1 . For some climate challenges, there are relatively straightforward fixes. For example, renewable energy sources can already replace much of the energy needed to power buildings, cars and more.

There’s no substitute for food, but shifting what we eat is possible. If everyone on the planet ate vegetables, greenhouse gas emissions from the food system could be cut by more than half; a planet of vegetarians would reduce food emissions by two thirds. If we stopped consuming conventional food and relied on a lab-grown nutritional food instead of soil or water-produced food, we could prevent about 1 degree centigrade of future warming, according to a recent paper that considered the unique thought experiment.

“What this work says is: Hey, look, we can still get pretty big wins even if we’re not making these really big changes in dietary composition,” says Clark. “I think that’s really powerful, because a lot of people just don’t want to make those really big dietary changes, for many reasons. While vegetarian diets are becoming more common in America and some European countries, it’s absolutely ridiculous to assume that everyone will be eating a vegetarian diet 30 years from now,” he says.

Food choices are personal, deeply connected to cultural, religious, emotional, economic concerns and so much more. “Rather than dictate how to do it, it’s much better to try to give choices,” says Naglaa, a food, nutrition and environment researcher at Tufts University. This approach aims to inform people so that they can make choices that correspond with their needs and values instead of waiting for the authority’s rules and orders. As a whole, those choices can benefit both human health and the planet. For that to happen, it is necessary to work alongside large-scale efforts to reshape industrial food production.

“But what people choose to eat daily is far from insignificant,” says Clark. “We don’t all have to become vegetarians overnight. Small changes can make a big difference.”

1. How does the author show the effects of dietary changes in paragraph 2?

A．By analyzing the reasons.	B．By using a quotation.
C．By answering questions.	D．By listing data.

2. What is Clark’s attitude towards small dietary changes?

A．Indifferent.

B．Skeptical.

C．Favorable.

D．Negative.

3. What does the underlined word “dictate” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Command.

B．Persuade.

C．Perceive.

D．Describe.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．How small changes to our diets can benefit the planet

B．Small changes in life choices can make a big difference

C．Why renewable energy sources can reduce gas emissions

D．Lab-grown nutritional food could prevent future warming

3 . Against the supposition that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia warm the climate, scientists have discovered that cooling may occur in areas where burnt trees allow more snow to mirror more sunlight into space.

This finding suggests that taking steps to prevent northern forest fires to limit the release of greenhouse gases may warm the climate in northern regions. Usually large fires destroyed forests in these areas over the past decade. Scientists predict that with climate warming, fires may occur more frequently over next several centuries as a result of a longer fire season. Sunlight taken in by the earth tends to cause warming, while heat mirrored back into space tends to give rise to cooling.

This is the first study to analyze all aspects of how northern fires influence climate. Earlier studies by other scientists have suggested that fires in northern regions speed up climate warming because greenhouse gases from burning trees and plants are released into the atmosphere and thus trap heat.

Scientists found that right after the fire, large amounts of greenhouse gases entered the atmosphere and caused warming. Ozone(臭氧) levels increased, and ash from the fire fell on far-off sea ice, darkening the surface and causing more radiation from the sun to be taken in. The following spring, however, the land within the area of the fire was brighter than before the fire, because fewer trees covered the ground. Snow on the ground mirrored more sunlight back into space, leading to cooling.

“We need to find out all possible ways to reduce the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” Scientists tracked the change in amount of radiation entering and leaving the climate system as a consequence of the fire, and found a measurement closely related to the global air temperature. Typically, fire in northern regions occurs in the same area every 80 to 150 years. Scientists, however, found that when fire occurs more frequently, more radiation is lost from the earth and cooling results. Specifically, they determined when fire returns 20 years earlier than predicated, 0.5 watts per square meter of area burned are soaked up by the earth from greenhouse gases, but 0.9 watts per square meter will be sent back into space. The net effect is cooling. Watts are used to measure the rate at which energy is gained or lost from the earth.

