1 . A Purdue University invention could save millions of taxpayer dollars and significantly reduce traffic delays. The new invention, a sensor that allows concrete to “talk”, decreases construction time and how often concrete pavement (路面) needs repairs while also improving the road’s sustainability and cutting its carbon footprint. Fixed directly into a concrete pour the sensor sends engineers more precise and consistent data about the concrete’s strength and need for repairs than is possible with currently used tools and methods.

“Traffic jams caused by repairs have wasted 4 billion hours and 3 billion gallons of gas, on a yearly basis. This is mainly due to insufficient knowledge and understanding of concrete’s strength levels,” said Luna Lu, who has been leading development of the sensor since 2017. “For instance, we don’t know when concrete will reach the right strength needed to accommodate traffic loads just after construction. The concrete may be put into use too early,leading to frequent repairing,” she added.

With the technology Lu and her team invented, engineers can directly monitor the fresh concrete and accurately measure many of its properties at once. The sensor notifies engineers via a smartphone app exactly when the pavement is strong enough to handle heavy traffic. The stronger the pavement is before being used by vehicles, the less often it will need to be repaired. By decreasing road repairs and construction timelines, this technology could reduce carbon dioxide that vehicles would have given off while waiting in traffic to get around a construction site.

Methods that the industry has used for more than a century call for testing large samples of concrete at a lab or onsite facility. Even though these tests are well understood by the industry, differences between lab and outdoor conditions can lead to inaccurate estimates of the concrete’s strength due to the different concrete compositions and temperatures of the surrounding area.

1. What can be learned about the new invention?

A．It decreases accidents.

B．It is costly to produce.

C．It reduces road repairs.

D．It is difficult to operate.

2. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?

A．Waste caused by road repairs.

B．Characteristics of the concrete.

C．Situations of road constructions.

D．Necessity of inventing the sensor.

3. What does the underlined word “notifies” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Signals.

B．Awakes.

C．Monitor.

D．Examines.

4. What is the problem with the previous tests?

A．Samples must be tested on the spot.

B．The results turn out to be unreliable.

C．Fewer properties have been measured.

D．Concrete is tested in certain temperature.

2 . You want to go vegan to help the planet, but it is your parents who are paying for the shopping. You think trains are better than planes when traveling.     1    Young people are some of the world’s most powerful climate leaders and want rapid action to tackle the problem.

    2    But the power to act is often still in the hands of older people, including parents. Big changes are difficult, especially when they involve other people. Where do you begin?

Eating less meat is one of the best ways to reduce our impact on the planet. Teach the Parent is a campaign that encourages these conversations between generations. It was started by young people frustrated with the lack of international climate action and their feelings of powerlessness. Even if your first talk with your parent goes badly, you should keep going.     3    If you bring it up every so often, it shapes your parent’s attitudes in the long term.

How we travel is a major source of carbon emissions, but switching from driving or lying can potentially limit family holidays and cost more. Present a solution rather than just a problem.    4    For example, saying “let’s do this thing instead” is really a good way to communicate. People talk about how expensive trains are, but think about what the carbon emissions from taking a plane mean in the long term for us.

Radically reducing what we buy and throw away can improve our carbon footprint, but it can be time-consuming and difficult. Advise your parents to reduce food waste and think more carefully about what they buy. Be well-informed about the things you want your family to start changing so they can see you care and have done some research. It’s important to not go into it expecting your parents to change their whole lives.    5    .

Taking action as an individual means you have managed to feel a lot more in control of your future.

A．That makes a lot of sense.

B．Big lifestyle changes take time.

C．Small things can make a difference.

D．It’s a big bother for you and your parents.

E．Give your parents options for something fun or exciting.

F．The conversations can be challenging at times.

G．However, your dad books the summer holiday.

3 . For the past 13 years, Martin Burrows has been working as a long-distance truck driver. Spending up to five nights a week on the road can be a lonely business, leaving him with plenty of time to notice his surroundings. “I kept seeing more rubbish everywhere and it was getting on my nerves. I decided I had to do something about it,” he says. One day, he stopped his vehicle, took out a trash bag and started picking up the garbage. The satisfaction after clearing a small area was remarkable.

