1 . The Last Straw?

Every second, the world uses 160,000 plastic bags — that is a total of over five trillion per year. Up to 99 percent of these plastic bags hang around for at least 1,000 years and pollute Earth. And yet, plastic bags are hardly a necessity in our lives. Of all the changes we could make to create a more sustainable lifestyle, a total ban on plastic bags should be simple.

At the beginning of 2021, Shanghai put in effect a ban on all plastic bags in shopping malls and supermarkets, as well as a ban on non-degradable plastics in many other areas. Over the years, individuals and companies have worked to replace plastic items, such as cups and straws, with paper ones.     1    .

Customers complain that paper straws often become soft and break before they can finish their hot drinks. Experts, however, have repeatedly stressed plastic substitutes (替代品) are not the ultimate solution, and that our consumption habits need a bigger change.

In college, one of my environmental science professors promoted a type of waste-free living. She carried around a small glass jar with her, and in it was all her trash she collected for the entire year. She was able to do this by bringing her own cup to Starbucks, her own bags to the shops, and never buying anything that came wrapped in plastic. Her food waste also became compost.     2    .

Plastic bags are incredibly easy to forget about when they become increasingly common.     3    . Once they are in the trash, we take it for granted that they are someone else’s problem. The sad fact is that plastic bags break down into microplastics which then get mixed into the air, soil and water, and eventually end up in plants, animals, and our very own human bodies. So what are you going to do about them?

A．Clearly she demonstrated our ability to live a completely healthy life without creating a great deal of plastic waste.

B．Plastic bag litter has even caused great problems in some areas.

C．If they’re free to use and easily disposed of, they’re a mere tool that we don’t have to think about.

D．Some of these decisions have been met with criticism.

E．Unfortunately, such a high level of pollution doesn’t come without consequences.

2 . China becomes a world leader in clean technology by fighting environmental pollution, sharing experience.

Erik Solheim, former executive director of the United Nations Environmental Programme, said he is __________ with China’s phenomenal achievements over the past decade in fighting environmental pollution and climate change, and in its march toward __________ development.

This is very __________ to his Twitter followers. Solheim’s latest tweets include one about China ranking first globally in planted forests and forest coverage growth, __________ a quarter of the world’s new forests in the past decade; one about China producing 60 percent of global solar energy last year and 80 percent of solar panels; and another highlighting the fact that 80 percent of the world’s new offshore wind capacity was installed in China last year.

He believes that it’s time for the rest of the world to __________.

For Solheim, who is also the former Norwegian Minister of the Environment and Minister of International Development, China’s achievements on the climate and environmental fronts all started with its fight against__________.

“People wanted to see beautiful skies over their cities,” he told China Daily. “The __________ fast reduction in air pollution in Chinese cities over the last decade shows how fast China can act. This has now spilled over into renewable energy, nature protection, electric mobility, tree planting and a lot more. Today, China is the world leader in all __________ technologies.”

The latest __________ from China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment prove Solheim’s observations that the country is rapidly switching to a more sustainable path.

Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu told a news conference on Sept 15 that the country’s toughest measures and greatest progress on the ecological and environmental front have occurred in the last decade.

He said that __________ painstaking efforts to combat pollution, clear waters and blue skies have become more commonplace.

While poor air quality used to be a source of frequent public complaints, the average __________ of hazardous airborne PM2.5 particles dropped from 46 to 30 micrograms per cubic (立方的) meter between 2015 and last year.

About 87.5 percent of days last year were rated as having good air quality, up 6.3 percentage points from 2015, making China the country with the biggest __________ in air quality in the world.

In the last decade, the __________ of water at or above Grade III in the country’s five-tier water quality system rose 23.3 percentage points to 84.9 percent, close to the levels in developed countries. Carbon intensity, or carbon emissions per unit of GDP, has declined by 34.4 percent, with coal __________ for 56 percent of total energy consumption, compared to 68.5 percent a decade ago.

China has has legislated or revised roughly 30 laws and regulations, some of which focused on water resource protection, including the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law, which was modified in 2017, and the Yangtze River Protection Law, which __________ last year.

1.

A．confused

B．impressed

C．obsessed

D．connected

2.

A．available

B．accessible

C．sustainable

D．substantial

3.

A．evident

B．attractive

C．invisible

D．unique

4.

A．donating

B．contributing

C．manufacturing

D．distributing

5.

A．fall behind

B．put forward

C．look up

D．catch up

6.

A．pollution

B．environment

C．ecology

D．emission

7.

A．probably

B．inevitably

C．incredibly

D．traditionally

8.

