1 . The green, natural forest absorbs carbon dioxide from the air through photo- synthesis (光合作用). There is another way of dealing with the climate crisis. That is setting up fields of dark-colored solar panels (太阳能电池板), also known as “solar forests”, which replace power stations that use fossil fuels such as coal and gas to make electricity, thus mitigating harmful emissions (排放) of greenhouse gases.
But since they are both relatively dark, they absorb a lot of solar radiation. Some of the energy is used for photosynthesis in natural forests or to produce electricity in “solar forests”, but most returns to the atmosphere, heating it up. Then what would be the more effective land use option in terms of the climate crisis: planting a forest, or building solar panels? This issue has long been debated by decision-makers around the world. Now, we may have an answer, thanks to a new study.
First, the researchers compared the impact of a forest on the climate crisis in a dry area to that of a solar farm in a similar environment. The researchers found that the albedo effect (反射效应) of both of these “forests” was similar, but that the absorption or prevention of carbon emissions was very different. It turns out that it takes 2.5 years for the heat emitted by solar farms to be balanced by the carbon emissions that are avoided, thanks to the energy they produce. In the case of a natural forest of similar size, it would take more than 100 years of photosynthesis to balance its heating effect.
The researchers also studied how the heating-cooling relationship changed in other climates and found that in more humid environments, the heating effect of planting large numbers of trees is smaller. And the break-even point is reached within 15 to 18 years.
“In dry places, building solar forests seems far more effective in addressing the climate crisis. Meanwhile, forests absorb about a third of annual carbon emissions and play a vital role in the global rain cycle, in maintaining biodiversity and in many other environmental and social contexts. Preventing them from being cut down and planting more trees in humid areas are of great significance,” explains one of the researchers in the study.
1. What does the underlined word “mitigating” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Releasing. | B．Decreasing. | C．Generating. | D．Stabilizing. |
| A．They cause much damage to the land. |
| B．They result in a serious loss of farmland. |
| C．They contribute to the warming of the atmosphere. |
| D．They lose energy during the absorption of solar radiation. |
| A．The natural forest exhibits a stronger albedo effect. |
| B．The solar forest can generate more energy in dry areas. |
| C．The solar forest is superior in balancing the heating effect. |
| D．The natural forest is more effective in solving the climate crisis. |
| A．More trees should be planted in dry regions. |
| B．More methods should be adopted to address the climate crisis. |
| C．Fields of solar panels should be set up everywhere on the earth. |
| D．Building solar panels and planting trees should be effectively combined. |
2 . Chaudhary weaves (编织) together lengths of rope and grass collected from the nearby riverbank in her village, skillfully shaping the materials into a gift box while instructing a group of women to follow suit.
The ropes being used were once the lifeline for mountain climbers tackling Nepal’s mountains and were then cast away. Diverse measures to remove such discarded materials have rocketed since 2019, when the government launched Clean Mountain Campaign.Around 140,000 tons of waste were collected on Mt. Everest alone, which were handled accordingly, either securely buried or recycled.
Some waste is now finding fresh life, transformed by skilled hands like Chaudhary’s into items to sell, thanks to an initiative led by Acharya, an owner of a waste processing business and an advocate for sustainable waste management. She has been working with the cleaning campaign, aiming at mountains like Mt. Everest.
“Metal waste goes through the recycling process, but we weren’t capable of recycling these ropes and cooking gas cans,” Acharya says. It didn’t occur to her that the waste which couldn’t be recycled could be reused until she met Rai at an art exhibition and a solution emerged.
Rai, a businessman dealing in craftworks, helped connect Acharya with Chaudhary and her team of craftswomen in hopes of unlocking the economic value of the mountain waste. With flexible hours, the project gives the craftswomen an opportunity to earn money even as they maintain their household responsibilities.
