1 . I fell in love with rhinos when I worked in a zoo in the 80s, and spent much of the next 20 years as the keeper of the largest captive (圈养的) group of rare black rhinos.
There’s a popular misconception that rhinos are aggressive and stupid, but I found them sensitive and affectionate animals. Weighing over a ton, black rhinos are unexpectedly agile (敏捷的) and have an unpredictable nature — but, given reassurance, they tend to believe people. In the past few decades, their numbers have dropped dramatically. In recent years, I’ve helped look after rhinos being moved to the reserve so they can form new populations in countries that have few left. Last year, I helped on a project to fly five black rhinos from a private reserve in South Africa to the Serengeti National Park. Once there, the animals had to be kept captive for a few weeks to adapt to the new environment, in which time they lived in “bomas” — wooden enclosures with “bedrooms”, designed to create a calm space.
A couple of weeks before their planned release, the sky filled with smoke. Watching the flames rushing through the bush toward the bomas, I froze. Terrified that it would catch fire, my instinct was to release the rhinos, but they hadn’t yet been fitted with transmitters (发信器). If I let them out into a bushfire and they were injured, we’d have great difficulty tracking them down. So I dashed back to the bomas and called the rhinos to the bedrooms. Sensing the fear in my voices, they moved without hesitation and remained astonishingly calm. It was crucial the rhinos didn’t panic — they can easily hurt each other if they do.
That we and the rhinos had escaped safe and sound was a miracle. The teamwork of everybody there played a large part, and the rhinos were very much a part of that team. The relationships we’d built with them had proved crucial — had they or we panicked, all our work would have been in vain.
1. What does the author think of the rhinos?| A．They are trusting animals. | B．They are highly organized. |
| C．Their habitats are under threat. | D．Their adaptability needs improving. |
| A．To assist rhinos to settle in. | B．To boost tourism in the reserve. |
| C．To avoid rhinos’ aggressive behavior. | D．To stop rhinos from fleeing. |
| A．By setting them free. | B．By tracking them down. |
| C．By driving them into bomas. | D．By fitting them with the transmitters. |
| A．The keepers’ timely alarm. | B．The inborn nature of rhinos. |
| C．The faith in the keepers’ heart. | D．The teamwork between the keepers and the rhinos. |
2 . In the rich countries of the West, the electric vehicle revolution is well underway. Climate-conscious consumers drive Teslas or Polestars for reasons of morality and fashion. Poorer countries are also experiencing a wave of electrified trend. In Bangladesh, electric three-wheeler taxis, known as tuk-tuks, are rapidly replacing gas-powered ones on the streets. Such electric vehicles are climate friendly, cost effective, and help reduce air pollution.
Yet a glance under the hood (引擎盖) of these vehicles reveals a poisonous secret: each tuk-tuk runs on five massive lead-acid batteries, containing almost 300 pounds of lead in total. Every year and a half or so, when those batteries need to be replaced and recycled, about 60 pounds of lead leak into the environment. Battery recycling, often at small-scale unregulated factories, is a highly profitable but deadly business.
Lead is dangerous, and any exposure to it is harmful to human health. Lead that has entered the environment hurts people on an extraordinary scale. The numerous ways lead enters air, water, soil, and homes across the developing world — and the enormous damage it does to human health, wealth, and welfare — causes one of the biggest environmental crises in the world yet receives little attention.
The World Bank estimates that lead kills 5. 5 million people per year, which would make it a bigger global killer than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, and road traffic deaths combined. On top of the shocking deaths, the social burden of lead poisoning is extraordinary, as is its contribution to global inequality — our research on the cognitive effects of lead poisoning suggests that it may explain about one-fifth of the educational achievement gap between rich and poor countries.
But unlike many challenges faced by developing countries, lead poisoning is a problem that is fixable with some attention and a relatively modest financial investment. Better monitoring, research, and rules can help protect children all over the world from the dreadful effects of lead poisoning and reduce the massive global costs it brings.
