5 . As vulnerable (易受伤害的) states suffer, US is blamed for not donating its required money for the Green Climate Fund, or GCF.

In Kenya’s countryside, people are facing one of the most serious droughts in memory. Some regions have been without rain for two years, and more than half the crops and most of the farm animals have died. Up to 4 million people may require food aid in the coming months.

Kenya isn’t the only country to suffer the fallout from climate change in recent years. Countries least responsible for the climate crisis are most vulnerable to its effects. In South Asia, Bangladesh already spends $2 billion each year on climate-related damage, according to a report from the International Institute for Environment and Development. A dozen island nations are at risk of disappearing entirely.

The international community has realized the urgency. In 2010, the United Nations created an institution, the Green Climate Fund, or GCF, to support developing countries that aren’t historically responsible for causing the climate crisis to cut their emissions (排放物) and deal with climate impacts.

However, the UN climate fund now has warned that carbon-cutting projects in developing countries would have to be cut without more money coming in.

Campaigners have blamed the United States—one of the GCF’s founders—for the potential cuts. “If the GCF needs to limit its operations in the near future due to lack of funding, it’s hard to find any single country more at fault than the US,” Action Aid’s policy director Brandon Wu told Climate Home News.

In 2014, then-US president Barack Obama promised the GCF $3 billion but gave only $1 billion before the end of his term. His successor, Donald Trump, didn’t give any money to the fund and, so far, neither has President Joe Biden. The US owe s the fund $ 2 billion.

Last year, 46 climate and green groups signed a letter that urged the White House to give the $2 billion to the GCF. The climate and green groups also asked the administration to commit an additional $6 billion to bring the US in step with other donor countries.

In 2019,1 3 countries—mostly in Europe but including South Korea and New Zealand—announced a doubling or more of their contributions to the GCF to help fun d green projects for 2020-23.

1. Why is the situation in Kenya mentioned in the second paragraph?

A．To tell us the impact of climate change.

B．To tell us the living conditions in Kenya,

C．To tell us how Kenya deals with climate change.

D．To tell us how the crops and the farm animals have died.

2. Which can replace the underlined word “fallout” in paragraph 3?

A．Disease.

B．Poverty.

C．Mistake.

D．Consequence.

3. How much should the White House deliver to the GCF in total?

A．$3 billion.

B．$ 6 billion.

C．$8 billion.

D．$9 billion.

4. What is a suitable title for the news report?

A．UN creates Green Climate Fund	B．GCF needs to limit its operations
C．GCF to help fund green projects	D．UN climate fund starved of cash

7 . Eating a juicy steak is worse for the environment than frying up some tofu: that should come as no surprise. Going vegan can greatly cut the carbon footprint of your diet. But what about the fewer calories, and lower levels of protein, found in most plant-based foods when compared with meat?

To make the relative carbon impact of foods easier to understand, The Economist proposes a banana index (指数). It compares popular foodstuffs in three aspects—weight, calories and protein—compared to the humble banana, a fruit of middling nutritional value and impact on weather conditions.

Indexing greenhouse-gas emissions to a single food gives a sense of how different foodstuffs rank. Unfortunately for carnivores (食肉动物), beef is bad for the environment no matter how you slice it. Producing one kilogram of mince (馅) causes as many emissions as 109kg of bananas (call it a “banana score” of 109). As for nutritional value, beef’s banana score falls to 54 (one calorie of beef mince causes 54 times as much carbon emissions as one calorie of banana). By protein, it scores seven.

Poultry (家禽) scores 11 bananas by weight and four by calorie. However, as a source of protein, it is more carbon-friendly than bananas: poultry protein emits just three-fifths of the same amount of banana protein. The same applies to salmon. Unsurprisingly, plant-based alternatives to meat do even better: a meat-free burger, for instance, scores just one-fifth of the emissions of bananas per gram of protein.

Our banana index relies on average emissions for a given food. In the real world some producers are more climate-friendly than others, and some foods travel farther to consumers. Our banana index also does not capture other environmental impacts, such as land and water use (though here too, beef tends to perform poorly).

Voting in Europe suggests that most consumers want to be more climate-friendly—and with food production responsible for perhaps a quarter of global emissions, eating with the climate in mind would make a difference. Three-quarters of the respondents said they want labels that would explain the climate impact of their food. In the meantime, our banana index might help.

1. What’s the most likely reason for bananas to be chosen as an object of reference?

A．Bananas have fewer calories and less protein.

B．Bananas are a humble fruit.

C．Bananas have the least impact on the environment.

D．Bananas are of medium climate effect and nutrition.

2. According to the index, which one is more carbon-friendly as a source of protein?

A．Beef

B．A meat-free burger

C．Poultry

D．A banana

3. Which aspect of the index does paragraph 5 focus on?

A．Its drawbacks	B．Its benefits
C．Its practical meanings	D．Its principles

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．An approach to assessing nutritional value of food

B．A way to measure the climate impact of food

C．A great indicator of greenhouse-gas emissions

D．A big helper in deciding what to buy

9 . Major Snow, the 21st solar term of the year, begins this year on Dec 7 and ends on Dec 20, marking the start of the season. It begins when the sun reaches the celestial longitude (天文经度) of 255° and ends when it reaches 270°     1    , so it is named Major Snow.

By the start of Major Snow, most of China has already seen the start of winter.     2    . At this time of year, the snow gradually settles in the Yellow River Basin. In far north there is heavy snow; while in the south, it is mild with less rainfall.

    3    . Snow adds warmth and wetness to the winter wheat, preventing dry air in winter. It can also store and lock in water needed for the following year, and it kills off bacteria and pests which decreases the risk of disease.

During Major Snow, people often eat jujube cakes, made from red jujube dates (枣) which are rich in vitamin C, protein, calcium, iron, vitamins and other nutrients.     4    . Jujube dates not only replenish (补充) the spleen and stomach, but also protect the liver, increase muscle strength, and are said to be anti-aging. Because of their affordable price and high nutritional content, jujube cakes are popular all over China at this time of year.

In some areas, cured meats become a specialty product, as a way to store meat over the winter months. As the saying goes, small snow seals the ground, heavy snow seals the river.     5    .

Major Snow is an excellent season for people to replenish their bodies. There is another saying, “Replenishing your body in winter means you will be strong enough to fight a tiger in early spring.”

A．A timely snow promises a good harvest

B．You can also eat some foods that nourish your Yin

C．A large number of citrus fruits, high in vitamin C, are in season

D．Temperatures have now dropped to below 0 °C in some northern regions

E．There is an old Chinese saying that “Three dates a day means no one gets old”

F．Now, many rivers are frozen, and people can go ice-skating with friends and family

G．At this time of year, it tends to snow more frequently over a wider area of the country