1 . What is erosion(腐蚀)? Erosion is simply when soil is transported on the earth's surface from one location to another by a natural cause.
This is easy to imagine. Picture a sandcastle on a beach. This sandcastle is particularly beautiful, the work of a whole long, hot summer afternoon. It has three towers, with a great wall running all around. Small square houses sit in an open area in the center. From the tallest tower flies a Pop-sicle-wrapper flag from a small twig flagpole. Its builder sits back, proudly admiring her work. But it is late, and the tide is coming in, bringing the water closer. Finally, the castle is hit with a giant wave. As it pulls out, the builder sees there is nothing left but bits of the towers and a small broken twig. Where has the sand gone? Not very far, really. It’s moving around the water that will wash back and forth across the beach all day. It’s spread around the beach next to the castle. However, to our eyes, it has disappeared. This is also the way with erosion. Parts of the earth seem to disappear but have really just been moved around.
A common example of water changing the landscape is sinkholes. Sinkholes are formed when underground water wears away the dirt and rock that surrounds it. Eventually, the hole underneath the ground is so big, and the earth above it so thin that the surface collapses into the hole, taking with it anything unlucky enough to be on the surface at the time. Sinkholes occur naturally and have been around a very long time. Today, though, many sinkholes are caused by the action of human beings.
In fact, today, human beings are one of the things helping to speed up erosion of the earth. Scientists believe that by pumping water from underground, moving sand dunes and other naturally-occurring anti-erosion measures, humans have allowed erosion of the earth to speed up by as much as 40 times. This means that beaches around the world are disappearing, more sinkholes are opening up, and farmland is rapidly becoming desert.
1. What’s the author’s purpose of describing a sandcastle in Paragraph 2?| A．To show the destructive force of nature. |
| B．To recall his happy childhood. |
| C．To catch the reader’s attention. |
| D．To explain what erosion is. |
| A．The hole. |
| B．The ground. |
| C．The earth. |
| D．The surface. |
| A．A lot of high-rises have been built. |
| B．People pump water from underground. |
| C．Too many mines have been opened up. |
| D．Underground water takes away dirt and rock around it. |
| A．Desertification will speed up. |
| B．Sinkholes will be everywhere. |
| C．Many plant species will disappear. |
| D．Earthquakes will happen more often. |
2 . Illegally traded endangered species that escape, forming secondary populations, offer hope to their long-term survival, a study suggests. "This first came to my attention when I read a news story about the seizure of an illegal shipment of 23 yellow crested cockatoos (小葵花凤头鹦鹉),” said Luke Gibson, a college teacher. He learned that the species was critically endangered, which surprised him.
This encouraged Dr. Gibson and his colleague to investigate (调查) how a critically endangered species had become self-sustaining outside of its natural range. They discovered 49 cases of a globally threatened species becoming established as a separate population, which they hadn’t thought of, including the yellow-crested cockatoo in their city.
“This is a species which is primarily threatened by wildlife trade,” he told BBC News. “Poachers (偷猎者) go out into the forest in its native range in eastern Indonesia and capture the bird and then ship them off, usually up to our city where there is a strong demand for pet birds. This is what has fueled the decline of this species in its native range. But it’s really interesting because that same cause also had another effect: some of the people who were keeping this species here accidentally or intentionally released them.” As a result of enough of the birds set free, it allowed a new self-sustaining population to be established in this city.
The government in of Dr. Gibson’s city has made it illegal to capture the species, even though it is a non-native species. Because the city is affluent and relatively well educated, the cases of people breaking the law are extremely rare, explained Dr Gibson, unlike in its native range in Indonesia, where capturing birds form a major source of income.
However, there can be downsides (缺点) to the newly established population of endangered species, such as a limited genetic pool, and suffering from novel diseases. It did also present a possible “very interesting” opportunity for conservationists, Dr. Gibson suggested. This would involve “harvesting” some of the newly established secondary population, which may provide a way to help slow global biodiversity loss.
1. What was beyond Gibson’s expectations according to the first paragraph?| A．The high rate of wildlife trade. | B．The preciousness of the birds. |
| C．The fact that the birds nearly disappear. | D．The news that the birds were poached. |
| A．They formed a separate population. | B．They were kept as pet birds. |
| C．They were traded illegally. | D．They were killed for research. |
| A．Peace-loving. | B．Rich. |
| C．Free. | D．Environment-friendly. |
| A．To appeal to everyone to stop the wildlife trade. |
| B．To explain the challenge the wild birds are facing. |
| C．To introduce a creative approach to wildlife conservation. |
| D．To raise peopled awareness of protecting endangered species. |
3 . When it comes to eating, most of us don’t have to go very far. But for many bird species, finding food may mean traveling hundreds of thousands of kilometers.
