Earth Day is an event
In1962, Rachel Carson’s bestselling book “Silent Spring” created an
In the fall of 1969, Nelson announced it and appealed to the entire country to get involved. Consequently, telegrams, letters and telephone calls
Today, Earth Day is celebrated around the world every April 22. Sometimes numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of
Usually,we are encouraged to be nice to our people. However, we always forget to be nice to
Global warming is quite
Simple things that can be done every day can help slow down global warming and make the Earth better place for us,our
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3 . Rubbish of all kinds is piling up in landfill and polluting our rivers and oceans. A more recent addition to the list of things we discard is e-waste — electronic items that are broken and not recycled. A UN report claims the 50 million tonnes of e-waste produced every year will more than double to 110 million tonnes by 2050, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world. Now ways are being found to give it a new life.
There’s a growing trend for repair events and clubs which could be part of a solution to the growing amount of electrical and electronic garbage. The BBC visited a Restart Project in London, which is one of the many found around the world. One of its volunteers, Francesco Calo said, “This project allows you to reduce waste, lengthen the life of objects, and it helps people who cannot afford to get rid of items that have developed a fault. ”
Electronics consist of materials like plastic, metals, chemicals and glass. As many electrical items contain valuable metals, another idea is e-waste mining. An experiment at the University of New South Wales includes extracting (提取) these materials from electronic items. It’s thought that doing this could be more profitable than traditional mining. With phones typically containing as many as 60 components, this could be part of the solution to our appetite for new technology.
These projects make total sense — collections of e-waste for recycling are not progressing or even decreasing according to Ruediger Kuehr of the United Nations University. And in countries where there are no recycling laws, much of it is got rid of. However, the European Union, for example, is trying to settle the problem by insisting business firms have to make appliances longer-lasting and have to supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.
1. What does the underlined word “discard” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．throw away | B．take apart |
| C．make the best of | D．put together |
| A．Collect electronic garbage. | B．Use their electronics longer. |
| C．Buy good-quality electronics. | D．Get jobs in recycling companies. |
| A．Hard plastic. | B．Precious metals. |
| C．Toughened glass. | D．Various chemicals. |
| A．Improving recycling process. | B．Replacing spare parts timely. |
| C．Using electronics permanently. | D．Making e-waste recycling laws. |
4 . 72 hours in Beijing
Traveling to China is no longer a luxury for many foreign passport holders. The Chinese government has permitted a 72-hour visa free policy that offers access to visitors from 53 countries including the US, France and Austria. Let’s start with the capital of China, Beijing. Here’s a pick of the best in Beijing.
Mutianyu Great Wall
Your trip to Beijing isn’t really complete without seeing one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World” — the Great Wall of China. The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall is by far the most well-preserved of all. Taking a one-hour bus ride, Mutianyu would be your ideal location for a half-day of hiking away from the large crowds in the city. Also, the authorities have allowed tourists to paint graffiti on a specific section of the Great Wall since 2014. The Great Wall was designated (把……定名为) a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.
Summer Palace
Located in northwestern Beijing, the Summer Palace is by far the city’s most well-preserved royal park. With its huge lake and hilltop views, the palace offers you a pastoral escape into the landscape of traditional Chinese paintings. The Summer Palace was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998.
798 Art Zone
This would be on the top of my list! Named after the 798 factory that was built in the 1950s, the art zone is home to various galleries, design studios, art exhibition spaces, fashionable shops and bars. You could easily spend half your day wandering around the complex, feeling the contrast of the present and the past.
Sichuan Provincial Restaurant
While in Beijing, apart from trying the city’s best-known Peking duck, the Sichuan provincial restaurant is one of places where you can enjoy regional delicious food. It offers one of China’s eight great cuisines, Sichuan Cuisine, which ranges from Mapo tofu to spicy chicken.
1. When was the Summer Palace added to the UNESCO World Heritage List?| A．In 1950. | B．In 1987. |
| C．In 1998. | D．In 2014. |
| A．Mutianyu Great Wall. | B．798 Art Zone. |
| C．Summer Palace. | D．Sichuan Provincial Restaurant. |
| A．The tourists who prefer to travel for free. |
| B．The foreigners to stay in Beijing for 4 days. |
| C．The visitors coming from every corner of China. |
| D．The foreigners coming to Beijing for the first time. |
Dogs are often called “man’s best friend” and make ideal pets.