“While this seems insignificant compared to waste in the mountains, it’s a start. We can’t supply sufficient raw material with waste sorting and cleaning processes taking plenty of time and money,” Acharya says, desperate to expand the program to involve more women and treat more waste. But progress has been slow. “We need investment to mechanize the cleaning and processing of waste in the initial phase to provide the crafting team with enough materials to meet their demand,” she adds.
1. What were the ropes mentioned in paragraph 2 initially intended as?| A．Tools for tying up weeds. | B．Villagers’ basic necessities of life. |
| C．Raw materials tor unique artworks. | D．Life-saving devices for mountaineers. |
| A．A journey to the rural area. | B．An encounter with a trader. |
| C．Information from a product launch. | D．Attendance at an academic conference. |
| A．Train more senior technicians. | B．Obtain a better reputation. |
| C．Drop waste washing procedures. | D．Bring in advanced equipment. |
| A．Chaudhary: An Eco-Minded Folk Artist |
| B．Nepali Women Are Turning Garbage into Crafts |
| C．Clean Mountain Campaign Has Already Taken Effect |
| D．A Headache: Mt. Everest Is Heavily Littered with Waste |
3 . In the hands of a skilled stylist, your hair can help you boost your self-confidence, express your unique personality, and maybe even attract a romantic partner. In the hands of Matter of Trust, however, your hair might be able to do something even more meaningful: help save the environment.
For more than 20 years, Matter of Trust has been collecting hair and fur from hair salons, and farmers around the world for the purpose of making “hair mats” that can assist with oil spill cleanups.
Typically, oil spills on land are cleaned up using polypropylene (聚丙烯) mats that are effective but might cause environmental problems. After all, polypropylene is a non-biodegradable (不可生物降解的) plastic that’s made from fossil fuels; using it to clean up oil therefore requires drilling for even more oil. Hair and fur, on the other hand, are of no poison, biodegradable, sustainable, and can absorb more oil.
To date, Matter of Trust has produced more than 40,000 hair mats and more than 300,000 booms, reports CNN. Matter of Trust’s products have been used to clean up not only oil spills, but also non-emergencies like oil leaks from vehicles and machines. In both cases, oil can flow into soil and water, which can harm people, plants, and wildlife, according to Matter of Trust.
Although it’s an elegant solution, it isn’t perfect. Hair mats can only be used once, for instance, and can only be dealt with through incineration (焚化) or composting (堆肥). And in the case of composting, the resulting compost isn’t suitable for growing food.
Still, hair mats are a surprisingly effective tool in the fight for a cleaner planet. And because Matter of Trust hasn’t patented its designs, all that’s needed to produce them are hair cuttings—of which there are plenty, according to Gautier, who says there are about 900,000 qualified hair salons in the U.S. alone, each of which can easily cut at least a pound of hair per week.
“Anyone can make a hair mat,” she told CNN. “It creates green jobs, it cleans water, it reduces waste, and it’s promoting sustainable resources.”
1. Which of the following is NOT the function of your hair based on this text?| A．It can help you keep healthy. | B．It can promote your social contact. |
| C．It represents your personal image. | D．It can help protecting environment. |
| A．Polypropylene mats are poisonous. |
| B．Hair mats are cheaper than polypropylene mats. |
| C．Hair mats are sustainable and environmentally friendly. |
| D．The raw materials for polypropylene mats are hard to find. |
| A．It’s impractical. | B．It’s of short-term effects. |
| C．It’s worthy to be applied. | D．It increases global employment. |
| A．Gautier will apply for a patent for Matter of Trust. |
| B．More and more hair salons will be opened in America. |
| C．Everyone will take action to make hair mats to clean the earth. |
| D．Hair mats have good prospects for development. |
4 . Finding fish is going to get harder as climate change continues to heat the world’s oceans. A new study finds that warming seas over the past 80 years have reduced the sustainable catch of 124 species of fish and shellfish. Sustainable catch refers to the amount that can be harvested without doing long-term damage to the health of populations of some species.
