1 . In a new finding that goes against current conservation patterns, re-introducing wolves and other predators (捕食者) to our landscapes does not amazingly reduce deer populations, restore worsening ecosystems or significantly threaten livestock (家禽), according to a new study.
“The hopes and fears that we have on both sides of the debate—neither are realized,” said conservation biologist Bernd Blossey, professor of natural resources and the environment at Cornell University. On the one hand, there is little evidence for claims that re-introducing large predators such as wolves, bears and mountain lions is a major threat to livestock and wild animals such as white-tailed deer and mule deer. When the wolf was taken off the endangered species list, hunters and livestock producers, and some state governments, called for action to safeguard the wildlife they wanted to hunt and the livestock that was their livelihood. But it is nearly impossible to independently evaluate those claims, Blossey said. Other factors also kill livestock, from lightning strikes to extreme weather and diseases.
On the other hand, the claim that wolves and other predators can control deer populations and restore worsening ecosystems lacks evidence as well. “Meaningfully reducing deer populations in Wisconsin alone would require tens of thousands of wolves, which is ecologically and socially impossible,” said Blossey. And wolves alone can’t repair the ecological damage humans have done, he said. A popular video “How wolves change rivers,” which has been viewed more than 43 million times, suggests that the re-introduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park benefited the entire ecosystem. “I was as fooled like everybody else by the lovely stories that came out of Yellowstone saying, you bring wolves back, and you restore the rivers, and everything’s satisfactory,” said Blossey.
We should see large predators like wolves as a valuable part ecological communities in their own right, Blossey said, and not just for their function. “As long as people learn to live with and tolerate the new (old) neighbors, a careful but not fully conflict-free existence appears possible,” said Blossey.
1. Which of the following does Blossey probably agree with?| A．The loss of livestock may not necessarily be due to wolves. |
| B．People should not take wolves off the endangered species list |
| C．People should take action to protect livestock and wild animals. |
| D．The threat to predators comes from climate change and diseases. |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Unclear. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Favorable. |
| A．They upset the balance of the ecosystem. |
| B．They should rightfully stay in their habitats. |
| C．They are key to restoring the environment. |
| D．They change people’s view about rewilding. |
| A．The value of humans’ living together with animals |
| B．The importance of restoring worsening ecosystems. |
| C．A debate over the threat to livestock and wild animals. |
| D．A clarification of the effects of bringing back the wolves. |
2 . The World Wildlife Fund states that up to 100 million sharks and rays are caught each year across the world, both on purpose in targeted fisheries and by accident, as bycatch. As a result, shark populations are in rapid decline. Sharks grow relatively slowly and produce few young, so they are easily harmed or influenced by overfishing.
Robert Enever of Fishtek Marine and his team developed SharkGuard, in response to the dramatic declines in shark and ray numbers. They based it on shark deterrents that are currently used successfully to protect surfers and changed it to be used in tuna fisheries, where bycatch of sharks and rays is significant. The novel equipment is fixed to a hook on a line, and it produces a small electric field which sharks and rays can pick up with their electroreceptors and this, hopefully, will keep them away from the hook.
The experiments took place off southern France, during July and August 2021. Eleven separate fishing trips were made and 18,866 hooks were used, half of which carried a SharkGuard. The results, presented in the journal Current Biology, showed that SharkGuard hooks greatly reduced the number of blue sharks and oceanic stingrays caught, while having no big influence on the catch of bluefin tuna.
With its effectiveness proved, there is still some way to go before fisheries could start using the equipment. Firstly, there is the limitation of the batteries. Each SharkGuide needs to be changed every 65 hours of use. The developers are working to solve this problem, so users could “fit and forget“ them, while still protecting sharks and other sea animals.
Now, the researchers are calling on fishers and companies experiencing high shark and ray bycatch to contact Fishtek Marine.
1. What does the author want to talk about in the first paragraph?| A．The reason sharks need protection. | B．The way sharks avoid being caught. |
| C．The influence sharks have on the whole world. | D．The challenge sharks face while producing young. |
| A．It can attract more sharks. | B．It was invented to protect surfers. |
| C．It can warn sharks of all kinds of dangers. | D．It works through creating an electric field. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Mixed. | C．Encouraging. | D．Unsatisfying. |
| A．Its price. | B．Its disadvantage. |
| C．Its target market. | D．Its after-sales service. |
3 . Transport is undergoing a massive transformation so it can meet society’s demands for a low- carbon economy. Introducing electric vehicles (EV) and declining gasoline use are helping, but zero-carbon hydrogen can speed up both the transition (转变) and long-term decarbonization of transport.
