1 . The large plastic objects break down into micro-and nanoplastics (纳米塑料), constantly raising particle numbers. Microplastics have been found everywhere, from the deepest place on the planet, the Mariana Trench, to the top of Mount Qomolangma. And now more and more studies are finding that microplastics are also in our bodies.
A study in Italy, reported in 2020, found microplastics in everyday fruits and vegetables. Uptake from soil containing the particles is probably how they get into our produce in the first place. Microplastics are found in blood of pigs and cows, and in our drinking water, whether it’s from the tap or bottled. Microplastic particles are also floating in the air. If you keep a piece of fish on the table for an hour, it has probably gathered more microplastics from the surrounding air than it has from the ocean. People might be consuming about tens of thousands of microplastic particles per person per year.
Studies in mice suggest microplastics are not benign, showing that exposure to microplastics can cause many physical disorders, negatively affecting learning and memory. But studies on the health effects of exposure in humans are just getting under way, so it could be years before scientists understand the actual impact in people.
The first step in determining the risk of microplastics to human health is to better understand and quantify human exposure. Studying and analyzing these smallest of plastics in the environment and in our bodies is extremely challenging. The tools and techniques required for this are still being developed.
Alongside knowing people’s level of exposure to microplastics, the second big question scientists want to understand is what level of real-world exposure is harmful. This work is complicated by the large number of different plastic particle types, given their variations in size, shape and chemical composition, which can affect uptake and toxicity (毒性).
There are ways to reduce exposure. For example, keeping the windows open, buying clothes made from cotton, and not heating plastic containers in the microwave, even if they claim to be food grade. Perhaps the biggest thing people can do is rely on plastics less.
1. What do the first two paragraphs mainly tell us?| A．Microplastics do great harm to humans. | B．How microplastics come into being. |
| C．Microplastics are found everywhere. | D．How microplastics get into our bodies. |
| A．Valuable. | B．Friendly. | C．Harmful. | D．Fierce. |
| A．Because we lack technology. | B．Because it’s hard to collect evidence. |
| C．Because it takes too much money. | D．Because people take it for nothing. |
| A．Use plastic objects of food grade. | B．Turn to other materials instead of plastics. |
| C．Wrap yourself up when you are outsides. | D．Keep the windows closed as long as possible. |
2 . If I asked you what the most common form of plastic pollution is, what would you say? Plastic bottles? Straws? Bags? All good, but incorrect guesses. Cigarette butts are actually the most abundant form of plastic waste in the world, with about 4.5 trillion individual butts polluting our global environment.
But wait, aren’t cigarette butts made of cotton or paper? In fact, cigarette butts consist mainly of plastic and while they may be small and tend to go unnoticed, actually they exist everywhere. Contrary to what many believe, cigarette butts are not harmless. They are made of cellulose acetate, a man-made plastic material and contain hundreds of poisonous chemicals. When cigarette filters (过滤), the plastic part of butts can take up to 10 years to completely degrade (分解), the chemicals they release can remain in the environment for many more years beyond the life of the cigarette butt itself.
These remaining poisonous substances include arsenic (also used in rat poisoning), lead (a poison that can affect the brain development of children), and nicotine. When these chemicals are improperly thrown on the street corner, out of the car window or down a drain, they slowly pollute our natural water and soil systems, presenting a serious threat to people and the environment.
Cigarette butts are by far the largest single type of litter by count. Since the 1980s, cigarette butts have consistently accounted for 30-40% of all items picked up in annual international coastal and urban cleanups. This further stresses the need for comprehensive approaches to not only managing waste, but also limiting tobacco use and mitigating its broader environmental impacts. Moreover, the new World Health Organization report states that tobacco farming contributes to nearly 5% of global deforestation, with 200,000 hectares of wood biomass (生物数量) lost per year.
For five years, EARTHDAY ORG has been driving cleanups worldwide through The Great Global Cleanup. You can join us on this journey by signing up to either join or create your own cleanup event. You can encourage others to do their part as well by reminding them of the dangers of smoking and by advocating for more comprehensive waste management systems.
1. What is a common belief about cigarette butts?| A．They are made of plastic. | B．They don’t cause any harm. |
| C．They are easy to be noticed. | D．They hardly release chemicals. |
| A．It needs a decade for the plastic part in cigarette butts to completely break down. |
| B．When thrown away, cigarette butts will simply pose a threat to the environment. |
| C．Cigarette butts have consistently accounted for half of all items picked up in cleanups. |
| D．The Great Global Cleanup has been driving cleanups nationwide for five years. |
| A．Reducing. | B．Assessing. | C．Monitoring. | D．Understanding. |
| A．A killer to human health | B．A threat to the environment |
| C．A “new” type of plastic pollution | D．An introduction to plastic pollution |
3 . Information from this year’s IQAir World Air Quality Report showed only seven countries met the World Health Organization’s pollution recommendations in 2023, which were Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and New Zealand. Of the 134 countries and regions measured, 124 had higher levels than called for in the WHO pollution guidelines.
