1 . Going on holiday doesn’t have to be bad for the environment, and there are still plenty of ways you can have a much-deserved break without harming the environment.
Forget planes. While most forms of transport produce carbon dioxide, planes have a massive carbon footprint because of the huge number of miles they travel.
Pack with care.
Buy gifts responsibly.Bringing back gifts for friends and loved ones is part of the fun of a holiday.
| A．Think about green accommodation. |
| B．Consider living in an eco-friendly hotel. |
| C．But make sure you choose items carefully. |
| D．Take brand-name beauty and bath products with you. |
| E．It’s also acceptable to live in a hotel using new energy. |
| F．So why not skip flying in favor of a holiday closer to home? |
| G．So why do planes consume so much fuel compared with other transport? |
2 . Coming upon a clear - cut in an old forest is a shocking experience. Tees large and small are collapsed one above the other in pile, and the ground is covered with the tracks of heavy machinery. Such was the scene when forest activist Zack Porter and I hiked a newly built logging (伐木) road in Green Mountain National Forest.
Clear - cutting in the American forests has long been widespread. But now, the Forest Habitat Creation Project represents new reasoning which is hotly debated - that clear - cutting benefits native creatures. The thinking is that clear - cutting done wisely can mimic natural disturbances, for example, from insect invasions or from storms overturning older trees that produce what ecologists call Early Successional Habitats - places where young trees and bushes get the upper hand and animals that depend on such habitat thrive.
The project also states that forests “can only be saved by being destroyed” - by keeping them young. Timber (木材) interests are enthusiastic about the approach because it lets them profit from cutting trees while claiming the significance of conservation. Hunting groups favor it because a younger, less thick forest makes it easier to find the game and birds they're tracking.
Nevertheless, Porter says, “Allowing some of the oldest standing trees in New England to be removed is equal to dereliction of duty on the part of the government, who sees the forests as commodities (商品).” “Forests can produce clean water, clean air, carbon storage, and biodiversity that we need,” he continues as we walk among lovely mixed hardwoods and evergreens that are cut down for logging. “We shouldn't be removing them for short - term gain.”
In this sense, Zack Porter's description of logging for wildlife for short - term gain - the short - term gain of favoring habitat for species people today want to see and hunt - is reasonable.
1. How does the author start the text?| A．By presenting some ideas. | B．By listing some evidence. |
| C．By comparing different views. | D．By stating his own experience. |
| A．Profits can be made from logging. |
| B．Clear - cutting is beneficial to the wildlife. |
| C．The conservation of forest is of significance. |
| D．Clear - cutting can cause natural disturbances. |
| A．Fulfillment. | B．Promise. | C．Misconduct. | D．Exposure. |
| A．A New Approach to Forest Protection |
| B．A Hiking Experience in the Logging Road |
| C．How to Build Early Successional Habitats? |
| D．Is Clear - cutting Forests Good for Wildlife? |
3 . “What if we treat the ocean as if our lives depend on it? Or, what if we don’t?” World-famous marine biologist Sylvia Earle poses her famous “what if” questions to inspire people to reflect on how they can help save the ocean. In 1998, Time magazine named Earle its first “Hero for the Planet.”
Earle’s move to Florida’s west coast at age 12 is what started a lifelong passion. She says, “That’s where I first fell in love with the ocean.” In 1953, using newly developed equipment, the young scientist became one of the first in her field to scuba dive (水肺潜水). Her first long-term exposure to the ocean depths came in 1970 when she led an all-female research team to study the ocean. They lived under the sea in a submersible (潜水器) for two weeks. When they returned to the surface, world-wide cheer and praise were waiting, especially for Dr. Earle.
Sylvia Earle’s career includes many firsts. In 1979 she became the first woman to walk the ocean floor 381 meters below the surface. In 1990, she became the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Through the years, Earle has spent roughly 7,500 hours underwater. During that time, she has become increasingly alarmed by the significant changes she has observed.
The famous scientist fears that the ocean is dying. Climate change, overfishing, the dumping of trash and chemicals and oil spills are just some of the many causes. In order to tackle the problem, Earle formed Mission Blue in 2009. This organization promotes the legal protection and conservation of the world’s oceans. Her plan is to develop “Hope Spots,” protected areas large enough to reverse (逆转) damage and restore the ocean.
