1 . Animal-rights activists often complain that cute beasts get more sympathy than equally deserving ugly ones. If so, one would think a lovely creature like the mink (貂)would be easy to protect. Yet in the Netherlands, mink is the only animal that can still legally be farmed for their fur. That is about to change. On August 28th the government brought forward to this year a ban on mink-farming that had been scheduled to take effect in 2024. The timetable was sped up not because mink had become more adorable, but because they can contract covid-19 and spread it to humans.
Dutch farmers normally raised about 2.5 million minks a year, making the Netherlands the world's fourth-largest producer after Denmark, China and Poland. In April, a couple of minks and the farm hands who tended them were diagnosed with covid- 19. Genetic tracing showed that at least two workers had probably been infected by mink, rather than the other way around. The affected animals were destroyed and stricter hygiene rules imposed, but by summer the virus had spread to a third of the country's farms. In June, parliament voted to shut down the industry as soon as possible, and the cabinet agreed.
That was a win for the Netherlands Party for the Animals, which has four seats in the 150-memeber parliament. In 2013, it helped pass the law that gave mink farmers until 2024 to get out of the business.
Now the party and its supporters object to the generous compensation (补偿)the government has offered for bringing forward the deadline: $150 million, or $1 million per farmer. Some members of parliament claim that the compensation paid for destroying the infected minks was higher than the market price for their fur.
Fur farmers any modern standards allow minks to be raised humanely, and that they are not a big reason for the spread of the virus. But minks tend to live by themselves instead of living in groups: animal-rights advocates say they cannot be raised humanely in small cages. As for covid-I9, the worry is that mink could serve as a medium for it to attack human immunization (免疫)programs. The industry's value is modest (framers put it at $150 million 0 $200 million, activists at under $100 million), and polls show the public overwhelmingly opposes it. "In a democratic country, that widespread belief has to translate into a political decision to ban fur farming," says Esther Ouwehand, leader of the Party for the Animals. The farmers accept they are shutting down. The remaining argument is over money.
1. According to the passage, why did animal - activists have an unexpected win for protecting minks?A.Because mink's cute appearance won people's heart. |
B.Because the minks could act as a host for an infectious disease. |
C.Because the government carried out an act earlier than planned. |
D.Because the farmers stopped raising minks, considering the great reward. |
A.The farm-raised minks were born with the virus. |
B.The fanners were infected with covid-I9 by minks. |
C.The minks contracted covid- 19 from their caregiver. |
D.The affected minks had contact with the virus in nature. |
A.Minks can be easily bred by humans without bringing any harm to them. |
B.It is acceptable to shut down mink fur industry because it isn't profitable. |
C.Objection to fur industry is a main reason behind this governmental decision. |
D.The amount of money to make up for the loss of the mink farmers was too high. |
A.Cuteness Wins |
B.An Unexpected Win |
C.Winter for Minks |
D.Farmers v.s. Activists |
2 . Tiny trash factories
Not all waste has to go to waste. Most of the world’s 2.22 billion tons of annual trash ends up in landfills or open dump. Veena Sahajwalla, a materials scientist and engineer at the University of New South walks, has created a solution to our massive trash problem: waste microfactories. These little trash processors house a series of machines that recycle waste and transform it into new materials with thermal technology. The new all-in-one approach could leave our current recycling processes in the dust.
Sahajwalla launched the world’s first waste microfactory targeting electronic waste in 2018. A second one began recycling plastics in 2019. Now, her lab group is working with university and industry partners to commercialize their patented Microfactoric technology. She says the small scale of the machines will make it easier for them to one day operate on renewable energy, unlike most large manufacturing plants. The approach will also allow cities to recycle waste into new products on location. With a micro-factory, gone are the days of needing separate facilities to collect and store materials, extract elements and produce new products.
Traditionally, recycling plants break down materials for re us c in similar products. It is like melting down plastic to make more plastic things. Her invention evolved this idea by taking materials from an old product and creating something different. “The kids don’t look like the parents,” she says.
For example, the microfactories can break down old smart phoned and computer monitors and extract silica and carbon, and then combine them into silicon car bide nanowires. This generates a common ceramic material with many industrial uses. Sahajwalla refers to this process as “the fourth R,” adding “
In 2019, just 17.4 percent of e-waste was recycled, so the new ability offers a crucial new development in the challenge recycling complex electronic devices. “We can do so much more with materials,” says Sahajwala.” Traditional recycling has not worked for every recycling challenge.” She and her team are already working to install the next waste microfactory in the Australian town of Cootamundra by early 2021, with the goal of expanding around the country over the next few years.
