1 . The number of weather-related disasters has increased by five times over the past 50 years, the latest report by the World Meteorological (气象) Organization (WMO) said on September. However, thanks to improved early warning systems and disaster management, the number of death from these hazards (危险) has been almost three times less.
According to the WMO, from 1970 to 2019, weather, climate and water hazards accounted for 50 percent of all disasters. Among the top 10 hazards that led to the largest loss of human life during this period were droughts, storms, floods and extreme temperatures. However, deaths fell from over 50, 000 in the 1970s to less than 20, 000 in the 2010s.
“Weather, climate and water extremes are increasing and will become more frequent and severe in many parts of the world as a result of climate change,” says WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
“That means more heat waves, drought and forest fires such as those we have observed recently in Europe and North America. We have more water vapor in the atmosphere, which is worsening extreme rainfall and deadly flooding. The warming of the oceans has affected the frequency and area of existence of the most intense tropical storms.”
“Economic losses are increasing as exposure increases. But behind the statistics lies a message of hope. Improved multi-hazard early warning systems have led to a significant reduction in deaths. Quite simply, we are better than ever before at saving lives,” Taalas said.
1. What do we know from the first paragraph?| A．Disasters connected with weather have gone up. |
| B．The number of weather-related disasters has decreased. |
| C．The number of deaths from hazards has been increasing. |
| D．Early warning systems have made disasters decline much. |
| A．There will be more extreme weather. |
| B．Extreme rainfall will no longer exist. |
| C．Water vapor in the atmosphere will go down. |
| D．Humans will defeat extreme weather in the end. |
| A．Improved warning systems will save economic losses. |
| B．Economic losses are going down as exposure increases. |
| C．More lives will be saved thanks to early warning systems. |
| D．Improved early warning systems will control extreme weather |
| A．A novel. | B．A brochure. | C．A magazine. | D．A guideline. |
2 . Growing up in Mauritius, I love nature. Behind my house, there is a mountain named Le Pouce, where I spent much time
When I was about 10, this started to
Gradually, I realized how much humans
Diving plays a big part in my life now, and I work to
Protecting the ocean is very
| A．exploring | B．transforming | C．extending | D．constructing |
| A．expanded | B．appeared | C．assisted | D．stopped |
| A．ruined | B．surrounded | C．covered | D．represented |
| A．change | B．worsen | C．repeat | D．occur |
| A．progress | B．threat | C．opportunity | D．image |
| A．proving | B．hiding | C．developing | D．resisting |
| A．avoiding | B．teaching | C．pretending | D．considering |
| A．if | B．yet | C．so | D．unless |
| A．lead | B．follow | C．recognize | D．prevent |
| A．hesitation | B．awareness | C．memory | D．guess |
| A．paid back | B．adapted to | C．depended on | D．kept up |
| A．simple | B．significant | C．dangerous | D．effective |
| A．mood | B．skill | C．hobby | D．experience |
| A．confirm | B．neglect | C．overcome | D．analyze |
| A．turn down | B．hold back | C．add up | D．contribute to |
| A．introduction | B．influence | C．advertisement | D．prediction |
| A．mixing | B．burning | C．replacing | D．combining |
| A．risky | B．impractical | C．shocking | D．crucial |
| A．sincerely | B．suddenly | C．formally | D．seemingly |
| A．wonderful | B．imaginative | C．familiar | D．traditional |
3 . Priscilla Ouchida’s “energy efficient” house turned out to be a horrible dream. When she and her engineer husband married a few years ago, they built a $100,000 three-bedroom home in California. Tightly sealed to prevent air leaks, the house was equipped with small double-paned windows and several other energy-saving features. Problems began as soon as the couple moved in, however. Priscilla’s eyes burned. Her throat was constantly dry. She suffered from headaches and could hardly sleep. It was as though she had suddenly developed a strange illness.
