1 . Improper disposal of electronic devices can lead to negative impacts on the environment. So if you are in possession of an “old electronics” box or merely an old iPhone, consider recycling as an option. Here are some organizations worth checking out.
EcoATM
EcoATM is an automated kiosk that collects your unwanted cellphones and tablets and gives you cash for them. You'll find them by the checkout lines at various grocery store chains. It accepts devices from any era or in any condition, and offers anywhere between a few bucks to a few hundred dollars in return.
Best Buy
Best Buy offers a simple, straightforward recycling program. You can take your old phone to any of its retail stores and it'll take care of the entire recycling process for you. Best Buy will even give you a gift card for the value of the device you give them.
Call2Recycle
Call2Recycle is one of the largest recycling programs in the United States. The company collects used smartphones and batteries and has them either recycled or refurbished (翻新) for future use. It partners with various retailers to provide recycling services in stores like Lowe’s, The Home Depot and other smaller businesses.
Eco Cell
Eco Cell takes a unique approach to recycling phones. The program collects used smartphones and other gadgets for recycling through local zoos and other wildlife organizations. It then gives what it makes from recycling or refurbishing the devices back to those organizations in order to continue their work.
1. What do EcoATM and Best Buy have in common?| A．They are based in grocery stores. |
| B．They offer a reward for recycling. |
| C．They collect various kinds of devices. |
| D．They refurbish recycled items. |
| A．Call2Recycle | B．Eco Cell | C．Best Buy | D．EcoATM |
| A．The variety of items it recycles. |
| B．Its marketing strategies. |
| C．Its pricing policies and structures. |
| D．Its dedication to preserving wildlife. |
2 . Trees don’t look at the calendar to see when spring arrives, but they seem to know when spring is here better than we do. The annual shift from winter to spring is a breathtaking event to watch as leaves become green and a lush (苍翠的) environment reveals itself. Recently a research takes a look at why trees in cities are turning green earlier than expected.
Scientists use satellite imagery to see when plants turn green. By comparing spring green-ups in the 85 largest US cities, scientists found that on average trees start to turn green nine days earlier in cities due to the combined effect of artificial lights and urban heat effect, According to the findings-one of the reasons is the artificial light. City lights brightening the night skies, billboard signs lit up on roadways and car headlights all contribute to shifting the regular day to night cycle that plants and trees rely on. In order to stay alive during cruel winters trees hit the pause button on their growth. Since temperatures can vary dramatically throughout the winter, the length of daylight is the signal trees look for to safely start growing again and turn green.
On average cities are typically 1.8 to 5.4F warmer than rural areas. This is known as the urban heat island effect. The changes in city environments may affect seasonal changes even more than climate warming and can affect the allergy and mosquito season, water cycles, and also affect pollinators (授粉媒介).
Despite the worries and concern, it isn’t all bad news. “With a longer growing season, trees would be able to absorb more carbon dioxide.” A researcher said. “Hopefully they’d have a longer period to do the cooling effect that can help mitigate the urban heating effect in cities.”
1. What is the purpose of the text?| A．To reveal how trees survive bitter winters. |
| B．To warn how human activities disturb nature. |
| C．To explain why trees turn green earlier in cities. |
| D．To clarify how trees turning green earlier benefits cities. |
| A．Bringing out urban heat island effect. |
| B．Developing pictures shot by the satellite. |
| C．Allowing the city environment to reveal itself. |
| D．Comparing the green-up time in sample cities. |
| A．Street lamps. | B．Water cycle. | C．Road signs. | D．Plant pollinators. |
| A．Business. | B．Education. | C．Life Kit. | D．Environment. |
3 . If you haven’t taken down your Christmas tree yet, no worries. Here’s an idea: have you ever thought about eating it?
Julia Georgallis has some recipes. Over the last five years, she’s been preparing carefully for Christmas dinners in London with a friend. “How can we make something sustainable around Christmas time? What can we cat? What’s the thing that no one eats and that somehow represents Christmas? And then we just decided on Christmas trees,” Georgallis says.
She turned it into a book, How to Eat Your Christmas Tree. And her idea is that it’s not that odd. Some people enjoy Christmas wine. Some people like to go shopping and most people can get behind saving the planet.
