1 . This fall, students at the University of Massachusetts found a new menu at their dining commons: the “diet for a cooler planet” menu. This meant herb-roasted lamb, raised with a carbon-friendly approach. It included sweet potatoes that had been picked from a local farm’s field post-harvest. The options were plant-heavy, locally grown, and involved little to no packaging.
“We wanted to let students participate in climate action by making choices about their food,” says Kathy Wicks, sustainability director for UMass Dining. The university is not alone in this effort. Increasingly, American consumers and institutions are thinking about how their food choices factor into climate change. For many, small choices at the grocery store, dining hall, and restaurant can feel more accessible than big-ticket options like buying a fuel-efficient car or installing home solar panels.
Small changes in dietary habits may make a big difference. Climate activists often target fossil fuels and transportation systems, but studies point to the food system as a significant contributor to global warming. According to Project Drawdown, a research organization that evaluates climate solutions, the way food is grown, transported, and consumed accounts for about a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Beef is a regular target. “If, on average, Americans cut a quarter pound of beef per week from their diet, it’s like taking 10 million cars off the road a year,” says Sujatha Bergen, director of health campaigns for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Food waste ranks third among climate solutions. While much waste occurs before consumers are involved — food left on the field or “chucked” because it does not fit appearance standards, Americans also throw out a lot of food they have purchased: about $ 1,600 worth a year per family of four.
“People are beginning to understand that their food choices make a big impact on climate,” says Megan Larmer, director of regional food at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming in New York. But, she cautions substantial change will need to come from the whole food system.
1. What is the purpose of the new menu at the University of Massachusetts?| A．To market the cold dishes. | B．To reduce the cost of packaging. |
| C．To popularize the plant-heavy diet. | D．To promote low carbon awareness. |
| A．Food is a decisive factor for climate change. |
| B．Food choices matter much to global warming. |
| C．Universities are working together in climate action. |
| D．Fuel-efficient cars are not affordable for consumers. |
| A．It has great influence on carbon reduction. | B．It is popular among millions of car drivers. |
| C．It has a close relationship with gas emission. | D．It plays a significant role in American’s diet. |
| A．Food System Reform: A Successful Trial | B．Global Warming: An Approaching Danger |
| C．Carbon Emission: A Killer, or Healer? | D．Low Carbon Diet: A Craze, or More? |
2 . The number of fish caught just outside a recently expanded marine (海洋) protected area in Hawaii has risen. It is a sign that quadrupling (四倍) the size of the reserve in 2016 may have shored fish populations in the region.
When the Marine National Monument around Hawaii was enlarged to 1,510,000 square kilometers, marine conservationists around the world rejoiced.
Fishers may have felt differently, however, as fishing inside the area is not allowed. Yet by creating a space for dwindling tuna populations to recover, supporters argued, the reserve would benefit fisheries as well.
As populations inside the reserve boundaries steadily increased, they predicted, the fish would spill (溢出) over into the surrounding areas, increasing the amount of tuna available to catch.
Proving that is tricky, however, as tuna can’t be counted directly. Their numbers may rise or fall for a variety of reasons other than the expansion of a reserve. But the new study, published in Science this week, strongly suggests the number of fish caught just outside the MPA is higher now than it used to be.
Alan Friedlander, chief scientist for the National Geographic Society’s Pristine Seas project, calls the study a “very careful and strict test of spillover from marine protected areas.”
Importantly, says John Lynham, an environmental economist at the University of Hawaii and one of the study’s authors, the increase in tuna catches near the reserve held up even when looking at the average numbers caught by particular fishers. This shows the effect is not due to more effective crews now fishing local waters, he explains. To account for effort, catch numbers were divided by the ever-increasing number of fishing hooks in the area.
Lynham and colleagues found the catch per hook increased over the 10 years of the study. Fishers were catching on average six more yellowfin and five more bigeye tuna per year after the expansion than before.
“That last one, especially, was a surprise,” says Lynham, “because it is economically much more important, and there were fewer indications of an increase.”
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The rising number of fish caught is a sign of a well-reserved area. |
| B．Enlarge the size of reserve may contribute to the increasing of fish population. |
| C．The number of fish caught has risen to quadrupling (四倍) the size of that in 2016. |
| D．Fish catching outside the reserve does good to the expanded marine protected area. |
| A．They felt joyful. | B．They felt different. | C．They felt unpleasant. | D．They felt excited. |
| A．By figuring the average catch per hook in the area. |
| B．By summing up the catch of mare effective crews. |
| C．By looking at the numbers caught by particular fishers. |
| D．By detecting the number of tuna population in the surrounding area. |
| A．Tuna population embraces a boost | B．Marine Protected Areas Help Fisheries |
| C．Local fisheries hold a promising future | D．Tuna population can be counted scientifically |
Our planet is heating up due to something
Let’s first think about a greenhouse – you may have one in your garden! It’s a glass structure that protects
The impact of gases on the Earth’s climate was first investigated in the 1820s. Eunice Foote, a scientist and women’s rights activist, tested the effects of sunlight on different gases that she put into glass cylinders. Her results
So, what can we do
We only have one planet, so let’s try and take care of it as much as we can.
