2. 简单评论；
3. 你的建议。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Green Travel
There are many ways we can choose from to travel to and from school.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . “Leave no track” is popular among many campers who are concerned about our environment and favor sustainable (可持续的) travel. Its goal is simple; to minimize human-created impacts on the natural world.
Reject plastic and paper. First and foremost, one of the easiest ways to reduce the impact of camping on the planet is to go plastic and paper-free. Instead of single-use plastics and paper plates, choose bamboo or other recyclable camping dinnerware and food packages.
Rent or buy a used tent. Instead of brand-new equipment, consider renting camping equipment instead. Outdoor retail (零售) brands like REI offer a wide variety of camping products to rent, including tents.
Only camp in designated (指定的) camping areas.
| A．Pack with the planet in mind. |
| B．Sort out what you really need when camping. |
| C．They even carry other outdoor essentials for rent. |
| D．Learn how to sustainably upgrade the summer camping here. |
| E．Campers can also buy reusable paper towels in order to genuinely leave no track. |
| F．Eco-friendly campers can learn how to update their skills with these simple tips. |
| G．Although backpacking off the beaten path sounds fascinating, it may not be eco-friendly. |
3 . The good news is that more people bought electric vehicles (EVs) in 2020. The bad news is that sport utility (多用途的) vehicles (SUVs) continued to grow in popularity, too. “The fall in oil consumption due to the first trend was completely canceled out by the second,” said Laura Cozzi, an officer at the International Energy Agency (JEA).
Between 2010 and 2020, global carbon dioxide emissions (排放) from conventional cars fell by nearly 35 billion tons, due to reasons such as fuel efficiency improvements as well as the switch to electric cars. Emissions from SUVs rose by more than 50 billion tons. “While the growth in EVs is encouraging, the boom in SUVs is heart-breaking,” says Peters at the Cicero Climate Research Centre in Norway.
There are many reasons for the growing popularity of SUVs. For example, rising economic boom in many countries means more people are able to afford them. Some people see them as status symbols. Also, SUVs are heavily advertised by car-makers, whose profit is higher on these vehicles. Some countries, including France, have introduced plans under which more taxes are paid on heavier cars. But Peters thinks that people who are rich enough to afford SUVs won’t be deterred by slightly higher taxes. “There are now some electric SUVs available, but I hope one day you will see more electric vehicles brought to the SUV market,” says Peters.
Even if it happens, switching to electric SUVs isn’t a good solution. Due to their size and bigger batteries, it takes more resources to build electric SUVs, and they consume around 15 percent more electricity. That means higher emissions unless the electricity comes entirely from renewable sources, and higher electricity demand makes it harder to green the electricity supply.
1. What can we infer from Paragraph 2?| A．Scientists should devote themselves to improving fuel efficiency. |
| B．The popularity of SUVs destroys some efforts to protect the environment. |
| C．Electric vehicles will certainly take the place of sport utility vehicles. |
| D．The emission of carbon dioxide of motor vehicles has hit a new low. |
| A．Encouraged. | B．Removed. |
| C．Discouraged | D．Connected. |
| A．SUVs are discounted heavily. |
| B．SUVs consume fewer resources than other vehicles. |
| C．SUVs are often advertised by car producers. |
| D．SUVs are taxed at a lower rate in some countries. |
| A．More electric SUVs don’t necessarily mean “environment-friendly” . |
| B．The electric SUVs are a good guarantee for less pollution. |
| C．The electric SUVs should be made smaller and lighter. |
| D．Future electric SUVs will be powered with completely green energy. |
4 . Shop Sustainably
If you have to name one thing that contributes most to your ecological footprints, you may say the energy you use at home, or your car’s emissions.
●
●Avoid unnecessary packing. Buy loose fruit and vegetables instead of pre-packaged produce, and avoid products that contain multiple single packages or double packaging, like grain in a box and a bag. Consider switching from tea bags and coffee pods to tea leaves and ground coffee.
●Go organic when you can. In addition to the benefit organic farming has to insect biodiversity, it’s also considered more sustainable and better for the environment.
●Buy seasonal and native products.
| A．Take reusable grocery bags. |
| B．Select single-use plastic bags. |
| C．It supports local farmers and food producers. |
| D．You can also refill your own containers with loose-packed food. |
| E．When buying organic products, look for those officially certified. |
| F．But it’s what we eat that accounts for up to 60% of our personal demand. |
| G．You’ll find it convenient whenever you buy tea or coffee in the supermarket. |
5 . Topher White spends so much time walking in the forest and thinking about how quickly we’re losing it. The engineer is determined to stop global deforestation. Founder of the San Francisco-based non-profit Rainforest Connection, White has developed a small but clever strategy: using old cell phones to listen for the sound of destruction.
Forests are disappearing worldwide, and fast：an area about half the size of England is lost each year. The Amazon has lost close to one-fifth of its rainforest cover in the last four decades. Forest loss not only harms wildlife, including many species that live nowhere else, but it’s also a big contributor to the greenhouse gas emission(排放)that cause climate change.
