1 . Imagine driving down a 10-lane highway and knowing that, high above your head, a mountain lion is quietly going along its way. This remarkable image could soon be the reality for drivers on one of California’s busiest roads, as the world’s largest wildlife overpass(天桥) begins construction in April.
The history-making project will comprise a green bridge built across the 101 highway near Los Angeles, creating a passage between two parts of the Santa Monica Mountains. The overpass will allow safe passage for lizards, snakes, mountain lions, etc. with an acre of local plants on either side and vegetated sound walls to dampen light and noise for night-time animals as they go across.
The project, nearly a decade in the making, comes at a crucial time. Beth Pratt, a conservation leader with the National Wildlife Federation, feels as if she is running the last mile of a marathon. Pratt has spent most of the last decade planning the project, persuading transportation officials of its importance, and bringing donors to fund it.
The project is breaking records in many ways: not only is it the largest crossing in the world, but it’s also an engineering wonder. Robert Rock, a landscape architect who led the design, says this nature-centered type of construction makes it unusual among other wildlife bridges and underpasses around the world, which are typically made of cement(水泥)and steel. This one is designed to integrate into the environment on both sides — and send a message to the people driving below.
About 300,000 cars pass through this area each day, and Pratt calls it an opportunity for millions of Angelenos to see how humans can live more harmoniously with nature.“Someone could be in rush-hour traffic, and there could be a mountain lion right above them,”she says. “I think that’s such a helpful image, and one that inspires me that we can right some of these great wrongs.”
1. Why is the overpass built?| A．To attract visitors to watch the wildlife. |
| B．To help animals cross over a highway. |
| C．To bridge two mountains near Los Angeles. |
| D．To allow more traffic during rush hours. |
| A．It is a long journey. |
| B．It comes a little late. |
| C．It has little official support. |
| D．It has brought economic benefits. |
| A．It stands out among similar structures. |
| B．It does harm to the local environment. |
| C．It has got little attention from engineers. |
| D．It has inspired constructions worldwide. |
| A．It’ll transform the image of the state. |
| B．It’ll provide pleasant habitats for animals. |
| C．It’ll be a reminder for us to care about nature. |
| D．It’ll create job opportunities for the local people. |
Maggie and Alex live in a tall building in a neighborhood in the center of the city. There are no trees near their building, but they are happy in their home and it is close to their jobs.
In the part of the city where they live, there is not much fresh food to buy. The stores only have processed foods in packages. Maggie and Alex and all the other people in the building have to eat food that they buy in boxes and plastic containers.
This makes so much garbage that no one knows where to put it. While they wait for Fridays, when the city collects the garbage, all the neighbors put their trash into bags and sometimes leave it in the hallway or on the big, sunny roof. The whole building looks terrible. No one can spend time playing on the roof because it is full of trash.
One day, Maggie and Alex decide to make a change. They go up to the roof and separate all the recycla-ble garbage, like cardboard, plastic bottles, glass, and aluminum cans. Then they take all of the garbage down to the street for the garbage collectors.
But they do not carry down the plastic bottles! They cut off the tops and use them as pots to plant tomatoes and carrots. They plant herbs, too.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
Maggie and Alex tell their neighbors about their project.
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Paragraph 2:
Now the roof looks beautiful like a garden.
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3 . Live with roommates? Have friends and family around you? Chances are that if you’re looking to live a more sustainable lifestyle, not everyone around you will be ready to jump on that bandwagon.
I experienced this when I started switching to a zero waste lifestyle five years ago, as I was living with my parents, and I continue to experience this with my husband, as he is not completely zero waste like me. I’ve learned a few things along the way though, which I hope you’ll find encouraging if you’re doing your best to figure out how you can make the change in a not-always-supportive household.
Zero waste was a radical lifestyle movement a few years back. I remember showing my parents a video of Bea Johnson, sharing how cool I thought it would be to buy groceries with jars, and have so little trash! A few days later, I came back with my first jars of zero waste groceries, and my dad commented on how silly it was for me to carry jars everywhere. It came off as a bit discouraging.
Yet as the months of reducing waste continued, I did what I could that was within my own reach. I had my own bedroom, so I worked on removing things I didn’t need. Since I had my own toiletries (洗漱用品), I was able to start personalising my routine to be more sustainable. I also offered to cook every so often, so I portioned out a bit of the cupboard for my own zero waste groceries. Perhaps your household won’t entirely make the switch, but you may have some control over your own personal spaces to make the changes you desire.
As you make your lifestyle changes, you may find yourself wanting to speak up for yourself if others comment on what you’re doing, which can turn itself into a whole household debate. If you have individuals who are not on board, your words probably won’t do much and can often leave you feeling more discouraged.
