1 . The Canadian government announced a plan to ban single-use plastics as early as 2022. As someone who performs research on plastic pollution, I see this as a positive step forward. However, I wonder whether it will go far enough.
Some people may feel that this announcement is simply a “feel-good measure” and a distraction from bigger problems such as the climate disaster. The truth of the matter is that plastic pollution and the climate disaster are signs of the same disease. As much as 8% of global oil goes directly to plastic production—a figure that doesn’t include the transportation of single-use plastics to global markets, the energy used to transport plastics to landfills and the energy used to sort or recycle things.
In the past years, some bans have actually resulted in an increase in other forms of waste. For example, paper bags may be seen as a sustainable (可持续的) choice since, unlike plastics, paper breaks down in the environment. However, a paper bag has a carbon footprint three times that of a plastic bag and is still “single-use” just as much as a plastic bag is.
Adopting (采用) a science-based method, which the government has promised, will ensure the ways of using single-use plastics are more sustainable. I’m, however, concerned about the announcement because “as early as 2022” is very different from “by 2022”, which has a strict timeline. If we’re truly going to carry out an effective ban on single-use plastics, our government will need to spend a large amount of money on innovation (改革) and research into sustainable materials and our waste treatment system to prevent plastics from going into our oceans or landfills.
So the question remains: is this announcement simply smoke and mirrors, to hide a lack of determined action on both plastic waste and the climate disaster, or is this a real effort that will be carried out to stop the production of single-use plastics? We will have to wait and see.
1. How does the author feel about Canada’s new plan?| A．She is more excited than worried. | B．She never believes in Canada. |
| C．She considers it a great success. | D．She has mixed feelings about it. |
| A．stress paper bags are sustainable materials |
| B．explain paper bags are greener than plastics |
| C．prove some measures are unsatisfactory |
| D．show paper bags are no different from plastics |
| A．Its coming a little too late. | B．Its lacking scientific support. |
| C．Its having no strict timeline. | D．Its appearing far from practical. |
| A．Canada’s efforts to reduce the use of plastics. |
| B．The author’s views on Canada’s single-use plastic ban. |
| C．Reasons for the author’s criticism of Canada’s new plan. |
| D．Similarities between plastic pollution and the climate disaster. |
2 . Fishing cats are a kind of cats that love water and love to fish. They are like tigers and lions, only much smaller, around twice the size of an average pet cats. They live in wetlands of south Asia and mangrove forests (红树林) of south and southeast Asia. Like many other endangered species, fishing cats are in danger of dying out more than twenty years ago, mainly because of the great international need for food fish and people’s cutting of mangroves at an extremely fast speed.
Mangroves of southeast Asia are home to a great many fantastic species like fishing cats, turtles, shorebirds and others. Mangroves can protect soil and they can be the first line of protection between storms, tsunamis and millions of people who live next to them. The fact is that mangroves can store almost five to ten times more Carbon dioxide than other forests. So protecting mangroves may well be like protecting five and ten times more of other forests.
Ten years ago, in south India, many people came together to change the future of their home. In less than ten years, with international support, the state forest departments and the local people work together to restore over 20,000 acres of unproductive fish and shrimp farms back into mangroves. Now experts are working with them in helping study protect the mangroves as well as species living in them. Fish and shrimp farmers are now willing to work with the experts to test the harvest of nature protection like fishes, turtles and other species in mangroves. The local farmers are encouraged to protect the plant mangroves where they have been lost. A win-win-win situation for fishing cats, local people and the global ecosystem is being built.
1. What made the fishing cats endangered?| A．Natural enemies and environmental pollution. |
| B．Cutting off mangroves and lack of water. |
| C．Less fish and overcutting of mangroves. |
| D．Being too large and need for good fish. |
| A．the shelter. | B．the jungle. |
| C．the gathering. | D．the habitat. |
| A．Ways of turning farms into forests. | B．Changes of South India in ten years. |
| C．Efforts to protect the mangroves. | D．Work in protecting shrimps. |
| A．Fishing Cats and Mangroves Protection | B．The importance of mangroves |
| C．Approaches to Protecting Fishing Cats | D．Man and Nature |
3 . How to Protect Wildlife
Wildlife faces threats from habitat destruction, pollution, and other human actions. Although protecting wildlife may seem too hard at times, even small actions can help protect many different animals.
● Create wildlife friendly areas. When trying to make your garden more beautiful, choose plants that can provide food and shelter to native wildlife. This will also help cut down on pollution.
●
● Buy products that are wildlife-friendly.
● Limit family size. Population growth is one of the major factors in habitat destruction. With the rapidly growing population, more and more habitats for wildlife are occupied by humans.
| A．Live a greener life. |
| B．Donate money to organizations. |
| C．Each family should be limited to one or two children. |
| D．Avoid products that are made from endangered animals. |
| E．Protecting wildlife from being endangered is every family’s duty. |
| F．Here are some tips on how to protect wildlife through small actions. |
| G．Build bird houses to your garden or yard to attract and shelter these species. |
4 . Cigarette ends are everywhere--littering our streets and beaches--and for decades they've been thought of as “unrecyclable”. But a New Jersey-based company, called Terracycle, has taken on the challenge, and has come up with a way to recycle millions of cigarette ends and turn them into industrial plastic products. Its aim is to recycle things that people normally consider impossible to reuse.
