1 . In the shallow waters near the ocean shore, kelp (海藻) grows thickly absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. It grows at a rate of nearly 60 cm daily and if moved to a more nutrient rich depth of 80 m, it even grows faster. It’s this rapid growth that allows kelp to lock large amounts of carbon away — similar to a tree. Kelp and other species of seaweed could remove 61-268 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere every year.
Kelp can also be turned into biofuel. “This biofuel from kelp can use all the existing refining (精炼) systems of the petrochemical industry,” says Brian Wilcox, the chief engineer at California-based company Marine BioEnergy. “It in many cases looks like crude oil (原油) and it goes through the same processes.”
Researchers are developing what they hope could be a solution that would allow large kelp farming to be used for biofuel. Diane Kim, an ecologist at the University of Southern California, and her teammates collected two sets of kelp from their underwater habitat off the coast of Santa Catalina Island, California. Forty of the kelp chains were attached to a long line at a depth of 10 m near the kelp’s original habitat. Another 40 were fixed to a pole that could move to varying depths like a lift. For 100 days, the second set was put at a depth of 80 m during the night. During the daytime, researchers lifted it close to the ocean surface to absorb sunlight.
After the experiment, the depth-cycled kelp produced almost four times as much biomass as the set kept at the shallower depth. In addition, the depth-cycled kelp grew far faster — at 5% per day against 3.5% for the other set. Kim and her teammates believe this depth-cycling represents a promising option for biofuel generation as it allows kelp to take advantage of both the sunlight closer to the surface and the higher nutrients further down in the water column. Using methods like this could allow kelp to be farmed for biofuel.
1. In what way is kelp beneficial to the environment?| A．It lets essential nutrients flow into sea water. |
| B．It can take in a variety of pollutants in the ocean. |
| C．It is greatly helpful in reducing greenhouse gases. |
| D．It allows other species of seaweed to grow faster. |
| A．It will be unaffordable for its many users. |
| B．It is likely to be less efficient than crude oil. |
| C．It may release more carbon into the atmosphere. |
| D．It involves little investment in production equipment. |
| A．It grew at a fixed depth underwater. | B．It constantly moved around the seafloor. |
| C．It absorbed more sunlight and nutrients. | D．It included much more kelp chains. |
| A．Kelp grows much faster in shallow waters. |
| B．Depth-cycling can make kelp farming workable. |
| C．Kelp grown in darkness will produce better biofuel. |
| D．Farmed kelp must be kept away from its natural habitat. |
2 . Antarctica is the highest, driest, and coldest place on Earth. It is also the remotest, a fact which demystifies its unspoiled environment. It is difficult for people to get there, and not a comfortable place for people to stay once they arrive. It is widely described as the last true wilderness on our planet.
The cold climate is responsible for maintaining the continent’s year-round ice fields: They never melt. Even though Antarctica receives more sunlight than the equator, the temperatures are lower because the ice sheet reflects the heat back into space. Thus, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was in Antarctica in July, 1983. Soviet scientists shivered (瑟瑟发抖) through temperatures that fell to minus 89.2 degrees Celsius.
Once completely inaccessible, Antarctica has more recently been playing host to adventurers seeking excitement, scientists interested in experimenting, and companies looking to exploit this wild zone for profit: gold, uranium and oil are just some of the valuable resources which lie beneath the continent’s icy covering.
For centuries, Europeans wondered about the existence of a South-pole continent, but no one actually knew for certain Antactica was there until 1820 when European explorers “discover” it. Since then, men have gone to Antarctica in search of adventure. Testing their abilities, several teams of explorers set out in 1911 to be the first men to stand at the South Pole.
Yet, Antarctica’s fragile and complicated ecosystem is threatened by its human visitors. Damage to the environment occurs as people come looking for resources beneath the ice, or carelessly leave their garbage behind. Currently, countries are working to ensure that the damage to Antarctica’s environment is minimized, and that the last wilderness on Earth will remain an unspoiled place.
1. What does the underlined word “demystifies” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Does harm to. | B．Lies in. | C．Accounts for. | D．Stays away from. |
| A．To make a comparison with other places. | B．To show Soviet scientists’ fearless spirits. |
| C．To stress the freezing weather of Antarctica. | D．To explain the reason for Antarctica’s cold climate. |
| A．In the late eighteenth century. | B．In the early eighteenth century. |
| C．In the early nineteenth century. | D．In the late twentieth century. |
| A．Measures are being taken to protect Antarctica. |
| B．Antarctica’s eco-system has been destroyed by men. |
| C．People visiting Antarctica leave garbage on purpose. |
| D．In the icy covering are buried few precious resources. |
A cliff (悬崖) wall in the mountains of the Shennongjia Nature Reserve, China’s Hubei Province, is home to over 700 wooden boxes,
What makes the Shennongjia Nature Reserve so special for beekeeping
4 . In Song of the Whale, an installation at the Yukon Arts Centre, Joyce Majiski shared the story of a one-year old humpback whale(座头鲸) who died after she was caught in a fishery rope.
