1 . Baggy has become the first dog in the UK—and potentially the world—to join the fight against air pollution by recording pollutant levels near the ground.
Baggy wears a pollution monitor on her collar so she can take data measurements close to the ground. Her monitor has shown that air pollution levels are higher closer to ground level, which has helped highlight concerns that babies and young kids may be at higher risk of developing lung problems.
Conventional air pollution monitors are normally fixed on lampposts at about nine feet in the air. However, since Baggy stands at about the same height as a child in a pushchair（婴儿车）, she frequently records pollution levels which are much higher than the data gathered by the Environment A gency.
The doggy data research was the idea of Baggy's 13-year-old owner Tom Hunt and his dad Matt. The English youngster noticed that pollution levels are around two-thirds higher close to the ground than they are in the air at the height where they are recorded by the agency. Tom has since reported the shocking findings to the government in an attempt to emphasise that babies are at higher risk of developing asthma（哮喘）.
Matt Hunt said he was "very proud" of his son because “when the boy gets an idea, he keeps his head down and gets on with it, and he really does want to do some good and stop young kids from getting asthma."
“Tom built up a passion for environmental protection at a very early age," Matt added. “He became very interested in gadgets（小装置）. About one year ago, he got this new piece of tech which is like a test tube. One Sunday afternoon, we went out to do some monitoring, and he said, why don't we put it on Baggy's collar and let her monitor the pollution？'So we did it."
Tom said, "Most of the time, Baggy is just like any other dog. But for the rest of the time she is a super dog, and we are all really proud of her."
1. With a monitor on her collar, Baggy can ____________.| A．take pollutant readings | B．record pollutant levels |
| C．process collected data | D．reduce air pollution |
| A．High places are free of air pollution. |
| B．Higher pushchairs are more risky for kids. |
| C．Conventional monitors are more reliable. |
| D．Air is more polluted closer to the ground. |
| A．To warn of a health risk. | B．To find out pollution sources. |
| C．To test his new monitor. | D．To prove Baggy's abilities. |
| A．Modest. | B．Generous. | C．Creative. | D．Outgoing. |
2 . Like many of the Indigenous (土著的) communities across the Australian continent, the remote communities in north-west New South Wales are struggling. Many of the 300 or so residents rely on welfare. Higher electricity bills—up to $3,000 a quarter for some households—further worsen the poverty. They’re always at the end of the power line, so the service that is there is quite extraordinary in terms of cost. It’s a real problem that needs to be fixed.
To that end, Anderson and other Indigenous leaders have formed the First Nations Renewable Energy Alliance (FREA) to push for renewable energy in Indigenous communities. They partner with private enterprise to support Indigenous communities looking to switch to renewable energy.
“We can build a power station where the community exists,” Anderson says, “so people are able to successfully live in the environment the way they want to live and have access to power which enables them to better determine their economic future.”
Only a handful of Indigenous communities have set up renewable energy projects in Australia. The Indigenous-owned and -operated company AllGrid Energy, for instance, has installed solar panels and battery storage systems to replace diesel (柴油) generators in the communities of Ngurrara and Kurnturlpara in the Northern Territory’s Barkly Tableland. Within two months of the system being installed in May 2016, people were moving back to their homelands, the communities growing from just two permanent residents to about 40.
But FREA will go one step further, working with community leaders and acting as a conduit (纽带) between the communities and the businesses they are dealing with. This is essential, says Anderson, to avoid predatory (吞并) practices they have seen in the past, with companies “playing on the psychology of poverty” to gain advantage. The FREA has drafted terms of agreements that will guide how companies engage with Indigenous communities for renewable energy projects.
One of the next steps for FREA will be to identify a community that can act as a test case for a renewables project. “Our experience is that if we can make it work for one community, it will work in every other community,” Anderson says.
1. What is FREA expected to do for the remote Indigenous communities?| A．Increase power supply to them. | B．Help them return to their homelands. |
| C．Shake them off poverty. | D．Reduce their higher power costs. |
| A．Renewables projects are inaccessible. |
| B．Renewables projects are quite workable. |
| C．Renewables projects can increase locals’ income. |
| D．Renewables projects can coexist with diesel power plants. |
| A．Its strategies to win over the businesses. | B．Its cooperation with community leaders. |
| C．Its potential conflict with energy companies. | D．Its innovation in directing renewables projects. |
| A．Consult the experts. | B．Select a piloting community. |
| C．Collect sufficient construction fund. | D．Make renewables projects available to all. |
3 . A carbon capturing device, called Orca, began operating in Iceland in September. The machine was invented and made by a Swiss company called Climeworks. The name comes from the Icelandic word orka which means energy.
