1 . Solar farms offer one way to meet the world’s decarbonization targets, but they could also be used to deal with another of the planet’s big problems: loss of biodiversity. The approach is starting to take off. Residents of Barnsdale, for example, will soon play host to a new solar farm lined with grass field of wildflowers and native grasses, which Banks Group, the developer, says will promote pollinating insects.
The idea comes from the combination of two long-term trends: declining numbers of pollinating insects and the growing amount of land distributed to solar farms. According to the Center for Biological Diversity in Arizona, more than 40 percent of insect pollinators globally are listed as “highly threatened”—an issue that could seriously threaten food security. Meanwhile, solar-energy competence has been increasing. Matthew O’Neal, a scientist at Iowa State University, would like to see more solar developers seize this opportunity.
The benefits of such projects don’t stop at the insects. Research from Yale’s Center for Business and the Environment indicates that pollinator-friendly solar farms can raise crop output on nearby farmland, increase the recharging of groundwater and reduce soil erosion. In 2018, a US Department of Energy study found that if all existing and planned solar facilities near soybean and cranberry crops included pollinator home and increased output by just one percent, annual crop values could rise by US $1.75 million, US $4 million and US $233,000, respectively.
“Farmers could identify unprofitable areas, such as poor, highly erodible lands, as candidates for a pollinator-friendly solar farm. There’s the potential to increase their net income with pollinator motivation projects,” says O’Neal.
With enough forward thinking, these studies show, clean energy can provide new environmental opportunities. “We’re at a turning point with energy production and we’re seeing more opportunities to provide extra benefits that wouldn’t have been considered with older methods of energy generation,” says O’Neal. “You never heard of a coal mine planning pollinator conservation.”
1. What can be an additional function of solar farms according to paragraph 1?A.Adding the amount of farmland. | B.Addressing the decline of biodiversity. |
C.Improving the solar-energy competence. | D.Increasing the amount of profitable areas. |
A.Reduce the size of their farms. |
B.Live away from pollinator-friendly solar farms. |
C.Grow their crops near areas rich in groundwater. |
D.Make full use of soil erosion areas to make extra profits. |
A.Supportive. | B.Conservative. | C.Skeptical. | D.Uncertain. |
A.Solar Power Is Starting to Take Off |
B.Solar Energy Will Be in Urgent Need |
C.Solar Farms Can Deal with the Loss of Biodiversity |
D.Solar Farms Need to Expand the Amount of Farmland |
During the just-ended Spring Festival holiday, former fisherman Wang Chaosheng kept
Living in Sinan county in Southwest China’s Guizhou province,
Wujiang River
“I used to catch fish, and now I keep fish. I’m still doing my job,” Wang said.
The 18-hectare construction site of the Huashan section of Wuhan Metro Line 19 is situated near an ecological reserve. Efforts had to be made
When Hua
However, months
4 . One man’s trash is another man’s treasure is absolutely the case in Turkey where garbage collectors started collecting books that have been thrown away and ended up opening a library.
It started when garbage man Durson Ipek found a bag of abandoned books when he was working and then it snowballed from there. Ipek and other garbage men started gathering the books they found on the streets that were ready for landfills (垃圾填埋地) and as their collection started to grow, so did word of mouth. Soon, local residents started donating books directly. The library was initially available only to the garbage employees and their families to use but as the collection grew, so did public interest and the library was opened to the public in 2017.
“On the one hand, there were those who were leaving these books on the streets. On the other hand, others were looking for these books,” Ankaya mayor Alper Tasdelen told CNN. “We started to discuss the idea of creating a library from these books. When everyone supported it, this project happened.”
All the books that are found are sorted and checked for condition. If they pass, they go on the shelves. Today, the library has over 6,000 books that range from fiction to nonfiction and there’s a very popular children’s section that even has a collection of comic books. An entire section is devoted to scientific research and there are also books available in English and French. The collection has grown so large that the library loans books to schools and educational programs.
“Village school teachers from all over Turkey are requesting books,” Tasdelen told CNN. The government has to hire a full-time employee to manage the library.
This library is incredibly popular. It is frequently filled with the children of the city’s workers and students from nearby schools. There is a waiting room set up for readers and chess boards for the people who visit the library. You can even enjoy a cup of tea in the waiting room.
1. What does the underlined word “snowballed” in paragraph 2 probably mean?A.Declined quickly. | B.Grew slowly. | C.Developed rapidly. | D.Worsened steadily. |
A.Its great popularity. | B.Its potential significance. |
C.Its huge collection of books. | D.Its wide variety of readers. |
A.To raise people’s awareness of recycling. | B.To classify and check the donated books. |
C.To expand the social influence of the library. | D.To meet the huge demand from rural teachers. |
A.It’s an excellent place to enjoy tea. | B.It’s crowded with readers every day. |
C.It needs to improve its management. | D.It provides a very considerate service. |
5 . Unlike other natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes are very hard to see coming, even for scientists.
Drop, cover and hold
If you feel the ground start to shake, drop, take cover under as table piece of furniture, and hold on. You can hide under something like a desk or table, with one arm holding on to a leg of the table and your other arm protecting your neck and head.
Make a family plan
Secure your furniture
Those hanging shelves above your bed could be a danger during an earthquake. People often get injured from “flying or falling objects” like furniture or glass during earthquakes. So examine your home and ask yourself, “What could be a potential danger to my safety?”
Make digital copies of important documents
Important documents may get destroyed during earthquakes. Therefore, scan or take photos of your important documents, such as your license, financial records and insurance policy information.
