1 . The area in front of Janet and Jeffrey Crouch’s house in Columbia, Maryland, does not look usual for their neighbourhood. That is because the Crouches do not have a grass lawn(草坪). Instead, they have some small trees and many native plants.
In recent years, support for replacing lawns with native plants has been increasing in the US. It can be costly to keep a lawn looking good and green. But the Crouches had to spend much more money for the right not to have one.
People living in a house next to them complained to their homeowner’s association, or HOA. HOAs can make rules about the plants that homeowners in a neighbourhood are permitted to grow. Many HOAs require grass lawns. The HOA ordered the Crouches to pull out their native plants and put in grass. However, they refused. “We knew we were doing things that were beneficial for the environment, ” said Janet Crouch.
Lawns are called environmental dead zones in part because they provide no food or shelter for wildlife. They also do not support pollinators like birds, bees, and butterflies. Bee populations have been getting smaller in North America and may be getting smaller around the world.
There are other reasons that lawns are bad for the environment. They require a lot of water and chemicals. Large amounts of water can remove nutrients from the soil. After the water removes the nutrients, people buy even more chemicals to put on their lawns. Scientists say some of these chemicals might cause cancer and other health problems. There are over 16million hectares of grass lawns in the US. That means lawns use more water than any other irrigated(灌溉)crop in the country.
The Crouches’ battle against their HOA took three years. They say they spent $60, 000 fighting to keep their natural garden. They won. Because of their efforts, the state of Maryland passed a law that lets people grow native plants instead of grass, no matter what their HOA wants.
1. Which is one of HOA’s responsibilities?| A．Developing and interpreting all relevant laws. |
| B．Protecting the balance of nature in the community. |
| C．Maintaining a unified greenery within the community. |
| D．Dealing with all the requirements of residents. |
| A．To attract people’s attention. |
| B．To improve the neighbourhood relations. |
| C．To save on the cost of lawn maintenance. |
| D．To better improve the ecological environment. |
| A．Lawns are suitable for bee reproduction. |
| B．Local plants are environmentally friendly. |
| C．Local plants can prevent soil and water pollution. |
| D．Lawns are beneficial for soil and water conservation. |
| A．Determined. | B．Humorous. | C．Brave. | D．Careful. |
Eleven-year-old Jin Yufeng said he had the most unforgettable birthday this year,
Yufeng, a student at Zhongshan Road Primary School in Harbin, was surprised by the camp’ s organizers with a birthday cake at suppertime on the big day.
“
The camp
A research and education system will be built by 2025 with the construction (建设)of natural education infrastructure (基础设施)
The camp attracted around 100 teenagers from Beijing and the provinces of Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Shandong, aiming
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Since last year, the haze (霜)weather had happened many times in my hometown, when it has done great harm to our life. What’s worse, many people have to see the doctor due with serious diseases caused by the haze.
People have realized the harm effects on their health and the importance of protect the environment. Measures have taken to reduce the haze. The government suggests each citizen goes to work by public transport.
As for me, I go to school by bike and on foot every day. Besides, I will tell the others to protect the environment, too. Now, it’s time for each of us to contribute to the environmental protection, doesn’t it?
How to Live a Green Life
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5 . Industry must speed up investment in new technologies that allow manufacture (大量制造) of materials using renewable electricity if net zero emission (排放) targets are to be met, research led by the University of Leeds warns.
Ensuring that no electricity is produced from fossil fuels by 2050 is vital for achieving net zero. However, its effect will be limited if industry cannot use this electricity. Steel manufacturing alone accounts for a tenth of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in industrialised countries but latest estimates suggest new technologies to manufacture steel using electricity will not become fully operational until at least 2040.
The lead author of the study, Dr Alan Grainger, from the University of Leeds School of Geography, said, “ Delays in replacing existing steel manufacturing capacity represent a crucial ‘lock in’ constraint (约束) on achieving net zero. ” Humanity’s great dependence on steel, which accounts for 94% of all metal production, is a huge blockage that cannot be ignored, The UK Net Zero Strategy, published last week, recognizes this problem, but lacks detail on how to deal with it.
Governments should strengthen international carbon reporting standards for energy-intensive industries, the paper says, so that total levels of CO2 production during the manufacture and lifetime of materials can be measured more obviously in assessing progress towards national net zero targets. The carbon price also needs to rise to make it economically viable (可行的) to introduce new manufacturing technologies with low CO2 emission.
1. What is the author’s purpose of writing paragraph 1?| A．To warn industry not to use electricity. | B．To show the amount of CO2 emission. |
| C．To attract investment for the research. | D．To give a warning to industry. |
| A．Using wood instead of steel. | B．Using less electricity from fossil fuels. |
| C．Using technical instruments. | D．Using electricity from green energy. |
| A．Policy. | B．Influence. | C．Barrier. | D．Advantage. |
| A．Industry must prepare for green electricity |
| B．Industry must achieve net zero emission target |
| C．Industry must speed up investment in electricity |
| D．Governments should strengthen carbon standards |
6 . Here are four women who made it their life’s mission to make the world a better place through environmental activism.
