1 . Nuclear pollution is a serious global
When nuclear accidents occur in coastal areas, the
Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, efforts to cool the reactors by pumping in seawater resulted in the
This
| A．change | B．opportunity | C．concern | D．possibility |
| A．caused | B．posed | C．created | D．increased |
| A．resulted in | B．led to | C．brought about | D．caused |
| A．terrestrial | B．aquatic | C．marine | D．atmospheric |
| A．balancing | B．regulating | C．considering | D．stabilizing |
| A．heightened | B．raised | C．decreased | D．lifted |
| A．minor | B．slight | C．substantial | D．insignificant |
| A．accumulation | B．storage | C．deposition | D．buildup |
| A．Therefore | B．Despite | C．However | D．Hence |
| A．from | B．by | C．of | D．in |
| A．residents | B．citizens | C．inhabitants | D．dwellers |
| A．issue | B．measure | C．release | D．disposal |
| A．web | B．chain | C．network | D．system |
| A．urgent | B．immediate | C．pressing | D．critical |
| A．address | B．tackle | C．solve | D．resolve |
2 . The effects of noise can reach organisms (生物体) without ears. Because of the way living things rely on each other, noise pollution may actually stop some forests from growing, a new study suggests. In a New Mexico woodland of pine trees, researchers found far fewer tree seedlings (小苗) in noisy sites than they did in quiet ones.
The study area is dotted with gas wells, some of which are quiet and some of which have compressors (压缩机) that create a constant noise. This allowed Jennifer Phillips, a behavioral ecologist at Texas A&M University-San Antonio and her colleagues to compare sites that were similar except for noise level. In areas that had been noisy for at least 15 years, the researchers found only about 13 pine seedlings, compared with 55 pine seedlings per hectare (公顷) in quiet areas.
The differences in plant growth were probably caused by changes in animal behavior, said Phillips. For example, noise might drive away certain pollinators (传粉昆虫) such as bees, bats and moths. In the case of pine trees, the problem was likely a lack of animals to disperse seeds. Pines depend on birds to carry their seeds away from the parent tree, and birds are known to avoid noise. The differences between the sites aren’t yet obvious to someone walking through them, said Sarah Termondt, a botanist (植物学家) with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who helped conduct the study. That’s probably because pines are slow-growing, with most of the mature trees in such woodlands being over a century old.
The study raises questions about the future of the area. “If the noise stays there long term, are we going to lose this important ecosystem of the pine which supports so much wildlife?” said Phillips. The study was published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.
1. What does the new study focus on?| A．The influence of noise pollution on plants. |
| B．The way the organisms receive noise. |
| C．The harm of noise pollution to insects. |
| D．The effects of noise pollution on humans . |
| A．Gas wells dotted in the area provide favorable conditions for the study. |
| B．The study sites are different in many ways including their noise level. |
| C．It is difficult for plants to live without noise and animals. |
| D．People can easily find the difference between the noisy and the quiet sites. |
| A．Seedling. | B．Thin. |
| C．Grown-up. | D．Tall. |
| A．Noise pollution is obviously a trouble that can be avoided. |
| B．Noise pollution could be a threat with the power to change ecosystems. |
| C．The pine forest is important because it supports so much wildlife. |
| D．Wildlife should be well protected for the future of this area. |
3 . The world has a plastic problem—and it is increasing.
1. Quit using plastic bags. Instead, take your own reusable shopping bag to the store. People use a trillion plastic bags worldwide every year. About 10 percent are used in the United States alone. That’s almost one bag per American per day.
2. Skip the straw. Today, around 8.3 billion plastic straws pollute the world’s beaches.
3. Don’t use plastic bottles. Buy a reusable bottle and fill it with any type of beverage you like.
4. Avoid plastic packaging. Buy bar soap instead of liquid soap in plastic containers. Don’t buy fruit or vegetables in plastic packaging. In the United Kingdom, leaders are calling for supermarkets to have plastic-free areas. They also want to tax plastic take-out containers.
5. Recycle. We can’t recycle all plastic items, but it is possible to recycle most bottles and milk or juice cartons. Today, Norway recycles 97 percent of its plastic bottle.
| A．Likewise, the average Dane uses four plastic bags per day. |
| B．In contrast, the average Dane used four single-use bags per year. |
| C．So when you order a drink, say no to the straw, or bring your own reusable one. |
| D．However, there are still loads of people ignoring the seriousness of it. |
| E．Scientists are working to find a long-term solution by making plastic more biodegradable (可降解的). |
| F．Some cities, like Bundanoon in Australia and San Francisco in the U.S. have completely or partially banned bottled water. |
| G．How? Machines at most supermarkets take the bottles and give a refund (退款) of up to 2.5 kroner (32 cents) per bottle. |
4 . The amount of plastic pollution in the oceans is rapidly increasing. This is problematic, as at least 700 species of sea animals may mistake it for a tasty snack. While we know that some species seem to eat plastic because it looks like jellyfish or some other food source, less research has been carried out into what plastic smells like to marine animals.
But now, a study from the University of North Carolina has found that the coating of algae that naturally builds up on ocean plastics causes the rubbish to give off the scent of food.
The researchers took 15 loggerhead turtles, each around five months old, and placed them in a laboratory tank. They then piped in clean water, clean plastic, turtle food, and plastic that had been immersed in the marine environment for five weeks.
