1 . San Francisco’s public garbage cans have long outlived their lifespan (寿命) and need to be replaced. However, the current design is not enough for the city’s large population and the increasing number of tourists. The garbage cans also get messed up by the homeless. To address the issues, in 2018, San Francisco Public Works officials set out in search of a perfect garbage can. This proved harder than they had thought.
The officials had a few criteria in mind. The ideal garbage can had to be durable (耐用的) and easy to empty. It would also have a built-in sensor (传感器) to send warnings when full, cost between $2,000 to $3,000 a piece, and, most importantly, look good! After an extensive search failed to find a suitable off-the-shelf replacement, the committee asked local firms to design customized garbage cans.
The four-year exploration ended on July 18, 2022, with three selections. They include the “Slim Silhouette” “Salt & Pepper” and “Soft Square”. Since none of them meet all the required criteria, the officials have turned to the city’s residents for help.
The customized cans and three new off-the-shelf options have been placed across San Francisco for a 60-day trial. Residents can scan the QR codes on the cans and provide opinions on their use experience. A location map of each option is included at the end of the survey. The most popular garbage can will be publicized after the trial ends in mid-September.
The time spent on the project and the cost of the three customized garbage cans — which ranged between $11,000 to $20,900 a piece — have drawn criticism from the city’s retired official Matt Haney.
“The idea that San Francisco is so unique that we need a separate garbage can from any one used in any city around the world is laughable,” Haney said. “It’s something that reflects a broader and deeper brokenness of city government and the services it provides.”
However, Beth Rubenstein, director of policy and communications at San Francisco Public Works, believes their research will benefit cities across the US.
1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．The local tourism industry. | B．The origin of garbage cans. |
| C．The problems faced by the city. | D．The city’s poor environment. |
| A．The function. | B．The appearance. | C．The material. | D．The cost. |
| A．Take good care of the new garbage cans. | B．Make improvements to the new garbage cans. |
| C．Check new criteria for the new garbage cans. | D．Give their opinions on the new garbage cans. |
| A．Rewarding. | B．Meaningless. | C．Misleading.. | D．Efficient. |
2 . About half a billion people depend on the ecosystems created and sustained by corals. And with climate change threatening coral’s survival, marine scientist Enric Sala had a goal that might have seemed impossible.
“We wanted to get into a time machine, go back hundreds of years and actually see a coral reef like they used to be everywhere, before we started exploiting them and polluting them and killing them all over the world, ” Sala said.
The goal was made possible during an expedition Sala led in 2009. The team traveled to a corner of the South Pacific Ocean, to see if the vibrant reefs there held any clues that could help them understand how to bring damaged reefs in other parts of the ocean back to health.
“The bottom was covered by thriving (茂盛的) coral. Vivid colors surrounded me - purples, reds, oranges, yellows and greens. It was so beautiful, ” Sala said.
His team presented their findings to officials in the island country of Kiribati. The government took steps to protect the waters from fishing and other human activity. But between 2015 and 2016, record levels of ocean warming damaged half the coral reefs the team had been studying.
After hearing that news, they lost hope for the health of coral reefs. Last year, they went in for another dive. Despite the reported conditions, the reef had somehow restored itself, filled with life and color once more. Sala and his team were overjoyed. This is something that Sala says can be owed to two key factors.
The first is, thankfully, half of the corals didn’t die. Despite the rise in temperatures, there were enough surviving corals left behind to help reproduce the reefs. The second was the Kiribati government’s decision to fully protect those waters.
“It has an abundance of fish. So they were eating all the algae (藻类) that would smother (窒息) the dead coral skeletons and make it impossible for the corals to come back. Luckily, other places like the Caribbean also witness the good change, ” Sala explained.
