1 . In the eyes of many environmentalists, the world appears to be getting worse. They believe, the natural resources are running out and the air and water are becoming ever more polluted. But if we check the facts, things look different. Energy has become more abundant, not less so. Fewer people are starving. What seems to cause this gap between perception and reality?
One factor is the prejudice in scientific research. Scientific funding goes mainly to areas with many problems. That may be wise policy, but it will also create an impression that there are more potential problems than actually exist.
Secondly, environmental groups seek attention from the mass media. They also need to get continuous financial support. Understandably, perhaps, they sometimes exaggerate (夸大) their arguments. In 1997, for example, the World Wide Fund for Nature issued a statement titled: “Two thirds of the world’s forests lost forever”. The truth turns out to be near 20%.
The media can add to confusion too. People tend to be more curious about bad news than good. Newspapers and broadcasters are there to provide what the public wants. That, however, can lead to significant misinterpretations. For example, when a natural disaster happens, the media usually highlights the negative parts, giving more attention to the disaster’s details and what happens afterward. This flood of bad news can make people think that such events are more frequent or serious than they actually are. Consequently, people may develop a sense of insecurity, despite statistically low probabilities of similar events happening to them.
Another factor is people’s poor perception. People worry that vaccines can cause severe side effects or long-term health problems. Despite extensive scientific evidence demonstrating their safety and effectiveness, some individuals remain hesitant due to unfounded fears.
It is crucial that we look at the facts if we want to make the best possible decisions for the future. It may be costly to be overly optimistic – but more costly still to be too pessimistic.
1. What aspect of scientific research does the writer worry about in paragraph 2?| A．The need to produce results. | B．The selection of research areas. |
| C．The lack of financial support. | D．The desire to solve research problem. |
| A．To show how influential the mass media can be. |
| B．To show how effective environmental groups can be. |
| C．To show how the mass media can help groups raise funds. |
| D．To show how environmental groups overstate their claims. |
| A．educate readers | B．mislead readers |
| C．meet readers’ expectations | D．encourage readers’ feedback |
| A．Making decisions based on reality. | B．Balancing optimism and pessimism. |
| C．Being optimistic to avoid costly mistakes. | D．Addressing the environmental crisis gradually. |
2 . 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 about cultivated meat does the author focus on in paragraph 1?| A．Its characteristics. | B．Its health benefits. |
| C．Its cooking methods. | D．Its similarities to artificial meat. |
| A．Most Americans tend to skip meat. | B．Asians prefer lab-grown meat. |
| C．Beyond Meat is facing financial collapse. | D．Cultivated meat may have a growing market. |
| A．Demand for a good climate. | B．Cultivated land occupation. |
| C．Greenhouse-gas emissions. | D．Use of conventional bioreactors. |
| A．Opposed. | B．Favorable. | C．Uncaring. | D．Reserved. |
In an age of rapidly growing urbanization, rooftop farming has emerged as a sustainable response
Rooftop farming, also
As urban populations continue to grow, rooftop farming fosters community engagement
“A decade-long moratorium (中止) on fishing was imposed on the country's longest river in 2021
In
Ma Youxiang, a vice-minister of agriculture and rural affairs, told the news conference,
“
Ministry of Public Security data show it has solved more than 20,000 cases
1.环境保护的重要性；
2.目前面临的环境问题；
3.我们应如何采取行动保护环境。
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。
Ladies and gentlemen,
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Thank you for your listening.
注意：（1）每个选项至多只能使用一次；（2）方框中有一个多余词汇。
| A. started B. especially C. has resulted in D. conservation E. curious F. occasions G. why H. because of I. small J. in some way K. to create |
Growing up in Kenya, Lesein Mutunkei, together with his family, always celebrated significant
Mutunkei follows in the footsteps of the late Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, who founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977. This initiative (倡仪)
In 2018, Lesein decided to start a movement of his own. He
The initiative has caught the attention of English football club Arsenal and Kenya’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which he now works with regularly and gets advice from.
Like Green Belt Movement, Trees4Goals, which has planted 5,500 trees so far, has made it. While Lesein has received some recognition for his initiative, he sets his sights on making it a worldwide phenomenon (现象). “Football is a universal game, and climate change is a universal problem,” he explains. “It has the power to unite, educate and inspire my generation
As for what others can do to fight deforestation or other environmental concerns, the teenager says it’s important to just get involved
The Palace Museum is becoming waste-free as the 720,000-square-meter structure has managed
While protecting features of the six-century-old historical relic, the action also helps visitors and tourists get into
By launching the campaign, the Palace Museum is taking a careful, science-based way to waste management. The target is to minimize the production of waste
So far, about 3,000 museum staff members, 40,000 tourist guides, and 21 million visitors
8 . Small-scale fisheries supply many people with food. Almost all of those in this trade rely on gillnets (刺网) to trap fish. But gillnets trap other things, for example, endangered animals such as turtles; dangerous ones, such as Humboldt squid; and ones that are both endangered and dangerous, such as several types of sharks. Everyone involved would be better off if this did not happen.
