High on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
2 . Lego is considering a brick (积木) rental plan in an attempt to cut down on plastic waste. The Danish toymaker has promised to make all its bricks from sustainable (可持续的) sources by 2030 and is investing significant resources into finding alternatives.
Tim Brooks, vice-president responsible for sustainability, said the company was “totally open” to the idea of a product rental plan but admitted that lost pieces could produce a significant problem. “What are the chances of giving them to an eight-year-old child and getting them all back again?” Mr. Brooks added.
“There is a lot of technical thinking that needs to be done. We are right at beginning of that.” Mr. Brooks said Lego was exploring several ideas with a view to producing the highest value from products while consuming the least amount of resources. He said many would “probably never see the light of day” and there was no current plan to try out a rental plan.
Lego has come under increasing pressure to reduce its carbon footprint among growing international alarm about the impact of plastic waste on the environment. It produces 19 billion pieces per year—36, 000 a minute—that are made entirely of plastic while much of the inside packaging is also plastic.
So far, the only breakthrough has been the development of a line of bricks made from plant-based plastic sourced from sugarcane. The green trees, plants and flowers were first included in Lego sets late last year but make up only 1%-2% of the total amount of plastic elements produced. Henrik Nielson, a production supervisor (主管) in Lego’s factory, said last year: “We need to learn again how to do this.”
Lego reportedly releases around a million tons of carbon dioxide each year, with about 75% coming from raw materials that go into factories. The company has invested more than 100, 000,000 euros and hired 100 people to research non-plastic alternatives. It is aiming to keep all of its packaging out of landfill by 2025.
1. Lego is making great efforts to ________.| A．promote its brick rental plan | B．raise its production efficiency |
| C．explore ways to reduce plastic waste | D．develop new products |
| A．is well under way | B．has a long way to go |
| C．is totally useless | D．goes against Lego’s interest |
| A．figures | B．examples |
| C．comparison | D．classification |
| A．Defensive. | B．Determined. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Doubtful. |
3 . Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is road testing a new way to keep winter roads ice-free – by spreading on them cheese brine, the salty liquid used to make soft cheese, like mozzarella.
Wisconsin, also called "America's Dairyland," is famous for its cheese. The state produced 2.8 billion pounds of cheese last year! As a result, there was a lot of leftover cheese brine. Disposing of(处置)the brine can be expensive. So what should cheese makers do with the waste?
Normally, towns use rock salt to de-ice streets. The salt lowers waters' freezing point, causing ice to melt(融化). But using cheese brine could help both cheese producers and cities save money, while keeping roads safe. Cheese brine has salt in it, which, like the rock salt, helps lower water's freezing point.
In addition to saving money, cheese brine could also be a more environment-friendly option. Many people suspect that all the rock salt used every winter is harming the environment.
Rock salt is made of sodium chloride, the sane con-pound (化合物)in ordinary table salt. Sounds harmless, right? But while you probably add only a small amount of salt to your food, road crews spread about 20 million tons of salt on U.S. Roads every year!
The chemical washes off roads and goes into the ground. There it can pollute drinking water, harm plants. and eat away soil. By spreading cheese brine on streets before adding a layer of rock salt, Milwaukee may be able to cut its rock salt use by 30 percent.
Cheese brine has a downside too – a shell similar to that of bad milk. "I don't really mind it," Emil Norby told Modern Farmer magazine. He works for one of Wisconsin's county highway commissions and came up with the idea of using cheese brine. "Our roads smell like Wisconsin!" he said.
1. Why can cheese brine help keep winter roads ice-free?| A．It is soft. | B．It contains salt. | C．It is warm. | D．It has milk in it. |
| A．Improving air quality. | B．Increasing sales of rock salt. |
| C．Reducing water pollution. | D．Saving the cheese industry. |
| A．barking up the wrong tree | B．putting the cart before the horse |
| C．robbing Peter to pay Paul | D．killing two birds with one stone |
4 . Recently, Whitewater Middle School students in the US looked at 200 pounds (90.7 kg) of food. Their classmates threw it away after a meal in the cafeteria. They found the remains of pizzas. They saw untouched green salads and pieces of bread bitten only once. It was，they said, both disgusting and educational.
"You don't realize how much food waste you're making till you see it," said student Cody Gist.
To deal with this problem, Whitewater added environmental science as a school-wide program this year. Teachers are guiding their students through research on the ways food is linked to environment, poverty, and people's health.
The school changed to compostable (可用作堆肥的)paper trays (托盘)as well. Working with Every Tray Counts, a US nonprofit group, the school hopes for a change from disposable trays to compostable paper trays.
This isn't just an exercise at school. Whitewater is joining a network of schools, businesses and neighborhoods. They try to make composting as mainstream as recycling.
"The larger issue is protection of landfill (垃圾填埋场)space," said Laurette Hall, an environmental management official. The area has enough space to last for maybe 25 more years, she said. That isn't as much as it sounds in such a rapidly growing area.
Principal Beth Thompson said students advise each other on new ways to deal with trash.