In the centre of the show is an eight-metre-long model of the baby whale’s skeleton(骨架), each bone carved(雕刻) from Styrofoam(聚苯乙烯泡塑料) collected from the ocean and beaches.
“Water is the one thing that connects us all --–we’re a planet of water---and we have a lot of disrespect for it.”
“There are a lot of things that we have done to contribute to the death of these creatures. Again, we need to pay attention to what we’re doing. If we thought about how connected we are as creatures on this planet, maybe we’d do things a little differently,” Majiski said.
Speaking of starting to set up the project, she describes it as “despairing.” Eventually, the search for an intact(完无缺的) whale skeleton that would allow the study of individual bones led her to Salt Spring Island. There, Majiski studied each bone of the young humpback whale, first in sketch (素描) form and then by carving models from collected Styrofoam.
The majority of the Styrofoam came from the Ocean Legacy Foundation, a non-profit that does ocean cleanups. The organisation says over 6.5 million tons of rubbish enter the world’s ocean each year. When degrading (降解) in the ocean, Styrofoam breaks down into small particles that can be eaten by ocean animals.
It is also messy material to work with as an artist.
"The Styrofoam looks really awful. It’s all big pieces that are black and crumbly(易碎的). They’ve been floating around in the ocean and degrading and washed up on shore.
“It’s really dirty and crumbly and I didn’t want to breathe any in as I carved. I mean, I wore a mask all the time and coveralls and gloves. I was cleaning myself and everything every hour or so depending on how much I was carving,” said Maiiski.
In total, Majiski carved 177 pieces.
1. What is Majiski’s purpose in holding the show?| A．To get people to think about ocean pollution. |
| B．To show the artistic attraction of carving. |
| C．To call on people to reduce fish catches. |
| D．To encourage the recycling of waste. |
| A．To spend a holiday. |
| B．To study where whales are found. |
| C．To look for a suitable whale skeleton. |
| D．To raise money for animal protection. |
| A．Styrofoam. | B．The baby whale. |
| C．Working with plastics. | D．Carving the whale s skeleton. |
| A．It was quick and smooth. | B．It was slow but interesting. |
| C．It was boring and depressing. | D．It was difficult but meaningful. |
5 . British sculptor Jason Taylor has made it his mission to use his talent to conserve our ecosystems by creating underwater museums. Over the years, the environmentalist has put over 850 massive artworks underwater worldwide. On February 1, 2021, Taylor launched his latest work---The Underwater Museum of Cannes.
“The main goal was to bring attention to the fact that our oceans need our help,” Taylor told Dezeen. “Ocean ecologies have been destroyed by human activity in the Mediterranean over the past few decades, and it is not obvious what is taking place when observing the sea from afar.”
The Underwater Museum of Cannes contains 6 sculptures featuring local residents of various ages. They range from Maurice, an 80-year-old fisherman, to Anouk, a 9-year-old student. Towering over 6-feet-tall and weighing 10 tons, the faces are sectioned into two parts, with the outer part like a mask. The mask indicates that the world’s oceans appear powerful and unbeatable from the surface but house an ecosystem that is extremely fragile to careless human activities.
Though the waters surrounding the sculptures now appear a pristine blue, the seabed was filled with old boat engines, pipes, and other human-made trash when the project began about four years ago. Besides removing the trash, Taylor also restored the area’s seagrass. Just one square meter of the seagrass can generate up to 10 liters of oxygen daily. The seagrass also helps prevent coastal erosion and provides habitats for many ocean creatures.
“The idea of creating an underwater museum was to draw more people underwater and develop a sense of care and protection,” Taylor told Dezeen. “If we threw unwanted waste near a forest, there would be a public outcry. But this is happening every day in our surrounding waters and it largely goes unnoticed.”