Before his time on the road, Burrows spent over two decades in the military as a vehicle driver. His service saw him stationed throughout Europe and also on tours in Afghanistan. After returning to civilian life, he was diagnosed with PTSD (创伤后应激障碍) and had a mental health crisis in 2017. His involvement in fundraising for Help for Heroes led him to meet a man who used model-building as a distraction from PTSD. Burrows realized that his act of roadside cleanup had a similar calming effect on his mental well-being.

By 2019, Burrows had begun using his free time on the road to regularly clean up garbage. A passerby encouraged him to set up a Facebook group, which he called Truckers Cleaning Up Britain. “I was worried I’d be the laughing stock of my town for putting videos and photos up of me cleaning but people started to join,” he says. “I was amazed. The local council stepped in and gave me litter-picking supplies and we’re up to almost 3,000 members now.”

Since truckers are so often on the move, the Facebook page acts as a means of raising awareness rather than a platform for organizing cleanups. Burrows expressed his intention to continue the cleanup efforts as long as his physical condition allowed, as he still found joy in the process.

1. What initially caused Burrows to pick up roadside garbage?

A．He wanted to kill time by picking up litter.

B．He aimed to raise fund for soldiers with PTSD.

C．He felt annoyed to see the increasing rubbish.

D．He received the assignment from his employer.

2. How did collecting roadside garbage affect Burrows’ PTSD?

A．It resulted in his embarrassment.	B．It increased his sense of isolation.
C．It worsened his stress and anxiety.	D．It brought him comfort and relief.

3. What concerned Burrows when he started Truckers Cleaning Up Britain?

A．He feared being teased for his action.

B．He was lacking in advanced cleanup tools.

C．He was unsure about the group’s development.

D．He worried about the local council’s disapproval.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．A Joyful Volunteer Experience	B．A Trucker’s Cleanup Initiative
C．A Fighting Hero against PTSD	D．A Platform for Environmentalists

4 . Shop Sustainably

If you have to name one thing that contributes most to your ecological footprints, you may say the energy you use at home, or your car’s emissions.     1     Knowing this can make your grocery shops more planet-friendly. Here is what you can do to help shop sustainably.

●    2     Using those is a great first step. If you get some, do remember to fill them with your purchases. When you adapt yourself to reusing them, then you’ll cut your consumption of single-use plastic bags even further.

●Avoid unnecessary packing. Buy loose fruit and vegetables instead of pre-packaged produce, and avoid products that contain multiple single packages or double packaging, like grain in a box and a bag. Consider switching from tea bags and coffee pods to tea leaves and ground coffee.     3    

●Go organic when you can. In addition to the benefit organic farming has to insect biodiversity, it’s also considered more sustainable and better for the environment.     4    Choosing free-range or Marine Stewardship Council-certified products also encourages environment- and animal-friendly food production.

●Buy seasonal and native products.     5     So you can avoid buying goods that have travelled long distances to reach your plate. As well as opting for local goods, depending on where you live, in the supermarket, you can also buy directly from the source at farmers’ markets.

A．Take reusable grocery bags.

B．Select single-use plastic bags.

C．It supports local farmers and food producers.

D．You can also refill your own containers with loose-packed food.

E．When buying organic products, look for those officially certified.

F．But it’s what we eat that accounts for up to 60% of our personal demand.

G．You’ll find it convenient whenever you buy tea or coffee in the supermarket.

5 . British sculptor Jason Taylor has made it his mission to use his talent to conserve our ecosystems by creating underwater museums. Over the years, the environmentalist has put over 850 massive artworks underwater worldwide. On February 1, 2021, Taylor launched his latest work---The Underwater Museum of Cannes.

“The main goal was to bring attention to the fact that our oceans need our help,” Taylor told Dezeen. “Ocean ecologies have been destroyed by human activity in the Mediterranean over the past few decades, and it is not obvious what is taking place when observing the sea from afar.”

The Underwater Museum of Cannes contains 6 sculptures featuring local residents of various ages. They range from Maurice, an 80-year-old fisherman, to Anouk, a 9-year-old student. Towering over 6-feet-tall and weighing 10 tons, the faces are sectioned into two parts, with the outer part like a mask. The mask indicates that the world’s oceans appear powerful and unbeatable from the surface but house an ecosystem that is extremely fragile to careless human activities.

