Eradajere Oleita thinks she may have a solution
Chip eaters drop off their empty bags at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store, where Oleita and other
It
Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project
Sure,
2 . I fell in love with rhinos when I worked in a zoo in the 80s, and spent much of the next 20 years as the keeper of the largest captive (圈养的) group of rare black rhinos.
There’s a popular misconception that rhinos are aggressive and stupid, but I found them sensitive and affectionate animals. Weighing over a ton, black rhinos are unexpectedly agile (敏捷的) and have an unpredictable nature — but, given reassurance, they tend to believe people. In the past few decades, their numbers have dropped dramatically. In recent years, I’ve helped look after rhinos being moved to the reserve so they can form new populations in countries that have few left. Last year, I helped on a project to fly five black rhinos from a private reserve in South Africa to the Serengeti National Park. Once there, the animals had to be kept captive for a few weeks to adapt to the new environment, in which time they lived in “bomas” — wooden enclosures with “bedrooms”, designed to create a calm space.
A couple of weeks before their planned release, the sky filled with smoke. Watching the flames rushing through the bush toward the bomas, I froze. Terrified that it would catch fire, my instinct was to release the rhinos, but they hadn’t yet been fitted with transmitters (发信器). If I let them out into a bushfire and they were injured, we’d have great difficulty tracking them down. So I dashed back to the bomas and called the rhinos to the bedrooms. Sensing the fear in my voices, they moved without hesitation and remained astonishingly calm. It was crucial the rhinos didn’t panic — they can easily hurt each other if they do.
That we and the rhinos had escaped safe and sound was a miracle. The teamwork of everybody there played a large part, and the rhinos were very much a part of that team. The relationships we’d built with them had proved crucial — had they or we panicked, all our work would have been in vain.
1. What does the author think of the rhinos?A.They are trusting animals. | B.They are highly organized. |
C.Their habitats are under threat. | D.Their adaptability needs improving. |
A.To assist rhinos to settle in. | B.To boost tourism in the reserve. |
C.To avoid rhinos’ aggressive behavior. | D.To stop rhinos from fleeing. |
A.By setting them free. | B.By tracking them down. |
C.By driving them into bomas. | D.By fitting them with the transmitters. |
A.The keepers’ timely alarm. | B.The inborn nature of rhinos. |
C.The faith in the keepers’ heart. | D.The teamwork between the keepers and the rhinos. |
3 . In the rich countries of the West, the electric vehicle revolution is well underway. Climate-conscious consumers drive Teslas or Polestars for reasons of morality and fashion. Poorer countries are also experiencing a wave of electrified trend. In Bangladesh, electric three-wheeler taxis, known as tuk-tuks, are rapidly replacing gas-powered ones on the streets. Such electric vehicles are climate friendly, cost effective, and help reduce air pollution.
Yet a glance under the hood (引擎盖) of these vehicles reveals a poisonous secret: each tuk-tuk runs on five massive lead-acid batteries, containing almost 300 pounds of lead in total. Every year and a half or so, when those batteries need to be replaced and recycled, about 60 pounds of lead leak into the environment. Battery recycling, often at small-scale unregulated factories, is a highly profitable but deadly business.
Lead is dangerous, and any exposure to it is harmful to human health. Lead that has entered the environment hurts people on an extraordinary scale. The numerous ways lead enters air, water, soil, and homes across the developing world — and the enormous damage it does to human health, wealth, and welfare — causes one of the biggest environmental crises in the world yet receives little attention.
The World Bank estimates that lead kills 5. 5 million people per year, which would make it a bigger global killer than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, and road traffic deaths combined. On top of the shocking deaths, the social burden of lead poisoning is extraordinary, as is its contribution to global inequality — our research on the cognitive effects of lead poisoning suggests that it may explain about one-fifth of the educational achievement gap between rich and poor countries.
But unlike many challenges faced by developing countries, lead poisoning is a problem that is fixable with some attention and a relatively modest financial investment. Better monitoring, research, and rules can help protect children all over the world from the dreadful effects of lead poisoning and reduce the massive global costs it brings.
