1 . In the past week almost 120 global leaders have resolved to triple (使增至三倍) the world’s renewable energy capacity before 2030 in an attempt to reduce the global consumption of fossil fuels. As the second half of the Cop28 UN climate conference in Dubai unfolds , more countries may join the calls for a global target of 11 TW (太瓦) of renewable power by the end of the decade, three times higher than the 3.629 TW in place at the end of 2022.
Renewable energy really could be tripled in this decade, but it won’t be a breeze, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) .
Based on the rate of growth for wind and solar power, the world is on track to meet this target. But the global energy watchdog (监察人) has warned that “stronger policy actions by governments” will be required to overcome challenges, such as rising costs, uncertain supply chains and grid (电力网) bottlenecks, which are considered essential to hit the goal of limiting global heating to within 1.5C of preindustrialised levels.
Renewable energy sources tripled, the global demand for coal power would be cut in half by 2030, according to estimates. “This is crucial for 1.5C,”said Dave Jones, the global insights lead for climate think-tank Ember. “The tripling goal would take renewables to the next level, with solar and wind reaching 40% of global electricity generation by 2030.”
The goal has won the support of 118 countries. In practice, not every country will triple its renewable capacity to meet the global target. Some countries starting from a lower level would need to more than triple their wind and solar power, while for others with a high share of renewables already, it would not be practical to triple their capacity again.
The prospect of having demand for coal is a goal worth struggling for, but governments must stay the course. Increasing capacity may have been simple in recent years with low interest rates and government support schemes, but the sector’s progress for the rest of the decade is less certain.
1. What does the underlined word “breeze” mean in paragraph 2?| A．A demanding mission. | B．An effortless task. |
| C．A dreamy vision. | D．A fruitless effort. |
| A．The road to the top is full of twists and turns. | B．A good beginning is half done. |
| C．No pains, no gains. | D．Rise from the fall, and you’ll rise high. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Neutral. | C．Cautious. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．Drawbacks of power generation using coal. |
| B．Ways to triple the output of sustainable energy. |
| C．Specific difficulties in the future and solutions. |
| D．Joint achievements made by nearly 200 countries. |
2 . Visitors post photos and videos of themselves getting close to flamingos at several resorts (旅游胜地) in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on social media. The pink, leggy birds wander the grounds, walking through artificial ponds and eating food dropped by tourists.
“But behind the fantastic social media posts, things are less rosy for the flamingos,” says Fernandez, a Dominican conservationist and photographer.
Some of these flamings have their secondary feathers cut, which prohibits flight. Others have a bone removed from their wings. This grounds the bird for life, which can be up to 60 years.
Fernandez has also witnessed flamingos being given much pet food, which eventually fades the pink color that comes from eating their native diet of shrimp and other small crustaceans. The birds change behaviorally as well, becoming used to people and asking them for food, as Fernandez has seen.
On the other side of the country, Monte Cristi National Park is the natural habitat for Caribbean flamings; it’s also a popular trapping site. And it is here that Paulino works to remove the traps, which are made of wooden sticks attached to fishing wires.
Paulino’s group first noticed the traps in 2009 and has been reporting them to the authorities ever since, but the practice hasn’t stopped. Once, Paulino says, she spotted a trapper carrying nine flamingos in a bag. On a trip early in 2023, the group took 706 traps from three locations.
This method of trapping harms, or even kills the birds, which Paulino has seen firsthand in the field. Flamingos are walking around and all of a sudden their leg falls in the wires and when they pull, they’re caught. They are trapped by the knee or the ankle, and struggle to break free, which exhausts them.
1. Why do some flamingos have their secondary feathers cut?| A．To help them live longer. | B．To make them more beautiful. |
| C．To make them fly higher. | D．To destroy their flying ability. |
| A．The change of their food. | B．Suffering from serious diseases. |
| C．Living with other small animals. | D．The influence of eating too much food. |
| A．Clever. | B．Cruel. | C．Creative. | D．Careless. |
| A．The Survival Situation of Flamingos Is Unoptimistic |
| B．Flamingos Live a More Comfortable Life in Resorts |
| C．People Have Raised Awareness of Protecting Animals |
| D．The Methods of Protecting Flamingos Are Inappropriate |
3 . The ocean is home to more than 200,000 known species and as many as 2 million that we have yet to discover. And, it is also home to 24.4 trillion pieces of microplastics. In 2022, researchers spotlighted how bad marine microplastic pollution, is getting: The total amount of microplastics on the bottom of oceans has greatly increased. in the past two decades.
Microplastic particles don’t just end up at the bottom of the ocean. Animals are eating them — at least 1,500 species have been reported to ingest plastic. And a lot of it. For example, whales in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf consume roughly three million microplastics daily, according to research published in Science of the Total Environment, which analyzed whale waste to see how much microplastics were present.
