1 . Plastic-Eating Worms

Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.

Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms’ chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms’ stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.

Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms’ ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. ＂Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, ＂she explains, ＂The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. ＂

Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?

Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply ＂millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic. ＂

What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To explain a study method on worms.

B．To introduce the diet of a special worm.

C．To present a way to break down plastics.

D．To propose new means to keep eco-balance.

2 . We may think we’re a culture that gets rid of our worn technology at the first sight of something shiny and new, but a new study shows that we keep using our old devices (装置) well after they go out of style. That’s bad news for the environment — and our wallets — as these outdated devices consume much more energy than the newer ones that do the same things.

To figure out how much power these devices are using, Callie Babbitt and her colleagues at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York tracked the environmental costs for each product throughout its life — from when its minerals are mined to when we stop using the device. This method provided a readout for how home energy use has evolved since the early 1990s. Devices were grouped by generation. Desktop computers, basic mobile phones, and box-set TVs defined 1992. Digital cameras arrived on the scene in 1997. And MP3 players, smart phones, and LCD TVs entered homes in 2002, before tablets and e-readers showed up in 2007.

As we accumulated more devices, however, we didn’t throw out our old ones. “The living-room television is replaced and gets planted in the kids’ room, and suddenly one day, you have a TV in every room of the house,” said one researcher. The average number of electronic devices rose from four per household in 1992 to 13 in 2007. We’re not just keeping these old devices — we continue to use them. According to the analysis of Babbitt’s team, old desktop monitors and box TVs with cathode ray tubes are the worst devices with their energy consumption and contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (排放) more than doubling during the 1992 to 2007 window.

So what’s the solution (解决方案)? The team’s data only went up to 2007, but the researchers also explored what would happen if consumers replaced old products with new electronics that serve more than one function, such as a tablet for word processing and TV viewing. They found that more on-demand entertainment viewing on tablets instead of TVs and desktop computers could cut energy consumption by 44%.

1. What does the author think of new devices?

A．They are environment-friendly.	B．They are no better than the old.
C．They cost more to use at home.	D．They go out of style quickly.

3 . Right in front of the Minneapolis Central Library, a row of green bikes sits parked in a special stand. Each bike is designed with the logo “Nice Ride”—the name of the city’s bike-share program.

Nice Ride bikes are a lot like the library books that people come here to borrow. To rent a bike, you simply use your membership card at a Nice Ride bike station. Members can rent one of 1,200 bikes from138 stations throughout Minnesota's largest city. People use the Nice Ride bikes to go to work, to go out on business, or just to enjoy the city’s many bike paths.

The rise of bike-share programs like Nice Ride is encouraging more people than ever to choose biking over driving. Rising gas prices and concerns about the environment have also gotten people to dust off their bike helmets, pump air into flat tires, and hit the road.

Why ride? Not only is biking good exercise, but switching from a car to a bike also reduces the amount of pollution in the air. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to climate change, is one of the many polluting substances that come out of a car's tailpipe.

Bike-share systems are found around the world in cities like London, Paris, Barcelona, and Melbourne, Australia. The largest program-with 70,000 bikes-is in Wuhan, China.

To make roads friendlier to non-motorists, the U．S．Department of Transportation has invested more than a billion dollars in cycling and pedestrian projects in recent years．The money went toward building thousands of miles of on-street bike lanes and bike-and pedestrian-only passages called green ways．

1. If one wants to use the bike，it's a must to __________．

A．give away a bicycle	B．know Nice Ride well
C．pay the cost in advance	D．get a membership card

2. Which of the following can people do with the bikes?

A．Earn a living．	B．Enjoy bikeways．
C．Compete in a race．	D．Rent them out to others．

3. Paragraph 4 is mainly about _____________．

A．benefits of biking	B．pollution caused by cars
C．methods to use the bikes	D．ways to reduce pollution

4. Which of the following is true of Nice Ride?

A．It will take the place of taxi companies．

B．China has better public bike systems．

C．It attracts more people to choose biking．

D．The government lacks money to support it.

5. The author's purpose in writing this text is to ______________．

A．spread bike-share programs	B．seek advice for Nice Ride
C．compare Nice Ride with libraries	D．introduce the public bike system

4 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What are the two sperkers mainly talking about?

A．Electronic waste.

B．Soil pollution.

C．Recycling benefits

2. What does the woman decide to do with her cell phone in the end?

A．Throw it away.

B．Keep it at home.

C．Sell it to be recycled

5 . Everglades National Park (大沼泽地国家公园) is located in the state of Florida. It is the largest wilderness in the entire country and makes up 25% of the wetlands in the state. The park is home to several rare and endangered species. It is also the third largest national park in the US, after Death Valley and Yellowstone. Each year, about 1 million tourists visit the park. On a global level, it has been announced as a World Heritage Site.

Unlike most other national parks, Everglades National Park was created to protect an ecosystem (生态系统) from damage. In 1947, President Harry Truman spoke at the official opening of Everglades National Park, saying the goal of creating the park was to protect forever a wild area that could never be replaced.

10,000 different islands make up Everglades National Park. Each of these islands is lived by natural wildlife. The Everglades is home to about 15 species that are endangered. In addition, more than 350 bird species and 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish live within the park. The Everglades is also home to 40 species of mammals and 50 reptile species.

There are many ways to explore the Everglades. Visitors can see alligators (短吻鳄) while hiking the Anhinga Trail. The Everglades is one of the only places on Earth where freshwater alligators and saltwater crocodiles live in the same area. Visitors using airboats are likely to see large groups of birds. Some visitors might enjoy riding bicycles through Shark Valley. Others may want to move slowly through waters where they can see insects and wildlife closely.

