1 . In the midst of an already record-breaking heat wave, Phoenix, Arizona, set a particularly eye-popping record: the temperature only dropped to 97 degrees Fahrenheit overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, setting an all-time record high for a nighttime low. When temperatures stay high overnight, they place a particularly heavy burden on the body, raising the risk of heat illness and death.
The U.S. —and the world—has seen a spate of extreme heat so far this year, including the planet’s hottest-ever June and hottest week on record during the first week of July. Rising global temperatures from burning fossil fuels are the main driver of more frequent and more intense heat waves. And an El Niño event is also boosting global temperatures this year.
A heat dome has been in place for weeks over the U.S. Southwest and Texas, and it has fueled many heat records. Phoenix has now seen 20 days in a row with a daytime high of 110 degrees F or higher, a record that is likely to continue for several more days. A heat dome is an area of high pressure that parks over a region. High-pressure ridges, as they are also called, feature sinking air, which compresses and heats up. These ridges’ typical clear skies also allow the sun’s rays to beat down on the ground, further raising temperatures.
Prolonged heat extremes pose a major public health threat because heat is the number-one weather-related killer in the U.S.; it causes more human deaths than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined. Heat can cause dehydration, which leads the blood to thicken and makes the heart pump harder. That organ and others can be damaged by too much exposure to heat.
The soaring, triple-digit high daily temperatures grab the headlines, and they definitely are a concern—but when temperatures only drop into the 80s and 90s at night, the body doesn’t get a chance to cool down. This is particularly a concern for those who lack air-conditioning, including unhoused populations. And heat is especially a health risk for the very young, the elderly and those with preexisting health conditions such as asthma and heart disease.
1. What can be inferred from the first two paragraphs?| A．Extreme temperatures can cause damage to our hearts. |
| B．Burning fossil fuels contributes to the hottest-ever June and July. |
| C．El Nino is the dominant cause of soaring global temperature. |
| D．The temperature at night has reached a record high in Phoenix, Arizona. |
| A．It’s a weather phenomenon that contributes to high temperatures. |
| B．It’s a peak that the low pressure should reach. |
| C．It’s the damage caused by too much exposure to heat. |
| D．It’s the extra heat trapped in the sinking air. |
| A．It is the top one killer in America. | B．Exposure to heat contributes to heart diseases. |
| C．Human organs might be impaired. | D．People accommodate to 80s and 90s Fahrenheit at night. |
| A．Soaring temperatures are hitting the headlines. | B．Anew eye popping overnight low record is set. |
| C．Hot overnight temperatures threaten human health. | D．Global heat waves are causing concerns. |
2 . Used electronics are piing up fast: they are filling up landfills with dangerous pieces of waste. Some e-waste is relatively large, such as air conditioners; other e-waste is more unnoticed, such as smart labels that contain disposable batteries and other equipment.
“It’s these small batteries that are big problems,” says University of California, Irvine, public health scientist Dele Ogunseitan, who is a green technology researcher and adviser for major tech companies and was not involved in developing the battery. “Nobody really pays attention to where they end up.” Researchers at the Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology are working to address this problem. Their new paper describes a water-activated paper battery developed from environmentally friendly materials that could eventually present a sustainable alternative to the more harmful batteries common in low-power devices.
The paper battery has the same key components as standard batteries but packages them differently. Like a typical chemical battery, it has a positively charged side and a negatively charged side. A traditional battery’s components are covered in plastic and metal; in the new battery, however, the positively and negatively charged sides are inks printed onto the front and back of a piece of paper. That paper is filled with salt, which dissolves (溶解) when the paper becomes wet. When the paper is dry, the battery is shelf-stable. Once the paper is wet, the battery starts working within 20 seconds. The new battery’s operating performance declines as the paper dries. When the scientists rewet the paper during testing, the battery regained function and lasted an hour before beginning to dry out again.
That future may not be so far off. It is hard to predict a time line for manufacturing such items at scale, but the head of the study says he is in contact with potential industry partners and believes these batteries could make their way into products within the next two to five years.
