1 . Microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic waste less than five millimetres long that have been degraded by waves, wind and ultraviolet rays — have been discovered in the deepest oceanic trenches and within the stomachs of the organisms that live there, but we have little idea about where the great majority of them end up. More than eight million tonnes of plastic enters our oceans every year, comprising between 80 and 85 percent of all marine trash, but with inadequate data, there are concerns that these figures could be underestimates.
Currently, most of the data we have on microplastics are accidentally captured by research ships, which use plankton nets to collect marine-microorganism samples. However, researchers Christopher Ruf and Madeline Evans from the University of Michigan have discovered an innovative way to identify and track concentrations of microplastics in the ocean.
The technique relies on NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), a constellation of eight micro-satellites used to predict hurricanes that calculate wind speeds above the ocean by measuring the roughness of surface waters. As the satellites are continuously recording, Ruf and Evans realised that they collect a great deal of additional data. It was while analysing these data that they noticed some differences-times where the surface of the ocean appeared to be much smoother than it should, given the prevailing wind (盛行风) conditions.
Knowing that water isn’t roughened as much when it contains a lot of floating material, Ruf and Evans identified a pattern that linked areas of unusual smoothness and predicted microplastic distributions. They found that the difference between their measurements, and how much rougher the surface would be if winds of the same speed were blowing across clear water, was “highly correlated with the presence of microplastics, and the degree of the difference also correlated with the concentration of the plastics.”
The research reveals that there are seasonal variations,where the concentrations of microplastics tend to be higher in the summer and lower in the winter in a very clean, periodic way, which Ruf explains mirrors the way in which the ocean circulation changes throughout the year. It also confirms, as was previously thought, that rivers are the main source of ocean microplastics.
Raising awareness of the issue of ocean microplastics among the public and politicians is just one of the researchers’ future aims; they are also in conversation with Duteh non-profit The Ocean Cleanup and Finnish clean-technology specialist Clewat, which are interested in using the information to more efficiently target their trash-collection campaigns.
So far, only one year’s worth of data have been processed since CYGNSS was launched in 2016. By looking at a longer time period, Ruf and Evans aim to determine whether the seasonal pattern is repeatable, and whether the concentration of micmplastics in the ocean is getting worse.
1. What is Paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．The limited knowledge about ocean microplastics. |
| B．The harm of ocean microplastics to sea creatures. |
| C．The methods of degrading ocean microplasties. |
| D．The previous research on ocean microplasties. |
| A．has offered data about the repeatable seasonal pattern |
| B．guides research ships to gather data about sea animals |
| C．provides unexpected data about the changes of sea surface |
| D．was designed to measure the distribution of ocean microplastics |
| A．Microplastics will end up in the stomachs of the ocean organisms. |
| B．Mlicroplastics play a vital role in the yearly ocean circulation changes. |
| C．The surface of the ocean can get smoother with more microplastics in it. |
| D．The new way of tracking microplastics has helped prevent ocean pollution. |
| A．To introduce the technology of CYGNSS. |
| B．To present a way to study ocean microplastics. |
| C．To test an assumption on ocean microplastics. |
| D．To propose a new means of protecting the ocean. |
Microplastics, referring to plastic fragments and particles (碎片和微粒) less than 5 millimeters in diameter (直径), have been found on Mount Qomolangma as high as 8,440 meters above sea level, just 408.86 meters below the peak of the mountain, according to a recent study published in the journal One Earth. Scientists collected snow and water samples from 19 different
3 . Plastic pollution has long been a problem, but now it's gotten to a new height literally. Microplastic, referring to plastic fragments and particles less than 5 millimeters in diameter, have been found on Mount Qomolangma as high as 8,440 meters above sea level, just 408.86 meters below the peak of the mountain, according to a recent study published in the journal One Earth.
“These are the highest microplastics ever discovered so far.” lead author Imogen Napper from the University of Plymouth, UK, said in a statement. Scientists collected snow and water samples from 19 different locations from 4,200 meters above sea level all the way up to the summit of Mount Qomolangma. They found microplastics in all the water samples and part of the snow samples. The most polluted sample was from the Base Camp in Nepal, where most human activities on the mountain are concentrated. It had 79 particles of microplastics per liter of snow.
But how have these fragments made it all this way and in such a great abundance? The answer is apparent human activities. It is climbers who bring plastic products to the mountain. Even if they don't litter, just walking for 20 minutes or opening a bottle of water can release microplastics into the environment.
The harsh fact is that plastic pollution has reached even the most remote places on Earth. Researchers even found a plastic bag al the deepest point in the world's oceans—in the Mariana Trench, located in the Pacific Ocean. The bag is the same as the ones commonly used in grocery stores. Even covered in ice, the Arctic is still a victim of plastic pollution. A 2020 report published in Nature suggests that there are 2.000 to 17,000 plastic particles per cubic meter in Arctic ice cores, and between 0 to 18 microplastic particles per cubic meter from the water beneath ice floes. Experts think microplastics may be transported by air and then reach the North Pole in snowfall.
