1 . LONDON—The U.K. recorded its highest-ever temperatures Tuesday with readings of over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, as a heat wave scorched the nation and caused fires around the capital.
During the day, at least 34 places across the country broke the previous record. Several blazes broke out across London—including a large fire in a residential area. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Twitter that the fire brigade was under “immense pressure,” and warned citizens to stay safe.
Tuesday has been the second successive day of extremely hot weather in the nation. The U.K. government has declared a national emergency, while the national meteorological (气象的) service, the Met Office, started its first-ever “red extreme heat warning” across England.
Nationwide, schools and summer camps have closed, hospitals have canceled routine visits and transport has been disrupted, with many railways and the London subway system urging customers to stay at home.
The heat warped (使变形) runways at U.K. airports on Monday, forcing Luton Airport to stop all flights until early evening. The Met office has warned against melting asphalt (沥青) on roads and has advised citizens not to travel.
“In this country we’re used to treating a hot spell as a chance to go and play in the sun,” said Penny Endersby, chief executive at the Met Office, in a press release. “This is not that sort of weather.”
Scientists have warned that climate change is likely to make weather of this severity more common. Dr. Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, said, “It would have been almost impossible to see temperatures of 40 degrees in London without climate change.”
1. What do we know about the heat in U.K. according to the passage?| A．No more than 34 places broke the previous temperature record. |
| B．Tuesday was the first day of extremely hot weather in the country. |
| C．The highest temperature readings was over 104 degrees Celsius. |
| D．Some fires broke out in London because of the burning weather. |
| A．Because the heat damaged runways at U.K. airports. |
| B．Because of the first-ever red extreme heat warning. |
| C．Because the fire brigade was under big pressure. |
| D．Because the awful heat has melted asphalt on roads. |
| A．Londoners are used to play outside in the sun. |
| B．Climate has changed and caused burning weather. |
| C．This kind of climate is less likely to happen again. |
| D．This weather is not suitable to outdoors activities. |
| A．Flooded. | B．Blew. | C．Burned. | D．Warmed. |
1. What do we learn from the speaker?
| A．More can be done to reduce the damage of earthquakes. |
| B．Earthquakes always cause serious damage. |
| C．Nothing can be done to reduce the damage of earthquakes. |
| A．75,000. | B．Nearly 310,000. | C．More than 6,000. |
| A．Engineers do not have the knowledge. |
| B．Protection is too costly at present. |
| C．No one takes earthquakes seriously. |
| A．5. | B．3. | C．4. |
3 . Artificial light should be treated like other forms of pollution, research says. Human illumination (照明) of the planet is growing in range and intensity by about 2% a year, creating a problem that can be compared to climate change, according to a team of biologists from the University of Exeter. Hormone levels, breeding cycles, activity patterns and vulnerability to predators are being affected across a broad range of species, they write in a paper published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
From reduced pollination (授粉) by insects and trees budding earlier in spring, to seabirds flying into lighthouses and sea turtles mistakenly wandering inland to bright hotels in search of the dawn sun, their study brings together 126 previous papers to assess the extent of the impact.
In all the species examined, they found reduced levels of melatonin — a hormone that regulates sleep cycles — as a result of artificial light at night. Rodents (啮齿动物), which mostly search for food at night, were active for a shorter duration, while birds started singing and searching for worms earlier in the day. However, the outcomes were not purely negative. Owing to night-time light, some plants grew faster and some types of bats thrived. But the overall effect was disruptive, particularly to the insects drawn to hot bulbs or fast-moving car lamps.
“What stands out is how ubiquitous the effects are. The effects are found on microbes, invertebrates (无脊柱动物), animals and plants,” said the lead author, Kevin Gaston, a professor at the university's Environment and Sustainability Institute. “We need to start thinking about lighting in the way we think of other big systemic pressures like climate change.”
