1 . A major new facility to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere has started operating in Iceland, which is a boost to an emerging technology that experts say could eventually play an important role in reducing greenhouse gases.
The plant in southwest Iceland is the biggest of its kind, its builder says. It is able to capture(捕获) 900 tons of CO2 every year but it needs heat and electricity to work. It is using energy produced from waste and is built on the roof of a waste incineration plant, and through the burning of rubbish, energy is generated.
Human-sized fans are built into a series of boxes. They take CO2 out of the air, catching it in spongelike filters(过滤器). The filters are blasted with heat, freeing the gas, which is then mixed with water and pumped deep into deep underground basalt caves(玄武岩洞穴), where over time it turns into dark-gray stone. Pumping CO2 into the ground is just one way to deal with it. The makers are also selling the gas to be used again. The CO2 can be captured just a few 100 miles away. It is pumped through an underground pipeline directly into a greenhouse. Vegetables and plants love CO2 and higher concentrations of the gas within the greenhouse improve the growth of plants.
By 2050, humanity will need to pull nearly a billion metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere every year through direct air capture technology to achieve carbon neutral goals, according to International Energy Agency recommendations. The plant in Iceland will be able to capture 4, 000 metric tons annually — just a small amount of what will be necessary, but one that Climeworks, the company that built it, says can grow rapidly as efficiency improves and costs decrease.
“This is a market that does not yet exist, but a market that urgently needs to be built,” said Christoph Gebald who co-founded Climeworks. “This plant that we have here is really the blueprint to further increase the size and really industrialize.”
1. What do we know about the carbon capture facility from paragraph 2?| A．It is built at high altitudes. | B．It uses waste to produce power. |
| C．It makes Iceland free of air pollution. | D．It produces lots of heat during operation. |
| A．The methods of breaking down CO2. | B．The approaches to reusing waste gas. |
| C．The necessity of building greenhouses. | D．The workings of the carbon-catching plant. |
| A．It will decrease the cost of energy production. |
| B．It can help reach the carbon neutral goals in advance. |
| C．It will speed up the reduction of CO2 levels in the air. |
| D．It may replace the traditional carbon storage system. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Neutral. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Uncaring. |
2 . After a lifetime of bringing nature back. Sir David Attenborough wants us to get out of our comfort zones and help save the natural world. "I think it's terrible that children should
For so many years, he travelled with just a leather suitcase. His wife would see him off at the airport, never knowing
Despite his
So just be modest. Don't waste.”
1.| A．take off | B．grow up | C．live on | D．pass away |
| A．awful | B．amazing | C．courageous | D．excellent |
| A．spread | B．expanded | C．recovered | D．shrunk |
| A．nature | B．humans | C．rate | D．cities |
| A．click | B．remind | C．tip | D．fix |
| A．returned | B．fixed | C．pressed | D．seen |
| A．come out | B．take over | C．wipe out | D．bring out |
| A．quite | B．hard | C．fast | D．luckily |
| A．relief | B．series | C．text | D．reaction |
| A．chest | B．hand | C．face | D．hair |
| A．award | B．approached | C．recognized | D．threw |
| A．credit | B．reward | C．money | D．chance |
| A．stress | B．observation | C．fame | D．explanation |
| A．community | B．generation | C．race | D．species |
| A．precious | B．curious | C．attractive | D．powerful |
3 . Fast fashion has changed the way we dress. We buy more clothes, more often, but wear them less. The average lifespan of a piece of clothing is just two years, and 87 percent of unwanted clothing ends up in landfill or incinerators (焚化炉).
Alina Bassi, founder, of Kleiderly, wants to give our clothing waste another chance of a useful life. The 30-year-old chemical engineer has always cared about the threat of climate change — in her teens she made a film highlighting the environmental impact of Heathrow Airport — but she actually started her career in the oil industry. “I learned so much there, but knew it wasn’t quite right for me,” Bassi says. As a junior engineer, it was difficult to affect change in large corporations and she wanted to make an impact. “I really wanted to work in sustainability. (可持续性).”
After a few more years in the energy industry, she landed a job with bio-bean, a company that turned waste coffee grounds from major UK cafe chains into products that could be burned for heat and fuel. After a year in Berlin as chief operating officer of Kaffeeform, another coffee recycling company, Bassi was eager to step into a different field — used coffee grounds are not the biggest threat faced by the planet. Instead, Bassi poured her efforts into tackling a much bigger polluter.
