1 . After years of heated debate, gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. Fourteen wolves were caught in Canada and transported to the park. By last year, the Yellowstone wolf population had grown to more than 170 wolves.
Gray wolves once were seen here and there in the Yellowstone area and much of the continental United States, but they were gradually displaced by human development. By the 1920s, wolves had practically disappeared from the Yellowstone area. They went farther north into the deep forests of Canada, where there were fewer humans around.
The disappearance of the wolves had many unexpected results. Deer and elk populations — major food sources (来源) for the wolf — grew rapidly. These animals consumed large amounts of vegetation (植被), which reduced plant diversity in the park. In the absence of wolves, coyote populations also grew quickly. The coyotes killed a large percentage of the park’s red foxes, and completely drove away the park’s beavers.
As early as 1966, biologists asked the government to consider reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone Park. They hoped that wolves would be able to control the elk and coyote problems. Many farmers opposed the plan because they feared that wolves would kill their farm animals or pets.
The government spent nearly 30 years coming up with a plan to reintroduce the wolvers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carefully monitors and manages the wolf packs in Yellowstone. Today, the debate continues over how well the gray wolf is fitting in at Yellowstone. Elk, deer, and coyote populations are down, while beavers and red foxes have made a comeback. The Yellowstone wolf project has been a valuable experiment to help biologists decide whether to reintroduce wolves to other parts of the country as well.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．Wildlife research in the United States. |
| B．Plant diversity in the Yellowstone area. |
| C．The conflict between farmers and gray wolves. |
| D．The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park. |
| A．Damage to local ecology. |
| B．Preservation of vegetation. |
| C．A decline in the park’s income. |
| D．An increase in the variety of animals. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Uncaring. | C．Positive. | D．Disapproving. |
2 . Since the first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have gotten a lot “greener” toward the environment. “We didn’t know at that time there even was an environment, let alone that there was a problem with it,” says Bruce Anderson, president of Earth Day USA.
But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement .Business people, political leaders, university professors, and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement. “The understanding has increased many， many times,” says Gaylord Nelson, the former governor from Wisconsin, who thought up the first. According to US government reports, emissions (排放)from cars and trucks have dropped from 10.3 million tons a year to 5.5 tons .The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9. Although serious problems still remain and need to be dealt with, the world is a safer and healthier place. A kind of “Green thinking” has become part of practices.
Great improvement has been achieved. In 1988 there were only 600 recycling programs; today in 1995 there are about 6,600. Advanced lights, motors, and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution.
Twenty –five years ago, there were hardly any education programs for environment. Today, it’s hard to find a public school, university, or law school that does not have such a kind of program. “Until we do that, nothing else will change!” says Bruce Anderson.
1. According to Anderson, before 1970, Americans had little idea about ___.| A．the social movement | B．recycling techniques |
| C．environmental problems | D．the importance of Earth Day |
| A．The grass –roots level. | B．The business circle. |
| C．Government officials. | D．University professors. |
| A．They have cut car emissions to the lowest. |
| B．They have settled their environmental problems. |
| C．They have lowered their CO levels in forty cities. |
| D．They have reduced pollution through effective measures. |
| A．Education. | B．Planning |
| C．Green living | D．CO reduction |
3 . Before you throw that old cell phone in the trash, or hide it away in a drawer, think again. There are actually many ways to deal with a mobile phone that you are no longer using.
First, you should be aware that in many places, throwing away cell phones is actually illegal because the batteries, especially in very old phones, can contain poisonous metals.
Many schools and local charities now have recycling programs. And they do make a little bit on each donation.
You might also want to hang onto any accessories(配件)that you have.
| A．You certainly don’t need to pay to recycle an old cell phone |
| B．There are better places to get rid of them than your trash can |
| C．Things like chargers or covers can often be used with your new phone |
| D．Local charities have contributed a lot in repairing unwanted phones |
| E．As people move to bigger and better phones |
| F．The saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure certainly applies |
| G．If you can’t find a large cell phone recycling program in your area |
4 . The endangered pandas in the Qinling Mountains might face a new threat: the loss of their food, bamboo, which makes up 99% of their meals.
