1 . In the past week almost 120 global leaders have resolved to triple (使增至三倍) the world’s renewable energy capacity before 2030 in an attempt to reduce the global consumption of fossil fuels. As the second half of the Cop28 UN climate conference in Dubai unfolds , more countries may join the calls for a global target of 11 TW (太瓦) of renewable power by the end of the decade, three times higher than the 3.629 TW in place at the end of 2022.
Renewable energy really could be tripled in this decade, but it won’t be a breeze, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) .
Based on the rate of growth for wind and solar power, the world is on track to meet this target. But the global energy watchdog (监察人) has warned that “stronger policy actions by governments” will be required to overcome challenges, such as rising costs, uncertain supply chains and grid (电力网) bottlenecks, which are considered essential to hit the goal of limiting global heating to within 1.5C of preindustrialised levels.
Renewable energy sources tripled, the global demand for coal power would be cut in half by 2030, according to estimates. “This is crucial for 1.5C,”said Dave Jones, the global insights lead for climate think-tank Ember. “The tripling goal would take renewables to the next level, with solar and wind reaching 40% of global electricity generation by 2030.”
The goal has won the support of 118 countries. In practice, not every country will triple its renewable capacity to meet the global target. Some countries starting from a lower level would need to more than triple their wind and solar power, while for others with a high share of renewables already, it would not be practical to triple their capacity again.
The prospect of having demand for coal is a goal worth struggling for, but governments must stay the course. Increasing capacity may have been simple in recent years with low interest rates and government support schemes, but the sector’s progress for the rest of the decade is less certain.
1. What does the underlined word “breeze” mean in paragraph 2?| A．A demanding mission. | B．An effortless task. |
| C．A dreamy vision. | D．A fruitless effort. |
| A．The road to the top is full of twists and turns. | B．A good beginning is half done. |
| C．No pains, no gains. | D．Rise from the fall, and you’ll rise high. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Neutral. | C．Cautious. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．Drawbacks of power generation using coal. |
| B．Ways to triple the output of sustainable energy. |
| C．Specific difficulties in the future and solutions. |
| D．Joint achievements made by nearly 200 countries. |
2 . After a decade of negotiations, nearly 200 countries have agreed to a new United Nations treaty(条约)to protect the world’s oceans, the first of its kind in 40 years. The High Seas Treaty aims to protect 30% of the open oceans by 2030, setting a plan in motion to preserve this vast area.
Oceans cover about 71% of the Earth’s surface and are home to countless species of animals and plants. They play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy planet. However, overfishing and pollution from ships and other sources have severely impinged on many marine (海洋的)species and ecosystems.
The last major UN sea treaty in 1982 described the “high seas” — the parts of the oceans that aren’t controlled by any country — but it did not protect them. The high seas, which account for two-thirds of the ocean, currently have only 1.2% of their massive area protected. A marine protected area(MPA)is an area in the sea with strict rules about fishing and other activities. While more and more countries have established MPAs in their waters, most are not connected, limiting their effectiveness for migratory(迁徙的)species.
Last December, over 110 countries committed to protecting 30% of their land and ocean areas by 2030．The High Seas Treaty now enables the extension of this goal to the entire ocean. It aims to make 30% of the high seas become protected areas by 2030 and requires that proposed activities on the high seas undergo assessment for their potential impact on the ocean environment.
Reaching the agreement was challenging due to differing views on ocean protection among countries, such as limits on fishing or pollution. Disagreements also arose over sharing resources between rich and poor nations, with the latter seeking an assurance that resources benefit everyone, not just those in wealthy countries.
The treaty is not yet final and must be officially accepted at a UN meeting. Then it must be approved and signed by enough countries before it takes effect.
1. What is the main objective of the High Seas Treaty?| A．To protect 30% of the open oceans by 2030． |
| B．To allow unrestricted fishing on the high seas. |
| C．To promote international tourism in marine areas. |
| D．To establish new shipping routes on the high seas. |
| A．Exchanged. | B．Assisted. | C．Impacted. | D．Defended. |
| A．Strict rules of a marine protected area. |
| B．Current measures to restrict overfishing. |
| C．The limited number of migratory species. |
| D．The lack of protection for the high seas. |
| A．New Plans to Develop Marine Resources |
| B．A New UN Agreement to Preserve Open Oceans |
| C．The Treaty Officially Accepted at a UN Meeting |
| D．The Cooperation on Sharing Resources Equally |
3 . Recycled, reused and renewable textiles (纺织品) only go so far in solving the fast-fashion crisis, writes Alexandra Carlton. The answer may lie in consumption.
