2 . Tips for Green Travel with Kids

Traveling doesn’t mean letting go of all the eco-friendly choices we work so hard to achieve in our daily life. Here are a few tips for green travel with kids:

Booking nonstop flights whenever possible will reduce carbon emissions (碳排放).     1    , check in with other local airports to see if nonstop flights are available. You might have to drive a bit further, but saving on carbon emissions makes it worthwhile.

Whether you’re flying or driving, it’s easy when traveling to pull into fast food restaurants for snacks.     2    . My kids love to help plan snacks. I let them create their own snacks for the trip at home.

Reusable water bottles are easy to bring along whenever you travel. At the airport, keep your reusable bottles empty until you have passed through the security (安检).     3    . Single-use plastic water bottles create unnecessary waste and the plastic can be harmful to your health.

    4    . Open a few windows and turn off the air conditioner. You should also help your children keep their good, green habits from home to place while traveling. Sometimes vacation can mean more than one shower each day — once in the morning and again after getting out of the pool. Pay attention to the number of showers and the length of showers.     5    .

A．Too much carbon emissions seriously pollute the environment

B．But you can pack healthy food before starting off

C．In this way, you can save water and energy

D．Fill them up on the other side of the security checkpoint

E．Security check is a necessary part of each trip

F．Save energy by turning off the hotel room lights when you head out for the day

G．If the closest local airport doesn’t have nonstop flights to a certain place

3 . There are more than 7 billion people on Earth. Imagine what will happen if each of us decides to do one thing — no matter how small — to protect wildlife every day. Even little actions can have a major influence when we all do something.     1    .

Raise an animal

From wild animals to wild places, there’s a choice for everyone.     2    . It is a small and easy action but of great importance.

Do some volunteer work

    3    , you can offer your time. Many organizations and zoos have volunteer programs. You can help clean beaches, rescue wild animals or teach visitors. Zoos, national parks and wildlife protection areas are all home to wild animals. Learn more about our planet’s species from experts. See Earth’s most amazing creatures up close.

Speak up and join

Share your concern for wildlife protection with your family. Tell your friends how they can help. Ask everyone you know to do what they can to stop wildlife trafficking (非法交易).     4    , find the organization and take part. Become a member. Actively support the organization of your choice.

    5    

Find new ways to use things you already own. If you can’t reuse them, recycle. The Minnesota Zoo encourages customers to recycle mobile phones to cut down a need for the mineral coltan (钶钽铁矿), which is mined from lowland gorillas’ living places.

A．Develop a habit of recycling

B．Try to encourage others to do it

C．Whether you’re into protecting natural living places or preventing wildlife trafficking

D．If you don’t have money to give

E．Get together with classmates to raise an animal from a wildlife organization

F．Here are ways you can make a difference

G．If you are busy with your work or studying

4 . A team of conservationists (环境保护主义者) captured 14 Loa water frogs earlier this month in northern Chile, a wildlife group reported.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the Loa water frog as “critically endangered”. The not-for-profit Global Wildlife Conservation group said the 14 frogs were in poor condition when they were discovered in late June. The animals were small and struggling because of a lack of food and water.

The Loa water frogs are known to live only in a single body of water near Calama, in Chile. The city sits in the middle of the Atacama Desert, where water is in great demand.

There was little water in the area where the frogs were found, the conservation group reported. The frogs’ environment had mostly dried up because water is being taken away and used for human activities, the group said. The activities include mining (矿业), agriculture and land development. “All of the frogs had been pushed into a tiny pool of muddy water,” the organization said. “The team collected the last 14 individuals and brought them to the National Zoo of Chile to start a conservation breeding (繁殖) program.”

Zoo specialists are closely watching the small creatures and trying to give them everything they need to survive and be healthy. Conservation groups have called on Chile’s government to take steps to halt any illegal water usage that threatens the frogs’ natural environment. They would also like to see creation of a government-supported shelter to protect the animals.

Jon Paul Rodriguez heads the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission. He suggested that an emergency plan be developed to prepare the Calama area for the frogs’ return.

