Ecotourism is the opposite of mass tourism. People travel to remote areas and visit faraway places without destroying the environment.Ecotourism is intended
Ecotourism makes people recognize how beautiful the land and the countryside are. Local tour guides show
Ecotourism started out in the 1980s as an alternative to mass tourism. Today it is one of the
2 . In recent years, Ethiopia has become a regional leader in solid waste management. Last year, the country transformed the landfill (垃圾填埋场) in Addis Ababa into a new waste-to-energy plant, the first such project on the continent. The plant incinerates up to 1, 400 tonnes of waste every day, about 80 percent of the city's rubbish, supplying the capital with 25 percent of its household electricity needs.
However, despite these important steps, challenges remain in Ethiopia. Although the country has permitted the Basel, Stockholm and Rotterdam conventions, laws and policies for environmentally sound management of hazardous (有害的) wastes are still not effective in pre- venting littering waste illegally.
To help Ethiopia meet these challenges, the Chemicals and Waste Management Program is supporting the country with a three-year project to enhance its capacity for sound management of hazardous wastes.
In the initial stages, a project management unit will be formed, made up of many representatives from government departments and private organizations. This unit will be responsible for reviewing and assessing Ethiopia's current legal system, which, despite numerous advances in recent years, does not specifically target the recycling of hazardous waste. Once legal gaps are identified, the project will seek to update existing policies and strategies.
Many people in Ethiopia are not aware of the possible effect of environmental damage and the need to report such crimes to the police. To resolve this pressing issue, Ethiopia will be conducting a series of capacity-building activities, including creating awareness-raising programs, training trainers and providing equipment.
Ethiopia will also work to establish a national mechanism for chemicals and waste management by engaging government departments and civil society groups. Authorities will also make budgetary provisions (预算拨款) in national, regional and institutional planning to ensure funding for these activities is sustainable even after the project's completion.
1. Which can replace the underlined word “incinerates” in paragraph 1?| A．Produces. | B．Burns. | C．Gathers. | D．Absorbs. |
| A．The relevant laws are not sound. | B．The shortage of workers is severe. |
| C．The pollution level is too high. | D．The funds are not sufficient. |
| A．Restrict their environmental movement. | B．Call on them to start some programs. |
| C．Reward them with budgetary provisions. | D．Raise their environmental awareness. |
| A．Ethiopia is facing serious environmental problems. |
| B．Ethiopia has achieved success in waste management. |
| C．Ethiopia is putting efforts into waste management. |
| D．Ethiopia has reduced environmental pollution levels. |
3 . A lunch break – it’s an important and often necessary part of our working or school day. And now we’re spoilt (惯坏) with a lot of places to buy our lunch from, all offering attractive dishes and sandwiches to eat on the go.
But our appetite for buying our lunchtime fare is not just costing us money, there might be a cost in terms of damaging our planet too. Just grabbing a sandwich, crisps and maybe a cake and coffee can produce at least four items of waste. Paper boxes, cups, wrappers and plastic knives and forks are all part of our disposable (一次性的) feast in addition to the food waste we create. Some experts say throwing away food, which produces methane (甲烷) as it rots, is a bigger cause of climate change than plastics.
But regardless of what causes the most damage, the solution, according to an environmental campaign group called Hubbub, is to eat packed lunches. Tessa Tricks from the group says “People are saying that they are buying food to take out because life has got busier.” And she says people think they are being more efficient; but she argues that it's usually healthier and cheaper to make your own lunch. It means you can eat the things you really want and make the quantity that you actually need.
Of course, preparing your lunch is another thing to fit into your morning scramble (忙乱) of getting ready for work, so if you haven’t got time and you are going to buy lunch, an alternative that Hubbub suggests is to take your own container to a shop and ask them to put your food in it. The idea of using reusable coffee cups for hot drinks and refilling water bottles has already proved successful, so this could be another step in the right direction.
1. What’s the second paragraph mainly about?| A．It costs a lot of money buying lunch. |
| B．Eating fast food is no good to health. |
| C．Buying lunch leads to great damage to environment. |
| D．Experts give suggestions on eating. |
| A．Stop eating packed lunches. |
| B．Eating what you like. |
| C．Trying to be more efficient in work. |
| D．Making lunch by yourself. |
| A．Buying lunch. |
| B．Taking your own container. |
| C．Using reusable coffee cup. |
| D．Using refilling water bottles. |
| A．Make a full use of lunch time. |
| B．Eating properly to keep healthy. |
| C．Doing what you can to reduce pollution. |
| D．Giving lunch time eating habit a thought to reduce damage to environment. |
4 . Doing your laundry with cold water can help save the planet, and maybe save you some money along the way. That’s the message from Tide in a newly launched campaign to decarbonize laundry. The goal is for consumers in North America to do three out of every four loads of laundry with cold water instead of hot by 2030, up from about half today. That would eliminate the power consumption required to heat cold water.
