1 . For long, Preifer Fall Trail (路线) was a most popular attraction in Big Sur. Annually, thousands of people hiked the trail. Unfortunately, the trail, along with stairs, signs, railings, an observation station and wooden bridges, was destroyed in the 2008 Basin Complex Fire. But now a new trail has risen from the burned land.

With its amazing rocky coastline and mountains, Big Sur, the writer Henry Miller once said, is “the face of the earth as the creator intended it to look.” But the landscape always suffers natural disasters. There have been three major wildfires in Big Sur in the past years. “You can still see the impacts there,” said John Hiles, a state parks repair team leader, pointing to black marks 30 feet up a huge redwood.

Parks planners designed a new track, moving the trail out of the river to reduce its impact on the environment. People from the California protection group, state parks department and the nonprofit organization put in 66,000 hours of work over the past four years. They built 160 redwood stairs and dragged hundreds of 16-foot-long redwood sticks by hand to build railings. They removed 4,150 square feet of old building stuff, enough to cover a basketball court. They used iron cables and pulleys (缆线和滑轮) to build a 70-foot long wooden bridge over the hills. “Nature is probably the best place to learn,” Hiles said. “More than any college or school, you learn so many life lessons out here.”

However, the huge Soberanes Fire s wept through the area in 2016, putting a stop to the work. When they began again in 2017, great river storms flooded the area and damaged part of Highway 1. Everybody gathered around this project. They saw the loss. They missed it. They wanted it to come back. They kept combining efforts. It’s been a long journey, but worth the wait.

1. What can we learn about Preifer Fall Trail?

A．It is an attraction rebuilt in 2008.	B．It met with many natural disasters.
C．It features man-made landscape.	D．It is an addition to a previous track.

2. How did the people reduce the impact of the trail on the environment?

A．By moving the trail off watercourse.	B．By using huge redwood sticks.
C．By recycling the old building stuff.	D．By applying iron cables and pulleys.

3. What can best describe the people’s work?

A．Limiting and typical.	B．Adventurous but smooth.
C．Mysterious and attractive.	D．Tough but rewarding.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．The rise and fall of a hiking trail.	B．California protection projects.
C．The recovery of a lost attraction.	D．Journeys into wilderness.

2 . The Palace Museum, covering a vast 720,000-square-meter structure, has departed on a remarkable journey towards achieving zero waste. Since the launch of its ‘Zero Waste’ campaign in January 2020, significant strides have been made in reducing waste generation and promoting sustainable practices.

At the forefront of this initiative is the reduction in the number of trash bins across public areas, now totaling only 110 sets compared to the 310 sets in January 2020. This strategic decrease highlights the museum’s commitment to minimizing waste production while preserving the historical integrity of its six-century-old relic.

Moreover, the museum’s dedication to sustainability extends beyond waste reduction to creative recycling endeavors. For example, the “Funiu ci jiu” waste recycling sculptures displayed in the Cining Palace area, made up of 92% recycled waste from the museum, exemplify the transformation of waste into beauty through careful processes such as disinfection, pruning, grinding, and splicing. Notably, over 32,000 plastic bottles have been recycled between June 2021 and October 2023 to craft cultural and creative products. This innovative approach not only reuses waste but also contributes to a reduction in carbon emissions by 931 kilograms, showcasing the environmental impact of such projects.

The Palace Museum’s ‘Zero Waste’ project is characterized by a science-based and meticulous approach to waste management. Through comprehensive training programs for staff, the promotion of ‘zero waste offices,’ and the establishment of a composting (堆肥) pilot, the museum has achieved a remarkable recovery rate within the Palace Museum, reaching 45%.

Proof of the success of this campaign is the participation of approximately 3,000 museum staff members, 40,000 tourist guides, and an amazing 21 million visitors. By promoting waste reduction and eco-friendly practices, the Palace Museum is not only leading by example but also inspiring others to follow suit.

In summary, the Palace Museum’s journey towards zero waste exemplifies a harmonious blend of heritage preservation, environmental protection, and innovative solutions. With its firm dedication and pioneering efforts, the museum sets a model for other cultural sites across the globe, proving that sustainability and cultural preservation can go hand in hand.

1. What is the main reason behind the reduction in the number of trash bins at the Palace Museum?

A．To increase the historical integrity of the museum.

B．To encourage visitors to take their waste with them.

C．To reduce the workload of the museum staff.

D．To minimize waste production and promote sustainability.

