1 . In South Africa, the African Penguin Nest Project team made up of researchers and wildlife protectors from around the world has designed handmade ceramic (陶瓷的) nest boxes over the last five years to protect endangered penguins from the warming weather caused by climate change.
In the past, the seabirds laid their eggs in holes dug into centuries old layers of their own waste. But in the late 1800s, most of the waste was collected as plant food by traders. Since then, many penguins have nested in the open, exposing them to heatstroke and their eggs to their enemies. “We have put this species at risk of extinction, mainly because of human desires,” said Shaun Welman, a zoologist at Nelson Mandela University. The population of these seabirds in Africa has fallen from 3 million to 48,000 since 1900, according to reports.
But thanks to the team, more than 1,500 ceramic nests have been made and placed across five different penguin colonies (群落) in South Africa. The structures are able to stand up to higher temperatures than traditional holes and outperformed cement (水泥) and fiberglass models, according to a study co-authored by Welman.
The ceramic nests are built by hand. The 72-hour process requires a high level of attention to details to make sure the raw materials are combined successfully. A number of air holes designed to give out heat and keep penguins cool are drilled into the top of the nests, says Kevin Graham, leader of the African Penguin Nest Project.
Having spent three years researching and testing the nests, Graham placed the first 200 structures in two South African penguin colonies in 2018. Within the first month, researchers discovered eggs in 40%of the nests in one colony and 25%of the nests in the other.
“If everything goes well and these nests continue to work, we can keep giving them homes,” said Graham. “Each one we build is eco-friendly.” He added, “We can’t solve the population decline with just the nests, but at least we can give them a place to raise kids.”
1. What led to the fall in penguins’ population at first?| A．Sea pollution. | B．Human activity. |
| C．Climate change. | D．Introduced pests. |
| A．They are easier to build and repair. |
| B．They are more environmentally friendly. |
| C．They can better protect penguins from the heat. |
| D．They can better stop the eggs from being attacked. |
| A．The ceramic nests are effective. |
| B．The penguins’ eggs are hard to find. |
| C．The ceramic nests need improvements. |
| D．The two colonies have different living habits. |
| A．To offer suggestions on wildlife protection. |
| B．To find out the threats African penguins face. |
| C．To show the achievements of an African project team. |
| D．To introduce a handmade nest benefiting penguins. |
2 . Selecting what to wear can be a difficult problem, especially if you’re a fashion victim.
Trying to follow the latest styles involves regular visits to the shops and sometimes spending much money on expensive designer clothes．But when the fashion changes, these clothes had to stay in the back of cupboards gathering dust, or just get thrown away.
There are many stores that now offer cheap “fast fashion”—low-price items that imitate the styles of more expensive designer brands.
Environmentalists are angered by the amount of energy involved in making these clothes and that many of them are made from non-recyclable materials. This means that items are just burned or go into landfill.
Writing about this for the BBC, Eleanor Lawrie says that people in the UK are the worst in Europe for doing this—with a million tons of unwanted textiles a year being thrown away.
And she says, “on top of often poor labour conditions for garment workers, the fashion industry is responsible for 20％of the world’s waste water, and 10％of carbon emissions.”
This is something the fashion industry is becoming more aware of and has led to a new crop of biomaterials that replace wasteful textiles like cotton and leather.
Examples include Piňatex, a leather-like substance made from pineapple leaves. It’s been used in collections by Hugo Boss and H&M. And there’s mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, that’s being used to create food, packaging and textiles. Cotton is a very resource-intense crop to grow. Eleanor Lawrie says, “about 15.000 litres of water are required to make one pair of 1eans.
So, buying organic cotton is a better choice. And there is also Tencel(天丝绒), also known as Lyocell(莱赛尔纤维绒), a natural product that’s now growing in popularity. It’s made by obtaining fibre from trees; its manufacture is thought to use 95％less water than cotton processing.
But creating sustainable(可持续的)textiles is only part of the battle-buying ethically(符合道德准则地), buying second hand and buying fewer clothes are the obvious environmentally friendly choices．
1. What does “fashion victim” mean according to the first paragraph?| A．People who are fed up with fashion． | B．People who pursue fashion blindly． |
| C．People who show no concern about fashion． | D．People who oppose fashion strongly． |
| A．Pineapple leaves． | B．Mushroom root． | C．Lyocell． | D．Cotton． |
| A．Cloth producers should produce less clothes． |
| B．Customers should be sensible when purchasing clothes． |
| C．Customers should wear old clothes rather than buy new ones． |
| D．Fashion industry should sell second hand and environmentally friendly clothes． |
| A．Many of the clothes that can’t be recycled are just burned or go into landfill． |
| B．About 15，000 litres of water are required to make one pair of jeans with cotton but Tencel is thought to use 95％of the water than cotton processing． |
| C．People in the UK are the worst in the world for throwing away unwanted textiles according to Eleanor Lawrie． |
| D．There is no crop of biomaterials that replace wasteful textiles like cotton and leather． |
3 . The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. In fact, no single one can. We ourselves must walk the right path and make a difference. We should start by doing what's necessary, then doing what's possible and will certainly achieve what may seem impossible!
