1 . Ways to Host an Eco-Friendly Cookout
Eating in the open air may feel eco-friendly, but outdoor dining can result in unnecessary waste if you aren’t careful.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Skip the paper invitations and use online services like Email, or Facebook events.
Stop Using Plastic
Plastic is a leading cause of litter and isn’t easy to recycle. To make sure your cookout eco-friendly, consider some other options for making your cookout stand out. Use recycled jars as glasses. They’re also far less breakable than regular glasses.
Wherever possible, shop for local produce and goods to serve your guests. This will reduce your carbon footprint and help support your local economy. Buy produce and meats at your local farmers’ market. Look for organic, but favor local over organic if you have to make a choice.
Use Renewable Light Sources
| A．Support Global Economy |
| B．Think Globally, Shop Locally |
| C．Ask guests to bring glasses of their own |
| D．Keep track of what everyone is bringing ahead of time |
| E．Save on energy by hosting your party during the daylight hours |
| F．The key to being eco-friendly is to reduce waste wherever possible |
| G．Put up some label to the jars so people can write their names on them |
2 . Mandara seemed to know something big was about to happen. So she let out a yell, caught hold of her 2-year-old daughter Kibibi and climbed up into a tree. She lives at the National Zoo in Washington D.C..
And on Tuesday, August 23rd, witnesses said she seemed to sense the big earthquake that shook much of the East Coast before any humans knew what was going on. And she’s not the only one. In the moments before the quake, an orangutan (猩猩) let out a loud call and then climbed to the top of her shelter.
“It’s very different from their normal call,” said Brandie Smith, the zookeeper. “The lemurs (monkey like animals of Madagascar) will sound an alarm if they see or hear something highly unusual.”
But you can’t see or hear an earthquake 15 minutes before it happens, can you? Maybe you can——if you’re an animal.
“Animals can hear above and below our range of hearing,” said Brandie Smith. “That’s part of their special abilities. They’re more sensitive to the environment, which is how they survive.”
Primates weren’t the only animals that seemed to sense the quake before it happened. One of the elephants made a warning sound and a huge lizard (蜥蜴) ran quickly for cover. The flamingoes (a kind of birds) gathered before the quake and stayed together until the shaking stopped.
So what kind of vibrations (震动) were the animals picking up in the moments before the quake? Scientist Susan Hough said earthquakes produce two types of waves——a weak “P” wave and then a much stronger “S” wave. The “P” stands for “primary”. And the “S” stands for “secondary”. She thinks the “P” wave might be what sets the animals off.
Not all the animals behaved unusually before the quake. For example, Smith said the zoo’s giant pandas didn’t jump up until the shaking actually began. But many of the other animals seemed to know something was coming before it happened. “I’m not surprised at all,” Smith said.
1. Why did Mandara act strangely one day?| A．Because it sensed something unusual would happen. |
| B．Because its daughter Kibibi was injured. |
| C．Because it heard an orangutan let out a loud call. |
| D．Because an earthquake had happened. |
| A．many animals hearing is sharp |
| B．earthquakes produce two types of waves |
| C．primates usually gather together before a quake |
| D．humans can also develop the ability to sense a quake |
| A．A giant panda. | B．A flamingo. |
| C．A lemur. | D．A lizard. |
| A．How animals survive a quake |
| B．How animals differ from humans |
| C．How animals behave before a quake |
| D．How animals protect their young in a quake |
3 . Most people know something about the greenhouse effect. Factories send gasses such as carbon dioxide, or CO2, into the atmosphere, the air around the earth. In the past, this wasn’t a problem because trees absorbed the CO2. But now people in many countries are cutting down billions of trees all around the world. At the same time, factories are sending more CO2 into the atmosphere. It’s difficult to believe, but factories put billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. One ton is over 2000 pounds, so it is a lot of pollution. There is too much CO2 and there aren’t enough trees, so the world is getting warmer. In other words, we have a greenhouse effect. This is terrible for the environment.
