1 . When John Todd was a child, he loved to explore the woods around his house, observing how nature solved problems. A dirty stream, for example, often became clear after flowing through plants and along rocks where tiny creatures lived. When he got older, John started to wonder if this process could be used to clean up the messes people were making.
After studying agriculture, medicine, and fisheries in college, John went back to observing nature and asking questions. Why can certain plants trap harmful bacteria (细菌)? Which kinds of fish can eat cancer-causing chemicals? With the right combination of animals and plants, he figured, maybe he could clean up waste the way nature did. He decided to build what he would later call an eco-machine.
The task John set for himself was to remove harmful substances from some sludge (污泥). First he constructed a series of clear fiberglass tanks connected to each other. Then he went around to local ponds and streams and brought back some plants and animals. He placed them in the tanks and waited. Little by little, these different kinds of life got used to one another and formed their own ecosystem. After a few weeks, John added the sludge.
He was amazed at the results. The plants and animals in the eco-machine took the sludge as food and began to eat it! Within weeks, it had all been digested, and all that was left was pure water.
Over the years, John has taken on many big jobs. He developed a greenhouse — like facility that treated sewage (污水) from 1,600 homes in South Burlington. He also designed an eco-machine to clean canal water in Fuzhou, a city in southeast China.
“Ecological design” is the name John gives to what he does. “Life on Earth is kind of a box of spare parts for the inventor,” he says. “You put organisms in new relationships and observe what’s happening. Then you let these new systems develop their own ways to self-repair.”
1. What can we learn about John from the first two paragraphs?| A．He was fond of traveling. | B．He enjoyed being alone. |
| C．He had an inquiring mind. | D．He longed to be a doctor. |
| A．To feed the animals. | B．To build an ecosystem. |
| C．To protect the plants. | D．To test the eco-machine. |
| A．Nature can repair itself. | B．Organisms need water to survive. |
| C．Life on Earth is diverse. | D．Most tiny creatures live in groups. |
2 . Some scientists say that animals in the oceans are increasingly threatened by noise pollution caused by human beings.
The noise that affects sea creatures comes from a number of human activities. It is caused mainly by industrial underwater explosions, ocean drilling,and ship engines. Such noises are added to natural sounds. These sounds include the breaking of ice fields, underwater earthquakes, and sounds made by animals themselves.
Decibels(分贝) measured in water are different from those measured on land. A noise of one hundred and twenty decibels on land causes pain to human ears. In water, a decibel level of one hundred and ninety-five would have the same effect.
Some scientists have proposed setting a noise limit of one hundred and twenty decibels in oceans. They have observed that noises at that level can frighten and confuse whales.
A team of American and Canadian scientists discovered that louder noises can seriously injure some animals. The research team found that powerful underwater explosions were causing whales in the area to lose their hearing. This seriously affected the whales’ ability to exchange information and find their way. Some of the whales even died. The explosions had caused their ears to bleed and become infected.
Many researchers whose work depends on ocean sounds object to a limit of one hundred and twenty decibels. They say such a limit would mean an end to important industrial and scientific research.
Scientists do not know how much and what kinds of noises are harmful to ocean animals. However, many scientists suspect that noise is a greater danger than they believed. They want to prevent noises from harming creatures in the ocean.
1. According to the passage, which of the following is increasingly dangerous to sea creatures?| A．The man-made noises. | B．The noises made by themselves. |
| C．The sound of earthquakes. | D．The sound of the ice-breaking. |
| A．Different places with different types of noises. |
| B．The very human ears sensitive to all types of noises. |
| C．The same noise measured differently on land and in the ocean. |
| D．The ocean animals’ reaction to noises. |
3 . When John Todd was a child, he loved to explore the woods around his house, observing how nature solved problems. A dirty stream, for example, often became clear after flowing through plants and along rocks where tiny creatures lived. When he got older, John started to wonder if this process could be used to clean up the messes people were making.
After studying agriculture, medicine, and fisheries in college, John went back to observing nature and asking questions. Why can certain plants trap harmful bacteria (细菌)? Which kinds of fish can eat cancer-causing chemicals? With the right combination of animals and plants, he figured, maybe he could clean up waste the way nature did. He decided to build what he would later call an eco-machine.
