1 . When Alex Lin was 11, he read an article about electronic waste, or e- waste, and its harmful effects due to toxic substances like mercury and lead (铅). Concerned, he discussed the issue with his classmates from the Westerly Innovations Network (WIN), an organization they formed to solve community problems.
To address the e-waste issue, Alex and his friends began by educating themselves on the chemicals in e- waste and their effects on humans. They then conducted a survey to assess the situation in their town and discovered a significant lack of awareness about e-waste. Disturbed by their findings, including a case of a man dumping old computers in his backyard, they decided to act.
They organized a two-day e-waste collection drive at a school parking lot, collecting over21,000 pounds of e- waste. This included out-of-date computers from the school system. Alex’ team then set up a permanent e-waste drop-off center for the town and found a responsible company to recycle the waste, ensuring it wouldn’t be shipped overseas where it could cause harm.
Understanding that reusing is more efficient than recycling, Alex’s team also focused on refurbishing (翻新) old computers. They persuaded their school to teach students how to refurbish donated computers, and they distributed 260 computers to students in need, making a direct impact on their education and the environment.
To create a lasting solution, Alex and his team advocated for e-waste legislation (立法). After initial setbacks, they successfully lobbied for (游说) a bill that banned the dumping of e-waste, making Rhode Island the fourth state to create such legislation. This achievement marked a significant step in promoting safe treatment of e-waste.
Recognizing e-waste as a global issue, Alex and his friends expanded their project internationally, establishing WIN teams in Mexico and three African countries. They shipped refurbished media centers to schools and centers in need, further spreading the message about safe e-waste disposal.
Alex’ work exemplifies how young individuals can lead community efforts to address environmental challenges, promoting awareness, responsible recycling, and the importance of reusing technology to prevent it from becoming toxic trash.
1. What was the primary motivation for Alex Lin to get involved with the issue of e-waste?| A．A discussion on e-waste with his classmates from the WIN. |
| B．His personal need to recycle his old electronic devices. |
| C．Reading an alarming article about the harmful effects of e- waste. |
| D．A case of a man dumping old computers in his backyard. |
| A．By lobbying for e-waste legislation effortlessly. |
| B．By organizing a collection drive and setting up a drop-off center. |
| C．By conducting more surveys to raise awareness of their neighborhood. |
| D．By persuading the local government to handle the e- waste. |
a. Alex read an article about e-waste. b. They collected e-waste and set up a drop-off center.
c. Alex advocated for a new e-waste bill. d. WIN was formed.
e. They shipped refurbished computers overseas.
| A．d-a-b-c-e | B．a-b-c-d-e | C．a-c-b-d-e | D．d-c-a-b-e |
| A．Curiosity and creativity. | B．Leadership and problem- solving skills. |
| C．Foresight and environmental concern. | D．Technical expertise and innovation. |
2 . Should humans kill members of one bird species to help protect another? That’s the question scientists and conservationists are struggling with right now in the Pacific Northwest.
In a bid to save northern spotted owls from extinction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has suggested shooting more than 470,000 barred owls over the next 30 years. The proposal — which is still a draft and will remain open for public comment — has drawn criticism from some wildlife conservationists and highlights the difficulties land managers face while trying to maintain the delicate balance of ecosystems.
Spotted owls and barred owls are closely related. But only spotted owls are native to the Pacific Northwest. Barred owls, an alien species, have slowly come to dominate the region over the last century. Their larger size, more generalist nature and faster reproduction rate have prepared them to out compete spotted owls, whose numbers have dropped by roughly 75 percent over the last 20 years, according to the USFWS.
Biologists have long wondered how to keep the barred owl population in check. In 2021, scientists published the results of an experiment that involved killing 2,485 barred owls in five study areas. Over five years, spotted owl survival rates increased by an average of 10 percent at the sites. But to truly recover, spotted owls might need more than five years, because they are slow to reproduce. That’s the driving factor behind the agency’s recently proposed long-term management plan.
