1 . Wildlife populations around the world are facing dramatic declines, according to new figures that have led environmental campaigners to call for urgent action to rescue the natural world. The 2022 Living Planet Index (LPI), produced by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), reveals that studied populations of mammals, birds, reptiles (爬行动物) and fish have seen an average decline of 69 per cent since 1970, faster than previous predictions. The LPI tracked global biodiversity between 1970 and 2018, based on the monitoring of 31,821 populations of 5230 vertebrate (脊椎动物) species. Mark Wright of WWF says the degree of decline is destructive and continues to worsen. “We are not seeing any really positive signs that we are beginning to bend the curve of nature,” he says.
Freshwater vertebrates have been among the hardest-hit populations, with monitored populations showing an average decline of 83 per cent since 1970. The Amazon pink river dolphin, for example, has experienced a 65 per cent decline in its population between 1994 and 2016. Meanwhile, some of the most biodiverse regions of the world are seeing the steepest falls in wildlife, with the Caribbean and central and south America seeing average wildlife population declined by 94 per cent since 1970. Habitat loss and reduction is the largest driver of wildlife loss in all regions around the world, followed by species overexploitation by hunting, fishing or poaching (偷猎).
In December, governments from around the world will gather in Montreal, Canada, for the COP15 Biodiversity Framework, a much-delayed summit that aims to agree on a set of new targets intended to prevent the loss of animals, plants and habitats globally by 2030. “This is a once-in-a-decade opportunity that’s coming up,” says Robin Freeman of ZSL. He says it is vital that governments use the summit to agree on “meaningful, well measurable targets and goals”. “We need governments to take action to ensure that those goals deal with the complicated combined threats of climate change and biodiversity, in order for us to see a meaningful action,” says Freeman. But some researchers are critical of the LPI’s use of a headline figure of decline, warning it is easy to be misunderstood.
The findings don’t mean all species or populations worldwide are in decline. In fact, approximately half the populations show a stable or increasing trend, and half show a declining trend. “I think a more appropriate and useful way to look at it is to focus on specific species or populations,” says Hannah Ritchie at Our World in Data. But Wright says the LPI is a useful tool that reflects the findings of other biodiversity indicators. “All of those show they all scream there is something going really very badly wrong,” says Wright.
1. What does the underlined phrase in the first paragraph mean?| A．Loving and protecting nature. | B．Preserving the diversity of nature. |
| C．Underestimating the benefits of nature. | D．Destroying and changing nature. |
| A．the number of Amazon dolphins is on the rise |
| B．freshwater vertebrates are at risk of extinction |
| C．there are no positive measures to protect nature |
| D．some of the world’s wild animals are in decline |
| A．It makes sense to focus on a particular species. |
| B．Preventing the loss of habitats by 2030 is certain to happen. |
| C．New agreement on the prevention of habitat loss will be in vain. |
| D．The Caribbean wildlife has been well protected in recent decades. |
| A．The COP15 Biodiversity Framework |
| B．Wildlife Population Declining Sharply |
| C．Urgent Action to Save the Earth |
| D．Correct Interpretation of LPI |
2 . If you’re looking for something fun to do, pack a picnic dinner and take your family or friends to a beautiful place to eat. However, there’s a wrong trend to view picnics as an excuse to transport food in single-use plastic containers. Sure, it means the cleanup is easy at the moment, but it just puts it off to a later point, when it takes the form of volunteer cleanups and landfill management.
●Use food containers smartly
Using reusable containers is the easiest way to reduce waste.
●Choose real cutlery (餐具)
Using washable dishes and cutlery for a picnic does not require much more work than single-use ones.
You’d have to carry the waste out anyway in a trash bag, so why not pack your dirty plates and cutlery into a bag and put them in the dishwasher at home?
●Think about the drinks
Forget the single-use, single-serve drink bottles.
