1 . Diving in the ocean, marine biologist Erika Woolsey has seen how coral reefs (珊瑚礁) are being damaged by climate change. It has made her decide to find a way to share her experience —including those who can’t easily explore the ocean.
Through her non-profit, The Hydrous, Woolsey is using virtual reality to bring the ocean to everyone. Scientists, filmmakers and divers are taking people on immersive (沉浸式的) virtual dives, attracting attention to reef damage and expecting action to protect our sea. About 25% of marine species depend on coral reefs. However, climate change, pollution and overfishing have done harm to around half the world’s shallow water coral reefs.
Twenty years of underwater exploration has given Woolsey a detailed understanding of the dangerous situations facing reefs. “I’ve seen this first-hand shift. Healthy colourful coral reefs become what look like the moonscape step by step,” Woolsey says.
It is through this experience that The Hydrous team set out to recreate with their award-winning film Immerse. Intended to watch with a VR headset, viewers join Woolsey for a nine-minute guided virtual dive on the coral reefs, immersed in a 360-degree underwater view.
They swim alongside sea turtles and sharks before witnessing the worsening of the reefs. The experience often brings out strong feelings. “As soon as people take off that headset and look me in the eye, they want to tell me a story about their ocean experience,” Woolsey says. “It’s that human connection to our ocean that will solve our ocean problems.”
Woolsey hopes advances in camera technology will allow her team to take more and more people to places in the ocean that are under-explored and places further away from human civilization. They are developing a virtual experience that will put the people in the role of a marine biologist, carrying out biodiversity surveys underwater, and even transporting the viewers to space to monitor global sea surface temperatures.
1. Why did Erika Woolsey set up The Hydrous?| A．To collect money for ocean protection. | B．To let the public know about coral reefs better. |
| C．To help people enjoy the ocean’s beauty. | D．To encourage people to protect the ocean. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. | C．Concerned. | D．Uninterested. |
| A．The story about the ocean. | B．The situation of coral reefs. |
| C．The connection with sea life. | D．The way to protect the ocean. |
| A．To bring more fun during the lockdown. | B．To help people learn more about the ocean. |
| C．To train talents for environment protection. | D．To discover more places that need protection. |
2 . Waterways are important for every country around the world. They provide not only water for everyday use but also routes for transport. However, due to industrial activity, many of them are now polluted.
Dakota Perry from the US has experienced water pollution first-hand. The 15-year-old high school girl told Alabama Local News that she spends a lot of time going on boat rides with her dad on the river behind their house. However, the river has become littered with plastic bags, bottles and cups. Perry wanted to clean up the water so she could continue to enjoy the river. So, with the help of her father, she designed a system to collect and remove rubbish in waterways.
In May, Perry put forward her solution at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair held in Georgia, US, and received a Judge’s Award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for her project.
According to the Science News for Students website, her system was inspired by the Dutch Great Bubble (气泡) Barrier in Amsterdam, which creates a flow of bubbles that trap waste and directs it to a catchment system. But Perry tried to challenge herself and make her system more environment-friendly. She planned to create a curtain of bubbles that stretched the river diagonally (对角地). The curtain would stop the floating rubbish and then push it toward the shore. Once there, a conveyor run by a solar-powered battery would carry the waste to a dustbin.
In her backyard pool, Perry used an air compressor (压缩机) to send air through a pipe full of holes to create a stream of bubbles. She experimented with different amounts of pressure to make sure there would be enough bubbles to form a full curtain. “For the bubble system to actually work and collect rubbish,” she explained to Science News for Students, “I have to know how much pressure the air compressor is supposed to push out.”
After she tested her system for collecting rubbish, Perry found that it worked better than expected. Next, she plans to work out how to use the power of the river to run the air compressor.
1. What motivated Perry to design a rubbish-collecting system?| A．Her father’s encouragement. |
| B．Her desire to protect a nearby river. |
| C．A visit to a science and engineering fair. |
| D．An invention of a Dutch high school student. |
| A．It was designed by Perry alone. |
| B．It makes power to run the air compressor. |
| C．It collects solar energy to remove rubbish. |
| D．It creates a bubble curtain to block rubbish. |
| A．Advantages of the system. | B．The way of testing the system. |
| C．The improvement on the system. | D．Challenges in the design process. |
| A．Efficient and ambitious. | B．Helpful and hardworking. |
| C．Responsible and creative. | D．Professional and adventurous. |
3 . Eradajere Oleita thinks she may have a partial solution to two of her country’s problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. The 26-year-old student and environmentalist from Detroit is asking a favor of local snack lovers: Rather than throw your empty chip bags into the trash, donate them so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the homeless.