Conservationists have mixed feelings about the plan. While they understand that science may support killing barred owls, they worry about the moral inference of killing off members of one species to save another. Bob Sallinger, executive director of the nonprofit Bird Conservation Oregon, says, “We don’t think it’s moral because they are currently doing better in the existing environment.” He describes it as a no-win situation that humans have created for ourselves.
“Rather than choosing to conserve one bird over the other, this is about conserving two species,” says Kessina Lee, supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Oregon. “Spotted owls are fighting for their existence right now. However, even if the service was able to remove that number of barred owls over the next 30 years, that would represent less than 1 percent of the global population of barred owls.”
1. Why is the USFWS proposing the long-term plan?| A．To do biography research on owls. | B．To recover spotted owl’s population. |
| C．To balance the birth rates of two owls. | D．To improve spotted owl’s reproductive ability. |
| A．The relationship between two owls. | B．The outcomes caused by alien species. |
| C．The alarming situation of spotted owls. | D．The physical advantages of barred owls. |
| A．The agency’s proposal. | B．Existing environment. |
| C．Conservationists’ concern. | D．The co- existence of two owls. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Dismissive. | C．Favourable. | D．Doubtful. |
3 . Altitudes, landscapes and climates change dramatically as you move across the globe, but one factor remains nearly universal. All of Earth’s diversity is blanketed under a blue sky. But why is the sky blue? The explanation requires a bit of particle physics (粒子物理).
We see blue above us because of how light from the sun interacts with Earth’s atmosphere. The visible light contains a variety of colors, ranging from red light to violet. When all of the colors are mixed, the light appears white, Marc Chenard, a scientist at the National Weather Service, told Live Science. But once the white light traveling from the sun reaches Earth, some of the colors begin to interact with small particles in the atmosphere, he said.
Each color in the visible light has a different wavelength. Red and orange light waves, for instance, have longer wavelengths, while blue and violet light have much shorter wavelengths. It’s the shorter wavelengths of light that are more likely to be scattered (散射) or absorbed and reflected in a different direction by the air particles in Earth’s atmosphere, Chenard said. That’s what makes the sky blue.
Even though violet light is scattered too, there are a couple of reasons why we see the sky as more blue than purple, according to Ed Bloomer, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich in the U. K. First, the sun doesn’t produce equal illumination (亮度) in all colors; it contains more blue light than violet light, so more blue light is scattered. Additionally, our eyes are not equally responsive to all colors, Bloomer told Live Science; they are less sensitive to violet light.
This preferential scattering of blue light also plays into the colors of sun rise and sunset. At sunset, as a particular point is turning farther and farther from the sun, sunlight must travel farther through the atmosphere to reach your eyes. By the time the sunlight reaches you, all of the blue light has been scattered away. As a result, the orange, red and yellow wavelengths are all that’s left to color the sunset.
1. The sky is blue because visible lights .| A．interact with air particles | B．travel at different speeds |
| C．are too colorful to illuminate | D．are reflected by blue oceans |
| A．By following order of space. | B．By picturing different scenes. |
| C．By giving personal experience. | D．By quoting scientists’ opinions. |
| A．The quality of the atmosphere. | B．The easier scattering of blue light. |
| C．The reflecting direction of the sunlight. | D．The distance between the observer and the sun. |
| A．Earth’s Diversity: A Changeable Factor | B．Atmospheric Circle: A Colorful Blanket |
| C．The Color of Sky:A Particle Physics View | D．The Light Scattering:A Colorful Movement |
4 . When Ruth was growing up, her mother increased her income as a teacher’s assistant with side business, one of which was bilingual calligraphy, Chinese and English, She produced price signs for supermarkets and jewelry stores in Oakland and San Francisco, good- luck couplets for restaurant openings, banners for funeral wreaths, and announcements for births and weddings. Over the years, people had told Ruth that her mother’s calligraphy was at an artist’s level, first- rate classical. This was the piecework that earned her a reliable reputation, and Ruth had had a role in that success: she checked the spelling of the English words.
