1 . Levi Draheim, 11 years old, and 20 other young people have accused(控告)the us encouraging the climate change. For more than a century, human activities have been increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That has caused a host of effects globally, from changes in weather to ice melting at the poles.
Levi lives in Satellite Beach,Fla. He once had to leave his home because of strong storms. He rains flooded the town’s streets. And he had trouble breathing during red tides, which can develop wt harmful ocean algae(海藻)grow out of control.
Climate change is making these events more frequent. Levi and his family also have another climate-change-related problem. Sea level is rising. “If climate change worsens, the island that I live or will be gone,” he explained.
The young people say the US government allowed the use of fossil fuels(矿物燃料). Burning those fuels gives off greenhouse gases, driving climate change. The youths want the government to solve the problem of pollution. So they took the government to court in 2015.
The case has had several hold-ups. In the beginning, the government asked the trial court(初审法庭) to refuse to accept the case. The court didn’t do that. Then they turned to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. That court said the case could go ahead, and the Supreme Court agreed. Both sides did work to get ready for trial. But the government again tried to get the case thrown out without a trial.
Finally, trial was set to start on October 29, 2018. But on October 19; the US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts told the trial court to hold up. The youths’ lawyers objected. On November 2, the Supreme Court finally agreed that the trial could go forward. Right now, it is hard to say when that what happen.
1. What does the underlined word “That” in Paragraph 1 refers to?| A．The increasing amount of greenhouse gases. |
| B．The time of human activities. |
| C．Harmful ocean algae. |
| D．Climate change. |
| A．makes his family poorer |
| B．is less valued by common people. |
| C．will force his family to move again |
| D．is the direct cause of his sufferings in life. |
| A．should provide people with places to live during storms. |
| B．encourages human activities driving climate change. |
| C．should stop the growth of the harmful ocean algae. |
| D．fails to improve people’s living conditions. |
2 . An environmental group in Colombia is leading a project to save wild areas in the San Lucas Mountains with the help of coffee growers.
Since 2016, San Lucas areas have been threatened by mining and coca (古柯) planting Gold miners and coca growers make more money than coffee farms. Now the group WebConserva helps link coffee farmers with coffee processors from around the country in order that they can earn more. At the same time coffee farms can serve as boarders around the forests to protect the biodiversity within.
To date, the project includes 10 families who farm 400 hectares of coffee plants. WebConserva said it hopes, in time, 200 families will be included. At that level. 20,000 hectares of untouched forest could be protected. The families promise not to cut down trees to expand their crops or to hunt wild animals. In return, they receive $300 for 125 kilograms of coffee.
Arcadio Barajas is among those taking part. His coffee farm sets up a barrier between cattle farms and forests where wild animals live, thus reducing the possibility of conflict between cattle farmers and wild animals. “Cutting down the forest to plant coca and killing wildlife were against my faith, and now I feel that growing coffee lets me be a good guard of the land,” he said.
Amnobis Romero is a former coca grower and miner. “Many families depended on illegal activities to support their children years ago. Now, we feel it a duty to look after this biodiversity and leave it for future generations,” he said. Activists want San Lucas to be protected as a national park, but the process has been slow. Carlos Valderrama, director of Webconserva, hopes the project can build production system that will last far into the future. “It protects forests, biodiversity and ecosystems at the same time as improving coffee growers’ quality of life,” he said.
1. What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Coffee farmers. |
| B．WebConserva members. |
| C．Gold miners. |
| D．Coca growers. |
| A．By increasing cattle farms. |
| B．By setting up a barrier. |
| C．Ry developing gold mining. |
| D．By encouraging coffee farming. |
| A．Families have enough money for their kids. |
| B．Coffee planting will last for several generations. |
| C．Coffee farming changed the former coca growers’ lives. |
| D．The project benefit the forests more than the local farmers. |
| A．Families protecting wildlife will get very rich. |
| B．WebConserva benefits ecosystems and local people’s life. |
| C．Gold mining and coca farming have been replaced rapidly. |
| D．San Lucas will develop into a national park in the near future. |
3 . On Feb. 23, an environmental advocacy group “Grassroots” led by students hosted its monthly clothing exchange. The clothing exchange is a free activity on campus where students can donate clothes in exchange for new ones.