The report said the five countries with what it called the lowest air quality had particle (颗粒物) levels at least nine times higher than what the WHO recommends. Three South Asian countries — Bangladesh, Pakistan and India — had the world’s lowest air quality. In 2022, India was eighth and Bangladesh was fifth.
The information came from the Swiss company IQAir. The report used measurements from over 30,000 stations across 134 countries. IQAir used the WHO standard of PM 2.5 to measure the size of breathable pollutant particles in the air. The PM2.5 measurement means the particles are 2.5 microns (微米) or less in diameter (直径). The diameter of human hair, for example, is about 30 times larger than a particle of 2.5 microns.
In Bangladesh, the concentration of PM2.5 particles reached 79.9 micrograms per cubic meter in 2023. In Pakistan, the number was 73.7. India’s level was 54.4, Tajikistan in Central Asia was 49 and Burkina Faso in West Africa was the fifth-most polluted nation at 46.6.
Firoz Khan, an air pollution expert at North South University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said 20 percent of the early deaths in the country were caused by air pollution. He added spending on pollution-related healthcare was equal to four to five percent of the nation’s economy.
Christi Chester Schroeder oversees air quality science for IQair. She said South Asia’s geography and climate conditions influence its air quality. “The pollution has nowhere to go,” she added. “Because of agricultural practices, industry and population density, it really does look like it is going to get worse before it gets better.”
1. What can be inferred from the text?| A．Bangladesh’s air quality may have decreased in 2023. |
| B．India’s air quality was greatly improved in 2022. |
| C．Mauritius had the fifth-worst air quality in the world in 2022. |
| D．Pakistan’s air quality was the third-worst in the world in 2023. |
| A．To demonstrate how to use hair products. |
| B．To offer suggestions to people with hair problems. |
| C．To emphasize the difficulty of measuring pollutant particles. |
| D．To explain the size of breathable pollutant particles in the air. |
| A．Developing agriculture will help improve air quality. |
| B．Geographical conditions have little influence on air quality. |
| C．The future of air quality in South Asia does not look bright. |
| D．South Asian countries should try to increase their populations. |
| A．A report on global air pollution. | B．Plans to fight against air pollution. |
| C．The harm of air pollution to humans. | D．Advice on cutting air pollution. |
4 . Back in 1807, London became the first city on the planet to have a street lit up by gaslight lamps. For the city’s residents, it seemed like an extraordinary thing to have evening turned into a version of daytime. But more than two centuries later, artificial light has spread across so much of the planet that it has become a threat to us as well as the environment.
The extent of light pollution is evidenced by a study in the journal Science Advances, in which researchers used measurements taken by satellites to study the artificial brightness of Earth’s surface at nighttime. They found the artificially lit outdoor area grew at a rate of 2.2% per year. But those increases are just part of the story. Christopher Kyba, a scientist at German Research Center, says the increasing transition to high-efficiency LED lamps for outdoor lighting, which were regarded by most people originally as a way to reduce our dependence upon fossil (化石的) fuels and slow climate change, may not be saving as much electricity as expected.
The American Medical Association added that the wavelengths (波长) at which the lights operate control the hormone that helps us to sleep. “It is estimated that white LED lamps have a much greater impact on people’s sleep than the former streetlights.” Research shows that such impact may be a significant aspect inducing fatness and other physical disorders. Many species on Earth are active at night, and electric lighting, especially dusk to dawn lighting, represents damage to the environment of these species. A study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, for example, found powerful beams of light from the National September 11 Memorial and Museum changed the flight paths and speed of 1.1 million migrating birds over a seven-day period alone. And in Florida, light pollution along beaches is disturbing sea turtles having babies, resulting in thousands of young animals’ dying each year.
But perhaps the most obvious thing about light pollution is that much of it results from wasteful light that isn’t necessary, according to Kyba, who estimates that it could be reduced by five to ten times. “I think we should be asking as taxpayers (纳税人). Why are we paying for lights that shine uselessly into people’s windows and disturb their sleep?”
