The world’s oceans reached their hottest level in recorded history last year, supercharging (加剧) extreme weather events, scientists have reported. They found that the five hottest recorded years in the oceans
Hotter oceans destroy rainfall patterns, which
The study also finds that the sinking of surface waters and upwelling of deeper water is reducing as the seas heat up. This means the surface layers heats up even further and fewer nutrients for marine life are brought up from the
“The oceans reached yet another new record level of warmth in 2020,
2 . What would you think if someone suggested pulling down Big Ben to make way for a car park? It would be ridiculous, right? But when it comes to devastation (毁灭) of the natural world, we aren’t so easily shocked. But we should be...or we’ll be in a lot of trouble.
Nature is shrinking by the day. Ancient forests are destroyed. Wetlands are becoming dry. Woodland is disappearing. And all in the name of progress. This is bad in itself, but it’s devastating for biodiversity.
Biodiversity refers to the variety of plants, animals and other living things which are all inter-connected. The ecological services provided by biodiversity are vital to everyday life. The air we breathe is a product of photosynthesis (光合作用) by green plants. In fact, all life on earth exists thanks to the benefit of biodiversity. More than 90 percent of the calories consumed by people worldwide are produced from 80 plant species. And 30 percent of medicines are developed from plants and animals. Maintaining a wide diversity of species in each ecosystem is necessary to preserve all living things.
The loss of biodiversity could be devastating. “It is wrong to think that biodiversity can be reduced indefinitely without threatening humans,” said Harvard University biologist Edward O. Wilson, known as “the father of biodiversity”. He warned, “we are about to reach a critical point beyond which biodiversity loss will be unavoidable.”
But what can we do? The problem is that the concept of biodiversity is so vague. People might care about giant pandas, but it is much harder to excite them about the fate of tiny sea creatures which are being boiled to death in the cooling systems of power stations along coastlines. The Guardian newspaper is trying to help. It has started the Biodiversity 100 campaign to try to convince governments around the world to take action to deal with the widespread concerns about biodiversity. This includes persuading the UK government to create a series of marine reserves to reverse the decline in sea-life caused by industrial fishing, banning the fishing sharks by the Japanese fishermen and stopping the killing of dingoes in Australia, among many other things.
There is a lot to do. And we’d better get a move on if we don’t want to end up with a planet that can’t support life!
1. What does the author want to tell us by the comparison in paragraph 1?| A．It is unreasonable to pull down Big Ben. | B．People take devastation of nature for granted. |
| C．The differences between Big Ben and nature. | D．The great trouble we have been faced with. |
| A．It doesn’t matter to reduce biodiversity. | B．People have done enough to preserve biodiversity. |
| C．The situation of biodiversity is very serious. | D．Biodiversity loss has become unavoidable. |
| A．The UK government. | B．The concept of biodiversity. |
| C．The action to deal with problem. | D．The Guardian newspaper. |
| A．Biodiversity Battle | B．Biodiversity Loss | C．Planet Conservation | D．Planet Changing |
3 . In a remote corner of Brazil's Amazon tropical（热带的）rainforest, researchers have spent decades catching and measuring birds. Over 40 years, dozens of Amazonian bird species have declined in mass（质量）. Many species have lost nearly 2% of their average body weight each decade, researchers report November 12 in Science Advances. Some species have grown longer wings. The changes could help birds stay cool in a hotter, more changeable climate, the researchers say.
"Climate change isn't something of the future. It has been happening and has effects we haven't thought of," says Ben Winger, an ornithologist（鸟类专家）at the University of Michigan, who wasn't involved in the research but has documented similar shrinkage（缩水）in migratory birds.
To see if non-migratory birds have also been shrinking, Jirinec and colleagues analyzed data collected from 1979 to 2019 in a remote region in the Amazon that spans 43km. The data include over 11,000 individual birds of 77 species as well as climate for the region.
All species declined in mass over this period, the researchers found. Species lost from about 0.1% to nearly 2% of their average body weight each decade. The motmot, for example, shrunk from 133g to about 127g over the study period.
These changes coincided with an overall increase in the average temperature of 1℃ in the wet season and 1.65%℃ in the dry season. Birds' mass decreased the most in a year or two after especially hot and dry seasons, which tracks with the idea that birds are getting smaller to deal with heat stress.
Wing length also grew for 61 species, with a maximum increase of 1% per decade. Jirinec thinks longer wings make for more efficient, and thus cooler, fliers.
"The Amazon rainforest is mysterious, remote and full of biodiversity," Jirined says. "This study suggests that even in places like this, far removed from civilization, you can see signatures of climate change."