So here is my advice: Lead by action.
1. What do the underlined words “jump on that bandwagon” mean in the first paragraph?| A．Share an apartment with you. | B．Join you in what you’re doing. |
| C．Transform your way of living. | D．Help you to make the decision. |
| A．He disapproved of it. | B．He was favorable to it. |
| C．He was tolerant of it. | D．He didn’t care about it. |
| A．She is quite good at cooking. | B．She respects others’ privacy. |
| C．She enjoys being a housewife. | D．She is a determined person. |
| A．How to get on well with other family members. |
| B．How to have one’s own personal space at home. |
| C．How to live a zero waste lifestyle in a household. |
| D．How to control the budget when buying groceries. |
4 . Artificial intelligence (AI) could help stop one of the biggest dangers to the Great Barrier Reef(大堡礁), amazingly saving huge areas of coral(珊瑚) from a harmful starfish. Google has teamed with scientists from the CSIRO to create AI software(软件) that could pick out the dangerous starfish, which is one of the natural wonder’s three biggest killers.
The new way, using footage from an underwater camera to recognize starfish outbreaks on the Queensland reef, takes the place of an old method and early results show as well as cutting down man’s work, the new software has the advantage of correctly picking out more of the dangerous life on coral, stopping damaging outbreaks before they occur.
Professor Russ Babcock, an expert with CSIRO, said Google’s AI technology, developed over 18 months, could be trained to find out starfish more easily than the old method developed in the 1970s. “We used to send out divers to count the starfish one by one. Now we just look at the images collected and the program can find 20 at a time,” he said.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said he was excited about the company’s effort put into the reef project. “We have put a lot of effort into the engineering in Australia and we will continue to do more work around AI there,” he said. “There are other good ideas about the technology and you will see us build on it. Our goal with our AI research teams is to strike partnerships with other groups, like universities and governments, to give its full play.”
Professor Babcock said the AI software, which would be put into use on other reefs worldwide, was not the only solution to the starfish affecting the Great Barrier Reef, but one that could have an wide application.
1. What is the function of Google developing the AI software?| A．To test a new camera. | B．To kill dangerous fishes. |
| C．To protect the environment. | D．To pick out a kind of starfish. |
| A．It is less likely to break down. | B．It can be started more quickly. |
| C．It costs less for its development. | D．It can do the work more easily. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Uncaring. | C．Disapproving. | D．Supportive. |
| A．A Harmful Starfish Affects Coral |
| B．A New Software Helps Save the Reef |
| C．What Makes AI Work Better? |
| D．Why Is the Reef in Danger? |
5 . Efforts were underway in Bangladesh to deliver food and drinking water to millions of people struggling after a heavy rain led to flooding, which hit a quarter of the country. There are around 3.5 million Bangladeshis at risk of river flooding every year according to a 2015 report by the World Bank.
On Wednesday, at least 17 of the country’s 64 districts (地区), mostly in the northern and north-eastern Sylhet, were suffering from the natural disaster. Government officials said at least 36 people had been killed and about 4.5 million people stuck so far. The floods also caused damage to agriculture (农业), electricity, and clean water supply.
Sylhet is among the worst affected, with several areas without electricity. “Many people are in great need of food and drinking water,” said Enam Ahmed, 45, living in the worst-hit Sunmaganj district. “There is water everywhere but no drinking water. Flood shelters are filled with people but they are not getting enough food,” he said.
The situation in Bangladesh has been worsened by rain water falling down from the surrounding hills of India’s Meghalaya state, which received more than 970 mm (38 inches) of rain on Sunday, according to a government report.
“The flood situation in the three Barak valley districts continues to be very serious. Army rescuers have evacuated thousands of trapped people to safe places. 14 rescue teams with more than 70 boats and over 400 men have been pressed into action in the heavily flooded districts,” said a local flood control official. About 5.5 million people have been displaced, about 3.7 million of whom are staying in government-run temporary (临时的) shelters on higher ground.
Locals in the flood-affected areas said they had never seen such serious floods before.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The role played by government officials. |
| B．The people frapped in the disaster. |
| C．The number of districts in the country. |
| D．The damage caused by the floods. |
| A．There is a crying need for food. |
| B．They can provide enough clean water. |
| C．They are too old to hold people. |
| D．There are few villagers staying inside. |
| A．Called on. | B．Checked out. |
| C．Moved away. | D．Sent in. |
| A．More rescue efforts are needed. |
| B．The floods hit the whole country. |
| C．The disaster is the biggest ever. |
| D．Rivers nationwide are at risk. |
6 . A Dutch city will become the first in the world to ban meat advertisements from public spaces in an effort to reduce consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.The ban also covers holiday flights, fossil fuels and cars that run on fossil fuels.The ban is delayed until 2024 due to existing contracts with companies that sell the products.
