1 . European Union member states gave final approval Tuesday to a plan that would require all new cars sold in the EU to be zero-emission (零排放) vehicles starting in the year 2035. It’s part of the EU’s plan to address climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and more ambitious than similar efforts in America. A quarter of the group’s emissions come from the transportation sector, and 70% of that is road traffic.
“The direction of travel is clear: in 2035, new cars and vans must have zero emissions,” European Commission Executive Vice President Timmermans said in a statement. “The new rules on CO2-emissions from cars and vans are a key part of the European Green Deal and will be a big contribution to our target of being climate neutral by 2050,” Timmermans added.
The plan also requires that, by the year 2030, the average emissions of new cars drop by 55% and the average emissions of new vans drop by 50%, compared with vehicle emissions in 2021.
There’s one major warning to the plan. The European Commission said it would carve out a favorable policy for the continued sale of cars that run on e-fuels past 2035 at Germany’s request, according to Reuters. E-fuels are made using captured CO2 emissions. Poland opposed (反对) the new law, the BBC reported, and Italy, Bulgaria and Romania didn’t vote.
But there is no deny that the plan has an extremely good future. President Biden has said he supports the rise of electric vehicles, and in 2021 he signed an official order setting a goal that half of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles, including plug-in hybrids. Several states have announced future bans on gas-powered cars, though.
However, the shift from petrol engines to electric vehicles won’t be as easy as turning a key. Some of the challenges of switching to zero-emission vehicles include the relatively high cost of electric cars and a lack of charging infrastructure (基础设施).
1. What is the purpose of the new vehicle plan?| A．To promote car sales in the EU. |
| B．To decrease the greenhouse gas emission. |
| C．To show the advantages of gas-powered cars. |
| D．To introduce new electric vehicles to be sold in the EU. |
| A．It wins the support from all the EU citizens. |
| B．It can be carried out effortlessly and smoothly. |
| C．It calls for improvement of electric vehicles’ charging access. |
| D．It may receive strong opposition from electric vehicles makers. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Unclear. | C．Positive. | D．Uncaring. |
| A．New cars in the EU will be zero-emission from 2035. |
| B．The EU reaches an agreement to improve vehicle quality. |
| C．The law on zero-emission vehicle causes heated discussion. |
| D．The new zero-emission U. S vehicles will win the EU market. |
2 . Where does food waste go? In most countries around the world, it goes into landfills (垃圾填埋场). But not in South Korea. The country banned food waste in landfills nearly 20 years ago and today, it is turned into animal feed, fertilizers and fuel.
Around the globe, 1.4 billion tons of food is thrown away every year. The waste goes into landfills where it can pollute the land and water as well as releasing methane — a greenhouse gas — into the air. In fact, food waste is the third-largest source of methane in the US.
The system that is in place in South Korea keeps almost 100 percent of unused food out of landfills. While other cities and local governments have put similar plans in place, it is not done anywhere else on a country-wide basis.
There are two reasons why South Korea passed laws to carry out mandatory (强制性的) recycling of food waste. First, the country’s cooking tradition of numerous small dishes resulted in large amounts of uneaten food. This food waste went into landfills. But the country’s mountainous geography didn’t allow for enough landfills to be built. That’s why the government forced recycling of paper and plastic in 1995 but food waste continued to be buried in landfills. But it was the neighbors of these landfills that demanded that another solution be found due to the very unpleasant smell from rotting food. The government banned organic waste from landfills in 2005. Another law that was passed in 2013 banned dumping liquid food waste in the ocean.
The system is not free but most of the cost is absorbed by the country. People can buy yellow recycling bags that are picked up on the roadside and some local governments have placed autonomous food waste collectors that require residents to pay a weight-based fee by using cards.
The food waste is collected from the bins every day except Sunday. Some of it is used to make animal feed or fertilizers and some is used to make fuel.
1. What phenomenon does the author describe in paragraph 2?| A．The US is worried about landfills. | B．Landfills are the most common. |
| C．Greenhouse gas is hard to avoid. | D．Food waste can cause much harm. |
| A．Other governments don’t plan to recycle food waste. |
| B．100 percent of food waste goes into landfills worldwide. |
| C．South Korea is successful in dealing with the unused food. |
| D．South Korea should follow others’ way of building the system. |
| A．Some people’s appeal. | B．Insufficient landfill sites. |
| C．Unhealthy traditional diets. | D．Large amounts of food waste. |
| A．By avoiding using cards. | B．By purchasing recycling bags. |
| C．By paying the cost of collectors. | D．By picking up waste on the roadside. |
3 . Wildfire season has begun in many places around the world. The dangerous smoke wildfires produce can spread far and wide. It blocks sunlight, poisons the air and damages the health of people and other living things.
Some of those living things could be the plants in gardens, says gardening expert Jessica Damiano, who writes gardening stories for the Associated Press. Damiano lives in New York City and recently experienced several days of very smoky air. Wildfires in eastern Canada were the source.
Damiano, like other people, limited the time she spent outdoors when the air quality was poor. She also wore a face covering when she had to go outside.
But the plants in her garden had no such escape. They had to breathe the poisoned air through the extremely small holes in their leaves.
