1 . Ecofriendly replacement products for single-use plastics are appearing everywhere. But have you heard of edible (可食性的) straws? Now EQUO, a new eco-friendly company in Vietnam has come up with a natural edible solution to plastic or paper straws.
The edible straws are completely plastic free, nontoxic, chemical free, and 100 percent biodegradable according to a company press release.
“It’s well known that plastic straws are harmful to the environment. Most of the 500 million used every day in America end up in oceans where they pollute water and harm marine life. Currently over eight billion straws pollute the world’s beaches,” said Marina Tran-Vu in the press release. “Although there are some plastic and paper straw alternatives on the market, most are environmentally harmful, and we were also unsatisfied with the quality and lasting of paper straws.”
All of the materials are locally from regions that support sustainable farming according to the company’s website and they struggle to have zero-net influence by” using the power of mother nature”. The name of the company was created by combining “ECO” — meaning environmentally friendly — with “STATUS QUO” — meaning the existent state. EQU stands for creating products that have minimal influence on the environment. The company was first shown on Kickstarter on May 18 and hit their funding goal in only 30 days.
Many countries are banning single-use plastics. The EU banned 10 single-use plastic products including straws that will take effect in 2021. Other items that will no longer be made of plastic include cutlery (餐具), and balloon sticks. These 10 items make up a large percentage of ocean waste that harms marine life.
So do your part, use biodegradable cutlery — you can carry your own , edible straws, and reusable water or coffee cups. These small items can contribute to reducing plastic waste.
1. What is the third paragraph mainly about?| A．The popularity of plastic straws. |
| B．The harm of plastic straws. |
| C．The pollution of beaches. |
| D．The necessity of change. |
| A．It means the original aim. |
| B．It means the existent state. |
| C．It means how to create products. |
| D．It means being good for the environment. |
| A．Plastic straws will be forbidden. |
| B．Edible straws will be sold cheaply. |
| C．Ocean waste can be rid completely. |
| D．Single-use plastic products will disappear. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. | C．Tolerant. | D．Approving. |
2 . On a sunny afternoon in Dania Beach, a dozen scientist’s unloaded containers full of corals from a dive boat. They gently removed each piece from large tanks on the deck and placed them inside smaller containers, which were slowly taken onshore.
The operation is part of what scientists describe as a “Noah’s Ark(诺亚方舟)” mission to save corals from extinction as a mysterious disease damages mile after mile of the Florida Reef Tract. Since first being spotted in 2014, the disease has killed colonies already weakened by impacts from climate change, including frequent rounds of bleaching(漂泊).
During one trip, researchers spent six days diving in the Lower Keys to collect corals that haven’t yet been touched by a certain disease. Their mission, as the “Ark” reference suggests, is to preserve healthy examples of species that can be raised in labs, then later transplanted back to the barrier reef that parallels much of the Southeast Florida coastline.
“It’s a tough effort, but we need to do everything we can to help corals survive,” said Richard Dodge from Nova South eastern University’s [(NSU)] Halmos College, as he watched university staff and volunteers place the 341 corals in holding tanks on the university dock across from Port Everglades.
NSU is one of seven research facilities that will act as temporary hosts for samples collected for what is formally known as the Coral Rescue Collection Plan, part of an ambitious program led by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. NSU researchers will collect data on the species, then send them to other universities and zoos across the country, where they will be used to grow new colonies—seed stock for potential restoration efforts in the future.
1. What’s the best title for the passage?| A．Noah’s Ark mission | B．Corals are endangering |
| C．Corals are put in containers | D．Fight to preserve the corals |
| A．To emphasize it was very serious to corals. |
| B．To show few cared about its existence. |
| C．To appeal for international cooperation. |
| D．To state it was involved with climate change. |
| A．They conducted research on the spot. |
| B．They found it tough to collect corals. |
| C．They collected healthy corals. |
| D．They desired to get close to corals. |
| A．Culture. | B．Economy. | C．Entertainment. | D．Environment. |
3 . Princess Louisa Inlet, a fjord (峡湾) lying 60 miles from Vancouver, Canada, is a spectacular stretch of remote wilderness. Accessible only by boat or by plane, the 3.7-mile-long area is popular with outdoor enthusiasts. Its forests are home to a wide variety of wildlife, including bears, mountain goats, and eagles. Now, thanks to a crowd-funding campaign, the land will be preserved forever for future generations to enjoy.
