Many of us might not give a second thought to dropping a small piece of litter. After all, if it is so small, it cannot possibly be that harmful, can it? In today's world, the answer is certainly “Yes it can!” With the growing use of plastic bags and the rising number of smokers, there is more litter being produced than ever before.
Although cigarette butts are small, they are bad for the environment. Worldwide, about 4.3 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year. As well as spoiling the beauty of the environment, they contain poisonous chemicals. These find their way into the water supply where they affect water quality and endanger plants and animals. Cigarette butts can take up to 25 years to break down, and the poisonous chemicals add up to a large amount with so many littered. So, if people want to smoke, they should cope with the butts properly in a rubbish bin.
Plastic bags are another common form of litter that is dangerous to the environment. They are easily blown by wind and float in water, so they can travel long distances. They find their way to rivers, parks, beaches, and oceans, killing many birds, mammals, fish, and sea animals each year worldwide. They can last for hundreds of years in the environment. We should not let plastic bags become litter. We should use fewer plastic bags, and reuse and recycle what we have already used. One way to reduce the use of plastic bags is to charge for them. Shops used to give plastic bags for free. But in some countries, including China, customers are now charged for each bag. Some shops also have a “bag-for-life” scheme. They sell stronger bags that can be reused, and they replace them for free if the bags ever break.
Waste is a big problem for the environment, so we need to do something. Not littering at all or cleaning up “small waste” saves money spent on getting rid of litter properly. However, it would be better not to smoke or use plastic bags at all.
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Is It Possible to be Green and Fashionable?
Despite the huge numbers of people who care about the environment and love clothes, there is a basic conflict about being green and being fashionable. This is because the fashion industry depends on a constant stream of ever-changing trends, which means you have to keep consuming. However, buying a lot of things that you don’t need, in this case new clothes, is harmful to the environment. Even so, there are still some measures you can take to achieve both goals.
Firstly, rather than basing your choice of clothes on whatever the fashion industry says you should, choose your own look. If you do this, you’ll look a lot more like an individual, and probably more genuinely stylish. It does not require any sense of style to copy the looks in glossy magazines. It does require some to develop your own. You’ll find that because your clothes aren’t going in and out of fashion every week, you’ll buy fewer and this helps the environment.
Some people think that another way of achieving this is to buy only natural fabrics, like cotton. But actually the production of some plant-based fabrics involves the use of enormous quantities of pesticides. In fact, cotton is an especially dirty crop, with methods used in its cultivation which can wreck the local environment. If you want to avoid adding to soil and water pollution in this manner, simply opt for organic fabrics.
While we’re on the subject of the materials, here’s a word of warning. Try to avoid buying clothes made from animal products, especially fur. Not only will this have the effect of reducing animal suffering, it will also reduce your environmental footprint; animal products have a larger impact than plant products because they consume more resources.
In the end, what you wear is your choice and no-one would suggest that this should not be a free choice. But we hope that, having read this, you will be fully aware of the impact your choices may have on the health of our planet.
The Useful Bean
Do you know what the common factor in bee food, vinyl plastic, and tofu is? It is the soybean. Some part of the soybean is used in these products as well as many other edible（可以食用的）and nonedible products.
The soybean is also considered to be one of the multipurpose and hardy plants. It can grow in low-quality soil. Throughout the life of the plant, a release of nutrients throughout plant roots makes soil more fertile. Soybeans are also very high in protein. With its hardiness, soil benefits, high-protein content, and various uses, some people believe the soybean will become the greatest weapon against world hunger.
There are three standard procedures taken from the soybean plant—oil, protein, and whole soybeans. Oil is used for edible purposes such as cooking oil and salad dressing. Industries make nonedible use of soybean oil by adding to antistatic sprays, printer ink, and shampoo. One significant nonedible use of soybean oil is the making of vinyl plastics. Vinyl is used to make everything from credit cards and garden hoses to computer parts.
