1 . Rainforests provide much of the world’s oxygen. People have been trying to protect them for years. But another type of forest, the cloud forest, is just as important to humans.
These forests are at the tops of mountains, generally near the equator (赤道). These wet, wooded mountaintops are mainly in African and Central and South American countries. They are called “cloud forests” because their height allows for the formation of clouds among the trees. The trees in these forests pull water out of the clouds. The water gathers on the leaves and falls into small rivers below, which flow into towns at the bottom of the mountain. The yearly rainfall in these areas is about 180 centimetres. Cloud forests can pull in up to 60 percent of that. The water is important to the plants and the people in the area. It helps them survive.
Cloud forests are also home to countless species of plants that can’t be found anywhere else. One small cloud forest has as many types of plants as there are in all of Europe. In fact, there are so many that scientists haven’t made a complete list of them yet.
These forests are being destroyed at an increasing speed. Trees are being cut down, and roads are being built in their place. Some people have a goal to get government money to protect the forests. But they have had little success so far. Another way is to take the place of the destroyed plants with new ones. That, too, has been difficult because the plants are so special. There’s plenty of work to be done, but saving the cloud forests is still possible with creative solutions.
1. Where can you probably find cloud forests?| A．In North America. | B．Far from the equator. |
| C．In some African countries. | D．At the foot of mountains. |
| A．About 60 cm. | B．About 108 cm. | C．About 180 cm. | D．About 300 cm. |
| A．Europe is short of plant types. | B．Scientists are working on a list. |
| C．Cloud forests are getting smaller. | D．Cloud forests house many plants. |
| A．In a storybook. | B．In a travel guide. |
| C．In a chemistry textbook. | D．In a geography magazine. |
2 . Sugar cane (甘蔗) contains around 10% sugar. But that means it contains around 90% non-sugar — the material known as bagasse (甘蔗渣) which remains once the sugar-bearing juice has been squeezed out of the cane. World production of cane sugar was 185m tonnes in 2017. That results in a lot of bagasse.
At the moment, most of this is burned. Often, it fuels local generators, so it is not wasted. But Zhu Hongli, a mechanical engineer at Northeastern University in Boston thinks it can be put to better use. "With a bit of improvement bagasse makes an excellent replacement for the plastic used for disposable food containers such as coffee cups," says Dr. Zhu.
Dr. Zhu is not the first person to have this idea. But previous attempts tended not to survive contact with liquids. She thought she could overcome that by combining the bagasse pulp (浆状物) with another biodegradable (可生物降解的) material. She discovered that the main reason past efforts failed is that bagasse is composed of short fibres which are unable to give resilience (韧性) to the finished product. She therefore sought to insert a suitably long-fibred substance.
Bamboo seemed to fit the bill. It grows quickly, degrades readily and has appropriately long fibres. When the researchers mixed a small amount of bamboo pulp into bagasse, they found that the short and long fibres combined with each other closely.
To put their new material through its paces, Dr. Zhu and her colleagues fist poured hot oil onto it and found that their invention showed resistance to oil. They also found that when they made a cup out of the stuff and filled it with water heated almost to the boiling point, the cup remained good for more than two hours. Though this is not as long as a plastic cup would last it is long enough for all practical purposes. Moreover, the new material is twice as strong as the plastic used to make cups, and is definitely biodegradable. When Dr. Zhu buried a cup made out of it in the ground, half of it rotted away within two months.
1. What does paragraph l mainly talk about?| A．A big international market for cane sugar. | B．A plant containing a high content of sugar. |
| C．The large amount of world bagasse production. | D．The environmental impact of planting sugar cane. |
| A．They broke easily when wet. | B．They were non-biodegradable. |
| C．They consumed little bagasse. | D．They had too much resilience. |
| A．Avoid the attempts. | B．Meet the requirements. |
| C．Fill the vacancy. | D．Survive the environment. |
| A．It can satisfy basic usage needs. | B．It is hardly as strong as plastic cups. |
| C．It can disappear in two months if buried. | D．It is unlikely to be used as an oil container. |
3 . Notpla, a London-based firm, makes a seaweed-based substitute (代替物) for single use plastic packaging. Although some of Notpla’s products are suitable to be eaten, they are designed to be dissolved (溶解) after usage. Made of seaweed instead of a conventional plastic coating, the company’s packaging is fully biodegradable and ideal for use as packaging for kitchen and bathroom supplies like coffee and toilet paper.
According to the United Nations, 331 million kilograms of plastic garbage is produced annually around the world. About 60% of the estimated 9.15 billion tons of plastic produced since the early 1950s has been taken to landfills.
Plastics harm the water, the air, and our bodies. Many experts agree that single-use plastics are unnecessary and dangerous. Some governments and towns in the United States have taken action. New York has banned most plastic shopping bags, while plastic straws have been banned in Miami Beach. Overseas, India stated in August that it plans to place a wide ban on single-use plastics this upcoming summer, with the European Union already implementing this ban.
