1 . Half of the world's beaches could disappear by 2100, a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests.
Michalis Vousdoukas, of the European Union's Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy, was the lead researchist. "Tourist areas which have sandy beaches as their main selling point will probably face strong consequences," he said. Aside from economic value, beaches play an important environmental role. "Sandy beaches are important habitats supporting a wide range of species. They also protect the coast from the effects of storms, so without sandy beaches other inland environments can be affected by the effects of waves and saltwater entering," Vousdoukas added.
The main causes are rising sea-level and erosion (侵蚀)from storms, the study says, which warned of the near-disappearance of almost half of the world's sandy beaches by the end of the century. Beaches in the United States will be “greatly affected”，as will shorelines in Canada, Mexico, China and Chile. In the U. S. , beaches along the East Coast and the Gulf Coast will experience the most erosion.
Michalis Vousdoukas and other researchers used satellite images to track the way beaches have changed over the past 30 years and patterned how global warming might affect them in the future. They found that West Africa will see some of the worst losses, where more than 60% of sandy coastline may be lost in countries such as The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. Australia will also take a hit:when the total length of sandy beach projected to be lost is analyzed, Australia would be hit the hardest, with more than 7,000 miles at risk.
1. What mainly caused the disappearance of half of the world's beaches?| A．Over population and more tourism. | B．Severe erosion and coastline losses. |
| C．Global warming and climate change. | D．Sea-level rise and storm destruction. |
| A．Chile. | B．The Gambia. | C．Australia. | D．The United States. |
| A．They can provide habitats for species. |
| B．They can block out waves and storms. |
| C．They can be popular tourist attractions. |
| D．They can stop erosion from happening. |
| A．To introduce beaches. | B．To make a comparison. |
| C．To protect environment. | D．To explain a study. |
2 . South Baltimore is surrounded by water, highways, and train tracks. It’s also often thought of as a place to avoid—folks are taught to be careful of or even avoid South Baltimore. “People think South Baltimore is a place filled with danger. It’s not. It’s just we’re surrounded by dangerous things,” says Taysia, 17.
Taysia is part of a group of student activists fighting against a very different kind of danger in their neighborhood: air pollution and climate change. Lots of trucks with their noise pass through the neighborhood. South Baltimore is also home to a junkyard where they crush (压碎)cars, an old landfill, chemical plants, and mountains of coal. These are not the communities anyone wants.
The residents of South Baltimore are breathing polluted air today. Coal releases a black dust that’s small enough to get into people’s lungs. It can cause disease and death if you’re breathing it day after day. The mountains of coal are the focus of a growing opposition movement called Free Your Voice, led by South Baltimore teenagers.
The teens of Free Your Voice are taking on a big opponent (对手): the massive transportation company CSX, which transports more than 8 million tons of coal through South Baltimore annually. CSX makes billions of dollars a year.
The teens went door to door, warning their neighbors about the dangers of the coal transportation. Not everyone was on board at first. “We were talking to people and that’s just like, ‘You’re a kid! Like this is not gonna change, it’s been happening forever.’” Taysia says.
Meanwhile, the students spent the summer using sticky paper to gather samples of dust from all over the neighborhood to prove that the dust was from coal and to pinpoint which parts of the neighborhood were most affected.
The goal is to eventually get the state regulators to deny the permit that CSX needs to operate, or at least require the company to enclose all the coal, or at the very least put water onto all of it so there’s less dust blowing around. And the state is considering all of those requests.
1. How did people describe South Baltimore according to Taysia?| A．Wealthy. | B．Dangerous. | C．Peaceful. | D．Inclusive. |
| A．The junkyard. | B．The old landfill. |
| C．The chemical plants. | D．The coal transportation. |
| A．They believed the pollution was harmless. |
| B．They trusted CSX’s environmental practices. |
| C．They had no awareness of the pollution and climate change. |
| D．They thought the students were too young to make a change. |
| A．Conducting surveys. | B．Distributing leaflets. |
| C．Using sticky paper for dust samples. | D．Organizing protests. |
3 . There was a time when a trip to the supermarket in the United States often ended with a seemingly simple question from the cashier, "Paper or plastic？"Well, which type of bag would you choose？
While both types of bags have some influence on the environment, it has long been supposed that paper bags are kinder. They are made from a renewable source, are broken down easily, burn without giving off thick smoke and can be recycled. However, the producing process behind paper bags uses more energy than that of plastic ones. How can this be true？
Studies show that paper bag production requires four times as much energy as plastic bag production.
And the amount of water used to make them is twenty times higher. Besides, the influence on forests is very serious. It takes about fourteen million trees to produce ten billion paper bags, which happen to be the number of bags used in the United States yearly. In terms of recycling, the idea that paper bags are more environment friendly than plastic ones can be quickly discarded. Research shows it requires about 98% less energy to recycle plastic than it does to recycle paper.