Experts finally traced the cause of her illness. The level of formaldehyde gas in her kitchen was twice the maximum allowed by federal standards for chemical workers. The source of the gas? Her new kitchen cabinets and wall-to-wall carpeting.
The Ouchidas are victims of indoor air pollution, which is not given sufficient attention partly because of the nation’s drive to save energy. The problem itself isn’t new. “The indoor environment was dirty long before energy conservation came along,” says Moschandreas, a pollution scientist at Geomet Technologies in Maryland. “Energy conservation has tended to accentuate the situation in some cases.”
The problem appears to be more troublesome in newly constructed homes rather than old ones. Back in the days when energy was cheap, home builders didn’t worry much about unsealed cracks. Because of such leaks, the air in an average home was replaced by fresh outdoor air about once an hour. As a result, the pollutants generated in most households seldom built up to dangerous levels.
1. It can be learned from the passage that the Ouchidas’ house ________.| A．is well worth the money spent on its construction |
| B．is almost faultless from the point of energy conservation |
| C．failed to meet energy conservation standards |
| D．was designed and constructed in a scientific way |
| A．Poor quality of the air inside. | B．Poor quality of the construction. |
| C．Gas leakage in the kitchen. | D．The newly painted walls. |
| A．relieve | B．accelerate | C．worsen | D．improve |
| A．Because indoor cleanliness was not emphasized. |
| B．Because energy used to be inexpensive. |
| C．Because environmental protection was given top priority. |
| D．Because they were technically unavoidable. |
| A．Energy Conservation | B．House Building Crisis |
| C．Air Pollution Indoors | D．Traps in Building Construction |
4 . Styrofoam, or polystyrene, is a light-weight material, about 95 percent air, with very good insulation (隔热) properties, according to Earthsource.org. It is used in products from cups that keep your drinks hot or cold to packaging material that protects items during shipping. With the above good features, Styrofoam still enjoys a bad reputation. It cannot be recycled without releasing dangerous pollution into the air. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency says it is the fifth-largest creator of harmful waste.
But now the common worms which are usually disgusting can come to the rescue, specifically, mealworms. Scientists from the U. S. and China have discovered that mealworms can digest plastic. One mealworm can digest a pill-sized amount of plastic a day. Study co-author Wei-Min Wu says that in 24 hours, the plastic is turned into carbon dioxide.
Since Styrofoam has no nutrition at all, are the worms hurt by eating plastic? Much to the scientists’ surprise, the study found that worms eating Styrofoam were as healthy as worms eating bran (谷糠). The researchers will study the worm’s eating habits and digesting system, looking to copy the plastic breakdown but on a larger scale. Once the way can be put into practice, it will make a revolutionary difference to the disposal of plastic.
“Solving the issue of plastic pollution is important”, says Wu, a Stanford University environmental engineering instructor. After all, our earth is small and landfill space is becoming limited with too much garbage waiting to be dealt with, he says.
About 33-million tons of plastic are thrown away in the United States every year. Plastic plates, cups and containers take up 25 percent to 30 percent of space in America’s landfills. One Styrofoam cup takes more than 1 million years to recycle in a landfill, according to Cleveland State University.
1. What do we know about Styrofoam?| A．It can be used to cool drinks. |
| B．It is a weightless material. |
| C．It is harmful when recycled. |
| D．It is usually used on ships. |
| A．Mealworms have amazing digesting power. |
| B．Mealworms are not bad in their nature. |
| C．Mealworms can rescue people’s lives. |
| D．People misunderstood mealworms in the past. |
| A．To find ways to help mealworms grow larger. |
| B．To imitate their ways of breaking down plastic. |
| C．To help develop their digesting ability. |
| D．To make sure of their safety after eating plastic. |
| A．by raising amounts of mealworms |
| B．by environmental engineering instructors |
| C．using a method inspired by eating mealworms |
| D．without sending out dangerous pollution |
| A．Styrofoam is widely used in daily life. |
| B．Mealworms are genius at eating plastic. |
| C．Plastic recycling may be no more a problem. |
| D．Plastic can be turned into carbon dioxide. |
5 . As people travelling by air become increasingly aware of their carbon footprint, flying has become not only one of the most polluting industries, but also one with the most potential to turn things around.
