1 . In 1999, Giuliana Furci, founder and founding director of the Fungi (真菌) Foundation, developed a deep interest in fungi. They were everywhere, and the 20-year-old took particular joy in the variety of mushrooms: small and button-shaped; tall and umbrella-like; round with red caps topped with white flakes. Some were commonly found in people’s diets, for they were rich in nutrients such as vitamin, fiber, minerals and protein.
But Furci also quickly realized that these fungi went largely ignored in Chile, where there were few guidebooks and an almost total lack of policies and resources to protect them from over-harvesting and other human activities. Determined to correct this, Furci wrote a field guide and set up the Fungi Foundation—a nonprofit dedicated to fungi conservation. In her guide, special attention went to the role of fungi in the ecosystem.
“Life on the planet wouldn’t exist without fungi,” said Greg Mueller, a mushroom conservation expert. “Because of their relationship with forests and trees, we can’t survive without fungi. In terms of the health of the planet, they’re incredibly important to humans and the overall ecosystem.” Fungi can break down plants and animals, thus cycling nutrients and increasing their availability in the soil. They are also important contributors to the soil carbon stock through the same process. What’s more, fungi have been found to help degrade (降解) various pollutants, such as plastic. And mycelium (菌丝体), which is the root structure of mushrooms, is now being used to replace unsustainable materials, such as plastic and animal-based products.
Because of these, exploration of fungi was expanded at a faster pace. However, some were already listed as critically endangered. In 2010, Furci took an even bigger step—with other environmental nonprofits, she put forward a proposal for the government to systematically assess how large new developments such as housing, dams, and highways affect fungi. In 2012, a law was passed and Chile became the first country in the world to protect fungi by law.
1. What can we learn about Furci from the first two paragraphs?| A．She enjoyed collecting mushrooms. |
| B．She was fond of cooking mushrooms. |
| C．She worried about the situation of fungi. |
| D．She had a habit of writing field guidebooks. |
| A．The life on earth without fungi. |
| B．The importance of fungi on earth. |
| C．The relations between trees and fungi. |
| D．The practical uses of fungi in the future. |
| A．By writing free instructions on plants. |
| B．By starting a non-profit ecotourism company. |
| C．By raising awareness of the importance of fungi. |
| D．By passing laws to ban over-harvesting mushrooms. |
| A．Ground-breaking. | B．Debatable. |
| C．Romantic. | D．Unmatched. |
2 . The heavy use of fossil fuels over the last 150 years has released massive amounts of greenhouse gases, which has caused the Earth to warm up. Scientists say large amounts of CO2 must be removed from the atmosphere and stored. Plants and trees do this naturally. But there’s so much CO2 in the atmosphere that just planting trees and protecting forests won’t solve the problem. And, when these plants and trees die, the carbon they’ve stored gets released again. That means humans need to come up with ways of removing carbon from the air and storing it. This is called Direct Air Capture(DAC).
A company called Heirloom has just opened the first DAC plant in the United States. Heirloom’s process uses limestone to capture CO2. The company heats up the limestone to separate out the CO2, which is then locked away in concrete. Heirloom uses renewable electricity to produce the heat, so the process doesn’t produce more CO2. The process is extremely expensive though. The new plant can remove 1,000 tons of CO2 a year. That’s a tiny amount compared to how much carbon needs to be removed from the atmosphere.
Graphyte is another US company working on DAC. The company collects unwanted plants. It dries this “biomass” completely so that it can’t break down. Graphyte then strikes the dried plants into small bricks which are trapped in a special wrapper and buried deep underground. Graphyte says its process doesn’t use much energy and can work anywhere. The company claims the cost is merely less than $100 to capture a ton of CO2.
Not everyone is excited about carbon removal. Some people worry that it will take too long to make a difference. Others worry that focusing on removing carbon could take attention away from more important climate actions, like switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy. But experts say the decision isn’t to do one or the other. The world needs to end fossil fuel use and pull carbon out of the air.
1. What can be the impact of the death of plants according to Paragraph 1?| A．Their leaves take in more carbon. |
| B．There is an increase of carbon in the air. |
| C．It leads to the death of animals dependent on them. |
| D．The carbon they absorb disappears with their death. |
| A．A course studying the atmosphere. |
| B．An association dealing with climate change. |
| C．A new method beneficial for the environment. |
| D．A newly developed material for a greener world. |
| A．Its operation procedures are simpler. | B．It achieves its goal at a lower expense. |
| C．Its products are intended for construction. | D．It works with the aid of renewable energy. |
| A．It’s necessary to work along both lines. | B．Carbon removal is a win-win solution. |
| C．Environmental issues are about to be resolved. | D．Advantages always coexist with disadvantages. |
1. Why are all participants dressed in green?
| A．To look young and energetic. |
| B．To match the theme of the campaign. |
| C．To keep the team easily manageable. |
| A．Planting trees. | B．Designing posters. | C．Collecting garbage. |
| A．Organize the campaign. |
| B．Stop driving cars. |
| C．Drive students to do activities. |
| A．Repair lights. | B．Decorate classrooms. | C．Paint school boards. |
4 . We are the products of evolution, and not just evolution that occurred billions of years ago. As scientists look deeper into our genes (基因), they are finding examples of human evolution in just the past few thousand years. People in Ethiopian highlands have adapted to living at high altitudes. Cattle-raising people in East Africa and northern Europe have gained a mutation (突变) that helps them digest milk as adults.
On Thursday in an article published in Cell, a team of researchers reported a new kind of adaptation—not to air or to food, but to the ocean. A group of sea-dwelling people in Southeast Asia have evolved into better divers. The Bajau, as these people are known, number in the hundreds of thousands in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. They have traditionally lived on houseboats; in recent times, they’ve also built houses on stilts (支柱) in coastal waters. “They are simply a stranger to the land,” said Rodney C. Jubilado, a University of Hawaii researcher who studies the Bajau.
Dr. Jubilado first met the Bajau while growing up on Samal Island in the Philippines. They made a living as divers, spearfishing or harvesting shellfish. “We were so amazed that they could stay underwater much longer than we local islanders,” Dr. Jubilado said. “I could see them actually walking under the sea.”
In 2015, Melissa Ilardo, then a graduate student in genetics at the University of Copenhagen, heard about the Bajau. She wondered if centuries of diving could have led to the evolution of physical characteristics that made the task easier for them. It seemed like the perfect chance for natural selection to act on a population,” said Dr. Ilardo. She also said there were likely a number of other genes that help the Bajau dive.
1. What does the author want to tell us by the examples in Paragraph 1?| A．Environmental adaptation of cattle raisers. | B．New knowledge of human evolution. |
| C．Recent findings of human origin. | D．Significance of food selection. |
| A．On the beach. | B．Near rivers. | C．Off the coast. | D．In valleys. |
| A．They could walk on stilts all day. | B．They had a superb way of fishing. |
| C．They could stay long underwater. | D．They lived on both land and water. |
| A．Entertainment | B．Science | C．Health | D．Sport |
| A．Driving safely. | B．Doing the cleaning. | C．Reducing air pollution. |
1.垃圾分类的重要意义
2.呼吁全校同学参加
注意：1.字数100左右，内容包括主要要点。
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
