1 . You’ve heard that plastic is polluting the oceans — between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.

At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called “Strawpocalypse,” a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168,000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source (来源) of plastic pollution, but they’ve recently come under fire because most people don’t need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that’s part of Von Wong’s artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.

In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate (说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload’s worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled “Truckload of Plastic,” Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10,000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they’d been dumped (倾倒) from a truck all at once.

Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.

1. What are Von Wong’s artworks intended for?

A．Beautifying the city he lives in.	B．Introducing eco-friendly products.
C．Drawing public attention to plastic waste.	D．Reducing garbage on the beach.

2. Why does the author discuss plastic straws in paragraph 3?

A．To show the difficulty of their recycling.

B．To explain why they are useful.

C．To voice his views on modern art.

D．To find a substitute for them.

3. What effect would “Truckload of Plastic” have on viewers?

A．Calming.	B．Disturbing.
C．Refreshing.	D．Challenging.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety

B．Media Interest in Contemporary Art

C．Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies

D．Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures

2 . Human beings have somehow managed to engineer the night to receive us by filling it with light. This kind of control is no different from the feat ( 壮 举 ) of damming a river. Its benefits come with_________ — called light pollution — whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design. _________ lighting washes out the darkness of night, altering light levels and light rhythms to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have_________. Wherever man-made light spills into the natural world, some aspects of life-migration, reproduction, feeding-is affected.

For most human history, the phrase “light pollution” would have_________. Imagine walking towards London on a moonlit night around 1800, when it was Earth’s most populous city. Nearly a million people lived there, _________ candles, torches and lanterns, as they always had. Only a few houses were lit by gas, and there would be no public gaslights in the streets or squares for another seven years. From a few miles away, you would have been more likely to_________ London than to see its dim collective glow.

We’ve lit up the night as if it were a(n) _________ country. As a matter of fact, among mammals (哺乳动物) alone, the number of species active at night is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet attracting them to it. The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being_________ by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms, circling and circling in the thousands until they drop.

It was once thought that light pollution only affected astronomers, who need to see the night sky in all its glorious clarity. Unlike astronomers, most of us may not need a_________ view of the night sky for our work. __________, like most other creatures, we do need darkness. __________ darkness is pointless. It is as essential to maintaining our biological welfare as__________ itself; the price of modifying our internal clockwork means it doesn’t operate as it should, causing various physical discomforts. So fundamental are the regular rhythms of waking and sleep to our being that__________ them is similar to altering our center of gravity.

In a very real sense, light pollution causes us to__________ our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best__________ against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way — the edge of our galaxy — arching overhead.

1.

A．consequences

B．achievements

C．agreements

D．circumstances

2.

A．Randomly-designed

B．Well-designed

C．Poorly-designed

D．Economically-designed

3.

A．appealed

B．adapted

C．objected

D．amounted

4.

A．come under criticism

B．made no difference

C．come into effect

D．made no sense

5.

A．making do with

B．fed up with

C．identifying with

D．overflowing with

6.

A．visit

B．greet

C．feel

D．smell

7.

A．independent

B．disconnected

C．unoccupied

D．excluded

8.

A．exposed

B．captured

C．dismissed

D．frustrated

9.

A．clear

B．comprehensive

C．traditional

D．critical

10.

A．Subsequently

B．However

C．Therefore

D．Similarly

11.

A．Reviewing

B．Embracing

C．Denying

D．Regulating

12.

A．light

B．rhythm

C．status

D．dawn

13.

A．emerging from

B．withdrawing from

C．messing with

D．coinciding with

14.

A．keep track of

B．lose sight of

C．catch hold of

D．let go of

15.

A．measured

B．neutralized

C．undergone

D．supervised

3 . Last week came solid evidence that living in toxic Britain can seriously harm your health. Cardiologists at Queen Mary University of London found that even "safe" levels of air pollution are linked to heart abnormalities similar to those seen during the early stages of heart failure. Their study of almost 4,000 people was backed up by a major US study which showed that higher exposure to fine particles and nitrogen oxides is linked to an acceleration in the hardening of the arteries (动脉).

We have long known that air pollution leads to coughing, shortness of breath and irritation in the eyes, nose and throat. It is also clearly linked to respiratory diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, as well as diabetes and some cancers. It is now beyond doubt that children's health is greatly affected, and links have been made between it and Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, dementia and congenital birth defects.