1. According to the new findings, the prevention of northern forest fires may _______.

A．lead to a longer fire season	B．result in a warming climate
C．conserve the environment there	D．cause frequent forest fires

2. Earlier studies about northern forest fires _______.

A．suggest that the fires will quicken climate warming

B．indicate that forest fires will pollute the atmosphere

C．analyze over-all aspects of how northern fires influence climate

D．reveal that measures should be taken to protect the environment

3. The underlined phrase “soaked up” in the last paragraph most probably means _______.

A．released	B．absorbed
C．reflected	D．distributed

4. From the passage we can draw a conclusion that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia may _______.

A．warm the climate as the supposition goes

B．help to gain more energy rather than release more energy

C．destroy large areas of forests and pollute the far-off sea ice

D．reflect more sunlight into space and thus cool the climate

7 . In British Bristol, 70 English women at once entered into legal "marriage" with dozens of trees in protest (反对，抗议) against their being cut down. They "married" the trees in an attempt (试图) to prevent them from being cleared for construction (建造) of residential buildings worth £55 million in the forest. The British construction company has applied for the construction of 166 houses in Bristol, including luxury (奢华的) cottages. At the same time, the townspeople were especially angry at the fact that the application did not show the exact number of trees that are planned to be cut down. So, in order to attract the attention of the government, the activists organized an unusual wedding ceremony to save the forest.

The event took place at a park on Spike Island. The women who went there, dressed in wedding dresses, held photographs of the "suitors" in their hands. The celebration itself took place according to the classic storyline—with groomsmen and wedding vows (誓词). The organizer was John Tarleton, a professor at the Bristol Veterinary School, According to him, this action was supposed to suggest that tees are partners of people throughout their life.

The idea to hold such a ceremony came from Siobhan Kierans, who admitted that she came up with it by the story of women from the environmental movement Chipko, who chained (链在一起) themselves to trees in the 1970s to save them from destruction by logging companies.

The protesters said that Bristol needs trees more than luxury private housing. One of the "brides", Suzan Hackett, said, "To get married to a tree is a real honor. It's not a show. It's highly significant (important) and symbolic."

1. Why did the women marry trees?

A．To protect the trees from going extinct (dying out).

B．To appeal to (呼吁) people to plant more trees.

C．To draw the government's attention to save the forest.

D．To blame the company for damaging trees.

2. What does the underlined word "suitors" in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．The men to marry.	B．The companies to build houses.
C．The buildings to be pulled down.	D．The trees to be saved.

3. What inspired Siobhan Kierans to create such an event?

A．A previous (以前的) environmental campaign.

B．Cruel behavior of logging companies.

C．Movements of women fighting for rights.

D．Women chained to trees for their faults.

4. What does Suzan Hackett think of the event?

A．Interesting.	B．Meaningful.
C．Pioneering.	D．Emotional.

8 . With the electronics industry developing, electronic products have become ubiquitous （无处不在的）in today’s life. Meanwhile, there are more and more abandoned electronic products, commonly called e-waste. It’s estimated that the number will grow to more than 60 million tons by 2021.

What contributes to the sharp rise in e-waste? Technology is developing rapidly, covering almost every aspect of our lives. Meanwhile, the lifespan of devices is getting shorter—many products will be thrown away once their batteries die. Companies intentionally plan the obsolescence （淘汰）of their goods by updating the design or software and discontinuing support for older models, so that it is usually cheaper and easier to buy a new product than to repair an old one.

What can we do about the growing e-waste problem? Recycling is very important and essential. As more people buy electronic equipment, producers are facing shortages of the raw materials, needed to make their products, so recycling and reusing e-waste makes economic and environmental sense.

Recycling e-waste is practiced both formally and informally. Formal e-waste recycling usually involves taking apart the electronics, sorting the materials and cleaning them. Companies must obey health and safety rules to reduce the health and environmental harm of handling e-waste by using: pollution-control technologies. All this makes formal recycling expensive. Informal recycling is typically, unlicensed and uncontrolled. At informal recycling workshops, people recover valuable materials burning devices to melt away non-valuable materials. Usually they do not wear protective equipment and lack any awareness that they are handling dangerous materials.

