1 . The amount of plastic pollution in the oceans is rapidly increasing. This is problematic, as at least 700 species of sea animals may mistake it for a tasty snack. While we know that some species seem to eat plastic because it looks like jellyfish or some other food sources, less research has been carried out into what plastic smells like to marine animals.
But now, a study from the University of North Carolina has found that the coating of algae that naturally builds up on ocean plastics causes the rubbish to give off the scent of food.
The researchers took 15 loggerhead turtles, each around five months old, and placed them in a laboratory tank. They then piped in clean water, clean plastic, turtle food, and plastic that had been immersed in the marine environment for five weeks.
The turtles showed no reaction to the smell of clean water or clean plastic. But when they were exposed to the smell of ocean-soaked plastic or turtle food, they exhibited food-seeking behaviours like reaching their noses out of the water or showing increasing activities.
“This finding is the first demonstration that the smell of ocean plastics causes animals to eat them, ” said Dr Kenneth J. Lohmann, who took part in the study. “It’s common to find loggerhead turtles with their digestive systems fully or partially blocked because they’ve eaten plastic materials. There are also increasing reports of sea turtles that have become ill and stranded on the beach due to their ingestion (摄食) of plastic.”
According to the researchers, areas of the ocean with dense concentrations of plastic may trick turtles and other marine animals into thinking that there is an abundant food source. “Once these plastics are in the ocean, we don’t have a good way to remove them or prevent them from smelling like food,” said Lohmann.
1. Why is plastic pollution posing a threat to marine animals?| A．It may eat up all jellyfish. |
| B．It may mislead them as food. |
| C．It may kill them with its smell. |
| D．It may trap 700 species of sea animals. |
| A．Sea water. | B．Clear water. |
| C．Brand-new plastic. | D．Sea-soaked plastic. |
| A．Turtles should be trained to be more intelligent. |
| B．Plastics should be kept from getting into the ocean. |
| C．An abundant food source should be offered to sea animals. |
| D．Researchers should come up with a solution to the current problem. |
| A．Ways Found to Remove Plastic |
| B．Loggerhead Turtles Faced with Food Shortage |
| C．Ocean Plastics Smell like Food to Turtles |
| D．Plastic Pollution — Compromise or Control? |
1.海洋的重要性；
2.保护海洋的倡议；
注意：1.写作词数应为100词左右；
2.短文题目和首句已为你写好。
Our Oceans, Our Responsibility
June 8th was officially named by the UN in 2009 as World Oceans Day.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Yours,
Li Hua
3 . Off the coast of Formentera, an island, lives seagrass that stretches 15 kilometres. The seagrass, covering several hectares, is made up of a single organism. The grass is also long-lived, for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. Along with two other kinds of coastal ecosystems — mangrove swamps (红树沼泽) and tidal marshes, seagrass meadows are particularly good at taking carbon dioxide from the air.
This role was highlighted in a report, which was published on March 2nd by UNESCO, on blue carbon — the carbon taken in by Earth’s oceanic and coastal ecosystems. In total around 33 billion tons of carbon dioxide, about three quarters of the world’s emissions in 2019, are locked away in the planet’s blue carbon sinks. Research by Carlos Duarte, the report’s author and a marine (海洋的) ecologist, has shown that one hectare of seagrass can take in as much carbon dioxide each year as 15 hectares of rainforest.
One reason that blue-carbon ecosystems make such effective sinks is that underwater forests are thicker than the land-based woods. They can also trap (收集) floating pieces and organic matter, which settles on the sea floor and can double the amount of carbon stored away. They have another advantage, too. Climate change is leading to more wildfires around the world. As forests burn, their carbon stocks are released back into the atmosphere. Unlike forests on land, blue-carbon ecosystems do not burn.
Blue-carbon ecosystems may not be fired, but they remain affected to other sorts of disasters. In May 2020 hurricane Amphan destroyed 1,200 square kilometres of mangrove forest. A marine heatwave in Australian waters in 2010 and 2011 damaged around one third of the world’s largest seagrass meadow in Shark Bay. “Mangrove forests can weaken or control waves and provide natural barriers to storm surges. Protecting and expanding them, then, appears to be a must,” said a marine biologist.