"Students understand why it matters so not one student refused to do extra work when throwing away their waste," Thompson said.
Whitewater teachers make sure students know how their own eating habits are part of bigger problems. In environmental literature class, students read books such as Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.
Mollie Lyman works with several language arts classrooms. Their classes discuss such issues as how poor neighborhoods often have less access (使用权)to healthy food.
Lyman says she wants students to ask some basic questions: "What do we eat? What do we waste?”
1. Why did Whitewater Middle School students look at the food?| A．To prepare students for the environmental science course. |
| B．To find out the calories of different kinds of food. |
| C．To see how food was connected with other problems. |
| D．To check what foods were most popular among students. |
① Introducing a new course about the environment.
② Using compostable paper trays in the cafeteria.
③ Setting up a group called Every Tray Counts.
④ Joining others to make composting common.
| A．①②④ | B．①②③ | C．①③④ | D．②③④ |
| A．People don't want to protect landfill space. |
| B．Students don't know how to recycle trash. |
| C．There won't be enough landfill space in the future. |
| D．Students don't understand the waste problem. |
| A．To tell readers how important it is to save food. |
| B．To share how a US school is making an effort for the environment. |
| C．To encourage schools to have environmental protection classes. |
| D．To call on students to care about poor people. |
1. 垃圾分类的定义；
2. 垃圾分类的意义；
3. 该城市所采取的（至少）两项举措。
注意: 1. 字数 120 字左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 参考词汇：垃圾分类 waste sorting / rubbish classification
Dear Henry,
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
6 . For some people, running outdoors is a great way to exercise. What may not be so great is seeing trash all over the ground. Well, some people are doing something about it. They are plogging! Plogging began in Sweden in 2016. A Swedish man named Erik Ahlstrom became concerned about the amount of trash and litter he saw each day on his way to work and he began picking up the trash. That is how plogging was born!
Plogging, by that term，may have officially begun in Sweden. But many people who exercise outdoors have been doing this for years. Take Jeff Horowitz for example. He is a personal trainer in Washington，D. C. He would often pick up trash while running outside. He even turned it into a game; he would try to pick up the trash without stopping.
Today, plogging is an official activity, one that is becoming increasingly popular. Plogging can build closer social connections in a community, and it can also be fun. When Dana Allen goes plogging around D. C., she invites her friends, and they make a day of it. Although Allen enjoys plogging，she doesn’t do it all the time. When she is training for a serious marathon race，the trash has to wait.
Cities around the world now hold plogging events. The goal is to spread the idea that littering is not acceptable. Along with cleaning up the environment, there may be another reason to choose plogging. One fitness app，Lifesum，records one hour of plogging as burning 288 calories. Usual jogging burns about 235 calories.
Getting ready to plog is similar to getting ready to jog. Ploggers do some deep knee bends as well as some balancing exercises and then they put on protective gloves. There are other safety rules for plogging. The main one is to plog in areas where there are not too many people. Stopping quickly in front of someone. to pick up an empty bag of potato chips, for example, could cause a crash.
1. What do we know about Jeff Horowitz from the text?| A．He was the first person to plog. | B．He has been actually plogging. |
| C．He is in support of eco-travelling. | D．He is an expert in picking up trash. |
| A．She doesn’t always do it with her friends. |
| B．She always finds it interesting to do it. |
| C．She nearly does it in a park every day. |
| D．She doesn’t insist doing it every day. |
| A．Picking up trash is important. | B．Plogging events are of little use. |
| C．Plogging is a better workout. | D．The idea of plogging is strange. |
| A．To avoid a crash. | B．To save energy. |
| C．To pick up more trash. | D．To make it unknown. |
7 . Darrell Blatchley, a marine biologist and environmentalist based in the Philippine city of Davao, received a call from the Philippines, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (渔业与水产资源局) early Friday morning reporting a death of a young whale.
When the necropsy (尸检) was performed, Blatchley told NPR, he was not prepared for the amount of plastic they found in the whale’s stomach. “It was full of plastic nothing but nonstop plastic.” he said “It was filled to the point that its stomach was as hard as a baseball.” That means that this animal has been suffering not for days or weeks but for months or even a year or more,” Blatchley added.
Blatchley is the founder and owner of the D’Bone Collector Museum, a natural history museum in Davao. In the coming days, the museum will display all the items found in the whale’s system. Blatchley and his team work with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and other organizations to assist in rescue and recovery of marine animals.
“Within the last 10 years, we have recovered 61 whales and dolphins just within the Davao Gulf,” he said. “Of them, 57 have died due to man whether they took plastic or fishing nets or other waste, or gotten caught in pollution — and four were pregnant.”
Blatchley said he hoped that the latest incident would launch the issue of plastic pollution in the Philippines and across the globe. “If we keep going this way, it will be more uncommon to see an animal die of natural causes than it is to see an animal die of plastic,” he said.