2. According to the passage, what is the primary material used to create the “Funiu ci jiu” waste recycling sculptures?

A．Recycled plastic bottles.	B．Ceramic artifacts from the museum.
C．Wooden scraps from renovation projects.	D．Discarded metal parts from old machinery.

3. What can be inferred about the environmental impact of the Palace Museum’s recycling efforts?

A．It has led to a significant increase in carbon emissions.

B．It has resulted in a decrease in overall waste generation.

C．It has primarily focused on recycling paper products.

D．It has had no discernible effect on sustainability practices.

4. What is the main theme of the passage?

A．The history and architecture of the Palace Museum.

B．The environmental impact of tourism in cultural sites.

C．The implementation of sustainable practices at the Palace Museum.

D．The economic benefits of promoting cultural heritage.

3 . Inside a fishbowl, the goldfish — a species of carp native to East Asia, bred for aesthetic delight and traditionally believed to bring good fortune — is among the easiest of pets to keep. But released into the wild, the seemingly humble goldfish, freed from glass boundaries, can grow to large proportions. They can even kill off native marine wildlife and help destroy fragile and economically valuable ecosystems.

“They can eat anything and everything,” said Christine Boston, an aquatic research biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Over the past several years, Ms. Boston and her colleagues have been tracking invasive goldfish in Hamilton Harbour, which is on the western tip of Lake Ontario (安大略湖), about 35 miles southwest of Toronto.

Their study, published last month in the Journal of Great Lakes Research, could help pinpoint goldfish populations for culling, said Ms. Boston, who is the lead author. “We found out where they are before they start spawning (产卵),” she said. “That’s a good opportunity to get rid of them.”

The fast-growing female goldfish, Ms. Boston noted, can also reproduce several times in one season. “They have the resources,” she added, “and they can take advantage of them.” Their football-shaped bodies can swell to a size that makes them too large a meal for predators (捕食者) — up to about 16 inches long. The feral goldfish are also destructive, uprooting and consuming plants that are home to native species.

Nicholas Mandrak, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough, studies in the “dramatically increase” of the wild population in the past two decades. Their spawning explosion, he said, resulted partly from people in densely-populated areas releasing pets in urban ponds. He added, environmental managers tend to forget the goldfish. “They just assume, ‘It’s been there for 150 years — there’s nothing we can do about it.’”

The problem is not unique to Canada. In Australia, a handful of unwanted pet goldfish and their offspring took over a river in the country’s southwest. And the discovery of football-size creatures in a lake in 2021 even led British officials to beg their citizens: “Please don’t release your pet goldfish into ponds and lakes!”

People wrongly believe that because goldfish are “small and cute” they won’t pose a problem when released into the wild, said Anthony Ricciardi, a professor of invasion ecology at McGill University in Montreal.

Goldfish, he added, are just a small part of a vast invasion of non-native species whose outcomes can be unpredictable, and in some cases, are worsened by climate change.

“Under human influence, beasts are moving faster farther in greater numbers, reaching parts of the planet they could never reach before,” he said. “We’re talking about the redistribution of life on Earth.”

1. Which of the statements about the goldfish is correct?

A．Their place of origin is Canada.	B．They are capable of reproducing.
C．They will grow well over 16 inches.	D．They only invade Lake Ontario.

2. What does the underlined word in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Killing

B．Controlling

C．Catching

D．Observing

3. All of the following statements are the reasons for the spawning explosion Except:

A．Citizens wrongly set free the fish.	B．Climate change has a negative impact.
C．The environmental management is absent.	D．The food increases in habitats.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Now goldfish are turning into wild monsters.

B．Now goldfish are on the way to become a global issue.

C．Now goldfish are attracting scientists to study in.

D．Now goldfish are threatening the Great Lakes.

5 . Rhough temperature records from December have yet to be finalized, climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have found there’s a more than 99%chance that 2023 will have the hottest recorded global average temperature, beating out 2016, the previous leader. The year will be the hottest in 174 years of second-keeping where humans have directly measured the temperature of the planet. It’s also likely to be the hottest in the last 125,000 years, which scientists measure by rebuilding temperature records from physical evidence like tree rings and layers of polar ice that have grown over time.

The record-breaking year caused fuel climate-driven disasters around the globe from extreme heat that hit Arizona for weeks to floods in Libya and record-hot oceans that caused coral to bleach (变白) off Florida.

Scientists say the extreme temperatures are in line with forecasts (预测) for how the planet will continue to warm. The biggest driver of the heat is the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (大气层) from burning fossil fuels (化石燃料). “We know why this is happening,” says Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, a non-profit organization that studies climate trends. “A year like this would not have occurred without the trillion tons of carbon we’ve put into the atmosphere over the last century.”

