1 . Solar farms offer one way to meet the world’s decarbonization targets, but they could also be used to deal with another of the planet’s big problems: loss of biodiversity. The approach is starting to take off. Residents of Barnsdale, for example, will soon play host to a new solar farm lined with grass field of wildflowers and native grasses, which Banks Group, the developer, says will promote pollinating insects.

The idea comes from the combination of two long-term trends: declining numbers of pollinating insects and the growing amount of land distributed to solar farms. According to the Center for Biological Diversity in Arizona, more than 40 percent of insect pollinators globally are listed as “highly threatened”—an issue that could seriously threaten food security. Meanwhile, solar-energy competence has been increasing. Matthew O’Neal, a scientist at Iowa State University, would like to see more solar developers seize this opportunity.

The benefits of such projects don’t stop at the insects. Research from Yale’s Center for Business and the Environment indicates that pollinator-friendly solar farms can raise crop output on nearby farmland, increase the recharging of groundwater and reduce soil erosion. In 2018, a US Department of Energy study found that if all existing and planned solar facilities near soybean and cranberry crops included pollinator home and increased output by just one percent, annual crop values could rise by US $1.75 million, US $4 million and US $233,000, respectively.

“Farmers could identify unprofitable areas, such as poor, highly erodible lands, as candidates for a pollinator-friendly solar farm. There’s the potential to increase their net income with pollinator motivation projects,” says O’Neal.

With enough forward thinking, these studies show, clean energy can provide new environmental opportunities. “We’re at a turning point with energy production and we’re seeing more opportunities to provide extra benefits that wouldn’t have been considered with older methods of energy generation,” says O’Neal. “You never heard of a coal mine planning pollinator conservation.”

1. What can be an additional function of solar farms according to paragraph 1?

A．Adding the amount of farmland.	B．Addressing the decline of biodiversity.
C．Improving the solar-energy competence.	D．Increasing the amount of profitable areas.

2. What does O’Neal probably advise farmers to do?

A．Reduce the size of their farms.

B．Live away from pollinator-friendly solar farms.

C．Grow their crops near areas rich in groundwater.

D．Make full use of soil erosion areas to make extra profits.

3. What is O’Neal’s attitude towards the solar farm?

A．Supportive.

B．Conservative.

C．Skeptical.

D．Uncertain.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Solar Power Is Starting to Take Off

B．Solar Energy Will Be in Urgent Need

C．Solar Farms Can Deal with the Loss of Biodiversity

D．Solar Farms Need to Expand the Amount of Farmland

2 . 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。

    1     (work) on building sites for over 20 years, Hua Shankui, 59, had never imagined he’d become an expert on planting grass. But this was     2     happened on a construction site he’s working on in Wuhan, Hubei Province.

The 18-hectare construction site of the Huashan section of Wuhan Metro Line 19 is situated near an ecological reserve. Efforts had to be made     3     (ensure) that the local environment would not be compromised. To reduce pollution, using dust nets to cover bare soil is a normal practice on construction sites. However, a     4     (decide) was made at the Huashan site to plant grass on the soil, a more eco-friendly method.

When Hua     5     (give) the task of leading a grass planting team, he knew nothing about gardening. The first question facing     6     team was what kind of grass they should plant. Hua turned to local gardeners,     7     recommended carpet grass, a species     8     (common) planted in urban landscaping.

However, months     9     planting the grass, few seeds of carpet grass grew roots as the soil at the site contains too many small stones. He tried different varieties of grass. After conducting     10     (repeat) experiments on a small piece of land, Hua found rye grass (黑麦草) to be the right species. Hua and his colleagues started to plant rye grass. Four months later, the piece of brown soil was covered in green grass, adding life to the construction site while cleaning the air.

3 . 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。

During the just-ended Spring Festival holiday, former fisherman Wang Chaosheng kept     1    (he) busy tending to his fish ponds, adding new fry and welcoming     2     (visit), who would like to pay     3     (net) their own catch to take home with them.

Living in Sinan county in Southwest China’s Guizhou province,     4     60-year-old had spent 27 years as a fisherman on the Wujiang River, a branch of the Yangtze River. Working hard day and night in his younger years, Wang could make 300, 000 yuan to 400, 000 yuan a year     5     most. But Wang’s life changed on Jan 1, 2021, when a 10-year fishing ban     6     (introduce) — on the Yangtze for ecological conservation and green development.

Wujiang River     7    (flow) through nearly half the townships of Sinan county, and so before the fishing ban began, the county started putting measures to protect the welfare of the fishermen. Wang is one of those     8    (switch) to more ecologically friendly fish farming.     9     missing the old days of fishing, he understands that abandoning his boat “helps protect the environment” and that his new job is better-paid and     10    (sustainable).

“I used to catch fish, and now I keep fish. I’m still doing my job,” Wang said.

4 . One man’s trash is another man’s treasure is absolutely the case in Turkey where garbage collectors started collecting books that have been thrown away and ended up opening a library.

