1 . The ocean is home to more than 200,000 known species and as many as 2 million that we have yet to discover. And, it is also home to 24.4 trillion pieces of microplastics. In 2022, researchers spotlighted how bad marine microplastic pollution, is getting: The total amount of microplastics on the bottom of oceans has greatly increased. in the past two decades.
Microplastic particles don’t just end up at the bottom of the ocean. Animals are eating them — at least 1,500 species have been reported to ingest plastic. And a lot of it. For example, whales in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf consume roughly three million microplastics daily, according to research published in Science of the Total Environment, which analyzed whale waste to see how much microplastics were present.
“Other research has shown that if plastics are small enough, they can cross the gut(肠道) wall and get into internal organs though the long-term effects are still unclear. Plastics can also release chemicals that are harmful to digestive system,” says Kahane-Rapport. “This is concerning, and while we do not yet understand the long-term health-effects, it is likely not a good sign for whales and their prey(猎物) to eat a man-made material like plastic.”
This is obviously bad for whales, but it also has effects on humans and the ocean at large. We are also part of these food chains and are consuming microplastics regularly. They are in our bottled water, in our table salt — they are even in our house dust and in the air we breathe. And we still don’t know what the health effects are. Meanwhile, the impact on whales — and what it indicates — is troubling on many fronts. “Whales are ecosystem engineers,” says Kahane-Rapport. “They can spread the nutrients that they consumed and serve as ecosystem guards — when whales are not healthy, other parts of the system will suffer.”
Kahane-Rapport says more research is needed. “The next research step will be to determine how much plastic the whales excrete(排出) and how much is left in their bodies. Following that, we would be able to determine the direct health effects on their tissues.”
1. What does the underlined word “ingest” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Deal with. | B．Bring up. | C．Take in. | D．Spread out. |
| A．Researches show contradictory results. |
| B．Digestive system is the most affected part. |
| C．Small plastics are more harmful than big ones. |
| D．Much about microplastics’ harm remains unclear. |
| A．The various sources of pollution. |
| B．Tab chain reaction of microplastics. |
| C．Possible solutions to plastic pollution. |
| D．Growing awareness of ocean protection |
| A．Microplastic pollution to the ocean bottom |
| B．The sufferings of other ocean creatures. |
| C．Whales’ contributions to the ecosystem. |
| D．The amount of plastic in whales bodies. |
On March 3, Eric Johnson was asleep when the family’s six-year-old Australian shepherd, Bella, woke him up. Bella was acting unpredictably, giving Johnson the sense that “something just didn’t feel right.” Bella sensed danger, and alerted the family to the tornado that soon destroyed their home.
When Johnson woke up, he turned on the TV and found out that a tornado was headed toward their town of Cookeville, Tennessee. He quickly grabbed his wife and their three children and put them in the bathtub. Nearly 45 minutes later, around 2:00 am, the tornado hit and destroyed the house. Johnson was thrown into the backyard.
Johnson said, “Bella was hiding under our bed when the tornado hit our house. She was thrown into our yard and survived and was missing after that. It was hard for us knowing she had survived but we couldn’t find her. She was the piece of our family that was missing.” The furious 175 mph twister destroyed everything in its path. The Johnsons would not have survived if not for Bella.
Johnson suffered a head injury and his wife had broken ribs, but they soon set about searching for their beloved heroic dog. They left pieces of clothing around the destroyed neighborhood, hoping that Bella would recognize the scent and find her way back home. Church friend and dog tracker Sarah Romeyn also joined in.
She borrowed cameras from a local animal rescue group and set them up in areas where people reported seeing her. She also worked with other dog trackers and even sought tips from residents with the help of the Putnam County Police Department.
When leads dried up, the Johnsons and Romeyn pressed on. “I was still finding time searching in parking lots, but it was tough. Because nobody had found a body, in rescue you can’t give up until you know you don’t have a positive outcome. And I hadn’t given up,” Romeyn said.
Paragraph 1: In time, they found a glimmer of hope when Romeyn got a call from friend Karen Ritacco, who said that Bella was behind her shop._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Paragraph 2: Romeyn was happy to play a part in the rescue, but also credits the community for their help.___________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3 . Overlooking the Biblioteca degli Alberi is Milan’s “Vertical (垂直的) Forest”: two residential tower blocks built in 2014 that are covered in 800 trees,4,500 shrubs and 15,000 plants. If this forest was planted on the ground, it would cover 20,000 m2— the size of three and a half football fields.
Each year the trees will absorb 10,000 tons of CO2 and 57 tons of pollutants. They should also produce about 900 tons of oxygen. Boeri’s team of architects says the plants will also decrease the average air temperature, create noise barriers and boost biodiversity by creating a habitat for birds, insects and small animals.
