1 . Let's take a minute to think about the water we use. The human body is 60% water and we need to drink lots of water to be healthy. When we are thirsty we just go to the kitchen and fill a glass with clean water.
The truth is that we are lucky enough to have clean water whenever we want，but this is not the case for many people around the world.
| A．We use water indirectly too. |
| B．Every system in our body depends on water to function. |
| C．It is to inspire people to learn more about water-related problems |
| D．If children walk many hours a day to get water，they can't go to school. |
| E．Did you know that around 750 million people do not have clean water to drink？ |
| F．In 1993 the United Nations decided that March 22nd is the World Day for Water. |
| G．In this way，they know how it feels to walk a long distance carrying heavy bottles. |
2 . People have come to understand the enormous impacts-beneficial as well as harmful- plastics have on human lives and the environment. As polymer (聚合物) scientists committed to inventing sustainable solutions for real-world problems, we set out to tackle the issue of plastic waste by rethinking the way polymers are designed so we could make plastics with recyclability built right in.
Everyday items including milk jug, grocery bags, and takeout containers are made from a class of polymers called polyolefins. These plastics are really durable (耐用的) because the chemical bonds in those polymers are extremely stable. In a world set up for disposable (一次性的) items, durability is no longer a design feature but rather a design drawback. Imagine if half the plastics used today were recyclable through twice as many processes as they are now. Also conventional recycling requires careful sorting of all the collected materials, which can be challenging with so many different plastics. For example, separating paper from metal doesn’t require complex technology, but sorting a container from a milk jug of a different polyolefin is difficult to do without the occasional mistake.
In a study published in Science in October 2023, we described a series of polymers with only two building blocks-one soft polymer and one hard polymer-that behave like polyolefins but could be chemically recycled. Connecting two different polymers multiple times until they form a single, long molecule (分子) creates what’s called a multiblock polymer. By changing how much of each polymer type goes into the multiblock polymer, our team produced a wide range of materials with properties that covered all polyolefin types.
Using the same strategy but by adding hydrogen, we could disconnect the polymers back into their building blocks and easily separate them to use again. When we made new polymers out of these recycled plastics, they performed just as well as the original materials even after several rounds of chemical recycling. So we were able to create materials with similar properties of the plastics the world relies on. We believe this work is a step toward more sustainable plastics.
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about concerning plastics?| A．Their multiple uses. | B．Their chemical properties. |
| C．Their recycling challenges. | D．Their classification criteria. |
| A．mixing building blocks with long molecules |
| B．integrating chemicals into the two polymers |
| C．combining two different multiblock polymers |
| D．adjusting the percentage of the two polymers |
| A．They are made from sustainable materials. |
| B．They can be recycled by adding hydrogen. |
| C．Their reliability outperforms traditional plastics. |
| D．Their properties change with rounds of recycling. |
| A．Designing for Recycling | B．Classifying Plastic Waste |
| C．Replace Plastics with Polymers | D．Technology Creates the Future |
3 . Anuar Abdullah is a 61-year-old diving instructor in Malaysia. When he isn’t
Now, as climate change becomes an
Abdullah has no degree in marine biology or
In 2017, Thailand’s government asked Abdullah to
In 2021, after Typhoon Rai, the island of Cebu in the Philippines asked Abdullah to save what was
| A．teaching | B．diving | C．learning | D．reporting |
| A．picking | B．judging | C．describing | D．observing |
| A．early | B．artificial | C．apparent | D．uncertain |
| A．help | B．money | C．power | D．honor |
| A．temporary | B．formal | C．natural | D．complex |
| A．devoted | B．led | C．backed | D．traveled |
| A．at once | B．at first | C．in demand | D．in action |
| A．initiate | B．evaluate | C．highlight | D．justify |
| A．regained | B．lost | C．increased | D．removed |
| A．Visitors | B．Researchers | C．Volunteers | D．Officials |
| A．guarding | B．decorating | C．planting | D．maintaining |
| A．hidden | B．left | C．preserved | D．ruined |
| A．contest | B．presentation | C．course | D．topic |
| A．witnesses | B．records | C．schedules | D．hates |
| A．interviews | B．trips | C．work | D．trade |
4 . Researcher Ruijia Hu said wildlife habitat in crowded places like south went Ohio is becoming increasingly fragmented (分散) as forests give way to new construction. Eventually, this could make trouble to an animal with specific habitat needs like Ohio’s pileated (红冠) woodpecker.
