1 . Last Friday, Britain’s Prince William announced the winners of this year’s Earthshot Prize. The prize is meant to encourage new ideas and rapid action to help protect the planet. Below are parts of this year’s prize-winning projects in each category.
Protect and Restore Nature
Kheyti won the prize for protecting and restoring nature with its “Greenhouse-in-a-box” idea. Kheyti is already working with 1, 000 farmers across India, which is one of the most climate-affected countries in the world. The company says the greenhouses allow farmers to use 90% less water and produce seven times as much food. Kheyti hopes to get its greenhouses to 50,000 farmers by 2027.
Clean Our Air
Charlot Magayi won the prize for cleaning the air. Ms. Magayi developed a stove (炉子) that uses a fuel that’s cheaper and pollutes far less than charcoal stoves. Currently, over 200,000 of her Clean Stoves are being used in Kenya.
Build a Waste-Free World
A London-based company called Notpla(for “Not Plastic”)won the prize for building a waste-free world. They’ve created a plastic substitute(替代品)from plants found in the ocean. Unlike most plastic, their products break down naturally with no microplastics. Notpla believes their products can help end the plastic pollution that’s filling landfills and polluting oceans.
Fix Our Climate
The Earthshot Prize for working toward fixing our climate went to a company called 44.01 from Oman. 44.01 has come up with a way to turn polluting carbon dioxide(CO2)into a rock called peridotite. Once the CO2 has been turned into rock, it can no longer be released into the atmosphere again. The method that 44.01 uses is fast, cheap and permanent.
1. What is the aim of the Earthshot Prize?| A．To offer practical advice on global warming. |
| B．To find solutions to the environmental problems. |
| C．To develop a strategic partnership with all parties. |
| D．To encourage literary creations of the British people. |
| A．In India. | B．In Kenya. | C．In the UK. | D．In Oman. |
| A．They want to build a waste-free world. |
| B．Their projects are directly good for farmers. |
| C．Their achievements benefit the air cleaning. |
| D．They use plants from the ocean in their products. |
2 . On September 7, 1991, the costliest hailstorm (雹暴) in Canadian history hit Calgary’s southern suburbs. As a result, since 1996 a group of insurance companies have spent about $2 million per year on the Alberta Hail Suppression Project. Airplanes seed threatening storm cells with a chemical to make small ice crystals fall as rain before they can grow into dangerous hailstones. But farmers in east-central Alberta — downwind of the hail project flights — worry that precious moisture (水分) is being stolen from their thirsty land by the cloud seeding.
Norman Stienwand, who farms in that area, has been addressing public meetings on this issue for years. “Basically, the provincial government is letting the insurance companies protect the Calgary-Edmonton urban area from hail,” Mr. Stienwand says, “but they’re increasing drought risk as far east as Saskatchewan.”
The Alberta hail project is managed by Terry Krauss, a cloud physicist who works for Weather Modification Inc. of Fargo, North Dakota. “We affect only a very small percentage of the total moisture in the air, so we cannot be causing drought.” Dr. Krauss says. “In fact, we may be helping increase the moisture downwind by creating wetter ground.”
One doubter about the safety of cloud seeding is Chuck Doswell, a research scientist who just retired from the University of Oklahoma. “In 1999, I personally saw significant tornadoes form from a seeded storm cell in Kansas,” Dr. Doswell says. “Does cloud seeding create killer storms or reduce moisture downwind? No one really knows, of course, but the seeding goes on.”
Given the degree of doubt, Mr. Stienwand suggests, “It would be wise to stop cloud seeding.” In practice, doubt has had the opposite effect. Due to the lack of scientific proof concerning their impacts, no one has succeeded in winning a lawsuit against cloud-seeding companies. Hence, private climate engineering can proceed in relative legal safety.
1. What does the project aim to do?| A．Conserve moisture in the soil. | B．Forecast disastrous hailstorms. |
| C．Prevent the formation of hailstones. | D．Investigate chemical use in farming. |
| A．Managers of insurance companies. | B．Farmers in east-central Alberta. |
| C．Provincial government officials. | D．Residents of Calgary and Edmonton. |
| A．To compare different kinds of seeding methods. | B．To illustrate the development of big hailstorms. |
| C．To show the link between storms and moisture. | D．To indicate a possible danger of cloud seeding. |
| A．Scientific studies have proved Stienwand right. | B．Cloud-seeding companies will continue to exist. |
| C．The doubt about cloud seeding has disappeared. | D．Private climate engineering is illegal in Canada. |
3 . Growing up in Louisiana, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, Barry Guillot loved exploring the wetlands with his friends when he was a child. However, as he grew older, a growing concern about the disappearance of wetlands took root. “Imagine if the New Orleans Saints, our football team, were playing on a field that was actually wetlands,” Barry says. “By halftime, that football field would be gone.”
