1 . The world’s coral reefs do more for the planet than provide underwater beauty. They protect shorelines from the effects of hurricanes. An estimated 500 million people earn their livelihood from the fishing stocks and tourism opportunities reefs provide. The tiny animals that give rise to reefs are even offering hope for new drugs to treat cancer and other diseases.
Despite their importance, warming waters, pollution, ocean acidification, overfishing, and physical destruction are killing coral reefs around the world. So now scientists around the world are looking for all kinds of ways to protect and maybe even revive(复苏) corals. In the Bahamas, Ross Cunning, a research biologist at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, is focusing on corals with genes that could make them natural candidates for restoration projects. He recently published a study of two Bahamian reefs, one that seemed to survive an intense 2015 heat wave, and one that didn’t.“It sets the stage to find out which genes are responsible for thermal tolerance,” says Cunning, adding that he hopes discovering those genes will help scientists one day breed more heat-tolerant coral.
In Massachusetts, Cohen’s research has found two key elements that seem to protect corals. The first: internal(内部的) waves beneath the ocean’s surface that bring cooler currents to heat-struck corals, essentially air-conditioning them as temperatures rise. The second: adaptation, a quality that corals found in Palau’s warm lagoons(环礁湖) seem to display.On average, these lagoons submerge(淹没) coral in water that is two degrees Celsius warmer than the water outside the lagoons. “We think the fact that they can deal with these higher temperatures is built into their genetics and allows them to deal with the heat waves.”
She’s also found evidence of corals evolving more quickly in the past two decades to withstand rapidly warming temperatures. The big question scientists are now enquiring into, says Cohen, is whether there’s a cap on how much more heat corals can adapt to. Cohen calls these regions with heat-adapted corals as “super reefs,” and like Friendlander, advocates for using marine reserves to protect them.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The protection for coral reefs |
| B．The great value of coral reefs. |
| C．The benefits for tourism from coral reefs. |
| D．The relationship between animals and coral reefs. |
| A．Cooling down the waters is the key to their success. |
| B．Some corals have been genetically improved successfully. |
| C．He expects to identify the genes of the heat-tolerant corals. |
| D．Some corals that survived 2015 heat wave surprised people. |
| A．How corals survive in the warm lagoons. |
| B．What are the key elements to protect corals. |
| C．How they can use natural reserves to protect corals. |
| D．What is the high temperature limit of the surviving corals. |
| A．Science. | B．Environment. | C．Animal. | D．Climate. |
2 . You are welcome to our channel. An interest in the way ocean currents move led Dr. Erik van Sebille to track garbage. This Dutch scientist hopes that by making us aware of how much we litter our oceans, we’ll be motivated to better stash (存放) our garbage.
Question: Where does the garbage in our oceans come from ?Answer: It can come from litter people leave behind on beaches. Or from things falling off ships. Almost every river’s garbage will end up in the ocean too. Plastic garbage is the biggest problem, though. That’s because it doesn’t easily break down. It can stay in the ocean for thousands of years. Eventually, it arrives at the garbage patches (垃圾带).
Question: Does this mean that ocean garbage is worse than garbage on land ?
Answer: Litter in the ocean is probably just as bad as litter in a forest or a park. The main problem in either place is that, if animals eat plastic pieces, they can become very ill. But we know how to solve the problem: Just stop polluting!
Question: Many persons love tossing a message in a bottle into the ocean. Is that a bad idea ?
Answer: Finding a bottle with a message in it is awesome, very special! But most bottles will never end up on a beach. They’ll turn up in the garbage patches, where it’s unlikely that someone will find them. If you want to play with ocean currents, go to the website and release virtual bottles. That way, you’re not littering our oceans.
1. Animals can become very ill if they _______________.
| A．turn up in the garbage patches. | B．arrive at the garbage patches. |
| C．eat plastic pieces. | D．play with bottles. |
| A．educative. | B．useful. | C．interesting. | D．meaningless. |
| A．story. | B．poem. | C．scientific article. | D．television interview. |
3 . New Zealand plans to put a price on sheep and cow burps (打嗝) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (排放). If the plan is passed, New Zealand will become the first country to tax (征税) farmers on each burp of their cattle, since the burps give out methane (甲烷) into the atmosphere.