A．biological

B．advanced

C．far-reaching

D．green

9.

A．study

B．figures

C．technologies

D．innovation

10.

A．thanks to

B．despite

C．regardless of

D．other than

11.

A．height

B．length

C．concentration

D．weight

12.

A．obstacle

B．improvement

C．contribution

D．cultivation

13.

A．quality

B．flavor

C．deposit

D．proportion

14.

A．accounting

B．making

C．looking

D．applying

15.

A．took effect

B．took place

C．took to

D．took in

3 . They, stretching along the shore, swim quite lovely, looking for underwater greens to feed on. However, in these days, something is mixing with the sea grass that manatees(海牛)like to eat along Florida’s western coast. And it’s making them sick-even killing them.

It’s a poisonous form of algae, which is usually called “red tide” because of its color. Algae are plant-like organisms that live mainly in water. Most are harmless, but red tide is an exception. When it gets mixed in with the grass and the manatees eat it, they get so sick that they can’t even swim.

“They’re basically paralyzed(瘫痪的), and they become unconscious,” said Virginia Emonds, an animal care manager. Manatees are mammals and they need to surface often to breathe in air. If a manatee is paralyzed, it can’t swim and will drown.

As of Monday, the current red tide outbreak has killed at least 184 manatees since the beginning of this year. That has already beaten Florida’s record-high number for manatee deaths in a single year-and we still have nearly nine months to go!

The experts aren’t sure when the red tide outbreak will end. So many more manatees are in danger. The situation has gotten so desperate that Florida zoos have rescued at least a dozen manatees. You can find manatees anywhere from Brazil up to Florida-and throughout much of the Caribbean Sea.

In fact, the manatee is officially considered an endangered species. Thanks to the US government’s protection, Florida’s manatee population has grown to approximately 5,000 in recent years. But the red tide is threatening their survival. Some experts suspect that pollution from farms even might be fueling the red tide outbreak, because fertilizer that’s used on farms often winds up in water. And when that fertilized water runs off into the Gulf of Mexico, it makes things grow faster-just like on land.

1. The word “them” (in the first paragraph) probably refers to “______”.

A．endangered animals	B．manatees
C．algae	D．underwater greens

2. We can learn from the passage that the red tide______.

A．has caused damage to most of the underwater greens

B．serves to cultivate farm lands

C．destroy manatees’ ability to surface to breathe

D．give rise to 184 manatees’ deaths every month

3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．The current situation of manatees in Florida.

B．The potential cause of the expansion of the red tide.

C．The fatal effect of the poisonous red tide on manatees

D．The researchers’ efforts to prevent the red tide from spreading.

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The red tide has been changing the manatees’ habitat.

B．The red tide has been posing a threat to the manatees.

C．The manatee is officially an endangered species.

D．More efforts should be put to save the manatees.

4 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Throughout the world, only 15% of the material that are used to make clothing is properly recycled, according to the Alle SacUrthur Club, an organization in Liverpool, UK, that boosts the circular economy. Most clothing waste—an     1    (estimate) 82 million tonnes from the fashion industry alone-produced every year ends up buried or burnt.

    2    (handle) all that waste, methods to recover and reuse the material are intended as an active response to the future risks by researchers and start-up companies. Much of their focus is on chemical recycling,     3     the material is broken down into its building blocks and applied to create new materials, including fibres that     4     (weave) into new clothes. The challenges lie in     5     (develop) the processes for such treatment. They have to be practical, but they also have to be at least as cost-effective as simply making new fibres.

    6     the natural cellulose fibres from cotton, some other materials include human-made cellulosic fibres. They are derived from wood-pulp cellulose and may be used to produce materials such as viscose (rayon) and a similar material called lyocell.

A change in the manufacturing process is being applied to the textile-waste problem by Essen, a start-up in Seattle, Washington.     7     the company has fundamentally devoted to the process is that it uses discarded textiles, instead of wood, as the source of its cellulose. It has also adjusted the process to produce a fibre that the firm’s co-founder and president Christo Stan says is superior to     8     other cellulosics and cotton, and that can be recycled more times.

Although there are abundant technical challenges, the main barrier     9     widespread textile recycling could be economic, says materials engineer Lijiang Jiang at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Atlanta. “Most of the materials are not that invaluable,” Jiang says. So cheap it is to produce polyester, cotton and other fabrics     10     there’s little profit margin unless the recycling processes themselves are very inexpensive.

5 . Ranchers(农场主) and environmental advocates haven’t always seen eye to eye, but the differences between the two aren’t as extreme any more, as more and more ranchers have come around to the understanding that taking good care of the land supports both economic stability and environmental health.