”I didn’t know any of this when I started,“ says White, who began his journey in 2011, when he traveled to Indonesian Borneo to help decreasing gibbons(长臂猿).
Between 50 and 90 percent of the logging that happens in the world’s rainforests is illegal, according to White, yet detecting chainsaws(电锯)and other sounds related to that activity can be tough, because the air is already filled with the loud unpleasant mixture of sounds from nature. So he has developed a system in which he installs a cell phone that stays charged by solar cells, attaches an extra microphone, and listens. From there, the device can detect the sounds of chainsaws nearly a mile away.
Because it’s unfeasible to have people listening to the devices all the time, he added some “old-school data analysis”, so that the cell phone’s computers can distinguish a chainsaw’s sound from others in the forest. This way, his device can automatically detect logging activity and send a text alert to authorities who can determine if it’s illegal and then stop it.
White notes that he’s not alone in the fight: Many people and organizations are working tirelessly to stop forests from disappearing. For instance, local groups are particularly active in forest conservation efforts, White says.
So far, his monitoring devices have been used in Cameroon, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil and will soon be used in Bolivia. It’s not just about listening for logging. The same technology that can pick out the buzz of a chainsaw can pick out the sounds of specific birds, which is why Whtie sees the forest recordings as a potential science tool. He’s urging biologists and ecologists to use his monitoring system anywhere, whether it’s a remote forest or a park in London. “The more we learn about these places,” he says, “the easier it’ll be to protect them.”
1. The second paragraph is mainly about .| A．the measures to prevent forest loss |
| B．the causes and effects of forest loss |
| C．the areas that suffer great forest loss |
| D．the urgency about reducing forest loss |
| A．Impractical. | B．Unnecessary. | C．Possible. | D．Significant. |
| A．our advanced technology | B．our strong teamwork spirit |
| C．our good understanding of it | D．our environmental awareness |
| A．Efforts should be taken to preserve nature |
| B．Your old cell phone can help save the rainforest |
| C．Old cell phones can be used for helping gibbons |
| D．A creative way is being used to protect specific birds |
6 . Since the 1950s, some 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced globally, of which only about 10% has ever been recycled. Yet environmentally conscious companies and consumers continue to look to recycling as a way to ease the plastic problem. Manufacturing giants claim to be committed to making more of their products and packaging from recycled materials. However, this confidence masks (掩饰) a complex web of issues around plastic recycling. Recycling rates remain extremely low and critics argue that we should look at alternative ways to tackle plastic pollution.
While many plastics have the potential to be recycled, most are not because the process is costly, complicated and the resulting product of a lower quality than the original. Despite rising demand for recycled plastic, few waste companies turn a profit. Part of this is because virgin plastic—linked to oil prices—is often cheaper than recycled plastic, meaning there is little economic motive to use it. Worse yet, much of our plastic waste is difficult to recycle. Lightweight food packaging, like a mozzarella packet, contains different plastics, dyes and toxic additives (添加剂). This dirty mix means plastic recycled through mechanical methods—the most common form—can only be melted down and moulded again a couple of times before it becomes too fragile to be reused. And the nature of the process means plastic recycling has a carbon footprint of its own.
Given all of these difficulties, environmental critics say recycling is not the solution and argue that creating more products from recycled material to attract environmental consciousness merely worsens the problem. “The solution is to use less plastic and to stop misleading the public about the recyclability,” says Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, a US campaign group with a mission to end single-use plastic. “They should stop making false claims about the recyclability of plastics since they know most will either be littered or burned or landfilled (填埋). Using less plastics means shifting to reusable products and relying more on paper, cardboard, glass and metal—all of which should be made from recycled content.”
1. Which of the following statements would environmentally conscious companies support?| A．Recycling can’t solve the plastic problem. |
| B．Creating more products from recycled material can help ease plastic pollution. |
| C．The solution to plastic pollution is to use less plastic. |
| D．People should give up recycling because the recycling rates remain extremely low. |
| A．The process is costly and complex. |
| B．Waste companies can’t make a profit. |
| C．The process of recycling has a carbon footprint. |
| D．Policy support is insufficient and people’s awareness of plastic recycling is insufficient. |
| A．Disapproving | B．Unclear | C．Neutral | D．Indifferent |
| A．An environmentally conscious customer’s attitude towards recycling plastics is not favorable. |
| B．Contributing factors to low plastic recycling rates. |
| C．Most plastics have the potential to be recycled. |
| D．Few waste companies turn a profit because the demand for recycled plastics is low. |
7 . Low-effort things you can do to live sustainably
You might think you need to change a lot of your daily habits to live sustainably but, in fact, becoming more eco-friendly is much easier than it might seem. Below are some easy steps towards becoming more sustainable.
Shop at farmer markets.
Getting your daily fruit and vegetables from a local farmer market is an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint while eating healthily. It cuts out lengthy stays of the products in refrigerated storage and up to thousands of miles of fossil-fueled transportation.
Practice meatless Mondays.
Global meat production is a big contributor to greenhouse gasses.
Dispose of unused medications properly.
