1 . New research from the University of Portsmouth has shown a marked increase in shipping in the North East Atlantic. Scientists now warn that more monitoring is required to help protect sea life.

Researchers at the University of Ponsmouth have discovered that rates (率) of shipping in the North East Atlantic area rose by 34 per cent in a five-year period. The research is the first detailed survey of shipping activity in the North East Atlantic. Researchers used data from over 530 million vessel (船) positions recorded by Automatic Identification System(AIS). They looked at the change in shipping between 2013 and 2017 across ten different vessel types. In total the study area covered 1.1 million km², including waters off Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany,Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal. Spain, and the UK.

Lead author, James Robbins said: “This change is likely to put more pressure on the marine (海洋的) environment, and may influence the protection of at-risk species. Renewed monitoring effort is needed to make sure that protective measures are enough to save species under threat in a changing environment.”

Some of the greatest shipping increases were found in areas close to the Spanish coast. The Espacio Marino de la Costa da Morte saw a rise of 413 percent in vessel activity. It is an area used to protect seabirds.

Dr. Sarah Marley, Visiting Researcher at the University of Portsmouth, said: “Shipping is the most widespread human activity in our oceans, carrying a set of threats-from unnoticeable effects like underwater noise pollution to serious results when ships hit whales.”

Professor Alex Ford. from the University’s Institute of Marine Sciences, said: “Given the well-documented effects that shipping can have on the marine environment, it is necessary that this situation continues to be monitored-particularly in areas used to protect vulnerable (脆弱的) species which may already be under pressure.”

1. What can we say about the new research?

A．It started in 2013.	B．It is the first of its kind.
C．It was carried out by AIS.	D．It covers the whole Atlantic.

2. What do the underlined words “This change” in paragraph 3 refer to ?

A．Rapid population growth.

B．Rising global temperatures.

C．The huge increase in shipping.

D．The disappearance of marine life.

3. What does Dr. Sarah Marley want to tell us in paragraph 5?

A．Shipping plays an important role in the local economy.

B．Shipping can be a danger to the marine environment.

C．Noise pollution is closely related to human activity.

D．Marine areas should be monitored more carefully.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．New waterways across the Atlantic

B．The shipping industry in the North East Atlantic

C．New research opens windows into life under the water

D．Sea life needs better protection from an increase in shipping

2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式，并将答案填写在答题卡相应的位置上。

From “pocket parks” between communities to forest parks in the outer cities, local governments are     1     (ambition) to make China’s cities greener. That’s     2     there are more parks in cities these days.

From 2021 to 2022, Shanghai transformed 62 woodlands into leisure spaces. These leisure spaces open up forests,     3     allows visitors to enjoy natural beauty as well as wildlife. In urban     4     (area), more companies and universities are sharing their greenery. For instance, the Shanghai Research Institute of Sports Science opened its 1,000-square-meter green space to the public.     5     (join) by historical buildings in the area, the park can provide more space for tourists to rest.

Apart from meeting people’s needs, parks can also do good to the environment. Take Beijing’s Central Green Forest Park     6     an example. Since it was opened in 2020, the park     7     (reach)carbon neutrality (碳中和). It means although the park’s facilities produce carbon dioxide, more can be     8     (take) in by the plants there. The park also fully reuses rainwater and creates green energy     9     (supply) the park. As cities in China become greener, “park cities” are becoming a reality. The concept of a park city was     10     (initial) put forward in 2018. It is a concept that takes the form of an improved natural environment in all aspects, noted China Daily.

3 . For the past two months, Mandy Chen, a second-year student at Beijing University of Technology, has been posting photos of herself to Taobao, posing with a reusable cup, climbing stairs and switching off lights.     1     Taobao’s Al algorithm (算法) calculates that Chen’s use of a reusable cup reduced 15.7 grams of carbon emissions (排放), while her choice to take the stairs instead of the lift resulted in a reduction of 19.5 grams.     2    

After seven days of posting her photos, Chen exchanged the points for a dozen of biodegradable rubbish bags from Taobao. Everyone can get an endless supply of free trash bags if they keep going, according to Chen.     3    

Chen uses Carbon88, a platform launched last August by Alibaba Group Holding, to help the more than 800 million users on Taobao adopt a sustainable lifestyle. The platform rewards users for over 70 low-carbon behaviours.     4     It also recommends products that it considers environmentally sustainable, and gives users points for buying them.

    5     “I didn’t know that my actions could produce such carbon reduction,” Chen said, “Now I feel good for what I’m doing to make this world a tiny bit better. We as a part of society can call for more systemic changes.”

A．It encourages them to reduce their carbon footprint.

B．And her efforts to save electricity prevented 65.50 grams.