Seaweed comes in a variety of species and can be harvested or farmed. Notpla uses plants that have been farmed. Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre Paslie, the inventors of Notpla, initially considered seaweed as a solution to the world’s plastic problem for several reasons. Seaweed is plentiful and grows quickly. Additionally it doesn’t compete with land crops and is highly favored for its ability to remove some waste products like carbon from the atmosphere.
In cooperation with the online food ordering service Just Eat, the startup recently tested its product. Last year, the two companies handed out 30, 000 takeaway boxes at various UK restaurants. Plans are in the works to offer the boxes across Europe in 2022. Notpla’s team intends to replace single use plastic in the supply chain more generally as they scale. The company recognizes the difficulty of such a job, considering the volume of plastics consumed around the world.
1. How does the author mainly develop paragraph 2?| A．By presenting figures. | B．By comparing facts. |
| C．By raising questions. | D．By quoting a saying. |
| A．Lifting. | B．Performing. | C．Protesting. | D．Removing. |
| A．The advantages of choosing seaweed. | B．The next goal of the new study. |
| C．The wide use of seaweed. | D．The shortcomings of the plastic bags. |
| A．It will be totally unpractical. | B．It will be richly rewarded. |
| C．It will be a little tough. | D．It will be rather successful. |
4 . Cities are diverse ecosystems. In addition to visitors from the wild, such as coyotes (丛林狼) in Los Angeles or boars (野猪) in Berlin, a large number of species share our urban areas. As our cities spread, we need to think about what it is like for other species to have human neighbors.
Because cities are built for humans, they do not always provide suitable habitats for wildlife. For example, most city parks are kept neat and tidy so that humans will find them beautiful. But when we cut grass or plant flowers, we destroy natural habitats.
Our actions sometimes help other species. When a bridge in Austin, Texas was repaired, engineers added small gaps running along the length of its bottom. This made a good home for bats, and soon the bridge was the home of thousands of bats. At first, people were afraid of the bats and tried to get rid of them. Now, they have come to value their winged neighbors. The bats are a tourist attraction, and they eat lots of bugs every night.
There are also structures built with the aim of bringing wildlife into the city. The Beijing Olympic Forest Park is a good example. The park used native plants and created open, natural spaces for wildlife. The result is a zone in Beijing with over 160 species of birds. In many ways, the park is the opposite of a zoo. Instead of being kept in cages, wildlife can move about freely.
Another example is a 2011 proposal for a tall “Birdscraper” building in New York. The building is intended to protect birds and fight pollution at the same time. It would be in the middle of a lake, birds would sit on it, and their droppings would fall into the water. The droppings would help water plants grow well and then create oxygen through photosynthesis (光合作用). If we learn to share our space, we can become better neighbors to the wildlife around us. If we do not, more species will become extinct and our own future will be endangered.
1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?| A．Other species like to have human neighbors. |
| B．There are many kinds of wildlife living in city areas. |
| C．Coyotes or boars always attack cities like Los Angeles or Berlin. |
| D．People should think about their neighbors when having visitors. |
| A．To get rid of the bats. |
| B．To make it an attraction. |
| C．To help other species to live conveniently. |
| D．To make it convenient for bugs to go through. |
| A．The structure of wildlife zoo in Beijing. |
| B．The parks built to grow native plants. |
| C．The wildlife of Beijing Olympic Forest Park, |
| D．The structures built to attract wildlife into city. |
| A．waste | B．voice |
| C．rubbish | D．appearance |
1．人与自然的关系； 2．保护自然的倡议。
注意：写作词数应为80左右。
Be a Part of Nature
Good afternoon , everyone!
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Thanks for your listening!
6 . In ancient Egypt, the rich soils along the Nile River supported roughly 3 million people. Now there are 30 times that number of people living in Egypt, with the Egyptian population soaring from 45 million in the 1980s to over 100 million now.
Just 4% of Egypt’s land is suitable for agriculture, and that number is reducing quickly due to the urban and suburban development. “It’s not an overstatement to say that this is a crisis,” said Nasem Badreldin, an expert at the University of Manitoba. “Satellite data shows that Egypt is losing about 2% of its farmland per decade due to urbanization, and the process is speeding. If this continues, Egypt will face serious food security problems.” According to one analysis, the amount of farmland near Alexandria dropped by 11% between 1987 and 2019, while urban areas increased by 11%. In recent years, the Egyptian government has promised to end unlicensed building on farmland, which remains a difficult task to fulfill.
Urbanization isn’t the only factor to reduce Egypt’s farmland. Sea level rise of 1.6 millimeters per year has contributed to the salinization (盐碱化) of farmland in Egypt. About 15% of Egypt’s richest farmland has already been damaged by sea level rise and saltwater intrusion (侵入). One response to the loss of farmland has included efforts to green parts of the desert. For instance, Farouk El-Baz, Boston University scientist, has planned to build highways, railways, water pipelines, and power lines to promote the establishment of new farmland in deserts west of the delta.
