1 . The endangered pandas in the Qinling Mountains might face a new threat: the loss of their food, bamboo, which makes up 99% of their meals.
Adult pandas spend most part of the day eating bamboo and have to take in at least 40 pounds a day to stay healthy. However, a new study published in Nature Climate Change warned that they may soon find their food gone because most of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains might disappear by the end of the century as a result of rising temperature worldwide.
A team made up of researchers from Michigan State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has studied the effects of climate change on the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains. They have found that bamboo is very sensitive to climate changes. “80% to 100% of the bamboo would be gone if the average temperature rises 3.5 degrees worldwide by the end of the century,” said Liu Jianguo, one of the report’s authors.
He added, “This is how much the temperature would rise by 2100 even if all countries will keep their promises in the Paris Agreement. But you know what is happening all around the world.”
In recent years, China has been trying its best to protect the endangered pandas by setting up more and bigger natural reserves.
“But it is far from enough and the endangered pandas need cooperation from the rest of the world, because their future is not just in the hands of the Chinese,” said Shirley Martin from the World Wildlife Fund but not a member of the team.
The Qinling Mountains, in the southwest of China, are home to about 260 pandas. That is about 13% of China’s wild panda population. In addition, about 375 are living in research centers and zoos in China.
1. How many wild pandas are there in China?| A．About 260. | B．About 635. |
| C．About 2,635. | D．About 2,000. |
| A．China needs more help from the World Wildlife Fund. |
| B．It is difficult to control the temperature rise within 3.5℃. |
| C．Bamboo is sensitive to the changes of temperature. |
| D．China is making great efforts to protect the pandas. |
| A．The Qinling Mountains can provide enough bamboo for the pandas. |
| B．Pandas in the Qinling Mountains are only threatened by the loss of food. |
| C．Lots of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains will probably disappear. |
| D．Pandas have already eaten 99% of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains. |
| A．The Disappearance of Bamboo |
| B．Necessity to Change Pandas’ Food |
| C．A New Threat Faced by the Pandas |
| D．Efforts Made to Save Pandas |
2 . Sam, the four-legged superhero, works to keep a park in Santiago clean. The dog’s superpower? Collecting garbage as a
Sam, who takes regular
It
Park officials were impressed and decided to use Sam’s
The
“Sam and Gonzalo have
| A．cultural icon | B．role model | C．helper | D．worker |
| A．breaks | B．hikes | C．walks | D．vacations |
| A．brave | B．famous | C．busy | D．kind |
| A．failed | B．started | C．appeared | D．continued |
| A．set aside | B．pay for | C．put away | D．pick up |
| A．grass | B．people | C．garbage | D．equipment |
| A．challenge | B．need | C．chance | D．doubt |
| A．think | B．relax | C．clean | D．explore |
| A．image | B．ability | C．identity | D．popularity |
| A．helping | B．telling | C．permitting | D．inviting |
| A．washing | B．parking | C．recycling | D．observing |
| A．interesting | B．important | C．beneficial | D．widespread |
| A．park | B．school | C．government | D．market |
| A．turning | B．breaking | C．delivering | D．sorting |
| A．inspired | B．required | C．reminded | D．persuaded |
1.活动目的； 2.活动内容； 3.活动意义。
注意： 1.词数 80 左右；
2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Green School, We are in Action
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . A new study says the Amazon rainforest is nearing a tipping point(临界点) in its decline that could see the biologically rich and diverse ecosystem turned into a savannah(热带草原).
“The Amazon is losing its ability to recover from disturbances like drought and extreme weather. Deforestation and climate change are likely the main drivers of this decline,” study co-author Niklas Boers said in a statement. The researchers say they’ve found evidence of this decline across 75 percent of the Amazon.
“It’s worth reminding ourselves that if it gets to that tipping point and we commit to losing the Amazon rainforest, we will get significant feedback on global climate change,” said Timothy Lenton, a scientist and co-author of the study.
The research team looked at three decades’ worth of satellite data, paying close attention to trees and other plants after extreme events. The researchers concluded that the forest, which is essential for oxygen production and carbon sequestration(碳封存), has been losing its resilience for the last two decades.