1. Why is e-waste mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic. | B．To give people warning. |
| C．To show the seriousness of it. | D．To call on people to take action. |
| A．Objective. | B．Carefree. | C．Indifferent. | D．Concerned. |
| A．The difference between the paper battery and the traditional battery. |
| B．The working principle of the paper battery. |
| C．The problem of the paper battery. |
| D．The advantage of the paper battery. |
| A．Paper battery: Is it far off? |
| B．Paper can work wonders. |
| C．Paper battery: A creative way to reduce e-waste. |
| D．Let’s work together to fight e-waste. |
3 . Many cities around the world today are heavily polluted. Careless methods of production and
A recent study showed that two
Only a few years ago, it was impossible to find green products in supermarkets, but now there are hundreds. Some supermarket products
The
| A．part | B．lack | C．lots | D．varieties |
| A．applied to | B．contributed to | C．exposed to | D．devoted to |
| A．possibility | B．chance | C．result | D．effect |
| A．Therefore | B．Furthermore | C．Similarly | D．However |
| A．After | B．Though | C．Before | D．Unless |
| A．reused | B．safe | C．friendly | D．returned |
| A．of | B．on | C．from | D．out of |
| A．rhyme | B．way | C．section | D．branch |
| A．carry | B．take | C．include | D．make |
| A．advantage | B．technique | C．point | D．attraction |
| A．concern | B．hope | C．care | D．plan |
| A．what | B．how | C．whether | D．when |
| A．saying | B．trust | C．attitude | D．fashion |
| A．pressure | B．pleasure | C．discussion | D．interest |
| A．enlarging | B．sharing | C．cleaning | D．improving |
4 . Have you heard of the save soil movement? It was
The efforts of Sadhguru have
The movement aims to
The main motive of the campaign was to bring together people from all around the world to protect the soil’s health. Sadhguru has become
Sadhguru is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy. He has been a(n)
| A．launched | B．sponsored | C．experienced | D．commanded |
| A．resulted in | B．originated from | C．paid back | D．reacted to |
| A．airports | B．companies | C．conferences | D．locations |
| A．abilities | B．struggles | C．characters | D．requests |
| A．transform | B．address | C．drag | D．confirm |
| A．messages | B．responses | C．proposals | D．positions |
| A．exhausted | B．ambitious | C．successful | D．confident |
| A．improvement | B．awareness | C．imagination | D．standard |
| A．locally | B．individually | C．nationally | D．globally |
| A．urging | B．requiring | C．cheering | D．permitting |
| A．stable | B．ongoing | C．favorable | D．temporary |
| A．However | B．Besides | C．Therefore | D．Meanwhile |
| A．ensure | B．bring | C．affect | D．define |
| A．strong | B．pleasant | C．determined | D．influential |
| A．circumstance | B．lifestyle | C．atmosphere | D．soil |
5 . Urban (城市的) heat kills about 600 Americans every year, and sends another 65,000 to the emergency room, according to a recent report from the Urban Land Institute. Climate change is going to make these problems worse, the report’s authors write.
Given that risk, Boston — like many cities around the country —plans to plant more trees. Urban trees have benefits beyond shading and cooling. They clean the air, reduce noise pollution and help prevent flooding by absorbing storm water. “Great,” you might be thinking, “let’s plant many trees.”
Unfortunately, the solution isn’t that simple; a lot of street trees don’t make it more than a few years in the big city. “It’s tough to be a baby street tree because their roots are really little. And the summers in Boston are quite hot, so drought alone can kill them,” says Andrew Trlica, who recently earned an urban biogeochemistry doctorate fromBoston University.
An urban tree, especially one planted on a sidewalk bordering a busy street, has many factors against it. “Cars run into them. Bikes getting locked to them is really surprisingly damaging when they’re little because their bark (树皮) is weak,” Trlica explains. “Road salts are hard on their roots. Dogs would pee on them. It’s just a tough environment.”
Trlica says he began to wonder: If city officials want to increase tree canopy (树冠) cover to deal with climate change, should they focus on planting new trees or helping older ones survive? To figure it out, he looked at two conditions for Boston: spend the next two decades planting saplings (树苗) in every available sidewalk location,or spend the time reducing the mortality rate of older trees by 50%.
For Trlica, the answer was clear. Yes, Boston should continue planting trees, but the real canopy pay off will come from preserving bigger, leafier ones.