Some environmentalists desire the pleasure in the pathless woods and the happiness in the lonely shore. This is a true account of an organization, called Nurture Nature, which offers a lot of opportunities and avenues to enrich not just one's surroundings but the one himself.
To many, it may seem that it brings about just another forum to save the planet, and it does. However, there is something bigger that it brings to you, an opportunity to redefine yourself, and a wish to make sure that you believe that you are indeed part of it. Being identified by the UN Environmental Programme, it lives up to the dreams we have dreamed.
Nurture Nature is an organization not only to educate the citizens of our nation and world-wide but also to spread awareness about the various atrocities (暴行) of humans towards our planet. Staff at Nurture Nature deal with the aim of making each and every person aware of their specific duties and responsibilities towards the planet and doing the needful before it's too late.
By organizing campaigns and spreading our reach through social media, staff at Nurture Nature surely do their best to fulfill the aim. This initiative has received an incredible response from funders worldwide and funds for the campaign and other tasks were collected. The funds which were put to good use were more than sufficient.
1. What should we do to protect the earth according to the text?| A．Call for discussions. | B．Ignore the threats. |
| C．Get everything ready. | D．Start from ourselves. |
| A．A thrilling experience. | B．A beautiful dream. |
| C．A chance to know themselves. | D．A sense of belonging. |
| A．The functions of Nurture Nature. | B．The expectations of Nurture Nature. |
| C．The reasons why Nurture Nature was set up. | D．The efforts the staff in Nurture Nature made. |
| A．It has finished its goal. | B．It has drawn much attention. |
| C．It is organizing tasks to raise money. | D．It is accepted by all the people in the world. |
4 . Some of the greatest problems we face today are the destruction (破坏)of our environment.Brown clouds, polluted water, endangered wild animals..., these problems seem so huge.
So my family does what we can. We take cloth bags to stores instead of using plastic bags. We walk where we don’t have to drive.
But does it do any good? When I am the only one in line at the market with cloth bags, am I doing any good? Does my walking to stores make any real difference to the world?
I recently learned something about flamingos(火烈鸟)which like to get together in groups of a thousand or more Every year when the time comes for migration (迁徙), a few of them first take off from the lake. But none of the others seem to notice, so the small group returns. However, the next day they try again. This time a few more fly along with them, but most of them still pay no attention, so they return again. They try for several times. Every time a few more birds join in but ,since the thousands of others still take no notice, the great migration plan is once more stopped.
Then one day something changes. The same small group of birds once again starts flying and a small number more join in just as before, then more. Finally, they all take flight and the migration really begins. What a spectacular sight it must be--thousands of flamingos taking off into the sky at once!
A few can make a difference. Even if you’re the one to take the first step, and continue trying,others will someday take notice and together we will solve even our greatest problems.
1. Where would you most probably read this passage?| A．A guidebook. | B．A movie poster. |
| C．An animal magazine. | D．A personal blog |
| A．There are only cloth bags in stores. |
| B．All the people use cloth bags in stores. |
| C．He thinks plastic bags are more expensive. |
| D．He wants to do some good to the environment. |
| A．Disappointing. | B．Fantastic. |
| C．Terrible | D．Surprising |
| A．To show that the writer loves to see the migration of flamingos. |
| B．To tell readers to continue trying and it can make a difference. |
| C．To introduce a special kind of flamingo to readers. |
| D．To show that there' re many problems in the world. |
5 . Many European countries have been making the shift to electric vehicles and Germany has just stated that they plan to ban the sale of vehicles using gasoline and diesel as fuel by 2030.
The country is also planning to reduce its carbon footprint by 80-95% by 2050, sparking a shift to green energy in the country. Effectively, the ban will include the registration of new cars in the country as they will not allow any gasoline powered vehicle to be registered after 2030. Part of the reason why this ban is being discussed and carried out is that energy officials see that they will not reach their emissions （排放） goals by 2050 if they do not reduce a large portion of vehicle emissions.
The country is still hopeful that it will meet its emissions goals, like reducing emissions by 40% by 2020, but the acceptance of electric cars in the country has not occurred as fast as expected. Other efforts to increase the use of electric vehicles include plans to build over 1 million hybrid （混合的） and electric car battery charging stations across the country. By 2030, Germany plans on having over 6 million charging stations installed.
