1 . More than 80 percent of global heat is absorbed by the ocean, which has a massive capacity to store and give off heat. High sea-surface temperatures are causing long-term damage to coral reefs (珊瑚礁). Corals are dying. The IPCC (政府间气候变化专门委员会) projects that up to 90 percent of coral reefs could disappear if global warming reaches 1.5℃. Another reason corals are in trouble is because of ocean acidification. Higher carbon dioxide levels have shift ed the chemistry of the ocean, making it more acidic, and corals and sea creatures have trouble growing in acidic conditions.
When ocean water warms, it expands in volume. This is a major cause of the rise in sea levels, along with the water added to the ocean by the melting of land-based glaciers (冰川). The sea level has risen by an average of 20 centimeters since the late 19th century, and the research by scientists studying the last 25 years of satellite data found that the ocean water is rising faster and faster. If it continues at its current rate, the rise in sea level by 2100 will be more than double the current estimates. Sea level rise leads to the destruction of coastal wetlands, flooding and damage to water ecosystems.
Temperature and precipitation (沉淀) are key elements of climate. A warmer climate means that more water rises from both the land and ocean, and a warmer atmosphere holds more of that water. Scientists have noticed that there are more heavy rainfall events. Additionally, higher water temperature in streams, lakes, and rivers lead to lower levels of dissolved oxygen in the water, which impacts the survival and populations of fish and other sea life.
Especially troubling are the extreme weather events that are happening more often around the world. Hurricanes are ramping up in intensity, particularly in North Atlantic. The year 2017 was a busy one for Atlantic hurricanes. Meanwhile, in the western United States, the state of California has had record-setting drought conditions, which began in 2012.
1. What does the author intend to tell us in Paragraph 1?A.Global warming has little damage to the land. | B.Ocean acidification affects the sea temperature. |
C.Coral reefs are in danger of disappearing. | D.Corals and sea creatures need critical surroundings. |
A.Sea level rise has positive effect on sea animals. |
B.By 2100 the sea level will rise 20 centimeters. |
C.Global heating is the direct cause of wetlands destruction. |
D.The rise of sea level is beyond our imagination. |
A.Increasing. | B.Failing. | C.Appearing. | D.Changing. |
A.High Sea-surface Temperatures to Creatures | B.Global Warming, What Damages It Causes |
C.Ways to Stop High Sea-surface Temperatures | D.Extreme Weather Events and Global Warming |
2 . Birds’ bodies are becoming smaller in size in response to climate change, even in places like the Amazon rainforest that are relatively untouched by human hands, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances.
Researchers found that nearly all of the birds’ bodies have become lighter since the 1980s, losing on average about 2% of their body weight every decade. For an average bird species that weighed about 30 grams in the 1980s, the population now averages about 27.6 grams. The study also revealed that wingspan was getting bigger in the Amazon bird species studied.
These birds don’t vary that much in size. When everyone in the population is a couple of grams smaller, it’s significant. This is undoubtedly happening all over and probably not just with birds.
A lower body weight and increasing wing length means that birds use energy more efficiently, the researchers noted. For example, compared with a fighter jet with short wings that needs lots of fuel to fly, a glider plane with a thin body and long wings flies up into the air with much less energy.
The study concluded that a warmer climate was the driving force of these changes. The climate in Brazilian Amazonia, where the birds lived, had gotten hotter and wetter over the study period. Since 1966, rainfall increased by 13% in the wet season and fell by 15% in the dry, with temperatures increasing by 1 degree Celsius in the wet season and 1.65 degrees Celsius in the dry season. The change in climate might have made food or other resources insufficient.
Together, body proportions moved in the direction of more efficient flight and lower metabolic heat production and are consistent with a plastic or genetic adaptation to resource or thermal stress under climate change.
Animals are dealing with climate change in different ways.
1. What is the direct cause of birds’ changes?A.A warmer climate. | B.A scientific advance. | C.A lack of sufficient food. | D.A lack of drinking water |
A.To show planes fly with much less fuel. | B.To prove birds need much energy to fly. |
C.To demonstrate birds’ efficient energy use. | D.To illustrate planes need lots of fuel to fly. |
A.Animals’ other body part changes. | B.People’s attempts to protect animals. |
C.Birds’ adaptation to climate change. | D.Animals’ ways to tackle climate change |
A.Birds Nowadays Also Have to Adapt to Climate Change |
B.The Climate Crisis Is Influencing Birds’ Body Shapes |
C.It’s Our Duty to Take Measures to Protect Birds on the Planet |
D.It’s Time to Raise Human Beings’ Awareness of Climate Crisis |
3 . Whenever I order food for delivery, I play a little game to guess how many sets of tableware(餐具)the restaurant will provide with my meal. Sometimes restaurants will throw in two, three or four sets for just one order. But I rarely need any tableware at all, and the waste goes into the trash or collects dust in a kitchen drawer.