“It’s ‘grapefruit’,” eight-year-old Ruth once said, “not ‘grapefoot’. It’s fruit not afoot.”
That night, Lu Ling started teaching her the mechanic s of writing Chinese. “Watch,” Lu Ling ordered her in Chinese. She selected a brush from the dozens hanging with their tips down. Ruth’s sleepy eyes tried to follow her mother’s hand as she wiped the brush with ink, then held it nearly vertically (垂直) to the page, her wrist and elbow in midair. Finally she began, moving her wrist slightly so that her hand waved and dipped like a moth over the gleam of white paper. Soon the spidery images formed.
Some night s Lu Ling found ways to help Ruth remember the characters. “Each radical (偏旁部首) comes from an old picture from a long time ago.” She made a horizontal stroke and asked Ruth if she could see what the picture was. Ruth looked and shook her head. Lu Ling made the identical stroke, then again and again, asking each time if Ruth knew what it was. Finally, her mother let out a snort, signalling her disappointment and disgust.
“This line is like a beam of light. Look, can you see it or not?”To Ruth, the line looked like a sparerib (小排骨) picked clean of meat.
She drew more lines — dots and dashes, downstrokes and upstrokes, bends and hooks. “Do you see this?” she said over and over as if she wanted to bump the Chinese gears (传动装置) of her daughter’s mind into action.
1. How did Ruth help her mother Lu Ling when she was growing up?| A．By serving as a teacher’s helper. | B．By producing price signs for stores. |
| C．By collecting some pieceworks. | D．By correcting the English spellings. |
| A．Excited. | B．Interested. | C．Confused. | D．Confident. |
| A．Their composition. | B．Their writing method. |
| C．Their pronunciation. | D．Their beauty. |
| A．She was imaginative. | B．She made no sense of it. |
| C．She was addicted to food. | D．She needed more exposure. |
1. How did the speaker become a photographer in demand?
| A．By teaching in workshops. | B．By starting a business. | C．By taking small jobs. |
| A．The stress of producing perfect work. |
| B．Decreased interest in photography. |
| C．Constantly changing hobbies. |
| A．Expanding the business. |
| B．Taking photography trips abroad. |
| C．Finding out more forms of photography. |
1. What is the main topic of the conversation?
| A．The working life. | B．College experience. | C．Hobbies. |
| A．About four months. | B．About six months. | C．About eight months. |
| A．The stress of exams. | B．The shortage of money. | C．The loads of assignments. |
| A．On weekends. | B．Right after exams. | C．During the nights after work. |
1. What are the speakers?
| A．A player and a coach. | B．Football fans. | C．TV sports reporters. |
| A．Bad defense. | B．Poor passing. | C．Certain players. |
| A．The visiting team will win. |
| B．The game will end in a draw. |
| C．The home team will win by two goals. |
1. What is the woman doing?
| A．Conducting an interview. | B．Reporting some news. | C．Organizing an event. |
| A．That his health condition will become worse. |
| B．That his duties at home and school will be affected. |
| C．That his efforts in the community won’t be recognized. |
| A．By talking to his teacher. |
| B．By quitting the community project. |
| C．By involving his family in community work. |
1. Why is Shakespeare-style writing mentioned in the conversation?
| A．To show the difference between AI and the human brain. |
| B．To state writers’ worry caused by ChatGPT. |
| C．To indicate the charm of ChatGPT. |
| A．A game. | B．A chatbot. | C．A tech company. |
| A．Ambiguous. | B．Approving. | C．Critical. |
| A．Being adaptive and using AI fully. |
| B．Developing one’s own creativity. |
| C．Avoiding heavy reliance on AI. |
1. What makes the woman different today?
| A．The lipstick. | B．The glasses. | C．The haircut. |
| A．Emily. | B．Emma. | C．Alex. |
| A．Do some shopping. | B．Take exercise. | C．Eat out. |
| A．By car. | B．By bus. | C．By subway. |