“There is no question that we need to cut the amount of methane we are putting into the atmosphere, and an effective emissions pricing system for agriculture will play a key part in how we achieve that,” Climate Change Minister James Shaw said.
Animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of global warming. It is reportedly responsible for at least 14.5% of the world’s emissions. Moreover, cows are by far the biggest contributors. This is so because they produce 40% of global methane when they burp, fart (放屁) and produce waste. Also, methane is 80 times more warming than CO2 although it’s shorter-lived in the atmosphere.
New Zealand, which has a population of five million people, has around 10 million cattle and 26 million sheep. “Almost half the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mainly methane,” the draft plan explained.
The “burp tax” is expected to take effect in 2025. Mr. Shaw wants farming to be more environmentally friendly. He also wants farmers to change the way they farm. He wants them to feed their animals on seaweed instead of grass. This will produce fewer emissions. Mr. Shaw also said farmers can reduce the tax they pay by planting more trees. Another suggestion is for cows to wear special masks.
New Zealand’s farmers support the government. They want to do their bit to help the environment.
1. Why will cattle’s burps be taxed?| A．To raise more money. | B．To feed more cattle. |
| C．To limit cattle’s price. | D．To better the environment. |
| A．Its cows produce 40% of global methane. |
| B．Its agriculture affects greenhouse gas emissions. |
| C．It is responsible for at least 14.5% of the world’s emissions. |
| D．There is 80 times more methane than CO2. |
| A．Plant more trees. | B．Correct their way to farm. |
| C．Feed their animals on grass. | D．Wear special masks when farming. |
| A．New Zealand reducing greenhouse gas emissions |
| B．New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions and animal farming |
| C．New Zealand introducing a new tax to help the environment |
| D．New Zealand’s farmers joining in the fight against climate change |
1. What is the conversation mainly about?
| A．Fighting fires. | B．Detecting fires. | C．Using fires. |
| A．Around 50. | B．About 400. | C．Over 8600. |
| A．Size of a car. | B．Size of a plane. | C．Size of a sports field. |
| A．Saving animals. | B．Saving the trees. | C．Saving humans. |
Antarctica Desert | Antarctica is a continent (大陆) of ice. There is hardly any rain in Antarctica, so the Antarctic Desert becomes the driest desert in the world. It is also the world’s largest desert by area. |
Sahara Desert | The Sahara Desert is the hottest of all the deserts on the earth. It covers most parts of North Africa and is similar in size to the land area of the USA. The word “sahara” in Arabic means “desert”. |
Arabian Desert | The Arabian Desert is in Asia on the Arabian peninsula. It covers almost the entire Arabian Peninsula. The sand here has a red-orange color and the surface of the Arabian Desert is covered mainly by sand hills, some gravel plains( 砾石平原) and rocky plains. |
Mojave Desert | The Mojave Desert is in the USA. It is the driest desert on the North American continent. Death Valley, one of the hottest areas in the world, is in the Mojave Desert. Mojave comes from the Spanish word for “beside the water”. |
| A．The Arabian Desert. | B．The Sahara Desert. |
| C．The Antarctica Desert. | D．The Mojave Desert. |
| A．It is the hottest desert in the world. |
| B．It is the largest desert in the world. |
| C．It is the coldest desert in the world. |
| D．It is the driest desert on the North American continent. |
| A．Red. | B．Orange. | C．Red-yellow. | D．Red-orange. |
6 . Large amounts of waste, or garbage, are filling streets in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, after protesters blocked a road leading to a landfill outside the city. People in Bancharedanda where the garbage is kept blame the government for not doing enough to protect them from the waste.
One British tourist, Richard McSorley, recently talked about the problem. He remembered how clean Kathmandu was when he first visited it many years ago. “If I were a new tourist, I would be despondent now,” McSorley said, while pointing to a load of garbage next to a city street. For weeks, treatment of waste has been a continuous problem in the city surrounded by hills. The problems started after people in the village of Bancharedanda refused to have the garbage thrown at a nearby landfill.