Protein from the soybean is also used in edible and nonedible products. Edible uses for the protein include baby foods and hypoallergenic milk. Even animals benefit: bee food and fish food contain protein from the soybean. Some industries use the protein for nonedible purposes such as cosmetics, adhesives, yarn, and water-based paints.
Items made using whole soybeans are the most commonly recognized product of the soybean plant. Whole soybeans are used to make food for people and animals. Grocery stores carry a variety of foods made with whole soybeans. Some of these items are pancake flour, coffee, soymilk, soy sauce and tofu.
As the versatility（多用途）and hardiness of this bean gains popularity, more uses of soybean products will certainly be discovered.
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Four men once came to a wet place in the roadless forest to fish. They cast their tent upon pine-clothed rocks. On sweet-smelling branches they slept the sleep of unsuccessful fishermen, for the sun made them lazy and the rain made them wet in turn. Finally they ate the last bit of bacon and the last wonderful cake.
Immediately a little man volunteered to stay and hold the camp while the remaining three should go miles to a farmhouse for supplies. They looked at him dismally (沮丧地). “There's only one of you — the devil is your brother,” they said and disappeared down the hill. Then night came and the three had not returned. The little man sat close to the campfire and added branches. Suddenly he heard the coming rustle (沙沙声) of the dead leaves. The little man arose slowly to his feet, his clothes refused to fit his back, his pipe dropped from his mouth, and his knees struck each other. “Hah!” he cried. A low voice replied and a bear paced into the light of the fire. The little man supported himself upon a tree and recognized his visitor — a bear.
The bear was obviously an experienced fighter, for its fur had become deep yellow with age. There was confidence in his small pace and in his shining eyes. It rolled back its lips and exposed its white teeth. The fire enlarged the red of its mouth. The little man had never come across the terrible animal before and was too scared to breathe. “Ah!” The bear interpreted this silence as a gladiator (角斗士). It approached cautiously and slowly. As it came near, the boots of fear were suddenly upon the little man's feet. He cried out and then ran around the campfire. “Ho!” said the bear to himself, “this thing won't fight — he runs. Well, let me catch him.” It started strongly around the campfire. The little man screamed and ran violently. Twice around they went.
In desperation the little man flew into the tent.
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The little man went into giggling (咯咯笑).
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Ever since he was a kid, Colin had taken great interest in hiking (远足）. To celebrate his 40th birthday, he planned to climb Mountain Sunshine.
The night before his journey, Colin filled his backpack with hiking poles, a homemade hamburger, and some other necessities. He drove off at 7 am the next day, his mountain bike in the trunk(后备箱）。When he was already on the way, he suddenly realized there was a possibility of bear attack.
About an hour later, he arrived at a camp and checked in.“Is there anything you need?”Vito,the camp manager, asked him.
“Bear spray(驱熊喷雾），”said Colin.
After finding a bottle, Vito offered him a ride. They trucked along a road until the forest got too thick. As Colin put his mountain bike against a bush so that he could recover it on the way back, Vito said, “I'll come for you if you're not back when the night falls." “Nothing to worry about,” Colin replied in a confident voice.
With the bear spray in one pocket,Colin started hiking.He marked his trail(足迹，踪迹） and made lots of noise to drive away any curious animals.
Before he knew it, it was getting dark. Not wanting to get caught in the dark, and satisfied with what he'd finished that day, he started to climb down the mountain, and soon recovered his bike.
As he passed a marker showing 3 kilometers away from the camp, he suddenly stopped his bike-a bear stood in the middle of the narrow road,some hundred meters away. Knowing it could easily attack him if he sped up, Colin decided not to anger the bear.
注意：
1.写作词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The animal came in his direction, closer and closer.
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At that very moment, a truck stopped right in front of him.
