World Olive Tree Day takes place on 26 November every year. It
The olive tree, especially the olive branch, holds an important place
Protecting and growing the olive tree is
World Olive Tree Day is set up
There is much to learn, share and celebrate on World Olive Tree Day, and UNESCO encourages everyone to participate in
2 . Plastic is everywhere in our modern world. Its toughness makes it an extremely useful material from household items to vehicle parts, but that same toughness makes it hard to break down for recycling or disposal (处理). However, Japanese scientists at the University of Tokyo have developed a new plastic material that can be broken down more easily and can self-heal and remember past shapes.
Based on a kind of plastic called an epoxy resin vitrimer, which is brittle (脆性的), the new plastic has a huge range of advantages. Once scratched (刮划) with a knife, it can completely patch itself up after being heated to 150 ℃ for just 60 seconds. When shaped into the shape of a crane, then flattened, it can fold itself back into the crane shape by being heated up. It does all of this much faster than others of its type.
The new plastic can also break down easier. Even if it’s thrown into the environment, it still has less of a problem than other kinds of plastic, which the team demonstrated by placing it in seawater for 30 days. It biodegraded (生物降解) by 25% and released something that is eatable for ocean life.
The new plastic is more resistant to breaking. It can also repair itself, and can recover its original memorized shape. It even biodegrades safely in a ocean environment, according to Shota Ando, a researcher of the study.
The material can be used in a variety of applications. “Building materials for roads and bridges are often composed of epoxy resins mixed with compounds (化合物) such as concrete and carbon,” said Ando. “By using the new plastic, these would be easier to maintain as they would be stronger and healable using heat. Unlike conventional epoxy resins, this new material is hard but flexible, so it could also be expected to strongly bond materials of different hardness and stretch.”
1. What is the author’s purpose in writing paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic of the text. | B．To show the disadvantages of plastic. |
| C．To highlight the importance of plastic. | D．To show his views on previous plastic. |
| A．Change itself. | B．Destroy itself. | C．Repair itself. | D．Burn itself. |
| A．It is safe for animals in the ocean. | B．It is made up of concrete and carbon. |
| C．It can change its shape when frozen. | D．It is more brittle than previous plastic. |
| A．How to Make a New Plastic | B．An Interesting Scientific Study |
| C．The Widespread Application of Plastic | D．A New Environmentally Friendly Plastic |
3 . Margaret is a famous climate activist (气候活动家). When she was thirty- two years old, she created an Egyptian charity organization called the Green Generation Initiative (倡议), which has been planting trees and countering the acts of cutting down the forests at will and climate change in the North African nation since 2013.
GGI’s primary focus is on developing young climate activists through environmental education in schools and addressing food unsafety in the area through planting fruit trees.
Over 120, 000 trees have been planted in Egypt since GGI’s start and they have recorded a survival rate of over 90 percent, while thousands of schoolchildren have chosen to plant trees to make sure that they learn the importance of acting as a guardian over the health of the environment.
Speaking to world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Margaret issued a warning on the harm of climate change, “Over 1 million of my fellow Egyptians are facing climate related hunger. In 2024, half of the world’s population will be short of water. By 2030, the climate problem will make about 50 million people in Sub- Saharan Africa homeless.”
Margaret added, “I have been doing what I can. I was inspired by the great Maathai, who called on thousands of women and men to plant tens of millions of trees throughout Kenya. Her approach was practical and deeply ecological (生态的). She was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. I started a tree growing initiative that raised the awareness of food safety for young Egyptians. So far, we have grown 30, 000 fruit trees, providing badly needed food for thousands of children. We are the adults on the Earth right now, and it is our responsibility to ensure that the children have food and water.”
1. What does the underlined word “countering” in paragraph l mean?| A．Trying out. | B．Worrying about. |
| C．Passing on. | D．Fighting against. |
| A．To plant useful fruit trees at school. | B．To increase the survival rate of trees. |
| C．To deal with food unsafety in Egypt. | D．To raise enough money for a charity. |
| A．The great waste of water resources. |
| B．The serious impact of climate change. |
| C．The bad results of people’s going hungry. |
| D．The rapid growth of the world population. |
| A．Working for the Nobel Prize. | B．Expressing thanks to Maathai. |
| C．Being responsible for the future. | D．Making more children educated. |
4 . Masks that helped save lives are proving a deadly danger to wildlife, with birds and sea creatures trapped in the shocking number of thrown-away facial coverings. Single-use masks have been found around pavements, waterways and beaches worldwide. Worn once, the thin protective materials can take hundreds of years to decompose. “Face masks aren’t going away any time soon — but when we throw them away, these items can harm the environment and the animals,” Ashley Fruno of animal rights group PETA said.