Haarlem, which lies to the west of Amsterdam and has a population of about 160,000,will bring the ban into effect from 2024 after meat was added to a list of products deemed to contribute to the climate crisis. Advertisements will not be allowed on Haarlem’s buses, shelters and screens in public spaces, prompting complaints from the meat sector that the government is “going too far in telling people what’s best for them”.
Recent studies suggest global food production is responsible for one-third of all planet-heating emissions,with the use of animals for meat accounting for twice the pollution of producing plant-based foods. Forests that absorb carbon dioxide are cut down for the food of animals while fertilisers used for growing their feed are rich in nitrogen(氮)，which can contribute to air pollution，water pollution and climate change. Livestock also produces large quantities of methane(甲烷)，a powerful greenhouse gas.
Zlggy Klazes,a councillor from the GroenLinks party, said she had not known the city would be the world’s first to enforce such a policy when she proposed it. She told the Haarlem105 radio channel:“We are not about what people are baking and roasting in their own kitchen;if people want to continue eating meat, it’s fine. We can’t tell people there’s a climate crisis and meanwhile,encourage them to buy products that are part of the cause. Of course, there are a lot of people who find the decision shocking and unreasonable,but there are also a lot of people who think it’s fine.”
1. What does the meat sector think of the ban?| A．Disapproving. |
| B．Neutral. |
| C．Indifferent. |
| D．Positive. |
| A．Nitrogen is harmful to the environment. |
| B．Methane mainly comes from livestock. |
| C．Meat consumption causes more pollution. |
| D．People cut down trees for human habitation. |
| A．She is the first to ban meat advertisement. |
| B．She is in favor of banning meat advertising. |
| C．She emphasizes the advantage of eating meat. |
| D．She cares about what people cook in the kitchen |
| A．Fossil fuels are banned in Dutch city. |
| B．Dutch city decreases meat production. |
| C．Dutch city bans meat advertisements in public. |
| D．Greenhouse gas emissions are limited in Dutch city. |
7 . In an industrial area close to Egypt’s northern coast, colored lights and nine huge shining artworks made of factory waste materials by seven recycling artists brightened the night.
The artworks, mostly made of wastes of iron, plastic and wood, are on display at the first edition of the Alamein Art Festival. The festival being held at an industrial park owned by Industrial Development Group (IDG) in the Mediterranean resort city of New Alamein was organized by Art D’Egypte, an Egyptian platform for art and heritage.
“The one-month festival, which kicked off on Thursday, seeks to promote the concept of environmental sustainability (持续性) through art,” said Nadine Abdel-Ghaffar, founder of Art D’Egypte and chief organizer of the festival. “Through their eco-friendly art installations (装置), Egyptian contemporary artists call on people to be aware of protecting the environment and the climate.”
One of the artworks on display features two large leaves standing side by side inside two opposing metal frames, looking like two pages of an open book. “It sends a message to factories that the materials they regard as wastes can be used for good purposes by artists in creating artworks, which can make a place more beautiful, “said experienced Egyptian sculptor Omar Tossoun and explained how he created his sculpture A Leaf.
In the center of the open-air exhibition area, visitors’ attention is drawn to a colorful 6-meter-tallshining object that looks like a jellyfish. It took two months for Marwa Magdy to finish the artwork called Jellyfish, which took half a ton of wasted iron.
Visitors have been impressed by the concept of recycling waste materials into artworks. “If you look around, the artists have really done very nice works. It is such a brilliant idea to use something that otherwise would be discarded and make it into a beautiful piece of art,” said Yehia Hamad, one of the visitors.
1. What can we know about the Alamein Art Festival?| A．It lasts about two months. |
| B．It isn’t popular with visitors. |
| C．Its artworks were created by 9 artists. |
| D．Its artworks were made of factory waste materials. |
| A．Nadine Abdel-Ghaffar. | B．Omar Tossoun. |
| C．Marwa Magdy. | D．Yehia Hamad. |
| A．Recycled. | B．Thrown away. | C．Bought. | D．Fixed up. |
| A．Omar Tossoun: An Experienced Artist |
| B．Alamein Art Festival: An Important Festival |
| C．Recycling Artists Turn Factory Waste into Artworks |
| D．Huge Shining Artworks Attract World’s Attention |
8 . Microbiologists have designed a sustainable way to remove polluting microplastics from the environment by using bacteria. Initial design as it is, it paves the way for sustainably lowering plastic pollution levels and stop the “plastification”.