“We need to work very hard to restore their environment because it’s pointless to breed them if they don’t have a home to go back to in the wild,” Rodriguez said.

1. What do we know about the frogs when they were rescued?

A．They were looking for food.	B．They were in good condition.
C．They were approaching death.	D．They were moving for new water source.

2. What has made these frogs endangered?

A．Lack of water.	B．Air pollution.
C．Human hunting.	D．Extreme climate.

3. What does the underlined word “halt” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Improve.

B．Add.

C．Change.

D．Stop.

4. What did Jon Paul Rodriguez suggest humans do for these frogs?

A．Keep them healthy.	B．Recover their home.
C．Raise them in the shelter.	D．Prevent them living in the wild.

5 . As most people know, in the last few years, sandstorms have swept across many cities and areas of North China, polluting the air and disturbing daily lives of human beings. People look dirty and suffer many kinds of illnesses, such as breath difficulty. The sandstorm is such a serious problem that it has not only weakened the industrial and agricultural development of our country but also caused a lot of trouble to the living conditions of the Chinese people.

Therefore, effective measures should be taken as soon as possible to stop its happening. So how should we deal with the frightening sandstorms?

Some experts offer practical advice as follows: For one thing, more money ought to be put into tree planting and forest protection in order to keep more water on the Earth. For another, government of all countries should make laws on environment protection. For example, banning (禁止) the use of throw-away chopsticks and punishing illegal tree cutting. Scientists should also study and find ways to lower the grade of its destruction and to improve the environment. As for some schools, education about sandstorms should be spread properly and timely to make more and more people attach great importance to this problem.

How people look forward to sunny days with soft wind touching their faces now and forever! The golden days can come back so long as we try our best to protect the natural environment from today on. And the fact is that what I expect is not just a dream. There are some sweet fruits from the early efforts.

1. What’s the first paragraph mainly about?

A．Ways to protect the environment.	B．Bad influences sandstorms bring.
C．The biggest cause of sandstorms.	D．The fast development of China.

2. How many ways to deal with sandstorms are mentioned by some experts?

A．One.

B．Two.

C．Four.

D．Six.

3. What will the author probably write about in the following part?

A．Successful examples of stopping sandstorms.

B．A bright world with no sandstorms anymore.

C．How to realize our dream to live a happy life.

D．Why people should always carry on with dreams.

6 . 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。

Dongying city in China’s Shandong Province has witnessed ecological improvements in the Yellow River Delta, thanks to various     1    (effect) measures to improve wetland restoration and protection.

Years ago, the wetlands there     2    (threaten) due to less water from the river and other factors.     3    (protect) the wetlands ecosystem, the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve was established in 1992. Since then, the city     4    (carry) out several management projects and restored the biotic (生物) population in the zone.

Dongying has been adopting a comprehensive wetlands restoration model by giving high priority to protecting the nature reserve and letting nature restore     5    (it) . Over the past three years, it’s transferred 469 million cubic meters of water to the nature reserve, which has recovered the ecological functions of the wetlands there.

Last year, Dongying built a real-time monitoring network for bird species at the nature reserve, which ensures that birds are free from disturbance of human activity and     6    (put) the habitats of cranes and other species under key protection. As     7    result, the nature reserve has seen an obvious increase in the variety and number     8    bird species. Home to 371 bird species, it’s become an important stop, wintering ground and breeding place for migratory     9    (bird). Dongying is currently working to build the Yellow River Estuary National Park,     10    will cover 3, 523 square kilometers, including land area and sea area, to explore pathways for the protection of Delta ecology.

7 . The endangered pandas in the Qinling Mountains might face a new threat: the loss of their food, bamboo, which makes up 99% of their meals.

Adult pandas spend most part of the day eating bamboo and have to take in at least 40 pounds a day to stay healthy. However, a new study published in Nature Climate Change warned that they may soon find their food gone because most of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains might disappear by the end of the century as a result of rising temperature worldwide.

A team made up of researchers from Michigan State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has studied the effects of climate change on the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains. They have found that bamboo is very sensitive to climate changes. “80% to 100% of the bamboo would be gone if the average temperature rises 3.5 degrees worldwide by the end of the century,” said Liu Jianguo, one of the report’s authors.