1. Why does Sylvia Earle put forward “what if” questions?| A．To call on people to protect the ocean. |
| B．To stress our dependence on the ocean. |
| C．To criticize people’s damage to the ocean. |
| D．To contribute an article to Time magazine. |
| A．She moved to Florida to learn diving. |
| B．She was the best in scuba diving. |
| C．She did not get much attention in 1970. |
| D．She became a chief scientist of NOAA in 1990. |
| A．Scientists’ fears. | B．Causes of the damage. |
| C．Efforts Earle made. | D．Bright future for the ocean. |
| A．Dr. Sylvia Earle — A Lover of Diving |
| B．Dr. Sylvia Earle — Pioneer of the Deep |
| C．The Ocean — A place in Urgent Need of Our Care |
| D．Scuba Diving — A Fantastic Way to Learn the Ocean |
For those consuming Asian food, using chopsticks
Felix Böck, a student at the University of British Columbia, was eager to find a way to recycle wood from construction projects, and he had a particular interest in bamboo. One day he found a drawer in his friend’s house
He decided to give
Since 2016 when the company
5 . If you’re not at least a bit terrified by the climate and ecological breakdown unfolding before our eyes, you haven’t grasped the scale of the crisis. Eco-anxiety, defined as “a chronic(长期的)fear of environmental doom”, is on the rise. But redirecting this anxiety into anger and collective action might just pull humanity back from the brink.
We don’t yet know how deeply eco-anxiety affects people, but we can learn not to repeat the mistakes of long-gone societies lost to environmental collapse. Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed uncovers the common driver that led to the fall of ancient civilizations such as the Central American Mayan, the remote Pacific Easter Island, and the Mycenae: People accidentally destroyed the environmental resources on which their societies depended.
Today, we are living in a new climate and ecological age. The new normal is one that humans have never before experienced on earth, and that has occurred within a single generation. We can’t claim ignorance. Numerous scientific reports show: unprecedented(空前的)wildfires in the Arctic, heatwaves annually breaking records, the Amazon shrinking and drying, and species extinction rates accelerating. Nature’s dangerous decline is unprecedented.
So, it’s not surprising that eco-anxiety is on the rise. Anxiety is often a private emotional state: We feel alone, stuck inside our own heads, and our emotions stop us from doing the things we want. But anger, directed appropriately, can fuel powerful collective action for change.
We are on a pathway to destroy the global conditions for human survival. Unlike previous civilizations, we have the science and technology to understand our danger and chart a new pathway. This is a moment for all of us to channel our eco-anxiety, fear and anger into energy for change.
1. Which of the following best describes “eco-anxiety”?| A．Uncertainty about the future. | B．Anxiety about modern civilization. |
| C．Fear of changes in the living standard. | D．Worries about the destruction of nature. |
| A．To warn people to learn a lesson from the past. |
| B．To prove the importance of ancient civilizations. |
| C．To present the collapse of ancient civilizations. |
| D．To add some background information on eco-anxiety. |
| A．People lack the knowledge about nature. | B．Nature is in its most dangerous state ever. |
| C．Climate issues can’t be solved effectively. | D．People have limited access to natural resources. |
| A．Frustrated. | B．Doubtful. | C．Hopeful. | D．Concerned. |
6 .
Trees are so important that some people have made it their goal to protect them. We can call these people “tree hugger”. It describes people who support the protection of forests. Today, the term “tree hugger” describes a person who is an environmentalist.
However, calling someone a “tree hugger” is not always seen as a praise.