A team of researchers from institutions in the UK and Ireland spent five years tracking (追踪) four species of seabird to monitor their travel patterns. It was discovered that over the five years, the species covered an area of 1.5 million square kilometers when hunting for food-almost four times the size of Japan.
The findings were published recently in the journal Ecological Applications. As part of the study, over 1,300 birds were fitted with GPS tags to track their movements. It was discovered that most of them search for fish in the same place-waters off the coast of Scotland.
As a result of this, organizations such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) will spend more time trying to preserve coastal Scotland.
“For the first time, this study provides us with a full map for each breeding colony (繁殖群体) of the feeding areas for some of our most important seabird species,” wrote the study’s lead author Ewan Wakefield, from the University of Glasgow.
“That means we can now protect the places these birds catch the fish they need to feed their hungry chicks.”
The findings could also affect the future building of offshore wind turbines (满轮机). Although wind turbines help to fight climate change by providing a green source of energy, their huge blades (刀片) are blamed for the deaths of thousands of birds each year, as they often fly into them.
Stuart Housden, director of RSPB Scotland, said in a news release that although climate change is a huge threat to both humans and nature alike, we should “invest in an energy system that works for both people and our natural heritage.”
To protect both nature and the environment, the RSPB supports the building of turbines in areas that won’t have “significant adverse (不利的) impacts on important bird populations or their habitats,” it wrote on its website.
1. What did the scientists from the UK and Ireland find about the four species of seabird?| A．They have totally different travel patterns. |
| B．They prefer to catch fish in places near their nests. |
| C．Climate change has influenced their hunting distance. |
| D．They can travel a very long distance to find food. |
| A．It shows what a perfect living environment for seabirds is. |
| B．It was the first to use GPS technology to track seabirds. |
| C．It could guide people on how to better protect seabirds. |
| D．It provides more information about the diet of seabirds. |
| A．they produce noise that could disturb seabirds |
| B．their strong airflow could influence the flight of seabirds |
| C．their big blades may kill the seabirds that fly by |
| D．they force seabirds to move away from their habitats |
| A．no more wind turbines should be built in the future |
| B．we should think of more measures to protect the climate |
| C．the government should invest more money to protect seabirds |
| D．we should consider wildlife when we build turbines in the future |
4 . In recent years, car manufacturers (制造商) have been put under pressure to invent a vehicle that is both cheaper to run and better for the environment.
One of the first ideas that car manufacturers tried was to replace engines which run on fossil (石化) fuels with electric motors. Unfortunately, these vehicles had several disadvantages and they didn’t sell very well. The problems were that the batteries of these electric cars ran out very quickly and took a long time to recharge.
However, car manufacturers have improved the concept. This is where the hybrid car, which has both an electric motor and a traditional petrol engine, comes in. The electric motor never needs to be recharged and it is much better for the planet than a traditional car.
In a hybrid car, the engine is controlled by a computer which determines whether the car runs on petrol, electricity, or both. When the car needs maximum power, for example, if it is accelerating or climbing a steep hill, it uses all of its resources (资源), but at steady speeds it runs only on petrol. When slowing down or breaking, the electric motor recharges its batteries.
Hybrid cars are better for the environment because they have a much smaller engine than a traditional car. Also, hybrid cars on the market are made using materials such as aluminum and carbon fiber, which makes them extremely light. Both of them mean that they use less petrol than normal cars, so they produce less pollution.
Of course, hybrid cars aren’t perfect; they still run on fossil fuel and so pollute the environment to a certain degree. However, they may be the first step along the road to cleaner, ‘greener’ cars. Car manufacturers are already working on vehicles which run on hydrogen giving off harmless water vapor. It looks like we might be heading in the right direction.