He added, “This is how much the temperature would rise by 2100 even if all countries will keep their promises in the Paris Agreement. But you know what is happening all around the world.”

In recent years, China has been trying its best to protect the endangered pandas by setting up more and bigger natural reserves.

“But it is far from enough and the endangered pandas need cooperation from the rest of the world, because their future is not just in the hands of the Chinese,” said Shirley Martin from the World Wildlife Fund but not a member of the team.

The Qinling Mountains, in the southwest of China, are home to about 260 pandas. That is about 13% of China’s wild panda population. In addition, about 375 are living in research centers and zoos in China.

1. How many wild pandas are there in China?

A．About 260.	B．About 635.
C．About 2,635.	D．About 2,000.

2. What does Liu Jianguo mean in Paragraph 4?

A．China needs more help from the World Wildlife Fund.

B．It is difficult to control the temperature rise within 3.5℃.

C．Bamboo is sensitive to the changes of temperature.

D．China is making great efforts to protect the pandas.

3. What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．The Qinling Mountains can provide enough bamboo for the pandas.

B．Pandas in the Qinling Mountains are only threatened by the loss of food.

C．Lots of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains will probably disappear.

D．Pandas have already eaten 99% of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains.

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

A．The Disappearance of Bamboo

B．Necessity to Change Pandas’ Food

C．A New Threat Faced by the Pandas

D．Efforts Made to Save Pandas

8 . Despite the bad reputation of sharks, they are crucial to the health of the marine ecosystem and can even help fight climate change.

In the shallows of Shaik Bay, Western Australia, seagrass is food for the sea cows, which can weigh as much as 500 kg and eat roughly 40 kg of seagrass a day. Sea cows are a rich source of food for tiger sharks. By keeping the sea cow population controlled, tiger sharks here help the seagrass grow sustainably. A booming seagrass meadow stores twice as much CO₂ per square mile as forests typically do on land.

But tiger shark numbers are declining. Off Australia’s northeast coast of Queensland, tiger sharks are estimated to have fallen by at least 71 percent, largely due to overfishing. A reduction in tiger sharks means more seagrass consumed by herbivores (食草动物) and less carbon stored in sea vegetation. This raised the question: What if they were absent from the Shark Bay — would the seagrass-dominated ecosystem survive?

To find out, researcher led by Rob Nowicki of Florida International University, spent time in Eastern Australia, where shark numbers were lower and sea cows ate seagrass largely undisturbed. “When uncontrolled, sea cows can rapidly destroy wide areas of seagrass.” said Nowicki.

Those findings emphasized that tiger sharks were playing an important role in preventing the reduction of seagrass in Shark Bay. If their populations continue to decline, the resilience of carbon-rich ocean ecosystems will likely decrease.

          When it comes to stimulating shark numbers, there have been movements toward more sustainable fishing, but a large percentage of the industry have not changed their methods, which is a reason why the population of many marine top predators (捕食者) continues to decline.

Aside from supporting sustainable fishing, Nowicki said the only way to truly protect marine life is to reduce our global greenhouse gas emissions. “Ultimately, if we are going to protect our ecosystems in the centuries to come, we are going to need to solve climate change while undertaking species protection at the same time.”

1. Why are tiger sharks vital to the marine ecosystem?

A．They feed on various sea animals.	B．They can store large amounts of CO₂.
C．They can prevent the loss of seagrass.	D．They influence marine species’ health

2. What does the underlined word “resilience” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Remark.

B．Recovery.

C．Bother.

D．Accident.

3. What is the main cause of the population reduction of many top predators?

A．Unsustainable fishing.	B．Lack of protection.
C．Climate change.	D．Loss of seagrass.

4. What’s the purpose of the text?

A．To tell the number of tiger sharks is decreasing.

B．To show climate change causes the loss of seagrass.

C．To tell environmental protection is at the top of the agenda.

D．To show tiger sharks are vital to the health of the marine ecosystem.