Though the waters surrounding the sculptures now appear a pristine blue, the seabed was filled with old boat engines, pipes, and other human-made trash when the project began about four years ago. Besides removing the trash, Taylor also restored the area’s seagrass. Just one square meter of the seagrass can generate up to 10 liters of oxygen daily. The seagrass also helps prevent coastal erosion and provides habitats for many ocean creatures.

“The idea of creating an underwater museum was to draw more people underwater and develop a sense of care and protection,” Taylor told Dezeen. “If we threw unwanted waste near a forest, there would be a public outcry. But this is happening every day in our surrounding waters and it largely goes unnoticed.”

1. What are the underwater museums intended to do?

A．To make huge profits.	B．To raise awareness of protecting the ocean.
C．To show Jason Taylor’s talent.	D．To draw attention to endangered sea animals.

2. Why does the outer part of the sculptures look like a mask?

A．To popularize the features of the locals.

B．To remind people to protect themselves.

C．To reflect people’s protection of the ocean.

D．To stress the sensitiveness of the ecosystem.

3. What’s Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．How the project was started.	B．How the seagrass was restored.
C．What recovery effort the project made.	D．Why the surroundings were improved.

4. What can we infer from what Jason Taylor said in the last paragraph?

A．The situation of the ocean is easily ignored.

B．The destruction caused to the ocean is noticeable.

C．Forests play a more important role in ecosystems.

D．People have zero tolerance to damage done to nature.

6 . The UN this week launched a report urging companies to stop issuing false net-zero targets that amount to greenwashing.

Greenwashing is a term used to describe situations where companies mislead consumers by claiming to be eco-friendly or sustainable as a marketing plan rather than as a core principle of their business model. Often, these industries spend more money making themselves appear sustainable than they do taking actual sustainable measures into their company.

Cities, financial institutions, and scores of companies have announced plans to reduce their emissions to zero, which, in principle, should help the fight against climate change.

“The problem is that the criteria for these net-zero commitments have varying levels of precision and loopholes (漏洞),” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the launch of the report.

Many net-zero plans contain far-away or unclear targets and often call for the use of unproved technologies like carbon capture and tree planting, which effectively allow companies to continue polluting the atmosphere. Studies show that most of these net-zero plans will do little to stop temperatures from rising. For example, many oil majors have announced plans to reduce emissions from their operations to zero by 2050 that do not take into account the carbon emitted by the fossil fuels they sell, which would allow them to increase production. Far from decreasing, fossil fuel production is going strong.

To close these net-zero loopholes, the UN this week released a report that includes 10 recommendations to ensure that companies, cities, regions, and other non-state actors issue credible and accountable net zero commitments. “Their plans cannot rely on cheap carbon credits instead of immediately cutting their own emissions,” Guterres said.

Financial institutions need to cut down emissions from all their investments and businesses need to bring down the carbon footprint of their supply chain, the report said. The report’s lead author, Catherine McKenna, urged companies to release new net-zero targets within a year. The updated targets must contain concrete actionable details.

1. What does “greenwashing” refer to?

A．A green technology.	B．A misleading statement.
C．A business model.	D．A spending target.

2. Why does the author mention the oil majors?

A．To prove oil majors are really responsible.

B．To set some good examples for other companies.

C．To show some net- zero commitments make no sense.

D．To indicate the benefit of net zero plans to climate change.

3. How does Guterres feel about the issued net-zero plans?

A．Dissatisfied.

B．Guilty.

C．Shocked.

D．Confused.

4. What is advised to do to fix net-zero loopholes?

A．Plant more trees.	B．Share more supply chains.
C．Depend on cheap carbon credits.	D．Make concrete actionable targets.

7 . Watford and her family have lived in Curtis Bay, Baltimore for generations. Her community has faced environmental injustice. Heavy industries continued to move in her community. As a result, her neighbors have had to live with serious respiratory (呼吸的) problems.

When she knew a plan to build the nation’s largest trash-burning incinerator (焚化炉) less than a mile away from her high school, she realized she had to take action. The incinerator was being sold wrongly as clean, renewable energy equipment but actually it would be a source of brain-damaging chemicals and would release 200 million tons of greenhouse gases per year, both worse than coal burning. Watford felt she had a responsibility to warn her community to work together to shut this plant down.

She co-founded Free Your Voice (FYV), a 10-person student organization devoted to community rights and social justice. Together, they decided to start a campaign to take down Energy Answers, the incinerator’s developer. They went door-to-door talking to neighbors and organizing protests.