1. What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?| A．The detailed explanation of blue carbon. |
| B．The special features of the seagrass. |
| C．The doubt about the blue-carbon ecosystems. |
| D．The capacity of the blue-carbon ecosystems to store carbon. |
| A．There are more underwater animals. |
| B．Their carbon stocks are released back. |
| C．They have great ability to absorb carbon. |
| D．They aren’t influenced by natural disasters |
| A．Humans should preserve blue-carbon ecosystens. |
| B．Mangrove forests can strengthen waves. |
| C．Mangrove forests are too strong to be broken. |
| D．Blue-carbon ecosystems can be fired. |
| A．Blue-Carbon Ecosystem Are Expanding Much Faster |
| B．The Grasses Can Store More Carbon Than Your Expectation |
| C．Mangrove Forests Can Control Waves Efficiently |
| D．Plants in the Ocean Are Better at Storing Carbon |
4 . About 70 kilometers offshore from the southern coast of Iceland, there is a volcanic island called Westman Islands. Every summer, locals can often be seen standing on the edge of the cliffs (悬崖) throwing birds down. The birds they throw are called puffins (海鹦), a type of seabird. Puffins are the most common bird in Iceland, and the Westman Islands are the largest puffin habitat in the world. Every year in late spring, the puffin producing season arrives and the islands are filled with busy puffins.
However, in the past 20 years, these puffins have been slowly disappearing for various reasons, one of which has something to do with their nature. Each year, the babies are born and grow in the caves on the high sea cliffs. About two months later, they will leave the cave to seek food on the ocean by following the moonlight. But they always mistake humans lights on the ground for the moon, and eventually lose their way and crash into the town. They are too young to fly back to the ocean again. Unable to find food, they are left to wait for death.
Over time, the locals realized that freeing the young puffins at the cliffs could set them on the correct path. So a puffin patrol (巡逻队) made up of mainly local children was formed. Their mission is to search for lost baby puffins in the streets with boxes. flashlights and food on the nights of September and October every year. Once found, baby puffins will be taken to the cliff and set free to the ocean. Over the years, the puffin patrol has gradually become a tradition, working quietly for the protection of puffins.
In spite of the love and care of the children, the number of puffins has dropped greatly ind recent years due to climate change, environmental pollution and rising sea temperatures, So there is still a lot of angst about what their future will be like.
1. Why do the baby puffins always arrive at town?| A．They try to search for food in town. | B．They lose their way during the flight. |
| C．They intend to rest during the flight. | D．They find it a better producing place. |
| A．To help puffins produce young. | B．To feed the young puffins. |
| C．To rescue the endangered puffins. | D．To direct puffins with lights. |
| A．Concern. | B．Origin. | C．Approach. | D．Joy. |
| A．How do we prepare for the puffin season? | B．Why are the baby puffins thrown off cliffs? |
| C．Why is the population of puffins falling? | D．How can we free young puffins correctly? |
5 . Electronic waste, also known as e-waste, consists of a discarded phones, printers, TVs, electric toothbrushes and many other electronic goods no longer in use.
A shocking 53. 6 million tons of electronic waste was generated worldwide in 2019 — less than a fifth of which was recycled, according to UN's Global E-waste Monitor 2020 report.
Of the total e-waste last year, Asia contributed the biggest amount — 46.4 per cent — followed by the Americas(24.4 percent), Europe (22.3 percent), Africa (5.4 percent) and Oceania (1.3 percent).
The combined heap of e-waste for 2019 averaged 7. 3 kg for every man, woman and child on Earth. The UK averaged the second-biggest in the world, at 23.9 kg, behind Norway, which averaged 26kg.
The report also reveals that just 17.4 percent of the e-waste was properly collected and recycled. E-waste is a health and environmental hazard (危害), containing hazardous substances such as mercury, which damages the human brain.
After a device is discarded and e-waste is warmed up, toxic chemicals are released into the air, damaging the atmosphere. E-waste in landfills can also seep (渗透) toxic materials into groundwater, affecting animals and plants.
Gold, silver, copper, and other high-value materials were collectively valued at $57 billion. However, they were mostly dumped or burned rather than being collected for treatment and reuse. In countries with developing markets, an increasing number of household electronics like refrigerators, air conditioners, and lamps are now being bought, leading to the rapid increase in e-waste. A global obsession with smart phones, which tend to be replaced by an updated model after a year, also helps build e-waste piles.
It's not that countries don't have policies to fight e-waste since 2014, the number of countries that have adopted a national e-waste policy has increased from 61 to 78, the report says. But advances are slow, enforcement (执行) is poor, and policies fail to encourage the collection and proper management of e-waste. The lack of effective policies around the world needs to be addressed (解决) as soon as possible.
1. According to official figures, how much e-waste was recycled in 2019?| A．53.6 million tons. | B．10.8 million tons. |
| C．9.3 million tons. | D．20.1 million tons. |
| A．health condition | B．electronic products |
| C．energy resources | D．environmental protection |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Indifferent. | C．Ambiguous. | D．Critical. |
| A．E-waste is increasing. | B．E-waste is being reduced. |
| C．E-waste is harmful to people. | D．E-waste is being encouraged. |
6 . Climate change is making people sick, according to a pair of influential reports on the connections between global warming and health.