“Other research has shown that if plastics are small enough, they can cross the gut(肠道) wall and get into internal organs though the long-term effects are still unclear. Plastics can also release chemicals that are harmful to digestive system,” says Kahane-Rapport. “This is concerning, and while we do not yet understand the long-term health-effects, it is likely not a good sign for whales and their prey(猎物) to eat a man-made material like plastic.”
This is obviously bad for whales, but it also has effects on humans and the ocean at large. We are also part of these food chains and are consuming microplastics regularly. They are in our bottled water, in our table salt — they are even in our house dust and in the air we breathe. And we still don’t know what the health effects are. Meanwhile, the impact on whales — and what it indicates — is troubling on many fronts. “Whales are ecosystem engineers,” says Kahane-Rapport. “They can spread the nutrients that they consumed and serve as ecosystem guards — when whales are not healthy, other parts of the system will suffer.”
Kahane-Rapport says more research is needed. “The next research step will be to determine how much plastic the whales excrete(排出) and how much is left in their bodies. Following that, we would be able to determine the direct health effects on their tissues.”
1. What does the underlined word “ingest” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Deal with. | B．Bring up. | C．Take in. | D．Spread out. |
| A．Researches show contradictory results. |
| B．Digestive system is the most affected part. |
| C．Small plastics are more harmful than big ones. |
| D．Much about microplastics’ harm remains unclear. |
| A．The various sources of pollution. |
| B．Tab chain reaction of microplastics. |
| C．Possible solutions to plastic pollution. |
| D．Growing awareness of ocean protection |
| A．Microplastic pollution to the ocean bottom |
| B．The sufferings of other ocean creatures. |
| C．Whales’ contributions to the ecosystem. |
| D．The amount of plastic in whales bodies. |
4 . In films and TV shows, police officers study fingerprints to catch bad guys. Now, conservationists (people who work to protect animals and the environment) are using a similar method to deal with the illegal overfishing of sharks.
Overfishing is when too many of a particular type of fish are caught, putting that species in danger. Many sharks are killed because of a high demand — and high price — for their fins. In some countries they are used to make shark fin soup, which some people believe is good for health. Around 100 species of sharks are protected by CITES — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which is an agreement between 184 countries that protects wildlife that is sold.
CITES has teams of people who visit ports and fish factories to look for evidence of protected species being illegally caught and sold. The idea is to punish those responsible and stop it happening, but finding evidence is difficult and can take a long time. Often, fish are sold before teams arrive and if a fish is cut up ready for sale, it’s hard to tell which species it was.
Scientists have come up with a process that studies “fish dust” — tiny traces of fish that get left on the floor at ports and factories, even after the fish have gone. Using a process called metabarcoding, they examine the DNA in it and can tell if the DNA is from a protected species. The scientists tested the method in Indonesia, where many sharks are caught and sold. They studied dust from seven sites and found evidence of 61 shark species — more than 80% of them CITES-protected. Dr. Andhika Prasetyo, the scientist who led the research, hopes the new method could soon be helping to protect endangered sea life.
1. What is the purpose of CITES?| A．To protect wildlife in the trade | B．To study the behavior of sharks. |
| C．To offer medical treatment to wildlife. | D．To stop overfishing in dangerous waters. |
| A．Observing endangered sharks up close. | B．Dealing with international problems. |
| C．Working with local fish factories. | D．Finding timely and effective evidence. |
| A．It has met the need for shark research. | B．It has begun to show promising results. |
| C．It has raised doubts in the fishing industry. | D．It has been introduced to different countries. |
| A．CITES: what it can tell us | B．DNA uncovers shark secrets |
| C．DNA tests could save sharks | D．The silent guardian of the sea: CITES |
5 . Ten years ago, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb was on a reporting trip about wildlife conservation. When he was shown around some new animal crossing structures near, Missoula, these new bridges and tunnels intrigued him. He was attracted by these beautiful human-built structures and inspired to write a book. Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet has now been published.
Through expert interviews, in-depth research and convincing analysis, Goldfarh brings to life the deadly consequences our 40 million miles of roadways have had and are having on the natural world and the creatures that inhabit it. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the US alone. Road salt pollutes lakes and rivers. And there's the barrier effect-the steady stream of traffic that prevents animals from migrating (迁徙) all together and finding habitats. Goldfarb writes that noise pollution is the most worrisome among all the road's ecological disasters. Both the engine noise and the tire noise greatly impact ecological environment.
