1 . When you walk on a sandy beach, it takes more energy than walking down a sidewalk—because the weight of your body pushes into the sand. It turns out that the same thing is true for vehicles driving on roads.
“The weight of the vehicles creates a very shallow indentation in the pavement—and it makes it such that it's continuously driving up a very shallow hill,” said Jeremy Gregory, a scientist at M. I. T...He modeled with his teammates how much energy could be saved-and greenhouse gases avoided—by simply hardening the nation's roads and highways.
And they found that hardening 10 percent of the nation's roads every year could prevent emissions equal to 440 megatons of carbon dioxide over the next 5 decades—that amount is equal to how much CO, you'd spare the planet by keeping a billion barrels of oil in the ground or by growing 7 billion trees for a decade. It reduces 0.5% of projected transportation emissions over that time period.
As for how to harden roads, Gregory says you could combine small amounts of certain fiber with high technology into paving materials. Or you could pave with specially-made concrete, which is harder than ordinary construction materials.
This system could also be a way to shave carbon emissions without some of the usual barriers. “Usually, when it comes to reducing emissions in the transportation department, you're talking about changing policies related to vehicles and also driver behavior, which involves millions and millions of people—as opposed to changing the way we design and preserve our pavements. That's just on the order of thousands of people who are working in transportation agencies.” And when it comes to improving our streets and highways-those agencies are where you might say the rubber meets the road.
1. How does the author develop Paragraph 3?| A．By giving examples. | B．By making classification. |
| C．By listing figures | D．By analyzing causes. |
| A．Mixing fiber with special concrete. | B．Changing regular paving materials. |
| C．Creating hi-tech computer models. | D．Using ordinary building materials. |
| A．It reduces construction costs. | B．It profits transportation agencies. |
| C．It regulates driver behavior. | D．It avoids involving too many people. |
| A．Walking Down Beaches or Sidewalks? | B．Hardening Roads Helps Save Energy. |
| C．How to Cut Down Carbon Emissions | D．A System of Hardening Roads. |
1.尽量绿色出行：采取步行或自行车方式；
2.少喝一次瓶装水；
3.尽量不用一次性的（disposable）产品，如一次性木筷子和塑料袋；
4.每周少用电视和手机一天。
注意：
1.词数80左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear friends,
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The Students’ Union
3 . Global warming is the increase of the earth’s average surface temperature due to the effect of greenhouse gases, for example, carbon dioxide, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from the earth. After the trees are cut down and more greenhouse gases are released, the “blanket” around the earth called the ozone layer (臭氧层), will get thicker. This catches more heat and makes the earth hotter. Luckily, there are many things that every citizen of the earth can do to help reduce the effects of global warming, and it’s never too late or too early for children to take action.
The children should learn what a carbon footprint is. A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon and greenhouse gases people make as they lead the daily life and go about the normal activities. In other words, the carbon footprint is a measure of the environmental impact (冲击) the life has. To live an environmentally friendly life that doesn’t contribute to global warming, people want to have the smallest carbon footprint possible.
Almost everything people do contributes to global warming and is related to fossil fuel consumption. These can be direct uses of fossil fuels, like riding in a gasoline-powered car, or indirect contributions to greenhouse gases, such as eating fruits or vegetables that have to be shipped from far way to reach their tables.
If a child wants to make a contribution to reducing global warming, he should ride a bicycle to the near park, school, his friend’s house, or anywhere else instead of taking the car. Or he may try to walk or jog, which is also helpful. In addition, although trains and buses often run on fossil fuels, on average, each person uses less energy and produces less pollution to run. Next time if children with their parents have to get around town or it’s too far to walk or bike, take the bus or other public transportation instead of asking for a ride.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．a brief description of carbon footprint. | B．The causes of global warming. |
| C．The protection of ozone layer. | D．The serious water pollution. |
| A．Useless. | B．Attractive. | C．Expensive. | D．Useful |
| A．Go to the near park by bike. | B．Avoid taking the car or cycling. |
| C．Eating fruits from far away. | D．Go around the town with parents by car. |
| A．What Can People Do To Use Less Energy? |
| B．Why Global Warming Affects Humans’ Life? |
| C．How Can Kids Help Reduce Global Warming? |
| D．How Does Carbon Footprints Measure Pollution? |
4 . Most people update their electronic products these days on a regular basis, not because they aren't made well and need replacing, but because technology is so advanced that a newer model often appears on the market a year later and consumers like to have the latest if they can afford it! This means that there's a mass of still working, but outdated, electronic items that can't simply be thrown in the bin due to the harm they can cause to the environment once they start to break down.
