Sustainable Transport in Cities
Transporthas always shaped cities. In Medieval times crossroads gave birth to bloomingmarket towns. Many North American cities were created for the car. But how arethe cities of today being shaped by a need for more sustainable transport?
Manylocal governments are speeding up change through policy initiatives such asjoined transport, congestion charges and low emission zones, sustainablegaining and life-cycle costing, and opening data up to companies and academics.And these city level policies can move markets in more sustainable directions.
The least dense cities, for example, Houston, have per capita（人均价）carbonemissions nearly ten times higher than the densest, such as Singapore.
Light weighing and new engine and fuel technologies are helping to make existing road and rail vehicles more efficient.
| A．Many options require city - level investment in new facilities. |
| B．However, it is not yet clear which technologies and fuels cities will back. |
| C．Through their actions, city governments today are helping to shape the cities of the future. |
| D．For example, London is requiring all newly licensed taxis to be zero - emission capable from 2018. |
| E．City planners are using transport - oriented development to increase density while maintaining quality of life and property value. |
| F．Some cities, such as Delhi, are investing heavily in creating the mass transport systems needed to change how citizens travel. |
Ban the Bag!
Standing in line at the grocery store last week, I watched the woman in front of me buy a tube of toothpaste. As the clerk placed her purchase in a plastic bag, I couldn’t help wondering how long it would take for that bag to end up in the trash. Then I noticed the big purse the woman was carrying and wondered why she had needed a plastic bag at all.
People have come to rely on plastic bags as everything from shopping bags for groceries to trash-can bags. Although plastic bags can be recycled, only about one percent of those used in the United States are. Instead, after helping people transport items from one place to another, most are thrown away. They end up in landfills, where it can take a plastic bag up to a thousand years to decay. Some bags end up elsewhere in the environment, sticking to trees and fences, blocking rivers and oceans, or floating along city sidewalks.
Plastic bags harm the environment in several ways. First, they break down into particles that pollute our soil and water. Because most plastic bags are made of polyethylene, a product derived from crude oil (原油) or natural gas, they waste nonrenewable resources. Plastic bags can also harm animals. Scientists estimate that more than one million sea animals, including whales, seabirds, and turtles, die each year from intaking or becoming stranded in plastic.
People all over the world are starting to recognize the problems associated with plastic bags. Countries such as China, South Africa, Switzerland, and Uganda are taking action and banning the bags. Other nations, including Italy and Ireland, have been trying to restrict the use of plastic bags by taxing them. In the United States more and more communities are ridding themselves of plastic bags. Now more and more people are also purchasing inexpensive, reusable bags and using them when they shop. If we all take this simple step, we can be a part of a “green” revolution.
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Acid rain is now a familiar problem in the industrialized countries in Europe. Harmful gases like Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are produced by power stations and cars.
Acid rain is also capable of dissolving some rocks and buildings made of soft rock, such as limestone, are particularly badly affected. The acid rain attacks the rock, and so carvings and statues are worn away more quickly.
The acid rain is said to be caused by pollution from oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. Car exhaust gases are also a problem. Local volcanic eruption make the problem even worse. Nevertheless, with enough money and effort, researchers say that many of the problems could be solved and the rate of dissolving reduced.
Mexico’s current lack of funds is also partly due to oil. The country has rich oil field and a few years ago, when oil was expensive, Mexico was selling large quantities of oil to the USA and earning a lot of money. The government was therefore able to borrow huge sums of money from banks around the world, thinking they would have no problem repaying their debts. However, the price of oil then dropped, and Mexico has been left owing enormous sums of money and with not enough income from oil sales to pay back the loans.