Orca can pull carbon dioxide out of the air and send it deep into the ground, where it is turned into stone. The device is made up of four sections which look like giant air conditioners stacked together. Each section contains 12 large fans that suck air from outside into steel compartments.
Inside, the air passes through a filter (过滤器) which gathers the carbon dioxide. It is then heated to a high temperature so the carbon dioxide can be collected from the filter. Then, the carbon dioxide is mixed with water and put deep in the ground into a type of rock called basalt. Basalt causes the carbon dioxide mixture to turn into stone after two or three years.
Orca is an experimental device. It was built to demonstrate that it is possible to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It can remove 4, 000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year. That’s about the same amount as the emissions produced by 850 cars in a year. In order to remove enough carbon dioxide to make a big difference to global warming, much larger devices like Orca would have to be built in many countries around the world.
Some environmental activists say governments should spend more time and money on reducing the amount of greenhouse gas we produce each year, instead of investing in carbon capture methods. But others say that, in order for countries to meet their goal of net zero emissions by 2050, they will need to do both: reduce new emissions and remove the carbon dioxide already in the air.
1. What’s the purpose of designing Orca?| A．To conserve energy. | B．To achieve zero emissions. |
| C．To protect natural resources. | D．To remove carbon dioxide in the air. |
| A．Orca. | B．The basalt. | C．The air. | D．Carbon dioxide. |
a. Sucking the air. b. Collecting the carbon dioxide.
c. Mixing with water. d. Filtering and heating.
e. Putting into the ground.
| A．a, d, b, c, e | B．a, c, d, b, e | C．a, d, c, b, e | D．a, b, c, d, e |
| A．Reducing emissions is more important. |
| B．It might result in new pollution. |
| C．The technology is not mature. |
| D．It doesn’t work efficiently. |
4 . This 3-mile stretch of sand and tide pools beneath a castle of 80-foot cliffs is a California tourism poster if there ever was one. Nothing disturbs the perfect, sunny view, except — once you’re aware of them — microplastic particles (颗粒). But you have to look close-on-your-hands-and-knees close-to see one. And once you do, you see another and another — so many that you may not think of this, or any beach, the same way again. These tiny preproduction plastic balls that manufacturers (生产商) melt down to form everything have been escaping factories, container ships, trains, trucks — and public notice — for decades.
The 2- to 3-millimeter, multicolored balls are a subset (子集) of microplastic-plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size. Microplastic particles accumulate where water takes them, and they’ve been found on shorelines of every continent.
Dr McReynolds is an environmental scientist who’s now joined a global movement studying their trail into the environment. Establishing a baseline count of the presence of microplastic particles — and, more broadly, any microplastics — is the focus of Dr McReynolds’ scientific study here. Charting the count, noting tide, current, and weather conditions will show if amounts are increasing, and perhaps at what rate and why. That knowledge, he says, can inform solutions to plastic pollution such as regulation of their use.
“What are you doing? Picking up trash?” asks a steady stream of beach walkers whenever Dr McReynolds’ crew walks onto the beach and sets up equipment. These are teachable moments for Dr McReynolds.
One recent morning he told some beach walkers how microplastic particles are believed to absorb toxic chemicals, and — because they resemble fish eggs — are eaten by fish and birds and enter the food chain. Almost right on time, a seagull hopped up to a plastic-coated photo of microplastic particles and hungrily pecked (啄食) at it.
Will his work help save the world? Dr McReynolds waves a finger at that idea, “I won’t ever use that word — I won’t save the world from this pollution problem. Preserve it, yes. We want to take care of it.”