It is not just physical wellbeing that is aided by large green structures in our cities. The team behind Sydney’s 100mhigh “vertical garden” claims it is a new form of “living architecture” that reminds us of “the restorative impact that nature has on our souls”. Just how restorative living near trees and plants is for our souls is open to debate; but studies in Germany have suggested that it can be extremely beneficial for our brains.
Scientists examined brain image sequences (顺序) of 341 elderly residents of Berlin, focusing particularly on the amygdala —the part of the brain that controls our fear responses and is responsible for stress and anxiety disorders. They found that there was strong connection between residents living within 1km of the forests on the edge of the city and those with the healthiest amygdala. A health y amygdala means being less likely to suffer from the stress and anxiety disorders controlled by this part of the brain. Mood and anxiety disorders are up to 56%higher in urban environments when compared to rural locations.
With two-thirds of the world’s population predicted to be living in cities by 2050, Milan’s Vertical Forest might show the world a way to create healthier, happier urban spaces.
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．The area of the city forest. | B．The way of building city forest. |
| C．The positive influence on the city forest. | D．The expected effect of the city forest. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Suspicious. | C．Objective. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．amygdala controls our fear responses |
| B．living near forests is beneficial for our souls |
| C．people near the forests are less likely to feel anxious |
| D．more residents will live in Vertical Forest in the future |
| A．Cities are turning suitable for people to live in. |
| B．There is a worldwide focus on how to improve biodiversity. |
| C．Milan’s Vertical Forest becomes an example of urban biodiversity. |
| D．The Vertical Forest covers the size of three and a half football fields. |
4 . Getting rid of old tyres has long been a problem. Every year more than a billion reach the end of the road. Until recently, most were thrown into landfills or piled up in storage yards. Tougher environmental laws mean many countries now insist tyres are recycled.
Some firms, therefore, have begun exploring a great idea. Since tyres are mostly made from hydrocarbons, it should be possible in principle to turn old tyres into low-carbon fuel which can be used to run the vehicles they came from. One of the most ambitious firms pursuing the idea is Wastefront, which is based in Oslo, in Norway. Later this year the company will start building a giant tyre-recycling plant. In a couple of years, when the plant is fully operational, it will be able to turn 8m old tyres into new products, including some 25,000 tons of a black liquid called tyre derived oil (TDO).
The process works by deconstructing (解构) a tyre into three main parts. One is steel, which is used to brace the structure of a tyre. The second is carbon black, a powdery carbon used to improve the durability of the tyre. The third is rubber.
In order to do the deconstructing, the tyres are first shredded and the steel bracing removed. The remaining material then goes through a process called pyrolysis (热解). This involves exposing a material to high temperatures in the absence of air. That causes the rubber to turn into a mix of hydrocarbon gases, which are drawn off. What is left behind is pure carbon black. Once the drawn-off gas has cooled down, a part of it changes into TDO. The remaining gases, which include methane, are funneled back around to be burned, fuelling the reactor.
The overall output of the process by weight is 40% TDO, 30% carbon black, 20% steel and 10% gas. The recovered TDO is similar to crude oil fresh from the ground. The carbon black can be re-used to make new tyres, which is of interest to tyre-makers. This, says Vianney Vales, Wastefront’s boss, creates a closed-loop system that prevents emissions.
1. What can we learn about old tyres from the first paragraph?| A．A billion of them are on the road. |
| B．Throwing them into landfills is easy. |
| C．How to handle them is challenging. |
| D．Environmental laws insist tyres be piled up. |
| A．To get hydrocarbons | B．To explore a great idea. |
| C．To produce new tyres. | D．To turn old tyres into fuel. |
| A．To show his ambition. |
| B．To show the success of the idea. |
| C．To stress the output of deconstructing. |
| D．To compare different output of deconstructing. |
| A．Recycling tyres: Fuel from your wheels |
| B．One Common Energy Recovery Method |
| C．How to deconstruct old tyres reasonably |
| D．An alternative, pleasingly realistic idea |
5 . Vitamin B could help lessen the effects of the most dangerous type of air pollution，according to a new study published recently. In the first study of its kind，a team of international researchers looked at the damage caused by one of the pollutants that has the most severe impact on health: PM2.5.
Particulate matter，or PM，is a type of air pollutant consisting of small particles of different sizes. PM2.5 has a diameter of fewer than 2.5 micrometers，about 30 times smaller than a human hair. These particles are so small that they can go into our respiratory system (呼吸系统), resulting in lung and systemic inflammation (炎症) and stress.
The team found that something as simple as a daily vitamin B supplement could potentially reduce the impact of the tiny particles on the human body，although they stressed that the research was in its early stages and the sample size was small.