The task John set for himself was to remove harmful substances from some sludge (污泥). First, he constructed a series of clear fiberglass tanks connected to each other. Then he went around to local ponds and streams and brought back some plants and animals. He placed them in the tanks and waited. Little by little, these different kinds of life got used to one another and formed their own ecosystem. After a few weeks, John added the sludge.
He was amazed at the results. The plants and animals in the eco-machine took the sludge as food and began to eat it! Within weeks, it had all been digested, and all that was left was pure water.
Over the years, John has taken on many big jobs. He developed a greenhouse — like facility that treated sewage (污水) from 1,600 homes in South Burlington. He also designed an eco-machine to clean canal water in Fuzhou, a city in southeast China.
“Ecological design” is the name John gives to what he does. “Life on Earth is kind of a box of spare parts for the inventor,” he says. “You put organisms in new relationships and observe what’s happening. Then you let these new systems develop their own ways to self-repair.”
1. What is the author’s purpose in mentioning Fuzhou?| A．To review John’s research plans. | B．To show an application of John’s idea. |
| C．To compare John’s different jobs. | D．To erase doubts about John’s invention. |
| A．Nature can repair itself. | B．Organisms need water to survive. |
| C．Life on Earth is diverse. | D．Most tiny creatures live in groups. |
4 . The largest living land animal in Asia, Asian elephants once roamed grasslands and rainforests across the continent. Prior to the 1700s, habitats for the now-endangered animals were relatively stable (稳定的). But a new study shows that more than 64% of historic suitable elephant habitat across Asia has been lost.
Researchers found there was a rapid growth in habitat loss of Asian elephants from the year 1700, which is related to the expansion of European colonization (殖民化) of the region. During that time, logging, road-building, resource extraction and deforestation (森林砍伐) increased, and farming need more land that might otherwise have been home to wildlife. The industrial revolution in the middle of the last century also drove greater habitat loss.
Habitat loss means elephants are migrating (迁徙) from their usual living area, creating challenges for human communities that have little experience with elephants. In 2021, millions of people were frightened by a herd of elephants that migrated out of a protected area in China’s southwest Yunnan Province and walked more than 500 kilometers, destroying crops, wandering through towns and causing more than a million dollars’ worth of damage.
With the elephants not having enough habitat, there is increased potential for human-elephant conflict (冲突) — a situation that shouldn’t be accepted as unavoidable and one that can be avoided with proper planning. “We are going to reach a tipping point in which cultures of no conflict toward one another get replaced by cultures of antagonism ( 敌 对) and violence — by both species. We have to relieve this situation,” said Shermin de Silva, a UCSD faculty member who led the research team.
If the elephants can’t find suitable habitats, they will become endangered and near extinction (灭绝), which has an effect on the whole ecosystem. This is because elephants help spread seeds and vegetation cover (植被). Their habitats also include several other species of animals and plants. In the wake of satisfying their need for large spaces, and enough water and food, plenty of other species can survive. When we protect the elephant, we also protect thousands of other species.
1. What do we learn about the migrating elephants?| A．They lost their way home. |
| B．They enjoyed feeding on crops. |
| C．They caused many troubles for the locals. |
| D．They were heading southwest in search of water. |
| A．Lessen. | B．Adopt. | C．Bear. | D．Plan. |
| A．To explain the significance of species diversity. |
| B．To stress the necessity of protecting elephants. |
| C．To provide suggestions on restoring elephant habitats. |
| D．To show the impact of the elephant population on the ecosystem. |
| A．The Past of Asian Elephants |
| B．Causes of Habitat Loss of Asian Elephants |
| C．Reasons for Protecting Elephants |
| D．The Survival Crisis of Asian Elephants |
5 . Anna Devolld likes bees, butterflies, ladybugs, hummingbirds and even bats. The 17-year-old prize winner is now helping small things to make a difference. Many TV programs and newspapers have featured her about her efforts to introduce the vital role pollinators (授粉者) play. You might say she’s been busy as a bee. She has created and helped plant over 2,000 free Pollinator Packs, each containing six different pollinator-friendly seedlings (幼苗). She also regularly visits local classrooms to teach students about pollinators and to help them plant their own Pollinator Packs.