Overfishing has made that decline worse, researchers say. Overfishing refers to catching so many fish that the size of the population falls. In some parts of the world, such as the heavily fished Sea of Japan, the decrease is as high as 35 percent. That’s a loss of more than one in every three fish.
Researchers examined changes in 235 populations of fish and shellfish between 1930 and 2010. Those fish populations spread far apart across 38 ocean regions. Temperature changes vary from one ocean site to another. But on average over that time, Earth’s sea-surface temperatures have risen by about half a degree Celsius.
On average, that warming has caused the sustainable catch to drop by 4.1 percent, the study found. About 8 percent of the fish and shellfish populations the team studied saw losses as a result of the ocean warming. However, about 4 percent of some populations increased. That’s because certain species have thrived in warmer waters. One example is a kind of black sea fish. It lives along the northeastern U.S. coast. As warming continues, these fish will reproduce faster until they reach their limit.
About 3.2 billion people worldwide rely on seafood as a source of food. That means it’s urgent for commercial fishing fleets and regulators to consider how climate change is affecting the health of all of those fish in the sea.
1. What does the new study discover?| A．Overfishing is to blame for fish health. |
| B．Warming seas cause fewer fish and shellfish. |
| C．Seafood matters to people’s health worldwide. |
| D．The living regions of fish and shellfish are different. |
| A．About 8 percent of them suffered from a great loss. |
| B．About 35 percent of them survived in the Sea of Japan. |
| C．About 3.2 billion species have been saved up to now. |
| D．About 80 species have died out because of warming seas. |
5 . Recently, Virgin Atlantic flew a large passenger jet from London to New York using a new kind of aviation (航空) fuel completely.
Airplane travel creates nearly 3% of the world’s greenhouse gases. That makes cutting pollution from flying an important part of the fight against the climate crisis. The reform and upgrading of aviation fuel has become an unavoidable trend. Airlines and plane makers are working hard to figure out ways to make their flights pollute less.
The recent flight was supposed to draw attention to these efforts. For the test flight, the plane only held people from the companies involved, and some reporters. Consequently, it crossed the Atlantic Ocean with its engines powered by 100% “Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)”. Virgin Atlantic says that using SAF cut the flight’s pollution by 70%.
SAF still pollutes when it’s burned, just like regular jet fuel. The difference is in how the fuels are made. SAF is made from plants (and related animal products) that once absorbed carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. When SAF burns, it just releases this same CO2 again. That’s different from jet fuel, which is made from oil pumped from underground, releasing CO2 that was deeply buried. SAF costs five times as much as regular jet fuel. That helps explain why only one-tenth of 1% of the fuel airlines currently use SAF. Virgin Atlantic is hoping its flight will encourage more companies to produce SAF and that this will bring the price down.
Experts say it’s easy to make small amounts of SAF out of plant waste. But to make as much SAF as the airlines really need would require farmers to grow plants for fuel instead of for eating. This could also lead to more forests being cut down for farmland. Besides, there’re relatively few SAF production plants or companies transporting it globally. So some groups argue reducing the number of flights taken is the only way to cut aviation’s environmental impact.
1. What does the author intend to do in paragraph 2?| A．Explain the first paragraph further. | B．Make a prediction for the readers. |
| C．Add some background information. | D．Introduce a new topic for discussion. |
| A．It can be easily mass-produced. | B．It can get rid of aviation pollution. |
| C．The demand for it remains limited. | D．Its price will drop sharply very soon. |
| A．Lead to another type of ecological damage. | B．Decrease various flights all over the world. |
| C．Strengthen the awareness of greener travel. | D．Reduce transportation costs of aviation fuel. |
| A．SAF’s Fighting Against Climate Change | B．Crossing Atlantic on 100% Sustainable Fuel |
| C．Virgin Atlantic’s Flying a Large Passenger Jet | D．Developing SAF to Maintain Flight Operations |
6 . THE GLOBAL WASTE TRADE IS ESSENTIALLY BROKEN
Cut into hillside in northern Malaysia stands a large, open-air warehouse. This is a recycling factory, which opened last November. On a very hot afternoon in January, Shahid Ali was working his very first week on the job. He stood knee-deep in soggy, white bits of plastic. Around him, more bits floated of the conveyor belt and fell to the ground like snowflakes.