Figures on deaths and disruptions (扰乱) are disheartening, but Goldfarb vividly describes how scientists are actively working on meaningful improvements to help animals and roads better coexist, such as wildlife crossings, from passages in Canada's Banff National Park to the famous Liberty Canyon Overpass in Los, Angeles. Another example is that in India, they built a new highway through a tiger reserve so that animals can come and go underneath the lifted freeway. Of course, that made the project more expensive, but it's ecologically the right thing to do.
Crossings is a truly important and landmark book on a subject whose full impacts continue to be disregarded or underestimated in considering conservation efforts. The book is a sympathetic, heart-warming guide to exploring the issues of wildlife survival and our own.
1. What does the underlined word “intrigued” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Confused. | B．Blocked. | C．Satisfied. | D．Interested. |
| A．Road salt. | B．Roadkill. |
| C．Vehicle noises. | D．Endless traffic stream. |
| A．To bring shame on individual drivers. |
| B．To stress the effect of roads on wildlife. |
| C．To show humans' effort in animal protection. |
| D．To explain the necessity of creating wild reserves. |
| A．Vivid and touching. |
| B．Pessimistic and sharp. |
| C．Objective and critical. |
| D．Abstract and humorous. |
6 . The California sea otter (海獭), once hunted to the edge of extinction, has staged a thrilling comeback in the last century. Now, scientists have discovered that the otters’ success story has led to something just as remarkable: the restoration of their declining coastal marsh (沼泽) habitat.
Elkhorn Slough, a coastal marsh within Monterey Bay, had been experiencing severe damage. The root cause was a growing population of shore crabs, which fed heavily on the marsh plants, weakening the structural integrity of the habitat. Coastal marshes like these are not only natural defenses against storm waves but also serve as important carbon storage areas and water-cleaning systems.
The conservation-driven comeback of the sea otter has been crucial. California’s coastlines were once alive with sea otters. Sadly, they were nearly wiped out at the hands of fur traders. In the 1980s, conservation efforts aided these otters in re-occupying large areas of their former range. Now, Elkhorn Slough has the highest concentration of sea otters in California, with a population of about 100. By naturally feasting on crabs, the otters have helped a significant regrowth of plant life. Brent Hughes, a scientist working alongside Angelini, led a three-year study. Their findings were clear: in areas with sea otters, crab numbers fell markedly. This led to a resurgence in plant growth, which in turn stabilized the soil and lowered the rate of soil washing away.
As the sea otter population continues to restore, their positive impact on coastal ecosystems is likely to increase. It not only showcases the sea otter as a central species—a species that has a significant effect on its natural environment—but also highlights the essential nature of top predators (捕食者) in preserving ecological harmony. “My honest reaction was—this could become a classic in the literature,” says scientist Lekelia Jenkins. She reveals marsh restoration also helps people by reducing flooding. “Suddenly, sea otters go from just cute things we like to something that can protect our livelihoods and our properties.”
What does the underlined word “resurgence” in paragraph 3 mean?| A．Barrier. |
| B．Advancement. |
| C．Expansion. |
| D．Revival. |
7 . The California sea otter (海獭), once hunted to the edge of extinction, has staged a thrilling comeback in the last century. Now, scientists have discovered that the otters’ success story has led to something just as remarkable: the restoration of their declining coastal marsh (沼泽) habitat.
Elkhorn Slough, a coastal marsh within Monterey Bay, had been experiencing severe damage. The root cause was a growing population of shore crabs, which fed heavily on the marsh plants, weakening the structural integrity of the habitat. Coastal marshes like these are not only natural defenses against storm waves but also serve as important carbon storage areas and water-cleaning systems.
The conservation-driven comeback of the sea otter has been crucial. California’s coastlines were once alive with sea otters. Sadly, they were nearly wiped out at the hands of fur traders. In the 1980s, conservation efforts aided these otters in re-occupying large areas of their former range. Now, Elkhorn Slough has the highest concentration of sea otters in California, with a population of about 100. By naturally feasting on crabs, the otters have helped a significant regrowth of plant life. Brent Hughes, a scientist working alongside Angelini, led a three-year study. Their findings were clear: in areas with sea otters, crab numbers fell markedly. This led to a resurgence in plant growth, which in turn stabilized the soil and lowered the rate of soil washing away.
As the sea otter population continues to restore, their positive impact on coastal ecosystems is likely to increase. It not only showcases the sea otter as a central species—a species that has a significant effect on its natural environment—but also highlights the essential nature of top predators (捕食者) in preserving ecological harmony. “My honest reaction was—this could become a classic in the literature,” says scientist Lekelia Jenkins. She reveals marsh restoration also helps people by reducing flooding. “Suddenly, sea otters go from just cute things we like to something that can protect our livelihoods and our properties.”