Building on studies done both by himself and by others, to try to avoid the accidental netting of turtles, Jesse Senko, a marine-conservation biologist at Arizona State University, has been investigating the idea of fitting LEDs to nets to avoid netting other unwanted by-catch (误捕的鱼) without discouraging target animals. And, as he reports in Current Biology, it seems to work.
Dr. Senko and his team set up an experiment in the Gulf of Ulloa, in Mexico, in which they cooperated with local fishermen to employ over 10,000 meters of nets that had had nets battery-powered waterproof green LEDs fixed onto them every ten meters. Half of these lights were lit. The other half were left unlit, as controls. Each lit net was paired with an unlit one, and the two were used alongside one another at major fishing locations. The fishers’ target fish were large groupers (石斑鱼). Dr. Senko was interested both in what else got caught and whether the lights decreased catches of the target species.
On the latter point, to his relief, they did not. On the former, the lit net s caught 95% fewer kilograms of shark-related species. In particular, several threatened species turned up less often in the lit than the unlit nets.
The advantage from the point of view of fishermen was that they needed to spend a lot less time clearing these dangerous by-catches from their nets. And, crucially, the LEDs concerned are cheap, hard-wearing, and easy to fix. There are also plans to make them solar powered, for easy recharging. Here, then, is an environmental-protection idea from which everyone wins.
1. What is the problem with gillnets?| A．They are costly to maintain. | B．They trap unwanted by-catches. |
| C．They discourage target catches. | D．They only trap dangerous species. |
| A．The principle of the experiment. | B．The results of the experiment. |
| C．The purpose of the experiment | D．The process of the experiment. |
| A．Fixing LEDs to gillnets is a win-win idea. |
| B．Fishermen benefit the most from the idea. |
| C．The Lit-net catches more threatened species. |
| D．The LED-net just catches less target species. |
| A．Critical. | B．Unclear. | C．Hopeful. | D．Doubtful. |
9 . Sargassum is a kind of floating seaweed (海草) that has been growing in size every year. It looks pretty in the ocean. However, sargassum can almost completely block out sunlight. Important kinds of seagrass suffer when light is blocked by seaweed. As sargassum piles up on beaches, it makes it hard for mother sea turtles to lay eggs, and nearly impossible for baby turtles to return to the sea.
So much sargassum piles up on beaches, and it breaks down slowly, giving out a bad smell like rotten eggs. “Even when governments clear the seaweed from beaches, they face problems of getting rid of it. Heavy machines can put turtle nests in danger. Some people have thought about using sargassum as a fertilizer (肥料), but it contains harmful heavy metals. So far, removing these harmful metal s costs too much to make it worth doing,” said the scientist Steven Kelley.
Sargassum grows faster in warming oceans, so climate change is definitely part of the problem. But scientists believe the unusual growth of the seawood is also caused by huge quantities of fertilizers washed into the ocean from farmlands.
Scientists and students are working hard to figure out how to deal with sargassum. Some suggest using sargassum as a building material, or possibly a fuel. One unusual solution is to drop it deep in the sea by using robots. Sargassum takes in huge amounts of carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) as it grows. Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is one important part of fighting the climate crisis. Sargassum could deal with this carbon dioxide in the deep ocean. Scientists are still testing this idea to see if it will work.
For now, scientists say the quickest solution is to stop filling the ocean with fertilizers. It is wise for farmers to change the way they farm. Moreover, the seaweed’s growth can have serious effects on islands that depend heavily on tourism and fishing. Island communities play a role in cleaning up the seaweed and promoting responsible tourism. At the same time, officials have to work towards changing policies to solve the issues.
1. What can we know about sargassum according to the first paragraph?| A．It affects the ecosystem negatively. |
| B．It adds to the variety of life in the ocean. |
| C．It causes a shortage of food for sea animals. |
| D．It creates a good living environment for seagrass. |
| A．Reusing metal s from sargassum is a wise choice. |
| B．Fertilizers can help sargarrum break down quickly. |
| C．Dealing with sargassum safely is challenging work. |
| D．Practical ways have been developed to remove sargassum. |
| A．By spreading sargassum widely to increase sunlight. |
| B．By changing sargassum into a renewable energy source. |
| C．By employing sargassum as a cleaner for ocean pollution. |
| D．By making use of sargassum’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide. |
| A．Public attempts to recycle seaside sargassum. |
| B．The change in sargassum’s living environment. |
| C．Challenges and approaches concerning sargassum. |
| D．The influence of sargassum’s growth on climate change. |
1.校园浪费现象：
2.作为学生，我们该如何做；
3.呼吁大家一起行动。
注意：写作词数80左右。开头结尾已给出。
Good morning everyone. I’m Lihua.
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