1. What unlikely goal does Sala have?| A．Schooling people to protect corals. |
| B．Preventing people from damaging corals. |
| C．Appealing to people to deal with climate change. |
| D．Going back to the past when corals were thriving. |
| A．Half of the damaged coral reefs restored themselves. |
| B．A flood of fish ate all the algae covering the dead corals. |
| C．The government protected waters and survival corals multiplied. |
| D．The government took measures to stop fishing and human activity. |
| A．It hardly offers enough nutrition to fish. |
| B．It has also suffered large losses of corals. |
| C．It is impossible for the corals to come back. |
| D．It has an abundance of algae. |
| A．How Did the Coral Reefs Restore? |
| B．Where Are the Damaged Coral Reefs? |
| C．What Does Biodiversity Show in the Ocean? |
| D．What Are the Disadvantages of Climate Change? |
3 . Carol-Anne O’Callaghan, a 60-year-old retired teacher, has spent more than half of her life time teaching. This time, she wanted to do something much more
One day in 2021, O’Callaghan was walking her dogs when she
Unfortunately, they were to be cut down as part of the HS2 high-speed railway projects. O’Callaghan
As a teacher, O’Callaghan often told students, “If something is wrong, you can’t
The locals
| A．remarkable | B．academic | C．similar | D．profitable |
| A．removed | B．painted | C．designed | D．spotted |
| A．position | B．misfortune | C．development | D．species |
| A．meaningless | B．encouraging | C．heart-breaking | D．false |
| A．inseparable | B．unimaginable | C．inaccessible | D．indescribable |
| A．called | B．launched | C．dismissed | D．replaced |
| A．style | B．promise | C．research | D．decision |
| A．set off | B．stand by | C．make out | D．knock off |
| A．competition | B．conversation | C．movement | D．interview |
| A．criticizing | B．permitting | C．challenging | D．persuading |
| A．rejected | B．praised | C．claimed | D．escaped |
| A．enthusiasm | B．demand | C．sympathy | D．respect |
| A．Previously | B．Eventually | C．Especially | D．Occasionally |
| A．suspended | B．opposed | C．cancelled | D．considered |
| A．in addition to | B．regardless of | C．in recognition of | D．instead of |
Melati and Isabel deeply love their home on the island, surrounded by tropical rain forests, green fields, and a vast ocean. Enjoying a swim at their local beach was once a daily pleasure for them. But when Melati was fifteen, and Isabel just ten, the sisters started to lose their enthusiasm for swimming in the waters near their borne. More often than not, plastic bags would be around them as they swam and some were scattered on the beach. They got really upset about that.
Melati didn’t think much about it until one day her teacher gave a lesson on some world heroes. Each of those people had sparked movements of positive changes in the world. They believed in the impact they could have and they did inspire more people to do something meaningful. After school, Melati walked home slowly in silence, concerned about the vast amount of plastic rubbish on the beach. The heroes crossed her mind. If they could do it, we could do it too, she thought. The idea lit her up. She couldn’t wait to share what she thought with Isabel and quickened her pace.
“So many plastic bags around! The beach is dirty and messy! It’s so terrible! We have lost the clean and beautiful beach. Can’t we do something to get it back?” Melati said heartily. Isabel felt a bit puzzled at what to do, but she also had a strong desire to do something. Picturing a beach as fascinating as before in mind, the pair jumped with joy.
They talked a lot, anxious to know how Dad and Mom would respond to their ideas. That night when the family sat by the dinner table, the sisters eagerly got their ideas across. While Mom and Dad listened to the girls carefully, their eyes shone. “How amazing that would be! We are so proud of you!” Dad exclaimed. Mom came up, gave them a thumb up and hugged the sisters.
注意：1．续写词数应为150左右；
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Melati and Isabel decided to make a positive impact straight away.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One month later, Melati received a call from the local newspaper.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Dear Mr. Wang,
I am Li Hua, the leader of the Environment Protection Club.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
6 . The mangrove tree might not look very impressive, but it is an essential part of our ecosystem. However, more than half of the mangrove forests have been destroyed in the past century. Several World Heritage Sites have been listed largely because of their mangrove ecosystems. Among them are the Sundarbans across India and Bangladesh, the Everglades National Park in the US, and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
Being a World Heritage Site requires for the mangroves to be protected. However, one country in Asia has gone further by having a five-year program to protect and conserve all their mangroves. They even have a mangrove museum and observe World Mangrove Day. This country is Sri Lanka. Why are mangrove trees so important to Sri Lanka and to other countries where mangroves grow?
The mangrove tree grows along coastal saltwater shorelines. They have adapted to the harsh coastal weather and have deep roots. This means that they are strong and cannot be easily removed. In countries where natural disasters such as tsunamis and cyclones occur, the forests provide protection. The villages in Sri Lanka with full mangrove forests have suffered less damage when hit by these natural disasters. The reason is that the mangroves break up the force and strength of the waves.
The mangroves also quickly absorb carbon dioxide and send oxygen into the atmosphere. This makes them an important part of the fight against climate change. They absorb far more carbon dioxide than other types of forest, and store it in their structure and even in the soil. This is important as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is believed to be a cause of detrimental changes in the weather, such as global warming.
The strong roots also provide protection for young fish as they grow. With the oceans around the world being overfished, it is important to maintain the ecological balance in the oceans. For Sri Lanka, one of the threats to the mangrove forests is the shrimp farms being set up. To build saltwater ponds for the shrimps, the mangroves are cut down. This has resulted in fewer fish surviving among the mangrove roots and fewer fish being caught by the fishermen. The local fishing communities noticed that they were losing money and it made them aware of how important the mangroves were. They are now helping to conserve the forests.