After Solar Impulse 2 completed the world’s first flight by a solar-powered aircraft in 2016, airlines and aircraft producers looked to become the first to provide a commercial plane. Bertrand Piccard, one of the pilots responsible for Solar Impulse 2’s journey said, “All the clean technologies we’ve already had can be used everywhere. We have to use them, not only for the environment, but also because they are profitable and able to create jobs.”
The following year saw many projects in the aviation (航空) field as the airline industry acknowledged the future of low- carbon transportation methods. In 2017, Zunum Aero, a small aviation company which focused on delivering a range of hybrid-electric (混合电动的) planes received financial aid from JetBlue and Boeing, whilst EasyJet teamed up with Wright Electric to develop battery-powered aircraft and NASA also announced its plans to develop its own electric aircraft.
Orkney Islands, lying about 20 miles north of the Scottish mainland, are rich in renewable resources, especially the wind energy. Loganair, a Scottish airline, is cooperating with aviation companies to make Orkney the world’s first fully electric airline routes. However, this is never easy. Due to the limited size and weight of a battery that an airplane can carry, airplane producers are faced with a bottleneck — the continued power supply for electric airplanes. They believe the abundant wind energy in Orkney could be the key to solving it.
The benefits of electric air travel transcend its low-carbon emissions. Aviation experts believe these aircraft’s power source will also mean they will be less noisy, smaller, require less maintenance costs, and need a shorter runway to take off and land — this could lead to more airports in small cities and more rural areas being connected to the world at large.
1. What did Bertrand want to convey in his words?| A．The future of aircraft pilots. |
| B．The success of Solar Impulse 2. |
| C．The convenience of commercial planes. |
| D．The significance of using renewable energy. |
| A．By asking for financial support from banks. |
| B．By working together with another company. |
| C．By purchasing patents from other countries. |
| D．By improving the technology on its own. |
| A．Use natural resources to charge airplanes. |
| B．Build more coal-fired power stations. |
| C．Develop shorter airline routes. |
| D．Increase the size of battery. |
| A．Go beyond. | B．Rely on. | C．Differ from. | D．Refer to. |
| A．Making plane tickets cheaper. |
| B．Making the flying time shorter. |
| C．Making the world more connected. |
| D．Making the plane maintenance easier. |
6 . Eradajere Oleita thinks she may have a partial solution for two of our country’s long-standing problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called The Chip Bag Project. The 26-year-old student and environmentalist from Detroit is asking a favor of local snack lovers: Rather than throw your empty chip bags into the trash, donate them so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the homeless.
Chip eaters drop off their empty bags from Lay’s (乐事公司) at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store, where Oleita and her volunteer helpers collect them. After they clean the chip bags in hot soapy water, they slice them open, lay them flat, and iron them together. It takes about four hours to sew a sleeping bag, and each takes around 150 to 300 chip bags, depending on whether it’s single-serve or family-size. “The result is a sleeping bag that is waterproof, lightweight, and easy to carry around.” Oleita told The Detroit News.
Since its start in 2020, The Chip Bag Project has collected more than 800,000 chip bags and, as of last December, it has created 110 sleeping bags. Sure, it would be simpler to raise money to buy new sleeping bags. But that’s only half the goal for Oleita—whose family moved to the United States from Nigeria a decade ago with the hope of attaining a better life—and her fellow volunteers. “We are committed to making an impact not only socially, but also environmentally.” she said.
And, of course, there’s the symbolism of salvaging bags that would otherwise be abandoned in the trash and using them to help the homeless. It’s a powerful reminder that environmental injustice and poverty often go hand in hand. As Oleita told www.hourdetroit.com, “I think it’s time to show connections between these issues.”
