1 . Issues such as global warming and sustainability have become passionate concerns for many of the concert industry’s fans and increasingly for the musicians. Coldplay, a pop band whose members scored their first big hit in 2000 with a song called Yellow, announced in November that it wouldn’t go on tour to promote its latest album, Everyday Life, until it could find a way to make concerts more sustainable and greener to the environment.
It’s not always easy to walk the talk. A growing number of artists, including Peggy Gou, have environmental demands built into their contracts when they tour, such as bans on plastic tableware. But there’s almost no way of avoiding carbon emissions produced by a tour, which involves moving hundreds of people and tons of equipment across large distances.
Lisa Pomerantz, who books travel for acts says that real change will require action by venue owners, concert promoters, and the fans. Major acts like Coldplay can afford to stop touring while figuring out how to lessen their environmental impact. But lesser-known artists can’t stay off the road, since streaming earnings haven’t been able to compensate (弥补) for the collapse in CD and downloaded music sales. Even when concerts are aggressive about being more sustainable, the impact of audience travel can easily swamp (淹没) their efforts. For bigger acts, this can represent as much as 80% of the carbon footprint, according to a 2015 study. Another analysis showed that roughly a third of the tour’s carbon footprint came from a venue’s power consumption.
Still, even the most green-conscious bands must balance their desire to be more sustainable against the financial necessity of touring. “I absolutely think you can go on tour and have a concern about the environment. It’s a matter of just keeping our carbon footprint as low as possible,” says Flavian Graber, lead singer of We Invented Paris.
1. Why did Coldplay stop its promotion tour?A.Because it had already released a hit. | B.Because it wanted a more environmentally friendly concert. |
C.Because its latest album needed further improvement. | D.Because they could afford the money. |
A.Make it. | B.Talk it. | C.See it. | D.Appreciate it. |
A.Stopping bands’ promotion tours. |
B.Downloading music on the Internet. |
C.Cutting down venues’ water and electricity consumption. |
D.Combining efforts of bands, audiences and venue owners. |
A.Achievable. | B.Fruitless. | C.Challenging. | D.Controversial. |
2 . As a shift in the polar vortex(极地涡旋)swept across much of the US, many people in the country were hit with a sudden snap of cold. Heavy ice and snow coupled with fallen trees caused the outages in major cities, with companies unable to tell their customers when power will be restored.
Polar vortexes were noticed long ago. But the first known use of the term “polar vortex” was in a magazine in 1853. Polar vortexes are present year-round, but we don’t hear about them until they cause problems. They maintain freezing temperatures at the North and South poles by moving in tight counter-clockwise patterns. Polar vortexes grow stronger in winter and weaken in summer. They are kept in place at the poles by another atmospheric current called the jet stream. However, when the jet streams weaken, the cold winds of the polar vortex are pushed southwards and it is during this time that people begin to pay attention!
In Texas, roads froze over, causing six traffic deaths, and many schools were shut-down. People are not the only Earthlings to struggle with the cold. Crops and animals are also freezing. This could have major consequences, especially if herds of cattle die. If snow blocks cattle, the animals can’t reach basic necessities like food and fresh water.
On a brighter note, some Texas cities were more prepared than others. For instance, Amarillo, which is located in North Texas, so they are more accustomed to colder temperatures. Amarillo is notable because the city was redesigned to stand up to severe winter storms. Officials have spread out fire stations to increase coverage of first responders, employed modified dump trucks for clearing ice, and upgraded civic centers to provide shelter during storms. Hopefully, other Texas cities will follow the good example set by Amarillo!
1. What does the underlined word “outages” refer to?A.Traffic jams. | B.Possessions losses. |
C.Power cuts. | D.Traffic accidents. |
A.They grow stronger in summer. | B.They are affected by jet streams. |
C.They were first observed in 1853. | D.They move in a clockwise direction. |
A.Pleased. | B.Worried. |
C.Indifferent. | D.Doubtful. |
A.Because it is located in the north of Texas. |
B.Because it has been upgraded and modernized. |
C.Because it has been regarded as an example to other cities. |
D.Because it has taken effective measures to resist winter storms. |
3 . Climate Acts Must Focus on Youth
Children and young people are bearing the burden of climate change. However, they are consistently overlooked in the design and content of climate policies and related measures. The rights of the youth need to be put in a central place in a country’s climate change plan as extreme weather events are threatening their lives and destroying the infrastructure critical to their well-being.
