As the effects of global warming, rising sea levels and natural disasters become more serious
The community has studied how much sea levels will rise and has suggested
While some Florida government officials doubt
At present, coming
1. 具体做法；
2. 提出倡议。
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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3 . The world’s largest whales are more than just astonishing creatures. Much like the ocean, soil and forests, whales can help save humans from the increasing climate crisis by storing carbon. In a paper published recently, climate researchers suggest that whales are important, but often overlooked, carbon sinks.
The enormous size of these marine mammals, which can reach 150 tons, means they can store carbon much more effectively than smaller animals. And because whales live longer than most animals, they could be “one of the largest stable living carbon pools” in the ocean. Even when whales die, their dead bodies fall down to the deepest parts of the sea and settle on the seafloor, trapping the carbon they’ve stored in their bodies. An indirect way whales can be critical carbon sinks is through their waste. Whale poop (粪便) is rich in nutrients which can be taken up by phytoplankton — tiny organisms that suck up carbon dioxide as they grow.
The process of carbon sequestration helps reduce climate impact, because it locks away carbon that otherwise would have warmed the planet somewhere else for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Yet whales are threatened, with six out of 13 great whale species classified as endangered or vulnerable due to threats including industrial whaling, as well as trap in fishing equipment, climate change-caused shifts in prey availability, noise pollution and more.
Heidi Pearson, a researcher at the University of Alaska Southeast, said the research shows that protecting whales has a double benefit — helping to stop the biodiversity crisis as well as human-caused climate change. Protecting whales is a low risk and low regret strategy, because there’s really no downside. She said there was no risk to this strategy compared to other untested, expensive solutions to capturing and trapping carbon, such as geoengineering.
But there remain big gaps in knowledge to fully determine how whale carbon should be used to slow down climate changes. Pearson hopes the current paper pushes policymakers to consider whales as a significant part of climate change solution.
1. What does paragraph 2 focus on about whales?| A．What their life cycles are like. | B．Why their roles are overlooked. |
| C．Why they are called carbon sinks. | D．Where they are on the food chain. |
| A．The waste of whales. | B．The carbon trap of whales. |
| C．The death of whales. | D．The carbon cycle in nature. |
| A．Geoengineering is costly and untested. |
| B．The strategy involving whales carries no risks. |
| C．Protecting whales can be a natural climate solution. |
| D．Whales’ survival is the key to stopping biodiversity crisis. |
| A．To call for further research on whales. | B．To call on people to balance the ecosystem. |
| C．To present a new reason for protecting whales. | D．To stress the need of addressing climate changes. |
4 . It’s in Your Hands
Feeding bread to the ducks is a fond pastime for many of us, reminding us of happy childhood trips to the local park.
“Angel Wing can be cured if we reach birds before it has developed too severely,” says Caroline Simpson, a trustee of UK charity Swan Lifeline, “
| A．So we must stop feeding the ducks. |
| B．But did you know that bread actually puts birds in danger? |
| C．Does this mean we have to stop fun trips to feed the ducks? |
| D．Bread can also cause harmful changes to the natural ecosystem. |
| E．What a scene it is to watch ducks eating bread floating on the river! |
| F．Otherwise the consequences can be serious — such as the loss of the wing. |
| G．Next time take a healthier alternative and do your bit to protect our precious wildlife. |
①节约与环保的关系；
②举例说明中学生该如何厉行节约；
③倡导环保的优良传统；
注意：词数80左右；
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6 . Barton Seaver is a chef and conservationist who wants our help to save the oceans. He believes that our eating choices have a direct impact on the ocean’s health. In this interview, Seaver discusses how individuals can make a big difference by making informed choices.
Q: Should people stop eating seafood?
A: There are certain species that have been over fished and that people should definitely avoid. But I don’t think we need to stop eating seafood altogether. I believe that we can save the oceans while continuing to enjoy seafood. For example, some types of seafood, come from well-managed fisheries. And others, such as farmed mussels and oysters, actually help to restore declining wild populations and clean up polluted waters.
Q: What kind of seafood should people eat? What should they not eat?
A: My general advice is to eat fish and shellfish that are lower on the food chain and that can be harvested with little impact on the environment. Some examples include farmed clams and oysters anchovies, sardines, and herring. People should not eat the bigger fish of the sea, like tuna, shark, and swordfish. Otherwise, we will face severe shortages of these species and upset the balance of life in the oceans.
Q: Why did you choose to dedicate your life to the ocean?
A: I believe that the next great advance in human knowledge will come from learning how we relate to our natural world. I have dedicated myself to helping people understand our place on this planet through the foods that we eat.
Q: Why do you believe people should care about the health of the oceans?
A: The health of the oceans is directly linked to the health of people. The ocean provides most of the air that we breathe. It has a big effect on the weather. It also provides a necessary and vital diet for billions of people on the planet. So I am indeed trying to save the vital things that we rely on the ocean for.
1. Which statement might Barton Seaver agree with?| A．Fish farming is bad for the ocean. |
| B．Fish higher on the food chain should be eaten. |
| C．Overfishing has caused great damage to all species. |
| D．It's OK to eat seafood from well-managed fisheries. |
| A．We can understand our planet through the foods we eat. |
| B．We need to protect the ocean because of its supply of food. |
| C．Individuals’ right food choices can impact the ocean positively. |
| D．People should stop eating seafood to restore the ocean ecosystem. |
| A．Science and Technology. | B．Man and Nature. |
| C．Mystery of the Ocean. | D．Codes of Best Cuisines. |
| A．Devoted and farseeing. | B．Flexible and competitive. |
| C．Brave and risk-taking. | D．Ambitious and creative. |
Alipay Ant Forest has been awarded the United Nation’s highest environmental honor - the ''U.N. Champions of the Earth'' award. The statement was issued by UNEP(联合国环境计划署) on September 20.