Kleiderly hopes to change the landscape of clothing waste. Using the principles of a circular (循环的) economy, Bassi has developed a low-energy, multi-stage process to turn clothing fibers into an alternative to oil-based plastic. She is reluctant to reveal any further details as the process is still being patented. This plastic can then be fed to manufacturers that can use it in their existing machines, so that your old T-shirts and jeans are reused as brand new products. “I wanted to take the fibers and turn them into something that would be used for many years to come.” Bassi says.
1. What do we learn about Bassi’s work in the oil industry?| A．It gave her much joy. |
| B．It inspired her to make a film. |
| C．It went against her personal goals. |
| D．It made her worry about the oil industry. |
| A．She should enter the energy industry. |
| B．She should do more to help prevent pollution. |
| C．She should take advantage of coffee grounds |
| D．She should accept the principles of a circular economy. |
| A．Determined. | B．Unwilling. |
| C．Unlucky. | D．Proud. |
| A．Engineers find a new way to produce oil-based plastic |
| B．A lady makes great efforts to promote the fashion industry |
| C．Engineers appeal to various industries to fight climate change |
| D．A lady devotes herself to giving clothing waste a second life |
1.活动目的；
2.你的行动（绿色出行，节约用水用电等）；
3.活动反响。
注意：
1.写作词数应为80左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Cherish the Earth, Starting from Me
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5 . Several companies have begun creating paper bottles to replace glass and plastic ones. Paper bottles are easy to recycle, and also weigh less than glass or plastic, meaning they'll require less energy to produce and move around.
A company called Paboco has been working with other companies to develop paper bottles. The companies are creating their own bottle designs, but they're sharing what they learn to promote the development of paper bottle technology
One of the biggest challenges is preventing a paper bottle leaking（泄漏）. The inside of the bottle needs a special coating to make sure the liquid doesn't leak through. Many companies are lining（做衬垫）their bottles with a thin sheet of plastic. Though bottle makers may say this liner can be recycled, many recycling programs don't have the right machines to handle these liners.
A Danish beer company called Carlsberg is working with Paboco on a paper bottle called the "Green Fiber Bottle". Currently the bottle uses a plastic liner. In the future the company hopes to use a "bio-plastic" that will break down naturally over time, And a company named Diageo just announced the first paper bottle whose inside uses a non-plastic coating.
But even without the plastic, paper bottles aren't perfect. Most paper bottles use wood pulp（纸浆）, meaning trees need to be cut down. To solve this problem, Frugalpac, a company from the United Kingdom, has created wine bottles made of recycled paper. Frugalpac still uses a plastic liner, though.
Companies will need to see how long liquids can be stored in the paper bottles and make sure the bottles don't affect the taste. But with so many companies working toward the same goal, it's likely that we can expect to see paper bottles on store shelves in the near future.
1. What is the advantage of paper bottles over other ones?| A．They cost less. | B．They are more appealing. |
| C．They are easier to produce. | D．They are more eco-friendly. |
| A．Finding recycling liners. |
| B．Getting the right machine. |
| C．Preventing the liquid escape. |
| D．Making sure of the storage time. |
| A．Cutting down fewer trees. | B．Using recycled paper. |
| C．Producing "bio-plastic" liners. | D．Still using plastic liners. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Satisfied. | D．Worried. |
6 . About 12 million tons of plastic wastes are entering the oceans every year. This garbage pollutes the water, kills wildlife and breaks down into small pieces that fish and other creatures eat.
Now a group of Spanish fishermen will receive economic support to catch plastics. It is part of a new project. Carlos Martin is one of the fishermen taking part in the project. He and his partners collect the plastic in the ocean and bring it back to land every week. Martin thinks rivers carry a lot of plastics to the sea. He says his most concern is no more than that the plastics often get caught in the nets, which makes nets not work properly. They take on mud（泥）, causing the nets to break because they weigh so much.
Under the new programs, one million pounds will support ocean cleanup efforts for fishermen like Martin. The money is coming from the European Union and the Catalan government. Sergi Tudela, the General Director of Catalonia Fisheries, is responsible for the cleanup project. He said, "We are hopeful that if we are successful in this project, we can apply it to other areas in the Mediterranean（地中海）."
Government reports show that the amount of plastic wastes washing up along the Spanish coastline has grown by 65 percent in just six years. Fishing equipment makes up a large part of the about 8 to 12 million tons of plastics left in the world's oceans every year.