In the US, transportation produces the largest share of all greenhouse gas emissions (排放) in the economy at 29%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. More than 90% of transport fuel is petrol based, but if more vehicles used hydrogen, emissions of this kind would plummet.
However, hydrogen is not considered an ideal replacement for gasoline as an engine fuel for cars because it is harder to store safely. And while fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) that turn hydrogen into electricity can compete with EV performance-and even out-compete them on range and refill time, extra energy is needed to produce the hydrogen needed for fuel. Also, finding investment for storage, pipelines and fuel stations is still a challenge for many nations.
Currently, governments worldwide are backing green hydrogen projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in heavy industries like freight (货运), steel, and energy storage. But hydrogen transport will need rapid production methods to create the fuel needed for the world’s road fleet.
Thankfully, research is advancing all the time. Nanoscale (纳米级的) thin films are applied to improving the chemical process to rapidly harvest hydrogen from the seawater. The same technology has been successfully used in solar power devices with higher efficiency-to-cost rates. Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and as seawater makes up about 96% of all water on Earth, there is a virtually limitless supply.
Even wastewater and solid waste can create green hydrogen. Researchers at Princeton University are using sunlight to separate hydrogen from industrial wastewater. Chemical plants that currently face high costs for cleaning wastewater could transform it into clean hydrogen supplies.
1. What does the underlined word “plummet” mean in Paragraph 2?| A．Stop. | B．Decrease. | C．Continue. | D．Disappear. |
| A．Ways of storing hydrogen safely. |
| B．Benefits of fuel cell electric vehicles. |
| C．Challenges of using hydrogen as car fuel. |
| D．Differences between gasoline and hydrogen. |
| A．The application of solar power devices. |
| B．The method of identifying water elements. |
| C．The invention. of the water transport system. |
| D．The use of the nanoscale thin-film technology. |
| A．Clean Energy Hydrogen Ready to Take Off |
| B．Traditional Fuels Bound to Reach a Dead End |
| C．How We Can Generate Energy from Hydrogen |
| D．What the Future of Transportation May Be Like |
4 . A Malawian woman, Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, was recently awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa — the world’s leading award for grassroots environmental activists.
Gloria Majiga-Kamoto was then working for a local environmental organization with a program that gave goats to rural farmers, who would use the goat waste to produce low-cost, high-quality organic fertilizer (肥料). The problem? The thin plastic bags covering the Malawian countryside. “We have this very common street food, chiwaya, which is salty and served in little blue plastics,” Majiga-Kamoto says. “Goats eat the plastic for salty taste and they die because it blocks the ingestion (摄食) system.” For her, this was the moment when it all changed. All of a sudden, she started noticing how plastics were everywhere in the Malawian environment and food system-affecting people’s living and health.
“I remember back in the day when we’d go to the market and buy things like fish, you’d get it in newspapers,” the 30-year-old says. But thin plastics took off in the last decade or so as new producers sprung up in Malawi, selling products like thin plastic bags at cheap prices. In fact, the Malawian government decided to ban the importation, production and distribution of single-use plastic in 2015. But before the ban could go into full effect, Malawi’s plastics-producing industry appealed to the country’s High Court against the ban, causing it to be suspended.
When Majiga-Kamoto and her fellow environmentalists heard about this, they were annoyed. She organized marches and rejected the plastic industry’s argument that the ban would hurt Malawi’s economy — and even debated with an industry spokesman on TV. Finally in 2019, Malawi’s High Court ruled in favor of the ban. The following year, the government began closing down illegal plastic producers.
Michael Sutton, executive director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, said, “Majiga-Kamoto’s fight with the plastic industry is a perfect example of the spirit of the prize.”
1. What made Majiga-Kamoto realize the problem?| A．Her experience with plastic-eating goats. |
| B．Her discovery of goat waste everywhere. |
| C．Her doubt about the safety of street food. |
| D．Her care for the farmers living in poverty. |
| A．It used to be extremely rich in fish. |
| B．It advocated using thin plastic bags. |
| C．It failed to ban single-use plastic at first. |
| D．It relied heavily on the plastic industry. |
| A．To put the ban into effect. |
| B．To support the government. |
| C．To back the plastic industry up. |
| D．To promote Malawi’s economy. |
| A．Humble. | B．Generous. | C．Patient. | D．Committed. |
Maggie and Alex live in a tall building in a neighborhood in the center of the city. There are no trees near their building, but they are happy in their home and it is close to their jobs.
In the part of the city where they live, there is not much fresh food to buy. The stores only have processed foods in packages. Maggie and Alex and all the other people in the building have to eat food that they buy in boxes and plastic containers.