Bacteria naturally tend to group together and stick to surfaces, and this creates a sticky material called “biofilm”. Researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) want to use this adhesive bacteria character and capture microplastics in polluted water to form an easily disposable and recyclable blob(团) .
Sylvia Lang Liu, microbiology researcher at PolyU and lead researcher on this project, together with his team, has engineered a bacterial biofilm, which can fix and absorb microplastics floating around in the water, and make them sink to the bottom of the water. Then the researchers can separate the microplastics from the bacteria traps and get them ready to recycle.
Microplastics are the plastic fragments, usually smaller than 5mm, which are accidentally released into the environment during production and breakdown of grocery bags or water bottles, or during everyday activities such as washing synthetic (合成的) clothes or using personal care products with scrubbing microbeads in them. Microplastics are visually tiny, making it challenging to develop effective solutions to trap, collect, and recycle them.
Microplastics are not easily biodegradable (生物降解的), so they stick around for long and absorb and accumulate poisonous chemicals. They spread into wastewater and into the oceans, endangering marine animals and eventually threatening human health, Microplastics had been found in more than 114 species living in the water and also salt, lettuce, apples, and more in 2018 according to the International Maritime Organization.
“This is an innovative application of biofilm engineering l0 address the plastio pollution crisis,” said Dr Joanna Sadler, researcher at University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in this study. “One of the biggest challenges in dealing with microplastics is capturing such small particles. Liu and co-workers have denmonstrated an elegant solution to this problem, which holds great potential to be further developed into a real-world wastewater treatment technology.”
1. Which of the following best explains the underlined word “adhesive” in Paragraph 2?| A．Floating. | B．Sticky. | C．Diverse. | D．Visual. |
| A．They are visually too small. | B．They are hard to biodegrade. |
| C．They continue to exist for long. | D．They are poisonous chemicals. |
| A．Small particles are essential to address water pollution |
| B．Biofilm bas been widely used to settle plastic pollution. |
| C．Sadler thinks little of the biofilm engineering application. |
| D．Biofilm application is promising for wastewater treatment. |
| A．Microplastic removal. | B．Uses of bacteria. |
| C．Wastewater treatment. | D．Plastic pollution. |
A cliff (悬崖) wall in the mountains of the Shennongjia Nature Reserve, China’s Hubei Province, is home to over 700 wooden boxes,
What makes the Shennongjia Nature Reserve so special for beekeeping
10 . Journalist John Smith says that so many scientists visit Yellowstone National Park — close to 4 million a year — that it’s stressing the park’s ecosystem. But, he adds, the development of private lands around the park is an even greater threat.
“People come to buy a small farm of 300 acres, and they build a house, get a road and a satellite dish. They turn what was wild landscape into human-occupied landscape,” Smith says. “And that’s problematic for the elk that move through these corridors.
The elk of Yellowstone National Park spend their summer in the high country of Yellowstone, feeding on high grass that remain green through the summer, but in the winter, those high places become very cold, and so the elk move down to lower places in the surrounding land onto national forests and in some cases onto large private ranches.
If those private lands are transformed from open land into small farms, to shopping malls, to roads, to Starbucks, if those places are all settled for the benefit of humans, then the elk are not going to be able to move in and out of Yellowstone National Park any more. And if the elk can’t move into the park, then that creates problems for the wolves and a lot of other creatures. The elk are the most abundant large herbivores in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Those moving routes need to stay open.
Smith notes that Yellowstone National Park is just one part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, a 22 million-acre area that also includes Grand Teton National Park, a portion of the Wind River Indian Reservation and other private and federally owned lands. Because the animals in Yellowstone need to move outside the park in the winter, the lands in the greater ecosystem play an important role in the park’s continued existence.
“It has been realized in recent decades that Yellowstone National Park is not an island,” Smith says. “It’s part of this larger system, this larger body of wild landscape, and it needs the rest of this wild landscape just as the rest of the wild landscape needs it.”
1. What is John Smith worried about concerning Yellowstone National Park?| A．There are few corridors in it. | B．It doesn’t get enough visitors. |
| C．Part of the land in the park is over-developed. | D．The private lands around it are being developed. |
| A．They stay in the park. | B．They eat high grass. |
| C．They move to lower places. | D．They leave big private ranches. |
| A．The elk’s natural enemies. | B．The elk’s living environment. |
| C．How to protect the elk from other animals. | D．Why the moving routes shouldn’t be developed. |
| A．The park needs more land. | B．The park is similar to an island. |
| C．The park depends on the lands around it. | D．The park includes a large wild landscape. |