Chip waters drop off their empty bags from Doritos. Lays. and other favorites at two locations in Detroit:a print shop and a clothing store. where Oleita and her volunteer helpers collect them. After they clean the chip bags in soapy hot water, they slice them open, lay them flat, and iron them together. They use padding (衬垫) and liners (衬里) from old coats to line the insides.
It takes about four hours to sew a sleeping bag and each takes around 150 to 300 chip bags depending on whether they’re single-serve or family size. The result is a sleeping bag that is “waterproof lightweight and easy to carry around”. Oleita told the Detroit News.
Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has collected more than 800,000 chip bags and, as of last December, created 110 sleeping bags. Sure, it would be simpler to raise the money to buy new sleeping bags. But that’s only half the goal for Oleita — whose family moved to the United States from Nigeria a decade ago with the hope of attaining a better life —and her fellow volunteers. “We are devoted to making an impact not only socially, but environmentally,”she says.
And, of course, there’s the symbolism of rescuing bags that would otherwise land in the trash and using them to help the homeless. It’s a powerful reminder that environmental problem and poverty often go hand in hand. As Oleita told hourdetroit.com, “I think it’s time to show connections between all of these issues.”
1. What did Oleita ask the snack lovers to do with their empty chip bags?| A．To turn them into sleeping bags. | B．To give them away to her. |
| C．To throw them into the trash. | D．To donate them to the homeless directly. |
| A．Its size is adjustable. | B．It is only made of old coats. |
| C．It has the function of heating | D．It is portable. |
| A．The aim of the project is more than social issues. |
| B．Poverty results from environmental problems. |
| C．Oleita’s project made 110 sleeping bags per month. |
| D．Oleita started the project mainly to raise money. |
| A．Hardworking and loyal. | B．Talented and social. |
| C．Responsible and creative. | D．Selfless and modest. |
4 . The Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge is a science competition for U. S. middle-school students. It's run by Society for Science, which also publishes Science News Explores. The 30 finalists in this year's competition traveled to Washington, D. C. and also showed off their research projects.
Sharanya Chudgar, 14 years old, is one of the finalists in the competition and built a trash-collecting robot. The wheeled machine of the robot uses sensors to spot litter and a pan to pick it up. The robot's metal-detecting sensor helps it sort garbage from recyclables. And a light sensor can let the robot's solar panel angle itself toward the sun, collecting as much energy as possible.
Sharanya got the idea to build her trash collector by participating in litter cleanups. "When I signed up to volunteer at our local trash cleanup, I saw how much litter poliution there was and I knew that I had to fix this problem," Sharanya says. "People do have very limited time and resources, right? But robots don't. So it was then that my project idea formed in my head."
"Building the robot is my favorite part of this project," Sharanya says. "Ever since first grade, I've loved building Legos and building my robot felt just like building a Lego. But this project was a completely new experience since I hadn't ever had any experience in robotics before. Throughout the project, I had to use tons of power tools and I even had to cut pieces of metal to certain lengths. Whenever I needed to use a power tool, I had to turn to my dad who was always there to help out if necessary."
"It might seem difficult at times, but sticking to this and changing just one variable at a time gets you the best results," Sharanya says. This middle school scientist is solving global problems of litter pollution. For some, a science project might be an assignment or a fun hobby. But for Sharanya, doing research can also be a chance to help others and make the world a better place.
1. What can be known about the trash-collecting robot?| A．It is environment-friendly. | B．Its solar panel can't turn. |
| C．It has multiple purposes. | D．Its shape is like a human. |
| A．The limited natural resources. | B．The encouragement from the locals. |
| C．Her trash cleanup experiences. | D．Her participation in the competition. |
| A．To express her thanks to her father. | B．To show her love for the project. |
| C．To explain the difficulty of the project. | D．To tell her interest in building Legos. |
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Negative. | C．Critical. | D．Approving. |
要点：1．你为环境保护做了什么。
2．你的感受和收获。
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增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)画掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;
2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
The other day, our class watch a short movie about noise pollution. The film shows us that long-term exposure noise pollution can cause 12,000 early deaths and 48,000 new case of heart disease annually in Europe alone. Never did I thought loud noises do so many damage to our health. Now, I always warn me to be considerate of the comfort of those nearby when used my electronic devices. I never yell at the top of my voice in the public. I often remind my parents to grow more plants in our yard, what absorb sound energy but clean the air as well.
