1 . People have come to understand the enormous impacts-beneficial as well as harmful- plastics have on human lives and the environment. As polymer (聚合物) scientists committed to inventing sustainable solutions for real-world problems, we set out to tackle the issue of plastic waste by rethinking the way polymers are designed so we could make plastics with recyclability built right in.
Everyday items including milk jug, grocery bags, and takeout containers are made from a class of polymers called polyolefins. These plastics are really durable (耐用的) because the chemical bonds in those polymers are extremely stable. In a world set up for disposable (一次性的) items, durability is no longer a design feature but rather a design drawback. Imagine if half the plastics used today were recyclable through twice as many processes as they are now. Also conventional recycling requires careful sorting of all the collected materials, which can be challenging with so many different plastics. For example, separating paper from metal doesn’t require complex technology, but sorting a container from a milk jug of a different polyolefin is difficult to do without the occasional mistake.
In a study published in Science in October 2023, we described a series of polymers with only two building blocks-one soft polymer and one hard polymer-that behave like polyolefins but could be chemically recycled. Connecting two different polymers multiple times until they form a single, long molecule (分子) creates what’s called a multiblock polymer. By changing how much of each polymer type goes into the multiblock polymer, our team produced a wide range of materials with properties that covered all polyolefin types.
Using the same strategy but by adding hydrogen, we could disconnect the polymers back into their building blocks and easily separate them to use again. When we made new polymers out of these recycled plastics, they performed just as well as the original materials even after several rounds of chemical recycling. So we were able to create materials with similar properties of the plastics the world relies on. We believe this work is a step toward more sustainable plastics.
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about concerning plastics?| A．Their multiple uses. | B．Their chemical properties. |
| C．Their recycling challenges. | D．Their classification criteria. |
| A．mixing building blocks with long molecules |
| B．integrating chemicals into the two polymers |
| C．combining two different multiblock polymers |
| D．adjusting the percentage of the two polymers |
| A．They are made from sustainable materials. |
| B．They can be recycled by adding hydrogen. |
| C．Their reliability outperforms traditional plastics. |
| D．Their properties change with rounds of recycling. |
| A．Designing for Recycling | B．Classifying Plastic Waste |
| C．Replace Plastics with Polymers | D．Technology Creates the Future |
2 . Eradajere Oleita thinks she may have a partial solution for two of their country’s persistent problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. As a student and
Chip
It takes about four hours to
Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has
Sure, it would be
And, of course, there’s the symbolism of recycling bags that would
| A．instructor | B．helper | C．environmentalist | D．tailor |
| A．criterion | B．qualification | C．question | D．favor |
| A．lightly | B．deliberately | C．occasionally | D．indirectly |
| A．sell | B．empty | C．clean | D．donate |
| A．producers | B．eaters | C．sponsors | D．buyers |
| A．dustbins | B．locations | C．bags | D．streets |
| A．lead | B．lie | C．lay | D．print |
| A．check | B．need | C．reach | D．use |
| A．sew | B．design | C．offer | D．discover |
| A．member | B．size | C．mission | D．debt |
| A．result | B．relief | C．method | D．produce |
| A．made | B．decorated | C．accumulated | D．charged |
| A．in terms of | B．regardless of | C．instead of | D．as of |
| A．busier | B．simpler | C．heavier | D．smaller |
| A．goal | B．stage | C．procedure | D．chance |
| A．objectively | B．politically | C．socially | D．secretly |
| A．moreover | B．otherwise | C．instead | D．besides |
| A．report | B．blame | C．reminder | D．solution |
| A．problems | B．groups | C．regulations | D．protection |
| A．divisions | B．similarities | C．messages | D．connections |
China has formally made an announcement of its first five national parks of 230, 000 from Tibet to Hainan, focusing on
Giant Panda National Park will surely be
The intersection (交汇处) of Jilin and Heilongiang provinces is home to Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, which
China’s best-preserved rainforest is in Hainan, the only place in the world
Unlike those three, Wuyishan National Park in Fujian Province and Sanjiangyuan National Park on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau focus
Now, with some tourist programs
4 . Transport is undergoing a massive transformation so it can meet society’s demands for a low- carbon economy. Introducing electric vehicles (EV) and declining gasoline use are helping, but zero-carbon hydrogen can speed up both the transition (转变) and long-term decarbonization of transport.