Obviously it would be even better for the environment if everyone just stopped smoking but the statistics show that although there has been an increase in anti-smoking ads and posters, between 2000 and 2014.global sales of cigarettes increased by 8 percent, and a whole lot of those cigarette ends ended up as trash: Since most of our litter eventually ends up in waterways, cigarette ends can surely pollute the surrounding environment. “It only takes a single cigarette end to pollute a liter of water,” Temacycle’s founder, Tom Swak, said. “Animals can also mistake cigarette ends littered for food.”
So how do you go about turning all those poisonous ends into something useful? Terracycle does this by first breaking them down into separate parts. They mix the remaining materials, such as the tobacco and the paper, with other kinds of rubbish, and use it on non-agricultural land, such as golf courses. The filters (过滤嘴) are a little harder. To recycle these. Terracycle first makes them clean and cuts them into small pieces, and then combines them with other recycled materials, making them into liquid for industrial plastic products.
They’re now also expanding their recycling offerings to the rest of the 80 percent of household waste that currently can’t be recycled, such as chocolate packaging, pens, and mobile phones. The goal is to use the latest research to find a way to stop so much waste ending up in landfills, and then get companies to provide money for the process. And now, it works well.
“We haven't found anything that we can’t recycle,” communications director of Terracycle, Albe Zakes, said. “But with the amount and varieties of packaging and litter in the world, we are always looking for new waste streams to address.”
1. What does Terracycle intend to do?| A．Search for recyclable materials for use. |
| B．Deal with as many cigarette ends as possible. |
| C．Produce new kinds of industrial plastic products. |
| D．Recycle what used to be considered unrecyclable. |
| A．Rubbish. | B．Poison. | C．Disaster. | D．Ruin. |
| A．The effective use of cigarette ends. |
| B．The process of recycling cigarette ends. |
| C．The difficulty in recycling cigarette ends. |
| D．The reason for breaking down cigarette ends. |
| A．There is more and more waste to be recycled. |
| B．It is difficult for Terracycle to recycle everything. |
| C．Terracycle is trying to meet the challenge of new waste. |
| D．Terracycle has successfully recycled a large amount of waste. |
Are you worried about our earth? Do you want to do what you can to save it?
Turn off anything that uses electricity when not in use.
It's not just paper, plastic and glass that can be recycled — clothes can be, too.
You don't have to travel far to get what you need, and products don't have to travel far to get to you, either. Shop at farmers' markets and buy food that was produced as close to your home as possible. And when you're online shopping, try to find things that won't have to travel long distances.
Save water.If you don't let the water run when you're brushing your teeth and take showers instead of baths, you will be using less water and less energy — but you'll still be just as clean!
| A．Buy things nearby. |
| B．Think before you eat. |
| C．It's hard to know where to start. |
| D．Turn short jeans you've grown out of into shorts. |
| E．Also, don't wash dishes with the water running continuously. |
| F．This goes for lights, televisions, computers, printers, and so on. |
| G．Bring a reusable water bottle with you when travelling or at work. |
6 . In the UK, electric and other low-emission（低排放）cars, vans, and buses could be given special green plates to encourage more people to buy such cars, and promote awareness for “clean” cars.
Strange as it may seem, there is some reason to believe that something as small as this could make a big difference. Already, similar ideas have been put into effect in Norway, Canada, Latvia, and China, and the results have been encouraging.
Elisabeth Costa, director of the Behavioural Insights Team, explains, “Simple changes based on behavioral science can have a big impact. Green plates would be more noticeable to road users, and this increased attraction can help normalise the idea of clean vehicles, highlighting（使突出）the changing social norms（规范）around vehicle ownership.”
Actually, hybrids and electric cars accounted for 5.5% of the cars sold in the UK in the first half of the year, compared to 4.2% for the same period in 2017.
However, colored plates can only go so far. At the end of the day, you need strong, concrete（具体的）measures if you want to support a market like electric cars. The UK already has generous allowances for electric cars, but a study for the RAC Foundation found that the lack of reliable, easy-to-use charging stations is the main roadblock to people purchasing more electric cars. This was repeated by separate research from AA, the UK’s largest motorist association, which found that although 1 in 2 young drivers want electric cars, 8 out of 10 drivers feel that the lack of adequate electrical chargers is the main reason not to buy an electric car.
Yet this all shows that more and more people are nearing a tipping point where they are willing to buy electric cars. And a small PR stunt（噱头）, the “coolness factor” of the colored plates could end up making a difference. Similarly, having red plates for the more polluting cars might also play a role.
