1 . More attention is being paid to the air issue in London, especially with a continuing investigation into the death of Ella Kissi-Debrah, a 9-year-old girl who lived just meters from one of the capital’s busiest roads. Ella died in February 2013 having suffered from many asthmatic attacks (哮喘发作) and had been taken to hospital for nearly 30 times in the three years prior to her death. She may become the first person in the UK for whom air pollution is listed as the cause of death.
Today low emission (排放) has helped reduce dangerous poisonous air in parts of the United Kingdom capital by 94 percent, according to an annual report from Transport for London (TFL). The transport authority said they had established the defined areas where access by some polluting vehicles is restricted or forbidden in Central London in February, which contributed mostly to the change.
The TFL report showed traffic on roads fell by half during lockdown. Figures showed a big increase in the number of people walking and cycling in London, with journeys made on foot or by bicycle up from 29 percent between January and March 2020 to 46 percent between March and June 2020.
TFL will spend at least 75 million pounds on walking and cycling programs across the capital over the next six months. About 88.5 kilometers of new or upgraded cycle lanes have been built or are under construction.
“This new data shows just how important walking and cycling have been in helping Londoners stay healthy and safe, ” TFL Streetspace delivery manager Helen Cansick said. “That’s why it’s crucial that we continue to invest to support walking and cycling, ensuring that the capital can become a healthier and more sustainable place for everyone.”
1. What does Ella Kissi-Debrah’s death indicate?| A．Air pollution is a big cause of death |
| B．Children often suffer from asthma. |
| C．Big cities are polluted more seriously. |
| D．Air pollution and its effect are severe. |
| A．Policy on lockdown. | B．Change in transport. |
| C．Low-emission zones. | D．Reduction in economy. |
| A．Short-distance journeys are more popular. |
| B．The traffic on roads increases a lot. |
| C．Walking and cycling are Londoners’ first choice. |
| D．More Londoners choose to walk and ride. |
| A．London’s air is now cleaner. |
| B．Traffic restrictions take effects. |
| C．Walking and cycling help stay healthy. |
| D．Air issue in London is gaining attention. |
2 . We know light pollution can threaten the heath and well-being of humans, animals, and the environment. Researchers have long studied the impact on birds and how brightness can affect their reproduction (繁殖), feeding, and migration behaviors. A new study, published in Nature, takes a comprehensive look at how light pollution affects birds throughout North America. It found that these factors can affect how birds succeed in reproduction and often are related to the impacts of climate change.
For the study, researchers looked at data collected by other researchers and by citizen scientists. They analyzed how light pollution affected the reproductive success of more than 5800 nests from 142 bird species across North America. They considered several factors including the time of year when reproduction happened and whether at least one chick got the feathers necessary for flight or independent activity.
Birds typically reproduce about the same time each year, using daylight cues to time their reproduction to coincide with when the most food will be available to feed their babies. “Artificially changing day length with light pollution essentially misleads them to stat reproducing earlier than they normally would,” Francis says. When that happens, sometimes chicks hatch before food is available. But with climate change, sometimes the results are a little different.
“We also found that the same species that reproduce earlier appear to benefit from light exposure in terms of nest success. This was unexpected. We do not know for sure that light pollution helps birds cope with climate change. It needs to be tested in further research. Nevertheless, it is quite possible that light allows birds to ‘catch up’ to earlier prey availability due to climate change,” Francis explains.
