1 . When the explorers first set foot upon the continent of North America, the skies and lands were alive with an astonishing variety of wildlife. Native Americans had taken care of these precious natural resources wisely. Unfortunately, it took the explorers and the settlers who followed only a few decades to decimate a large part of these resources. Millions of waterfowl (水禽) were killed at the hands of market hunters and a handful of overly ambitious sportsmen. Millions of acres of wetlands were dried to feed and house the ever-increasing populations, greatly reducing waterfowl habitat.
In 1934, with the passage of the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act (Act), an increasingly concerned nation took firm action to stop the destruction of migratory (迁徙的) waterfowl and the wetlands so vital to their survival. Under this Act, all waterfowl hunters 16 years of age and over must annually purchase and carry a Federal Duck Stamp. The very first Federal Duck Stamp was designed by J.N. “Ding” Darling, a political cartoonist from Des Moines, lowa, who at that time was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as Director of the Bureau of Biological Survey. Hunters willingly pay the stamp price to ensure the survival of our natural resources.
About 98 cents of every duck stamp dollar goes directly into the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund to purchase wetlands and wildlife habitat for inclusion into the National Wildlife Refuge System — a fact that ensures this land will be protected and available for all generations to come. Since 1934 better than half a billion dollars has gone into that Fund to purchase more than 5 million acres of habitat. Little wonder the Federal Duck Stamp Program has been called one of the most successful conservation programs ever initiated.
Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?
| A．The Federal Duck Stamp Story | B．The National Wildlife Refuge System |
| C．The Benefits of Saving Waterfowl | D．The History of Migratory Bird Hunting |
2 . Live with roommates? Have friends and family around you? Chances are that if you’re looking to live a more sustainable lifestyle, not everyone around you will be ready to jump on that bandwagon.
I experienced this when I started switching to a zero waste lifestyle five years ago, as I was living with my parents, and I continue to experience this with my husband, as he is not completely zero waste like me. I’ve learned a few things along the way though, which I hope you’ll find encouraging if you’re doing your best to figure out how you can make the change in a not-always-supportive household.
Zero waste was a radical lifestyle movement a few years back. I remember showing my parents a video of Bea Johnson, sharing how cool I thought it would be to buy groceries with jars, and have so little trash! A few days later, I came back with my first jars of zero waste groceries, and my dad commented on how silly it was for me to carry jars everywhere. It came off as a bit discouraging.
Yet as the months of reducing waste continued, I did what I could that was within my own reach. I had my own bedroom, so I worked on removing things I didn’t need. Since I had my own toiletries (洗漱用品), I was able to start personalising my routine to be more sustainable. I also offered to cook every so often, so I portioned out a bit of the cupboard for my own zero waste groceries. Perhaps your household won’t entirely make the switch, but you may have some control over your own personal spaces to make the changes you desire.
As you make your lifestyle changes, you may find yourself wanting to speak up for yourself if others comment on what you’re doing, which can turn itself into a whole household debate. If you have individuals who are not on board, your words probably won’t do much and can often leave you feeling more discouraged.
So here is my advice: Lead by action.
What is the text mainly about?
| A．How to get on well with other family members. |
| B．How to have one’s own personal space at home. |
| C．How to live a zero-waste lifestyle in a household. |
| D．How to control the budget when buying groceries. |
3 . 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.
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.
Plastic bags are incredibly easy to forget about when they become increasingly common.
| 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. |
4 . Research has found that using wood for construction instead of concrete and steel can reduce emissions. But Tim Searchinger at Princeton University says many of these studies are based on the false foundation that harvesting wood is carbon neutral (碳中和). “Only a small percentage of the wood gets into a timber (木料) product, and a part of that gets into a timber product that can replace concrete and steel in a building,” he says. Efficiencies vary in different countries, but large amounts of a harvested tree are left to be divided into parts, used in short-lived products like paper or burned for energy, all of which generate emissions.
In a report for the World Resources Institute, Searchinger and his colleagues have modelled how using more wood for construction would affect emissions between 2010 and 2050, accounting for the emissions from harvesting the wood. They considered various types of forests and parts of wood going towards construction. They also factored in the emissions savings from replacing concrete and steel.
Under some circumstances, the researchers found significant emissions reductions. But each case required what they considered an unrealistically high portion of the wood going towards construction, as well as rapid growth only seen in warmer places, like Brazil. In general, they found a large increase in global demand for wood would probably lead to rising emissions for decades. Accounting for emissions in this way, the researchers reported in a related paper that increasing forest harvests between 2010 and 2050 would add emissions equal to roughly 10 percent of total annual emissions.