The chain of events began in June 2019, when three privately-owned land parcels, covering 3 miles of the waterfront and more than 2,000 acres of the inlet’s watershed, came up for sale. With several logging companies expressing interest, BC Parks Foundation knew they had to do something to save the property, which is home to millions of majestic cedar trees. Despite having “zero funds,” they agreed to acquire the land for US$ 2.3 million. Fortunately, the owners gave the nonprofit three months to come up with the money.
BC Parks Foundation CEO Andrew Day says, “We were very familiar with the beauty of the inlet and these properties in particular, and felt that it was really important to try to step in and see what we could do.” After much consideration, the nonprofit decided to reach out to the general public through a crowd-funding campaign. To their surprise and delight, money started spreading in from people worldwide.
But despite the support, on August 28, 2019 — the day of the sale deadline — the nonprofit was still short US$ 75,000. Just as the officials were losing all hope, a businessman from Vancouver stepped in with the funds. He said, “These protected areas are our crown jewels, and I think it is madness to consider letting them go for short-term economic gain when they provide much more for all the time in future. In 100 years, will future citizens look back and wish we had created more parks or cut down more wood?”
1. What do we know about Princess Louisa Inlet?| A．Very few people have visited it. |
| B．It proves inconvenient to arrive. |
| C．Wild species are abundant. |
| D．People there live a hard life. |
| A．They had a keen business mind. |
| B．They thought more about the future. |
| C．They gained the support of the owners. |
| D．They hoped to save these precious trees. |
| A．The protected areas are of great value. |
| B．He has been active in protecting wildlife. |
| C．He has suffered short-term economic gain. |
| D．Future citizens might be grateful for our actions. |
| A．Science. | B．Environment. | C．Health. | D．Travel. |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：
1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
I signed up for a competition on garbage sorting on the Monday and I participated in the first round, a written test. Though there was many candidates, I succeeded entering the final with another student from my class. Last Friday where the final was held, my classmate and I played with the participants from other four classes, and answers all of the questions accurately. Finally, we won out! We were extremely happy what we brought honor to our class. When interviewing by the school TV station after the award ceremony, I expressed my prides in protecting our environment. The competition not only broadened my knowledge on the garbage sorting and increased the awareness of environmentally protection.
Nature’s Lungs
We know that trees are nature’s purifier (净化器): They absorb carbon emissions (碳排放)and release oxygen. But their
According to the study, there are
This may sound like a lot,
Yet, planting trees is still considered the most effective way
6 . Barcelona’ s opera house has celebrated its reopening to the public since the corona-virus pandemic (新冠疫情) put the world into a huge horror, but their opening night had an unusual audience. For its first concert, the theater refused the usual crowd of people and instead packed the house with plants. Yes, that’s correct. All 2, 292 seats at the Gran Teatre Liceu were occupied by leafy green plants.
The idea was conceived by conceptual artist Eugenio Ampudia and was broadcast live on the theater’s website. These lucky ficus trees, palms, and Swiss cheese plants, which were brought in by local nurseries (苗圃), got the pleasure of hearing Puccini’s Crisantermi performed by the UceLi Quartet string musical group.
Ampudia hopes that his idea and the work will inspire people to think more deeply about their relationship with nature and the concept of sustainability (持续性). “We are at the end of an era and that means that we have to change certain patterns,” he shares. “We don’t live in the same world as 90 days ago, and this means we have to reflect on everything that we do.”
As plants can respond to different vibrations (震颤) caused by music, they certainly weren’t a passive audience, even if they weren’t able to give applause. Now that the concert is over, each plant will be given to a different frontline healthcare worker who helped guide the country through its battle with the corona-virus.
The moving concert is a continuation of the Liceu’s mission to create a dialogue between music and the visual arts. Pictures and a video of the performance taken by Ampudia will now become part of La Caixa contemporary art collection.
1. What was the special part of the concert?| A．It had only 2, 292 seats. |
| B．It made the world fall in horror. |
| C．It welcomed audience with plants to come . |
| D．It gave plants opportunities to enjoy music. |
| A．Put forward. | B．Enjoyed. | C．Hated. | D．Turned down. |
| A．We didn’t do very well in dealing with nature. |
| B．The healthcare workers were more important. |
| C．The plants should have the equal rights. |
| D．We did everything in a wrong way. |
| A．Daily Hero. | B．Teens’ Life. |
| C．Animals and Plants. | D．Art Around the World. |
7 . The world’s coral reefs do more for the planet than provide underwater beauty. They protect shorelines from the effects of hurricanes. An estimated 500 million people earn their livelihood from the fishing stocks and tourism opportunities reefs provide. The tiny animals that give rise to reefs are even offering hope for new drugs to treat cancer and other diseases.