What can we do about this? Firsts we can stop using so much coal and oil. We can learn to use different kinds of energy: the sun, wind, steam from volcanoes，and heat from inside the earth. Second, instead of cutting down trees, we should plant more trees. One tree can absorb ten pounds of carbon dioxide every year.
The trees are good for the earth’s atmosphere and for Guatemala (拉丁美洲国家危地马拉).In small towns and villages in Guatemala, most women are poor and have hard lives. Trees help them in three ways. First, the Connecticut factories pay them to plant the trees. Their pay is com, not money. The com is good for their children. Second, these women know a lot about their environment. They know where to plant when to plant, and what kinds of trees to plant. For example，they plant many fruit trees. The fruit gives them vitamins for their families’ s diets. Other trees are good for firewood. In a few years, the women won’t spend so much time looking for firewood. Third, all these trees are good for the soil. Now rain can’t wash the soil down from the mountains so easily.
This plan isn’t enough to stop the greenhouse effect. However, it’s a start. The woman of Guatemala are helping themselves and helping their environment.
1. Which of the following statement is NOT true?| A．Factories send more CO2 into the atmosphere. |
| B．Trees can’t absorb the same CO2 as they did in the past. |
| C．Billions of trees are being cut down throughout the world. |
| D．The greenhouse effect is extremely bad for the environment. |
| A．The reasons why we should plant more trees. |
| B．Ways we can adopt to take heat from volcanoes. |
| C．Measures to be taken to forbid the use of coal and oil. |
| D．Things we can do to stop or reduce the greenhouse effect. |
| A．By preventing the greenhouse effect. |
| B．By developing their skills of planting trees. |
| C．By enabling them to earn more money to support their family. |
| D．By making them get com and fruit to feed their family in return. |
| A．Critical. | B．Neutral. |
| C．Positive. | D．Doubtful. |
4 . Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he’s an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein’s jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.
Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts(收银台). The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.
Among the bag makers’ argument: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today.
The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.
Environmentalists don’t dispute(质疑) these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.
1. What has Steven Stein been hired to do?| A．Help increase grocery sales. |
| B．Recycle the waste material. |
| C．Stop things falling off trucks. |
| D．Argue for the use of plastic bags. |
| A．Bans on plastic bags. |
| B．Effects of city development. |
| C．Headaches caused by garbage. |
| D．Plastic bags hung in trees. |
| A．They are quite expensive. |
| B．Replacing them can be difficult. |
| C．They are less strong than plastic bags. |
| D．Producing them requires more energy. |
| A．Plastic, Paper or Neither |
| B．Industry, Pollution and Environment |
| C．Recycle or Throw Away |
| D．Garbage Collection and Waste Control |
Diets have changed in China — and so too has its top crop. Since 2011, the country
A taste for meat is
According to the World Bank, China accounts for about 30 percent of total
6 . For decades, American National Park visitors have been told that they hold the health and safety of the areas they visit in their hands. But as it turns out, stopping wildfires is simply not that easy, researchers say. And while some forest experts support plans that could greatly reduce the risk of widespread burns, they will cost billions of dollars and take decades. And even so risks will still exist.
The rapid increase in the frequency and intension(强度)of wildfires in recent years follows centuries of growing human influence on forests. We tend to put out wildfires as quickly as possible. But that instinct(本能)has allowed brush and trees that would normally die off in the occasional fire to continue growing in some areas. So when fires do strike, they can’t be controlled because these plants allow them to burn much more seriously.
Climate change has also created more favorable conditions for wildfires. Fires spread more quickly in warm temperatures caused by global warming. Conditions like climate change-related drought(干旱)also increase the likelihood of wildfires. A lack of access to water kills trees and plants and dry conditions transform the brush into a material that burns easily.
“Due to climate change and other factors, fire seasons tend to be longer and drier,” says Dong Rideout, professor of forest and rangeland stewardship at Colorado State University. “It turns out that fuel treatment programs can address both.”
