1 . Goodish News of Climate Change

Emissions of carbon dioxide (related to energy production) have stabilized, for now.

Is it a peak, a stutter or just a brief pause? Time will tell. But whatever it is, on February 11th the International Energy Agency (IEA), an intergovernmental _________ which collects such data, announced that emissions of carbon dioxide in 2019 which were _________ energy had remained the same (33.3bn tonnes) as the previous year’s.

Energy-related emissions, which include those (produced by electricity generation), heating and transport, _________ for more than 70% of the world’s industrial CO pollution. The stall seems to have been caused by a(n) _________ in coal use, particularly in rich countries, combined with an increase in the use of renewable power.

As a result of this the CO2-intensity of electricity generation — a(n) _________ of how much of the gas is emitted per kilowatt hour of juice produced — fell by nearly 6.5%, to 340 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour. It had already been _________, but this is three times the average for the past decade. Such declines more than offset the _________ of increased electricity production. The average emission-intensity of power generation in 2019 was “lower than all but the most efficient gas-power plants”, according to the IEA.

This is not the first time energy related emissions have plateaued (保持稳定). Between 2013 and 2016 they hovered around 32.2 bn tonnes a year, before _________ again in 2017 as the use of coal to fuel developing economies increased.This _________ plateau was accompanied by excited declarations that such emissions had peaked. Similar __________ have been made this week, perhaps also prematurely. __________ changes in coal use, a sluggish economy may have played a part and the data show that milder than usual weather caused a perceptible drop in emissions from several countries with large, carbon-hungry economies.

The news is also __________ by the latest data from the Amazon rainforest. This, one of the world’s largest woodlands, has acted __________ as an absorbing sponge (海绵)for CO2 by removing it from the atmosphere through photo-synthesis. Researchers at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research have shown that a vast part of the south-east of the Amazon, about one fifth of its area, has lost its __________ to soak up the gas and is now a net source of emissions into the atmosphere instead. This land has been widely deforested, so the result is little __________. But it is disappointing.

1.

A．circumstances

B．environments

C．contributions

D．organization

2.

A．available to

B．similar to

C．related to

D．owing to

3.

A．regard

B．account

C．desire

D．evolve

4.

A．decline

B．increase

C．promotion

D．recovery

5.

A．product

B．idea

C．measure

D．result

6.

A．floating

B．falling

C．disappearing

D．remaining

7.

A．solution

B．change

C．effect

D．achievement

8.

A．rising

B．creating

C．raising

D．demanding

9.

A．frequent

B．previous

C．natural

D．disastrous

10.

A．tips

B．plans

C．warnings

D．comments

11.

A．In place of

B．In spite of

C．Thanks to

D．In addition to

12.

A．tempered

B．sensed

C．attracted

D．explained

13.

A．accidentally

B．absolutely

C．historically

D．accordingly

14.

A．prospect

B．ability

C．need

D．decision

15.

A．anger

B．hope

C．devotion

D．surprise

4 . Directions: road the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point (s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

A plan to restore green spaces

The UK government has revealed a plan to protect and restore England’s wild life. It focuses on at-risk species by making canals, rivers and streams cleaner and expanding green spaces.

The new Environmental Improvement Plan sets goals to create or restore more than 5,000 square kilometres of wildlife habitats across England and restore 400 miles of rivers. It will create or expand 25 national nature reserves. New woodland will also be planted alongside rivers. At the moment, access to green spaces is not equal across the UK. Around 4% of people live more than 10 minutes away from their nearest park. The Environmental Improvement Plan aims to make sure households in England are within a 15-minute walk to a green space.

As well as helping more people to act close to nature, the plan should increase England’s biodiversity. A species Survival Fund will be set up to help some of England’s most endangered animals, such as red squirrels (松鼠) and watch rats. The Government has set targets to boost these species by 2030. There are also targets to reduce food waste, glass, metal, paper and plastic by 2028, and to improve the quality of water in rivers.

New rules mean that the Government will have to consider the environmental effects of any policy it puts forward. These goals are part of a 25- year plan that was launched in 2018. The aim of the plan is to improve the environment “within a generation ” which is roughly 25 years.

