1 . Before the year has even come to a close, climate experts are certain that 2023 will be the hottest year in recorded history.
On Dec. 6, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) — part of the European Union’s space program — revealed that this year’s average global temperatures have been 2.6 F (1.46 C) higher than temperatures in preindustrial times and 0.2 F (0.13 C) higher than January to November in 2016. These “extraordinary” temperatures mean that 2023 will be “the warmest year in recorded history,” C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess said in a statement.
The researchers note that this year’s record heat was partly caused by the latest El Nino event—a phenomenon where warmer water near the equator triggers warmer global air temperatures—that began in June. Some other experts have suggested that the January 2022 eruption of Tonga’s underwater volcano, which pumped record levels of water vapor into the atmosphere, may also be partly responsible.
Despite these factors, the major cause of climbing temperatures is global warming caused by runaway greenhouse gas emissions, which, noted in a C3S statement, have trapped more than 25 billion atomic bombs’ worth of energy in our atmosphere over the last 50 years. And still worse, the global carbon emissions have reached a new high this year, according to scientists at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) On Dec 4.
The effects of global warming are becoming more obvious. In 2023, research revealed that climate change is causing major US cities to sink and more than half of the world’s largest lakes and reservoirs to shrink. Studies also predicted that the Gulf Stream, which plays a vital role in ocean circulation, could collapse by as early as 2025, and that rising sea levels could swamp the US coastline by 2050.
However, scientists say that we still have time to prevent further disaster. Leading climate change expert Michael Mann, from the University of Pennsylvania, recently wrote that “we can still stop the worst effects of climate change” if we stop emitting greenhouse gases as soon as possible.
1. Which is the main factor in causing the warmest weather in 2023?| A．Eruption of an underwater volcano. | B．Greenhouse gas emissions. |
| C．Collapse of the Gulf Stream. | D．The latest El Nino event. |
| A．Scientists’ predictions of the technology. | B．The threat of rising sea levels to the U.S. |
| C．The effects of climate change. | D．Different opinions on global warming. |
| A．Confused. | B．Worried. | C．Pessimistic. | D．Hopeful. |
| A．Release. | B．Prevent. | C．Reduce. | D．Seek. |
2 . Tropical (热带的) forests could become so hot that some kinds of leaves will no longer be able to conduct photosynthesis (光 合 作用), according to a study. The photosynthetic machinery in tropical trees begins to fail at about 46.7℃ on average. The research suggests that forests may be nearing dangerous temperature sooner than expected. Models predict that once we hit a global temperature increase of 3.9℃, these forests might experience mass leaf damage.
Chris Doughty, an associate professor at Northern Arizona University and the lead researcher of the study, said the leaf-warming experiments had revealed a nonlinear rise in temperatures. “We were really surprised that when we warmed leaves by 2, 3 or 4℃, the highest leaf temperatures actually increased by 8℃. This shows a concerning nonlinear feedback that we were not expecting.” said Doughty. “If we adopt a do-nothing response to climate change and tropical forest air temperatures increase by greater than 4℃, there could be massive leaf death.” he added.
Avoiding high emissions (排放) in the first place is key to stabilizing temperatures. “We should do all we can to avoid high-emissions. Under low-emissions, almost all tropical forest tree leaves can avoid death from overheating and the trees will survive,” said Simon Lewis, a professor of global change science at University College London. “Yet what the study doesn’t look at is heatwaves. We still might see tree deaths from overheating for limited periods during heatwaves under lower emissions.”
Researchers suggest that the damage is not yet unchanged. “Vote for people who are serious about addressing climate change and transferring to low-carbon economies, ”Disney, one researcher, advocated. More generally, we can all recognize the importance of supporting those countries and people who live in and rely on tropical forests economically, But the serious changes to tropical forests don’t just affect the local people it’s a global issue.