Hour after hour, Ali sorts through the plastic jumble moving down the belt, picking out pieces that look off-color or soiled-rejects (废品) in the recycling process. Though it looks like backbreaking work, Ali says it is a great improvement over his previous job, folding bed-sheets in a nearby textile factory, for much lower pay. Now, if he eats simply, he can save money from his wages of just over $l an hour and send $250 a month to his parents and six brothers and sisters in Peshawar, Pakistan, 2,700 miles away, “As soon as I heard about this work, I asked for a job,” says Ali, 24, a bearded man with glasses and an easy smile. Still, he’s working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. “If I take a day off, I lose a day’s wages,” he says.
In the warehouse, hundreds of bags are stacked more than 60 feet high-each stuffed with plastic wrappers and bags thrown away weeks earlier by their original users in California. The fact that the waste has traveled to this distant corner of the planet in the first place shows how badly the global recycling economy has failed to keep pace with humanity’s plastics addiction. This is an ecosystem that is deeply dysfunctional, if not on the point of collapse: About 90% of the millions of tons of plastic the world produces every year will eventually end up not recycled, but burned, buried, or dumped.
Plastic recycling enjoys ever-wider support among consumers: Putting yogurt containers and juice bottles in a blue bin is an eco-friendly act of faith in millions of households. But faith goes only so far. The tidal wave of plastic items that enters the recycling stream each year is increasingly likely to fall right back out again, casualties of a broken market. Many products that consumers believe (and industries claim) are “recyclable" are in reality not, because of hard economics. With oil and gas prices near 20-year lows, so-called virgin plastic, a product of petroleum feed-stocks, is now far cheaper and easier to obtain than recycled material. That unforeseen shift has yanked the financial rug out from under what was until recently a practical recycling industry. “The global waste trade is essentially broken,” says the head of the global plastics campaign at Greenpeace. “We are sitting on vast amounts of plastic with nowhere to send it and nothing to do with it.”
1. What is the author’s attitude towards Shahid Ali?| A．Critical. | B．Merciless. | C．Indifferent. | D．Sympathetic. |
| A．The prices of oil and gas have been increasing. |
| B．Tons of wastes travel so far before being recycled. |
| C．Recyclable products are not really recycled. |
| D．Governments don’t support the recycling industry. |
| A．Out of stock. | B．Far from pleased. | C．Full of energy. | D．Out of order. |
| A．To illustrate how plastic waste has been recycled in the world. |
| B．To warn people that the global waste trade is essentially broken. |
| C．To analyze the relationship between consumers and factories. |
| D．To solve the conflict between the recycling industry and governments. |
7 . Nanako Hama gets a lot of mail, mostly from strangers who live in her home city of Tokyo. In light envelopes, they send locks of their hair, hoping to recycle it.
People generate a huge amount of hair waste. Nearly all of that waste ends up in landfill, where it can release harmful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
But hair possesses useful qualities that it’s a shame to simply throw it away. That’s why people all around the world, like Hama, have been collecting hair and finding innovative ways to recycle it, including making mats (垫子)out of it for removing oil leaks.
Hama is part of the nonprofit Matter of Trust (MoT) members working at more than 60 centers dotted across 17 countries, using machines to make hair donated from local salons and individuals into square mats, which are then used to clean up the floating oil.
Hair is particularly well-suited for this, says MoT co-founder Lisa Gautier. “That’s because its rough sort of outer layer lets oil stick to it.” MoT’s mats have been used in major oil leaks. including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 2007 Cosco Busan incidents.