With the flood of e-waste growing around the world, recycling alone will not be enough to solve the problem. In order to reduce e-waste, producers need to design electronics that are safer, and more long-lasting, repairable and recyclable. The best thing we can do is to resist buying a new device until we really need it. Try to get our old product repaired if possible and, if it can't be fixed, resell or recycle it responsibly and correctly.

1. What is the main idea of paragraph 2?

A．The causes of devices' price dropping.

B．The results of updating devices.

C．The methods of recycling e-waste.

D．The reasons for more and more e-waste.

2. Why is recycling e-waste necessary according to the text?

A．To improve the poor quality of e-devices.

B．To lower the costs of technology innovation.

C．To relieve producers’ lack of materials.

D．To increase the variety of electronic products.

3. What can we know about formal recycling workshops?

A．There are many rules and steps to follow.

B．They aim to get valuable materials by burning devices.

C．It is convenient for them to recycle e-waste.

D．They are unaware of the danger while handling e-waste.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．E-waste is easy to deal with by ourselves.

B．Producers should be mainly responsible for reducing e-waste.

C．Everyone should shoulder responsibility to help reduce e-waste.

D．Fixing a device could cause more pollution than buying a new one.

9 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What can we learn from the news?

A．Nobody was killed.

B．15 houses were badly damaged.

C．Over 200 people were made homeless.

2. How many people were badly injured in the storm?

A．7.

B．9.

C．10.

3. What do we know about the farmer?

A．His house was destroyed.

B．One of his children was missing.

C．His wife was hurt by the falling walls.

4. What did the woman do when she saw her house shaking?

A．She tried to take something out.

B．She told her husband not to leave.

C．She rushed out with her children.

10 . The national movement to get rid of plastic bags is gaining steam — with more than 240 cities and counties passing laws that ban or tax them since 2007 in the US. But these bans may be hurting the environment more than helping it.

University of Sydney economist Rebecca Taylor and colleagues compared bag use in cities with bans with those without them. For six months, they spent weekends in grocery stores recording the types of bags people carried out.

Taylor found these bag bans did what they were supposed to: People in the cities with the bans used fewer plastic bags, which led to about 40 million fewer pounds of plastic garbage per year. But people who used to reuse their shopping bags for other purposes, like picking up dog waste, still needed bags. "What I found was that sales of garbage bags actually grew sharply after plastic grocery bags were banned," she says.

Garbage bags are thick and use more plastic than typical shopping bags. "So about 30 percent of the plastic that was reduced by the ban comes back in the form of thicker garbage bags," Taylor says. On top of that, cities that banned plastic bags saw a surge in the use of paper bags, which she estimates（估计）resulted in about 80 million pounds of extra paper garbage per year.

A bunch of studies find that paper bags are actually worse for the environment. They require cutting down and processing trees, which involves lots of water, toxic chemicals and fuel. While paper is biodegradable(可生物降解的) and avoids some of the problems of plastic, Taylor says, the huge increase of paper means banning plastic shopping bags increases greenhouse gas emissions(排放).

The Danish government recently did a study that took into account environmental impacts（影响）beyond simply greenhouse gas emissions, including water use, damage to ecosystems and air pollution. These factors make cloth bags even worse. They estimate you would have to use an organic cotton bag 20,000 times more than a plastic grocery bag to make using it better for the environment.

1. What is main idea of the passage?

A．Banning plastic bags is gaining popularity worldwide.

B．Banning plastic has great influence on people’s life.

C．Banning plastic increases the use of pager and cloth bags.

D．Banning plastic may harm rather than help the environment.

2. What is the result of banning grocery plastic bags?

A．Plastic bags are no longer needed.

B．People began to reuse their plastic bags.

C．The amount of garbage is even greater.

D．Most of the reduced plastic returns in garbage bags.

3. Why are paper and cloth bags worse for the environment?

A．They are not as biodegradable as plastic bags.

B．It hurts the environment more to make them.

C．They can’t be reused as many times as plastic bags.

D．They are much thicker than plastic bags.

4. What does the underlined word in the fourth paragraph mean?

A．Sharp increase.	B．Fast development.
C．Tight control.	D．Sharp decrease.