It started when garbage man Durson Ipek found a bag of abandoned books when he was working and then it snowballed from there. Ipek and other garbage men started gathering the books they found on the streets that were ready for landfills (垃圾填埋地) and as their collection started to grow, so did word of mouth. Soon, local residents started donating books directly. The library was initially available only to the garbage employees and their families to use but as the collection grew, so did public interest and the library was opened to the public in 2017.

“On the one hand, there were those who were leaving these books on the streets. On the other hand, others were looking for these books,” Ankaya mayor Alper Tasdelen told CNN. “We started to discuss the idea of creating a library from these books. When everyone supported it, this project happened.”

All the books that are found are sorted and checked for condition. If they pass, they go on the shelves. Today, the library has over 6,000 books that range from fiction to nonfiction and there’s a very popular children’s section that even has a collection of comic books. An entire section is devoted to scientific research and there are also books available in English and French. The collection has grown so large that the library loans books to schools and educational programs.

“Village school teachers from all over Turkey are requesting books,” Tasdelen told CNN. The government has to hire a full-time employee to manage the library.

This library is incredibly popular. It is frequently filled with the children of the city’s workers and students from nearby schools. There is a waiting room set up for readers and chess boards for the people who visit the library. You can even enjoy a cup of tea in the waiting room.

1. What does the underlined word “snowballed” in paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Declined quickly.

B．Grew slowly.

C．Developed rapidly.

D．Worsened steadily.

2. What does paragraph 4 mainly tell us about the library?

A．Its great popularity.	B．Its potential significance.
C．Its huge collection of books.	D．Its wide variety of readers.

3. Why did the government hire a full-time employee?

A．To raise people’s awareness of recycling.	B．To classify and check the donated books.
C．To expand the social influence of the library.	D．To meet the huge demand from rural teachers.

4. What can be inferred about the library from the last paragraph?

A．It’s an excellent place to enjoy tea.	B．It’s crowded with readers every day.
C．It needs to improve its management.	D．It provides a very considerate service.

5 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

The African penguin is expected to go extinct in the wild in just over a decade, given its current population decline. The main reason is a lack of food caused by disturbance to ocean conditions from global heating and     1     (compete) from the commercial fishing industry. According to a study, recently scientists     2     (identify) a possible additional cause, one that is an entirely new threat and that further     3     (prevent) the penguins from finding food: noise pollution from marine ships in a bay.

6 . A carbon capturing device, called Orca, began operating in Iceland in September. The machine was invented and made by a Swiss company called Climeworks. The name comes from the Icelandic word orka which means energy.

Orca can pull carbon dioxide out of the air and send it deep into the ground, where it is turned into stone. The device is made up of four sections which look like giant air conditioners stacked together. Each section contains 12 large fans that suck air from outside into steel compartments.

Inside, the air passes through a filter (过滤器) which gathers the carbon dioxide. It is then heated to a high temperature so the carbon dioxide can be collected from the filter. Then, the carbon dioxide is mixed with water and put deep in the ground into a type of rock called basalt. Basalt causes the carbon dioxide mixture to turn into stone after two or three years.

Orca is an experimental device. It was built to demonstrate that it is possible to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It can remove 4, 000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year. That’s about the same amount as the emissions produced by 850 cars in a year. In order to remove enough carbon dioxide to make a big difference to global warming, much larger devices like Orca would have to be built in many countries around the world.

Some environmental activists say governments should spend more time and money on reducing the amount of greenhouse gas we produce each year, instead of investing in carbon capture methods. But others say that, in order for countries to meet their goal of net zero emissions by 2050, they will need to do both: reduce new emissions and remove the carbon dioxide already in the air.

1. What’s the purpose of designing Orca?

A．To conserve energy.	B．To achieve zero emissions.
C．To protect natural resources.	D．To remove carbon dioxide in the air.

2. What does the underlined word “it” refer to in Paragraph 2?

A．Orca.

B．The basalt.

C．The air.

D．Carbon dioxide.

3. How does Orca work?
a. Sucking the air.                     b. Collecting the carbon dioxide.
c. Mixing with water.              d. Filtering and heating.
e. Putting into the ground.

A．a, d, b, c, e

B．a, c, d, b, e

C．a, d, c, b, e

D．a, b, c, d, e

4. Why are some environmentalists not in favor?

A．Reducing emissions is more important.

B．It might result in new pollution.

C．The technology is not mature.

D．It doesn’t work efficiently.

7 . Priscilla Ouchida’s “energy efficient” house turned out to be a horrible dream. When she and her engineer husband married a few years ago, they built a $100,000 three-bedroom home in California. Tightly sealed to prevent air leaks, the house was equipped with small double-paned windows and several other energy-saving features. Problems began as soon as the couple moved in, however. Priscilla’s eyes burned. Her throat was constantly dry. She suffered from headaches and could hardly sleep. It was as though she had suddenly developed a strange illness.

Experts finally traced the cause of her illness. The level of formaldehyde gas in her kitchen was twice the maximum allowed by federal standards for chemical workers. The source of the gas? Her new kitchen cabinets and wall-to-wall carpeting.