“What we don t yet fully know is the potential problems these tiny pieces of plastic could be having to ecosystems, to organisms and even to our own health as well,” said Christian Dunn of Bangor University, UK. Then what can we do? “We need to start focusing on deeper technological solutions that focus on microplastics, like changing fabric design and including natural fibers instead of plastic when possible.”
1. What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?| A．The polluted samples from the peak were the most serious. |
| B．Plastic pollution has been discovered at high altitudes. |
| C．Humans have .climbed to the peak of Mount Qomolangma. |
| D．Microplastics are a newly-found material by researchers. |
| A．Microplastics may go far beyond the range of human activities. |
| B．The means of microplastics transportation has been confirmed. |
| C．There are frequent exchanges between Arctic ice cores and ice floes. |
| D．Bags from grocery stores are the main source of plastic pollution. |
| A．to prohibit the use of plastic products | B．to diversify the design of microplastics |
| C．to apply only natural fibrous alternatives | D．to develop more advanced technologies |
| A．Litter in the Mariana Trench | B．New One Earth Campaigns |
| C．Pollution Reaches New Height | D．Adventurous Human Activists |
A promising approach
As for what to do with the collected PM waste, The designer has currently set up a business to make jewelers out of the waste. If collected on a big scale, the designer believes
Fashion's Melt Down
Throwaway culture is trashing the planet-but one young chemical engineer has her own way to turn it over．
Fast fashion has changed the way we dress．We buy more clothes, more often-but we wear them less．Alina Bassi, founder of Kleiderly, wants to give our clothing waste another chance at a useful life．
Bassi has always cared about the threat of climate change, but she actually started her career in the oil industry．After a few years, she landed at bio-bean, a startup that turned waste coffee grounds into products that could be burnt for heat and fuel．After a year, Bassi was keen to branch out-used coffee grounds are not the biggest threat facing the planet．Instead, she poured her efforts into tackling a much bigger global polluter: the fashion industry．
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, we produce 100 billion items of clothing per year, and this is set to double by 2050．But they don't last long enough to offset（抵消）the carbon cost of producing the material, creating the clothes, and then shipping them to customers．"It makes no sense that we have such a high carbon footprint for something so short-lived," Bassi says．
Using the principles of a circular economy, Bassi has developed a low-energy, multi-stage process to turn clothing fibres into an alternative to oil-based plastic．This new plastic can then be used by manufacturers in their existing machines, so that your old T-shirts and jeans will become different products instead of clothes, such as clothing hangers, or even furniture．
Fashion companies have some other ways to reduce fashion waste, from creating clothes designed to last, to recycling the fabric to make more clothing．But "a problem this big needs multiple solutions," Bassi says．"We think about the multiple lives of a product and how we can keep reusing it instead of letting it fall into landfills or incinerators（焚化炉）,"she says．
1. Why did Bassi switch her focus to the fashion industry?2. Please paraphrase the underlined sentence in your own words．
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why．
Kleiderly can change old jackets and trousers into a new material, which can be used to make more clothing．
4. Please briefly present your own solution（s）to the throwaway problem in daily life．（about 40 words）
1. 垃圾问题的现状；
2. 垃圾分类的意义；
3. 询问对方城市垃圾分类的情况。
注意：1. 词数不少于100；
2. 适当增减细节，使文章连贯；
3. 开头、结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Chris,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
7 . Baggy has become the first dog in the UK—and potentially the world—to join the fight against air pollution by recording pollutant levels near the ground.
Baggy wears a pollution monitor on her collar so she can take data measurements close to the ground. Her monitor has shown that air pollution levels are higher closer to ground level, which has helped highlight concerns that babies and young kids may be at higher risk of developing lung problems.
Conventional air pollution monitors are normally fixed on lampposts at about nine feet in the air. However, since Baggy stands at about the same height as a child in a pushchair（婴儿车）, she frequently records pollution levels which are much higher than the data gathered by the Environment A gency.
The doggy data research was the idea of Baggy's 13-year-old owner Tom Hunt and his dad Matt. The English youngster noticed that pollution levels are around two-thirds higher close to the ground than they are in the air at the height where they are recorded by the agency. Tom has since reported the shocking findings to the government in an attempt to emphasise that babies are at higher risk of developing asthma（哮喘）.
Matt Hunt said he was "very proud" of his son because “when the boy gets an idea, he keeps his head down and gets on with it, and he really does want to do some good and stop young kids from getting asthma."
“Tom built up a passion for environmental protection at a very early age," Matt added. “He became very interested in gadgets（小装置）. About one year ago, he got this new piece of tech which is like a test tube. One Sunday afternoon, we went out to do some monitoring, and he said, why don't we put it on Baggy's collar and let her monitor the pollution？'So we did it."
Tom said, "Most of the time, Baggy is just like any other dog. But for the rest of the time she is a super dog, and we are all really proud of her."