The statistics are alarming. In the UK, more than 2 million people suffer from cardiovascular (心血管的) diseases, and nearly one in seven men and one in 12 women will go on to die from them. Heart disease costs the UK economy nearly £30 bn a year to treat, as much as the state spends on secondary education. It is one of the greatest single drains on the public purse. Britain, however, rejects common sense, and shows little sign that it wants to seriously address pollution any time soon.

Despite the mounting evidence of air pollution's costs and health impact, Britain has had to be dragged screaming through the courts to make it comply with minimal clean air guidelines and laws. Successive governments have continually tried to evade their legal responsibilities, spending millions of pounds fighting in the courts and lobbying the EU to be allowed to continue to pollute.

The government now has a new draft clean air strategy our for consultation until 14 August and claims to be acting faster to tackle air pollution than almost every other major developed economy. It pledges to halve the number of people living in places that do not meet World Health Organization pollution guidelines, and it propose to end the sale of new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2040.

But intending to cut the air pollution bill by around 12.5% in 12 years and waiting 20 years to be rid of the worst vehicles seems criminally weak. Meanwhile, government is knowingly forging ahead with infrastructure plans that will inevitably increase air pollution. The effect will inevitably be to massively increase air pollution and health costs for millions of Britons.

So could the car-clogged streets of Sunder-land, Birmingham and London, where I lived for many years, have contributed to my disease and those of millions of others? Probably. Could the oil companies be responsible for far more than climate change? Certainly. Could Britain's monstrous and mounting bill for heart disease be partly due to the highly polluting diesel cars that governments so scandalously encouraged us to drive? Quite possibly.

What is certain is that air pollution is now an international scandal, and the cause of a health emergency that governments and industry have failed to address. It undoubtedly threatens life more than any war or disaster. When there are clear alternatives to burning fossil fuels then politicians who do not act to prevent it must stand accused not just of failing to act, but of condoning the mass poisoning of their people.

1. According to the study, ________ is probably unrelated to air pollution.

A．diabetes

B．stomachaches

C．Alzheimer

D．artery hardening

2. The writer thinks Britain shows little sign to tackle air pollution because ________.

A．British government has been screaming for help in court

B．EU has dissuaded British government for help in court

C．British government has tried to have EU's permission for more pollution

D．The government firmly refused to act in accordance with the clean air guideline.

3. What is the writer's attitude toward the new draft?

A．Britain will implement it faster than other major developed economies.

B．It presents a practical way to end pollution from vehicles.

C．Its goal will be achieved at the price of massive health cost.

D．It's aiming too low when more pollution is expected.

4. What can be inferred from the article?

A．Government officials should feel disgraced for non-action as leaders.

B．The government should cover the bills for air pollution and related diseases.

C．Oil companies should not be held accountable for the international scandal.

D．British government is an irresponsible one for encouraging people to use vehicles.

4 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. stem     B. dot     C. attributable     D. exceeded     E. overlook     F. exposed G. drainage     H. emerging     I. sinking     J. access     K. established

The Mega-City Environment

Mega-cities suffer from a catalog of environmental ills. A World Health Organization(WHO)/United Nations Environment Program(UNEP)study found that seven of the cities-Mexico City, Beijing, Cairo, Jakarta, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo and Moscow-had three or more pollutants that    1     the WHO health protection guidelines. All 20 of the cities studied by WHO/UNEP had at least one major pollutant that went beyond    2     health limits.

According to the World Resources Institute, “Millions of children living in the world’s largest cities, particularly in developing countries, are    3     to life-threatening air pollution two to eight times above the maximum based on WHO guidelines. Indeed, more than 80 percent of all deaths in developing countries    4     to air pollution-induced lung infections are among children under five.” In the big Asian mega-cities such as New Delhi, Beijing and Jakarta, approximately 20 to 30 percent of all respiratory diseases    5     from air pollution.

Almost all of the mega-cities face major fresh water challenges. Johannesburg, South Africa, is forced to draw water from highlands 370 miles away. In Bangkok, saltwater is invading aquifers(地下蓄水层). Mexico City has a serious    6     problem because of excessive groundwater withdrawal.

