Those who haven’t been to the Mu Us may not have an opportunity to do so. The desert is disappearing from
The Mu Us
However, the area was no desert in ancient times. It used to be grazing land
In modern times, the Mu Us, the fourth
Thanks to greening, the desert is poised to disappear. The feat(丰绩) wouldn’t have been achieved
2 . Are you a tea drinker? If so, you’re not alone. Every day around the world millions of cups of this popular brew are drunk, and it’s been that way for thousands of years. The oldest discovered tea is from the Han Dynasty, dating from 206BC to 220AD. But it’s thought that the tea trend really took off during the Tang Dynasty in the 8th Century, when it became China’s national drink. Now, Turkey, the Republic of Ireland and the UK are believed to be the biggest tea—drinking nations, per capita.
Tea is consumed in many ways-slurped, sipped or glugged. It can be poured from pots, infused or brewed in the cup using tea bags—and it’s this latter process that is causing concern. Research last year found some premium tea bags might be leaving billions of microscopic plastic particles in the cup. Scientists from McGill University in Montreal found that some ‘plastic’ tea bags shed high levels of micro plastics into water. However, The World Health Organization says such particles in drinking water do not appear to pose a risk.
Most tea bags are made from paper, with a small amount of plastic used to seal them shut— made from oil. This has led to debate about whether they can be recycled, but many are still composted. However, gardener Mike Armitage has told the BBC that the plastic contained in the soil could be washed into streams and rivers and ultimately out to sea.
Unilever, the owners of the tea brand PG Tips, said their tea bags are made with a small amount of plastic—used to seal them—and that they are suitable for composting. And the brand Yorkshire Tea said their bags do contain 25% polypropylene, but they were “actively developing plant—based and biodegradable alternatives”.
While tea bag manufacturers might be doing their bit to reduce plastic pollution, it could be a good time to switch your favourite beverage to coffee, or if that isn’t your cup of tea then try using loose-leaf tea, which can have a better flavour.
1. What is the main idea of paragraph 2?| A．Tea can be consumed in many ways. |
| B．The use of tea bags doesn’t appear to pose a risk |
| C．The use of tea bags is causing concern. |
| D．Some tea bags might be leaving microscopic plastic particles in the cup. |
| A．reduce the amount of plastic used to seal tea bags |
| B．wash the plastic in the soil into streams, rivers and sea |
| C．develop plant-based and biodegradable alternatives |
| D．switch to coffee or try to use loose-leaf tea |
| A．Supportive | B．Indifferent | C．Opposed | D．Neutral |
| A．Potential Plastic Pollution |
| B．Chinese tea culture |
| C．What is your favorite drink? |
| D．The Humble tea bag |
3 . Buying furniture is easier than ever. You can even order a new table and chairs online without ever leaving home. But did you ever think about how furniture is made? The process begins with trees but now researchers have found a better way: growing it in a lab instead of a forest. Instead of cutting down trees and adding to deforestation, Velasquez-Garcia said, “If you want a table, then you should just grow a table.”
The research group found a way to actually grow plant tissue (组织) — wood and fiber — in a lab that is similar to the way cultured meat is grown. While there is still a long way to go to actually grow a table, the team was able to grow structures from cells from zinnia leaves.
Making furniture and other items from biomaterials could eliminate cutting down trees in forests. “The way we get these materials hasn’t changed in centuries and is very inefficient,” said Velasquez-Garcia. “This is a real chance to avoid all that inefficiency.”
There are other benefits to using lab wood too. Lab grown wood can be handled to take on any shape — like 3 D printing — so it may be possible to build a table without glue or screwing parts together.
Beckwith, a mechanical engineering PhD student, was inspired by a visit to a farm to try to make land-use more efficient and environmentally sound. “That got me thinking: Can we be more strategic (战略上的) about what we’re getting out of our process? Can we get more yield for our inputs?” she told MIT News. “I wanted to find a more efficient way to use land and resources so that we could let more farmlands remain wild, or to remain lower production but allow for greater biodiversity.”