According to Gaston, there has been an increase in studies in the past five to ten years as the amount of lighting in the world has increased and the effects have become more evident. Satellite images of the Earth at night show how rapidly the problem is expanding geographically, and lights are also becoming more intense as expensive bulbs with yellow light are replaced by greater numbers of cheap bright white LEDs. This is biologically problematic because the white light has a wider spectrum, like sunlight.
Gaston urged governments, companies and individuals to be more discriminating. “At the moment, we just take lighting for granted. But we need to think in terms of using it only when we need it, where we need it and how we need it,” he said. “It is another pollutant.”
Unlike the climate crisis, however, he said solving the lighting problem would save rather than cost money. If people use fewer lights, it would mean lower costs, less electricity and lower emissions.
“At the heart of this is a deep-rooted human need to light up the night. We are still in a sense afraid of the dark,” he said. “But the ability to turn the night-time into something like the daytime is something we have pursued for beyond the necessity of doing so.”
1. Why is artificial light a pollutant according to the biologists?| A．It has a serious impact on nature. |
| B．It shortens the growing time of plants. |
| C．It contributes to other forms of pollution. |
| D．It threatens the existence of human beings. |
| A．It can be used to act as the dawn sun. |
| B．It can regulate the sleep cycles of animals. |
| C．It can prevent all species developing properly. |
| D．It can disturb behavior patterns in some species. |
| A．Normal. | B．Common |
| C．Powerful. | D．Special. |
| A．It is worth the cost. | B．It is time-consuming. |
| C．It requires a change of attitude. | D．It needs to be discussed globally. |
It's never too hard to throw your garbage in Indonesia. What Indonesians commonly do is put their trash in their personal garbage area which is usually located at the front of their houses, right at the side of the street. Put trash there, and the garbage collectors with their big garbage trucks will pick it up.
Things aren't quite different if you live in the apartment complex in Indonesia. Collect trash, wrap it in a tight plastic bag if you wish, and then put it outside your room or in a special corner in your floor hallway.
Germany
The country has a quite detailed way of sorting its waste — down to the color of the glass waste and the type of paper that can be put inside the garbage bin. There are some common public garbage bins available in the German apartment/housing area:
1. Blue bin — for paper and cardboard. Greasy (油腻的) pizza box goes to the gray bin! 2. Green and white bin — for glass, different bins for different glass colors, not available for Christmas ornaments and light bulbs! 3. Yellow/orange bin — for plastic and metals. 4. Brown bin — for biodegradable goods. 5. Gray/black bin — everything else that can't be recycled such as used diaper, kitty litter, animal waste and ashes. |
Some items don't belong in your apartment/housing area's public garbage bins. Items like used batteries, electronics, unused paints, light bulbs and appliances must be returned to special locations so they can be recycled. Other items such as clothes, shoes, oversized trash and furniture are advised to be sold or donated.
South Korea
Here are the types of garbage bin provided in South Korea:
Food Waste, anything that could be eaten by animals Recyclable Waste Oversized Waste, mostly electronics and furniture General Waste, anything that doesn't belong to the other types. |
It might sound much simpler but don't be too careless, because South Korea has a pretty strict rule and many exceptions about what items should be considered as what waste and so on.
For instance, because the food waste bin is reserved for anything that can be eaten by animals, eggshells, crustacean shells and bones are fairly prohibited from it. You are going to have to separate the bones from your meat waste, put the meat waste in the food waste bin and put the rest of the bones in the general waste bin.
1. How do Indonesians usually deal with their trash?| A．Pay someone to throw it, |
| B．Throw it into a public garbage bin. |
| C．Put it in a specific area to be collected. |
| D．Wrap it in a plastic bag and throw it away. |
| A．Donate them to others. | B．Put them in the black bin. |
| C．Return them to special locations. | D．Put them in the green and white bin. |
| A．Eggshells. | B．Chicken sandwiches. |
| C．Cardboard. | D．Second-hand furniture. |
