High on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
2 . After a year of severe drought, California has seen an abundance of rain since late autumn. Abby Wines, a ranger (护林员) at Death Valley National Park in southern California, predicted that the heavy rainfall would bring us the opportunity to witness one of nature’s most spectacular displays of color and life — a superbloom — in 2023.
A superbloom refers to a large amount of wildflower growth that exceeds the average level for a typical spring. It is actually a rare phenomenon that usually takes place in exceptionally wet winters. Seeds that may have slept in desert soil for years finally receive enough water to blossom in more abundant numbers than you would see in a typical year.
The sight of the superbloom is truly breathtaking. Fields of gold, orange, and purple flowers stretch as far as the eye can see, creating a blanket of colors that can be seen from space.
However, climate change makes the phenomenon increasingly rare. In the distant past, these blooms were often excellent and enormous. As development pushes farther out, more landscapes have been changed to agriculture, and as invasive plants outcompetes the native seedlings, many of California’s spring flower fields are disappearing. In addition, thousands of tourists sometimes step on the flowers and soil, which harms the plant’s ability to adapt and thrive.
Naomi Fraga, director of conservation at the California Botanic Garden, points out that in promoting these locations where massive blooms take place, there isn’t a lot of additional information about how these are actually very fragile (脆弱的) ecosystems. Instead of promoting and sharing specific locations, it’s important to educate the public about the fragility of the ecosystems and the importance of staying on trails which people are allowed to enter.
1. What is the key to a superbloom according to Abby Wines?A.Desert soil. | B.Warm climate. |
C.Sufficient rainfall. | D.High-quality seeds. |
A.Equals to. | B.Goes beyond. |
C.Cuts down. | D.Sets up. |
A.Reasons for the superbloom being rare. |
B.Factors in plants’ adapting to the environment. |
C.The relationship between climate and plants growing. |
D.The effect of agricultural development on plants flowering. |
A.Promoting local tourism by advertising superblooms. |
B.Recommending tourists perfect trails to enjoy a superbloom. |
C.Strengthening the management of California Botanic Garden. |
D.Leading the public to focus more on the ecological environment. |
1.海洋的重要性;
2.保护海洋的倡议;
注意:1.写作词数应为100词左右;
2.短文题目和首句已为你写好。
Our Oceans, Our Responsibility
June 8th was officially named by the UN in 2009 as World Oceans Day.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Yours,
Li Hua
4 . Melbourne Girls' College is getting rid of all dustbins and asking students to take their rubbish home to encourage them to move towards zero waste.
Starting next Monday, the college will gradually
The rubbish that students take home may still go to landfill(废物填埋场)via their home bins,
The college principal Karen Money acknowledges that some parents may not have the time or means to avoid
A.replace | B.wash | C.clean | D.remove |
A.proving | B.leaving | C.promising | D.allowing |
A.receive | B.forbid | C.admit | D.conduct |
A.rewarded | B.advised | C.changed | D.protected |
A.creative | B.usual | C.reusable | D.plastic |
A.so | B.but | C.then | D.though |
A.teachers | B.staff | C.families | D.classmates |
A.Uneaten | B.Uncooked | C.Uncovered | D.Unbroken |
A.break down | B.break through | C.get through | D.go into |
A.returned | B.washed | C.reused | D.spared |
A.foods | B.clothes | C.drinks | D.tools |
A.keeping | B.dreaming | C.stopping | D.trying |
A.for | B.to | C.as | D.with |
A.solves | B.shows | C.faces | D.follows |
A.ahead of | B.behind | C.upon | D.beyond |
5 . Plastic is widely used and long-lasting, finding its way into every corner of our lives. But the very qualities that make plastic so useful also make it a huge problem. Cheap and disposable (一次性的), plastic has been a symbol of our throwaway culture. As a result, vast quantities of plastic pollute our world. A truckload of plastic enters the ocean every single minute and UK supermarkets produce 800, 000 tons every year. With production increasing, that’s set to rise.
The UK produces huge plastic waste per person, and a huge amount of it is sent to countries that aren’t equipped to deal with it. Greenpeace (绿色和平组织) investigators found British plastic waste being put and burned in Turkey — on the roadside, near waterways, and in the open air, and people nearby have reported serious health problems.