Dr. Renee Sala, an emergency room physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, says governments who want to support public health must stop financially supporting the fossil fuel industry. “Climate change and air pollution have the same root cause—the burning of fossil fuels,” she says.
Longer, more intense heat waves are a particularly deadly effect of global warming around the world, and older people are most at risk. Over the past 20 years, the number of people over 65 who have died as a result of extreme heat has increased more than 50%, the Lancet report says. At least 296,000 people died because of heat in 2018, the most recent year for which global data are available.
According to the same survey, more countries are providing climate and weather information to doctors and hospitals. Helping hospitals and doctors prepare for climate-driven disasters is increasingly important. Sala says the 2020 pandemic (疫情) made clear how ill-equipped the public health equipment is to handle major disasters. She says the failures of the health system this year in the US should be a wake-up call to spend more money protecting health, especially in communities where poor people have been exposed to pollution and denied adequate health care.
Dr. Georges Benjamin, director of the American Public Health Association, says the global economic recovery from the pandemic is an opportunity to adapt to climate change. For example, urban areas without green space are increasingly dangerous heat islands that trap hot air and pollution. Planting trees, reducing highway and industrial pollution and investing in new housing are all ways to address (应对) climate change, he argues. “It’s preventable,” Benjamin says. “We don’t have to live this way.”
1. How does the author develop the third paragraph?| A．By giving examples. | B．By listing figures. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By proving causes and effects. |
| A．It improves health care for doctors. |
| B．It helps them to prevent climate change. |
| C．It is a wake-up call to improve the health system. |
| D．It can prepare them for the climate-related disasters. |
| A．People’s health is connected with climate change. |
| B．Economic developments threaten the environment. |
| C．Action should be taken to deal with climate change. |
| D．The 2020 pandemic offers a chance to adapt to climate change. |
| A．Society. | B．Technology. | C．Health. | D．Economy. |
7 . Plastic pollution has long been a problem, but now it's gotten to a new height-literally.
Microplastics, referring to plastic fragments and particles less than 5 millimeters in diameter, have been found on Mount Qomolangma as high as 8,440 meters above sea level, just 408.86 meters below the peak of the mountain, according to a recent study published in the journal One Earth.
“These are the highest microplastics ever discovered so far, “ lead author Imogen Napper from the University of Plymouth, UK, said in a statement.
Scientists collected snow and water samples from 19 different locations from 4, 200 meters above sea level all the way up to the top of Mount Qomolangma. They found microplastics in all the water samples and part of the snow samples. The most polluted sample was from the Base Camp in Nepal, where most human activity on the mountain is concentrated. It had 79 particles of microplastics per liter of snow.
But how have these fragments made it all this way and in such a great abundance? The answer is apparent-human activities. It is climbers who bring plastic products to the mountain. Even if they don't litter, just walking for 20 minutes or opening a bottle of water can release microplastics into the environment.
Even covered in ice, the Arctic is also a victim of plastic pollution. A 2020 report published in Nature suggests that there are 2,000 to 17,000 plastic particles per cubic meter in Arctic ice cores. Experts think microplastics may be transported by air and then reach the North Pole in snowfall.
“What we don't yet fully know is the potential problems these tiny pieces of plastic could be having to ecosystems," said Christian Dunn of Bangor University , UK.
Then what can we do? “We need to start focusing on deeper technological solutions that focus on microplastics, like changing fabric design and include natural fibers instead of plastic when possible, " Napper said.
1. Where did Napper's team find the microplastics?| A．At 408.86 meters below the top of Mount Qomolangma. |
| B．In all water and snow samples collected. |
| C．At 4,200 meters above the Everest Base Camp. |
| D．At the foot of Mount Qomolangma. |
| A．Stopping littering. | B．Avoiding bottled water. |
| C．Limiting use of equipment. | D．Forbidding climbing at all. |
| A．By planes flying in the air | B．By wind from other places. |
| C．By humans traveling there | D．By huge tides in the sea. |
| A．Promoting new styles of clothes. | B．Improving technology for ecosystems. |
| C．Replacing plastic with natural fibers. | D．Researching microplastics' harm. |
8 . Sports can help you keep fit and get in touch with nature. However, whether you are on the mountains, in the waves, or on the grassland, you should be aware that your sport of choice might have great influence on the environment.