●Put cloth bags to good use
Cloth bags are amazing. I use them for so much more than just buying food at the store. They’re perfect for packing sandwiches, dried or whole fruit, and other snack foods. You can use them to pack glasses or plates to prevent breaking. They can also work as a napkin, tea towel, or trash bag if needed.
| A．Be sure to add a few to your picnic basket. |
| B．There are some healthy dishes you can make or buy. |
| C．To avoid this, a plastic-free picnic can be a brilliant idea. |
| D．If you’re worried about breaking, take some light camping plates. |
| E．Instead, just bring along a cloth tablecloth to spread on the ground. |
| F．These create a huge amount of waste, which can be easily avoided. |
| G．In addition, keep in mind that you don’t have to pre-pack everything. |
3 . New Mexico is famed for roasted green chillies with a distinctive smoky flavour, but it comes at a cost — producers in the state typically use propane (丙烷) as fuel, releasing an estimated 7,800 tonnes of CO2 a year. Ken Armijo at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) wanted to see if he could match the flavour without the need for fossil fuels.
Armijo, whose family owns a chilli farm, works with solar concentrators at NSTTF, normally used for experiments boiling liquid to produce electricity, or simulating (模拟) the effect of re-entry on materials used in spacecraft. The facility uses rings of mirrors to focus sunlight on a 60-metre tower at the centre. He improved a traditional chilli roaster and loaded it with 10 kilograms of chillies before placing it in the tower to roast at 480°C.
A group of green chilli connoisseurs (品鉴师) blind-tasted the solar-roasted version alongside the traditional variety and rated them higher for both flavour and smell. Armijo says infrared (红外线的) imaging showed solar heating produced a more even distribution (分布) of heat with fewer hotspots. “Solar-roasted chillies appeared to have a much cleaner taste because the localised heat from propane roasting can cause localised burning,” says Armijo.
Although this test took place at a research facility, Armijo says the cost of solar concentrators is dropping and it could be possible to use technology developed at Sandia to build small solar concentrators at low cost. These could produce the high temperatures needed for roasting chillies and other foods.
Armijo is eager to try the technique with other foodstuffs, including cocoa and coffee beans, which are grown in lower-income countries and could be solar roasted.
Pete Schwartz at California Polytechnic State University, who has been exploring solar cooking for many years, said that he was not sure “whether solar concentrators will catch on in lower-income countries, where he has seen many solar projects fail due to lack of training and technical support.”
Armijo says he has been approached by at least 15 companies and is in discussions on ways to commercialise the technology. He is seeking extra funding from the US Department of Energy and other organisations to pursue small solar concentrators for food processing.
1. Why did Armijo roast green chillies using solar concentrators?| A．To increase profits. | B．To create a new recipe. |
| C．To reduce air pollution. | D．To improve chillies’ taste. |
| A．They are lower in production cost. |
| B．They work with higher efficiency. |
| C．They spread heat more equally. |
| D．They are easier to operate. |
| A．Favourable. | B．Intolerant. | C．Unclear. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．It has been adopted by some companies. |
| B．It is on its way to the market. |
| C．It has been officially recognised. |
| D．It is in need of technical support. |
Right now， most people's attention is on the COVID﹣19 pandemic. In
World Earth Day， the international movement aiming
That said， the occasion will still continue in a digital way. "
While the event may not reach its originally
Should we be rewilding more land?
Every day in the US, 6,000 acres of open land are cleared for various purposes such as farming, housing, roads, and others. This has led to concerns among scientists
Despite the potential risks, rewilding can help slow down climate change by restoring forests that absorb harmful gases like carbon dioxide. It can also prevent species from
6 . Every spring, as the weather warms, trees up and down the East Coast explode in a display of bright green life as leaves fill their branches, and every fall, the same leaves provide one of nature’s great color displays of vivid yellow, orange and red.
Thanks to climate change, the timing of these events has shifted over the last two decades, Harvard scientists say.