1. How does the author describe the lead problem in paragraph 2?| A．By making a comparison. | B．By analyzing hidden causes. |
| C．By listing convincing numbers. | D．By explaining its working principle. |
| A．Lead enters rich countries in various ways. |
| B．Lead poisoning may make poor societies poorer. |
| C．Exposure to lead doesn’t necessarily harm someone. |
| D．Lead leaking has caused great panic in both countries. |
| A．Fixing these used batteries. | B．Putting certain effort and money. |
| C．Prohibiting the illegal use of lead. | D．Reducing the cost of recycling lead. |
| A．The Impacts of Lead Poisoning on Human Health |
| B．The Outcomes of Using Electric Vehicles |
| C．The Ways to Solve Lead Problem |
| D．The Global Lead Poisoning Crisis |
3 . Finding a California condor in the wild would be the most unusual treat. perhaps even more unusual than finding a wolf in Yellowstone National Park. In fact, the wolf was what opened my eyes to the fact that humans could bring an animal back to the place where it had disappeared.
In 1987, there were only 27 California condors left, none of which were in the wild, only in captive breeding programs, It was those breeding programs that contributed to their population rise, enough that by 1991 some of them could be freed into the wild.
Still, the hope of seeing a California condor, which remains an endangered species, is very low, let alone getting a photo of one. California condor population dropped mostly due to human factors, such as poaching and living areas destruction-these are challenges California condors still face today.
Although this is just a bird’s-eye view of the challenges California condors face and there are many others, it is part of why the opportunity to work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service team and their partners helping their recovery is so special to me as a photographer. I am not only able to photograph the birds in their wild living areas, but also understand and record how difficult the work is of those people on the front lines of the protection.
I am grateful for the work of the team, and my hope is that California condor population will continue to rise allowing future generations an opportunity I never had when I first got here-to look to the sky and see one flying around.
1. What helped the increase of the California condor population in 1987?| A．Rules for hunters. | B．Captive breeding programs. |
| C．The improved natural environment. | D．The enlargement of wild living areas. |
| A．It is difficult. | B．It is easy. | C．It is boring. | D．It is dangerous. |
| A．He guided ways for them. | B．He made records by photos. |
| C．He helped the birds to recover. | D．He rebuilt the birds’ living areas. |
| A．New Way, New Hope | B．Wolves and California Condors |
| C．A Photo of a California Condor | D．The California Condor’s Coming Back |
4 . Landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom has designed a new green roof on the Rangsit Campus of Thammasat University, about 25 miles north of central Bangkok, Thailand. Her imaginative work challenges the common thinking that urbanization has a negative impact on the planet, whether flooding, excess (过度的) energy use, disrupted (扰乱) biodiversity or the heat island effect.
The 236, 806-square-foot structure, which opened in December 2019, includes a flood water management system and Asia’s largest rooftop organic farm. It combines modern landscape architecture with traditional agricultural knowledge, creating a green and friendly environment.
The green roof, containing an H-shaped landscape, looks like a futuristic hill with a brick building beneath it. The hill features a complex pattern of zigzagging terraces (之字形梯田) of planted beds, leading all the way down to the bottom. When rainwater hits the roof, it flows down the zigzags while being absorbed by the soil in the beds, The excess water is directed into four storage ponds — with a capacity of up to 3 million gallons. The process slows down the flow speed of rainwater runoff compared to a normal concrete rooftop. This keeps the area from flooding during heavy rains.
The roof’s terraces are filled with organically grown crops, including a drought tolerant variety of rice, many local vegetables and herbs. The farm can supply the canteens on campus with a large amount of rice, herbs and vegetables a year. The food waste is composted (把……制成堆肥) to fertilize the farm, and water from the storage ponds is used to water plants, creating an entirely localized and circular system.
The farm serves as an outdoor classroom and a source of local jobs, too. Farmers offer workshops on sustainable agriculture and nutrition as part of the university’s sustainability curriculum. “Students and community members are invited to participate in seasonal seeding, harvesting, and so on,” says Voraakhom. “The urban farm is training a new generation of organic farmers with real-world skills. It also promotes a sense of community.”
