1 . Directions:Write down the derivatives of the given words as required.
1. i______ coming or existing between two events, dates, objects, etc
2. a______ of or belonging to or inherited from an ancestor
3. d______ the fact that a particular person or thing is more powerful, successful, or important than other people or things
4. b______ a real or imagined line that marks the limits or edges of something and separates it from other things or places; a dividing line
5. c______ a sudden failure of something, such as an institution, a business or a course of action
6. d______ a range of many people or things that are very different from each other

2 . How to Improve Climate Literacy

Climate literacy is the ability to identify, understand and explain information associated with climate science.     1    

Over the past few years, many young people and educators have pushed for the inclusion of climate literacy in national curricula. So what are the best ways in which this can be embedded within already packed school timetables?

True climate literacy must address not only the science of climate change, but also issues of climate (in)justice, including how climate change affects people and places unevenly and contributes to inequalities within and across nations.

    2     Many people in developed countries like the UK therefore see climate change happening elsewhere and to other people, with less relevance to their own lives.

    3     We need to start highlighting the local effects of climate change to ground abstract understanding in reality.

One way to do this is through visual storytelling. Storytelling, often involving drawings and paintings, has been used by human communities to pass on knowledge or tales of caution for at least 30,000 years — as you can see from the cave painting.

One effect of storytelling is its ability to create cognitive dissonance: the mental conflict and discomfort felt when a person’s behaviour isn’t in line with their beliefs. Stories that demonstrate the consequences of not acting eco-consciously — especially if those consequences are shown visually — can be a good way to do this, leading to individuals being more likely to take climate action in their own lives or by confronting corporate activities.

A．Therefore, the teachers we worked with remarked that lessons are typically focused on the physical processes of climate change.

B．However, at present, much of climate change education is focused on the physical aspects of climate change, often at a global scale.

C．The next stages of our research will reflect how a separated community has come together through this journey towards climate literacy.

D．Being climate literate allows individuals to become active participants in the fight against climate change.

E．This collective psychological distancing means many fail to recognise the urgency of the climate crisis.

3 . The Last Straw?

Every second, the world uses 160,000 plastic bags — that is a total of over five trillion per year. Up to 99 percent of these plastic bags hang around for at least 1,000 years and pollute Earth. And yet, plastic bags are hardly a necessity in our lives. Of all the changes we could make to create a more sustainable lifestyle, a total ban on plastic bags should be simple.

At the beginning of 2021, Shanghai put in effect a ban on all plastic bags in shopping malls and supermarkets, as well as a ban on non-degradable plastics in many other areas. Over the years, individuals and companies have worked to replace plastic items, such as cups and straws, with paper ones.     1    .

Customers complain that paper straws often become soft and break before they can finish their hot drinks. Experts, however, have repeatedly stressed plastic substitutes (替代品) are not the ultimate solution, and that our consumption habits need a bigger change.

In college, one of my environmental science professors promoted a type of waste-free living. She carried around a small glass jar with her, and in it was all her trash she collected for the entire year. She was able to do this by bringing her own cup to Starbucks, her own bags to the shops, and never buying anything that came wrapped in plastic. Her food waste also became compost.     2    .

Plastic bags are incredibly easy to forget about when they become increasingly common.     3    . Once they are in the trash, we take it for granted that they are someone else’s problem. The sad fact is that plastic bags break down into microplastics which then get mixed into the air, soil and water, and eventually end up in plants, animals, and our very own human bodies. So what are you going to do about them?

A．Clearly she demonstrated our ability to live a completely healthy life without creating a great deal of plastic waste.

B．Plastic bag litter has even caused great problems in some areas.

C．If they’re free to use and easily disposed of, they’re a mere tool that we don’t have to think about.

D．Some of these decisions have been met with criticism.

E．Unfortunately, such a high level of pollution doesn’t come without consequences.

5 . A warning from science

When you're bored of some very boring task, what do you do? If you're like many, the answer is a no brainer: You reach for your phone. If that sounds familiar, a new unpublished study has bad news.    1    

The problem isn't taking a break. Previous studies show that we get more done overall if we take regular, short breaks. The problem is your phone. Dutch research shows most of us carry around a boredom-increasing machine in our pockets. To figure out the relationship between phones and boredom, A Dutch research team fixed an app on the phones of 83 volunteers to track how often they used their devices. They also asked these volunteers to keep diaries for three days, recording their level of tiredness and boredom every hour.

    2     “Phone breaks were frequent: In the 20 minutes following each survey, participants (参与者) picked up their phones 52 percent of the time. They spent an average of around 90 seconds on it each time,” reports the findings on the British Psychological Society Research Digest blog.

Equally unsurprising was the second finding:     3     The real unexpected thing was the final finding. While we look to our phones to relieve tiredness and boredom, screen time seemed to increase feelings of boredom. “Participants actually reported higher levels of boredom after having used their smartphones,” notes BPS.

    4     Switching from work to your phone and back may end up being more mentally tiring than refreshing. Picking up your phone from time to time might serve as a reminder of all the things out there you could be doing if you didn't have to fill out paperwork.

This one study can't definitively say if either of these explanations is right, but the idea it communicates is clear. You think a glance at your phone is going to make you feel less bored, but it's actually going to make your brain feel more tired.

A．The researchers' first discovery was no shocker.

B．The research team made guesses why this might be so.

C．Reaching for your phone is likely to leave you feeling more bored.

D．The more tired we are, the more likely we are to reach for our phones.