Newer strategies for controlling wildfires include a number of different methods for reducing forest and plant life. government and forest protection officials have increasingly invested in programs to remove the extraneous(外来的)brush that helps fires spread quickly. Prescribed burns are one of the most effective---and controversial(引起争议的)----methods of reducing fire risk. In a prescribed burn, fire officials set fire to an area easily attacked by fire. Setting controlled fires allows forest workers to remove plant material under the conditions that they know will keep the fire from spreading too rapidly. Prescribed burns also help remove extraneous species that might destroy the native habitat, and in turn, crate more dead brush that could lead to bigger fires.
The method has grown in popularity in recent years, but still faces challenges, particularly in areas where burns might threaten local air quality.
Efforts to use these preventive methods have been increased in recent yeas, but experts say funding needs to be increased rapidly before wildfires spread across the globe. Governments have devoted billions of dollars to addressing wildfires, but the money has largely gone to putting out existing fires, as the number and intensity of wildfires increases.
1. Which of the following can be used to complete the process mentioned in Paragraph 2?
| A．Plants dies naturally | B．Human influence works |
| C．New plants are planted | D．The frequency of fires increases |
| A．can stop wildfires from breaking out |
| B．keep the temperature staying quite low |
| C．slow down the process of climate change |
| D．make fire seasons shorter and wetter |
| A．They are helpful in controlling wildfires under experimental conditions |
| B．They can help people to protect the forest environment |
| C．They can prevent extraneous species from increasing |
| D．They are effective and fully accepted by the public |
| A．governments should provide more funding for preventive methods |
| B．governments are attempting to increase the funding for putting out existing fires |
| C．governments’ efforts to deal with the problem of wildfires have been successful |
| D．governments’ funding should be increased at the same speed as the development of wildfires |
| A．Why haven’t Americans been able to stop wildfires |
| B．The historical development of wildfires in America |
| C．The relationship between wildfires and America society |
| D．How does the American government deal with the problem of wildfires |
7 . China suffers choking smog, mass destruction of habitats and food poisoned with heavy metals. But ask an environmentalist what is the country’s biggest problem, and the answer is always the same. “Water is the worst,” says Wang Tao, of the Carnegie Tsinghua Centre in Beijing, “because of its shortage, and because of its pollution.” “Without water,’’ agrees Pan Jiahua, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, “people cannot survive in a desert.’’ Wang Shucheng, a former water minister, once said, “To fight for every drop of water or die. That is the challenge facing China.” He was not exaggerating (夸大).
China uses 600 billion cubic meters of water a year. The national average hides an even more alarming regional difference. Four fifths of China’s water is in the south, particularly the Yangtze river basin. Half the people and two thirds of the farmland are in the north, including the Yellow River basin. Beijing has the sort of water shortage usually associated with Saudi Arabia: just 100 cubic meters per person a year.
China is using up water at an unsustainable (无法可持续的) rate. As if that were not bad enough, . The Yellow River is often called the cradle of Chinese civilization. However, a third of the water is unfit even for agriculture. Four thousand petrochemical factories are built on its banks.
The water available for use is thus so bad. Song Lanhe, chief engineer for urban water quality monitoring at the housing ministry, says only half the water sources in cities are safe to drink. More than half the groundwater in the north China plain cannot be used for industry, while seven tenths is unfit for human contact, even for washing.
The best answer would be to improve the efficiency (效率) with which water is used. Only about 40% of water used in industry is recycled, half as much as in Europe. The rest is dumped in rivers and lakes. Wang Zhansheng of Tsinghua University argues that China is neglecting its urban water infrastructure (基础设施), leading to more waste. Water prices in most cities are only about a tenth of the level in big European cities, yet the government is unwilling to raise them, for fear of a popular criticism. The result is that China’s “water productivity” is low.
Rather than making wise reforms in pricing and water protection, China is focusing on increasing supplies. The best known such project is the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze. But this year an even vaster project - the South North Water Diversion Project (南水北调工程)-is due to start. It will link the Yangtze with the Yellow River, taking water from the wet south to the dry north. When finished, it is intended to deliver 45 billion cubic meters of water a year and to cost a total of 486 billion yuan ($ 79.4 billion).