Some people will simply throw away their old products without a thought, while others will either give it away to a friend or make some money by selling it through an Internet shopping site, such as eBay and the like.
Those in the recycle computers and electronics business are onto a good thing as disposing of e-waste becomes a must and a socially-conscious world decides to clean up their act.
| A．More environmentally-aware people will find an electronic recycling unit to take it off their hands. |
| B．Reducing electronic waste causes a reduction of poisonous elements in the atmosphere. |
| C．Also the amount of resources available in the materials thrown away is enormous. |
| D．They may suddenly find themselves with hundreds of old cell phones, etc. |
| E．It also offers economic and environmental opportunities for the future. |
| F．So they may end up sitting forgotten in a drawer and taking up space. |
| G．They have positive attitudes towards reusing and recycling. |
5 . The world is changing. Technology has made it possible to stay connected wherever you are, fostering friendships and making the world smaller from continent to continent. With technology taking over our lives, is it earth-friendly?
Technology is making it increasingly possible for the family to go green. Things like solar panels (太阳能电池板) readily become more affordable. There is no doubt that solar energy is a great technological achievement. Some other energy sources like wind are unpredictable because you don’t know whether it's going to be windy enough over the course of a month to power your home. This type of energy hasn't been considered to be practical for everyday use.
Technology is also making customers more informed about healthy products. Websites like GoodGuide rate thousands of products on possibly poisonous ingredients (有毒的成分)，covering everything from baby products to pet food. And, the information offered by GoodGuide is also available to customers in a mobile app, so shoppers can measure the health, environmental and society safety ratings for thousands of products straight from stores.
Computers are becoming more environmentally friendly, as some are made with recycled components (部件). Computers can help people cut costs through better scheduling and reduce travel time with virtual meetings. Mobile apps let users track their energy use, locate recycling centers nearby and reduce their carbon footprints. Mobile apps related to environmental friendliness are also available, providing a means for customers to get tips for reducing their homes energy use, find recycled products and make their own products using natural products. From everyday customers to employees and businessmen, technology is influencing the environment in a number of positive ways.
1. What does the underlined word “fostering” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Risking. | B．Recording. | C．Developing. | D．Destroying. |
| A．develops quickly | B．has disadvantages |
| C．is useless in reality | D．is too difficult to be used |
| A．Helping stores sell more goods. | B．Helping improve product quality. |
| C．Helping customers save more money. | D．Helping customers make wiser decisions. |
| A．To tell us the applications of technology. |
| B．To show the development of technology. |
| C．To tell us technology benefits the environment. |
| D．To show the importance of the clean environment. |
6 . In 2015 world leaders meeting in Paris agreed to move towards zero net greenhouse-gas emissions in the second half of this century. That is a tall order, and the building industry makes it even taller. Cement-making alone produces 6% of the world’s carbon emissions. Steel, half of which goes into buildings, accounts for another 8%. If you factor in all of the energy that goes into lighting, heating and cooling homes and offices, the world’s buildings start to look like a giant environmental problem.
Governments in the rich world are now trying to promote greener behaviour by obliging developers to build new projects to “zero carbon” standards. From January 1st 2019 all new public-sector buildings in the European Union must be built to “nearly zero-energy” standards. All other types of buildings will follow in January 2021. Governments in eight further countries are being lobbied to introduce a similar policy.
These standards are less green than they seem. Wind turbines (风力发电机) and solar panels on top of buildings look good but are much less productive than wind and solar farms. And the standards only count the emissions from running a building, not those belched out when it was made. Those are thought to account for between 30% and 60% of the total over a structure’s lifetime. Buildings can become greener. They can use more recycled steel and can be prefabricated (预制的) in off-site factories, greatly reducing lorry journeys. But no other building material has environmental credentials as exciting and overlooked as wood.