When it was discovered that Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) was going to be a customer of Energy Answers, the organization fought with the board and presented their case, urging BCPS to withdraw from the project. BCPS was convinced to cancel their contract, which in turn inspired 22 other customers to do the same. Without any financial gain, Energy Answers had no market to move forward with its plan.

Watford continues to work with Curtis Bay residents toward fair development. They have a vision for the future which includes building a zero-waste movement, a solar farm, and green jobs. She wants the entire human family to join the fight for environmental justice because survival as a species depends on our ability to take action.

1. What caused respiratory problems in Watford’s community?

A．Poor medical care.	B．Terrible environmental conditions.
C．Constant bacterial infection.	D．Unbalanced distribution of resources.

2. What is Watford’s attitude to building the incinerator?

A．Unfavourable.

B．Doubtful.

C．Unclear.

D．Indifferent.

3. What was the result of their campaign?

A．BCPS lost financial support.	B．Energy Answers stopped its plan.
C．The investors found new market.	D．Many customers revised their contracts.

4. What would be the best title for the text?

A．A teenage hero against urban pollution

B．A teenage hero fighting for an advanced city

C．A battle for Baltimore’s sky by a teenage hero

D．The social justice challenge for a teenage hero

8 . When Malaika Vaz was a kid, living in Goa, India, she was constantly surrounded by nature. Among her childhood experiences, she recalls journeys to the Arctic and Antarctic, climbing mountains, diving, and windsurfing.

At some point in her late teens, Vaz realized adventure didn’t really mean anything if there wasn’t an intention to protect the natural spaces we were exploring in. Motivated by her passion for filmmaking, she began to seek a way that would both satisfy her appetite for adventure and allow her to advocate the protection of the species and ecosystems she interacted with.

Today Vaz wears many hats in the filmmaking world, as a documentary director, producer, and presenter. After falling in love with manta rays (蝠鲼), she discovered they were being hunted illegally and started to dress herself as a seafood trader to get as close as possible to the issue. She traced sellers to figure out why the threatened species were being killed. She shared the shocking details in Peng Yu Sai, her Green Oscar-nominated film on the matter.

The subjects that grab her attention, Vaz admits, run the gamut. When she was asked to define her focus, she replied that she preferred variety. She always argues that the issues she looks into are more interrelated than they may initially appear. “I think that it’s exciting to dive into the different aspects of environmental stories,” she says.

Her work doesn’t stop at recording important stories; she also ensures the message is heard. From Vaz’s viewpoint, real improvement in planetary protection lies in the hands of each of us rather than just those of several environmentalists. “If you’re an engineer and you care about the natural world, you can change the kind of construction materials you use. If you’re a teacher loving nature, you can bring that into the learning for your class.” she says.

As a filmmaker, Vaz believes it’s important to figure out ways that attract the audience who can push for the protection of the natural world.

1. What did Malaika Vaz decide to do in her late teens?

A．Motivate children to get close to nature.

B．Make a film about her childhood experiences.

C．Develop a passion for an adventurous lifestyle.

D．Combine nature exploration with nature conservation.

2. What is the film Peng Yu Sai mainly about?

A．The role of manta rays in the local economy.	B．Vaz’s personal life as a seafood trader.
C．The threatened species in India.	D．The illegal trade in manta rays.

3. What does the underlined part “run the gamut” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Are quite popular.	B．Cover a wide range.
C．Make little progress.	D．Are hard to deal with.

4. What message does the author convey in Paragraph 5?

A．Human beings are closely linked to nature.

B．Stories are effective in changing people’s behavior.

C．Everyone can make a difference to the environment.

D．Environmentalists play a big part in solving environmental issues.

9 . The Atlantic salmon (鲑鱼) of Scotland are hardy and determined animals. Each spring and summer, they return from the North Atlantic Ocean to lay eggs in Scotland’s shallow rivers,leaping up waterfalls and over barriers, pushing themselves upstream in enormous efforts. Some fail, and others succeed, but today they face yet another challenge.

During the mid-1980s, there were between eight and ten million salmon swimming around Scotland’s Atlantic coast; that number has now dropped sharply. There’s evidence of reducing the availability of the salmon’s prey (猎物) as climate change warms and acidifies oceans. New research suggests climate change is also bearing down on rivers, which is bad news for salmon.Adapted to life in cold water, salmon experience slow growth and population changes at high temperatures. Heat influences their health and reduces their resistance to disease.

