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. |
1. What is the probable relationship between the speakers?
A.An art teacher and a student. |
B.A lecturer and a listener. |
C.A host and a guest. |
A.Paint. | B.Metal. | C.Natural objects. |
A.In New Zealand. | B.In Australia. | C.In Brazil. |
A.She likes the views in Brazil. |
B.She intends to try new materials. |
C.She wants to call on people to protect the environment. |
1. Why did the man go to the Philippines?
A.For a trip. | B.For further studies. | C.For volunteer work. |
A.The local students. |
B.The local government. |
C.The local businessmen. |
A.To explore an island. |
B.To help the poor students. |
C.To protect the environment. |
4 . Twenty-four trains, nine countries, 13, 500 miles. They are the numbers behind the heroic round trip one man took from Southampton in the UK to eastern China.
Roger Tyers, 37, used over $2, 500, which was almost twice more than the cost of a return flight, to travel to the Chinese port city Ningbo for academic research in May, 2019. The man spent a month on board 15 trains during the first leg of his round trip. It was the climate crisis, not a love of trains, that drove the sociologist to choose this complicated route over a return flight. He stopped flying when UN climate experts warned that the world had less than 11 years to avoid terrible levels of global warming. Tyers calculated that his train journey to China produced almost 90% less emissions than a return flight.
Tyers is not the only person to avoid air travel in response to climate change. Thousands of people worldwide have publicly promised to stop flying. Activist Maja Rosen launched the “Flight Free” campaign in Sweden with the goal of encouraging 100,000 people not to fly for one year. Although only around 14,000 people signed the online “#flightfree2019” pledge (保证), Rosen, who stopped flying 12 years ago, says that the campaign had made more people worry about the climate crisis and aware of harm of travel by air and motivated them to try new ways of travelling.
According to a survey released in May 2019 by Swedish Railways (SJ), 37% of respondents chose to travel by train instead of by plane where possible, compared to 20% at the start of 2018. An SJ spokesperson said: “Rail travel has been augmented due to the worries.” Domestic passenger numbers in July fell by 12% compared to the previous year, according to Swedavia, a company which operates Sweden’s 10 busiest Airports.
“The collective pledge helps fight the sense of hopelessness many people feel when it comes to tackling climate change”, Rosen said. “One of the problems is that people feel there’s no point in what you do as an individual. The campaign is about making people aware that if we do this together, we can actually bring changes.”
1. How many trains did Roger Tyers take in his trip from China to the UK?A.9. | B.15. | C.24. | D.30. |
A.Reduced. | B.Adjusted |
C.Boosted. | D.Applied. |
A.It impacted the development of tourism. |
B.It was strongly supported by the Swedish. |
C.It aimed to warn of the danger of flying. |
D.It inspired people’s confidence to make a difference. |
A.Travel. | B.Environment. |
C.Education. | D.Lifestyle. |
Northern Kenya is a vast, varied and breathtakingly beautiful landscape
According to Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata, across Africa, all giraffe populations
To better understand the wildlife found here, Wildwatch Kenya seeks
1. 你的看法;
2. 原因;
3. 你打算如何做。
注意:
1. 写作词数应为80左右;
2. 可以适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。
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7 . Amid rolling farms and green pasture 150 miles northwest of Sao Paulo, Brazil, two tropical forests bloom as one. The first consists of a single species, row after row of non-native eucalyptus (桉树), planted in perfect lines like carrots. The other is haphazard, an assortment of dozens of varieties of native saplings.
There’s no denying it: This forest looks ridiculous. The gangly (修长的) eucalyptuses shoot like witch fingers high above patches of stubby fig (矮壮的无花果树) and evergreen trees. Yet these jumbled 2.5-acre stands of native trees, ringed by fast-growing exotics, are among many promising efforts to resurrect the planet’s forests.
The eucalyptuses, says Pedro Brancalion, the University of Sao Paulo agronomist who designed this experiment, get big so quickly they can be cut after five years and sold to make paper or fence posts. That covers nearly half or more of the cost of planting the slow-growing native trees, which then naturally reseed ground that has been laid bare by the harvest. And this process doesn’t hamper natural regeneration.
You needn’t look far these days to find organizations trying to save the world by growing trees. Too often, tree-planting groups are so focused on getting credit for each seedling planted that they ignore what matters most: What kind of woodland is created? At what cost? And most importantly: How long will it last? Using the numbers of trees planted as a magic “proxy for everything,” Brancalion says, you “spend more money and get lower levels of benefits.” You can literally miss the forest for the trees.
Tree planting seems like a simple, natural way to counter the overwhelming crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Trees provide wildlife habitats and slurp carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. No wonder trees are hailed as the ideal weapon. Yet for every high-profile planting operation, devastating failures have occurred. In Turkey, Sri Lanka, and Mexico, mass plantings have resulted in millions of dead seedlings or have driven farmers to clear more intact forest elsewhere. Trees that have been planted in the wrong places have reduced water yields for farmers, destroyed highly diverse carbon-sucking grassland soils, and allowed for invasive vegetation to spread. Simply reforesting the planet isn’t going to do much if we don’t also start cutting down on our emissions from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. Tree planting also can’t replace old-growth forests. Saving them is even more important than growing new forests.
So, what should we do?
To Brancalion, the answer is obvious: Restore native forests, mostly in the tropics, where trees grow fast and land is cheap. While that may require planting, it may also call for the clearing out of invasive grasses, the rejuvenation (使有活力) of soils, and crop yield improvements so that farmers will need less land for agriculture and more can be allowed to revert back to forests.
The combining of eucalyptus harvests with native plantings is just one more reminder that successful restoration must provide value to local communities. In many cases, if we let nature do the heavy lifting, Brancalion says, “the forest can regrow quite effectively.”
1. What can we learn from the first three paragraphs?A.The non-native eucalyptuses bring profits that can pay for planting native saplings. |
B.The non-native eucalyptuses compete with native saplings for water, nutrients, and light. |
C.The variety of trees being planted determines whether or not the restoration will succeed. |
D.Planting fast-growing exotics together with local trees does harm to the natural environment. |
A.emphasize the significance of protecting existing forests |
B.explain why tree planting is regarded as the ideal solution |
C.illustrate the serious problems planting campaigns can cause |
D.indicate the most important point tree-planting groups ignore |
A.clear more forest to improve crop yields for farmers |
B.combine harvests of fast-growing exotics with native plantings |
C.restore native forests in the tropics and clear out invasive grasses |
D.take into consideration the benefits of reforestation to local communities |
A.Plant trees—and time will tell. | B.Plant trees—but don’t overdo it. |
C.Plant trees—and save the world. | D.Plant trees—but mind the variety. |
8 . 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. |
9 . It can be hard for one person to protect the environment by himself. If you teenagers want to do something, like stopping pollution or protecting wildlife, you can gather likeminded people in an environmental club.
Choose a cause. Some good ideas might be something like, “Save the whales!” But nothing says you can’t do more than one cause.
Find a clubhouse. Now that you have your club, you must find a place where all the members can get together to discuss your projects.
Decide on jobs. You can work as an activity organizer, a project manager or the president who decides all the meeting times, new members, meeting places, activities and projects. Each person can have a different job.
A.Name your club. |
B.Great minds think alike. |
C.After all, saving the world is a big job. |
D.Choose members to hold all the meetings. |
E.Your club could do a different cause every month. |
F.It could be in the woods, in the park or in the classroom. |
G.But encourage all members to support each other’s work. |
10 . 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. |