1 . Used electronics are piing up fast: they are filling up landfills with dangerous pieces of waste. Some e-waste is relatively large, such as air conditioners; other e-waste is more unnoticed, such as smart labels that contain disposable batteries and other equipment.
“It’s these small batteries that are big problems,” says University of California, Irvine, public health scientist Dele Ogunseitan, who is a green technology researcher and adviser for major tech companies and was not involved in developing the battery. “Nobody really pays attention to where they end up.” Researchers at the Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology are working to address this problem. Their new paper describes a water-activated paper battery developed from environmentally friendly materials that could eventually present a sustainable alternative to the more harmful batteries common in low-power devices.
The paper battery has the same key components as standard batteries but packages them differently. Like a typical chemical battery, it has a positively charged side and a negatively charged side. A traditional battery’s components are covered in plastic and metal; in the new battery, however, the positively and negatively charged sides are inks printed onto the front and back of a piece of paper. That paper is filled with salt, which dissolves (溶解) when the paper becomes wet. When the paper is dry, the battery is shelf-stable. Once the paper is wet, the battery starts working within 20 seconds. The new battery’s operating performance declines as the paper dries. When the scientists rewet the paper during testing, the battery regained function and lasted an hour before beginning to dry out again.
That future may not be so far off. It is hard to predict a time line for manufacturing such items at scale, but the head of the study says he is in contact with potential industry partners and believes these batteries could make their way into products within the next two to five years.
1. Why is e-waste mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic. | B．To give people warning. |
| C．To show the seriousness of it. | D．To call on people to take action. |
| A．Objective. | B．Carefree. | C．Indifferent. | D．Concerned. |
| A．The difference between the paper battery and the traditional battery. |
| B．The working principle of the paper battery. |
| C．The problem of the paper battery. |
| D．The advantage of the paper battery. |
| A．Paper battery: Is it far off? |
| B．Paper can work wonders. |
| C．Paper battery: A creative way to reduce e-waste. |
| D．Let’s work together to fight e-waste. |
2 . In the old days, when you had to drive to a movie theater to get some entertainment, it was easy to see how your actions could have an impact on the environment. After all, you were jumping into your car, driving across towns, coughing out emissions (排放) and using gas all the way. But now that we’re used to staying at home and streaming (流式传输) movies, we might get a little proud. After all, we’re just picking up our phones and maybe turning on the TV. You’re welcome. Mother Nature.
Not so fast, says a recent report from the French-based Shit Project. According to Climate Crisis: The Unsustainable Use of Online Video, digital technologies are responsible for 4% of greenhouse gas emissions, and that energy use is increasing by 9% a year. Watching a half-hour show would lead to 3.5 pounds of CO2 emissions. That’s like driving 6.28 kilometers. And in the European Union, the Eureca project found that data centers (where videos are stored) there used 25% more energy in 2017 compared to just three years earlier, reports the BBC.
Streaming is only expected to increase as we become more enamored of our digital devices (设备) and the possibility of enjoying entertainment where and when we want it to increase. Online video use is expected to increase by four times from 2017 to 2022 and account for 80% of all Internet traffic by 2022. By then, about 60% of the world’s population will be online.
You’re probably not going to give up your streaming services, but there’re things you can do to help lessen the impact of your online use, experts say. For example, according to Lutz Stobbe, a researcher from the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin, we have no need to upload 25 pictures of the same thing to the cloud because it consumes energy every time. If instead you delete a few things here and there, you can save energy. Moreover, it’s also a good idea to stream over Wi-Fi, watch on the smallest screen as you can, and turn off your Wi-Fi in your home if you’re not using your devices.
1. What topic is the first paragraph intended to lead in?| A．The environmental effects of driving private cars. |
| B．The improvements on environmental awareness. |
| C．The environmental impacts of streaming services. |
| D．The change in the way people seek entertainment. |
| A．Get more skeptical of. | B．Become more aware of. |
| C．Ge more worried about. | D．Feel much crazier about. |
| A．Its environmental effects are worsening. | B．It is being reduced to protect the planet. |
| C．It is easily available to almost everyone. | D．Its side effects have drawn global attention. |
| A．Playing Online games over mobile networks. | B．Downloading music on a personal computer. |
| C．Uploading a lot of images of the same thing. | D．Watching downloaded movies on a mobile phone. |
3 . 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 |
4 . According to the WHO, 90 percent of the world’s population lives in a place where they are exposed to unsafe levels of airborne pollutants, contributing to up to seven million deaths each year. If you live in a city, chances are that you’re part of that 90 percent, even if your city is relatively clean. That’s why cities worldwide have started embracing Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
One of the best ways to fight pollution is to figure out where it’s worst and where it’s coming from. If you’ve ever made a habit of checking air quality around you, you may notice that there aren’t actually that many monitoring stations, and your closest one may not be that close. For pollution data to really be accurate and helpful, we need a lot more of it.
