1 . Conservation scientist Kim Williams-Guillen was trying her best to come up with a way to save endangered sea turtles (海龟) from egg thieves when she had an “aha” moment: If she placed a fake (假的) egg containing a GPS tracker in the reptiles’ nests, she might be able to track the thieves.
Williams-Guillen found a flexible plastic material to mimic (仿造) the shell of real eggs. She and colleagues then used a 3D printer to produce the fakes of the same size, weight, and texture and put the smallest GPS tracking devices inside each. The researchers then went to four Costa Rican beaches, where green sea turtle come ashore to make their nests. As mothers laid their eggs under cover of night, the researchers slipped a fake egg into each nest. Once the fakes are covered in sand and mix with the real eggs, it’s very difficult to tell the difference between the two.
Of the 101 fake eggs, 25 were taken by thieves. The farthest moving egg traveled 137 kilometers inland. The fake egg sent its final signal the next day from a residential property, suggesting that the research team had tracked the eggs through “all of the players in the entire chain.”
By understanding that chain, Williams-Guillen says researchers can identify trading hot spots. She emphasizes that the tracker is not a way to catch local thieves, many of them living in poverty, but a tool to better understand their routes, which could help them and eventually law enforcement (执法部门) identify larger players in the chain.
In the meantime, Williams-Guillen and her colleagues are working to get their fake eggs to other sea turtle conservation organizations. Ultimately, though, scientists and nonprofits are going to engage communities with local outreach and education programs to save sea turtles. She says, “The real meat and potatoes of conservation isn’t going to come from deploying (布署) eggs.”
1. What can be learnt from paragraph 2?| A．Fake eggs are made and employed. | B．Sea turtles have become endangered. |
| C．Sea turtles lay eggs during the daytime. | D．The idea of fake eggs came into being. |
| A．To confirm whether the fake eggs really work. |
| B．To provide data for doing research on turtle eggs. |
| C．To arrest the locals stealing the turtle eggs from the beach. |
| D．To identify the trading routes and get the big players punished. |
| A．Deploying eggs needs advocating further. |
| B．Turtle conservation mainly relies on joint efforts. |
| C．She feels disappointed with the local communities. |
| D．Deploying eggs makes no difference in preserving turtles. |
| A．Saving endangered sea turtles is urgent |
| B．Endangered turtles can be traced with GPS |
| C．GPS eggs helps to save endangered sea turtles |
| D．A conservation scientist is devoted to protecting sea turtles |
From green sporting venues (场馆)
Through the Games, Hangzhou’s green and high-tech development concepts served as models for other cities in China, which also showed the country’s
The 65 venues and related facilities of the Games realized 100 percent green electricity supply. At the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Aquatic Sports Arena, the intelligent light guide system can save 100,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year by introducing outdoor
As Hangzhou
The 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (RAMSAR COP14) took place in Wuhan, Hubei Province in November. It was the first time that China
Wuhan, the host city of RAMSAR COP 14. has 162,400 hectares (公顷) of wetlands, accounting
Nature provides the basic conditions for human
4 . Most environmental pollution on Earth comes from humans and their inventions, such as cars or plastic. Today, car emissions(排放物) area major source of air pollution leading to climate change, and plastics fill our ocean, creating a significant health issue to marine(海洋的) animals.
And what about the electric light, thought to be one of the greatest human inventions of all time? Electric light can be a beautiful thing, guiding us home when the sun goes down，keeping us safe and making our homes bright. However, like carbon dioxide emissions and plastic, too much of a good thing has started to impact the environment. Light pollution, the inappropriate use of outdoor light, is affecting human health, wildlife behavior and our ability to observe stars.
Light pollution is a global issue. This became obvious when the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness, a computer-generated map based on thousands of satellite photos, was published in 2016. Available online for viewing, the map shows how and where our globe is lit up at night. Vast areas of North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia are glowing(发光) with light, while only the most remote regions on Earth(Greenland, Central African Republic and Niue) are in total darkness. Some of the most light-polluted countries in the world are Singapore, Qatar, and Kuwait.
Sky glow is the brightening of the night sky, mostly over cities, due to the electric lights of cars, street lamps, offices, factories, outdoor advertising, and buildings, turning night into day for people who work and play long after sunset.
People living in cities with high levels of sky glow have a hard time seeing more than a handful of stars at night. Astronomers are particularly concerned with sky glow pollution as it reduces their ability to view stars.
