Our world has been greatly affected by global warming and it is critical (关键的) that people, young and old, join hands to fight it. Most
It is believed that the nation should ask schools
Too many people think that global warming is not a threat, but it is one of our
Green living and green schools are part of
2 . To solve a big environmental problem, chemists have been thinking small. Really small: a new mini robot with the purpose of helping clean up tiny plastic polluting water across the globe.
The new microrobots, each of which is no bigger than the tip of a pencil, are magnetic (磁性的) and shaped like four-pointed stars. When the sunlight shines on them, they can swim in a specific direction; when the sunlight disappears, they stop moving. Finding a piece of plastic, they hold onto it, produce chemical reactions and start to break it down.
The project is led by chemist Martin Pumera, a researcher who also studies ways to build microrobots at the Czech University in Prague. About ten years ago, he noticed the microplastic was everywhere, from the bottom of the ocean to the ice on the top of mountains. It even turned up in drinking water, both bottled and tap water. Just think about how much plastic you encounter every day. It doesn’t easily degrade (降解), which is a big problem. Therefore, Pumera chose to focus on the problem of water pollution caused by microplastic.
The researchers tested the microrobots on four types of plastic in the lab. After a week, all four began degrading, losing between 0. 5 and 3 percent of their weight, which indicated they were breaking down. The robots also turned the plastic’s smooth surface into rough. Finally, they could be collected for reuse along with the plastic waste without causing new pollution.
In fact, Pumera says they still have a long way to go. These microrobots are unlikely to succeed in degrading all types of plastics. They’ll also need a lot of testing to show that they’re safe in open waterways, such as at sea. But he thinks that these challenges can be overcome. Someday, the microrobots will play a big role in a worldwide cleanup effort.
1. What can be learned about the new microrobot?| A．It is of a round shape. | B．It is as small as a pencil. |
| C．It is driven by sunlight. | D．It uses physical reaction. |
| A．The ice on the mountains. | B．Secrets of the ocean bottom. |
| C．The lack of drinking water. | D．The microplastic pollution. |
| A．Collecting it for reuse. | B．Making its surface smooth. |
| C．Absorbing it completely. | D．Breaking it down to some extent. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Confident. |
| C．Regretful. | D．Critical. |
3 . Scientists visiting tiny Henderson Island in the South Pacific recently made an alarming discovery. Although it is one of the most remote places on the earth and previously untouched by humans, the island was covered in plastic waste. They calculated there were 38 million pieces of plastic, weighing almost 18 tons, with thousands of new pieces washing up each day. “No country has a free pass-we found plastic from everywhere,” said one scientist. “We all have a responsibility, and we have to sit up and pay attention. This is not an issue to ignore. We need to do something now to protect the sea.”
Plastic waste in the sea has long been known about, but only now are we discovering the true extent of the problem. Plastic takes hundreds of years to decompose, so all the plastic ever produced still exists somewhere. Around 95% of plastics made are not recycled, and large amounts enter the sea. Currents collect this waste in large circular systems called “gyres”. One of the largest is in the Pacific Ocean, an area now known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”.
The problem gets worse as plastic breaks down into very small pieces, or “micro plastic”. This is eaten by fish and leads to massive species loss. Humans also eat these fish, and micro plastic has even been found in tap water around the world. The problem has spread too far to ignore. The plastic on Henderson Island accounts for just 2 seconds’ worth of global annual plastic production. That production will more than triple by 2050. Then there will be the same weight of plastic in the sea as fish.
However, there are some young minds working to clean up and protect the sea for future generations. While diving in Greece, young Boyan Slat noticed there was more plastic waste than fish. He decided right then to dedicate his life to solving this problem. Previously the problem was considered too big to solve; collecting the plastic with boats and nets would be expensive, would harm sea life, and would take thousands of years! But, Boyan thought, why move through the sea when the sea can move through you? To work with the currents and gyres would help collect the waste. So he started The Ocean Cleanup project, which places very long floating barriers in the Pacific. Currents then concentrate the waste naturally so it can be collected and recycled. He hopes to reduce the patch by 50% in just five years.