“What I aimed for this book to do, really, was to get people thinking about the odd ways that they can be more sustainable in their daily lives,” Georgallis says.
“Eating Christmas trees isn’t going to save any animals in danger or freeze any ice caps. But if we start to think about everything that we do as a whole, then that builds up, you know, and that helps,” she says.
Most of the recipes in her book use the needles from the tree. “You’d use the needles like a herb,” she says.
“And different Christmas trees kind of have different flavors. They’re quite subtle, but they do have different flavors. So fir (冷杉), which is a really popular choice of Christmas trees, gives people better feeling and atmosphere. And then you have pine, which is a little bit more delicate.”
A warning: some Christmas trees are poisonous if eaten — like cypress and cedars. And be sure your tree wasn’t sprayed with pesticides (杀虫剂) and other chemicals. “So if you have any doubt that your Christmas tree might not have been grown to eat, then maybe don’t eat it,” Georgallis says.
And, of course, don’t even think about eating your artificial tree!
So, with all those instructions and with the appropriate tree, what could we cook? Well, Georgallis’ book has all sorts of recipes for different foods and drinks. Let’s open up the world’s cuisine with simple ingredients!
1. What’s the main purpose of Georgallis’ book?| A．To tell people not to buy real trees. | B．To inspire people to be more eco-friendly. |
| C．To teach people how to enjoy Christmas wine. | D．To encourage people to throw away odd traditions. |
| A．Artificial trees can also be cooked. |
| B．Eating Christmas trees does good to saving animals. |
| C．Different trees have different features and tastes. |
| D．All Christmas trees have their own ways to be cooked. |
| A．Tips for choosing Christmas trees. | B．Warnings for cooking Christmas meals. |
| C．Comparison between real and artificial trees. | D．Recipes for different foods with Christmas trees. |
| A．A diary. | B．A novel. | C．A scientific report. | D．A lifestyle magazine. |
4 . Researchers in Australia have identified enzymes (酶) in the body of certain beetle larvae (甲虫幼虫) that can degrade or break down plastic. In a study published in Microbial Genomics, they write that these “superworms” could help reduce plastic waste in the future.
“Superworms are like mini recycling plants, cutting up the polysyrene (聚苯乙烯) with their mouths and then feeding it to the bacteria in their stomach,” said Chris Rinke from the University of Queensland in Australia. “The breakdown products from this reaction can then be used by other microbes to create high-value chemicals.”
In the study, scientists divided beetle larvae into three groups, feeding one group wheat bran, one polystyrene and one nothing. Over three weeks, they monitored their growth. “We found that superworms fed a diet of just polystyrene not only survived, but even had marginal weight gains,” said Rinke. “This suggests the worms can get energy from the polystyrene, most likely with the help of their stomach bacteria.”
On the other hand, the plastic-fed worms gained much less weight and were overall much less healthy than the bran-fed ones, though better off than the starvation group. After three weeks, some larvae were also set aside to grow into beetles, according to the study. About 93% of the bran-fed larvae formed adult worms, while about 67% of the plastic-fed larvae and 10% of the starved larvae formed adult worms.
The researchers investigated the superworm’s stomach bacteria to find the specific enzymes linked to plastic degradation, writes Fionna M. D. Samuels for Scientific American. The enzyme that degrades the polystyrene appears to live with the stomach bacteria, not the worm itself.
Polystyrene is one of the most common plastics used today. But it’s not very chemically reactive, and breaking it down with industrial recycling methods takes high heat. So, researchers have been looking for plastic-degrading enzymes and bacteria for years.
Further research will still need to be done to figure out how to employ these worms, bacteria and enzymes in recycling facilities.