Martin says the fishing community now understands how big the problem is. He says, "In the past we didn't see it that way. We took the plastic garbage and threw it back into the water. I think that after a few year here we have realized the problem. Nothing is thrown into the water; we collect everything and bring it to shore.
1. What worries Martin most about plastic wastes at the beginning?| A．They pollute the sea environment. |
| B．They affect the quality and taste of fish. |
| C．They prevent the fishing nets from working well. |
| D．They kill wildlife and reduce his fishing amount. |
| A．Getting more money to support the project. |
| B．Getting help from other European countries. |
| C．Spreading the cleanup project to more places. |
| D．Praising the European Union for their helping to the oceans. |
| A．Its members do a lot of work for free. |
| B．It has stopped using plastic fishing equipment. |
| C．It has made positive changes to fight plastic wastes. |
| D．Its members find people sill throw the garbage carelessly. |
| A．New programs are changing fishermen's life |
| B．Money is given to Spanish fishermen to clean up oceans |
| C．Traditional fishing equipment causes a lot of plastic wastes |
| D．Spanish fishermen are encouraging people to clean up oceans |
7 . As Shanghai prepared to introduce mandatory (强制的) garbage sorting on July I, games and toys that examined fun ways to spread information about the garbage sorting were to encourage younger people to take action.
A 15-second video of a game went on Chinese social media. In the video, players wearing VR (虚拟) headsets saw four different types of trash can in front of them, and had to throw different types of garbage into the right buckets (桶) to get points. Although it was not the only VR game in the place, visitors lined up around the booth to explore it because of the garbage-sorting theme.
“As a Shanghai, I am in great need of this game. Maybe I won't need to check how to categorize (分类) each piece of garbage on my phone while going through all my garbage every day if I play this game more often,” said Zhou Zhou, a young Shanghai. But some social media users in Shanghai have complained (抱怨) about the difficulty of sorting different types of garbage.
Wu Xia, founder and CEO of VitrellaCore, the company that created the game, said the idea was to provide an interesting way of learning about garbage sorting. “It’s simple and easy to understand. People can practice sorting garbage without actually going through their trash, and it is a more fruitful method than using paper materials when training volunteers,” Wu said.
1. What is the purpose of the VR game?| A．Just for fun. | B．Teach students to sort garbage. |
| C．Help to release (释放) stress . | D．Teach children to protect environment. |
| A．It is too hard to sort garbage. |
| B．There are too many people lining up. |
| C．The VR game should be more interesting. |
| D．There are more ways to use paper materials. |
| A．Effective. | B．Interesting. | C．Traditional. | D．Scientific. |
| A．Young people like VR games more. |
| B．Shanghai performs mandatory garbage sorting. |
| C．Games were used to help young people sort garbage. |
| D．Learning by playing VR games is practical for the young. |
8 . China’s war on garbage is as digital as the country itself. Think QR codes attached to trash bags that allow the government to trace exactly where its trash comes from.
On July 1, Shanghai began a compulsory garbage sorting program. Households and companies must classify their wastes into four categories and dump them in appointed places at certain times. The strict program became a headache for some residents. Not even the most environmentally conscious person can get all the answers right. Like, which bin does the newspaper you just used to pick up dog poop (粪便)belong to?
Gratefully, China’s tech startups are here to help. For instance, China’s biggest internet companies responded with new search features that help people identify what wastes are “wet”, “dry”, “toxic”, or “recyclable”. Simply pull up a mini app on WeChat, Baidu or Alipay and enter the keyword. The tech firms will give you the answer and why.
Alipay, Alibaba’s electronics payment company, claims its garbage sorting mini app added one million users under just three days. The mini app has so far indexed (编索引) more than 4,000 types of rubbish. Its database is still growing, and soon it will save people from typing by using image recognition to classify trash when they snap a photo of it. If people are too busy or lazy to hit the collection schedule, well, startups are offering trash service at the doorstep. A third-party developer helped Alipay build a recycling mini app and is now collecting garbage from 8,000 apartment complexes across 11 cities. To date, two million people have sold recyclable materials through its platform.
Besides helping households out, companies are also building software to make property managers, life easier. Some residential complexes in Shanghai began using QR codes to trace the origin of garbage. This way, regulators in the region know exactly which family has produced the trash and fine violators.