Despite their importance, warming waters, pollution, ocean acidification, overfishing, and physical destruction are killing coral reefs around the world. So now scientists around the world are looking for all kinds of ways to protect and maybe even revive(复苏) corals. In the Bahamas, Ross Cunning, a research biologist at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, is focusing on corals with genes that could make them natural candidates for restoration projects. He recently published a study of two Bahamian reefs, one that seemed to survive an intense 2015 heat wave, and one that didn’t.“It sets the stage to find out which genes are responsible for thermal tolerance,” says Cunning, adding that he hopes discovering those genes will help scientists one day breed more heat-tolerant coral.
In Massachusetts, Cohen’s research has found two key elements that seem to protect corals. The first: internal(内部的) waves beneath the ocean’s surface that bring cooler currents to heat-struck corals, essentially air-conditioning them as temperatures rise. The second: adaptation, a quality that corals found in Palau’s warm lagoons(环礁湖) seem to display.On average, these lagoons submerge(淹没) coral in water that is two degrees Celsius warmer than the water outside the lagoons. “We think the fact that they can deal with these higher temperatures is built into their genetics and allows them to deal with the heat waves.”
She’s also found evidence of corals evolving more quickly in the past two decades to withstand rapidly warming temperatures. The big question scientists are now enquiring into, says Cohen, is whether there’s a cap on how much more heat corals can adapt to. Cohen calls these regions with heat-adapted corals as “super reefs,” and like Friendlander, advocates for using marine reserves to protect them.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The protection for coral reefs |
| B．The great value of coral reefs. |
| C．The benefits for tourism from coral reefs. |
| D．The relationship between animals and coral reefs. |
| A．Cooling down the waters is the key to their success. |
| B．Some corals have been genetically improved successfully. |
| C．He expects to identify the genes of the heat-tolerant corals. |
| D．Some corals that survived 2015 heat wave surprised people. |
| A．How corals survive in the warm lagoons. |
| B．What are the key elements to protect corals. |
| C．How they can use natural reserves to protect corals. |
| D．What is the high temperature limit of the surviving corals. |
| A．Science. | B．Environment. | C．Animal. | D．Climate. |
8 . An ancient chemical process enabled Earth to become a fertile place packed with life. Now researchers are imitating this process in an attempt to slow global warming. Every plant, animal, and person owes their life to a series of chemical reactions: photosynthesis, which turns water and carbon dioxide into food using sunlight. As benefit receivers of photosynthesis, humans depend on plants in a sort of carbon seesaw (跷跷板). Plants take in CO₂ and release O₂. We do the opposite, taking in O₂ and releasing CO₂.
This seesaw is part of the much broader carbon cycle that has affected the radiation balance of our planet. Cutting down plenty of forests and the burning of carbon-based fossil (化石) fuels cause the levels of CO₂, a major greenhouse gas, to rise. And plants on Earth along with other natural parts of the carbon cycle can’t restore the balance on their own.
But what if we could copy what plants do to seize some of that extra CO₂ to make fuels constantly, instead of relying so heavily on fossilized carbon?“ Artificial photosynthesis is a really attractive approach,” says Jillian Dempsey, a chemist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “You’re able to store the energy of the sun in the bonds of molecules (分子).”
A hydrogen device with 12.6% efficiency that Agbo recently built was less than one inch across. For artificial photosynthesis to become practical, it needs to produce enough fuels to compete with the world’s existing energy supply of relatively inexpensive and abundant fossil fuels. It will take a lot of time and money before artificial photosynthesis can compete with fossil fuels. But the needed expenses won’t come close to the social cost of climate change. A recent survey of more than 2,000 economists projected the economic damages from climate change will reach $1.7 trillion per year by 2025 and roughly $30 trillion per year by 2075. Artificial photosynthesis could inch us back toward a better balance on the planet’s carbon seesaw.
1. What is researchers’ purpose to copy photosynthesis?| A．To release some of the extra CO₂. |
| B．To reduce the cost of using fossil fuels. |
| C．To reduce the speed of global warming. |
| D．To turn water and carbon dioxide into artificial sunlight. |
| A．Plants can turn carbon dioxide into food using sunlight. |
| B．Carbon seesaw is part of the less broader carbon cycle. |
| C．Avoiding the burning of fossil fuels can help protect the environment. |
| D．Carbon seesaw makes a difference to the radiation balance of the earth. |
| A．Lack of mass production. |
| B．Its negative effect on the environment. |
| C．Disturbing the balance of the planet’s carbon seesaw. |
| D．Inability to store the energy of the sun in the bonds of molecules. |
| A．How Does the Artificial Device Works? |
| B．Wide Application of Artificial Device Is a Long Way to Run |
| C．Copying Nature to Fight Climate Change |
| D．Copying Photosynthesis to Change Society |
9 . On May 29, 1953, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay became the first people to climb to the top of the world’s tallest mountain. The following day, as the weary expedition prepared for climbing down, leader John Hunt ordered his men to dump their extra equipment. The downward climb would be exhausting. The men could not have known that Mount Everest’s trash problem had begun.