“Many problems today are side effects of things people didn’t think about in the past”, he says. Sea plastic is a symbol of the negative effects of our lifestyle and technology. Our aim should be to create a new lifestyle for this century. Protecting the sea from plastic is a good place to start.
1. What alarming discovery did the scientists make?| A．They discovered a tiny island in the South Pacific Ocean. |
| B．They discovered there was plastic everywhere on Henderson Island. |
| C．They discovered that there was no human beings on Henderson Island. |
| D．They discovered Henderson Island was the most remote place in the world. |
| A．Micro plastic is merely harmful to the fish in the sea. |
| B．Not all the countries have to face the problem of plastic trash. |
| C．Nowadays there is the same weight of plastic in the sea as fish. |
| D．Most plastics made are not recycled, and large amounts enter the sea. |
| A．How the Ocean Cleanup project works. |
| B．The problem of plastic cleanup is too big to tackle. |
| C．Let the sea itself decompose the plastic waste naturally. |
| D．Collecting plastic with boats and nets would be a good way. |
| A．Considerate and straightforward. | B．Intelligent and responsible. |
| C．Knowledgeable and sensitive. | D．Devoted and courageous. |
4 . If you live in one of the 40 million American households with a gas stove, it could be leaking even when it’s turned off.
According to a new study from Stanford scientists, many stoves are constantly giving out gases that can warm the planet and pose serious health risks when breathed in. The research found methane missions from gas stoves across the United States are roughly equal to the carbon dioxide released by half a million gas-powered cars in a year.
To estimate the impact of these emissions, researchers measured three key gases from stoves in 53 homes across seven California counties. The team chose two gases — methane and carbon dioxide — because of their contribution to climate change, and selected nitrogen oxides because of their known risk to human health. The scientists set up plastic dividing walls between the kitchens and other rooms and used instruments that measure wavelengths of light to determine the concentration of certain gases.
The team estimated that stoves release between 0.8 and 1.3 percent of the natural gas they consume as unburned methane. To their surprise, they found that more than three-quarters of the methane emissions happened when both old and new gas stoves were turned off. “Over a 20-year time scale, the global warming potential of methane leaks is 86 times greater than carbon dioxide,” Stanford reports.
The most significant health risks happen when the stove is lit, the authors note, because the process creates nitrogen dioxide as a byproduct. Increasing airflow by using a range hood can help reduce the personal health risk of natural gas-burning appliances, but most individuals report rarely using their ventilation system.
In a small kitchen, it only took a few minutes of unventilated stove use to generate emissions levels above national health standards. According to a meta-analysis from 2013, children living in homes with gas stoves were 42 percent more likely to experience symptoms associated with asthma, and 24 percent more likely to be diagnosed with lifetime asthma.
In addition to health risks, natural gas burning stoves also endanger the planet by releasing methane. The results of the study have furled efforts by scientists and activists to encourage Americans to switch to all-electric stoves and appliances.
1. Which gas leaking from stoves warms the earth most?| A．Methane. | B．Carbon dioxide. | C．Nitrogen oxide. | D．Nitrogen dioxide. |
| A．The measuring instruments. | B．The American families. |
| C．The team members. | D．The gas stoves. |
| A．When it is old. | B．When it is new. |
| C．When it is turned on. | D．When it is turned off. |
| A．Equip kitchens. | B．Switch to clean fuels. |
| C．Use sustainable energy. | D．Purchase electric stoves. |
5 . Jeremiad Oleita thinks she may have a partial solution for two of our country’s persistent problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. The 26-year-old student and environmentalist from Detroit is asking a favor of local snack lovers: Rather than throw your empty chip bags into the rubbish, donate them so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the homeless.
Chip eaters drop off their empty bags at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store, where Oleita and her volunteer helpers collect them. After they clean the chip bags in soapy hot water, they slice them open, ay them flat, and iron them together. They use liners from old coats to line the insides.
It takes about four hours to sew a sleeping bag，and each takes around 150 to 300 chip bags, depending on whether they’re single—serve or family size. The result is a sleeping bag that is “waterproof, lightweight, and easy to carry around,” Oleita told the Detroit News.
Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has collected more than 800, 000 chip bags and, as of last December, created 110 sleeping bags.
Sure, it would be simpler to raise money to buy new sleeping bags. But that’s only half the goal for Oleita—whose family moved to the United States from Nigeria a decade ago with the hope of attaining a better life—and her fellow volunteers. “We are dedicated to making an impact not only socially, but environmentally,” she says.
As Oleita said, “There’s the symbolism of using bags that would otherwise land in the rubbish and using them to help the homeless. It’s a powerful reminder that environmental injustice and poverty often go hand in hand. ”
1. Why did Oleita start the Chip Bag Project?| A．To sell sleeping bags for the poor. | B．To raise money for the homeless. |
| C．To return a favor to chip eaters. | D．To solve garbage and poverty problems. |
| A．They are washed. | B．They are sliced. |
| C．They are ironed. | D．They are sewed. |
| A．She is seriously attractive. | B．She is heavily independent. |
| C．She is socially responsible. | D．She is financially successful. |
| A．They are easy to solve. | B．They remind us of injustice. |
| C．They are closely connected. | D．They are the symbols of society. |
6 . In 1960 the Aral Sea was one of the world’s largest inland water bodies, covering an area of approximately 68,000 square kilometers (26,000 square miles). By the year 2000 the area covered by the Aral Sea had become less than half its 1960 size, its volume reduced by 80 percent. By about 2010 all that will remain will be three shallow remnants.
What caused the Aral Sea to evaporate over the past 40 years? As recently as 1965, the Aral Sea received about 50 cubic kilometers (12 cubic miles) of fresh water per year. By the early 1980s this number had declined to nearly zero. The reason was that the waters of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya had been diverted to supply a major expansion of irrigated agriculture in this dry realm.
The intensive irrigation has greatly increased agricultural productivity, but not without significant costs. The deltas of the two major rivers have lost their wetlands, and wildlife has disappeared. The once thriving fishing industry has been eliminated, and the 24 species of fish that once inhabited the Aral Sea are no longer there. The shoreline is now tens of kilometers from the towns that were once fishing centers.
The shrinking sea has exposed millions of acres of former seabed to sun and wind. The surface is covered with salt and agrochemicals brought by the rivers. Strong winds routinely pick up thousands of tons of newly exposed materials every year and deposit them throughout the region. This process has not only contributed to a significant reduction in air quality for the region’s population, but has also appreciably reduced crop yields due to the deposits of salt-rich sediments on farmable land.
The shrinking Aral Sea has had a noticeable impact on climate. Without the moderating effect of a large water body, there are greater extremes of temperature, a shorter growing season, and reduced local precipitation. These changes have caused many farms to switch from growing cotton to growing rice, which demands even more diverted water.
1. Why have crop yields been reduced on the land surrounding the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya?| A．The Aral Sea no longer provides the land with fresh water for irrigation. |
| B．The farmers have stopped using chemical fertilizers. |
| C．The salt content of the soil has increased. |
| D．Erosion due to wind has increased. |
| A．forcefully |
| B．necessarily |
| C．unfortunately |
| D．regularly |
| A．Rice requires less water. |
| B．Rice is cheaper to grow. |
| C．Rice needs a shorter growing season. |
| D．Rice has less impact on climate. |
7 . In a time when climate change becomes a more pressing issue, we sometimes may fail to realize that individual contributions have a huge effect on the big problem. Fortunately, there are some apps which can help the environment with the click of a button.
Happy Cow (Free)
Buying and selling secondhand is a more responsible and environmentally friendly way to consume and part of the solution to reducing the carbon emission (碳排放) of mass production. This app helps users anywhere in the world make a little extra money from things they no longer need and moreover, how good it is to find that hidden treasure at a great price!
My Footprint (Free)
Created by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), this handy app provides you with a wealth of detail on the latest facts and information on climate change issues as well as enabling you to track your carbon footprint and see how different areas of your life contribute to this. With this knowledge, you can then take part in challenges of your choice to help reduce your footprint.