More than a billion people, 20 percent of the world’s population, live without regular    7     to clean running water. While poor people are forced to pay high fees for private water, many cities squander their resources through leakages and illegal    8    . “With the population of cities expected to increase to five billion by 2025,” says Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the UNEP, “the urban demand for water is set to increase rapidly. This means that any solution to the water crisis is closely linked to the governance of cities.“

Mega-city residents, crowded into unsanitary slums, are also subject to serious disease outbreaks. Lima, Peru(with population estimated at 9.4 million by 2015)suffered a cholera outbreak in the late 1990s partly because, as the New York Times reported, ”rural people new to Lima...live in houses without running water and use the outhouses(屋外厕所)that    9     the hillsides above.“

It’s worth looking at some of these    10     mega-cities in detail, because daily life there is likely to be the pattern for a majority of the world’s population. Most are already experiencing severe environmental problems that will only be worsened by rapid population increases.

5 . Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Fresh warning sounded on plastics problem

Walk along any beach in the world, no matter how isolated, and you will see plastic of some kind washed up on the shoreline,     1    (offer) a reminder of the reckless throwaway culture of the present-day world.

Lately, a study     2     (sound) a fresh warning on the damage caused to the marine ecosystem due to discarded plastics, which eventually has a bearing on human health due to the seafood we consume.

In a paper     3    (title) “A Growing Plastic Smog” published on March 8, 2023 in the peer-reviewed research journal Plos One, researchers called on governments around the world     4    (take) sweeping action to address the “unprecedented plastic pollution” of the world’s oceans.

The plastics break down over time into minute particles that cannot be detected by the naked eye, but find their way into the marine ecosystem and into the seafood humans consume. No one knows for certain     5     the long-term damage will be to marine life and humans, but the study placed much of the blame on the plastics industry for failing to recycle or design for recyclability. “    6     eaten, microplastics can severely damage an animal’s internal tissues. Globally, we have reached a situation     7     we can no longer ignore the plastic pollution pandemic that is infecting our oceans,” he said.

“This research shows us that beach cleanups and citizen science projects that focus on the environmental fate of plastics have little impact on solving the enormity of the plastic problem. Marcus Eriksen, lead author of the study, said in a statement that the findings were a “stark warning     8     we must act now at a global scale”. “We’ve found an alarming trend of exponential growth of microplastics in the global ocean since the millennium, which     9    (expect) to reach over 170 trillion plastic particles,” said Eriksen, adding that the exponential increase in microplastics across the world’s oceans makes     10     necessary to “bring in an age of corporate responsibility for the entire life of the things they make”.

6 . Plastic is everywhere, from the Arctic ice to vital organs in the human body. In fact, previous estimates suggest that the average person swallows a credit card-worth of microscopic plastic particles(颗粒) every week. But new research shows that this could actually be an understatement.

Microplastics are plastics smaller than 5 millimeters, found in industrial waste, beauty products, and formed during the degradation of larger plastic pieces. Over time, they break down into even smaller nanoplastics. These tiny particles can pass through our intestines and lungs into our bloodstreams, reaching vital organs like the heart and brain.

While the idea of eating plastic is unsettling in itself, the major concern here is that these plastic particles contain chemicals that can interrupt our body’s natural release of hormones, potentially increasing our risk of reproductive disorders and certain cancers. They can also carry toxins(毒素) on their surface like heavy metals.

In the past, researchers have shown bottled water can contain tens of thousands of identifiable plastic fragments in a single container. However, until recently, only the larger microplastics were detectable with available measuring tools, leaving the area of nanoplastics largely a mystery.

Using Raman microscopy (显微镜学), capable of detecting particles down to the size of a flu virus, the team measured an average of 240, 000 particles of plastic per liter of bottled water, 90 percent of which were nanoplastics, a revelation 10 to 100 times larger than previous estimates.

These plastics likely originate from the bottle material, filters used to “purify” the water, and the source water itself. “It is not totally unexpected to find so much of this stuff, ” the study’s lead author, Columbia graduate student Naixin Qian, said in a statement. His team hopes to expand their research into tap water and other water sources to better inform our exposure to these potentially dangerous particles. “The idea is that the smaller things get, the more of them I reveal, ” he added.

1. What is the primary focus of the new research?

A．The presence of plastic particles.	B．The use of plastic in everyday products.
C．The detection methods for microplastics.	D．The potential risks of nanoplastics to human.

