1 . Blue whales eat up to 10 million pieces of microplastic every day, research estimated Tuesday, suggesting that the pollution causes a bigger danger to the world’s largest animal than previously thought.
A US-led research team put tags on 191 blue whales that live off the coast of California to observe their movements. “It’s basically like an Apple Watch, just on the back of a whale,” said Shirel Kahane-Rapport, a researcher at California State University, Fullerton, and the study’s first author.
The whales mostly fed at depths of between 50 to 250 meters, which is home to the “greatest concentration of microplastics in the sea,” Kahane-Rapport said. The researchers then estimated the size and number of mouthfuls the whales had daily, modeling three different situations. Under the most likely situation, the blue whales ate up to 10 million microplastic pieces a day. Over the 90 to 120 days’ annual feeding season, which represents more than a billion pieces a year.
The largest animal ever to live on Earth is also likely the biggest microplastic consumer, eating up to 43.6 kilograms a day, the study said. While it is easy to imagine whales sucking (吞没) in vast amounts of microplastics as they ate, the researchers found that was not the case.
Instead, 99 percent of the microplastics entered the whales because they were already inside their prey (猎物). “That’s concerning for us,” Kahane-Rapport said, because humans eat that prey. “We also eat sardines,” she said, adding that “krill (磷虾) is the basis of the food web.” “Previous research has shown that if krill is in a tank with microplastic, they will eat it,” Kahane-Rapport said.
Now that the researchers know how much microplastic is being consumed by whales, next they aim to determine how much harm it could be doing. “The quantity defines the poison,” Kahane-Rapport said.
1. Why is a tag placed on the back of the whales?| A．It can treat the illness of whales. | B．It can track the living of whales. |
| C．It can ensure the safety of whales. | D．It can record the danger of whales. |
| A．By providing data. | B．By giving examples. | C．By explaining the reason. | D．By expressing their guess. |
| A．The research process was very complicated. | B．The whales live in the area free from pollution. |
| C．Most microplastics entered the whales directly. | D．Humans may eat microplastics through their diet. |
| A．It will be highly profitable. | B．It will be further conducted. |
| C．It will involve food poison. | D．It will help whales avoid risk. |
2 . Breathing dirty air can cost someone’s lifespan (寿命) months—even years, a new study finds. Worldwide, air pollution lowers average lifespans by a year. Scientists shared their new findings in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
Air pollution (污染) has been linked to many health problems. Most earlier studies have looked at how tiny air pollutants affected rates of illness or death. But now an environmental scientist, Joshua Apte, is going even further. He works at the University of Texas, Austin. He together with his team is looking at life expectancy, hoping to make the threat easier to understand.
PM 2.5 is what scientists call tiny particles of pollution in the air. Higher levels of PM2.5 can cause health problems and cut months, if not years, from the average lifespan. This analysis shows pollution affects life expectancy in different parts of the world.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends limiting PM 2.5 to 10 micrograms (微克) per cubic (立方) meter of air. Apte’s group used data to try to find how this low level would help people. But meeting the WHO standard won’t get rid of health damage from dirty air. That’s because even below 10 micrograms per cubic meter pollution still causes huge risks.
Reducing air pollution could increase life expectancy. The scientists also compared how other threats shorten life spans across the globe. These risk factors included smoking and cancer.
These results show that in poor countries, cleaning up dirty air could greatly increase lifespans. It could have as big an effect as cleaning up drinking water, or curing lung cancer. However, in wealthier countries air pollution shortens life expectancy by less than half a year. All forms of cancer, in fact, shorten the average life expectancy by more than 3.5 years. “Knowing this can really help people or policymakers, decide where to spend their money.” says Kirk Smith.
1. Why is Joshua Apte’s team carrying out the study?| A．Know how small air pollutants are. |
| B．Study many different healthy problems. |
| C．Study the life expectancy of different people. |
| D．Let people understand air pollution better. |
| A．Its air is very clean. |
| B．It will get a prize from WHO. |
| C．It still has pollution risks. |
| D．Its people will live a healthy life. |
| A．The study will help different countries or people take different policies. |
| B．Lung cancer is the leading killer in all kinds of cancers. |
| C．Reducing air pollution can increase all people’s lifespans much. |
| D．It’s very hard to clean up dirty air in a short time. |
| A．Many Factors are Affecting People’s Health |
| B．Air Pollution is Shortening Lives Worldwide |
| C．Governments are Trying to Make Lifespan Long |
| D．The Effect of Cancer is Worse than Dirty Air |
Earth is setting heat records. It will be much hotter one day. But
4 . Blue Planet II’s latest episode focuses on how plastic is having a disastrous effect on the ocean and slowly poisoning our sea creatures. Researchers recently also found that sea creatures living in the deepest place on Earth, the Mariana Trench, have plastic in their stomachs. Indeed, the oceans are drowning in plastic.
Though it seems now that the world couldn’t possibly function without plastics, consumer plastics are a remarkably recent invention. The first plastic bags were introduced in the 1950s; the same decade that plastic packaging began gaining in popularity in the United States. This growth has happened so fast that science is still catching up with the change. Plastics pollution research, for instance, is still a very early science.
We put all these plastics into the environment and we still don’t really know what the outcomes are going to be. What we do know, though, is disturbing. Ocean plastic is estimated to kill millions of marine animals every year. Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by it. One in three leatherback turtles, which often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, have been found with plastic in their bellies. Ninety percent of seabirds are now eating plastics on a regular basis. By 2050, that figure is expected to rise to 100 percent.
And it’s not just wildlife that is threatened by the plastics in our seas. Humans are consuming plastics through the seafood we eat. I could understand why some people see ocean plastic as a disaster, worth mentioning to the same degree as climate change. But ocean plastic is not as complicated as climate change. There are no ocean trash deniers (否认者), at least so far. To do something about it, we don’t have to remake our planet energy system.
This is not a problem where we don’t know what the solution is. We know how to pick up garbage. Anyone can do it. We know how to dispose (处理) of it. We know how to recycle. We can all start by thinking twice before we use single-use plastic products. Things that may seem ordinary, like using a reusable bottle or a reusable bag----when taken collectively, these choices really do make a difference.
1. Why is plastics pollution research still a very early science?| A．The plastics pollution research is too difficult. |
| B．Plastics have produced less pollution than coal. |
| C．The world couldn’t possibly function without plastics. |
| D．Plastics have gained in popularity too fast for science to catch up. |
| A．By statistics. |
| B．By quotations from leading experts. |
| C．By using examples from his own experience. |
| D．By comparison and contrast. |
| A．Climate change is caused by human activities. |
| B．Some people hold some doubts about climate change. |
| C．Climate change is less important than ocean pollution. |
| D．Ocean plastic is more complicated than climate change. |
| A．Ocean plastic is a global issue. |
| B．The oceans become choked with plastic. |
| C．Blue Planet II has left viewers heartbroken. |
| D．Plastics gain in popularity all over the world |
5 . 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 |