The Ant Forest was started in the Alipay app in August 2016. It encourages users to adopt low-carbon activities - such as paying online and walking or taking buses to work instead of driving. Such behavior produces virtual ''green energy points. '' With enough energy points, users can grow a virtual(虚拟的) ''tree'' on their mobile phone. Then the virtual tree is planted by Alipay in areas that need reforesting.
By August 2019, Alipay Ant Forest has attracted over 500 million users. Their low-carbon behavior has resulted in 122 million trees in arid areas in China, including regions in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Shanxi. The influence has also traveled beyond China. Inspired by Alipay Ant Forest, the Philippines' leading mobile wallet service GCash added GCash Forest to its App in June 2019. Local users are encouraged to contribute to reforestation and environmental protection by adopting low-carbon activities in their daily lives.
''Alipay Ant Forest shows how technology can change our world, '' said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UNEP. ''Although the environmental challenges we face are disappointing, we have the technology and the knowledge to defeat them. '' she said.
Champions of the Earth is the U.N. 's flagship global environmental award. It was established in 2005 to recognize outstanding figures that have had a positive effect on the environment.
''We are truly honored to receive this Champions of the Earth award,'' said Eric Jing, Chairman and CEO of Ant Financial. ''Alipay Ant Forest reflects our belief that technology can and should be used for social good. Its popularity shows that the public is ready to take action to fight climate change, '' he said.
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1. What is the project aimed for?
| A．Looking for volunteers. |
| B．Building a cleaner community. |
| C．Bettering a plastic recycling system. |
| A．Learning how to sort waste properly. |
| B．Organizing people in groups to collect plastics. |
| C．Collecting and sending plastics to the recycling station. |
| A．By Thursday. | B．By Friday. | C．By Saturday. |
9 . 
Crab traps (蟹笼) work like this: crabs crawl in, but they don’t crawl out.
With no one there to get them back, the traps continue to fish, says a researcher. “Marine life gets into the trap. Eventually, they can’t eat so they die, and then other marine life becomes attracted to it. They get into the trap, and they die.
Abandoned crab traps harm wildlife and affect other fishers, especially shrimpers (捕虾者). Large and heavy crab traps get caught in shrimping nets, tearing them open or blocking them from catching shrimp. Helpless shrimpers, with nowhere to put the smelly traps, generally just throw them back, continuing the cycle.
But a group in Mississippi has found a solution:
Chloé Dubois, head of a nonprofit focused on marine debris (废弃物), calls it “a great success story.” Dubois says there have been programs historically very successful at recycling waste products at the end of their life cycle. But in the ghost fishing and marine debris field, she says, “
| A．It’s a real win-win. |
| B．The Mississippi program is a pioneer. |
| C．It just becomes this awful cycle of death. |
| D．Shrimpers are informed of basic knowledge of fishing. |
| E．In the meantime, the Mississippi program is expanding. |
| F．That’s good news for crab fishers’ chances of pulling in a good catch. |
| G．A $5 reward is paid to shrimpers to collect and recycle abandoned crab traps. |
10 . Berlin-based Green City Solutions believes its moss(苔藓)walls, called City Trees, which are about 4m2 in size, can filter(过滤)up to 80% of pollution particles(微粒)out of the air, including the tiny ones linked to lung diseases.
The walls collect rainwater, which is pumped through a watering system to the plants using solar energy. These also drive fans to increase airflow through the plants. As a result, the company says its product filters 3. 500 m of air an hour, which is equal to the total amount of air breathed by 7,000 people in that time.
Alison Haynes at the University of Wollongong and her colleagues recently looked at how effectively moss and trees reduced pollution. They found that moss was up to four times better at trapping particles than the native Australian tree.
But this doesn’t mean moss walls will necessarily protect people from pollution at busy bus stops, says Zoran Ristovski at the Queensland University of Technology. In a small room, a moss wall only needs to filter a relatively small amount of new air each hour, but tens or hundreds of times this amount of air is pushed past by buses, he says. Therefore, a moss wall in a street is unlikely to make any difference.
Different solutions will be needed, says Ruby Michael at Griffith University. Where streets are crowded with tall buildings on both sides, she says, tree planting can backfire(适得其反)because trees can reduce airflow and therefore moss walls may be a better choice.
Cities are unlikely to rush to replace their trees just yet. “It’s important to remember that street trees provide a whole host of other benefits, including habitat for urban wildlife, shelter from the sun for people on the street, and reduction of urban heat islands,” says Michael.
1. What is the main function of City Trees?| A．Reusing rainwater. | B．Treating lung diseases. |
| C．Improving air quality. | D．Greening city streets. |
| A．They work better on busy streets. | B．They are suitable for indoor use. |
| C．They may fail to serve their purpose. | D．They are unlikely to change heavy traffic. |
| A．Street trees cause urban heat islands. |
| B．Building City Trees is at the top of the list. |
| C．Moss walls around tall buildings should be removed. |
| D．Measures should be taken according to local conditions. |
| A．A better solution to air pollution. | B．A new path towards healthier air. |
| C．The benefits of adopting moss walls. | D．The comparison between moss and trees. |