Australia is the world’s second-largest consumer of clothing, generating 800,000 tonnes of textile waste yearly. Individuals consume about 27 kilograms of new clothes annually and cast 23 kilograms of waste. Globally, the situation is even more severe, with an estimated 92million tonnes of clothing waste produced each year. This equates to a truckload of clothes entering landfills every second.
If you want to stop our unwanted clothes from jamming the planet, you’d assume that reusing and recycling would lead the discussion. However, full clothes recycling — breaking clothes down to their base fibres to create new ones — is no simple task. Clothes consist of various fibres, fasteners, and decorations that traditionally require painstaking manual (手工的) separation. Yet, innovation is underway, such as the Swedish large-scale sorting facility Siptex, where textiles can be sorted by color and material using infrared (红外线) technology.
Brands like Adelaide’s Autark focus on minimizing output. “I keep my collections tightly designed and production numbers slim,” says designer Sophia McMahon. Sometimes this means she doesn’t have the exact clothes someone wants in store, but customers are patient while she makes items to order because they understand her brand’s essence.
Startups like AirRobe are giving clothes a second life and could be part of the solution. The clothing resale market is currently worth 49 billion and is expected to reach 103 billion by 2025．AirRobe lets customers add new purchases to their digital wardrobe so they can be resold later without uploading photos or descriptions. “The ‘re-economy’ — the reuse and recycle market sector — will be a real opportunity for us,” says Erica Berchtold, CEO of The Iconic.
Researchers Samantha Sharpe and Taylor Brydges from the University of Technology Sydney advocate a widespread shift among consumers towards buying fewer, higher-quality clothes besides these innovations.
1. Why are the numbers used in Paragraph 2?| A．To encourage factories to produce more clothes. |
| B．To emphasize the severity of the clothing waste. |
| C．To present the amount of clothing consumption. |
| D．To set the stage for discussing how to landfill clothes. |
| A．It is challenging. | B．It is energy-saving. |
| C．It is unworthy of attention. | D．It is time-efficient. |
| A．Consumers should be patient to buy high-quality clothes. |
| B．Clothes specially designed for consumers are the most fit. |
| C．Adelaide’s Autark has enough clothes in store for consumers. |
| D．Slowing the production cycle is essential to reducing output. |
| A．Buying more clothes. | B．Following the fashion trend. |
| C．Changing consuming behavior. | D．Concentrating innovation. |
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___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Students’ Union
Human activity is
All activities changed the behavior of animals , but the study found
As well as having a profound influence on the animals — like reducing their ability to feed and breed — the changes point to a global restructuring of animal movement
Dr Tim Doherty, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Sydney, said it was already well known that humans
When human
Just as noise pollution negatively impacts human health, it also affects wildlife. It can affect animal communication, their abilities to find food and impact where they live. A recent study published in Biology Letters found that human-created noise is affecting a wide range of animals. Noise pollution is caused by cars, trucks, airplanes, ships, factories, industrial activities and sounds from cities, among others. Researchers found that wildlife in many different land and water ecosystems showed significant responses to human-created noise.
For example, bats use ultrasonic sound waves to get around and to find food. However, noise pollution affects this and causes them to spend more time and energy locating their food source. Shipping lanes in the UK can be deafening to harbor seals, and noises from ships are seriously impacting killer whales ability to find food and avoid potential dangers, according to episode 2 of CBC s Killers: J pod on the brink (边缘). And it’s no secret that many human-created conditions, like noise, are changing the behavior of birds. You may be surprised to learn that plants are also impacted, since pollinators (传粉昆虫) often relocate to quieter areas.
Not unlike the impact of light pollution on insects, noise pollution is causing change. It can change the types of species living in many different ecosystems, which in turn impacts the functions of these areas, according to The Guardian.
The good news is that if noise is reduced or simply turned off, it more or less removes the issue. The impact does not remain in the same way as other forms of pollution, like plastic or chemicals. And efforts are already underway in Canada.
BC Ferries is working to lessen the effects of underwater noise, especially along ferry routes that pass through critical habitats. WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) Canada is encouraging the federal government to increase protective measures in the Arctic. They’re also working with international colleagues to address the increase of noise in the region as a result of new shipping routes.
While these initiatives demonstrate progress, tightening rules and regulations around noise pollution is an important measure for conserving wildlife in Canada.
