| A．Windy. | B．Sunny. | C．Rainy. |
Home to the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers, the Sanjiangyuan area on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (青藏高原) is known as “China’s water tower.” It is a
Decades ago, serious environmental degradation (恶化) in Sanjiangyuan,
Over the past years, the ecological environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Local residents enjoy the gifts given by nature, and the
Today, as people walk on the vast land of Sanjiangyuan, looking at the expansive mountains, glaciers, lakes and pastures,
3 . There is such a thing as a free lunch, it turns out, as long as you don’t mind too much what it is. Tamara Wilson found hers a few streets away from her west London home — and as well as picking up some unwanted bread and fruit that would otherwise be thrown away, she made a new friend.
Wilson is one of 3.4 million people around the world using an app designed to encourage people to give away rather than throw away surplus (剩余的) food. “It’s such a small thing, but it makes me feel good and my neighbour feel good. And a lot of small acts can end up making a big difference,” she said.
The last few years have seen an explosion in creative ways to tackle food waste by linking supermarkets, cafes, restaurants and individual households to local communities. Olio, the app used by Wilson, saw a fivefold increase in listings during 2022, and the signs are that this rapid growth is continuing into 2023, said Tessa Clarke, its CEO and co-founder.
About a third of all food produced globally is wasted, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Almost 1.4 billion hectares of land — close to 30% of the world’s agricultural land — is dedicated to producing food that is never eaten, and the carbon footprint of food wastage makes it the third contributor of CO2. Reducing food waste is one of the most effective ways of tackling the global climate crisis.
Olio, Clarke said, was an attempt to change this on a small, local scale. “The app connects people with others who have surplus food but don’t have anyone to give it to because so many people are disconnected from their communities.” Users of Olio post images of surplus food that others in the neighbourhood might want. Olio also has a network of 24,000 volunteers who collect surplus food from local supermarkets and stores for app users to claim.
Despite the success of the app, it was hard to make a difference to the huge scale of food waste, Clarke added. “Even though we’re doing well, we’ve only scratched the surface (触及表面). But if everyone makes small changes in the world, we’d dramatically reduce the amount of food that ends up in bins (垃圾桶).”
1. What does the author want to show by telling Wilson’s story?| A．People tend to use apps to order food. | B．People prefer to make friends on apps. |
| C．People find a high-tech fix to food waste. | D．People show more concern for each other. |
| A．Global warming. | B．Loss of land. | C．World hunger. | D．Poverty and inequality. |
| A．It sells surplus food to those in need. | B．It allows volunteers to slay connected. |
| C．It provides a platform for people to promote food. | D．It fills the information gap between green communities. |
| A．It is a great success. | B．It requires joint efforts. |
| C．It is beyond human power. | D．It has won public support. |
| A．Sunny. | B．Snowy. | C．Rainy. |
I must admit, I haven’t always liked animals. In fact, I distrusted them greatly while growing up, and I still fear the ones I don’t know personally. What set my beliefs in stone was being attacked—not once but many times, including the summer after second grade when I was bitten by a rabbit. Then, when I was nine and riding my dirt bike down the road, a large dog charged me and tried to bite my ankle. After all those negative experiences, there was one thing I knew for sure: All creatures, great and small, were no friends of mine.
After college in California, I returned to live the single life in Las Vega. Then I met Lisa. In no time at all, we fell in love, married and moved into a new house. Despite my avoidance of animals, Lisa had a dog called Bailey. Bailey didn’t like me, but he tolerated my existence once he realized I wasn’t going anywhere.
Things changed as spring came. We welcomed a new member of our family: our son Evan. One evening Evan grabbed hold of the dog’s tail. The irritated dog paused and turned to look at his stuck tail but waited patiently until being released. Still the stories I’d heard of animals attacking babies worries me.
Then my worst fear occurred. I sat on the couch (沙发) reading after a long day while my wife worked at the dining-room table paying the bills. I saw Evan crawl across the family-room carpet as he made his way behind the couch. One minute, all was quiet and then Bailey entered the room and headed to where Evan had crawled. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the dog start a fearful barking behind me.