1. Which of the following is the feature of the waste microfactory?A.It can restore the waste to their original forms. |
B.It is cleaner than the traditional recycling plant. |
C.Waste can be recycled where they are dump at. |
D.There is only one machine in the waste microfactory. |
A.Establishing the first waste microfactory. |
B.Expanding the variety of waste it can recycle. |
C.Trying to make a profit from microfactory technology. |
D.Developing renewable energy to operate microfactories. |
A.recall | B.reform | C.release | D.reverse |
A.Traditional recycling is actually useful for only a small part of waste recycling. |
B.Microfactories make it possible for scientists to create various things with wastes, |
C.Microfactories can directly make waste electronic device into household utensils. |
D.By now, Australia is the first country in the world that has realized the popularization of waste microfactofies. |
3 . We should all have at least one fire extinguisher somewhere in our home, but it’s not enough to simply keep one under the kitchen sink. If there is a fire, your safety — and the safety of your home — depends on knowing how to use that fire extinguisher correctly. In case your fire extinguisher has been sitting around collecting dust, here’s everything you need to know before brushing it off and fighting a fire in your home the right way.
Choose the right fire extinguisher
The first thing you need to know is the different classifications of fires. Most household fires fall into one of the following categories:
Class A: Fires fueled by solid combustibles like wood, paper, and cloth.
Class B: Fires fueled by flammable liquids such as oil and gasoline.
Class C: Fires started or fueled by faulty wiring and appliances.
Class D: Fires started or fueled by cooking oils, animal facts, and vegetable fats.
All fire extinguishers are labeled to indicate which classes of fire they are designed to combat. Most household fire extinguishers are considered multipurpose and labeled for use in A, B, and C classes. Class K extinguishers are heavier duty and will need to be bought separately. Household fire extinguishers are also rated for the size of fire that they can safely handle. The higher the rating, the larger the fire the extinguisher can put out. Higher-rated extinguishers are often heavier.
Steps for proper extinguisher use
Once you understand the different types of fire extinguishers and their uses, you need to be able to properly operate one.
Step 1: Identify a clear exit/escape routeBefore operating the fire extinguisher, make sure you have a clear evacuation path. If you cannot put out the fire, you’ll need to make a safe exit. Also, make sure everyone else is being evacuated from the building.
Step 2: Call the fire departmentEven if the fire appears manageable, you should always have the fire department on the way. Once firefighters arrive, they can double-check whether the fire has been completely extinguished.
Step 3: Stand backFace the fire and keep your back to the clear exit. You should stay between 1.8 and 2.5 meters away from the flames as you prepare to operate the fire extinguisher.
Step 4: Operate the extinguisherIt can be difficult to think clearly during an emergency. Thankfully, there is a long-standing acronym(首字母缩略词)— PASS — to help you recall the steps involved in operating your fire extinguisher.
P: Pull the pin (保险销) on the fire extinguisher.
A: Aim low. Point the nozzle at the base of the fire instead of the flames.
S: Squeeze the handle or lever to discharge the extinguisher.
S: Sweep the nozzle back and forth until the flames are extinguished.
Step 5: Keep an eye on thingsAfter the flames appear to be out, continue to watch the fire area to make sure it doesn’t reignite. If the fire does start up again, repeat the “PASS” process.
Step 6: Get to a safe placeOnce the fire is out, or if you are unable to put it out, leave the scene. Find a place out of reach of the fire.
1. According to the passage, what is the top priority in a fire emergency?A.Find out how to escape. | B.Operate a fire extinguisher. |
C.Call the fire department. | D.Escape and leave everything behind. |
A.③②④① | B.④②③① |
C.③④①② | D.④③①② |
A.leave the fire area at once | B.repeat the “PASS” process |
C.inspect the fire area carefully | D.have the fire department on the way |
4 . Gone are the days when big businesses were looked upon by environmentalists as enemies in the fight against global warming.