In 1988, Barry became a middle school science teacher. With the intention of bringing home to his kids the importance of wetlands, he founded the LaBranche Wetland Watchers Service-Learning Project, “adopting” a small part of LaBranche Wetlands near their school.
Wetland Watchers activities are tied to academic subjects. Water-quality monitoring, for example, teaches students to use graphs to compare data from different time periods — part of the math curriculum. After Hurricane Katrina, the salinity (amount of salt in the water) was four times as high as before. Students made graphs to show that. As part of English composition, they wrote about seeing jellyfish (水母) , which had never come that far before because jellyfish live only in salty water.
“We obtained more than we would just sitting behind a desk with a book, because you’re out there and you’re getting all wet and muddy and having fun as you learn,” says Kurt, a seventh grader.
Barry is very proud of his students. “It’s amazing what middle school kids can accomplish when they get the chance,” he says. One of his seventh graders wrote, “If the animals and plants could talk, I think they would say we’re their heroes. That’s the way I feel when we do our work in the wetlands.”
1. Why is “football field” mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．To explain wetlands are limited. | B．To express Barry’s love of football. |
| C．To stress the urgency of saving wetlands. | D．To show Barry’s worry about his football team. |
| A．The necessity of making graphs. | B．The importance of hands-on learning. |
| C．The connection of the activities to schooling. | D．Relationship between teachers and students. |
| A．They are messy. | B．They are challenging. |
| C．They are dull. | D．They are rewarding. |
| A．They will teach like Barry. | B．They will ask for more chances. |
| C．They’re full of a sense of achievement. | D．They’re acknowledged as great heroes. |
4 . The temperature was rising to 90 degrees on Tuesday in the hills of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area, when Lexie Daniel and her friends saw a heroic act of kindness to save a dog’s life.
Lexie and her fellow hikers met a man whose dog was seriously overheated. Even though they donated (捐赠) their water, they were afraid it wouldn’t be enough to save the pup, after seeing how much the dog was already struggling.
“The owner brought along a huge jug, but no water seemed to be helping,” Lexie told GNN.
Too tired to carry the dog himself, the loving owner called the park rangers as soon as possible. Supervisory Park Ranger Kris Salapek soon found them on the trail (追踪). Kris then lifted the huge dog onto his shoulders and carried him down the mountain. “It was a long distance-a couple miles down a difficult rocky path,” says Lexie.
When they reached the stream, Kris laid him in the water as he knelt beside him and poured water on him. The ranger then picked him back up over his shoulders and walked all the way back down to the street for about an hour.
Lexie’s cousin Tori Matyola said, “The owner hiked down ahead of the ranger so that once he got down the mountain he had the car ready to take him straight to the vet. The dog was looking a little better by the time he got to the car and picking up his head.”
When she got home, Lexie, a pediatric (小儿科的) nurse from Hackettstown, New Jersey, posted the good deed on Facebook and it went viral with 35,000 people sharing the post and showing admiration for the ranger.
“This is a HERO,” Lexie wrote. “We are so lucky to have rangers like this who put animals before themselves. This ranger deserves recognition and a standing ovation (列队鼓掌) for his bravery, selflessness, and strength.”
1. What were Lexie and her fellow hikers worried about?| A．The dog’s struggle for more water. | B．The dog’s lack of water to keep alive. |
| C．The owner’s unability to feed his dog. | D．The owner’s tiredness to carry the dog. |
| A．It was tough. | B．It was simple. | C．It was unbelievable. | D．It was unexpected. |
| A．To clean it. | B．To feed it. | C．To cool it. | D．To relax it. |
| A．Her appreciation to Kris. | B．Her relief of the dog’s recovery. |
| C．The ranger’s example set to people. | D．The ranger’s experience of saving the dog. |
5 . Most animals are active around people, which makes observing them in the wild a challenging effort for researchers. The issue is worsened with naturally shy creatures like emperor penguins (企鹅), who show signs of physical sorrow in front of humans.