The energy required to produce a laminated wooden beam (梁) is one-sixth of that required for a steel one of comparable strength. When a mature tree is cut down, a new one can be planted to replace it, capturing more carbon. After buildings are demolished, old beams and panels are easy to recycle into new structures. And for retrofitting older buildings to be more energy efficient, wood is a good insulator (绝缘体). A softwood window frame provides nearly 400 times as much insulation as a plain steel one of the same thickness and over a thousand times as much as an aluminium equivalent.
Governments can help nudge the industry to use more wood, particularly in the public sector—the construction industry’s biggest client. That would help wood-building specialists achieve greater scale and lower costs.
1. What can be inferred from the underlined sentence in the first paragraph?| A．The building industry makes zero net greenhouse-gas emission hard to realize. |
| B．The building industry is more important than the order. |
| C．The building industry makes the order taller to achieve. |
| D．The building industry makes the meeting in Paris taller than any other meeting. |
| A．The energy required to produce a wooden beam is one-sixth of that required for a steel one. |
| B．When a mature tree is cut down,a new one can grow by itself,capturing more carbon. |
| C．Old beams are easy to recycle into new structure after demolished. |
| D．Wood is a better insulator than steel and aluminum. |
| A．Make. | B．Push. |
| C．Discourage. | D．Force. |
| A．The world's buildings look like a severe environment problem. |
| B．World leaders agreed to move towards zero net greenhouse-gas emissions. |
| C．Using more wood would help wood-building specialists achieve lower costs. |
| D．The industries should use more wood to make the world more environmental. |
7 . I've spent all my adult life working with trees. Recently, our fundraising team was looking for novel suggestions to raise money to help
They knew I'd been a tree hugger since a very early age. Still,I wasn’t
My tree hugging practice is simple: making maximum contact.This means wrapping my arms as
I'm delighted that we
Tree hugging is a wonderful way of reconnecting with
| A．plant | B．save | C．grow | D．water |
| A．requested | B．ordered | C．insisted | D．suggested |
| A．sure | B．surprised | C．curious | D．confused |
| A．donate | B．make | C．burn | D．raise |
| A．visit | B．try | C．thought | D．decision |
| A．carefully | B．straight | C．far | D．tightly |
| A．Surprisingly | B．Fortunately | C．Definitely | D．Strictly |
| A．laughed | B．walked | C．accepted | D．advocate |
| A．figid | B．new | C．brilliant | D．unusual |
| A．possible | B．hopeless | C．good | D．complex |
| A．managed | B．tried | C．wanted | D．started |
| A．creation | B．target | C．value | D．profit |
| A．man | B．life | C．society | D．nature |
| A．gentle | B．fast | C．relaxed | D．lively |
| A．freedom | B．bravery | C．patience | D．kindness |
8 . Global heating appears to be making trees drop their leaves earlier, according to new research, contradicting the idea that warmer temperatures delay the beginning of autumn.
The finding is important because trees draw huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and therefore play a key role in managing the climate.
The rising temperatures also mean that spring is arriving earlier and,overall, the growing season for trees in the planet's temperate zones(温带地区） is getting longer. However, the earlier autumns mean that significantly less carbon can be stored in trees than previously thought, providing less of a brake on global heating.
The new research is based on a huge dataset of observations of European trees, experiments that varied light and CO2 levels, and mathematical models. It showed that as well as temperature and day length, the amount of carbon a tree has absorbed in a season is a key factor in determining when it no longer needs its leaves and drops them. The scientists liken the effect to a person becoming full after a heavy meal and being unable to eat more food.
Earlier models that did not include the amount of carbon a tree absorbs during a season indicated that autumn could be two to three weeks later by the end of the century on current emissions (排放） trends. But the scientists' new model indicates autumn may actually come up to six days earlier. Christine Rollinson, an ecologist at the Morton Arboretum in Illinois, USA, said the earlier models were known to be simplifications but were the best available.