Andrew Richardson, an associate professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, and research associate Trevor Keenan worked with colleagues from seven different institutions on a study which found that forests throughout the eastern United States are showing signs of spring growth dramatically earlier, and that the growing season in some areas extends further into the fall.
Richardson said, “Climate change isn’t just about warmer temperatures. It’s also about changes in precipitation (降水) patterns... so in the future, an earlier spring might not help forests take up more carbon dioxide if they end up running out of water in mid-summer.”
The research combined information from three sources. Using satellite data, Keenan tracked when forests across the region began to turn green in the spring, and when leaves began to turn yellow in the fall. Ground observations made every three to seven days at the Harvard Forest in Petersham and a long-term research site in New Hampshire provided information about the state of buds, leaves and branches. When combined with records from instrument towers, the data sets allowed the researchers to paint a richly detailed picture that shows spring starting earlier, and the growing season lasting longer than at any point in the past two decades.
Another important result, Richardson said, was the discovery of a significant source of error in existing computer models on how forest ecosystems work.
“This shows an opportunity to improve the models and how they simulate how forests will work under future climate scenarios forecast.” he said.
The real power of the findings, however, may be in helping to make the effects of climate change clearer to the public, the researchers said.
1. What is the reason of the earlier spring according to the Harvard scientists?| A．The human activities. | B．The climate change. |
| C．The tree growth. | D．The reduction in water. |
| A．An earlier spring can only bring benefits. |
| B．The influence of climate change is complex. |
| C．The water in mid-summer will increase. |
| D．The role of forests becomes less important. |
| A．Change | B．Explain | C．Imitate | D．Create |
| A．It helps scientists to figure out how forest ecosystems work. |
| B．It reflects how the growing season is extending faster. |
| C．It provides an opportunity to improve the computer models. |
| D．It helps to make the effects of climate change clearer to the public. |
| A．To tell us people should be more aware of the climate change. |
| B．To tell us the climate change has some effects on the world. |
| C．To tell us the early spring in eastern USA is a good time to travel. |
| D．To tell us high technology is useful to detect the climate change. |
7 . Climate change leads to a threat to the world’s sandy beaches, and as many as half of them could disappear by 2100, a new study has found. Even by 2050 some coastlines could be unrecognizable from what we see today, with 10% to 12% facing severe erosion (侵蚀).
Using updated sea level rise predictions, the researchers analyzed how beaches around the world would be in a future with higher seas and more damaging storms. They also considered natural processes like wave erosion, as well as human factors-like coastal building developments, all of which can affect a beach’s health. The study found that sea level rise is expected to outweigh these other factors, and that the more heat-trapping gases humans put into the atmosphere, the worse the influences on the world’s beaches are likely to be.
It’s hard to overstate just how important the world’s beaches are. They cover more than one third of the world’s coastlines, and protect coastal areas from storms. Beaches are also important economic engines, supporting relaxation, tourism and other activities. And in some areas, the beach is more than a vacation destination. In places like Australia, life near the coast revolves around the beach for much of the year.
Some of the world’s most popular beaches are already taking action. Places like Miami Beach are trucking in thousands of tons of sand to patch up (修复) badly eroded shorelines, while others have built sea walls and breakwaters in an attempt to hold precious sand in place. But the financial and environmental costs of these projects are huge, and scientists say rising seas and more powerful storms, supercharged by a warmer climate, will make this a losing battle.
However, the researchers did find that humans have some control over what happens to the world’s beaches. If the world’s governments are able to stick to modest cuts to heat-trapping gas pollution, the researchers found that 22%of projected beach losses by 2050 could be prevented, a number that grows to 40%by 2100 if greenhouse gases are limited.