If this goal is met, it will have the same impact on greenhouse gas emissions as removing about a million cars from the road for a year. “There is no tradeoff. You will save 150 a year in energy costs, your garments will last longer. And by the way, you’re helping to save the planet,” Shailesh Jejurikar, CEO of Procter & Gamble’s fabric and home care division, said in an interview. “It’s a beautiful win-win-win if we get this right.”
“This is going to be the defining decades for where we end up on climate change,” Jejurikar said. “If we don’t get this situation under control in the coming years, we are going to pay the price. There is a need to act now.” Beyond its focus on cold-water washing, Tide set a new goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions at its factories in half by 2030. That’s in addition to the progress it already has made cutting emissions by three-quarters over the past decade as the brand adopted 100% renewable energy at its manufacturing plants. Tide also plans to reduce its carbon footprint by using 100% recyclable packaging for all products by 2030 and by teaming up with Silicon Valley startup Opus12 to capture carbon from its factories.
Jejurikar said P&G does want to get to zero emissions in its factories, but added that how people use Tide products has 10 times more impact than what happens in its plants. “We are trying to give them chance to take their ordinary daily actions, and make them have an extraordinary impact,” Jejurikar said.
1. What can we learn from the passage?| A．We need to heat cold water before laundry. |
| B．Tide will remove a million cars from the road. |
| C．Hot water laundry could save energy and protect the planet. |
| D．Cold water laundry might increase by a quarter in North America. |
| A．advantage. | B．need. | C．hesitation. | D．emission. |
| A．Advertising for its new products. |
| B．Using 100% recyclable packaging for all products. |
| C．Adopting completely renewable energy in its factories. |
| D．Cooperating with a new High-Tech company to recycle carbon. |
| A．Cold Water Laundry—An Eco-friendly Campaign |
| B．Advanced Technology Being Applied to Cars |
| C．The Vital Decades for Climate Change |
| D．Cutting Emission to Protect Our Planet |
5 . British sculptor Taylor has made it his mission to protect our ecosystems (生态系统) by creating underwater museums. He's made over 850 artworks worldwide. On February 1, 2021, Taylor presented his latest work — the Underwater Museum of Cannes.
Located half a mile off the coast of Cannes, France — the permanent museum is the artist's first attempt into the Mediterranean Sea. "The main goal is to draw more people underwater to see the fact that our oceans need our help," the sculptor said. "Ocean ecosystems have been badly damaged by human activity, and it's not obvious what is happening when observing the sea from apart."
The museum is made up of 6 huge face sculptures, featuring local residents of various ages, ranging from Maurice, an 80—year—old fisherman, to Anouk, a 9—year—old student." Being directly linked to the sculptures encourages communities to get involved in the protection of our oceans," explained Taylor. Each face sculpture is divided into two different—sized parts, showing the state of the world's oceans: powerful on the outside but weak below the surface.
To make the museum easily approachable to divers, the sculptures have been positioned at shallow depths of between 6 to 10 feet. They are placed in the pockets of white sand between the seagrass, preventing boats from stopping close.
Though the waters surrounding the sculptures now appear blue, the seabed was filled with old boat engines, pipes and other rubbish: when the project began four years ago. "This is happening every day in our surrounding waters but it largely goes unnoticed. I like the idea of replacing the rubbish with artworks and achieving two goals at the same time," Taylor said. He also wants to restore the area's seagrass: the lungs of the Mediterranean. Just one square meter of the seagrass can produce up to 10 liters of oxygen daily. At the same time, the folds (褶皱) of the sculptures can provide perfect places for fishes and other creatures to avoid attacks.