4 . A new study led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School has found that climate-impact labeling on a sample fast food menu significantly influenced people’s food choices in favor of more climate-friendly items, such as vegetarian diet, chicken, or fish dishes.
The researchers enrolled over 5,000 online participants and presented them a sample menu resembling a fast food menu and asked them to choose a single item for a meal. While one group of participants received a menu with non-red meat items like salads or chicken sandwiches labeled “low climate impact”, another one received a menu with red meat items, such as beef burgers, labeled “high climate impact.” Finally, a third control group received a menu with QR codes on all items but no climate labels.
The analysis revealed that both the high and low climate-impact labels significantly reduced red meat selections compared to the control group. The high climate-impact labels had a strong effect, increasing non-beef choices by 23 percent compared to just 10 percent in the case of menus including low climate-impact labels.
“These results suggest that menu labeling, particularly labels warning that an item has high climate impact, can be an effective strategy for encouraging more sustainable food choices in a fast food setting,” said the study lead author Julia Wolfson, an associate professor in the Department of International Heath at the Bloomberg School.
Besides, participants were also asked to rate how healthy they believed the item they ordered was, and those who selected a more sustainable item perceived their choice to be healthier compared to those who selected a red meat item.
Since red meat consumption has been linked to a variety of health issues, including colorectal (结肠的) cancer and type 2 diabetes (糖尿病), the type of climate-impact labeling could prove highly effective in preventing illness. However, as the researchers warn, climate-impact labels may also have the unwanted side effect of making a choice seem healthier than it actually is.
“We look for labeling strategies that create ‘win-wins’ for promoting both more sustainable and healthier choices,” Wolfson concluded.
1. What is the finding of the study?| A．Red meat consumption is closely linked to climate labeling. |
| B．Climate-impact labels are gaining popularity worldwide. |
| C．Climate-impact labeling influences people’s food selection. |
| D．Menu labeling contributes to less sustainable food choices. |
| A．By citing examples. |
| B．By group experimenting. |
| C．By providing explanations. |
| D．By analyzing cause and effect. |
| A．Detected. | B．Required. | C．Urged. | D．Considered. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. | C．Tolerant. | D．Conservative. |
Sam was a junior high school student. He lived in a community in Charlotte and usually had little exposure to country life. So much of what he knew about plants came from text-books. Sam was a kind-hearted person. He longed for a chance to explore nature and he wanted to do his part to beautify the world.
Finally, the opportunity came. On Arbor Day (植树节), his class organized a trip to a local village to plant trees. Sam was excited about it and couldn’t wait to tell his mom the good news. So the next day, Sam and his mom went to buy some tools for planting trees, including a shovel(铲), a bucket, gloves and so on.
On the day of the event, Sam and his classmates arrived early at the starting point. It was a beautiful day and everyone looked particularly happy. With the tools in hand, Sam got into the bus with everyone else and headed off to their destination.
As soon as they reached the village, all the students were divided into three teams by their teacher. One team was responsible for planting the trees, one team for shovelling the soil and one team for watering the trees. At the teacher’s command, everyone started to do their job.
However, it was the first time that many of the students had taken part in planting trees, so they had no idea about how to start. Of course, Sam was one of them. Fortunately, their teacher was a middle-aged man from the countryside who had some knowledge of planting trees. In order to set an example to the students, the teacher started to plant trees himself. After watching the teacher plant the trees, everyone also became busy. Before long, they planted hundreds of trees. Sam watched very carefully, not wanting to miss any of the details. Finally, Sam learned how to plant trees by himself and felt happy.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
A few days later, a storm damaged some young trees in the community.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The neighbours praised Sam for what he had done.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. 倡议目的；
2. 你的建议；
3. 你的呼吁。
注意：
1. 词数80字左右；
2. 可适当添加细节，以使行文连贯。
3. 参考词汇：世界水日 World Water Day
Dear fellow students,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7 . The Dead Sea is an amazing wonder of the world:the lowest exposed spot on Earth,where the water is so full of salt that bathers float right to the top.
But today the Dead Sea is drying up, and its banks are collapsing. The water level is dropping close to 4 feet every year. The main part of the lake is now around 950 feet deep—about 15%shallower, and a third of the surface area, compared to its shape half a century ago.
“You’ve seen a living disaster in front of your eyes,“ says Jake Ben Zaken, an Israeli who says he operates the only passenger boats on the Dead Sea.
As the lake recedes, it changes the landscape around it in both beautiful and harmful ways. Beautiful salt formations are revealed where the water dries up. But there are also terrible scenes of beaches and parking lots swallowed up by sinkholes along the shore.
Solutions have been proposed to replenish(填满)the Dead Sea, but no significant action has been taken to prevent its further destruction. Climate change makes recovery of the lake seem even further out of reach.