Pollutants in smoke landing on plants can block sunlight, which is essential for photosynthesis (光合作用). Reduced photosynthesis results in reduced energy. That means slower growth. Additionally, smoke can also affect a plant’s ability to take in nutrients(营养物质).
Brooke Edmunds, a plant scientist and community horticulturalist with Oregon State University Extension, said plants that are affected by smoke for a short amount of time will usually recover quickly. “It depends on how close they are,” she said. “There could also be a localized effect, where one garden is covered in ash(灰烬), and a half-mile away, there’s nothing because that’s the way the wind was moving things around.”
The best thing home gardeners can do is keep an eye on plants. Edmunds suggests giving plants some extra love and care. “Wash the plants gently to remove pollutants left by smoke. Then give them a long, slow drink of water. Most will pull through,” Edmunds said. However, people should not use leaf blower machines to remove ashes from plants because they will risk breathing in what is blowing around.
1. What happened to Jessica Damiano?| A．She had her house burned in a fire. |
| B．She couldn’t afford face coverings. |
| C．She suffered from health problems. |
| D．She had to deal with poor air quality. |
| A．The bad effects of smoke on plants. |
| B．The benefits of growing plants. |
| C．The role of plants in the environment. |
| D．The importance of water to plants. |
| A．Wind has little effect on plants. |
| B．Plants can sometimes make a quick recovery. |
| C．Ashes can spread more than half a mile. |
| D．Plants close to smoke usually grow well. |
| A．By pulling them out of the ground. |
| B．By using leaf blower machines. |
| C．By washing them with great care. |
| D．By giving them a fast drink of water. |
1. 保护野生动物的重要性；2. 保护措施；3. 其他。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear fellow students,
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your attention!
5 . Gardeners who use pesticides are contributing to the decline of British songbirds, a study suggests. Scientists have urged people to stop “spraying their gardens with poisons” in order to halt bird decline and adopt instead wildlife-friendly practices. The results of the University of Sussex study, which researchers call the first of its kind, were published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
The experiment, which surveyed 615 gardens in Britain, found 25% fewer house sparrows when glyphosate (草甘膦) was used regularly. This is an ingredient found in commonly used herbicide (除草剂) brands such as Roundup or Gallup. Slug pellets (鼻涕虫杀虫剂) also seemed to have an impact on bird sightings; in gardens where Slug pellets were used, house sparrow numbers were down by almost 40%.
Prof. Dave Goulson, of the school of life sciences at the University of Sussex, said, “The UK has 22 million gardens, which collectively could be a fantastic refuge for wildlife, but not if they are overly tidy and sprayed with poisons. We just don’t need pesticides in our gardens. Many towns around the world are now pesticide free. We should simply ban the use of these poisons in urban areas, following the example of France.” The Royal Horticultural Society, the UK’s leading gardening charity, said the use of pesticides and herbicides should be avoided if possible and they should only be used, if ever, in small and targeted applications.
The research also found that those who adopted wildlife-friendly practices such as planting native shrubs and flowers, or digging a wildlife pond, saw more birds than those who did not. Cannelle Tassin de Montaigu, a PhD researcher within the school of life sciences and an author of the study, said, “It’s encouraging to find that simple measures, such as planting native shrubs and trees and creating a pond, together with avoiding the use of pesticides, really make a measurable difference to the number of birds you will see in your garden.”
1. What does the underlined word “halt” in paragraph 1 most probably mean?| A．Stop. | B．Attract. | C．Note. | D．Witness. |
| A．To reveal the severe influence of pesticides on birds. |
| B．To compare the effects of two kinds of pesticides. |
| C．To convince readers of the importance of house sparrows. |
| D．To help gardeners choose the proper pesticides. |
| A．The ideal places for wildlife in the UK are extremely tidy gardens. |
| B．The gardens in the UK are so tidy that pesticides are not needed. |
| C．Pesticides should be prohibited from use throughout the UK. |
| D．Some countries like France have made urban areas pesticide free. |
| A．Alternative methods to keep gardens tidy. |
| B．Assistant ways to increase the number of birds. |
| C．Gardeners’ attitudes towards the experiment. |
| D．Other researchers’ interest in the experiment. |
6 . We eat plants and juice them, and now it seems we can mine them too!
After a successful experiment on the island of Borneo, the botany professor Alan Baker and a group of researchers want to introduce phytomining (harvesting minerals from plants) as a better and partial substitute (代替物) for traditional mining.
Phytomining means collecting metals from live plants. However, this can only be done with a group of plants known as “hyperaccumulators (超富集植物)”. There are around 700 identified types worldwide, and what makes these hyperaccumulators special is that they naturally attract and absorb minerals through their roots — metals poisonous to other plants — and then store huge and pure concentrations of these minerals in their bodies. The metals can then be extracted from the plants’ sap (汁), oil, or sometimes even live tissue.
Baker and his colleagues see a lot of potential in phytomining. Not only can it help meet the growing global demand for metals, but it is a way of reducing some of that damage to the environment caused by traditional mining.
