1. Why did Miriam’s uncle give her some money?
| A．To pay for her school tuition. |
| B．To celebrate her birthday. |
| C．To reward her for her kindness. |
| A．It inspired Miriam and her mother to visit Africa. |
| B．It tells the abuse of elephants in Thailand. |
| C．It is about a boy’s campaign to save elephants. |
| A．By teaching people to make clay elephants. |
| B．By drawing pictures about elephants. |
| C．By making and selling baked goods. |
| A．She’s a teacher. |
| B．She’s an animal doctor. |
| C．She’s an artist. |
要求：
1. 利用本单元所学知识完成句子；
2. 使用恰当的过渡衔接词连句成篇。
①人类活动影响了动物的栖息地，大大降低了野生动物的数量。
②很多野生动物很难适应现在的环境。（it作形式宾语）
③政府已经关注这种状况，并采取了一系列措施来应对这个问题。
④与此同时，一系列的法律已经付诸实施。
⑤我相信我们会成功地消除这件事对我们的困扰。
⑥人类肯定可以与动物和平共处。
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3 . People have always believed that nature is good for health and happiness. According to scientific studies, being in nature makes people less stressed. In a recent experiment in Japan, one group of people were asked to walk through a forest while another group had to walk through a busy city.
Gregory Bratman from Stanford University in the United States found in experiments that a walk in nature could have important cognitive (认知) benefits, improving a person’s memory and creativity.
Why does being in nature bring so many benefits for us?
Scientists also think that being in nature helps our brain recover from a lot of activities that we usually do during the day such as working on math problems or using our cell phone.
| A．The walks were equally long and hard |
| B．Regular workouts are surprisingly helpful |
| C．One idea is that human beings come from nature |
| D．Nature’s benefits have been scientifically confirmed |
| E．In these activities, we use a lot of directed attention |
| F．Being in nature increases people’s mental health as well |
| G．We can see this in schools where outdoor learning has been introduced |
4 . Birders get nervous when they see landscapes covered in wind turbines (涡轮机). When the wind gets going, their blades (叶片) can turn around at well over 200km per hour. It is easy to imagine careless birds getting cut into pieces and wind turbines do indeed kill at least some birds. But a new analysis of American data suggests the numbers are negligible, and have little impact on bird populations.
Erik Katovich, an economist at the University of Geneva, made use of the Christmas BirdCount, a citizen-science project run by the National Audubon Society. Volunteers count birds they spot over Christmas, and the society gathers the numbers. He assumed, reasonably, that if wind turbines harmed bird populations, the numbers seen in the Christmas Bird Count would drop in places where new turbines had been built. Combining bird population and species maps with the locations and construction dates of all wind turbines, he found building turbines had no noticeable effect on bird populations.
Instead of limiting his analysis to wind power alone, he also examined oil-and-gas extraction (开采), which has boomed in America over the past couple of decades. Comparing bird populations to the locations of new gas wells revealed an average 15% drop in bird numbers when new wells were drilled, probably due to a combination of noise, air pollution and the disturbance of rivers and ponds that many birds rely upon. When drilling happened in migration centers, feeding grounds or breeding locations, bird numbers instead dropped by 25%.
Wind power, in other words, not only produces far less planet-heating carbon dioxide and methane than do fossil fuels. It appears to be significantly less damaging to wildlife, too. Yet that is not the impression you would get from reading the news. Dr Katovich found 173 stories in major American news media reporting the supposed negative effects that wind turbines had on birds in 2020, compared with only 46 stories discussing the effects of oil-and-gas wells.
