1 . Do you know that forests cover an estimated 38 percent of the total land surface of the European Union (EU)? And that these extensive areas covered with trees and underbrush need to be protected so they can continue to do good for the environment for the next generation? Now the EU has just come up with is ambitious new “Forest Strategy”.
Forests can fight against climate change and prevent biodiversity loss They can reduce the impacts of climate change by cooling down cities, protecting us from heavy flooding, and reducing drought impacts. They are valuable ecosystems that are home to a major part of the world’s plants and animals. But forests also improve our health and well-being through functions like water regulation, erosion (侵蚀) control and air purification. And they serve as ideal settings for “recreation, relaxation and learning, as well as securing livelihoods”.
This new European- wide forest conservation vision takes in an impressive commitment to plant a minimum of three billion additional trees over the next decade. This is an ambitious plan but a long overdue one because forests have been battered by severe weather and human impacts, particularly the demand for wood over the last ten years. As the EU Observer puts it,“extreme weather events and the increasing demand for forest services and products, driven by wood-based bioenergy and international trade, have accelerated tree cover loss in the last decade.”
This EU strategy takes into account the complexity of ; forest sustainability. Observation, knowledge exchange, ongoing monitoring and close cooperation between public and private organizations and individuals are also key elements in this new continent- wide forest protection strategy.
This is a future- focused blueprint, designed to protect these precious green areas, and ensure that the trees and greenery are here to stay!
1. Why are two questions raised in the beginning?A.To tell us the EU’s forest coverage. |
B.To call on people to protect forests. |
C.To explain the reason for the strategy. |
D.To encourage more forest expansion. |
A.The urgency of the strategy. |
B.The importance of forests. |
C.The background of the strategy. |
D.The environmental role of forests. |
A.Preserved. | B.Controlled. | C.Removed. | D.Damaged. |
A.Planting Trees for the World |
B.Irreplaceable Benefits of Forests |
C.EU’s Action to Protect the Earth |
D.Taking Forests into the Future |
2 . For years, twice a day Aadya Joshi walked past a dump filled with smelly rubbish in her neighbourhood of south Mumbai on her way to and from school. Originally it was meant to be the garden of the local police station. When she was 15, during her summer holidays, Joshi decided to do something about it. “I walked into the police station and was like, ‘Can I please clean your garden?’” recalls Joshi. “It took three or four weeks to eventually convince them that I was not going to give up halfway and leave them with more work.”
The plot of land covers an area of 60 square meters, about a quarter of a tennis court. But, over the course of four Sundays in the summer, with help of local residents, Joshi did more than clear it. She replanted it with native Indian plants and trees. Joshi said, “The first day that we cleaned up I made the mistake of not wearing gloves and I was sick for two weeks.”
The idea for native planting came from Joshi’s reading on the Miyawaki method of afforestation (植树造林) and the work of University of Delaware ecologist Douglas Tallamy. These both argue that planting the right trees can have a significant impact on restoring insect and animal biodiversity. The results in Mumbai were instantaneous: monkeys now hang out at the police station, and butterflies and birds have made the garden their home.
After creating the garden, Joshi developed a database of 2,000 plants unique to the Indian subcontinent and last year was awarded the annual Children’s Climate prize, founded by Swedish energy company Telge Energi. Her advice for others looking to follow in her footsteps: “If you bite off more than you can chew in the beginning, you will be stuck and lose motivation,” she says. “But something small, like your neighbourhood police station, it’s very manageable.”
1. What can we learn from Joshi’s words in the second paragraph?A.The work was enjoyable and rewarding. |
B.The garden was too large to clean. |
C.The cleaning was hard and dangerous. |
D.Joshi was sick of the cleaning work. |
A.Dangerous. | B.Profitable. | C.Costly. | D.Immediate. |
A.All roads lead to Rome. |
B.Time and tide wait for no man. |
C.The longest journey starts from the first step. |
D.Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. |
A.To demonstrate the environment problems. |
B.To call on attention to India’s young people. |
C.To persuade readers to donate to a environment program. |
D.To advocate a teenager’s efforts in caring about the world. |
3 . Coral reefs are the rainforests of the ocean. They exist on vast scales and are equally important havens of biodiversity. Reefs occupy 0.1% of the oceans.
