1 . The largest living land animal in Asia, Asian elephants once roamed grasslands and rainforests across the continent. Prior to the 1700s, habitats for the now-endangered animals were relatively stable (稳定的). But a new study shows that more than 64% of historic suitable elephant habitat across Asia has been lost.
Researchers found there was a rapid growth in habitat loss of Asian elephants from the year 1700, which is related to the expansion of European colonization (殖民化) of the region. During that time, logging, road-building, resource extraction and deforestation (森林砍伐) increased, and farming need more land that might otherwise have been home to wildlife. The industrial revolution in the middle of the last century also drove greater habitat loss.
Habitat loss means elephants are migrating (迁徙) from their usual living area, creating challenges for human communities that have little experience with elephants. In 2021, millions of people were frightened by a herd of elephants that migrated out of a protected area in China’s southwest Yunnan Province and walked more than 500 kilometers, destroying crops, wandering through towns and causing more than a million dollars’ worth of damage.
With the elephants not having enough habitat, there is increased potential for human-elephant conflict (冲突) — a situation that shouldn’t be accepted as unavoidable and one that can be avoided with proper planning. “We are going to reach a tipping point in which cultures of no conflict toward one another get replaced by cultures of antagonism ( 敌 对) and violence — by both species. We have to relieve this situation,” said Shermin de Silva, a UCSD faculty member who led the research team.
If the elephants can’t find suitable habitats, they will become endangered and near extinction (灭绝), which has an effect on the whole ecosystem. This is because elephants help spread seeds and vegetation cover (植被). Their habitats also include several other species of animals and plants. In the wake of satisfying their need for large spaces, and enough water and food, plenty of other species can survive. When we protect the elephant, we also protect thousands of other species.
1. What do we learn about the migrating elephants?| A．They lost their way home. |
| B．They enjoyed feeding on crops. |
| C．They caused many troubles for the locals. |
| D．They were heading southwest in search of water. |
| A．Lessen. | B．Adopt. | C．Bear. | D．Plan. |
| A．To explain the significance of species diversity. |
| B．To stress the necessity of protecting elephants. |
| C．To provide suggestions on restoring elephant habitats. |
| D．To show the impact of the elephant population on the ecosystem. |
| A．The Past of Asian Elephants |
| B．Causes of Habitat Loss of Asian Elephants |
| C．Reasons for Protecting Elephants |
| D．The Survival Crisis of Asian Elephants |
2 . Diving made my world bigger.
Learning to dive is a lot like learning to drive a car: You study the theory, practice with an instructor, and become qualified. From there, proficiency (熟练) depends on how often you dive, further training, and your own self-reliance. Regardless of your goals, diving is more accessible and wondrous than I ever imagined.
But not everyone wants to or can dive, and that’s fair enough. Whether you’re a snorkeler (潜水员), surfer, or sailor or you simply enjoy dipping your toes into the sea while on holiday, you can still be aware of the life unfolding under that glittering blue cover and help protect it.
Take Florida, for example, it’s bordered by North America’s only living coral barrier reef (礁石) and the third largest in the world.
A study has found that 70 percent of Florida’s coral reefs are experiencing a net loss of reef habitat. Exactly facing these concerns is what I mean by seeing the sea — the good, the bad, the important.
| A．Knowledge is power. |
| B．I didn’t take to diving immediately. |
| C．So I’d encourage anyone to give it a try. |
| D．Adventure sometimes involves pushing limits. |
| E．Marine life needs a safe ecological environment. |
| F．The reef is home to more than 500 species of fish. |
| G．Right now, less than 3 percent of the ocean is considered highly protected. |
3 . The company SpaceX has already launched hundreds of its Starlink satellites, with plans to put as many as 42,000 of them into the Earth’s orbit. Its goal is to provide the high-speed Internet for billions of people. Moving toward that kind of access is important, but it comes at a cost. Glittering with reflected sunlight, these first orbiters, sent up in the past year, are brighter than 99 percent of the 5,000 or so other satellites now circling Earth, and obviously there are going to be a lot more.
This sudden increase is bad for astronomy: The probability of a Starlink satellite crossing a telescope’s field of view and ruining an observation will be quite high near sunset. For that reason, my fellow astronomers have signed a petition (请愿书) calling for governments to protect the night sky from this invasion.
In response to protests, SpaceX has promised to address the visibility problem by, for example, applying experimental coatings — essentially painting the satellites black — but the company’s aggressive launch schedule remains unchanged. And the satellites’ illuminated (被照亮的) surfaces are mostly their solar panels — exactly the part that cannot be painted over.
Unfortunately, at present no regulations govern how bright a single satellite can be, let alone thousands of them together. Even if there were such regulations, one nation’s laws could not hinder (阻碍) another country’s launches. Space literally has no borders, and the sky will need to be protected at an international level. As a consequence, we hope that the United Nations will find a way to think outside of the box to save the sky for everyone.
When I was growing up in Montana, it was a game to be the first to find a moving satellite among a host of stars in the night sky. Soon it could be a game to recognize the constellations (星座) behind a swarm of moving points of light.