1. What do we know about microplastic particles from paragraph 1?| A．They are too small to be seen. | B．They have been ignored for long. |
| C．They are products of plastic balls. | D．They can be made into almost everything. |
| A．Classifying plastic particles into subsets. | B．Finding solutions to plastic pollution. |
| C．Charting the tides and currents of oceans. | D．Creating a data collection for microplastics. |
| A．The interesting teachable moments. | B．The spread of poisonous chemicals. |
| C．The harmful effect of microplastic particles. | D．The beauty of the photo of microplastic particles. |
| A．To save the world. | B．To protect the earth. | C．To educate the public. | D．To provide solutions. |
5 . Traditionally, profiting from forests often meant capitalizing on timber (木材)——choosing commercial timber. Yet increasingly, there is an understanding that it’s of greater significance to keep trees standing than cut them down for financial profit. Money is not everything. We have to recognize real and lasting value is from natural resources. But money is a fact of life.
Good news is that we can expect entire natural woodland is left undamaged and still provides a revenue (收益) stream. Leaving woodland complete does not necessarily mean that we do not touch it at all. Conservation work may involve building back biodiversity or the removal of foreign plant species.
A healthy woodland system can provide a range of yields (产物). Besides eatable yields——top fruit, berries, and food crops, it produces substances for chemical use. The non-timber forest products provided by natural ecosystems will vary significantly depending on where they are. But there’re almost always ways to explore to acquire revenue.
A project in the U.K. shows woodland is also a draw for visitors. It engages a community who creates a sustainable area of woodland. The sale of handmade wooden items and non-timber forest products is involved. But the community largely obtains revenue by opening up parts of the natural woodland to the public with an adventure playground and outdoor recreational activities on the site. It also offers courses on nest building, special wildlife events and more. The project is thought to have great uniqueness. In terms of revenue, it centers round the existing natural land; the yields woodland can provide become side products.
Recreational activities, tours, and classes are just the commencement. A rich and biodiverse woodland can be an ecosystem that draws in people looking for a beautiful place to stay. Woodland has great value in ecological and social terms. And when you nurse it, it could also add to the income from your land.
1. What do people increasingly think about forest conservation?| A．It is difficult to carry out. |
| B．It means making full use of timber. |
| C．It outweighs financial development. |
| D．It should centre on building back biodiversity. |
| A．It makes woodland itself the main product. |
| B．It focuses on protecting natural land. |
| C．It aims to promote ecotourism. |
| D．It provides educational experiences. |
| A．Intention. |
| B．Wish. |
| C．Exception. |
| D．Beginning. |
| A．Woodland Brings Profit While Staying Complete |
| B．A Project Creates Sustainable Woodland |
| C．Forest Conservation Has Been a Top Priority |
| D．Non-timber Products Help Gain More Revenue |
6 . Birds’ bodies are becoming smaller in size in response to climate change, even in places like the Amazon rainforest that are relatively untouched by human hands, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances.
Researchers found that nearly all of the birds’ bodies have become lighter since the 1980s, losing on average about 2% of their body weight every decade. For an average bird species that weighed about 30 grams in the 1980s, the population now averages about 27.6 grams. The study also revealed that wingspan was getting bigger in the Amazon bird species studied.
These birds don’t vary that much in size. When everyone in the population is a couple of grams smaller, it’s significant. This is undoubtedly happening all over and probably not just with birds.
A lower body weight and increasing wing length means that birds use energy more efficiently, the researchers noted. For example, compared with a fighter jet with short wings that needs lots of fuel to fly, a glider plane with a thin body and long wings flies up into the air with much less energy.
The study concluded that a warmer climate was the driving force of these changes. The climate in Brazilian Amazonia, where the birds lived, had gotten hotter and wetter over the study period. Since 1966, rainfall increased by 13% in the wet season and fell by 15% in the dry, with temperatures increasing by 1 degree Celsius in the wet season and 1.65 degrees Celsius in the dry season. The change in climate might have made food or other resources insufficient.
Together, body proportions moved in the direction of more efficient flight and lower metabolic heat production and are consistent with a plastic or genetic adaptation to resource or thermal stress under climate change.
Animals are dealing with climate change in different ways.