1. Why do bats spend more time looking for food?2. What is the influence of noise pollution on ecosystems?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Noise pollution affects animals in many ways, and compared with other forms of pollution, noise pollution is harder to deal with.
4. Please give some advice on how to reduce the effects of noise pollution on animals. (In about 40 words)
7 . Time is running out for coral reefs as the climate gets hotter. So scientists are searching the globe for corals that are better at enduring heat, Now, new research shows how those “super corals” can survive: less roommate drama.
Reefs depend on a crucial partnership between the corals and the algae (海藻) that live in the corals’ tissue, The algae make food for the corals using sunlight and in exchange, get a nice spot to live. But when oceans heat up, that relationship goes bad, and the corals kick the algae out, Without their roommates, corals can die, turning a ghostly white, bleached (白化) color.
Still, some corals seem to resist bleaching better than others, A new study shows that those corals depend on algae that are better at tolerating heat. Researchers hope that pinpointing these abilities will help develop new conservation tools to preserve the world’s reefs as temperatures rise. About 1/4 of all marine life rely on coral reefs in some way, along with half 1 billion people around the world also depend on reefs for their food and livelihoods.
“Heat stress can kill a lot of corals really fast,” says Kate Quigley, a research scientist at James Cook University and the Minderoo Foundation in Australia. “I hope that nature does have some mechanisms to get us through the next few years while we get our act together.”
While the hope is that those algae could also aid in reef conservation in the future, researcher Patrick Buerger says it’s likely that it wouldn’t help all coral species. And even the toughest corals can only endure so much. Currently, the world is on track for just under 3degrees Celsius of warming by 2100, a level that would wipe out nearly all coral reefs.
“The action has to be on climate change,” he says. “This is a short-term solution that might buy some time for corals to adapt. But the main focus has to be on climate. There’s not a silver bullet to the problem.”
1. What is the feature of super corals?| A．Sun-loving. | B．Long-living. | C．Good-looking. | D．Heat-bearing. |
| A．Habitat. | B．Food. | C．Sunlight. | D．Friendship. |
| A．The population of marine life. | B．The importance of coral reefs. |
| C．The seriousness of global warming. | D．The living conditions of coral reefs. |
| A．It is useless | B．It is the last hope. | C．It is temporary. | D．It is the silver bullet. |
8 . A worldwide shift from fossil fuel-powered cars to electric vehicles (EV) could significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that humans emit to the atmosphere. But the vehicle electrification can also shift some pollution to communities already suffering under higher economic, health and environmental burdens, researchers warn.
California is seeking to reduce its carbon footprint and has made great increases in the promotion of electric vehicle purchases. One tool the state has launched is the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, or CVRP, which offers consumers money back for the purchase of new EVs.
Now, an analysis of the CVRP’s impact on the state’s air quality from 2010 to 2021 reveals both good and bad news, researchers report May 3 in PLOS Climate.
The good news is that the CVRP is responsible for reducing the amount of the state’s overall CO2 emissions, reducing them by about 560,000 tons per year on average, says environmental scientist Jaye Mejia-Duwan at the University of California. In 2020, transportation in California produced about 160 million tons of CO2, about 40 percent of the total emitted by the state that year.
The bad news is that the most disadvantaged communities in the state didn’t see the same overall improvement in air quality. Those communities didn’t have the same decreases in CO2 — and in fact saw an increase in one type of air pollution, tiny particulates (颗粒) known as PM2.5. “These particulates are small enough to go deep into the lungs, increasing the risk of cancer, heart problems and cognitive decline,” Mejia-Duwan says.
“Electric vehicles are often referred to as ‘zero-emission vehicles,’ but in fact, they’re only as clean as the underlying electric grid (电网) from which the energy is sourced,” Mejia-Duwan says. EVs tend to be relatively heavy due to their batteries. And “heavier vehicles can produce more particulate matter than equally sized fossil fuel-powered cars, due to brake, tire or road wear,” Mejia-Duwan says.
1. California launched CVRP to ________.| A．save money for consumers | B．encourage the purchase of EVs |
| C．promote selling traditional cars | D．add to the profit of car industry |
| A．The seriousness of CO2 emissions. | B．The increasing popularity of EVs. |
| C．The present situation of environment. | D．The positive effect of CVRP. |
| A．Fuel-powered cars are relatively environment friendly. |
| B．There are more EVs in disadvantaged communities. |
| C．Electric vehicles can reduce the amount of emission. |
| D．Heavier vehicles do less damage to the environment. |
| A．Objective. | B．Supportive. | C．Opposed. | D．Indifferent. |
9 . Farming is destroying the planet, but there could be a much more environmentally friendly way to feed ourselves: using renewable energy to turn carbon dioxide into food. “This is becoming a reality,” says Pasi Vainikka at Solar Foods, a company that is building the first commercial-scale factory that will be able to make food directly from CO2.