More than 80 percent of the world’s population, and 99 percent of Americans and Europeans, live under sky glow.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 2?| A．The use of outdoor light must be forbidden. |
| B．Electric light has both advantages and disadvantages. |
| C．Electric light is the main factor to keep us safe. |
| D．Electric light is the greatest human invention. |
| A．Qatar. | B．Singapore. | C．Kuwait. | D．Niue. |
| A．Sky glow costs too much. |
| B．Sky glow has a bad effect on their sleep. |
| C．Sky glow affects their viewing stars. |
| D．Sky glow wastes too much electricity. |
| A．Light pollution | B．Plastic pollution |
| C．Different kinds of pollution | D．Air pollution |
5 . Edward Davis was a professor who worked on ocean research. However, bored with writing death records of ocean species, he quit his job in 2007. Rather than spend any more of his life recording the dying. Edward decided to try to protect the living creatures in the few remaining areas of the ocean.
These areas are the last wild places of the sea still undamaged by overfishing, pollution and climate change. “It is necessary for us to go to places that still look like the ocean as it was 500 years ago.” Edward says. “These areas, like Palau, are the examples of sustainable (可持续的) development. Maybe we can’t bring all of the ocean back to this state, but these places show us what the potential is.” Beneath the surface of a stormy sea off Palau in the western Pacific live various lively corals. The tiny island nation has protected 80 percent of its waters as a no-fishing area—the largest percentage of protected ocean area in the world. The remaining 20 percent can be fished only by Palauans.
To protect these places, Edward and his team started a project on ocean protection in 2008. Over the past years, the project has helped create 22 ocean reserves. These make up two-thirds of the world’s fully protected ocean areas. Now Edward and his team have set an even bigger goal—to protect more than a third of the world’s oceans for the purpose of keeping biological diversity.
For Edward, one of the most satisfying aspects of his job is working with local communities in the places he and his team are seeking to protect. The team worked closely with about 50 local people on the island. “We showed them an underwater world they had never seen,” Edward recalls. “Huge schools of fish will surely swim in some of the clearest waters ever measured in the Pacific.”
1. Why did Edward quit his previous job?| A．To record the dying. | B．To increase land species. |
| C．To protect the sea creatures. | D．To write a book on sea protection. |
| A．20 percent of it is covered by the sea. |
| B．It is an area open to fishermen worldwide. |
| C．It is an example of sustainable development. |
| D．The surface of it is destroyed by water pollution. |
| A．Edward’s project. | B．Edward’s team members. |
| C．The ways of keeping biodiversity. | D．The ways of creating ocean reserves. |
| A．Stressed. | B．Positive. |
| C．Curious. | D．Confused. |
6 . Climate change is causing more areas to turn into deserts. This issue is affecting the lives of 250 million people as land that used to be good for farming becomes dry and unproductive. Around one-third of the world’s land is impacted, including regions in Africa, southern Europe, Asia and America.
Sand to Green is a Moroccan company that can transform a patch of desert into a sustainable (可持续的) and profitable plantation in five years, according to Wissal Ben Moussa, its co-founder and chief agricultural officer. The solution is using agroforestry (农林业)to create a new kind of agriculture that is sustainable and that can be resilient (有适应力的) in front of climate change.
The system can be set up close to any source of salty water, which Sand to Green cleans using energy from the sun. It then grows different types of fruit trees and plants together in the same area—a method called mixed planting—and waters the plants’ roots directly with the cleaned water, to reduce water loss to the air. The soil is regenerated using what Sand to Green calls “green manure”, a mixture that includes compost, biochar(生物炭)and microorganisms that help the soil “wake up”. Biochar is a form of charcoal that can help dry soil hold on to water.
In a five-hectare trial in southern Morocco that’s been running since 2017, Sand to Green has tried out a variety of plants in search of the best performers. Among the intercropping herbs (草本植物) that have been successfully trialed are rosemary, geranium, vetiver and citronella, which Ben Moussa describes as “very low-maintenance and very high-profit”.
Sand to Green is now working to scale up to a 20-hectare commercial site, also in southern Morocco. It says a site of that size would cost around $475,000 to set up and would start bringing financial returns in about five years.
According to Ben Moussa, with this system they create biodiversity, which means better soil, healthier crops and a bigger yield. The plantation can generate 1.5 times more yield, thus making more money than a farm that grows only one type of crop in the same space.
