Thanks for your concern in your letter about the smog which frequent strikes some areas of China. I’m also very worrying about such a terrible weather. It has brought much inconvenience or rather harm to people's health such as road accident, bad coughs and even lung cancers and so on.
It is known to all, good environment comes from careful protection. But we should do what we can protect it. I believe a small step can make a different. Try to drive less and choose air-friendly products. Only when everyone had the environmental awareness can we have a blue sky. Hope to hear from you and share my good ideas.
2 . Who would have thought that there was any connection between a cup of coffee and a bird, butterfly, or even a bat? Such seems to be the case, however, as methods for growing coffee plants have gradually changed over time.
Coffee plants were first discovered growing in Africa hundreds of years ago. The plants grew under a wide cover of forests, which protected the coffee plants’ leaves from the burning sun. As coffee was introduced to other countries, farmers would naturally try to grow the plants in the shade of tall trees. These trees provided more than shade for coffee plants; they were also home for many species of birds, insects, and other plants.
Over the past 30 to 40 years, people developed a new kind of coffee plant, one which grows well in open sunlight. Sun-grown coffee produced two times more coffee than shade-grown coffee in the same amount of time and space. As a result, the growing need for coffee makes the sun-grown method appear to be the best way to grow coffee.
However, this newer method has some unexpected results. First, the lack of tree cover leaves the land open to heavy rainfall, which can wash away the soil’s nutrients (营养物质). This necessitates an increased use of fertilizers and additives, which is likely to create health risks. Second, as forests are taken down to make way for sun-grown coffee plants, native and migratory birds no longer have a home. This is threatening many species, and the effect is now being examined and recorded by ornithologists, who are discovering sharp falls in some species that travel to the northern United States each year. Finally, more pesticides (农药) are used in the sun-grown method, all of which have a bad influence on both the environment and the long-term health of the coffee plants themselves.
Today, as more people recognize the problems of coffee grown in the sun, perhaps they will be willing to pay the higher prices, encouraging coffee growers to return to the more natural method of producing this worldwide product.
1. Compared with shade-grown coffee, sun-grown coffee _____.| A．grows more slowly |
| B．tastes much better |
| C．is more productive |
| D．is more expensive |
| A．Protect forests. |
| B．Grow coffee. |
| C．Make pesticides. |
| D．Study birds. |
| A．Grow shade-grown coffee. | B．Improve coffee production. |
| C．Sell coffee at lower prices. | D．Plant a new kind of coffee. |
| A．coffee and forests |
| B．coffee production and the environment |
| C．coffee farmers and animals |
| D．coffee and sunlight |