Bottles, pots, and food bowls are immediately obvious, but other types of plastic pollution can be harder to discern. When plastic breaks down, it doesn’t disappear. Instead, it gets smaller, creating tiny particles called microplastics. Even clothes made from man-made materials leave microplastic fibers when they’re washed.
Bits of plastic have been found in the oceans, on deserted islands, and even in Antarctica. Turtles, dolphins, and seabirds can be injured by large pieces of plastic. It can even be mistaken for food. Microplastics are just as damaging. Eaten by everything from microscopic zooplankton (浮游动物) to giant blue whales, they enter the food chain and carry harmful poisonous substances. Microplastics have even been found in human waste.
We’re just beginning to realize the scale of the problem. People around the world have come together to end plastic pollution, and it’s working. Greenpeace supporters have challenged Coca-Cola to use less plastic packaging, while countries like the UK have banned certain microplastics. Supermarkets are starting to talk about what they need to do. Most of them are trying hard to share their responsibility for reducing plastic waste.
1. What can we infer about plastic from paragraph 1?A.It is a double-edged sword. |
B.It mostly ends up in the oceans. |
C.It is very expensive. |
D.It is popular in developing countries. |
A.Dealing with plastic waste improperly threatens human health. |
B.Burning plastic waste outside gains the support of the locals. |
C.Turkey has rich experience in managing with plastic waste. |
D.The UK plays the biggest role in producing plastic waste. |
A.Control | B.Avoid | C.Follow | D.Notice |
A.A huge amount of plastic is being eaten by animals. |
B.A lot of work has been done to reduce plastic pollution. |
C.More and more plastic products are being made. |
D.Microplastics have been banned worldwide. |
1.参加人员;
2.活动内容;
3.活动反响。
注意:1.写作词数应为80左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Garbage classification starts from ourselves
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7 . The best and most-commonly used sources for the pills we have are oily fish like salmon(畦), mackerel and sardines. Many environmentalists fear that some species are being over fished for this purpose. We may have an endless voracity for fish oil, but we don't have an endless supply of fish.
Menhaden, which is described as “a big-headed, smelly, foot-long fish" , is in great danger. Although prized for dinner in the 18th century, the species has become the unknown victim of the fish oil business 9 which presents us with potential sea fish. Menhaden filter-feed almost entirely on algae (海藻)and is especially good at changing it into-3 fatty acids, which make them a good target for fish oil companies.
One particular company, Protein of Houston, has been fishing 90 percent of the country' s menhaden. It's become such a big problem that 13 of the 15 Atlantic states have banned the company * s boats from their waters. Yet the company is still allowed to fish in North Carolina and Virginia, as well as federal waters; the company * s efforts result in the removing of half a billion menhaden every year.
Aside from running out a public natural resource for a company,s private profit, the damage to the ecosystem is cause for alarm. The muddy brown color of the Long Island Sound is the direct result of lacking water nitration (过滤)一a job that was once done by menhaden.
Menhaden keep the ocean waters of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts clean. A menhaden filters four to six gallons of water of algae in a minute, which prevents underwater dead zones.
Measures should be taken to avoid the over fished situation. Plant seeds such as flax seed, chiaseeds, hemp seeds, and sesame seeds — and particularly their oils — are good vegetarian sources of omega-3 fatty acids, although the mix of specific acids is different from which one can get with fish.
1. Why does menhaden become a good fish for companies to make pills?A.It is good at forming-3 fatty acids. |
B.It feeds mainly on the harmful algae. |
C.It is well-known for its rich protein. |
D.It is relatively easy for companies to catch. |
A.trouble | B.shortage |
C.resource | D.appetite |
A.To grow more plants for their seeds to make oil. |
B.To use some substitutes instead of more fish oil. |
C.To call on the government to make laws in fishing. |
D.To take part in more activities to protect the environment. |
A.The broken natural ecosystem. | B.The process of making fish oil. |
C.Bad effects of fish oil making. | D.How to use natural resources. |
Jaws, the 1975 film, tells the story of a great white shark that attacks s and kills swimmers. In the opening scene, a woman swimming at night in a dark sea
People have always been scared of sharks, but Jaws made things even
Jaws was
9 . A recent report revealed that, in the US alone, 27 million tons of plastic ended up in landfills in 2018, but only 3.1 millon tons were recycled. Wordwide the numbers are similarly bad, with just 9% of plastic being recycled. The statistics are even worse for certain types of plastic. For example, out of 80,000 tons of polystyrene (聚苯乙烯) containers generated in the United States, only a small amount (less than 5,000 tons) was recycled.