In the US, transportation produces the largest share of all greenhouse gas emissions (排放) in the economy at 29%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. More than 90% of transport fuel is petrol based, but if more vehicles used hydrogen, emissions of this kind would plummet.
However, hydrogen is not considered an ideal replacement for gasoline as an engine fuel for cars because it is harder to store safely. And while fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) that turn hydrogen into electricity can compete with EV performance-and even out-compete them on range and refill time, extra energy is needed to produce the hydrogen needed for fuel. Also, finding investment for storage, pipelines and fuel stations is still a challenge for many nations.
Currently, governments worldwide are backing green hydrogen projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in heavy industries like freight (货运), steel, and energy storage. But hydrogen transport will need rapid production methods to create the fuel needed for the world’s road fleet.
Thankfully, research is advancing all the time. Nanoscale (纳米级的) thin films are applied to improving the chemical process to rapidly harvest hydrogen from the seawater. The same technology has been successfully used in solar power devices with higher efficiency-to-cost rates. Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and as seawater makes up about 96% of all water on Earth, there is a virtually limitless supply.
Even wastewater and solid waste can create green hydrogen. Researchers at Princeton University are using sunlight to separate hydrogen from industrial wastewater. Chemical plants that currently face high costs for cleaning wastewater could transform it into clean hydrogen supplies.
1. What does the underlined word “plummet” mean in Paragraph 2?| A．Stop. | B．Decrease. | C．Continue. | D．Disappear. |
| A．Ways of storing hydrogen safely. |
| B．Benefits of fuel cell electric vehicles. |
| C．Challenges of using hydrogen as car fuel. |
| D．Differences between gasoline and hydrogen. |
| A．The application of solar power devices. |
| B．The method of identifying water elements. |
| C．The invention. of the water transport system. |
| D．The use of the nanoscale thin-film technology. |
| A．Clean Energy Hydrogen Ready to Take Off |
| B．Traditional Fuels Bound to Reach a Dead End |
| C．How We Can Generate Energy from Hydrogen |
| D．What the Future of Transportation May Be Like |
Spring is the season for new life. In China, the peak time for spring plowing and sowing is around the Qingming Festival, which falls
From top leaders to ordinary citizens,
Since
Under a long-term plan, China expects to increase its forest
6 . Back in 2007, Uruguay had a serious problem with no obvious answer: The economy was growing very fast, but there wasn’t enough energy to power the rapid
Then Ramón Méndez Galain, a physicist, started
Méndez Galain’s plan was built around two simple
To solve the problem of how to pay for all those wind farms, Méndez Galain came up with a variation on a(n)
The strategy worked
| A．decline | B．growth | C．consumption | D．program |
| A．building | B．blocking | C．repairing | D．seeking |
| A．rely on | B．find out | C．refer to | D．give up |
| A．risk | B．power | C．pollution | D．benefit |
| A．facts | B．theories | C．answers | D．principles |
| A．water | B．light | C．wind | D．ice |
| A．tended | B．undeveloped | C．protected | D．limited |
| A．break | B．put | C．send | D．turn |
| A．tool | B．software | C．image | D．approach |
| A．responsible | B．weak | C．private | D．profitable |
| A．public | B．opposite | C．rich | D．powerful |
| A．managing | B．selling | C．abandoning | D．starting |
| A．hardly | B．relatively | C．unexpectedly | D．rarely |
| A．forgotten | B．achieved | C．apologized | D．approved |
| A．income | B．food | C．supply | D．electricity |
7 . In a new finding that goes against current conservation patterns, re-introducing wolves and other predators (捕食者) to our landscapes does not amazingly reduce deer populations, restore worsening ecosystems or significantly threaten livestock (家禽), according to a new study.
“The hopes and fears that we have on both sides of the debate—neither are realized,” said conservation biologist Bernd Blossey, professor of natural resources and the environment at Cornell University. On the one hand, there is little evidence for claims that re-introducing large predators such as wolves, bears and mountain lions is a major threat to livestock and wild animals such as white-tailed deer and mule deer. When the wolf was taken off the endangered species list, hunters and livestock producers, and some state governments, called for action to safeguard the wildlife they wanted to hunt and the livestock that was their livelihood. But it is nearly impossible to independently evaluate those claims, Blossey said. Other factors also kill livestock, from lightning strikes to extreme weather and diseases.
