Bureau issues information about approaching storms, floods, frosts and all climatic conditions in general. Twice a month it issues a 30-day “outlook” which is a rough guide to weather conditions likely to occur over broad areas of the United States. These 30-day outlooks are based upon an analysis of the upper air levels which often set the stage for development of air masses, fronts and storms.
Considerable effort is being exerted today to achieve more accurate weather predictions. With the use of electronic instruments and satellites, enormous gains have taken place recently in identifying and tracking storms over regions which have but few meteorological stations (气象站). Experiments are also in progress for weather modification (改变) studies. But the limitations of weather modification have prevented meteorological results except in the seeding of super-cooled, upslope mountainous winds which have produced additional orographic (山岳形态) precipitation on the windward side of mountain ranges. Nevertheless, they have provided a clearer understanding of the fundamentals of weather elements.
1. By reading weather maps, students majoring in geography can .| A．design a project of weather modification |
| B．interpret the weather condition before the time of observation |
| C．obtain data on atmospheric conditions over a wide area |
| D．survey ever-changing fronts in local meteorological stations |
| A．daily weather maps | B．upper air levels |
| C．satellite reports | D．changing fronts |
| A．electronic instruments are used |
| B．it enables man to alert the weather |
| C．it makes weather more time-consuming |
| D．information not be obtained readily otherwise can be gained |
| A．controlling and influencing weather |
| B．determining density of pressure groups |
| C．30-day “outlooks” |
| D．predicting storms |
10 . As consumers, especially young ones, become more eco﹣conscious, services are popping up to reduce wastefulness in the flower industry, extending the life of old bouquets（花束） that were previously thrown away the day after a big event.
Considering that the floral（花的）gifting market is expected to reach ﹩16 billion in revenue by 2023, buying from eco﹣friendly businesses can have a huge impact. According to one estimate, the roughly 100 million roses grown for a typical Valentine's Day in the U. S. produce about 9,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
“When you realize what the supply chain looks like and the number of hands that touch these flowers. and then they're only appreciated for a couple of hours, it's kind of disgusting when you think about the amount of resources that go into it,” says Jennifer Grove, founder of New York City﹣based flower service Repeat Roses.
While working as a wedding designer and corporate planner, Grove often oversaw the design of floral arrangements, only to see those creations thrown away within a few hours. In 2014 she founded Repeat Roses to make it easier for luxury clients to donate used bouquets. Like a traditional floral service, the company sells high﹣end floral decorations for weddings or social events, but it then recycles or composts（堆肥） them.
If a customer chooses the unique repurposing（改变用途） service, a Repeat Roses team can remove the arrangements from the event and then restyle the flowers into smaller bouquets to donate to hospitals, nursing homes and family shelters. If there's a charity that holds a special place in a customer's heart, the team will ensure the blooms are sent there. “It's a logistics business, and we're trying to make sure we are strategic in where we play matchmaker,” Grove says. When the charities are finished with the flowers, Repeat Roses also picks them back up and composts them. The altruism isn't free﹣prices start at ﹩1,750 for the removal and repurposing service to account for the transportation and labor costs. If you're not willing to spend that much, the company will still compost the flowers from your event instead of sending them to a landfill.
Through these two methods, Repeat Roses estimates it has diverted more than 98 tons of waste from landfills and delivered almost 53,000 floral arrangements to people in need. Although Repeat Roses is a for﹣profit business, the flower repurposing itself is a tax write﹣off for the client. As the fair market value of a client's donated flowers is what's used for the charitable tax credit and is eligible for deduction, Repeat Roses ensures that the beneficiary sends you an acknowledgement letter including details of your donation.
1. Jennifer Grove founded Repeat Roses in order to do the following except .| A．avoid the waste of flowers |
| B．reduce the pollution to the environment |
| C．earn money by selling used flowers |
| D．help some customers do charity work |
| A．the company’s composting the flowers |
| B．the customers’ donating flowers to people in need |
| C．the reception of the donation by the people in need |
| D．the transportation of the flowers to a landfill |
| A．To get a discount when buying flowers. |
| B．To feel fulfilled because of donation. |
| C．To get a tax reduction. |
| D．To receive a letter of compliment. |
| A．a creative way of making money |
| B．a green trend of waste utilization |
| C．a way to cut the emission of carbon dioxide |
| D．a company devoted to charity |