1. What changes have happened to Amazonian birds over 40 years?| A．They have lost weight. | B．They have grown prettier. |
| C．They have become fewer. un | D．They have become larger. |
| A．Contrasted with. | B．Compared with. | C．Corresponded to | D．Contributed to. |
| A．Climate change | B．Food shortage. | C．Massive hunting | D．Scientific research |
| A．Researchers measuring birds in Amazon | B．Climate change shrinking tropical birds |
| C．Longer wings improving flying efficiency | D．Human activities damaging Amazon rainforest |
4 . In the aftermath of the deadliest fire California history last fall, it was difficult for anyone in the town of Paradise to find hope.
Shane Grammer paid close attention to the news of the fire’s deadly path. He felt quite powerless to help when seeing the picture shared by his childhood friend Shane Edwards in the town, in which Edwards photographed a white chimney, the only part of his house left after the fire.
“I’ve got to paint that chimney,” he said. “I’m not trying to say anything. It’s just that I’m an artist. And it was an opportunity for me to express myself and be an artist, wasn’t it?”
Grammer spent three hours spray-painting the image of a woman on the chimney in black and white, which was strikingly mysterious. Perhaps it served as a reminder of the hope of life or just life itself.
Then Grammer put its picture on social media. On seeing it, the victims of the fire could not contain themselves. “Beautiful and impressive,” one of them remarked. And another said, “You bring wonder and hope.”
At this time, Grammer became aware that something deeper had been transformed by a purely artistic expression. “When the first mural (壁画) moved so many people, I knew I had to come back,” he told the journalist. Grammer returned to Paradise eight times in three months, during which he completed 17 murals of victims and other figures, including the original one, on walls, pickups, and shards of buildings.
Today, Grammer’s efforts have developed into a movement. He has also painted murals in dark places around the world that seriously need some light.
Ironically, the first painting, on the chimney in Paradise, existed for just several months, since the bulldozer (推土机) was a merciless art critic. But Grammer couldn’t be more pleased about it, which means the spirit of Paradise is rising again.
1. Why did Grammer say he wasn’t trying to say anything?| A．Because he felt quite helpless. |
| B．Because he didn’t want to show his feelings. |
| C．Because he had his way to express himself. |
| D．Because he felt it difficult to say something. |
| A．People’s inner feelings. |
| B．People’s remarks. |
| C．The meaning of the murals. |
| D．The artistic expression. |
| A．The bulldozer was so cruel that it destroyed Grammer’s mural. |
| B．The people in Paradise are in high spirits now. |
| C．Grammer is not happy with the destruction of his mural. |
| D．Paradise is recovering from the disaster in a short time. |
| A．Painting: A Way of Bringing Light |
| B．Artistic Murals Brought Victims Hope |
| C．Creativity: A Chimney Left after the Wildfire |
| D．Achievements May Come after A Disaster |
5 . According to related new research, tropical cyclones(热带气旋), ranging from hurricanes to typhoons, are moving more slowly across the planet than they did decades ago, meaning that they get more destructive power and last longer.
It may seem like a good thing that cyclones crawl at a slower speed, but in fact it’s quite the opposite. Although the cyclones are moving slower across the ground, they still get high wind speeds inside, which on the contrary makes hard rains stay longer over communities.
“Nothing good comes out of a slowing storm,” says James Kossin, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Center for Weather and Climate in Madison, Wisconsin. “It can increase storm surge. It can increase the amount of time that structures are subjected to strong wind. And it increases rainfall.”
According to Kossin’s findings, changing storm patterns are causing greater destruction in another way. He noted that the speed of global tropical cyclones slowed by an average of 10 percent from 1949 to 2016. The pace of the storms slowed even more as they made landfall in some regions. In the western North Pacific, it declined by nearly a third. That means there will be more time for a storm that may already contain much moisture (水汽) to release more of it in each spot.
Basing his research on the details of nearly 70 years’ worth of storms, Kossin did not try to determine the cause of the slowdown. Even so, the shift is, exactly as he and other cyclone experts said, the expected result of climate change.
Kossin’s work was considered to be “pretty convincing” by Christina Patricola, a scientist with the Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
It is Kossin’s hope that a model demonstrating which communities are likely to be at the highest risk could be developed by scientists. Given that in some regions, the storms are moving poleward and gaining in strength as well, places not normally passed by could be affected by unusually heavy rainfall as a result. “These are not good things to be combining,” he says.
1. Why are cyclones more destructive when they crawl more slowly?| A．They get higher wind speeds inside. |
| B．They cause more serious climate change. |
| C．They move poleward and affect more regions. |
| D．They make rains and winds stay longer over a place. |
| A．The speed of the storms there slows more. |
| B．It has much wetter air. |
| C．It has higher risk of being hit by storms. |
| D．The storms there cause less damage. |
| A．Ambiguous. | B．Cautious. | C．Critical. | D．Approving. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Science. | C．Health. | D．Education. |
Earth Day is a yearly event celebrated on April 22. Various activities
In the 1960s, Americans were becoming aware of the effects of pollution
In 1990, Earth Day went global, with 200 million people in over 140 nations
7 . Our mother earth is going through a very tough situation and we, the entire human race, are destroying our environment or unconsciously without even realizing its consequences. Now we have to act very smartly and plan something to sustain what we still have, getting all necessary support from nature to lead healthy lives.
