1 . How Saving Wildlife Benefits Humans
It’s no secret that we’ve lost an overwhelming number of species within that last four decades. These species have all but
One of the first great rules of terrestrial (陆地的) biology is “no species is forever.”
The Earth consists of plants, animals, water, land, the atmosphere, and humans. Biodiversity (生物多样性)
One convincing benefit that comes from wildlife conservation efforts is that it ensures food
Another benefit that comes from wildlife conservation is that these
Perhaps the most convincing benefit that comes from wildlife conservation is that it provides us with
Our unsustainable, unconscious, self-interested relationship with the environment has led us into an extremely destructible world. If we do not take action and
| A．changed | B．existed | C．disappeared | D．evolved |
| A．Furthermore | B．However | C．Therefore | D．Otherwise |
| A．extinction | B．destruction | C．evolution | D．immigration |
| A．threatens | B．localizes | C．strengthens | D．endangers |
| A．infrequently | B．potentially | C．regionally | D．directly |
| A．management | B．inspection | C．development | D．security |
| A．identified | B．cultivated | C．exploited | D．valued |
| A．initiatives | B．consequences | C．intentions | D．contributions |
| A．In addition | B．After all | C．In particular | D．By contrast |
| A．adapted | B．turned | C．adjusted | D．linked |
| A．protections | B．opportunities | C．services | D．nutrients |
| A．standard | B．welcome | C．scarce | D．profitable |
| A．discourage | B．attract | C．forbid | D．protect |
| A．feel like | B．keep on | C．set about | D．argue for |
| A．irreplaceable | B．unpredictable | C．unlimited | D．imbalanced |
Imagine living on the edge of a vast desert, which is moving quietly closer to your village every day and covering your fields. The desert is on the move. This is called desertification.
Desertification occurs in regions close to an already existing desert. It generally arises from two related causes. The first is over-use of water in the area. There is not enough water in any case, and if it is not carefully used, disaster can follow. As time goes on, water shortages make farming more and more difficult. In some places, locals can remember local lakes and marshes which were once the homes for all kinds of fish and birds. They have been completely buried by the sand now. Farmers leave the land, and fields are replaced by deserts.
The second cause is misuse or over-use of the land. This means that the wrong crops are planted and need more water than is available. Ploughing large fields and removing bushes and trees means that the wind will blow away the soil. Once the soil is lost, it is hard to replace, and if there is rain, it has nowhere to go, and brings no benefit.
It is not only the farmers and villagers who suffer. Every spring, the skies over some of eastern cities, thousands of kilometers away from the deserts, can be darkened by sandstorms. Dust from deserts can have a great effect on weather systems. While desertification is perhaps being partly caused by global warming, these sandstorms can make global warming worse by adding to what is known as the greenhouse effect.
What can be done to slow down or stop the process of desertification? A great deal of work is already under way. Obviously first steps are to find new water sources. Tree planting can help, by providing barriers between desert and rich field. Some types of grass also hold the soil together, and stop the wind taking it. Without these efforts, it will be harder and harder to stop the world’s deserts in their tracks, and more and more farmers will give up and head for cities. The lesson to be learnt lies beneath the sand.
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3 . "When I was 16 years old, I was diving in Greece, but I was disappointed because I saw more plastic bags than fish.” These are the words of Boyan Slat, an engineer who designed the world's first ocean plastic cleanup system.
Every year, more than 8 million tons of plastics end up in our oceans, according to the UN Environment Programme. It is predicted that the weight of ocean plastics will match the weight of all the fish in our oceans by 2050. To prevent this from happening, in 2013 Slat created the Ocean Cleanup, an environmental non¬governmental organization, and put his plan for an ocean cleanup device into action.
After years of research and develop¬ment in the Netherlands, a device called System 001/B successfully started gathering plastics on October 2, 2019. The device uses a 600-meter-long C-shaped tube to gather all the floating rubbish. Unlike other cleanup methods, the system floats freely according to the direction of the waves, which allows waste to flow into and stay within the device. A sea anchor is attached to either end. This slows down the system as it floats through the water and allows the faster-moving rubbish, carried by the waves, to flow into its mouth. System 001/B can also collect waste below the surface using a 3-meter-deep skirt（挡板）attached to the end. After being gathered, the trash will be dragged back to shore by boat and recycled.
Right now, the system operates in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area that is 3 times the size of France. Once operational, the Ocean Cleanup expects a full fleet to be able to clear 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years.
"It remains to be seen whether this dream will become a reality, but it is undeniable that humanity must work together to reduce our plastic use and repair the damage our waste has caused," Slat said. "We are starting to see a young generation that gets it and is excited about a sustainable （可持续的）future, but the question still comes down to: Are we going fast enough, and how much damage will have been done before we get there?"
