2 . Sustainability was a hot topic at the Paris Air Show, the world’s largest event for the aviation industry, which faces increasing pressure to reduce the climate-changing greenhouse gases that aircraft emit. Even the massive orders at the show got an emission-reduction perspective: Airlines and producers said the new planes would be more fuel-efficient than the ones they replaced. However, most of those planes will burn conventional kerosene-based jet fuel.
Some companies are working on electric-powered aircraft, which are seen as a way to reduce the environmental effects of the aviation industry, providing zero emissions and quieter flights. However, they are still some way off from widespread commercial use. That means sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has become the industry’s best hope of achieving its promise of net zero emissions by 2050. SAF, however, accounts for just 0.1% of all jet fuel. Made from sources like used cooking oil and plant waste, SAF can be mixed with conventional jet fuel but costs much more.
With such a limited supply of SAF, critics say airlines are making overly ambitious promises and exaggerating how quickly they can ramp up the use of SAF. The industry even has skeptics: Nearly one-third of aviation sustainability officers in a GE Aerospace survey doubt whether the industry will hit its net zero goal by 2050.
Across the Atlantic, a consumer group called BEUC filed a complaint against the European Union’s executive arm, accusing 17 airlines of greenwashing. The group says airlines are misleading consumers and breaking rules on commercial practices by encouraging customers to pay extra to help finance the development of SAF and offset future carbon emissions created by flying. In one case, the group’s researchers found Air France charging up to 138 euros for the green option.
“SAF is indeed the biggest technological potential to decarbonize the aviation sector, but the main problem is that it isn’t available. We know that before the end of the next decade — at least — it won’t be available in massive quantities,” said Dimitri Vergnc, a senior policy officer at BEUC.
1. What did airlines and producers emphasize at the Paris Air Show?| A．Ways of reducing fuel consumption. |
| B．Improvement in planes’ safety performance. |
| C．Environmental friendliness of their new planes. |
| D．Efficiency of conventional kerosene-based jet fuel. |
| A．To stress the necessity of developing SAF. |
| B．To highlight the future of the aviation industry. |
| C．To show efforts made to achieve net zero emissions. |
| D．To explain their advantages over traditional aircraft. |
| A．Stop. | B．Limit. | C．Balance. | D．Increase. |
| A．An airline ad. | B．A study result. | C．A news report. | D．A science paper. |
3 . What’s on
Genuine words
Art Critique at the Art Museum of the Beijing Fine Art Academy is a unique show that puts the works of resident painters and the critiques (评论) of scholars (学者) together. The painters are from the academy’s four workshops on oil painting and three types of Chinese paintings — mountain and water, flower and bird, and figure.
9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 12 Chaoyang Park Nanlu, Chaoyang district, Beijing.
Small landscapes
Wandering on the Earth is a show of landscapes from the collection of the National Art Museum of China, which includes many attractive scenes from around the world. Running at the National Art Museum of China, the show awakens a feeling of woyou, an old term that refers to the journey taken in the mind upon appreciating a landscape painting.
9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing.
Galloping lines
The Tianjin Museum traces (追溯) the development of Chinese calligraphy during the Ming and Qing dynasties in a show of its collection from the period. Developing over thousands of years, calligraphy became an important part of Chinese art.
9 am–5 pm, closed on Mondays. 62 Pingjiang Dao, Hexi district, Tianjin.
Wandering strokes
In her paintings, Yu Lian tries to visualize (使形象化) Xiaoyao You, a text from Zhuangzi, a book about the thoughts of the Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi, who lived around the 4th century BC. Yu is always busy with painting, and she shares her works in her show, Painting Zhuangzi, at the Today Art Museum. She manages to explain Zhuangzi’s Taoist ideas in her paintings.
10 am-6 pm, closed on Mondays. 32 Baiziwan Lu, Chaoyang district, Beijing.
1. What is special about the show at 12 Chaoyang Park Nanlu?| A．It shows comments about the paintings. |
| B．It lets people comment on the paintings. |
| C．It invites resident painters and scholars. |
| D．It shows three types of Chinese paintings. |
| A．At the Tianjin Museum. |
| B．At the Today Art Museum. |
| C．At the National Art Museum of China. |
| D．At the Art Museum of the Beijing Fine Art Academy. |
| A．Share her painting skills with other painters. |
| B．Show the importance of reading books. |
| C．Visualize the stories of famous books. |
| D．Show ideas of a Taoist philosopher. |
4 . The Giza Pyramids are relics of Egypt’s Old Kingdom era and were constructed 4,500 years ago. Pharaoh (法老) Khufu was the first Egyptian king to build a pyramid in Giza, a project he began around 2550 BC. His Great Pyramid is the largest in Giza and originally towered 481 feet above the plateau. Its estimated 2.3 million stone blocks each weigh an average of 2.5 — 15 tons.
Khufu’s son, Khafre, built the second pyramid at Giza around 2520 BC. His burial ground stands out because it also includes the Sphinx, a limestone monument with the body of a lion and the head of a pharaoh. The third pyramid at Giza is considerably smaller than the first two—less than half their height at about 218 feet. Built by Khafre’s son Menkaure around 2490 BC, the pyramid’s complex includes two separate temples and three individual queens’ pyramids.
According to scientists, the builders were skilled Egyptian workers who lived in a nearby temporary city. Boatmen used the Nile and a network of artificial waterways to bring materials to the Giza Plateau, including copper cutting tools from the Sinai Peninsula and timber (木材) from Lebanon. To sustain the workers, they also delivered cattle from farms near the Nile Delta. Communities across Egypt probably contributed workers, as well as food and other essentials.
It’s generally believed that the Egyptians moved massive stone blocks to the heights along large ramps (坡道), using a system of ropes, rollers, and levers. Some suggest exterior ramps around each pyramid were applied, while a more controversial theory suggests internal ramps were used. Perhaps future imaging technology will reveal how Egyptian builders created these timeless monuments.
As the pyramids helped to build ancient Egypt, they also preserved it. “Many people think of the site as just a tomb in the modern sense, but it’s a lot more than that,” says Harvard University Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian. “Almost any subject you want to study about the Pharaonic civilization is available on the tomb walls at Giza—so it’s not just about how the ancient Egyptians died but how they lived.”
1. What do the first two paragraphs mainly talk about?| A．The history of the Giza Pyramids. | B．The height of the Giza Pyramids. |
| C．The significance of the Giza Pyramids. | D．The preservation of the Giza Pyramids. |
| A．It resulted in social conflicts. | B．It was intended to remain safe. |
| C．It involved multiple efforts. | D．It did damage to local people. |
| A．How they were interconnected. | B．How they worked in the past. |
| C．How they were constructed. | D．How they were restored. |
| A．They are a key symbol of ancient civilization. | B．They allow us to explore a disappeared world. |
| C．They have played a role in protecting Egypt. | D．They help push forward imaging technology. |