The scientific community has sounded the alarm that climate change is a global emergency, and the risks of deadly drought, frequent floods, heat waves, extreme weather, and poverty will significantly worsen.
Over half a billion children live in high flood zones and nearly 160 million live in areas of extremely high drought, said a report released in 2015 by the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF. Polluted air has a huge impact on children’s brain development. It is estimated about 2 billion children live in areas with air quality that is well above international pollution standards. Air pollution, lack of safe water, undernutrition is strongly linked to pneumonia, a leading cause of death among children, killing nearly 2, 400 children a day. The increase of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever has the greatest impacts on children, for example, 90 percent of the disease burden that is attributable to climate change is born by children under the age of five. The UNICEF report said all these challenges are exacerbated by climate change.
Through the intergovernmental cooperation on climate change, the UN has made it clear the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in raising. Actively responding to climate change is not only imperative, but also key to sustainable development for generations to come as children and young people are the future of mankind.
We are all glad to see children and young people are encouraged to play a key role in addressing climate-related risks by promoting environmentally sustainable lifestyles and setting an example for their communities.
1. What’s the author’s main purpose in the first paragraph?A.To give a summary. | B.To give some evidences. |
C.To express his emotions. | D.To put forward his view. |
A.It harms children’s health. | B.It has a huge impact on children’s education. |
C.It reduces births of new babies. | D.It leads to the change of children’s lifestyle. |
A.Approving. | B.Intolerable. | C.Concerned. | D.Indifferent. |
A.Engineers. | B.Environmentalists. | C.Sports fans. | D.Music lovers. |
4 . I first came to Berwickshire for a job-to be the Ranger for the Berwickshire Marine Reserve.I was then Senior Ranger for St Abb’s Head National Nature Reserve and I set up my own business, In Our Nature, offering wildlife journeys,walks,talks and courses in 2020. There’s so much I love about Berwickshire.Its stunning scenery. Its variety of landscapes and habitats and range of amazing wildlife, both above and below the water. Its friendly people. In places you can feel like you are a million miles from anywhere, when in reality you’re just an hour’s drive from Edinburgh.
The thing that supports everything on the Berwickshire Coast is its varied and fascinating geology(地质).The jewel in the crown is Siccar Point. With its world-famous non-conformity(均变),it’s considered the birthplace of modern geology. The geology not only shapes the landscape, but it also impacts on the wildlife, forming varied habitats from steep sheltered valleys and towering cliffs to sheltered sandy bays.
There’s nothing I like more than being out in nature and sharing my passion with others, so starting up In Our Nature was a no brainer. In the warmer months I offer tours on land and sea to help folk enjoy the amazing wildlife and scenery of the Berwickshire Coast. In the darker months my online courses help people learn about wildlife in the hope that it will increase their enjoyment of the marine and coastal environments they spend time in.
My favourite spot on the Berwickshire Coast has got to be a place called Petticowick. The views up the coast and inland to the Mire Loch are second to none. It’s a place where you can marvel at geology which covers unimaginable periods of time. You can listen to and watch thousands of seabirds that return to the cliffs to breed each spring. Or witness all the amazing activity of the breeding seal colony on the beach below during the early winter.
1. Why did the author go to Berwickshire?A.To do sightseeing. |
B.To make friends. |
C.To work in a reserve. |
D.To study wildlife. |
A.The highest part. |
B.The most attractive part. |
C.The valueless part. |
D.The advanced part. |
A.By providing online courses. |
B.By sharing her experiences. |
C.By offering tours on land. |
D.By organizing trips to the sea. |
A.Modern geology needs further study. |
B.Petticowick should be well preserved. |
C.People should not take advantage of nature. |
D.The author is enthusiastic about Berwickshire. |
5 . Earth is a big place, but size isn’t everything. The planet’s richest ecosystems are in rapid decline, forcing us to acknowledge countless creatures worldwide are running out of room.
85% of all species on the IUCN Red List are endangered due to many forms of habitat loss, from complete deforestation to less obvious effects of pollution and climate change. Every species needs a certain amount of habitat to find food, shelter and mates, but for a growing number of animals, the space where their ancestors found those things is now overrun by humans. As habitats decline, animals also grow more vulnerable to secondary dangers like disease or conflict with people.