Researchers know through studies of climate change that plants and insects are starting to emerge earlier each spring. They respond to warmer temperatures rather than light. So possibly the birds are benefiting from that change. “A likely explanation is that light pollution causes birds to nest earlier and restore the match between the timing of their nesting and the highest availability of their food,” Francis says. “Again, this needs to be tested. Still, if true, it means that birds exposed to light pollution are ‘ keeping up ’ with climate change and those in pristine areas where there is no light pollution would not. ”
1. What does the passage mainly talk about?| A．The data that had been collected previously. |
| B．The effects of light pollution on birds reproduction. |
| C．The ways to improve birds’ reproductive success. |
| D．The loss of birds caused by light pollution. |
| A．They get confused about the reproductive time. |
| B．They are more likely to abandon their babies. |
| C．They have a harder time finding food. |
| D．It’s harder for them to hatch the eggs. |
| A．They nests earlier. | B．Plants grow taster. |
| C．Insects appear earlier. | D．There are more lights. |
| A．Light pollution has a great negative effect on the birds’ life. |
| B．Climate change is causing birds to change their food choices. |
| C．Birds look for other suitable breeding sites because of light pollution. |
| D．Birds are adjusting their reproductive time to adapt to climate change. |
3 . Microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic waste less than five millimetres long that have been degraded by waves, wind and ultraviolet rays — have been discovered in the deepest oceanic trenches and within the stomachs of the organisms that live there, but we have little idea about where the great majority of them end up. More than eight million tonnes of plastic enters our oceans every year, comprising between 80 and 85 percent of all marine trash, but with inadequate data, there are concerns that these figures could be underestimates.
Currently, most of the data we have on microplastics are accidentally captured by research ships, which use plankton nets to collect marine-microorganism samples. However, researchers Christopher Ruf and Madeline Evans from the University of Michigan have discovered an innovative way to identify and track concentrations of microplastics in the ocean.
The technique relies on NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), a constellation of eight micro-satellites used to predict hurricanes that calculate wind speeds above the ocean by measuring the roughness of surface waters. As the satellites are continuously recording, Ruf and Evans realised that they collect a great deal of additional data. It was while analysing these data that they noticed some differences-times where the surface of the ocean appeared to be much smoother than it should, given the prevailing wind (盛行风) conditions.
Knowing that water isn’t roughened as much when it contains a lot of floating material, Ruf and Evans identified a pattern that linked areas of unusual smoothness and predicted microplastic distributions. They found that the difference between their measurements, and how much rougher the surface would be if winds of the same speed were blowing across clear water, was “highly correlated with the presence of microplastics, and the degree of the difference also correlated with the concentration of the plastics.”
The research reveals that there are seasonal variations,where the concentrations of microplastics tend to be higher in the summer and lower in the winter in a very clean, periodic way, which Ruf explains mirrors the way in which the ocean circulation changes throughout the year. It also confirms, as was previously thought, that rivers are the main source of ocean microplastics.
Raising awareness of the issue of ocean microplastics among the public and politicians is just one of the researchers’ future aims; they are also in conversation with Duteh non-profit The Ocean Cleanup and Finnish clean-technology specialist Clewat, which are interested in using the information to more efficiently target their trash-collection campaigns.
So far, only one year’s worth of data have been processed since CYGNSS was launched in 2016. By looking at a longer time period, Ruf and Evans aim to determine whether the seasonal pattern is repeatable, and whether the concentration of micmplastics in the ocean is getting worse.
1. What is Paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．The limited knowledge about ocean microplastics. |
| B．The harm of ocean microplastics to sea creatures. |
| C．The methods of degrading ocean microplasties. |
| D．The previous research on ocean microplasties. |
| A．has offered data about the repeatable seasonal pattern |
| B．guides research ships to gather data about sea animals |
| C．provides unexpected data about the changes of sea surface |
| D．was designed to measure the distribution of ocean microplastics |
| A．Microplastics will end up in the stomachs of the ocean organisms. |
| B．Mlicroplastics play a vital role in the yearly ocean circulation changes. |
| C．The surface of the ocean can get smoother with more microplastics in it. |
| D．The new way of tracking microplastics has helped prevent ocean pollution. |
| A．To introduce the technology of CYGNSS. |
| B．To present a way to study ocean microplastics. |
| C．To test an assumption on ocean microplastics. |
| D．To propose a new means of protecting the ocean. |
4 . Plastics are amazing materials, which are widely used in our daily life. Besides, they’re often cheap to make. About 8. 3 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced to date. That’s about 1,400 times the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Some of that plastic is still in use. But about 5. 8 billion metric tons have been thrown away.
All that plastic waste is an environmental scourge (祸根). Only about 9 percent of plastic waste has been recycled. Another 12 percent has been burned. The remaining 79 percent wound up in landfills or in nature. And that plastic, like a single Lego block, takes a long time to decompose (分解).