1. What is special about the sculptures in the Underwater Museum of Cannes?| A．Each of them has two different faces. |
| B．They are modeled on the local people. |
| C．They will be moved away before long. |
| D．They are Taylor's first underwater artworks. |
| A．It serves as a warning mark for boats. |
| B．It breaks down the waste on the seabed. |
| C．It offers ideal shelter for the sea animals. |
| D．It makes the seagrass produce more oxygen. |
| A．To present unique artworks and to gain widespread recognition. |
| B．To show the artist's talent and to attract more tourists underwater. |
| C．To clean the surrounding waters and to criticize irresponsible human activity. |
| D．To entertain people with artworks and to raise their awareness of sea protection. |
| A．Environment. | B．Technology. | C．Geography. | D．Discovery. |
6 . The production and distribution of food accounts for around a third of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions (排放). But as a consumer? It’s difficult to measure the climate impact of what you eat.
A Dublin-based startup called Evocco could soon make it much easier. It lets users track and improve the climate impact of your food purchases. Users simply photograph their grocery receipts using the Evocco app, which identifies the food products by reading the printed text and using machine learning. It then calculates the carbon footprint based on the store’s location and by checking the type, weight and origin o£ a food against a database. The database is maintained by Eaternity, a life cycle assessment company based in Switzerland. If the receipt doesn’t contain enough data on a product, it will give an estimate based on similar products and reference points.
The app is available for free on iOS and Android devices, which has been downloaded more than 1,000 times since its launch at the end of last year. As well as the personal shopping app — which Evocco hopes to launch in the United States by the end of this year — the company is developing a digital tool to sell to food storekeepers, e-commerce platforms and delivery apps that will track the climate impact of a product’s journey through the supply chain. The aim is to help storekeepers provide climate impact information directly to consumers, and more importantly, to give Evocco access to product data to improve its app.
The Evocco app is not the only app looking to reach this climate-conscious market. There’s Capture, which estimates monthly CO2 emissions by asking users a series of questions on diet, transport and other factors, as well as Yayzy and My Carbon Action, which link to a user’s bank account, calculating their footprint from trade.
1. What is the Evocco app designed to do?| A．Confirm the origin of food products. |
| B．Work out the climate effect of food. |
| C．Collect varieties of grocery receipts. |
| D．Monitor customers’ shopping practices. |
| A．The product. | B．The receipt. | C．Evocco. | D．Eaternity. |
| A．It profits a great deal from its app. |
| B．It has launched its app in America. |
| C．It is trying to get its app improved. |
| D．It prefers to sell its app to storekeepers. |
| A．The Evocco app is still far from satisfactory. |
| B．Smart tools make tracking carbon footprint easier. |
| C．Present digital markets should be strictly restricted. |
| D．Environmental awareness boosts food industry rapidly. |
7 . Kamikatsu, a small town in Japan, has shown the world that our garbage has far-reaching effects, and not just on our environment.
The experiment in going zero waste started when the town built a new incinerator 20 years ago. But almost immediately, the incinerator was determined to be a health risk due to the poisonous gases when garbage was burned in it. It was too expensive to send waste to other towns, so locals had to come up with a new plan. Then the Zero Waste Academy was born, which helped perform this plan.
Now Kamikatsu people separate their waste into 45 different categories. But in the beginning, it wasn't easy to convince local people to do all this work, and there was some pushback. Only after that initial education period did most residents come on board.
This is all great news for waste reduction of course, but it has also had some unexpected social benefits as well. Like much of Japan, Kamikatsu's population is aging, and about 50 percent of the locals are elderly. The fact that the whole community takes their trash in to be recycled has created a local action and interaction between generations.
That idea has been purposefully expanded to include a circular shop where household goods are dropped off and others can take them, and a tableware "library" where people can borrow extra cups, glasses, silverware and plates for celebrations.
"The elderly see this not as a waste-collection service, but an opportunity to socialize with the younger generation and to chat. When we visit them, they prepare lots of food and we stay with them for a while, we ask how they are," Sakano, the founder of the Zero Waste Academy, said.
Sakano's ideas are truly revolutionary if you think about it. She's proving that community can be found through handling the stuff we no longer want and need.
1. What is mainly talked about in paragraph 2?| A．What harmful effects garbage burning has. |
| B．Why garbage sorting is necessary in Japan. |
| C．How the idea of zero waste was put forward. |
| D．What the Zero Waste Academy functions as. |
| A．Inactive response. | B．Generous reward. |
| C．Bitter suffering. | D．Beneficial guidance. |
| A．Reducing waste. | B．Creating community. |
| C．Increasing people's income. | D．Developing a new technology. |
| A．Technology. | B．Health. | C．Workplace. | D．Lifestyle. |
Today, Mount Qomolangma’s peak is not a lonely place any more. Over 3,500 people have
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Some of that rubbish is even being used for
9 . Aristotle was among the first thinkers to become interested in the red snow on Mount Parnassus in the 4th century BC. The Greek philosopher owed the colour to hairy worms living in freezing conditions at high altitude. The phenomenon has puzzled scientists ever since. Now a team of French researchers find that snow is getting redder all the time.