According to experts, changes to the Everglades are becoming a danger to several different kinds of wildlife. They say it is a result of actions the US government began more than 50 years ago, and settlers began even earlier.

1. In the first paragraph, we’re mainly told that ________.

A．Florida is famous for its wetlands	B．the US has three important national parks
C．Everglades National Park is of great value	D．Everglades National Park is popular with visitors

2. How does the author describe the richness of wildness in the park?

A．By listing figures.	B．By personally experiencing.
C．By making a comparison.	D．By carrying on a study.

3. From the passage, we know that _______.

A．in fact Everglades National Park is a big island

B．visitors are not allowed to stay in the water in the park.

C．President Harry Truman first suggested setting up the park

D．the park is among the few places where alligators and crocodiles live together

4. What would be further discussed if the passage is continued?

A．What the government has done to protect the park.

B．How the park’s environment was badly changed.

C．What readers can do to help to save the wetlands.

D．How important endangered wildlife is to the world.

6 . 短文改错

Many of us are familiar with the saying “Waste not, want not”. None of us, therefore, can completely avoid waste in our lives.

Any kind of waste was thoughtless, whether we waste our potential talents, our own time, our limited natural resource, our money, or other people’s time. Each of us can become more aware of and careful. The smallest good habits can make the big difference. It’s a good feeling to know in our hearts we are doing our best in a world what is in serious trouble. By focusing on oil, water, paper, food or clothing, we are playing a part in cutting down on waste.

We must keep reminding us that it is easier to get into something than it is to get out of it. Actually, severe damage doing to our land is fair recent in the history of our evolution. It’s time for us to say no to waste so that our grandchildren’s children will able to develop well.

7 . Main Types of Water Pollution

When we think of Earth’s water resources, we think of huge oceans, lakes, and rivers.     1     The most obvious type of water pollution affects surface water. For example, a spill from an oil tanker creates an oil layer that can affect a vast area of an ocean.

    2     A great deal of water is held in underground rock structures known as aquifers(含水层). Water stored underground in aquifers is known as groundwater. Aquifers feed our rivers and supply much of our drinking water. They can also become polluted, for example, when weedkillers used in people’s gardens drain into the ground.

Surface water and groundwater are the two types of water resources that pollution affects.     3     If pollution comes from a single location, such as a pipe attached to a factory, it is known as point source pollution.     4     A great deal of water pollution happens not from one single source but from many different sources. This is called nonpoint source pollution.

Sometimes pollution that enters the environment in one place has an effect hundreds or even thousands of miles away.     5     One example is the way radioactive waste travels through the oceans from unclear reprocessing plants in England and France to nearby countries such as Ireland and Norway.

A．Besides, we think of bottled water.

B．This is known as transboundary (跨界的) pollution.

C．Not all of Earth’s water sits on its surface, however.

D．Water resources like these are called surface water.

E．There are also two different ways in which pollution can occur.

F．Pouring oil from your car down a drain can lead to water pollution.

G．Another example of point source pollution is an oil spill from a tanker.

8 . People release (放) balloons for special occasions like memorial services and grand openings. It is fun and exciting. But it really causes great destruction to the environment and threatens the     1     (life) of our wildlife.

When a balloon     2     (fly) into the sky, it doesn’t end up     3     (stay) there. It eventually bursts and returns to the earth as ugly litter. Balloons can even travel thousands of miles and pollute the most remote and pure places. More     4     (sad), they can present a threat to many animals. Birds, whales, turtles and other animals often mistake balloons     5     food, which can do damage to them because balloons contain     6     (harm) chemicals. Balloons even kill animals. When an animal swallows a balloon，it can block its intestinal tract (肠道), resulting in starvation.

Part of the reason why releasing balloons     7     (permit) in so many places is that some balloons do break down eventually. However, it takes about four years     8     (break) down completely.

Watching hundreds of balloons slowly going up into the sky might give you a five-second thrill,     9     is it worth a bunch of dead animals and so many places full of rubbish? Absolutely not.     10     we should do is to get creative and come up with alternative ways to celebrate.

9 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（不多于3个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。

Since last winter, smog    1    (occur) several times, which has done great harm to us. To solve the problem, the Chinese leaders in Beijing have attached great importance     2    protecting the environment. They are taking big steps to deal with climate change and pollution,    3    some of China’s cities are acting too.

Nanjing, the capital of China’s eastern Jiangsu Province, like many major cities in China, is trying to improve the situation by    4    (get) a Vertical Forest, a set of two green residential towers that will make the city more     5    (appeal) and will provide residents and visitors with fresh air. This brilliant idea    6    (put) forward by Stefano Boeri Architetti,     7    architect based in Milan, Italy. And in 2019 the first Vertical Forest     8    (complete) in Asia, and it will host a total of 1,100 trees from 23 local species and 2,500 shrubs with the capabilities of providing around 25 tons of CO₂ absorption each year and    9    (possible) producing 132 pounds of oxygen each day. Other Chinese major cities, like Chongqing and Shanghai, are reported to be planning to build up similar green     10    (structure).

10 . 假如你叫李华，你所生活的城市周围有很多动植物正逐渐减少，对此你向有关部门写一封信，分析造成这种现象的原因，并根据实际情况提出切实可行的几条建议。但以下几条要点要包括在内：
1. 野生动植物的现状；
2. 分析造成许多野生动植物濒临灭绝的原因；
3. 提出几条保护野生动植物的具体措施。
注意：1. 词数100左右；

2. 不可遗漏要点，可适当增加细节；

3. 书写要干净、工整；

4. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。

Dear Sir or Madam,

I’m writing to give some suggestions to protect the wildlife living in and around our city.

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Yours sincerely,

Li Hua