1. Which is the biggest contributor to severe beach erosion?| A．Damaging storms. | B．Wave erosion. |
| C．Coastal building. | D．Sea level rise. |
| A．It is hard to protect coastal beaches. |
| B．One third of storms take place near beaches. |
| C．Beaches are of great significance to our lives. |
| D．Most Australians live on beach tourism. |
| A．Popularizing the beaches. |
| B．Holding sand in place. |
| C．Reducing the project costs. |
| D．Stopping global warming. |
| A．Half beaches could disappear by 2100. |
| B．Climate change is doing harm to our lives. |
| C．The beach is more than a vacation destination. |
| D．Governments are taking action to fight wave erosion. |
8 . A satellite is about to demonstrate a new way of capturing space junk with magnets for the first time. With the frequency of space launches dramatically increasing in recent years, the potential for a disastrous collision above Earth is continually growing. Now, Japanese orbital clean-up company Astroscale is testing a potential solution.
The firm’s End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration mission is scheduled to lift off on 20 March aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. It consists of two spacecraft: a smaller “client” satellite and a larger “servicer” satellite, or “chaser”. The smaller satellite is equipped with a magnetic (磁力的) plate which allows the chaser to dock with it.
The two stacked spacecraft will perform three tests once in orbit, each of which will involve the servicer satellite releasing and then recapturing the client satellite. The first test will be the simplest, with the client satellite drifting a short distance away and then being recaptured. In the second test, the servicer satellite will set the client satellite tumbling before catching up with it and matching its motion to grab it.
Finally, if those two tests go well, the chaser will live up to its name by letting the client satellite float a few hundred metres away before finding it and attaching to it. All of these tests will be performed autonomously, with little to no human input once they are set in motion.
“These kinds of demonstrations have never been done before in space — they are very different to, say, an astronaut controlling a robotic arm on the International Space Station,” says Jason Forshaw at Astroscale UK. “This is more of an autonomous mission.” At the end of the tests, both spacecraft will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
If companies wanted to use this capability, they would have to attach a magnetic plate to their satellites so they could be captured later. Because of the growing space garbage problem, many countries now require firms to have a way to bring back their satellites once they run out of fuel or fail, so this could be a fairly simple likely plan, Forshaw says. Right now, each chaser can only nab one satellite, but Astroscale is working on a version that could drag three or four out of orbit at once.
1. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “dock with” in Paragraph 2?| A．Join together. | B．Keep up with. |
| C．Deal with. | D．Crash. |
| A．Because they can earn large profits from it. |
| B．Because the frequency of space launches are dramatically increasing. |
| C．Because of the growing space waste problem. |
| D．Because Astroscale has found a new method of capturing the space garbage. |
| A．An astronaut controls a robotic arm on the International Space to capture the “client” satellite. |
| B．Through a magnetic plate remotely controlled by humans on the ground to catch the “client” satellite. |
| C．Tumbling to match the motion of “client” satellite the drag three or four satellites out of its orbit into atmosphere. |
| D．Finding the “client” satellite and attaching to it with a magnetic plate automatically. |
| A．people will burn the space junk up in Earth’s atmosphere in the future. |
| B．the demonstration mission will be divided into three phases. |
| C．These kinds of demonstrations have never been done before. |
| D．Japan and Russia will conduct space debris cleanup experiment together. |
9 . Each year, backed up by a growing anti-consumerist movement, people are using the holiday season to call on us all to shop less.
Driven by concerns about resource exhaustion, over recent years environmentalists have increasingly turned their sights on our “consumer culture”. Groups such as The Story of Stuff and Buy Nothing New Day are growing as a movement that increasingly blames all our ills on our desire to shop.
We clearly have a growing resource problem. The produces we make, buy, and use are often linked to the destruction of our waterways, biodiversity, climate and the land on which millions of people live. But to blame these issues on Christmas shoppers is misguided, and puts us in the old trap of blaming individuals for what is a systematic problem.
While we complain about environmental destruction over Christmas, environmentalists often forget what the holiday season actually means for many people. For most, Christmas isn’t an add-on to an already heavy shopping year. In fact, it is likely the only time of year many have the opportunity to spend on friends and family, or even just to buy the necessities needed for modern life.