Some sports are resource-hungry. Golf, as you may know, eats up not only large areas of countryside, but also tons of water. Besides, all sorts of chemicals and huge amounts of energy are used to keep its courses （球场） in good condition. This causes major environmental effects. For example, in the dry regions of Portugal and Spain, golf is often held responsible for serious water shortage in some local areas.
There are many environment-friendly sports. Power walking is one of them that you could take up today. You don’t need any special equipment except a good pair of shoes; and you don’t have to worry about resources and your purse. Simple and free, power walking can also keep you fit. If you walk regularly, it will be good for your heart and bones. Experts say that 20 minutes of power walking daily can make you feel less anxious, sleep well and have better weight control.
Whatever sport you take up, you can make it greener by using environment-friendly equipment and buying products made from recycled materials. But the final goal should be “green gyms”. They are better replacements for traditional health clubs and modern sports centers. Members of green gyms play sports outdoors, in the countryside or other open spaces. There is no special requirement for you to start your membership. And best of all, it’s free.
1. Which of the following is the author most probably in favor of?| A．Cycling around a lake. |
| B．Motor racing in the desert. |
| C．Playing basketball in a gym. |
| D．Swimming in a sports center. |
| A．It is popular in Portugal and Spain. |
| B．It causes water shortages around the world. |
| C．It pollutes the earth with chemicals and wastes. |
| D．It needs water and electricity to keep its courses green. |
| A．it is an outdoor sport |
| B．it improves our health |
| C．it uses fewer resources |
| D．it is recommended by experts |
| A．show us the function of major sports |
| B．encourage us to go in for green sports |
| C．discuss the major influence of popular sports |
| D．introduce different types of environment-friendly sports |
The number of gunners, however, grows rapidly. Children too young to develop proper judgments through independent thought are led a long way away by their gunning parents. They are subjected to advertisements of gun producers who describe shooting as good for their health and guncarrying as a way of putting redder blood in the veins (血管). They are persuaded by gunner magazines with stories honoring the chase and the kill. In school they view motion pictures which are supposedly meant to teach them how to deal with arms safely but which are actually designed to stimulate (刺激) a desire to own a gun. Wildlife is disappearing because of shooting and because of the loss of wildland habitat (栖息地). Habitat loss will continue with our increasing population, but can we slow the loss of wildlife caused by shooting? There doesn’t seem to be any chance if the serious condition of our birds is not improved.
Wildlife belongs to everyone and not to the gunners alone. Although most people do not shoot, they seem to forgive shooting for sport because they know little or nothing about it. The only answer, then, is to bring the truth about sport shooting to the great majority of people.
Now, it is time to realize that animals have the same right to life as we do and that there is nothing fair or right about a person with a gun shooting the harmless and beautiful creatures. The gunners like to describe what they do as character-building, but we know that to wound an animal and watch it go through the agony of dying can make nobody happy. If, as they would have you believe, gun-carrying and killing improve human-character, then perhaps we should encourage war.
1. According to the text, most people do not seem to be against hunting because ________.
| A．they have little knowledge of it |
| B．it helps to build human character |
| C．it is too costly to stop killing wildlife |
| D．they want to keep wildlife under control |
| A．form | B．condition | C．pain | D．sadness |
| A．teach them how to deal with guns safely |
| B．praise hunting as character-building |
| C．describe hunting as an exercise |
| D．encourage them to have guns of their own |
| A．blame the majority of people |
| B．worry about the existence of wildlife |
| C．be in favour of war |
| D．be in support of character-building |
10 . Casablanca, Sep. 24
A flood swept across the coastal plain about 100 miles southwest of here, killing hundreds of Moroccans in a market place yesterday morning.
Reports from the area said 218 bodies had been counted, and many of the people were missing.
The flood followed heavy rains, which filled the coastal plain and dry river beds and caused them to overflow. The flood, several feet high, hit the village of Khemis Nagua at midmorning yesterday as farmers from the surrounding area joined town people in an open market place. The roaring waters swept the villager’s living places, the market sheds (棚子), shoppers, cattle and farm tools for miles across the plain.
The flood was over almost as soon as it started, the reports said, as the water swept out to sea. Rescue workers quickly moved into the area from Safi, about 25 miles further south.
1. You can learn from the text that ________.| A．hundreds of people died in the flood |
| B．the flood lasted for several days |
| C．heavy rains followed the flood |
| D．the flood hit the village at midnight |
| A．how the flood swept the coastal plain |
| B．the flood in fall |
| C．why the terrible flood took place |
| D．a rescue attempt |
( KN="Khemis" Nagua, C=Casablanca S= Safi)
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