1. What can we know about the vehicles which ran on electric motors?| A．They moved very fast. |
| B．They were unpopular. |
| C．Their engines were often replaced. |
| D．Their engines were expensive. |
| A．It keeps the car running steadily. |
| B．It directs the car to climb hills. |
| C．It decides where to power the car. |
| D．It controls how the car uses power. |
| A．Car’s smaller engine and special materials. |
| B．Electric motor and petrol engine. |
| C．Hybrid car and hydrogen car. |
| D．Aluminum and carbon fiber. |
| A．Cars’ engines | B．Car pollution |
| C．Green cars | D．Cars’ advantages |
5 . Climate Change and Other Human Activities are Affecting Species Migration
One of the reasons climate change is such an important topic is that it will affect the natural biological systems. Both plants and animals will have to respond to the changing climate. In some cases, this means adapting to higher temperatures. In other cases, the changes may be alterations in the rainfall, length of growing season, availability of resources, or other influences.
While some animals can adapt, others will have to migrate. Obviously migration can be apparent in mobile animals that will move to maintain a more or less similar climate to which they are accustomed.
But animal and plant movement does not occur in just a changing climate. It also has to make changes to the landscape that humans create. For instance, increased land allocation to agriculture or urbanization can create barriers for free migration. So, what scientists really want to know is how these two factors will affect the patterns of animal and plant movement.
Researchers in a study projected changes in the distribution of climatically suitable zones for projected future climates. Using a computer model, they projected how and when the species would migrate and they tracked the migration routes. The study incorporated a resistance to movement based on the amount of human alteration to the landscape. The analysis was similar to how the flow of electrons through a wire circuit is calculated. In fact, electronic circuit theory formed a basis for the calculations.
From their analysis, the authors identified several locations in North and South America that will be crucial for species movement in a changing climate. Large movements are expected in the southeastern US, the Amazon region, and parts of Brazil. Some of the areas where migration is expected have undamaged biological regions. Others, in particular the southeastern US and Brazil, have pathways that are heavily impacted by human activities, which may create a barrier to the migration routes.
In the study, the team of scientists first identified what they call “climatically suitable” conditions for each of the species under a changing climate situation. They plotted routes for the species from areas that were projected to be unsuitable to these suitable areas. The routes were plotted so that they avoided the most heavily human-impacted regions. They then plotted the paths on a map for easy visualization.
Some concrete and specific examples were provided. The authors have identified 14 biological regions and calculated the average direction of movement across each biome (生物群系). Great visualizations are shown of paths of migrations, for instance, in the southeastern US.
| Climate Change and Other Human Activities are Affecting Species Migration | |
| The | ● There is a ● Some animals will have to adapt to higher temperatures. Other animals have no |
| Climate change and land use change mainly | |
| ● ● Some species movement destinations in a changing climate are mainly ● 14 biological regions are detected and some ideal | |
| Process of the study | ● Scientists first find out “ climatically suitable ” conditions for each of the species. ● They then drew up routes for the species and plotted the paths on a map with the |
6 . Plants were expected to get larger with increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but changes in temperature, humidity(湿度）and nutrient availability seem to have trumped the benefits of increased carbon dioxide” said researchers from the National University of Singapore.
45 percent of the species studied now reach smaller adult sizes than they did in the past. The researchers pointed out that warmer temperatures and changing habitats, caused by climate change, are possible reasons for shrinking creatures.
“ We do not yet know the mechanisms(机制）involved, or why some organism are getting smaller while others are unaffected,” the researchers said. “Until we understand more, we could be risking negative consequences that we can’t yet quantify. ’’
The change is big in cold-blooded animals. Only two decades of warmer temperatures are enough to make retiles (爬行动物）smaller. An increase of only 1 degree centigrade caused nearly a 10 percent increase in metabolism(新陈代谢). Greater use of energy resulted in tiny tortoises and little lizards. Fish are smaller now too. Though overfishing has played a part in reducing numbers, experiments show that warmer temperatures also stop fish growing.
Warm-blooded animals aren’t immune(免除）from the size change caused by climate change. Many birds are now smaller. Soay sheep are thinner. Red deer are weaken And polar bears are smaller, compared with historical records.
This is not the first time this has happened in Earth’s history. 55 million years ago, a warming event similar to the current climate change caused bees, spiders and ants to shrink by 50 to 75 percent over several thousand years. That event happened over a longer time than the current climate change.
The speed of modern climate change could mean organisms may not respond or adapt quickly enough, especially those with long generation times climate change will be shown in the future.