Just two weeks after U. S. President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the Paris Climate Agreement, more than 900 American firms put their
More recently, this enthusiasm for environmental protection has
According to the WWF, in the United States alone, nearly two dozen of the biggest firms have committed themselves to becoming 100 percent renewable in the near future. Hervé Touati of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a clean-energy research firm, explains the
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s biggest brewer (啤酒公司), has lots of young people among its many
A.posters | B.innovations | C.names | D.donations |
A.for fear of | B.by means of | C.in line with | D.on account of |
A.In fact | B.On average | C.By contrast | D.In addition |
A.assessment | B.commitment | C.argument | D.attachment |
A.predictors | B.features | C.cases | D.forces |
A.changes | B.profits | C.mistakes | D.differences |
A.transferred | B.ranged | C.processed | D.extended |
A.food | B.store | C.supply | D.data |
A.opposite | B.equivalent | C.accustomed | D.second |
A.criticized | B.issued | C.welcomed | D.underlined |
A.content | B.accounts | C.activities | D.production |
A.inspirations | B.motivations | C.destinations | D.functions |
A.manufacturers | B.investors | C.customers | D.administrators |
A.considerably | B.skillfully | C.economically | D.occasionally |
A.heat | B.wind | C.water | D.power |
5 . A recent study published in the journal Science Advances has revealed that the United States ranks as high as third among countries contributing to coastal plastic pollution. The new research challenges the once-held assumption that the US is adequately “managing” its plastic waste. A previous study using 2010 data that did not account for plastic waste exports had ranked the US 20th, globally, in its contribution to ocean plastic pollution.
Using plastic waste generation (产生) data from 2016 — the latest available global numbers — scientists calculated that more than half of all plastics collected for recycling (1.99 million tons of 3.91 million tons collected) in the US were shipped abroad. Of this, 88% of exports went to countries struggling to effectively manage plastics; and between 15-25% was low-value or contaminated (受污染的). It means it was unrecyclable. Taking these factors into account, the researchers estimated that up to 1 million tons of US-generated plastic waste ended up polluting the environment beyond its own borders.
Using 2016 data, the paper also estimated that between 0.91 and 1.25 million tons of plastic waste generated in the US was either littered or illegally dumped into the environment domestically. Combined with waste exports, this means the US contributed up to 2.25 million tons of plastics into the environment. Of this, up to 1.5 million tons of plastics ended up in coastal environments. This ranks the US as high as third globally in contributing to coastal plastic pollution.
“The US generates the most plastic waste of any other country in the world, but rather than looking the problem in the eye, we have outsourced it to developing countries,” said Nick Mallos, senior director of Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas program and a co-author of the study. “The solution has to start at home. We need to create less, by cutting out unnecessary single-use plastics; we need to create better, by developing innovative new ways to package and deliver goods; and where plastics are inevitable, we need to greatly improve our recycling rates.”
“Previous research has provided global values for plastic input into the environment and coastal areas, but detailed analyses like this one are important for individual countries to further assess their contributions,” said Dr. Jenna Jambeck, Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering and a co-author of the study. “In the case of the United States, it is critically important that we examine our own backyard and take responsibility for our global plastic footprint.”
1. Compared with the previous study, the new one ________.A.covers data more comprehensively |
B.excludes plastic waste shipped abroad |
C.is contrary to the latest global numbers |
D.challenges the recycling way of plastics |
A.Over half of it ended up polluting the environment outside the US. |
B.Most of its exported plastic waste wasn’t worth recycling. |
C.Less than half of it was actually recycled domestically. |
D.More of it is littered or illegally dumped than exported. |
A.plastic pollution in developing countries is more serious |
B.US has been irresponsible in dealing with its plastic waste |
C.US should cooperate with others to handle its plastic waste |
D.innovative means are needed to eliminate single-use plastics |
A.Plastic Pollution Great Risk to Marine Life |
B.US Top Contributor to Coastal Plastic Pollution |
C.Plastic Waste Major Source of Coastal Pollution |
D.Recycling Effective Way to Address Plastic Waste |
6 . Humans are not the only ones who underwent self-domestication. So did our close relatives, the bonobos, and the species we call our best friend. A tiny proportion of the genome differentiates dogs from wolves, and yet millions of dogs are comfortably curled up in our homes, while wolves move around at the edge of extinction.
When our research group began its work almost 20 years ago, we discovered that dogs also have extraordinary intelligence: they can read our gestures better than any other species. Wolves, in contrast, are mysterious and unpredictable. Their home is the wilderness, and that wilderness is shrinking.
But not so long ago the evolutionary race between dogs and wolves was so close, it was unclear who would win. Dogs, in fact, did not descend from wolves. Instead, dogs and wolves shared a wolflike ancestor.
Folklore supposes that humans brought wolf puppies into camp and domesticated them. Or as wolf expert David Mech wrote in 1974, “Evidently early humans tamed wolves and domesticated them, eventually selectively breeding them and finally developing the domestic dog from them.” But this story has not held up. Taming an animal occurs during its lifetime. Domestication happens over generations and involves changes to the genome.