Although lots of people have welcomed the plan, not everyone is impressed. Pail de Zylva, from the charity Friends of the Earth, said it wasn’t clear enough how the goals would be met and that many of them were like promises the Government had already made but not yet delivered.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 . Flight Shaming: # stayontheground

For the environmentally conscious, boarding a flight can be a source of mild stress or guilt, considering the large amounts of carbon footprint that comes with it.     1    

Flight shaming, or flygskam, is a movement that originated in Sweden in 2017. Back then, singer Staffan Lindberg declared his intention to give up flying to and from his concerts in favor of travel by train, bus, car, or boat.     2     Before long, a substantial portion of the general public had happily jumped on board. The following year, the hashtag # jagstannarpamarken — which translates as # stayontheground started gaining popularity on the Internet, and by 2019, annual air travel in Sweden had fallen by 5%.

Although “shame” has a relatively negative meaning associated with it, the overall outcome of the flight shaming movement has been undeniably positive. No longer restricted to Sweden alone, the trend has spread throughout Europe.     3     Besides, the movement is less about shaming other people out of flying than it is about changing one’s own travel habits for the benefits of the Earth.

An interesting side effect of the flight shaming movement is that those who observe it often rediscover the novelty of slow, purposeful travel. When traveling by land, one can take in the variety of sights, sounds, and smells along the way.     4     Without doubt, travelers willing to take on the challenge of flygskam have the opportunity to experience local culture in ways that passengers flying thousands of miles above could only dream of.

A．More and more Europeans are now choosing to travel by land or sea whenever possible.

B．However, airlines in Europe also have warned of the harmful effects of the flight shaming movement.

C．In addition, travelers are more likely to discover interesting new restaurants and hotels, and get a chance to interact with the locals.

D．A new anti-flying movement known as “flight shaming” is giving Earth-loving travelers a way of shaking off their guilt while still experiencing the joys of domestic and international travel.

E．It’s a way of revisiting holiday travel plan, including your accommodations while protecting the environment.

F．Other local celebrities, including environmental icon Greta Thunberg, followed suit.

6 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. adopted   B. approaching   C. demonstration D. expansion E. featured F. focus G. forecasted H. maintained I. nonrenewable J. optimistic. K. surviving

Earth Day Turns 50

About 20 million Americans turned out for the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Lectures and gatherings took place at more than 2,000 college campuses, 10,000 elementary and high schools, and thousands of other places across the country. Forty-two states     1     resolutions supporting Earth Day. It is sometimes described as, up to that time, the largest public     2     in history.

The lectures and literature surrounding the event     3     lots of depressing predictions about the future, which could be found in the book The Environmental Handbook. Its cover noted that it had been “prepared for the first national environmental teach-in.” Commissioned(委托) by the group Friends of the Earth, the book talked about the threats of rising population and exhaustion of     4     resources- Many of its contributors—let’s call them the Catastrophists―warned that even such actions as halving the number of human beings and stopping economic growth completely might not be enough to prevent the     5     ecological disasters.

A different group of researchers     6     that while economic growth and technological progress had created some ecological problems, these things also would be a source of solutions. Let’s call these folks the Prometheans. The economist Theodore Schultz argued in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1972 that the     7     of modern agriculture would free up more land for nature. Other advocates of this more     8     outlook included the oceanographer Cy Adler, the economist Christopher Freeman, and Nature editor emeritus John Maddox, author of the 1972 book The Doomsday Syndrome.

Today, the Earth Day Network hopes a billion people across the world will participate in Earth Day 2020, where the 50th anniversary     9     will be on man-made climate change. Living as we do in the future that the Catastrophists and the Prometheans (灾变论者与开创者)    10    ,   now is a great time to look back at the claims made five decades ago.

7 . Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Now, Mount Everest is actually an interesting comparison of a new approach     1    how we deal with garbage produced in the course of space exploration, as it’s often given the dubious hono r(耻辱) of being the world’s highest garbage dump. Decades after the first conquest of the world’s highest peak, tons of rubbish left behind by climbers     2     (start) to raise concern, and you may have read in the news that there’s expectation     3    Nepal will crack down on mountaineers with stricter enforcement of penalties and legal obligations. The goal, of course, is to persuade climbers to clean up after themselves, so maybe local not-for-profits will pay climbers who bring down extra waste, or expeditions might organize voluntary cleanup trips. And yet still many climbers feel that independent groups     4    police themselves. There’s no simple or easy answer, and even well-intentioned efforts at conservation often run into problems. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do     5    is in our power to protect the environments that we depend on, and like Everest, the remote location and inadequate infrastructure (基础设施)of the orbital environment make waste disposal a challenging problem. But we simply cannot reach new heights and create an even higher garbage dump,     6    out of this world.