The French scientist Le Maho and his team began a project to test if sending tiny robots to collect the required information would affect the penguins as harmfully. They began by fitting 34 emperor penguins with outside heart rate monitors, which could be read from a distance of 60 centimeters. They then sent a simple, four wheeled robot into a place of hatching penguins that were stationary because they were using their legs to protect eggs.
Though the penguins were a little alarmed and even cried, they did allow the robot to read their heart monitors. Even more encouraging was the fact that as soon as the robot stopped moving, the penguins' heart rates returned to normal, much more rapidly than when humans entered the place.
However, for the extremely shy emperor penguins it was still too disturbing. After some discussions, their first attempt failed terribly. Fortunately, the scientists decided to try to cover the robot as a penguin chick for Le Maho's team, a British production company working on a news film, and it was also trying getting into the penguin place using secret cameras. The two worked together to create a lovely chick robot that the emperor penguins immediately considered as one of their own.
Covered in soft fuzz (绒毛) just like a real baby emperor penguin, it is so believable that the chicks gather around it, just as they do with each other. The penguins not only accept the robot, but they even sing to it, and appear a little disappointed when the “chick” doesn't respond—an error the scientists plan to correct with the next group of robot penguins. Not surprisingly, the penguins show almost no stress as the lovely “spy” walks around the place, gathering all kinds of information about their day-to-day lives.
1. Once humans approach emperor penguins, they tend to .| A．show their shyness | B．feel disturbed and sad |
| C．take action more actively | D．dive into the sea right away |
| A．Still. | B．Strong. | C．Hungry. | D．Dynamic. |
| A．It has two creative working teams. |
| B．It has made less errors in gathering information. |
| C．It is more believable to get close to the real penguins. |
| D．It is more capable of communicating with the real penguins. |
| A．Fix new heart monitors to get accurate heart rates. |
| B．Develop their audio system and get them to sing. |
| C．Change their looks and make them look more lovely. |
| D．Improve the technique to restore their communicative function. |
6 . Whenever I order food for delivery, I play a little game to guess how many sets of tableware(餐具)the restaurant will provide with my meal. Sometimes restaurants will throw in two, three or four sets for just one order. But I rarely need any tableware at all, and the waste goes into the trash or collects dust in a kitchen drawer.
Researchers working with Chinese technology group Alibaba tried a simple approach to this problem. Instead of just wastefully doling out tableware, the company required food-delivery customers in some cities in China to pick how many sets of tableware they wanted to receive.The default (默认设置)was set at zero. The result, published today in the journal Science, was a 638% increase in the share of no-tableware orders. If applied across China, researchers found, the approach would save nearly 22 billion sets of plastic tableware. The study doesn’t cover carbon emissions, but it’s safe to say that the impact would be significant. It struck me as a useful reminder of the many low-hanging fruits across the economy that can cut waste, and emissions.
Nudging its customers cost Alibaba nothing more than a few hours of software engineering time and the impact it brought was immense. The concept of nudging comes from the field of behavioral economics known as nudge theory. It suggests that a slight action can encourage good human behavior without the need for policies that limit choice or economic punishment that raises the cost of bad behavior. To nudge customers to eat better, for example, a restaurant might organize its menu by listing healthy options first and bury unhealthy ones at the bottom. More recently, some big companies like Google have also begun to use nudges to advance climate objectives.
Behavioral economics broadly, and nudges more specifically, aren’t without controversy. Some might think it assigns consumers responsibility for addressing environmental challenges. But there is another way to look at it. In the absence of necessary policy—and policy is needed一companies can help encourage a widespread shift of consumer behavior.
And all of that behavioral change can add up. The International Energy Agency found in 2021 that small behavioral changes in energy consumption such as walking instead of driving and adjusting the thermostat could in total shave off 4% of global emissions. The more that companies can do to facilitate such changes, the better.
1. What did Alibaba do with tableware waste?| A．It stopped restaurants from handing out tableware. |
| B．It withdrew unused tableware from customers. |
| C．It updated the food -delivery device regularly. |
| D．It allowed picking tableware at customers’ demand. |
| A．Easily accessible things. | B．Fast increasing orders. |
| C．Exceptionally tough choices. | D．Widely accepted strategies. |
| A．It brings about economic loss. |
| B．It results from consumption policies. |
| C．It indicates small action changes behaviour. |
| D．It implies bad behaviour impacts economy. |
| A．Nudge theory affects behaviors. |
| B．Good behaviors boost economy. |
| C．Nudging helps build a greener world. |
| D．Behavioral economics benefits customers. |
7 . As water levels rise, causing severe erosion, many coastal Puerto Ricans are left watching their homes fall into the sea. A small software company in Puerto Rico called Terra Firma, founded in 2019 by island native Alejandro Mieses, is using satellite data to forecast accurate erosion pain points that might help Puerto Rican city planners better protect their island.