So how did wolves turn into dogs? Back in the Ice Age, as our human populations grew more sedentary, we probably created more rubbish, which we then dumped outside our camps. These leavings would have included tempting pieces of food for hungry wolves. Not every wolf would have been able to scavenge, however. These animals would have had to be unafraid of humans, and if they displayed any aggression toward us, they would have been killed. After generations of selection for friendliness without intentional selection by humans, this special population of wolves would have begun to take on a different appearance. Coat color, ears, tails: all probably started to change.
Animals that could respond to our gestures and voices would be extremely useful as hunting partners and guards. They would have been valuable as well for their warmth and companionship, and slowly we would have allowed them to move from outside our camps to our firesides. We did not domesticate dogs. The friendliest wolves domesticated themselves.
1. What can be summarized about wolves and dogs from the first three paragraphs?A.Wolves are smarter than dogs. |
B.They are very much racially divided. |
C.They are close relatives but dogs seem to be on the winning side. |
D.Dogs have made their ways to indoor life while wolves to the wild. |
A.diverse | B.limited |
C.living in the same place | D.involving regular migration |
A.Dogs evolved from wolves. |
B.Selective breeding developed domestic dogs. |
C.Taming and domesticating an animal are the same thing. |
D.Friendliness as a quality translates into an evolutionary strategy. |
A.From Wolf to Dog | B.Dog: Our Favorite Pet |
C.An Intentional Domestication | D.A Competition Story between Wolf and Dog |
假设你叫李华,请你以“过低碳生活”为主题,向你的同学作一次演讲,号召同学们过低碳生活,为减少二氧化碳排放做贡献。你的演讲应包括以下内容:
1. 节能减排,低碳生活,人人可为
2. 改变以往的生活习惯(用电,用水……)
3. 出行使用公共交通
参加词汇: low carbon life 低碳生活
carbon emission 碳排放
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
8 . Shining just 12 light-years from Earth, the star Tau Ceti so resembles the sun that it has appeared in numerous science- fiction stories and was the first star astronomers ever searched for signs of intelligent life, half a century ago. In 2012 Tau Ceti grew still more interesting when astronomers reported five possible planets somewhat larger than Earth circling closer to the star than Mars orbits (围绕……运动) the sun—one of which is in the star’s habitable zone. Newly released images taken by the Herschel Space Observatory provide even more insight about Tau Ceti’s solar system: greater detail about its dust belt.
Dust arises when asteroids and comets (小行星和彗星) crash into one another, so its location reveals where these dust- creating objects—which are too small to be seen directly—orbit a star. In Tau Ceti’s case, “it’s quite a wide dust belt,” says Samantha Lawler of the University of Victoria in British Columbia. As her team reported in November, the belt’s inner edge is roughly two to three astronomical units (AUs) from the star, which is the position of our own sun’s asteroid belt. (An AU is the distance from Earth to the sun.) Tau Ceti’s dust belt extends out to 55 AU, which would be just beyond our system’s main Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, the zone of small bodies whose largest member is probably Pluto. Presumably full of asteroids and comets, Tau Ceti’s dust belt most likely lacks a planet as large as Jupiter, Lawler says. The gravity of such a massive planet would have driven away most small space rocks.
Within a year a new series of radio telescopes in Chile called ALMA should provide a sharper view of the disk, especially of its inner edge. The ALMA images will help astronomers confirm whether the star’s five proposed planets are indeed real. If the disk overlaps the planets’ hypothesized (假设的) orbits, then they probably do not exist; they would have kept away most asteroids near the star, removing the source of dust.
If those planets do exist, however, Lawler’s team suggests that Tau Ceti’s planetary system may resemble what our solar system would have looked like had the four giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune- never formed: small planets orbiting close to the star, and nothing but asteroids, comets and dust beyond.