In a 2018 study, Murray, an environmental scientist at the University of Technology Sydney, in Australia found that mats made of recycled human hair could absorb 0.84 grams of oil onto its surface for every gram of hair—significantly more than polypropylene (聚丙烯), a type of plastic that’s typically used to clean up floating oil.
Besides, hair is also useful as fertilizer (化肥). Hair contains a relatively high nitrogen (氮), a chemical element crucial for plant growth, and each lock of hair is made of roughly 16 percent of this essential nutrient. Last year, more than 560 gallons of liquid fertilizer made from human hair was sold to farmers in northern Tanzania and the feedback from the farmers has been very encouraging.
“It’s just a great way to use hair in a productive way. Hair is an answer literally hanging in front of our eyes—for oil and soil,” Hama says.
1. How does the author introduce the topic in paragraph 1?| A．By detailing the background. | B．By presenting a scene. |
| C．By describing the feedback. | D．By supporting evidences. |
| A．Fertilize the soil. | B．Prevent oil leaks. |
| C．Clear the sea of oil. | D．Take in harmful gas. |
| A．Its color and strength. |
| B．Its length and amount. |
| C．Its weight and flexibility. |
| D．Its structure and component. |
| A．Debatable. | B．Applicable. |
| C．Irreplaceable. | D．Uncontrollable. |
8 . The California sea otter (海獭), once hunted to the edge of extinction, has staged a thrilling comeback in the last century. Now, scientists have discovered that the otters’ success story has led to something just as remarkable: the restoration of their declining coastal marsh (沼泽) habitat.
Elkhorn Slough, a coastal marsh within Monterey Bay, had been experiencing severe damage. The root cause was a growing population of shore crabs, which fed heavily on the marsh plants, weakening the structural integrity of the habitat. Coastal marshes like these are not only natural defenses against storm waves but also serve as important carbon storage areas and water-cleaning systems.
The conservation-driven comeback of the sea otter has been crucial. California’s coastlines were once alive with sea otters. Sadly, they were nearly wiped out at the hands of fur traders. In the 1980s, conservation efforts aided these otters in re-occupying large areas of their former range. Now, Elkhorn Slough has the highest concentration of sea otters in California, with a population of about 100. By naturally feasting on crabs, the otters have helped a significant regrowth of plant life. Brent Hughes, a scientist working alongside Angelini, led a three-year study. Their findings were clear: in areas with sea otters, crab numbers fell markedly. This led to a resurgence in plant growth, which in turn stabilized the soil and lowered the rate of soil washing away.
As the sea otter population continues to restore, their positive impact on coastal ecosystems is likely to increase. It not only showcases the sea otter as a central species—a species that has a significant effect on its natural environment—but also highlights the essential nature of top predators (捕食者) in preserving ecological harmony. “My honest reaction was—this could become a classic in the literature,” says scientist Lekelia Jenkins. She reveals marsh restoration also helps people by reducing flooding. “Suddenly, sea otters go from just cute things we like to something that can protect our livelihoods and our properties.”
1. What change did the disappearance of sea otters bring about?| A．Fewer predatory crabs. | B．More coastal plant life. |
| C．Better water-cleaning effect. | D．Worse coastal ecological balance. |
| A．Barrier. | B．Advancement. | C．Expansion. | D．Revival. |
| A．To highlight the importance of coastal marshes. |
| B．To introduce a new research study on sea otters. |
| C．To demonstrate the practical benefits of sea otters. |
| D．To emphasize the need for increased conservation efforts. |
| A．The necessity for controlled hunting. |
| B．The interconnectedness of the ecosystem. |
| C．The drawbacks of wildlife reintroduction. |
| D．The need for human intervention in nature. |
9 . The Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge is a science competition for U. S. middle-school students. It's run by Society for Science, which also publishes Science News Explores. The 30 finalists in this year's competition traveled to Washington, D. C. and also showed off their research projects.
