1 . How do oceans affect you? If you live far from the coast, you might think they don’t. But life on this planet depends on the ocean. It covers almost three-quarters of the planet and holds 97 percent of Earth’s water. The phytoplankton (浮游植物)that live on the oceans’ surface produce half of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Oceans are a vital source of food and other resources and an economic engine for many communities.
For all the ocean provides us, we haven’t always been so responsible in our administration. “The ocean was thought of as a dumping (倾倒的) ground for so long,” says Caitlyn Toropova of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). “There was a sense that there was no way we could harm it because it is so vast.”
But human activities are having a negative impact on many of the world’s oceans, jeopardizing marine life, habitats, and ecosystems. These threats include overfishing or destructive fishing, coastal development, pollution and runoff, and the introduction of non-native species. Climate change is also having a big effect by causing warming seas and ocean acidification.
The realization that something needs to be done to prevent the damage has led to the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs), Specifics differ around the globe, but the United States defines a marine protected area as “any area of the marine environment that has been preserved to prov d eating protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources.”
There are approximately 5,000 designated (命名) MPAs around the word but many more that are not officially recognized, says Toropova, the conservation group’s officer for marine protected areas. That may sound like a lot, but less than one percent of the world’s oceans is protected. Countries around the world have committed to protecting 10 percent, Toropova say, But “even though there’s been an increase in the past 10 years, at the current rate it would take 100 years to reach that goal,” she says.
1. What does the author intend to emphasize in paragraph 1?| A．Oceans are crucial for humans’ survival. | B．Oceans affect little to people far from them. |
| C．The phytoplankton needs many sea resources. | D．Seas should make more room for our land. |
| A．It covers so much and holds so much of Earth’s water. |
| B．They thought everyday wastes had little effect on it. |
| C．Its floor is just as irregular as the surface of the land. |
| D．People have acknowledged quite little about the sea. |
| A．Feeding. | B．Replacing. | C．Harming. | D．Protecting. |
| A．Marine protected areas aren’t necessary. | B．We still need contribute more to the sea. |
| C．MPAs have shown great effects on the sea. | D．Most of world’s oceans are being protected. |
2 . Cities are the planet’s largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions (排放), so they offer the greatest opportunity to tackle climate change. Hitting net zero emissions by 2050, a target set at the COP26 summit, could be achieved more quickly using city digital twins-working virtual replicas (复制品) that help track, manage and reduce environmental damage rapidly.
The United Nations says cities, the most suitable subjects, which occupy less than two percent of the Earth’s surface, are major contributors to climate change, consuming almost 80 percent of the world’s energy and producing more than 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Urban areas are forecast to grow by another 2.5 billion people by 2050.
Digital twins look and behave identically in their real-world physical environments. Similar technologies have been in use since NASA’s Apollo moon mission in 1969, where computers and machine replicas were used to test and monitor spacecraft. Virtual 3D city models link to networks of sensors that collect data from buildings, transport, air quality and energy use, to see where emissions can be cut and efficiency improved.
The UK is planning a kind of national digital twins that will connect digital replicas managing buildings, factories, and the other infrastructure nationwide. And that could lead to entire virtual world online, part of a virtual reality space proposed by tech companies.
Research shows that digital twins can save cities more than $280 billion globally by 2030 through more efficient urban planning. A provider of digital twins, City zenith, believes that net zero deadlines could be achieved 15 years early if the world’s 100 biggest cities use the technology to remove carbon. “They are the perfect tool for managing and accelerating the energy transition,” said CEO Michael Jansen. “We could get to net zero emissions globally by 2035.”
In the US, the Digital Twin Consortium is working to standardize how digital twins are built and share data. Big tech companies around the world have developed software for replicating cities, including a district of Berlin, the island nation of Singapore, and the entire city of Shanghai in China.