What message is conveyed from sea otters’ impact?| A．The necessity for controlled hunting. |
| B．The interconnectedness of the ecosystem. |
| C．The drawbacks of wildlife reintroduction. |
| D．The need for human intervention in nature. |
8 . The California sea otter (海獭), once hunted to the edge of extinction, has staged a thrilling comeback in the last century. Now, scientists have discovered that the otters’ success story has led to something just as remarkable: the restoration of their declining coastal marsh (沼泽) habitat.
Elkhorn Slough, a coastal marsh within Monterey Bay, had been experiencing severe damage. The root cause was a growing population of shore crabs, which fed heavily on the marsh plants, weakening the structural integrity of the habitat. Coastal marshes like these are not only natural defenses against storm waves but also serve as important carbon storage areas and water-cleaning systems.
The conservation-driven comeback of the sea otter has been crucial. California’s coastlines were once alive with sea otters. Sadly, they were nearly wiped out at the hands of fur traders. In the 1980s, conservation efforts aided these otters in re-occupying large areas of their former range. Now, Elkhorn Slough has the highest concentration of sea otters in California, with a population of about 100. By naturally feasting on crabs, the otters have helped a significant regrowth of plant life. Brent Hughes, a scientist working alongside Angelini, led a three-year study. Their findings were clear: in areas with sea otters, crab numbers fell markedly. This led to a resurgence in plant growth, which in turn stabilized the soil and lowered the rate of soil washing away.
As the sea otter population continues to restore, their positive impact on coastal ecosystems is likely to increase. It not only showcases the sea otter as a central species—a species that has a significant effect on its natural environment—but also highlights the essential nature of top predators (捕食者) in preserving ecological harmony. “My honest reaction was—this could become a classic in the literature,” says scientist Lekelia Jenkins. She reveals marsh restoration also helps people by reducing flooding. “Suddenly, sea otters go from just cute things we like to something that can protect our livelihoods and our properties.”
What is the author’s purpose in quoting Lekelia Jenkins?| A．To highlight the importance of coastal marshes. |
| B．To introduce a new research study on sea otters. |
| C．To demonstrate the practical benefits of sea otters. |
| D．To emphasize the need for increased conservation efforts. |
9 . The California sea otter (海獭), once hunted to the edge of extinction, has staged a thrilling comeback in the last century. Now, scientists have discovered that the otters’ success story has led to something just as remarkable: the restoration of their declining coastal marsh (沼泽) habitat.
Elkhorn Slough, a coastal marsh within Monterey Bay, had been experiencing severe damage. The root cause was a growing population of shore crabs, which fed heavily on the marsh plants, weakening the structural integrity of the habitat. Coastal marshes like these are not only natural defenses against storm waves but also serve as important carbon storage areas and water-cleaning systems.
The conservation-driven comeback of the sea otter has been crucial. California’s coastlines were once alive with sea otters. Sadly, they were nearly wiped out at the hands of fur traders. In the 1980s, conservation efforts aided these otters in re-occupying large areas of their former range. Now, Elkhorn Slough has the highest concentration of sea otters in California, with a population of about 100. By naturally feasting on crabs, the otters have helped a significant regrowth of plant life. Brent Hughes, a scientist working alongside Angelini, led a three-year study. Their findings were clear: in areas with sea otters, crab numbers fell markedly. This led to a resurgence in plant growth, which in turn stabilized the soil and lowered the rate of soil washing away.
As the sea otter population continues to restore, their positive impact on coastal ecosystems is likely to increase. It not only showcases the sea otter as a central species—a species that has a significant effect on its natural environment—but also highlights the essential nature of top predators (捕食者) in preserving ecological harmony. “My honest reaction was—this could become a classic in the literature,” says scientist Lekelia Jenkins. She reveals marsh restoration also helps people by reducing flooding. “Suddenly, sea otters go from just cute things we like to something that can protect our livelihoods and our properties.”
What change did the disappearance of sea otters bring about?| A．Fewer predatory crabs. |
| B．More coastal plant life. |
| C．Better water-cleaning effect. |
| D．Worse coastal ecological balance. |
| A．A new source of fuel oil. |
| B．An alternative use of fuel oil. |
| C．A way to make fuel oil less polluting |
| D．A new method for locating underground oil. |
| A．She was doing research for a paper on it |
| B．She was told about it by her roommate. |
| C．She read a newspaper article about it. |
| D．She heard about it in class. |
| A．To produce a gas containing carbon and hydrogen. |
| B．To heat the reactors to a proper temperature. |
| C．To prevent dangerous gases from forming. |
| D．To remove impurities from methanol |
| A．It hasn't been fully tested. |
| B．It is quite expensive. |
| C．It uses up scarce minerals. |
| D．It produces harmful gases. |
