Having extended the record of Chinese astronauts'
The Shenzhou 12 return module separated from the orbiting module at 12:43 pm on Friday, then
2 . For decades, wealthy nations have transported plastic waste, and the environmental problems that go with it, to poorer countries, but researchers have found a potential bright side of this seemingly unequal trade.
In a study, researchers analyzed 11 years of data on the global plastics trade against economic measures for 85 countries. They found that the import of plastic waste was associated with growth in GDP in the low-income countries. They stressed that plastic waste is still a big problem, especially for developing countries, as the majority of it doesn’t get recycled and even plastics that are recycled still finally negatively affect the environment.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from the United Nations and the World Bank looking at several economic variables as well as trade information on common plastic waste. While they found an association between economic benefits and plastic waste imports in the low-income countries, for the high-income countries there was no association between importing waste and economic growth.
While the study didn’t assess exactly how the plastic waste was made use of in the developing countries, the authors note that it’s likely they’re recycling some of the plastic for use in industry. There was also some evidence that the low-income countries were trading the plastic waste among themselves regionally.
The researchers stressed that there is much complexity in global trading of plastic waste. In the future, they plan to investigate the regional trade among countries as well as changes in more recent years. Even with the economic benefits of importing plastic waste, reducing environmental harm from plastics would still likely require changes from both high-income countries and low-income countries.
“Some people might argue that developed countries need to create more ways to better process plastic waste at home, instead of looking for other destinations for plastic waste abroad,” one of the researchers said. “Some communities in the United States may do well in recycling plastic waste, but in others, there is still room for improvement. Producing and using less plastic would be another way to reduce environmental harm.”
1. How does most imported plastic waste end up in developing countries?| A．Being unrecycled. | B．Being repurposed. |
| C．Being sold repeatedly. | D．Being processed scientifically. |
| A．How complex the global trading of plastic waste is. |
| B．How developing countries use the imported plastic waste. |
| C．Whether developing countries trade plastic waste with each other. |
| D．Whether high-income nations benefit financially from importing plastic waste. |
| A．More effective ways have been found to have plastic waste processed. |
| B．Plastic should be completely banned for environmental protection. |
| C．Developed countries should help poorer countries process plastic waste. |
| D．The degree to which plastic waste is recycled varies greatly across America. |
| A．Recycling Plastic Waste Still Has a Long Way to Go |
| B．Plastic Waste Does Play an Important Role in the Global Trade |
| C．Plastic Waste Has Some Economic Benefits for Developing Countries |
| D．Developed Countries Shift Environmental Harm by Exporting Plastic Waste |
Katie had always felt like she never connected with anyone. There was no one she considered a friend. So, when her parents decided to move, she was okay with it. She didn't feel sad because she wasn't leaving anyone behind.
She was eight when they moved to a new town. It wasn't that different from where they had lived before. There were a lot of trees and kids running around outside, riding bikes, and playing. One day her mother caught her staring out the window at some kids playing. Her mom told her to go out and play with those kids. So Katie went out. She could see that they were all having fun and she wanted to join in but she was afraid. She tried to muster up the courage to ask them if she could join them but she just couldn't do it.
She decided to go for a walk instead. She liked how peaceful the town was. The people seemed nice and polite. Her stroll finally led her to the town's lake. She felt the rush of cold air hitting her face. The beauty of the lake was something to behold. She sat there admiring it and decided that this would be her place. She would come here every day and maybe one day, she would bring her friends here.
After school, she always stopped by the lake before going home. She swore she could stay there for hours, maybe even live there. If she ever got hungry, she always had food ready in her bag.
One day when she was writing a poem about the lake, she heard her stomach growl. She put down her notebook and her pen and got her sandwich out. She was about to take a bite when she heard a noise. This alarmed her. She hadn't heard or seen anything strange before. She looked around and suddenly she noticed that there was something black moving toward the bank.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2 .请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
“A swimming black dog!” Katie cried out in surprise.
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Every day, Katie brought five extra sandwiches for her friend.