1. What are city digital twins used to do?| A．Decorate cities. |
| B．Change cities’ climate. |
| C．Reduce urban greenhouse gas emissions. |
| D．Popularize urban technology. |
| A．They occupy most of the Earth’s surface. |
| B．They contribute most to the greenhouse effect. |
| C．They produce little of solid waste pollution. |
| D．They consume little of the world’s energy. |
| A．To prove the accuracy of network data. |
| B．To explain the application of digital twins. |
| C．To tell us the importance of space tasks. |
| D．To show the difficulty of urban construction. |
| A．They are practical and promising. |
| B．They have reached a standard level. |
| C．They lack research funding. |
| D．They are complex and unrecognizable. |
3 . On the Yucatan Peninsula, people are working to protect and expand mangrove forests. The low trees grow in watery areas near ocean coasts. Years ago, mangroves were all along the Yucatan shores. Today, there are few.
A team of villagers from the area is trying to renew the forests. Scientists and donations support the effort. The Mexican government helps pay training costs for the team. The villagers joined the renewal effort more than 10 years ago with scientist Jorge Alfredo Herrera. He told them how to dig canals (运河). The dig was going to be hard work and the pay was only four dollars a day. Recently, the workers finished the second part of the process: planting young mangroves near the city.
This mangrove renewal effort is similar to others around the world. Scientists and community groups are increasingly recognizing the need to protect and bring back the forests. Mangroves are a very important ecosystem to fight climate change. While these trees only grow on less than 1 percent of the Earth’s land, they can bury around five times more carbon in the sediment (沉积物) than a rainforest.
Yet, around the world, mangroves are being destroyed. From 1980 to 2005, as much as 35 percent of the world’s mangroves disappeared.
In Mexico, as in much of the world, development is the main threat to mangrove existence. The area of Cancun lost most of its mangroves to roads and hotels starting in the 1980s. Mangroves on the country’s southern Pacific Ocean coast also have been cleared to make room for fish farms. Oil industry operations in waters off the Gulf of Mexico threaten mangroves there too.
There have been restoration efforts around the world to protect mangroves. In Mexico, the successes have arrived slowly. Manuel Conzalez is a 57-year-old fisherman. He helped regrow many mangroves. González says storms do not cause much damage and the fish and wildlife have returned.
But the mangroves face a new threat. “In 10 years, you have a very nice mangrove for someone with a chainsaw (电锅) to come and take it,” Gonzalez said. “That’s something that hurts me a lot.”
1. What can be known about the renewal effort?| A．It was started by the government. | B．All parts of it have been finished. |
| C．It is guided by some villager. | D．It is hard work for little pay. |
| A．They can stop climate change completely. | B．They can act as a defence against storms. |
| C．They are efficient in storing carbon. | D．They can bring great financial benefits to the locals. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By presenting numbers. |
| C．By explaining concepts. | D．By drawing conclusions. |
| A．Not enough fish and wildlife have returned. |
| B．Powerful storms may do harm to many mangroves |
| C．The successes of regrowing mangroves arrive too slowly. |
| D．Mangrove forests may be destroyed by humans in the future. |
1. When did the earthquake happen?
| A．On the morning of Tuesday. |
| B．On the morning of Wednesday. |
| C．On the afternoon of Wednesday. |
| A．He was buried under ruins. |
| B．He hid in a refrigerator for fun. |
| C．He was locked in a refrigerator. |
| A．They were opening the refrigerator. |
| B．They were pulling Tom’s father out of ruins. |
| C．They were digging holes to bury dead people. |
| A．The earthquake happened in another place. |
| B．There were more people dead in another place. |
| C．There was no hope to find people alive here. |
5 . On November 7, Lewis Pugh completed a one-kilometer swim in the freezing waters of King Edward Cove, off South Georgia in Antarctica. He was wearing only his swimming glasses, cap and Speedo !