The environmental damage could be huge. The Yangtze is already seriously polluted. The project so far has reduced the quantity of underwater life in the Yangtze by over two thirds. And that was before it even opened. Ma Jun. China’s best known environmental activist, says the government’s preference for giant engineering projects only makes matters worse, “causing us to hit the limits of our water resources”. The water crisis is driving China to desperate but eventually unhelpful measures.
1. From the first two paragraphs we know that .| A．water is badly polluted in most of the area of China |
| B．the water in China is unfit for people to survive in a desert |
| C．Wang Shucheng was sad about China’s future |
| D．people in North China are facing a more serious water shortage |
| A．China is polluting what little water it has left. |
| B．The biggest damage of the water .shortage could be political. |
| C．300 dead bodies were found floating in the Yellow River near Lanzhou. |
| D．The Chinese government have reacted, to water problems by huge but harmful projects. |
| A．By listing data. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By delivering warnings. |
| A．offering diverse water supplies and conservation |
| B．strengthening construction of water infrastructure and recycling |
| C．raising water prices in big cities as European countries |
| D．building up more giant water projects and cooperating with neighbors |
| A．a vast and significant project | B．a huge and promising project |
| C．a giant but unsuccessful project | D．a costly but effective project |
| A．there is no good way for China to solve the problem of water crisis |
| B．more giant projects like the Three Gorges should be built |
| C．it is urgent for China to deal with the crisis of water shortage and pollution |
| D．China should put forward other efficient ways instead of those giant engineering projects |
8 . Environmental protection is everywhere and Christmas is no exception. Going “green” has
For about 100 dollars, Evergrow Christmas Trees and Carbonsync Christmas will drop off a potted tree at your home or business and
Carbonsync plans to donate its trees to habitat restoration groups for replanting, while Evergrow says it will
Trees normally cost four times less on average, but are usually turned into mulch or sent to garbage dumps after the holidays in most North American cities.
“What (folks) are doing now is that they’re
“These trees grow anywhere from 6 to 12 years to be
The firm’s trees will also continue to
And if a family
| A．ever | B．never | C．once | D．recently |
| A．where | B．that | C．which | D．when |
| A．pick it out | B．pick it on | C．pick it away | D．pick it up |
| A．cards | B．boxes | C．presents | D．letters |
| A．remove | B．return | C．replant | D．resettle |
| A．used for | B．charged for | C．cared for | D．prepared for |
| A．given | B．donated | C．rented | D．sold |
| A．donating | B．renting | C．growing | D．replanting |
| A．used for | B．used as | C．used to | D．used during |
| A．cost | B．waste | C．value | D．usage |
| A．draw | B．breathe | C．take | D．absorb |
| A．regardless of | B．instead of | C．in spite of | D．in place of |
| A．hopes | B．expects | C．wishes | D．desires |
| A．as soon as | B．as much as | C．as long as | D．as quickly as |
| A．turn in | B．work in | C．decorate in | D．fit in |
9 . Shiny things absorb less heat when left in the sun. This means that if the Earth could be made a little shinier it would be less likely to suffer global warming. Ways to brighten it, such as adding nanoscale specks（纳米级） of salt to low clouds, making them whiter, or putting a thin haze of particles into the stratosphere（平流层）, are the field of “geoengineering”（地球工程）. A small band of scientists which have mostly been using computer models to study the subject. Some of them are now proposing outdoor experiments—using seawater-fed sprayers to churn out particles of the exact size needed to brighten clouds, or scattering sulphur particles（硫粒子） from underneath a large balloon 20km up in the sky.
The scientists hope to understand some of the processes on which these technologies depend, as a way of both measuring their possibility (can you reliably make the proper amount of sea salt brighten clouds?) and assessing their risks (how much damage to the ozone layer might a stratospheric haze do, and how might such damage be minimized?). The experiments would be far too small to have any climatic effects. The amount of sulphur put into the stratosphere by the experimental balloon would be 2% of what a passenger jet crossing the Atlantic emits in an hour.
However, many scientists doubt whether geoengineering experiments have any effects. And some environmentalists say that such experiments reflect the hubris（傲慢）of humans, who believe they can toy with nature.