1. What does the text mainly talk about/| A．Why some species become smaller. |
| B．How climate changes in Earth’s history? |
| C．Climate change has many negative effects. |
| D．Species are becoming smaller as climate gets warmer. |
| A．beater | B．gained |
| C．strengthened | D．equaled |
| A．they have found the exact causes for creatures getting smaller. |
| B．increase in energy use can lead to creatures getting smaller. |
| C．climate change has more negative effects on warm-blooded animals. |
| D．all the animals on the earth have become smaller. |
| A．Worried | B．Optimistic |
| C．Disappointed | D．Shameful |
7 . Zulema Munoz collects seaweed in a small coastal town 100 miles south of Santiago, Chile. A good week may see her cut 1,100 pounds of seaweed from the rocks where it grows.
Muftoz is one of the 30, 000 people for whom Chilean seaweed industry provides a livelihood. Throughout Latin America, the cultivation (种植) and collection of seaweed are gaining a support both as a source of food and as a means of ensuring food security in a region where 34 million people are food insecure and poverty affects 47 percent of the rural population. Countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela have all explored seaweed production for food. Yet as demand outpaces production and wild stocks have declined， more attention is being paid to sustainable cultivation and harvesting methods that can keep the industry surviving.
Seaweed has a long history in South American style of cooking. The native cooking of Chile made frequent use of cochayuyo, the most abundant of the country 750 types of seaweed. Today, cochayuyo is commonly found in place of meat incharquican, a traditional dish cooked slowly in a closed pan.
Kelp, a type of large brown seaweed, as the new vegetable is a global trend too, and for good reason. Nutritionally, seaweed is packed with iodine and other nutrients, and appears on trend-making menus in Google's New York cafeteria, though it used to be thought difficult to get people to eat it.
While 83 percent of cultivated sea vegetables are produced for human consumption, we aren’t just eating it. Seaweed is used in fertilizers and animal feed, and seaweed-based food additives are likely in many products in your kitchen and bathroom right now. Carrageenan, made from red seaweed, is in everything from shampoo and toothpaste to ice cream and some hot dogs.
While seaweed grows readily—there are concerns that humans are taking too much of the wild stuff. It is possible that overexploitation of natural seaweed resources could lead to significant ecological, economic, and social consequences at local, regional, and even global scales. In Latin American countries like Brazil and Peru, where the seaweed industry is based on harvesting wild seaweed rather than cultivated, the need for environmentally friendly models is urgent.
1. What do you know about seaweed?| A．It is hard to grow. | B．It is good to health. |
| C．It tastes delicious. | D．It costs a great deal. |
| A．How people collect weed. | B．What people do with seaweed. |
| C．How people cook with seaweed. | D．Where people trade seaweed. |
| A．To make the best of the seas and to increase the export of seaweed. |
| B．To help more people out of poverty and to open up its new markets. |
| C．To meet the needs of the market and to preserve the wild resources. |
| D．To cut the costs of seaweed industry and to benefit rural population. |
8 . While global warming and ocean acidification driven by pollution cause a real threat to sea creatures, climate change is not the primary driver threatening to cause the extinction (灭绝) of large ocean animals. It is humans that are threatening large sea creatures primarily by hunting and fishing them.
Researchers findings reflect a phenomenon experienced by ancient land ecosystems (生态系统). These losses in the ocean are paralleling what humans did to land animals some 50,000 to 10,000 years ago, when we wiped out around half of the big-bodied mammals on Earth, like mammoths, mastodons. saber-tooth cats and the like.
The increasing threat to large groups of sea animals is a recent phenomenon. The researchers made this discovery by comparing characteristics of nearly 2,500 extinct sea vertebrates and mollusks alongside others currently in danger of extinction. They found that smaller sea animals were a little more likely than large ones to be killed off during five previous mass extinction events—the most recent of which was associated with a small planet’s strike some 65 million years ago.
What was surprising to the researchers was that they did not see a similar kind of pattern in any of the previous mass extinction events that they studied.
The study shows that a sixth mass extinction, which may already be underway, could kill off larger-bodied animals while leaving smaller ones behind. That could have a terrible long-term impact.
Such removal of the largest animals from the modern oceans, which never happened in the history of animal life, may disturb the order of ecosystems for millions of years even at levels of taxonomic loss far below those of previous mass extinctions.
This news should serve as a wake-up call for humans to fundamentally change the way they manage the oceans. That is to say, it is a warning of what will happen if we don’t get our act together.
Limiting industrialization of the oceans may be necessary to give threatened animals time and space to recover. Most whaling has been banned since the 1980s. We have brought gray whales back from the edge of extinction and blue whales are coming back too.