A.Then send them to your e-mail. |
B.These are all important personal documents. |
C.Make sure your household has a plan of action. |
D.Whatever you do, do not stand in a doorframe. |
E.If you find the answer, you need to runaway immediately. |
F.Nowadays early detection systems can only give seconds of warming ahead. |
G.If possible, remove those heavy and big objects above your bed immediately. |
The African penguin is expected to go extinct in the wild in just over a decade, given its current population decline. The main reason is a lack of food caused by disturbance to ocean conditions from global heating and
7 . A carbon capturing device, called Orca, began operating in Iceland in September. The machine was invented and made by a Swiss company called Climeworks. The name comes from the Icelandic word orka which means energy.
Orca can pull carbon dioxide out of the air and send it deep into the ground, where it is turned into stone. The device is made up of four sections which look like giant air conditioners stacked together. Each section contains 12 large fans that suck air from outside into steel compartments.
Inside, the air passes through a filter (过滤器) which gathers the carbon dioxide. It is then heated to a high temperature so the carbon dioxide can be collected from the filter. Then, the carbon dioxide is mixed with water and put deep in the ground into a type of rock called basalt. Basalt causes the carbon dioxide mixture to turn into stone after two or three years.
Orca is an experimental device. It was built to demonstrate that it is possible to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It can remove 4, 000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year. That’s about the same amount as the emissions produced by 850 cars in a year. In order to remove enough carbon dioxide to make a big difference to global warming, much larger devices like Orca would have to be built in many countries around the world.
Some environmental activists say governments should spend more time and money on reducing the amount of greenhouse gas we produce each year, instead of investing in carbon capture methods. But others say that, in order for countries to meet their goal of net zero emissions by 2050, they will need to do both: reduce new emissions and remove the carbon dioxide already in the air.
1. What’s the purpose of designing Orca?A.To conserve energy. | B.To achieve zero emissions. |
C.To protect natural resources. | D.To remove carbon dioxide in the air. |
A.Orca. | B.The basalt. | C.The air. | D.Carbon dioxide. |
a. Sucking the air. b. Collecting the carbon dioxide.
c. Mixing with water. d. Filtering and heating.
e. Putting into the ground.
A.a, d, b, c, e | B.a, c, d, b, e | C.a, d, c, b, e | D.a, b, c, d, e |
A.Reducing emissions is more important. |
B.It might result in new pollution. |
C.The technology is not mature. |
D.It doesn’t work efficiently. |
8 . Priscilla Ouchida’s “energy efficient” house turned out to be a horrible dream. When she and her engineer husband married a few years ago, they built a $100,000 three-bedroom home in California. Tightly sealed to prevent air leaks, the house was equipped with small double-paned windows and several other energy-saving features. Problems began as soon as the couple moved in, however. Priscilla’s eyes burned. Her throat was constantly dry. She suffered from headaches and could hardly sleep. It was as though she had suddenly developed a strange illness.
Experts finally traced the cause of her illness. The level of formaldehyde gas in her kitchen was twice the maximum allowed by federal standards for chemical workers. The source of the gas? Her new kitchen cabinets and wall-to-wall carpeting.
The Ouchidas are victims of indoor air pollution, which is not given sufficient attention partly because of the nation’s drive to save energy. The problem itself isn’t new. “The indoor environment was dirty long before energy conservation came along,” says Moschandreas, a pollution scientist at Geomet Technologies in Maryland. “Energy conservation has tended to accentuate the situation in some cases.”
The problem appears to be more troublesome in newly constructed homes rather than old ones. Back in the days when energy was cheap, home builders didn’t worry much about unsealed cracks. Because of such leaks, the air in an average home was replaced by fresh outdoor air about once an hour. As a result, the pollutants generated in most households seldom built up to dangerous levels.
1. It can be learned from the passage that the Ouchidas’ house ________.A.is well worth the money spent on its construction |
B.is almost faultless from the point of energy conservation |
C.failed to meet energy conservation standards |
D.was designed and constructed in a scientific way |
A.Poor quality of the air inside. | B.Poor quality of the construction. |
C.Gas leakage in the kitchen. | D.The newly painted walls. |
A.relieve | B.accelerate | C.worsen | D.improve |
A.Because indoor cleanliness was not emphasized. |
B.Because energy used to be inexpensive. |
C.Because environmental protection was given top priority. |
D.Because they were technically unavoidable. |
A.Energy Conservation | B.House Building Crisis |
C.Air Pollution Indoors | D.Traps in Building Construction |
Smoke jumpers are firefighters, trained to fight fires in places that fire engines can’t reach. They travel in small planes and,
10 . Don’t Get Lost in the Term of Eco-tourism
Given that tourism produces harmful emissions, the term “green travel” can seem contradictory. Green travel will not solve the climate crisis, but knowing what to look for can allow you to make choices that do less harm and more good if you do choose to travel.
Don’t get hung up on the terms.
The key to better understanding and identifying sustainable travel options is recognizing that it’s actually actions—not words—that matter. Definitions can vary from person to person.
Ask questions.
Before you book a tour or hotel, prepare questions. For example: Do they support the local economy? Are they ensuring the preservation of the natural environment?
You don’t have to plan a responsible travel and the ever-changing term alone. Contact organizations that provide training, accreditation and transparent standards. You can also join responsible travel communities on social media, where you can ask questions, share resources and learn alongside other travelers who share your values.
Start now.
You can’t do everything at once right away. Decide what you can do. Maybe it’s contributing to a conservation or community project.
A.Lean on and learn from others. |
B.Find an operator who shares your personal values. |
C.But it’s the truth behind the term that really matters. |
D.Ask what the local government can provide you with. |
E.Search for the answers such as data and policies on a company’s website. |
F.Here are some expert tips on how to understand the vocabulary of green travel. |
G.Maybe it’s immersing yourself in one destination rather than rushing around to see three. |