For this study，10 volunteers were initially exposed to clean air and given a placebo (安慰剂) to check their responses. The group then took another placebo for four weeks before being exposed to heavily polluted air from downtown Toronto，where an estimated 1，000 cars pass every hour. The bad air was delivered to the volunteers through an “oxygen－type” face mask. The experiment was then repeated，with each volunteer taking a vitamin B supplement daily made up of 2.5 mg of folic acid，50 mg of vitamin B6，and 1 mg of vitamin B12. B6 can be found in liver，chicken and nuts，and B12 in fish，meat，eggs，milk and some cereals.
The researchers found that four weeks of vitamin B supplements reduced the damage of PM2.5 exposure by 28%－76%. The results highlight how prevention at an individual level could be used to fight the harmful effects of PM2.5.
1. Why is PM2.5 harmful to our health?| A．It pollutes and poisons the air. | B．It is too much to be got rid of. |
| C．It carries viruses and diseases. | D．It is easily breathed in and damages our body. |
| A．The process of the research was not scientific. |
| B．This kind of research has been done many times. |
| C．Further studies are needed to confirm their findings. |
| D．Vitamin B is hard to obtain in people’s daily life. |
| A．International researchers have a new finding. |
| B．Vitamin B could reduce the damage of PM2.5. |
| C．Particulate matter does great harm to our health. |
| D．Emission control and regulation are badly needed. |
| A．in a science journal | B．on a government website |
| C．in a fashion magazine | D．in a medical textbook |
6 . The first time ever I realized that plastic was a serious matter for our planet was during a road trip in Western Australia, almost 12 years ago.
We
This was just one of the many experiences I’ve lived that made me more
Our trip to Borneo was another life-changing
Besides, we were also
Facing this global issue
| A．stayed | B．visited | C．worked | D．stopped |
| A．land | B．ocean | C．district | D．supermarket |
| A．threw | B．picked | C．dropped | D．carried |
| A．sure | B．proud | C．conscious | D．comfortable |
| A．travel | B．deliver | C．remove | D．play |
| A．adversity | B．campaign | C．experience | D．expedition |
| A．free | B．cheap | C．valuable | D．safe |
| A．failed | B．managed | C．hesitated | D．happened |
| A．frequently | B．precisely | C．deeply | D．firmly |
| A．action | B．project | C．discipline | D．protection |
| A．dry up | B．give off | C．clean up | D．shave off |
| A．washed | B．proved | C．rushed | D．injured |
| A．on purpose | B．on behalf | C．in particular | D．in person |
| A．confusion | B．determination | C．frustration | D．satisfaction |
| A．make | B．have | C．achieve | D．find |
7 . The Amazon
The Amazon River, the basin of which covers 2.3 million square miles, is incredibly biodiverse with over 30,000 species of plants and 1,800 species of birds. It plays an important role in adjusting the climate in North and South America. The River and its forests are threatened by human activity, primary pollution and rapid resource depletion (损耗). The Office of the American States Department of Sustainable Development is working to manage the threats.
The Mississippi
The Mississippi rises in western Minnesota and flows south for 2,530 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. Millions of people in over 50 cities use water from the Mississippi, and the river is also used for shipping and agriculture. Hundreds of animal species, including 60% of North America’s birds, call the area around the Mississippi River home, but river pollution and shoreline habitat destruction threaten to displace them. Fortunately, many projects and organizations are devoted to its conservation.
The Danube
The Danube River begins in western Germany, flowing over 1,775 miles into the Black Sea. It spans 19 countries. The Danube features a richly diverse ecosystem, hosting 55 different species of fish. Cities across Europe use the Danube for power generation and agriculture, and there are more than 700 dams in total. Unfortunately, this river is overfished and heavily polluted. The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River was established in 1998 to manage its conservation.
The Mekong
The Mekong River is a necessary part of Southeast Asia’s landscape, culture, and economy. Also called the Lancang River, it starts in China, stretching over 2,850 miles through Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Its basin provides more than 65 million people with food, drinking water, power, and transportation. Dams and power plants are harming Mekong’s ecosystems. Organizations such as Conservation International are working to protect the river by advocating for its sustainable development.
1. Birds are affected most around________.| A．The Amazon | B．The Mississippi | C．The Danube | D．The Mekong |
| A．70. | B．65. | C．55. | D．50. |
| A．They contribute to power production. |
| B．They How through multiple countries. |
| C．They are troubled by dam constructions. |
| D．They are under protection of organizations. |
8 . The idea of billions of people going through a few masks a week during this pandemic definitely rings alarm bells, but a team of researchers in Melbourne may have the solution.