C．It’s a valuable addition to current carbon-reduction policies.

D．Carbon reduction has helped increase Chen’s environmental awareness.

E．Within minutes, she receives a dozen points from the app as a reward.

F．They range from taking public transport to shopping of second-hand items.

G．She is now saving points for something better, like snacks and water bottles.

4 . Many news reports focus on climate change these days. Extreme heat, wildfires, floods, homeless polar bears... How do you feel when reading worrying news about climate change? You may believe that people are becoming insensitive to the warming planet, accepting that it is only getting worse.

A research team at Pennsylvania State University, US, reported otherwise. To record how the news can impact people’s emotions, participants were first exposed to negative news stories about climate change for three days. They then continued to read negative news headlines for seven days. In the first three days, the participants experienced greater fear and less hope, which can potentially hurt an audience’s belief that they can do anything to tackle the problem.

However, during the seven-day-long exposure, the fear peaked and then held steady (稳定的). “We saw the opposite pattern in our second study. The more exposure people had to these threatening news stories each day, the more likely they are to think that they can make a difference in tackling climate change,” Christofer Skurka, the paper’s lead author told the Pennsylvania State University website.

According to the researchers, one possibility is that when the public hears about climate change threats, they may convince themselves that they have control over the situation. They will then believe that their actions may make a difference.

Knowing that everyone is able to help is only the first step. According to a study that analyzed information from 430 different studies, what motivates people the most to change their behavior is social comparison. For example, if a person’s neighbors follow a low-carbon lifestyle, such as driving electric cars, the person may feel social pressure and become more likely to follow this behavior. This happens because people usually judge their own behavior and follow social norms (规范). Another effective motivation is providing financial rewards to consumers, helping them save money.

“There are so many routes to our goals,” Matthew Goldberg, the co-author of the study, told Scientific American. As Goldberg pointed out, future research like this can help policymakers decide how best to encourage people to ward more climate-friendly habits.

1. How did the participants react to negative news in the second study?

A．They found the news unbelievable.

B．They lost hope in tackling climate change.

C．They experienced greater fear for the future.

D．They felt a strong sense of social responsibility.

2. What encourages people most toward more climate-friendly behavior?

A．Effective policy.	B．Healthy lifestyle.
C．Social influence.	D．Financial support.

3. What is Paragraph 5 mainly about?

A．Responses to climate change education.

B．T he effectiveness of community initiatives.

C．T he impact of social norms on environment.

D．Ways to encourage climate-friendly behavior.

4. What is Goldberg’s attitude towards similar future research?

A．Doubtful.

B．Optimistic.

C．Objective.

D．Indifferent.

5 . 假定你们要开一个以“Protecting Our Environment”为题的主题班会，请你写一篇介绍环境保护的发言稿，要点如下：
1. 目前环境面临的威胁；
2. 提出可行措施；
3. 保护环境的意义 。
注意：1. 文章应包括以上要点，可适当发挥。
2. 词数 80 词左右。
Dear fellows,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 . During the summer of 2021, I flew to Greece to learn more about the wildfires there. I wanted to hear people’s stories, to understand what it meant to be displaced by environmental disaster.

In a cafe for people surviving the fire, I met brave children who now have to live with terrible scars, physical and emotional. I met a man who could not even speak to me, his eyes filling with tears.

I was expecting to hear a lot about loss; I was not expecting to learn so much about the attribution (归因) of blame. I came to understand how desperately people needed to blame a tangible entity (实体) –a person, a group of people, the government. Indeed, this was understandable and reasonable. The outbreak and mishandling of the fire needed to be explored, looked into and dealt with.

What surprised me, however, was that the survivors were completely silent over any mention of the climate crisis and global heating. It was made clear to me that this subject was unacceptable. Survivors felt that these issues had nothing to do with what they had suffered, and that the people actually responsible needed to pay.

But when it comes to climate breakdown, blame did not come to just one person, one corporation, one country. In Greece, the fire didn’t rage so hard because someone had set off a spark—— it raged so hard because years of global heating had dried up the land, part of a set of unsustainable (不能持续的) practices and inaction that had set our planet on fire. And now the fires are even worse.

The more I spoke to people, including climate scientists, the more I came to see that there is often a gap that separates science from public awareness. In her book “Engaging With Climate Change” Sally Weintrobe says that “many people who accept global warming continue to regard it as a problem of the future”. To my astonishment, this seemed to apply even to people who had themselves been affected directly by wildfires.

1. What did the author hardly expect to learn in Greece?

A．Kids’ scars.	B．Economic loss.
C．Survivors’ blame.	D．Duration of the fire.

