A new study looks at air pollution and its effects on premature deaths in the United States. Premature deaths
Researchers found that half of all such deaths related to air pollution
Worldwide, an
Efforts to deal with outdoor air pollution have
The computer model looked at the atmospheric chemistry processes and weather conditions over
The team found electric power plants
2 . Imagine possessing something that you loved so much. Imagine what it would feel like if you lost it. While that item may be something as simple as a toy, you would still feel very upset, but you could replace it with a new one. Now imagine losing something that you depend on for survival and cannot be replaced. That is what it would be like if we lost the natural environment around us.
Firstly, I believe the environment should be protected because it supports human life. One of the largest examples is that we get all of our food and drinks from the environment. If the environment were to be destroyed beyond revival, then the human race would be over in months. Scientists have to find another planet with similar conditions to the Earth, and if it's found, we don’t have the technology to get to that planet in time.
Secondly, I believe that the environment serves as an amazing educational tool for students. When I was in second grade, I had an absolute interest in animals. When we had a field trip to the Daggerwing Nature Center, I was very excited. When we got there, I could hardly believe what I was seeing. There was a bridge to get to the main building, and under the bridge was a small swamp (沼泽) with turtles, fish, and my personal favorite, alligators. I was so surprised that I almost ran into the tour guide. We walked into the building and saw various animals in their habitats. I was so inspired by this visit. Six years later, I have taken an animal behavior class for three weeks. Meeting by chance with the environment can inspire people, and if preserved, it will continue to inspire people.
In conclusion, the environment is so valuable because it can't be replaced, keeps us alive, and serves as a great educational tool.
1. The first paragraph leads to the theme of the text by________________.| A．describing a process. | B．presenting differences. |
| C．analyzing causes. | D．showing similarities. |
| A．health. | B．recovery. |
| C．range. | D．survival. |
| A．To express the writer’s absolute interest in animals. |
| B．To introduce the Daggerwing Nature Centers scenery. |
| C．To show the environment can inspire and educate people. |
| D．To prove the subject he has chosen is promising. |
| A．Why the Environment Is So Important? |
| B．Which Planet Can Replace the Earth? |
| C．How People Should Protect the Environment? |
| D．What People Can Do to Stop Pollution? |
3 . Almost everyone has heard the expression “the calm before the storm.” It is usually used to describe a peaceful period just before a very stressful situation or a tense argument.
British sailors coined the phrase in the late 1600s; they noted that before certain storms the seas would seem to become still and the winds would drop.
Science has given us the reason. According to US website HowStuffWorks, a calm period occurs because many storms, tornadoes and hurricanes draw in all the warm and humid(湿热的) air from the surrounding area. As this air rises into the storm clouds, it cools and acts as “fuel for the storm, like petrol in a car”. Once the storm has taken all the energy it can from the air, it is pushed out from the top of the storm clouds and falls back down to ground level. As the air goes down, it becomes warm and dry. Warm and dry air is stable, so once it covers an area, it causes a calm period before the storm. This same process also causes the “eye of the storm” in hurricanes and tornadoes. In these conditions, the calm occurs in the center of the storm because of the strong rotating (旋转的) winds.
The Weather Network has a tip for working out how far away a storm is. First count how many seconds there are between a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, roughly three seconds equal one kilometer. So, for example, if you count nine seconds, the storm is about three kilometers away. A good method is that if your count is below 30 seconds, you should seek shelter straight away.
However, due to the complexity of storm system, not all storms take place after calm. Given the right conditions, some storms announce themselves with heavy rain and fierce winds.
So, your best bet is to keep yourself updated with weather reports for any predictions regarding a coming storm in your area. That's the most reliable way to predict the next display(展示) of nature's temper (脾气).
1. What is the function of Paragraph 3?| A．To describe how the eye of the storm comes into being. |
| B．To stress why tornadoes and hurricanes are destructive. |
| C．To explain why a peaceful period occurs before some storms. |
| D．To remind how dangerous a storm can be in certain situations. |
| A．one kilometer away | B．three kilometers away |
| C．four kilometers away | D．five kilometers away |
| A．Heavy storms don't usually last long. |
| B．It is not always quiet before a storm. |
| C．Storms have a big influence on our life. |
| D．Weather reports often fail to predict a storm. |
| A．A travel journal. | B．A science fiction. |
| C．A literature review. | D．A geography magazine. |
4 . TerraCycle is a company that has recycled and upcycled (升级改造) just about any garbage it can get its hands on. It upcycles things like pens and markers into dust bins and picnic tables and cigarette ends into railroad ties.