This makes so much garbage that no one knows where to put it. While they wait for Fridays, when the city collects the garbage, all the neighbors put their trash into bags and sometimes leave it in the hallway or on the big, sunny roof. The whole building looks terrible. No one can spend time playing on the roof because it is full of trash.
One day, Maggie and Alex decide to make a change. They go up to the roof and separate all the recycla-ble garbage, like cardboard, plastic bottles, glass, and aluminum cans. Then they take all of the garbage down to the street for the garbage collectors.
But they do not carry down the plastic bottles! They cut off the tops and use them as pots to plant tomatoes and carrots. They plant herbs, too.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
Maggie and Alex tell their neighbors about their project.
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Paragraph 2:
Now the roof looks beautiful like a garden.
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6 . It is long known that there are benefits from being in nature. Living around trees can help you live longer. Walking in the woods is good for your mood. But it’s not just what you see that makes an impact. A group of scientists from the U. S. and Canada studied the advantages of nature using their ears instead of their eyes.
“Our research team studied the acoustic (声学的) environment for quite a few years, but from the view of the negative impacts of noise pollution,” Rachel Buxton, the post-doctoral researcher and bird expert says. “However, I’ve always been curious about what are the beneficial impacts of natural sounds.” Being a bird expert made him interested in sounds.
For their research, Buxton and her team identified three dozen studies that examined the health benefits of natural sound. Some examples they found reported in those studies included decreased pain, lowered stress, improved mood, and better cognitive (认知的) function. With these results in hand, they then listened to audio recordings from 251 sites in 68 national parks across the United States.
“We found many sites beneficial to health in parks—sites with abundant natural sounds and little disturbance from noise,” Buxton says. “Yet, parks that are more heavily visited or near urban areas are more likely to be flooded with noise. That means many park visitors are not gaining the health benefits found in more quiet spaces.”
Interestingly, Buxton says, there was also some evidence that natural sounds have benefits over silence. There was also evidence that more different types of natural sounds—more types of birds singing versus just one type of bird—have benefits over fewer sounds.
“Also, a really interesting result was that listening to natural sounds with road noise had more benefits than just listening to noise,” she says. “So although you might not be getting the same health benefits as a quiet environment with lots of natural sound, even in a city if you have noise in the background, listening to natural sounds still delivers some health benefits.”
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the text?| A．By listing examples. | B．By making a comment. |
| C．By providing some accurate data. | D．By presenting a widely held view. |
| A．The bad effects of noises. | B．Birds’ habitat environment. |
| C．The causes of noise pollution. | D．Humans’ visual interest in nature. |
| A．Paragraph 3. | B．Paragraph 4. | C．Paragraph 5. | D．Paragraph 6. |
| A．Advantages of being in nature. | B．Different types of natural sounds. |
| C．Well-being from sounds of nature. | D．Relationship between sounds and moods. |
7 . For more than 30 years, Mauro Morandi has been the only resident of a beautiful island in the Mediterranean sea. He hoped to make it his life-long home, but that is now under threat.
Morandi now faces eviction from the Isle of Budelli, off the coast of Sardinia, if he doesn’t voluntarily leave. Local authorities are speeding up plans to turn his hut into an environmental observatory.
Morandi arrived on the island by accident while attempting to sail from Italy to Polynesia 31 years ago. He fell in love with the pure water, coral sands and beautiful sunsets, and decided to stay. He took over from the previous caretaker shortly afterward and, at the age of 81, he’s still there and ready to fight for his home, whatever it takes.
“I wouldn’t know where else to go live-this is my home. All I ask is, if I must be sent away during the reconstruction work, that I can come back after and keep doing what I do each day: guard the pink coral beach, keep tourists at bay, and protect nature. I fear that if I’m gone, the pink coral beach will survive only on postcards from the past,” Morandi says. An online petition has been launched to this end, which in just a few days has gathered more than 2,600 supporters across the world.
The island has changed ownership several times over the last few years. Since 2015, Budelli has been owned by La Maddalena’s National Park, making Morandi’s role a thing of the past. The authorities say they are simply upholding the law. “Our priority is to intervene against all illegal construction inside the park, including Morandi’s hut. We need to set an example: protect our environment by first restoring this illegal structure, and then move on with a new project which will likely be a scientific center for the spreading of environmental awareness,” La Maddalena’s National Park president Fabbrizio Fonnesu says.