Today, the two largest uses of trees are to make wood products and paper. When new biomaterials become readily available, forests will lose their economic value and will be preserved for their environmental, health, and recreational value. These researchers, like Velasquez-Garcia, are speaking for the trees.
1. What does the author think of growing furniture according to Paragraph 1?| A．It turns out to be convenient. |
| B．It’ll cut down daily expense. |
| C．It might have a bright future. |
| D．It’s as important as making furniture. |
| A．Risk. | B．Fancy. | C．Remove. | D．Delay. |
| A．To make large profits. |
| B．To keep biodiversity. |
| C．To increase production. |
| D．To use wild resources. |
| A．Wide use of new biomaterials. |
| B．Less use of wood products and paper. |
| C．Making effective forest laws. |
| D．Caring more for the environment. |
A Rubbish Collector's Work Is Never Done
Brian Kane was a rubbish collector in Denver, Colorado. Eight hours a day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year, he rode on the back of a garbage truck. At each stop, he would jog to the back of buildings, then drag heavy rubbish cans to the truck. Brian never complained.
Brian saw these hardships as opportunities to become strong and fit. His job was a training ground for his lifelong dream: to climb Mount Qomolangma. On his thirtieth birthday, Brian took a leave from his job and flew to Nepal to begin the long, difficult journey up Mount Qomolangma.
Brian first climbed to a base camp. He planned to bring three oxygen containers with him to the top. At 29, 028 feet, it would be hard to survive without extra oxygen. Over the next two months, Brian climbed to 26, 000 feet, to Camp Four—the last place to rest below the top of the mountain. But when Brian saw this camp, he fell to his knees. “Rubbish!” he cried. Nearly a thousand empty oxygen containers littered the camp area. Humans had turned this beautiful, far-away place into a big rubbish pile. Brian was very sad. But with a strong determination he continued to follow his dream. Two days later he stood proudly on the top of Mount Qomolangma. He had reached the “roof of the world!”
Two days after this great achievement, Brian put a dozen empty oxygen containers in his pack and headed down the mountain He smiled to himself as he realized that the work of a rubbish collector is great and never done.
1. What was Brian Kane?(不多于三个单词)2. What was Brian's lifelong dream?(不多于四个单词)
3. How did Brian feel when he saw the rubbish pile at Camp Four?(不多于两个单词)
4. What do you think of Brian Kane?(一个单词)
5 . The world is going through a basic transformation,which is changing the way we live, work and think. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is bringing dramatic change and giving rise to a future filled with exciting opportunities and new challenges. Together, governments and businesses must find solutions to society's most pressing needs—from creating a carbon-free economy to tackling population growth and urbanization.
In any period of rapid change there is a trend to look for a simple method,to greet the new things and replace the old way of doing things. But a closer look at the facts tells a different story. Complex problems require many solutions working in harmony to enable positive change.
The challenge for scientists and engineers is to provide solutions in fact, data and today's realities. And while technologies offer new tools to help uncover solutions, the process also requires hard work, imagination and lots of improvement.
Success rests on performing practical, realistic, long- term solutions that make the world cleaner, safer and more sustainable(可持续的).
The environment is a case in point. Much of the public debate has centered on the central role of renewable power sources in realizing a low-carbon energy future. While the industry is fully behind developing renewables, today we understand that a low or zero-carbon future depends on adopting a multifaceted approach.
We cannot control sunshine levels or decide when the wind blows, which means solar power and wind power generators will produce too much or too little energy at times. The transition to renewables needs to take account of serious considerations.
Batteries have been much discussed as a means of storing extra energy, but there are other choices. Power-to- X technologies enable spare energy created by renewables to be stored and redistributed when and where it is needed.