Greta Thunberg
“I have not accomplished anything. ”This statement was made by Greta Thunberg(17 years old)and it couldn’t be further from the truth. Her dedication to protecting the environmenl for our future generations is all accomplishment on its own. Her ability to resist to adults in power is admirable and continues to push the importance of conservation to the front of our minds.
Peggy Shelmrd
WE ACT for Environmental Justice is an organization that“through advocacy，planning，and research…mobilizes low-income communities to make environmental changes. ”At the helm(掌权)of WE ACT is Peggy Shepard. Her goal is to make sure that sustainable environmental practices are accessible to all，regardless of circumstance.
Rachel Carson
American marine biologist，writer，scientist，and ecologist，Rachel Carson(1907—1964)，was way ahead of her time. She wrote about conservation in the late 1930s and focused on her mission of protecting our oceans.
Julia“Butterfly”Hill
In the late 90s，Julia“Butterfly”Hill spent 738 days living in an ancient redwood，called Luna. This act brought awareness to the immense human threats to Redwood trees. Julia continues to advocate for the environment. “By standing together in unity，solidarity and love，we will heal the wounds in the earth and in each other. We can make a positive difference through our actions. ”
1. What do we know about Greta Thunberg?| A．She has not accomplished anything. |
| B．She seldom tells the truth. |
| C．She faces powerful people bravely to protect environment. |
| D．She shows great respect and admiration to people in power. |
| A．To help poor people to lead a better life. |
| B．To appeal to low-income group to protect our environment. |
| C．To make people aware of the environmental status. |
| D．To control the changes of environment. |
| A．Greta Thunberg. | B．Peggy Shepard. |
| C．Rachel Carson. | D．Julia“Butterfly”Hill. |
7 . This summer, a $2.10 billion energy storage project called Nant de Drance opened in Valais, Switzerland . The project, which some people call a “water battery (电池)”, can store more energy than 400,000 car batteries.
The system works by gravity. There are two large water reservoirs high in the Swiss mountains. One is much higher than the other. The two are connected by a system of underground passages. When there is too much electricity, Nant de Drance can use that energy to send water from the lower reservoir to the upper one. To produce power, water goes down from the upper reservoir. Gravity pulls the water down into the passages, where it rushes through six large turbines. They produce electricity .
Though the system is quite a simple one, building it took 14 years and a lot of effort. The upper reservoir had to be doubled in size. Workers had to create 10.5 miles of large underground passages connecting the two reservoirs. That meant carving out huge amounts of rock from inside the mountains. The turbines are located over a third of a mile underground.
As the world turns more and more to renewable energy sources, being able to store energy is very important. Unlike oil, gas, or coal, many renewable energy sources only work some of the time and can not be burned to create energy any time. Solar panels only work when the sun is shining, for example. Wind turbines only create energy when the wind is blowing. Renewable energy must be stored if it’s going to be ready to use at any time.
Using water to store and create energy isn’t a new idea. But in the past, many water storage projects seriously changed or damaged rivers. Because Nant de Drance is almost completely underground, it’s caused little damage to the local environment.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．How Nant de Drance works. | B．What Nant de Drance is like. |
| C．What effects the reservoirs have. | D．How gravity influences power production, |
| A．Easy, | B．Demanding. | C．Time-saving. | D．Effortless. |
| A．By giving a description. | B．By telling stories. |
| C．By presenting research findings. | D．By using examples. |
| A．It can survive longer. | B．It can store energy more quickly. |
| C．It’s a completely new idea, | D．It’s environmentally friendly. |
8 . There are many ecosystems that are truly suffering from degradation. The solution is that they can be restored by re-introducing several animal species. The United Nations funded a study that shows that if you introduce 20 specific large mammals you can successfully restore a lot of the planet.
Some roles that species play in the environment are critical, so the loss of any of these can harm the world. So that means that on the other hand, re-introducing a species can produce positive results. When a few wolves were re-introduced to Yellowstone Park is one of the most cited examples. There is no doubt that the re-introduced wolves did restore the ecosystem.
Dr. Carly, a scientist, along with her team, was able to identify 13 herbivores and 7 predators that if re-introduced, could help restore a lot of what we’ve destroyed in nature. One species can benefit its environment in a dramatic way, helping create more soil insects and worms.
The team compared environments from 500 years ago to conditions of modern environments to know how travel and the industrial revolution have influenced the planet. And at last they figured out that only 16% of the world still has undamaged wild mammal communities and just 6% looks similar to what it looked like pre-1500.
They suggested that a 54% expansion in territory home to undamaged mammal communities can easily be accomplished, especially in South America and northern areas of Africa. In Europe, re-introducing beaver, bison, wolf, and reindeer could really make a dramatic impact. However, just wolves and wild horses could make a difference to Asia.