In Britain, a gull was rescued by the RSPCA after its legs became tangled in the straps of a mask for up to a week. The animal welfare charity took it to a wildlife hospital for treatment before its release.
The biggest effect may be in the water. More than 1.5 billion masks made their way into the world’s oceans last year, accounting for around 6,200 extra tonnes of ocean plastic pollution, according to environmental group Oceans Asia.
Conservationists in Brazil found one mask inside the stomach of a penguin after its body was washed up on a beach, while a dead puffer fish was discovered caught inside another off the coast of Miami. French campaigners found a dead crab trapped in a mask near the Mediterranean.
Masks and gloves are “particularly problematic” for sea creatures, says George Leonard, chief scientist from NGO Ocean Conservancy. “When those plastics break down in the environment, they then enter the food chain and impact the entire ecosystems,” he added.
There has been a shift towards greater use of reusable cloth masks as the pandemic has worn on, but many are still using the lighter single-use varieties. Campaigners have urged people to bin them properly and cut the straps to reduce the risk of animals becoming trapped. Oceans Asia has also called on governments to increase fines for littering and encourage the use of washable masks.
1. What does the underlined word “decompose” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Burn away. | B．Produce. | C．Break down. | D．Improve. |
| A．The environmental group saves many animals. |
| B．Sea wildlife is fond of feeding on face masks. |
| C．Measures should be taken to protect sea wildlife. |
| D．Masks thrown around finally do harm to human. |
| A．By increasing fines for throwing masks. | B．By preventing the public using single-use masks. |
| C．By working with campaigners’ groups. | D．By washing face masks frequently. |
| A．Wildlife Faces a Threat from Face Masks | B．Face Masks can Harm the Environment |
| C．Animal Protection Organizations Matter | D．Government should Ban Littering Face Masks |
5 . The food we eat every day keeps us alive, but it can also bring big health and environmental costs. A recent study finds that small shifts in the food choices could have great benefits to both health and the planet.
Because many foods with a high health burden, including processed meats or red meats, have high environmental costs. Reducing just about 10 percent of a person’s daily intake can cut a person’s food-based environmental footprint by over 30 percent. Between growing it, packaging it, moving it around, cooking it, and often wasting it, food production makes up about one-fifth to one-third of all annual greenhouse gas emissions globally. For an average household, food makes up about as much of the greenhouse gas footprint as the electricity.
To learn how to reduce negative impacts of food production and consumption on the planet and the body, researchers first assessed damage related to food. Over the past few decades, scientists have developed ways of doing “life cycle analyses” for specific items and assigned them a hard number to show their environmental impact. Meanwhile, public health scientists were doing similar analyses for human bodies. They carefully examined the links between food and health. They concluded that agriculture is a huge piece of the climate puzzle, and agriculture, food, and diet are all linked.
We can’t stop eating, so what should we do? For some climate challenges, there are relatively straightforward ways. For example, renewable energy sources can already replace much of the energy needed to power buildings, cars, and more.
There’s no substitute for food, but shifting what we eat is possible. If all people on the planet are vegans, greenhouse gas emissions from the food system could be cut by more than half; a planet of vegetarians would trim food emissions by 44 percent.
1. Why does the author list the figures in paragraph 2?| A．To highlight the harm of gas emission. |
| B．To advocate the consumption of red meats. |
| C．To show the environmental impact of food. |
| D．To illustrate the necessity of cutting food waste. |
| A．Food and human bodies. | B．Climate change and health. |
| C．Agriculture and human development. | D．Food production and the environment. |
| A．Eat whatever you want. | B．Use fossil energy sources. |
| C．Reduce food consumption. | D．Consume more vegetables. |
| A．Reduce. | B．Release. | C．Affect. | D．Improve. |
6 . The eastern Siberian landscape is not normally like hell. In winter it is blanketed in snow:in summer, its forests are lush(苍翠繁茂的). This year, however, the region is on fire, as one large parts of the Arctic Circle.
