1 . A new app promises to help Barcelona residents find the shadiest route between two places to avoid extreme heat.
Users can choose the most direct route, a shady route that may take a little longer, or they can set the app to a special mode, which avoids direct sunlight at all costs. Users can also use the app to find drinking fountains, or places to shelter from the sun.
The app uses a tool called Lidar to create high-resolution models of ground, accurate to within 10 cm. This information is combined with data on the sun’s path to work out where is in shade at any given time of the day.
Barcelona is looking to use green spaces and trees as part of its efforts to relieve the effects of global heating. The city’s 20-year tree planting plan aims to increase the proportion of land covered by trees from 25% to 30%.
Heatwaves kill more people than any other climate risk. According to C40,a climate leadership group made up of 97 cities around the world, extreme heat events in cities can lead to a 14% increase in death rates, as well as lower workforce productivity and damage infrastructure (基础设施) such as roads and rail lines.
Jon Burke, who was responsible for a massive expansion of tree planting in the district, said. “I think we should view this particular kind of app as a temporary measure to reduce the impacts of extreme heat... while cities rapidly invest in urban canopy (树冠层) cover and broader green infrastructure.”
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．The designer of the app. | B．The function of the app. |
| C．The potential users of the app. | D．The working principle of the app. |
| A．Predict. | B．Feel. | C．Consider. | D．Reduce. |
| A．The app is as a ever-lasting measure to reduce the effect of extreme heat. |
| B．Jon Burke was responsible for a large scale of tree planting. |
| C．The app stresses the importance of road construction. |
| D．The app warns people of more upcoming disasters. |
| A．The district needs to be expanded. |
| B．Jon Burke has a great sense of duty. |
| C．Investment in tree planting is a wise choice. |
| D．The app is powerful enough to cope with heatwaves. |
2 . When Purdue University researchers set out to develop a new paint, the goal was to create one that would reflect sunlight away from a building. It turns out they also set an official Guinness world record for the whitest paint on the planet.
“When we started this project about seven years ago, we had saving energy and fighting climate change in mind,” Professor Xiulin Ruan said.
The paint reflects 98.1% of solar radiation while also emitting infrared (红外线的) heat.
Because the paint absorbs less heat from the sun than it emits, a surface coated with this paint is cooled below the surrounding temperature without consuming power. Typical commercial white paint gets warmer rather than cooler, Paints on the market that are designed to reject heat reflect only 80%-90% of sunlight and can’t make surfaces cooler than their surroundings.
“Conventional air conditioners consume power that is often from burning fossil fuel. Meanwhile, while they move the heat from inside of a house to the outside, they turn the electricity into heat and leave even more heat to the surrounding and earth, further causing a heat island effect and warming up the Earth,” Professor Ruan told IFLScience.
“In contrast, our paint does not consume any power, and directly sends off all the heat to the deep space, thus helping cooling down the Earth. According to a previous model, painting 0.5-1% of the Earth’s surface (roofs, roads, cars, unused land, etc) with our paint will stop the warming trend. Painting many human made-structures would be a great way to fight the climate crisis in many ways. The paint is not yet available commercially and the scientists are working with a commercial company to speed up the paint production and put it on the market.
1. What’s the purpose of creating the whitest paint?| A．To make the street cleaner. |
| B．To help fight climate change |
| C．To remind people of climate warming. |
| A．It sets an official standard for the whitest paint on the earth. |
| B．It turns the light into heat and makes the houses much cooler |
| C．It makes whatever it’s painted on much cooler than its surroundings. |
| A．About 80%. | B．About 90%. | C．About 98.1%. |
| A．The World’s Whitest Paint |
| B．Paint the Earth White |
| C．A Wonderful Invention |
3 . Wild beavers (河狸) are back! Experts say that the wild beaver families are doing well. The beavers are even boosting wildlife and the environment!
Over ten years ago, a family of beavers turned up in a part of the river Otter, in Devon. No one knew exactly where they came from. It was a big surprise wild beavers hadn’t lived in England for around 400 years!
In 2015, the government allowed the beavers to stay there as part of a test. They wanted to see if these animals could be reintroduced to the wild. The test ends in February. Some scientists from the University of Exeter already say the beavers help the wildlife in the area. One scientist called it “an amazing story”.
A lot of this is because of dams (水坝). Beavers build dams along the river. This creates deep pools in the riverbed and slows the water down. Scientists say this is perfect for many different types of plants and animals! Many plants are growing near the beavers. Different types of animals are also becoming more and more in the river. Beavers also help make flooding less, scientists say. The beavers’ dams slow down the speed of the river, especially after heavy rain.