Sharanya Chudgar, 14 years old, is one of the finalists in the competition and built a trash-collecting robot. The wheeled machine of the robot uses sensors to spot litter and a pan to pick it up. The robot's metal-detecting sensor helps it sort garbage from recyclables. And a light sensor can let the robot's solar panel angle itself toward the sun, collecting as much energy as possible.
Sharanya got the idea to build her trash collector by participating in litter cleanups. "When I signed up to volunteer at our local trash cleanup, I saw how much litter poliution there was and I knew that I had to fix this problem," Sharanya says. "People do have very limited time and resources, right? But robots don't. So it was then that my project idea formed in my head."
"Building the robot is my favorite part of this project," Sharanya says. "Ever since first grade, I've loved building Legos and building my robot felt just like building a Lego. But this project was a completely new experience since I hadn't ever had any experience in robotics before. Throughout the project, I had to use tons of power tools and I even had to cut pieces of metal to certain lengths. Whenever I needed to use a power tool, I had to turn to my dad who was always there to help out if necessary."
"It might seem difficult at times, but sticking to this and changing just one variable at a time gets you the best results," Sharanya says. This middle school scientist is solving global problems of litter pollution. For some, a science project might be an assignment or a fun hobby. But for Sharanya, doing research can also be a chance to help others and make the world a better place.
1. What can be known about the trash-collecting robot?| A．It is environment-friendly. | B．Its solar panel can't turn. |
| C．It has multiple purposes. | D．Its shape is like a human. |
| A．The limited natural resources. | B．The encouragement from the locals. |
| C．Her trash cleanup experiences. | D．Her participation in the competition. |
| A．To express her thanks to her father. | B．To show her love for the project. |
| C．To explain the difficulty of the project. | D．To tell her interest in building Legos. |
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Negative. | C．Critical. | D．Approving. |
10 . Nanako Hama was holding a light envelop. When she tore it open with care, locks of hair emerged. Many strangers send Hama locks of their hair, hoping to recycle it.
People generate a huge amount of hair waste. Nearly all of that waste ends up in landfill, where it can release harmful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. But hair possesses useful qualities that it’s a shame to simply throw it away. That’s why people all around the world, like Hama, have been collecting hair and finding innovative ways to recycle it, including making mats (垫子) out of it for removing oil leaks in the ocean.
Hama is part of the nonprofit Matter of Trust (MoT) members working at more than 60 centers dotted across 17 countries, using machines to make hair donated from local salons and individuals into square mat, which are then used to clean up the floating oil. “Hair is particularly well-suited for this,” says MoT co-founder Lisa Gautier. “That’s because its rough sort of outer layer lets oil stick to it.” MoT’s mats have been used in major oil leaks, including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 2007 Cosco Busan incidents.
In a 2018 study, Murray, an environmental scientist at the University of Technology Sydney, in Australia found that mats made of recycled human hair could absorb 0.84 grams of oil onto its surface for every gram of hair—significantly more than polypropylene (聚丙烯),a type of plastic that’s typically used to clean up floating oil. Besides, hair is also useful as fertilizer (化肥). Hair contains a relatively high nitrogen (氮), a chemical element crucial for plant growth, and each lock of hair is made of roughly 16 percent of this essential nutrient. Last year, more than 560 gallons of liquid fertilizer made from human hair was sold to farmers in northern Tanzania and the feedback from the farmers has been very encouraging.
“It’s just a great way to use hair in a productive way. Hair is an answer literally hanging in front of our eyes—for oil and soil,” Hama says.
1. How does the author introduce the topic?| A．By presenting a scene. | B．By detailing the background. |
| C．By describing the usage of hair. | D．By praising an environmentalist. |
| A．Improve soil. | B．Prevent oil leaks. | C．Take in harmful gas. | D．Clear the sea of oil. |
| A．Its color and strength. | B．Its length and amount. |
| C．Its weight and flexibility. | D．Its structure and component. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Promising. | C．Doubtful. | D．Worrying. |
