1 . The first commercial airliner to cross the Atlantic on a purely high-fat, low-emissions fuel flew Tuesday from London to New York in a step toward achieving what supporters called “jet zero”.
The Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 flight was powered without using fossil fuels, relying on so-called sustainable aviation (航空) fuel made up largely of tallow (动物油脂) and other waste fats and plant sugars. “The world will always assume something can’t be done, until you do it.” said Virgin founder Richard Branson, who was aboard the flight with government officials, engineers and journalists.
The UK Transport Department, which provided 1 million pounds to plan and operate the flight, called the test a “huge step towards j et zero” to make air travel more environmentally friendly, though large challenges remain in making the fuel widely available.
Sustainable aviation fuel, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by about 70%, is the best near-term way for the international aviation industry to achieve its net zero target by 2050, the US Energy Department said.
Holly Boyd-Boland, president of corporate development at Virgin Atlantic, said the flight shows the fuel can power existing aircraft but said the challenge is enlarging production to get to enough volume so that they are using more sustainable aviation fuel every day.
While this is the first jetliner to make the trans-Atlantic journey using only the sustainable fuel, it is not a commercial flight and not the first jet to do so. Gulfstream Aerospace was the first to make the crossing earlier this month with a business jet powered only by the eco-fuel. Air France-KLM flew from Paris to Montreal two years ago using a mix of petroleum-based jet fuel and a synthetic (合成物) made from waste cooking oils.
“This flight somehow gets us closer to guilt-free flying. Sustainable aviation fuel represents around 0.1% of aviation fuel globally and will be very hard to expand sustainably, but the flight is a valuable try,” said policy director Cait Hewitt.
1. What can we infer from paragraph 2?| A．The Boeing 787 has a special structure. |
| B．Greener fuel has become a reality in a way. |
| C．Airlines should put waste fats to good use. |
| D．Fossil fuels will be replaced in the near future. |
| A．It runs into technical difficulties. |
| B．It is unsuitable for commercial flights. |
| C．It is unable to gain the public recognition. |
| D．It fails to power existing planes constantly. |
| A．They follow in Virgin Atlantic’s footsteps. |
| B．They take advantage of waste cooking oils. |
| C．They develop sustainable fuel products actively. |
| D．They are attempting to create eco-friendly aviation. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Doubtful. | C．Indifferent. | D．Concerned. |
2 . Nature has the power to alter an element’s identity with time and space. This is evident by the transformative effect Britain’s deep coal mines have been showing after decades of being one of the biggest reasons for pollution. Now, they’re being employed to supply green energy to the town of Gateshead. The town is the first place to experience something like this in the country, but the success of the phenomenon has encouraged the authorities to apply it to other towns.
In 2021, coal was just producing 2% of electricity in the UK. Most of the electricity in the country is being supplied through oil and gas. This has resulted in massive abandoned coal mines all across the country. As years went by, these mines were flooded with water, making it a source of geothermal（地热的） energy, which is used to generate heat and electricity. Gateshead hosts such a mine in its town, whose council, therefore, launched a mine water project in March 2023.
The authorities put in a large central heat pump in the mine. Mine water can often sit with a temperature of 45℃. The water is then pumped using appliances to home heat pumps. The process increases the temperature further. The water then goes ahead and warms up the interior space and home water supply. After the heat from the water has been used, it’s sent back to the mine where it again goes through the same process. The project has been successful in supplying low-carbon heating to 350 high-rise buildings, a college and several office buildings.
“Recovering heat from mine water below the ground within abandoned coal mines provides an exciting opportunity to generate a low-carbon secure supply of heat, benefitting people living or working in buildings on the coalfields,” said Gareth Farr, head of heat and by-product innovation at the Coal Authority.
The water resources through the mines are estimated to be two billion cubic meters or half the amount of water in Loch Ness. Farr added, “With many millions of people living upon abandoned coalfields in Great Britain, the potential for mine water heat could be significant.”
1. What does the town of Gateshead feature?| A．It’s been one of the most heavily polluted areas. | B．It has the most deep coal mines nationally. |
| C．It mainly relies on geothermal energy. | D．It is the first one to reuse abandoned coal mines. |
| A．They were quite remote. | B．Prices of coal declined a lot. |
| C．There weren’t enough miners. | D．The UK prioritizes cleaner energy. |
| A．The number of abandoned coal mines is stably increasing. |
| B．The future of sourcing energy from coal mines is promising. |
| C．The dependence on water resources in the UK is decreasing. |
| D．The technique to take advantage of mine water is impressive. |
| A．An innovative way to obtain green energy. | B．A method of living in harmony with nature. |
| C．A national project for abandoned facilities. | D．A discussion on the future of coal mines. |
Shennongjia is
Between 1976 and 1981, the Chinese Academy of Sciences organized three large-scale
Nowadays, Shennongjia’s attraction is not
The “wild man” legend has been passed on for generations by word-of-mouth. In 2016, the legend of “wild man” in Shennongjia
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;
2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Dear Peter,
I am writing to you regarded the problem of global warming. When I watch TV, I was surprised to watch the weather forecast saying that it was going to be warmer. Was it to continue, people would have no place to live in. These years, the earth has became warmer and warmer owing humans’ activities. This phenomena has appealed to many scientists, for who want to find out the cause of it. For example, people use too many energy in order to develop economy without caring about the earth. Meanwhile, factories give off large amounts of carbon dioxide what has a great influence on an increase of temperature of the earth.
