The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan was
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the
According to The Guardian, the Japanese government argued that they
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on March14 once again denounced (谴责) Japan’s unilateral (单边的) decision to dump nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the sea,
Environmentalists are getting more
3 . The garment (服装) industry is one of the largest carbon polluters on planet Earth, and one of the greatest producers of waste. Three out of five of the 100 billion garments made in 2018 ended up in landfill within a year. Toxic chemicals land in the environment and worker communities, and the production of cotton uses up vast amounts of water.
The business model of fast fashion has led to an enormous increase in the amounts of clothes that are produced, sold, and thrown. According to McKinsey, clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2014, and the average consumer buys 60% more garments each year. At the same time, these clothes are kept only half as long as they were a mere fifteen years ago.
About 100 billion items of clothing are produced each year; that’s nearly 14 items for every human being on the planet. Some of those never even reach the consumers; it caused a minor anger when in 2018 a luxury brand admitted to burning clothes just to protect the brand.
Yet, with clothes being so cheap, people do not wear at least 50 percent of their wardrobes, according to this study. The clothing and footwear industries together account for more than 8 percent of global climate influence, greater than all international airline flights and oceanic shipping trips combined. Water usage for growing cotton has led to huge lack of water, and coloring and treatment of garments make up 17%—20% of all industrial water pollution.
An industry that makes billions on the use of the planet does not suddenly become more sustainable (可持续的) when they start using organic cotton, or start burning their unsold goods (remember—people worked really hard for very little money on those clothes!) as a green fuel…
1. What does the underlined word “Toxic” mean in paragraph 1?| A．Colorful. | B．Enormous. | C．Beneficial. | D．Poisonous. |
| A．The new model clothing change too slowly. |
| B．Some luxury clothes are cheap. |
| C．There are more new clothes every year. |
| D．They want to make full use of green fuel. |
| A．Fishing. | B．Climate. | C．Transport. | D．Agriculture. |
| A．Clothing waste. | B．Sources of pollution. |
| C．The garment industry. | D．Effects of environmental pollution. |
4 . Methods to Help Solve Air Pollution
With the development of the industry, air pollution has become an internationally concerned issue. The governments are taking efficient measures to prevent the situation getting worse.
1.Leave your cars at home.
Cars, being the greatest source of air pollution, can be left at home this weekend.
2.Volunteer yourself
This is one of the best things you can do. Why? Because it will do you good too.
3.Green-up your home.
This is one of the most common things that people do whenever Earth Day rolls around. That is to switch off their lights. However, this is not something you should do just for a day and for only an hour.
4.Pledge (保证) to do more every day
You know what the best way to celebrate Earth Day is? Extend your celebrations. That’s right! Do something every day that will improve your surroundings to make the planet a better place to live in.
| A．Bathing every day is bad for our health. |
| B．Voluntary work does good to your body and mind. |
| C．Travelling via public transport is the better option. |
| D．Join other like-minded individuals in a common task. |
| E．Always remember that every step, every initiative counts. |
| F．But as a member of the earth village, you can also help a lot. |
| G．Conserve energy by switching off all power whenever they are not in use. |
5 . Microplastic particles(微塑料颗粒)appear to be killing fish because some baby fish prefer to eat the particles rather than their actual food, researchers have warned.
With fears that the amount of plastic in the oceans could soon equal the weight of fish in the sea, scientists have become increasingly concerned about the effects on the marine environment.
Now a study published in the journal Science has found that baby perch(鲈鱼)will actively choose to eat plastic over the plankton they would normally feed on. The researchers said this greatly increased death rates of the perch, stopping their growth and appearing to change usually behavior. For example, they are losing the ability to smell a predator(捕食者), which makes them much more vulnerable.
For example, they seemed to lose the ability to smell a predator that made them much more vulnerable.
Professor Peter Eklov, a co-author of the Science paper, said: “This is the first time an animal has been found to prefer to eat plastic particles over food. Increases in microplastic pollution in the Baltic Sea and decreases of the coastal basic species(物种)have recently been noticed. When placed in a tank, perch exposed to microplastic were eaten four times more quickly than perch that had not been eating plastic.”
Fellow researcher Oona Lpnnstedt stressed the effects of fish eating large amounts of plastic were likely to be felt throughout the food chain. “If early life-history stages of other species are similarly affected by microplastics, this will in turn increase death rates, so the effects on marine ecosystems could be lasting,” she said.
Microplastic is produced as larger pieces of plastic waste are broken down in the environment, but large quantities of microfibers from synthetic clothes---materials essentially made of plastic---are produced each time they are washed and are small enough to pass through waste water treatment plants and get into the sea.
Cosmetics(化妆品)companies are also continuing to put microplastic pieces into their products, but the industry says it will try to stop using them by 2020.
1. What are the scientists worried about?
| A．The loss of food sources | B．The rising water temperature |
| C．Large amounts of plastic in the ocean | D．Fishes growing bigger and bigger |
| A．easily harmed | B．strong |
| C．active | D．well protected |
| A．Only species that eat plastic particles will be affected |
| B．Fish farming contributes much to the pollution of the food chain |
| C．Microplastic means the breakdown of large pieces of plastic |
| D．Products used in our daily life may produce microplastic |
| A．Let’s Protect the Marine Animals |
| B．Fish Prefer to Eat Plastic over Food |
| C．The Effects of Plastic Pollution |
| D．The Oceans Are Full of Microplastic Particles |
6 . Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease. But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately：the air you breathe.
Previous studies have linked high exposure (暴露) to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problems，but two analyses now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke (中风) within as little as a few hours after exposure. In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants (污染物) were up to 5% more likely to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure. A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)considers to be of “moderate” (良好) quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.
The authors of both studies stress that these risks are relatively small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure. However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices. So stricter regulation by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health.
1. The text mainly discusses the relationship between ________.| A．heart problems and air quality |
| B．heart problems and exercising |
| C．heart problems and smoking |
| D．heart problems and fatty food |
| A．relatively high | B．extremely low |
| C．relatively low | D．extremely high |
| A．Eating fatty food has immediate effects on your heart. |
| B．The EPA conducted many studies on air quality. |
| C．Moderate air quality is more harmful than smoking. |
| D．Stricter regulations on pollutants should be made. |
| A．inform | B．persuade |
| C．describe | D．entertain |