The researchers say the forest is nearing a tipping point, but the arrival date is unclear as a number of factors can push it closer to or farther from that edge. It’s just too challenging to estimate when the change may occur. But the scientists warn that once the tipping point has been crossed, the change could happen quickly.
The news comes after the Amazon recorded record levels of deforestation in Brazil in January. Animal agriculture is causing deforestation in the Amazon, as Brazil is now the world’s top beef exporter. Last November, the EU took steps to ban beef linked to deforestation. “What we propose is a pioneering initiative,” Virginijus Sinkevicius, the EU environment commissioner, said. “The EU action alone will not solve the problem. We also need major markets like the US to clean up their supply chain.”
1. What can we learn from the study?| A．The Amazon rainforest is in danger of changing into grassland. |
| B．The Amazon rainforest has reached the point of no return. |
| C．Scientists are convinced that the change could happen quickly. |
| D．Scientists are unclear about what is responsible for the decline. |
| A．The ability to predict the future. | B．The ability to rise to challenges. |
| C．The ability to remain unchanged. | D．The ability to go back to normal. |
| A．Deforestation will become easy to deal with. | B．The export of beef should be banned. |
| C．More countries should join hands. | D．The EU should adopt strict measures. |
| A．An adventure diary. | B．A biology textbook. |
| C．An official proposal. | D．A scientific report. |
5 . Garbage sorting (分类) has become a hot topic around China, especially after Shanghai began carrying out a regulation (规章) on July 1.
Beijing has been expected to do the same. At present the regulation gives garbage sorting responsibilities to government departments, property management groups and other organizations. It also gives rules for companies, explaining how they’re responsible for waste collection, transportation and treatment. Citizens are free of responsibilities for the moment.
The long-awaited revision will soon change the situation. “Taking out the trash without sorting it properly will be illegal,” said Sun Xinjun, director of the Beijing Commission of Urban Management. In Shanghai, violators (违背者) are now fined up to 200 yuan for trash-sorting violations. “The maximum fine in Beijing will not be less than that,” he said.
The Beijing city government first promoted garbage sorting in 2009. Authorities have since called on citizens to sort their household waste into four types—recyclable waste, kitchen trash, dangerous waste and others , and leave it in a colored dustbin or trash can. Blue-colored dustbins are for recyclable items, green for kitchen trash, red for dangerous materials and grey for other waste.
To promote the awareness of garbage sorting and expand the base of participants, authorities have employed workers to help citizens. With intelligent devices, those who throw in recyclable waste at given places will be rewarded with bonus points, which can be used to buy daily goods. At some communities, there are no color-coded dustbins. Instead, a scheduled garbage collection service is offered to help improve the environment. In other communities, workers offer a door-to-door service to collect recyclable or kitchen waste.
Beijing Environmental Sanitation Engineering Group has been promoting new garbage sorting facilities such as recycling cabinets and smart kitchen waste trash cans since 2016, Xinhua News Agency reported.
1. Which of the following shouldn’t be thrown into a blue dustbin?| A．Coke cans. | B．Thrown-away batteries. |
| C．Used books. | D．Broken iron pots. |
| A．citizens are not responsible for garbage sorting in Beijing now |
| B．recyclable waste like newspapers should be thrown in green dustbins. |
| C．people sorting recyclable waste will be rewarded in Beijing |
| D．Shanghai carried out garbage sorting later than Beijing |
| A．An Example in Garbage Sorting in Shanghai |
| B．Action to Be Taken to Sort Garbage in Shanghai |
| C．New Garbage Sorting Regulation in Beijing |
| D．Present Garbage Collection in Beijing |
| A．A fashion magazine. | B．A science book. |
| C．A newspaper. | D．A government report. |
6 . They come in all shapes and sizes, in color of golden orange, pale white, and green. Painted, carved, or baked in a pie, pumpkins are cheerful symbols of autumn that are grown in every county of Washington.