1. Which of the following best explains the underlined word“tackling" in Paragraph 1?| A．Caring about. | B．Dealing with. |
| C．Going through. | D．Suffering from. |
| A．Offer new tools to help uncover solutions. |
| B．Look for a simple method to face the future. |
| C．Find out ways to solve the problem. |
| D．Realize a low-carbon energy future. |
| A．Powerful. |
| B．Safe. |
| C．Clean. |
| D．Unsteady. |
| A．They can adjust power supply. |
| B．They take the place of batteries. |
| C．They help make more electricity. |
| D．They can create power from wind and sun. |
6 . At 5:13 on the morning of April 18th 1906, the city of San Francisco was shaken by a terrible earthquake. A great part of the city was destroyed and a large number of buildings were burnt. The number of people who lost homes reached as many as 250, 000. About 700 people died in the earthquake and the fires.
Another earthquake shook San Francisco on October 17th, 1989. It was America’s second strongest earthquake and about 100 people were killed. It happened in the evening as people were travelling home. A wide and busy road which was built like a bridge over another road fell onto the one below. Many people were killed in their cars, but a few lucky ones were not hurt.
Luckily the 1989 earthquake did not happen in the centre of town but about 50 kilometres away. In one part of the town a great many buildings were destroyed. These buildings were over 50 years old, so they were not strong enough. There were a lot of fires all over the city. The electricity was cut off for several days too.
Why do earthquakes happen? Scientists explain that the outside of the earth is made of a number of different plates. At San Francisco the Pacific plate which is moving towards the northwest meets the North American plate. The Pacific plate is moving very slowly—at 5.3 centimetres a year. Sometimes these two plates stop and do not move for years. Then suddenly, they jump and an earthquake is felt. As a result of the movement of these plates, west America near the sea has always been a bad place for earthquakes. When the 1906 earthquake happened, the Pacific plate jumped 5-6 metres to the north.
Scientists are afraid that one day an even bigger earthquake will hit the area around San Francisco. They call it “The Big One”. However, people today are still building more houses. The population in and around San Francisco is now ten times more than it was in 1906. This means that if there is another big earthquake, a great many houses and buildings will be destroyed.
1. Fewer people were killed in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake because the earthquake happened_______.| A．in the centre of the city | B．in the daytime |
| C．outside the city | D．in the evening |
| A．The 1906 earthquake. | B．The 1976 earthquake. |
| C．The 1989 earthquake. | D．Both A and C. |
| A．Because the surface of the earth is too thin. |
| B．Because some plates of the earth move suddenly. |
| C．Because the houses built on the earth are not strong. |
| D．Because the plates are moving slowly. |
| A．We should learn how to predict earthquakes and stop them. |
| B．We should stop building new houses. |
| C．We should build strong buildings in the right places. |
| D．We should try our best to stop earthquakes. |
| A．Bridge. | B．Road. |
| C．Car. | D．Street. |
7 . An Indonesian librarian is lending books to children in exchange for trash they collect in a novel way to clean up the environment and get the kids to read more.
Each weekday Raden rides her three-wheeler with books piled up at the back for children in Muntang village to exchange for plastic cups, bags and other waste that she carries back. She told Reuters she targets to promote reading in the kids as well as make them aware of the environment. As soon as she shows up. little children, many accompanied by their mothers, surround her "Trash Library" and clamour for the books.
They are all carrying trash bags and Raden's three-wheeler quickly fills up with them as the books fly out. She's happy the kids are going to spend less time on online games as a result.
Kevin, a keen 11-vearold reader, searched for waste lying in the village. "When there is too much trash, our environment will become dirty and it's not healthy. That's why I look for trash to borrow a book," he said.
"Let us build a culture of literacy（识字）from young age to reduce the harm of the online world." Raden said, "We should also take care of our waste in order to fight climate change and to save the earth from trash "
She collects about 100 kg of waste each week, which is then sorted out by her colleagues and sent for recycling or sold. She has a stock of 6,000 books to lend and wants to take the mobile service to neighbouring areas as well.
