1 . Zhu Dejun’s first job after graduating from college was as a road design engineer in his hometown, Alshaa League, North Chin’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region(内蒙古自治区). In 2011, when Zhu was conducting a road survey along with his colleagues, he saw a plant that he didn’t recognize. Later, Zhu learned that the plant was a saxaul (灌木梭梭) tree which is an excellent tree species for sand fixation and afforestation (造林) in desert areas. Known as a desert guardian, a fully grown saxaul tree can hold together a 10-square-meter patch of desert land, according to Zhu.
Zhu quit (辞去) his job at the design institute in 2014 and joined a nonprofit organization, the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology Conservation, or SEE, in the same year, concentrating on dealing with desertification (沙漠化) .During the past eight years, Zhu has been leading a team from SEE to plant saxaul trees in sandy areas in Alshaa League and other places of Inner Mongolia.
In 2014, the SEE launched a project titled “one million saxaul trees”, aiming to reach that number from 2014 to 2023, turning the desert of more than 133, 330 hectares (公顷) back into a satisfying ecosystem. By the end of 2018, half of the organization’s goal had been achieved. In 2016, Ant Finance cooperated with SEE to introduce the Ant Forest platform, not only encouraging people to choose “a low-carbon way” of shopping, traveling and living, but also to help control desertification.
Through the participation of a greater number of online users, who grow virtual trees, the SEE Foundation, set up in 2008, has been providing subsidies (补助金) for local herdsmen and farmers while also offering technological support to plant saxaul trees in desert areas. Now, Zhu is the head of the foundation’s project to fight desertification. He also gives lectures about saxaul trees and the fight against desertification at schools, hoping to raise awareness among young people.
1. What did Zhu Dejun do first after graduation?| A．Here searched on saxaul trees. |
| B．He joined a nonprofit organization. |
| C．He found ways to fight desertification. |
| D．He focused on road design engineering. |
| A．They are easily taken care of. |
| B．They can grow fast in deserts. |
| C．They are perfect for holding water. |
| D．They can fight desertification effectively. |
| A．They teamed up with Ant Finance. |
| B．They planted one million saxaul trees. |
| C．They held online lectures on desertification. |
| D．They encouraged donation from online users. |
| A．By providing subsidies. | B．By raising awareness. |
| C．By planting trees online. | D．By offering technological support. |
2 . After being driven to near extinction, wolves are back in Washington state.
Wolf 32M, called The Old Guy by wolf specialist Ben Maletzke, lived some 12 years as the patriarch (族长) of the Teanaway Pack, kicking off the recovery of wolves in Washington. The pack’s territory was roasted by wildfire in 2014. But wolf 32M and his family remained in existence, bringing the call of the wild back for the first time in a century. These wolves are what Maletzke calls stepping stones in recovery — the animals that could help lead the way to new territory not yet repopulated by wolves.
Wolves spread to new territory to find mates and begin packs of their own. It is this pack dynamic that wildlife biologists are counting on, in time, to urge wolves into areas where they do not presently live. “We just need a couple to pick up and go,” Maletzke says.
All along, the Teanaway pack has stayed mostly out of trouble probably, helped by a lot of range riding (牧区巡逻) intended to help reduce conflicts over wolf recovery by keeping wolves away from cattle. “He is an example of wolves living and doing what they do, even around people,” Maletzke says of wolf 32M.
Story Warren, a student at the University of Montana, was just a girl when she first saw 32M’s tracks in the Teanaway River Valley — an exciting encounter that helped generate a serious interest in wildlife that now fuels her studies. To her, the return of the wolf is about more than the species; it is about recovering something even bigger: hope.
“Growing up in my generation, there is so much bad ecological news, a lot of hopelessness about climate change and loss of biodiversity and extinctions,” Warren says, “To have something as wild as wolves coming back to Washington is very encouraging for me — just to know such an amazing and powerful creature exists.”