As a teenager, Anna worried about the little things that keep our world beautiful and our orchards (果园) producing food. Anna’s solution is to increase habitats that attract pollinators and to educate the next generation about the importance of creating pollinator-friendly spaces. Her first project was creating activities and coloring books for kids to help them understand how important pollinators are to our planet. Next, she created Pollinator Packs: plants that attract bees and other pollinators to your garden. It wasn’t long before she was part of community councils encouraging the planting of pollinators in communities and roadside hallways. She now serves on her local government’s environmental advisory commission.
“One out of every three bites of food we take is dependent on pollinators,” Anna tells us. “Sadly, every one of these creatures is declining at an alarming rate.” We all can make a difference. As Anna says, “Find something you are passionate about, no matter how small, and see how you can change the world.”
So, the next time you take a bite out of a delicious apple or peach, or even better, enjoy your favorite fruit in a home-baked pie, think about all the little creatures that made it happen. Then think about Anna and how one teenage girl is making sure millions of pollinators are happy and productive.
1. What does Anna do to make a difference?| A．She gets pollinators known to people. | B．She makes speeches on TV programs. |
| C．She promotes her products among kids. | D．She sponsors the locals to grow plants. |
| A．A pack of pollinating bees. | B．A group of beneficial insects. |
| C．Some pollinator-friendly plants. | D．Community-based fruit gardens. |
| A．Nature helps one grow up. | B．Even small effort counts. |
| C．Learning benefits children. | D．Curiosity tops everything. |
| A．Enjoy our time with fruits. | B．Plant more trees around. |
| C．Learn from nature. | D．Be nice to pollinators. |
6 . For some people, walking outdoors is a great way to exercise. What may not be so great is seeing the trash(垃圾) all over the ground. Well, some people are doing something about it. They are plogging!(运动+环保).
“Plogging” began in Sweden. The name combine the Swedish words “plocka” which mean picking up litter and the word “jogging” which means running slowly. A Swedish man named Erik Ahlstrom, started the movement in 2016. He says he became concerned about the amount of the trash and litter he saw each day on his way to work. So, he took matters into his own hands. He began picking up the trash.
Plogging, by that term, may have officially begun in Sweden. But many people who exercise outdoors have been doing this for many years. Take Jeff Horowitz,for example. He is a personal trainer in Washington, D.C. He says that he would often pick up the trash while running outside. He even turned it into a game; he would try to pick up the trash without stopping.
Plogging is not only exercise but also community service. As Julie Lawson explains, it can also build closer social connections in a community. Lawson works at Washington, D.C.’s Office of the Clean City. “When the street look bad and it’s dirty, you’re going to feel bad about the community. So if we’re all doing our part and picking the trash up, it’s very easy to help beautify it and build those social connections.”
Plogging can be fun, too. When Dana Allen goes plogging around Washington D.C., she invites her friends. And they make a day of it. “Sometimes we get groups together on a Saturday or Sunday. We go for a run. We pick up some garbage. Then we’ll actually go for brunch after.” Although Allen enjoys plogging, she says she does not do it all the time. When she is training for a serious marathon race, the trash has to wait.
Cities around the world now hold plogging events. The goal is to spread the idea that littering is not acceptable. We hope one day there will not be a need for plogging.
1. What inspired Erik Ahlstrom to start plogging?| A．His trip to Sweden. | B．His daily experiences. |
| C．His neighborhood. | D．His cleaning work. |
| A．To show the popularity of plogging. |
| B．To tell the benefits of plogging. |
| C．To argue that plogging is not a completely new sport. |
| D．To discuss the reason why plogging first arose in Sweden. |
| A．Worried. | B．Critical. | C．Positive. | D．Doubtful |
| A．She will ignore the litter in certain situations. |
| B．Running marathons is more attractive. |
| C．Plogging can be sometimes fun but tiring. |
| D．She just picks up rubbish on weekends. |
7 . Officials from the Japanese Olympic Committee say they are sparing no effort to(不遗余力) to prepare and announce the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021 is going green. The 5,000 medals Japan has made are more special than most.