1. why does Jason Taylor create underwater museums ?| A．To protect the artworks underwater |
| B．To draw attention to endangered sea animals. |
| C．To show his sculpture talent. |
| D．To raise awareness of protecting the ocean. |
| A．To popularize the features of the locals. |
| B．To remind people to protect themselves. |
| C．To reflect people’s protection of the ocean. |
| D．To stress the fragility of the ecosystem. |
| A．How the project was started. |
| B．How the seagrass was restored. |
| C．What recovery effort the project made. |
| D．Why the surroundings were improved. |
| A．The situation of the ocean is easily ignored. |
| B．The destruction caused to the ocean is noticeable. |
| C．Forests play a more important role in ecosystems. |
| D．People have zero tolerance to damage done to nature. |
6 . When an empty parking spot appears before us, many of us would see it for what it is—a place that could be filled with cars and trucks. But to eco-engineer Shubhendu Sharma, it's a space to be planted with trees and turned into a forest.
What's more, he believes these tiny forests can grow anywhere, including our most crowded and polluted cities where they can help maintain clean air and water and provide habitat for animals and insects. “A forest is not an isolated piece of land where animals live together,” says Sharma. “A forest can be a complete part of our urban existence.” Most of us know just how important trees are to our health and to the planet. Yet millions of hectares of forest are cleared every year due to farming, ranching, logging and construction. The World Wildlife Foundation estimates that 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest and surrounding ecosystems have already been lost.
Inspired by the work of Japanese scientist Akira Miyawaki, Sharma built a forest in the backyard of his family's home in northern India in 2010. He planted 100 young trees in the 75-square-meter plot. They grew and a dozen species of birds came to check them out. The plantings created welcome shade, and their roots were able to absorb even the abundant monsoon rains. After a year, he had his own forest. Since then, Sharma has founded a company called Afforestt. Its top priority is to bring back natural forests to places where they no longer exist. So far, Afforestt has planted 144 forests in 45 cities around the world. Sharma has shown you can take a space the size of six or seven parking spots and create a forest with 100 trees. Ready to create your own tiny forest? If your answer is yes, let's follow Sharma's 5-step procedures to grow our own forests.
1. Ordinary people may regard a parking spot as a place for ________.| A．parking vehicles | B．planting trees | C．building houses | D．producing cars and trucks |
| A．Cities. | B．Forests. | C．Air and water. | D．Animals and insects. |
| A．45. | B．144. | C．244. | D．l4,400. |
| A．How to create a forest. | B．Why we should plant trees. |
| C．What kind of forest we need. | D．Who will follow the steps. |
7 . I dropped off a bag of my children’s worn-out jeans to a local tailor and when she returned them with brightly colored, patterned patches(补丁) on all the knees, their lives unexpectedly became longer by several more years. Both my kids and I loved those pants, so unique and impossible to buy. This was my first experience with “visible mending”.
Visible mending(VM) is different from traditional mending in that it makes the repair a central point, rather than combining it into the original clothes. There are many reasons for this, from drawing attention to the fact that clothes’ lifetimes have become long and challenging the idea that secondhand clothes are only worn by the poor, to simply adding a personalized touch.
Kate Sekules is a well-known advocate for visible mending. The British-born, Brooklyn-based writer, clothes historian and mending instructor has a new book coming out in September. It is a call to action for clothes lovers of all skill levels to take needles and threads to their beloved clothes. She reassures readers that anyone can do it.
“The skills are easy to pick up: visible mending is for everyone. The only way to go wrong is to say, ‘I can’t. ’It is a skill, but of a modern way. There are many ways to create VM, and there will never be another one like yours. Though you will never sew two mends the same, you will develop a style of your own.”
Sekules spends the first several chapters explaining why practicing visible mending matters so much. She writes about the current fashion industry, and how destructive it is, from the vast quantities of textiles(纺织品) and plastic waste and poisonous runoff poisoning rivers around the world, to the terrible conditions in which clothes workers work. So, rather than waiting around for the companies to clean up their acts, we individuals can effect tiny yet meaningful changes by picking up our needles and threads and wearing our clothes for longer.
1. How did the author feel about visible mending?| A．A little puzzled. | B．Very satisfied. |
| C．Pretty shocked. | D．Rather disappointed. |
| A．Focusing on the repair. | B．Adding a personalized touch. |
| C．Combining it into the original one. | D．Looking for the original materials. |
| A．When we need to do visual mending. |
| B．How we can master the unusual skill. |
| C．What we should do when sewing. |
| D．Why visual mending is special and easy to learn. |
| A．It is difficult to keep up with the newest fashion. |
| B．Fashion connects with social development closely. |
| C．It is surprising how fashion changes over the years. |
| D．The fashion industry can be harmful to the environment. |
8 . When Simon Cane was in the second grade, he began learning about all the ways humans have an impact on the environment and really took those classroom lessons to heart in a way that set him apart from his schoolmates at his elementary school, P. S. 81, in the Bronx. “He told me we drove too much and made too much pollution,” his dad, Jonathan Cane, told Runner’s World. So Simon convinced his parents to start hanging their clothes to dry, taking the stairs instead of elevators, and other “green” measures.