Terra Firma is dealing with the challenge of scattered (分散的) environmental data by creating a single database. Their user-friendly software allows scientists, construction professionals, and government agencies to model and predict environmental risks accurately. Similar to a powerful Google Maps, the software collects data from 1941 to the present, enabling users to predict erosion, landslides, flooding, solar exposure, and wind-related risks for up to 30 years.
This technology, once only available to well-funded projects, is now helping communities and individuals to protect their land. Since Hurricane Maria in 2017, Puerto Rico has focused on rebuilding a stronger island. With Terra Firma’s predictive data on flooding and erosion, city planners can better prepare for severe weather events.
One organization collaborating with Terra Firma is Blue Tide, a non-governmental group devoted to oceanic research and promoting the Blue Economy. After Hurricane Maria damaged coral reefs important for coastline protection, Blue Tide asked Terra Firma to design 3D-printed tiles. These unique tiles, made of clay, will help prevent erosion during future storms. They are shaped like cylinders (圆柱体), creating a nesting space for young coral, and over the next ten years, the clay is expected to dissolve (溶解), forming a complete organic coral reef.
This innovative approach aims to help Puerto Rico deal with erosion caused by storms, and Terra Firma plans to come up with more solutions as weather events get worse. According to Mieses, Terra Firma gives hope to Puerto Rico, which often faces hurricanes, by providing insights to better prepare for future storms and protect important infrastructure.
Currently, Terra Firma operates only in Puerto Rico, but they hope to expand to the southern United States in the next few years. Their work shows how technology can help deal with the effects of climate change on vulnerable coastal communities.
1. What do we know about Terra Firma’s software?| A．It depends on Google Maps. |
| B．It helps predict possible risks. |
| C．It is used only by governmental groups. |
| D．It demands specialized technical knowledge. |
| A．Terra Firma’s latest product. |
| B．Terra Firma’s expansion plans. |
| C．Terra Firma’s promising future. |
| D．Terra Firma’s partnership with Blue Tide. |
| A．Creative. | B．Ordinary. | C．Traditional. | D．Official. |
| A．To entertain. | B．To persuade. | C．To inform. | D．To relate. |
8 . We all love butterflies. Their beautiful wings attract us, and their presence lights up our garden. Well, that’s our view of butterflies, but have you ever wondered what plants think of them?
The butterflies’ eggs lie on the underside of the leaves. The eggs themselves don’t damage plants. However, upon coming into contact with the eggs, the plants become oversensitive. It means that once a plant recognizes a pest, it will cause death in the contacted plant part. When these dead leaves or partial leaf parts break away from the plant, the eggs on them fall off. Along with the hypersensitivity response, plants also produce something special, which can attract animals to cat the eggs, thus preventing damage in the future.
After the baby butterflies come out of their eggs, the caterpillar (毛虫) stage begins. Most caterpillars feed on the leaves of the plants, damaging some of the plants in your own garden. Incredibly, they are major plant pests that bring about major losses to farmers. The next stage is pupa (蛹). The caterpillars begin their change into an adult. They don’t depend on the energy that the leaves provide. Finally, they become adult butterflies that have wings and move from one plant to the other. They feed on the sweet liquid produced by flowers.
While on their search for food, the butterflies carry pollen (花粉) on their body. They are key pollinators that place pollen from one flower to another in ecosystem. Plants that have flowers will create some special features to draw these pollinators’ attention. Certain plants have flowers giving off smells that can charm butterflies when they are looking for a mate. Some plants even have flat flowers to assist butterflies when landing.
Butterflies aid in pollination during their final adult stage. Thus, they change into beneficial insects to plants. This change makes butterflies an important friend of plants, despite being a hated enemy in previous life cycle stages!