1. Why does the author mention the recent report from the Urban Land Institute?| A．To show urban heat in America is serious. |
| B．To show Americans care about urban heat. |
| C．To prove climate change leads to urban heat. |
| D．To prove urban heat can be deadly worldwide. |
| A．Baby trees shouldn’t be planted on streets. |
| B．It is difficult for baby street trees to survive. |
| C．Planting trees in cities isn’t a good idea. |
| D．More trees should be planted in Boston. |
| A．Success. | B．Growth. | C．Recovery. | D．Death. |
| A．Environment. | B．Health. | C．Education. | D．Science. |
6 . A sandstorm also known as a dust storm is exactly what it sounds like. A very strong windstorm especially in the desert carries clouds of sand or dust that greatly reduces visibility. This wind is usually caused by convection currents (对流气流) which are created by intense heating of the ground and is usually strong enough to move entire sand dunes. Air is unstable when heated and this instability (不稳定性) in the air will cause higher winds to mix with winds in the lower atmosphere producing strong surface winds.
Sandstorms can disturb people's travel and can sometimes destroy whole roads, and dry flat areas. Similar dust storms can be found on the planet Mars, and are thought to be seasonal. Today the destruction of forests and too much farming of farmland can lead to sandstorms. Too much use of water resources can also cause sandstorms.
In the United States of America, sandstorms are rare because of the lack of large deserts and more importantly the development of proper agricultural techniques. The last recorded destructive sandstorm in American history was the Dust Bowl, which occurred on July 16,1971 and was widely recorded by meteorologists (气象学家).
To protect themselves from sandstorms, some people wear protective suits. Special equipment can be fixed in some cars to prevent sand from getting into the engine. Sandstorms can cause coughs, and the sand and dust has also been known to carry "infectious diseases". Sand particles, unlike dust ones, will block air passages, and cause a person who breathes them in to choke. Dust particles may cause an allergic (过敏的) reaction.
1. Which of the following plays the first part in forming sandstorms?| A．The instability of the sand. | B．The instability of the wind. |
| C．The speed of the wind. | D．The intense heating of the ground. |
| A．sandstorms are more often seen on Mars than on Earth |
| B．human activities are a major cause of sandstorms |
| C．farming brings more harm than benefits to humans |
| D．sandstorms have led to the lack of clean water resources |
| A．Because there are few deserts. |
| B．Because there is not much agriculttre. |
| C．Because of the use of proper agricultural techniques. |
| D．Because of research on sandstorms by meteorologists. |
| A．humans should make more efforts to stop soil turning into desert |
| B．humans haven't thought of any way to deal with sandstorms |
| C．death caused by sandstorms is increasing all the time |
| D．there will soon be no sandstorms in the USA |
7 . Commercial aviation (航空) alone contributes around three percent of total global carbon emissions (排放). But the industry is actively looking for green solutions in the form of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). In a study released this week, a team of researchers from the U. S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) details a method of transforming food waste into SAF that can be used in existing engines. Making SAF is a more complicated process—it’s got to be very similar to the petrol-based aviation fuel we use today in commercial flights.
The researchers use volatile fatty acids (挥发性脂肪酸)(VFAs) from smelly food waste and transform it into simple paraffin molecules (石蜡分子) that can be used in fuel and really aren’t all that chemically different from traditional emissions-heavy fuels. There are other renewable biofuels that have been made from biomass (生物质), specifically oil and fat from vegetables and animals, but using the ever-mounting pile of food waste to fuel flights broadens those possibilities.
Derek Vardon, a senior research engineer at NREL, says major companies are eager to get involved in SAF because some sustainable solutions, such as battery-operated commercial flights, just aren’t possible yet with current battery technology. A battery-powered plane would be too heavy to fly long distances—“So using SAF that works in the same way as the fuel we have is a simpler way to trade out traditional emissions-heavy fuels.” Vardon also says that “because the wet waste would normally go to a landfill and break down to release greenhouse gases, the process of making and using SAF could actually have a negative carbon footprint when it is dramatically used.”
A major question as the researchers move forward with this type of research is if it is possible to run an airplane engine on fully renewable biofuel. Rolls-Royce recently did a test on one of their engines with 100 percent SAF and it worked. “This fuel is not crazy and we can solve these problems,” Vardon says.