1. Which of the following can best replace the underlined word “nonlinear” in Paragraph 2?| A．Global. | B．Dramatic. | C．Steady. | D．Minor. |
| A．Planting more trees. | B．Exploring heatwaves. |
| C．Conducting researches. | D．Pursuing low emissions. |
| A．Promoting global efforts. |
| B．Seeking economic support. |
| C．Helping tropical countries. |
| D．Boosting low-carbon education. |
| A．Global warming harms trees. |
| B．Tropical forests lose functions. |
| C．Tropical leaves struggle in heat. |
| D．Forests near dangerous temperature. |
3 . Styrofoam, or polystyrene, is a light-weight material, about 95 percent air, with very good insulation (隔热) properties, according to Earthsource. org. It is used in products from cups that keep your drinks hot or cold to packaging material that protects items during shipping. With the above good features, Styrofoam still enjoys a bad reputation. It cannot be recycled without releasing dangerous pollution into the air. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency says it is the fifth-largest creator of harmful waste.
But now the common worms which are usually disgusting can come to the rescue, specifically, meal-worms. Scientists from the U. S. and China have discovered that meal-worms can digest plastic. One meal-worm can digest a pill-sized amount of plastic a day. Study co-author Wei-Min Wu says that in 24 hours, the plastic is turned into carbon dioxide.
Since Styrofoam has no nutrition at all, are the worms hurt by eating plastic? Much to the scientists’ surprise, the study found that worms eating Styrofoam were as healthy as worms eating bran (谷糠) . The researchers will study the worm’s eating habits and digesting system, looking to copy the plastic breakdown but on a larger scale. Once the way can be put into practice, it will make a revolutionary difference to the disposal of plastic.
“Solving the issue of plastic pollution is important”, says Wu, a Stanford University environmental engineering instructor. After all, our earth is small and landfill space-is becoming limited with too much garbage waiting to be dealt with, he says.
About 33-million tons of plastic are thrown away in the United States every year. Plastic plates, cups and containers take up 25 percent to 30 percent of space in America’s landfills. One Styrofoam cup takes more than 1 million years to recycle in a landfill, according to Cleveland State University.
1. What do we know about Styrofoam?| A．It can be used to cool drinks. | B．It is a weightless material. |
| C．It is harmful when recycled. | D．It is usually used on ships. |
| A．Meal-worms have amazing digesting power. | B．Meal-worms are not bad in their nature. |
| C．Meal-worms can rescue people’s lives. | D．People misunderstood meal-worms in the past. |
| A．by raising amounts of meal-worms | B．by environmental engineering instructors |
| C．using a method inspired by eating meal-worms | D．without sending out dangerous pollution |
| A．Styrofoam is widely used in daily life. | B．Meal-worms are genius at eating plastic |
| C．Plastic recycling may be no more a problem. | D．Plastic can be turned into carbon dioxide |
4 . Earth Hour is an annual event, asking you to switch off all your lights for one hour in positive change for our planet. It is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature and it’s a big event usually at the end of March every year.
Earth Hour started in Australia in 2007, when 2.2 million people in Sydney turned off all unnecessary lights for an hour.
It’s true that switching off the lights for just one hour saves only a little power.
Why is it in March? At the end of March in the northern and southern hemispheres (半球), the days and the nights are almost of the same length.
| A．But this is only the beginning |
| B．The logo of Earth Hour is “60+” |
| C．On this evening, people “go dark” |
| D．There are many events people can join in |
| E．Since then it has grown into an international event |
| F．The idea is to raise the awareness of environmental issues |
| G．At this time, the sunset time is similar in both hemispheres |
5 . A blind fish living within a Mexican cave system’s deep, enduring darkness still maintains some ability to sense light. As the cave fish no longer seem to rely on an internal daily cycle and some sleep very little, biologist Inca Stein-dal and her colleagues were keen to see if their bodies can still regulate cyclically through time. Most animals on Earth have an internal clock for this the circadian rhythm (昼夜节律) that uses light levels to make our bodies fit in with our planet’s day and night cycles. This rhythm is then used to cycle through different biological processes that can influence our behaviour, such as our hunger cycles.
The Mexican blind cave fish live in a complex of over 30 isolated caves, within which they have each independently adjusted to the dark. Their bodies are extra sensitive to vibrations (震动), allowing them to sense changes in water currents for navigation (导航) in compensation for their limited or complete lack of sight. This adaptation occurred despite the fish from each cave evolving from the same species with fully functioning eyes. This ancestral group still lives in the surface waters in the El Albra region of Mexico and some parts of the Southwestern US.