2. What did the survivors think of the fire?

A．It was closely related to global heating.

B．They couldn’t accept its massive destruction.

C．The government should be responsible for it.

D．It resulted from someone’s setting fire to the forest.

3. What does Sally Weintrobe say about global warming?

A．Much attention has been given to it.

B．People don’t consider it serious now.

C．Scientists are urged to apply efficient way to it.

D．People should make their opinions about it heard.

4. What is the purpose of the passage?

A．To inform readers of wildfires in Greece.

B．To encourage readers to donate to survivors.

C．To equip people with surviving skills in wildfires.

D．To raise people’s awareness about the climate crisis.

7 . This winter, the state of California in the US received unusually large amounts of rain and snow. Now, people worry that some areas will flood as the snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains melts (融化).

Ron Caetano lives about half-way between the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. He is preparing to leave in case his community, called the Island District, floods.

More than 100 years ago, the Island District area was under Tulare Lake, a large lake. At one time, Tulare Lake was the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River. But reservoirs (水库) and watering systems for agriculture caused it to disappear. However, in very rainy years, farmland can still get covered with water.

Experts say reservoirs near the area will likely receive three times more water than they can hold this year. That means officials must increase the amount of water they release (释放) from the reservoirs. But if too much water is released, the area might flood.

The Island District has organized a community network to help prepare for floods. People are placing sandbags close to elderly neighbors’ houses to stop possible flooding. And they are looking at reports from water officials, county officials, and from each other.

California has had very dry weather in recent years. Therefore, both cities and farm communities acclaimed this year’s winter rains. If the weather gets warmer slowly, the snow will not melt quickly and there may be little or no flooding. But if the weather gets hot quickly, that will bring trouble from too much melting snow.

Officials announced plans to close parts of Yosemite National Park because of possible danger of flooding. The park is about 270 kilometers east of San Francisco in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Nicholas Pinter is with the University of California, Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. He said the lake’s size has always changed because of California’s weather. He described the surrounding area this way. “It has been an engineering problem all along,” he said. “This is a bathtub (浴缸) with no way out.”

1. What made Tulare Lake disappear?

A．Lack of rainfall.

B．Natural disasters.

C．Climate warming.

D．Human behavior.

2. What does the underlined word “acclaimed” in paragraph 6 mean?

A．Feared.

B．Doubted.

C．Welcomed.

D．Tracked.

3. What might Californians want to see?

A．The government can help them move to other states.	B．The weather can get warm gradually in California.
C．There is more rain in the cities than on farms.	D．The officials release water on a regular basis.

4. What can we infer from Nicholas Pinter’s words?

A．It is difficult to deal with the flood.	B．It is easy to keep the snow water.
C．The surrounding area is unfit to live in.	D．The lake is already overflowing.

8 . The winter migration (迁徙) season has arrived. With the cold wave heading down south, migratory birds from faraway places such as Siberia have begun to arrive at Dongting Lake, central China for the winter.

Dongting Lake in central China’s Hunan Province is the country’s second-largest freshwater lake. When the temperature rises after a short cold time, locals call the 10th lunar month “Indian summer.” During this time, the lake’s water level drops and sedges (莎草) grow, allowing wintering birds to plentiful food.

Song Yucheng, deputy chief engineer of East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve, is proud of their protection work. According to him, the Eurasian spoonbills are the first to arrive at the heart of East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve. They line up and use sideways sweeps of their beaks to filter (过滤) out tiny fish and shrimp. When they fly to another spot looking for food, people can only see the vast expanse of a white sky.

“Now the weather is also very good, the sky is very clear, with green grass, clear water and white spoonbills wandering for hunting. It’s a beautiful picture of nature,” said Song.   

For the villagers living in the East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve, their farm fields are still full of busy and active fellows after harvest because there are about 100 swans settled down there. To provide these birds with an quiet and safe environment, the local government has stopped the vehicles and visitors from entering the area.

“Firecrackers are not allowed, and loud noises are also not allowed in the surrounding area,” said Long Yong, a villager from the Hehua Village, citing the local government.

1. The birds migrate to Dongting Lake not because _____.

A．Siberia is cold at winter.

B．It is the nearest to Siberia.

C．The protection work there goes great.

D．The warm temperature and plentiful food.

2. The underlined words in paragraph 3 is a name of ___.

A．an engineer	B．a kind of bird
C．migration destination	D．birds food

3. From what Song said, we can infer_____.

A．Weather is always good here.

B．More birds are coming here.

C．The environment is beautiful here.

D．It’s good to draw pictures here.

4. The last two paragraphs tell about____.

A．government measures

B．fields harvest

C．village life

D．how to observe birds in nature