Microplastics: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
People joke that someone suffering from paranoia (妄想症) sees danger everywhere, thinking someone is out to get him. In the case of microplastics, you don’t need to have paranoia to be worried about them being everywhere, because they basically are!
What exactly are microplastics? They are particles (颗粒) of any type of plastic that are less than 5 millimeters in diameter (直径). They have resulted from the plastic pollution widespread in the world today.
When plastic is exposed to environmental forces, it breaks down into these tiny particles, which, in turn, do not disappear but continue to exist for hundreds or even thousands of years. Every piece of plastic that has ever been made is still on Earth today, except for what has been burned. Often mistaken for food, plastics and microplastics in oceans and on beaches are often consumed by marine animals, which is harmful. Research has linked microplastics to cancer and other problems in animals.
Whatever you think about these particles, taking them in is easier than you think. When you heat food in a plastic dish in the microwave, microplastics get into your food. The water from a plastic water bottle contains the particles as well. After taking surveys of microplastics in air, water and seafood, scientists estimate that people may easily be eating 5 grams of plastic a week. Researchers don’t know yet if or how this will affect humans. Microplastics have been found in human tissue samples, and no one yet knows how long they stay in the human body or what problems may arise.
Not until the amount of plastic waste in the world is reduced will microplastics decrease. So, while the evidence is still missing of the effect microplastics have on people’s health, reusing and recycling plastic is a no-brainer.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________For nearly 20 years, natural disasters yearly affected about 300 million people and destroyed more than 3 million buildings, causing great damage to China’s economy. Therefore, the disaster prevention and reduction is an important issue for China. To save lives and reduce losses, the Chinese government has taken the following effective measures.
As an important part, the management on disaster information has been strengthened. So far, China has realized the 24-hour monitoring (监控) of disasters all over the country and established an early warning system. These are particularly important to save lives, especially in the case of an earthquake. According to Chengdu High-tech Disaster Reduction Institute, even a three-second early warning can reduce deaths and injuries by 14 percent.
Besides, the Chinese government has been raising the public’s awareness of disaster prevention and reduction in an all-round way. Disaster-related knowledge has been included in school textbooks, and general education about disaster prevention and reduction has been given to the public. For example, in the wake of Wenchuan earthquake, the Chinese government decided to make May 12th “Disaster Prevention and Reduction Day”. Every year, a series of publicity activities is organized with rich content and different forms.
Apart from that, the Chinese government has improved social disaster relief system. Concerning relief efforts, the Chinese government has set up a social donation system. This encourages all industries of society to make donations. In addition, related volunteer service has been developed. Under the guidance of the Chinese government, non-governmental organizations, volunteers and social workers all actively join in the cause. They cooperate well with the government in rescue work, such as medical work and supply delivery.
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Are we greening our cities, or just greenwashing them?
Architecture and urban design is chasing a green fever dream. Everywhere you look, there are plans for “sustainable” buildings, futuristic eco-cities and aquaponic farms on the roof, each promising to add a green touch to the modern city.
All of these are surely good ideas at some level. They are trying to repair some of the damage our lifestyle has done to the planet. But, despite the rhetoric of reuniting the city with nature, today’s green urban dream is too often about bringing a technologically controlled version of nature into the city and declaring the problem solved, rather than looking at the deeper causes of our environmental and urban problems.
One of the most striking examples is Apple’s “spaceship” campus now under construction in Silicon Valley. Though it seems to be sustainable and energy efficient—80 percent of its 175-acre site is preserved for landscaping, it is by any measure a huge, expensive and massively resource-intensive project. As a suburban white-collar workplace, it must include vast garages for 13,000 Apple employees. Thus, it will leave no smaller environmental footprint than a traditional office park.
Designing a perfect green building or eco-city isn’t enough to save the world. Although our buildings, like our cars, have been inefficient environmentally, architecture isn’t directly responsible for humanity’s disastrous environmental impacts. An economic system based on the destruction of nature is the real problem. No green building can help us repair the ecological damage we have caused, nor can any number of aquaponic farms bring us back to the real nature.
Instead of adding “nature” to the urban lifestyle, architects may work to design better relationships between our cities and nature, and to promote just relationships between the people in them.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Microplastics in Water — a Wake-up Call for All of Us
Today researchers announced that they have found tiny pieces of plastic in water samples from around the world. These pieces are called microplastics and are so small that they are invisible to the naked eye and are very difficult to remove from the water. When in the water, they are swallowed by fish and other animals and then enter the food chain.
Even more concerning is the fact that the plastic has also been found in drinking water across the world. This means that we are drinking plastic every day. Scientists do not know what level of harm this will cause us in the future.
Microplastics come from a number of different sources, in particular from washing and drying synthetic (non-natural) clothing and from cosmetics and cleaning products, such as toothpaste and face washes. Microplastics are even found in the air outside and at our homes.
