Officials are seeking to protect a small environment on Java island
2 . Gayle Bennett is the founder of online vintage (古董衫) shop Soul and Flare. One of the biggest aims of her company is to get rid of fashion waste by encouraging others to shop vintage and look after the clothes they already own.
Some of the vintage clothes have been worn on and off for up to 70 years-something of a miracle and testament (证明) to their quality as well as how they’re looked after, she says.
For some, buying vintage is a new experience, but Bennett has been learning her trade for a long time. She really knows what she’s talking about.
“I’ve been running Soul and Flare for around five years but have been in the vintage trade for more than a decade. I fell into it in many ways but, growing up, my mom would drag us around charity shops and car boot sales (后备箱集市). In her own way，she was sustainable even if she didn’t know what the word meant then. When I left college, I got a job at a vintage clothing shop. That’s when I started witnessing the vast amounts of clothing wasted in the UK, and my passion for reviving, repairing and making clothing last began.
“In the past, charity shops were there to help poor families, so you didn’t want to go there. But now people love going to charity shops,”Bennett says. The joy of going to charity shops is in the looking. “Around 90 percent of the time you’re going to be wearing something unique.” And that’s something every fashionist wants whether they’re wearing it to a wedding, or for a Zoom party.
1. What was Bennett’s purpose of establishing Soul and Flare?| A．To make fashion sustainable. | B．To lead the fashion trend. |
| C．To promote worn-out clothing. | D．To improve people’s fashion sense. |
| A．They are expensive. | B．They’re of low quality. |
| C．They are well preserved. | D．They are from charity shops. |
| A．Her mother’s encouragement. | B．Her familiarity with the trade. |
| C．Her love for fashion design. | D．Her knowledge of fashion waste. |
| A．They can save a lot of money. | B．They’re influenced by fashionists. |
| C．They want to give to charity. | D．They can get something special there. |
Poor environment is connected with poor health. Now a new public-health
Let’s take schools for example. Across Denmark, France, and Sweden, researchers found that indoor-air quality in 66% of classrooms fell short
The problem extends well beyond classrooms. Many people spend more than 90% of their time
Covid-19 has brought a new urgency to the matter
The topic of this programme is environmental
5 . Plastic is the workhorse material of the modern economy. Light and durable, it’s been used to make a vast number of products since its introduction over 100 years ago.
However, a study carried out by the World Economic Forum, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation(基金会) and McKinsey &Company showed the breakdown of the status of the global plastic system. A full 32% of the 78 million tons of plastic packaging produced annually is left to flow into out oceans.
The Ocean Cleanup, a startup founded in 2013, is the brainchild of Boyan Slat, who came up with the idea for the company when he was just 17 years old. Since then, it has received more than $2 million in funding(基金). The company plans to use a large device that will be fixed to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. This will have arms that spread out over 100 km, getting all of the plastic garbage pushed into its nets. This is then collected by a 10,000 metrecube container that will be emptied monthly.
Most recently, the Ocean Cleanup launched a team of explorers aboard a specially refitted C130 Hercules aircraft heavily loaded with specialized sensor equipment. It discovered that the problem was worse than expected with an abundance of plastics measuring up to 1.5m across and at a higher density than previously thought. The organization will continue to pilot the device and will start removing the pile before the end of the decade.
Once the plastic is out, what should we do with it? The foundation hopes that the plastic from the ocean will have a commercial value which can help to fund the project. Ocean plastic is not easy to use, for it’s mixed with everything from intact PET bottles to microplastics. However, some of the world’s biggest companies also see the chance to market products made of ocean plastic.
Transforming today’s plastic economy from its present form (takemakewaste) to a zero waste circular economy (takemaketakemake) is a difficult challenge. However, with cooperative action from producers, recyclers, governments and consumers alike and continuing innovation, it can be done.
1. What’s Boyan Slat’s idea about?| A．A way to collect ocean plastic waste. | B．A new product made of ocean plastic. |
| C．A machine to recycle plastic garbage. | D．An organization to research into plastic. |
| A．About 35 tons. | B．About 25 tons. | C．About 45 tons. | D．About 55 tons. |
| A．It’ll sponsor the foundation. | B．It’ll be recycled by the government. |
| C．It’ll be turned into treasure. | D．It’ll take the form of takemakewaste. |
| A．A diary. | B．A guidebook. | C．A novel. | D．A magazine. |
6 . Calculated every year by Global Footprint Network（GFN），Earth Overshoot Day（地球生态超载日）is the day when human has used up all the natural resources—produce,meat,fish,water and wood.This means we use up them ahead of time before the end of the year.
It is just like spending your entire years' money by August and then borrow money from friends,knowing fully well you cannot pay back. GFN says the same thing happens in the case of the earth."Because we give out more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than our oceans and forests can take in,and we harvest forests more quickly than they can regrow,"he said.
In a perfect world,we should only spend what we have.This means Earth Overshoot Day would fll on 31 December or perhaps in the following year. Unfortunately,the day has been climbing up quickly since 2014 when it fell on 19 August.In 2015,it was 13 August,and this year, the earliest so far—8 August!