1. What phenomenon does the author describe in paragraph 1?| A．Deforestation. | B．Desertification. |
| C．Global warming. | D．Urbanization. |
| A．To preserve the crop’s survival rate. |
| B．To protect water from pollution. |
| C．To make a new type of soil. |
| D．To help people adapt to climate change. |
| A．It aims to plant more trees. |
| B．It earns a good reputation. |
| C．It develops new plants. |
| D．It produces good results. |
| A．Expand. | B．Object. | C．Refer. | D．Prefer. |
7 . Not too long ago, 41-year-old Garrett Fisher flew in a small airplane close to the surface of Europe’s largest glacier(冰川), which is in Norway. In that environment, the plane carrying a man who photographed glaciers seemed almost like a toy.
Fisher often combines two activities he loves, flying and photography, trying to photo- graph every glacier on Earth. He wants his photos to show the beauty of glaciers before some of them disappear. Scientists say many glaciers are melting or getting smaller because the Earth's average temperature is increasing. By 2100, the size of European glaciers can decrease by between 22 percent and 84 percent. Nearly all small glaciers in Norway will likely disappear. For Fisher, this means that time is running out. The melting pushes him to try to photograph them before it is too late.
As a child, Fisher lived next door to a small airport in the state of New York. His grand- father was a pilot and took Fisher on plane rides when he was a young child. His grandfather would tell him, “Whatever you set your mind to, you can do. ”
In the late 1990s, a friend told Fisher that the world’s glaciers were disappearing. This pushed him to combine his love of flying and photography to photograph the Earth's remaining glaciers. He believed he was in a race against time and that his photographs could be of great value to future generations. So, he launched Global Glacier Initiative, a non-profit group to support and show his work, and he planned to open his photos to the public for research.
Some people will ask him why he always risks flying over glaciers when satellites have already given pictures of them. Fisher says, “Satellite images can't really show the loveliness of glaciers the way my photos can. My photos show the colors and shapes as the light from the sun hits them. Science has all of the data we need. The problem is that it’s not beautiful. ”
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．Fisher’s social activities. |
| B．Fisher’s trips to European countries. |
| C．The reason for Fisher’s shooting glaciers. |
| D．The cause of the rise in Earth temperature. |
| A．His grandparents' dream. |
| B．His childhood experiences. |
| C．His curiosity for taking photos in the air, |
| D．His interest in seeing glaciers from the air, |
| A．Romantic. | B．Unattractive. | C．Confusing. | D．Valuable. |
| A．They lack light processing. |
| B．They lack the colors and shapes. |
| C．They show the beauty of glaciers. |
| D．They hardly show the loveliness of glaciers. |
8 . Jace Tunnell, the founder of Nurdle I troll and Reserve Director at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, is listening to the same question often.
“I hear every day, somebody says, ‘What is a nurdle?’” he said.
Tunnell explained nurdles are tiny balls of plastic that are typically used to make almost every plastic item we use, so they’re everywhere! He said nurdles are usually spilled (溢出) during transport from cargo ships or railroad cars. “These things would be out here for hundreds of years if we’re not picking them up,” Tunnell said while on a recent Nurdle Patrol cleanup along Galveston Bay.
Since 2018, Nurdle Patrol has grown to thousands of volunteers worldwide. Many people -volunteer with Nurdle Patrol and work for the Galveston Bay Foundation. Nurdle Patrol groups upload their findings to the nonprofit’s website map. It’s marked in colors to show where the highest concentration of nurdles is found.
“They look natural, and birds think that they’re food,” Tunnell said, “Birds, fish, sea turtles and other sea animals can eat nurdles and finally die from hunger because of a false sensation of fullness and lack of nutrition.”
I ended up finding 123 nurdles in 10 minutes. That’s high concentration,” Tunnell said about a recent cleanup. “I plan to take those to an elected official and say, ‘Look, these are what I found on our beaches here. We need to do something about this.’ So, it kind of puts in motion change that can happen.”
Nurdle Patrol has sent out hundreds of kits (工具包) globally, many to schools and volunteer organizations, with information about gathering nurdles and reporting the findings safely. Anyone can request a kit through their website.