Pugh is an advocate for our oceans and seas, working to protect these ecosystems with their large diversity of marine life. When asked why he doesn't wear a wetsuit(防寒泳衣), Pugh says, "I ask world leaders to do everything they can to protect our oceans. Sometimes the steps they need to take are difficult and unpopular. If I'm asking them to be courageous, I must also be. Swimming in a wetsuit would not send the right message."
It took Pugh about 19 minutes to complete the one-kilometer swim in Antarctica where the water averaged about 1.6 degrees Celsius. He says that his body can only tolerate about 20 minutes in the freezing waters before it starts shutting down. As he swims, his body temperature steadily drops, which in turn causes his muscle control to drop, slowing him down. When he is done with his swim, his support team rushes him to a hot shower and it takes almost an hour for his body temperature to return to normal.
Doctors and Pugh caution that one must receive months of training to swim in such cold waters. Even expert swimmers who are unused to freezing water can drown within minutes because of the physical shock experienced by the body. Pugh says he trained for six months before this swim.
This is not the first time that Pugh has swum in dangerous conditions. In 2007, he swam one kilometer in the North Pole to draw attention to the melting Arctic ice due to climate change. In 2015, he swam in the Bay of Whales in Antarctica's Ross Sea as part of his successful campaign to help set up a marine reserve there.
1. Why did Lewis Pugh swim without a wetsuits ?| A．To show his bravery. |
| B．To swim faster. |
| C．To build up his body. |
| D．To have overnight fame. |
| A．His body temperature. |
| B．His body |
| C．The water. |
| D．The water temperature. |
| A．One should be expert at swimming. |
| B．One must be used to long-distance swimming. |
| C．One should be ready to take on challenges. |
| D．One must be adequately prepared for it. |
| A．Lewis Pugh: achieving the impossible |
| B．How to survive a swim in cold waters |
| C．Lewis Pugh: swimming for a cause |
| D．How to prepare for extreme swimming |
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7 . Coca-Cola, which reportedly produced more than 3 million tons of plastic packaging in 2017, announced Thursday it wants to “help fix the world’s plastic waste problem one community (社区) at a time.”
The soda giant is doing so by providing $ 5.4 million for recycling programs in cities like Atlanta, Boston, Denver and Houston. In these cities, partners, like The Green Blue Institute and The Recycling Partnership, which receive the money, will work together to improve recycling rates.
“We focus on areas where we have the ability to make the biggest influence on communities through the funding and expert skills of Coca-Cola employees,” Carlos Pagoagoa, Coca-Cola’s group director of community partnerships, said in a statement. “In each city, local partners will work together to identify barriers to recycling on a local level and test a range of solutions,” he added. “We hope the learnings from these ‘model markets’ can offer solutions to other cities facing similar challenges.”
As part of the effort, The Recycling Partnership and the city of Atlanta, where the cola company’s headquarters are based, will send street teams out to open recycling carts and leave citizens cards informing them what they can and can’t recycle, and let them know how their efforts work.
“Two of the most urgent problems with recycling in the U. S. today are lack of access, followed by pollution in recycling,” Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership, said in a statement. “We know from the success of Atlanta in 2017 that the citizens want to recycle, and that communicating with them in the street works.”
Last year, Coca-Cola announced its task to collect and reuse a bottle or can for each one it sells, and increase the amount of its products out of recycled materials to 50% by 2030. The brand also aims to make all its packaging fully recyclable by 2025.
1. What does Coca-Cola company intend to do in the program?| A．Produce less packaging. |
| B．Help deal with plastic waste. |
| C．Pick up waste in communities. |
| D．Build a plant to recycle plastic waste. |
| A．How Coca-Cola conducts its program. |
| B．What organizations participate in the program. |
| C．How Coca-Cola chooses cities for the program. |
| D．What the local people do in Coca-Cola’s program. |
| A．Sort out various waste in the city. |
| B．Look into the cause of pollution. |
| C．Instruct local people what to recycle. |
| D．Hand cards to the locals in person. |
| A．Promising. | B．Difficult. | C．Pioneering. | D．Costly. |