“One of the key things about sustainability (可持续性) is to reuse,” Crystal Tynon, Co-president and Clothing Exchange Chair, said. “Instead of throwing away old clothes and buying new clothes, you can donate them and give them a new purpose. You might be done with those clothing items, but someone else might not be.”
According to Tynon, “Grassroots” is hoping to expand the activities to other schools. In order to do so, the team is brainstorming new ways to get the word out about donations, hours and events. Now, the clothing exchange is one of the club’s most well-known activities. “Throughout the semester when people realize we have these exchanges, they genuinely bring clothes and participate a lot more. So it does make a difference to clothing sustainability and it does create a community where everyone can share their clothes,” she added.
As “Grassroots” is an initiative dedicated to sustainability, paper advertisement is not an option. Instead, the center relies mostly on word-of-mouth and e-mail announcements. It is bringing speakers to campus to talk about sustainability and environmental advocacy. It also has partnerships with local organizations such as “the Sunrise Rochester”, working together to have volunteers become more involved in local sustainability.
Chloe Mendoza has been a volunteer since her freshman year. Not only does Mendoza appreciate the intended mission of promoting sustainability, but she also thinks the center has transformed into a safe and accepting community space for all students. Those who have come in looking for something practical often end up leaving with an armful of clothing and a heart full of warmth.
“My favorite part about working there is that we get to help people find things that they need for free. Just providing a place for students to go where there isn’t pressure to spend money is really important. A lot of students love saving, so it’s something that students can relate and engage with easily, so I think it’s a really easy way to get students more involved in sustainability,” says Mendoza.
1. Which of the following best describes Tynon’s feelings about their clothing exchange?| A．Impressive. | B．Innovative. |
| C．Demanding. | D．Rewarding. |
| A．It relies heavily on paper advertisements. |
| B．It cooperates with local institutions. |
| C．It invites speakers to be volunteers. |
| D．It earns instant fame in the community. |
| A．It brings spiritual comfort. | B．It widens the circle of friends. |
| C．It reduces academic pressure. | D．It gives a sense of achievement. |
| A．Saving Up Through Clothing Exchange |
| B．Engaging Students in “Grassroots” Events |
| C．Clothing Exchange Is the Only Way for Sustainability |
| D．Environmental Advocacy — “Grassroots” Catches On |
4 . Parks are the beating hearts of cities, providing crucial environments for wildlife of many sizes as well as areas of rest and recreation for local citizens. Accessible via public transport, and located near a university, a stadium and the National Library, Warsaw’s Pole Mokotowskie Park provides green space for many people.
One of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s five pathways to transformative change for water management is to restore species population, ecosystems and the benefits that nature provides to people by using each city’s advantage. As more urban centres seek new ways to unite greenery into the built environment, projects of all sizes and stages add to essential corridors and stopping points for a range of wildlife.
Tasked with improving Warsaw’s Pole Mokotowskie Park’s natural sustainability, architecture company WXCA looked at ways of enhancing the elements that were already in place to better support wildlife. One of the most visible means was the removal of thousands of square metres of concrete (混凝土). Removing concrete in and around ponds and other waterways allows the city’s features to shape themselves naturally, in reaction to both the surrounding environment and the weather. Doing so can support biodiversity by removing artificial constraints and flows. More than 13,000 square metres of concrete has already been removed, with more removal planned over the next year.
For the human users of the park, the designers created education, activity, and art spaces. The Grand Salon, a grassland surrounded by trees, is for large public gatherings, and a handful of pavilions (亭) spread throughout the space provide visible means of monitoring the quality of the air and water. They also contribute to the park’s ecosystem through rainwater harvesting. As the temperature consistently rises, city planners are using the leaves and branches of the plants and mixed use designs to reduce heat islands, improve air quality and prevent urban runoff.
1. What do we know about Warsaw’s Pole Mokotowskie Park?| A．It creates a new way to the city center. |
| B．It serves different community groups. |
| C．It reminds the public to protect the environment. |
| D．It shows the locals are living happily. |
| A．Providing stages to show off creativity. | B．Taking advantage of the city’s resources. |
| C．Encouraging people to get close to nature. | D．Supplying various wildlife with more room. |
| A．Limits. | B．Factors. | C．Methods. | D．Damages. |
| A．By offering some shelters. | B．By collecting rainwater. |
| C．By monitoring the air quality. | D．By reducing high temperature. |
Plastic has polluted the countryside and been
There may be a solution. Recently scientists have made a biodegradable (可降解的) plastic,
6 . Used electronics are piing up fast: they are filling up landfills with dangerous pieces of waste. Some e-waste is relatively large, such as air conditioners; other e-waste is more unnoticed, such as smart labels that contain disposable batteries and other equipment.