Researchers working with Chinese technology group Alibaba tried a simple approach to this problem. Instead of just wastefully doling out tableware, the company required food-delivery customers in some cities in China to pick how many sets of tableware they wanted to receive.The default (默认设置)was set at zero. The result, published today in the journal Science, was a 638% increase in the share of no-tableware orders. If applied across China, researchers found, the approach would save nearly 22 billion sets of plastic tableware. The study doesn’t cover carbon emissions, but it’s safe to say that the impact would be significant. It struck me as a useful reminder of the many low-hanging fruits across the economy that can cut waste, and emissions.
Nudging its customers cost Alibaba nothing more than a few hours of software engineering time and the impact it brought was immense. The concept of nudging comes from the field of behavioral economics known as nudge theory. It suggests that a slight action can encourage good human behavior without the need for policies that limit choice or economic punishment that raises the cost of bad behavior. To nudge customers to eat better, for example, a restaurant might organize its menu by listing healthy options first and bury unhealthy ones at the bottom. More recently, some big companies like Google have also begun to use nudges to advance climate objectives.
Behavioral economics broadly, and nudges more specifically, aren’t without controversy. Some might think it assigns consumers responsibility for addressing environmental challenges. But there is another way to look at it. In the absence of necessary policy—and policy is needed一companies can help encourage a widespread shift of consumer behavior.
And all of that behavioral change can add up. The International Energy Agency found in 2021 that small behavioral changes in energy consumption such as walking instead of driving and adjusting the thermostat could in total shave off 4% of global emissions. The more that companies can do to facilitate such changes, the better.
1. What did Alibaba do with tableware waste?A.It stopped restaurants from handing out tableware. |
B.It withdrew unused tableware from customers. |
C.It updated the food -delivery device regularly. |
D.It allowed picking tableware at customers’ demand. |
A.Easily accessible things. | B.Fast increasing orders. |
C.Exceptionally tough choices. | D.Widely accepted strategies. |
A.It brings about economic loss. |
B.It results from consumption policies. |
C.It indicates small action changes behaviour. |
D.It implies bad behaviour impacts economy. |
A.Nudge theory affects behaviors. |
B.Good behaviors boost economy. |
C.Nudging helps build a greener world. |
D.Behavioral economics benefits customers. |
4 . Open an app at your smart phone and scan the code bar on the garbage can. When you throw garbage into the garbage can, it will show the weight of the garbage and the points you can get from doing so.
In some cities, a variety of multifunctional smart garbage cans are being put into use. In Beijing, for example, a smart garbage can is equipped with an LED screen, which not only shows national policies on garbage classification but also shows the correct steps for garbage sorting. It can also calculate the weight of the garbage and the accumulated points one can get. They can be traded for some articles of daily use.
Garbage disposal is a small issue that involves everybody each day. However, it is also a big issue.
A.Garbage sorting has been a new fashion. |
B.Another kind of garbage can is even smarter. |
C.It is no wonder that residents cheered for their presence. |
D.Such a way of handling garbage has appeared in some cities. |
E.It will affect China’s transformation towards green development. |
F.Over 200 million tons of garbage is produced each year in some cities. |
G.The good habit of garbage classification can improve the living environment. |
1. 专刊的意义;
2. 专刊的内容;
3. 寄予的希望。
注意:
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Dear Readers,
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Warm regards,
Li Hua
Editor-in-chief
6 . Conservation scientist Kim Williams-Guillen was trying her best to come up with a way to save endangered sea turtles (海龟) from egg thieves when she had an “aha” moment: If she placed a fake (假的) egg containing a GPS tracker in the reptiles’ nests, she might be able to track the thieves.