According to many scientists and conservationists, the best strategy to avoid a dramatic loss of biodiversity is to set aside half of Earth’s surface area for wildlife. That might sound like a big sacrifice at first, but upon closer inspection, it’s still an incredibly sweet deal for us: One species gets half the planet, and all other species must share the other half. This idea has been around for years, confirmed in programmes like the WILD Foundation’s “Nature Needs Half” campaign, but it has gained more different opinions recently. And it may now have one of its most forceful arguments yet, thanks to a 2016 book by well-known biologist E. O. Wilson titled Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life.
Half-Earth, therefore, isn’t so different from today’s Earth. We’re already doing many of the right things, as Wilson recently told the University of California-Berkeley’s Breakthroughs magazine. We still have a few big biodiversity zones left, and others that could still recover. We just need to protect as many wilderness areas as we can, fill in gaps wherever possible and do no further harm. “I’m sure we can go from 10% to 50% coverage, land and sea,” Wilson says. “It could be large reserves that still exist, like in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia, in the taiga, the major wilderness areas of Congo, in Papua New Guinea, the Amazon—these can be made inviolate reserves; they can be pieced together.”
1. What is the main cause of wildlife’s rapid decline?A.Habitat loss. | B.Terrible disease. |
C.Conflict with people. | D.Poor living conditions. |
A.The method to save our planet. | B.The real profession of E.O. Wilson. |
C.The solution to avoiding wildlife decline. | D.The origin of “Nature Needs Half” campaign. |
A.Curious. | B.Confused. | C.Concerned. | D.Confident. |
A.Sharing the Earth with other animals. | B.Changing our attitude toward wildlife. |
C.Increasing the population of wild animals. | D.Protecting the existing habitat for wildlife. |
Wang Tianchang,
At first, they
Eventually, his efforts have not gone unnoticed. The Chinese government not only appointed Tianchang and his sons
7 . The Cambodian Government’s Fisheries Administration and WWF announced that the Irrawaddy dolphin population in the Mekong River numbers just 89. The number is a slight decline from the estimate of 92 in 2018, but shows that the population has stabilized. In recent years after decades of sharp decline.
Critically, the survey’s findings also indicate a positive survival rate of calves through to adulthood, with a “recruitment rate” of 4.22%, signalling an improving trend for the dolphin population. “Although the survey confirmed that the number of river dolphins in Cambodia has stabilized, the population size is still small, so stronger conservation action is urgently needed,” said Mr. Seng Teak, WWF Country Director.
The Irrawaddy dolphins are fully protected under Cambodia’s Fisheries Law. The dolphins, however, continue to face great danger. Gill nets, development of upstream dams, overfishing, and illegal fishing practices such as electrofishing are among major known threats to the survival of the species.
Effective conservation action in recent years has halted the decline in the population, but more is required to ensure that the population expands. The Fisheries Administration and WWF are committed to continuing to work gather with the local communities and other partners to make collective efforts to carry out the recommendations of the 2020 population report.
These recommendations include enforcement of the fisheries law and the ban on illegal gill net use in the protected dolphin habitat, continued robust monitoring of the species population, and management of the Ramsar site in Stung Treng province to improve natural fish stocks for food and prey enhancement for both the local communities and the dolphins.
1. Which of the following best describes the present population of dolphins in Cambodian?A.Uncertain | B.Steady | C.Declining | D.Increasing |
A.Normal fishing. | B.Gill net fishing. | C.Illegal fishing. | D.Too much fishing. |
A.The recommendations haven’t been put to use. | B.It is banned to fish in conservative habitats. |
C.The species of dolphins will be managed. | D.Dolphins will have more fish to eat. |
A.The food the dolphins eat. | B.The threats the dolphins meet. |
C.The protection of dolphins in the Mekong. | D.The population of dolphins in the Mekong River. |
8 . In order to get rid of goldenrod from the city, the government of Wuhan is encouraging residents to report any findings of the plant, which is classified as a harmful alien species.
Goldenrod is one of the most successful and widespread alien plant species. It is often referred to as “the flower of the devil”, as it spreads extremely fast and causes other plants to die.