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2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Throwing the book away, I rushed around the couch with great fear.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Having witnessed our dog killing a scorpion (蝎子) and saving my son, I was speechless.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 . Humans have always assumed that there is a huge gulf between animal behavior and human development. However, recent research into animals shows that animals are continuously designing innovative methods to finish their tasks. Examining the nature and results of their creativity can help us understand evolution.
Research shows that animals too can be creative. By inventing new behavioral patterns and adjusting their behavior to new contexts, as well as to changes in social and ecological environments, researchers show that animal innovation too can be diverse. For instance, chimpanzees (猩猩) use tools such as sharp spines and stalks to remove the hearts of palm vegetables from trees. Herring gulls (鲜鱼海鸥) found out quite a cruel way of killing rabbits-drowning them in the sea.
Innovative species tend to survive when they enter new places, but novel behavior cannot be recognized unless “normal” behavior is studied. Researchers can now count and document the innovations that have been created by species, which would help them to quantify their creativity. Studies also show us that all animals are not equally inventive, with primates (灵长目动物) tending to be more innovative due to their bigger brains.
The greatest scientific significance has been the innovation shown by animals such as apes, capuchins and macaques among primates. These species of primates possess the biggest brains in proportion to their body sizes. They are also heavy tool users. Their broad diets and complex forms of learning are also insightful. They indicate an evolutionary strategy that gave them new solutions to life’s challenges.
However, even if these animals show innovativeness, they do not have the ability to improve upon solutions of others. Unless they share information accurately and copy each other’s inventions. their creative inventions are likely to vanish before they can be innovated further. This ability can be managed only by humans, for we are able to build on shared knowledge.
1. What does the underlined word “gulf” in the first paragraph mean?| A．Difference. | B．Conflict. | C．Balance. | D．Connection. |
| A．They are both creative. |
| B．They are both heavy tool users. |
| C．They create innovations in different ways. |
| D．They kill other animals in the same cruel way. |
| A．It is equally distributed among animals. |
| B．It helps animals adapt to the environment. |
| C．Animals’ innovations are easy to be identified. |
| D．Animals’ innovations are facing huge challenges. |
| A．Their ability to share information accurately. |
| B．Their willingness to learn from each other. |
| C．Their inability to take creativity forward. |
| D．Their unwillingness to cooperate effectively. |
1. How did the man learn about Martin Harris?
| A．From the woman. | B．From the radio news. | C．From the newspaper. |
| A．He saved many people in the flood. |
| B．He bought a small boat for the storm. |
| C．He gave advice to people in the flood. |
| A．Find a boat for you to get to a high place. |
| B．Hold on to something that floats. |
| C．Wait for Martin Harris for help. |
8 . After the season for giving, it is the one for throwing away. Each year in late December and early January a massive amount of plastic packaging is discarded worldwide. In Britain alone households generate 30% more waste, an extra 3m tonnes, in the month over Christmas. Most is destined for landfill. Sweden will do less damage than many, though. The country now recycles at a record level. Almost three-quarters (74%) of plastic packaging waste was recycled there in 2021, the highest proportion in Europe.
Much of Sweden’s success is due to a deposit refund scheme. Customers pay €0.10 extra when buying drinks containers. After use, these can be fed into reverse vending machines installed in shops, which spit the deposit back out. The machines’ contents are sent directly to recycling centres. By the end of 2021, 92% of all bottles and cans sold in Sweden were being returned. The overall plastic packaging recycling rate increased by almost 20%.
The Swedish government says the scheme has aroused a potential enthusiasm for recycling in its citizens. Nearly 90% of Swedes have used the machines at least once. However, Swedes do not generally describe themselves as eco-fighters. A 2021 survey by the European Commission found they were less likely than most other Europeans to regard environmental issues as “very important”.
The eagerness of Swedish recyclers may stem not from a love of the Earth but from a low net worth. A tenth of the population get by on less than €245 a month. In big cities it is common to see people scooping recyclable items out of bins to take to the machines.
Less litter and money for people who need it seems like a win-win. But it might not in fact be best for the environment in the long run. In Germany—where a similar, widely used refund deposit scheme has been in place since 2003—the earnings from keeping the deposits from unreturned bottles seem to have discouraged producers from switching to more sustainable packaging.