One new focus of the Tokyo Olympics is to be “sustainable(可持续的)”——to avoid using too many natural resources, so that the games are easy on the environment. As part of this goal, the organizers decided to make all of the Olympic medals out of metal recycled from old electronics.
Almost all electronics are made with small amounts of “precious metals”, like gold and silver. But collecting enough of these metals to make 5,000 medals was a huge challenge. That’s because the amount of metal in each device(设备) is tiny. It would take about 20,000 cellphones to get just 1 kilogram of gold.
Beginning in April 2017, the organizers placed collection boxers around the country, and asked people to turn in their old electronic devices. Soon people began to respond to the initiative(倡议), turning in smartphones, digital cameras, handled games, and laptops. At first, collection went slowly, but soon more and more areas began to take part. By the end, 1,621 local governments had helped out with the collection process.
Then came the job of breaking those devices down into smaller pieces. After being taken apart and sorted, the small electronics were smelted(熔炼) to get all the gold, silver, and bronze elements. This is a tricky job, which calls for careful attention and good skill. It’s also dangerous, because some of the metals and other things aren’t safe for people to touch or breathe.
By the end of March, 2019, the organizers had hit their targets of getting enough metal for the medals. They had collected around 30.4 kilograms of gold, 4,100 kilograms of silver and 2,200 kilograms of bronze. And now all the 5,000 medals are available for the would-be winners.
1. What can we know about the Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals?| A．They are hugely valuable. | B．They are of high quality. |
| C．They are made from e-waste. | D．They are designed uniquely. |
| A．The difficulty of making the medals. | B．The target of recycling old devices. |
| C．The classification of the collected devices. | D．The process of collecting old electronics. |
| A．Creative | B．Demanding(高要求) |
| C．Well-paid | D．Time-consuming(消耗) |
| A．To advocate sustainable(可持续的) use of resources. |
| B．To promote the spirit of Olympic Games. |
| C．To introduce a new technique to make medals. |
| D．To call people’s attention to environmental damage. |
Green School in Uruguay
Francesco Fassina(Ecologist and Volunteer)
Michael Reynolds (Architect)
Alicia Alvarez (School Director)
Danila Mendez (Mother of a student)
Narrator : A sunny winter’s day is great news for these Uruguayan children. As pupils of South America’s first sustainable school, they study in a building heated only using solar panels. On top of the normal school programme, they learn about recycling, energy saving,and growing their own food
Francesco Fassina: The school is an autonomous building in the sense that it isn’t connected to any energy infrastructure for water or anything. It’s sustainable in the way it functions; totally autonomous and it works thanks to its connection with nature—the sun and the rain.
Narrator : The building was funded by a local NGO and a detergent company, and designed by US architect Michael Reynolds, a self-professed “garbage warrior” who's devoted his career to building self-sufficient structures out of recyclable material.
Michael Reynolds: People called me an idiot, uh, building with garbage, what a fool, you’re a disgrace to the architectural community, uh, you know. I was trying to contain sewage and treat it and do all of these things that architects didn’ t do
Narrator : The 39 students, so me just starting pre-school and others in their final year before university learn it’s possible to live in a building that produces no waste. NGO volunteers organise regular workshops on sustainability for pupils and teachers too.
Alicia Alvarez: Little by little, we`re becoming qualified. In fact were being trained by them. We`re being trained to learn how the school works. How to maintain it so that the systems don’t deteriorate.
Narrator : Some of the children have even started educating their parents
Danila Mendez: Every day, we walk here, and he finds glass in the sand or plastic or something and he picks it up. He says. “T`m keeping this to throw it away.” He doesn’t leave it there. He picks it up and he throws it away in the right place.
Narrator : For these little garbage warriors, saving the planet has become an integral part of their homework.
1. What are the reasons for being called a green school?2. How did the school come to being?
3. What did the people do to keep the school on?
9 . In Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Simard takes us through her career in the forests, working on plantations to identify links between crop production, herbicide (除草剂) use and species diversity. In carrying out these studies, she goes on to discover that trees communicate through underground fungi (真菌) networks. At the centre of these webs is an individual known as the “mother tree” that coordinates, feeds and sustains the other members of the forest.