Beavers aren’t the only animals that are being reintroduced to the wild! In 2019, red squirrels were brought back to an area of the Scottish Highlands. Further away, the world's rarest (罕见的) duck, the Madagascar pochard, is making a comeback. It was set free into the wild on the African island in 2019 and is doing well.
Who knows what other animals might be making a comeback?
1. The underlined word “boosting”in Paragraph 1 probably means “______”| A．building | B．spreading | C．helping | D．creating |
| A．To reintroduce animals to the wild. |
| B．To introduce the beavers to the wild. |
| C．To build dams for the beavers in the river. |
| D．To grow more different plants along the river. |
| A．They help plants grow. | B．They eat up the plants. |
| C．They do harm to animals. | D．They bring heavy floods. |
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．Worried. | B．Disappointed. | C．Tired. | D．Pleased. |
We require healthy water and air, and so do we require healthy soil. It makes water clean and serves as a growing medium, It provides a living space for billions of organisms. And it also provides us with food. Therefore, we should do something to protect the soil.
One of the easiest ways we can support the soil is by wasting less food. All the food that ends up in our shopping bags requires land, water and energy to produce. By throwing away less, we will prevent materials in soil from being wasted.
By eating different types of foods, we can help create demands for different farming products, which is better for soil. Food diversity can improve soil quality. In general, eating a diverse (多样的) diet is better for our health too.
Read the instructions on garden products.
When we walk through any garden store, there are many products for our gardens. No matter which product we end up selecting, the most important step before using it is to read the instructions, Misuse can cause problems.
If we are looking to fertilize (施肥) our garden，we need to know what materials are already in the soil before adding more. Or, we might just need to add one specific material, and not others. Local university laboratories can help provide information on testing soil. It’s usually a matter of digging up soil from a few areas of the yard and sending it in to the lab!
A. Buy less food.
B. Eat a diverse diet.
C. Perform soil tests.
D. Reduce food waste.
5 . All living things on Earth need water to live. Yet humans are facing serious water problems. According to the United Nations, today over 663 million people live without a safe water supply close to home.
To remind people of the importance of water, the UN first set up World Water Day in 1993. It is on Mar 22 each year. From Mar 22 to 28 is also the China Water Week. The first year’s theme is “Waste water”. It tried to call people to reuse waste water instead of wasting it.
In Australia people make good use of waste water. Most Australians have a grass lawn around their home instead of washing the car in the street. Many of them wash it on the lawn to keep the grass longer so that it covers the ground and reduce evaporation.
Rainwater may seem useless to you. But you can also reuse it. People in Germany collect rainwater to wash their toilets. Most houses in the country that are built in the last few years have rainwater collection devices (设备). Rainwater is collected from the root, and then linked to the toilet. But if you don’t have the device just put a bucket (桶) under your roof when it rains.
Water makes up 71 percent of Earth’s surface. But we can only use a very small part of it. Only about 3 percent of the world’s water is fresh water. It’s in lakes, rivers and underground.
Over 80 percent of the w
aste water in the world goes back into the nature. It has not been cleaned and pollutes the rivers and lakes. Unsafe water makes around 842,000 people die each year.
By 2030, about half of the world’s population could be facing water problem. By 2050, as many as seven billion people across the world could not have enough water supplies. The world’s population might be 9.3 billion by then.
1. The China Water Week in 2017 tries to___________.| A．collect rainwater to wash their toilets |
| B．remind people of the importance of water |
| C．put a bucket under your roof when it rains. |
| D．call people to reuse waste water instead of wasting it. |
| A．sit down | B．cut down | C．put down | D．write down |
| A．To share his rich knowledge about water. |
| B．To warn more people to save water. |
| C．To show how water problems change the world. |
| D．To tell people how to discover safe water supply. |
| A．Water in the world has become less and less. |
| B．Unsafe water makes so many people die. |
| C．Our planet will face serious water problems. |
| D．Learning to save water to protect our planet. |
6 . Suppose you find a bright yellow bike on a street corner in the city. You hop on (跨上) it and
You
The
Portland’s
| A．drive away | B．ride away | C．ride back | D．run away |
| A．No one | B．Someone | C．Anyone | D．Everyone |
| A．whether | B．so | C．because | D．though |
| A．have to | B．don’t have to | C．can’t | D．can |
| A．expensive | B．crowded | C．free | D．common |
| A．protect | B．control | C．make | D．bring |
| A．out of | B．into | C．up | D．near |
| A．ended | B．started | C．changed | D．refused |
| A．public | B．private | C．clean | D．dirty |
| A．but | B．as | C．until | D．or |
| A．next | B．last | C．best | D．first |
| A．break | B．make | C．discuss | D．follow |
| A．buy | B．repair | C．produce | D．steal |
| A．citizen | B．street | C．idea | D．school |
| A．looked up | B．made up | C．put up | D．set up |
7 . According to the World Food Program, one third of the food of the world is lost or wasted. It’s up to some 1.3 billion tons every year, worth about $1 trillion. Moreover, a report in 2021 Sugests that 8 to10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (排放) are associated with wasting food.