This is particularly, true for Boxing Day, often the target of the strongest derision(嘲弄) by anti-consumerists. While we may laugh at the queues in front of the shops, for many, those sales provide the one chance to buy items they’ve needed all year. As Leigh Phillips argues, “this is one of the few times of the year that people can even hope to afford such ‘luxuries’, the Christmas presents their kids are asking for, or just an appliance that works.”
Indeed, the richest 7% of people are responsible for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. This becomes particularly harmful when you take into account that those shopping on Boxing Day are only a small part of our consumption “problem” anyway. Why are environmentalists attacking these individuals, while ignoring such people as Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has his own￡1.5bn yacht with a missile defence system?
Anyway, anti-consumerism has become a movement of wealthy people talking down to the working class about their life choices, while ignoring the real cause of our environmental problems. It is no wonder one is changing their behaviours—or that environmental destruction continues without any reduction in intensity.
1. It is indicated in the 1st paragraph that during the holiday season, many consumers .| A．ignore resource problems |
| B．are fascinated with presents |
| C．are encouraged to spend less |
| D．show great interest in the movement. |
| A．has targeted the wrong persons |
| B．has achieved its intended purposes |
| C．has taken environment-friendly measures |
| D．has benefited both consumers and producers |
| A．madness about life choices |
| B．discontent with rich lifestyle |
| C．ignorance about the real cause |
| D．disrespect for holiday shoppers |
| A．anything less than a responsibility | B．nothing more than a bias |
| C．indicative of environmental awareness | D．unacceptable to ordinary people |
10 . Not only does the use of plastic water bottles hurt your wallet, it also increases pollution and wastes energy and water. Only 23% of all plastic in America ends up in a recycling bin, meaning over $ 1 billion worth of plastic is treated as rubbish a year. Recently, Skipping Rocks Lab has invented a kind of water bottle called Ooho.
It is a convenient, clear water bottle that can either be drunken or eaten. To drink it, you can either peel off the membrane (薄膜) or tear a hole in the membrane with your teeth to pour the water into your mouth. To eat it, you simply put the whole bottle in your mouth. One problem the scientists have run into is how to ship large amounts of Ooho bubbles(水泡) without arriving with a very wet truck. However, they have attempted to package units of individual bubbles together inside a larger and thicker membrane. It is targeting large outdoor events, such as marathons, music festivals, and sporting events, where tons of plastic bottles are used, and frequently left behind as litter. And too much plastic is sure to do harm to the environment, which could account for their purpose of such a new invention.
The team has been working for the past two years to develop the technology and materials needed to produce Ooho; they have recently applied a patent for their new advancements. The price for an individual bubble or a unit of bubbles has not been set yet, but they cost about two cents to create a unit, which is cheaper than plastic bottles. It has appeared at events in London, San Francisco, Boston, at conferences, festivals, and so on.
Ooho is catching many people’s attention and has raised over $ 1 million and gained 1,000 investors in only three days. It is mostly being sold at events at the moment to keep the consumer’s interest while the production machine is getting up and running. It is quickly making a rise,so keep an eye out this year for these bottles of the future.
1. How is most plastic dealt with in America?| A．It’s sold. | B．It’s recycled. |
| C．It’s buried. | D．It’s wasted. |
| A．To make a profit for a company. | B．To protect the environtnent. |
| C．To make people eat as they drink. | D．To reduce the cost of plastic bottle. |
| A．It is easy and safe to ship it in large amounts. |
| B．It has become popular since it began to be sold. |
| C．It might be sold at a lower price than plastic bottles. |
| D．It cost the team a lot of money to develop the technology. |
| A．Ooho is to be a success in the future. |
| B．Ooho is being supported by smart people. |
| C．Ooho is taking the place of plastic bottles now. |
| D．Ooho is being produced to attract more investors. |