According to the International Business Times, electric car sales are expected to increase as Volkswagen is still recovering from its emissions scandal. There are currently around 155,000 registered hybrid and electric vehicles on German roads, dwarfed （使相形见绌） by the 45 million gasoline and diesel cars driving there now.
As countries continue setting goals of reducing emissions, greater steps need to be taken to have a noticeable effect on the surrounding environment. While the efforts are certainly not in vain, the results of such bans will likely only start to be seen by generations down the line, bettering the world for the future.
1. The ban is under discussion and in effect partly because .| A．Germans don’t accept electric cars. |
| B．vehicle emissions won’t be got rid of. |
| C．vehicle emissions prevent emissions goals being reached. |
| D．Electric cars may slow down Germany’s economic growth. |
| A．Gasoline powered vehicle can’t be registered. |
| B．New cars won’t be allowed to be registered. |
| C．Diesel powered vehicle can't be registered. |
| D．Gasoline powered vehicle won’t be allowed to drive. |
| A．impossible | B．promising | C．impractical | D．unpredictable |
| A．The development of industry | B．Germany shifts toward green energy |
| C．Environmental protection in Germany | D．The ban on the driving of gasoline vehicles |
6 . The campaign to protect 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030, supported by more than 70 nations, is known mostly for soaring ambition and scant achievement so far. In fact, just 7 percent of the seas are protected and only 2.7 percent are highly protected. “It is very optimistic to think we’ll reach ‘30 by 30’,” says Patricia Majluf, a Peruvian fisheries scientist who has worked to create a deep-sea protected area off Peru in the face of strong resistance from the fishing industry. Peru has protected less than half a percent of its offshore waters.
Setting aside nearly a third of the oceans, the fishers say, is an idea developing nations in South America and elsewhere can ill afford. And the gap between sea-protection and fishing interests has grown wider as fishing stocks decline and the appetite for seafood grows along with the global population.
However, research published today in Nature aims to dramatically change that narrative. The study suggests that protecting 30 percent of the oceans not only could restore biodiversity to ocean habitats, but it could also increase the annual global catch by eight million tons—about 10 percent of the catch today. And, as a bonus, it would provide a “cheap, natural solution” to climate change by reducing the amount of seafloor carbon emitted into the seas by fishing trawlers(拖网渔船).
“The only way to get more food from the ocean is to protect more,” says lead author, Enric Sala, a marine ecologist and explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, which in part underwrote the study. “The catch has been declining since the mid-1990s and this would provide a benefit forever.”
1. What does the underlined word “scant” mean in the first paragraph?| A．Crucial. | B．Little. | C．Remarkable. | D．Significant. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Optimistic. | C．Indifferent. | D．Opposed. |
| A．We should ban the catch totally. |
| B．Ocean plays an important part in our life. |
| C．The decreasing of catch can be good in some ways. |
| D．The more we protect the ocean, the more food we can get. |
| A．Fishing or Protecting |
| B．Fishing is harmful to ocean |
| C．Ocean-protecting is in an urgency |
| D．Protecting the ocean—never too late |
7 . Most of us like visiting the hills during the holiday season. The pure air, the greenery, and the simple living of the people in these regions is what attracts us. While the increase in the number of tourists visiting the hills has done wonders for the local economy, the pollution levels, especially the plastic waste, is also increasing rapidly.
In an attempt to maintain the beauty and the greens in the Himalayan region, Pradeep Sangwan started an organisation, which he named ‘Healing Himalayas’.
While in college, Pradeep took an interest in long hiking, and that was the beginning for him. He says, “Movies of Bollywood plays a huge role in making the hills popular. Movies of friends going on holidays to hike and finding themselves on these adventures have inspired many to come here. But when we arrived at Himalayas, things were different”.
Along with a group of volunteers, Pradeep set out with jute bags (麻袋) to return with piles of waste. He says, “A few months ago, we found that we had collected around 4,00,000 kilos of waste. This number would have gone up now.” The waste that is collected is sent to two recycling plants in the state, where electricity is produced.
Healing Himalayas conducts special activities, mass clean-ups and events in the community and schools to create awareness about the maintenance and restoration of the environment.
His quest is to ensure that people enjoy the place as it is, without spoiling it. In an interview, he offers a few tips to travellers, such as carrying your own bottle of water and completely avoiding using straws.