Even with the chart-topping heat this year, next year could be equally as hot. A strong El Nino has already begun, where ocean temperatures warm up in the eastern Pacific. El Nino years are typically hotter, because a large amount of heat that’s stored in the ocean is sent to the atmosphere. “There’s absolutely still time to act,” an expert says. “Everything we do to change course today will make things better in the future.”

1. What can be inferred from paragraph 1?

A．2016 is likely to have the hottest global temperature.

B．The temperature records of 2023 have been finished.

C．Humans began to directly measure global temperature 174 years ago.

D．Tree rings are bad for recording temperature.

2. What is the main reason for the record-breaking heat?

A．The lack of fossil fuels.	B．The increase of greenhouse gases.
C．Corals bleached in the ocean.	D．Drivers putting much waste into the air.

3. Why could the next year be equally hot according to the text?

A．El Niño tends to cool down the atmosphere.

B．Ocean pollution leads to a warming Pacific.

C．A strong El Niño has begun in the western Pacific.

D．A lot of heat stored in the ocean goes into the atmosphere.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．2023 Has Suffered from a Strong El Nino

B．2023 May Be the Hottest Year on Record

C．Climate driven Disasters Influence Daily Life

D．The Ocean Plays a Key Role in Cooling Earth

6 . California has been using recycled wastewater for many years. A team has used it to make ice surfaces for the game of hockey(冰球运动). It has been used to make snow for the sport of skiing. And farmers use it to water their crops. But it has not been used directly for drinking water.

Recently, California officials approved new rules to let water agencies recycle wastewater and put it right back into the pipes that carry drinking water to homes, schools, and businesses. It is a big step for California.

California’s new rules would let—but not require—water agencies to take wastewater, treat it, and then put it right back into the drinking water system. That means proving to people that recycled water is not only safe to drink but also not dirty. California would be just the second US state to permit this, following Colorado. It has taken officials more than 10 years to develop these rules, a process that included several studies by independent groups of scientists.

A project in San Diego is aiming to produce nearly half of the city’s water through recycling wastewater by 2035. And the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California aims to produce up to nearly 570 million liters(升)a day for its 19 million people. Adel Hagekhalil is with Metropolitan Water. He said the new rules will permit new projects that have not yet been considered.

California’s new rules require the wastewater be treated for all bacteria and viruses, even if they are not present in the wastewater. In fact, the treatment is so intense that it removes all of the minerals that make fresh drinking water taste good. That means the minerals need to be added back at the end of the process. Polhemus is a director of the drinking water group for the California Water Resources Control Board. “It’s at the same drinking water quality, and probably better in many instances,” he said, adding that it takes time and money to build these treatment centers. So, they will only be available for bigger cities at first.

1. What does paragraph 1 mainly tell us about the recycled wastewater?

A．Its qualities.	B．Its functions.
C．Its target users.	D．Its disadvantages.

2. What do California and Colorado have in common?

A．They made some new rules on pollution.

B．They spent ten years recycling wastewater.

C．They tried to make wastewater safe to drink.

D．They requested water agencies to speed up treating water.

3. What is Polhemus’s attitude to turning recycled wastewater to drinking water?

A．Doubtful.

B．Favorable.

C．Pessimistic.

D．Indifferent.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The Process of Recycling Wastewater Is Complicated

B．California Tries to Reduce the Wastewater Generation

C．California Permits Turning Wastewater to Drinking Water

D．New Wastewater Treatment Projects Have Been Approved

7 . Nothing earns attention like rarity. In the natural world, rarity is most clearly represented by the last members of a declining species. These scarce (稀有) plants and animals are extremely valuable; they represent the final hope for preventing extinction. The efforts toward conserving rare species have made an enormous difference. In the past few decades, declines of many endangered plants and animals have been reversed (逆转). But the attention to scarcity could come at the expense of overlooking the ordinary.

If we are to conserve nature, we must maintain our focus on the familiar. Increasingly, conservation is turning its sights in this direction — to safeguard what is common, not just what is rare.

There are good reasons to consider the common. A study of North American birds uncovered that we have lost three billion birds on this continent within the past two generations.

These declines include species once considered widespread and secure, like the common redpoll, whose numbers are down by 29 million and the common nighthawk, down by 26 million. The shocking losses are a reminder that the mark of a species in trouble is not rarity, but rate of decline.