The turtles showed no reaction to the smell of clean water or clean plastic. But when they were exposed to the smell of ocean-soaked plastic 'or turtle food, they exhibited food-seeking behaviors like reaching their noses out of the water or showing increasing activities.
“This finding is the first demonstration that the smell of ocean plastics causes animals to eat them,” said Dr. Kenneth J Lohmann, who took part in the study. "It's common to find loggerhead turtles with their digestive systems fully or partially blocked because they've eaten plastic materials. There are also increasing reports of sea turtles that have become ill and stranded on the beach due to their ingestion of plastic."
According to the researchers, areas of the ocean with dense concentrations of plastic may trick turtles and other animals into thinking that there is an abundant food source. "Once these plastics are in the ocean, we don't have a good way to remove them or prevent them from smelling like food," said Lohmann.
1. Why is plastic pollution posing a threat to marine animals?| A．It may eat up all jellyfish. | B．It may mislead them as food. |
| C．It may kill them with its smell. | D．It may trap 700 species of sea animals. |
| A．Sea water | B．Clear water | C．Brand-new plastic | D．Sea-soaked plastic |
| A．Turtles should be trained to be more intelligent. |
| B．Plastics should be kept from getting into the ocean at all. |
| C．An abundant food source should be offered to sea animals. |
| D．Researchers should come up with a solution to the current problem. |
| A．Ways Found to Remove Plastics | B．Loggerhead Turtles Faced with Food Shortage |
| C．Ocean Plastics- Trick or Treat? | D．Plastic Pollution- Compromise or Control? |
5 . 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. |
| 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. |
| A．Calming. | B．Disturbing. |
| C．Refreshing. | D．Challenging. |
| A．Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety |
| B．Media Interest in Contemporary Art |
| C．Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies |
| D．Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures |
6 . One of the problems damaging our planet is the number of things we throw away. Rubbish of all kinds is piling up in landfill and polluting our rivers and oceans. A more recent addition to the list of things we chuck away is e-waste — electronic items that are broken and not recycled. Now solutions are being found to give this stuff a new life.
Many millions of tonnes of televisions, phones, and other electronic equipment are discarded each year, partly because it’s cheaper to replace them than fix them, but also because we lack the skills to repair them. A UN report claims the 50 million tonnes of e-waste generated every year will more than double to 110 million tonnes by 2050, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world.
However, there’s a growing trend for repair events and clubs which could be part of a solution to the growing amount of electrical and electronic junk. The BBC visited a Restart Project in London, which is one of many founded around the world. One of its volunteers, Francesco Calo, said that “this project allows you to reduce waste, extend the life of objects, and it helps people who cannot afford to get rid of items that have developed a fault.”
As many electrical items contain valuable metals, another idea is e-waste mining. An experiment at the University of New South Wales involves extracting (提取) these materials from electronic gadgets. It’s thought that doing this could be more profitable than traditional mining. With phones typically containing as many as 60 element, this could be part of the solution to our appetite for new technology.
These projects make total sense — collections of e-waste for recycling are “stagnating (停滞不前) or even decreasing” according to Ruediger Kuehr, of the United Nations University And in countries where there is no legislation, much of it just gets dumped. However, the European Union, for example, is trying to tackle the problem by insisting manufacturers have to make appliances longer-lasting and will have to supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.
1. According to the passage, electronic items are thrown away because ________.| A．they are totally useless |
| B．we have to recycle them |
| C．they will pollute our rivers and oceans |
| D．it’s cheaper to replace them than fix them |
| A．Growing trend for repair events. |
| B．E-waste generating cleaner energy. |
| C．Our being hungry for new technology. |
| D．Mining valuable metals in electrical items. |
| A．E-waste used to be the fastest growing waste stream in the world. |
| B．Tremendous amounts of e-waste are thrown away each year. |
| C．We can’t find the solution to the problem of c-waste. |
| D．Land-filling allows us to reduce e-waste. |
| A．Solving the Problem of E-waste |
| B．How to Stop Damaging Our Planet |
| C．Saying No to Throwing Away Things |
| D．How to Collect E-waste for Recycling |
7 . Thanks to Earth, we have fresh air to breathe, clean water to drink and warm sunshine to enjoy. But it seems that we may have taken these things for granted and not realized that our planet is getting “sick”.
Among those environmental challenges, climate change sits at the top. Global average temperatures have risen by more than 0.5℃ since 1992.
Scientists say that we are experiencing the sixth mass extinction (物种大灭绝) in history. More than two-thirds of the world’s wildlife could be gone by the end of the decade if action isn’t taken soon.
However, we have made some progress by making the hole in the ozone (臭氧) layer smaller. That’s because we gradually stopped using chemicals that can break down ozone, a gas that protects Earth.
| A．A half-degree temperature rise is a big deal. |
| B．But this is not the only problem people are facing. |
| C．In fact, scientists have recently given us a warning. |
| D．Scientists also point out that global warming will continue for centuries. |
| E．All the countries in the world should take action on behalf of future generations. |
| F．The Amur leopard and cross river gorilla are some of the most endangered animals. |
| G．This progress shows that we can make positive changes when we act, the letter says. |
