A.The environment. | B.An activity. | C.A lifestyle. |
2 . Earthquakes are one type of natural disaster you simply can’t see coming. Earthquake preparation is the best way to deal with a confusing time. Here’s something you need to know about how to prepare for an earthquake.
Examine weak points in your home and make a plan to strengthen them. Protect your space or your home by finding out dangers and fixing moveable things.
Create an earthquake safety plan with your family. It’s key to create and practice an emergency plan with your family so that everyone knows what to do during a time of an earthquake. Talk about ways each family member can act as a team.
Learn earthquake emergency plans at your workplace, children’s school or daycare center. Disaster can strike at any moment.
A.Prepare an emergency bag. |
B.Prepare for more damage and danger. |
C.Pick safe spaces in every room to take shelter in. |
D.The shaking ground could move almost anything. |
E.It can help reduce fears, especially in young children. |
F.The preparation depends on a well-practiced plan and ready supplies. |
G.So it is necessary to learn how to prepare for an earthquake in any environment. |
3 . Since the 1950s, some 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced globally, of which only about 10% has ever been recycled. Yet environmentally conscious companies and consumers continue to look to recycling as a way to ease the plastic problem. Manufacturing giants claim to be committed to making more of their products and packaging from recycled materials. However, this confidence masks (掩饰) a complex web of issues around plastic recycling. Recycling rates remain extremely low and critics argue that we should look at alternative ways to tackle plastic pollution.
While many plastics have the potential to be recycled, most are not because the process is costly, complicated and the resulting product of a lower quality than the original. Despite rising demand for recycled plastic, few waste companies turn a profit. Part of this is because virgin plastic-linked to oil prices - is often cheaper than recycled plastic, meaning there is little economic incentive to use it. Worse yet, much of our plastic waste is difficult to recycle. Lightweight food packaging, like a mozzarella packet, contains different plastics, dyes and toxic additives (添加剂). This dirty mix means plastic recycled through mechanical methods- the most common form- can only be melted down and moulded (浇铸,塑造) again a couple of times before it becomes too fragile to be reused. And the nature of the process means plastic recycling has a carbon footprint of its own.
Given all of these difficulties, environmental critics say recycling is not the solution-and argue that creating more products from recycled material to attract environmental consciousness merely worsens the problem. “The solution is to use less plastic and to stop misleading the public about the recyclability,” says Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, a US campaign group with a mission to end single-use plastic. “They should stop making false claims about the recyclability of plastics since they know most will either be littered (乱扔) or burned or landfilled (填埋). Using less plastics means shifting to reusable products and relying more on paper, cardboard, glass and metal- -all of which should be made from recycled content.”
1. What is an environmentally conscious customer’s attitude towards recycling plastics?A.Suspicious. | B.Favorable. | C.Indifferent. | D.Disapproving. |
A.motive. | B.issue. | C.crisis. | D.policy. |
A.The recycling process of plastics. | B.Pollutants contained in recycled plastics. |
C.Reasons why users dislike recycled plastics. | D.Contributing factors to low plastic recycling rates. |
A.Using metal or glass food containers. | B.Littering recycled plastics in a landfill. |
C.Processing plastics in a mechanical way. | D.Launching campaigns to promote recyclability. |
4 . Used clothing that you no longer wear can be donated to charities. And clothing with broken zippers or missing buttons can be repaired and worn again. But what do you do when your favorite shirt is too torn to wear or your socks have too many holes?
Every year in the UK, 336, 000 tons of unwanted old clothing and shoes are thrown out and sent to landfills (废物填埋场), according to Recycle Now.
One of the best ways to deal with unwanted clothing is to make it into something completely different. You can use pieces of old cloth as filling for pillows.
Another very good way to reuse old textiles (纺织品) made of cotton like T-shirts is to cut the clothing up and use it as cleaning cloths around your home.
Besides, animal shelters are always looking for used towels and blankets to keep their animals warm.
A.You can bring your clothing to Green Life. |
B.Or you can turn something you like into a doll. |
C.So you can donate your unwanted clothing to such places. |
D.Some clothing companies have their own recycling services. |
E.The cleaning cloths can be washed and reused, unlike paper towels. |
F.Check to see whether certain items you are throwing out can be donated. |
G.This leads to greenhouse gases and allows chemicals to get into the soil. |
China is affected by natural disasters easily. When a disaster
China’s ability to respond to disasters stands out, as it can quickly deploy (部署) rescue forces and resources. It
China also has an outstanding ability in post disaster
Disaster relief is a comprehensive effort that requires a whole society working together. China sets an example of how to prevent loss and save lives by
6 . There are some fascinating data about the world’s forests! About 30 percent of the earth’s land is covered in forests, and 300 million people call forests home. A further 1.6billion people rely on forests to survive.
Now, keeping these numbers in mind, consider this fact: the world loses over 32million acres of forest each year. When forests disappear, we not only miss out on all the ways they make us healthier, we also lose an essential resource. This is why preserving forests, and nature, is more important than ever. The key is to connect with nature, for example, forest bathing.
In the way that forest bathing requires, we start to experience and appreciate all its beauty and benefits, through involvement with nature by using all our senses. Many governments, businesses, and institutions have realized the importance of this and have created plans to deepen mutually beneficial relationships between people and nature. It’s not just wild forests that need attention, urban parks and forests are equally important. Despite losing trees to real estate (房地产) developments and road construction, many cities have found creative ways to introduce more trees and forests. In Paris, for example, a nineteenth century railway was turned into a park that stretches nearly three miles. There’s one more thing that’s essential to the protection of forests-helping children connect with nature. Not only is this good for their overall well-being, but studies show that children who spend time in nature become adults who understand the importance of protection. Around the world, many schools have started using parks and green spaces as classrooms. Measures like these will help ensure that future generations can also enjoy the benefits of forests.