Pileated woodpeckers have the nickname carpenter birds for their never-ending natural woodworking. They peck out holes in trees for their nests every year, creating lots of valuable homes for animals like fox squirrels and owls. “They make new nests every year. They won’t reuse old ones,” Hu said. “Other animals depend on them.”
Pileated woodpeckers are private birds that are more often heard than seen. Studying them can be especially difficult. So Hu turned to citizen science for help. To identify where woodpeckers have been seen, she used eight years of sightings collected by birders and logged into the website eBird, a free online tool and app that anyone can use to record their observations and locations. She overlaid these sightings with remote sensing data and found that corridors along rivers and creeks with abundant mature trees and deadwood helped the birds adjust to their increasingly fragmented urban landscape.
“With fragmented forests, many habitats that were once suitable for wildlife are broken up,” Hu sa id. “Wildlife is unable to find habitat big enough to meet their survival needs. And even if there are suitable habitats, the distance between them can be too great. Wildlife corridors link up these habitat patches. Since wildlife can travel and migrate from one patch to another, the probability of finding food and shelter is higher.”
“There are so many species in urban areas that we don’t pay attention to, especially when they’re not considered vulnerable,” Hu said. “With development chipping away at more forest in this crowded county, the tipping point (临界点) could come quickly and unexpectedly. You can’t fix it overnight. It’s not just about planting more trees. The birds need mature forest, so it could take 30 to 50 years to replace their habitat. At least we can protect these riverside forest corridors and see that existing trees reach maturity.”
1. What can we infer from the second paragraph?| A．The magpie’s nest is occupied by the dove. |
| B．Birds abandon the old for the new easily. |
| C．Friendship really exists among animals. |
| D．One’s trash is another treasure. |
| A．The effect of Hu’s study on birds. |
| B．The process of Hu’s research. |
| C．The difficulty Hu had in his study. |
| D．The application of technology. |
| A．Helping them survive in the fragmented landscape. |
| B．Making them adjust to deadwood quickly. |
| C．Providing them with enough food for survival. |
| D．Ensuring them a stable and safe habitat. |
| A．One tree doesn’t make a forest. |
| B．Be wise after the event. |
| C．Prepare for a rainy day. |
| D．Take things as they come. |
5 . Michael Gonsalves, a chef of Golden Oak at Disney World, has a cuisine concept rooted in fresh, locally-sourced ingredients that originated from childhood harvesting produce from their family garden with his mom to eventually leading kitchens at Walt Disney World Resorts to employ a sustainable model.
“Truly the whole process starts with menu planning,” he said. Creating one dish leads into the creation of many more through the end-to-end use of products. As chefs, they are always searching for the best ingredients. It is then their focus to ensure they appreciate and respect all that go into each and every one of them. For example, they source chicken that is naturally grown and fed on a natural plant forward diet, no hormones (激素) or additives — that’s used in many ways throughout menus from a simple grilled chicken breast to bone soup. Nothing goes to waste.
When they do have waste, even if minimal, they shift it from landfills to transform it into compost (堆肥) that’s then used across the Walt Disney World property. They also support Second Harvest, a local community food bank where healthy produce, prepared, but not served, meals eatable for human consumption are donated. Disney also works with pig farmers when they can’t distribute foods past the point of safety for human consumption. Besides, wildlife reservations love to get the meat because tigers and wild cats can still eat that.
Their operations are “on a path to a sustainable zero waste kitchen of tomorrow” where chefs learn the full-life cycle of plants from seed to plate and gain a better understanding and appreciation for the product and their craft.
Golden Oak at Disney has millions of bees that produce up to 300 pounds of honey per year, plus those bees help with cross pollination (授粉) of their gardens on a daily basis. They advocate a culture that helps develop not only the quality of food, but an appreciation for nature.
