1 . Imagine living on the edge of a vast desert, which is moving quietly closer to your village every day and covering your fields. The desert is on the move. This is called desertification (沙漠化).
Desertification occurs in regions close to an already existing desert. It generally arises from two related causes. The first is over-use of water in the area. There is not enough water in any case, and if it is not carefully used, disaster can follow. As time goes on, water shortages make farming more and more difficult. In some places, locals can remember local lakes and marshes which were once the homes for all kinds of fish and birds. They have been completely buried by the sand now. Farmers leave the land, and fields are replaced by deserts.
The second cause is misuse or over-use of the land. This means that the wrong crops are planted, and need more water than is available (可获得的). Ploughing (耕种) large fields and removing bushes and trees means that the wind will blow away the soil. Once the soil is lost, it is hard to replace, and if there is rain, it has nowhere to go, and brings no benefit.
It is not only the farmers and villagers who suffer. Every spring, the skies over some of cities, thousands of kilometers away from the deserts, can be darkened by sandstorms. Dust from deserts can have a great effect on weather systems. While desertification is perhaps being partly caused by global warming, these sandstorms can make global warming worse by adding to what is known as the greenhouse effect.
What can be done to slow down or stop the process of desertification? A great deal of work is already under way. Obviously the first step is to find new water sources. Tree planting can also help, by providing barriers (屏障) between desert and rich field. Some types of grass also hold the soil together, and stop the wind taking it. Without these efforts, it will be harder and harder to stop the world’s deserts in their tracks, and more and more farmers will give up and head for cities. The lesson to be learnt lies beneath (在……下面) the sand.
1. What does the underlined word “marshes” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．A cold place. | B．A narrow field. |
| C．A wet area. | D．A dry land. |
| A．Growing wrong crops. | B．Planting enough trees. |
| C．Enlarging the fields. | D．Using too much water. |
| A．Desertification makes global warming worse. |
| B．Only farmers and villagers suffer a lot from desertification. |
| C．Finding new water sources is the only way to stop desertification. |
| D．We should dig the sand to solve the problem caused by desertification. |
| A．Influence of the Desertification | B．Importance of Water |
| C．A Global Environmental Issue | D．Necessity of War against Desertification |
1. Where did the woman learn about the turtles?
| A．From a friend. | B．From the Internet. | C．From a program. |
| A．200 meters. | B．2, 000 meters. | C．29, 000 meters. |
| A．It decides baby turtles’ sex. |
| B．It affects the number of eggs. |
| C．It changes the speed of hatch. |
| A．By banning the use of plastic. |
| B．By stopping hunting them. |
| C．By making nests for them. |
| A．How to lead a low-carbon life. |
| B．Where to buy household goods. |
| C．Which electrical equipment saves energy. |
In order to save this species from
This story took place about seven years ago.But images of that week are still clear in my mind.During that week, we had to face up to a
In fact, the hurricane did not cross the island only once, but three times,
Under those conditions,
6 . The newly-elected president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro says that his country should withdraw (退出) from the 2015 Paris Agreement, and that Brazil’s rainforest protections are standing in the way of economic success. During the election campaign, he promised to ease protections for areas of the Brazilian Amazon set aside for native people and wildlife. Are Brazil’s rainforests in danger?
The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is called “the lungs of the planet.” Each tree takes in and stores carbon dioxide from the air around it. Billions of trees pull up water through their roots and release water vapor into the air, forming tiny drops of water. The Amazon creates 30 to 50 percent of its own rainfall. Carlos Nobre, a climate scientist, says that it is almost impossible to say Just how important the rainforest is to the planet’s living systems.
Some of Bolsonaro’s support comes from business and farming groups. One supporter, Luiz Carlos, noted that farmers “are not invaders, they are producers.” He blamed the past government for supporting rainforest protections at the cost of farmers. “Brazil,” he said, “will be the biggest farming nation on Earth during Bolsonaro’s years.”
Paulo Artaxo, a professor of environmental physics at the University of Sao Paulo, says that if Bolsonaro keeps his campaign promises, then “deforestation of the Amazon will probably increase quickly — and the effects will be felt everywhere on the planet.”