Now, TerraCycle wants to help families waste even less with a new book Make Garbage Great: The TerraCycle Family Guide to a Zero-Waste Lifestyle. The book is part wake-up call, part history lesson, part how-to, and part DIY arts and crafts instruction.
In an effort to help people do what they can to curb their contribution to the tons of waste created every day, Make Garbage Great gives the history of various materials, discusses why those various materials are a problem, and gives tips and DIY projects to recycle or upcycle each material.
There is a chapter each on plastics, metals, paper, glass, wood, rubber and organics. Each chapter is filled with tons of tips and ideas for reducing the amount of waste you create and for responsibly handling the waste you end up creating in your home. If you’re a conscious consumer, some of the information you may already know, but there are also tips in this book that will help you recycle more than you thought you were able to. It has information on where you can take old sneakers, pillows, and all that electronic waste that seems to pile up quicker and quicker each year.
Whether the book inspires you to get a little clever at dealing with your waste or simply inspires you to think before you buy or before you throw, anyone who is concerned about the amount of waste our culture creates will find some ideas here. Even the physical book itself is a bit of an inspiration. It’s printed on tree-free paper and is a reminder that there is usually a sustainable (可持续的) alternative to many of the products that we waste.
1. What is the book intended to do?| A．To advertise for the company. |
| B．To help families make money. |
| C．To instruct people to learn arts. |
| D．To help families reduce waste. |
| A．It is intended for housewives. |
| B．It is environmentally friendly. |
| C．It is well received all over the world. |
| D．It is not different from other paper books. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Objective. |
| A．Live A More Healthy Life? |
| B．Want A Zero-waste Lifestyle? |
| C．TerraCycle — A Responsible Company |
| D．Make Garbage Great — A Key to Success |
5 . Wildfires were rapidly spreading through northern and southern California as powerful winds swept through the state, burning homes and forcing more than 200,000 people to leave their homes. Thousands of structures were destroyed in the massive fires. Firefighters and volunteers worked around the clock, risking their lives to save others, although thick clouds of wildfire smoke hung in the air.
But it's not just humans in danger’s path. A video of a horse running away from the rescue team to find his family of horses from CBS Los Angeles went viral. The public was touched by the horse's heroic act and shared their thoughts on the Internet.
Volunteers were rescuing several horses from the wildfire when one of the horses jumped away from the group. They were trying to help the horse, but he refused. They probably had no idea what was wrong with the horse, who just started running away from them. The horse raced back into danger to lead his family to safety, despite rescuers' best efforts to stop him. He knew he couldn't leave them behind. As the tension increased, several human strangers jumped in to help the animals — they went back to the burning barn where some of the horses remained.
You can watch the horse run back into the smoke-filled area, reconnect with the horses inside the fence, and quickly accompany them out of the fenced-off area. Though it's not clear from the video, CBS Los Angeles reported that all but one of the horses involved were saved. Disastrous as the California wildfires have been, the video and countless other rescue stories — humans and animals alike — are shining light on all acts of goodness taking place.
1. What does the author intend to show by telling the wildfires in detail in Para. 1?| A．What caused the big wildfires. | B．How serious the wildfires were. |
| C．What rescuers did in the wildfires. | D．How rapidly the wildfires spread. |
| A．Turned bad. | B．Got attacked. |
| C．Became interesting. | D．Grew popular. |
| A．Loyal but stubborn. | B．Caring and courageous. |
| C．Responsible and clever. | D．Flexible but aggressive. |
| A．Fighting disasters needs joint efforts. | B．Animals are always friends of man. |
| C．All good deeds deserve to be praised. | D．Animals show goodness to each other. |
6 . The idea of turning recycled plastic bottles into clothing is not new. During the last five years, a large number of clothing companies, businesses and environmental organizations have started turning plastics into fabric to deal with plastic pollution. But there’s a problem with this method. Research now shows that microfibers could be the biggest source of plastic in the sea.
Dr. Mark Browne in Santa Barbara, California, has been studying plastic pollution and microfibers for 10 years now. He explains that every time synthetic clothes go into a washing machine, a large number of plastic fibers fall off. Most washing machines can’t collect these microfibers. So every time the water gets out of a washing machine, microfibers are entering the sewers and finally end up in the sea.
In 2011, Browne wrote a paper stating that a single piece of synthetic(合成的) clothing can produce more than 1, 900 fibers per wash. Browne collected samples from seawater and freshwater sites around the world, and used a special way to examine each sample. He discovered that every single water sample contained microfibers.