Biswas Dhungana was one of the protesters. He said the villagers were refusing to permit trucks loaded with garbage to enter. They say government officials have done little to provide basic equipment and effective ways to deal with the garbage. He added, “We have been forced to live like pigs in terrible conditions for several years as the government has not done anything to keep the village clean.”
Last week, hundreds of villagers built a wall of rocks on the road leading to Bancharedanda. It forced about 200 trucks filled with Kathmandu’s garbage to return without dumping their load. It was said that protesters also threw stones from surrounding hills.
Sunil Lamsal is an official to watch over how Kathmandu’s garbage is treated. He said, “I am working to deal with the concerns of the locals in Bancharedanda. But now, garbage continues to grow on the streets of Kathmandu. This has led to increased danger for people living in the capital. In the light of it, the government will soon take further positive measures to tackle the problem, as the environment affects every family.”
1. How does the author begin the text?| A．By listing statistics. | B．By asking questions. |
| C．By describing a phenomenon. | D．By drawing a comparison. |
| A．Disappointed. | B．Dependent. | C．Dynamic. | D．Disabled. |
| A．Government officials. | B．Foreign visitors. |
| C．City residents. | D．Truck drivers. |
| A．Punish the protesters. | B．Meet the villagers’ demand. |
| C．Stop the villagers’ illegal actions. | D．Urge every family to clean their village. |
7 . Hello, everyone! I’ve just come back from a wonderful trip to Tibet. Snow-covered mountains disappear into clouds that seem almost close enough to touch. It was so beautiful there that
| A．I felt as if I was in a fairyland (仙境). |
| B．As they pass through Tibet. |
| C．visitors are being told to pay more attention to protecting the environment. |
| D．this beautiful countryside is being destroyed by careless visitors. |
| E．How can we make visitors more aware of the damage that is being done to the environment? |
| F．I’m struck by their beauty. |
| G．We must change our way of life. |
8 . Portugal’s white storks (鹳) were once a migratory bird (候鸟), known to leave the area each winter to travel to Africa’s warmer climate, but recently they have been staying put.
Surprisingly, though, the storks’ number has actually been on the rise. There are now thought to be more than 14,000 birds in Portugal in winter — a ten-time increase over the last 20 years. Any unusual change of an animal’s natural behavior often has negative influences.
It has been thought that their increase has a close relationship with a growing number of landfill sites (垃圾填埋场) in the area, providing the birds with a supply of fatty and dirty rubbish to eat, including junk food. Was it the junk food that stopped them migrating, or is Europe’s warming climate to criticize? Researchers sought to figure out exactly why their natural behavior had changed in this way. To understand, a team kept an eye on 48 white storks by equipping them with small GPS computers, which recorded their movements five times a day, checking how often they traveled to landfill sites as well as how fast they flew.
The conclusions were shocking. The birds also established more homes next to landfill sites — the team said that 80% of white storks were spending most of their time by the rubbish all year round, according to the results. The storks eat almost anything. “Every time after a truck with rubbish came, they collected what they could,” says Aldina Franco of the University of East Anglia in the UK. The storks have even been known to eat plastic, including old computer parts. “Really what they are trying to get at is rubbish that we throw away... like hamburgers, burnt meat and fish,” said Franco.
This rich and colorful supply of food will soon become hard to find, though, as new laws from European Union (EU) order that waste food be recycled. Open-air landfills will also be replaced by covered equipment, which birds will not be able to eat.
The white storks therefore face an uncertain future. Will they migrate to Africa as they had done for hundreds of years before, or will they stay put? No one knows. “I wonder what the Portuguese storks will do once the landfill sites are all closed, and we are going to continue to watch these storks and see how they will respond to the changes,” said Aldina Franco.