1. What are some residents confused about?| A．Environmental knowledge. | B．Bin for dog poop. |
| C．Some waste classification. | D．Time for dumping. |
| A．It provides time flexibility. | B．It reduces household waste. |
| C．It saves people from typing. | D．It classifies rubbish properly. |
| A．Third-party developers. | B．Company managers. |
| C．Community administrators. | D．Rubbish collectors. |
| A．People need recycling apps badly. |
| B．People should classify their rubbish. |
| C．How regulators benefit from the tech. |
| D．How China uses tech to sort waste. |
9 . Reducing plastic waste isn't easy because the cheap material is found in almost every household item. Now, a delicious and nutritious solution has come up to help reduce our dependence on this environmental hazard.
David Christian, the co-founder of Evoware, says the idea of creating the biodegradable (生物降解的) products came from concern at the country’s high pollution rate. Indonesia is home to four of the world's worst polluted rivers. Since single-use packaging is a large contributor to the problem, Evoware decided to deal with that first.
After investigating various materials, the company settled on seaweed. Unlike corn, commonly used for biodegradable containers, seaweed does not require resources like water or large amounts of space. Since Indonesian farmers already harvest more seaweed than they can sell, it's easy for the company to find the material.
Though they will not reveal their production process, Evoware says the seaweed packaging contains no chemicals and is safe to consume. The company has also invented single-use cups, which can break down 30 days after they're thrown away.
While replacing plastic with the seaweed products may seem appealing to most of us, it is a hard-sell in Indonesia. According to Christian, ''The awareness to reduce single-use plastic is still very low. This makes our bioplastic unnecessary.” Also a factor is the cost, which is higher than using plastic. Hopefully, Evoware will succeed in convincing Indonesians and people worldwide that switching to their products will be helpful to protecting our beautiful planet.
1. What problem did Evoware decide to deal with first?| A．Ways to clean the four worst polluted rivers. |
| B．What nutritious materials for people to use. |
| C．How to deal with single-use packaging. |
| D．Means to contribute to the country's economy. |
| A．It didn't require much space and was easy to get. |
| B．It could be found everywhere in his country. |
| C．It was most commonly used for packaging. |
| D．It grew thickly in most of the polluted rivers. |
| A．Their seaweed products have won government support. |
| B．Sometimes it's hard to get people to reduce the use of plastics. |
| C．Their new products have received worldwide popularity. |
| D．The cost of making seaweed products will be lowered soon. |
| A．Something lasting long. | B．Something hard to accept. |
| C．Something easy to get. | D．Something commonly seen. |
10 . National lawmakers are calling for more effective environmental protection of the Qilian Mountains, a vast natural habitat in western China.
The mountains stand across the border between Gansu and Qinghai provinces. The nature reserve became a national protected site in 1988, but hundreds of mines in the area and various construction projects took a toll on the environment.
Thanks to the recovery of the mountains’ environment and greater efforts to protect wildlife, many protected and rare wild animals have been sighted very often in recent years.
The city has also moved away all farmers, herdsmen and one-third of its people who were living in the mountains to a new zone and helped them find jobs in an effort to reduce the pressure on the environment.
Scientific research and advanced technology are key to the restoration (重建) of the mountains’ ecology (生态), said Wang Tao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources.
Wang said a research center led by the institute was set up last year to focus on ecosystem recovery and the ecological management of the mountains under the influence of global climate change.
The center has begun research to carry out environmental observation and assessment (评估), providing support for the creation of a Qilian Mountains national park, he added.
To better protect the mountains, Wang said, it’s necessary to promote large-scale, rapid observation approach and build a great ecological assessment system in the reserve.
A data-sharing (数据共享) management system should be pushed forward to create a database (数据库) of the mountains, environment, which would support its protection in a scientific way, he added.
1. What does the underlined phrase “took a toll” in the second paragraph mean?| A．protected | B．ignored | C．harmed | D．controlled |
| A．To create a national park |
| B．To found a research center. |
| C．To increase the number of wildlife. |
| D．To reduce the pressure on the environment. |
| A．Rare wild animals can be seen everywhere in the reserve. |
| B．A research center was established for ecosystem restoration. |
| C．Since 1988, the Qilian Mountains have been well protected. |
| D．Many effective laws have been made to protect the environment. |
| A．An ecological assessment system should be set up. |
| B．Scientific research plays the biggest part in restoring ecology. |
| C．Global climate change influences the research on ecological assessment. |
| D．A data-sharing management system has been widely applied in the reserve. |