U. S. farmers grow more than a billion pounds of pumpkins annually, and many growers use sheets of plastic preventing water loss to make sure that their plants grow well. Nationwide, farmers use about a billion pounds of plastic annually. Unfortunately, that plastic ends up in landfills (填埋场), and in some places, burned in the fields.
For several years, WSU gardener Carol Miles has studied a newer product, soil-biodegradable (可降解的) plastic cover that can be left in the ground after harvest, then broken down by microbes in the soil. “You don’t need to pull it out of the field and take it to the landfill every autumn, saving farmers’ time and money,” Miles said.
Miles wanted to see how pumpkin fruit performed over the plastic. She planted Cinnamon Girl, a type that sets its fruit near the heart of the plant. That brought a challenge: the soil-biodegradable cover stuck to the bottom of the fruit.
“We have a lot of dew (露水) in the morning, and we found that if we let the fruit dry after harvest, the cover would stick to the pumpkins,” Miles said. “Nobody wants plastic stuck to their pumpkin, even if it’s biodegradable. But if you clean the fruit before the dew dries, the plastic easily comes off.”
Farmers who grow pumpkins that don’t set fruit on cover won’t encounter this challenge. For those who do, it means an extra step that they’ll have to weigh against trade-offs for sustainability (持续).
M Challenges aside, working with this crop can bring on a happy outlook,” Tymon said. u Pumpkins are cheery. They’re this bright color, and really fun to work with.”
1. What is the problem with pumpkin growing?| A．Few good types. | B．Pollution of waste plastic. |
| C．Not enough money and time. | D．Difficulty of growing all shapes. |
| A．Easy to use. | B．Cheap to buy. |
| C．Good for crops. | D．Environmentally friendly. |
| A．Plant them on plastic cover. | B．Plant them without plastic. |
| C．Clean them while they’re wet. | D．Cover them tightly with plastic. |
| A．Come across. | B．Watch over. | C．Pull through. | D．Cut down. |
7 . Massimo Bottura is a widely celebrated cook. A restaurant he opened 27 years ago in Italy has twice been named the best in the world. Today, Bottura’s cooking empire spreads from Dubai, in the Middle East, to Beverly Hills, California.
At Refettorio Ambrosiano, the menu changes daily, depending on what comes with the morning’s delivery. By dinner, these supermarket wastes have been transformed (转化). The 100 or so diner — refugees (难民), the homeless, and the unemployed — enjoy the meal with obvious pleasure. Meals of charge for people in need. Bottura’s Refettorios are not restaurants — they’re actually soup kitchens (施食处). But Bottura would not call them that. He thinks of them as places that shine a light on the dignity of their guests while focusing attention on the food-waste problem.
Bottura came up with the idea of Refettorio Ambrosiano in 2015. He wanted to invite the world’s best cooks to cook with him for the city’s homeless and turned an abandoned theater into a dining room for people in need.
Turning basic materials into delicious meals in Bottura’s magic. He says his grandmother taught him how to make “the original no-waste kitchen”. Cooks at Bottura’s restaurants learn his approach to cooking. But they also learn about his belief in making a difference in people’s lives. “Everybody has the ability to contribute to positive change. It starts with all of us, in our own kitchens,” Bottura says. It starts by looking at an old carrot or a broken piece of bread and catching a shine of gold.
“The are 8 billion people on Earth. We produce enough food for 12 billion people,” Massimo Bottura says. “Every year, more than a billion tons of food ends up wasted. As a result, 820 million people don’t have enough to eat. And food waste is responsible for 10% of global greenhouse emissions (排放).”
1. Where do the Refettorios’ meal materials come from？| A．Social contribution. | B．Supermarket wastes. |
| C．Government supply. | D．Products made by themselves. |
| A．ignore the need of | B．focus on the right of |
| C．show respect for | D．get praises from |
| A．To create the most popular kitchen. | B．To teach his cooking magic. |
| C．To enlarge his cooking empire. | D．To spread his idea of saving food. |
| A．The waste of food. | B．Global greenhouse emissions. |
| C．Natural disasters. | D．The increasing world population. |
8 . A lot of people don’t know the fact that crows (乌鸦) are actually very intelligent birds. They have a long list of skills, and now, they’re helping humans eliminate our littering problems. The birds are being trained as part of a project in Södertälje, Sweden that will have them pick up cigarette (香烟) ends.