Notably, the shifts in abundance of common species can translate into sizeable shifts in ecosystem functioning. One caribou herd (北美驯鹿群), numbering in the hundreds of thousands, removes millions of kilograms of food for animals every year and returns nutrients to the soil in the form of millions of kilograms of animal wastes.

The value of common species is not just ecological and economic, but psychological. Study after study demonstrates that encounters with the natural world improve our mental state. Losing familiar species — whether birds in our backyard or butterflies on our doorstep — is likely to shrink (收缩) such opportunities for engagement.

Rarity will always occupy a significant place in conservation. But in our pursuit for a sustainable and biodiverse future, we must avoid “the extinction of commonness”.

1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?

A．To make a survey.	B．To offer a suggestion.
C．To introduce the topic.	D．To provide an example.

2. What does the example of bird study suggest according to the text?

A．Species loss balances the ecosystem.

B．Birds produce many nutrients to the soil.

C．Species rate of decline arouses people’s concern.

D．Birds are described as widespread and secure animals.

3. What can we conclude from the passage?

A．Rarity matters most in conservation.

B．Familiar species shouldn’t be ignored.

C．Biodiversity results in the extinction of commonness.

D．People’s physical state shrinks for the sustainable development.

4. Where is this text most probably taken from?

A．A news report.	B．A health column.
C．A biology magazine.	D．A travel brochure.

8 . One strategy for reducing food waste’s environmental impact seems contrary to common sense: Open more grocery stores. That’s according to new research from Elena Belavina, an expert in operations management and supply chains.

The food we throw out because it goes bad when cleaning out the fridge makes a surprisingly large contribution to global warming. One-third of all food produced is wasted, a problem responsible for carbon emissions (排放物) equivalent to all road transportation, said Belavina.

When consumers can purchase food nearby, they shop more often but buy less each time, ultimately wasting less. “The more stores you have, the lower food waste is going to be,” said Belavina. “Very small increases in store density (密度) can have a very high impact.”

Belavina found that in Chicago, which she said is typical of many American cities, adding just three or four markets within a 10-square-kilometer area would reduce food waste by 6% to 9%. That would achieve an emissions reduction comparable to converting (改装) more than 20,000 cars from petrol to electric power.

Most big cities are well below the ideal density of grocery stores that would minimize food waste, the research determined. In Chicago, that would be about 200 markets within a 10-square-kilometer area — compared to 15 currently — but most of the benefit from reduced emissions would be achieved by about 50 markets. New York City, with its abundance of produce stands and neighborhood markets, comes closest to its ideal density.

Urban planners, city governments and activists should pursue policies encouraging an ideal density of grocery stores based on each city’s population, she said. Chain stores’ sustainability plans should analyze how their store networks and supply chains contribute to food waste and emissions overall.

“We actually see some moves toward going a little bit back in time and those small corner stores and mom-and-pop stores are making a comeback,” she said.

1. Why can higher store density reduce food waste?

A．There are more stores to supply fresh food.	B．There are more stores to deal with food waste.
C．Consumers can spend less time on buying food.	D．Consumers needn’t overbuy their groceries.

2. How many markets are there per 10 square kilometers in Chicago now?

A．15 markets.

B．About 4 markets.

C．About 50 markets.

D．About 200 markets.

3. What does Belavina think of small corner stores and mom-and-pop stores?

A．They are helpful.	B．They are a problem.
C．They are of little help.	D．They do better than grocery stores.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．Buy Less, Eat Less	B．Ideal Density of Grocery Stores
C．Food Waste and Global Warming	D．More Grocery Stores, Less Food Waste

10 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入 1 个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

During the late 1980s, the Hami River, the main waterway in the east of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, nearly dried up.

    1    , in recent years, wild birds such as egrets have been seen feeding and resting along the Hami, which is known as the Mother River of Hami prefecture. The birds have become a scenic    2     (attract) in the area.

Since 1998, the authorities in the prefecture    3     (supply) water to the river    4     (improve) the environment. In 2019,     5     Hami River Ecological Restoration Project was launched by the authorities, who also established the Hami River National Wetland Park.

Song Zhangshi,   director of the management office at the wetland park,     6     (say) that by renovating more than 10,000 shantytowns near the river, preserving the original water system and    7     (add) plants, the greening rate along the waterway has risen from 18 percent    8     78 percent.

The park,    9     stretches for about 42 kilometers   wide north to south, is some 400 meters wide. It features pavilions by the riverside against a backdrop of gently flowing water, flowers, grass    10     old trees.

Abdu Kader, 84, who lives in Hami’s Yizhou district, said, “It is beautiful here, and I feel very happy walking in the area every day.”