1. What can be inferred from the second paragraph?| A．The whale was starved to death. |
| B．Blatchley was shocked at what he found. |
| C．The dead whale must have swallowed a baseball. |
| D．Blatchley didn’t make preparations for the necropsy. |
| A．Waste collected from the ocean. |
| B．The whole system of the whale. |
| C．Things found in the whale’s body. |
| D．Many different tools of whaling. |
| A．Uncommon. | B．Worrying. | C．Inspiring. | D．Mild. |
| A．A Whale Found Dead of Plastic |
| B．Stand Up for Protecting Whales |
| C．Plastic Threatening Our Existence |
| D．Natural Death or Merciless Murder |
8 . “Birds” and “airports” are two words that, paired together，don’t normally paint the most harmonious picture. So it really raises some eyebrows when China announces plans to build an airport that is for birds.
Described as the world’s first-ever bird airport, the proposed Lingang Bird Sanctuary(保护区）in the northern coastal city of Tianjin is, of course,not an actual airport. Rather，it's a wetland preserve specifically designed to accommodate hundreds-even thousands-of daily takeoffs and landings by birds traveling along the East Asian-Australian Flyway. Over 50 species of migratory (迁徙的）water birds，some endangered, will stop and feed at the protected sanctuary before continuing their long journey along the flyway.
Located on a former landfill site，the 150-acre airport is also open to human travelers.(Half a million visitors are expected annually.) However，instead of duty-free shopping，the main attraction for non-egg-laying creatures at Tianjin’s newest airport will be a green-roofed education and research center, a series of raised “observation platforms” and a network of scenic walking and cycling paths totaling over 4 miles.
“The proposed Bird Airport will be a globally significant sanctuary for endangered migratory bird species, while providing new green lungs for the city of Tianjin.” Adrian McGregor of an Australian landscape architecture firm explained of the design. Frequently blanketed in smog so thick that it has shut down real airports, Tianjin is a city---China’s fourth most populous----that would certainly benefit from a new pair of healthy green lungs•
1. The underlined phrase “non-egg-laying creatures” in Paragraph 3 refers to?| A．Visitors. | B．Designers. |
| C．Endangered water birds. | D．Planes. |
| A．People cannot watch birds up close here. |
| B．It is located on a 150-acre landfill site. |
| C．It functions as an actual airport and a wetland preserve. |
| D．It provides migratory birds with food and shelter. |
| A．The airport will become a permanent home for birds. |
| B．Tianjin will win worldwide fame in the future. |
| C．Tianjin’s air quality will improve thanks to the airport. |
| D．Tianjin will be able to accommodate more people. |
| A．Airports shut down and open up. |
| B．China is to open the first Bird Airport. |
| C．Airports turn into green lungs. |
| D．Birds are no longer enemies to airports. |
9 . Every year, butterfly(蝴蝶) lovers in California go out in November to count monarch butterflies. They
The orange and black monarch butterflies are famous
Monarchs, like most butterflies, are
But monarchs have been facing growing problems for years. As more and more wild land has been turned into large farms, the monarchs have had trouble
Scientists say monarchs will be in danger of dying out in the next 20 years if nothing
10 . Three-quarters of a million tourists flock to the white beaches every year, but this booming industry has come at a price. Poisonous smoke rising from open fires, rubbish made up of plastic bottles，packets…”,it’s a far cry from the white sands, clear waters and palm trees that we associate with the Maldives(马尔代夫）,the paradise island holiday destination set in the Indian Ocean.
Of its 200 inhabited islands,which are spread across an area of 35,000 square miles,99 are good resorts (旅游胜地).So many tourists come every year, more than double the local population. Of these, over 1 00,000 travel from the UK. The capital，Male，is four times more densely populated than London. Given these facts, it’s hardly surprising that the Maldives has a waste disposal problem.
Years ago，when the tourists left，the government had to deal with a stream of rubbish. Their solution was to turn one of the islands into a dumping ground. Four miles west of Male is the country’s dumping ground, Thilafushi. What you are seeing here is a view of the Maldives on which no honeymooners would like to clap eyes. Each visitor produces 3.5 kg of waste per day. The country dumps more than 330 tons of rubbish on the island every day.
Now, since many waste boats, tired of waiting seven hours or more, directly offload then goods into the sea, the government of the Maldives has banned the dumping of waste on the k land. So,the waste boats ship the rubbish to India instead.
1. The underlined part in paragraph can probably be understood as“ ”.| A．It’s quite similar to |
| B．It’s a long distance from |
| C．It’s a loud shout from |
| D．It’s totally different from |
| A．The large local population. |
| B．Too many waste boats. |
| C．The large number of tourists. |
| D．Dumping rubbish into the sea. |
| A．It is much more crowded in Male than in London. |
| B．Another island will be used as a dumping ground. |
| C．No honeymooners are willing to visit the Maldives. |
| D．Waste on islands will be offloaded directly into the sea. |
| A．To attract more tourists to the Maldives. |
| B．To state the waste disposal problem in the Maldives |
| C．To call on us to protect the environment, |
| D．To explain the causes of pollution in the Maldives. |