1. What is the direct cause of birds’ changes?| A．A warmer climate. | B．A scientific advance. | C．A lack of sufficient food. | D．A lack of drinking water |
| A．To show planes fly with much less fuel. | B．To prove birds need much energy to fly. |
| C．To demonstrate birds’ efficient energy use. | D．To illustrate planes need lots of fuel to fly. |
| A．Animals’ other body part changes. | B．People’s attempts to protect animals. |
| C．Birds’ adaptation to climate change. | D．Animals’ ways to tackle climate change |
| A．Birds Nowadays Also Have to Adapt to Climate Change |
| B．The Climate Crisis Is Influencing Birds’ Body Shapes |
| C．It’s Our Duty to Take Measures to Protect Birds on the Planet |
| D．It’s Time to Raise Human Beings’ Awareness of Climate Crisis |
7 . On September 29, 2021, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared it would be removing 23 species from its Endangered Species Act, including the ivory-billed woodpecker, various Hawaiian birds and freshwater fish, not because they had been pulled back from the edge of extinction, but because the USFWS believed these species would never recover, and were most likely extinct, therefore not requiring protection.
In April, 195 countries are getting together in China for a UN conference to discuss global agreements to protect nature and biodiversity, with the hope of finalizing an agreement to safeguard plants, animals, and ecosystems. However, the new strain (毒株) of Covid-19, Omicron, has potentially thrown the plans into a mess, and negotiators may switch to online talks if travel restrictions to China are put in place again.
“We can't go another four months without any progress” said Georgina Chandler, senior international policy officer at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Conservationists are urging the talks to go ahead — online if necessary — as the biodiversity crisis shows no sign of slowing up.
“Nature loss has not gone away and threatens both human lives and the global economy,” said Lin Li, director of global policy at the organization. “With one million species currently in danger of extinction, delaying action is not an option.”
Improving conservation and management of natural areas, such as oceans, forests, and wildernesses is crucial to safeguarding the ecosystems on which humans depend. However, forests are still being devastated, often for farming or commercial use. As trees absorb about a third of planet-warming emissions produced worldwide, stopping deforestation is key. At COP26 in Glasgow last November, world leaders plan to invest $19 billion in public and private funds to protect and restore global forests.
It’s easy to feel disheartened by the disappointing news, but the only way to stop more species suffering the same fate is to pay attention and take actions.
1. Why would the 23 species be removed from the Act?| A．Because they are less endangered. |
| B．Because they have already died out. |
| C．Because more fund is in need to protect them. |
| D．Because nothing can save them from extinction. |
| A．Take immediate actions. |
| B．Put off the conference. |
| C．Have online talks. |
| D．Improve global economy. |
| A．Abandoned. | B．Destroyed. | C．Rearranged. | D．Disturbed. |
| A．To explain why some species have disappeared. |
| B．To recommend ways to protect and restore forests. |
| C．To describe the present situation of global ecosystem. |
| D．To call for attention and action against biodiversity crisis. |
8 . In 2014, Xu Yitang, a student at the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, saw corals at an aquarium for the first time.
Little did he know the chance
“The coral organism is quite
As he became better
Fast-forward to today, he
Each day, he spends several hours diving deep under the waves to observe and
His story has been
| A．incident | B．witness | C．encounter | D．appointment |
| A．passion | B．vision | C．friendship | D．career |
| A．study | B．frequent | C．examine | D．discover |
| A．treating | B．preserving | C．selecting | D．growing |
| A．tough | B．smooth | C．delicate | D．impressive |
| A．benefits | B．requirements | C．expenses | D．responses |
| A．reminded | B．informed | C．warned | D．convinced |
| A．shelters | B．partners | C．opportunities | D．services |
| A．Somehow | B．Nevertheless | C．Therefore | D．Unfortunately |
| A．extinction | B．variation | C．decline | D．expansion |
| A．responsibility | B．relief | C．achievement | D．belonging |
| A．consults with | B．applies for | C．seeks out | D．acts as |
| A．find out | B．note down | C．show off | D．speed up |
| A．revised | B．contributed | C．announced | D．featured |
| A．assess | B．follow | C．relate | D．invent |
9 . Whenever I order food for delivery, I play a little game to guess how many sets of tableware(餐具)the restaurant will provide with my meal. Sometimes restaurants will throw in two, three or four sets for just one order. But I rarely need any tableware at all, and the waste goes into the trash or collects dust in a kitchen drawer.