The most attractive quality of
Furthermore, dogs are strong
And finally, dogs can be
To sum up, dogs are
6 . The endangered pandas in the Qinling Mountains might face a new threat: the loss of their food, bamboo, which makes up 99% of their meals.
Adult pandas spend most part of the day eating bamboo and have to take in at least 40 pounds a day to stay healthy. However, a new study published in Nature Climate Change warned that they may soon find their food gone because most of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains might disappear by the end of the century as a result of rising temperature worldwide.
A team made up of researchers from Michigan State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has studied the effects of climate change on the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains. They have found that bamboo is very sensitive to climate changes. “80% to 100% of the bamboo would be gone if the average temperature rises 3.5 degrees worldwide by the end of the century,” said Liu Jianguo, one of the report’s authors.
He added, “This is how much the temperature would rise by 2100 even if all countries will keep their promises in the Paris Agreement. But you know what is happening all around the world.”
In recent years, China has been trying its best to protect the endangered pandas by setting up more and bigger natural reserves.
“But it is far from enough and the endangered pandas need cooperation from the rest of the world, because their future is not just in the hands of the Chinese,” said Shirley Martin from the World Wildlife Fund but not a member of the team.
The Qinling Mountains, in the southwest of China, are home to about 260 pandas. That is about 13% of China’s wild panda population. In addition, about 375 are living in research centers and zoos in China.
1. How many wild pandas are there in China?| A．About 260. | B．About 635. |
| C．About 2,635. | D．About 2,000. |
| A．China needs more help from the World Wildlife Fund. |
| B．It is difficult to control the temperature rise within 3.5℃. |
| C．Bamboo is sensitive to the changes of temperature. |
| D．China is making great efforts to protect the pandas. |
| A．The Qinling Mountains can provide enough bamboo for the pandas. |
| B．Pandas in the Qinling Mountains are only threatened by the loss of food. |
| C．Lots of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains will probably disappear. |
| D．Pandas have already eaten 99% of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains. |
| A．The Disappearance of Bamboo |
| B．Necessity to Change Pandas’ Food |
| C．A New Threat Faced by the Pandas |
| D．Efforts Made to Save Pandas |
7 . The effect of climate change extends beyond ruining Earth’s environment and our physical safety. A report published this week suggests that climate change has a negative effect on our mental health, too.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States(PNAS), links an increase in monthly temperatures to a rise in mental health issues. The experimental evidence stems from meteorological (气象的) data paired with information collected from nearly 2 million randomly sampled residents in the United States. The data was collected over the span (跨度) of a decade.
“We find that experiences with hotter temperatures and added rainfall each worsen mental health, that long-lasting warming associates with an increased popularity of mental health issues, and that exposure to tropical cyclones(热带气旋), likely to increase in frequency in the future, is linked to worsened mental health,” authors of the study stated. “These results provide added large-scale evidence to the growing link between climate change and mental health.”
The report specifically focused on mental health outcomes due to the effects of environmental stress - such as temperature, rainfall, and tropical cyclones - but other climate change-related issues are likely to affect mental health as well - specifically, the stress and anxiety of knowing natural disasters could be more frequent as temperatures rise.
1. From the newly-published report, we learn that the climate change may _________.| A．save a lot of people’s lives |
| B．cause unbelievable disasters |
| C．influence people’s mental health |
| D．greatly change people’s life styles |
| A．To stress the importance of the study. |
| B．To show that the study cost too much money. |
| C．To explain the difficulties and hardships of the study. |
| D．to indicate that the study is objective and believable. |
| A．In Paragraph 1 | B．In Paragraph 2 |
| C．In Paragraph 3 | D．In Paragraph 4 |
| A．The study has its limits. |
| B．The results of the study aren’t satisfactory. |
| C．The environmental problems can’t be solved. |
| D．Mental health is determined by climate change. |
8 . Shark nets in place across Australia, specifically in New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland, to protect beachgoers(海滩游客)should be dropped as they have caused more harm than good, a study has found.