1. What do you know about the team’s research?| A．Researchers equipped 48 small computers on white storks. |
| B．The GPS computers were used to record white storks’ movements. |
| C．The conclusions the team got were the same as they predicted. |
| D．Researchers found Europe’s warming climate accounted for storks’ staying put. |
| A．The landfill made the storks lose their homes. |
| B．The landfill helped increase the number of storks. |
| C．Open-air landfills will be replaced and storks will die out. |
| D．The landfill gave the storks food and in turn, influenced where they lived. |
| A．He will continue to do research on white storks. |
| B．The Portuguese storks can eat whatever we throw away. |
| C．People should prepare more healthy food for white storks. |
| D．White storks will migrate to Africa if the landfill sites are closed. |
| A．White Stork Will Migrate Again After Rubbish Is Recycled |
| B．White Storks’ Staying Put Contributed to Rubbish Recycling |
| C．White Storks’ Staying Put in Winter Concerned Scientists |
| D．Climate Change will Be the Test for White Storks’ Migration |
9 . The alligator gar (鳄雀鳝) was a mystery to most people in China, but now it has become famous as a high-risk, invasive fish species.
The fish hit the headlines following the tracking of two alligator gars in a park in Ruzhou, Henan province. Filming of the search, which was live-streamed on Aug 23, attracted about 37 million viewers at its peak. The capture of the fish wasn’t too simple, but they were finally caught on Aug 26.
Gu Dang’en, a scientist associated with a national program on invasive species control, said that the exotic fish was brought into China two to three decades ago for its strange spotted look.
As a predator at the top of its food chain, the alligator gar has already appeared in many places across China. It can eat all the other creatures living in the water, damage local ecosystems and pose risks to humans. A boy in Taizhou Jiangsu, was bitten by an alligator gar on three of his fingers while playing by a community pool on Aug 17. Experts also warn that the alligator gar’s guts and eggs are poisonous.
The Biosecurity Law, which took effect in April 2021, requires that the government must draft a list of invasive species and work out rules for their management. “Authorities have announced a national plan to conduct surveys of 10 invasive species, including the alligator gar, ”said Mu Xidong, a researcher with the Pearl River Fisheries Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences.
Ren Dapeng, a professor from China Agricultural University, said that, under the new law, institutions and individuals cannot import, release or abandon exotic species without official approval. If institutions and individuals break the Biosecurity Law, they can face fines of between 10,000 and50,000 yuan. He said that if people no longer want to raise exotic species like the alligator gar, they should send them to the authorities and turn to them for help.
1. Why has the alligator gar become widely known now?| A．The alligator gar was a high-risk and invasive fish species. |
| B．The capture of them didn’t go easily and lasted a long time. |
| C．The two alligator gars were special and tracked by researchers. |
| D．Millions of people watched the live capture of them on the Internet. |
| A．Destructive. | B．Foreign. | C．Poisonous. | D．Attractive. |
| A．They will be thrown into prison. |
| B．They will be sent to the authorities. |
| C．They will be fined at least ¥ 10,000. |
| D．They will be asked to catch the fish back. |
| A．Protecting Biodiversity | B．Stopping Invasive Fish |
| C．Drafting Biosecurity Law | D．Balancing Life & Nature |
10 . Despite the fact that the ocean plays a role in everything from the air we breathe to daily weather and climate patterns, we know very little about our ocean. And, most of our
Ocean exploration is about making discoveries,
Findings made through ocean exploration are fundamental to reducing
Information from ocean exploration is
Ocean exploration can improve ocean literacy (认识) and
| A．discussion | B．knowledge | C．decision | D．judgment |
| A．task | B．business | C．mystery | D．headache |
| A．searching for | B．giving up | C．picking out | D．taking on |
| A．in case of | B．in hopes of | C．in need of | D．in terms of |
| A．developed | B．balanced | C．connected | D．organized |
| A．pollutants | B．activities | C．unknowns | D．emissions |
| A．remove | B．address | C．reflect | D．emphasize |
| A．ever | B．already | C．just | D．even |
| A．enjoy | B．choose | C．waste | D．change |
| A．necessary | B．practical | C．complex | D．important |
| A．prove | B．narrow | C．overlook | D．reveal |
| A．affecting | B．protecting | C．respecting | D．improving |
| A．allow | B．invite | C．require | D．inspire |
| A．monitoring | B．measuring | C．exploring | D．facing |
| A．checked | B．applied | C．designed | D．stimulated |