Even though paper bags might be more harmful than plastic ones, plastic still seems to be considered as the more harmful of the two by governments. In Ireland, for example, a tax has been introduced to discourage the use of plastic bags. People have to pay 22 cents for every plastic bag, and as a result, their use has dropped quickly.
There’s no doubt that it makes more sense to reuse these bags. However, we don’t seem to be doing that at present. That may be because they fall apart quickly. If so, cloth bags are a better choice, but still, their production also has a bad influence on the environment. So what to do? How should we answer the question of “Paper or plastic?” It seems that we first need to ask ourselves one more general question: “What can I do to help the environment?”
1. The question at the end of Paragraph 1 is used to ________.| A．introduce points for discussion |
| B．tell readers how to save money |
| C．express the author's doubts |
| D．show the kindness of the cashier |
| A．take more time to break down |
| B．require less energy to recycle |
| C．need more water to produce |
| D．have less influence on forests |
| A．share | B．put forward |
| C．discuss | D．give up |
| A．Paper or cloth? |
| B．A new bag or your own one? |
| C．A small bag or big one? |
| D．Paper or plastic？ |
1. 倡议创办一个新节日；
2. 新节日的活动及意义。
注意：
1. 词数80左右；
2. 开头和结尾已给出，可以适当增加细节，使行文连贯。
Dear all,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sincerely,
Li Hua
5 . A company in San Francisco, California, has found a way to turn used plastic bottles into women's shoes. Every day, millions of Americans drink water and other liquids from plastic bottles. More than 60 million of them are thrown away each day. Many of the plastic bottles end up in landfills or are burned with other waste products.
A San Francisco-based company called Rothy's, however, turns this plastic waste into environmentally friendly shoes. Roth Martin is the company's co-founder. He explains how they turn plastic into soft material for women's feet. They take plastic, clean it, and break it down into small pieces. Then they press them through a device that makes soft fibers. Those fibers are then bonded together. This is done by a 3-D machine. It is designed to reduce waste while people are making the shoes. The knitted stuff and the inner part of the shoe are then attached to the shoe's outer part called the sole（鞋底）. This outer sole is also made from environmentally friendly material: responsibly sourced no-carbon rubber.
Rothy's shoes are sold online. They are flat shoes, with either a rounded or pointed toe. They come in different colors and designs. They cost either $ 125 or $ 145 per pair, depending on the design. After American actress Gwyneth Paltrow discovered them, the demand for the shoes grew. Martin says there is no shortage of material to fill that demand. “We're not going to run out of water bottles any time soon, so we have a limitless supply of material, and I think that is a good sign for our future.” When the environmentally friendly shoes wear out, customers can return them at no cost to a company that uses the recycled material to make other products.
For now, the shoes are only available to be shipped in the United States. However, the company says it will add international shops in the near future.
1. How are used plastic bottles usually dealt with?| A．They are used to make shoes. |
| B．They are buried or burned. |
| C．They are changed into soft material. |
| D．They are returned to factories for reuse. |
| A．Combined. | B．Fixed. |
| C．Spotted. | D．Repaired. |
| A．The design and color. |
| B．The reasonable price. |
| C．The power of famous people. |
| D．The company's advertisement. |
| A．To advertise a new kind of shoes. |
| B．To describe the process of making shoes. |
| C．To introduce a new way of recycling plastic waste. |
| D．To stress the importance of environmental protection. |
When you look at the map of the Tengger Desert (腾格尔沙漠), you will see a “green wall” in the southwest. It products Wuwei City of Gansu Province from sandstorms.
With an area of over 8,000 mu, the “green wall” was planted by Wang Tianchang and his family. They have done this great job for over 20 years.
In his seventies now, Wang Tianchang is an ordinary farmer from Gansu Province. He and his family live in a small village close to the Tengger Desert. People there once suffered a lot from sandstorms for a long time. They destroyed their farms and houses. To hold back sand, Wang Tianchang decided to do something. In 1999, Wang planted his first plant in the desert and started his life of sand control.
It is never easy to bring life on the desert. In the beginning, Wang had no experience with desert plants. The sand covered the holes he dug very soon. The wind rooted out the seedlings he planted even on the second day he had done. It was challenging, but he never gave up.
His family helped him a lot, especially his son Wang Yinji. To plant more trees, the two of them even lived in the desert for about six years. They found grass to sleep on as their beds.
Thanks to Wang’s “green wall”, Wuwei City sees much fewer sandstorms. Wang has brought back not only green to the desert but also hopes to the people there. He is our hero!
1. How long have Wang Tianchang and his family planted the “green wall” ?2. Why did Wang Tianchang want to control the sand?
