1 . Kenya has been at the forefront(前沿)of the global war on plastic since the government banned single-use plastics in protected areas in June 2020. Unfortunately, the preventive measures have barely received attention. Hundreds of tons of industrial and consumer polymer waste continue to get dumped into landfills daily. However, if 29-year-old Nzambi Matee has her way the unsightly plastic heaps(堆)will soon be transformed into colorful bricks.
The materials engineer’s seeking to find a practical solution to control plastic pollution began in 2017. She quit her job and set up a small lab in her mother’s backyard. It took her nine months to produce the first brick and even longer to convince a partner to help build the machinery to make them. But the determined eco-entrepreneur was confident in her idea and did not give up.
She says, “I wanted to use my education to handle plastic waste pollution. But I was very clear that the solution had to be practical, sustainable, and affordable. The best way to do this was by channeling the waste into the construction space and finding the most efficient and affordable material to build homes.” Her company produces over 1,500 bricks a day. The pavers are made using a mix of plastic products that cannot be reprocessed or recycled.
The collected plastic is mixed with sand heated at very high temperatures, and compressed(压缩)into bricks that vary in color and thickness. The resulting product is stronger, lighter, and about 30 percent cheaper than concrete bricks. More importantly, it helps repurpose the lowest quality of plastic. “There is that waste they cannot process anymore; they cannot recycle. That is what we get.” Matee says.
Matee is not nearly done. Her dream is to reduce the mountain of trash to just a hill by increasing production and expanding her offerings. She says, “The more we recycle the plastic, the more we produce affordable housing, the more we created more employment for the youth.”
1. What does the underlined sentence in paragraph imply?| A．Plastic waste hasn’t attracted enough attention. | B．Matee’s idea has been widely accepted. |
| C．Colorful bricks are in huge demand. | D．Matee’s method can be effective if adopted. |
| A．Generous and ambitious. | B．Confident and grateful |
| C．Creative and determined. | D．Optimistic and modest. |
| A．To tackle plastic pollution. | B．To support the government. |
| C．To create job opportunities. | D．To build cheaper houses. |
| A．Kenya: Pioneer in Banning Plastic Single-use Plastics |
| B．Nzambi Matee: Innovator in Solving Plastic Waste |
| C．Mix of Plastic Products: A New Construction Material |
| D．Plastic Recycling: A Creative Solution to Pollution |
2 . Enthusiastic travelers may have already heard of “regenerative tourism” along with the idea of sustainability(持续性). Whenever we travel—no matter where or how—we are leaving an impact on the environment and the world surrounding us. While sustainable tourism takes positive steps toward limiting that footprint in order for us to protect environments for future generations, regenerative tourism takes this idea one step further.
Regenerative tourism means “the idea that tourists should leave a place in better condition than it was before”. For example, when visiting a garden, each person plants a tree to further build the environment instead of leaving no trace(痕迹).
In a way, regenerative tourism involves travelers to be active in their acts of sustainability. Another great example of this is any act of clean-up. This is especially popular on major beaches and in parks where there’s always rubbish to pick up and waste to remove. While travelers certainly don’t need to join in a community clean-up while on vacation (unless they want to), the idea of being involved is very much the same.
Joining in regenerative tourism has personal and environmental benefits. Jeffrey Skibins, an associate professor in entertainment and park management, says, “Many tourists report feelings of deep personal satisfaction and a stronger connection to nature. Additionally, conservation (保护) behaviors enable tourists to develop life-long learning around these issues and continue these behaviors at home.”
Regenerative means “to renew and revive”, which is exactly what many travelers are doing to help environments recover. Depending on where one plans to travel, there might be more ways to help than originally realized. By further encouraging damaged environments to be renewed through travel rather than being negatively impacted, we can slowly help to rebuild the world’s most beautiful landscapes.
1. What is the aim of regenerative tourism?| A．To further improve the environment. | B．To limit the footprint of human beings. |
| C．To keep a place in its original condition. | D．To dramatically promote global economy. |
| A．Designing a bright future for our life. | B．Taking part in a community clean-up. |
| C．Renewing our ideas about environments. | D．Getting active in the acts of sustainability. |
| A．It makes travelers closely connected. | B．It gives personal satisfaction to travelers. |
| C．It leaves a short-term effect on tourists. | D．It helps tourists improve their learning ability. |
| A．Regenerative tourism invites travelers to do their part |
| B．Travelling patterns make a difference to the environment |
| C．Conservation behavior enjoys its popularity among households |
| D．The idea of sustainability takes root in all enthusiastic travelers |
3 . Look out the window or walk over to a patch of soil near your home. It could be reddish brown, black, dark gray or even the colour of rich, dark chocolate. If it’s moist enough, run your hands through it. It may separate into thick clumps that can hold water and later release it. With a few exceptions—such as desert sites—this is how good soil behaves.