Sri Lanka is showing that a nation can preserve all of its mangroves. The conservation model they have can be used by other countries. It might take many years of planning, but the benefits of saving mangroves definitely outweigh the costs.
1. What do we know about the mangrove trees from the passage?| A．They are mainly grown in Australia. |
| B．They can prevent young fish from growing. |
| C．They have been damaged by natural disasters. |
| D．They are less impressive but important to the ecosystem. |
| A．A world mangrove festival has been founded. |
| B．Saltwater ponds for the shrimps have been set up. |
| C．A 5-year mangroves protecting program has been started. |
| D．More mangroves along the coastal areas have been grown. |
| A．The mangroves can keep the ecological balance in the oceans. |
| B．The mangroves are essential for fighting against climate change. |
| C．The mangroves have deep roots and hold the soil in place firmly. |
| D．The mangroves can break up the force and strength of the waves. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
7 . The first year of Beth Walker's quest for a zero-waste lifestyle, the rubbish in her life wouldn't have filled a wastepaper basket. But now she's stopped keeping track.
Her journey began after a talk by eco-group The Rubbish Trip in 2017. Like most people, she thought recycling was enough to save the planet from drowning in plastic.
But the reality is that most packaging isn't accepted by recycling companies and the plastic in our oceans is still snowing.
Nowadays, Beth's belief is to refuse, repair, and reuse. She refuses to buy anything that comes in a packet. Local bakeries and butcheries, she found, would happily provide food in her own container.
Then she moved to Wellington, and things got a bit harder. Many bulk (散装) food stores were only open during work hours, and she gratefully turned to the regional shopping guides put out by The Rubbish Trip.
She took every chance to show off her "take everywhere bag " , which contains a cloth for hand drying and cleaning，a keep cup, and a container.
Most importantly, she says, it's a privilege (荣耀) to make these choices. But she's cautious not to push her ideas down people's throats. "It's what's sustainable for you personally," she said.
Most rewarding was seeing the effect on those around her. Her dad proudly told anyone who would listen how his daughter was going waste-free. Her flat mates also agreed to go waste-free when cooking for the flat and to remote the bin from the kitchen. And every plastic container they brought into the house was another for Beth's collection.
1. What made Beth choose a zero-waste lifestyle?| A．A speech she listened to. | B．Other students' influence. |
| C．The products of poor quality. | D．The lack of recycling factories. |
| A．Reusing a paper bag. | B．Relying on recycling companies. |
| C．Repairing a broken tool. | D．Refusing objects in a packet. |
| A．To influence others. | B．To show her kindness. |
| C．To prove her wealth. | D．To highlight her privilege. |
| A．Mixed. | B．Unconcerned. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Unclear. |
8 . When most of us think of sand, we immediately think of sunny beaches and summer holidays. But actually it’s in pretty much everything that surrounds us in our everyday lives. From the walls of our homes to the glass bottles in our kitchens and even the mobile phones in our hands. Sand is the second most used resource in the world after water: it accounts for more than two-thirds of everything that’s being dug out of the ground. But there isn’t a limitless supply. In fact, a UN report says we might be running out.
According to the report, we use an estimated 15 billion tons of sand every year in the construction industry alone. That’s enough to build a 20m × 20m wall around the equator every year. However, sand can take tens of thousands of years to form: the process starts with rock being eroded(侵蚀) in the mountains and ends, eventually, with sand being in river beds and on the seafloor.
Sand is heavy and difficult to transport, so in developing countries, sand is often mined from the nearest convenient source, and quite often that means a river bed or beach. But beaches and rivers are delicately balanced ecosystems and when a large amount of sand is removed, the balance is upset. The smallest fish, which eat organic matter on the sand in river beds, from the base of the food chain in a river. If this sand is removed, so is the source of food for the bottom feeders. All organisms in a food chain share the joys and the sorrows. Thus, when they disappear, so does the food for the larger fish which would have been caught and eaten, or sold by fishermen.
It is high time we took into consideration the big problem concerning the tiny thing. More and more conservationists are calling for alternatives to sand especially in the construction industry.
1. Why are the things in our daily life mentioned in the beginning?| A．To show the uses of sand. | B．To indicate our relationship with nature. |
| C．To introduce our lifestyles. | D．To stress the convenience of modern life. |
| A．Sand is actually our most used natural resource. |
| B．Sand is used more quickly than it’s formed. |
| C．The construction industry doesn’t use sand wisely. |
| D．The problem of washing sand is worsening. |
| A．The river beds. | B．The fishermen. |
| C．The larger fish. | D．The smallest fish. |
| A．The world is running out of sand | B．Alternatives to sand will be found soon |
| C．Sand mining is unfriendly to nature | D．Sand is in need of immediate conservation |
9 . Changing weather pallerns, stronger storms, longer droughts- these are just a few signs that our climate is changing rapidly.