Too Good To Go (Free)
With the aim of reducing the masses of food waste from shops and restaurants, this app helps to connect users with local businesses that have unsold produce to be collected for a small part of the cost. The app is the most direct way for you to get involved-all you have to do is search, place your order and go to pick it up!
Good On You ($ 2.99)
This app is a must-have that gives you the power to check the influence of brands (品牌) on issues that mean most to you. With more than 3,000 brands currently listed, and the option to request others to be added in time, this is a handy source of environment-friendly shopping information.
1. Which app can record the environmental impact of your daily life?| A．Happy Cow. | B．My Footprint. | C．Too Good To Go. | D．Good On You. |
| A．Collecting users’ opinions about fashion. |
| B．Providing the latest shopping information. |
| C．Recommending the most fashionable brand. |
| D．Publicizing the brands’ environmental impact. |
| A．They are free of charge. | B．They prevent food waste. |
| C．They contribute to green life. | D．They help users save money. |
8 . Portugal’s white storks (鹳) were once a migratory bird (候鸟), known to leave the area each winter to travel to Africa’s warmer climate, but recently they have been staying put.
Surprisingly, though, the storks’ number has actually been on the rise. There are now thought to be more than 14,000 birds in Portugal in winter — a ten-time increase over the last 20 years. Any unusual change of an animal’s natural behavior often has negative influences.
It has been thought that their increase has a close relationship with a growing number of landfill sites (垃圾填埋场) in the area, providing the birds with a supply of fatty and dirty rubbish to eat, including junk food. Was it the junk food that stopped them migrating, or is Europe’s warming climate to criticize? Researchers sought to figure out exactly why their natural behavior had changed in this way. To understand, a team kept an eye on 48 white storks by equipping them with small GPS computers, which recorded their movements five times a day, checking how often they traveled to landfill sites as well as how fast they flew.
The conclusions were shocking. The birds also established more homes next to landfill sites — the team said that 80% of white storks were spending most of their time by the rubbish all year round, according to the results. The storks eat almost anything. “Every time after a truck with rubbish came, they collected what they could,” says Aldina Franco of the University of East Anglia in the UK. The storks have even been known to eat plastic, including old computer parts. “Really what they are trying to get at is rubbish that we throw away... like hamburgers, burnt meat and fish,” said Franco.
This rich and colorful supply of food will soon become hard to find, though, as new laws from European Union (EU) order that waste food be recycled. Open-air landfills will also be replaced by covered equipment, which birds will not be able to eat.
The white storks therefore face an uncertain future. Will they migrate to Africa as they had done for hundreds of years before, or will they stay put? No one knows. “I wonder what the Portuguese storks will do once the landfill sites are all closed, and we are going to continue to watch these storks and see how they will respond to the changes,” said Aldina Franco.
1. What do you know about the team’s research?| A．Researchers equipped 48 small computers on white storks. |
| B．The GPS computers were used to record white storks’ movements. |
| C．The conclusions the team got were the same as they predicted. |
| D．Researchers found Europe’s warming climate accounted for storks’ staying put. |
| A．The landfill made the storks lose their homes. |
| B．The landfill helped increase the number of storks. |
| C．Open-air landfills will be replaced and storks will die out. |
| D．The landfill gave the storks food and in turn, influenced where they lived. |
| A．He will continue to do research on white storks. |
| B．The Portuguese storks can eat whatever we throw away. |
| C．People should prepare more healthy food for white storks. |
| D．White storks will migrate to Africa if the landfill sites are closed. |
| A．White Stork Will Migrate Again After Rubbish Is Recycled |
| B．White Storks’ Staying Put Contributed to Rubbish Recycling |
| C．White Storks’ Staying Put in Winter Concerned Scientists |
| D．Climate Change will Be the Test for White Storks’ Migration |
9 . Which is better for Earth: an electric or gas-powered vehicle? The answer to this question might seem blindingly obvious: Of course electric cars must be better for the environment, because they don’t give off greenhouse gases as people drive. However, electric vehicles (EVs) aren’t perfect, and they come with their own set of polluting problems. Their batteries require a large amount of energy to produce.