1. Why does Maletzke call Wolf 32M family “stepping stones”?| A．They are nearly dying out. | B．They are victims of wildfire. |
| C．They are worth protection. | D．They are pioneers in wolf recovery. |
| A．To present a result. | B．To clarify a concept. |
| C．To offer an explanation. | D．To make a prediction |
| A．Wolves face a lot of trouble. |
| B．Wolf recovery counts on its population. |
| C．Certain measures to ensure cattle safety are required. |
| D．Wolves should be forbidden from human residence. |
| A．It fuels more studies on wildlife. | B．It clears up bad ecological news. |
| C．It worsens climate change. | D．It excites hope for the ecosystem. |
3 . China has planted millions of trees in its north over the past two decades as part of its fight against expanding deserts.
The effort paid off. Around the year 2000, deserts across the country were still expanding by 10, 400 km a year. But in 2017, the State Forestry Administration reported that China’s deserts were decreasing by more than 2, 400km2 a year. The achievement was confirmed by a 2018 study from the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences in Paris.
“In 1999, the Chinese government began planting millions of trees in its Grain for Green Program. It was intended to repair damaged farmland in the northern Loess Plateau, which is roughly the size of France,” says Philippe Ciais, a climate researcher at the laboratory. “I was there a few months ago, and it is indeed amazing that once bare landscapes are now almost fully covered by plants.”
And China is doubling its effort and has announced a target of 30% forest coverage by 2050. At the moment, the coverage is 22%.
“The growth of forests is significant and necessary progress in the fight against desertification,” says Jianping Huang, a climate researcher at Lanzhou University. “But it’s still too early to determine whether it has solved the problem. In northwestern China, researchers have found that many of the plant species introduced to the Loess Plateau use more water than native vegetation. A 2016 study found that the restored ecosystem was already using too much rainfall and reducing the amount of water that runs off to rivers. It could lead to water shortages for humans.”
Considering water shortages is important, the national forestry department has recognized the error of planting trees in dry areas. In recent years, it has worked more closely with researchers and communities to find ways to seed less-thirsty plants that have economic value. These include plants used in traditional Chinese medicine, which farmers can harvest and sell.
“All programs need to take into account local conditions,” the forestry department said in March. “Our efforts should go towards keeping vegetation healthy, rather than simply planting trees.”
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The effort of planting trees. |
| B．The worsening desertification. |
| C．The hard fight against expanding deserts. |
| D．The result of the Grain for Green Program. |
| A．22%. | B．30%. | C．44%. | D．52%. |
| A．The rapid growth of the foreign species. |
| B．The fast losses of native plants and trees. |
| C．The war for water between trees and humans. |
| D．The quickly declining rainfall in the dry areas. |
| A．To put economic value first. | B．To consider the income of all parties. |
| C．To base its decisions on local conditions. | D．To wait for complete scientific evidence. |
4 . In order to save the environment, everybody has a role to play. The perfect
During her year-long cleanup, Smith was often
The environmentally conscious granny has no intention of
| A．case . | B．position | C．example | D．role |
| A．Associated | B．Rewarded | C．Combined | D．Armed |
| A．recycling | B．collecting | C．abandoning | D．trapping |
| A．explore . | B．decorate . | C．clean | D．survey |
| A．thus | B．still | C．again | D．even |
| A．admired | B．joined | C．recorded | D．interrupted |
| A．blame | B．forgive | C．respect | D．mistake |
| A．voluntarily | B．secretly | C．frequently | D．cautiously |
| A．declaring | B．admitting | C．ensuring | D．announcing |
| A．escaping | B．disappearing | C．leaving | D．stopping |
| A．canceled | B．found | C．done | D．obtained |
| A．need | B．understand | C．impress | D．trust |
| A．planet | B．courtyard | C．continent | D．family |
| A．enjoy | B．continue | C．recommend | D．imagine |
| A．proud | B．guilty | C．skeptical | D．aware |
5 . Germany is the leader of the world’s waste-recycling race. The country has quite a detailed way of sorting their waste – down to the color of glass waste, the type of paper, the separate bin for metals, etc.