“For some, ranching was pursued in the past with an emphasis on raising beef at the expense of everything else,” says Bill Bryan of the Montana—based Rural Landscape Institute in a recent Christian Science Monitor. “As a matter of necessity, the old way of ranching is giving way to a new pattern. Raising animals for the dinner table isn’t an activity that has to be at odds with the environment.”

According to the nonprofit World Wildlife Fund (WWF), grazing (放牧)—when done right—is key to maintaining biological diversity and ecosystem health across the Northern Great Plains, across 183-million-acre expanse of rangelands spanning five US states and two Canadian provinces.

This vast landscape evolved in harmony with large herbivores (食草动物), such as bison and elk, and must be grazed in order to remain healthy, reports WWF, which works with hundreds of ranchers across the region as part of its Sustainable Ranching Initiative. “Without grazing, woody vegetation, such as juniper and cedar creeps in and kills plants that threatened species, such as grassland birds, need to survive.”

Not surprisingly, many of the ranchers that are following in the forebears’ footsteps have been using what we now call “sustainable ranching practices” for decades already. One example is rotational (轮流的) grazing, that is moving cattle herds more frequently to different pastures(牧场), so they don’t overgraze any one particular patch of land.

A newer “best practice” involves depositing a quarter to half inch of cattle wastes on grazed land to kick-start the soil chemistry below while also absorbing significant amounts of methane (沼气)—the most potent greenhouse gas—before it can head for the atmosphere. This technique is now becoming more commonplace as today’s ranchers care about reducing their carbon footprints like no generation before them.

1. In the first two paragraphs, what does the writer imply about the relationship in the past between ranchers and environmentalists?

A．They worked together to reduce the impact of grazing on the environment.

B．They didn’t look each other in the eyes when they meet.

C．They had great differences between each other.

D．They both agreed that raising animals for food benefits the environment.

2. The underlined phrase “be at odds with” (in Paragraph 2) most probably means ________ from the context.

A．be favourable to

B．be in disagreement with

C．stand a chance with

D．be unusual for

3. Which of the following is TRUE of grazing nowadays?

A．Many ranchers persist in prioritising raising cattle over anything else.

B．Grazing done in the right way helps biological diversity and ecosystem.

C．“Rotational grazing” has been recently employed to raise animals.

D．Grazing contributes to trees competing favourably with plants.

4. The writer mentioned the “best practice” to indicate ________.

A．grazing can be functional in the chemistry field

B．methane is another powerful greenhouse gas besides carbon dioxide

C．ranchers tend to remove their footprints as they are grazing

D．grazing has become more eco-friendly as time goes by

6 . 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.

2. The word “staggering” (Paragraph 3) is closest in meaning to “_________”.

A．documented	B．incredible
C．unsteady	D．negligible

3. Which of the following statements is the author most likely to agree with?

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.

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

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.

8 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. respectively       B. vision                 C. rebounded       D. decoupling       E. respectably F. promoting          G. commitments       H. emitters          I. peak                 J. remaining            K. urgent

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Asean (东盟) region are estimated to increase in the same period, based on the latest Nationally determined contributions (NDC) targets up to 2030.

To keep the Paris Agreement temperature goal within reach, Dr Beni Suryadi, Centre for Energy Manager at the Asean Secretariat, stated that ASEAN needs to achieve     1    emissions as soon as possible after 2030 and net-zero GHG emissions as soon as possible after 2050.

However,     2    of the growth in GDP and energy-related CO2 emissions is observed only in a handful of the Asean member states.

“It is vital to reduce energy intensity through lower energy demand and further energy savings and to reduce emission intensity by     3    renewable energy expansion,” he said.

“Current policies need to be enhanced to achieve the NDC targets. The     4    under the NDCs will provide Asean with a better perspective of the need for a more ambitious course of action on mitigation（缓解） in the future. Ambitious energy policies can significantly reduce GHG emission and helps our     5    towards low carbon economies and climate resilient nations.”

Earlier in his presentation, Dr Beni highlighted, “a brief record-breaking drop in climate change – causing carbon emissions during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. However, nowadays we continue to hear the news and read reports that say that global emissions have already     6    to near pre-pandemic levels”.

“While we are grateful to learn that the economy is reviving and we see economic activities taking place everywhere, there is a(n)     7    need for us to limit the growth of emissions. Global GHG emissions continue to rise, at a time when they need to be rapidly falling.”

At the global level, he said, “It is recorded that almost three-quarters of the GHG emissions come from energy use; almost one-fifth from agriculture and land use; and the     8    eight per cent from industry and waste”.