1. What can we say about Voraakhom’s work?| A．It’s short-lived. | B．It’s creative. |
| C．It’s demanding. | D．It’s time-consuming. |
| A．To store more water. |
| B．To plant diverse vegetables. |
| C．To slow the speed of water flow. |
| D．To make it look more attractive than other buildings. |
| A．It uses food as fertilizer. | B．It benefits the environment. |
| C．It improves students’ lifestyle. | D．It produces vegetables and fruits. |
| A．Students can learn hands-on knowledge on the farm. |
| B．Farmers working on the farm can become professors. |
| C．The farm prevents government from offering people jobs. |
| D．The farm harms the relationship between university and community. |
5 . Earth’s protective ozone(臭氧) layer is slowly but noticeably healing at a pace that would fully mend the hole over Antarctica in about 43 years, a new United Nations report says. The layer of ozone in Earth’s atmosphere shields the planet from harmful radiation linked to skin cancer, cataracts and crop damage. The progress is slow. The global average amount of ozone 18 miles high in the atmosphere won’t be back to 1980 pre-thinning levels until about 2040, the report said. And it won’t be back to normal in the Arctic until 2045. Antarctica, where it’s so thin there’s an annual giant gaping hole in the layer, won’t be fully fixed until 2066, the report said.
Scientists and environmental advocates across the world have long hailed the efforts to heal the ozone hole—springing out of a 1987 agreement called the Montreal Protocol that called on all countries to ban a class of chemicals often used in refrigerants and aerosol—as one of the biggest ecological victories for humanity. “Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase,” professor Petteri Taalas said in a statement. Signs of healing were reported four years ago although the observations at that point were in the early stages. “Those numbers of recovery have solidified a lot recently,” Petteri said.
“There has been a sea change in the way our society deals with ozone reducing substances,” said lead researcher David W. Fahey. Decades ago, people could go into a store and buy a can of refrigerants that eat away at the ozone. Now, not only are the substances banned but they are no longer much in people’s homes or cars, replaced by cleaner chemicals.
Natural weather patterns in the Antarctic also affect ozone hole levels. And the past couple years, the holes have been a bit bigger because of that but the overall trend is one of healing. This is “saving 2 million people every year from skin cancer,” United Nations Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen said in an email.
1. What can be concluded about ozone layer from the United Nations report?| A．It has been improved. | B．It has little harmful radiation now. |
| C．It will be in the best condition in 2040. | D．It will free Antarctica of biological risks in 2066. |
| A．New household appliances. | B．Development in fossil fuels. |
| C．Global efforts and cooperation. | D．Measures to slow global warming. |
| A．They are likely to be prohibited. | B．They are not easily obtainable currently. |
| C．They fail to meet great demand. | D．They are produced at a low cost. |
| A．Antarctic: a promising island. |
| B．Ozone layer: on track to recovery. |
| C．Restoration Progress: Overcoming Challenges. |
| D．The Montreal Protocol: A Global Success Story. |
1. What is the man doing?
| A．Watching TV. | B．Reading the newspaper. | C．Surfing the Internet. |
| A．19. | B．48. | C．130. |
| A．Food can’t be sent to the affected areas. |
| B．Storm Batsirai is hitting the country. |
| C．No effort was made to help it. |
7 . Every year, about 25, 000 plastic tents are thrown away after festivals in the Netherlands. That’s enough tents to get you from base camp to the top of Everest (珠穆朗玛) if you set up a tent every metre of the way. These plastic tent not only cause a lot of pollution to the environment, but they also have to be dealt with.
Into this situation stepped the KarTent. It’s a good solution to the plastic tent problem. The KarTent is a cardboard (纸板) tent. It is put up for you at the beginning of the festival and when the festival is over, the makers pick it up, take it away and recycle it into other products. No more plastic, no more waste. The production of one KarTent produces half the CO2 of a plastic tent. In the past, about thirty different materials were used to produce a tent. It may take hundreds of years to biodegrade (降解) the materials. However, to produce a KarTent, only one material is needed. It’s cardboard.
The tent is the brainchild of three Dutch businessmen: Jan Portheine, Wout Kommer, and Timo Krenn. After working on a cardboard beach hut, architect Jan started to look for other ways to use the skills he had learned, “In a meeting I met Wout and we found pictures of tents being left behind at festivals, and that’s how the idea started.”