Almost every country across the world agrees that we cannot continue using so much plastic in our lives. We need to find a solution to remove microplastics from our oceans. We also need to introduce new taxes and other means to encourage companies to choose environment-friendly ingredients and recyclable packaging for their products.
We need to take personal responsibility, too. We all have the freedom to choose how we spend our money and what kids of business and products we support. Let’s work together to protect our environment, both now and for the future.
Remember: Reduce — Reuse — Recycle. (244 words)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On the morning of July 14, 1960, the young woman Jane Goodall arrived at the Gombe National Park. She had brought a tent, a cup, a pair of binoculars and her mother. A group of local men met the strange pair of women and helped carry their camping equipment. Then, around 5 pm, somebody reported that they had seen a chimpanzee. Straight away, Jane set off into the forest to find her first chimpanzee.
After many months of difficult work she made three important discoveries: chimpanzees ate meat, they used tools to get food and they also made tools, Jane wrote her findings in diaries and she began to publish articles in journals such as National Geographic magazine. After a while, scientists and experts started reading her studies and Jane was offered a place at a university. After more years of research she became Doctor Jane Goodall in 1966.
During the seventies, Jane found that chimpanzees can also be violent. She wrote in one diary,“ I thought the chimps were nicer than we are. But it is proved that they are not. They can be just as awful”
A different problem developed in Gombe in the 1980s. Because of the progress of clearing forests, there were only about a hundred chimpanzees living in Gombe by the end of ten years. Jane realized that something had to be done so that chimpanzees and humans could live together, so she set about helping the local community to grow more trees in the region.
After 1989, Jane left her career in Gombe. Firstly, she started travelling and giving lectures. She protested (反对) about the cruelty to chimpanzees used in medical research laboratories. She also set up reserves for chimps which survived.
Nowadays, she spends about 300 days a year giving interviews, talks and lectures, meeting with government officials and raising money for the Jane Goodall Institute, which continues her research. She has very little spare time left but she still spends part of every year in the forest in Gombe, watching her chimpanzees.
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6 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.
There are many reasons why some cats are bad-tempered; their temperament can be influenced by their upbringing or they are simply born that way. However, even the sweetest, most affectionate cats can suddenly become bad-tempered and behave out of character. According to veterinarian Dr Katrina Warren, the problem can generally be solved, but you’ll need to look for underlying issues.
Changes in a cat’s behaviour can often be explained by a health problem. Pain can cause cats to behave very differently, and it’s easy to mistake a problem as behavioural, when in fact it is medical. Should you observe a significant change in your cat’s behaviour, then a visit to the vet is the best place to start? Watch out for changes in eating, drinking or litter-box habits. Also hiding and avoiding being touched. Be sure to report all changes to your vet. There are many cat health problems that can be readily treated to ease symptoms and pain for your cat.
It pays to remember that cats don’t like to share or queue. Sharing of ‘resources’ such as litter trays and foodbowls can cause stress and anxiety for many cats. It’s always a good idea to provide each cat with their own litter box, food, water bowls and bed as a minimum. One litter box for each cat plus a spare is even better, as are multiple sleeping spots and extra scratching posts. A lack of space to hide from or avoid other cats, competition for territory and lack of individual attention can also add to household friction. If your cat is feeling anxious, offering it an elevated place to sit, such as a climbing tree, can be helpful.
Moving to a new house, the arrival of a new baby, new pets and other types of change can seriously impact cat behaviour. Cats are creatures of habit and tend to be territorial, so a change in routine may cause them to react in a number of ways, including withdrawal or aggression. Try to keep your cat’s environment as calm as possible and make sure there are places where they feel safe. Sometimes confining them to a single room with a litter box, bedding and home comforts can help them to settle.
Some cats simply do not like being touched and handled. These are often cats that received limited socialisation with humans when they were kittens. These cats do best in a quiet household without children and need understanding and patience to help build their confidence.
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On 15 September 2016, Typhoon Meranti, stated to be the world’s strongest typhoon so far this year, made landfall in Xiang’an district of Xiamen City at 3:05 a.m. Thursday, causing widespread damage. Chinese state media reported one death and one person missing, and thousands of people were evacuated (撤离) from their homes, as high winds and rain shattered windows on tall buildings, knocked down trees and disrupted water supplies in China’s Fujian province, causing a widespread blackout in the coastal city of Xiamen.
“The winds and rain got extremely loud after 3 a.m. The cracking sound of windows and tree branches were also scary. The power went out in the shop several times,” Su Binglin, a night-shift shop assistant at a 24-hour convenient store told state-run Xinhua news agency. He said he had to use a metal plate to strengthen the shop door to prevent it from shattering. He also used boxes filled with mineral water to consolidate the plate.
At around 6 AM, the winds abated. Streets in Xiamen are scattered with glass shards, broken tree branches and blown down billboards. “It is so wretched. Many trees by road sides are fallen, and there are also blocking traffic,” Hu Rong, a delivery man said. “All the trees on both sides of the street have fallen down. You can hardly pass through. The water is very, very high. No vehicle smaller than mine could possibly pass,” said Xiamen local resident.