1. What inspired Pradeep to go adventure in Himalayas?| A．Indian films | B．Serious pollution |
| C．Adventurous books | D．Beautiful scenery |
| A．living things with leaves and roots | B．factories or buildings |
| C．useful and scientific methods | D．advanced machines |
| A．Pradeep calls on people not to climb Himalayas. |
| B．The number of waste has decreased due to their work. |
| C．Tourists made few contributions to local economy. |
| D．It is vital to raise people’s awareness of protecting environment. |
8 . A rainforest is an area
In the past hundred years,
Rainforests are often called the world’s drug store. More than 25% of the medicines we use today come from plants in rainforests. However, fewer than 1% of rainforest plants have been examined for their
9 . Illegally traded endangered species that escape, forming secondary populations, offer hope to their long-term survival, a study suggests. "This first came to my attention when I read a news story about the seizure of an illegal shipment of 23 yellow crested cockatoos (小葵花凤头鹦鹉),” said Luke Gibson, a college teacher. He learned that the species was critically endangered, which surprised him.
This encouraged Dr. Gibson and his colleague to investigate (调查) how a critically endangered species had become self-sustaining outside of its natural range. They discovered 49 cases of a globally threatened species becoming established as a separate population, which they hadn’t thought of, including the yellow-crested cockatoo in their city.
“This is a species which is primarily threatened by wildlife trade,” he told BBC News. “Poachers (偷猎者) go out into the forest in its native range in eastern Indonesia and capture the bird and then ship them off, usually up to our city where there is a strong demand for pet birds. This is what has fueled the decline of this species in its native range. But it’s really interesting because that same cause also had another effect: some of the people who were keeping this species here accidentally or intentionally released them.” As a result of enough of the birds set free, it allowed a new self-sustaining population to be established in this city.
The government in of Dr. Gibson’s city has made it illegal to capture the species, even though it is a non-native species. Because the city is affluent and relatively well educated, the cases of people breaking the law are extremely rare, explained Dr Gibson, unlike in its native range in Indonesia, where capturing birds form a major source of income.
However, there can be downsides (缺点) to the newly established population of endangered species, such as a limited genetic pool, and suffering from novel diseases. It did also present a possible “very interesting” opportunity for conservationists, Dr. Gibson suggested. This would involve “harvesting” some of the newly established secondary population, which may provide a way to help slow global biodiversity loss.
1. What was beyond Gibson’s expectations according to the first paragraph?| A．The high rate of wildlife trade. | B．The preciousness of the birds. |
| C．The fact that the birds nearly disappear. | D．The news that the birds were poached. |
| A．They formed a separate population. | B．They were kept as pet birds. |
| C．They were traded illegally. | D．They were killed for research. |
| A．Peace-loving. | B．Rich. |
| C．Free. | D．Environment-friendly. |
| A．To appeal to everyone to stop the wildlife trade. |
| B．To explain the challenge the wild birds are facing. |
| C．To introduce a creative approach to wildlife conservation. |
| D．To raise peopled awareness of protecting endangered species. |
10 . 
Climate change may make parts of the Middle East too hot for human beings, according to a new study.
Researchers have been studying weather conditions in the Middle East since 1970. They say “very hot” days in the area have doubled over that period. They say temperatures in summer in the Middle East and North Africa will continue rising. They believe by 2050, temperatures will not fall below 30 degrees Celsius at night in the hottest part of summer, and day-time temperatures could rise to 46 degrees Celsius. Temperatures at noon could reach as high as 50 Celsius. Heat waves are likely to last longer.
“If mankind continues to release carbon dioxide as it does now, people living in the Middle East and North Africa will have to expect about 200 unusually hot days,” says Panos Hadjinicolaou, a climate change expert with the Cyprus Institute.
The researchers also looked at the amount of “fine particulate (颗粒) air pollution” in the Middle East. They found that the amount of dust in the atmosphere over Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria jumped 70 percent since the start of the century. This, they say, could have resulted from an increase in the number of sand storms caused by climate change.
The researchers created two models. In one model, rising temperatures are limited because of reductions in greenhouse gases. The other model is said to be a “business as usual” model where nothing is done to stop climate change. Under both models, the future of the Middle East is not good, the researchers say. They added that climate change can result in a slow worsening of living conditions for people in North Africa and the Middle East and in time many people may have to leave the regions.
1. The underlined word “fine” in the 4th paragraph probably has the same meaning as ________.| A．bright | B．terrible | C．very thin | D．high-quality |
| A．climate change →sand storms→dust in the atmosphere |
| B．sand storms →climate change→dust in the atmosphere |
| C．climate change →dust in the atmosphere→sand storms |
| D．sand storms →dust in the atmosphere→climate change |
| A．indifferent | B．casual | C．skeptical | D．concerned |
| A．In a History Paper. | B．In a News Report. |
| C．In a Literature Magazine. | D．In a Travel Brochure. |