9 . Ninety-seven percent of Earth’s water is ocean. No blue, no green. If you think the ocean isn’t important, imagine Earth without it. Fifty years ago, when I began exploring the ocean, no one realized that we human being could do anything to harm the ocean.

For me, as a woman scientist, it all began in 1953 when I first tried diving. In 1979, by using a submersible, I had a chance to reach the ocean floor which was six miles offshore and 1,250 feet down. Since then, I’ve used about 30 kinds of submarines. We need new deep-diving submersible. We need to see the undersea mountains and understand life in the deep sea. Exploring and protecting the wild ocean is my big wish.

What’s worrying us is that an ice free Arctic Ocean may happen in this century. That’s bad news for the polar bears. Additional CO₂ is not only driving global warming, but also changing ocean chemistry, making the sea more acidic. That’s bad news for coral reefs and oxygen-producing plankton(浮游生物). Actually, nearly half of the coral reefs have disappeared. We’re putting hundreds of millions of tons of plastic and other rubbish into the sea. We’re blocking the ocean, poisoning the planet’s circulatory system. Most of the turtles, sharks, tunas and whales are way down in numbers. All of these are part of our life support system.

Health to the ocean means health for us. I wish we would use all means—films, explorations, the web, new submarines—and campaign to stimulate public support for ocean protected areas. My wish is a big wish, but if we can make it happen, it can truly save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet. For the children of today, for tomorrow’s children: as never again, now is the time.

1. Why does the writer say “No blue, no green.” in the first paragraph?

A．To tell us the colors of the earth.	B．To refer to the ocean and the land.
C．To show the importance of ocean.	D．To encourage us to explore the ocean.

2. What should we do to protect the ocean according to the text?

A．Make joint efforts.	B．Save life support system.
C．Encourage children to take action.	D．Explore the ocean by new technology.

3. What’s the writer’s attitude towards the current situation of the ocean?

A．Negative.

B．Concerned.

C．Uncertain.

D．Indifferent.

10 . The first time ever I realized that plastic was a serious matter for our planet was during a road trip in Western Australia, almost 12 years ago.

We ______ at a supermarket along the Coral Bay coast to buy some groceries and the lady at the counter told us they didn’t sell any shopping bags in order to prevent plastic in the

______ and to help preserving the endangered turtles living in that area. After a first reaction of surprise, we ______ all our shopping in our arms and left.

This was just one of the many experiences I’ve lived that made me more ______ about my impact and pushed me to adopt different habits to live and ______ more sustainably.

Our trip to Borneo was another life-changing ______ that has strengthened my resolution to a zero-waste lifestyle. While traveling in some Asian countries, we came to know that ______ drinkable water was always a challenge. So we had to travel with our water bottle, and we ______ to avoid using plastic during our trip.

Besides, we were also ______ impressed by our stay on Libaran Island. A sustainable turtle conservation ______ and the community had made big efforts to ______ the beaches and creatively re-use plastic for ten years. Despite that, the shore is ______ daily with tons of plastic coming from the tides.

Facing this global issue ______, raised in me a feeling of sadness and anger that soon turned into ______: to do as much as possible to reduce plastic in our life. Small changes can ______ a difference!

1.

A．stayed

B．visited

C．worked

D．stopped

2.

A．land

B．ocean

C．district

D．supermarket

3.

A．threw

B．picked

C．dropped

D．carried

4.

A．sure

B．proud

C．conscious

D．comfortable

5.

A．travel

B．deliver

C．remove

D．play

6.

A．story

B．growth

C．experience

D．suffering

7.

A．free

B．cheap

C．valuable

D．safe

8.

A．failed

B．managed

C．hesitated

D．happened

9.

A．firmly

B．violently

C．deeply

D．dramatically

10.

A．action

B．project

C．schedule

D．protection

11.

A．dry up

B．tie up

C．clean up

D．take up

12.

A．washed

B．proved

C．rushed

D．injured

13.

A．on purpose

B．for sure

C．to an extent

D．in person

14.

A．confusion

B．determination

C．frustration

D．satisfaction

15.

A．make

B．do

C．achieve

D．find