Luckily, IoT sensors and low-power wide-area networks are making it a lot easier to get and spread ultra-local data. Lampposts are one popular place to put them. For example, the Republic of Korea and Barcelona have already built out a network of pollution sensors in their streetlights.
On the other hand, outfitting (配备) cars, bikes, and even people with pollution sensors provide valuable data on a smaller, more mobile scale.
Since pollutant levels can change dramatically even from one city block to another, having smaller-scale data is important for making a lot of decisions that, over time, might have a major influence on our health and behavior. It can influence where we decide to live, when we exercise, whether we bike to work, and, perhaps most importantly, what we can do about pollution in our area.
All the Internet of Things can help us do on a personal level is use less energy. The data it provides, though, can be used to make big and small changes to the way we behave and build, and that is eventually where we’ll see benefits.
1. What’s the problem mentioned in Paragraph 1?| A．The death rate is high every year. |
| B．There are too many people in the world. |
| C．There is little space for people to live in. |
| D．Air pollution is more serious than expected. |
| A．Pollution data. |
| B．A monitoring station. |
| C．Internet of Things. |
| D．A low-power network. |
| A．It directly decreases pollutant levels. |
| B．It uses less energy to clean the air. |
| C．It covers more areas of air pollution. |
| D．It betters decisions on our lifestyle. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Positive. | D．Uncaring. |
5 . A boy who was crazy about collecting rubbish is only four years old. He has finally fulfilled his dream of being a cleaner. Riley Mccourt has admired the local rubbish collectors for ages, spending his days picking up waste on his street and wheeling bins to the side of the road to help out his neighbors. He loves cleaning and binning waste. His favourite chore is to empty the rubbish from the chip shop his mum runs. Two weeks ago, however, a disaster struck: Riley accidentally knocked over one of the bins and was accused of causing trouble.
Someone posted in the local Facebook group that Riley had put rubbish in the street, clearly unaware of his love for keeping the streets clean. Thankfully his innocence was quickly proven, and his local council decided to make his dreams come true by allowing him to work alongside the cleaners for a day.
Riley joined the waste collection crew on Wednesday, chatting with the team, helping with the recycling, and riding in the waste collection vehicles. He even got his own jacket. Riley’s mum, Toni Mccourt, said, “He loves the bins and trucks.” Riley’s favourite day is definitely bin day. He goes round collecting the rubbish up on the street. The cleaners all know him when they spot him. He goes outside as soon as he sees them come round. He helps his neighbors put their bins out for collection.
Riley clearly made a good impression during his first day on the job, as community services manager Jane Carrol said she was very pleased with his enthusiasm for the role. Jane said, “Riley is clearly a keen recycler and when he is older, I’m sure he’d make an excellent member of the team here. It was a pleasure for the team to show him around the vehicles.”
1. What can we learn about Riley from the first paragraph?| A．Riley likes making trouble. | B．Riley was wronged by someone. |
| C．Riley was knocked over by a bin. | D．Riley looks down upon rubbish collectors. |
| A．To work as a real cleaner. | B．To keep the street clean. |
| C．To prove his innocence. | D．To work with the local council. |
| A．It is meaningless for him to do so. |
| B．It is unnecessary to do so on the street. |
| C．It is challenging for such a little boy to do so. |
| D．It is worthwhile to give Riley very high remarks. |
| A．A newspaper. | B．A diary. | C．A biography. | D．A novel. |
6 . Since the show of the first Lion King film, nearly half of all lions have been lost. These big cats are now believed to be locally extinct in 16 African nations where they once lived, and it may not be long before we have no lions left. Environmentalists recognize a world connection between ecosystems and the biodiversity (生物多样性) they support. Lions depend upon many more living things than just lions. They are not considered separately.
The story of the decease and re-appearance of North America’s gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park serves as a reminder of what can happen when we keep our eye on animals’ broader connections to the world. After people killed off wolves in Yellowstone in the early 1900s, the deer population increased, greatly reducing the number of willow tees, which the deer fed on. This in tum forced beavers that relied on the willows to move out. Without the beavers building dams, the whole system changed, lowering the water table, which affected all the other species that had adapted to live in this system.