1. Why have the astronomers signed the petition?| A．SpaceX plans to send more Starlink satellites into space. |
| B．They intend to call for government to protect the orbiters. |
| C．The Starlink satellites can provide the high-speed Internet. |
| D．The Starlink satellites may ruin an observation near sunset. |
| A．It actually has done nothing useful. | B．It has painted the satellites all over. |
| C．It has changed its original plan. | D．It ignores the visibility problem. |
| A．SpaceX will still carry out its plan despite the protest. |
| B．SpaceX is unlikely to launch more satellites into space. |
| C．Regulations will soon be made to stop satellite launches. |
| D．The United Nations will stop SpaceX from launching. |
| A．Launch Starlink Satellites | B．Protest Against SpaceX |
| C．Save the Night Sky | D．Observe Moving Satellites |
4 . In WALL-E, a science fiction movie, a little robot is responsible for cleaning a world covered in garbage; a world where there is no longer room for anything else, not even humans! The film encourages common people, worldwide leaders and businessmen to ask the obvious question: What can be done to prevent something like this happening? For some, microfactories could become the most promising answer.
Veena Sahajwalla, a materials scientist and engineer in Sydney, Australia, has discovered a solution to the challenging waste problem. Her one-stop approach could go beyond the existing recycling processes. Her waste microfactories mainly target electronic waste and plastic, and are essentially small-sized trash processors. These can transform waste into new materials with the help of thermal (热的) technology.
“Using our green manufacturing technologies, these microfactories can transform waste, enabling local businesses and communities to not only solve local waste problems, but to develop a commercial opportunity from the valuable materials that are created,” she explains.
Humans generate 2.01 billion tons of solid waste annually. And as the fastest growing waste stream, roughly 53.6 million tons of e-waste was generated globally by 2019. Despite current efforts, only 17.4 percent of this is known to have been collected and properly recycled. Meanwhile, worldwide e-waste generation is expected to continue to grow, reaching almost 80 million tons by 2030.
Although the most effective solution to the waste challenges would not generate as much trash, Sahajwalla’s microfactories provide hope for all the waste that already exists. Her solution not only attenuates the amount of waste, but it also improves its management and enables new manufacturing opportunities around the new materials created.
WALL-E shows us the best and the worst of what human beings have to offer. It shows where the world is heading unless the human species slows down and stops developing at the current pace. But it also provides hope, showing that we also have a great power to change and improve.
1. What is the purpose of mentioning WALL-E in the first paragraph?| A．To recommend a science fiction movie. | B．To predict what the world will be like. |
| C．To teach people how to ask a question. | D．To lead to the use of microfactories. |
| A．They are essentially enormous trash processors. |
| B．They’re based on the existing recycling processes. |
| C．They’re mainly aimed at electronic waste and plastic. |
| D．They’re likely to exchange waste with news materials. |
| A．Improves. | B．Decreases. | C．Maintains. | D．Calculates. |
| A．Our world will be totally destroyed as is shown in the movie. |
| B．We are capable of turning our direction to a promising future. |
| C．The world is hopeless and we are bound to come to extinction. |
| D．We are developing and thus should quicken our current pace. |
The topic of this programme is environmental
6 . Mount Qomolangma, meaning “Holy Mother” in Tibetan, is the world’s highest mountain above sea level. No wonder most people consider climbing to its top as one of their biggest achievements. More than 4, 000 climbers, ranging from 13 to 80 years old, have managed to reach the top. Three people from the Sherpa community hold the current record at 21 times each!
You may be surprised at these numbers but that’s just the start of it. Last year, cleanup crews collected as much as 8. 4 tons of garbage from Mount Qomolangma’s North Base Camp in Tibet at 5,150 meters. And in the regions below that level, more than 335 tons of waste was collected. What a sad fact it is that the highest mountain in the world is turning into the highest mountain of trash!
To reverse the trend, the Chinese government recently announced that it had closed the North Base Camp to tourists. From now on, ordinary tourists will only be able to travel as far as Rongbuk Monastery, about 5, 000 meters above sea level. No more than 300 climbers with special permits will be allowed to climb Qomolangma each year. They are supposed to follow stricter rules, including carrying all their waste out with them and only climbing in spring.
Despite these tough measures, it is clear that tourism has caused enormous damage to the natural environment. Mount Qomolangma is not alone. Some popular parks around the world are also struggling to preserve their environments and keep up with increased tourism. Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. has long been troubled by the overflowing trash piles. Joshua Tree National Park suffered a wave of vandalism (破坏), with graffiti sprayed on rocks and ancient trees destroyed. In order to protect the environment, the National Park Service had no choice but to close the park temporarily.
As we can see, the natural environment can be destroyed by human activities in less than five minutes, but it might take hundreds of years to recover. Now it’s time for ordinary tourists to leave “Holy Mother” alone and wait for her to restore her beauty.