“For our parents and the older generations,‘clearing your plate’ is more about saving some food for a rainy day.”Liu Jichen, founder and CEO of Clear Plate, an anti-food wasting program, told us.
The idea for Clear Plate came to Liu after one dinner at a restaurant in late 2017. The customers who finished all the food they’d ordered would be given a card, and then they could exchange their cards for rewards. “Yet it was limited to one restaurant’s actions, so I thought, why not try it on a larger scale (规模)? And how?” Liu wondered. And then he teamed up with some of his friends,founded a startup and developed the Clear Plate applet.
“The Clear Plate team is trying to deal with the issue (问题) of food waste. After a meal, users of WeChat take photos of their clean plates, post these on WeChat, collect points, and then exchange their points for gifts or charity donations,” Liu explained.
Starting in 2018, Clear Plate has now more than 4.3 million users with about 45 million participations in anti-food wasting actions, reducing food waste by 1,700 tons and carbon emissions by 6,600 tons. Liu’s determination represents a small change of the Chinese lifestyle and more people are turning toward a healthier, greener and more low-carbon lifestyle.
1. How much food of the world is wasted every year according to the World Food Program?| A．About 1 billion tons. | B．About 1.3 billion tons. |
| C．About 8 billion tons. | D．About 10 billion tons. |
| A．A plate. | B．A point. | C．A photo. | D．A card. |
| A．In 2016. | B．In 2017. | C．In 2018. | D．In 2021. |
| A．The program Clear Plate. |
| B．The World Food Program. |
| C．The world food wasting. |
| D．An introduction to WeChat. |
注意：
1. 词数100左右。
Thoughts Upon the International Biodiversity Day
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Nowadays many people want to have a more interesting experience when arriving in a new city or country. Here are some better ways to travel, both for you and for the environment.
Get out of the car and walk.
If you have to take transport in a city, try to take public transport. Most cities now offer lots of information and very cleat maps about the public transport at the city’s websites.
10 . Have you ever wondered what wild animals do when no one is watching? Scientists have been able to record the “private” moments of wildlife with leading-edge technology. Low-cost, dependable and small modern cameras are of big help.
Cameras placed in hard-to-reach places have taken videos of everything from small desert cats to later snow-loving felines (猫科动物) in the northern Rocky Mountains. These cameras are important tools to learn new information on wildlife.
Some videos help scientists see the effects of climate change. For example, the desert animal javelina (矛牙野猪) and the tree-loving coatimundi (南美浣熊) have been caught on cameras north of their normal home. This could mean global warming is enlarging their living area northward.
Researchers use cameras, along with Global Positioning Systems or GPS. They attach GPS devices to animals living in or around Yellowstone National Park. Then they can record their movements, or migrations (迁移). These cameras can be left in the wild for days, weeks or even months. They can provide information on how many animals are moving over a given period of time.
Putting those cameras in place requires careful planning. Videos recorded by those cameras can show details about animal behavior. However, they have their problems too. Animals such as wolverines (狼獾) and bears sometimes attack them. Scientists do not know if the attacks are the result of anger or interest. Also, the devices have become popular tools to help hunters look for animals. Some people argue that it is unfair to use the cameras that way. Even with such problems, wild cameras are clearly important scientific tools in researching wild animals.
1. Which of the following helps scientists know about climate change?| A．How active wild animals are. | B．What wild animals eat. |
| C．Where wild animals go. | D．When wild animals move. |
| A．Tools. | B．Maps. | C．Pictures. | D．Videos. |
| A．They may make wild animals fight with each other. | B．They may make wild animals puzzled. |
| C．They may attract only a few wild animals. | D．They may bring danger to wild animals. |
| A．Cameras record animals in the wild | B．Cameras become popular in the wild |
| C．Animals no longer have secrets | D．An invention makes animals mad |