1. What did most people use to think of LED light s according to Paragraph 2?| A．They would be beneficial to people's sleep. |
| B．They could be used to reduce light pollution. |
| C．They would contribute to serious global warming. |
| D．They could make people depend less on fossil fuels. |
| A．Causing. | B．Marking. | C．Preventing. | D．Reducing. |
| A．To present the sources of light pollution. |
| B．To show the influence of light pollution on animals. |
| C．To compare the sleeping habits of different animals. |
| D．To highlight the strong adaptability of particular animals. |
| A．Avoiding arranging unnecessary lights. |
| B．Improving the function of streetlights. |
| C．Calling on taxpayers to protect animals. |
| D．Decreasing the great pressure on taxpayers. |
5 . Scientists have calculated the total amount of plastic ever made: 8.3 billion tons. Looked at another way, that’s as heavy as 25, 000 Empire State Buildings or one billion elephants. And incredibly, almost all of it has been made in the last 65 years.
______ Much plastic is in the form of packaging which is used just once and then thrown away. According to a major new study from the University of California, 9% of this is recycled, 12% is completely burnt and 79% goes to landfill. And because most plastic is not easily disposed of, once it’s in the ground, it stays there.
It’s a situation that has led the paper’s lead author, ecologist Dr. Roland Geyer, to say that we are “rapidly heading towards ‘Planet Plastic’”. The team behind this report also estimate that eight million tons of plastic waste are escaping into the sea every year. This has caused concern that plastic is entering the food chain, through fish and other sea life which swallow the smaller fragments.
Of course, the reason why there’s so much plastic around is that it’s an amazingly useful material. It’s durable and adaptable, and is used for everything from yoghurt pots to spaceships. But it’s exactly this quality that makes it a problem. The only way to destroy plastic is to heat or burn it — although this has the side effect of harmful emissions.
So what’s the alternative, other than using less plastic? Oceanographer Dr. Erik van Sebille from Utrecht University says we’re facing a “tsunami” of plastic waste, and that the global waste industry needs to “get its act together”.
Professor Richard Thompson, a marine biologist from Plymouth University, says it’s poor design that’s at fault. He says that if products are currently designed “with recyclability in mind”, they could be recycled around 20 times over.
1. Which of the following is the best topic sentence for paragraph two?| A．So where does the plastic go? |
| B．So why is much plastic thrown away? |
| C．So what’s the problem? |
| D．So how is the plastic disposed of? |
| A．By being eaten and absorbed by sea creatures. | B．By being used as useful materials. |
| C．By getting into the food market directly. | D．By getting into the deep sea. |
| A．Plastic waste has caused tsunami. |
| B．The design of products should be environmentally friendly. |
| C．Plastics are currently recycled over 20 times. |
| D．Global waste industry is to blame for the plastic waste problem. |
| A．Global Waste Industry | B．Recyclability of Plastics |
| C．Planet Plastic | D．Plastic Waste into the Sea |
6 . Plastic is everywhere in our environment, especially in the ocean. Actually, a large amount of plastic waste is floating around the world’s oceans today, waiting to be eaten by some fish or oyster, and finally perhaps by one of us.
Because plastic wasn’t invented until the late 19th century, and its production only really took off around 1950, we have a mere 9.2 billion tons of the stuff to deal with. Of that, more than 6.9 billion tons have become waste. And of that waste, a surprising 6.3 billion tons never made it to a recycling bin. No one knows how much unrecycled plastic waste ends up in the ocean. In 2015, Jenna Jambeck, an engineering professor, caught everyone’s attention with a rough estimate: between 5.3 million and 14 million tons of plastic waste each year just come from coastal regions.
Meanwhile, ocean plastic is estimated to kill millions of marine (海洋的) animals every year. Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by it. Some are stuck by abandoned things made of plastic. Many more are probably harmed invisibly. Marine species of all sizes, from zooplankton to whales, now eat microplastics. We are closely related to oceans so the consequences of throwing plastic away may return to affect us some day.
“This isn’t a problem where we don’t know what the solution is,” says Ted Siegler, a Vermont resource economist, “We know how to pick up garbage. Anyone can do it. We know how to deal with it. We know how to recycle.” It’s a matter of building the necessary systems, he says, ideally before the ocean turns into a thin soup of plastic.
1. What’s the function of the first paragraph?| A．To prove plastic was difficult to invent. | B．To tell us what marine animals like eating. |
| C．To call on us to protect marine animals. | D．To introduce the topic of the passage. |
| A．By listing figures. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By analyzing reasons. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．results | B．functions | C．causes | D．aims |
| A．Some people don’t know the solution of plastics waste. |
| B．It’s time to take measures to deal with plastic waste. |
| C．Plastics will turn the ocean into a soup of plastic. |
| D．People should avoid using plastics to protect the ocean. |
7 . 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. | C．Conservative. | D．Positive. |
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan was
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the
On March 17, part of the equipment
According to The Guardian, the Japanese government argued that the water
However, not everyone agrees with this decision. Environmental groups and local fishermen have expressed concern about the impact of the wastewater
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,
The ministry also warned the country not to start the plan
The brightness of light from our cities has reached
Dr. Franz Holker said artificial light is