Geoengineering is not an alternative to relieving climate change by cutting carbon emissions. Even if emissions do start to fall, the cuts will lake decades to have any effect so temperatures are likely to go on rising for some time. The planet is not getting cooler and the pressures on the climate are unlikely to go away. It is therefore not too hard to imagine a world, decades from now, in which emissions are falling but temperatures are rising steeply and the ability to adapt to them has been stretched too far. An additional way to stabilize temperatures might then seem appropriate. Geoengineering offers that possibility.
1. The aim of the outdoor experiments in paragraph 1 is .| A．to relieve the global warming | B．to brighten the clouds |
| C．to test the computer models | D．to study geoengineering |
| A．scientists aren't sure whether sea salt can brighten clouds |
| B．geoengineering would minimize the damage to the ozone layer |
| C．the amount of sulphur emitted by a balloon is very small |
| D．a passenger jet emits much more sulphur than a balloon does |
| A．global warming will be relieved | B．climatic pressure will be removed |
| C．the temperature will remain stable | D．global warming will last for years |
| A．passenger jets are a major cause of global warming |
| B．scientists don’t show due respect for the environment |
| C．geoengineering is better than cutting carbon emissions |
| D．cutting emissions isn't enough to relieve climate change |
10 . Scientists this week announced that lightning can travel much farther and last much longer than previously thought.
The conclusion is based on observations of a storm in Oklahoma that produced a lightning bolt (霹雳) nearly 200 miles long, nearly half the width of the state. The longest-lasting flash was observed in southern France, where a single flash in 2012 lasted for 7.74 seconds. Most lightning bolts last less than a second and travel only a few miles.
“We should be more aware of lightning if we can have lightning that can travel 200 miles.” said Randy Cerveny, the spokesman on weather and climate extremes for the World Meteorological Organization, which added for the first time, lightning to its list of extreme weather events. This list includes records for heat, cold, wind speed, rainfall and other events.
Scientists said that the Oklahoma lightning bolt shot from Tulsa, Okla. westward, nearly to the Texas border. It touched the ground in several places.
The lightning can start tens or hundreds of miles away and then come back to where we are. That’s why we have to be careful of where the lightning is coming to ground, even though the storm is past.
Of course not all storms have extreme lightning like that observed in Oklahoman and French storms. The Oklahoma bolt came in the midst of a particularly bad patch of weather early on June 20, 2007.
“Most lightning will strike within the 30-30 rule,” said Dr. Cerveny. “The 30-30 rule is one that we still want to stress and make sure people are aware of... but it does confirm that lightning can hit far from where the storm actually is.”
The “30-30” rule stipulates (规定) that if thunder follows lightning within 30 seconds, people should go inside for 30 minutes. If it lasts longer, it’s safe to stay outside.
Studying lightning is important because it can be fatal when it strikes. This year, 35 deaths have been blamed on lightning striker, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That’s the highest death toll related to lightning strikes in any single year since 2007, reports The Weather Channel.
Though thunder is just the sound of lightening, the rumble(隆隆声) arrives after the light flash during a storm, because light travels much faster than sound. The booming sound is a shock wave caused by the rapid expansion of air suddenly heated by the lightning holt.
1. According to the authorities, lightning may ________.| A．cause as great harm as a severe earthquake |
| B．parallel hurricanes in their harm to humans |
| C．impact on people in a larger area than rains |
| D．be far more difficult to forecast than storms |
| A．when we can carry out observations on lightning bolts |
| B．what the relationship is between lightning and a storm |
| C．where lightning may possibly reach and cause damage |
| D．how we might keep ourselves safe from a lightning bolt |
| A．the longer distance a bolt covers, the more dangerous it may be |
| B．lightning bolts tend to take place in extremely hot summer days |
| C．we mustn’t stop caring about the bolts until they come to an end |
| D．where there is no storm, there is no danger from lightning |
| A．an application in lightning |
| B．an update on lightning |
| C．an experiment on lightning |
| D．an analysis of lightning |