The strength of this story isn’t only in the discoveries she makes, but her courageous persistence. She recalls how some members of her profession almost laughed her out of the room on first hearing her findings, not helped by the fact that she was a woman in a male-dominated field, trying to convince a room full of foresters that their age-old methods were imperfect.
Like Robin Wall Kimmerer combining ecology and the human spirit, Simard demonstrates that scientific research is not only about figures and conferences, but a voyage of passion and self-reflection that depends on the instinctive character of the human mind and the precision of experimentation. Simard’s ancestry is rooted in the outdoors, yet she recognises that the old ways of working with the land must evolve. She refuses to let cultural biases (偏见) influence her, instead listening to what the forest tells her.
This book also shares insights into Simard’s personal life: friendships, marriage, motherhood and breast cancer. She connects these seemingly separate parts of her life to her research into tree relationships, air, Earth and beyond. Her own relationships, not just with people but with trees, become reflections on connections with Earth. Her book thus invites us to embrace this connection with Earth when she writes: “I can’t tell if my blood is in the trees or if the trees are in my blood.”
1. Which aspect of the “mother tree” does the first paragraph focus on?| A．Its central role in the forest. | B．Its communication with fungi. |
| C．Its influence on species diversity. | D．Its unique effects on crop production. |
| A．Her absence of determination. | B．Her doubts about fellow colleagues. |
| C．Her lack of supporting evidence. | D．Her challenge to long-held beliefs. |
| A．By counting on human instinct. |
| B．By prioritizing figures and conferences. |
| C．By completely getting rid of cultural biases. |
| D．By passionately studying the true needs of nature. |
| A．Interconnectivity is at the core of her writing. |
| B．Her writing inspiration comes from observation. |
| C．Reflection is the key to developing relationships with trees. |
| D．Her experiences are separate from her work on studying trees. |
10 . The practice of removing best-before dates labels and plastic packaging could prevent 14 million shopping baskets’ worth of food from going to waste, a food waste charity Wrap has recommended. Doing so would make consumers buy the right amount, avoiding buying bigger packets than they need, and judge for themselves when items were still fine to eat.
Wrap’s chairman Marcus Gover called the practice a game-changer in the fight against food waste and plastic pollution. He said they had demystified (使容易理解) the relationship between wasted food, plastic packaging, date labels and food storage.
“It is clear that plastic packaging doesn’t necessarily extend the life of fresh produce, but instead can increase waste,” he said. Around 9.5 million tonnes of food are wasted in the UK every year, according to previous Wrap figures, with more than 85% coming from households and food producers.
Based on an 18-month study into five commonly wasted items — apples, bananas, broccoli, cucumber and potatoes — stored in the original packaging and at different temperatures, Wrap found produce good to eat well after the best-before date, with apples lasting at least two and a half months after if stored at 4℃, and broccoli staying fresh for more than two weeks afterwards. Removing the best-before dates labels could save 100,000 tonnes of household food waste, more than 10,300 tonnes of plastic and 130,000 tonnes of carbon emission a year, Wrap found.
Susan Jebb, chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency, said businesses should use date labels carefully and make it clear when it’s necessary to help shoppers reduce the risk of food-related illnesses. “A best-before date is about quality, which means the food will be safe to eat after this date, even if it may not be at its best,” she said, whereas use-by dates should be reserved for food like meat and salad which can become unsafe more quickly.
1. Why does Marcus call the practice a game-changer?| A．It saves products’ costs. | B．It increases production. |
| C．It ensures food’s safety. | D．It protects the environment. |
| A．Some food is harmless after the best-before date. |
| B．The best-before date contributes to food storage. |
| C．The best-before date label reduces the waste. |
| D．Label-making leads to massive carbon emission. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Indifferent. | C．Cautious. | D．Opposed. |
| A．The Best-Before Date Is Seldom Unreliable |
| B．Plastic Packages Can Keep Foods Fresh Longer |
| C．Food Plastic Packages Are a Double-Edged Sword |
| D．No Unnecessary Best-Before Dates and Plastic Packages |