1. How does the author describe the lead problem in paragraph 2?A.By making a comparison. | B.By analyzing hidden causes. |
C.By listing convincing numbers. | D.By explaining its working principle. |
A.Lead enters rich countries in various ways. |
B.Lead poisoning may make poor societies poorer. |
C.Exposure to lead doesn’t necessarily harm someone. |
D.Lead leaking has caused great panic in both countries. |
A.Fixing these used batteries. | B.Putting certain effort and money. |
C.Prohibiting the illegal use of lead. | D.Reducing the cost of recycling lead. |
A.The Impacts of Lead Poisoning on Human Health |
B.The Outcomes of Using Electric Vehicles |
C.The Ways to Solve Lead Problem |
D.The Global Lead Poisoning Crisis |
4 . Finding a California condor in the wild would be the most unusual treat. perhaps even more unusual than finding a wolf in Yellowstone National Park. In fact, the wolf was what opened my eyes to the fact that humans could bring an animal back to the place where it had disappeared.
In 1987, there were only 27 California condors left, none of which were in the wild, only in captive breeding programs, It was those breeding programs that contributed to their population rise, enough that by 1991 some of them could be freed into the wild.
Still, the hope of seeing a California condor, which remains an endangered species, is very low, let alone getting a photo of one. California condor population dropped mostly due to human factors, such as poaching and living areas destruction-these are challenges California condors still face today.
Although this is just a bird’s-eye view of the challenges California condors face and there are many others, it is part of why the opportunity to work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service team and their partners helping their recovery is so special to me as a photographer. I am not only able to photograph the birds in their wild living areas, but also understand and record how difficult the work is of those people on the front lines of the protection.
I am grateful for the work of the team, and my hope is that California condor population will continue to rise allowing future generations an opportunity I never had when I first got here-to look to the sky and see one flying around.
1. What helped the increase of the California condor population in 1987?A.Rules for hunters. | B.Captive breeding programs. |
C.The improved natural environment. | D.The enlargement of wild living areas. |
A.It is difficult. | B.It is easy. | C.It is boring. | D.It is dangerous. |
A.He guided ways for them. | B.He made records by photos. |
C.He helped the birds to recover. | D.He rebuilt the birds’ living areas. |
A.New Way, New Hope | B.Wolves and California Condors |
C.A Photo of a California Condor | D.The California Condor’s Coming Back |
5 . Earth’s protective ozone(臭氧) layer is slowly but noticeably healing at a pace that would fully mend the hole over Antarctica in about 43 years, a new United Nations report says. The layer of ozone in Earth’s atmosphere shields the planet from harmful radiation linked to skin cancer, cataracts and crop damage. The progress is slow. The global average amount of ozone 18 miles high in the atmosphere won’t be back to 1980 pre-thinning levels until about 2040, the report said. And it won’t be back to normal in the Arctic until 2045. Antarctica, where it’s so thin there’s an annual giant gaping hole in the layer, won’t be fully fixed until 2066, the report said.
Scientists and environmental advocates across the world have long hailed the efforts to heal the ozone hole—springing out of a 1987 agreement called the Montreal Protocol that called on all countries to ban a class of chemicals often used in refrigerants and aerosol—as one of the biggest ecological victories for humanity. “Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase,” professor Petteri Taalas said in a statement. Signs of healing were reported four years ago although the observations at that point were in the early stages. “Those numbers of recovery have solidified a lot recently,” Petteri said.
“There has been a sea change in the way our society deals with ozone reducing substances,” said lead researcher David W. Fahey. Decades ago, people could go into a store and buy a can of refrigerants that eat away at the ozone. Now, not only are the substances banned but they are no longer much in people’s homes or cars, replaced by cleaner chemicals.
Natural weather patterns in the Antarctic also affect ozone hole levels. And the past couple years, the holes have been a bit bigger because of that but the overall trend is one of healing. This is “saving 2 million people every year from skin cancer,” United Nations Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen said in an email.
1. What can be concluded about ozone layer from the United Nations report?A.It has been improved. | B.It has little harmful radiation now. |
C.It will be in the best condition in 2040. | D.It will free Antarctica of biological risks in 2066. |
A.New household appliances. | B.Development in fossil fuels. |
C.Global efforts and cooperation. | D.Measures to slow global warming. |
A.They are likely to be prohibited. | B.They are not easily obtainable currently. |
C.They fail to meet great demand. | D.They are produced at a low cost. |
A.Antarctic: a promising island. |
B.Ozone layer: on track to recovery. |
C.Restoration Progress: Overcoming Challenges. |
D.The Montreal Protocol: A Global Success Story. |
6 . Now, Earth Day is celebrated around the world. We still face many challenges, such as climate change, plastic pollution, and deforestation. But we can all make a difference.