Steindal and her team took tissue samples from the blind cave fish, from three isolated caves, and their surface relatives and tested the cells in different conditions. They detected the activation of several molecular (分子的) clock mechanisms when the cells were exposed to light, even in the cave fish cells. “Non-visual light detection is maintained at a fundamental cell-based level,” the researchers explain,although the cave fish cells did not respond as strongly as those cells from surface fish. While there were some similarities between the fish from the different caves compared to their surface relatives, there were also differences that confirm their biological clock changes each evolved independently of one another via different molecular mechanisms.
“We have provided proof that despite being blind, cells from the Mexican blind cave fish can detect light and make their clocks fit in with a light/dark cycle,” Steindal and her colleagues conclude. The team hopes these can help us learn more about the circadian rhythm and provide an easier way to study animal adaptations to dark environments.
1. As to the cave fish, what did Steindal and her fellows try to find out?| A．If they have a circadian rhythm. | B．If they rely on an internal daily cycle. |
| C．If they need to sleep. | D．If they are able to sense light. |
| A．The Mexican cave fish’s ancestors had normal vision. |
| B．The Mexican cave fish’s home is in the dark deep sea. |
| C．The Mexican cave fish have adapted to darkness. |
| D．The Mexican cave fish have trouble navigating. |
| A．Cave fish’s unique molecular structures. |
| B．Non-visual light detection in cave fish cells. |
| C．The cave fish’s adjustment t0 molecular clock mechanisms. |
| D．Biological clock changes evolved independently. |
| A．Why Do the Mexican Cave fish Live in the Darken“ |
| B．A Blind Cave fish Can Still Perceive Light. |
| C．How Can the Mexican Cave fish Fit in with the Day Cycles? |
| D．The Biological Clocks of the Life in the Sen Are Constantly Changing. |
6 . When scientists and the public worry about sea level rise, they mostly focus on when and where communities will be permanently flooded. But there’s another consequence of rising seas that will affect many more people much sooner: getting cut off from roads and other critical infrastructure (基础设施). It’s a threat that society has not paid nearly enough attention to, says Allison Reilly, a civil engineer at the University of Maryland.
In a new paper, Reilly and her colleagues show the width and pace of the isolation (隔离) threat. Inspired by her work on the eastern shore of Maryland, where people already need to adjust their travel and work schedules to account for tides that frequently flood roads, Reilly and her colleagues calculated that, with one meter of sea level rise, twice as many people across the coastal United States will be isolated than will be fully flooded.
Worse still, many places currently considered at low risk of sea level rise suddenly become much riskier when isolation is taken into account, Reilly says. While planners know that low-lying Florida will be severely flooded, Maine, with its high rocky coasts, is generally thought to be at low risk. But Reilly’s work shows many Mainers are in great danger of being cut off by flooding in coastal communities and river valleys.
This far more immediate effect of rising seas needs to become part of the broader planning process. That kind of planning is starting to happen around the Chignecto Isthmus, an interprovincial land bridge in Canada, connecting New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The New Brunswick and Nova Scotia governments are considering a variety of plans to raise or replace the dikes (坝). For Ollerhead, a Nova Scotian, that work can’t start soon enough. “It will take a lot of sea level rise before Nova Scotia becomes an island, but you could have a storm that cuts off the major transportation links for days, weeks, or months,” he says. “It’s nearly impossible to predict when, but it will happen eventually.”
1. What is the threat Allison Reilly mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．The rising sea level. | B．Flood-related isolation. |
| C．Permanent flooded areas. | D．Irreparable infrastructure. |
| A．Conclusions of a new paper. | B．Calculations of collected data. |
| C．Situations of Eastern Maryland. | D．Influences on coastal United States. |
| A．To clarify a point. | B．To offer a solution. |
| C．To present an assumption. | D．To illustrate a reason. |
| A．Dismissive. | B．Doubtful. | C．Favorable. | D．Unclear. |
Xixi, located less than five kilometers from the West Lake in the west of Hangzhou, is China’s first national wetland park. The area covers about 10 square kilometers and it
Wetlands themselves are one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems,
Xixi’s native vegetation,
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删除：把多余的词用斜线( \ )划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
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2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Living a low carbon life is becoming increasing important in our modern society. It means reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases we released into the atmosphere. There are many simple steps we can take them. Firstly, we can choose eco-friendly modes of transportation such as walking, cycling, or using public transport instead driving. Secondly, saving energies in our homes is crucial. Switching off lights when they are not in use but using energy-efficient appliances (电器) make a significance impact. Lastly, consuming less meat and dairy products, that have a high carbon footprint, and opting for organic produce can make a different.