He also noted that the electricity and transport sectors start out as and remain the biggest     9    of GHGs and air pollution in Asean.

“If the Asean member states do what is needed to fully achieve their own national energy efficiency and renewable energy targets, as well as their climate commitments, Asean’s total energy- related GHG emissions in 2040 will be 3,002 MtCO2-eq, 28 per cent lower than in the baseline scenario.

“Power generation remains the largest sectoral contributor, accounting for about 40 per cent and 46 per cent of total GHG emissions from energy in 2025 and 2040,     10    .

“Furthermore, if Asean fulfilled its regional aspirational targets on the energy efficiency and renewable energy, Asean will be able to reduce GHG emissions more sharply to only 2,264 Mt CO2-eq in 2040,” he said.

9 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Boyan Slat, a Dutch inventor is cleaning the world’s most polluted rivers in an effort to save the oceans. He has made it his mission    1    (remove) plastic from the oceans. His organization, The Ocean Cleanup, has successfully started to clean the pollution that has been circling in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But millions more tons of plastic enter the oceans every year, almost all of it     2     (flow) from rivers.

Just 10 rivers are responsible for around 90% of all that plastic,     3    a 2017 study from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. “So     4    we focus on the worst rivers, we believe we can really have the fastest and most cost-effective way to close the tap and prevent more plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place,” Slat said.

The Ocean Cleanup is effectively using floating trash collectors called “Interceptors”. These solar-powered, autonomous systems use the rivers’ currents to guide the trash onto a conveyor belt that carry the waste to     5     (await) bins.

The first interceptor went to work in Jakarta, Indonesia, to pull plastic from a waterway called the Cengkareng drain. A second interceptor began collecting trash flowing down the Klang river in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On the other side of the world,     6    Interceptor has recently started removing river pollution near the mouth of the Rio Ozama in the Dominican Republic.

“    7    the river is polluted, the fish die. Every year there are less fish,” Luis Peguero, a local fisherman, explained. When Peguero is lucky enough to reel in (收线拉起) a catch, it     8    not be safe for his family to eat. “You find stuff in the fish, especially the catfish. Trash, bottle lids, even a shoe. The fish can’t survive this,” said Peguero. To him, the modern trash-collecting catamaran (双体船) is a peculiar but welcome sight.

The Ocean Cleanup is working with the local governments and communities to help retrieve (取回) the plastic the Interceptors collect. “By stopping plastic in rivers, we hope to not only address the big global plastic pollution issue, but also really help make life better for the people    9    live near these problematic rivers,” said Slat.

The Ocean Cleanup’s goal is to tackle the thousand most polluted rivers within 5 years. Soon interceptors     10     (head) to Vietnam, Thailand, Jamaica and Los Angeles County in the United States.

“We are getting out tons of plastic every single day,” Slat said. “We accept that we won’t deliver magic in one go. But we’re doing this, step by step.”

10 . Directions: Fill in each blanks with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. alternatives   B. behavioural   C. completion   D. consideration   E. met F. modernizing   G. occupied   H. powering   I. schemes   J. specify   K. thorough

Carbon Impact

De-carboning existing housing will require households to stop burning fossil fuels and wood to power and heat their homes. If the UK’s current energy demand could be     1     by renewable, carbon-free energy, then there would be no problem. However, the infrastructure (基础建设) is not yet in place to do so and will not be by 2050.

The smart solution is to reduce the energy demand of homes. This energy demand includes the energy needed to heat (or cool) a home and that required for a home to run, such as     2     appliances.

Architects can have a big impact on energy demand through improving the performance of the building envelope by increasing insulation (绝缘) and airtightness. We can also work with building services engineers to     3     renewable energy generation (生成) technology and ensure that building services and appliances are running efficiently. Smart technologies can also help households control energy use. Gas boilers and cookers will need to be replaced with electric     4     such as heat pumps and conduction hobs. Some community renewable generation     5     will be needed. Household     6     changes will be useful too, for example not having windows open while the heating is on. Rebuilding houses will not be a one-size-fits-all approach. Strategies for individual homes or building types will be required and     7     analysis of a home’s performance and its occupant’s habits will be needed. This was the first step of our R20 project, a rebuilding of 9/10 Stock Orchard Street reducing the energy demand of the building, 20 years after its     8    

The rebuilding works took place while the building was     9    . For all existing housing, careful     10     will be needed regarding health and safety and people’s wellbeing. Furthermore, households will need to learn how their rebuilt home works to use it successfully.