Trash on Mount Everest ?
Yes! A lot of it. About 50 tons of garbage litters the slopes. Since 1953, thousands of people have climbed the world’s tallest mountain. Many dump their trash to lighten the load. None of it decomposes(分解) in the icy conditions.
A Trail of Corpses
At least 250 people have died climbing Mount Everest. Most bodies remain on the mountain, too heavy and large for other climbers to bring down. Frozen solid and still in their climbing clothes, the bodies serve as horrible trail markers. More deaths keep coming. Mount Everest’s deadliest day to date happened in April 2014, when 16 Nepali Sherpa guides died in an avalanche of ice and snow.
Garbage Crackdown
The government of Nepal now requires each expedition to pay a deposit of $4,000 before heading up the mountain. If climbers want their money back, they have to prove they brought down all of their own garbage, including their own bodily waste. That’s right--climbers have to carry their own poop. This year the government added another rule: In addition to their own trash, climbers must return with an extra 18 pounds of garbage.
Trash to Treasure
Some artists in Nepal are turning Everest’s trash into art. Fifteen artists created sculptures from a wide range of Mount Everest trash. By using the trash creatively, the artists hope to raise funds as well as awareness of the problem. Profits from art sold go back to an organization that has collected over 10 tons of garbage from the mountain.
1. Who began to litter trash there at first ?| A．16 Nepali Sherpa guides. | B．Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay and John Hunt. |
| C．The government of Nepal. | D．Some artists in Nepal. |
| A．250 | B．more than 250 | C．less than 250 | D．16 |
| A．tiring. | B．frustrating. | C．interesting. | D．surprising. |
| A．both the corpses and garbage will increase. |
| B．both the corpses and garbage will decrease. |
| C．the corpses will increase while the garbage will decrease. |
| D．the corpses will decrease while the garbage will increase. |
10 . In 2019, the world generated 54.6 million tons of e-waste. However, just 17.4 percent of it was formally collected and recycled. Since 2014, the amount of e-waste recycled has grown by 1.8 million tons—a relatively small amount, considering that the amount of e-waste generated increased by 9.2 million tons in the same period.
Global reserves of some elements, such as platinum (铂), are supposed to be fully used up within15 years if the proportion of recycled stocks entering production doesn’t increase. E-waste and EV batteries are currently recycled through processes called pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy. However, they involve burning temperatures with a high energy demand and deep carbon footprint, and poisonous chemicals which are harmful to the environment. Alternatives are therefore being sought.
A team of scientists from the University of Coventry are extending one such alternative. They have been using non-poisonous bacteria to oxidize (使氧化) and recover the precious metals—a process known as ”bioleaching“. They have shown that copper is widely recoverable from e-waste, and that all metals present in EV batteries can be recovered by using microbes (微生物). If extended, bioleaching facilities would mean that manufacturers of EV batteries and other electronic goods would be able to recover metals locally, relying less on costly exports to recycling centers abroad.
”At present, a key limitation for e-waste recycling is the lack of certification detailing the types and amounts of metals contained in electronic goods. But with an efficient recycling process appearing, manufacturers have the motivation to use more recycled material in their products, which will change the very design of electronics goods. It’s about closing the loop of a product’s life cycle,“ said the leader of the Bioleaching Research Group, Sebastien Farnaud.
Ultimately, bioleaching technology is born out of the idea of creating a truly circular process for the things that we consume. We need to shift from a mindset and economy where we see waste as an end product, to one where there isn’t even a start or an end at all.
1. What do the statistics in paragraph 1 indicate?| A．The recycling rate of e-waste is comparatively low. |
| B．People pay little attention to e-waste recycling. |
| C．E-waste has caused serious environmental problems. |
| D．The amount of e-waste is sharply increasing every year. |
| A．They only apply to certain e-waste. |
| B．They generate metals with a complex process. |
| C．They are not environmentally friendly. |
| D．They cause a sharp rise in local temperatures. |
| A．It recovers metals by microbes. | B．It produces non-poisonous bacteria. |
| C．It has been applied abroad. | D．It promotes the local export trade. |
| A．A news report. | B．A scientific journal. |
| C．A health magazine. | D．A fiction novel. |