The red is indeed produced by organisms in the snow - not by hairy worms, but by microalgae(微藻类)that inhabit ecosystems up to 3, 000 metres above sea level. The microalgae that are green and invisible in the winter become loaded with pigments(色素)in the summer which protect them from the sun, turning the snow reddish. It's when the sun's rays become strong that the microalgae create a protective layer of red molecules(分子) that are like a sun cream.
The researchers say on their website, “The appearance of ‘red snows’ seems to be more and more frequent at high altitudes, as well as in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.” One explanation for the spread of red snows could be global warming, the scientists say. Microalgae capture carbon dioxide when exposed to light, turning it into organic matter and placing it at the foundation of ecosystems in soil, water and snow. With climate change, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing. “It is therefore expected that certain microalgae respond positively to this increase, behaving as markers of climate change,” the website says.
Yet scientists are unsure about what impact the microalgae have on melting glaciers and snow. They suspect that because the red pigments absorb the heat they are accelerating environmental change. “Even if it is fantastic to see microalgae developing in the snow, one of the consequences is... the disappearance of their environment,” the researchers added.
1. What caused the red snow according to the Greek philosopher?| A．High altitude. | B．A kind of worms. |
| C．The microalgae. | D．The freezing conditions |
| A．To generate a sun cream. |
| B．To be loaded with pigments. |
| C．To attract people's attention. |
| D．To defend themselves from the sun. |
| A．It can contribute to global warming. |
| B．It can indicate the rise of carbon dioxide. |
| C．It increases carbon dioxide in ecosystems. |
| D．It disappears from the Arctic and Antarctic regions. |
| A．Red snow sends a warning. |
| B．Microalgae grow in red snow. |
| C．Microalgae stand climate change. |
| D．Red snow dances at high altitude. |
10 . Many of us wonder what lies in outer space. When we look up at the night sky, we see stars, the twinkle of a moving satellite and occasionally a faraway planet. But one thing we don’t see is the millions of pieces of junk（垃圾）filling up space.
The amount of space junk is increasing. Over the last few decades, satellites and rockets have been launched into space, littering the universe as they go. It’s judged there are now millions of discarded（丢弃的）pieces of metal and other materials in orbit—everything from old rocket parts to accidentally dropped astronaut tools. The fear is that if we don’t start taking this litter out of the sky soon, it will become a significant threat to active satellites. Nobu Okada, Chief Executive of Astroscale—a company working on ways to clean up space junk—says hitting “even a small paint spot… has enough power to blow up other satellites.”
Several ideas are being looked at to catch the debris（碎片）floating around in space. In 2018, the Remove Debris spacecraft carried out various experiments, which include testing a net that could catch a satellite and firing a harpoon（标枪）at a target in orbit to try to catch it.
This year the UK Space Agency is helping to fund new approaches to tracking satellites and debris in space. Jacob Geer from UKSA told the BBC: “Space monitoring and tracking is one of the key things we can do to keep safe those satellites we depend on now, and to make sure certain orbits don’t become inaccessible for future generations because there’s too much debris in them.”
It’s clear that a solution is needed so a deep clean in space can take place. But looking to the future, like any litter problem, we need to look at ways of creating less—and that shouldn’t be the matter of science fiction.
1. What is happening to junk in outer space?| A．It has caused serious pollution. |
| B．The amount of it is increasing. |
| C．It can be seen by people on the earth. |
| D．It has influenced the launch of satellites. |
| A．They have invented a net to track and catch junk. |
| B．They are working to find ways to clean up space junk. |
| C．They are worried and feel hopeless to control space junk. |
| D．They are raising money to encourage solutions to space junk. |
| A．a satellite might crash with the junk and blow up. |
| B．humans are depending on satellites for development. |
| C．too much space junk would affect future generations. |
| D．it’s necessary to fund new approaches to tracking satellites. |
| A．Ideas to collect space junk are only seen in science movies. |
| B．Humans have found ways to create less junk in space. |
| C．It takes time to find a solution to space junk clean. |
| D．The solution of space junk should be put into practice. |