Adult pandas spend most part of the day eating bamboo and have to take in at least 40 pounds a day to stay healthy. However, a new study published in Nature Climate Change warned that they may soon find their food gone because most of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains might disappear by the end of the century as a result of rising temperature worldwide.
A team made up of researchers from Michigan State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has studied the effects of climate change on the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains. They have found that bamboo is very sensitive to climate changes. “80% to 100% of the bamboo would be gone if the average temperature rises 3.5 degrees worldwide by the end of the century,” said Liu Jianguo, one of the report’s authors.
He added, “This is how much the temperature would rise by 2100 even if all countries will keep their promises in the Paris Agreement. But you know what is happening all around the world.”
In recent years, China has been trying its best to protect the endangered pandas by setting up more and bigger natural reserves.
“But it is far from enough and the endangered pandas need cooperation from the rest of the world, because their future is not just in the hands of the Chinese,” said Shirley Martin from the World Wildlife Fund but not a member of the team.
The Qinling Mountains, in the southwest of China, are home to about 260 pandas. That is about 13% of China’s wild panda population. In addition, about 375 are living in research centers and zoos in China.
1. How many wild pandas are there in China?| A．About 260. | B．About 635. |
| C．About 2,635. | D．About 2,000. |
| A．China needs more help from the World Wildlife Fund. |
| B．It is difficult to control the temperature rise within 3.5℃. |
| C．Bamboo is sensitive to the changes of temperature. |
| D．China is making great efforts to protect the pandas. |
| A．The Qinling Mountains can provide enough bamboo for the pandas. |
| B．Pandas in the Qinling Mountains are only threatened by the loss of food. |
| C．Lots of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains will probably disappear. |
| D．Pandas have already eaten 99% of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains. |
| A．The Disappearance of Bamboo |
| B．Necessity to Change Pandas’ Food |
| C．A New Threat Faced by the Pandas |
| D．Efforts Made to Save Pandas |
5 . As heat waves continue to ravage the planet, air conditioners are becoming more and more common. However, these "active" cooling devices are posing problems because the electricity consumption which most people are concerned about and the release of ozone-damaging chemicals worsen the greenhouse gas effect, resulting in the creation of heat islands and further thermal pollution. Therefore, "passive" cooling, which doesn't have such effects, has attracted considerable attention from both scientists and ordinary people in recent years.
In a recent study, a team of researchers from China and US presented an eco-friendly, low-cost smart coating to keep buildings cooler while consuming zero electricity. Infrared radiation-based passive cooling has been investigated since 2014, but challenges, mainly the expensive and unsustainable design, have greatly limited their large-scale and widespread application. Besides, the imbalance in cooling ability of these coatings during the day and night tends to lead to great day-night temperature differences as more heat is lost than gained at night.
The solution therefore requires a "smart" mechanism that can both enhance daytime cooling and minimize nighttime heat loss. To do this, the researchers created a new smart coating comprised of conventional building materials, including titanium dioxide nanoparticles, fluorescent microparticles, and glass microspheres that were engineered to reflect most of the sunlight. Specifically, the titanium dioxide particles effectively reflect sunlight through light scattering（撒播）while the fluorescent particles increase the amount of reflection by changing the absorbed sunlight into fluorescence emissions, which drive more heat away from the building. Meanwhile, the glass microspheres re-send mid-infrared broadband radiation, allowing not only heat loss, but allowing heat exchange to take place between the building and the sky.
The coating was tested on a model concrete building. Through this efficient heat exchange with the sky, daytime cooling was strengthened while nighttime cooling was reduced. The building's inside temperature was always maintained at around 26℃, even when the out-side temperature varied from 24℃ to 37℃ during the day. We believe this new coating will make it to commercialization soon, enabling a sustainable, passive cooling technology that could help to fight climate change and the global energy crisis.