1. What does Chris Rinke compare superworms to?| A．Small plants. | B．Beetle larvae. | C．Stomach bacteria. | D．High-value chemicals. |
| A．Few. | B．Tiny. | C．Obvious. | D．Normal. |
| A．The damage of plastic to life. |
| B．Possible causes of plastic pollution. |
| C．Researchers’ efforts over the years to recycle plastic. |
| D．The necessity of finding out a way to degrade plastic. |
| A．To report a new way to recycle plastic. | B．To call on people to reduce plastic waste. |
| C．To explain how larvae can degrade plastic. | D．To introduce the findings of a new research. |
Earthquakes are one of the most destructive natural disasters. They can happen just about anywhere. Earthquakes cannot be stopped,
If you are in
Remember that aftershocks are possible at any time and are
(1)水灾发生的原因;
(2)水灾造成的影响;
(3)灾后情况。
注意：
(1)词数80左右;
(2)可以适当增加细节, 以使行文连贯。
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7 . How to Prepare for an Earthquake
An earthquake can be a very destructive natural disaster, particularly in the Pacific Rim region. After an earthquake, your home may be a mess and you might be left without a water supply or power.
· Create a disaster plan.
Form your plan and know what to do before the earthquake happens.
In a real earthquake, this is your number one defense. Drop to the floor, take cover under a firm desk or table and hold on firmly. Namely, drop and cover your head from falling objects. Stay there until the shaking stops.
·Learn basic first aid.
There are resources in your community to educate people on how to deal with first aid emergencies.
·Write down and share emergency contact lists.
This should include everyone in your home, office, etc.
| A．Stay away from the shaking house. |
| B．Practice “drop, cover and hold on”. |
| C．Then go over your plan on a regular basis. |
| D．Therefore, you can turn to your family for help. |
| E．You need to know how to get in touch with them. |
| F．There are several things you can do to prepare for an earthquake. |
| G．For example, your local Red Cross has classes teaching you the basic skills. |
8 . Natural disasters take many different forms and can happen without warning. Earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, droughts, typhoons, and hurricanes are all natural disasters.
The earthquake of 26 December 2004 resulted in one of the worst natural disasters in living memory. It was a massive (大规模的) underwater quake and occurred in the Indian Ocean. This caused a huge tsunami to cross the Indian Ocean. It destroyed coastlines and communities and brought death and destruction (破坏) to many people. The survivors needed fresh water, food and shelter as well as medical help. People from all over the world collect money to help them.
The surface of the Earth has not always looked as it does today; it is moving continuously although very slowly and has done so for billions of years. This is one cause of earthquakes, when one section of the Earth crashes with another. Scientists can predict (预测) where this might happen and the area between plates is called a fault line. However, earthquakes do not always happen on fault lines, which is why they are so dangerous and unpredictable.
All the disasters are very dangerous and continue to kill thousands of people each year, but they are nowhere near the most dangerous disaster to ever happen on earth. One type of event in the earth’s history has regularly killed millions of beings: asteroid impacts (小行星撞击). About once every million years the Earth is hit by a piece of rock and ice from space large enough to cause massive destruction (including earthquakes, volcanoes and ice ages) and sometimes to kill entire species. Sixty-five million years ago more than half the earth’s species were killed by such a disaster, including all the dinosaurs. Disasters on the Earth may seem dangerous, but the biggest threat to humans is likely to come from space.
1. What did the Indian Ocean earthquake cause?| A．A hurricane. | B．A typhoon. | C．A volcanic eruption. | D．A tsunami. |
| A．The possible time. | B．The possible place. |
| C．The possible damage. | D．The possible frequency. |
| A．The ocean. | B．The poles. |
| C．Outer space. | D．Deep under the surface. |
| A．How natural disasters happened |
| B．Where natural disasters happened most |
| C．When people should avoid natural disasters |
| D．What kind of natural disasters are most destructive |
Since Japan began releasing nuclear-contaminated (核污染) wastewater
“The Chinese government will take necessary measures to firmly protect the marine environment
On August 24, Japan started releasing wastewater from its Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (福岛第一核电站) into the Pacific Ocean. This has caused anger and fear across the world.
In March 2011, Japan experienced the strongest earthquake in its
The plant was operated by TEPCO (东京电力公司). According to the company, the wastewater is diluted (稀释) before
“They’ll pollute the ocean, the animals within it, and
On the same day, China announced
China was the biggest buyer of Japanese seafood. More than 255,000 users took a poll (民意调查) on Weibo. Up to 97% of them said that they would no longer eat seafood from Japan. “We’re on the same planet,” said one of them. “Nobody can be free from harm. It’s just a matter