Plastic litters the world from the highest mountaintop to the deepest seafloor. Many animals mistake this rubbish for food. If they get full, these animals may forget to eat real food and suffer. Plastic rubbish in the oceans also leaves birds, turtles and other wildlife in a jam.
Big pieces of plastic aren’t the only problem. Abandoned plastic can break into tiny bits called microplastics. Winds blow these bits far and wide. Ocean currents can spread them throughout the sea. These pollutants build up inside animals. They also get into our food and drinking water. Each American is likely to consume more than 70, 000 microplastic pieces per year. Right now, no one knows what risk that might bring.
Scientists have some ideas about how to clean up this mess. The Ocean Cleanup is developing cleanup systems to fish out plastic pieces from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Microbes or mealworms with an appetite for plastic might someday eat the garbage. And new nanotechnology (纳米技术) could help microplastics decompose in the environment. But many of these plans are still far from effective so far. The best way to help Earth right now is to stop buying so much plastic — and then throwing it out — in the first place.
1. What does the Lego block show about plastic waste?| A．It is hard to break down. | B．Little of it has been burned. |
| C．It is easy to pile up. | D．Most of it ends up in landfills. |
| A．By starving them. | B．By reducing their food. |
| C．By piling up in their homes. | D．By changing the environment. |
| A．Opposed. | B．Supportive. | C．Indifferent. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．To criticize plastic production. | B．To suggest ways to handle plastic. |
| C．To advocate environmental protection. | D．To introduce the state of plastic pollution. |
5 . Levels of an ozone-destroying chemical are mysteriously rising, despite international efforts to crack down on the problem. The uptick in the airborne chemical HCFC-141b comes even though reported production has declined steadily since 2012, leaving scientists stumped about the source. “All I can really say is these emissions are up,” says Luke Western, an atmospheric scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Global Monitoring Laboratory, who helped lead the new research.
The discovery underscores the challenge of getting rid of these once widely used chemicals, which can linger in appliances for decades. It also shows how continent-size gaps in a network of sensors make it hard to pinpoint sources of the problem.The chemical, used chiefly to make foam insulation for appliances such as refrigerators, is part of a family of fluorocarbon molecules blamed for eating away at a layer of stratospheric ozone, roughly 20 kilometers above the ground, that filters out harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. The world began to wean itself off these chemicals under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, widely considered the most successful international environmental treaty. Overall, ozone-damaging chemicals have declined steadily since the early 2000s, and the ozone “holes” above the poles have begun to heal.
In 2018, however, researchers reported that levels of the banned chemical CFC-11 had been rising since 2012. An international panel concluded that surge was likely due to illicit production, much of it in eastern China, perhaps because HCFC-141b, then used as a substitute for CFC-11 because it is less destructive to ozone, was in scarce supply. Releases of CFC-11 started to fall once again in 2019. By now production of HCFC-141b should also be declining. Its phase-out began in 2013, with a complete ban scheduled for 2030. It is already being replaced by a group of chemicals that doesn’t damage the ozone layer.
But scientists say atmospheric levels of HCFC-141b are actually rising. Emissions have climbed each year between 2017 and 2021, an increase totaling 3000 tons from 2017 to 2020, the researchers estimate. The findings, based on a combination of measurements from air sensors and computer models of how the gases move through the atmosphere, were posted online on 27 April by Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, although the paper hasn’t been peer reviewed yet. The rise of the newer chemical doesn’t appear to be a repeat of the CFC-11 incident, says Stephen Montzka, an atmospheric scientist who heads NOAA’s monitoring lab and led the work that uncovered the CFC-11 emissions. “I think in the instance of 141b the situation is much murkier,” he says. Results from air sensors in South Korea suggest the problem isn’t originating from eastern China. It does seem to be coming from somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, because levels have risen faster there than in the south.
One possibility is that unreported HCFC-141b is being manufactured somewhere in the world, Montzka says. But the blip could also be temporary, triggered as aging appliances are thrown out and the foam breaks down, releasing the gas. “Taking a close look, we realized there are possible explanations that don’t require somebody doing something that they weren’t supposed to do,” Montzka says.The monitoring work in papers like this is “critical,” says Helen Walter-Terrinoni, a member of the Montreal Protocol’s technical panel and a chemical engineer with the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, which represents major manufacturers. The panel reports every 4 years on the state of ozone-depleting gases and the science surrounding them. Its new report, slated for 2023, “could help shed more light on what’s going on” with the rising emissions, Walter-Terrinoni says.
