1 . Climate change disproportionately affects the world’s most vulnerable people, particularly poor rural communities that depend on the land for their livelihoods and coastal populations throughout the tropics. We have already seen a chain of tough suffering that results from extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, floods, droughts, wildfires, and more.
For remedies, advocates and politicians have tended to look toward cuts in fossil-fuel use or technologies to capture carbon before it enters the atmosphere—both of which are crucial. But this focus has overshadowed the most powerful and cost-efficient carbon capture technology in the world. Recent research confirms that forests are absolutely essential in reducing climate change, thanks to their ability to absorb and isolate carbon. In fact, natural climate solutions such as conservation and restoration of forests, along with improvements in land management, can help us achieve 37 percent of our climate target of limiting warming to a maximum of two degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, even though they currently receive only 2.5 percent of public climate financing.
Forests’ power to store carbon dioxide is staggering: one tree can store an average of about 48 pounds in one year. Intact(完整的)forests could take in the CO2 emissions of some entire countries.
For this reason, policymakers and business leaders must create and enforce policies to prevent deforestation, foster, reforestation of degraded land, and promote the sustainable management of standing forests in the fight against climate change. Protecting the world’s forests ensures they can keep performing essential functions such as producing oxygen, filtering water and supporting biodiversity. Not only does the world’s entire population depend on forests to provide clean air, clean water, oxygen and medicines, but 1.6 billion people also rely on them directly for their livelihoods.
Unfortunately, a huge amount of forest continues to be converted into agricultural land to produce a handful of resource-intensive commodities - despite zero-deforestation commitments from companies and governments. So now is the time to increase forest protection and restoration. This action will also address a number of other pressing global issues. For example, in less developed, rural areas - especially in the tropics - community-based forest-management programs can forge pathways out of poverty. In the Peten region of Guatemala, for instance, community-managed forests boasted a near-zero deforestation rate from 2000 through 2013, as compared with 12 percent in nearby protected areas and buffer(缓冲)zones. These communities have built low-impact, sustainable forest-based businesses that have stimulated the economy of the region enough to fund the creation of local schools and health services. Their success is especially noticeable in a location where, outside these community-managed zones, deforestation rates have increased 20-fold.
1. Which of the following statements about natural climate solutions is true according to the passage?| A．They are the only effective strategies available to address the climate change. |
| B．They pale in comparison with the reduction in fossil-fuel use or technologies. |
| C．They can and should play a more important role in cutting carbon emissions. |
| D．They manage to limit warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. |
| A．documented | B．incredible |
| C．unsteady | D．negligible |
| A．The policies to prevent deforestation have borne fruit. |
| B．Developed countries are hit the hardest by climate change. |
| C．Economic growth contributes a lot to reducing deforestation. |
| D．Some governments fail to keep their promises to preserve forests. |
| A．Keeping forests undamaged can go a long way toward saving the planet. |
| B．A high-tech climate fix is required to dramatically lessen global warming. |
| C．Governments should work together with businesses to stop deforestation. |
| D．Sustainable management of forests is crucial in powering regional development. |
2 . Burning coal for energy adds planet-warning carbon dioxide (CO2) to Earth’s atmosphere. As the planet heats up, experts warn that simply cutting greenhouse gas emissions (排放) will not be enough to avoid global warming. CO2 must also be removed from the atmosphere.
Existing experimental machines that pull CO2 directly from the air are too expensive to be widely used. But a new effective technology to remove CO2 already exists. It is not expensive and easy. It is forests. Planting trees and watching forests are effective ways to clean the air.
Forests used to cover large areas of the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. In the state of West Virginia, coal mining let the land there bare, without trees. Over the years, coal mining and cutting forests took over 90 percent of the red spruce (云杉) forests.
Chris Barton works for the University of Kentucky. He started a group called Green Forests Work, aiming to put trees back on the roughly 400,000 hectares of land.
However, Barton explains the land has problems. “If you planted trees on these places, they just didn’t grow. The ground was too hard. Water didn’t infiltrate (渗透). The trees can’t root. Oxygen can’t circulate in those environments.” Using heavy equipment, workers tear the ground. In this way, the trees put down roots.
Barton says not everyone believes the solution is a good idea. “We’ve had a lot of doubtful look at us twice from people. But after we do it, there’s no question that it was the right thing to do.” And it has worked. Forests are coming back to the grounds.
Scientists say that, in West Virginia alone, restoring red spruce forests to the area could send what is equal to 56 million barrels (桶) of oil into the ground. But it will take time — a long time. Around the world, experts say, nature offers powerful tools to fight climate change. But patience is needed. Nature works, but slowly, in its own time.