Here below are what you should know about Germany’s waste sorting system:
● You are expected to gather your waste in your apartment/housing area’s local public garbage bins.
● There are commonly several types of public garbage bins available in the German’s apartment/housing area:
● Blue bin –– for paper and cardboard
● Green and white bin –– for glass, different bins for differently colored glass, not available for holiday decorations and lights
● Yellow/orange bin –– for plastic and metals
● Brown bin –– for goods that can be changed naturally by bacteria into substances that don’t harm the environment, like leftovers, fruit and vegetables
● Gray/black bin –– for everything else that can’t be recycled such as used cat litter and animal waste
● Some items don’t belong in these public garbage bins. Items like used batteries, electronics, unused paints, and lights must be returned to the special agents/locations so they can be properly recycled. Other items such as clothes, shoes, and oversized rubbish and furniture are advised to be donated or sold.
● There’s this thing called Pfand in Germany, a certain part of the price for a bottled drink that you get back if you send back the bottle to certified shops. German law requires shops over a certain size selling bottled drinks have a Pfandruckgabestelle, or place for bottles with deposits. These bottles usually made of glass or plastic will be refilled. Of course, there’re strict health regulations.
1. Which bin should the abandoned pet food be classified into?| A．The blue bin. | B．The grey/black bin. |
| C．The brown bin. | D．The green and white bin. |
| A．By giving it away to those in need. | B．By placing it in a specific location. |
| C．By returning it to special agents. | D．By donating it to a Pfandruckgabestelle. |
| A．Ensuring the cleanliness of refilled bottles. | B．Encouraging consumers to return bottles. |
| C．Reducing the use of non-recyclable bottles. | D．Having shops reuse plastic or glass bottles. |
6 . The permafrost (永久冻土) is melting fast... that’s bad news, because these frozen soils store billions of tons of carbon dioxide, just waiting to be released. So is there a way to save the permafrost? One team of researchers thinks it may have found a possible solution: big animals and herbivores (食草动物).
Back 1996, researchers started an experiment called Pleistocene Park. They fenced about eight square miles of land in northeast Siberia. And then they introduced different types herbivores: horses, sheep and other large creatures. Since then, scientists have studied these animals effects on the ecosystem. One outcome is that these large herbivores help keep the ground very cold-cooler than it would otherwise be.
“The snow in winter is important to soil temperature, because it acts as an insulating layer (隔绝层). So the air in winter, at the high altitudes, is much colder than the soil,” Philipp Porada, ecologist at the University of Hamburg said. So the idea of this experiment was to introduce large herbivores to quantify their effects on soil temperature and see if they can actually protect permafrost soils against melting. And this works because the animals’ trampling (踩踏) leads to less insulation of the soil against cold air temperatures and results in a cooling effect.
Porada and his colleagues realized the significance of this effect, so they pulled data from Pleistocene Park to model what effect herbivores could have on permafrost if they lived in large numbers in the Arctic.
Porada said, “These herbivores in the model reduce soil temperature greatly, by 1.7 grees on average. And this leads a preservation of around 80 percent of today s permafrost area. And without the herbivore effect in the model, we found that only 50 percent of the permafrost area would remain by the year 2100.”
1. What will the permafrost’s melting result in?| A．The decrease air. | B．The cooling effect. |
| C．The rise the surrounding temperature. | D．The increase in herbivores. |
| A．They can make more insulating layers. |
| B．They can protect the snow on the ground. |
| C．They make the ground release lots of carbon. |
| D．They make cold air reach the soil more easily. |
| A．It remains to be checked. | B．It’s unreasonable. |
| C．It’s significant. | D．It has been used widely. |
| A．The herbivores could lead to the preservation of permafrost. |
| B．The herbivores would help find more permafrost areas. |
| C．The temperature would increase greatly in the future. |
| D．Only half of the permafrost would remain by the year 2100. |