They’ve discovered that adding millions of discarded face masks to road-paving (铺路) mixtures would actually lower the cost of the road, while preventing billions of them from landfills. Just one kilometer of road would need three million masks, and the polypropylene (聚丙烯) plastic used to make single-use surgical face masks also increased the flexibility and durability of the road.
The new material is a mixture of about 2% torn masks, with recycled concrete aggregate (RCA)—a material obtained from waste concrete and other minerals from destroyed buildings. This recycled material was found in the study to be ideal for two of the four layers generally required to create roadways. Paving a kilometer of two-way road with the RCA and three million face masks would result in a change of 93 tons of waste from landfills.
The final product then is more resistant to wear than asphalt (沥青), as well as being cheaper too, provided there was a method for collecting masks. The research team did a cost-analysis and found that, at $26 per ton, the RCA was about half the cost of mining raw materials, and as much as a third of the cost of shipping the used masks to a landfill.
The widespread application would be ideal for large infrastructure (基础设施) projects. For example, Washington has the 11th worst roads in terms of unaddressed repairs in the U.S. If the damaged roads in Washington state were repaired with the RCA/mask mixture, it would reuse nearly 10 billion masks, sparing American landfills hundreds of millions of tons of trash.
It’s said that the team is looking for private industry partners or governments willing to give their plastic mask road an opportunity for a large-scale test.
1. What does the underlined word “discarded” mean in paragraph 2?| A．Recycled. | B．Produced. |
| C．Mixed. | D．Abandoned. |
| A．2% torn masks, concrete and tons of trash. |
| B．Polypropylene plastic and building materials. |
| C．Single-use surgical masks and recycled concrete aggregate. |
| D．Waste concrete and other minerals from destroyed buildings. |
| A．To tell us what the team has found. |
| B．To prove this material is cost-effective in paving roads. |
| C．To explain repairing roads costs a lot of materials. |
| D．To praise the hard work the team has done. |
| A．The material used to pave roads is made of masks. |
| B．Generally speaking, it requires two layers to create roadways. |
| C．It remains to be tested whether the solution is practical. |
| D．The damaged roads in Washington were repaired with the RCA. |
9 . For sharks, the Mesoamerican Reef, which stretches over 600 miles, is a busy highway. Sharks use it to find their way and it provides them with food and habitat.
But as with on-land highways, this superhighway can be dangerous. Overfishing, commercial development and illegal practices are endangering the species. “We’re seeing a continued decline in shark populations. Our goal is to turn that round.” says Rachel Graham, founder of Mar Alliance, a non-profit organization focused on conserving sharks.
By monitoring sharks, Mar Alliance can collect important knowledge on the species to help inform conservation and push for political action. But rather than acting in opposition to the local fishing community, MarAlliance enlists their help.
“They are the ones who are on the sea every single day,” says Graham, “and they’re the ones who decide the species’ future.”
MarAlliance employs up to 60 fishermen across its range, mostly on a project basis, training them to collect data, record and release fish. Not only does this provide an alternative income to fishing communities, making them less dependent on natural resources, but it also teaches them about the benefits of a healthy ocean ecosystem and how to fish sustainably.
Among them, Ivan Torres, who used to catch sharks to sell locally as food, has learned how critical they’re to the whole ecosystem, saying he’d never fish sharks any more.
If this attitude change continues to spread throughout fishing communities, Graham has hope for the shark populations. “The primary threat to sharks is unquestionably overfishing,” she says, “By reforming the industry, populations can bounce back.”
In 2020, Belize outlawed the use of gillnets, large panels of netting of trapping large sealife. The ban’s impact is already noticeable with a recorded 10-fold increase in shark populations.
But such regulations need to be copied along the whole superhighway for long-lasting impact, and countries need to find a sustainable balance between fishers and the fished. “We need to find a win-win strategy between fisher livelihoods and shark survival,” Graham emphasizes. “I hope that through education and providing an economic alternative for fishing communities, MarAlliance will help ensure safe passage for sharks along the reef”.
1. Which of the following best describes the Mesoamerican Reef for sharks?| A．Romantic but messy. | B．Vital but insecure. |
| C．Adventurous but beautiful. | D．Unfamiliar but reliable. |
| A．MarAlliance. | B．The fishers. |
| C．Monitoring authorities. | D．The sharks. |
| A．A stricter fishing ban. | B．The insurance payout he earned. |
| C．An offer of extra work. | D．The fishing communities’ intervention. |
| A．Solution to overfishing. | B．Difficulties facing MarAlliance. |
| C．Impact of existing regulations. | D．Features of international cooperation. |
China has scaled up policy to protect and restore the environment around the Yangtze River, putting
A policy document jointly
Despite improvements to the Yangtze’s water quality, the rise of non-point source pollution
The treatment of pollution is another priority, as the government looks to install tighter controls over pollutants discharged by chemical factories and promote