1. Where did Michael Gonsalves’ idea about cuisine come from?| A．His mom’s suggestions. | B．His dream of becoming a chef. |
| C．His interest in delicious food. | D．His labor experience as a child. |
| A．They are grilled to eat. | B．They are used to the fullest. |
| C．They are divided into groups. | D．They are selected by quality. |
| A．Give examples about zero waste. |
| B．Introduce the unique habit of wildlife. |
| C．Stress the importance of natural food. |
| D．Explain the operation mode of the food bank. |
| A．Disney World:New Cuisine Road |
| B．Michael Gonsalves:Creative Chef |
| C．Michael Gonsalves:Advocate of Food Diversity |
| D．Disney World:Pioneer in Environmental Protection |
6 . One man’s trash is another man’s treasure is absolutely the case in Turkey where garbage collectors started collecting books that have been thrown away and ended up opening a library.
It started when garbage man Durson Ipek found a bag of abandoned books when he was working and then it snowballed from there. Ipek and other garbage men started gathering the books they found on the streets that were ready for landfills (垃圾填埋地) and as their collection started to grow, so did word of mouth. Soon, local residents started donating books directly. The library was initially available only to the garbage employees and their families to use but as the collection grew, so did public interest and the library was opened to the public in 2017.
“On the one hand, there were those who were leaving these books on the streets. On the other hand, others were looking for these books,” Ankaya mayor Alper Tasdelen told CNN. “We started to discuss the idea of creating a library from these books. When everyone supported it, this project happened.”
All the books that are found are sorted and checked for condition. If they pass, they go on the shelves. Today, the library has over 6,000 books that range from fiction to nonfiction and there’s a very popular children’s section that even has a collection of comic books. An entire section is devoted to scientific research and there are also books available in English and French. The collection has grown so large that the library loans books to schools and educational programs.
“Village school teachers from all over Turkey are requesting books,” Tasdelen told CNN. The government has to hire a full-time employee to manage the library.
This library is incredibly popular. It is frequently filled with the children of the city’s workers and students from nearby schools. There is a waiting room set up for readers and chess boards for the people who visit the library. You can even enjoy a cup of tea in the waiting room.
1. What does the underlined word “snowballed” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Declined quickly. | B．Grew slowly. | C．Developed rapidly. | D．Worsened steadily. |
| A．Its great popularity. | B．Its potential significance. |
| C．Its huge collection of books. | D．Its wide variety of readers. |
| A．To raise people’s awareness of recycling. | B．To classify and check the donated books. |
| C．To expand the social influence of the library. | D．To meet the huge demand from rural teachers. |
| A．It’s an excellent place to enjoy tea. | B．It’s crowded with readers every day. |
| C．It needs to improve its management. | D．It provides a very considerate service. |
7 . This 3-mile stretch of sand and tide pools beneath a castle of 80-foot cliffs is a California tourism poster if there ever was one. Nothing disturbs the perfect, sunny view, except — once you’re aware of them — microplastic particles (颗粒). But you have to look close-on-your-hands-and-knees close-to see one. And once you do, you see another and another — so many that you may not think of this, or any beach, the same way again. These tiny preproduction plastic balls that manufacturers (生产商) melt down to form everything have been escaping factories, container ships, trains, trucks — and public notice — for decades.
The 2- to 3-millimeter, multicolored balls are a subset (子集) of microplastic-plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size. Microplastic particles accumulate where water takes them, and they’ve been found on shorelines of every continent.
Dr McReynolds is an environmental scientist who’s now joined a global movement studying their trail into the environment. Establishing a baseline count of the presence of microplastic particles — and, more broadly, any microplastics — is the focus of Dr McReynolds’ scientific study here. Charting the count, noting tide, current, and weather conditions will show if amounts are increasing, and perhaps at what rate and why. That knowledge, he says, can inform solutions to plastic pollution such as regulation of their use.
“What are you doing? Picking up trash?” asks a steady stream of beach walkers whenever Dr McReynolds’ crew walks onto the beach and sets up equipment. These are teachable moments for Dr McReynolds.
One recent morning he told some beach walkers how microplastic particles are believed to absorb toxic chemicals, and — because they resemble fish eggs — are eaten by fish and birds and enter the food chain. Almost right on time, a seagull hopped up to a plastic-coated photo of microplastic particles and hungrily pecked (啄食) at it.
Will his work help save the world? Dr McReynolds waves a finger at that idea, “I won’t ever use that word — I won’t save the world from this pollution problem. Preserve it, yes. We want to take care of it.”