Corals are useful to people. Without the protection which reefs afford from crashing waves, low-lying islands such as the Maldives would have flooded long ago, and a billion people would lose food or income. However, reefs are under threat from rising sea temperatures. Heat causes the algae (海藻) with which corals are living together to generate toxins (毒素) that force those coral to leave.
Research groups around the world are coming up with plans of action to see if that will help, such as identifying naturally heat-resistant corals and cross-breeding such corals to create a new type.
Doubters doubt humanity will get its act together in time to make much difference.
A.This can cause a coral’s death. |
B.But there are grounds for optimism. |
C.And they host a quarter of marine species. |
D.Coral’s global ecosystem services are worth up to $10trn a year. |
E.This mix of natural activity and human intervention is important. |
F.This research can also be brought to bear on trying to save entire ecosystems. |
G.However, the assisted evolution of corals does not meet with universal enthusiasm. |
4 . A Plastic Ocean is a film to make you think. Think, and then act. We need to take action on our dependence on plastic. We’ve been producing plastic in huge quantities. Drinking bottles, shopping bags and even clothes are made with plastic.
The film begins as a journey to film the largest animal on the planet, the blue whale. But during the journey the filmmakers make the shocking discovery of a huge, thick layer of plastic floating in the Indian Ocean.
In the film there are beautiful shots of the seas and marine life.
We make a shocking amount of plastic. Over 300 million tons of plastic are produced every year, and at least 8 million of those are thrown into the oceans. The results are very harmful, but it isn’t too late to change.
A.It has raised public concern all over the world. |
B.In conclusion, we only have one earth to live on. |
C.But the film doesn’t only show the negative side. |
D.These are contrasted with plastic rubbish thrown around. |
E.Once you’ve seen the film, you’ll realize it is time to do our part. |
F.This causes them to travel globally to look at other affected areas. |
G.We live in a world full of plastic, and only a small amount is recycled. |
5 . Biodiversity is a concept that's commonly referenced, yet regularly misunderstood. The complex
“If biodiversity disappears, so do people,” says Dr. Stephen Woodley, field ecologist and bio-diversity expert with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “We are part of the
Preventing such a catastrophe, says Woodley, begins with understanding why biodiversity is declining, and then taking action to
“The two greatest
That's the mission of the global Campaign for Nature, a partnership of the Wyss Foundation and the National Geographic Society. Instead of simply protecting 30 percent of the Earth, the
The campaign also recognizes the importance of
“Biodiversity is stability,” says Sala. “Trees, wetlands, grasslands, peat bogs(泥炭沼泽), salt marshes(盐沼), healthy ocean ecosystems, mangroves(红树林), and plants
A.argument | B.term | C.structure | D.problem |
A.altering | B.developing | C.stabilizing | D.worsening |
A.ecosystem | B.threat | C.cycle | D.procedure |
A.affect | B.change | C.reverse | D.continue |
A.aspects | B.causes | C.consequences | D.occasions |
A.acquiring | B.protecting | C.exploiting | D.possessing |
A.management | B.announcement | C.campaign | D.competition |
A.consume | B.destroy | C.lose | D.contain |
A.denying | B.enjoying | C.ignoring | D.respecting |
A.essential | B.simple | C.temporary | D.profitable |
A.Besides | B.However | C.Thus | D.Otherwise |
A.witness | B.detect | C.confirm | D.avoid |
A.measure | B.absorb | C.survive | D.prevent |
A.mission | B.decision | C.option | D.exploration |
A.worried about | B.confident in | C.responsible for | D.good at |
6 . Concrete has served as the foundation stone of the construction industry for hundreds of years. However, the process of producing concrete is one of the most environmentally unfriendly processes in the world. In the process, not only is carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) released into the air by the energy used to heat the limestone, but the limestone itself also gives out a huge amount of the element.
Luckily, a number of start-ups throughout the world are using creative thinking to make the construction industry a whole lot more friendly for the planet.
A Canadian company called CarbonCure, has found a way to inject (注入) concrete with carbon dioxide itself. Not only does this trap the carbon dioxide into the concrete, keeping it from running away into the atmosphere, but it also creates a super strong material called calcium carbonate, which reduces the total amount of concrete that needs to be used.