The researchers point out that cutting back on carbon emissions (排放) will also be necessary to slow extinctions.
1. Paragraph 2 is intended to tell us that ________.| A．both land animals and sea animals die out because of humans |
| B．big-bodied animals were killed as they were threat to humans |
| C．humans tended to kill animals on land instead of those in seas |
| D．humans have been main killers of animals for a very long time |
| A．It is easier for sea creatures to go extinct than land ones. |
| B．The patterns of sea animal mass extinction are irregular. |
| C．Humans were responsible for all those extinctions. |
| D．Small-bodied creatures produce their young more easily. |
| A．To completely ban people from hunting them. |
| B．To fully realize the urgency of protecting them. |
| C．To unconditionally release kss CO2 into the air. |
| D．To reasonably keep control of the trade in them. |
9 . She looked up at me sadly, her pain unbearable obvious. I
I couldn’t help but think that these
Earlier that day, our group of forty high school students had learned that those endangered sea turtles were being
I had always been conscious of the damage our environment was suffering
| A．recognized | B．introduced | C．watched | D．satisfied |
| A．strange | B．missing | C．shining | D．complex |
| A．troublesome | B．rare | C．ugly | D．unfortunate |
| A．skillful | B．stubborn | C．intelligent | D．careless |
| A．studied | B．discovered | C．killed | D．displayed |
| A．because of | B．in case of | C．in spite of | D．apart from |
| A．report | B．lessen | C．escape | D．prove |
| A．so | B．but | C．or | D．and |
| A．see | B．predict | C．prevent | D．experience |
| A．boater | B．fisherman | C．visitor | D．turtle |
| A．pain | B．dirt | C．mask | D．sign |
| A．worry | B．harm | C．anger | D．shame |
| A．mention | B．form | C．change | D．check |
| A．describe | B．witness | C．investigate | D．benefit |
| A．donating | B．sharing | C．ignoring | D．recording |
| A．unless | B．before | C．while | D．though |
| A．wait | B．search | C．care | D．fight |
| A．need | B．place | C．chance | D．promise |
| A．running after | B．looking after | C．naming after | D．getting after |
| A．food | B．coin | C．litter | D．metal |
10 . CORAL reefs are,in fact,a necessary part of our ecosystem and provide opportunities for human beings to gain a better understanding of the ocean.Unfortunately,they're also disappearing faster than ever.
According to a warning by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) on Oct.8,the world is in its third recorded global coral bleaching（白化）since 1998 and 2010.This means no place with coral has been spared,as coral reefs are coming into contact with increasingly warm seas,which is leading to them dying off in large numbers.
Coral bleaching is like human cancer.It happens when corals are under stress from changes in light,nutrients,or temperature.This causes the coral to drive away the symbiotic algae（共生藻类）,living within their tissues（组织）, which play an important role in providing food for coral while making it colorful.Without the algae,coral reefs become pale and weak.In some cases they are not able to recover and eventually die off.
The current coral bleaching event started back in late 2014 and continued into this year with no signs of stopping.The BBC reports that 35% of coral reefs in the world will likely be affected,and an estimated 4,633 square miles (about 120,000 square kilometers) of coral reefs could die.
The loss of coral reefs is no small matter.Although they only take up 0.1% of the ocean floor,coral is home to about 25% of marine life.This isn't just a problem for divers and fish,as Eakin pointed out.Coral reefs are important globally,he added,as they protect shorelines,produce money in tourism,and help provide food for 500 million people worldwide.So people cannot overlook the environmental,economic and social effects of the loss.
The NOAA warning about coral bleaching came just about two months before a global climate summit（峰会）in Paris,where hundreds of world leaders will attempt to work our a plan to fight climate change.
Oceans will be a key subject during the summit,and Eakin says there's an "absolutely urgent need" for action.
1. Coral reefs,according to the passage,are dying off in large numbers as a result of .| A．disease | B．warm seas |
| C．dirty water | D．a lack of fool |
| A．Nutrients. | B．Their tissues. |
| C．Light from seawater. | D．The symbiotic algae. |
| A．will be held two months before he NOAA warning about coral bleaching |
| B．has worked out a plan to fight climate change |
| C．will mainly discuss the problem of oceans |
| D．will regard oceans as a key topic of the global climate |
a.They protect shorelines.
b.They are beneficial to tourism.
c.They are home to most marine life.
d.They help provide food for 500 million people.
| A．a b d | B．a c d |
| C．a b c | D．b c d |