1. How does a plant respond to butterflies’ eggs?| A．It tries to get rid of them. | B．It tries to appeal to them. |
| C．It grows a little better with them. | D．It protects them from being eaten. |
| A．In the period of egg-laying. | B．In the period of pupa. |
| C．In the period of caterpillar. | D．In the period of adult. |
| A．Describe the process of pollination. |
| B．Show how flowers attract butterflies. |
| C．Stress the importance of pollination. |
| D．Explore how adult butterflies develop. |
| A．Why do flowers need butterflies’ pollination? |
| B．How do plants defend themselves from pests? |
| C．Are butterflies’ life cycles similar to the plants’? |
| D．Are butterflies beneficial or harmful to plants? |
9 . If you really want to go green, here’s good news:eating green is good for you. The very foods with a high carbon (碳) cost — meat, pork, dairy products, processed snacks — also tend to be filled with fat and calories. A green diet would be mostly vegetables and fruit, whole grains (全谷物), fish and lean meats (瘦肉) like chicken — a diet that is good for environment and your figure. Eating green can be healthier and beneficial to the climate.
It may be hard to believe that a meal in a fast-food restaurant produces more carbon than your trip to a faraway place. More than 37% of the world’s land is used for agriculture, much of which was once forested. Deforestation (砍伐森林) is a major source of carbon. The fertilizer (化肥) and machinery needed on a modern farm also have a large carbon footprint, as does the network of ships and trucks that brings the food from the farm to your plate.
The most efficient way to reduce the carbon footprint of your menu is to eat less meat, especially beef. Raising cattle takes a lot more energy than growing the equivalent (相等的) amount of grains, fruit or vegetables. What’s more, the majority of cattle in the US are fed on grain and loads of it — 670 million tons in 2002 — and the fertiliser used to feed that creates separate environmental problems.
Focus on eating lower on the food chain, with more plants and fruits and less meat and dairy. It’s simple. We can change today what goes into our bodies for the health of our planet and ourselves.
1. According to the passage, eating green will .| A．protect the animals from being killed |
| B．promote the development of agriculture |
| C．help us lose weight and keep self-confidence |
| D．be good for our health and make a change for the climate |
| A．Grains. | B．Fertiliser. | C．Machinery. | D．Deforestation. |
| A．use less fertiliser | B．plant more grains |
| C．stop raising the cattle | D．eat more vegetables than meat |
| A．The change of our menu. | B．How to reduce the carbon. |
| C．The benefits of eating green. | D．The ways of keeping healthy. |
10 . Slowly, a great white shark swims toward the boat and onto a specialized lift. Once the shark is lifted onto the boat, the research team from OCEARCH, a nonprofit that specializes in shark tracking, performs about a dozen procedures.
The work is part of OCEARCH’s efforts to study great whites in the western North Atlantic, a less well-researched population than others around the world. “Here we are at the location of Jaws, and yet we didn’t really know the animals as well as we should,” says Bob Hueter, the chief scientist.
Two young great whites tagged (打标签) in this way, Simon and Jekyll, recently became famous thanks to a social media post that pointed out the pair had been traveling together for 4,000 miles up the North American Atlantic coast. People began to wonder if the sharks might be friends, but the situation is not so simple.
The two males were first tagged off the coast of Georgia in December 2022．The electronic tags transmit (传送) data via satellite when one of the sharks surfaces, allowing researchers to follow the animals’ movements online in real time. When Simon and Jekyll reached Long Island, researchers noticed their tracks were remarkably similar. Then they arrived in Novia Scotia within practically the same day!
Although this was a one-time event, such a similar route for the two sharks over a longtime and distance is significant. Great whites are traditionally viewed as solitary (独行者), but researchers believe they may display some social behaviors like other shark species. One study found that white sharks may remain close while hunting to benefit from food. “Surprisingly, we see more and more that white sharks might fit into that social category,” says Yannis Papastamatiou, a biologist at Florida International University.
However, Salvador Jorgensen, a marine ecologist at California State University, thinks there may be other reasons why the pair followed the same route.
1. What is the purpose of OCEARCH’s efforts?| A．To further study great whites. | B．To attract wildlife lovers. |
| C．To control the number of sharks. | D．To protect natural habitats. |
| A．To distinguish them from other species. | B．To track their travel routes. |
| C．To enable them to swim long distances. | D．To guarantee their safety. |
| A．The average size of the species has declined. |
| B．Many animals like to live in warmer weather. |
| C．The sharks reached Novia Scotia as expected. |
| D．White sharks tend to be social animals at times. |
| A．The patience the pair showed. | B．The hardship the sharks underwent. |
| C．Other factors guiding the pair’s behavior. | D．Coastal waters appealing to white sharks. |