Some tree huggers do go to extremes to protect trees. Take, for example, an American woman named Julia Lorraine Hill. For 738 days from December 10, 1997 and December 18, 1999, Hill lived in Luna, a Redwood tree in northern California’s Humboldt County. Luna is huge, measuring nearly 61 meters tall and about 12 meters across, which has stood in Humboldt County for more than 1,000 years.
| A．Trees give so much to the world. |
| B．Human beings should all protect trees. |
| C．In earlier times, in fact, it was used as an insult(辱骂). |
| D．And I’m sure that she would consider that the highest of praises. |
| E．They want to protect nature and the environment - but not just the trees. |
| F．Nowadays, the environmental problems are more serious than in the history. |
| G．But that did not stop the Pacific Lumber Company from wanting to cut it down. |
7 . Kenya has been at the forefront of the global war on plastic since 2017, when officials outlawed plastic bags. In 2020, the government raised the demand with a ban on single-use plastics. Unfortunately, tons of industrial and consumer plastic waste continue to get poured into landfills daily. However, if 29-year-old Nzambi Matee has her way, the unsightly plastic garbage mountain will soon be transformed into colorful bricks.
The materials engineer’s search for an effective solution to controlling plastic pollution began in 2017, when she set up a small lab in her backyard. It took her nine months to produce the first brick and even longer to convince a partner to help build the machinery to make them.
She says, “I wanted to use my education in applied physics and materials engineering to do something about plastic waste pollution. But I was very clear the solution had to be practical, sustainable and affordable. The best way to do this was by channeling the waste into the construction space and finding the most efficient and affordable material to build homes.”
Her company, Gjenge Makers, now hires 112 people and produces over 1,500 bricks a day, which are made using a mix of plastic products that can’t be reprocessed or recycled. The collected plastic is obtained directly from factories or picked by hired locals from landfills and mixed with sand, heated at very high temperatures, and compressed (压缩) into bricks that vary in color and thickness. The resulting product is stronger, lighter, and about 30 percent cheaper than traditional concrete (混凝土) bricks. Most importantly, it helps repurpose the lowest quality of plastic.
Matee, recognized as one of the Young Champions of the Earth 2020 — the United Nations’ highest environmental honor — is far from done. Her dream is to reduce rubbish by increasing production and expanding her offerings. She says, “The more we recycle plastic, the more we produce affordable housing…the more we create more employment for the youth.”
1. Which word best describes Kenyan government’s measures against plastic?| A．Temporary. | B．Effective. | C．Fruitless. | D．Unreliable. |
| A．She turns knowledge into actual products. |
| B．Her company’s funded by the government. |
| C．She produces brick-making machinery herself. |
| D．Her bricks are made from recyclable plastic waste. |
| A．Its low cost. | B．Its wide range of uses. |
| C．Its economic benefit. | D．Its environmental value. |
| A．Matee’s achievement. |
| B．Matee’s greater ambition. |
| C．Multiple challenges Matee faces. |
| D．Innovative solutions to plastic waste. |
8 . Amphibian (两栖动物) species are disappearing at an alarming rate across the globe due to habitat loss, pollution, and disease. FrogWatch trainings cover the importance of amphibians in the environment, how monitoring our local frog population helps to protect them, factors to consider in choosing a site to monitor, how to identify frog species by their calls and how to report findings to FrogWatch USA. Become a citizen scientist with FrogWatch USA, and help save our frogs!
Date: Saturday, June 4, 1:00 p.m.—3:00 p.m.
Price: $10household (includes up to 2 adults and 2 children age 8+)
Training instruction:
FrogWatch trainings cover the importance of amphibians in the environment. The instruction focuses on how to:
1. monitor our local frog population to protect the species;
2. determine factors when choosing a site to monitor;
3. recognize frog species by their calls;
4. report findings to FrogWatch USA.
After passing a test on identifying frog calls at the end of the training, certified volunteers then commit themselves to monitoring a local amphibian habitat (such as a pond or lake) approximately once a week for about 15 minutes, and collecting /submitting data on what they hear. Data collected will be added to a national FrogWatch USA database. In 2020, Rhode Island FrogWatch citizen scientists followed 80 sites almost 900 times! In those 900 observations, FrogWatchers, heard more than 1,220 frog choruses.
Questions: Contact Programs@rwpzoo.org or call (401)785-3510 ext. 358.
Please note: FrogWatch trainings will cover a large amount of information and protocols (规程). While FrogWatching is a great after-dark family activity for all ages, the trainings are designed for interested older children and adults.