1. According to astronomers, the five possible planets of Tau Ceti________.A.resembled Earth in size |
B.functioned like a solar system |
C.were located in Tau Ceti’s habitable zone |
D.were nearer to Tau Ceti than Mars to the sun |
A.It is narrower than the asteroid belt in our system. |
B.The bodies inside it are all smaller than Jupiter. |
C.The gravity of Tau Ceti makes it get denser. |
D.It is over 55 astronomical units in width. |
A.they don’t move into the dust belt while orbiting Tau Ceti |
B.they have kept away most asteroids and comets |
C.they don’t crash into any asteroid or comet |
D.they can be seen clearly by ALMA |
A.is useful because it stops asteroids or comets crashing into the star |
B.makes Tau Ceti different from the sun because it extends farther |
C.is interesting because it keeps other planets away from Tau Ceti |
D.plays a role in helping decide whether the five planets are real |
9 . The Delight of Bird-watching
It is springtime, and the city feels especially glorious. If we were to reflect on what has brought us joy during this challenging time, birds would probably be enjoying a top
Three species in particular
I have been studying starlings in New York City since 2016. I do so formally in museums and labs, but in between my research I watch them
The sounds they make are so
Sometimes, I wish that I did not know about what else they do across the country, and could just enjoy watching them in a quiet
At times this winter, nothing in the built environment even came close to
A.peak | B.priority | C.spot | D.stage |
A.dominate | B.destroy | C.endanger | D.drift |
A.adaptive | B.alternative | C.invasive | D.creative |
A.dramatically | B.ironically | C.specifically | D.virtually |
A.informally | B.occasionally | C.partly | D.obviously |
A.continent | B.district | C.suburban | D.urban |
A.behavior | B.dietary | C.scenery | D.voluntary |
A.laziness | B.quickness | C.toughness | D.trick |
A.similar | B.unforgettable | C.unique | D.varied |
A.alive | B.beautiful | C.sacred | D.delicate |
A.in a way | B.in a flash | C.in particular | D.in all |
A.community | B.ignorance | C.neighborhood | D.sidewalk |
A.destruction | B.transition | C.instruction | D.resolution |
A.freeing | B.informing | C.reminding | D.suspecting |
A.out of mind | B.out of place | C.out of reach | D.out of sight |
10 . The older of two sisters, Jane Goodall was born on April 3, 1934, in London, England, into a middle class British family. When Goodall was about two years old, her mother gave her a toy chimpanzee, which Goodall still possesses to this day. She was a good student, but she had more interest in being outdoors and learning about animals. Once she spent five hours in a hen-house so she could see how a hen lays an egg. She loved animals so much that by the time she was ten or eleven she dreamed of living with animals in Africa. Her mother encouraged Goodall's dream, which eventually became a reality.
When Goodall was eighteen she completed secondary school and began working. She worked as a secretary, as an assistant editor in a film studio, and as a waitress, trying to save enough money to make her first trip to Africa.
Jane Goodall finally went to Africa when she was twenty-three years old. In 1957 she sailed to Mombasa on the east African coast, where she met anthropologist (人类学家) Louis Leakey (1903-1972), who would become her mentor, or teacher. In Africa, Leakey and his wife, Mary, had discovered what were then the oldest known human remains. These discoveries supported Leakey’s claim that the origins of the human species were in Africa, not in Asia or Europe as many had believed.
Leakey hoped that studies of the primate (灵长目动物的) species most closely related to human beings chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans — would shed (散发) light on the behavior of the human animal’s ancestors. He chose Goodall for this work because he believed that as a woman she would be more patient and careful than a male observer and that as someone with little formal training she would be more likely to describe what she saw rather than what she thought she should be seeing.
Later Goodall turned her attention to the problem of captive (被囚禁的) chimpanzees. Because they closely resemble humans, chimpanzees have been widely used as laboratory animals to study human diseases. Goodall used her knowledge and fame to work to set limits on the number of animals used in such experiments and to convince researchers to improve the conditions under which the animals were kept. She also worked to improve conditions for zoo animals and for conservation of chimpanzee habitats. In 1986 she helped found the Committee for the Conservation and Care of Chimpanzees, an organization dedicated to these issues. She has even written children’s books, The Chimpanzee Family Book and With Love, on the subject of treating animals kindly.
For her efforts Goodall has received many awards and honors. In 2000 she accepted the third Gandhi-King award for Non Violence at the United Nations. She does not spend much time in Africa anymore; rather, she gives speeches throughout the world and spends as many as three hundred days a year traveling.
1. What is Jane Goodall’s major achievements?A.Her books for children to learn about nature. |
B.Her observation of how the hen lay an egg. |
C.Her study of the chimpanzee behavior. |
D.Her finding of the origins of the human species. |
A.Science fiction. | B.A biography book. |
C.A handbook about animal protection. | D.A travel brochure. |
A.She would be more patient and careful than a male observer. |
B.She helped found the Committee for the Conservation and Care of Chimpanzees. |
C.She was more likely to record what really happens though lacking formal training. |
D.She had more interest in being outdoors and learning about animals. |
A.She went to Africa when she was twenty-three years old. |
B.She accepted the third Gandhi-King Award for Non Violence. |
C.Her discoveries supported Leakey’s claim of the origins of the human species. |
D.She worked to improve conditions for zoo animals. |