Recently, lawmakers in New Zealand signed the Zero Carbon Bill, which lays out a path for the country to reduce its carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
Net-zero is the balance between the amount of greenhouse gases a country releases into the atmosphere and how much is removed from the atmosphere.
A reasonable way to achieve net-zero is to divide the goal into two parts. To reduce emissions, countries can gradually adapt their economies to be less carbon dependent. This can be done by developing renewable energy, improving transportation and food production, stopping deforestation and restoring lands, reducing food wastage, and consuming less meat.
Countries can then address remaining emissions with carbon removal, a process that removes greenhouse gases directly from the atmosphere. This can be done by planting more trees and developing technologies that capture and store carbon.
New Zealand’s Zero Carbon Bill aims to reduce fossil fuel usage and replace it with renewable energy sources. The government has also focused on promoting electric vehicles, public transportanon, biking, and walking. Additionally, New Zealand is committed to planting 1 billion trees by 2028.
The country wants to include agriculture into its climate solution. The government will tax farmers who do not decrease their carbon emissions by 2022. Currently, agriculture in New Zealand accounts for over half of its greenhouse gas emissions.
Methane is a greenhouse gas produced by the decomposition of organic matter from crops and livestock such as sheep and cattle — known as biogenic (生物的) methane. New Zealand will reduce biogenic emissions by 10% before 2030 and between24% to47% before2050. Here , the country is being denounced for not doing enough as methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas, even though it does not stay in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide.
Sixty countries have already committed to net-zero, yet they only make up 11% of global emissions. We need convince our leaders that our planet cannot survive if we don't take action.
1. What plan is New Zealand going to carry out?| A．To find the causes of climate change. |
| B．To limit its temperature rise to 2 degrees, |
| C．To record the signs of changing climate. |
| D．To make zero amount of carbon emissions. |
| A．Eating less meat. | B．Planting more trees. |
| C．Throwing away less food. | D．Walking more to work or school. |
| A．Transportation. | B．Tourism. |
| C．Industry. | D．Agriculture. |
| A．Blamed. | B．Chosen. |
| C．Ignored | D．Recorded. |
10 . Not only does the use of plastic water bottles hurt your wallet, it also increases pollution and wastes energy and water. Only 23% of all plastic in America ends up in a recycling bin, meaning over $ 1 billion worth of plastic is treated as rubbish a year. Recently, Skipping Rocks Lab has invented a kind of water bottle called Ooho.
It is a convenient, clear water bottle that can either be drunken or eaten. To drink it, you can either peel off the membrane (薄膜) or tear a hole in the membrane with your teeth to pour the water into your mouth. To eat it, you simply put the whole bottle in your mouth. One problem the scientists have run into is how to ship large amounts of Ooho bubbles(水泡) without arriving with a very wet truck. However, they have attempted to package units of individual bubbles together inside a larger and thicker membrane. It is targeting large outdoor events, such as marathons, music festivals, and sporting events, where tons of plastic bottles are used, and frequently left behind as litter. And too much plastic is sure to do harm to the environment, which could account for their purpose of such a new invention.
The team has been working for the past two years to develop the technology and materials needed to produce Ooho; they have recently applied a patent for their new advancements. The price for an individual bubble or a unit of bubbles has not been set yet, but they cost about two cents to create a unit, which is cheaper than plastic bottles. It has appeared at events in London, San Francisco, Boston, at conferences, festivals, and so on.
Ooho is catching many people’s attention and has raised over $ 1 million and gained 1,000 investors in only three days. It is mostly being sold at events at the moment to keep the consumer’s interest while the production machine is getting up and running. It is quickly making a rise,so keep an eye out this year for these bottles of the future.
1. How is most plastic dealt with in America?| A．It’s sold. | B．It’s recycled. |
| C．It’s buried. | D．It’s wasted. |
| A．To make a profit for a company. | B．To protect the environtnent. |
| C．To make people eat as they drink. | D．To reduce the cost of plastic bottle. |
| A．It is easy and safe to ship it in large amounts. |
| B．It has become popular since it began to be sold. |
| C．It might be sold at a lower price than plastic bottles. |
| D．It cost the team a lot of money to develop the technology. |
| A．Ooho is to be a success in the future. |
| B．Ooho is being supported by smart people. |
| C．Ooho is taking the place of plastic bottles now. |
| D．Ooho is being produced to attract more investors. |