1. What is the economical and effective way to remove CO2 from the air?| A．Inventing new and powerful machines. |
| B．Cutting greenhouse gas emissions. |
| C．Making use of natural gases instead of coal |
| D．Planting trees and protecting forests. |
| A．Destroy. | B．Repair. | C．Cry. | D．Cover. |
| A．Oxygen is not enough for trees to grow there. |
| B．Too many rocks had made it hard to plant trees. |
| C．Coal mining has spoiled the land through years. |
| D．There is no water for trees to grow there. |
| A．a painful process | B．a slow process |
| C．a creative process | D．a learning process |
3 . 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 |
4 . 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. |
5 . Many Beijing residents go to great lengths to avoid breathing the city's smoggy air, especially when it reaches critical pollution levels, but one local entrepreneur decided that canning(灌装) and selling this poor quality air as a souvenir would be a great idea. Believe it or not, he was right.
After seeing a number of companies achieve commercial success by canning fresh air from countries like France, Canada or Australia and selling it in China, Dominic Johnson-Hill, a British-born citizen of Beijing and owner of the Plastered 8 souvenir shop, decided to turn the idea on its head and sell canned Beijing air throughout China and abroad.
"I'd seen people going crazy to buy canned air from Canada and Australia, so I thought it was time to push business the other way," the entrepreneur said. "They' re perfect gifts! What else are you going to take home when you go home from Beijing? A roast duck? A Plastered T-shirt? These cans are light, portable, you can just imagine someone' s face when they unwrap (打开) it for Christmas."
The few mouth-fulls of Beijing air come in standard tin cans featuring a couple of iconic city landmarks as well as a bitter description of the contents: "a unique mix of nitrogen, oxygen and some other stuff". The ironic (讽刺的) souvenirs cost 28 RMB (US $4) and are available at the Plastered 8 shop, as well as on its online shop. But if you're actually considering buying some, you'd better ask shop in advance, as they are virtually flying off the shelves. Johnson-Hill said that his shop is selling hundreds of Beijing air cans every day.
Personally, the well-sold can probably is an awakening for the public to be concerned about the living conditions. Yet one thing that’ s not particularly clear is whether the air is really collected from Beijing, as the cans are labeled as "Made in Shenzhen". There's a big chance that' s just a kind of Plastered 8 humor, as they also list "Choking Hazard" and "May have unidentified objects inside." as warnings.
Anyway, it is probably a unique way to arouse public awareness of protecting the environment.
1. What contributes to Dominic’s idea of canning and selling the poor quality air?| A．Try to get used to it. | B．Sell it all over the world. |
| C．Can it as a souvenir. | D．Try to push business the other way. |
| A．Satisfied. | B．Surprised. |
| C．Frightened. | D．Refreshed. |
| A．liquids | B．objects |
| C．minerals | D．risks |
| A．There are unidentified objects in the canned Beijing air. |
| B．The Plastered 8 souvenir shop is famous for its humour. |
| C．People should make efforts to protect the environment. |
| D．Dominic Johnson-Hill likes the poor quality air in Beijing. |
6 . Sometimes we may find that every week there are a lot of new stories about how climate change is affecting the planet, or new plans to battle its effects. But the concept itself isn't new at all --- in fact, scientists have been exploring questions about climate change for almost 200 years.
The idea of “greenhouse gases” goes back to 1824, when Joseph Fourier wondered what was regulating the earth's temperature. Fourier concluded that the atmosphere must be responsible for containing the heat absorbed from the sun and described it as a box with a glass lid: As light shines through the glass, the inside gets warmer as the lid traps the heat. As Fourier's ideas spread, it came to be called “the greenhouse effect”.
Scientists continued to study the greenhouse effect. Not until a Swedish chemist named Svante Arrhenius came along, did scientists understand how global warming actually works. After years of work, Arrhenius determined that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere did in fact have a direct effect on global temperatures.
Arrhenius found that CO2, and other gases trap radiation, which warms the atmosphere. Arrhenius was the first to suspect that burning coal could contribute to the greenhouse effect. But Arrhenius welcomed the warming effect on the planet. At a lecture later that year, Arrhenius noted that creatures of a warmer earth “might live under a milder sky and in less barren surroundings”.
While Arrhenius' findings won him the 1903 Nobel Prize in chemistry, scientists kept debating whether the greenhouse effect was increasing until 1950, when researchers finally began to find strong data supporting it. By the end of the 1950s, American scientists had been sounding the alarm on the long-term consequences of climate change. Climate change research has come a long way since Fourier first described the greenhouse effect – still, maybe Arrhenius should have been more careful of what he wished for.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The atmosphere. |
| B．The greenhouse effect. |
| C．The climate change. |
| D．The heat from the sun. |
| A．In 1903. |
| B．In 1950. |
| C．200 years ago. |
| D．By the end of 1950s. |
| A．Positive. |
| B．Indifferent. |
| C．Supportive. |
| D．Opposed. |
| A．Causes of climate change. |
| B．Effects of greenhouse gases. |
| C．Explorations on climate change. |
| D．Findings about global warming. |
