1 . Styrofoam, or polystyrene, is a light-weight material, about 95 percent air, with very good insulation (隔热) properties, according to Earthsource. org. It is used in products from cups that keep your drinks hot or cold to packaging material that protects items during shipping. With the above good features, Styrofoam still enjoys a bad reputation. It cannot be recycled without releasing dangerous pollution into the air. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency says it is the fifth-largest creator of harmful waste.
But now the common worms which are usually disgusting can come to the rescue, specifically, meal-worms. Scientists from the U. S. and China have discovered that meal-worms can digest plastic. One meal-worm can digest a pill-sized amount of plastic a day. Study co-author Wei-Min Wu says that in 24 hours, the plastic is turned into carbon dioxide.
Since Styrofoam has no nutrition at all, are the worms hurt by eating plastic? Much to the scientists’ surprise, the study found that worms eating Styrofoam were as healthy as worms eating bran (谷糠) . The researchers will study the worm’s eating habits and digesting system, looking to copy the plastic breakdown but on a larger scale. Once the way can be put into practice, it will make a revolutionary difference to the disposal of plastic.
“Solving the issue of plastic pollution is important”, says Wu, a Stanford University environmental engineering instructor. After all, our earth is small and landfill space-is becoming limited with too much garbage waiting to be dealt with, he says.
About 33-million tons of plastic are thrown away in the United States every year. Plastic plates, cups and containers take up 25 percent to 30 percent of space in America’s landfills. One Styrofoam cup takes more than 1 million years to recycle in a landfill, according to Cleveland State University.
1. What do we know about Styrofoam?| A．It can be used to cool drinks. | B．It is a weightless material. |
| C．It is harmful when recycled. | D．It is usually used on ships. |
| A．Meal-worms have amazing digesting power. | B．Meal-worms are not bad in their nature. |
| C．Meal-worms can rescue people’s lives. | D．People misunderstood meal-worms in the past. |
| A．by raising amounts of meal-worms | B．by environmental engineering instructors |
| C．using a method inspired by eating meal-worms | D．without sending out dangerous pollution |
| A．Styrofoam is widely used in daily life. | B．Meal-worms are genius at eating plastic |
| C．Plastic recycling may be no more a problem. | D．Plastic can be turned into carbon dioxide |
要点：1.问题：全球沙漠化的面积约占整个地球的四分之一；全世界受沙漠化影响的国家有100多个；到下个世纪，沙漠化的面积有可能增长17%；
2.原因：人类的行为，如乱砍滥伐；全球气候变暖等；
3.倡议：植树造林；呼吁人们提高环保意识……
注意：1.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
2.词数：不少于100词(开头已给出，但不计入总词数)。
In recent years, desertification has gone from bad to worse and threatened us in many ways.
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3 . Biologists are becoming more and more concerned that global climate change will probably reduce biodiversity. Some biologists estimate that 35% of animals and plants could become extinct in the wild by 2050 due to global climate change. Before the industrial revolution, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rarely climbed above 280 ppm; But during the 2014 calendar year, carbon dioxide levels ascended to 402 ppm.
In the fall of 2014, the National Audubon Society released a report entitled Birds and Climate Change. It is a comprehensive, first-of-its kind study that predicts how climate change could affect the ranges of 588 North American birds. Of the 588 North American bird species, more than half are likely to be in trouble. The National Audubon Society’s models indicate that 314 species will lose more than 50 percent of their current climatic range by 2080. Of the 314 species at risk from global warming, 126 of them are classified as climate endangered. These birds are projected to lose more than 50 percent of their current range by 2050. The other 188 species are classified as climate threatened and expected to lose more than 50 percent of their current range by 2080 if global warming continues at its current pace.
In January 2020, two widely reported studies were carried out to show the dramatic impact of climate disruption on our wildlife and fisheries along the California coast. The first study showed that from 2014 to 2016, over a million common murres from Alaska through California died as a result of a marine heat wave. The second study shows that acid rainfall caused by carbon emissions is harming shell-building animals in the ocean. The study found that larval Dungeness crabs’ shells suffer damage in west coast seawater, putting at risk the most profitable fishery in California and a beloved local seafood.
These newly documented impacts provide more evidence that we are running out of time to take action by drastically reducing our use of fossil fuels in order to slow the rate of climate disruption and to give birds and other animals more time to adapt.
Visit our How You Can Help Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions page to learn what you can do to help protect these species at risk from climate disruption.