1. What might most Swedish customers do under the deposit refund scheme?| A．They send their drinks containers directly to recycling centres. |
| B．They spend more on drinks than other European customers. |
| C．They return their used drinks containers. |
| D．They use vending machines to buy drinks. |
| A．Sweden beat many countries in plastic recycling. |
| B．Swedes had low environmental awareness. |
| C．Swedes made much money from recycling. |
| D．Sweden had an unequal income distribution. |
| A．Positive. | B．Uninterested. | C．Ambiguous. | D．Unfavourable. |
| A．Why Swedes cash in on their trash. |
| B．How waste turns into treasure in Sweden. |
| C．Who are recycling plastic bottles in Sweden. |
| D．Where Swedes throw away their plastic packaging. |
9 . Britain’s meat industry on Friday warned that an upcoming shortage of carbon dioxide (CO2) could cause massive disruption (中断) to food supplies within two weeks.
The gas is used to stun (昏迷) animals before being killed, in the vacuum packing of food products to extend their shelf life, and to put the fizz into beer, cider and soft drinks.It is also required for some medical procedures and used in the nuclear and semi-conductor industries.
Britain’s food supply chain, already suffering from a severe shortage of heavy goods vehicles (HGV) drivers and the impact of Brexit and COVID-19, is heavily reliant on fertiliser producers for CO2 which is a by-product of their production process. However, two of the largest fertiliser producers, Norway’s Yara YAR.OL and rival CF Industries Holdings CF.N, have restrained production due to a sudden increase in natural gas prices, which has in turn started to dry up CO2 supplies.
Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), said that once current stocks of the gas run out, some meat companies will have to stop taking animals and close production lines, leading to a logjam of animals back to the farms. “We already have this situation in the pig industry which is now facing the disruption prospect of a humane killing on farms,” he said.The BMPA is persuading Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng to help support UK CO2 production in the short term.
“We are monitoring this situation closely and are in regular contact with the food and farming organizations and industry, to help them manage the current situation,” said a UK government spokesperson.“The UK benefits from having access to highly diverse sources of gas supply to ensure households, businesses and heavy industry get the energy they need at a fair price.”
1. What’s the direct cause of the CO2 shortage this year?| A．A government policy. | B．An infectious disease. |
| C．Transportation failure. | D．Cost rise. |
| A．Bottleneck. | B．Promise. | C．Failure. | D．Recovery. |
| A．To close production lines. |
| B．To stop marketing animals. |
| C．To limit the drinks wholesale. |
| D．To explore more gas supplies. |
| A．Diverse Applications of CO2 |
| B．CO2 Shortage Hit Food Supplies |
| C．Efforts Taken to Produce CO2 |
| D．The Future of Britain’s Meat Industry |
I was invited to a cookout on an old friend’s farm in western Washington. I parked my car outside the farm and walked past a milking house which had apparently not been used in many years. A noise at a window caught my attention, so I entered it. It was a hummingbird (蜂鸟), desperately trying to escape. She was covered in spider-webs (蛛网) and was barely able to move her wings. She ceased her struggle the instant I picked her up.
With the bird in my cupped hand, I looked around to see how she had gotten in. The broken window glass was the likely answer. I stuffed a piece of cloth into the hole and took her outside, closing the door securely behind me.
When I opened my hand, the bird did not fly away; she sat looking at me with her bright eyes. I removed the sticky spider-webs that covered her head and wings. Still, she made no attempt to fly. Perhaps she had been struggling against the window too long and was too tired? Or too thirsty?
As I carried her up the blackberry-lined path toward my car where I kept a water bottle, she began to move. I stopped, and she soon took wing but did not immediately fly away.
Hovering (悬停), she approached within six inches of my face. For a very long moment, this tiny creature looked into my eyes, turning her head from side to side. Then she flew quickly out of sight.
During the cookout, I told my hosts about the hummingbird incident. They promised to fix the window. As I was departing, my friends walked me to my car. I was standing by the car when a hummingbird flew to the center of our group and began hovering. She turned from person to person until she came to me. She again looked directly into my eyes, then let out a squeaking call and was gone. For a moment, all were speechless. Then someone said, “She must have come to say goodbye.”
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2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
A few weeks later, I went to the farm again.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was just about to leave when the hummingbird appeared.
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