Her Trees Save LivesAdeline Tiffanie Suwana was 12 when her family’s home flooded. Indonesia, her island nation, is often hit hard by floods and other natural disasters.
Adeline learned that mangrove trees play a key role in flood protection and rallied classmates to plant 200 trees during a school break. They started a group called Sahabat Alam or Friends of Nature, which works to conserve the region’s biodiversity and combat climate change.
Today. Adeline attends university, studying how businesses can help the environment.
Teens’ Two-Fold InventionEPS—expanded polystyrene foam—is the white, lightweight stuff used to make things like takeout food containers, foam egg cartons, and packing “peanuts”. But it takes up a lot of space and is difficult to recycle. EPS breaks into small pieces as it floats down waterways into oceans, harming wildlife along the way.
Eighth-graders Julia Bray, Luke Clay, and Ashton Cofer looked at EPS’s chemical makeup and saw that it was mostly carbon. That sparked an idea. Could they turn it into activated carbon, a material that filters toxins from water?
After 50 hours of experiments, including one that accidentally set the family grill fire, they succeeded!
Solar for Her SchoolWhen Claire Vlases of Montana was in seventh grade, she learned about plans to expand and modernize her middle school. Claire asked the school board to add solar panels to the project. The board liked the idea but said it could contribute just $25,000, one-fifth of the cost. So Claire organized a group of kids and adults who set to work raising the rest.
They asked for donations, even going door-to-door for them. And they appealed to charitable foundations too. One even donated half the cost!
After two years of hard work, the group paid for the solar panels, which now supply one-fourth of the school’s electricity needs.
1. What do the three groups of teenagers have in common?A.They are Earth-helping heroes. | B.They are from island countries. |
C.They are high school students. | D.They are keen on experiments. |
A.$25,000. | B.$50,000. | C.$62,500. | D.$125,000. |
A.To give models for colorful school activities. |
B.To explore the ways to deal with plastic pollution. |
C.To inspire people to act for environmental problems. |
D.To display the amazing power of effective cooperation. |
7 . The world’s forests may hold more secrets than previously thought: a new global estimate of tree biodiversity suggests that there are about 9,200 tree species remaining undocumented. Most are likely in the tropics, according to the new research.
The new research drew on the efforts of hundreds of contributors, who have categorized trees in two huge data sets: One, the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative, records every species found in extensively documented forest plots worldwide. The other, TREECHANGE, puts together sightings of individual species. Together they suggest there are approximately 64,100 recorded tree species on the planet — up from previous estimates of around 60,000.
The researchers reached their estimate of an additional 9,200 yet undocumented species on the basis of the number of rare ones already in the databases. Most unknown species are likely to be defined as rare, found in limited numbers in small geographical areas, says the quantitative forest ecologist Jingjing Liang. The team’s result is “a rather conservative estimate,” Liang says, “because scientists know less about the preponderance of uncommon trees in places such as the Amazon, where out-of-the-way spots could host pockets of unusual species found nowhere else.” “If we can focus the resources on those rain forests in the Amazon,” Liang adds, “then we would be able to estimate it with higher confidence.”
Silman, a conservation biologist, who was not involved in the new study agrees that the study result is likely an underestimate. His and his colleagues’ local surveys suggest there are at least 3,000 and possibly more than 6,000 unknown tree species in the Amazon basin alone. Tree species often get grouped together based on appearance, he notes, so new genetic analysis techniques will likely lead to the discovery of even more biodiversity. Sliman wonders how many species will go extinct before scientists describe them. “How many are already known to native peoples in the Amazon — or were known to peoples or cultures who have themselves been made extinct through colonization, disease, or absorption? How many “species” already have dried samples sitting in a cabinet?” he says.
Searching for the new species will inform not only conservation but the basic evolutionary science of how and why species diversify and die out, Silman says. “Just the fact that there are thousands of species of something as common as trees out there that are still left to be discovered,” he adds, “I find pretty inspirational.”