Perhaps next time you’re at a festival you won’t have to look out across the sea of plastic, instead you’ll see the cardboard tents being neatly put into a truck and taken away to be recycled.
1. Why is Everest mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．To compare the Netherlands with it. | B．To introduce a famous place for us to visit. |
| C．To offer the wonderful place to put up tents. | D．To show the pollution caused by plastic tents. |
| A．Plastic. | B．Wood. | C．Cardboard. | D．Glass. |
| A．The campers themselves. | B．The makers of the tents. |
| C．The workers of festivals. | D．The inventors of the tents. |
| A．A creative idea. | B．A kind of illness. |
| C．A clever child. | D．A special experience. |
8 . Getting rid of(丢弃) old tyres(轮胎) has long been a problem. Every year many tyres are thrown. Some of the ways might be better than getting rid of them, but they are not especially green.
Energy recovery(回收利用) is one common way. This includes burning tyres to produce electricity, or as a way to provide heat for other industrial processes. But that produces planet-warming pollution. Tyres can be whole or broken in construction projects, such as repairing roads. There are, however, worries about chemicals from the tyres coming out and polluting the ground.
So some companies have begun exploring another pleasing idea. Since tyres are mostly made from hydrocarbons(碳氢化合物), it should be possible in principle to turn old tyres into environmentally friendly materials which can be used to run some cars they came from. One of the most thoughtful companies is based in Oslo, Norway. Later this year the company will start building a huge tyre-reused factory in Sunderland in northeastern England. In a couple of years, when the factory is fully operational, it will be able to turn 8 million old tyres into new products.
The process works by dividing a tyre into its three main parts. One is steel, which is used to support the structure of a tyre and which can be easily reused. The second is powder used to improve the continuous use of the tyre. The third is rubber. Some of that will be natural rubber from the rubber trees. The carbon black can be reused to make new tyres. That is of interest to tyre makers because it helps efforts to become carbon neutral(碳中和).
1. What is the disadvantage of energy recovery of tyres mentioned in the text?| A．It is unpractical. | B．It produces pollution. |
| C．It costs a lot. | D．It produces less electricity. |
| A．By giving an example. | B．By making questions. |
| C．By following time order. | D．By comparing differences. |
| A．Costly. | B．Useful. | C．Dangerous. | D．Short-lived. |
| A．Tyres can be divided into three parts |
| B．A company built a tyre-reused factory |
| C．Energy recovery can deal with old tyres |
| D．Old tyres can become environmentally friendly materials |
Strange things were happening in Tangshan. For a few days, the water in the village wells rose and
At 3:42 a. m. everything began to shake. It seemed as if the world were coming to
But hope was not
Slowly, the city began to breathe and revive
10 . The China International Search and Rescue Team (CISAR) was formed in 2001 and it is now made up of several hundred rescue workers (which is really awesome) and about 20 sniffer dogs. The team brings help and hope to those whose lives are
After long and careful training (训练), the team went on its first international rescue mission (任务) in 2003. That year, the Chinese team helped to save lives after earthquakes in Algerica (阿尔及利亚) and Iran (伊朗). It was the first time that a Chinese team had worked
Rescue workers are trained to find people, treat injuries, and hand out food, water, and other
Rescue workers must have big hearts, too. It takes a lot of
| A．improved | B．lost | C．affected | D．saved |
| A．wonder | B．view | C．disaster | D．language |
| A．outside | B．across | C．through | D．without |
| A．trips | B．experiments | C．surveys | D．missions |
| A．killed | B．damaged | C．injured | D．destroyed |
| A．took | B．struck | C．swept | D．changed |
| A．money | B．training | C．save | D．aid |
| A．ruins | B．demands | C．supplies | D．means |
| A．games | B．shelters | C．efforts | D．conditions |
| A．air | B．breath | C．tap | D．electricity |
| A．Rescue | B．Fire | C．Metal | D．Delivery |
| A．bury | B．save | C．aid | D．survive |
| A．strength | B．spirit | C．wisdom | D．love |
| A．risking | B．risks | C．to risk | D．risked |
| A．whenever | B．whoever | C．whatever | D．wherever |