1. What does the underlined word“negligible”in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Insignificant. | B．Inaccurate. | C．Inconsistent. | D．Indefinite. |
| A．Previous studies. | B．Relevant data. |
| C．Reasonable prediction. | D．Experiment results. |
| A．Oil-and-gas extraction has expanded in America. |
| B．Birds are heavily dependent on rivers and ponds. |
| C．Many factors lead to the decline of bird populations. |
| D．Well drilling poses a serious threat to birds' survival. |
| A．Wind turbines could share the sky with wildlife. |
| B．More evidence is needed to confirm the finding. |
| C．Wind power will be substituted for fossil fuels. |
| D．Wind turbines deserve wider media coverage. |
5 . Nanako Hama gets a lot of mail, mostly from strangers who live in her home city of Tokyo. In light envelopes, they send locks of their hair, hoping to recycle it.
People generate a huge amount of hair waste. Nearly all of that waste ends up in landfill, where it can release harmful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
But hair possesses useful qualities that it’s a shame to simply throw it away. That’s why people all around the world, like Hama, have been collecting hair and finding innovative ways to recycle it, including making mats (垫子)out of it for removing oil leaks.
Hama is part of the nonprofit Matter of Trust (MoT) members working at more than 60 centers dotted across 17 countries, using machines to make hair donated from local salons and individuals into square mats, which are then used to clean up the floating oil.
Hair is particularly well-suited for this, says MoT co-founder Lisa Gautier. “That’s because its rough sort of outer layer lets oil stick to it.” MoT’s mats have been used in major oil leaks. including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 2007 Cosco Busan incidents.
In a 2018 study, Murray, an environmental scientist at the University of Technology Sydney, in Australia found that mats made of recycled human hair could absorb 0.84 grams of oil onto its surface for every gram of hair—significantly more than polypropylene (聚丙烯), a type of plastic that’s typically used to clean up floating oil.
Besides, hair is also useful as fertilizer (化肥). Hair contains a relatively high nitrogen (氮), a chemical element crucial for plant growth, and each lock of hair is made of roughly 16 percent of this essential nutrient. Last year, more than 560 gallons of liquid fertilizer made from human hair was sold to farmers in northern Tanzania and the feedback from the farmers has been very encouraging.
“It’s just a great way to use hair in a productive way. Hair is an answer literally hanging in front of our eyes—for oil and soil,” Hama says.
1. How does the author introduce the topic in paragraph 1?| A．By detailing the background. | B．By presenting a scene. |
| C．By describing the feedback. | D．By supporting evidences. |
| A．Fertilize the soil. | B．Prevent oil leaks. |
| C．Clear the sea of oil. | D．Take in harmful gas. |
| A．Its color and strength. |
| B．Its length and amount. |
| C．Its weight and flexibility. |
| D．Its structure and component. |
| A．Debatable. | B．Applicable. |
| C．Irreplaceable. | D．Uncontrollable. |
6 . The California sea otter (海獭), once hunted to the edge of extinction, has staged a thrilling comeback in the last century. Now, scientists have discovered that the otters’ success story has led to something just as remarkable: the restoration of their declining coastal marsh (沼泽) habitat.
Elkhorn Slough, a coastal marsh within Monterey Bay, had been experiencing severe damage. The root cause was a growing population of shore crabs, which fed heavily on the marsh plants, weakening the structural integrity of the habitat. Coastal marshes like these are not only natural defenses against storm waves but also serve as important carbon storage areas and water-cleaning systems.
The conservation-driven comeback of the sea otter has been crucial. California’s coastlines were once alive with sea otters. Sadly, they were nearly wiped out at the hands of fur traders. In the 1980s, conservation efforts aided these otters in re-occupying large areas of their former range. Now, Elkhorn Slough has the highest concentration of sea otters in California, with a population of about 100. By naturally feasting on crabs, the otters have helped a significant regrowth of plant life. Brent Hughes, a scientist working alongside Angelini, led a three-year study. Their findings were clear: in areas with sea otters, crab numbers fell markedly. This led to a resurgence in plant growth, which in turn stabilized the soil and lowered the rate of soil washing away.