In fact, the number of microscopic organisms that live in a shovelful of rich garden soil exceeds the number of plants and animals inhabiting the entire aboveground Amazon rainforest. And the Amazon is known for having more plants and animals than any other land-based habitat.
Soil is what supports life on Earth. Most people give it little thought, but it feeds us and the ecosystems around us. It is where countless species make their homes. It collects water, pulls pollutants from the air and helps support the planet’s atmosphere. Soil is one of Mother Nature’s unsung heroes.
And while most soil looks like it’s static, just sitting there unmoving, it actually hosts plenty of activities. Its earthworms may be digging tunnels. Worms are weightlifters. But they aren’t the only ones making changes. Other creatures below ground are too tiny to see with the unaided eye. These include one celled creatures called protozoa (单细胞生物). They improve soil by eating bacteria and releasing nitrogen, which helps plants grow.
And then there are all those bacteria. Most people think of them as dangerous. In soils, they not only serve as prey to beneficial protozoa, but also perform an environmental service. They help recycle dead plant parts and animal tissues into nutrients. They even turn some pollutants in soil and water into more of the nutrients that can sustain the diverse species that make up lively ecosystems beneath our feet.
1. What’s the purpose of mentioning the Amazon rainforest in the second paragraph?| A．To indicate the rich species in the Amazon rainforest. |
| B．To introduce the rich soil in the Amazon rainforest. |
| C．To stress the variety of microscopic organisms in the rich soil. |
| D．To illustrate biodiversity aboveground the Amazon rainforest. |
| A．Soil is something that supports life on Earth. |
| B．Soil provides a variety of benefits to our planet. |
| C．Soil determines the quality of our ecosystems. |
| D．Soil is the Mother Nature’s unsung hero. |
| A．The soil in the desert behaves as well as good soil does. |
| B．Most people give thought to soil for it supports life on Earth. |
| C．Most soil indeed hosts plenty of activities though it looks quiet. |
| D．The bacteria in soils almost do no good to the environment. |
| A．Categories of the Soil on Earth | B．The Disappearance of the Rich Soil |
| C．Biodiversity in the Amazon Rainforest | D．Healthy Soil Supports Life on Our Planet |
4 . In 1957, English scientist James Lovelock invented the Electron Capture Detector, an inexpensive, sensitive device used to help measure the spread of poisonous man-made compounds (化合物) in the environment. The device provided the scientific foundations of Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, a push for the environmental movement. It also helped provide the basis for regulations in the United States and in other nations that banned harmful chemicals like DDT and PCBs.
Later, his discovery that chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs)—compounds that are used in refrigerators and air conditioners—were present in measurable concentrations in the atmosphere led to the discovery of a hole in the ozone layer (臭氧层). He also explained that they posed no possible danger to the planet. A year after his paper in Nature, Mario Molina of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and F. Sherwood Rowland of the University of California at Irvine published a paper in the same journal detailing how sensitive the Earth’s ozone layer is to CFCs. In 1995 they were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work in reminding the world of the thinning of the ozone layer. Lovelock later called his conclusion a mistake.
But Dr Lovelock may be most widely known for his Gaia theory that the Earth acts as a “living organism” that can “control its temperature and chemistry in a state of comfortable stability (稳定性).” As an expert on the chemical composition of the atmospheres of Earth and Mars, Dr Lovelock wondered why Earth’s atmosphere was so stable. He hypothesized (假定)that something must control heat, oxygen, nitrogen, and other ingredients. He presented his theory in 1967. That summer, the novelist William Golding, his friend, suggested the name Gaia, after the Greek goddess of the Earth.
The hypothesis may never have moved into the scientific mainstream without the contribution of Lynn Margulis, an American microbiologist. In the early 1970s and in the decades that followed, she worked with Dr Lovelock on specific studies to support this concept. Since then. Dr Lovelock’s theory of a self-controlling Earth has been considered important to understanding the causes and consequences of global warming.