9 . This Is What Your Dog’s Behaviors Should Tell You
A straightened tail
When you see a dog’s tail in the air, that dog probably feels very excited or confident about something. If its tail is shaky and remains up, the dog probably just feels challenged in a way. Whenever a dog is content, its tail is always leveled with its body. However, if the tail is hanging low, this shows some kind of insecurity.
Chewing your furniture
When puppies start teething, they start chewing things around. It just means that they have not been getting as much physical activity as their body needs. You can easily help by taking them out for a nice walk or helping them exercise in some other ways.
Tilting (倾斜) their heads
When you are talking to dogs, you subconsciously end up speaking in a higher pitch. The dogs tip their heads in an attempt to understand what you are telling. Dogs have a great way of reading different body language and responding to vocal cues. They recognize specific words especially those associated with treats they love or walks. A certain theory states that dogs will move their heads in that manner as a way of adjusting their ears so that they can listen better.
Raising their ears
When you see a dog raise its ears, just know it’s listening keenly to you. It happens when they are unfamiliar with a certain sound and are trying to figure the sound out. So when you see this, just allow your dog to figure out things slowly for a second. After all, it’s very nice to have a dog that is observant.
1. If a dog keeps its tail hanging low, it suggests it feels _______.| A．satisfied | B．thrilled | C．unsafe | D．challenged |
| A．Tie the dog. | B．Walk the dog. |
| C．Feed the dog. | D．Bathe the dog. |
| A．Waving its tail. | B．Moving its head. |
| C．Raising its ears. | D．Showing its teeth. |
10 . A NASA climate research scientist, Cynthia Rosenzweig, who has spent much of her career explaining how global food production must adapt to a changing climate, was awarded the World Food Prize on Thursday.
“We basically cannot solve climate change unless we address the issues of the greenhouse gas emissions from the food system, and we cannot provide food security for all unless we work really hard to develop adaptable agricultural systems,” she told The Associated Press in an interview.
Rosenzweig, who describes herself as a climate impact scientist, grew up in Scarsdale, New York, a suburban area that she said led her to seek out life in the country. Later, she moved to Italy, and developed a passion for agriculture. After returning to the United States, she focused her education on agronomy (农学).
She worked as a graduate student at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in the early 1980s, when global climate models were beginning to show the effects of human-generated carbon dioxide on the global climate. As the only team member studying agronomy, she researched the impact on food production and has been working since then to answer those questions.
Rosenzweig’s work led to the Environmental Protection Agency’s first prediction of the effects of climate change on the nation’s agricultural regions in the agency’s assessment of the potential effects of climate change on the United States in 1988. She was the first to bring climate change to the attention of the American Society of Agronomy and she organized the first sessions on the issue in the 1980s. The research organization she founded, AgMIP, develops adaptation packages, which could include the use of more drought-tolerant seeds and improved water management practices.
Even the largest agribusiness corporations have shown a willingness to listen. Some models her colleagues have developed show how businesses could be effected by climate change and how they have a role to play in reducing the impact on climate.
“It’s really a global partnership of all the global food systems to come together to restrain climate change and maintain the food security for the planet,” she said.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 2?| A．Plants can hardly cause greenhouse gas emissions. |
| B．Issues of food security will result in climate change. |
| C．Improving food systems will help address climate change. |
| D．Some adaptable agricultural systems have been put into use. |
| A．Modest. | B．Devoted. | C．Adaptable. | D．Warm-hearted. |
| A．Rosenzweig’s contributions. | B．Rosenzweig’s challenges. |
| C．Rosenzweig’s expectations. | D．Rosenzweig’s backgrounds. |
| A．The models. | B．The practices. |
| C．The colleagues. | D．The businesses. |