Other scientists warn that if the Amazon and other tropical rainforests lose too many trees, this could affect rainfall in other areas. Without enough trees to support the rainfall, the longer and bigger dry season could turn more than half of the rainforest into a tropical grassland.
1. The first paragraph is intended to ________.| A．draw people’s attention to the disappearing rainforests |
| B．ask people to ease the protection of rainforests |
| C．attract the public to the newly-elected president |
| D．to complain about the new government's withdrawing |
| A．produce much farmland |
| B．examine people’s lungs |
| C．change the earth’s living system |
| D．destroy farmers’ crops |
| A．The new president’s supporters care less about farmers. |
| B．Scientists are concerned about the protection of rainforests. |
| C．The rainforests will stop the economic development in Brazil. |
| D．The past government is to blame for the destruction of rainforests |
| A．a newspaper |
| B．a magazine |
| C．a guidebook |
| D．a textbook |
7 . More and more birds are flying to settle at Qinghai Lake, one of the highest inland lakes in China, thanks to the protection efforts of local governments. Covering an area of over 4,000 square kilometers. Qinghai Lake is also the country's biggest saltwater lake. Located in Northwest China's Qinghai Province, the lake is famous for the two islands at its northwest point--Cormorant Island and Egg Island. The two islands have plenty of floating grass and various schools of fish, offering rich food sources for birds. The islands have become a paradise(天堂) for different kinds of groups of birds and have been called"Bird Islands".
Each March and April, when ice and snow covering the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau starts to melt, over 20 kinds of birds fly to the Bird Islands to lay eggs. During the months, flocks of birds cover the whole sky over the islands and birds eggs can be found everywhere. Visitors can hear the singing of birds from miles away. These have become a world famous symbol of the lake.
To protect this paradise for birds and support calls for ecological protection, China set up the Qinghai Lake Natural Protection Zone at the end of 1997. Meanwhile, the State has pointed out the Bird Islands and Spring bay of the Qinghai Lake as central protection zones.
Inspection(视察) officials and management employees often patrol（巡逻） the lake, improving local residents' knowledge of related laws and spreading knowledge about animal protection to visitors. They are making great efforts to call on people to love and protect the birds. At the same time, they have built special fences around the island area to prevent wolves, foxes and other carnivorous(食肉的) animals, as well as illegal hunters from breaking up the birds’nest building,egglaying and breeding. As a result, more and more birds are coming to the islands for sheltering and breeding.
1. Why are more and more birds coming to the biggest salt-water lake in the Great Northwest?| A．Because it is getting warmer and warmer. |
| B．Because it is being reformed. |
| C．Because environments there are getting more and more agreeable for them to live in. |
| D．Because the people there are becoming richer and richer. |
| A．floating fish and various grass. |
| B．grass moving on the water surface and different kinds of fish. |
| C．salt water and plenty of grains. |
| D．corn from the local farmers. |
| A．The ice and snow covering the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau doesn't change into water. |
| B．Flocks of birds fly up to the whole sky over islands to lay eggs. |
| C．Visitors can listen to the singing of birds from miles away, but they couldn't see any bird. |
| D．"The ice on the Plateau begins to change into water" means spring is coming. |
| A．let the farmers there know the animal protection law. |
| B．tell the farmers there some knowledge about animal protection. |
| C．call on people to love and protect the bird. |
| D．all of the above. |
During the World Elephant Day on Thursday, Chinese and foreign experts gathered in one online forum(论坛)
The 15 wild Asian elephants among
Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, mentioned an idea which focused
Zhang Chenglin, Deputy Director of the Beijing Zoo，who introduced some measures taken by Chinese zoos to take good care of elephants,
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The people
Now, more than10 years on, the people
Every day we use energy. We use it for cooking, for heating and for lighting our cities. The energy comes from many different
These fuels come from the remains of plants and animals. It takes millions of years
We need to have a strong sense of
What about turning off anything
Cars consume a lot of fuel, but there