This is bad news for a number of reasons. Plastic can cause harm to sea life when eaten. Studies have also shown that plastic can absorb other pollutants.
Based on this evidence, it may seem surprising that companies and organizations have chosen to turn plastic waste into clothing as an environmental “solution.” Even though the science has been around for a while, Browne explains that he's had a difficult time getting companies to listen. When he asked well-known clothing companies to support Benign by Design-his research project that seeks to get clothes that have a bad effect on humans and the environment out of the market, Browne didn’t get a satisfying answer. Only one women’s clothing company, Eileen Fisher, offered Browne funding.
1. What has happened during the past five years?| A．Fabric has become much stronger. | B．Plastic pollution has been less serious. |
| C．Many plastic bottles have been reused. | D．Microfibers have been greatly improved. |
| A．It is adding microfibers to the clothes. |
| B．It is worsening environmental problems. |
| C．It is making synthetic clothes last longer. |
| D．It is doing great damage to washing machines. |
| A．It has achieved great success. | B．It hasn’t got anything done. |
| C．It is known to very few people. | D．It is facing some difficulties. |
| A．It’s important to learn to recycle |
| B．It’s never easy to solve pollution problems |
| C．Recycled plastic clothing: solution or pollution? |
| D．Are human beings moving forward or backward? |
7 . The Great Wall, China
Stretching over 21,000 kilometers, the Great Wall was built to prevent invasions and has a history of more than 2,000 years. UNESCO in February 2019 calls it an absolute masterpiece, not only because of the ambitious character of the undertaking but also the perfection of its construction.”
But perfection isn’t protection. 51.2 percent of the Great Wall had either already disappeared or is at a significant risk of disappearing. Besides for wind and rain erosion, the main reasons for the destruction of the Great Wall are human factors such as tourism, construction, human contact and so on.
Pamukkale，Turkey
Pamukkale, which means “cotton castle” in Turkish, is famous for its shining white calcite terraces (方解石阶地)with warm and mineral-rich waters overrun.
Before being listed as a World Heritage Site in 1988, Pamukkale had been severely damaged by human activities. People used hot spring water to fill swimming pools, some visitors stood on the rocks and some even bathed in the hot springs with soap and shampoo. To protect the terraces, the Turkish government has decided to pull down the hotels and require all tourists to visit this site barefoot.
Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Home to 400 types of coral and 1,500 species of fish, the Great Barrier Reef draws visitors to Australia from all over the world.
However, the Great Barrier Reef is expected to suffer from increasingly frequent bleaching events, cases in which corals turn white and may die, according to a UNESCO report. The heat waves caused by global warming have killed half of the coral here in the two years, according to a CNN report. Pollution from industry developments and harmful fishing practices are also big concerns.
The Dead Sea, Jordan
At 423 meters below sea level, the Dead Sea is 10 times saltier than the ocean, meaning that the water is so dense, even tourists who can9t swim will be able to float.
But the seaside resorts built in the 1980s now sit kilometers away from the water’s edge, which has lost half of its surface area in the past 40 years. The damage is irreversible due to the nature of the mineral industry and the type of agricultural use that has drained the water.
1. Which are you required to visit without shoes?| A．The Great Wall, China. |
| B．Pamukkale, Turkey. |
| C．Great Barrier Reef, Australia. |
| D．The Dead Sea, Jordan. |
| A．Main reasons for the destruction of the Great Wall come from wind and rain erosion. |
| B．Pamukkale was damaged by human activities after 1988. |
| C．Pollution and the heat waves caused by global warming kill much coral in the Great Barrier Reef. |
| D．Half of the Dead Sea surface area has disappeared in the past two decades. |
| A．They are all famous endangered natural spots. |
| B．They’re damaged only from human activities. |
| C．They all draw the attention of the governments. |
| D．They’re all seriously damaged. |
8 . According to the International Ecotourism Society, eco-travel is “responsible travel to natural areas that protects the environment, maintains the well-beings and involves education”. Eco-travel is on the rise, as more and more people become conscious about their carbon footprint.
Expert from Boundless Journeys, Matt Holmes, who works-on travel experiences towards conserving areas said, “As scientists and non-scientists learn more about how we human beings are impacting the planet, I think. more people want to do what they can while still exploring the world. Our guests are definitely interested in that aspect of our journeys. Travelers can farm their own food in Italy, managing their use of water and using solar or wind power. They can also visit n family-run camp that cares for retired logging elephants in Myanmar, know a park entry fee goes to a conservation organization in Costa Rica, employ and train members of the local community or partner with a protection group. There are lots of options for seeking out greener holiday.”