“For much of kindergarten and first grade I rode my bike to Simon’s school with him on the back,” Jonathan said. “We had a lot of fun being outdoors. We’d stop to give our dog treats and generally enjoyed it.” As Simon got bigger, though, it wasn’t practical for him to ride on his father’s back, but it also didn’t make sense to ride together — both because of safety concerns and because there was no place to put away Simon’s bike. So, most of the time they drove the 1. 5 miles to school.
But in 2019, when Simon was going into third grade, the 8-year-old came up with a new way to help the planet: running the 1. 5 miles to P. S. 81. And Jonathan promised his son he’d join him for as long as he wanted.
“We did a test run one day in August, and decided to give it a go. To be honest, I thought he’d blink (眨眼)after it got really cold or rainy, but he never did,” Jonathan said. He recalled one day when the weather was particularly bad. “It’s really raining out there today,” he told Simon. “And Simon said, ‘Well then we’re going to get wet!’ He took pride in toughing it out, and it became a really fun family routine.”
Since the start, Simon has run with his dad and their black dog, Lola, and has even inspired his mom, Nicole Sin Quee, to join in. They soon became known as “the family that runs to school”.
1. What makes Simon different from his classmates?| A．Washing his clothes by himself. | B．Taking many classes after school. |
| C．Raising strange questions in class. | D．Taking green measures to protect the environment. |
| A．By car. | B．By cycling. | C．By running. | D．By school bus. |
| A．Simon has trouble with his eyesight. | B．Simon is really stubborn and inflexible. |
| C．Simon is much tougher than expected. | D．Simon didn’t get support from his father. |
| A．The Best Way to Go to School |
| B．Father and Son Run for the Environment |
| C．A Teenager Keeps Running to Inspire Father |
| D．Three Inspiring Running Athletes to Protect the Environment |
9 . Ride-sharing services are thought to help to reduce pollution since fewer people use private vehicles and cause carbon dioxide．However, a new study has found that these services result in much more pollution than other kinds of private and public transportation．Ride-sharing trips also draw passengers away from more environmentally-friendly methods of travel, like public transportation, walking or biking, the study found．
Several studies in recent years have suggested that ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft can worsen traffic problems in cities, which continue to have high rates of private vehicle ownership．
The new study, carried out by the nonprofit group Union of Concerned Scientists, represents an attempt to center on how ride-sharing services affect pollution．The research examined the effects of ride-sharing services on seven of America's largest cities．Overall, the researchers reported that ride-sharing trips now “result in about 69 percent more climate pollution on average than the trips they replace”．The study notes that the same passengers could have chosen to travel by bus, train, bike, scooter(小型摩托车)or on foot．
One of the big reasons they give for this result is that ride-sharing vehicles are often driven with no passengers in the car．This happens when drivers are either waiting for rider requests, are on the way to pick up passengers or are driving between pickups．
This situation, known as“deadheading” takes up about 42 percent of the ride-sharing driving activity, the study found．The researchers said that “deadheading” results in about 50 percent more carbon dioxide than one person driving in a private vehicle．
The study urges services like Uber and Lyft to increase the number of electric vehicles on the road and to improve connections to public transportation centers．The two companies already operate businesses that offer electric scooters and bikes and have begun to include public transportation information in their systems．In some cities, they have also promoted vehicle electrification．
1. According to the text, it is generally thought that car-sharing services _____________．| A．lower the price of private cars | B．guarantee a healthier lifestyle |
| C．greatly cut down travel expenses | D．are environmentally-friendly |
| A．The so-called “deadheading”． | B．The old way vehicles travel． |
| C．The huge number of passengers． | D．The unfamiliar ride-sharing trips． |
| A．It is opposed by ride-sharing services． | B．It is actually of practical significance． |
| C．It requires improving in the long term． | D．It earns much money for Uber and Lyft． |
| A．Travel． | B．Technology． | C．Economy． | D．Environment． |
1.保护环境的重要性；
2.如何从我做起去保护环境；
3.呼吁大家行动起来。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Good morning, everyone,
My topic today is “Environmental Protection”.
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That's all Thanks for your listening.