1. Which of the following is TRUE about SAF?| A．It can be used to reduce carbon emissions globally. |
| B．It’s less functional than the petrol-based aviation fuel. |
| C．It’s composed of VFAs and simple paraffin molecules. |
| D．It is virtually impossible to be made from biomass like oil and fat. |
| A．The benefits of food rubbish-generated SAF. | B．The environmental impacts of the wet waste. |
| C．The simple process of making and using SAF. | D．The future of battery-operated commercial flights. |
| A．To promote its production. | B．To confirm the potential of SAF. |
| C．To show off its powerful airplane engines. | D．To express doubt about the research. |
| A．Natural emergence of renewable biofuels | B．Green alternative to emissions-heavy fuels |
| C．Unavoidable decline of commercial aviation | D．Gradual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions |
8 . The rechargeable lithium-ion (锂离子) battery market is worth more than ＄50 billion. Lithium-ion batteries, whose demand continues to go up day by day, are used in a wide range of electronic devices. They are made of four main components, and cathode (阴极) is one of them. The cathode’s active material type is what determines the capacity of a battery.
A recent study, led by Wang Yan, a material scientist of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, finds that lithium-ion batteries made with recycled cathodes work better than those with new cathodes.
“The battery industry is expected to grow sharply in the next decade. This high demand has led companies to go to extremes, like increasing deep-sea mining, to gain access to the minerals used in lithium-ion batteries,” Wang said. “Mining minerals will have environmental impacts. Recycling spent lithium-ion batteries offers a way out.”
But until now, the prospect of using recycled materials in lithium-ion batteries has some manufacturers (制造商) worrying that it could impact performance. Thus, lithium-ion batteries are still not widely recycled. Aware of decreasing resources and environmental impact, Wang and other researchers set out to find a way to make recycling lithium-ion batteries economically practical. Through experiments, they could recover more than 90% of the key metals from spent batteries. These recovered metals became the basis of the new recycled battery’s cathode’s active material.
In tests between Wang’s team’s recycled batteries and brand-new batteries of the same composition, the recycled batteries outperform the new ones in their ability to maintain capacity. It took 11,600 charge cycles for recycled cathode batteries to lose 30 percent of their original capacity. That was about 50 percent better than the 7,600 observed cycles for new cathode batteries, the team reported. Those thousands of extra cycles could translate into years of better battery performance, even after repeated use and recharging.
1. What can we learn about lithium-ion batteries from the first paragraph?| A．They are high in price. |
| B．They are in great demand. |
| C．They are limited in use. |
| D．They are simple in composition. |
| A．The target users of recycled batteries. |
| B．The ways to get minerals for batteries. |
| C．The major reasons for recycling batteries. |
| D．The complex process of recycling batteries. |
| A．Declining mineral resources. |
| B．Difficult recycling techniques. |
| C．Serious environmental problems. |
| D．Inefficient battery performance. |
| A．The battery industry is going to develop dramatically. |
| B．Recycling batteries reduces impact on the environment. |
| C．Scientists can recover key materials from spent batteries. |
| D．Recycled batteries outperform new ones in charging circles. |
要求：1. 词数80左右；
2. 适当增加内容，以使行文顺畅。
Caring for the Environment Starts from Ourselves
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10 . It’s 6:15 a.m. on a school day, and Jocelyn Murzycki has two kids and she needs to get out the door in an hour. As the sky begins to
First, the
The word “plogging” comes from plogga, a
Murzycki has been doing this for a few years even before the trend hit the U.S. “It really is super
| A．lighten | B．snow | C．clear | D．darken |
| A．Thus | B．Otherwise | C．Nevertheless | D．Instead |
| A．pay for | B．seek for | C．account for | D．fight for |
| A．samples | B．types | C．possessions | D．necessities |
| A．recycling | B．updating | C．sorting | D．donating |
| A．appropriately | B．purposefully | C．personally | D．flexibly |
| A．pack | B．drop | C．empty | D．search |
| A．discovered | B．accepted | C．prevented | D．persuaded |
| A．collection | B．comparison | C．connection | D．combination |
| A．controlled | B．challenged | C．launched | D．joined |
| A．confused | B．amazed | C．amused | D．hopeless |
| A．benefits | B．features | C．rules | D．consequences |
| A．requiring | B．inspiring | C．reminding | D．warning |
| A．shameful | B．relaxing | C．depressing | D．false |
| A．exercise | B．value | C．weight | D．training |
