1 . Where the streets smell like cheese: Milwaukee tries dairy waste as de-icer
In response to the winter storm striking the area last weekend, street crews of Milwaukee, a city in Wisconsin, will be spreading cheese brine(卤水)along its ice-covered streets this winter as an alternative of normally used rock salt, which serves as an essential road de-icer despite its damaging impact on the environment.
The trial was inspired by a successful experiment in rural Polk County. In addition to being a more effective de-icer due to a lower freezing point, the cheesy liquid prevents rock salt from bouncing and scattering off roadways, which means less has to be used and less of it ends up entering the surrounding environment.
Milwaukee can make good use of the difficult-to-dispose type of organic waste found in great abundance across the state: salty leftover cheese-making juice. Sometimes you just have to get creative and work with the type of waste byproduct and turn it into something beneficial. When the first cheese brine salt trucks of the city appeared in the street last week, Tom Barrett, Mayor of Milwaukee, compared the act to “thinking outside of the cheese box”.
To be clear, Milwaukee won’t completely replace rock salt with thousands of gallons of salty cheese juice. The project, which will first be tested in Bay View neighborhood, will involve a mixture of rock salt and cheese brine. The brine will be sourced from a production plant owned by F&A Dairy in Polk County. Milwaukee will save in rock salt costs while F&A Dairy, which transforms 900, 000 pounds of milk into cheese every day, will save cash in the brine disposal.
While it is noted that the cheese brine solution has a “distinctive odor.” Emil Norby, the gentleman who originally thought of using cheese brine to treat ice-covered roads, explains that Milwaukee residents can expect to experience the slight bad milk smell once the cheese brine is applied to streets. He smiles, “I don’t really mind it. Our roads smell like Wisconsin!”
1. Why does the cheese brine become an option as a road de-icer?| A．It increases the consumption of cheese. | B．It decreases milk byproducts. |
| C．It is from experiences of Polk County. | D．It’s more effective and eco-friendly. |
| A．A test with an expected result. | B．A trial made creatively. |
| C．A company benefiting the locals. | D．A volunteer who protects environments. |
| A．It will make a fortune for the city. | B．It will change the life of local people. |
| C．It will attract more investment. | D．It will be a win-win co-operation. |
| A．It will lead to bad appetite. | B．It may make them sick. |
| C．It is still acceptable. | D．It cannot be noticed. |
2 . How do you deal with plastic bags from the supermarket？Throw them away or recycle them? How about eating them?
The bags are no harmful to the environment.Humans and animals can safely eat them.Indian company EnviGreen has made a bag with natural materials.It looks and feels just like plastic，but can be broken down(分解) easily.
Ashwath Hedge who set up the EnviGreen company spent four years doing experiments(实验)with 12 natural materials.They include potato，corn，vegetable oil and banana.He made the materials into liquid(液体) and used the liquid to make the bag.
Although the EnviGreen bag is more expensive than a common plastic bag，it has many advantages.According to the Wall Street Journal，it takes 1，000 years for common plastic bags to break down.But an EnviGreen bag can naturally break down in less than 180 days.It also breaks down in less than a day in water，and in less than a minute in boiling water. Hedge was happy to show it in his interview；he put an EnviGreen bag in water and ate it with a smile.
There are more that 15，000 tons of plastic waste in India every day.But only 9，000 tons are processed.In China，3 billion plastic bags are used every day.Maybe the EnviGreen bag could be a solution(解决办法) to the world problem of plastic pollution.