The Xiamen Power Supply company said the typhoon has caused severe damages to the power network in Xiamen, leading to mass blackout. The electricity supply was also disrupted in Xiamen’s outlying islands and with the typhoon further moving inland, more power outages are likely.
While the full impact of Meranti is still unknown, it’s likely much of the damage is beyond repair. Meranti will continue to lose strength as it pushes inland and up towards China’s commercial capital of Shanghai, but will bring heavy rain.
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Green is an important colour in nature. It is the colour of grass and the leaves on trees, the colour of most growing plants.
Sometimes the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished.
Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a “green thumb”. The expression and a similar one, “green fingers”, come from the 1990s. A person with “green thumb” seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grown quickly and well. You could say that the woman next door has a “green thumb” when her garden continues to produce long after your plants have died.
You may wish to have a “green thumb”, but you surely do not wish to be a “greenhorn”. A “greenhorn” is a person who has no experience, who is new to a situation.
In the 15th century, a “greenhorn” was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century or so later a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in a battle. By the 18th century a greenhorn had the meaning it has today—a person who is new in a job.
Green is also the colour used to describe the powerful emotion, jealousy. The “green-eyed monster” is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is the name given by Shakespeare in his play Othello to jealousy.
When someone talks about the “green-eyed monster”, he is talking about the unpleasant feeling a person has when he thinks he has lost the person he loves to someone else. You could say that a person has been suffering from the “green-eyed monster” ever since his girlfriend began going out with someone else.
In most places in the world, a green light is a signal to go ahead. A green light traffic signal means your vehicle may continue on.
In everyday speech a “green light” means approval to continue with a program or action. A government agency may be given the “green light” to go ahead with a project after the government approves it.
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Speed is very important in avalanche(雪崩)rescues. There will be narrow chances to escape if a skier is buried for 30 minutes or more. Now that 30 minutes can mean the difference between life and death for a skier lost on a snowy mountain, most people would depend on life-saving dogs.
Noble works as a rescue team member in a vacationland, California. He tells us, “Dogs run fastest when an accident happens.” His partner Wylee, a life-saving dog, can search an accident scene the size of a football field. It only needs 5 to 10 minutes. However, 5 rescue team members have to spend a couple of hours in the same area.
Apart from its excellent speed, Noble chooses Wylee as his partner partly because it weighs only about half what other kinds of dogs weigh. Rescue team members have to carry their dogs to search sites in addition to carrying 60-pound backpacks with food, water and other equipment. The dogs need the lift so that they don’t get tired before they start working.
There aren’t adequate data on how often dogs take part in avalanche searches or how often they are able to help local people in danger. But the dogs don’t save many people. That’s because there aren’t many to save. A quarter of people in danger die from serious injuries before the snow stops moving. Of those buried who aren’t killed by injuries, half die within 20 minutes. If there is a chance of rescue, though, the dogs also cut search time for the remains.
A famous director wanted to see how the life-saving dogs worked, so she volunteered to spend part of an hour in a roomy snow cave waiting to be found. She was armed with a radio and was wearing several layers to stay warm. After being rescued by Wylee, she said, “I can’t talk like a survivor, but it was definitely a direct way to see how well trained those dogs are.”
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Antarctica is the center of important scientific research. However, with an increasing number of day, scientists have to leave their work to greet a group of tourists who are taking a vacation in this continent of ice. Even though their desire to enjoy this vast and beautiful landscape can be appreciated, Antarctica should be closed to tourists.
Tourists in Antarctica can damage scientific research and hurt the environment. When tourist groups come, they take scientists away from their research. The work is difficult and some of the projects can be damaged by such simple mistakes as opening the wrong door or knocking against a small piece of equipment. In addition, tourists in Antarctica can also hurt the environment. Members of Greenpeace, one of the world’s leading environmental organizations, complain tourists leave trash on beaches and disturb the plants and animals. In a place as frozen as Antarctica, it can take one hundred years for a plant to grow back.
The need to protect Antarctica from tourists becomes even greater when we consider the fact that there is no government here. Antarctica belongs to no country. Who is making sure that the penguins, plants and sea are safe? No one is responsible. It is true that the number of tourists who visit Antarctica each year is smaller compared to the number of those who visit other places. However, these other places are controlled by local governments. They have an interest in protecting their natural environments. Who is concerned about the environment of Antarctica? The scientist, to be sure, but not necessarily the tour companies that make money from sending people south.
If we don’t protect Antarctica from tourism, there may be serious consequences for us all. We might lose the results of scientific research projects. It’s possible that these results could teach us something important about the causes and effects of climate change. Some fragile plants and animals might die and disappear forever. This could damage the balance of animal and plant life in Antarctica. We know from past experience that when things get unbalanced, harmful changes can occur.
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