The measures were carried out by some’ governments, including nets and traditional drum lines, and provided beachgoers with a false sense of safety. The study found the effectiveness of nets was difficult to evaluate(评估), while the significant damage they cause to other marine wildlife was clear. Researches desire for non-deadly shark control measures such as eco barriers, which physically separate swimmers from sharks, sonar(声呐)technology, and various shark-spotting techniques.
Researchers said while the risk of coming across a shark was rare, any shark-related deaths and injuries caught huge public and media attention.
One of the arguments in support of using shark nets is that just one shark-related death has been reported in Queensland since the 1960s. Similarly, since the 1930s, NSW has had only one shark-related death. But there have been at least 13 people killed by sharks at beaches without nets on the NSW north coast over the past two years.
The Humane Society International’s head of campaigns, Nicola Beynon, said the government needed to move away from outdated methods. “Deadly shark nets and drum lines are more than 50 years behind scientific and animal welfare standards for dealing with marine wildlife,” said Beynon.
The NSW Greens’ marine spokesman, Justin Field, said, “People are 100 times more likely to drown at the beach than to be kill by a shark in Australia. Therefore, millions of dollars going into the shark net program should be directed to observation towers for our lifeguards and improving the beach devices.”
1. Which of the following do researchers focus on?| A．Beachgoers’ safety. |
| B．The effectiveness of shark nets. |
| C．Friendly shark control measures. |
| D．Advanced shark-spotting techniques. |
| A．Shark-related deaths. |
| B．Dangers for beachgoers. |
| C．Measures to protect sharks. |
| D．Reasons of using shark nets. |
| A．Science is developing too fast. |
| B．No shark nets are to be used. |
| C．Observation towers need rebuilding. |
| D．Many people are drown every year. |
| A．Are Sharks Nets Necessary? |
| B．A New Study on Sharks |
| C．Shark Net Programs |
| D．Effective Ways of Avoiding Sharks |
9 . Science 2018: Gene Editing, Private Space Travel Top List
Gene-edited babies announced
A Chinese researcher reported last month that he helped to make the world’s first genetically edited babies (基因编辑婴儿). His claims were quickly condemned (谴责) by other scientists who denounced his claims as “irresponsible”.
The researcher’s employer, Southern University of Science and Technology of China, said it did not know about his activities. China’s government ordered a halt to the work soon after news media reported on the experiment.
Private space flight takes another step
The dream of visiting space for pleasure took another step closer to reality this year. The space travel company Virgin Galactic announced it had successfully sent a rocket ship into space for the first time in December.
The SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity climbed to 82 kilometers above California’s Mojave Desert on December 14. The company hopes that people will pay $250,000 for a 90-minute flight. The company hopes to launch its first passengers into space by March of 2019.
Climate change concerns
2018 was marked by continuing concerns about rising temperatures and climate change. Hurricanes striking the eastern United States and wildfires in California led to urgent calls for new measures. Reports from the U. S. government and United Nations also predicted increased weather-related disasters. These include drier than normal weather conditions, rising sea levels, hunger and other problems, if nothing is done.
In December, officials of nearly 200 countries met in Poland for talks on how to reduce production of carbon gases linked to rising temperatures.
Cleaning the Pacific Ocean
Plastic is a big concern for people living in the Pacific Ocean. There something huge, called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is growing. Experts estimate 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic are floating within a few meters of the ocean’s surface. A group of engineers launched what they hope will solve the problem in September. The group Ocean Cleanup sent a huge barrier designed to capture plastic waste. It uses the sun’s energy and is designed to keep sea life safe.
1. How did the Chinese government response to the “genetically edited babies” experiment?| A．The experiment was accepted. |
| B．The experiment should be stopped, |
| C．The experiment was highly praised. |
| D．The experiment should got a lot more media attention. |
| A．both are mainly about global warming |
| B．both are concerned about reducing carbon gases |
| C．it’s urgent for mankind to solve environmental problems |
| D．it will take experts a year to capture plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean |
| A．A science column on a website. |
| B．A science fiction book about future. |
| C．A report on the medical developments. |
| D．A magazine about interesting stories around the world. |
| A．Delaying their outing. | B．Having dinner at home. | C．Going on a picnic. |