“Our recommendations may not be suitable everywhere in the world — local assessments will judge if hunting pressures or the lack of adequate preys mean other issues need addressing before reintroducing them. However, our findings show there are huge areas of the world that could be suitable for large mammal restoration if other factors are managed,” said Dr. Carly.
1. What role did the wolves play in Yellowstone Park?| A．Protecting nature from being destroyed. | B．Keeping the balance of the ecosystem. |
| C．Creating better soil for other animals. | D．Attracting more visits to the famous park. |
| A．To find out some suitable large mammals. |
| B．To find out how travel and the industrial revolution have affected the earth. |
| C．To summarize the influence of human’s activities. |
| D．To find out the nature of the undamaged environment. |
| A．Reindeer. | B．Bison. | C．Wolf. | D．Beaver. |
| A．Make a law to ban hunting. | B．Provide sufficient food for them. |
| C．Solve other environmental problems. | D．Assess the potential surroundings. |
9 . Within a few decades, global temperatures are expected to climb to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. And that’s going to be really bad for corals, according to the latest report out from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
So the recent IPCC report says that up to 1.5 we can expect 10 to 30 percent coral survivorship. And above that, it decreases sharply.
Andrea Grottoli is a distinguished professor at the Ohio State University. Amid the doom and gloom of the IPCC report, Grottoli has some rare good news. Corals may be more adaptable to future conditions than we thought.
Her team studied three species of coral from the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. They put them in tanks with either heat stress, more acidic water or both. And what really matters in this study is the one where both increases in temperature and ocean acidification, because that’s exactly what’s happening on reefs now.
Twenty-two months later, they assessed the winners and losers. They found that on average more than half the corals survived. Even after being punished with warmer, more acidic waters — the kind they’d face under two degrees of global warming, the corals survived. Two of the three species were actually physiologically performing normally. They were doing more than surviving. They were coping. They’d adapted. They were doing well.
The results appear in the journal Scientific Reports. Grottoli says the study provides hope. The world’s corals may be more resilient than we thought — especially since one of the Hawaiian species they studied is widespread around the planet.
But will this good news motivate world leaders to control warming? Well, corals may be able to wait just a little longer to find out.
1. What effects does warming have on corals?| A．It helps corals increase. | B．It’s beneficial to corals. |
| C．I helps corals survive. | D．It does harm to corals. |
| A．Expecting things to go well. | B．Feelings of being hopeless and pessimistic. |
| C．Almost total darkness. | D．An idea of what will happen in the future. |
| A．All the three species were performing normally. |
| B．The corals could hardly stand the test conditions. |
| C．The results of the experiment were not significant. |
| D．Temperature rise and ocean acidification go hand in hand. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Ambiguous. | C．Optimistic. | D．Concerned. |
10 . The earth’s climate is largely controlled by how much of the sun’s light and heat is absorbed and reflected. By absorbing the sun’s heat, trees cool the air.
The interaction of this relationship with an area’s topography (地势), latitude (纬度), and altitude, can create microclimates (微气候), just as trees create microclimates almost any place they are by providing a windbreak (风林) and shade. Think about it: On a hot, sunny day, it’s always cooler beneath a shade tree. A city with more tall trees is cooler in the summer than a similar city with fewer trees, which translates into less energy use and lowers cooling costs. Also, in using less energy, less air pollution is created.
The most important role that rural trees and forests play is taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The living tissue (组织) of a tree is a storage vault (拱顶) for carbon, which would otherwise contribute to the greenhouse effect and to global climate change. To put it most simply, more trees can decrease the rate of climate change and help us withstand its effects, potentially resulting in less intense storms, fewer infectious diseases, a more stable water supply, and fewer wildfires.
Trees, however, are affected by the effects of climate warming. Areas once too cold to support trees now can, and as forests migrate north, harmful insects that were once held at bay (使不能接近) by winter freezes can do damage to native species. Tropical (热带的) vines called lianas (藤本植物) are now growing faster than the trees they climb, causing trees in the Amazon and other rainforests to die at an alarming rate.
Trees and forests can either be the key to slowing climate change and reducing its effects, or they can become its victims. It’s up to us.
1. Trees are believed to create microclimates in that __________.| A．tress can take in large sum of sunlight |
| B．tress can effectively change the weather |
| C．tress can help us save more money on cooling |
| D．tress can stop the strong wind and supply shade |
| A．more types of trees will be endangered |
| B．some rare forest species will grow faster |
| C．tropical vines find their wonderful world |
| D．some harmful insects will be under control |
| A．Make up. | B．Stand up to. |
| C．Think about. | D．Bring out. |
| A．Greenhouse effect is increasing sharply. |
| B．Climate change does great damage to trees. |
| C．Many native species will be frozen to death. |
| D．Forests and climate change influence each other. |