“The big challenge is that autumn has always been a bit of a mess,” she said. “Depending on where you are and which species you're looking at, there's some evidence that leaf fall is happening earlier and some that it's happening later. But understanding how well a tree grows during the season really helps explain that tree-to-tree variation.”
Rollinson said that we can't put all of the responsibility on to growing trees. We can cut emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation to address the climate emergency.
1. What is the result of rising temperature?| A．Later spring. |
| B．More carbon storage. |
| C．Shorter growth season. |
| D．Earlier autumn leaf-off. |
| A．Compare. |
| B．Owe. |
| C．Expose. |
| D．Reduce. |
| A．Disapproving. |
| B．Supportive. |
| C．Sceptical. |
| D．Unclear. |
| A．Offer a solution. |
| B．Voice dissatisfaction. |
| C．Show a new finding. |
| D．Present more evidence. |
9 . Between a quarter and one third of all marine species rely on coral reefs (珊瑚礁)at some point in their life cycle. The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, covers nearly 133,000 square miles and is home to more than 1,500 species of fish, 411 species of hard coral and dozens of other species.
Australian's Great Barrier Reef has lost 50% of its coral populations in the last three decades, with climate change a key driver of reef disturbance, a new study has found.
Researchers from the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, in Queensland, northeastern Australia, studied coral communities and their colony size along the length of the Great Barrier Reef between 1995 and 2017, finding reduction of virtually all coral populations.
“We found the number of small, medium and large coral on the Great Barrier Reef has dropped by more than 50% since the 1990s," reported co-author Terry Hughes, a professor at the centre, in a statement.
Reefs are basic to the health of marine ecosystems — without them, ecosystems collapse, and marine life dies. Coral population sizes are also considered important when it comes to the coral's ability to reproduce." A coral population has millions of small, baby corals, as well as many large ones,“ said Andy Dietzel, a doctoral student in a statement. "Our results show the ability of the Great Barrier Reef to recover becomes weak compared to the past," he added.
Population falls occurred in both shallow and deep water coral species, experts found, but branching coral and table-shaped coral — which provide habitats for fish — were worst affected by mass bleaching （白化）events in 2016 and 2017, caused by record-breaking temperatures.
Warm ocean temperatures are the main driver of coral bleaching, when coral turns white as a stress response to water that is too warm. Bleaching doesn't kill coral immediately, but if temperatures remain high, eventually the coral will die, destroying a natural habitat for many species of marine life.
The new study found the serious worsening of coral colonies in the Northern and Central Great Barrier Reef following the mass bleaching events in the past five years, and experts said the southern part of the reef also suffered record-breaking temperatures in early 2020.
“We used to think the Great Barrier Reef is protected by its huge size — but our results show that even the world's largest and relatively well-protected reef system is increasingly dropping, Hughes said. He warned that climate change is driving an increase in the frequency of the reef disturbance like marine heat waves. "There is no time to lose — we must sharply reduce greenhouse gases as soon as possible," he said.
1. What can we know about coral reefs?| A．They are not able to recover by themselves. |
| B．They make up the largest ecosystem in the sea. |
| C．They can easily be disturbed by other marine species. |
| D．They can influence the existence of other marine species. |
| A．Change. | B．Disappear. |
| C．Crash. | D．Progress. |
| A．It will die very soon. | B．It will change its color. |
| C．It will fail to reproduce. | D．It will kill other species. |
| A．The Great Barrier Reef doesn't have a self-protecting mechanism. |
| B．The Great Barrier Reef is no longer the world's largest coral reef. |
| C．Measures must be taken to protect coral reefs without delay. |
| D．Climate change can increase the frequency of heat waves. |
Nowadays, people are understanding the need to solve the climate and biodiversity problem. Poor ecosystems, forest fires, Covid-19 and more extreme weather events are showing us that the destruction of the natural world is greatly impacting on the planet.
Rainforest Concern
One of the most immediate threats to the bio-region is heavy industry, resulting in polluted rivers and the
To protect the cloud forests from threats, Rainforest Concern supports community reserves and has created a private reserve,