1. With a monitor on her collar, Baggy can ____________.| A．take pollutant readings | B．record pollutant levels |
| C．process collected data | D．reduce air pollution |
| A．High places are free of air pollution. |
| B．Higher pushchairs are more risky for kids. |
| C．Conventional monitors are more reliable. |
| D．Air is more polluted closer to the ground. |
| A．To warn of a health risk. | B．To find out pollution sources. |
| C．To test his new monitor. | D．To prove Baggy's abilities. |
| A．Modest. | B．Generous. | C．Creative. | D．Outgoing. |
8 . Like many travel industries, the negative influences on the environment seem to outweigh the positive
9 . Something strange was happening inside LeeAnne’s home. During the summer of 2014，14-year-old J.D. had stomach severe pains, but his CT scan found nothing wrong. LeeAnne and her husband lost hair and suffered dizziness and headaches. LeeAnne even lost her eyelashes.
In January 2015, the city of Flint sent out a notice that the water supply, switched from the Detroit water system to the Flint River to cut cost, contained high levels of trihalomethanes (三卤甲烷). The notice warned that people with poor immune (免疫的) systems might be at increased risk for liver, kidney, and nervous system problems but emphasized that the water was otherwise safe to drink.
Alarmed, LeeAnne researched the water supply and searched the Internet. Then she distributed a fact sheet to city officials, listing the side effects of exposure to trihalomethanes. Then she urged her neighbors to attend city council meetings, where they shared their health problems. Still, officials insisted the water was safe to drink. So LeeAnne demanded that the city test her water.
The results were disturbing. The trihalomethanes were the least of her problems. The lead levels in her water were nearly seven times the legal amount. But the city maintained her plumbing (管道) was the cause.
LeeAnne immediately had her children tested for lead. All the kids showed lead exposure. She read Flint’s water quality reports and discovered the city wasn’t applying the proper corrosion (腐蚀) control standards to its pipes; the standards prevent the metal in pipes from leaching into the water.
In March, a follow-up test of LeeAnne’s water showed lead levels nearly 27 times higher than the EPA’s threshold. LeeAnne’s pipes could not be responsible for the high lead levels, since they were plastic.
In September, Virginia Tech lab released a report that concluded the Flint River water was 19 times more corrosive than the Detroit water.
The governor eventually admitted the water was unsafe. He ordered that Flint’s water supply be switched back to Detroit’s. In Washington, President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Flint and ordered federal aid to help the city recover.
1. How did LeeAnne react to the city notice?| A．She had her children tested for lead. |
| B．She asked the city to replace her pipes. |
| C．She urged the officials to test Flint’s water. |
| D．She collected side effects of trihalomethanes. |
| A．The lead in their water. |
| B．Corrosion to their pipes. |
| C．Their poor immune systems. |
| D．Exposure to Trihalomethanes. |
| A．unconcerned | B．cautious |
| C．doubtful | D．objective |
| A．Revealing the truth takes time. |
| B．Nothing can stop a determined heart. |
| C．It takes courage to challenge authority. |
| D．Joint effort is the key to solving problems. |
10 . If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars, we would go in darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal(夜间活动的) species on this planet. Instead, we are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun’s light. This is a basic evolutionary fact, even though most of us don’t think of ourselves as diurnal beings. Yet it’s the only way to explain what we’ve done to the night: We’ve engineered it to receive us by filling it with light.
The benefits of this kind of engineering come with consequences — called light pollution — whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky. Ill-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night and completely changes the light levels — and light rhythms — to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some aspect or life is affected. In most cities the sky looks as though it has been emptied of stars, leaving behind a vacant haze (霾) that mirrors our fear of the dark. We’ve grown so used to this orange haze that the original glory of an unlit night, — dark enough for the planet Venus to throw shadow on Earth — is wholly beyond our experience, beyond memory almost.
We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet(磁铁). The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being “captured” by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms. Migrating at night, birds tend to collide with brightly lit tall buildings.
Frogs living near brightly lit highways suffer nocturnal light levels that are as much as a million times brighter than normal, throwing nearly every aspect of their behavior out of joint, including their nighttime breeding choruses. Humans are no less trapped by light pollution than the frogs. Like most other creatures, we do need darkness. Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself.
Living in a glare of our own making, we have cut ourselves off from our evolutionary and cultural heritage—the light of the stars and the rhythms of day and night. In a very real sense light pollution causes us to lose sight of our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best measured against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way—the edge of our galaxy-arching overhead.
1. What does the underlined word “it” (Paragraph 1) most probably refer to ?| A．The moon. | B．The night. |
| C．The sky. | D．The planet. |
| A．show how light pollution affects animals |
| B．provide examples of animal protection |
| C．compare the living habits of both species |
| D．explain why the number of certain species has declined |
| A．human beings cannot go to the outer space |
| B．light pollution does harm to the eyesight of animals |
| C．human beings should reflect on their position in the universe |
| D．light pollution has destroyed some of the world heritages |
| A．The Magic Light. | B．The Orange Haze. |
| C．The Rhythms of Nature. | D．The Disappearing Night. |