The Dead Sea is a landlocked lake that’s partly in Jordan, Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The lake—named the Dead Sea because it contains too much salt and is not suitable for aquatic(水生的)life—has been drying up for decades.
”It’s a human-made problem," say environmental researchers and officials. In a region where water is rare, Israel, Jordan and Syria in the last several decades have diverted(改道)the freshwater sources that feed the Dead Sea, for drinking water and irrigation. Plus, Israeli and Jordanian companies evaporate(蒸发)Dead Sea water to harvest its rich minerals for export. The part of the lake with Israeli hotels, a popular spot for tourists to float in Dead Sea water, is actually an artificial evaporation pool in the lake’s southern basin.
1. How deep was the main part of the Dead Sea 50 years ago probably?| A．About 800 feet. | B．About 1,000 feet. |
| C．About 1,100 feet. | D．About 1,300 feet. |
| A．Goes up. | B．Gets popular. | C．Flows over. | D．Becomes smaller. |
| A．The solutions to the problem. | B．The future of the Dead Sea. |
| C．The reasons for the problem. | D．The situation of the Dead Sea. |
| A．The Dead Sea Is Dying | B．The Dead Sea Is Recovering |
| C．The Dead Sea—a Salty Lake with Minerals | D．The Dead Sea—a Place for Tourists to Float |
During the just-ended Spring Festival holiday, former fisherman Wang Chaosheng kept
Living in Sinan county in Southwest China’s Guizhou province,
Wujiang River
“I used to catch fish, and now I keep fish. I’m still doing my job,” Wang said.
9 . Natalie and Callie, both 13 years old, started raising monarch butterflies for fun in 2020.
But after realizing the monarchs were an endangered species, their
They learned that the population of monarch butterflies had
So the girls teamed up with a national nonprofit group to plant a native garden
The team has won the Silver Award for their
| A．dream | B．hobby | C．career | D．decision |
| A．doubled | B．aged | C．declined | D．exploded |
| A．management | B．assessment | C．selection | D．destruction |
| A．relied on | B．kept off | C．broke down | D．gave away |
| A．partly | B．secretly | C．rarely | D．specially |
| A．attracted | B．protected | C．monitored | D．trapped |
| A．employ | B．educate | C．force | D．limit |
| A．meant | B．cost | C．changed | D．hurt |
| A．dry | B．medical | C．healthy | D．wild |
| A．pleasing | B．light | C．long | D．disappointing |
| A．project | B．concept | C．schedule | D．assignment |
| A．concerned | B．connected | C．finished | D．occupied |
| A．chemicals | B．time | C．funds | D．energy |
| A．quoted | B．continued | C．replied | D．commented |
| A．donations | B．support | C．patience | D．efforts |
10 . Transport is undergoing a massive transformation so it can meet society’s demands for a low- carbon economy. Introducing electric vehicles (EV) and declining gasoline use are helping, but zero-carbon hydrogen can speed up both the transition (转变) and long-term decarbonization of transport.
In the US, transportation produces the largest share of all greenhouse gas emissions (排放) in the economy at 29%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. More than 90% of transport fuel is petrol based, but if more vehicles used hydrogen, emissions of this kind would plummet.
However, hydrogen is not considered an ideal replacement for gasoline as an engine fuel for cars because it is harder to store safely. And while fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) that turn hydrogen into electricity can compete with EV performance-and even out-compete them on range and refill time, extra energy is needed to produce the hydrogen needed for fuel. Also, finding investment for storage, pipelines and fuel stations is still a challenge for many nations.
Currently, governments worldwide are backing green hydrogen projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in heavy industries like freight (货运), steel, and energy storage. But hydrogen transport will need rapid production methods to create the fuel needed for the world’s road fleet.
Thankfully, research is advancing all the time. Nanoscale (纳米级的) thin films are applied to improving the chemical process to rapidly harvest hydrogen from the seawater. The same technology has been successfully used in solar power devices with higher efficiency-to-cost rates. Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and as seawater makes up about 96% of all water on Earth, there is a virtually limitless supply.
Even wastewater and solid waste can create green hydrogen. Researchers at Princeton University are using sunlight to separate hydrogen from industrial wastewater. Chemical plants that currently face high costs for cleaning wastewater could transform it into clean hydrogen supplies.
1. What does the underlined word “plummet” mean in Paragraph 2?| A．Stop. | B．Decrease. | C．Continue. | D．Disappear. |
| A．Ways of storing hydrogen safely. |
| B．Benefits of fuel cell electric vehicles. |
| C．Challenges of using hydrogen as car fuel. |
| D．Differences between gasoline and hydrogen. |
| A．The application of solar power devices. |
| B．The method of identifying water elements. |
| C．The invention. of the water transport system. |
| D．The use of the nanoscale thin-film technology. |
| A．Clean Energy Hydrogen Ready to Take Off |
| B．Traditional Fuels Bound to Reach a Dead End |
| C．How We Can Generate Energy from Hydrogen |
| D．What the Future of Transportation May Be Like |