Most people believe that eco-travel is expensive and it is true. Matt explained “Anti-poaching patrols (巡逻) need to be paid, solar energy equipment costs a lot to install, building with environmentally friendly, materials is more expensive and so on. The extra cost is necessary, as you re paying to minimize your footprint and protect the places you visit, which is exactly what eco-travel is about. The financial success and sustainability (可持续性) of an eco- focused operation doesn’t come from thin air.” The industry is trying to make eco-travel affordable and make it accessible to the common people.
1. What is the positive influence of eco-friendly travel?| A．It enables travelers to protect the environment while traveling |
| B．It keeps human beings healthy and happy in a friendly atmosphere. |
| C．It teaches us to be responsible for the development of economy. |
| D．It offers some valuable education about the knowledge of gardening. |
| A．eating delicious food in Italy | B．visiting elephants in the zoo |
| C．working together with a protection group | D．raising park entry fee in Costa Rica |
| A．Why eco-travel is expensive. |
| B．How we can make eco-travel less expensive. |
| C．What material are used in eco-travel. |
| D．Where we can go for eco-travel. |
9 . On April 14th, 2010, my entire life changed in an instant. One moment I was joyfully riding through the sunshine. The next moment, metal, flesh and bone were spreading against the pavement in a thunderous crash. Another cyclist, biking carelessly, had cut me off and sent me supermanning toward oncoming traffic.
As if to symbolize the accident that had hit my life, another disaster also occurred on April 14th, 2010. It cost the airline industry＄l.7 billion. Ten million travelers were stuck for days. Economies all over the world were disturbed. This was the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, one of Iceland's many volcanoes.
However, volcanoes are not all bad. In fact, they are necessary. They are responsible for the birth of new earth, and for the creation of rich soil. This eruption gave off 0.15 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere daily. But cancelling 48% of the world’s flight travel saved about 2.8 million tons of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere, temporarily decreasing our carbon footprint.
Similarly, the accident had badly affected my emotion but it also allowed me to look more closely inside myself and discover things about myself I never would have realized. I learned how not to judge myself for my new limitations.
In 1973, another Icelandic volcano, Eldfell, broke out. Icelanders decided to bomb it with cold water until it froze and chose a different path. After their plan worked, they used the geothermal （地热） energy for the next 15years to heat their homes. A good example of life bringing lemons, and making lemonade! One must move on from misfortunes, focusing only on the present moment and being hopeful for the future.
I ran from April 14th, 2010, to every kind of escape. Eventually I ended up in university for a new-found love in Earth sciences.
1. What happened to the writer on April 14th, 2010？| A．He was involved in a car crash. |
| B．He was stuck in Iceland's airport. |
| C．He witnessed a volcanic eruption. |
| D．He was badly injured on a bike ride. |
| A．Economy was cost globally by the eruption. |
| B．Carbon dioxide was increased temporarily. |
| C．Most of the world's planes were held up. |
| D．The earth in Ireland was terribly polluted. |
| A．It broke out in Iceland on April 14th as well. |
| B．It symbolized the accident that changed his life. |
| C．It told us to make the most of given situation. |
| D．It encouraged him to know more about himself. |
| A．Escape from Volcanoes. |
| B．Inspiration from Disasters. |
| C．Love for Earth Science. |
| D．Attitude towards Nature. |
10 . We need to be responsible for our environment. Being a frugal consumer (节俭的消费者) is one way to help.
Use It Up.
You can use things up instead of wasting them. Squeeze (挤) that last bit of toothpaste out of the tube.
Wear It Out.
You do not always need to have new things. Suppose your sneakers (运动鞋) have broken laces (鞋带) , but they still fit you. Repair them and wear them longer. You don’t have to have the latest iPhone until the old one doesn’t work any more. Then you can get a new one.
Make It Do.
When something you want is not on hand, look for something else that you already have to take its place. Suppose you are packing your lunch for tomorrow and want a butter sandwich. You are out of butter. Have a cheese sandwich instead so you can use all of the cheese. Learn to fix broken toys instead of just throwing them away.
Think about all those things that you would like to have. Do you really need them? How long will you really play with that new toy you saw on TV? Making the things that we want uses up our world’s resources (资源). And, getting rid of the things we don’t want any more takes up even more resources and space.
| A．Do without it. |
| B．Throw it away. |
| C．What exactly does that mean? |
| D．Do you know what to consume? |
| E．Use the last little piece of soap. |
| F．With a little thought, you can make something do. |
| G．Think twice before replacing something that still works. |