Williams-Guillen found a flexible plastic material to mimic (仿造) the shell of real eggs. She and colleagues then used a 3D printer to produce the fakes of the same size, weight, and texture and put the smallest GPS tracking devices inside each. The researchers then went to four Costa Rican beaches, where green sea turtle come ashore to make their nests. As mothers laid their eggs under cover of night, the researchers slipped a fake egg into each nest. Once the fakes are covered in sand and mix with the real eggs, it’s very difficult to tell the difference between the two.
Of the 101 fake eggs, 25 were taken by thieves. The farthest moving egg traveled 137 kilometers inland. The fake egg sent its final signal the next day from a residential property, suggesting that the research team had tracked the eggs through “all of the players in the entire chain.”
By understanding that chain, Williams-Guillen says researchers can identify trading hot spots. She emphasizes that the tracker is not a way to catch local thieves, many of them living in poverty, but a tool to better understand their routes, which could help them and eventually law enforcement (执法部门) identify larger players in the chain.
In the meantime, Williams-Guillen and her colleagues are working to get their fake eggs to other sea turtle conservation organizations. Ultimately, though, scientists and nonprofits are going to engage communities with local outreach and education programs to save sea turtles. She says, “The real meat and potatoes of conservation isn’t going to come from deploying (布署) eggs.”
1. What can be learnt from paragraph 2?A.Fake eggs are made and employed. | B.Sea turtles have become endangered. |
C.Sea turtles lay eggs during the daytime. | D.The idea of fake eggs came into being. |
A.To confirm whether the fake eggs really work. |
B.To provide data for doing research on turtle eggs. |
C.To arrest the locals stealing the turtle eggs from the beach. |
D.To identify the trading routes and get the big players punished. |
A.Deploying eggs needs advocating further. |
B.Turtle conservation mainly relies on joint efforts. |
C.She feels disappointed with the local communities. |
D.Deploying eggs makes no difference in preserving turtles. |
A.Saving endangered sea turtles is urgent |
B.Endangered turtles can be traced with GPS |
C.GPS eggs helps to save endangered sea turtles |
D.A conservation scientist is devoted to protecting sea turtles |
7 . When Malaika Vaz was a kid, living in Goa, India, she was constantly surrounded by nature. Among her childhood experiences, she recalls journeys to the Arctic and Antarctic, climbing mountains, diving, and windsurfing.
At some point in her late teens, Vaz realized adventure didn’t really mean anything if there wasn’t an intention to protect the natural spaces we were exploring in. Motivated by her passion for filmmaking, she began to seek a way that would both satisfy her appetite for adventure and allow her to advocate the protection of the species and ecosystems she interacted with.
Today Vaz wears many hats in the filmmaking world, as a documentary director, producer, and presenter. After falling in love with manta rays (蝠鲼), she discovered they were being hunted illegally and started to dress herself as a seafood trader to get as close as possible to the issue. She traced sellers to figure out why the threatened species were being killed. She shared the shocking details in Peng Yu Sai, her Green Oscar-nominated film on the matter.
The subjects that grab her attention, Vaz admits, run the gamut. When she was asked to define her focus, she replied that she preferred variety. She always argues that the issues she looks into are more interrelated than they may initially appear. “I think that it’s exciting to dive into the different aspects of environmental stories,” she says.
Her work doesn’t stop at recording important stories; she also ensures the message is heard. From Vaz’s viewpoint, real improvement in planetary protection lies in the hands of each of us rather than just those of several environmentalists. “If you’re an engineer and you care about the natural world, you can change the kind of construction materials you use. If you’re a teacher loving nature, you can bring that into the learning for your class.” she says.
As a filmmaker, Vaz believes it’s important to figure out ways that attract the audience who can push for the protection of the natural world.
1. What did Malaika Vaz decide to do in her late teens?A.Motivate children to get close to nature. |
B.Make a film about her childhood experiences. |
C.Develop a passion for an adventurous lifestyle. |
D.Combine nature exploration with nature conservation. |
A.The role of manta rays in the local economy. | B.Vaz’s personal life as a seafood trader. |
C.The threatened species in India. | D.The illegal trade in manta rays. |
A.Are quite popular. | B.Cover a wide range. |
C.Make little progress. | D.Are hard to deal with. |
A.Human beings are closely linked to nature. |
B.Stories are effective in changing people’s behavior. |
C.Everyone can make a difference to the environment. |
D.Environmentalists play a big part in solving environmental issues. |
8 . Are you facing a situation that looks impossible to fix?