On the other hand, the claim that wolves and other predators can control deer populations and restore worsening ecosystems lacks evidence as well. “Meaningfully reducing deer populations in Wisconsin alone would require tens of thousands of wolves, which is ecologically and socially impossible,” said Blossey. And wolves alone can’t repair the ecological damage humans have done, he said. A popular video “How wolves change rivers,” which has been viewed more than 43 million times, suggests that the re-introduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park benefited the entire ecosystem. “I was as fooled like everybody else by the lovely stories that came out of Yellowstone saying, you bring wolves back, and you restore the rivers, and everything’s satisfactory,” said Blossey.
We should see large predators like wolves as a valuable part ecological communities in their own right, Blossey said, and not just for their function. “As long as people learn to live with and tolerate the new (old) neighbors, a careful but not fully conflict-free existence appears possible,” said Blossey.
1. Which of the following does Blossey probably agree with?| A．The loss of livestock may not necessarily be due to wolves. |
| B．People should not take wolves off the endangered species list |
| C．People should take action to protect livestock and wild animals. |
| D．The threat to predators comes from climate change and diseases. |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Unclear. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Favorable. |
| A．They upset the balance of the ecosystem. |
| B．They should rightfully stay in their habitats. |
| C．They are key to restoring the environment. |
| D．They change people’s view about rewilding. |
| A．The value of humans’ living together with animals |
| B．The importance of restoring worsening ecosystems. |
| C．A debate over the threat to livestock and wild animals. |
| D．A clarification of the effects of bringing back the wolves. |
8 . Last year, the bushfires in Australia burned more than 12.35 million acres of land. At least 25 people were killed and 2000 homes destroyed. According to the BBC, that was the most casualties(伤亡) from wildfires in the country since 2009. The University of Sydney estimates that 480 million animals have died in South Wales alone.
Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst and climate researcher at Berkeley Earth, said warmer temperatures and extreme weather made Australia more susceptible to fires and increased the length of the fire season. "The drier conditions combined with record high temperatures in 2019 created main conditions for the disastrous fires. Australia's fires were worsened by the combination of those two. 2019 was the perfect storm for being the warmest year on record for Australia and the driest year on record for Australia," Hausfather added on Friday.
Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, said warmer ocean temperatures are also contributed to more variable weather around the world. Trenberth believes that global warming contributed to energy imbalances and hot spots in the oceans, which can create a wave in the atmosphere that locks weather patterns in places, causing longer rain events in Indonesia, for example, and at the same time contributing to drought in Australia. He said that once an area experiences drought conditions for two months or more, it increases the risk of fires catching and spreading. Those changing weather patterns due to global warming make drought events longer.
Climate experts stress that climate change is not the only factor in the severity(严重) of wildfires. How land is managed can also impact the amount of fuel available for fires. Practices like controlled bums and other factors can impact the risk to people and property, such as warning systems and the type of development in a given area. Changing those policies has great potential to limit future damage from wildfires along with changes to how fire management resources are dispatched(派遣).
1. What are the numbers about in paragraph 1?| A．The causes of Australian fires. | B．The results of Australian fires. |
| C．The damaged areas of Australian fires. | D．The property destruction of Australian fires. |
| A．Very quickly to adapt to. |
| B．Very seriously to focus on. |
| C．Very likely to be influenced by. |
| D．Very easily to be protected against. |
| A．Longer dry weather contributes to global warming. |
| B．Global wanning is also a main cause of the bushfires. |
| C．Warmer ocean temperatures leads to the fires directly. |
| D．The imbalanced energy leads to the temperature rising. |
| A．To stress the effects of Australia fires. |
| B．To show the methods for land management. |
| C．To predict the seriousness of Australia fires. |
| D．To provide some advice about reducing fire damage. |
9 . Sagarika Sriram was 10 years old when she started reading newspaper stories about a planet in trouble, one of which was about turtles with plastic in their stomachs. Sagarika knew she needed to do something. First, she joined a group which organized cleanup campaigns in her home city, Dubai “The group helped me understand what an individual can do and how I can really make a difference,” she says.