| A．However, the Mexican government does not have enough money to do the work, and needs to spend what money it has on the Mexican people. |
| B．That is enough to have caused some of the ancient carvings to become seriously damaged already. |
| C．So unless the price of rises, it is unlikely that Mexican will be able to afford to clean up the pollution and save its Mayan ruins from destruction. |
| D．These measures would reduce the pollution, but would not stop it completely. |
| E．The problem, however, is not a European one. |
| F．They dissolve in rainwater and this makes acid rain, which damages trees, rivers and streams. |
4 . Hailing from Sweden, “plogging” is a fitness craze that sees participants pick up plastic litter while jogging adding a virtuous, environmentally driven element to the sport. Plogging appears to have started around 2016, but is now going global, due to increasing awareness and
The appeal of plogging is its
Running and good causes have always gone
Anything that’s getting people out in nature and connecting
We need to keep momentum high and the pressure up, and empower people through
The plastic Patrol app allows users to
Plogging isn’t the first fitness trend to combine running with a good cause, Here are some of our favourites:
Good Gym
Its idea is simple: go for a run, visit an elderly person, have a chat and some tea, and run back.
Guide Running
Guide runners volunteer their time to helping blind people get
Start-up Stuart Delivery and the Church Housing Trust collaborated last year in bringing clothing and healthy food to the homeless. Deliveries are mostly made by bike, so those who deliver keep fit while helping rough sleepers(无家可归者).
1.| A．satisfaction | B．hesitation | C．fear | D．control |
| A．complexity | B．simplicity | C．instrument | D．expense |
| A．substance | B．responsibility | C．value | D．weight |
| A．one on one | B．head to toe | C．hand in hand | D．on and off |
| A．positively | B．neutrally | C．objectively | D．fairly |
| A．accuse | B．rid | C．assure | D．rob |
| A．shift | B．interest | C．aid | D．delight |
| A．motives | B．performances | C．exercises | D．initiatives |
| A．eliminate | B．map | C．seek | D．degrade |
| A．leading | B．devoting | C．ending | D．uploading |
| A．Disappointment | B．Tiredness | C．Sickness | D．Loneliness |
| A．therefore | B．moreover | C．however | D．instead |
| A．excited | B．ready | C．active | D．smart |
| A．visually | B．audibly | C．visibly | D．sensibly |
| A．Running | B．Plogging | C．Driving | D．Cycling |
5 . In the classic novel The Day of the Triffids, giant plants terrorise humanity. Triffids can walk and are equipped with poisonous stingers, but their real power lies in their ability to communicate and so plot against us.
It sounds far-fetched, but since John Wyndham’s book was published in 1951, one aspect of this fiction has proved to be science fact: plants do talk to one another. It has long been known that insects such as pollinators (传粉者）and pests can distinguish between plants by the chemicals they release. What’s new is the idea that plants use their emissions to talk among themselves. “Plants release chemicals into the atmosphere—these can be viewed as a language in the sense that a plant releasing the chemicals can be viewed as ‘speaking’ and the plant receiving them as ‘listening’ and then responding,” says chemical ecologist James Blande at the University of Eastern Finland.
Now we are discovering that air pollution can disrupt these communications. In one study, Blande and his colleagues put individual bumblebees into a box containing paper flowers resembling those of black mustard (芥末). When the scientists injected the scent of real black mustard flowers that grew in either a clean or polluted atmosphere the bumblebees’ reactions were unequivocal: they were immediately attracted to the unpolluted scent, while that from polluted air left them flying around aimlessly.
It’s not just the clarity of plant language that gets disrupted，the “loudness” is affected, too. To find out how much things have changed since pre-industrial times, Jose Fuentes at the University of Virginia and his colleagues made a computer model that included historic air pollution levels. It revealed that scents(气味)produced by flowers that could once be picked up kilometres away now travel as little as 200 metres.
Even between clean and dirty environments today, a similar reduction in signal can be seen. Take lima beans. When one plant is attacked by spider mites, it emits chemical signals that make others nearby produce more sugary nectar. This, in turn, attracts predatory mites, which eat the attackers. If the atmosphere is clean, Blande found, the beans easily communicate with neighbours growing 70 centimetres away. But in polluted conditions, their warning cries can’t be heard more than 20 centimetres away.