In 1969,the pollution was terrible along the Cuyahoga River Cleveland, Ohio. It
But the river wasn’t changed in a few days
Maybe you are facing an impossible situation. Maybe you have a habit
While there are
Ten-year-old Sami loved to visit his grandfather's house. The house was near the beautiful blue sea. At the seaside stood thick and tall palm trees with green coconuts hanging from them. When the coconuts fell down, Sami would break them open and drink the coconut water. Sami liked to play under the trees. It was always great fun to spend the holidays at Grandpa's place.
This winter vacation, Sami was surprised when he came to his grandfather's village. There were hardly any trees left. He saw houses built near the sea. People had cut down many palm trees and there was hardly any greenery left.
Grandpa's house was different. He never allowed his trees to be cut. He hugged each palm tree in his courtyard. He also named the two big trees near the front door--one was Petu, and the other Betu. He had planted them with his own hands and today they had become large, massive trees with thick trunks. They were tall and green and gave the sweetest, juiciest coconuts.
One night, Sami was awakened by a strange sound. He could not sleep. He tossed(辗转)and turned in bed.
Suddenly, the ground shook as if the earth was splitting. He sat up straight and then ran to Grandpa. He clung(附 着)to his grandpa tightly. Grandpa cried out, “It's an earthquake! It's an earthquake!" They ran outside the house. They thought that would be safe.
Suddenly, there was a loud sound; the earth was not splitting but the sea was roaring. People were shouting, screaming and crying, “The sea is rising! The sea is rising." The villagers started running away from the beach.
Sami watched dumbstruck(呆若木鸡).
The waves were rising higher and higher. Sami thought, “How big the waves are!" He went into the house again and saw water coming in from all sides. He was scared.
Sami remembered his mother telling him long ago, “You must always get out of the house if the floods come too near." He ran outside the house with Grandpa. But the water came surging(汹涌) in.
Waves about twelve meters high came rushing in, drowning everything. Water was all around and everywhere.
Paragraph 1:
Grandpa held Sami's hand tightly but a huge wave separated them.
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Paragraph 2:
“Sami, Sami!” Grandpa cried. “Don't be scared, little one, come to me, quickly.”
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10 . Plastic fishing nets, the so-called ghost nets, abandoned yearly in the sea—about 1 million tons—are more than just rubbish; they’re a killer. Fish, sea birds, and turtles get caught in the netting and die, with more species at risk.
Much shocked at this, Pranveer Singh Rathore, a materials-science engineer and materials R&D manager at Samsung, and his team set themselves the task of giving new life to the deadly nets. Last month, Samsung revealed a new line of Galaxy products made in part from recycled plastic fishing nets for the first time. The company estimates this year alone it can recycle over 50 tons of ocean-bound plastic into the key components that will go into its smartphones, tablets, and computers, thus taking a bite out of the global ghost nets problem.
It’s no small task to give waste fishing nets a second act. The nets are typically made of a substance called nylon which tends to dramatically degrade (降解) the longer it sits in the ocean and is exposed to the sun. “This makes it nearly impossible to use abandoned fishing nets directly,” Rathore explains. Besides, high-performance smartphone, tablet, or PC has to be waterproof and can survive severe weather. The nylon in the fishing nets falls far short of that level of durability (耐用).
To deal with that problem, Samsung last summer teamed up with two partners: one to collect and transform the nets into tiny nylon pellets (颗粒) while the other to strengthen their toughness and durability. The end result: The partners hit upon an eco-friendly and high-performance plastic material that’s being used to build the component parts for its latest line of products. For example, two parts of the Galaxy S22 mobile phone—the key bracket and the inner cover—are made of these fishing-net plastic materials. Samsung aims to use even more upcycled materials in future product lines.
“That’s the hope for the globe and our mission,” Rathore smiles.
1. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 2 refer to?A.Rubbish in the sea. | B.Recycling the deadly nets. |
C.Ocean species’ extinction. | D.Ghost nets’ threat to sea life. |
A.The low level of durability of nylon. | B.The second act of waste fishing nets. |
C.The great difficulty in reusing ghost nets. | D.The positive comment on Samsung’s products. |
A.They are made from tiny nylon pellets. | B.They put an end to the problem of fishing nets. |
C.They can stand up to water and severe weather. | D.They contain materials recycled from ghost nets. |
A.It makes plastic easier to break down. | B.It marks the shift of Samsung’s mission. |
C.It protects the planet from choking on plastic. | D.It raises public awareness of ocean exploration. |