Flushing (冲) unused medications down the drain (下水道) can pollute water supplies affecting everything downstream. You shouldn’t throw medications away either as they can be dangerous for others to find.
It is easy to understand that buying something used is more environmentally friendly than buying something new and clothes are no exception.
| A．Shop second-hand. |
| B．Think twice before shopping. |
| C．A meatless diet can help prevent disease. |
| D．The best option is to take them to a collection site. |
| E．It is not practical to expect everyone to go vegetarian, |
| F．Additionally, less plastic in packaging reduces plastic waste. |
| G．The fast-fashion industry consumes considerable resources each year. |
8 . Capentes is a waste picker. She collects bags of separated garbage, placing food waste in one container. This material will be turned into compost (堆肥) at the local recycling facility. The rest of the waste goes into separate containers. The recyclable materials are later sold.
The Mother Earth Foundation in the Philippines is a member of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, called GAIA. The organization wants to prevent food waste from going to landfills (垃圾填埋场). Food waste gives off methane (甲烷) gas as it breaks down. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. Methane traps more heat than carbon dioxide. But it does not stay in the atmosphere nearly as long—around 12 years compared with hundreds of years.
GAIA says preventing organic waste from going to landfills or being burned is a proven and cost-effective climate solution. The environmental organization supports its members, including waste pickers, around the world. GAIA is working with governments to set up systems to separate and collect organic waste and establish facilities to compost it.
At a materials recycling facility in Malabon, organic waste collected from households is turned into compost. This material then goes into a community garden to grow vegetables. Some of the food waste is broken down into biogas. This biogas is then used to cook vegetables for waste workers to eat. It is a complete cycle, said Froilan Grate, chief of GAIA Asia Pacific, based in Manila.
Grate said there are challenges in establishing these systems in new places. It costs money to set up a facility for composting. People, including local officials, have to be educated on the importance of separating waste. Containers have to be provided to households that cannot buy more than one. And sometimes separating organic waste is not thought to be important. Also, unlike recyclables and metals, there is not a large market for organic materials. Therefore, waste workers must be paid for the system to work.
But Grate believes these problems can be solved. More people are making the connection between reducing methane and fighting climate change. The world needs better systems for dealing with waste because the current methods are adding to warming. The treatment of organic matter is an important way to reduce methane gas.
1. What is GAIA currently committed to?| A．Getting rid of food waste by burying it. | B．Reducing the impact of organic waste on the climate. |
| C．Economizing on food. | D．Reducing the harm of carbon dioxide. |
| A．The method to collect waste. | B．The process to treat organic waste. |
| C．How to use a recycling facility. | D．The wide use of organic waste. |
| A．Collecting organic waste does not require significant investment. |
| B．Every household needs to constantly replace the latest trash cans. |
| C．Organic waste holds a large share in the garbage market. |
| D．Families need to develop the habit of garbage sorting. |
| A．Methane: an Important Greenhouse Gas | B．The New Systems to Reduce Greenhouse Gas |
| C．The New Uses of Organic Waste | D．Waste Pickers Help Fight Climate Change |
9 . 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. |
10 . When 62-year-old fisherman Kpana Charlie has finished placing the day’s catch in his nets, he likes to sit on his wooden chair and let his mind go back to his childhood. Back then, his home on Sierra Leone’s Nyangai Island seemed like a paradise (天堂).
He spent endless hours playing with his friends on the island’s shining white beaches. He liked to kick around a soccer ball on the sports field in his village, and in mango season, he would shake the trees to collect their colorful fruit. Whenever he wanted to avoid doing his homework, he could simply disappear into the thick forest that covered much of the island.
Today, Nyangai is disappearing, swallowed up by the sea. As recently as ten years ago, it still measured some 2, 300 feet from end to end. What’s left today is a patch of (一片) sand which is 300 feet long and 250 wide. The forests are gone, flooded by saltwater. The soccer field lies under water for 22 hours of the day. And the land on which Charlie’s family home once stood, the home he was born in, has been disappearing under the waves. In as little as two years, Charlie fears, Nyangai may no longer exist at all.
With nearly a third of its population living in coastal areas, and its heavy reliance on agriculture and fishing, Sierra Leone has been treated as one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate (气候) change.
Gabriel Jaka, head of operations for the country’s Meteorological Agency, says the reason for Nyangai’s troubles is clear. “We’re seeing a significant sea-level rise and these people don’t have any proper defenses,” he says. “All they have are sandbags. If we don’t act now, the effects on people are just going to get worse.”
1. What do the figures in paragraph 3 show?| A．Nyangai is large in area. |
| B．Nyangai has a long history. |
| C．Nyangai is being destroyed by humans. |
| D．Nyangai is suffering a lot from a sea-level rise. |
| A．Far-reaching. | B．Protected. |
| C．Easy to be attacked. | D．Difficult to keep in touch with. |
| A．Worried. | B．Calm. |
| C．Unconcerned. | D．Hopeful. |
| A．To introduce a poor fisherman. |
| B．To call for actions to fight climate change. |
| C．To present a fisherman’s old hometown. |
| D．To show the destruction of the forest. |