1. How can you tell frog species apart?
| A．By their colors. | B．By their shapes. | C．By their voices. | D．By their sizes. |
| A．To collect data about frogs. | B．To set up a database for frogs. |
| C．To take a test on frog knowledge. | D．To guard frog habitats once a week. |
| A．Frogs need to be watched by a family. |
| B．It is dangerous to watch frogs at night. |
| C．Small children aren’t suitable for trainings. |
| D．People have to take notes about frog information. |
9 . The African penguin lives on St. Croix island off the east coast of South Africa. A new study has found that they are leaving their natural environment to escape noisy ship refueling (补给燃料) activities.
The African penguins once mainly raised babies on this island. But the population has dropped sharply since South Africa started permitting ships in the area to refuel at sea six years ago, the study found.
Lorien Pichegru is acting director of the Coastal and Marine Research Institute at Nelson Mandela University, which led the study. She said the organization had found that noise levels in the area had doubled since the refueling activities began. Scientists say high noise levels affect the ability of penguins to find and catch other animals for food. Noise also makes it more difficult for them to communicate with each other and map travel paths. “This year we are at 1,200 breeding pairs at St Croix from 8,500 pairs in 2016,” Pichegru said.
The study recently appeared in the publication Science of the Total Environment. The researchers said the study is the first to explore the effects of ocean traffic noise pollution on a seabird.
Nelson Mandela University’s study collected some data to estimate underwater noise from passing ships. Oil-covered penguins were found in 2019 in Algoa Bay after an oil spill from ship-to-ship refueling. Environmental groups have called for the activities to be banned in the bay.
Pichegru said penguins in the area were already struggling to survive because of a series of issues, including industrial fishing activities. She added that the refueling activities did not kill all the penguins. However, “It was just the thing that made the whole ecology tip over and then the penguins couldn’t cope with that,” she said.
1. What has the new study found about penguins?| A．They have difficulty in raising babies. | B．They can get used to noisy ships easily. |
| C．Their population is on the increase. | D．They are forced to leave the natural environment. |
| A．The value of Lorien Pichegru’s job. | B．The importance of ship refueling activities. |
| C．The ability of Penguins to find food. | D．Bad effects of noises on Penguins. |
| A．The penguins should be put in control. |
| B．Fishing activities should be greatly encouraged. |
| C．Refueling activities should be strictly managed. |
| D．The penguins should develop their survival abilities. |
| A．A diary. | B．A guidebook. | C．A textbook. | D．A magazine. |
10 . Environmental pollution and other human activities are leading to thousands of deaths among seabirds, a new study has warned.
Ecological experts tracked the behavior of British and Irish seabirds. They used satellites to track hundreds of the creatures to find out where they went to catch fish at sea. The study can help assess potential impact from human activities and where protected areas of the seas should be.
Lightweight GPS tags were fitted to more than 1,300 adult birds from 29 different colonies around the UK and Ireland, including kittiwakes, shags, razorbills and guillemots. Results from the five-year study show the large areas of sea the four seabird species use. They found it was at least 600,000 square miles, an area three times the size of Spain. It shows how far they travel from their nests in search of food for their chicks. And it shows the use of the seas by all four species concentrated in the coastal waters of Scotland, highlighting the importance of conservation measures there.
The four species studied require conservation help, with kittiwake numbers declining 71 percent in the past 25 years and shag populations down 61 percent. This means both seabirds are "red listed" and need urgent protection. Razorbills and guillemots are "amber listed", which means they are considered to need conservation action.
Dr. Ewan, lead author of the research, said, “Many seabirds are at the top of the marine food web. They feed on some small fish but that prey is declining because of human pressures, including climate change. The result is that thousands of sea baby birds are dying each year because their parents can't feed them. For the first time, this study provides us with a full map for the feeding areas for some of our most important seabird species.”
The analysis provides critical data to inform marine management, the experts said.
1. Which is one of the purpose of the study?| A．To find out where to catch more fish. |
| B．To judge which sea should be protected. |
| C．To know the seabirds’ impacts on human beings. |
| D．To study the behaviour of British and Irish seabirds. |
| A．With the help of satellites. | B．With help of the fishermen. |
| C．By observing human activities. | D．By tying GPS tags on the ship. |
| A．France. | B．Ireland. | C．Spain. | D．Scotland. |
| A．Puzzled. | B．Doubtful. | C．Positive. | D．Disappointed. |