1. The underlined word “match” in Paragraph 2 probably means “_________”.| A．compare | B．equal |
| C．measure | D．cover |
| A．To collect ocean plastic waste. |
| B．To help to invent System 001/B. |
| C．To protect the living environment of fish. |
| D．To do research on the ocean environment. |
| A．It can collect and recycle garbage at the same time. |
| B．It can only gather ocean waste which floats on the water. |
| C．It aims to clear up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in five years. |
| D．It is an ocean-cleaning device which has already been put to use. |
| A．Young generations care less about the environment. |
| B．The future ecology of the oceans is deeply worrying. |
| C．People should work hard to decrease plastic pollution. |
| D．It's quite difficult to repair the damage to the environment. |
4 . Tuvalu, a tiny country in the Pacific Ocean, has asked for help
Storms and huge waves are a constant threat and
But Tuvalu is not the first place
Nowadays, it happens more than 100 times a year. While Venice is slowly sinking into the mud on
The main cause of global warming is human pollution. Through burning coal and oil people have been increasing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, making the planet even warmer. Many scientists believe that, if the warming
Should this come true, the sea would swallow up millions of homes and the world would be flooded with “climate refugees”
5 . In 2012, James Cameron, creator of Avatar and Titanic, became the first person to reach the Challenger Deep. When he arrived at the deepest spot on Earth at 7 miles below sea level, he spent hours mapping the region and taking photos and samples.
“As human beings, we’re drawn to absolutes—the deepest, the highest, the coldest, the farthest,” he says. “And as a storyteller and curious monkey, I just wanted to see what was there.” The answer is obvious—plastic and more. “Our so-called civilization is using the ocean as its toilet,” Cameron says. “Unless this changes, ocean ecosystems are going to continue their rapid collapse.”
Despite decades of environmental studies, the impact of plastic and other forms of pollution on oceans are not entirely understood. Initial studies appear to indicate that ingesting(摄取) them—either directly or indirectly—could cause disease. Plastics can also release poisonous substances into the water, which could potentially impact animal populations.
But plastic is just one of the problems facing oceans that have yet to be fully understood. “Plastic waste in the ocean is horrifying but is only the most obvious of our many deadly waste streams, which include carbon that’s heating the atmosphere and making the ocean acidic, and the run-off nutrients from all the world’s agriculture, which is causing anoxic(缺氧的) dead zones the size of countries,” Cameron says.
Oceans, like the rest of the world, are impacted by the burning of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide—about 30 percent of which is absorbed by the sea. This absorption causes ocean acidification, where the pH level is altered to become more acidic. As a result, it’s harder for some creatures to form shells and skeletons and countless species at the base of the food web can struggle to survive, which, scientists say, has the potential to cause huge disruptions to entire ecosystems. Indeed, ocean acidification is thought to have played an important role in Earth’s worst-ever mass extinction event 252 million years ago.
The effect of climate change on the world’s oceans will likely worsen in coming decades. Last June, scientists announced carbon dioxide levels had reached the highest levels since human records began. The last time carbon dioxide levels were this high was during the Pliocene era, between 3 and 5 million years ago, when global temperatures were about 4 degrees Celsius warmer than they are today. Current climate models suggest that if greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current trend, we may be on course to see 4 degrees of warming by 2100.
As a result, understanding the role oceans have on global systems is becoming more and more important.
1. What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?| A．The author’s feelings to the ocean. | B．Cameron’s movies and remarks. |
| C．The author’s discoveries under the sea. | D．Cameron’s observation and concern. |
| A．Several countries are suffering from anoxic dead zones. |
| B．More concern should have been given to the pollution on oceans. |
| C．Plastic is supposed to be the most serious environmental problem. |
| D．Ocean acidification removes the nutrients from agricultural products. |
| A．Decreases. | B．Destruction. |
| C．Diseases. | D．Discrimination. |
| A．To call on people to protect sea animals. |
| B．To compare current situations with the past. |
| C．To explain how serious the ocean problem is. |
| D．To prove pollution to be the cause of acidification. |
6 . When people argue about whether coffee is good for health, they're usually thinking of the health of the coffee drinker. Is it food for your heart? Does it increase blood pressure? Does it help you concentrate? However, coffee affects the health of the human population in other ways, too.
Traditionally, coffee bushes were planted under the canopy(树冠)of taller indigenous(土生土长的)trees. However, more and more farmers in Latin America are deforesting the land to grow full-sun coffees. At first, this increases production because more coffee bushes can be planted if there aren't any trees. With increased production come increased profits.
Unfortunately, deforesting for coffee production immediately decreases local wildlife habitat. Native birds nest and hide from predators(捕食者)in the tall trees and migrating birds rest there.
Furthermore, in the long term, the full-sun method also damages the ecosystem because more chemical fertilizers and pesticides are needed to grow the coffee. The fertilizers and pesticides kill insects that eat coffee plant, but then the birds eat the poisoned insects and also die. The chemicals kill or sicken other animals as well, and can even enter the water that people will eventually drink.
Fortunately, farmers in Central and South America are beginning to grow more coffee bushes in the shade. We can support these farmers by buying coffee with such labels as “shade grown” and “bird friendly.” Sure, these varieties might cost a little more. But we're paying for the health of the birds, the land, ourselves, and the planet. I think it's worth it.