2. What is the advantage of Raman microscopy?

A．Finding the source of plastic particles.	B．Helping to cure the deadly flu virus.
C．Detecting the smaller plastic particles.	D．Improving the quality of bottled water.

3. Why will the team expand their research into tap water?

A．To focus on areas with higher plastic pollution.

B．To be aware of the dangerous particles in daily life.

C．To further measure the types of particles in tap water.

D．To detect the smaller plastic particles in industrial areas.

4. What is Qian’s attitude towards his research?

A．Skeptical.

B．Objective.

C．Conservative.

D．Positive.

7 . As plastic waste increases rapidly around the world, an essential question remains unanswered: What harm, if any, does it cause to human health?

A few years ago, as microplastics began turning up in the organs of fish and shellfish, the concern was focused on the safety of seafood. Shellfish were a particular worry, because in their case, unlike fish, we eat the entire animal — stomach, microplastics and all. In 2017, Belgian scientists announced that seafood lovers could consume up to 11,000 plastic particles (粒子) a year by eating mussels (贻贝), a favorite dish in that country.

By then, however, scientists already understood that plastics continuously fragment small pieces in the environment, tearing over time into fibers even smaller than a strand of human hair — particles are so small that they easily fly in the air. A team at the U.K.’s University of Plymouth decided to compare the threat from eating polluted wild mussels in Scotland to that of breathing air in a typical home. Their conclusion: People will take in more plastic by breathing in or taking tiny, invisible plastic fibers floating in the air around them—fibers from their own clothes, carpets, and soft covering on furniture — than they will by eating the mussels.

So, it wasn’t much of a surprise when, in 2022, scientists from the Netherlands and the U.K, announced they had found tiny plastic particles in living humans, in two places where they hadn’t been seen before: deep inside the lungs of surgical patients, and in the blood of unknown donors. Neither of the two studies answered the question of possible harm. But together they signaled a shift in the focus of concern about plastics toward the cloud of dust particles in the air, some of them are so small that they can get into deep inside the body and even inside cells, in ways that larger microplastics can’t.

Dick Vethaak, a professor of ecotoxicology (生态毒理学), doesn’t consider the results alarming, exactly—“but, yes, we should be concerned. Plastics should not be in your blood.” “We live in a multi-particle world,” he adds, referring to the dust, pollen (花粉), and smog that humans also breathe in every day. “The trick is to figure out how much plastics contribute to that particle burden and what does that mean.”

1. What does the word “fragment” in para. 3 probably mean?

A．break into

B．take in

C．pick out

D．make up

2. The study done by a team at the U K.’s University of Plymouth shows that ________.

A．microplastics from things in our daily life ant more poisonous

B．people eating polluted mussels are more likely to get diseases

C．invisible plastic fibers are more harmful to the environment

D．the influence of microplastics in mussels is less than thought

3. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

A．microplastics in polluted wild mussels can cause serious diseases

B．there’s no need to worry about the plastics found in human blood

C．we can avoid breathing particles by figuring out particle burden

D．more attention should be paid to the dust particles than plastics

4. Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?

A．Are Microplastics Harmful to Us?

B．Should Microplastics be in Our Blood?

C．Can Microplastics Get into Our Bodies?

D．Do We Know Anything about Microplastics?

8 . In Mumbai, there’s the ceaseless clamor of car homes as drivers edge through traffic. There’s pounding and buzzing from the construction of office towers and apartment blocks. Drumbeats and trumpet melodies spill out from weddings and countless festivals. And it’s all topped off by bellowing (大声吼叫的) street vendors and garbage trucks blasting Bollywood songs. Living in Mumbai requires a huge ______ for noise.

When Sumaira Abdulali began campaigning against noise pollution in India’s financial capital two decades ago, friends, acquaintances and even her lawyers insisted it was ______ . “People told me it’s foolish to even try, because Indians love noise,” she says. “We’re a noisy country.”

But in 2003, Abdulali won a lawsuit seeking to ______ environmental rules that had allowed loud music late into the night during a festival. ______ , the victory led to a ban on loudspeakers within 100 meters of schools, hospitals, courts and places of worship. And she has since won more than a dozen other actions both on her own and via the Awaaz Foundation (awaaz means “noise” in Hindi), which she launched in 2006.