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
5 . The mass death of flying foxes in extreme heat in North Queensland last month underlines the importance of University of Queensland wildlife research released today. The UQ research sheds light on how various species have responded to major climate events.
A study led by UQ School of Earth and Environmental Science researcher Dr Sean Maxwell has spent more than 70 years recording the responses of various species.
“The growing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as cyclones, droughts and floods is causing unpredictable and immediate changes to ecosystems and blocking existing management efforts,” Dr Maxwell said. “Some of the negative responses we recorded were quite concerning, including more than 100 cases of dramatic population declines and 31 cases of local population extinction following an extreme event.”
“Critically endangered bird species in Hawaii, such as the palia, have been annihilated due to drought, leaving none of its kind, and lizard species have been wiped out due to cyclones in the Bahamas.”
Cyclones were the most common extreme event for birds, fish, plants and reptiles, while mammals and amphibians(两栖动物)were most responsive to drought events, with drought leading to 12 cases of major population decline in mammals. Drought also led to 13 cases of breeding declines in bird populations and 12 cases of changes in the composition of invertebrate(无脊椎动物)communities.
UQ Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science director Professor James Watson said the detailed information would help affect ecosystem management.
“The research clearly shows species will respond, often negatively, to extreme events,” Professor Watson said. “As climate change continues to ensure extreme climate and weather events are more and more common, we now need to act to ensure species have the best chance to survive. Wherever possible, high quality and complete habitat areas should be preserved, as these are the places where species are most resilient(易恢复的)to increasing exposure to extreme events.”
1. How was the UQ research conducted?| A．By observing extreme weather events. |
| B．By protecting the endangered species. |
| C．By recording reactions of animals to extreme climate. |
| D．By analyzing the reason why mass animal death happened. |
| A．destroyed | B．declined | C．decreased | D．distinct |
| A．Drought caused 13 cases of extinction in bird populations. |
| B．Drought caused 12 cases of population decline in mammals. |
| C．Birds and mammals are most responsive to cyclones. |
| D．Cyclones wiped out populations of lizard. |
| A．UQ Wildlife Research |
| B．Extreme Weather Events are Threatening |
| C．Ecosystem Management Counts |
| D．Negative Responses to extreme weather events |
1. 活动目的；
2. 活动参加者和活动内容：专家指导，家庭种植，认领照顾树苗（sapling）；
3. 活动意义和评价。
注意: 1. 词数 100 左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
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7 . Scot Case, Vice President of the environmental marketing firm Terra Choice, was not happy. Case last year sent his researchers into a big-box retail store to evaluate the green advertising claims of some of the products on its shelves. The results were shocking, of the 1,018 products Terra Choice surveyed, all but one failed to live up fully to their green boasts.
He couldn’t believe the result, and had his team redo the survey, but the results came back the same. “It just shows we’re awash in greenwash.” He said.
Many consumers may not have heard the term green washing, but they’ve surely experienced it — misleading marketing about the environmental benefits of a product. Greenwashing isn’t new — ever since the environment was an issue in the early 1970s. As going green has become big business, environmental advocates worry that truly green companies could get lost in the situation.
“We have such a challenge ahead of us on climate change, says Kevin Tuerff, a co-founder of the marketing consultancy EnviroMedia. “Greenwashing harms the effort we need to be making.”
The first step to cleaning up greenwashing is to identify it, and Tuerff and his partners have hit on an innovative way to spotlight particularly abnormal examples. They’ve launched the Greenwashing Index a website that allows consumers to post ads that might be examples of greenwashing and rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 — 1 is a little green lie; S is a big green lie.
It’s a simple device, but it shows the power of the Interne to uncover misleading ads with a simple Web search, any consumer can find out the index they want to know. Googling isn’t the only way to take out the greenwashing, however. The Terra Choice website offers a list of what it calls the “six sins of greenwashing” — six simple signs that should remind consumers of a company that is more interested in selling the earth than saving it.