1. What is the virtue of passive cooling?| A．It is simple to design. | B．It uses no chemicals. |
| C．It is smart. | D．It uses no power. |
| A．It was hard to design. |
| B．Its material was hard to produce. |
| C．Its heat loss and cooling are imbalanced. |
| D．It wasn't tested on a model concrete building. |
| A．Metal. | B．System. | C．Platform. | D．Building. |
| A．The principle of air-conditioning. |
| B．The differences between active and passive cooling. |
| C．A new coating to keep buildings cool without electricity. |
| D．A new building to maintain its inside temperature without electricity. |
6 . Across the globe, we've developed a coffee addiction, and we've become addicted to single-use cups: 600 billion disposable cups are produced and sold annually. But there's a growing push to cut this down.
Here's the problem with disposable coffee cups: The thin, waxy, plastic coating inside makes it tricky to recycle or compost them. So, they most go into a landfill （垃圾填埋场）. More than that, it takes a lot of energy and resources to make them. Starbucks and McDonald's are trying to develop a disposable coffee cup that can be both recyclable and compostable. But that's easier said than done. The coffee giants have been dangling a million dollars to anybody who can crack the code.
The Rolling Stones are also thinking about the sustainable cups. If you see the Stones in concert this summer and go to get a drink, there may be no single-use plastic cup for you. The bands approached Michael Martin, who has produced a bunch of big Earth Day concerts, asking for help to eliminate plastic waste. He came up with a simple solution.
"When you come up to get your first beverage（饮料）, you put down a $3 deposit, you get a really high-quality Rolling Stones-branded cup," says Martin. "You use it throughout the night, and at the end of the event you can turn your cup in and get your $3 back or you can keep your cup." If you return the heavier plastic cup at the end of the show, it gets washed and used again. Or recycled.
But this idea — returning and reusing a cup — this is not that complicated. So why is this just being tried now? "That's a really good question," says Martin. "In America, we're a throwaway society, and so we're hoping we'll be able to wake people up and change things." He's starting with rock concerts because artists have a pretty powerful platform. I mean, if Mick Jagger tells his fans to stop abusing the planet, who's going to say no to that?
1. Why is there a growing push to cut single-use cups down?| A．Because too many people are coffee addicts. |
| B．Because disposable cups are hard to recycle and compost. |
| C．Because it takes a lot of energy and resources to recycle them. |
| D．Because Starbucks and McDonald's are dangling a million dollars. |
| A．develop a cup. | B．set up a recycling company. |
| C．find the password. | D．tackle the problem. |
| A．People will wash the cups at the end of the show. |
| B．People hand in the cup and get 3-dollar reward. |
| C．People can own the cup by paying 3 dollars. |
| D．People must pay 3 dollars and return the cup. |
| A．Artists have a great impact. |
| B．Martin is giving a rock concert. |
| C．Mick Jagger' fans are abusing the planet. |
| D．Mick Jagger' fans never disagree with him. |
7 . There are more than 7 billion people on Earth. Imagine what will happen if each of us decides to do one thing — no matter how small — to protect wildlife every day. Even little actions can have a major influence when we all do something.
Raise an animal
From wild animals to wild places, there’s a choice for everyone.
Do some volunteer work
Speak up and join
Share your concern for wildlife protection with your family. Tell your friends how they can help. Ask everyone you know to do what they can to stop wildlife trafficking (非法交易).