1. Why does the author list the data of the world’s forests in Paragraph 1?A.To highlight their significance. | B.To illustrate their economic value. |
C.To present their unique features. | D.To introduce their basic information. |
A.Close contact with nature. | B.Great loss of forest. |
C.Harmonious relationship with nature. | D.Creative plans for development. |
A.It benefits their future career. |
B.It improves their academic performances. |
C.It provides chances for having fun in forests. |
D.It raises their life-long environment awareness. |
A.Sports. | B.Tourism. |
C.Environment. | D.Agriculture. |
1. When did the earthquake happen?
A.On Wednesday night. | B.On Thursday morning. | C.On Thursday afternoon. |
A.Forty people lost their lives. |
B.At least 110 people were injured. |
C.A railway was nearly destroyed. |
A.Help the victims. | B.Tell some survival skills. | C.Check the highways. |
8 . In recent years, lots of American companies have gotten behind a potential climate solution called carbon capture and storage, and the government has backed it with billions of dollars in tax preferences and direct investments. The idea is to trap planet-heating carbon dioxide from the smokestacks of factories and power plants and ship it to sites via thousands of miles of new pipelines. Communities nationwide are pushing back against these pipeline construction and underground sites, arguing they don’t want the pollution running through their land.
Now the U. S. Forest Service is proposing to change a rule to allow storing this carbon dioxide pollution under the country’s national forests and grasslands. “Authorizing carbon capture and storage on National Forest System (NFS) lands would support the Administration’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent below the 2005 levels by 2030,” the proposed rule change says.
Some experts, like June Sekera, a research fellow with Boston University, question the timing of the proposed rule change, given community pushback across the country to pipelines planned on private land. Yet she says the Forest Service proposal to open up national parks for CO2 storage is “an end run around local towns and counties. And it’s a much simpler and way less expensive route.”
In an email, Scott Owen, press officer for the Forest Service, writes that the proposed rule change would allow the Forest Service to consider proposals for carbon capture and storage projects. He writes that any proposals must still pass through a secondary screening, adding, “The Forest Service has been ‘screening’ proposals for use of NFS lands for over 20 years as a means to be increasingly consistent in our processes and also be able to reject those uses that are inconsistent with the management of the public’s land. ” He notes the Forest Service currently does not have any carbon capture project proposals under consideration. The Forest Service has opened public comments on the proposed rule change until Jan. 2, 2024.
1. What does the Forest Service intend to do by changing a rule?A.Answer the appeals of communities. | B.Provide legal space for carbon storage. |
C.Enlarge national pipeline storage capacity. | D.Loosen tax burden on American companies. |
A.An eventful act. | B.A desperate try. |
C.An alternative way. | D.A breathtaking race. |
A.It is still up in the air. | B.It is dead in the water. |
C.It is widely recognized. | D.It is far from satisfactory. |
A.A fruitful research. | B.A timely rule change. |
C.An authorized project. | D.A controversial proposal. |
1. 活动介绍;
2. 活动意义。
注意:
1. 写作词数应为 80左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
A Successful Cleanup Activity
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10 . The streets, sidewalks and roofs of cities all absorb heat during the day, making some urban areas across the United States up to 6 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than rural ones during the day—and 22 degrees F hotter at night. These “urban heat islands” can also develop underground as the city heat spreads downward, beneath the surface. And basements, subway tunnels and other underground infrastructure also constantly bleed heat into the surrounding earth, creating hotspots. Now the underground heat is building up as the planet warms.
According to a new study of downtown Chicago, underground hotspots may threaten the very same structures that emit the heat in the first place. Such temperature changes make the ground around them expand and contract (收缩) enough to cause potential damage. “Without anyone realizing it, the city of Chicago’s downtown was deforming,” says the study’s author Alessandro F. Rotta Loria, a civil and environmental engineer at Northwestern University.
The findings, published in Communications Engineering, expose a “silent hazard (危险)” to civil infrastructure in cities with soft er ground — especially those near water — Rotta Loria says. “There might have been structural issues caused by this underground climate change that happened, and we didn’t even realize,” he adds. While not an immediate or direct danger to human lives, this previously unknown effect highlights the impacts of a lesser-known component of climate change.
Similar to climate change above the surface, these underground changes occur over long periods of time. “These effects took decades, a century, to develop,” Rotta Loria says, adding that elevated underground temperatures would likewise take a long time to dissipate (逐渐消失) on their own.
But other researchers interviewed for this story all say this wasted energy could also be recycled, presenting an opportunity to both cool the subsurface and save on energy costs. Subway tunnels and basements could be updated with technologies to recapture the heat. For example, water pipes could be installed to run through underground hotspots and pick up some of the heat energy.
1. What can we learn about the “urban heat islands”?A.They can develop underground structures. |
B.They are impacted by global warming. |
C.They can destroy the ground around. |
D.They only exist in the United States. |
A.To discuss structural issues. |
B.To categorize climate change. |
C.To explain underground heat. |
D.To emphasize the neglected reality. |
A.The future of tunnels and basements. |
B.The reusing approaches of heat energy. |
C.The cost of maintaining structures. |
D.The evolution of underground environment. |
A.Warming Underground, Weakening Surface |
B.A Silver Lining of Global Warming |
C.Urban Silent Islands in the Making |
D.A Silent Crisis in Downtown Chicago |