1. What is Paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．The functions of man-made compounds. |
| B．The importance of banning harmful chemicals. |
| C．The influence of the Electron Capture Detector. |
| D．The working principles of the Electron Capture Detector. |
| A．It was impossible to find CFCs in thin air. |
| B．CFCs did little harm to the Earth. |
| C．It was impossible to measure CFCs in the air. |
| D．CFCs had little effect on cooling refrigerators. |
| A．Earth’s atmosphere remains stable. |
| B．Golding mentioned a Greek goddess. |
| C．Both Earth and Mars have atmospheres. |
| D．Living things can exist in the atmosphere. |
| A．She became well-known because of Lovelock. |
| B．She first discovered the causes of global warming. |
| C．She helped Lovelock make his theory widely accepted. |
| D．She proposed a new idea based on Lovelock’s Gaia theory. |
5 . The world’s longest cave system is an enormous network of 420 miles of twists and turns, with limestone (石灰岩) falling from the ceilings in drops.
Mammoth Cave National Park preserves this unique and historical natural wonder. As large as the limestone cave system is, park officials, estimate there may be another 600 miles of cave passageways that have yet to be explored. The incredible rock formations have resulted in the park being recognized as a World Heritage Site, thanks to its extraordinary size and scientific importance –– making it one of only 13 natural US sites with that title.
The caves were created naturally by the process of limestone wearing away. Rain and rivers slowly break down and shape soft limestone, which creates the vast underground network. Not only are they an amazing destination to visit, but the system also provides drinking water for roughly 40% of the US population, and they’re of historical significance too.
The caves act as a time capsule that preserves over 5,000 years of human history — and the caves’ first explorers were Native Americans, who mined the upper levels of Mammoth Cave. Thanks to the cave system’s atmosphere and natural protection from any kind of human disturbance, the archaeological (考古的) sites have been left in great shape.
Mammoth Cave was established as a national park thanks to strong local support. Back in the 1920s, Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work created the Southern Appalachian National Park Commission in 1925 to survey proposed park sites, including the caves. After years of work acquiring the land for the park, as well as building roads, trails (小径), and public facilities, Mammoth Cave National Park was established on July 1, 1941. The park now receives around 2 million visitors a year, with roughly a quarter taking a tour of the caves –– everything from a cultural tour to the more adventurous climbing tours on offer. The cave supports more than 130 wildlife species, such as the eyeless cavefish, which has adapted to the lightless environment by no longer growing eyes, and the cave crayfish.
1. What has made Mammoth Cave National Park a World Heritage Site?| A．The wildlife species. | B．The rock formations. |
| C．The cave passageways. | D．The scientific discovery. |
| A．They are an amazing destination to visit. |
| B．They were first explored by Native Americans. |
| C．They provide drinking water for the Americans. |
| D．They preserve human history over 5000 years. |
| A．It took a lot of work to establish the park. |
| B．Local people donated the land for the park. |
| C．Around 2 million people visit the caves annually. |
| D．The site of the park was decided by the secretary. |
| A．Taking cultural and adventurous tours |
| B．Preserving a unique and historical wonder |
| C．Exploring the world’s longest cave system |
| D．Establishing Mammoth Cave National Park |
6 . So many well-fed cats have achieved fame in today’s world of social media that it is difficult to imagine a time when the funny behavior of cats went largely unrecorded. Fortunately, creative types have long seemed to enjoy their company and some past literary greats were only too happy to put pen to paper in celebration of their favourite cats.
Dr Samuel Johnson, is best remembered today for compiling (编纂) the first modern English Dictionary. The entry for cats is hardly flattering: “A domestic animal that catches mice, commonly considered by naturalists the lowest order of the lionlike species.” Yet, Johnson is known to have been devoted to his own pets, particularly Hodge, whom he once famously described as “a very fine cat indeed”.
During the Bronte sisters’ childhood, the three famous 19th-century novelists enjoyed the company of a black cat, named Tom. Charlotte included a description of a pet in Jane Eyre, while Emily wrote an essay in French in praise of cats entitled Le Chat. The title character of Anne’s first novel, Agnes Grey, decides her future husband is the man for her when he rescues a cat.
Edgar Allan Poe’s story, The Black Cat, is so vivid in its description of animal cruelty that it is difficult to imagine its author as an animal lover. Yet, in real life Allan and his cat Catterina were so obviously devoted to each other that, in 1849, they passed away at the exact same moment even though they were many miles apart.
Cats appear in some of the US humorist and novelist’s best-known works such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain’s favourite cat was Bambino, whom he taught to switch off the lamp at night and took great delight in having it show off this party trick when visitors came to the house.