Many of us were raised with the saying “waste not, want not”. None of us, however, can
Any kind of waste is thoughtless. Whether we waste our potential talents,our own time, our
8 . More than 80 percent of global heat is absorbed by the ocean, which has a massive capacity to store and give off heat. High sea-surface temperatures are causing long-term damage to coral reefs (珊瑚礁). Corals are dying. The IPCC (政府间气候变化专门委员会) projects that up to 90 percent of coral reefs could disappear if global warming reaches 1.5℃. Another reason corals are in trouble is because of ocean acidification. Higher carbon dioxide levels have shift ed the chemistry of the ocean, making it more acidic, and corals and sea creatures have trouble growing in acidic conditions.
When ocean water warms, it expands in volume. This is a major cause of the rise in sea levels, along with the water added to the ocean by the melting of land-based glaciers (冰川). The sea level has risen by an average of 20 centimeters since the late 19th century, and the research by scientists studying the last 25 years of satellite data found that the ocean water is rising faster and faster. If it continues at its current rate, the rise in sea level by 2100 will be more than double the current estimates. Sea level rise leads to the destruction of coastal wetlands, flooding and damage to water ecosystems.
Temperature and precipitation (沉淀) are key elements of climate. A warmer climate means that more water rises from both the land and ocean, and a warmer atmosphere holds more of that water. Scientists have noticed that there are more heavy rainfall events. Additionally, higher water temperature in streams, lakes, and rivers lead to lower levels of dissolved oxygen in the water, which impacts the survival and populations of fish and other sea life.
Especially troubling are the extreme weather events that are happening more often around the world. Hurricanes are ramping up in intensity, particularly in North Atlantic. The year 2017 was a busy one for Atlantic hurricanes. Meanwhile, in the western United States, the state of California has had record-setting drought conditions, which began in 2012.
1. What does the author intend to tell us in Paragraph 1?| A．Global warming has little damage to the land. | B．Ocean acidification affects the sea temperature. |
| C．Coral reefs are in danger of disappearing. | D．Corals and sea creatures need critical surroundings. |
| A．Sea level rise has positive effect on sea animals. |
| B．By 2100 the sea level will rise 20 centimeters. |
| C．Global heating is the direct cause of wetlands destruction. |
| D．The rise of sea level is beyond our imagination. |
| A．Increasing. | B．Failing. | C．Appearing. | D．Changing. |
| A．High Sea-surface Temperatures to Creatures | B．Global Warming, What Damages It Causes |
| C．Ways to Stop High Sea-surface Temperatures | D．Extreme Weather Events and Global Warming |
1. 野生动物的现状；
2. 如何保护野生动物；
3. 总结，表达心愿。
注意：
1. 词数100左右;
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
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10 . Catherine Krestyn furnished (布置家具)her home mainly with hard rubbish, such as the chairs, doors and lamps, which have been collected from the street where she lives. And it’s a way of life she’s sharing with her community in the hope of making a difference.
Catherine leads a 6,000-strong online group called Boroondara Hard Rubbish Rehome, where members upload pictures of their hard rubbish piles for eager locals to find. She started the group in 2022 with her childhood friend Jennie Irving, hoping to build a community of thrift (节俭)where they lived. The pair have stopped more than 7,000 kg of hard rubbish going to landfill since they founded the group.
Some items are ready as they are, like chairs and lamps, and others take a bit of effort to clean up, like the old, wooden doors.
Local teacher Ruth Polgar discovered the group while surfing the Internet and has since decorated her classroom with second-hand items, including artwork she has rehomed from a neighbour. “We regularly take unneeded items from the group and use them for our school projects,” she says.
Running the group can be really challenging for Catherine. But she doesn’t resent those who have to let go of their possessions because of stressful circumstances. “If you’re downsizing or if you’re clearing an old house, quite often you’re desperate for access to easy options,” she says. “Hard rubbish piles are often that option.”
All Catherine wants to do is give her community a way to reduce their waste, and to send a message to those in charge that things need to urgently change.
“The government has big targets around sustainable development leading into 2030. We want to start speeding that up even sooner,” she says. “We’re suffering from our own waste really, so anything that we can all do on a practical level helps. We should first make lifestyle choices and be prepared to go second-hand.”
1. Why did Catherine set up Boroondara Hard Rubbish Rehome?| A．To create a community of thrift. | B．To donate her collection to charity. |
| C．To collect hard rubbish for locals. | D．To decorate the houses for the homeless. |
| A．She prefers second-hand items. | B．She buys items on the Internet. |
| C．She supports Catherine’s cause. | D．She teaches art at a local school. |
| A．Feel angry about. | B．Feel pleased with. |
| C．Show sympathy for. | D．Show interest in. |
| A．Setting ourselves a big goal. | B．Giving throwaways a second life. |
| C．Meeting the government’s requirements. | D．Replacing old furniture regularly. |