Gardening is always an excellent and environmentally friendly idea. If you can go for sustainable gardening, then it will be even more useful for all. Gardening is a favorite hobby for many. It is time to channelize your hobby towards a more meaningful motivation.
When we do gardening we need to use different ingredients(材料) to grow plants. Some of them are natural resources like water, soil, sunshine, and many things like this. Using these resources smartly is a part of sustainable gardening. Some simple techniques include: use less water and organic things to grow plants; try to store rainwater so that you can use them for gardening; try using less energy to drive devices; avoid using plastics in any form while gardening; reuse the leaves from your garden to fertilize them. These are the basic sustainable measures. To do so we need to have proper knowledge about gardening and its requirements so that we can use proper resources without wasting any of them.
In today’s busy life we don’t get much time to spend on our environment. Gardening gives us a chance to do so. We can also have some pesticide-free(无农药的) and fresh food if we grow them in our garden. This is the right time to do some good to protect our own environment and gardening is one of the easiest ways. Do you want to start gardening, but you’re not sure how? Click here: http://www. gardenhowto. com.
1. What does the underlined word “channelize” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Cause. | B．Transform. |
| C．Direct. | D．Associate. |
| A．Using advanced electrical machines. |
| B．Avoiding fertilizers. |
| C．Watering plants with collected rainwater. |
| D．Clearing away the leaves. |
| A．It requires little water. | B．It needs no fertilizer. |
| C．It breaks up plastics. | D．It doesn't waste any resource. |
| A．A newspaper. | B．The Internet. |
| C．A guidebook. | D．A science report. |
8 . A 16-year survey on the arctic Norwegian island of Svalbard found the reindeer（驯鹿）there have declined in weight by an alarming 12 percent. The reduction in average body-mass is being blamed on global warming.
In research presented lately at a meeting of the British Ecological Society in Liverpool, scientists will explain how rising temperatures are making female reindeer difficult to obtain nutrients during important periods of being pregnant.
Snow in Svalbard typically covers the ground for eight months of the year, which, combined with low temperatures, limits grass growth to June and July. But as summer temperatures have increased by around 1.5℃, grasslands have become more productive, allowing female reindeer to gain more weight by the autumn and therefore to conceive（孕育）more calves.
However, warmer winters have brought with them greater rainfall which freezes when is settles on the snow, therefore locking out the reindeer from the life-supporting food below. As a result, female reindeer are becoming starved, causing them to give birth to much lighter young. The average mass of an adult reindeer in 1998, when the survey began, was 55kg, but by 2016 IT had dropped to 48kg.
Professor Steve Albon, an ecologist at the James Hatton Institute in Aberdeen , said that, because the mammals have a relatively high surface-area-to-volume ratio（表面积与体积比）, they are no particularly energy efficient.
Reindeer can often access the inadequate food sources beneath the snow by clearing IT away with their antlers（鹿角）, but they cannot break through the hard ice. Without access to the food in winter, calves are being born far lighter than they should be. Numbers of reindeer have also increased rapidly in the past 20 years, meaning that those which are born are facing greater competition for food. “The implication（含义）are that there may well be more smaller reindeer in the Arctic in the coming decades, but possibly at the risk of catastrophic die-offs because of increased ice on the ground,”said Professor Albon Despite the gloomy findings, reindeer appear to be suffering less from the impact of climate change than some other arctic species.
1. Which of the following may be the most important reason for the smaller reindeer?| A．Heavy snow. |
| B．Greater rainfall. |
| C．Hard ice. |
| D．Global warming. |
| A．grass growing more rapidly in summer |
| B．more rainfall in the arctic area in winter |
| C．female reindeer’s gaining more weight in winter |
| D．female reindeer’s suffering from hunger in winter |
| A．Exciting. |
| B．Optimistic. |
| C．Disappointing. |
| D．Doubtful. |
| A．By analyzing the research. |
| B．By classification of reindeer. |
| C．By comparing opinions of experts. |
| D．By telling stories of different species. |
1. 节电、节水；
2. 采用公共交通方式；
3. 不乱扔垃圾，拒绝使用一次性筷子及塑料袋，支持“光盘行动”。
注意：
1. 次数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头和结尾已经给出，不计入总词数。
参考词汇：一次性筷子once-off chopsticks ; 光盘行动 “clear your plate” campaign
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