Battery production is just one part of an electric car’s life span. A study looked at the entire life cycle of an EV’s emissions (排放), from mining the metals for the batteries to producing the electricity needed to power them, and then compared this with the average emissions of a gas-powered vehicle. The team found that when EVs are charged with coal-powered electricity, they’re actually worse for the environment than gas-powered cars.
“Only when connected to the dirtiest, coal-heavy electric grids (电网) do gas-powered cars become comparable to EVs on a greenhouse gas basis,” said Colin Sheppard, an expert in energy and transportation systems. That’s why more and more countries are decreasing the power supply from coal. In China, the national grid is improving with more investments in renewable energy. For example, it has twice as much wind energy capacity as the U.S. and it builds more solar panels per year than any other countries.
Sheppard modelled a future in which all cars were electric. “We wanted to understand what it might be like if all passenger vehicles are electrified.” For example, Sheppard calculated that if all vehicles in the U.S. were electric, it would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 46% every year. This reduction could be increased even further if those vehicles were using a technique known as “smart charging” in which cars are recharged at chosen times (often at night) to reduce the cost of electricity.
In short, it’s far easier to argue in favor of buying an EV than a gas-powered vehicle. But what about the cost? Aren’t electric vehicles too expensive for most people?
1. In which case do EVs get more heavy-polluted than gas-powered cars?| A．Being powered only by batteries. | B．Consuming coal-powered electricity. |
| C．Starting to give off greenhouse gases. | D．Replacing gas-powered vehicles entirely. |
| A．Renewable energy. | B．Electric vehicles. | C．Coal-powered supply. | D．Public transport. |
| A．With a discussion. | B．With an examination. | C．With a calculation. | D．With a questionaire. |
| A．Inventing green gas-powered vehicles. | B．Developing environment-friendly grids. |
| C．Making electric vehicles more affordable. | D．Getting rid of fossil energy like coal and oil. |
10 . A method to transform a commonly thrown-away plastic to a resin (树脂) used in 3D printing could allow for making better use of plastic waste. A team of Washington State University researchers developed a simple and efficient way to transform polylactic acid (PLA)(聚乳酸), a bio-based plastic used in products such as filament, plastic silverware and food packaging to a high-quality resin.
“We found a way to immediately turn this into something that’s stronger and better, and we hope that will provide people the inspiration to upcycle this stuff instead of just throw it away,” said Yu-Chung Chang, a postdoctoral researcher in the WSU School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a co-corresponding author on the work. “We made stronger materials just straight out of trash. We believe this could be a great opportunity.”
Although it’s bio-based, PLA, which is categorized as a number 7 plastic, doesn’t break down easily. It can float in fresh or salt water for a year without degrading (降解). It is also rarely recycled because like many plastics, when it’s melted down and re-formed, it doesn’t perform as well as the original version and becomes less valuable.
“It’s biodegradable and compostable, but once you look into it, it turns out that it can take up to 100 years for it to rot away in a landfill,” Chang said. “In reality, it still creates a lot of pollution. We want to make sure that when we do start producing PLA on the milliontons scale, we will know how to deal with it.”
While the researchers focused on PLA for the study, they hope to apply the work to poly-ethylene terephthalate (PET) (涤纶树脂), which is more common than PLA and has a similar chemical structure and presents a bigger waste problem. They have filed a temporary patent and are working to further optimize (优化) the process. The researchers are also looking into other applications for the upcycling method.
1. What can the method help do according to paragraph 1?| A．Solve financial crisis. | B．Change waste into wealth. |
| C．Control plastic production. | D．Determine 3D printing skills. |
| A．Promising. | B．Unrealistic. | C．Imaginable. | D．Reliable. |
| A．Invaluable to recycle. | B．Easy to deal with. |
| C．Hard to break down. | D．Difficult to sort out. |
| A．Applications for an upcylcing method. |
| B．A better method to break down plastic. |
| C．3D printing with newly found materials. |
| D．A new way to turn plastic into valuable products. |