3. Who helped Wang Tianchang a lot when planting the “green wall”?
4. 把短文划线句子翻译成汉语。
5. 给短文拟一个恰当的标题。
1. Where will the recycling campaign be held?
| A．In a school. | B．In a radio station. | C．In a recycling center. |
| A．At 8:00 am on July 8th. | B．At 10:00 am on July 10th. | C．At 10:00 am on July 18th. |
| A．To use them to play games. |
| B．To put them in the special recycling bins. |
| C．To learn how to sort household rubbish. |
| A．By making a call. | B．By listening to the radio. | C．By reading the newspapers. |
8 . In between all the measures to battle the severe air pollution in Delhi, India, there’s one more choice—a bar that has “pure air”.
Founded by Aryavir Kumar, Oxy Pure, Delhi’s first-ever oxygen bar, offers 15 minutes of 80-90 percent pure oxygen, costing $4.2. Customers are given a lightweight tube for oxygen intake. The device(装置) is placed near the customer’s nostrils(鼻孔) through which they are advised to breathe in the oxygen.
The bar also offers its customers several aromas(气味) to go with oxygen, including lemongrass, cherry and more. According to the aroma people choose, each session promises to improve sleep patterns and digestion, cure headaches, and even claims to work as a treatment for depression.
Bonny Irengbam, a senior sales assistant at the bar, said, “Some people, who try it for the first time, will feel relaxed and fresh. But only people who do this regularly will get real benefits. By saying “regularly”, I mean once or twice a month. We don’t encourage back-to-back sessions, as increased levels of oxygen in the body can make a person dizzy.”
Dr. Rajesh Chawla, a senior doctor at the Apollo Hospital, said, “Even if you breathe in the so-called pure oxygen for two hours in a day, you will go back to breathing the polluted air for the rest of the 22 hours. The concept is purely money-driven.”
Recalling the first few months of the bar, Irengbam admitted that people were skeptical. “Many people criticized, saying we were selling air. Others were simply scared to breathe through the tube.”
Irengbam said the bar saw a significant rise in the number of customers two to three days after Diwali, an Indian festival mainly celebrated by fireworks and lights, as the pollution levels were high.
1. Which of the following can replace “back-to-back” in Paragraph 4?| A．Once-a-month. | B．One-after-another. |
| C．Once-and-for-all. | D．Once-in-a-while. |
| A．Positive. | B．Doubtful. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Ambiguous. |
| A．It was not well received at first. | B．It will always cause side effects. |
| C．It surely has a promising future. | D．It can cure people of depression. |
| A．To explain how to breathe in the oxygen. |
| B．To advertise for Aryavir Kumar’s business. |
| C．To show people’s responses to the device. |
| D．To introduce the first oxygen bar in India. |
Air pollution is a killer. The World Health Organization says it kills about seven million people around the world each year. Even if
However, breathing in dirty air
The researchers studied about 25,000 people from across China. Between 2010 and 2014, these Chinese men, women and children
10 . Flying has made the world smaller! It's now possible to travel around the globe quickly and easily. Jumping on a plane and setting off on holiday or a business trip is common for many of us, and with the rise of cheap airlines, the number of people taking to the skies is increasing. But while air travel is costing us less, the cost to the environment is going up.
Climate change is something we're all aware of now, and airline companies know that some of the blame for this is being pointed at them. Last year airlines were forecasted to use about 97 billion gallons of jet fuel (航空燃料).
But while we could think twice about taking a flight in the first place, particularly a short trip that could be made by train, technology might be the answer to reducing emissions and the environmental damage.
Recent developments have focused on reducing the amount of fuel airliners burn. Making flying green and sustainable was the hot topic at the recent Dubai Air Show. There was talk of advances in engine technology, making them more efficient, and possibly using biofuel to power airplanes.
Rios Galvan, a bioenergy expert and professor at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, told the BBC that “these have the ability to reduce the carbon footprint anywhere between 50-80 percent when you compare them to fuels.”
And Phil Curnock, chief engineer of the civil future programme at Rolls-Royce, also suggested that electric hybrid engines could play a part for smaller airplanes, covering shorter distances. He says “it offers the possibility of a carbon-neutral flight for a limited range.”
Of course, airplane producers are always looking at ways to make their planes more fuel efficient. Boeing's Dreamliner, for example, is already in operation and uses 25 percent less fuel per passenger compared a with airplanes of a similar size. Other improvements include better aerodynamics (空气动力学), changes to ways airplanes taxi (滑行) on runways, and the use of lighter materials.
1. What can we infer from Paragraph 1?| A．The earth has become smaller. |
| B．Planes of cheap airlines can hold more passengers. |
| C．Tourists prefer to travel on holiday. |
| D．Air travel has a harmful effect on environment. |
| A．Climate change. | B．Environment cost. |
| C．Carbon footprint. | D．Jet fuel. |
| A．A Performance of planes was put on' at the Dubai Air Show. |
| B．Electric hybrid engines are limited in its application now. |
| C．Biofuel is already in use to power airplanes. |
| D．Ways haven't been found to reduce the use of fuel. |
| A．The ways to reduce environment damage. | B．The advantages of flying by air. |
| C．The popularity of cheap airlines. | D．The cost to the environment. |