According to GFN,Australia tops the list,with the United States coming in a close second.If the world's population started to live like either of these countries,we would need more resources to meet our needs.
Fortunately,experts say the situation isn't as bad as it sounds. Many countries have already taken measures to reduce carbon emissions（释放）by using wind or solar energy.People can also help by eating less meat, walking, cycling or taking public transportation,as well adopting the three Rs: Reduce,Reuse&Recycle.If we work together,we can help push back Earth Overshoot Day to December 31 or even beyond.
1. How does the author explain Earth Overshoot Day?| A．By giving us some data. |
| B．By comparing it to personal money. |
| C．By describing the process of waste. |
| D．By introducing the present situation of the earth. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Negative. | C．Skeptical. | D．Positive. |
| A．Earth Overshot Day falls on different days every year. |
| B．Earth Overshoot Day falls on 8 August. |
| C．Earth Overshoot Day falls on 31 December. |
| D．Earth Overshoot Day is put forward year by year. |
| A．To warn people to plan for their future. |
| B．To tell people the importance of nature. |
| C．To teach people how to protect the earth. |
| D．To call on people to care about the earth. |
7 . Wildfires were rapidly spreading through northern and southern California as powerful winds swept through the state, burning homes and forcing more than 200,000 people to leave their homes. Thousands of structures were destroyed in the massive fires. Firefighters and volunteers worked around the clock, risking their lives to save others, although thick clouds of wildfire smoke hung in the air.
But it's not just humans in danger’s path. A video of a horse running away from the rescue team to find his family of horses from CBS Los Angeles went viral. The public was touched by the horse's heroic act and shared their thoughts on the Internet.
Volunteers were rescuing several horses from the wildfire when one of the horses jumped away from the group. They were trying to help the horse, but he refused. They probably had no idea what was wrong with the horse, who just started running away from them. The horse raced back into danger to lead his family to safety, despite rescuers' best efforts to stop him. He knew he couldn't leave them behind. As the tension increased, several human strangers jumped in to help the animals — they went back to the burning barn where some of the horses remained.
You can watch the horse run back into the smoke-filled area, reconnect with the horses inside the fence, and quickly accompany them out of the fenced-off area. Though it's not clear from the video, CBS Los Angeles reported that all but one of the horses involved were saved. Disastrous as the California wildfires have been, the video and countless other rescue stories — humans and animals alike — are shining light on all acts of goodness taking place.
1. What does the author intend to show by telling the wildfires in detail in Para. 1?| A．What caused the big wildfires. | B．How serious the wildfires were. |
| C．What rescuers did in the wildfires. | D．How rapidly the wildfires spread. |
| A．Turned bad. | B．Got attacked. |
| C．Became interesting. | D．Grew popular. |
| A．Loyal but stubborn. | B．Caring and courageous. |
| C．Responsible and clever. | D．Flexible but aggressive. |
| A．Fighting disasters needs joint efforts. | B．Animals are always friends of man. |
| C．All good deeds deserve to be praised. | D．Animals show goodness to each other. |
8 . The idea of turning recycled plastic bottles into clothing is not new. During the last five years, a large number of clothing companies, businesses and environmental organizations have started turning plastics into fabric to deal with plastic pollution. But there’s a problem with this method. Research now shows that microfibers could be the biggest source of plastic in the sea.
Dr. Mark Browne in Santa Barbara, California, has been studying plastic pollution and microfibers for 10 years now. He explains that every time synthetic clothes go into a washing machine, a large number of plastic fibers fall off. Most washing machines can’t collect these microfibers. So every time the water gets out of a washing machine, microfibers are entering the sewers and finally end up in the sea.
In 2011, Browne wrote a paper stating that a single piece of synthetic(合成的) clothing can produce more than 1, 900 fibers per wash. Browne collected samples from seawater and freshwater sites around the world, and used a special way to examine each sample. He discovered that every single water sample contained microfibers.
This is bad news for a number of reasons. Plastic can cause harm to sea life when eaten. Studies have also shown that plastic can absorb other pollutants.
Based on this evidence, it may seem surprising that companies and organizations have chosen to turn plastic waste into clothing as an environmental “solution.” Even though the science has been around for a while, Browne explains that he's had a difficult time getting companies to listen. When he asked well-known clothing companies to support Benign by Design-his research project that seeks to get clothes that have a bad effect on humans and the environment out of the market, Browne didn’t get a satisfying answer. Only one women’s clothing company, Eileen Fisher, offered Browne funding.