California-based Brimstone, is creating carbon-negative concrete by doing away with limestone entirely and instead using silicate rock, a material that does not release carbon dioxide when heated. Instead, the process produces magnesium (镁) , which absorbs carbon dioxide, as the basis for their concrete.
Additionally, researchers at Australia’s RMIT University have recently released a study showing that adding coffee grounds instead of sand to concrete could make it much stronger, reducing both the amount of sand used, as well as the amount of concrete that would need to be used in the final product.
The biggest barrier at this point is convincing members of the industry that the new types of concrete are safe to be used, according to Stacy Smedley, director at a nonprofit focused on decarbonizing construction.
Hopefully these new solutions to the environmental problems of concrete will soon be widely adopted. Given the significant part the construction industry has in releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, great improvements can be made when more environmentally-friendly materials are used.
1. What is the environmental issue associated with traditional concrete production?A.The high demand for energy. | B.The processing of waste materials. |
C.The mass release of carbon dioxide. | D.The use of non-renewable resources. |
A.By using silicate rock as the basis. | B.By putting carbon dioxide into concrete. |
C.By replacing sand with coffee grounds. | D.By absorbing carbon dioxide with magnesium. |
A.Difficulty in making profits. | B.Convincing the public of the convenience. |
C.Lack of funding for research. | D.Removing the industry members’ safety concerns. |
A.To promote an alternative to concrete. | B.To advocate environmental protection. |
C.To introduce new ways to produce concrete. | D.To emphasize the significance of creativity. |
About 385, 000 people from 192 countries take part in the yearly project to count birds. The event
Steve and Janet Kistler from the American state of Kentucky are among those
Becca Rodomsky-Bish,
The worldwide data goes into the eBird database used by scientists for research on different bird
1. 活动介绍;
2. 活动意义。
注意:
1. 写作词数应为 80左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
A Successful Cleanup Activity
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9 . Research has found that using wood for construction instead of concrete and steel can reduce emissions. But Tim Searchinger at Princeton University says many of these studies are based on the false foundation that harvesting wood is carbon neutral (碳中和). “Only a small percentage of the wood gets into a timber (木料) product, and a part of that gets into a timber product that can replace concrete and steel in a building,” he says. Efficiencies vary in different countries, but large amounts of a harvested tree are left to be divided into parts, used in short-lived products like paper or burned for energy, all of which generate emissions.
In a report for the World Resources Institute, Searchinger and his colleagues have modelled how using more wood for construction would affect emissions between 2010 and 2050, accounting for the emissions from harvesting the wood. They considered various types of forests and parts of wood going towards construction. They also factored in the emissions savings from replacing concrete and steel.
Under some circumstances, the researchers found significant emissions reductions. But each case required what they considered an unrealistically high portion of the wood going towards construction, as well as rapid growth only seen in warmer places, like Brazil. In general, they found a large increase in global demand for wood would probably lead to rising emissions for decades. Accounting for emissions in this way, the researchers reported in a related paper that increasing forest harvests between 2010 and 2050 would add emissions equal to roughly 10 percent of total annual emissions.
Ali Amiri at Aalto University in Finland says the report’s conclusions about emissions from rising demand are probably correct, but the story is different for wood we already harvest. “Boosting the efficiency of current harvests and using more wood for longer-lived purposes than paper would cut emissions,” he says. “We cannot just say we should stop using wood.”
1. What is wrong with previous researches according to Searchinger?A.They got wrong statistics. | B.They used an incorrect concept. |
C.They included too many factors. | D.They were applied in limited countries. |
A.The process of the new research. | B.The background of the new study. |
C.The challenge of the new research. | D.The achievements of the new study. |
A.When wood grows slowly. |
B.When wood is largely used to make paper. |
C.When wood is largely used in construction in countries like Brazil. |
D.When wood is largely harvested in countries like Brazil. |
A.Favorable. | B.Doubtful. | C.Critical. | D.Objective. |
Rising sea levels are threatening coastlines in China, for example in
The good news is
The development of electric vehicles is particularly
Ecological civilization has become the cornerstone (基石) of China’s long-term development strategy, much like climate action is