1. What does increased production of full-sun coffee bring about?| A．More insects. | B．Better quality coffee. |
| C．Larger farms. | D．Higher profits. |
| A．They buy more land from other farmers. | B．They cut down trees. |
| C．They move to another country. | D．They turn grassland into farmland. |
| A．insects | B．air | C．birds | D．humans |
| A．Farmers are changing the way they grow coffee. |
| B．Coffee is becoming more expensive to produce. |
| C．Shade-grown coffee is more expensive than sun-grown coffee. |
| D．People should buy shade-grown coffee. |
7 . One of the most pressing challenges the world will face in the next few decades is how to relieve the growing stress that human activities are placing on the environment. The consequences are just too great to
One priority (优先处理的事) for research is improving hydrological (水文学的) forecasting. It is
To
| A．notice | B．consider | C．ignore | D．emphasize |
| A．take over | B．get over | C．set out | D．make out |
| A．danger | B．risk | C．insecure | D．change |
| A．Moreover | B．Yet | C．Though | D．Since |
| A．for | B．over | C．with | D．among |
| A．hold | B．receive | C．gain | D．pay |
| A．basis | B．ground | C．position | D．stage |
| A．wished | B．hoped | C．decided | D．estimated |
| A．supply | B．use | C．pollution | D．shortage |
| A．health | B．condition | C．situation | D．case |
| A．endurance | B．violence | C．introduction | D．extinction |
| A．copy | B．produce | C．prevent | D．ruin |
| A．connect | B．infect | C．follow | D．study |
| A．contributed to | B．turned to | C．referred to | D．responded to |
| A．get along with | B．take advantage of | C．pass down | D．put up |
Throughout the past century humanity did everything in its power to control nature. We dammed earth's rivers, chopped down the forests and exhausted the soils. Burning up fuels, we pumped a great deal of greenhouse gases into the air, altering the chemistry of the atmosphere and warming the planet in just a few decades. And as our population began in the year 2000 to be above the billion mark, still spreading across the continents, dozens of animal and plant species were dying out every day, including the first primate(灵长类)to disappear in more than100 years.
At the start of the 21st century there were unmistakable signs that nature was beginning to take its revenge(报复). Melting ice in both poles of the earth suggested that the climate was changing rapidly. Weather was even more changeable than usual, giving some places too little rain and others too much. Fires raced across the dried American West last summer, and recent storms spread damages from Britain to China. No specific event could be directly blamed on global warming. Floods and drought will be more frequent and severe. Other sad signs from an overburdened planet include falling grain and fish harvests and fierce competition for scarce water supplies.
But there were also signs of great awareness. Connected by the Internet, hundreds of millions of people gathered for the anniversary of Earth Day. Governments from Washington to Lima took steps to protect the large wild areas from development. Progress was made toward using more renewable energy from the wind and the sun, and new cars that used both gasoline and electricity spotted fuel-economy statistics.
The goal for the new century is “sustainable development”. Is that possible? It depends on how well we understand that humanity is part of nature, not lord or master.
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9 . How to deal with waste has been a problem since humans started producing it. As more and more people choose to live close together in cities, the waste-disposal problem becomes increasingly difficult.
During the eighteenth century, it was usual for several neighboring towns to get together to select a faraway spot as a dump site (垃圾填埋场). Residents or trash haulers (垃圾拖运者) would transport household rubbish, rotted wood, and old possessions to the site. Periodically some of the trash was burned and the rest was buried. The unpleasant sights and smells caused no problem because nobody lived close by.
Factories, mills, and other industrial sites also had waste to be disposed of. Those located on rivers often just dumped the unwanted remains into the water. Others built huge burners with chimneys to deal with the problem.
Several facts make these choices unacceptable to modern society. The first problem is space. Dumps, which are now called landfills, are most needed in heavily populated areas. Such areas seldom have empty land suitable for this purpose. Land is either too expensive or too close to residential neighborhoods. Long-distance trash hauling has been a common practice, but once farm areas are refusing to accept rubbish from elsewhere, cheap land within trucking distance of major city areas is almost nonexistent.
Awareness of pollution dangers has led to more strict rules of waste disposal. Pollution of rivers, ground water, land and air is a price people can no longer pay to get rid of waste. The amount of waste, however, continues to grow.
Recycling efforts have become commonplace, and many towns require their people to take part. Even the most efficient recycling programs, however, can hope to deal with only about 50 per cent of a city’s reusable waste.
1. The most suitable title for this passage would be “ _________ ”.| A．Places for Disposing Waste | B．Waste Disposal Problem |
| C．Ways of Getting Rid of Waste | D．Waste Pollution Dangers. |
| A．recycling it | B．burying it |
| C．burning it | D．throwing it into rivers |
| A．farm areas willingly accept waste from the city |
| B．there is cheap land to bury waste |
| C．ways to deal with waste stay the same as those in the past |
| D．it is no longer possible to have landfills, even in rural areas |
| A．suggest a better way to get rid of waste |
| B．warn people of the pollution dangers we are facing |
| C．call on people to take part in recycling programs |
| D．draw people’s attention to waste management |
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. |