1. What is the purpose of The Chip Bag Project?| A．To make donations for the homeless. |
| B．To deal with garbage and sleeping bags. |
| C．To stop pollution caused by snack lovers. |
| D．To protect the environment and reduce poverty. |
| A．By turning to chip eaters. | B．By producing chip bags. |
| C．By purchasing snacks. | D．By cooperating with the poor. |
| A．Oleita raises money by creating new sleeping bags. |
| B．Oleita hopes to gain a better life through the project. |
| C．Oleita and her fellow volunteers will continue pursuing their goal. |
| D．110 sleeping bags were created by The Chip Bag Project in 2020. |
| A．Sewing. | B．Recycling. |
| C．Emptying. | D．Designing. |
| A．Determined and honest. | B．Ambitious and humorous. |
| C．Devoted and creative. | D．Caring and independent. |
7 . In 2016, the world’s population cast aside 49 million tons of electronic waste, known as e-waste. It has been calculated that this number will grow to more than 60 million tons by 2021.
What is causing the upsurge (激增) in e-waste? Technology is becoming more and more widespread, 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, to be replaced by new devices. Companies intentionally plan the obsolescence (过时) of their goods by updating the design or software and discontinuing support for older models, so that now it is usually cheaper and easier to buy a new product than to repair an old one. Since prices are falling, electronic devices are in demand around the world.
As more people buy electronic equipment, manufacturers (制造商) are beginning to face shortages of the raw materials needed to make their products, so recycling and reusing materials from discarded (扔掉的) products and waste makes economic and environmental sense.
Recycling e-waste is practiced both formally and informally. Proper or formal e-waste recycling usually involves taking apart the electronics, separating and sorting through the materials and cleaning them. Companies must obey health and safety rules to reduce the health and environmental hazards 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, men and women recover valuable materials by 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 amount of e-waste growing around the world, recycling alone will not be enough to solve the problem. In order to reduce e-waste, manufacturers need to design electronics that are safer, and more durable, repairable and recyclable. The best thing you can do is resist buying a new device until you really need it. Try to get your old product repaired if possible and, if it can’t be fixed, resell or recycle it responsibly. Before you recycle your device, put any broken parts in separate containers and close these tightly to prevent chemicals from leaking. Wear latex gloves and a mask if you’re handling something that’s broken.
1. Which of the following is a reason for e-waste’s sharp increasing?| A．The falling of devices’ quality. | B．The results of updating devices. |
| C．The methods of recycling e-waste. | D．The shortage of protective equipment. |
| A．Increasing the variety of electronic products. | B．Lowering the costs of technology innovation. |
| C．Relieving the lack of the raw materials. | D．Improving the poor quality of e-devices. |
| A．Influence. | B．Harm. | C．Limits. | D．Costs. |
| A．They are blamed for shortening the lifespan of devices. |
| B．Their ways of reusing waste are sometimes encouraged. |
| C．They aim to discover rare materials from waste for new products. |
| D．Their workers are unaware of the danger from dealing with devices. |
| A．Everyone should take action to reduce e-waste. |
| B．Companies should be mainly responsible for reducing e-waste. |
| C．Fixing a device could cause more pollution than buying a new one. |
| D．E-waste could be broken down by burying it underground for a long time. |
1.跑步捡垃圾的现状；
2.它的优点；
3.提出倡议。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可以话当加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：跑步捡垃圾 plogging
My dear friends,
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Li Hua
9 . The giant panda is more than just a cute conservation animal and a beloved media darling. It is also, according to new research, the protector of dozens of other unique Chinese species. The panda itself doesn’t actually defend other wildlife, but it helps to save it all the same by serving as what’s known as an “umbrella species”. In other words, efforts to preserve habitats for the giant panda also protect many other mammals, birds and amphibians (两栖动物) that live only alongside pandas, in the same areas and regions.
