1 . “For thousands of years, humans have raced to be the first to climb a peak, cross a frontier, or document a new species or landscape. Now in some cases, we’re racing to be the last,” said New York Times’ Paige McClanahan.
In recent years, a growing industry has been stimulated by climate change — last-chance tourism. According to Eco Sustainable Solutions, a UK-based organic recycling and waste processing company last-chance tourism is a kind of tourism geared toward seeing the last of something due to climate change. As temperatures and water levels rise, this could mean seizing the last chance to see the Great Barrier Reef, an Arctic glacier and a remote island that is sinking.
As millions of tourists rush to imperiled destinations, some are taking advantage of the increasing demand to spread environmental awareness. One tourist spot, the Sea of Ice in France, opened an exhibit in 2021 to educate visitors on glaciers and climate change. This educational push seems to be having an impact, as a 2023 survey showed that 80% of the visitors would try to learn more about the environment and how to protect it while 77% said that they would reduce their water and energy use.
However, the last-chance tourism industry may become kind of our concern. As more and more people flood into these areas in a panic to see them before they are gone, they in fact contribute to the increased greenhouse gas emissions and over tourism, leading to their destruction. Just as many scholars put it, last-chance tourism is a paradox (悖论).
Although tourists may acknowledge the broader risks and importance of climate change, it’s even more important to connect the responsibility of the individual tourism to the future of our planet. It’s not just about understanding the need to stop climate change; it’s even more important to avoid making it worse.
1. What does the author intend to do by quoting Paige McClanahan’s words?A.To highlight the value of New York Times. |
B.To recall and memorize the good old days. |
C.To channel readers’ awareness to climate change. |
D.To introduce the subject of last-chance tourism. |
A.Visiting the Confucius Temple in China. |
B.Taking an adventurous trip to the depths of the ocean. |
C.Climbing the snow-covered mountain of Kilimanjaro. |
D.Admiring the unique Spanish architecture at Cusco, Peru. |
A.Popular. | B.Remote. | C.Endangered. | D.Preserved. |
A.It’s a double-edged sword. | B.It’s a stone to kill two birds. |
C.It’s a life jacket in the stormy sea. | D.It’s a dream that will never come true. |
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A.Putting up notices. | B.Placing more bins. | C.Picking up the rubbish. |
4 . Aviation is a big polluter. Cutting the sector’s impact on global warming is high on the agenda. Although many governments are regulating emissions from cars and trucks, air transportation is technologically rooted in old patterns.
Facing the reality that the sector will keep emitting a lot, ICAO has established an international carbon-trading plan—Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, or CORSIA. This encourages wide use of offsets (抵消) : aviation companies can buy emissions credits or invest in sectors that store carbon, such as forestry, to allow them to carry on as normal. CORSIA aims to keep CO2 emissions at 2019 levels through such purchases for emissions over that year’s baseline. ICAO predicts that increasing demand might reach 1. 7 billion tons by 2035, potentially making aviation the largest offset market in the world.
Yet offsetting faces a fundamental challenge: the size of the offset requires estimating flows of warming pollution that would have occurred if the carbon-removal project hadn’t existed, and comparing them against flows with the project in place. The former — a baseline that is unobservable — is a hotbed for shady accounting.
The vast majority of offsets today and in the expected future come from forest-protection and regrowth projects. The track record of reliable accounting in these industries is poor, because they lack convincing baselines. Even with oversight, forest projects are often troubled by wild assumptions, for example that trees would disappear completely from these areas in the absence of those projects, even when there are other forest protections in place. Such assumptions drive up baselines and flood the market with huge volumes of offsets. They make it easier for accountants to claim a net reduction in emissions even though the atmosphere sees little or no benefit. These problems are essentially unfixable. Evidence is mounting that offsetting as a strategy for reaching net zero is a dead end.
In our view, this approach could prove dangerously narrow. Removing aviation’s impact on global warming means upending the industry. The longer that reality is overlooked, the harder it will be to find effective solutions.