The crows will then place the thrown-away cigarette ends as well as other small bits of litter into a machine built by Corvid Cleaning, a Swedish startup. Then the birds will receive a treat for their efforts.
Christian Günther-Hanssen, founder of the company, said, “They’re wild birds taking part on a voluntary basis.”
The birds are not only receiving a delicious treat while cleaning the city, they’re also saving that city a lot of money. The company has guessed that the project will be able to reduce the cost of cigarette end collection by about 75%.
The cost of picking up cigarette ends today is around $0. 09 or more per cigarette end, while some say $0.22. If the crows pick up cigarette ends, it would be $0.022 per cigarette end.
About 1 billion cigarette ends litter on the streets of Sweden every year, making up 62% of the total liter. $2.1 million is spent in Södertälje in order to clean the streets.
This is where the crows come into the picture. The highly intelligent birds were chosen for the task. “They are easier to teach and there is also a higher chance for them to learn from each other. At the same time, there’s a lower risk of them mistakenly eating any rubbish due to the delicious treats for them.”
Crows are known for their abilities to build and use tools. If this project proves to be successful, then the idea could spread to other places and perhaps be a huge help in other cities and even countries as well.
1. What does the underlined word “eliminate” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Observe. | B．Remove. | C．Discover. | D．Understand. |
| A．It saves much money. | B．It helps build a peaceful society. |
| C．It prevents people from smoking. | D．It is environment-friendly. |
| A．Chances to live with humans. | B．Completely safe environment. |
| C．Great respect from people. | D．Enough healthy food. |
| A．Worried. | B．Doubtful. | C．Supportive. | D．Uncaring. |
9 . A new coffee culture is forming in and around San Francisco, California. A growing number of coffeehouses there are barring paper cups. Instead, they are using glass containers or creating “bring your own cup” policies. The movement started among neighborhood cafes in an effort to reduce waste. Now it is gaining support from large businesses in the city—and around the country.
Famous cook Dominique Crenn is opening a cafe in San Francisco next year that will not use to-gabags, throw-away coffee cups or any plastic. Diners who plan to buy a to-go drink from boutique Crenn will be asked to bring their own coffee cups, a spokeswoman said.
The Blue Bottle coffeehouse company uses about 15,000 to-go cups each month at its 70 shops across the U.S. The company recently said it wants to “show our guests and the world that we can get rid of disposable (一次性的) cups”.
Blue Bottle plans to stop using paper cups at two of its stores next year. The move is part of a promise to produce “zero waste” by the end of next year.
Larger coffee and fast-food businesses around the U. S. are feeling a sense of urgency (紧急) to be more environmentally friendly, said Bridget Croke. She is with the New York-based investment company Closed Loop Partners. It is working with Starbucks and McDonald’s to develop a substitute (替代品) for the disposable coffee cup.
Today’s to-go cups for hot drinks are not only made from paper, they also have plastic to prevent leaking. This makes them hard to recycle, Croke said. She admitted that it is not likely that large national food and drink companies will stop using disposable cups totally or ask all customers to bring their own.
So, her company is looking for other solutions. In partnership with Closed Loop, Starbucks and McDonald’s paid $10 million to develop the “single-use cup of the future”. The result is expected to be recyclable and to break down naturally.
1. What does the underlined word“barring”in the first paragraph mean?| A．Using. | B．Inventing. | C．Improving. | D．Banning. |
| A．They will desert throw-away cups. |
| B．They’ve decided to improve service. |
| C．They want to attract more customers. |
| D．They will open some new coffee shops. |
| A．They are made from wood. |
| B．They are needed in great quantity. |
| C．The hard to recycle. |
| D．They encourage people to drink more coffee. |
| A．Refuse to offer cups to consumers. |
| B．Invent environmentally friendly cups. |
| C．Run together with another company. |
| D．Spend a lot on the development of new coffee. |