Raden said: "The literacy rate for above-15-year-olds in Indonesia is around 96 percent, but a September report by the World Bank warned that the pandemic will leave more than 80% of 15-year-olds below the minimum reading proficiency level." And she wanted to do her part to make things better.
1. What is Raden's purpose of establishing Trash Library?| A．To earn money for Trash Library by selling trash. |
| B．To develop the children's creativity from young age. |
| C．To raise the kids' awareness of environment while reading. |
| D．To promote the relationship between children and mothers. |
| A．Passion for reading. | B．Concerns about pollution. |
| C．Addiction to the Internet. | D．Determination to volunteer. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Worried. | C．Appreciative. | D．Tolerant |
| A．A Novel Way to Improve Library | B．The Indonesian System for Reading |
| C．Your Trash Benefiting the Environment | D．Your Collected Trash for Our Books |
1．词数 100 左右；
2．可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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9 . Most of us are aware that we must take care of the environment, and the majority of us take steps to save energy and reduce waste and pollution. But recently, some “green truths” have been shown to be only half true, or even completely false.
Eating local food is good for the environment.
It seems like common sense: eating local food should be better for the environment, because it does not need to be transported long distances and kept cold during transport.
It depends on how long you spend in the shower and how large your bath is. If you spend more than eight minutes in a shower, you'll use as much water as in a bath—about 50 litres of water. Therefore, the key is to keep your shower time as short as possible.
Paper shopping bags are better than plastic ones.
Plastic bags cause litter and are a danger to wild animals.
However, making a paper bag uses four times as much energy as making a plastic bag and up to three times the amount of water. The process also produces more greenhouse gases.
Environmental awareness is now part of daily life. But it’s worth checking common ideas and opinions to see what's really green.
| A．They mistake them for food. |
| B．Here are some common ones. |
| C．Unfortunately, it is not that simple. |
| D．It’s better to take a shower than a bath. |
| E．A paper bag is more environmentally friendly. |
| F．In fact, both kinds of bags are bad for the environment. |
| G．When we turn off a machine, it goes into a stand-by state. |
Looking for a fun Earth Day activity? You may want to try plogging------picking up litter while jogging. Strange as it may sound, the new “sport” is becoming popular with runners worldwide, many of whom are posting photos of images holding bags of trash on social media.
Derived from（起源于）the word jogging and “plocka upp”, the Swedish phrase for pick up, plogging is the idea of Erik Alstrom. In 2016, after moving to Stockholm from northern Sweden, Alstrom was shocked by the amount of rubbish there, so he began incorporating（将…包括在内）picking up rubbish into his daily runs.
Other joggers soon joined Alstrom, and by the end of 2016, plogging had appeared all across Sweden. As plogging became popular on social media, the new “sport” began to spread beyond Sweden, first to other European countries and then worldwide.
The official online “Plogga” group now includes members from over 40 countries. Many school running clubs are also getting in on the action, posting photographs of themselves after going plogging together, or staging competitions that reward the runners with the heaviest trash bags.
As it turns out, plogging is not only good for the environment but also for people’s health. According to Swedish fitness app Lifesun, an average person burns about 288 calories while plogging for half an hour. This is about 50 calories more than he/she would burn when just jogging. Additionally, lowering the body to pick up litter increases the plogger’s flexibility, while carrying around the increasingly heavy garbage bags helps strengthen his/her arm muscles.
This Earth Day, be sure to put on your running shoes, take a trash bag or two, and go plogging. Or better still, start a plogging team at school, or around your neighborhood, and make every day Earth Day!
1. What is plogging?(不多于5个单词)2. Why did Alstrom have the idea of plogging after moving to Stockholm?（不多于10个单词）
3. When had plogging appeared all across Sweden?（不多于5个单词）
4. What is plogging good for?（不多于5个单词）