The fires began in June, caused by an extremely hot and dry early summer. It was the hottest June on record globally. In the regions that are burning, temperatures peaked at 8-10℃ warmer than the average from 1981 to 2010. This has dried out the landscape, producing tinder(易燃物)for natural forest fires.
So far, hundreds of above-ground fires have been recorded by satellites in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. It is estimated that fires within the Arctic Circle have produced more than 100m tonnes of carbon dioxide in a year. That is a lot. But burnt vegetation can regrow within a decade, and in doing so reabsorbs much of the released carbon dioxide. It is what is happening below ground that most worries ecologists and climate scientists.
Global warming will melt Arctic permafrost(永久冻土), releasing large amounts of stored greenhouse gases. But if fires in the region become more common, that could have even bigger consequences. Wildfires will release much faster and bigger amounts of carbon, rather than melting permafrost. The fires also produce black carbon which, if dropped on the Arctic sea ice by favourable winds, will darken its surface, making it more likely to absorb sunlight and melt. This decreases the reflectivity of the region and further increases Arctic warming.
Smog from the fires is blanketing much of Siberia. "What is scary about the Arctic fires is that they are driven by climate change, and there's very little you can do," says Thomas Smith. Few natural fires this big have ever been successfully managed. The only way to deal with the spread of these fires is to slow the rate of global warming. Don't hold your breath.
1. What do we know about the wild fires in the Arctic Circle?| A．They are common yearly phenomena. | B．They come earlier than usual this year. |
| C．They result from extreme weather. | D．They destroy Siberian landscape. |
| A．Hundreds of above-ground fires. | B．100m tonnes of carbon dioxide. |
| C．Burnt plant life within a decade. | D．Satellite distribution in the Arctic. |
| A．The causes of fires. | B．The consequences of fires. |
| C．The working principles of global warming. | D．The characteristics of Arctic warming. |
| A．Objective. | B．Indifferent. | C．Optimistic. | D．Worried. |
7 . Do you know cultivated meat? Typically, making this sort of meat starts with cells from domestic animals. The cells are grown in bioreactors full of nutrient-rich liquid, and then harvested, and eventually become products such as steak or chicken. In a homely kitchen of Eat Just, a startup, a slice of such meat was fried and then served with peppers. The first mouthful of it was extraordinary because the meat was grown in a lab, rather than on an animal. Meanwhile, it was also dull, because the texture, taste, look and smell of the meat was almost identical to that of chicken.
In June, Eat Just and Upside Foods became the first two companies to win regulatory approval to sell cultivated meat in America. A handful of other firms are trying to bring cultivated meat to market. But the hope is fading owing to continued high costs and troubles with mass production.
The UN reports meat and dairy production already accounts for 12% of humanity’s greenhouse-gas emissions, Demand for meat is skyrocketing among the growing middle classes of Africa and Asia. Lab-grown meat could help meet that demand without the world breaking its carbon budget. By contrast, two-fifths of Americans claim to restrict their meat consumption either for ethical(伦理的) reasons or environmental ones. Lab-grown meat may seem less ethically worrisome than eating animals. And the early success of plant-based meat alternatives gave investors hope. Beyond Meat, one such firm, went public in 2019, and saw its value shoot to $14 billion.
Though lab-grown meat offers an alternative to farm-grown meat, questions have been raised about how climate-friendly it can be. A study published earlier this year found that in some circumstances cultivated meat could be more polluting than the conventional stuff because the bioreactor is in great need of power to control its temperature. Consequently, only if renewable energy is used in the production process will cultivated meat cut the carbon footprint of the meat industry.
Whether this effort can make lab-grown meat attractive and cheap enough to attract consumers remains to be seen.
1. What does the author focus on concerning cultivated meat in paragraph 1?| A．Its characteristics. | B．Its health benefits. |
| C．Its cooking methods. | D．Its similarities to artificial meat. |
| A．Most Americans skip meat. |
| B．Asians prefer lab-grown meat. |
| C．Beyond Meat is facing financial collapse. |
| D．Lab-grown meat may have a vast consumer market. |
| A．Poisonous chemical leaks. | B．Land occupation. |
| C．Grecnhouse-gas emissions. | D．Water consumption. |
| A．Opposed. | B．Favorable. | C．Uncaring. | D．Reserved. |
8 . Carson calls himself, a matchmaker of the never-ending waste of American society, trying not to pair people with people, but things with people.