“It’s these small batteries that are big problems,” says University of California, Irvine, public health scientist Dele Ogunseitan, who is a green technology researcher and adviser for major tech companies and was not involved in developing the battery. “Nobody really pays attention to where they end up.” Researchers at the Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology are working to address this problem. Their new paper describes a water-activated paper battery developed from environmentally friendly materials that could eventually present a sustainable alternative to the more harmful batteries common in low-power devices.
The paper battery has the same key components as standard batteries but packages them differently. Like a typical chemical battery, it has a positively charged side and a negatively charged side. A traditional battery’s components are covered in plastic and metal; in the new battery, however, the positively and negatively charged sides are inks printed onto the front and back of a piece of paper. That paper is filled with salt, which dissolves (溶解) when the paper becomes wet. When the paper is dry, the battery is shelf-stable. Once the paper is wet, the battery starts working within 20 seconds. The new battery’s operating performance declines as the paper dries. When the scientists rewet the paper during testing, the battery regained function and lasted an hour before beginning to dry out again.
That future may not be so far off. It is hard to predict a time line for manufacturing such items at scale, but the head of the study says he is in contact with potential industry partners and believes these batteries could make their way into products within the next two to five years.
1. Why is e-waste mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic. | B．To give people warning. |
| C．To show the seriousness of it. | D．To call on people to take action. |
| A．Objective. | B．Carefree. | C．Indifferent. | D．Concerned. |
| A．The difference between the paper battery and the traditional battery. |
| B．The working principle of the paper battery. |
| C．The problem of the paper battery. |
| D．The advantage of the paper battery. |
| A．Paper battery: Is it far off? |
| B．Paper can work wonders. |
| C．Paper battery: A creative way to reduce e-waste. |
| D．Let’s work together to fight e-waste. |
1．曾经的情景(景美、水清、鱼儿 鸭子嬉戏、游客多)；
2．后来的状况(湖水污染、游客乱扔垃圾)；
3．当地政府已经采取措施来拯救，净月潭又恢复了美丽。
注意：
1．词数80左右；
2．可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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8 . A NASA-led international mission launched a radar (雷达) satellite from southern California. The satellite will be involved in a major project to research the world’s oceans, lakes and rivers.
The satellite is called SWOT, short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography. It is designed to give scientists a never-before-seen view of the Earth’s water, which covers about 70 percent of the planet.
About the size of a car, the satellite uses advanced microwave radar technology to collect detailed height and surface measurements of all bodies of water. The data will provide researchers with more information on the effects of climate change.
Data will be taken from radar readings of the planet at least two times every 21 days. The information will help study ocean currents, predict the weather, and control freshwater supplies in areas with little rain.
One major goal of the mission is to research how oceans absorb atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide (CO2) — the natural process that slows down temperatures and climate change.
SWOT is designed to measure small differences in surface heights around smaller currents, where much of the oceans’ reduction of heat and carbon is believed to happen. And SWOT can do so with 10 times more accurate (精确的) details than existing technologies.
The world’s oceans are estimated (估计) to have absorbed more than 90 percent of the extra heat trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Studying how that happens will help climate scientists answer an important question: What is the turning point at which oceans start giving off, rather than absorbing, huge amounts of heat back into the atmosphere?
The satellite will also be used to study the effects of rising ocean levels. And it will be able to measure all rivers wider than 100 meters, as well as more than 1 million lakes and bodies of water larger than 6.25 hectares.
1. What will the data of the satellite help researchers do?| A．Study the movement of fish. | B．Increase freshwater supplies. |
| C．Better learn about global warming. | D．Count the number of sea creatures. |
| A．Its accuracy. | B．Its size. | C．Its speed. | D．Its purpose. |
| A．Ocean levels start to change. | B．The sea starts to give off heat. |
| C．Oceans will absorb extra heat. | D．Greenhouse gas will increase. |
| A．Exploring Oceans’ Effects On Climate | B．Space Technology Used To Study The Earth |
| C．Finding Out The Systems Of Water On The Earth | D．Studying The Water Around The World From Space |
9 . With an abundance of sun and wind, Spain is positioning itself as Europe’s future leader in green hydrogen production to clean up heavy industries. But some energy experts express caution because this process relies on massive availability of zero-carbon electricity.