The reality of space is that     7    a component on a satellite breaks down, there really are limited opportunities for repairs, and only at great cost. But what if we were smarter about     8    we designed satellites? What if all satellites, regardless of what country they were built in, had to be standardized in some way for recycling, servicing or active deorbiting (脱离轨道)? What if there actually were international laws that enforced end-of-life disposal of satellites instead of moving them out of the way as a temporary solution? Or maybe satellite manufacturers need     9    (charge) a deposit to even launch a satellite into orbit, and that deposit would not be returned     10    the satellite was disposed of properly. Or maybe a satellite needs to have technology on board to help accelerate deorbit.

9 . Reducing the workweek to four days could have a climate benefit. In addition to improving the well-being of workers, cutting working hours may reduce carbon emissions. But those benefits would depend on a number of factors, experts emphasize, including how people choose to spend nonworking time.

Commuting and travel

Transportation is the biggest contributor to greenhouse emissions. A November 2021 survey of 2,000 employees and 500 business leaders in the United Kingdom found that if all organizations introduced a four-day week, the reduced trips to work would decrease travel overall by more than 691 million miles a week.

But the climate benefits of less commuting could be eliminated, experts said, if people choose to spend their extra time off traveling, particularly if they do so by car or plane.

Energy usage

Shorter working hours could lead to reductions in energy usage, experts said. According to a 2006 paper, if the United States adopted European work standards, the country would consume about 20 percent less energy.

Energy could also be conserved if fewer resources are needed to heat and cool large office buildings, reducing demands on electricity. For example, if an entire workplace shuts down on the fifth day, that would help lower consumption — less so if the office stays open to accommodate employees taking different days off.

Lifestyle changes

It’s possible that fewer working hours may lead some people to have a larger carbon footprint, but experts say research suggests that most people are likely to shift toward more sustainable lifestyles.

One theory is that people who work more and have less free time tend to do things in more carbon-intensive ways, such as choosing faster modes of transportation or buying prepared foods. Convenience is often carbon-intensive and people tend to choose convenience when they're time-stressed. Meanwhile, some research suggests that those who work less are more likely to engage in traditionally low-carbon activities, such as spending time with family or sleeping.

“When we talk about the four-day workweek and the environment, we focus on the tangible, but actually, in a way, the biggest potential benefit here is in the intangible,” experts said.

1. What is identified as the leading cause of greenhouse emissions according to the passage?

A．The well-being of employees.

B．The conservation of energy.

C．Commuting and travel.

D．The European work standard.

2. What can be inferred from the underlined sentence “the biggest potential benefit here is in the intangible” in the last paragraph?

A．People will have big potential in achieving intangible benefits while working.

B．People are more likely to engage in carbon-intensive activities due to time constraints.

C．People may shift toward more sustainable lifestyles and lower carbon footprints.

D．People may travel more frequently by car or plane during their extra time off.

3. The passage is mainly written to       .

A．highlight the importance of shortening working time in the context of well-being

B．provide an overview of transportation emissions worldwide

C．analyze the impact of reduced working hours on mode of business

D．illustrate factors affecting the climate benefits of a shorter workweek

10 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. replacing     B. tolerate       C. extremes        D. experiencing          E. average F. estimates       G. impact       H. reserved   I. assess       J. cover       K. continued

Urban Trees Are Threatened by Climate Change

By 2050, about three-quarters of the species will be at risk as a result of climate change, a study has found. Cities around the world may need to start planting different types of trees and shrubs that can     1     warmer and drier conditions.

“By ‘at risk’, we mean these species might be     2     stressful climatic conditions,” says Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez at Western Sydney University in Australia. “Those trees are likely to die.”

City trees have many benefits, from making urban spaces look beautiful and providing a refuge for wildlife to keeping places up to 12°C cooler than they would otherwise be in summer. Losing tree     3     would lead to cities becoming even hotter as the planet heats up.

To     4     the threat, Esperon Rodriguez and his colleagues used database called the Global Urban Tree Inventory to work out the conditions required by 3100 tree and shrub species currently grown in 164 cities worldwide. The researchers then looked at how these conditions would be affected by climate change under medium-emissions scenario known as RCP 6.0.

By 2050, 76 per cent of these species will be at risk from rising     5     temperatures and 70 percent from decreasing rainfall, the team concludes.

The study doesn’t take account of       6     urban growth, which could warm cities even faster. Nor does it take account of greater weather     7     caused by climate change, or the effects of pests and diseases. Warmer conditions are allowing more pests, such as bark beetles, to survive winters as well as to reproduce faster in summer, greatly increasing their     8    .

“Our     9     have scientific basis,” says Esperon-Rodriguez. There are some things that can be done to help trees survive. The best strategy is to choose tough species when     10     trees or planting new ones, the team concludes.