Find new ways to use things you already own. If you can’t reuse them, recycle. The Minnesota Zoo encourages customers to recycle mobile phones to cut down a need for the mineral coltan (钶钽铁矿), which is mined from lowland gorillas’ living places.
| A．Develop a habit of recycling |
| B．Try to encourage others to do it |
| C．Whether you’re into protecting natural living places or preventing wildlife trafficking |
| D．If you don’t have money to give |
| E．Get together with classmates to raise an animal from a wildlife organization |
| F．Here are ways you can make a difference |
| G．If you are busy with your work or studying |
要点：1.问题：全球沙漠化的面积约占整个地球的四分之一；全世界受沙漠化影响的国家有100多个；到下个世纪，沙漠化的面积有可能增长17%；
2.原因：人类的行为，如乱砍滥伐；全球气候变暖等；
3.倡议：植树造林；呼吁人们提高环保意识……
注意：1.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
2.词数：不少于100词(开头已给出，但不计入总词数)。
In recent years, desertification has gone from bad to worse and threatened us in many ways.
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9 . Plants: we eat them, juice them-and now it seems we can mine them too!
After a successful experiment on the island of Borneo, the botany professor Alan Baker and a group of researchers want to introduce phytomining (harvesting minerals from plants) as a better, partial substitute for traditional mining.
Phytomining, also known as agromining, means collecting metals from live plants. However, this can only be done with a group of plants known as "hyperaccumulators". There are around 700 identified types worldwide, and what makes these hyperaccumulators special is that they naturally attract and absorb minerals through their roots-metals poisonous to other plants-and then store huge, pure concentrations of these minerals in their bodies. The metals can then be extracted from the plants' sap(汁;液), oil, or sometimes even live tissue.
Baker and his colleagues see a lot of potential in phytomining. Not only can it help meet the growing global demand for metals, but is a way of undoing some of that damage to the environment by traditional mining.
One of the biggest problems with traditional mining is that it pollutes the surrounding area. Phytomining can extract metal waste, plus planting the hyperaccumulators would regrow the deforested areas caused by mining operations. Aside from this, if phytomining is able to replace part of traditional mining, then there would be fewer instances of bad mining practices like abandoned mines, which pollute the nearby waters. Also, since phytomining provides metals that are already naturally pure, there is no need to use huge amounts of energy to purify the ore(矿石).
Phytomining has its drawbacks. Harvesting plants on a large scale is expensive today, compared to traditional mining. Besides, plants can be wiped out by diseases or unexpected weather conditions.
However, there are many reasons to consider phytomining. After all, we need to make sure that our planet can keep up and sustainable practices like phytomining give us the hope that our advancement doesn't mean sacrificing Mother Earth.
1. What makes hyperaccumulators different from other plants?| A．The sap poisonous to other plants. |
| B．The ability to take in and store minerals. |
| C．The oil extracted from live plant tissue. |
| D．The concentrations of minerals in their bodies. |
| A．It can stop deforestation. |
| B．It may reduce the desertedmines. |
| C．It uses clean energy to purify the ore. |
| D．It can't be destroyed by diseases. |
| A．Pessimistic. | B．Indifferent. | C．Optimistic. | D．Skeptical. |
| A．Metals From Plants. |
| B．The Future of Phytomining. |
| C．What Are Hyperaccumulators? |
| D．Benefits of Phytomining. |
10 . Tips for Green Travel with Kids
Traveling doesn’t mean letting go of all the eco-friendly choices we work so hard to achieve in our daily life. Here are a few tips for green travel with kids:
Booking nonstop flights whenever possible will reduce carbon emissions (碳排放).
Whether you’re flying or driving, it’s easy when traveling to pull into fast food restaurants for snacks.
Reusable water bottles are easy to bring along whenever you travel. At the airport, keep your reusable bottles empty until you have passed through the security (安检).
| A．Too much carbon emissions seriously pollute the environment |
| B．But you can pack healthy food before starting off |
| C．In this way, you can save water and energy |
| D．Fill them up on the other side of the security checkpoint |
| E．Security check is a necessary part of each trip |
| F．Save energy by turning off the hotel room lights when you head out for the day |
| G．If the closest local airport doesn’t have nonstop flights to a certain place |