For nearly ten years, his company, Repurposed Materials, has not been looking to recycle the waste he gets —breaking it down to make something new—but rather finding new homes for thrown-away goods in their original (原来的) forms.
In the late 1990s, Carson was on break from business school in Vail, Colorado, when he discovered the vast world of waste. He began thinking about creating a secondhand store that would sell old materials and keep them out of being wasted. Then, in 2010, his company, Repurposed Materials appeared.
Carson, a husband and father of three adult children, is far from wasteful. Frugal is how he describes himself. The clothes he’s wearing all came from a charity shop; the truck he drove was a secondhand one.
“Why break something down, why melt something down, if it still has value?” he asks. An old oil-field pipe might be melted down and turned into a car bumper, but it still takes an amount of power to finish the complete change. Why not leave it as a steel pipe? Why not turn it into a fence post on a farm? That way, the only cost is transport.
American industrial facilities create and throw about 7. 6 billion tons of unwanted industrial materials every year. For the moment, Carson’s unique business finds new lives for millions of kilograms of waste every year.
1. What does Repurposed Materials try to do?| A．To collect the secondhand hardware. | B．To find new homes for wasted goods. |
| C．To make something new with waste. | D．To change the waste’s original forms. |
| A．Carson’s lessons at the business school. | B．Carson’s dream to change the waste world. |
| C．What led to Carson’s Repurposed Materials. | D．Why Carson was interested in secondhand stuff. |
| A．Colorful. | B．Rich. | C．Fantastic. | D．Simple. |
| A．No pains, no gains. | B．Think outside the box. |
| C．Well begun, half done. | D．Look before you leap. |
If you spend some time wandering through the Prairie wilderness, chances are that you’ll hear the snort of wild pigs, one of Canada’s most invasive species,
To make matters
Environmentally, the rapid spread of the wild pigs pose numerous problems such as diversity
Hunting may seem like a quick solution, but
10 . Johannes Fritz, an Austrian biologist, needed to come up with a plan again if he was going to prevent his rare and beloved birds from going extinct.
To survive the European winter, the northern bald ibis needs to migrate south for the winter over the Alps. But shifting climate patterns have delayed when the birds begin to migrate and they are now reaching the mountains too late to make it over the peaks, locking them in an icy death trap. Determined to save them, he decided to teach the birds a new, safer migration route by guiding them himself in a tiny aircraft. He was confident that he could succeed in this daring, unconventional plan.
Some 400 years ago, the Europeans hunted these birds without stopping and devoured the last in the wild, causing the birds to disappear entirely from the wild. When Mr. Fritz was born 56 years ago, the northern bald ibis could be found in Europe only in captivity (圈养).
Mr.Fritz has spent his career reintroducing the birds into the wild. Through years of trial and error, he learned to fly like a bird. He modified (改装) a lightweight aircraft so it would fly at speeds slow enough for the birds to keep up. In 2004, he led the first flock from Austria to Italy, and has since led more migrations. But the route he originally taught the ibises does not work successfully. With climate change warming the area where the birds summer, they now start their migration at the end of October instead of the end of September. The trip is expected to take about six weeks, “Still, we’re optimistic that it’ll work,” said Mr. Fritz.
His family and colleagues witnessed the risks he was taking. “But the unavoidable risks are necessary,” Mr. Fritz said. “It’s not so much a job, but my life’s purpose.”
1. What was Johannes Fritz’s plan?| A．To shorten bald ibises’ migration route. |
| B．To lead bald ibises to migrate on a new route. |
| C．To better the climate patterns for bald ibises. |
| D．To find out a safer destination for bald ibises. |
| A．Destroyed. | B．Abused. | C．Released. | D．Raised. |
| A．Owing to the long time it consumes. |
| B．For the slow speed of his modified aircraft. |
| C．Because of the toughness along the first route. |
| D．Due to higher temperatures in the summer habitat. |
| A．Honest. | B．Innovative. | C．Straightforward. | D．Demanding. |