“We have better green products but a lot of exaggerated (夸张的) claims,” says Case. “That could be enough to destroy the whole green movement” — and that’s not a little green lie.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE about greenwashing?| A．It is harmful for the environment. |
| B．It is a special way to wash so as to save water. |
| C．It is environment-friendly so it should be advocated. |
| D．It is beneficial for both the consumers and the companies. |
| A．Holding hearings to tell genuine environmental claims from false ones. |
| B．Launching the Greenwashing Index a website to expose greenwashing. |
| C．Offering a list of “six sins of greenwashing” for companies’ reference. |
| D．Updating Green Guide for consumers which hasn’t changed since 1998. |
| A．Organic products but without any certificates. |
| B．Energy-efficient products made of harmful material. |
| C．Food which is low in nutrition but high in calorie. |
| D．Pesticides which are said to be environment-friendly. |
| A．The effort on environmental protection. |
| B．The advocation of green advertisements. |
| C．The distinction between green products and common ones. |
| D．The distinction between real environmental claims and false ones. |
8 . The garment (服装) industry is one of the largest carbon polluters on planet Earth, and one of the greatest producers of waste. Three out of five of the 100 billion garments made in 2018 ended up in landfill within a year. Toxic chemicals land in the environment and worker communities, and the production of cotton uses up vast amounts of water.
The business model of fast fashion has led to an enormous increase in the amounts of clothes that are produced, sold, and thrown. According to McKinsey, clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2014, and the average consumer buys 60% more garments each year. At the same time, these clothes are kept only half as long as they were a mere fifteen years ago.
About 100 billion items of clothing are produced each year; that’s nearly 14 items for every human being on the planet. Some of those never even reach the consumers; it caused a minor anger when in 2018 a luxury brand admitted to burning clothes just to protect the brand.
Yet, with clothes being so cheap, people do not wear at least 50 percent of their wardrobes, according to this study. The clothing and footwear industries together account for more than 8 percent of global climate influence, greater than all international airline flights and oceanic shipping trips combined. Water usage for growing cotton has led to huge lack of water, and coloring and treatment of garments make up 17%—20% of all industrial water pollution.
An industry that makes billions on the use of the planet does not suddenly become more sustainable (可持续的) when they start using organic cotton, or start burning their unsold goods (remember—people worked really hard for very little money on those clothes!) as a green fuel…
1. What does the underlined word “Toxic” mean in paragraph 1?| A．Colorful. | B．Enormous. | C．Beneficial. | D．Poisonous. |
| A．The new model clothing change too slowly. |
| B．Some luxury clothes are cheap. |
| C．There are more new clothes every year. |
| D．They want to make full use of green fuel. |
| A．Fishing. | B．Climate. | C．Transport. | D．Agriculture. |
| A．Clothing waste. | B．Sources of pollution. |
| C．The garment industry. | D．Effects of environmental pollution. |
注意：
1.正确书写日记格式；
2.词数120左右；
3.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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10 . The over 48,000 orange trees in Seville, Spain, not only fill the city’s air with the pleasant smell of orange blossoms in spring, but they also produce over 16,500 tons of fruit every winter. Though that makes the capital of southern Spain’s Andalusia region Europe’s top orange-producing city, the fruit is too sour to be consumed fresh. While some of the produce is used to make orange jam and an alcoholic drink, most of it ends up in Seville’s landfills (填埋场). However, that may change soon thanks to a clever idea to use the oranges to produce clean energy.
The trial program is being launched by the city’s council and park department in cooperation with Emasesa, Seville’s water supply and sanitation (卫生) division. Juice from 38. 6 tons of oranges will be left to ferment (发酵) in a specialized facility. The methane (甲烷) released from the fermented liquid will be captured and used to drive a generator to produce clean power. The officials estimate the test run will produce about 1,500 kWh of energy—enough to run one of Emasesa’s water purification plants. To ensure there is no waste, the orange skins, peels, and flesh will be used as fertilizer.
“It’s not just about saving money. The oranges are a problem for the city, and we’re producing added value from waste,” said Benigno Lopez, head of Emasesa’s environmental department.
If successful, by 2023, the city hopes to recycle all the oranges and add the electricity produced back into its power transmission network. In trial runs, one ton of oranges produced 50 kWh of clean energy—enough to cover the daily electricity needs of five homes. The project team estimates that if all the fruit is recycled, it will produce enough energy to power as many as 73,000 residences.
“This project will help us to reach our targets for reducing emissions, energy self-sufficiency, and the circular economy,” Juan Espadas Cejas, mayor of Seville, said in the press conference announcing the trial scheme.
1. What do we know about oranges in Seville from the first paragraph？| A．They are usually picked in spring. |
| B．They are mostly used to make jams and juice. |
| C．They are not recommended to be eaten fresh. |
| D．They make Seville the world’s top orange-producing city. |
| A．Different uses of oranges. |
| B．How to produce power from juice. |
| C．An introduction to the trial program. |
| D．Why the trial program was put forward. |
| A．Seville hasn’t carried out the trial program yet. |
| B．The electricity produced will be used to purify water. |
| C．The electricity produced will go to Seville’s power plants. |
| D．Seville may need to recycle 14,600 tons of oranges to power 73,000 homes. |
| A．Seville Is Turning Waste into Wealth |
| B．Seville Is Seeking Market for Oranges |
| C．Seville Is Contributing to Global Warming |
| D．Seville Is Dealing with the Electricity Shortage |