1. Why did Morandi choose to live on Budelli about three decades ago?| A．Because he wanted to save the island. | B．Because he got tired of the noisy city. |
| C．Because he was attracted by its beauty. | D．Because he was going to be its caretaker. |
| A．The reconstruction work of the natural park. | B．The possible damage to the environment. |
| C．The change of the island’s ownership. | D．The loss of his hut on the island. |
| A．It is against the law. | B．It is a witness of history. |
| C．It is dangerous to live in. | D．It is a landmark of Budelli. |
| A．A research paper. | B．A guidebook. |
| C．An autobiography. | D．A news report. |
China on October 12
The
The Three-River-Source National Park
Commercial activities are banned in the national parks and are all put
9 . A sandstorm also known as a dust storm is exactly what it sounds like. A very strong windstorm especially in the desert carries clouds of sand or dust that greatly reduces visibility. This wind is usually caused by convection currents (对流气流) which are created by intense heating of the ground and is usually strong enough to move entire sand dunes. Air is unstable when heated and this instability (不稳定性) in the air will cause higher winds to mix with winds in the lower atmosphere producing strong surface winds.
Sandstorms can disturb people's travel and can sometimes destroy whole roads, and dry flat areas. Similar dust storms can be found on the planet Mars, and are thought to be seasonal. Today the destruction of forests and too much farming of farmland can lead to sandstorms. Too much use of water resources can also cause sandstorms.
In the United States of America, sandstorms are rare because of the lack of large deserts and more importantly the development of proper agricultural techniques. The last recorded destructive sandstorm in American history was the Dust Bowl, which occurred on July 16,1971 and was widely recorded by meteorologists (气象学家).
To protect themselves from sandstorms, some people wear protective suits. Special equipment can be fixed in some cars to prevent sand from getting into the engine. Sandstorms can cause coughs, and the sand and dust has also been known to carry "infectious diseases". Sand particles, unlike dust ones, will block air passages, and cause a person who breathes them in to choke. Dust particles may cause an allergic (过敏的) reaction.
1. Which of the following plays the first part in forming sandstorms?| A．The instability of the sand. | B．The instability of the wind. |
| C．The speed of the wind. | D．The intense heating of the ground. |
| A．sandstorms are more often seen on Mars than on Earth |
| B．human activities are a major cause of sandstorms |
| C．farming brings more harm than benefits to humans |
| D．sandstorms have led to the lack of clean water resources |
| A．Because there are few deserts. |
| B．Because there is not much agriculttre. |
| C．Because of the use of proper agricultural techniques. |
| D．Because of research on sandstorms by meteorologists. |
| A．humans should make more efforts to stop soil turning into desert |
| B．humans haven't thought of any way to deal with sandstorms |
| C．death caused by sandstorms is increasing all the time |
| D．there will soon be no sandstorms in the USA |
10 . A rare wild flower is being re-established in Devon fields thanks to some four-legged helpers. A conservation charity called Planflife has employed donkeys as “ecosystem engineers”to encourage the return of the endangered small-flowered catchfly.
The catchfly was once found all across Britain but now it only grows in small areas of Wales and the south and west of England. Experts blame its decline on modern farming practices. The flower flourished around the edges of sandy fields where farmers grew their crops, but because of weedkillers that were used to remove “unwanted” plants, and fertilisers to boost crop yields, its habitat has largely disappeared.
Plantlife teamed up with the Donkey Sanctuary, a charity that looks after donkeys in the UK and around the world. It owns several farms across Devon and the UK, where it takes care of hundreds of rescued donkeys, as well as maintaining habitats for other wildlife. More than 20, 000 seeds have been scattered on fields at the sanctuary’s main Devon farm, and it is hoped that many will grow into plants this summer. They will provide food for threatened bird species such as linnets, yellowhammers and skylarks. Plantlife then aims to get the donkeys themselves involved, testing whether catchfly seeds benefit from being trampled into the ground as the donkeys take their exercise. Many plants have seeds that must be pressed into the soil in order to germinate.
“We’re incredibly grateful to partners like the Donkey Sanctuary who are helping these fantastically rare wild flowers come back from the edge of extinction,” Cath Shellswell of Plantlife told The Guardian newspaper. “We look forward to seeing small-flowered catchfly return and we are working with the sanctuary to ensure that this tiny plant has a thriving future. ”
1. Why are donkeys employed in Devon fields?| A．To work in the fields. | B．To restore the catchfly. |
| C．To avoid extinction. | D．To raise crop yields. |
| A．Soil loss. | B．Water pollution. |
| C．Climate change. | D．Modern agriculture. |
| A．By pressing its seeds into the soil. | B．By working the land. |
| C．By providing nutrition for it. | D．By spreading its seeds. |
| A．Donkeys help fields flower again. | B．Farmland becomes a natural habitat. |
| C．The biodiversity forms on Devon farms. | D．The catchfly has a thriving future. |