Ali Amiri at Aalto University in Finland says the report’s conclusions about emissions from rising demand are probably correct, but the story is different for wood we already harvest. “Boosting the efficiency of current harvests and using more wood for longer lived purposes than paper would cut emissions,” he says. “We cannot just say we should stop using wood.”
What does paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．The process of the new research. | B．The background of the new study. |
| C．The challenge of the new research. | D．The achievements of the new study. |
A. Finally, “green” houses are built largely from used materials. This way, they can reduce the burden on the environment for raw materials.
B. Imagine getting paid by the power company instead of paying the company. Most importantly, solar energy or wind power is clean energy.
C. How do you make your home eco-friendly? The answer might be to build a “green” house. “Green ” houses look similar to the houses we live in today, with a few noticeable differences.
D. Additionally, the appliances used inside our houses must also be “green” to limit the energy they use and the waste heat they send out.
E. First, they have solar panels on the roofs or have some kind of wind power to produce their own electricity. On sunny or windy days when the house is not used, power is produced and stored in batteries for later use at night, while extra power is fed back into the power grid to make money.
Hello, everyone! I have just come back from a wonderful trip to Tibet. It was so beautiful there that I felt I was in a fairyland. The scenery was so impressive and the air was pretty fresh and clean.
7 . Have you ever noticed the Mu Us Desert (毛乌素沙漠) in the northwest when you read a map of China? If you haven’t, then you probably never will. That’s
You might wonder: Why is this happening? Who is the “killer”? Well, it is the
In Yulin, there are many other fighters. One of them is Guo Chengwang. He started to plant trees in his village when encouraged by the government in 1985. Guo is now in his nineties. His children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have
These trees have made a big difference. In Yulin, the number of sandy days has
| A．why | B．how | C．because | D．when |
| A．trouble | B．result | C．importance | D．reason |
| A．necessary | B．serious | C．useless | D．harmless |
| A．received | B．forgotten | C．changed | D．continued |
| A．dropped | B．stayed | C．risen | D．disappeared |
8 . But, it doesn’t have to be all bad news. “One major motivation in studying the link between climate change and human-wildlife conflicts is finding solutions,” said Abrahms. “As we learn about specific incidents, we can identify patterns and tends-and come up with interventions(干预) to try to address these conflicts.”
Some interventions maybe as simple as public-awareness campaigns. Governments can also plan forties when extreme climate events will bring people and wild if e into closer contact. “Once you know the root causes of a conflict, you can design interventions to help both people and wildlife,” said Abrahms. “We can change.”
What does Abrahms think of interventions?| A．They are too simple. | B．They are out-of-date. |
| C．They are changeable. | D．They are beneficial. |
9 . “If you look at where hydrogen is going to be produced in Europe in the next million years, it’s in two countries, Spain and Portugal,” said Thierry Lepercq, the founder and president of HyDeal Ambition, an industry platform bringing together 30 companies. “Hydrogen is the new oil.”
Lepercq is working with companies like Spanish gas pipeline corporation Enagas and global steel giant ArcelorMittal to design an end-to-end model for hydrogen production, distribution and supply at a competitive price. Criticism has centered on green hydrogen’s higher cost compared with highly-polluting “gray hydrogen” drawn from natural gas. Lepercq argues that solar energy produced in Spain is priced low enough to compete.
Globally, Lepercq said, “Electricity is 20% of energy consumption. What about the 80% that is not electrified? ... You need to replace those fossil fuels. Not in 50 years’ time. You need to replace them now.”
What can be inferred about green hydrogen in Spain according to Lepercq?| A．It is highly priced. | B．It is easy to store. |
| C．It is competitive. | D．It is highly-polluting. |
We require healthy water and air, and so do we require healthy soil. It makes water clean and serves as a growing medium, It provides a living space for billions of organisms. And it also provides us with food. Therefore, we should do something to protect the soil.
One of the easiest ways we can support the soil is by wasting less food. All the food that ends up in our shopping bags requires land, water and energy to produce. By throwing away less, we will prevent materials in soil from being wasted.
By eating different types of foods, we can help create demands for different farming products, which is better for soil. Food diversity can improve soil quality. In general, eating a diverse (多样的) diet is better for our health too.
Read the instructions on garden products.
When we walk through any garden store, there are many products for our gardens. No matter which product we end up selecting, the most important step before using it is to read the instructions, Misuse can cause problems.
If we are looking to fertilize (施肥) our garden，we need to know what materials are already in the soil before adding more. Or, we might just need to add one specific material, and not others. Local university laboratories can help provide information on testing soil. It’s usually a matter of digging up soil from a few areas of the yard and sending it in to the lab!
A. Buy less food.
B. Eat a diverse diet.
C. Perform soil tests.
D. Reduce food waste.