Now, researchers at The University of Queensland and have found a species of wom with an appetite for polystyrene could be the key to plastic recycling on a mass scale. The superworm can eat through polystyrene, thanks to a bacterial enzyme (酶) in their gut. To study how superworms react to purely plastic food, researchers broke up l35 of the creatures into three teams: one was fed only wheat bran(麸皮), another was fed only plastics, and the third was given nothing.
“We found the bran-fed worms have been significantly healthier than the plastic-fed or starved worms, more than doubling their weight over the three weeks they have been monitored. Though the plastic-fed worms made less impressive gains, they still put on more weight than the starved worms,” Dr. Rinke said. “This suggests the worms can get energy from plastics, most likely with the help of their gut microbes.”
Researchers used a technique called me a genomics to find several encoded enzymes with the ability to degrade polystyrene. The long-term goal is to engineer enzymes to degrade plastic waste in recycling plants.
“Super worms are like mini recycling plants, eating the polystyrene and then feeding it to the bacteria in their gut” Dr. Rinke said. It’s hoped this bio-up cycling will promote plastic waste recycling and reduce landfills. Researchers said they aim to grow the gut bacteria in the lab and further test its ability to degrade polystyrene. Then they can look into how to upscale this process to a level required for an entire recycling plant
1. What problem do the statistics in paragraph 1 indicate?A.Landfills are poorly managed. |
B.It takes a long time for plastic waste to break up. |
C.Many plastic containers are of poor quality. |
D.Plastics are recycle data very low rate. |
A.By collecting data. | B.By introducing a concept. |
C.By making a comparison. | D.By refering to a previous study. |
A.consume | B.breakdown | C.throwaway | D.regulate |
A.Conduct experiments on other worm species. |
B.Improve gut bacteria’s ability to degrade plastics. |
C.Apply the bio-up cycling technology to recycling plants. |
D.Raise super worms on a mass scale to solve plastic pollution. |
10 . The French Danone company is the latest to replace some plastic water bottles with aluminum (铝) cans. Competitors like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle have also started selling water in aluminum cans.
Replacing plastic water bottles that pollute the seas with recyclable aluminum cans should be an easy way to help the environment, right?
Maybe not.
Aluminum cans might result in less ocean waste, and the metal containers also are lighter than glass or plastic bottles, but they also come with their own cost to the environment. The production of an aluminum can is estimated to release two times as much carbon dioxide into the air as a plastic bottle.
“That’s the dilemma you’re going to have to choose between,” said Ruben Griffioen, an official at beermaker Heineken. He said his company was Lrying to reduce the use of plastic bottles.
Bruce Karas of Coca - Cola North America agreed. He said, “There’s a mix. There are some things that are not that desirable, but if you have five good things and one that isn’t, we’ll all have to make decisions.” He added, “It’ll never be that clean.”
Bottled water is a 19 billion industry. Although its use of cans is increasing, experts say cans are unlikely to completely replace plastic bottles.
Aluminum is costlier than plastic so canned drinks mean higher prices for buyers. Another major consideration is user convenience-cans stay open while bottles can be reclosed. More importantly, there is one barrier to ending the use of plastic water bottles: There may not be enough cans to go around. Beer and wine makers are now also increasingly using aluminum.
1. What’s the advantage of aluminum cans?A.They are pollution-free. | B.They are lighter. |
C.They are cost-effective. | D.They are low-carbon. |
A.Supportive. | B.Disapproving. | C.Neutral | D.Indifferent. |
A.The wide application of aluminum cans. | B.The promising future aluminum cans |
C.The major advantages of aluminum cans. | D.The unavoidable limitations of aluminum cans. |
A.Aluminum Cans or Plastic Bottles? | B.A Blessing or a Misfortune? |
C.How to Deal with Plastic Bottles? | D.Why Do We Choose Aluminum Cans? |