1. What does aviation refer to in the passage?A.A project which needs revising. | B.A resource which needs trading. |
C.A market which needs expanding. | D.An industry which needs reforming. |
A.To support the development of forestry. | B.To earn the largest profit in offset market. |
C.To keep the levels of emission unchanged. | D.To make up for emissions over the baseline. |
A.Too many offsets are filling the market now. |
B.Some projects may cheat to create more offsets. |
C.Offsetting contributes a lot to reducing emissions. |
D.Trees would totally disappear without the projects. |
A.Disapproving. | B.Confused. | C.Favorable. | D.Unconcerned. |
1. What is the report about?
A.A movie. | B.A storm. | C.A village. |
A.36. | B.14. | C.200. |
A.Looking for their children. |
B.Repairing their house. |
C.Preparing breakfast. |
A.Rushing out with her grandchildren. |
B.Taking something out. |
C.Calling her husband. |
6 . Birders get nervous when they see landscapes covered in wind turbines (涡轮机). When the wind gets going, their blades (叶片) can turn around at well over 200km per hour. It is easy to imagine careless birds getting cut into pieces and wind turbines do indeed kill at least some birds. But a new analysis of American data suggests the numbers are negligible, and have little impact on bird populations.
Erik Katovich, an economist at the University of Geneva, made use of the Christmas BirdCount, a citizen-science project run by the National Audubon Society. Volunteers count birds they spot over Christmas, and the society gathers the numbers. He assumed, reasonably, that if wind turbines harmed bird populations, the numbers seen in the Christmas Bird Count would drop in places where new turbines had been built. Combining bird population and species maps with the locations and construction dates of all wind turbines, he found building turbines had no noticeable effect on bird populations.
Instead of limiting his analysis to wind power alone, he also examined oil-and-gas extraction (开采), which has boomed in America over the past couple of decades. Comparing bird populations to the locations of new gas wells revealed an average 15% drop in bird numbers when new wells were drilled, probably due to a combination of noise, air pollution and the disturbance of rivers and ponds that many birds rely upon. When drilling happened in migration centers, feeding grounds or breeding locations, bird numbers instead dropped by 25%.
Wind power, in other words, not only produces far less planet-heating carbon dioxide and methane than do fossil fuels. It appears to be significantly less damaging to wildlife, too. Yet that is not the impression you would get from reading the news. Dr Katovich found 173 stories in major American news media reporting the supposed negative effects that wind turbines had on birds in 2020, compared with only 46 stories discussing the effects of oil-and-gas wells.
1. What does the underlined word“negligible”in paragraph 1 mean?A.Insignificant. | B.Inaccurate. | C.Inconsistent. | D.Indefinite. |
A.Previous studies. | B.Relevant data. |
C.Reasonable prediction. | D.Experiment results. |
A.Oil-and-gas extraction has expanded in America. |
B.Birds are heavily dependent on rivers and ponds. |
C.Many factors lead to the decline of bird populations. |
D.Well drilling poses a serious threat to birds' survival. |
A.Wind turbines could share the sky with wildlife. |
B.More evidence is needed to confirm the finding. |
C.Wind power will be substituted for fossil fuels. |
D.Wind turbines deserve wider media coverage. |
7 . People have always believed that nature is good for health and happiness. According to scientific studies, being in nature makes people less stressed. In a recent experiment in Japan, one group of people were asked to walk through a forest while another group had to walk through a busy city.
Gregory Bratman from Stanford University in the United States found in experiments that a walk in nature could have important cognitive (认知) benefits, improving a person’s memory and creativity.
Why does being in nature bring so many benefits for us?
Scientists also think that being in nature helps our brain recover from a lot of activities that we usually do during the day such as working on math problems or using our cell phone.