One of the biggest problems with traditional mining is that it pollutes the surrounding area. Phytomining can extract metal waste, plus planting the hyperaccumulators would regrow the deforested areas caused by mining operations. Aside from this, if phytomining is able to replace part of traditional mining, then there will be fewer instances of bad mining practices like abandoned mines, which pollute the nearby waters. Also, since phytomining provides metals that are already naturally pure, there is no need to use huge amounts of energy to purify them.
Phytomining has its drawbacks. Harvesting plants on a large scale is expensive today, compared to traditional mining. Besides, plants can be wiped out by diseases or unexpected weather conditions.
However, there are many reasons to consider phytomining. After all, we need to make sure that our planet can exist persistently and sustainable practices like phytomining give us the hope that our advancement doesn’t mean sacrificing Mother Earth.
1. What makes hyperaccumulators different from other plants?| A．The sap poisonous to other plants. |
| B．The oil extracted from live plant tissue. |
| C．The ability to take in and store minerals. |
| D．The concentrations of minerals in their bodies. |
| A．It can stop deforestation. |
| B．It can’t be destroyed by diseases. |
| C．It may reduce the deserted mines. |
| D．It uses clean energy to purify metals. |
| A．Pessimistic. | B．Supportive. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Skeptical. |
| A．Metals From Plants. |
| B．Benefits of Phytomining. |
| C．The Future of Phytomining. |
| D．What Are Hyperaccumulators? |
7 . A student at Hellesdon High School in England has been called “Rubbish Girl” for her environmentallyfriendly ways.
Using the basket on her bicycle, 12yearold Nadia has been
“I’m not going to
Nadia’s mum, Paula, said she is
As a result of the local media attention, Nadia has created a group named “Team Rubbish Girl”, where she shares updates on her green efforts. Positive
“Sweetheart, you are a star that
| A．Therefore | B．However | C．Besides | D．Meanwhile |
| A．picking up | B．taking off | C．giving away | D．leaving behind |
| A．Despite | B．Without | C．Due to | D．Thanks to |
| A．disabled | B．homeless | C．planet | D．business |
| A．start | B．enjoy | C．practise | D．stop |
| A．discover | B．protect | C．repair | D．understand |
| A．responsible | B．ready | C．grateful | D．available |
| A．hardly | B．generally | C．barely | D．extremely |
| A．goals | B．choices | C．problems | D．friends |
| A．strength | B．conclusion | C．attention | D．energy |
| A．balance | B．promise | C．number | D．faith |
| A．effects | B．results | C．comments | D．experiences |
| A．charge | B．honour | C．search | D．support |
| A．shines | B．falls | C．burns | D．compares |
| A．praise | B．discourage | C．improve | D．welcome |
8 . There are lots of ways to raise awareness for a cause. Usually, the stranger the idea is, the more it gets noticed. And that’s precisely why one
Baptiste Dubanchet is biking across Europe, surviving
As you can
What’s
“I have to get food fast because after all the biking I am tired and I need the
He aims to
| A．garbage-eating | B．sports-loving | C．food-wasting | D．law-breaking |
| A．secretly | B．finally | C．entirely | D．probably |
| A．observe | B．imagine | C．suggest | D．remember |
| A．store | B．cook | C．shop for | D．throw away |
| A．locked | B．damaged | C．connected | D．abandoned |
| A．bought | B．offered | C．ordered | D．sold |
| A．begging for | B．giving away | C．hiding | D．causing |
| A．did | B．kept | C．accepted | D．risked |
| A．hardly | B．usually | C．particularly | D．merely |
| A．easiest | B．nearest | C．biggest | D．richest |
| A．competition | B．conversation | C．conflict | D．challenge |
| A．adequate | B．rewarding | C．demanding | D．suitable |
| A．spirit | B．energy | C．time | D．effort |
| A．stomach | B．hand | C．pocket | D．basket |
| A．arrange | B．restart | C．report | D．finish |
9 . In October 2015, Shah began picking up rubbish from the beach every Sunday morning. At first, it was just him and a neighbor, and then he began
Shah hasn't stopped since. He's now spent 209 weekends
For Shah, the work has always been a personal journey, but it has earned
Today, Shah is also working with coastal communities to
“This world
| A．asking | B．ordering | C．warning | D．forcing |
| A．compared | B．adapted | C．related | D．devoted |
| A．workers | B．volunteers | C．journalists | D．clerks |
| A．originally | B．finally | C．suddenly | D．theoretically |
| A．park | B．bank | C．beach | D．market |
| A．global | B．local | C．national | D．coastal |
| A．described | B．honored | C．opposed | D．elected |
| A．make | B．discuss | C．throw | D．handle |
| A．ocean | B．factory | C．mountain | D．forest |
| A．protect | B．control | C．scold | D．educate |
| A．talks | B．complains | C．thinks | D．argues |
| A．earlier | B．faster | C．more | D．better |
| A．pity | B．need | C．pain | D．effect |
| A．come on | B．get on | C．look on | D．go on |
| A．great | B．complex | C．complete | D．difficult |
There is good news and bad news about the number of trees on our planet. The good news is
What is the bad news? Thousands of years ago, the earth had around six trillion trees. Human activity has cut the number of trees on the planet
