1. What is the woman doing?
| A．Carrying trees. | B．Planting trees. | C．Picking up waste. |
| A．To play in it. | B．To clean it. | C．To measure the depth of it. |
| A．Strangers. | B．Teammates. | C．Schoolmate |
2 . As seabird biologist Bonnie Slaton slides off a small boat and walks through high water, the brown pelicans (鹈鹕) spread their wings overhead until she reaches Raccoon Island. The narrow island is a small piece of land separating the American state of Louisiana from the Gulf of Mexico. During the seabird breeding (繁殖) season, the placer, one of the few remaining places of safety for the pelicans, is full of noise.
Twelve years ago, there were 15 low-lying islands with breeding areas for Louisiana’s state bird. However, today, only about six islands in southeastern Louisiana have brown pelican nests and the rest have disappeared underwater.
Slaton and other scientists set u cameras to observe pelican nests on the island. The cameras show that in recent years the pelicans have faced some natural disasters. The main killer of them is flooding, which can wash away all the nests, as happened in April 2021. The disappearing islands are the location of a story of successful conservation. For many years, scientists have worked to bring the pelicans beck from tally dying off.
Mike Carloss is a state wildlife biologist in Louisiana. He said he never saw brown pelicans as a child in the 1960s. Their populations had been killed by the use of DDT, a kind of farm chemical. It thinned eggshells and prevented pelicans from giving birth to young birds. The beloved birds were completely gone from Louisiana, only appearing on the state flag. But a long-running effort to save them led to the birds’ return. After DDT was stopped in the U.S. in 1972, biologists brought young pelicans from nearby Florida to let them inhabit empty islands across the Gull of Mexico again. More than 1,200 pelicans have been set free in southeastern Louisiana over 13 years.
The brown pelicans can live more than 20 years. So, the final effect of disappearing breeding areas is uncertain and it will sill take time to become clear. And the future for pelicans is uncertain on the islands.
1. What is a killer of brown pelicans?| A．The island movement. | B．The underwater noise. |
| C．The increase of human population. | D．The disappearance of breeding areas. |
| A．To stop illegal hunting. | B．To watch pelicans’ home. |
| C．To predict serious flooding. | D．To record the number of pelicans |
| A．Live on. | B．Focus on. | C．Break into. | D．Look into. |
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Doubtful. | C．Curious. | D．Proud. |
3 . Sugar cane (甘蔗) contains around 10% sugar. But that means it contains around 90% non-sugar — the material known as bagasse (甘蔗渣) which remains once the sugar-bearing juice has been squeezed out of the cane. World production of cane sugar was 185m tonnes in 2017. That results in a lot of bagasse.
At the moment, most of this is burned. Often, it fuels local generators, so it is not wasted. But Zhu Hongli, a mechanical engineer at Northeastern University in Boston thinks it can be put to better use. "With a bit of improvement bagasse makes an excellent replacement for the plastic used for disposable food containers such as coffee cups," says Dr. Zhu.
Dr. Zhu is not the first person to have this idea. But previous attempts tended not to survive contact with liquids. She thought she could overcome that by combining the bagasse pulp (浆状物) with another biodegradable (可生物降解的) material. She discovered that the main reason past efforts failed is that bagasse is composed of short fibres which are unable to give resilience (韧性) to the finished product. She therefore sought to insert a suitably long-fibred substance.
Bamboo seemed to fit the bill. It grows quickly, degrades readily and has appropriately long fibres. When the researchers mixed a small amount of bamboo pulp into bagasse, they found that the short and long fibres combined with each other closely.
To put their new material through its paces, Dr. Zhu and her colleagues fist poured hot oil onto it and found that their invention showed resistance to oil. They also found that when they made a cup out of the stuff and filled it with water heated almost to the boiling point, the cup remained good for more than two hours. Though this is not as long as a plastic cup would last it is long enough for all practical purposes. Moreover, the new material is twice as strong as the plastic used to make cups, and is definitely biodegradable. When Dr. Zhu buried a cup made out of it in the ground, half of it rotted away within two months.
1. What does paragraph l mainly talk about?| A．A big international market for cane sugar. | B．A plant containing a high content of sugar. |
| C．The large amount of world bagasse production. | D．The environmental impact of planting sugar cane. |
| A．They broke easily when wet. | B．They were non-biodegradable. |
| C．They consumed little bagasse. | D．They had too much resilience. |
| A．Avoid the attempts. | B．Meet the requirements. |
| C．Fill the vacancy. | D．Survive the environment. |
| A．It can satisfy basic usage needs. | B．It is hardly as strong as plastic cups. |
| C．It can disappear in two months if buried. | D．It is unlikely to be used as an oil container. |
4 . Off the coast of Formentera, an island, lives seagrass that stretches 15 kilometres. The seagrass, covering several hectares, is made up of a single organism. The grasses are also long-lived, for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. Along with two other kinds of coastal ecosystems—mangrove swamps（红树沼泽）and tidal marshes, seagrass meadows are particularly good at taking carbon dioxide from the air.