1. What is the finding of the new research?A.About nine thousand new tree species have been identified. |
B.Thousands of tree species remain unknown to science. |
C.Maintaining tree diversity has become a global challenge. |
D.Human activities have led to the reduced number of trees. |
A.The researchers adopted quality method to analyze data. |
B.The researchers did extensive field study in out-of-the-way spots. |
C.Inferring from the existing dada is the main research method. |
D.Doing surveys and interviews is the main research method. |
A.majority | B.evolution | C.cultivation | D.capability |
A.genetic analysis technique failed to produce accurate information |
B.trees of similar sizes in the Amazon basin are grouped together |
C.too many rare trees were made into dried samples before being documented |
D.the local peoples or the local cultures are not fully aware of the tree species. |
8 . Afroz Shah, a lawyer in Mumbai, hasn’t had a weekend off in four years. But he hasn’t spent this time preparing for
His mission? Saving the world’s oceans from
It’s a calling he found in 2015 after moving to a community in Mumbai called Versova Beach. He had played there as a child and was
“The whole beach was like a
In October 2015, Shah began
For Shah, the work has always been a
He’s now spent 209 weekends on this mission,
“This world talks too much. I think we must talk
A.teaching | B.court | C.housework | D.cleaning |
A.river | B.soil | C.plastic | D.oil |
A.upset | B.excited | C.delighted | D.hesitant |
A.grown | B.changed | C.reserved | D.protected |
A.pure | B.golden | C.shiny | D.visible |
A.carpet | B.curtain | C.painting | D.photograph |
A.temporary | B.permanent | C.ugly | D.pretty |
A.sticks to | B.keeps off | C.gives back | D.ends up |
A.killer | B.cleaner | C.guest | D.decoration |
A.sweeping | B.attacking | C.visiting | D.beautifying |
A.pulling | B.thinking | C.picking | D.looking |
A.came | B.failed | C.went | D.spread |
A.involved | B.lived | C.stuck | D.paid |
A.easy | B.tough | C.personal | D.general |
A.known | B.regarded | C.decided | D.honored |
A.cause | B.case | C.position | D.fame |
A.requiring | B.rejecting | C.inviting | D.inspiring |
A.originally | B.finally | C.politically | D.theoretically |
A.fewer | B.less | C.better | D.worse |
A.honor | B.beauty | C.hope | D.love |
On February 16, 1861, a big earthquake struck Sumatra, an Indonesian island. The earthquake shook the western side of the island,
Recently, though, a team of scientists discovered that another earthquake occurred before this deadly event. According to the record, that earthquake
But silent earthquakes like the one in Sumatra change the game for scientists. These silent earthquakes happen all over
10 . After years of heated debate, gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. Fourteen wolves were caught in Canada and transported to the park. By last year, the Yellowstone wolf population had grown to more than 170 wolves.
Gray wolves once were seen here and there in the Yellowstone area and much of the continental United States, but they were gradually displaced by human development. By the 1920s, wolves had practically disappeared from the Yellowstone area. They went farther north into the deep forests of Canada, where there were fewer humans around.
The disappearance of the wolves had many unexpected results. Deer and elk populations — major food sources (来源) for the wolf — grew rapidly. These animals consumed large amounts of vegetation (植被), which reduced plant diversity in the park. In the absence of wolves, coyote populations also grew quickly. The coyotes killed a large percentage of the park’s red foxes, and completely drove away the park’s beavers.
As early as 1966, biologists asked the government to consider reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone Park. They hoped that wolves would be able to control the elk and coyote problems. Many farmers opposed the plan because they feared that wolves would kill their farm animals or pets.
The government spent nearly 30 years coming up with a plan to reintroduce the wolvers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carefully monitors and manages the wolf packs in Yellowstone. Today, the debate continues over how well the gray wolf is fitting in at Yellowstone. Elk, deer, and coyote populations are down, while beavers and red foxes have made a comeback. The Yellowstone wolf project has been a valuable experiment to help biologists decide whether to reintroduce wolves to other parts of the country as well.
1. What is the text mainly about?A.Wildlife research in the United States. |
B.Plant diversity in the Yellowstone area. |
C.The conflict between farmers and gray wolves. |
D.The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park. |
A.Damage to local ecology. |
B.Preservation of vegetation. |
C.A decline in the park’s income. |
D.An increase in the variety of animals. |
A.Doubtful. | B.Uncaring. | C.Positive. | D.Disapproving. |