1. What does “ascended” underlined in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Reduced. | B．Rose. |
| C．Fell. | D．Appeared. |
| A．The report on the human society. |
| B．The reason of global warming. |
| C．The disappearance of the birds. |
| D．The influence of climate change. |
| A．They both had a big effect on humans. |
| B．Many murres were killed by heat wave. |
| C．Crabs’ shells are local people’s favorite. |
| D．Acid rain caused most carbon emission. |
| A．A science website. | B．An art magazine. |
| C．A history book. | D．A diet newspaper. |
With about half of the vast country covered in wilderness, China is the world’s third most species-rich country. Therefore, China’s
The vital biodiversity,
The national parks cross China’s vast ecosystems, from the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in the south
The national parks are open to all. Visitors can make reservations online in advance
1. What are the speakers talking about?
| A．Sea power. | B．Wind power. | C．Solar power. |
| A．Summer. | B．Autumn. | C．Winter. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Puzzled. | C．Doubtful. |
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（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，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。
Last month, our school launched a campaign which intention was to promote environmental protection. The campaign last for one week. Firstly, there was a photo display to show the seriously pollution caused by human activities. Secondly, there was a lecture on many small step that we could take in our daily life protect the environment. For example, taking the bus and using the bike-sharing system would be a good way. Last but not the least, we students were encouraging to decorate our classrooms with recycled materials. Through the campaign, they have benefited a lot. We realize that it is our responsible to leave a better, cleaner and healthier planet for future generations.
7 . As the effects of climate change become more disastrous, well-known research institutions and government agencies are focusing new money and attention on an idea: artificially cooling the planet, in the hopes of buying humanity more time to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
That strategy, called solar climate intervention (干预) or solar geoengineering, involves reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space — abruptly reducing global temperatures in a way that imitates the effects of ash clouds flowing out from the volcanic eruptions. The idea has been considered as a dangerous and fancied solution, one that would encourage people to keep burning fossil fuels while exposing the planet to unexpected and potentially threatening side effects, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters.
But. as global warming continues, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters, some researchers and policy experts say that concerns about geoengineering should be outweighed by the imperative to better understand it, in case the consequence of climate change become so terrible that the world can’t wait for better solutions.
One way to cool the earth is by injecting aerosols (气溶胶) into the upper layer of the atmosphere. where those particles reflect sunlight away from the earth. That process works, according to Douglas MacMartin, a researcher at Cornell University.
“We know with 100% certainty that we can cool the planet,” he said in an interview. What’s still unclear, he added, is what happens next. Temperature, MacMartin said, is an indicator for a lot of climate effects. “What does it do to the strength of hurricanes?” he asked, “What does it do to agriculture production? What does it do to the risk of forest fires?”
Another institution funded by the National Science Foundation will analyze hundreds of simulations of aerosol injection, testing the effects on weather extremes around the world. One goal of the research is to look for a sweet spot: the amount of artificial cooling that can reduce extreme weather events without causing broader changes in regional rainfall patterns or similar impacts.
1. Why do researchers and government agencies work on cooling the earth?| A．To prevent natural disasters. | B．To win more time to reduce gas emissions. |
| C．To imitate volcanic eruptions. | D．To encourage more people to bur fossil fuels. |
| A．More volcanoes will throw out. |
| B．More solar energy will go into space. |
| C．More disasters will endanger the future of the world. |
| D．People will keep burning fossil fuels to keep warm. |
| A．He thinks more research remains to be done. |
| B．He is optimistic about the effect of cooling the earth. |
| C．He is concerned about the reduction in agriculture production. |
| D．He disapproves of the practice of solar climate intervention. |
| A．The rainfall pattern of a region. |
| B．The modest drop in temperature. |
| C．The number of extreme weather events. |
| D．The injection amount of aerosol. |
8 . As heat waves continue to ravage the planet, air conditioners are becoming more and more common. However, these "active" cooling devices are posing problems because the electricity consumption which most people are concerned about and the release of ozone-damaging chemicals worsen the greenhouse gas effect, resulting in the creation of heat islands and further thermal pollution. Therefore, "passive" cooling, which doesn't have such effects, has attracted considerable attention from both scientists and ordinary people in recent years.
In a recent study, a team of researchers from China and US presented an eco-friendly, low-cost smart coating to keep buildings cooler while consuming zero electricity. Infrared radiation-based passive cooling has been investigated since 2014, but challenges, mainly the expensive and unsustainable design, have greatly limited their large-scale and widespread application. Besides, the imbalance in cooling ability of these coatings during the day and night tends to lead to great day-night temperature differences as more heat is lost than gained at night.
The solution therefore requires a "smart" mechanism that can both enhance daytime cooling and minimize nighttime heat loss. To do this, the researchers created a new smart coating comprised of conventional building materials, including titanium dioxide nanoparticles, fluorescent microparticles, and glass microspheres that were engineered to reflect most of the sunlight. Specifically, the titanium dioxide particles effectively reflect sunlight through light scattering（撒播）while the fluorescent particles increase the amount of reflection by changing the absorbed sunlight into fluorescence emissions, which drive more heat away from the building. Meanwhile, the glass microspheres re-send mid-infrared broadband radiation, allowing not only heat loss, but allowing heat exchange to take place between the building and the sky.