“Now salmon are struggling to deal with the rising temperatures. There are recent records of 27°C in the upper reaches of the Dee catchment,” says Peter Cairns, director of an environmental charity. In 2018, Scotland recorded the lowest pole catch for salmon since records began. Evidence suggests that the degraded quality of river worsens the impact of our changing climate. “Atlantic salmon evolved using river systems in Scotland that were once way more forested and therefore shaded.” Yet Scotland is today one of the least wooded countries in Europe, with just 3 percent of its native woodland undamaged. Scientists have found that just 35percent of rivers in Scotland have enough tree cover for salmon survival.

A movement to get trees back on riverbanks is gathering pace. “Broad-leaf trees close tothe bank can reduce the light that enters the water,” explains fisheries scientist Anthony Hawkins. A new initiative called Riverwoods — led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and supported by Scottish Water and several other government and regulatory bodies — aims to create a network of woodlands along Scotland’s riverbanks, and has already received a number of large funds.“Money is not the pressing business. River health is complex, but tree planting is one of the most basic things we can get started with right away,”says Cairns.

1. Why do Atlantic salmon make great journeys back to the rivers?

A．They search for foods.

B．They reproduce themselves.

C．The rivers are relatively cool.

D．The seas are increasingly warm.

2. How do the rising temperatures in rivers affect salmon?

A．They grow more quickly.

B．They are more heat-resistant.

C．They are less active in water.

D．They are more likely to get diseases.

3. What is a challenge for salmon when they return to Scotland’s rivers?

A．There is a shortage of food.

B．There is much fish catching.

C．The ecology environment has changed.

D．The river systems are unsuitable for the forest growth.

4. What does Cairns really intend to tell us in the last paragraph?

A．It is urgent to plant riverbank trees.

B．It is too hard to restore the river health.

C．There is enough money for the project.

D．There are too many vital things to deal with.

10 . Before the year has even come to a close, climate experts are certain that 2023 will be the hottest year in recorded history.

On Dec. 6, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) — part of the European Union's space program — revealed that this year's average global temperatures have been 2.6℉ (1.46°C ) higher than temperatures in preindustrial times and 0.2°F (0.13°C) higher than January to November in 2016. These “extraordinary” temperatures mean that 2023will be “the warmest year in recorded history,” C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess said in a statement.

The researchers note that this year's record heat was partly caused by the latest El Nino event — a phenomenon where warmer water near the equator triggers warmer global air temperatures — that began in June. Some other experts have suggested that the January2022 eruption of Tonga's underwater volcano, which pumped record levels of water vapor into the atmosphere, may also be partly responsible.

Despite these factors, the major cause of climbing temperatures is global warming caused by runaway greenhouse gas emissions, which, noted in a C3S statement, have trapped more than 25 billion atomic bombs' worth of energy in our atmosphere over the last 50 years. And still worse, the global carbon emissions have reached a new high this year, according to scientists at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) On Dec 4.

The effects of global warming are becoming more obvious. In 2023, research revealed that climate change is causing major US cities to sink and more than half of the world's largest lakes and reservoirs to shrink. Studies also predicted that the Gulf Stream, which plays a vital role in ocean circulation, could collapse by as early as 2025, and that rising sea levels could swamp the U S coastline by 2050.

However, scientists say that we still have time to prevent further disaster. Leading climate change expert Michael Mann, from the University of Pennsylvania, recently wrote that “we can still stop the worst effects of climate change” if we stop emitting greenhouse gases as soon as possible.

1. What's the purpose of the text?

A．To report the recorded hottest year.

B．To present findings of a research.

C．To analyze the causes of climate change.

D．To warn of the coming natural disaster.

2. Which is the main factor in causing the warmest weather in 2023?

A．Eruption of an underwater volcano.

B．Greenhouse gas emissions.

C．Collapse of the Gulf Stream.

D．The latest El Nino event.

3. What is Paragraph 5 mainly about?

A．Scientists' predictions of the future.

B．The threat of rising sea levels to the U.S.

C．The effects of climate change.

D．Different opinions on global warming.

4. How does Michael Mann feel about the present situation?

A．Confused.

B．Worried.

C．Pessimistic.

D．Hopeful.