The Ouchidas are victims of indoor air pollution, which is not given sufficient attention partly because of the nation’s drive to save energy. The problem itself isn’t new. “The indoor environment was dirty long before energy conservation came along,” says Moschandreas, a pollution scientist at Geomet Technologies in Maryland. “Energy conservation has tended to accentuate the situation in some cases.”

The problem appears to be more troublesome in newly constructed homes rather than old ones. Back in the days when energy was cheap, home builders didn’t worry much about unsealed cracks. Because of such leaks, the air in an average home was replaced by fresh outdoor air about once an hour. As a result, the pollutants generated in most households seldom built up to dangerous levels.

1. It can be learned from the passage that the Ouchidas’ house ________.

A．is well worth the money spent on its construction

B．is almost faultless from the point of energy conservation

C．failed to meet energy conservation standards

D．was designed and constructed in a scientific way

2. What made the Ouchidas’ new house a horrible dream?

A．Poor quality of the air inside.	B．Poor quality of the construction.
C．Gas leakage in the kitchen.	D．The newly painted walls.

3. The word “accentuate” (Para. 3) most probably means “________”.

A．relieve

B．accelerate

C．worsen

D．improve

4. Why were cracks in old houses not a big concern?

A．Because indoor cleanliness was not emphasized.

B．Because energy used to be inexpensive.

C．Because environmental protection was given top priority.

D．Because they were technically unavoidable.

5. This passage is most probably taken from an article entitled ________.

A．Energy Conservation	B．House Building Crisis
C．Air Pollution Indoors	D．Traps in Building Construction

8 . Don’t Get Lost in the Term of Eco-tourism

Given that tourism produces harmful emissions, the term “green travel” can seem contradictory. Green travel will not solve the climate crisis, but knowing what to look for can allow you to make choices that do less harm and more good if you do choose to travel.     1    

Don’t get hung up on the terms.

The key to better understanding and identifying sustainable travel options is recognizing that it’s actually actions—not words—that matter. Definitions can vary from person to person.     2    

Ask questions.

Before you book a tour or hotel, prepare questions. For example: Do they support the local economy? Are they ensuring the preservation of the natural environment?     3     However, if you can’t find answers on the website, contact the property or tour operator directly.

    4    

You don’t have to plan a responsible travel and the ever-changing term alone. Contact organizations that provide training, accreditation and transparent standards. You can also join responsible travel communities on social media, where you can ask questions, share resources and learn alongside other travelers who share your values.

Start now.

You can’t do everything at once right away. Decide what you can do. Maybe it’s contributing to a conservation or community project.     5     Anyway, when you know better, do better.

A．Lean on and learn from others.

B．Find an operator who shares your personal values.

C．But it’s the truth behind the term that really matters.

D．Ask what the local government can provide you with.

E．Search for the answers such as data and policies on a company’s website.

F．Here are some expert tips on how to understand the vocabulary of green travel.

G．Maybe it’s immersing yourself in one destination rather than rushing around to see three.

9 . There are few places on Earth that humans haven’t messed up. Now even Antarctica, the only continent with no permanent human inhabitants, is being altered by us. A study found that the increasing human presence in Antarctica is causing more snow melt-bad news for a frozen world already battling the effects of human-caused global warming.

Black carbon, the dark, dusty pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels has settled in locations where tourists and researchers spend a lot of time, scientists found. Even the smallest amount of the dark pollutant can have a significant impact on melting because of its very low reflectiveness: things that are light in color, like snow, reflect the sun's energy and stay cool; things that are dark, like black carbon, absorb the sun's energy and warm up.

“The snow albedo (反射率) effect is one of the largest uncertainties in regional and global climate modeling right now,” Alia Khan, a snow and ice scientist at Western Washington University, told CNN. “That’s one of the motivations for the study, to quantify the impact of black carbon on regional snowmelt, which is important for quantifying the role of black carbon in the global loss of snow and ice.”

“Antarctica is sitting there pretty much silently all year. But, if it weren’t there, in the state that it is meant to be, the balance that we have in the climate system will no longer be,” Marilyn Raphael, a geography professor said. “Antarctica’s sea ice is also important to maintain a balance in atmospheric circulation,” he added. As waters get warmer, some Antarctic creatures are finding their homes more and more unlivable.

“Everything we do has consequences,” Raphael said. “We need to educate ourselves about those consequences, especially in systems that we know relatively little about. We have to be careful that we don’t upset the climate balance.”

1. Why can the smallest amount of black carbon have huge impact on melting?

A．It is highly reflective.	B．Its dark colour absorbs heat.
C．It produces vast energy.	D．It causes much pollution.

2. According to Alia, which of the following is one reason for conducting the study?

A．To measure the impact of black carbon on melting.

B．To quantify the cost of battling against climate change.

C．To remove the uncertainties of global warming effects.

D．To urge people to pay more attention to melting problem.

3. What is the fourth paragraph mainly about?

A．The change caused by Antarctic melting.	B．The methods to stop Antarctic ice melting.
C．The significance of Antarctic being in its state.	D．The sufferings Antarctic creatures are experiencing.

4. What does Raphael advise people to do?

A．Reduce tourist numbers.	B．Face the consequences.
C．Acquire professional education.	D．Stop disturbing the climate.