1. What do we know about microplastic particles from paragraph 1?| A．They are too small to be seen. | B．They have been ignored for long. |
| C．They are products of plastic balls. | D．They can be made into almost everything. |
| A．Classifying plastic particles into subsets. | B．Finding solutions to plastic pollution. |
| C．Charting the tides and currents of oceans. | D．Creating a data collection for microplastics. |
| A．The interesting teachable moments. | B．The spread of poisonous chemicals. |
| C．The harmful effect of microplastic particles. | D．The beauty of the photo of microplastic particles. |
| A．To save the world. | B．To protect the earth. | C．To educate the public. | D．To provide solutions. |
8 . In 2014, Xu Yitang, a student at the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, saw corals at an aquarium for the first time.
Little did he know the chance
“The coral organism is quite
As he became better
Fast-forward to today, he
Each day, he spends several hours diving deep under the waves to observe and
His story has been
| A．incident | B．witness | C．encounter | D．appointment |
| A．passion | B．vision | C．friendship | D．career |
| A．study | B．frequent | C．examine | D．discover |
| A．treating | B．preserving | C．selecting | D．growing |
| A．tough | B．smooth | C．delicate | D．impressive |
| A．benefits | B．requirements | C．expenses | D．responses |
| A．reminded | B．informed | C．warned | D．convinced |
| A．shelters | B．partners | C．opportunities | D．services |
| A．Somehow | B．Nevertheless | C．Therefore | D．Unfortunately |
| A．extinction | B．variation | C．decline | D．expansion |
| A．responsibility | B．relief | C．achievement | D．belonging |
| A．consults with | B．applies for | C．seeks out | D．acts as |
| A．find out | B．note down | C．show off | D．speed up |
| A．revised | B．contributed | C．announced | D．featured |
| A．assess | B．follow | C．relate | D．invent |
9 . Whenever I order food for delivery, I play a little game to guess how many sets of tableware(餐具)the restaurant will provide with my meal. Sometimes restaurants will throw in two, three or four sets for just one order. But I rarely need any tableware at all, and the waste goes into the trash or collects dust in a kitchen drawer.
Researchers working with Chinese technology group Alibaba tried a simple approach to this problem. Instead of just wastefully doling out tableware, the company required food-delivery customers in some cities in China to pick how many sets of tableware they wanted to receive.The default (默认设置)was set at zero. The result, published today in the journal Science, was a 638% increase in the share of no-tableware orders. If applied across China, researchers found, the approach would save nearly 22 billion sets of plastic tableware. The study doesn’t cover carbon emissions, but it’s safe to say that the impact would be significant. It struck me as a useful reminder of the many low-hanging fruits across the economy that can cut waste, and emissions.
Nudging its customers cost Alibaba nothing more than a few hours of software engineering time and the impact it brought was immense. The concept of nudging comes from the field of behavioral economics known as nudge theory. It suggests that a slight action can encourage good human behavior without the need for policies that limit choice or economic punishment that raises the cost of bad behavior. To nudge customers to eat better, for example, a restaurant might organize its menu by listing healthy options first and bury unhealthy ones at the bottom. More recently, some big companies like Google have also begun to use nudges to advance climate objectives.
Behavioral economics broadly, and nudges more specifically, aren’t without controversy. Some might think it assigns consumers responsibility for addressing environmental challenges. But there is another way to look at it. In the absence of necessary policy—and policy is needed一companies can help encourage a widespread shift of consumer behavior.
And all of that behavioral change can add up. The International Energy Agency found in 2021 that small behavioral changes in energy consumption such as walking instead of driving and adjusting the thermostat could in total shave off 4% of global emissions. The more that companies can do to facilitate such changes, the better.
1. What did Alibaba do with tableware waste?| A．It stopped restaurants from handing out tableware. |
| B．It withdrew unused tableware from customers. |
| C．It updated the food -delivery device regularly. |
| D．It allowed picking tableware at customers’ demand. |
| A．Easily accessible things. | B．Fast increasing orders. |
| C．Exceptionally tough choices. | D．Widely accepted strategies. |
| A．It brings about economic loss. |
| B．It results from consumption policies. |
| C．It indicates small action changes behaviour. |
| D．It implies bad behaviour impacts economy. |
| A．Nudge theory affects behaviors. |
| B．Good behaviors boost economy. |
| C．Nudging helps build a greener world. |
| D．Behavioral economics benefits customers. |
10 . 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.
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.
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.
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.
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. |