1. What do we know about the nurdle?| A．It is easily broken down. | B．It is a small piece of plastic. |
| C．It was invented by Tunnell. | D．It is mainly used to make ships. |
| A．The unique look of nurdles. | B．The number of nurdles in the sea. |
| C．Nurdles’ harm to sea animals’ food. | D．Nurdles’ impact on sea animals. |
| A．Draw a map of nurdles’ concentration. | B．Call the government’s attention to nurdles. |
| C．Organize more cleanups along the beaches. | D．Share his findings on Nurdle Patrol’s website. |
| A．Group surveys the level of pollution in the sea | B．Group takes action to reduce the use of plastics |
| C．Group tries to deal with pollutant harming wildlife | D．Group looks for volunteers for its beach cleanups |
9 . The essence (本质) of fast fashion is to make clothes inexpensively and quickly, to get new trends and styles into stores and online as soon as possible, and it comes at a high social and environmental cost. Keeping production costs low means they can make their clothes cheap, using cheap labour in unsafe working conditions, and in countries with bad environmental regulations.
Throw-away culture is deeply rooted in our society; three in five of our clothing pieces are thrown out within a year. Fast fashion brands keep the consumers hungry and feeling like they need more by attracting them with newness and convincing the consumers that they need what they’re selling. This only results in increasing textile waste as people no longer want but throw it away.
Criticisms of the fast fashion industry include its negative environmental impact: water pollution, the use of toxic (有毒的) chemicals and increasing levels of textile waste. Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of clean water globally, after agriculture. Fast fashion companies rely on their products being made cheaply and quickly, so they avoid talking when it comes to being aware of their impact on the environment. Greenpeace’s recent Detox Campaign showed that many brands use toxic and dangerous chemicals in their supply chains, and many of the chemicals are either banned or strictly controlled in lots of countries.
In conclusion, the fast fashion industry has a bad effect on our environment through fast fashion brands’ ecological practices and only continues to make the problem last for a long time in the future through extreme consumerist culture. In order for change to happen, the common people need to open their eyes and take measures to prevent the fast fashion from growing.
1. What’s one of the characteristics of fast fashion?| A．Causing a lot of anxiety. | B．Making people buy old clothes. |
| C．Selling most clothes through stores. | D．Producing clothes quickly. |
| A．They are mainly sold online. | B．They are made in unsafe countries. |
| C．They are made by cheap labour. | D．They save the cost of advertising. |
| A．Natural. | B．Surprising. | C．Absurd. | D．Puzzling. |
| A．Changing fast fashion brands’ working conditions. |
| B．Changing clothes stores’ sales model. |
| C．Introducing stricter laws for factories. |
| D．Raising public awareness of preventing fast fashion. |
10 . As Christmas approaches and Christmas trees come down, Earthwatch offers the opportunity to sponsor the planting of a new tree with the Tiny Forest initiative.
Earthwatch Europe’s Tiny Forest initiative is devoted to increasing biodiversity and enabling people to reconnect with nature through citizen science. Since planting the first forest in 2020, the movement has grown to almost 150 forests, resulting in increased biodiversity and carbon storage.
There have been some reports to suggest that when poorly planned or managed, planting trees can actually do more harm than good. This can happen when trees are being planted with the express purpose of carbon storage to offset (抵消) carbon emissions by, for example, big companies—the trees planted for this purpose aren’t always native species. The planting of nonnative trees can lead to monocultures (单种栽培) that cannot support life.
Biodiversity needs to be a key consideration for reforestation, but this doesn’t offer the financial return s of planting for carbon storage or timber (木材) markets, so it can often fall by the wayside.
It is estimated that 50-60 million Christmas trees are produced and cut in Europe annually. In the run-up to Christmas, Earthwatch’s Sponsor a Sapling campaign offers the chance to sponsor the planting of a tree for £8.
Josh Kubale, Senior Communications Manager at Earthwatch, says, “We’re delighted with the Tiny Forest Sponsor a Sapling campaign, which will help people engage with what we’re doing at Tiny Forest and gives the option of an alternative and environmentally conscious Christmas present, As well as being a great Christmas gift, the campaign will help to fun d Earthwatch’s work across all our programmes. We’ve now planted 160 Tiny Forests and as we celebrate our third anniversary, we hope to plant many more!”
1. What is Earthwatch Europe’s Tiny Forest initiative aimed to do?| A．Motivate economy. | B．Connect with people. |
| C．Enlarge biodiversity. | D．Reduce carbon emission. |
| A．By increasing more investments in plants. |
| B．By planting more nonnative trees. |
| C．By raising the awareness of the environment. |
| D．By improving planning and management. |
| A．Because it is lack of economic benefit. |
| B．Because it is short of key consideration. |
| C．Because there is no support from the public. |
| D．Because the timber market is oversupplied. |
| A．Choose a Christmas gift. | B．Participate in Tiny Forest. |
| C．Celebrate their third anniversary. | D．Donate to their programmes. |