When wolves were introduced again in 1995, we gained a special view into this connection. The wolves killed deer, which allowed the willows to grow. Beavers returned, building new dams that helped fish, birds and so on to increase as well. This shows that ecosystems have great ability to return to normal after the changes like serious weather events, droughts, fires and so on.
In Africa, the relation between lions and the larger landscapes shows the greatest challenge. One recent study suggests that if we want lions to recover to levels similar to those when the first Lion King movie was produced, it will take about a billion dollars a year, mainly to better manage the national parks and other protected areas where lions survive.
1. What does the underlined part in Paragraph l probably mean?| A．Lions also make friends with other animals. |
| B．Lions need various living things to satisfy their hunger. |
| C．The survival of lions is closely related to other species. |
| D．The number of lions is smaller than that of other creatures, |
| A．The water table was lifted to a higher level. |
| B．The local creatures’ living ability had increased. |
| C．The greening area of the park was well protected. |
| D．The ecological balance of the park was destroyed. |
| A．Each animal has its own unique charm. |
| B．The ecosystem has strong ability to repair itself. |
| C．Proper measures can make the damaged ecosystem recover. |
| D．The balance of the ecosystem has a great influence on humans. |
| A．They are badly in need of enough living space. |
| B．Increasing their population is challenging work. |
| C．Their living conditions are well shown in Lion King. |
| D．A lot of money has been spent to build protected areas for them. |
1. 活动目的；
2. 活动内容；
3. 注意事项。
注意：1 .写作词数80左右；
2. 请按格式要求在答题卡位置作答。
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8 . In the old days, when you had to drive to a movie theater to get some entertainment, it was easy to see how your actions could have an impact (影响)on the environment. After all, you were jumping into your car, driving across town, coughing out emissions (产生排放)and using gas all the way. But now that we’re used to staying at home and streaming movies, we might get a little proud. After all, we’re just picking up our phones and maybe turning on the TV. You’re welcome. Mother Nature.
Not so fast, says a recent report from the French-based Shift Project. According to “Climate Crisis: The Unsustainable Use of Online Video”, digital technologies are responsible for 4% of greenhouse gas emissions, and that energy use is increasing by 9% a year. Watching a half-hour show would cause 3.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s like driving 3.9 miles. And in the European Union, the Eureca project found that data centers (where videos are stored)there used 25% more energy in 2017 compared to just three years earlier, reports the BBC.
Streaming is only expected to increase as we become crazier about our digital devices (设备)and the possibility of enjoying entertainment where and when we want it increases. Online video use is expected to increase by four times from 2017 to 2022 and account for 80% of all Internet traffic by 2022. By then, about 60% of the world’s population will be online.
You’re probably not going to give up your streaming services, but there’re things you can do to help lessen the impact of your online use, experts say. For example, according to Lutz Stobbe, a researcher from the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin, we have no need to upload 25 pictures of the same thing to the cloud because it consumes energy every time. If instead you delete a few things here and there, you can save energy. Moreover, it’s also a good idea to stream over Wi-Fi, watch on the smallest screen you can, and turn off your Wi-Fi in your home if you’re not using your devices.
1. What topic is the first paragraph intended to lead in?| A．The environmental effects of driving private cars. |
| B．The improvements on environmental awareness. |
| C．The change in the way people seek entertainment. |
| D．The environmental impacts of streaming services. |
| A．3.9 miles drive may produce 3.5 pounds of CO2 |
| B．digital technologies account for 4% of electricity use |
| C．online video use makes up 80% of all internet traffic |
| D．60% of the world’s population watch videos online now |
| A．It is being reduced to protect the planet. |
| B．Its environmental effects are worsening. |
| C．It is easily available to almost everyone. |
| D．Its side effects have drawn global attention. |
| A．Watching downloaded movies on a mobile phone. |
| B．Downloading music on a personal computer. |
| C．Uploading a lot of images of the same thing. |
| D．Playing online games over mobile networks. |
1. 野生动物被掠杀的现状和后果；2.保护野生动物的具体措施。
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Saihanba National Forest Park, located in northern China’s Hebei Province, was once a royal summer retreat (避暑地) thanks to its
The expansion of the desert led to Beijing
Up to now -- after a great many years of efforts by three generations of experts, Saihanba