Besides Hubei province, the plant has also been found expanding in other provinces such as Jiangxi and Zhejiang. Although local authorities have tried to get rid of the plant, it is proving to be a difficult task. Goldenrod represents just one of the alien species that are aggressive towards the country’s native species. Statistics show that by 2020, nearly 800 kinds of alien species had invaded the country, among which 638 species have invaded the country’s agricultural and forestry ecosystems, causing direct economic losses of about 200 billion yuan ($ 31.36 billion).
At the United Nations Biodiversity Conference held in Kunming, Yunnan province, the invasion of alien species was the subject of discussions, as it was regarded as one of the two most important factors leading to the loss of biodiversity, the other being human-caused ecological damage.
China passed its Biosecurity Law on April 15, 2021, which provides the legal basis for preventing the invasion of alien species and protecting biodiversity in the country. The relevant departments also strictly carry out port inspections and quarantines (检疫) so as to keep harmful organisms out of the country, and they strengthen early warning and monitoring systems so as to address the invasion as early as possible.
However, while government departments are making every effort to prevent and control the situation, the participation of the people should not be ignored. It is also necessary, as Wuhan is doing, to encourage people to pay attention to invasive species and actively play a role in keeping them at bay. Preventing any invasion by an alien species and protecting biodiversity should not just be the government departments fighting alone, but also a people’s war.
1. Why does the author present thestatistics in paragraph 3?A.To make the passage more persuasive. |
B.To highlight how serious the issue is. |
C.To explain the reason for the invasion of the country. |
D.To show the influence of Goldenrod on the ecosystem. |
A.China’s efforts to stop the invasion of alien species. |
B.Relevant departments’ warning of goldenrod. |
C.The legal basis to protect biodiversity. |
D.The importance of port inspections and quarantines. |
A.Building some barriers for the species. |
B.Preventing the flowers from growing too fast. |
C.Keeping the alien species safe at the port. |
D.Both the government and individuals should resist the invasion of alien species. |
A.In a biology magazine. | B.In a science fiction. |
C.In a sports newspaper. | D.In a history book. |
1. What is the relationship between the speakers?
A.Reporter and villager. | B.Policeman and witness. | C.Volunteer and survivor. |
A.A flood. | B.A car crash. | C.An earthquake. |
A.A river. | B.Her house. | C.The top of a building. |
A.To stay indoors. | B.To donate money. | C.To leave their houses. |
10 . A librarian in Indonesia’s Java island is lending books to children in exchange for trash they collect in a creative way to clean up the environment and get the kids to read more.
Each weekday Raden Roro Hendarti rides her three-wheeler with books piled up at the back for children in Muntang village to exchange for plastic cups, bags and other waste that she carries back.
She told Reuters she is helping to get the kids reading as well as make them aware of the environment. As soon as she shows up, little children, many accompanied by their mothers, surround her “Trash Library” and request for the books. They are all carrying waste bags and Raden’s three-wheeler quickly fills up with them as the books fly out. She’s happy that with her mobile service, the kids are going to spend less time on online games as a result.
“Let us build a culture of literacy from young age to lessen the harm of the online world,” Raden said. “We should also take care of our waste in order to fight climate change and to save the earth from trash,” Raden said.
She collects about 100kg of waste each week, which is then sorted out by her colleagues and sent for recycling or sold. She has around 6,000 books to lend and wants to take it to neighbouring areas as well.
Kevin Alamsyah, an 11-year-old reader, searches for waste lying in the village. “When there is too much trash, our environment will become dirty and it’s not healthy. That’s why I look for trash to borrow a book,” he says.
The literacy rate for above 15-year-olds in Indonesia is around 96 percent, but a September report by the World Bank warned that the outbreak of COVID-19 will leave more than 80% of 15-year-olds below the minimum reading proficiency level identified by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
1. Which of the following is not likely to be exchanged for a book from the “Trash Library”?A.A plastic cup. | B.A new three-wheeler. | C.A waste bag. | D.A broken basin. |
A.Meaningful. | B.Costly. | C.Interesting. | D.Unhelpful. |
A.They are financially poor. | B.They read widely. |
C.They would lose their identities. | D.They should do more reading. |
A.Knowledge is power. | B.It is never too old to learn. |
C.Kill two birds with one stone. | D.There is no royal road to learning. |