1. Why are the figures listed about Qomolangma in paragraph 2?| A．To describe it is extremely vast and high. |
| B．To show it is difficult to collect trash there. |
| C．To indicate it is a popular tourist attraction. |
| D．To illustrate it is suffering serious pollution. |
| A．Fit with. | B．Follow up. | C．Turn around. | D．Speed up. |
| A．Developing its tourism. | B．Reducing human activities. |
| C．Forbidding any entry in spring. | D．Building more base camps. |
| A．Environment. | B．Society. | C．Tourism. | D．Education. |
7 . If you are worried about the planet, please make sure your rubbish is buried under the ground.
People talk about “reduce, reuse, recycle.” It sounds like a good idea. There is a problem, though. Recycling costs too much money.
Even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it only makes sense economically and environmentally to recycle about 35 percent of disabled (废弃的) materials. Among those materials are paper and aluminum(铝) cans. Recycling 1 ton of paper or aluminum cans, the agency says, can save about 3 tons of CO2 emissions (排放物) over producing those materials anew. Paper producers pay for the trees they process. If it was cost-effective to recycle paper, producers would be beating down your door to buy it. But they aren’t. That means it’s more expensive to recycle old paper than to cut trees and then replant trees for processing.
Plastic can be recycled too. Given the recent drop in crude oil (原油) prices, it is now cheaper to make a new plastic container than to recycle an old one. Even if that were not true, the EPA says that recycling a ton of plastic saves only about a ton of CO2. However, it doesn’t take into account the water most consumers use to wash their plastic containers before having them recycled. The New York Times journalist John Tierney recently wrote, “If you wash plastic in water that was heated by electricity, then the effort of your recycling could be more carbon in the atmosphere.”
Glass is another recyclable material. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 ton you have to recycle 3 tons of glass. If one includes the cost of collecting glass waste from neighborhoods, and the pollution produced by the collection trucks and the recycling process itself, glass recycling creates more greenhouse gas emissions and is more expensive than making new glass, which comes primarily from sand that exists everywhere.
If recycling were truly cost-effective, private companies would be lining up at your doorstep to buy your rubbish. Don’t look now because they’re not there.
1. What’s the EPA’s attitude to recycling aluminum cans?| A．It is helpful to the environment. |
| B．It is actually a waste of money. |
| C．It costs less than recycling paper. |
| D．It costs the same as producing new cans. |
| A．The crude oil. |
| B．The water pollution |
| C．The process to clean it. |
| D．The electricity for lights. |
| A．It results in lots of waste in neighborhood. |
| B．The material for new glass can be easily got. |
| C．It is slightly more expensive than recycling glass. |
| D．Making 3 tons of new glass produces 1 ton of carbon emissions. |
| A．Recycling will disappear soon. |
| B．Companies will line up at your doorstep. |
| C．Recycling is a way to deal with your rubbish. |
| D．Companies won’t bother to collect discarded materials. |
8 . Two-thirds of the world’s major rivers have now been disrupted (中断) with more than 50,000 dams in an attempt to store water and provide power. In the US, there are more than 85,000 dams, disrupting large and small rivers and in most cases transforming natural flow. The most famous of these, the Hoover Dam constructed in the 1930’s, is mainly responsible for the fact that the Colorado River no longer reaches the ocean.
Dams, besides all their attractive benefits, also have negative impacts. Creating a reservoir (水库) means a large area must be flooded. Communities may lose their land houses and cultural relies (遗址). Down stream of a dam, the flow may be reduced so that farmers cannot irrigate their fields.
Environmentally, the new reservoir can be a paradise for wildlife especially birds. However, it can cause greenhouse gas emissions (排放) and poison the water for fish. Also, the dramatic rise and fall of water levels during dam releases is too extreme for plants and animals to cope with, resulting in dead zones around the shores of reservoirs. Fish that lay their eggs in the shallows, for example, may find a few hours later that those sites are high and dry.
Dams don't just block water flow. The flow may be reduced so that farmers will have great trouble getting water for their fields. They also prevent fish migrations and are a barrier to sediment(沉淀物) flows. Instead of rushing downriver, sediments get backed up against the dam wall, which causes the reservoir level to increase over time. However, sediments which are rich in nutrients have become a problem. The fertility of the entire system can be influenced be influenced by soils lost during seasonal rains, not being replaced.
Perhaps the biggest problem can be seen in deltas (三角洲), often host to large cities, which are sinking into the oceans. Groundwater is being extracted to feed the city, causing the urban weight to sink and sediments washed away by the ocean are no longer being replaced. The result is that sea level rises in cities from Shanghai to Alexandria.
1. What effects does creating a reservoir have on people's life?a. People will see fewer birds near the rivers.
b. Farmers below the dam may have less water to irrigate their fields.
c. Visitors can't see some cultural relics anymore.
d. More conflicts and wars over water will break out.
e. All kinds of fish will become extinct in the future.
| A．b c | B．c e |
| C．b e | D．a d |
| A．find more places to lay their eggs |
| B．face a more dangerous living habitat |
| C．feed on more sediments rich in nutrients |
| D．find it easier to deal with the rise of water |
| A．The rainy season will last longer |
| B．Rich soils will be washed away |
| C．Their entire system will be influenced |
| D．They will lie below sea level in the future |
| A．Economic gain of dams | B．Cultural loss of dams |
| C．Environmental benefits of dams | D．Environmental loss of dams |