There can be no doubt that immediate attention to find greener ways to grow food is required. Conventional agriculture, including organic farming, causes damage to the environment in many ways. It requires a lot of land, leading to habitat loss and deforestation. It is also the source of a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and releases other pollutants. It isn’t very efficient, either. Crops typically transform less than 1 percent of light energy into usable biomass (生物量).
Instead, Solar Foods plans to avoid photosynthesis (光合作用) altogether, and grow bacteria that use hydrogen as their source of energy. At the factory, renewable electricity will be used to split water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen will be added to large containers, where the bacteria grow, along with CO2 and ammonia (氨气). The end result will be a yellow powder called Solein.
Solein is made of bacterial cells and is up to 70 percent protein. It can be used as an ingredient in all kinds of foods. “We are aiming at replacing animal-sourced proteins, which we think have the highest environmental impact,” says Vainikka.
Compared with plant crops, Solein will use 100 times less water per kilogram of protein produced, 20 times less land and emit a fifth as much CO2, according to Solar Foods. There are other benefits, too: factories could be situated anywhere in the world and production won’t be affected by weather conditions.
“With Solar Foods and other companies scaling up their systems, this is truly beginning a new era of agriculture,” says Dorian Leger at Connectomix Bio in Germany. “I think these trends are exciting and will help bend the carbon curve as well as lead to improved global food supply security.”
1. What is the author’s purpose in mentioning conventional agriculture in paragraph 2?| A．To demonstrate its influence on crops. |
| B．To compare different farming methods. |
| C．To provide an example of agricultural types. |
| D．To highlight the urgent need for alternatives. |
| A．Its storage condition. | B．Its production process. |
| C．Its ingredient materials. | D．Its investment potential. |
| A．it is protein-rich |
| B．it is resource-efficient |
| C．its production is weather sensitive |
| D．its production is location-independent |
| A．The prospect of Solein remains to be seen, |
| B．Solein can help achieve global food safely. |
| C．Solein will dominate the agricultural development. |
| D．The use of Solein may help reduce carbon emissions. |
10 . Overlooking the Davis—Gant Varsity Soccer Field, a bed of overturned soil waits for further development. In a few years, this area will become a natural habitat and a playground for animals and residents. This peaceful area didn’t appear naturally, but through planning and action taken by Catlin Gabel’s Tiny Forest project launched by teacher Patrick Walsh.
Forests typically take hundreds of years to mature, with four stages of growth. “Tiny forests flatten out time through the planting of all four layers (层),” Walsh explained. The end result is a fast-growing, native forest in about 20 years. Over 600 plants from 43 species will be planted in the tiny forest, the first one in Oregon.
Walsh was inspired to build a tiny forest after hearing about this idea, which emerged in Japan and has taken hold in North America. He shared his vision with seniors in his class. The seniors researched tiny forests and made a proposal resulting in Clean Water Services donating 60 trees and $5,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Armed with these resources, Walsh and the students started working. “Something I didn’t really expect was the outpouring of students’ enthusiasm. Seeing students from all grades volunteered to contribute to the ‘dirty work’ really blew me away,” Walsh said.
Senior Megan Cover has been at the school since the first grade. “I’ll graduate after working on this project, which is surely sad, but it’s really rewarding and great to be a part of this project and to do my bit. We’re creating this educational space for many young kids,” Cover said.
Walsh summed up his goal of the project, which is to build a place where students can enjoy and learn about nature. “The forest will obviously not solve climate change, but it will deserve the efforts if the kids think about climate change and remember the importance of reforestation and trees when they look outside at the forest.”
1. What is special about tiny forests?| A．They originated in North America. | B．They are usually planted in schools. |
| C．They contain various types of trees. | D．They become mature in a shorter time. |
| A．The abundance of native tree species. | B．Public concern about the environment. |
| C．The active participation of students. | D．Support from local organizations. |
| A．Proud. | B．Regretful. | C．Grateful. | D．Disappointed. |
| A．A model. | B．A reminder. | C．A resource. | D．A witness. |