A.The walks were equally long and hard |
B.Regular workouts are surprisingly helpful |
C.One idea is that human beings come from nature |
D.Nature’s benefits have been scientifically confirmed |
E.In these activities, we use a lot of directed attention |
F.Being in nature increases people’s mental health as well |
G.We can see this in schools where outdoor learning has been introduced |
1. Why does the man choose to bike to work?
A.He works in a park near his home. |
B.He has no train to take near his home. |
C.He wants to do his part for the environment. |
A.One hour. | B.Two hours. | C.Three hours. |
9 . In today’s world, where the consequences of climate change are becoming increasingly evident, the need for energy conservation has never been more pressing.
Use your laptop more than your desktop
Laptops use an average of 20 to 50 watts of electricity to run, whereas desktop computers use an average of 60 to 200 watts of electricity to run. The reason for this is that laptops run off of battery power and desktops are continuously plugged into a power source that drains energy.
Charge your phone in airplane mode and before bedtime
While charging, switch your phone to airplane mode, so that the phone does not slow down the charging process by continually burning energy trying to connect with cell phone towers and plot your location with its GPS function. When you switch to airplane mode your phone charges more quickly.
The brighter the screen setting, the more power it uses and vibration uses more energy than a ringtone.
Unplug mobile phone and laptop chargers
Always unplug electronics and appliances when not in use.
Reduce your carbon footprint by organizing your files and eliminating unnecessary data from cloud storage! Companies offering cloud data storage need warehouses filled with servers running nonstop. These data centers consume massive amounts of energy since they require AC systems to avoid overheating.
A.Low Power Mode also saves battery life |
B.Delete unwanted files from cloud storage |
C.Saving energy is now easier with these tips from UNICEF |
D.Therefore, energy conservation has never been more pressing |
E.Unused electronic appliances may produce harm to the environment |
F.Deenergization will save you energy, money, and can prevent electrical fires |
G.Make sure to unplug your laptop from the power source once it’s fully charged |
10 . Nanako Hama was holding a light envelop. When she tore it open with care, locks of hair emerged. Many strangers send Hama locks of their hair, hoping to recycle it.
People generate a huge amount of hair waste. Nearly all of that waste ends up in landfill, where it can release harmful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. But hair possesses useful qualities that it’s a shame to simply throw it away. That’s why people all around the world, like Hama, have been collecting hair and finding innovative ways to recycle it, including making mats (垫子) out of it for removing oil leaks in the ocean.
Hama is part of the nonprofit Matter of Trust (MoT) members working at more than 60 centers dotted across 17 countries, using machines to make hair donated from local salons and individuals into square mat, which are then used to clean up the floating oil. “Hair is particularly well-suited for this,” says MoT co-founder Lisa Gautier. “That’s because its rough sort of outer layer lets oil stick to it.” MoT’s mats have been used in major oil leaks, including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 2007 Cosco Busan incidents.
In a 2018 study, Murray, an environmental scientist at the University of Technology Sydney, in Australia found that mats made of recycled human hair could absorb 0.84 grams of oil onto its surface for every gram of hair—significantly more than polypropylene (聚丙烯),a type of plastic that’s typically used to clean up floating oil. Besides, hair is also useful as fertilizer (化肥). Hair contains a relatively high nitrogen (氮), a chemical element crucial for plant growth, and each lock of hair is made of roughly 16 percent of this essential nutrient. Last year, more than 560 gallons of liquid fertilizer made from human hair was sold to farmers in northern Tanzania and the feedback from the farmers has been very encouraging.
“It’s just a great way to use hair in a productive way. Hair is an answer literally hanging in front of our eyes—for oil and soil,” Hama says.
1. How does the author introduce the topic?A.By presenting a scene. | B.By detailing the background. |
C.By describing the usage of hair. | D.By praising an environmentalist. |
A.Improve soil. | B.Prevent oil leaks. | C.Take in harmful gas. | D.Clear the sea of oil. |
A.Its color and strength. | B.Its length and amount. |
C.Its weight and flexibility. | D.Its structure and component. |
A.Uncertain. | B.Promising. | C.Doubtful. | D.Worrying. |