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4 . College debt is becoming as much of a problem for Americans close to retirement as it is for new graduates. There are now about 8. 7 million Americans aged over 50 who are still paying off college loans. They took out either to pay for an education for their children or themselves. Their debt is growing fast, increasing by about half since 2017 to a total of $ 370 billion — an average of $ 40,900 per borrower. In2019, roughly $4.9 billion was deducted(扣除) right from retirees' Social Security income.
Part of the blame falls on the federally backed PLUS program, said Tara Siegel Bernard in The New York Times. "Parent PLUS loans", which have few application requirements other than a basic credit check, have broadened access to capital for many parents. But the "loans can be unforgiving". William and Kate Schweizer "didn't want their two daughters to begin their adult lives burdened with college debt". So they borrowed $220,000 for their schooling. Increasingly they had trouble paying. Now their debt has ballooned to $500,000. The consequences of defaulting(拖欠 ) are serious: "The government can take their wages and Social Security."
Unfortunately, President Biden's $6 trillion budget doesn't offer much assistance, said Eric Levitz in NYMag. com. During his campaign, "Biden called for forgiving $10, 000 in federal student loan debt for every borrower" among other ways to ease the college debt burden. But the chances of passing such measures through Congress are slim.
Don't bankrupt yourself for your kids, said Beth Akers in USA Today. The safer option to pay for college is "a student loan taken out in your child's name". A federal student loan — not a private one — can protect borrowers through income-driven repayment programs. There is also a better chance that a loan forgiveness program could materialize to help out student borrowers. And remember that "if you overextend yourself financially to make a college dream come true for your child, you are taking away your ability to be your child's financial backstop."
1. How does the author illustrate his point in Paragraph 1?| A．By listing statistics. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By using quotes. |
| A．They have demanding requirements. |
| B．They can trap parents in financial crises. |
| C．They are not enough to cover college costs. |
| D．They set limits on how much one can borrow. |
| A．It is flexible. | B．It is tight. | C．It is beneficial. | D．It is impractical. |
| A．Americans Are Burdened by College Debt |
| B．Student Loans: A Stepping Stone to College |
| C．Lessons in Finance Help Repay Student Loans |
| D．Debt: College Costs Swallow Retirement Nest Eggs |
5 . Bears do it. Bats do it. Even European hedgehogs do it. And now it turns out that early human beings may also have been at it. They hibernated - slept through winter, according to fossil experts.
Evidence from the bones found at one of the world's most important fossil sites suggests that our primitive ancestors may have dealt with extreme cold hundreds of thousands of years ago by hibernating.
The conclusion is based on excavations in a cave called Sima de los Hueso—the pit(坑) of bones—at Atapuerca, in northern Spain. The fossils date back more than 400,000 years and were probably from early Neanderthals or their ancestors.
In a paper published in the journal L'Anthropologie, Juan-Luis Arsuaga and Antonis Bartsiokas argue that the fossils found there show seasonal variations that suggest that bone growth was interrupted for several months of each year.
The pattern of lesions(病变) found in the human bones at the Sima cave are consistent with that found in bones of hibernating mammals, including cave bears. "A strategy of hibernation would have been the only solution for them to survive having to spend months in a cave due to the chilly conditions," the authors state.
They examine several opposite arguments. Modern Inuit and Sami people—although living in equally harsh, cold conditions—do not hibernate. So why did the people in the Sima cave do it?
The answer, say Arsuaga and Bartsiokas, is that fatty fish and reindeer fat provide Inuit and Sami people with food during winter and so preclude the need for them to hibernate. In contrast, the area around the Sima site half a million years ago would not have provided anything like enough food.
1. Why are bears and bats taken as an example?| A．To arouse readers' curiosity about the animals' fossils. |
| B．To lead to the similarity between early humans and them. |
| C．To make the conclusion of the fossil experts reasonable. |
| D．To prove our primitive ancestors hibernated. |
| A．Their bone pattern was similar to that of cave bears. |
| B．They lived in a more freezing area than Sami people. |
| C．They might have hibernated to avoid the cold. |
| D．Their life was threatened by other mammals in winter. |
| A．It's unsuitable. | B．It's helpful. |
| C．It's important. | D．It's unnecessary. |
| A．Hibernating to Survive Winter | B．Adapting to Seasonal Change |
| C．Disturbance to Bone Growth in Winter | D．Fish and Fat to Help Live |