Researchers working with Chinese technology group Alibaba tried a simple approach to this problem. Instead of just wastefully doling out tableware, the company required food-delivery customers in some cities in China to pick how many sets of tableware they wanted to receive.The default (默认设置)was set at zero. The result, published today in the journal Science, was a 638% increase in the share of no-tableware orders. If applied across China, researchers found, the approach would save nearly 22 billion sets of plastic tableware. The study doesn’t cover carbon emissions, but it’s safe to say that the impact would be significant. It struck me as a useful reminder of the many low-hanging fruits across the economy that can cut waste, and emissions.
Nudging its customers cost Alibaba nothing more than a few hours of software engineering time and the impact it brought was immense. The concept of nudging comes from the field of behavioral economics known as nudge theory. It suggests that a slight action can encourage good human behavior without the need for policies that limit choice or economic punishment that raises the cost of bad behavior. To nudge customers to eat better, for example, a restaurant might organize its menu by listing healthy options first and bury unhealthy ones at the bottom. More recently, some big companies like Google have also begun to use nudges to advance climate objectives.
Behavioral economics broadly, and nudges more specifically, aren’t without controversy. Some might think it assigns consumers responsibility for addressing environmental challenges. But there is another way to look at it. In the absence of necessary policy—and policy is needed一companies can help encourage a widespread shift of consumer behavior.
And all of that behavioral change can add up. The International Energy Agency found in 2021 that small behavioral changes in energy consumption such as walking instead of driving and adjusting the thermostat could in total shave off 4% of global emissions. The more that companies can do to facilitate such changes, the better.
1. What did Alibaba do with tableware waste?| A．It stopped restaurants from handing out tableware. |
| B．It withdrew unused tableware from customers. |
| C．It updated the food -delivery device regularly. |
| D．It allowed picking tableware at customers’ demand. |
| A．Easily accessible things. | B．Fast increasing orders. |
| C．Exceptionally tough choices. | D．Widely accepted strategies. |
| A．It brings about economic loss. |
| B．It results from consumption policies. |
| C．It indicates small action changes behaviour. |
| D．It implies bad behaviour impacts economy. |
| A．Nudge theory affects behaviors. |
| B．Good behaviors boost economy. |
| C．Nudging helps build a greener world. |
| D．Behavioral economics benefits customers. |
10 . Once the red wolf’s historic range stretched from Long Island to Missouri and down to the Texas-Mexico border. But by 1972 their population was reduced to a small area along the Gulf coast due to habitat loss and hunting.
To conserve the species, 14 individuals were caught as part of a reproducing program. In 1980 their wild relatives were declared extinct — the caught wolves were all that was left and thus lots of genetic variation was lost. You can’t help it when you have so few founders.
Kristin Brzeski is an assistant professor at Michigan Technological University, whose research focuses on the conservation of genetics of wild animal populations. He thought this work had been an underdog scientifically and for conservation, for all wolves decreased in amount dramatically, especially the red wolves. Now, Brzeski and her co-workers have found a surprising new pool of red wolf genes that might help bring more diversity to the tiny population: they found the disappearing genes of red wolves in wild coyote populations. But why did this happen?
Remember: when a population is dying out, it might find the closest related species as their own best mate, so a red wolf and a coyote can have offspring. As a result, people can rediscover their genes in their coyote hybrid offspring. As red wolves are released back into the wild, reproducing with these coyotes could help the critically endangered species regain some of its genetic diversity.
This would be kind of the opposite direction: take the existing small population that still has red wolf genes that are so critical, and put them into a wild landscape with new genetic variation that they haven’t seen for 50 years or more. And all of a sudden, hopefully, this is like a super mix of genetic health and sort of a rebound that these animals can be wild and be themselves again.
The next step will include how to release red wolves in a way that takes advantage of the genes red wolves hiding in coyote populations. There should be a philosophy in our mind that we created this problem, so we should be responsible for fixing it.
1. Why was much genetic variation of the red wolves lost?| A．Their habitat loss. | B．Their limited number. |
| C．Their relatives’ extinction. | D．Their poor adaptability. |
| A．Failure. | B．Success. | C．Breakthrough. | D．Dilemma. |
| A．Disappointed. | B．Favorable. | C．Pessimistic. | D．Cautious. |
| A．A promising way to save red wolves | B．Red wolves — an endangered species |
| C．Wild coyotes — red wolves’ perfect match | D．An unknown future to protect red wolves |