1. The writer mentions the novel The Day of the Triffids in order to_________.| A．show how far-fetched the novel is |
| B．introduce the topic of the passage |
| C．warn readers of a possible danger |
| D．illustrate a new discovery of plants |
| A．familiar | B．unpredictable |
| C．different | D．inter-related |
| A．The scent of plants can’t travel in a shorter distance in polluted air |
| B．Classic novels are usually based on some proved scientific facts. |
| C．It was in pre-industrial times that pollution came into existence. |
| D．Warning cries made by insects are getting softer and softer. |
| A．Chemical signals vary with the age of plants. |
| B．Pollinators and insects either damage or benefit plants. |
| C．Pollution has an impact on the communication between plants. |
| D．Plants communicate with each other by means of what they emit. |
6 . A Swedish power plant is taking reuse and recycle to the next level by burning unusable clothing instead of coal, Bloomberg reports.
Retail giant Hennes & Mauritz, more commonly known as H&M, is helping the utility transition away from coal through its moldy (发霉的) or otherwise unsalable clothing.
The multi-fuel power and heating station in Västerås, central Sweden, is planning to be completely fossil-fuel free by 2020. It’s the largest station of its kind and Sweden claims it’s one of Europe’s cleanest. To kick its coal habit, the station is turning instead to other burnable materials including recycled wood, rubbish and yes, clothes.
“Our goal is to use only renewable and recycled fuels,” Jens Neren, head of fuel supplies at the utility company which owns and operates the Västerås plant, told Bloomberg.
Johanna Dahl, head of communications for H&M in Sweden, told Bloomberg that the company allows only the burning of clothes which are no longer safe to use.
“It is our legal obligation to make sure that clothes that contain mold or do not meet the requirements of our strict restriction on chemicals are destroyed,” she said.
The Västerås plant has burned around 15 tons of old H&M clothes so far this year, compared with about 400,000 tons of rubbish, Neren told Bloomberg.
Sweden has one of the world’s greener energy generating systems, and has invested in bioenergy, solar power and electric buses. In 2015, the Scandinavian country announced an ambitious aim to become one of the first nations in the world to end its dependence on fossil fuels. According to the Swedish government, the country has already heavily reduced its dependence on oil, which accounted for 75% of the energy supply in 1970, and now makes up a 20% share.
1. Which of the following can serve as fuel in the Västerås plant?| A．Fashionable coats in H&M chain store. | B．Old TV sets deserted as rubbish. |
| C．Wooden furniture in second-hand shop. | D．H&M clothes unsuitable for sale. |
| A．eliminating | B．adjusting |
| C．producing | D．circulating |
| A．The Swedish government discourages the development of bioenergy. |
| B．Clothes only take up a small proportion of the burning material. |
| C．Sweden’s fossil-fuel free plan is almost accomplished by now. |
| D．Sweden has an ambition to be the cleanest country in the world. |
| A．A Swedish power plant is burning unusable H&M clothes for fuel. |
| B．The Swedish government aims high and is taking effective action. |
| C．H&M is looking for a new way to strengthen its position in fashion. |
| D．Coal and oil are no longer regarded as the primary fuels in Sweden. |
Where is the Beef
Most people like to eat meat. As they grow richer they eat more of it. For individuals, that is good. Meat is nutritious. In particular, it packs much more protein per kilogram than plants do. However, animals have to eat plants to put on weight - so much so that feeding them accounts for about a third of harvested grain. Farm animals consume 8 per cent of the world’s water supply, and they produce around 15 per cent of unnatural greenhouse-gas emissions. More farm animals then, could mean more environmental trouble.
The simplest way to satisfy this demand is to concentrate on substitutes for familiar products. “Meat” made directly from plants, rather than indirectly, via an animal’s metabolism, is already on sale for the table and barbecue. Impossible Foods, a Californian firm, has deconstructed hamburgers, to work out what gives them their texture (质感) and flavour, and then either found or grown botanical equivalents to these.
For those who really want to eat steak while saving the planet, a second approach maybe more promising. That is “clean” meat made by taking animal cells and growing them in a factory to form strips of muscle. Steak is not yet on the menu, but burgers and meatballs may soon be. The field leader is Mosa Meat, a Dutch firm staffed by scientists.