This role was highlighted in a report, which was published on March 2nd by UNESCO, on blue carbon—the carbon taken in by Earth's oceanic and coastal ecosystems. In total around 33 billion tons of carbon dioxide, about three-quarters of the world's emissions（排放）in 2019, are locked away in the planet's blue carbon sinks（碳汇）. Research by Carlos Duarte, the report's author and a marine ecologist, has shown that one hectare of seagrass can suck as much carbon dioxide each year as 15 hectares of rainforest.
One reason that blue—carbon ecosystems make such effective sinks is that underwater forests are thicker than the land-based woods. They can also trap floating pieces and organic matter, which settles on the sea floor and can double the amount of carbon stored away. They have another advantage, too. Climate change is leading to more wildfires around the world. As forests burn, their carbon stocks are released back into the atmosphere. Unlike forests on land, blue-carbon ecosystems do not burn.
Blue-carbon ecosystems may not be fired, but they remain affected to other sorts of disasters. In May 2020 hurricane Amphan destroyed 1,200 square kilometres of mangrove forest. A marine（海洋的）heatwave in Australian waters in 2010 and 2011 damaged around one third of the world's largest seagrass meadow in Shark Bay. “Mangrove forests can weaken or control waves and provide natural barriers to storm surges. Protecting and expanding them, then, appears to be a must,” said a marine biologist.
1. What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?| A．The real definition of blue carbon. |
| B．The special features of the seagrass. |
| C．The doubt about the blue-carbon ecosystems. |
| D．The capacity of the blue-carbon ecosystems to store carbon. |
| A．They aren't influenced by natural disasters. |
| B．They have great ability to absorb carbon. |
| C．Their carbon stocks are released back. |
| D．There are more underwater animals. |
| A．Mangrove forests are too strong to be broken. |
| B．Mangrove forests can strengthen waves. |
| C．Humans should preserve blue-carbon ecosystems. |
| D．Blue carbon ecosystems can be fired. |
| A．Plants in the Ocean Are Better at Storing Carbon |
| B．The Grasses Can Store More Carbon Than Your Expectation |
| C．Mangrove Forests Can Control Waves Efficiently |
| D．Blue-Carbon Ecosystem Are Expanding Much Faster |
5 . The twilight zone (朦胧地带) contains the largest and least explored fish stocks (储备) of the world’s oceans. Ranging from just below 200 metres to 1,000 metres deep, it is an interface between the well-studied sea life in the sunlit zone above and the ecosystems of the darkest territory below. It has a major role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it for centuries or longer. The twilight zone is also known to the largest migration on Earth. Huge numbers of fishes and zooplankton (浮游动物) move hundreds of metres towards the surface each night to feed, before withdrawing back down at dawn.
Yet the zone is poorly understood — physically, biogeochemically and ecologically. Even the number of organisms that live there remains a mystery, let alone their diversity and function.
It is alarming, then, that this vast ocean domain is at risk in three ways-even before any of the potential consequences are understood. First, the world’s growing population has an increasing need for food. Second, sea-floor mining for minerals and metals could release waste into the region. And third, climate change is varying temperature, acidification and oxygen levels in ways that are likely to affect life there.
The twilight zone is hard Io study. Its organisms are difficult to sample and analyse, being thinly distributed, almost invisible and often fragile. They also live at pressures of up to 100 atmospheres, which poses problems for laboratory-based investigations.
Critics might argue that walers near coasts and above shelves are more deserving of study, given the huge environmental pressures there, as well as their importance to societies. And, of course, they need attention. Sadly, however, it is too late to avoid widespread environmental damage to these inshore regions. Instead, research efforts and local policies must aim at minimizing the worst effects.
By contrast, the twilight zone is almost left in its original condition. Moreover, the majority of it lies beyond national administration. This makes it of common interest and responsibility, and means that global agreement is necessary to manage it.
1. What can we learn about the twilight zone?| A．It has the least fish stocks. |
| B．It reduces atmosphere’s carbon dioxide. |
| C．It lies at the bottom of sea. |
| D．Il is located above the sunlit zone. |
| A．Where global warming leads us. |
| B．Why high food consumption arises. |
| C．How the twilight zone is threatened. |
| D．What impacts pollution has on ocean. |
| A．The twilight zone. | B．The inshore area. |
| C．Its original condition. | D．National administration. |
| A．International cooperation is essential. |
| B．Inshore regions deserve more attention. |
| C．Global agreement has been reached. |
| D．Study on the twilight zone is out of the question. |
6 . Garbage sorting has become a hot issue around China, especially after Shanghai began carrying out a regulation on July 1.
Beijing, as a forerunner in environmental protection, has thus been expected to follow suit. The capital of the country has long been campaigning for sorting and recycling household waste, as part of its environmental drive for sustainable growth, local media reported.
The current regulation gives garbage sorting responsibilities to government departments, property management groups and other organizations. It also gives rules for companies, outlining how they’re responsible for waste collection, transportation and treatment. Only individuals are not subject to responsibilities.
The long-awaited revision will soon change the situation, “Taking out the trash without sorting it properly will be illegal,” said Sun Xinjun, director of the Beijing Commission of Urban Management. In Shanghai, violators are now fined up to 200 yuan ($30)for trash-sorting violations. The maximum fine in Beijing will not be less than that, he said.