A spokesman for the Environmental Transport Association said, “While green number plates will be positive PR for low-emission car makers and early adopters of the technology alike, to be truly effective any such measures will need to at the same time shame the drivers of the most polluting vehicles.”
1. Why does the UK give green license plates to cars?| A．To promote car sales. |
| B．To beautify the environment in the UK. |
| C．To separate “clean” cars from polluting cars. |
| D．To inspire people to buy low-emission vehicles. |
| A．The results of giving colored plates are discouraging. |
| B．The measures of giving colored plates will be at an end. |
| C．Giving colored plates has a limited impact on promoting “clean” cars. |
| D．Giving colored plates will be replaced by strong, concrete measures. |
| A．Allowances for electric cars are not attractive. |
| B．They aren’t fond of the green color. |
| C．Charging stations are not readily available. |
| D．Electric cars are unaffordable to them. |
| A．Banning people from buying polluting cars. |
| B．Continuing the use of green number plates. |
| C．Replacing green plates with red ones. |
| D．Shaming the drivers of polluting cars into buying “clean” cars. |
7 . Half of the world's beaches could disappear by 2100, a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests.
Michalis Vousdoukas, of the European Union's Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy, was the lead researchist. "Tourist areas which have sandy beaches as their main selling point will probably face strong consequences," he said. Aside from economic value, beaches play an important environmental role. "Sandy beaches are important habitats supporting a wide range of species. They also protect the coast from the effects of storms, so without sandy beaches other inland environments can be affected by the effects of waves and saltwater entering," Vousdoukas added.
The main causes are rising sea-level and erosion (侵蚀)from storms, the study says, which warned of the near-disappearance of almost half of the world's sandy beaches by the end of the century. Beaches in the United States will be “greatly affected”，as will shorelines in Canada, Mexico, China and Chile. In the U. S. , beaches along the East Coast and the Gulf Coast will experience the most erosion.
Michalis Vousdoukas and other researchers used satellite images to track the way beaches have changed over the past 30 years and patterned how global warming might affect them in the future. They found that West Africa will see some of the worst losses, where more than 60% of sandy coastline may be lost in countries such as The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. Australia will also take a hit:when the total length of sandy beach projected to be lost is analyzed, Australia would be hit the hardest, with more than 7,000 miles at risk.
1. What mainly caused the disappearance of half of the world's beaches?| A．Over population and more tourism. | B．Severe erosion and coastline losses. |
| C．Global warming and climate change. | D．Sea-level rise and storm destruction. |
| A．Chile. | B．The Gambia. | C．Australia. | D．The United States. |
| A．They can provide habitats for species. |
| B．They can block out waves and storms. |
| C．They can be popular tourist attractions. |
| D．They can stop erosion from happening. |
| A．To introduce beaches. | B．To make a comparison. |
| C．To protect environment. | D．To explain a study. |
8 . Last year, four children waited for their school bus every day for ten minutes, on the same dirty street corner. There were old bottles, parts of old bikes, and
One day, one of the children looked at the corner and
The corner looked
After one month, their ugly, dirty corner had become a beautiful
| A．full | B．empty | C．cheap | D．expensive |
| A．school | B．bus | C．old bottles | D．bus stop |
| A．cold | B．gorgeous | C．useless | D．ugly |
| A．had | B．refused | C．decided | D．managed |
| A．ten | B．fifteen | C．twenty | D．thirty |
| A．made | B．collected | C．bought | D．gave |
| A．Tuesday | B．Sunday | C．Saturday | D．Friday |
| A．car | B．bus | C．corner | D．bag |
| A．passengers | B．children | C．teachers | D．girls |
| A．better | B．useful | C．else | D．hard |
| A．clean | B．dirty | C．green | D．gone |
| A．nice | B．wrong | C．larger | D．better |
| A．tree | B．flower | C．vegetable | D．fruit |
| A．flowers | B．vegetables | C．trees | D．plants |
| A．enough | B．limited | C．long | D．short |
| A．seeds | B．toys | C．garbage | D．bikes |
| A．school | B．home | C．playground | D．garden |
| A．see | B．visit | C．help | D．enjoy |
| A．world | B．school | C．bus stop | D．corner |
| A．homes | B．gardens | C．villages | D．surroundings |
Global warming is one of the most serious problems facing humans and greenhouse gases are the main cause of it. Greenhouse gases are produced not only by industry but also by individuals (个人). People use energy to drive cars, make homes
Look for ways
Eat locally. A lot of energy
Make your house an eco-friendly one. Put a sweater on to keep warm rather than turning the heating on. Plant a tree to provide shade in summer so you don’t have to use
Reduce and recycle. Be careful with the products you buy. Recycle all paper, plastic, glass and aluminum cans.
Be energy-conscious of transportation. Walk, ride a bike
Across northern Africa, the desert is steadily growing. Dry lands are spreading. But a bold project known as the Great Green Wall aims to stop the
Farmers are learning to care for their land and use water
The Great Green Wall
The Great Green Wall’s trees provide a barrier
Trees and crops have been planted in Senegal and Niger. An