There is one more novel source of meaty protein that does not involve farm animals -at least, farm animals of the conventional sort. This is insects. Locusts (蝗虫), for example, are about 70 per cent protein. Insects do have to be fed, but being cold-blooded, they convert more food into body mass than warm-blooded mammals do and, being boneless, more of that body-mass is edible.
| A．The first burger it made, in 2013, cost around $300,000. |
| B．It launched its plant-based burger in a number of restaurants in America last year. |
| C．Per edible gram, insects need only a twelfth of the food that cattle require. |
| D．The problem is marketing. |
| E．Plant-based "meat" products have made it onto menus and supermarket shelves. |
| F．Some consumers, particularly in the rich West, get this. |
World leaders get some face-to-face time at the U.N. climate summit
Sometimes in diplomacy, the sideline(副业) is where all the action is. That was the case at the
The threat of terrorism
9 . In the 1990s, when an area of Brazilian rainforest the size of Belgium was cut down every year, Brazil was the world’s environmental villain (反派角色) and the Amazonian jungles the image of everything that was going wrong in green places. Now, the Amazon ought to be the image of what is going right. Government figures show that deforestation fell by 70% in the Brazilian Amazon region during the past decade. If clearances had continued at their rate in 2005, an extra 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide would have been put into the atmosphere. That is an amount equal to a year’s emissions from the European Union. Arguably, then, Brazil is now the world leader in addressing climate change.
But how did it break the vicious cycle (恶性循环)? The answer, according to a paper is that there was no silver bullet but instead a three-stage process in which bans, better governance in frontier areas and consumer pressure on companies worked.
The first stage ran from the mid-1990s to 2004. This was when the government put its efforts into bans and restrictions. The Brazilian Forest Code said that, on every farm in the Amazon, 80% of the land had to be set aside as a forest reserve. As the study observes, this share was so high that the code could not be followed --- or enforced. This was the period of the worst deforestation. Soybean prices were high and there were a vast expansion of soybean farming on the south-eastern border of the rainforest.
During the second stage, which ran from 2005 to 2009, the government tried to boost its ability to police the Amazon. Brazil’s president made stopping deforestation a priority, which resulted in better co-operation between different bits of the government. The area in which farming was banned was increased from a sixth to nearly half of the forest.
The third stage, which began in 2009, was a test of whether a system of restrictions could survive as soybean expansion continued. The government shifted its focus from farms to counties (each state has scores of these). Farmers in the 36 counties with the worst deforestation rates were banned from getting cheap credit until those rates fell.
By any standards, Brazil’s Amazon policy has been a success, made the more remarkable because it relied on restrictions rather than rewards, which might have been expected to have worked better. Over the period of the study, Brazil also turned itself into a farming superpower, so the country has shown it is possible to get a huge increase in food output without destroying the forest. Moreover, the policies so far have been successful among commercial farms who care about the law and respond to market pressures. Most remaining deforestation is by small holders who care rather less about these things, so the government faces the problem of persuading them to change their ways, too. Deforestation has been slowed, but not yet stopped.
1. Brazil is considered to play a leading role in dealing with climate change because ________.| A．it has rainforest as large as Belgium. |
| B．it has cut down too much rainforest. |
| C．it has taken action to reduce deforestation. |
| D．it sent 3.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air. |
| A．a powerful weapon. | B．an effective solution. |
| C．an intelligent device. | D．a golden opportunity. |
| A．Brazil has successfully eliminated deforestation. |
| B．All the farmers care much about forest protection. |
| C．Small farm holders are a headache for the Brazilian government. |
| D．Both the food output and the forest in Brazil have greatly increased. |
| A．Cutting Down on Cutting Down. | B．Brazil, the World Leader in Farming. |
| C．Restrictions Outperforming Rewards. | D．Former Awareness Working Wonders. |
| A. assessment B. withdraw C. actual D. issues E. concrete F.migrations G. fully-committed H. irregular I. implemented J. irreversible K. initiatives |
Now, let me say a few words to our American friends: Climate change is one of the major
Today, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced his decision to
I just said it to President Trump, in a few words a few minutes ago this
To all the scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the president of the United States, I want to say they will find in France a second homeland. I call on them --- come and work here with us, to work together on
I reaffirm clearly that Paris agreement will remain
I call on you to remain confident. We will succeed, because we are
Thank you.