As the sea otter population continues to restore, their positive impact on coastal ecosystems is likely to increase. It not only showcases the sea otter as a central species—a species that has a significant effect on its natural environment—but also highlights the essential nature of top predators (捕食者) in preserving ecological harmony. “My honest reaction was—this could become a classic in the literature,” says scientist Lekelia Jenkins. She reveals marsh restoration also helps people by reducing flooding. “Suddenly, sea otters go from just cute things we like to something that can protect our livelihoods and our properties.”
1. What change did the disappearance of sea otters bring about?| A．Fewer predatory crabs. | B．More coastal plant life. |
| C．Better water-cleaning effect. | D．Worse coastal ecological balance. |
| A．Barrier. | B．Advancement. | C．Expansion. | D．Revival. |
| A．To highlight the importance of coastal marshes. |
| B．To introduce a new research study on sea otters. |
| C．To demonstrate the practical benefits of sea otters. |
| D．To emphasize the need for increased conservation efforts. |
| A．The necessity for controlled hunting. |
| B．The interconnectedness of the ecosystem. |
| C．The drawbacks of wildlife reintroduction. |
| D．The need for human intervention in nature. |
The Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, which plays
In late August, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, one of the most
New Orleans, a city
The hurricane died away on August 31. Hurricane Katrina, which caused nearly 2,000 deaths,
9 . The sporty all-electric car from the Netherlands resembles a BMW car, but is unique: It captures more carbon than it emits. “Our end goal is to create a more sustainable future,” said Jens Lahaije, finance manager for TU/ecomotive, the Eindhoven University of Technology student team that created the car. Called ZEM, for zero emission mobility, the two-seater houses a Cleantron lithium-ion battery (锂电池) pack, and most of its parts are 3D-printed from recycled plastics, Lahaije said. The target is to minimize carbon dioxide emitted during the car’s full lifespan, from manufacturing to recycling, he added.
Battery electric vehicles emit virtually no CO2 during operation compared with combustion-engine (燃烧式发动机) vehicles, but battery cell production can create so much pollution that it can take EVs tens of thousands of miles to achieve “carbon parity (相同)” with comparable fossil-fueled models.
“Direct air capture is a fairly new method of cleaning the air by capturing CO2 into a filter (过滤器). We have made use of this innovative technology and implemented this in our car. The idea is very simple: while driving, air will move through our self-designed filters and the CO2 will be captured and stored.” ZEM uses two filters that can capture up to 2 kilograms (4.41 lb) of CO2 over 20,000 miles of driving, the Eindhoven team estimated. They imagine a future when filters can be emptied at charging stations, based on the fact that there are a nationwide charging infrastructure, which includes residential, commercial and public chargers across the country installed by the Energy Department, automakers and private businesses.
The students are showing their vehicle on a US promotional tour to universities and companies from the East Coast to Silicon Valley, hoping to attract more financial support.
It is hard to tell where the future will take the electric vehicles, but it is clear that they hold a lot of potential for creating a more sustainable future. In the end, only time will tell what road electric vehicles will take in the future.
1. What advantage does the newly-designed car have?| A．It looks like a BMW car. | B．It is a drive-less car. |
| C．It’s a carbon-eating electric vehicle. | D．It purifies air automatically. |
| A．The function of filters. | B．The benefits of direct air capture. |
| C．The application prospect of the technology. | D．The operating principle of the technology. |
| A．Lack of research fund. | B．Unpredictable application prospect. |
| C．No permission from the government. | D．Strong objection from the car companies. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Confident. | C．Concerned. | D．Pessimistic. |
In downtown Xiamen, Fujian Province, a 6-meter-high mound(土堆) that stretches for 60 to 70 meters stands in contrast to the high-rise
The blue-tailed bee-eater, or Merops philippinus, is known for its colorful plumage and on the Chinese mainland it
In recent years, with improved environmental conditions in Xiamen and the city government’s commitment
In 2015, the center
The birds,
The 13-year experience of preserving blue-tailed bee-eaters has given the center a grasp of their habits and made the Wuyuanwan Nature Reserve a stable home for them.