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Pollution is the price we pay for an overpopulated, over industrialized planet. When you come to think about it, there are only four ways you can deal with rubbish: dump it, burn it, turn it into something you can use again, attempt to produce less of it. We keep trying all four methods, but the quantity of rubbish we produce worldwide threatens to overwhelm us. Rubbish, however, is only part of the problem of polluting our planet. There is an even more hidden kind of pollution that particularly affects urban areas and invades our daily lives,and that is noise.
A recent survey of the effects of noise revealed a large number of sources of noise that we really dislike: Lawn mowers whining on a summer's day, late-night parties in apartment blocks, noisy neighbors, vehicles of all kinds, especially large container trucks thundering through quiet village, planes and helicopters flying overhead, large radios carried round in public places and played at maximum volume. To our surprise, dogs' barking incessantly in the night rated the highest form of noise pollution on a scale ranging from one to seven.
New technology has also made its own contribution to noise. A lot of people object to mobile phones, especially when they are used in public places like restaurants or on public transport. Loud conversations on mobile phones invade our thoughts or interrupt the pleasure of meeting friends for a quiet chat.
The noise pollution survey revealed an amusing old fashioned source of noise. It turned out to be snoring (打鼾)! Men were found to be the worst offenders. It was revealed that 20% of men in their mid-thirties snore. This figure rises to a staggering 60% of men in their sixties. Against these figures, it was found that only 5% of women snore regularly, while the rest are constantly woken or kept awake by their trumpeting partners.
Whatever the source of noise, one thing is certain: silence, it seems, has become a golden memory.
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When I was 19, I spent part of my summer at an adventure camp on Vancouver Island, supervising (照料) a group of 10-year-old girls. Towards the end of the first week, I took them on a camping. By six in the evening, we’d climbed a small mountain. The peak had trees on one side and bald rock on the other. I let the girls play in the wooded area while I arranged things for dinner.
When the screaming started, I wasn’t too alarmed-I could see my group tearing through the bush and thought they’d just disturbed a bees’ nest. As the first girl appeared, I asked what was going on. “Wildcat!” she gasped. The image in my head was of a house cat gone wild, but with her next breath she added, “It’s attacking Alyson.” I told the girls to climb on to the rocks and then ran to where they’d been playing. Alyson was lying by bush. She was on her back, eyes wide, staring at a huge cat beside her. The cat was watching me.
Anyone familiar with westerns will have seen a cougar (美洲狮) — the mountain lion that springs from the rock face on to the passerby. We’d been told how to deal with bears: “Keep still, back up, make yourself look big.” But we hadn’t covered cougars. I grabbed a stick and swung it into the animal’s face. Startled, it took off into the bushes.
Seeing that Alyson was hurt, I set off for the first-aid box, but hadn’t gone four steps when I heard a moan. Turning back, I saw the cougar crouched (蹲伏) by Alyson’s head. It appeared to be eating her. This time I used a bigger stick, hit harder and held on. Once again, it disappeared, and I knelt by Alyson.
“There’s no way someone can live through this,” I thought. The cat had torn deep into her neck. She had long cuts on her face. “Am I going to die?” she asked. Her heartbeat was racing but weak, the sign of a heart trembling from shock.
注意：
1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2.至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4.续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:
“You’re not going to die,” I said.
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Paragraph 2:
From my branch I could see some people moving on a nearby mountain.
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Could goats become our new best friends?
In a new paper in the journal Biology Letters, researchers from QMUL's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences found that goats respond to people by gazing at them when facing a problem they cannot solve alone, and their responses change depending on the person's behaviour.
To investigate, the team trained goats to remove a lid from a box to receive a reward. They made the reward inaccessible and recorded their reaction. In the test, the goats redirected their gaze frequently between the inaccessible reward and human experimenters. They also gazed towards a forward facing person earlier, more often and for longer compared to when the person was facing away.
The results provide strong evidence for complex communication between humans and goats, which were domesticated primarily for agricultural production, and show similarities with animals bred to become pets or working animals, such as dogs and horses.