1. What has happened during the past five years?| A．Fabric has become much stronger. | B．Plastic pollution has been less serious. |
| C．Many plastic bottles have been reused. | D．Microfibers have been greatly improved. |
| A．It is adding microfibers to the clothes. |
| B．It is worsening environmental problems. |
| C．It is making synthetic clothes last longer. |
| D．It is doing great damage to washing machines. |
| A．It has achieved great success. | B．It hasn’t got anything done. |
| C．It is known to very few people. | D．It is facing some difficulties. |
| A．It’s important to learn to recycle |
| B．It’s never easy to solve pollution problems |
| C．Recycled plastic clothing: solution or pollution? |
| D．Are human beings moving forward or backward? |
9 . Cowboy or spaceman? A dilemma for a children’s party, perhaps. But also a question for economists, argued Kenneth Boulding, a British economist, in an essay published in 1966. We have run our economies, he warned, like cowboys on the open grassland: taking and using the world’s resources, confident that more lies over the horizon. But the Earth is less a grassland than a spaceship—a closed system, alone in space, carrying limited supplies. We need, said Boulding, an economics that takes seriously the idea of environmental limits. In the half century since his essay, a new movement has responded to his challenge. “Ecological economists”, as they call themselves, want to revolutionise its aims and assumptions. What do they say—and will their ideas achieve lift-off?
To its advocators, ecological economics is neither ecology nor economics, but a mix of both. Their starting point is to recognise that the human economy is part of the natural world. Our environment, they note, is both a source of resources and a sink for wastes. But it is ignored in conventional textbooks, where neat diagrams trace the flows between firms, households and the government as though nature did not exist. That is a mistake, say ecological economists.
There are two ways our economies can grow, ecological economists point out: through technological change, or through more intensive use of resources. Only the former, they say, is worth having. They are suspicious of GDP, a crude measure which does not take account of resource exhaustion, unpaid work, and countless other factors. In its place they advocate moreholistic(全面的) approaches, such as the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), a composite index(复合指标) that includes things like the cost of pollution, deforestation and car accidents. While GDP has kept growing, global GPI per person peaked in 1978: by destroying our environment we are making ourselves poorer, not richer. The solution, says Herman Daly, a former World Bank economist and eco-guru, is a “steady-state” economy, where the use of materials and energy is held constant.
Mainstream economists are unimpressed. The GPI, they point out, is a subjective measure. And talk of limits to growth has had a bad press since the days of Thomas Malthus, a gloomy 18th century cleric who predicted, wrongly, that overpopulation would lead to famine. Human beings find solutions to some of the most annoying problems. But ecological economists warn against self-satisfaction. In 2009 a paper in Nature, a scientific journal, argued that human activity is already overstepping safe planetary boundaries on issues such as biodiversity(生物多样性) and climate change. That suggests that ecological economists are at least asking some important questions, even if their answers turn out to be wrong.
1. Kenneth Boulding and the content of his essay at the beginning of this passage are meant to .| A．point out how ignorant of nature the cowboys are |
| B．blame human beings for their exploitation of nature |
| C．ask people to take seriously the environment limits |
| D．introduce ecological economists and ecologist economics |
| A．Ecology and economics are not mixed together |
| B．Human economy isn’t recognized as parts of nature |
| C．The environment has both resources and wastes |
| D．Diagrams connect firms, households and the government |
| A．GDP is crude measure that is not worth using |
| B．car accident should by all means include in GDP |
| C．we are gaining material wealth by destroying nature |
| D．resources and energy will one day be totally used up |
| A．the aims and assumptions of economics need to be revolutionized |
| B．GDP and GPI should be both accepted by mainstream economists |
| C．Human beings can always find solutions to all the annoying problems |
| D．Ecological economists’ concerns about the world are worth noticing. |
10 . The early life of the green sea turtle (海龟) is full of danger. Only one in 1,000 baby sea turtles survive to adulthood (成年). From its home in the sand, it breaks its egg with an egg tooth. Its mother is not there to help it. Instead, it is greeted by crabs, coyotes, and dogs waiting to eat it for dinner. To survive, the baby turtle must hide in the sand until night. Then, it moves slowly to the sea.
The small turtle must swim hard to reach the ocean waters. In the sea, it tries hard to find food. It must also keep itself from being food for fish.
As dangerous as the sea turtle’s life is in the natural world, its most dangerous enemies are humans. The rubbish left by humans in the ocean causes problems for the small green sea turtle. A little turtle might eat a piece of plastic (塑料) in the sea. It might also eat oil on the ocean’s surface. Young turtles also get caught in fishing nets. There are laws against hunting sea turtles. Still, many are hunted, both for their meat and for their shells (壳). All of these dangers must be prevented.
Sea turtles that do survive to grow into adulthood go through many changes. For example, adult green sea turtles weigh about 500 pounds. They stop eating jellyfish and other meat and eat only plants. And they may plan a trip to go back home again. A mother sea turtle goes back to the beach where she was born. This is the only place where she will lay eggs. Even if it has been forty years since she was a baby, she always knows her way back home.
1. Why do baby turtles move to the sea at night?| A．They dislike sunshine. |
| B．They prefer lower temperatures. |
| C．They can find food easily then. |
| D．They need to avoid enemies. |
| A．Pitiful. | B．Careless. |
| C．Interesting. | D．Courageous. |
| A．They mainly feed on fish and meat. |
| B．They always produce eggs at their birthplaces. |
| C．They can live for around forty years. |
| D．They visit their beach homes several times a year. |
| A．The homes of green sea turtles. |
| B．How sea turtles find their food. |
| C．The dangers faced by sea turtles. |
| D．How young turtles become adults. |