Green hydrogen is created when renewable energy sources power an electrical current that runs through water, separating its hydrogen and oxygen molecules (分子). The process doesn’t produce planet-warming carbon dioxide, but less than 0.1% of global hydrogen production is currently created in this way.
The separated hydrogen can be used in the production of steel, ammonia (氨) and chemical products, all of which require industrial processes that are harder to stop fossil fuels. Hydrogen also can be used as a transportation fuel, which could one day transform the highly polluting shipping and aviation sectors.
Spain’s large, windswept and thinly populated territory receives more than 2,500 hours of sunshine on average per year, providing ideal conditions for wind and solar energy, and therefore green hydrogen production.
“If you look at where hydrogen is going to be produced in Europe in the next million years, it’s in two countries, Spain and Portugal,” said Thierry Lepercq, the founder and president of HyDeal Ambition, an industry platform bringing together 30 companies. “Hydrogen is the new oil.”
Lepercq is working with companies like Spanish gas pipeline corporation Enagas and global steel giant ArcelorMittal to design an end-to-end model for hydrogen production, distribution and supply at a competitive price. Criticism has centered on green hydrogen’s higher cost compared with highly-polluting “gray hydrogen” drawn from natural gas. Lepercq argues that solar energy produced in Spain is priced low enough to compete.
Globally, Lepercq said, “Electricity is 20% of energy consumption. What about the 80% that is not electrified? ... You need to replace those fossil fuels. Not in 50 years’ time. You need to replace them now.”
1. Why are some experts cautious about green hydrogen production in Spain?| A．It needs large amounts of sun and wind. | B．It has an effect on heavy industries. |
| C．It causes conflicts among countries. | D．It uses lots of zero-carbon electricity. |
| A．Ideal geographical conditions. | B．The support from government. |
| C．Hydrogen production technology. | D．Well-developed public transports. |
| A．It is highly priced. | B．It is easy to store. |
| C．It is competitive. | D．It is highly-polluting. |
| A．Spain manages to use zero-carbon electricity. | B．Spain struggles to lead EU in heavy industry. |
| C．Spain takes the lead in preventing air pollution. | D．Spain replaces fossil fuel with green hydrogen. |
10 . On September 29, 2021, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared it would be removing 23 species from its Endangered Species Act, including the ivory-billed woodpecker, various Hawaiian birds and freshwater fish, not because they had pulled back from the edge of extinction, but because the USFWS believed these species would never recover, and were most likely extinct, therefore not requiring protection.
In April, 195 countries are getting together in China for a UN conference to discuss global agreements to protect nature and biodiversity, with the hope of finalizing an agreement to safeguard plants, animals, and ecosystems. However, the new strain(毒株)of Covid-19, Omicron, has potentially thrown the plans into a mess, and negotiators may switch to online talks if travel restrictions to China are put in place again.
“We can’t go another four months without any progress” said Georgina Chandler, senior international policy officer at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Conservationists are urging the talks to go ahead—online if necessary—as the biodiversity crisis shows no sign of slowing up.
“Nature loss has not gone away and threatens both human lives and the global economy,” said Lin Li, director of global policy at the organization. “With one million species currently in danger of extinction, delaying action is not an option.”
Improving conservation and management of natural areas, such as oceans, forests, and wildernesses is crucial to safeguarding the ecosystems on which humans depend. However, forests are still being devastated, often for farming or commercial use. As trees absorb about a third of planet-warming emissions produced worldwide, stopping deforestation is key. At COP26 in Glasgow last November, world leaders plan to invest $19 billion in public and private funds to protect and restore global forests.
It’s easy to feel disheartened by the disappointing news, but the only way to stop more species suffering the same fate is to pay attention and take actions.
1. Why would the 23 species be removed from the Act?| A．Because they are less endangered. | B．Because they have already died out. |
| C．Because more fund is in need to protect them. | D．Because nothing can save them from extinction. |
| A．Take immediate actions. | B．Put off the conference. |
| C．Have online talks. | D．Improve global economy. |
| A．To explain why some species have disappeared. |
| B．To recommend ways to protect and restore forests. |
| C．To describe the present situation of global ecosystem. |
| D．To call for attention and action against biodiversity crisis. |