The coating was tested on a model concrete building. Through this efficient heat exchange with the sky, daytime cooling was strengthened while nighttime cooling was reduced. The building's inside temperature was always maintained at around 26℃, even when the out-side temperature varied from 24℃ to 37℃ during the day. We believe this new coating will make it to commercialization soon, enabling a sustainable, passive cooling technology that could help to fight climate change and the global energy crisis.
1. What is the virtue of passive cooling?| A．It is simple to design. | B．It uses no chemicals. |
| C．It is smart. | D．It uses no power. |
| A．It was hard to design. |
| B．Its material was hard to produce. |
| C．Its heat loss and cooling are imbalanced. |
| D．It wasn't tested on a model concrete building. |
| A．Metal. | B．System. | C．Platform. | D．Building. |
| A．The principle of air-conditioning. |
| B．The differences between active and passive cooling. |
| C．A new coating to keep buildings cool without electricity. |
| D．A new building to maintain its inside temperature without electricity. |
9 . About 97% of the world’s water is salty and is found in our oceans and seas. But, as we can’t drink sea water, how can it be important?
Every part of our seas and oceans contains an amazing number of animals and fish that live at different ocean depths. Most of the different species of animals and fish depend on simple plants for their food. These simple plants called algae (海藻) drift near the surface of the ocean and use sunlight to turn carbon dioxide and water into food and oxygen. In fact, algae produce over half of the oxygen people breathe. How important sea water is!
Each plant or animal in our seas and oceans is an important link in a food chain. The algae are eaten in large amounts by microscopic animals, which are in tur consumed by larger animals. These food chains are delicately (微妙地) balanced.
The bad news about the food chains in the oceans is that they are under threat because of man. People once thought that the oceans were so big that it didn’t matter if we dumped rubbish into them or caught huge quantities of fish and whales for food. But we now know this is not true and fish stocks in the oceans have started to drop.
Thankfully, the world is taking steps to protect the future of our oceans by introducing international agreements to protect marine habitats. Most counties have introduced fishing restrictions (限制) to protect fish stocks in the oceans and new techniques are being pioneered to cope with pollution. Finally, the importance of protecting oceans is being made known to more people. This is just the beginning of a long process to protect the oceans for our future. We depend on the oceans for fish which are an important part of the human diet. How important sea water is!
1. From the passage, we learn that _________.| A．most fish and sea animals live at the surface of the seas |
| B．it is very difficult to break the balance of a food chain |
| C．over-fishing has caused the decrease in fish stock |
| D．it won’t be long before the problems concerning oceans will be solved |
| A．处理 | B．保护 | C．增加 | D．检验 |
| A．The use of international agreements. |
| B．Forbidding fishing to protect fish socks. |
| C．The use of new techniques. |
| D．Raising people’s awareness of the need to protect oceans. |
| A．The Importance of Sea Water |
| B．Life in the Oceans |
| C．How to Protect Food Chains |
| D．How to Deal with Seawater Pollution |
10 . Not long ago, Egypt marked the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Suez Canal. The canal connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. It helped speed world trade between the East and the West. But the man-made waterway has also helped speed the rise of other things, such as invasive(入侵的)non-native species (物种). Scientists say the invasive creatures have damaged the Mediterranean’s environment and caused native species to disappear.
The number of non-native creatures has risen since the Suez Canal was widened in 2015. The “New Suez Canal” has raised concerns in Europe and brought disagreement from many Mediterranean countries. Bella Galil is an Israeli biologist who has studied the Mediterranean for over 30 years. She says much of the ecological(生态的)damage cannot be repaired. She said urgent action is needed to ease the effects of the invasive fish and other sea life.
Galil works at Tel Aviv University’s Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. She noted that the widening and deepening of the Suez Canal has created a “moving aquarium” of species. These creatures could make coastal waters almost unusable for human beings. Galil believes the number of invasive species has reached 400. That is twice the number 30 years ago. She said this is a “historic example of the dangers of unintended consequences.”
Israel is now dealing with huge numbers of poisonous(有毒的) jellyfish that affect coastal power centers and keep people from visiting the seashore. Other poisonous species, such as the lionfish and silver-cheeked toadfish, are also appearing.
Galil said the problems of invasive species can be compared to those of climate change, pollution and over-fishing. She argues that the new species have caused a major “restructuring” of the environment. This has endangered native species.
Some experts have suggested that increasing salt levels in the canal itself could create a barrier(障碍物) that would keep invasive species out.
1. What lesson can we learn from the effects of the Suez Canal?| A．Seeing is believing. | B．Every coin has two sides. |
| C．Let nature take its course. | D．Everyone makes mistakes. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Unclear. | C．Supportive. | D．Against. |
| A．It is from bad to worse. | B．It remains the same. |
| C．It improves a great deal. | D．It has become a completely new one. |
| A．To add some background information. | B．To stress the harm of invasive species. |
| C．To solve the problem of invasive species. | D．To compare their similarities and differences. |