While that project hasn’t been finished, much of desert has turned into farmland in recent decades. The satellite photos show new farmland along the Cairo Highway. A mixture of center-pivot irrigation (灌溉) and drip irrigation makes farming in this area possible. “It is certainly possible to establish new farmland from the desert by tapping groundwater resources, though it’s a little expensive process,” said Badreldin.
1. What does the underlined “this” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The urban expansion. | B．The reduction of farmland. |
| C．The suburban development. | D．The growth of population. |
| A．Four. | B．Three. | C．Two. | D．Five. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Optimistic. | C．Disapproving. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．Food Security Problems in Egypt |
| B．Urbanization Along the Nile River |
| C．Agricultural Development Along the Nile River |
| D．Egypt’s Disappearing Farmland |
内容包括：1.节约用电的意义；2.日常节电的措施；3.对大家的呼吁。
注意：1.词数80左右，可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear teachers and students,
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The School Newspaper
8 . It used to be that a “green classroom” referred to the colour of paint on the wall. But today’s green classrooms are greener than that! New “green” classrooms help schools save money and provide clean environments where students learn better.
Many classrooms are going green by adding solar panels to their roofs. The solar panels collect energy from the sun and use it to power lights and computers. The panels help make green classrooms grid-neutral, which means the panels create at least as much electricity as the classrooms use. In addition, new lighting and air systems can be programmed to lower energy costs and water use.
Many new “green” classrooms are built by using recycled materials. Some even use pieces of material from blue jeans to insulate walls and roofs. The old-jean insulation cuts heat and air conditioning bills.
Green schools feature many other new ideas. Some classrooms are painted using special odor-free paints that help improve indoor air. Some use no glues that add chemical smells to the air. Others use triple-pane windows and skylights to help keep classrooms warm in cold weather and let in lots of natural daylight.
Experts say the benefits of building greener classrooms go beyond cost savings. Studies show that a healthful environment with good air quality can cut colds and flu by more than 50 percent. That means fewer sick days for students and teachers. Studies have shown that natural light and other green features improve student learning and test scores too.
1. What’s the typical feature of the present green classroom?| A．Its paint is green. | B．It is environmentally friendly |
| C．Its furniture is green. | D．It has many plants |
| A．Material from jeans. | B．Solar panels. |
| C．Triple-pane windows. | D．Lighting and air systems. |
| A．save money | B．cost nothing | C．have no smell | D．have no colour |
| A．Bettering air quality. | B．Getting natural light |
| C．Curing flu and colds. | D．Improving test scores. |
9 . Sports can help you keep fit and get in touch with nature. However, whether you are on the mountains, in the waves, or on the grassland, you should be aware that your choice of sport might have great influence on the environment.
Some sports are resource-hungry. Golf, as you may know, eats up not only large areas of countryside, but also tons of water. Besides, all sorts of chemicals and huge amounts of energy are used to keep its courses(高尔夫球场) in good condition. This causes major environmental effects. For example, in the dry regions of Portugal and Spain, golf is often held responsible for serious water shortages in some local areas.
In fact, there are many environment friendly sports. Power walking is one of them that you could take up today. You don't need any special equipment except a pair of good shoes; and you don't have to worry about resources and your purse. Simple and free, power walking can also keep you fit. If you walk can regularly, it will be good for your heart and bones. Experts say that 20 minutes of power walking daily can make you feel less anxious, sleep well and control your weight better.
Whatever sport you take up, you can make it greener by using environment friendly equipment and buying products made from recycled materials. But the final goal should be "green gyms". They are better replacements(代替物) for traditional health clubs and modern sports centers. Members of green gyms play sports outdoors, in the countryside or other open spaces. There is no special requirement for you to start your membership. And best of all, it's free.
1. What do we know about golf from the passage?| A．It is popular in Portugal and Spain. |
| B．It needs water and energy to keep its courses green |
| C．It pollutes the earth with chemicals and waste. |
| D．It causes water shortages around the world. |
| A．it uses fewer resources |
| B．it improves our health |
| C．it is an outdoor sport |
| D．it is recommended by experts |
| A．Playing basketball in a gym. |
| B．Motor racing in the desert. |
| C．Cycling around a lake. |
| D．Swimming in a sports center. |
| A．To show us the function of major sports. |
| B．To encourage us to go in for green sports. |
| C．To discuss the major influence of popular sports. |
| D．To introduce different types of environment friendly spors. |
The environment pollution was more and more serious today. We have no clean water to drink it because of water pollution. And when trees cut down, some animals disappear. There is more and more dirty smoke in the air. People’s health has been great affected by air, noise and water pollution. Many people have died of diseases causing by pollution. In order to live the better life, it’s time for us to protect our world.
Firstly, we shouldn’t throw away rubbish everywhere. And we should recycle, reduce and reuse things, that saves money and reduces pollution. Use things so long as possible. Don’t use plastic bag. Besides, we must plant more trees and stop people cutting it down. We hope our world will be more and more beautiful.