1. According to Paragraph 2，we can know the following EXCEPT________．| A．the EnviGreen bag can break down easily |
| B．the EnviGreen bag is made from natural materials |
| C．the EnviGreen bag can be eaten by humans and animals |
| D．the EnviGreen bag is a little bit harmful to the environment |
| A．What Hedge thinks of the new bag |
| B．How Hedge makes the EnviGreen bag |
| C．Who sets up the EnviGreen company |
| D．How long it takes Hedge to make the bag |
| A．is safe and can break down quickly |
| B．is useful although it is more expensive |
| C．looks and feels like a common plastic bag |
| D．will be used more widely than a common bag |
| A．hot air | B．cold water |
| C．boiling water | D．natural air |
| A．all of India’s plastic waste is processed |
| B．India has the most plastic waste in the world |
| C．China produces more plastic waste than India |
| D．the EnviGreen bag may help solve the problem of plastic pollution |
3 . In the United States，a company is working on a project that could change the way we think about public transportation.Its planned system would move people around in steel tubes.Those passengers would be traveling at speeds of up to 1,200 kilometers per hour.
The futuristic steel tube transportation system is called Hyper1oop.Workers plan to test the system next year in a specially built community called Quay Valley.The town will be powered entirely by energy from the sun.
The Hyperloop transport system is the idea of businessman Elon Musk.Dirk Ahlborn is head of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies.He says his company has taken Mr.Musk’s idea and is developing a system that will be safe，environmentally friendly and fast.
“It’s 100 percent solar powered…we’re not going to get up to 760 miles per hour，but we believe we can actually break the records that are existing right now.”
This means that a four-hour drive from Los Angeles，California to Las Vegas，Nevada，could someday take only 30 minutes by Hyperloop.The system involves a series of capsules that float inside a long tube.These containers would not need to travel along a pathway or track.The system has been designed to operate above or below ground.
“Inside the tube you create a low pressure environment very similar to an airplane that’s at high altitudes.So now the capsule travelling inside the tube doesn’t come up against as much resistance，and therefore can travel really fast with very little energy.”
Dick Ahlborn and his company will use an eight—kilometer track in Quay Valley to find the best way to set up passenger traffic and repair capsules.A larger system will cost an estimated six to $10 billion to build.If Mr.Ahlborn and his company succeed，we may one day see these very fast Hyperloop capsules speeding through tubes around the world.
1. Which of the following is true of Hyperloop?| A．It will travel along a pathway or track. |
| B．It will use more energy than current trains. |
| C．There is a high pressure inside the tube of it. |
| D．A series of experiments on it will be carried on. |
| A．Dirk is worried about the speed of Hyperloop |
| B．Hyperloop has been built in the United States |
| C．Hyperloop will be powered by energy from the sun |
| D．Hyperloop has reached to 760 miles per hour |
| A．Systems. | B．Capsules. | C．Tubes. | D．Airplanes. |
| A．Hyperloop Is Closer To Reality | B．Hyperloop Will Test At Quay Valley |
| C．Elon Musk’s Idea Is Under Discussion | D．Hyperloop Travels Around The World |
4 . The world is a greener place than it was 20 years ago. A study published in the journal “Nature Sustainability” said that recent satellite data reveals a greening pattern that is strikingly prominent in China and India. The study shows that human activity in China and India dominates this greening of the planet, thanks to tree planting and agriculture. The effect comes mostly from ambitious tree-planting programs in China and intensive agriculture in both countries.
“China and India account for one-third of the greening, ” said lead author Chi Chen of Boston University. “ That is a surprising finding, considering the vague idea of land degradation (毁坏) in populous countries from overexploitation, ” added Chen.
China alone accounts for 25 percent of the global net increase in leaf area with only 6.6 percent of global vegetated area. The greening in China is from forests (42 percent) and croplands (32 percent), but in India, it is mostly from croplands (82 percent) with minor contribution from forests (4.4 percent).
China’s outsized contribution to the global greening trend comes in large part from its programs to conserve and expand forests with the goal of preventing land degradation, air pollution, and climate change.
“Once people realize there is a problem, they tend to fix it,” said Rama Nemani, research scientist and co-author of the study. “In the 1970s and 80s in India and China, the situation around vegetation loss was not good. In the 1990s, people realized it, and today things have improved. Now we see that humans are contributing.”