Conservationists have expressed this umbrella species theory for years but a paper published recently in Biological Conservation proves it. The research found that most of the forest animals in China live within the panda’s geographic range and the nature reserves set aside to protect them. In brief, most of this range overlaps (与……重叠) with important conservation areas for other local forest species.
Pandas do protect a lot although a few species fall outside the umbrella. The research found about one hundred kinds of animals are not protected by the giant panda’s current reservation. The paper identified 10 locations that might be suitable for new or improved nature reserves to help expand that coverage. Many of these areas, located in Sichuan Province, which is considered the stronghold (大本营) of giant pandas in the wild, are close to existing reserves.
Protecting the newly identified locations, however, won’t save all of China’s unique wildlife. “Pandas are a good umbrella species for forest ecosystems in China but that’s not enough,” says co-author Binbin Li. “In China we have many ecosystems. We need more umbrella species.” For example, she says tigers could serve the same role in the northern part of the country and snow leopards could be an umbrella for grassland species.
“The new findings are important,” Pimm (the other author) and Li say, “because many people doubt whether China’s commitment to preserving giant panda habitats is doing much good.” Other people around the world don’t even realize that wild pandas still live in their native forests. “A lot of the resources in China go to releasing captive (被关住的) pandas back into the wild,” Li says. “The news doesn’t cover that.” She says this paper helps display wild pandas and also shows that the expense in preserving them is money well spent.
The researchers hope their paper helps to set the tone for future discussions not only about umbrella species but also giant pandas themselves, along with all China’s wildlife.
1. Giant pandas are called an umbrella species because ________.| A．they never fight for protected species |
| B．they help take care of other baby animals |
| C．their precious value requires better protection |
| D．the protection for them also extends to other species |
| A．The number of nature reserves may be reduced. |
| B．The coverage of nature reserves may be expanded. |
| C．The giant panda lives in important local conservation areas. |
| D．Many nature reserves in China are located in Sichuan Province. |
| A．Create more kinds of strong species. | B．Find more kinds of umbrella species. |
| C．Focus solely on pandas’ conservation. | D．Search for much bigger nature reservations. |
| A．showing how well pandas are living | B．blaming the media for their ignorance |
| C．proving China’s efforts to protect pandas | D．appealing to organizations to donate money |
| A．The umbrella species have a great influence on the ecosystem. |
| B．Researchers have done a lot to protect China’s local species. |
| C．Giant panda conservation also protects other unique species. |
| D．Conservationists expressed a new umbrella species theory. |
10 . Eradajere Oleita thinks she may have a partial solution for two of her country’s persistent (持续的) problems: garbage and poverty (贫困). It’s called the Chip Bag Project. The 26-year-old student and environmentalist from Detroit is asking a (n)
Chip eaters drop off their
It
Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has
Sure, it would be simpler to
And, of course, there’s the symbolism of recycling bags that would otherwise land in the
| A．advice | B．question | C．favor | D．permission |
| A．throw | B．track | C．leak | D．lock |
| A．design | B．detect | C．digest | D．donate |
| A．homeless | B．disabled | C．old | D．sick |
| A．heavy | B．empty | C．luxury | D．full |
| A．moments | B．decisions | C．locations | D．conclusions |
| A．clean | B．load | C．soften | D．resolve |
| A．dig | B．slice | C．lift | D．knock |
| A．pays | B．takes | C．delays | D．wastes |
| A．resulting in | B．figuring out | C．contributing to | D．depending on |
| A．out | B．around | C．over | D．on |
| A．reached | B．related | C．found | D．collected |
| A．destroyed | B．repaired | C．compared | D．created |
| A．lose | B．lend | C．raise | D．drop |
| A．goal | B．income | C．profit | D．way |
| A．risking | B．recommending | C．attaining | D．realizing |
| A．driving | B．devoting | C．enjoying | D．encouraging |
| A．store | B．trash | C．solution | D．family |
| A．day after day | B．step by step | C．face to face | D．hand in hand |
| A．generations | B．inspirations | C．connections | D．expectations |