In the early 1940s, Hemingway moved to Cuba. Boise became the author’s constant companion. Hemingway later featured a cat of the same name in his novel, Islands in the Stream, which shared many characteristics of his real-life cat including a fondness for hunting fruit rats.
1. What is Paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．The majority of people recorded their pet cats. |
| B．Some past creative people liked cats and wrote about them. |
| C．Most of the funny behavior of cats was not recorded. |
| D．Modern people like to show off their cats on social media. |
| A．The cat in the entry is vividly described. |
| B．The description makes the cat attractive. |
| C．The definition of the cat is objective. |
| D．The entry for the cat is eye-catching. |
| A．Devoted. | B．Adorable. | C．Merciless. | D．Reliable. |
| A．They enjoyed the company of their pet cats. |
| B．They took great delight in showing off their cats. |
| C．They named the cats in their works after their pet cats. |
| D．They achieved fame because of the cats they wrote about. |
7 . Humans’ voice sounds more pleasant than that of primates (灵长类动物) because we don’t have vocal membranes (声带膜), a new study suggests.
Humans have vocal cords (声带), muscles in the top of the throat, which vibrate (振动) to produce sound. That unique part helps people control their voices well enough to produce sounds that form spoken language. However, unlike all the other studied primates, humans don’t have vocal membranes.
To find out how vocal membranes affected spoken sounds, a team from Kyoto University took throats from monkeys that had died of natural causes and put the parts into devices, pushing air through the throats to see how the vocal cords and membranes would react. In the experiment, the researchers found that their vocal membranes and vocal cords vibrated together.
Researchers said these vocal membranes make it harder for other primates to control the voices they make. Without these membranes, humans’ vocal source is more balanced, allowing better voice control and production of long and balanced voices. A key thing that distinguishes human speech from animal sounds is our control over the sounds we make.
In humans, that sort of unpleasant voices can happen when we put extreme amounts of pressure on our voice, like baby crying and adult screaming. But those are rare cases. Researchers also said that our mouths and tongues could help control the voices. They are the basis of human languages.
1. Why does the human voice sound less unpleasant?| A．Humans have no vocal membranes. |
| B．Vocal cords of humans are very narrow. |
| C．Muscles in the human throat can hardly be controlled. |
| D．Humans’ brains are structured differently from other primates. |
| A．By exploring the history of human evolution. |
| B．By referring to previous researches on primates. |
| C．By observing monkeys’ vocal cords and membranes. |
| D．By comparing the voice patterns of different animals. |
| A．A doubt about the research process. |
| B．The importance of the research findings. |
| C．Further explanation of the research results. |
| D．The potential application of the research methods. |
| A．Why humans cry or scream? |
| B．How primates make sounds? |
| C．How primates develop languages? |
| D．Why humans’ voice sounds pleasant? |
8 . From the moon to Mars, scientists have been looking for water —the key to life —in the solar system for decades. Recently, they have turned to Jupiter (木星)!
On April 14, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) JUICE spacecraft successfully lifted off from French Guiana in South America. JUICE, short for “Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer”, will collect data from Jupiter and its three moons, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
The three moons are believed to have big oceans of liquid water under their icy shells. According to ESA, the water on these moons could be as much as six times the amount in Earth’s oceans. The mission “will change our understanding of the solar system”, wrote Scientific American.
In 1998, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft found that Europa might send water as far as 160 kilometers into space. That gave scientists the idea of studying the icy moons of Jupiter.
The oceans under these moons are likely to be tens of kilometers deep. But they are also trapped under tens of kilometers of ice, making it very difficult to study them. Although JUICE cannot land on the surface, it has lots of high-tech equipment to study the moon’s environment, including spectral imaging (光谱成像) tools and radar. They could give more data on things like the thickness of the oceans, their salt content, and their distance from the icy shells above, reported Phys.org.
“The main goal is to understand whether there are habitable (可居住的) environments among those icy moons and around a giant planet like Jupiter,” JUICE team member Olivier Witasse said during a press conference on April 6.
1. What do we know about JUICE?| A．It left for Jupiter from the US. | B．It got its name from how it looks. |
| C．It will become one of Jupiter’s moons. | D．It will collect data from Jupiter and its moons. |
| A．cover a small part of its surface |
| B．all come from its icy shell |
| C．have been thrown into space |
| D．be as much as six times the amount in Earth’s oceans |
| A．wandered | B．wept | C．kept | D．declined |
| A．find a possible way to solve the water shortage on Earth |
| B．find out if it is possible for life to live on Jupiter’s moons |
| C．explore if Jupiter has living things similar to human beings |
| D．test ways of keeping water on Europa, Ganymede and Callisto |
9 . Every winter, Siberian cranes (白鹤) migrate from northeast Siberia in Russia to Poyang Lake in Jiangxi province, China. About 95 percent of the birds spend the season there. However, climate change has endangered the birds’ habitats.