Then Sagarika created Kids for a Better World. It’s a digital platform which has brought together nearly 10,000 youths from all over the world with the goal to create a greener world.
Sagarika is now 16. She’s part of a growing number of young climate activists. “We’re the generation that is going to face the results if the climate crisis is not dealt with,” she says. She believes even individual actions can create a “ripple effect”. Sagarika says this can build momentum and can move things in the right direction.
Kids for a Better World is for people aged 8 to 16. It teaches them about what they can do to reverse climate change. They can grow food, plant trees, collect recyclables and avoid using plastic bags. “This is the information which can help change our future,” Sagarika says.
Dubai is a desert metropolis. Growing up there has made Sagarika very aware of the need for action. Her city faces the risk of rising temperatures and its water supply is shrinking. She believes young people can bring attention to these environmental challenges.
Sagarika is all about small actions, but she has big plans. She’d like to go to college in California. While she’s there, she’ll continue being an activist. She’ll also be running Kids for a Better World. She hopes to inspire others to fight for a greener planet. Others have inspired her. “We’re creating our own system of inspirational change-makers,” she says.
1. Why did the author mention “turtles with plastic in their stomachs” in paragraph 1?| A．To make a comparison | B．To give an example. |
| C．To analyze the problem. | D．To introduce the topic. |
| A．Because she wanted to create a greener world. |
| B．Because she wanted to bring together nearly1000 youths. |
| C．Because she wanted to read newspaper stories. |
| D．Because she wanted to save the turtle. |
| A．What can help change our future. | B．What people should do at present. |
| C．What Kids for a Better World does. | D．What courses are taught on the platform. |
| A．Generous and friendly. | B．Brave and smart. |
| C．Persistent and inspirational. | D．Noble-minded and careful. |
10 . Two hours west of a perfectly sunny summer’s day in Clackamas, Oregon a foggy breeze awaited me on the Lincoln City coast. After a year of volunteering remotely with Ocean Blue Project, today is a long-awaited beach cleanup.
I didn’t expect to take away more than just trash from the beach cleanup. At first glance, the beach appears clean. However, beach cleanups require much more attention than a quick look over. Within just a couple of hours, 71 of us volunteers managed to pick up 171 pounds of debris. Actually, we’ve got much more than that.
Beach cleanups connect us to nature and provide an escape from the world for a little bit. They also provide a learning opportunity outside of the participation part. When you sit over a pile of—let’s face it—garbage, you pick out one by one the pieces left behind by others. You see first hand the impact we’re having on our environment and account for what is left behind the most. Each cigarette butt and plastic bottle sets the tone for how we should be approaching our everyday lives, which is to stop pollution.
Personally, the time spent by the ocean and away from my phone fills me with peace and calmness as I focus my attention only on the moment, looking for the little devils trying to pollute the ocean. With a pound or two less out of the ocean, I always feel a bit more optimistic about the world to come.
This boots-on-the-sand way of making a difference grants me a feeling of accomplishment and purpose. Rather than pondering the dire task of saving the planet or researching and writing ways to do so, I get to physically make a difference. And there’s nothing that can replace that instant gratification of making positive change for your community and your planet.
After the cleanup, my eyes are now expertly trained to spot loose trash and inorganic materials anywhere I step. Imagine what a huge difference we could all make collectively if we simply stopped and picked up that water bottle or wrapper off the ground instead of passing it by.
1. Which of the following can best describe the author’s first beach cleanup with Ocean Blue Project?| A．Effortless and far-reaching. | B．Annoying but rewarding. |
| C．Painstaking but fruitful. | D．Demanding and inefficient. |
| A．Maintaining good physical health. |
| B．Gaining great insight into oceans. |
| C．Developing researching ways to save the earth. |
| D．Improving our mental health. |
| A．Satisfaction. | B．Gratitude. |
| C．Impression. | D．Curiosity. |
| A．What I’ve Learned from a Beach Cleanup |
| B．How Well I Performed in a Beach Cleanup |
| C．How Much Attention a Beach Cleanup Requires |
| D．Why Volunteering with Ocean Blue Project Matters |