Land area used to grow crops is comparable in China and India—more than 770, 000 square miles—and has not changed much since the early 2000s. Yet these regions have greatly increased both their annual total green leaf area and their food production.
This was achieved through multiple cropping practices, where a field is replanted to produce another harvest several times a year. Production of grains, vegetables, fruits and more have increased by about 35%～40% since 2000 to feed their large populations.
1. What did the study mainly find?| A．India and China are leading the global greening effort. |
| B．Intensive agriculture is the cause of global land degradation. |
| C．China and India has got the largest forest coverage in the world. |
| D．Agriculture is more helpful in expanding green areas than tree-planting. |
| A．India reduced cropland to prevent the overexploitation. |
| B．India increased forest by planting around croplands. |
| C．China changed more lands into forest by planting trees. |
| D．China controlled the increase of its population. |
| A．Ambitious. | B．Responsible. |
| C．Passionate . | D．Tolerant. |
| A．Forest. | B．Trees. |
| C．Cropland. | D．Food |
5 . You may have visited antique stores and found cutting-edge goods in second-hand furniture stores, but have you ever stooping? On the streets of big cities at night, some young people are “looking for something”. Obsessed with the spiritual core of the old thing recycling, they fell in love with it. But what exactly is stooping?
In fact, this English word originally meant “bending over”, and now refers to a way of life of picking up discarded items and renovating and recycling old things, which originally emerged in New York and other foreign big cities.
Since the beginning of last year, the trend of “stooping” has spread to many big cities in China and many young people look for second-hand items such as discarded furniture on the streets, take home and repurpose them with a new look. In order to make the flow of information better, some “stoopers” have also built communities where group members can share “treasures” on the street with each other.
Mikiko, 27, is reportedly one of the first people in China to get involved in practicing stooping. At first, she posted online things that people no longer use, want to throw away, or exchange at home, and slowly hundreds of messages flooded in and since then, stooping has become more and more popular among young people. Mikiko admitted that she was surprised that the concept has become a hit on social media, as older generations often stigmatize picking up things from the street or using second-hand goods. “People like my mom consider stooping as’rubbish-picking’, and people will be looked down upon by doing this.” She even created an app called “Grecycle” where people can give away or take unwanted items for free, hoping people may realize that stooping can also be about doing good and helping others.
This generation of young people has given “new life” to old things, practiced social responsibility in their own environmentally friendly ways in life, and also contributed to the circular economy and sustainable society.
1. What do we know about “stooping” in this text?| A．It was developed in England. | B．It equals to rubbish-picking. |
| C．It is an expression to show respect. | D．It is a way to turn trash to treasure. |
| A．To show off their good use of items. |
| B．To argue about the misuse of good treasure. |
| C．To share the information of the discarded items. |
| D．To make some comments on the abandoned items. |
| A．Be skilled at. | B．Be ashamed of. |
| C．Be fed up with. | D．Be accustomed to. |
| A．Second-hand stores are worth visiting. |
| B．Big cities offer more job opportunities. |
| C．Young people spend less than older people. |
| D．The young have a stronger eco-awareness. |
6 . 《××英语报社》正在征集保护环境的文章。请根据以下提示，并结合自己的想法或者做法，以 Protect the environment, starts from me!为题写一篇100词左右的短文。
Advice | Reasons |
1. Don't throw away things made of glass, plastic and paper, but recycle them. | Throwing things away is wasteful. |
2. Reuse your plastic bags as possible as you can. Take a bag with you when you go shopping. | Plastic bags are hard to recycle. |
3. Use less electricity and oil to reduce pollution. | Producing electricity and using oil may cause pollution. |
4. Don't leave lights on and waste electricity. | |
5. Walk or cycle and do not often drive your car. | |
… | … |
要求：1. 短文须包含所有信息，语句通顺、意思连贯，可适当发挥。
2. 开头结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Protect the environment, starts from me!
Our environment is getting worse and worse now. We must find ways to stop pollution.
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I’m sure if we take care of our environment, our world will be more beautiful!