The Beijing city government first set out to promote garbage sorting in 2009. Authorities have since called on citizens to sort their household waste into four types-recyclable waste, kitchen trash, dangerous waste and others-and leave it in a corresponding dustbin or trash can. Blue-colored dustbins signify items within are recyclable, green represents kitchen trash, red corresponds to dangerous materials and grey to other waste.
To promote the awareness of garbage sorting and expand the base of participants, authorities have employed workers to help residents on the spot. With intelligent devices, those who throw in recyclable waste at given sites will be rewarded with bonus points, which can be used to buy daily goods. At some communities, there are no color-coded dustbins. Instead, a scheduled garbage collection service is offered to help improve the environment. In other communities, workers offer a door-to-door service to collect recyclables or kitchen waste.
Beijing Environmental Sanitation Engineering Group has been promoting new garbage sorting facilities such as recycling cabinets and smart kitchen waste trash cans since 2016, Xinhua News Agency reported. Nearly 26,000 metric tons of household waste is generated across Beijing on a daily basis and 29 terminal garbage disposal facilities are working at full capacity. Nearly 9.3 million tons of household waste was processed in the city last year.
1. According to the passage, which dustbins should some used coke cans be thrown into?| A．Grey-colored dustbins. | B．Red-colored dustbins. |
| C．Green-colored dustbins. | D．Blue-colored dustbins. |
| A．new technology has been applied to help deal with garbage |
| B．Beijing carried out a more severe rule on garbage sorting than Shanghai |
| C．the change of the current regulation has aroused objection among citizens |
| D．the amount of household waste in Beijing is far from something disturbing |
| A．How to Sort Garbage in China | B．The Current Regulation in Beijing |
| C．Garbage Collection in Beijing | D．Waste Recycling Project Counts |
| A．a book review | B．a travel brochure |
| C．an environment report | D．a geography essay |
7 . The Lifecycle of a T-shirt
We all probably have a lot of T-shirts, but do you ever stop and think about the influence of a T-shirt on the planet? You’d probably be surprised to learn what's involved in the lifecycle of just one T-shirt.
There are 5 major stages: material, production, shipping, use and disposal The material stage involves farming, irrigating, fertilizing, harvesting and ginning（轧花）. While cotton is a natural fiber (纤维）and not as harmful to the environment as manmade fibers, it still takes a toll in the material and production stages. Commercial cotton farming uses a large amount of water, and the use of pesticides (杀虫剂）is widespread across the globe, especially in cotton farming. Studies have shown that farmers spend around $4.1 billion on pesticides annually, of which 25% was spent on cotton crops in the US.
Once the cotton is grown and harvested, so begins the production stage: spinning, knitting（编织）, bleaching, dyeing, cutting, sewing, etc.——these processes also use a great deal of water and energy. Commercial dyes and bleaches are harmful pollutants and can eventually pollute groundwater.
After the T-shirt is produced, it enters the transportation stage. This often involves overseas shipping. Take a look in your closet. Chances are that most of your cotton garments (衣服）are made in China or India. Garments can be shipped via plane, ship or truck…，all of which spill CO2 into the atmosphere. Calculations show that CO2 emissions from light trucks alone amount to 1.15 pounds per mile.
Once the T-shirt reaches the retail market, it is purchased. This stage may seem like the least environmentally damaging part. But consider the number of times you’ve washed and dried your favorite T-shirt. Washing machines are certainly becoming more efficient. However, the average American household does 400 loads of laundry per year, using about 40 gallons of water per load. Such excessive water use is combined with the large amount of energy used by dryers.
The final stage of life is disposal. This releases harmful emissions, or involves a landfill where cotton takes years to break down. Current US records show that an estimated 15% of clothes and shoes are recycled, which means that consumers send a shocking 85% of these materials to landfills.
We all need new clothes every once in a while, but let’s all try to keep in mind what goes into the production of clothing... It has a real impact on the planet.
There are a lot of things you can do to help reduce your impact. Reuse and recycle clothes. If they’re too worn out to wear, cut them up and use them as cleaning rags. Donate them to charity or another organization that recycles textiles. When possible, make an effort to buy organic cotton. Turn down the thermostat(恒温器) on your washer, and line dry your clothes when the weather will allow it.
1. The underlined phrase “takes a toll” probably means “ ”| A．wastes water | B．takes a lot of time |
| C．uses energy | D．has a bad effect |
| A．pesticides in cotton farming cost over 4 billion dollars every year |
| B．C02 emissions of land transport amount to 1.15 pounds per mile |
| C．about 15% of the clothes and shoes are made of materials that are recycled |
| D．about 16, 000 gallons of water is used annually by an average family on laundry |
| A．The production process may affect water safety. |
| B．The clothing cost is relatively low in China and India. |
| C．Cotton clothes are buried because they are hard to break down. |
| D．The use stage is the least environmentally harmful of the five stages. |
| A．To encourage people to donate clothes to charity. |
| B．To promote eco-friendly actions related to clothes. |
| C．To persuade people to purchase more organic cotton. |
| D．To introduce the five stages in the lifecycle of clothing. |