The research indicates that the domestication of animals has a much broader impact on our knowledge about human-animal relationship than previously believed. For example, it's thought that the capacity of dogs to be aware of information from humans is the result of changes to the brain from becoming a companion animal through domestication.
“Goats were the first livestock species to be domesticated, about 10,000 years ago,” said lead author Dr Alan McElligott from the School's Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology.
From our research, we know that many domesticated animals for agricultural production are smarter than their reputation suggests, and these results show how they can communicate and interact with their human handlers just as pets or working animals.
The researchers hope the study will lead to a better understanding of how skilled livestock are in their ability to solve problems and interact with humans. They also wish that an improvement in animal welfare would be reached ultimately.
One morning on my way to school, noticed an elderly woman dressed in a yellow vest (马 甲)carrying a garbage bag and one of those rubbish claws (爪形器具)."What's that lady doing?" I asked mum. "Vest Lady. She just picks up rubbish around here for fun," mum said. "Why would someone think picking up rubbish looking like a construction worker is fun?" I puzzled.
For several years I'd witness this mysterious Vest Lady—rain or shine — on my way to school. I had thought she was crazy for picking up rubbish. Eventually I smiled and waved at her each time I saw her. Later, I moved to high school. The time I saw rubbish here and there I felt really annoyed. Then I'd think, "Why isn't anyone picking up this rubbish? People are so inconsiderate I" However, shortly after, I realized picking up the rubbish was not someone ease's problem.
Now I couldn't walk past litter without feeling guilty. I volunteered to clean up rubbish around our school. Strange as it might sound, picking up litter was kind of a thrill for me! In fact, I was so determined that for my 17th birthday I bought myself a rubbish claw, reusable gloves and a reflective safety yellow vest with my own name on it.
During my first attempt in my stylish equipment, met with unfriendly looks from others as if I were a criminal doing community service. One day,I had an epiphany(顿悟):"I'm acting just like Vest Lady!"
But there was too much rubbish around, cigarette ends littered about, cans rolling on the street,pieces of paper hidden in the grass and plastic. alone was too weak J How would I get more volunteers involved in rubbish removal? A smart idea flashed into my mind.
注意:
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Soon I created my website go picking up com.
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More and more people on vests with their own names.
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My son and I like to go to my parents’ home in the countryside. There are my warm memories, in which I was brought up with my parents caring and loving me without asking for anything in return. It’s also a paradise (乐园) for my son, whose curiosity, observation and exploration are met greatly. Everything in his grandparents’ yard, either from tiny flowers to big trees, or from tiny ants to big dogs attracts Tom.
Last month I took my son Tom to see his grandparents. When we arrived, my father and mother were so happy to see us. Tom’s grandma hugged and kissed Tom excitedly. Then his grandpa took him to the yard to play. My mom went to her kitchen to prepare our meal.
At lunch table, Tom told me, proudly, “Dad, I saw a hen flying.”
“You’re kidding me!” I said without thinking, “How can a hen fly?”
“Dad, to see is to believe. In the yard, the dog ran after the hen. Finally the hen was forced to a corner. When the panicked hen found no other way out, her wings suddenly beat wildly. She flew off the ground and screamed up to the roof. The hen escaped successfully. Dad, I didn’t know a hen could fly before. Why can a hen fly?”
I thought for a while and said, “Maybe because of love. The hen loves her own life. Although she was scared by the dog, she was still aware that she must spare no effort to save herself from the big enemy. It is the love for herself that stirs (激起) her inner power and she flies!”
Tom nodded. He seemed to have understood.
Last weekend we visited Tom’s grandparents again. This time I heard Tom shouting from the yard, “Dad! The dog is chasing (追赶) the hen again! Come to see!”
I ran out of the house quickly.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Being chased by the dog, the hen was running to a group of chickens.
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“Dad, why didn't the hen fly away this time?”
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