The World Health Organization warns that noise is a top threat to human ______ , affecting not only hearing but also sleep, brain development and cardiovascular health. Abdulali claims Mumbai is the world’s ______ city. A study led by Ritesh Vijay, an expert from India’s National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, did find that noise levels in Mumbai and surrounding areas in 2020 dramatically exceed legal limits.

In recent years, the battle against noise has become increasingly ______ , with Abdulali often facing powerful interests who consider it an inevitable byproduct of growth. With increasing ______ , ever more people are exposed to continuous noise. In a rapidly expanding city such as Mumbai, with a population topping 12 million, demand for housing puts noise rules ______ development plans. Although sound barriers are required for construction projects, they’re expensive, so developers ______ installing them.

Traffic is a tougher problem. Noise on the road can reach 110 decibels (分贝) — a level that can lead to permanent hearing damage after just 15 minutes of exposure, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Luckily, ______ can help in the fight, Vijay says. He suggests devices that measure horn use, which would let officials offer ______ drivers rewards like deductions (扣除) on car insurance. Dynamic signaling, where sensors linked to stoplights detect traffic density, would improve vehicle flow and ______   the urge to resort to horns, he says. Local government also ______ . Mumbai decreed (颁布) India’s first “No-Honking” day in 2008, with police handing out booklets to raise awareness about traffic noise and imposing fines up to 1,000 rupees ($12) on offending motorists.

Far more important is the longer-term impact of the day-to-day noise, so that’s where Vijay believes activists should focus their energy. “In India we celebrate festivals with lots of noise,” he says. “But our ______ noise itself is beyond the allowed limit.”

1.

A．talent

B．potential

C．demand

D．tolerance

2.

A．encouraging

B．reasonable

C．ridiculous

D．depressing

3.

A．take advantage of

B．put an end to

C．lay emphasis on

D．throw light on

4.

A．Therefore

B．Similarly

C．Subsequently

D．However

5.

A．well-being

B．intelligence

C．interaction

D．behavior

6.

A．largest

B．busiest

C．loudest

D．richest

7.

A．difficult

B．successful

C．diverse

D．easy

8.

A．availability

B．capitalization

C．urbanization

D．convenience

9.

A．in pace with

B．in contact with

C．in league with

D．in conflict with

10.

A．recommend

B．justify

C．resist

D．advocate

11.

A．government

B．technology

C．finance

D．psychology

12.

A．quiet

B．brave

C．safe

D．alert

13.

A．trigger

B．satisfy

C．reduce

D．maintain

14.

A．steps in

B．takes over

C．cuts in

D．takes off

15.

A．traffic

B．construction

C．ceremony

D．background

10 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

The Real Cost of Travel

Mass tourism is a relatively recent phenomenon. The tourism industry     1     (take) off in the middle of the last century and it’s been growing ever since. In the last ten years especially, more and more people have been traveling to places     2     we had previously only read about or seen on television. But what kind of impact does tourism have on the planet?

A voyage to the end of the earth?

A large cruise ship (邮轮) can carry as many as 6,000 passengers and there are upwards of 50 such ships currently     3    (sail) the seas. Cruise ships dump about 90,000 tons of waste into the oceans every year. Any harmful effects of this are made even worse by the fact     4     cruises tend to visit the same places over and over again, thus concentrating the waste in specific places.

Trash on top of the world

From remote ocean habitats to the world’s highest mountain, our trash is everywhere. Though far fewer people go climbing the Himalayas than on a cruise, their impact     5    (still feel). Tourism is vital to the economy of Nepal,     6     it is to many non-industrial countries. But for decades, climbers have been abandoning their unwanted equipment on Everest. For the last few years, clean-up teams of local and international climbers have been organizing hiking trips just     7    (pick) up the waste. One group has brought over eight tons of waste down from the mountain!

When more is not better

Tourism of a different kind is causing problems in Europe. Construction on the Mediterranean coast has been     8     control for years. Beach resorts form an almost unbroken line from Gibraltar to Greece, and natural habitats have disappeared under miles of concrete. And so we pollute the sea, the land, and the air. Low-cost air travel is booming, in spite of (or perhaps     9     (help) by) economic problems. For many Europeans, low-cost flights allow them to take several short vacations a year. Yet curiously, short flights actually have a much bigger effect on climate change than long flights. So, are there    10     (damaging) ways of seeing the world? Traveling by train, for example, is a much greener way of getting around.