“In some years, the Poyang Lake experiences floods, while in others, it experiences droughts. Both of these create food shortages in the cranes’ habitat,” Qian Fawen, a researcher from the National Bird Banding Center of China, told China Daily.
To help deal with the problem, the local government has built 70 hectares of lotus roots (莲藕) in Nanchang to provide food during the winter for the cranes. The birds’ population has risen from about 3,000 to more than 5,000 over the past 20 years, according to Qian.
Over the years, China has worked hard to protect migratory birds and wetlands. Known as the “Earth’s kidneys (肾脏)”, wetlands play a key role in cleaning water, preventing floods, and helping with biodiversity. The Wetlands Protection Law was introduced on June 1, 2022. It stops building work on important national wetlands and bans activities such as overgrazing (过度放牧) and giving out wastewater.
Thanks to these efforts, China has reported more birds wintering in the nation’s wetlands. In February, black-faced spoonbills (黑脸琵鹭), an endangered species, were seen wintering at Dongting Lake after disappearing for five years. Last December, Shanghai Chongming Dongtan Bird National Nature Reserve recorded more than 2,900 tundra swans up from some 1,000 seen during the winter of 2021.
1. The bird population is rising in Nanchang because ________.| A．the city offers more food for birds | B．extreme weather hasn’t hit the city |
| C．the city becomes increasingly warm | D．climate change doesn’t affect the place |
| A．Saving endangered animal species. | B．Looking after water and biodiversity. |
| C．Providing shade for migratory birds. | D．Avoiding overgrazing and water pollution. |
| A．when the Wetlands Protection Law was introduced |
| B．why the bird population in Nanchang rises quickly |
| C．how China deals with water pollution and overpopulation |
| D．what China has done to protect migratory birds and wetlands |
| A．Migratory birds add biodiversity to China. |
| B．New bird species leave China for winter. |
| C．China has completed its wetlands protection. |
| D．China’s environmental protection is successful. |
10 . Four Places Named After Scientists in Antarctica
There are many scientific breakthroughs made by women in Antarctic. Here are four landmarks in Antarctica and the female pioneers they’re named for.
Jones Terrace (梯田)
The ice-free terrace in eastern Antarctica’s Victoria Land bears Jones’ name. In 1969, geochemist Lois M. Jones led the first all-female research team from the U.S. to work in Antarctica. Jones and her team studied chemical weathering in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, an ice-free area of Antarctica. Through chemical analyses of rocks they had collected, Jones and her team discovered many geochemical characteristics of the valley’s ice-covered lakes.
Mount Fiennes
8,202-foot-high Mount Fiennes, located on Antarctica’s largest island — Alexander Island — is named for Ginny Fiennes. She established and maintained 80-foot-tall radio towers in the Antarctic. In 1985, Fiennes became the first female who was invited to join the Antarctic Club, a British supper club open to individuals who have spent extended time in the Antarctic region.
Francis Peak
The 3,727-foot-tall peak on Antarctica’s Adelaide Island is named after Dame Jane Francis, who is the first female director of the British Antarctic Survey, the national polar research institute of the UK. Her collection of fossils on Seymour Island helped conclude in a 2021 paper that Antarctica’s abundant plant fossils indicate the continent once had a much warmer climate than it currently does.
Peden Cliffs
Peden Cliffs near Antarctica’s Marie Byrd Land are proof of the labor of Irene Peden. She was the first American female scientist to both live and work in the Antarctic, where she used radio waves to study ice sheets. Peden and her team determined how very low frequency radio waves spread over long polar distances by measuring pathways in the ice. They also used varying radio wave frequencies to measure the thickness of Antarctica’s ice sheets.
1. Which place is named after a builder of radio towers in the Antarctic?| A．Jones Terrace. | B．Mount Fiennes. |
| C．Francis Peak. | D．Peden Cliffs. |
| A．Lois M. Jones. | B．Ginny Fiennes. |
| C．Dame Jane Francis. | D．Irene Peden. |
| A．She could judge the thickness of Antarctica’s ice sheets. |
| B．She discovered a lot of ice-covered lakes in the Antarctic. |
| C．She was the first female American to explore the Antarctic. |
| D．She correctly measured the spreading speed of radio waves. |