For now, gaps in the air sensor network have made answers elusive. The sensors are concentrated in North America and Europe, with only a handful in East Asia and at isolated sites elsewhere. Scientists are blind to what’s happening in much of India, Russia, and the Middle East, and most of Africa and South America. “If there were emissions in those regions,” Montzka says, “we wouldn’t be able to tell you very accurately where they are coming from.”
The picture could improve in the coming years. In the wake of the CFC-11 incident, an EU-funded initiative is underway to install more sensors and close some of those gaps. For now, Montzka isn’t alarmed about the added dose of chemicals. It amounts to a “small perturbation” in the ozone layer, he says, just a fraction of 1% of the ozone-damaging power of gases now in the atmosphere.
1. Which type of writing does this passage belong to?| A．Descriptive writing. | B．Expository writing. | C．Persuasive writing. | D．Narrative writing. |
| A．Valid. | B．Licensed. | C．Constitutional. | D．Illegal. |
| A．Ground filters out harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. |
| B．The world began to wean itself off these chemicals. |
| C．Unreported HCFC-141b is being manufactured somewhere in the world. |
| D．Ozone-damaging chemicals haven’t declined steadily. |
| A．Atmospheric Levels of HCFC-141b Are Actually Rising |
| B．Bad Picture Could Improve in The Coming Years |
| C．Ozone-destroying Chemical Is on The Rise Despite Crackdown |
| D．Continent-size Gaps in Sensors Make It Hard to Pinpoint Sources of The Problem |
6 . Residents of several villages in Russia’s Magadan region have recently reported black snow caused by the black powder produced by an outdated, coal-powered water-heating plant. In Omsukchan and neighboring Seimchan, two villages in the Siberian far east, snow doesn’t always look the way you’d expect. In fact, sometimes it’s quite the opposite. Instead of white snow covering everything as far as the eyes can see, locals are treated to a bad view of black snow that the kids sometimes play in. Photos and videos of this disturbing scenery have been doing the rounds online every winter for years, but locals say that despite the temporary anger they express online, nothing ever changes.
Black often represents tough luck but the black snow isn’t the result of some sinister, unexplained phenomenon. Omsukchan is home to a coal-burning hot water plant that provides heating to several settlements in the area, and as temperatures drop in the winter months, more coal has to be burned in order to keep water temperatures up. This results in increasing black smoke in the atmosphere. The smoke coming out of the plant’s chimneys eventually falls to the ground, covering everything, including white snow. So the black snow that people see is simply the effect of coal pollution.
Oksana Gerasimova, the head of the Srednekansky district, tells Magadan Pravda newspaper that the plant is indeed to blame, but adds that the situation is better than it was a few years ago. It’s true that the ash and smoke collectors at the plant don’t do a perfect job, but the situation is only temporary and the black snow is apparently “not a reason to worry”.
Authorities’ plans to change the filters in the coal-burning plant to stop the pollution are underway, and they want to replace the old plant with an electricity-powered one, but it requires new sources of funding. Most of the people living in Omsukchan and Seimchan have heard that before and they are raising their hopes.
1. What causes the black snow in Russian Magadan Region?| A．Coal smoke. | B．Water pollution. | C．Shooting angle. | D．Video technology. |
| A．Evil. | B．Damp. | C．Sensitive. | D．Recreational. |
| A．It is unrelated to any plants. | B．It will worry people forever. |
| C．It will be solved in the future. | D．It receives less attention than before. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Expectant. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Reserved. |
As one of the most well-known tourist
1. What is the man doing?
| A．Giving a lecture. | B．Chairing a meeting. | C．Making an announcement. |
| A．It grows faster than expected. |
| B．It goes beyond control. |
| C．It is below the preindustrial levels. |
| A．In 2015. | B．In 2019. | C．In 2020. |
| A．Global warming caused by greenhouse gases. |
| B．The urgent need of reducing greenhouse gases. |
| C．The disasters resulting from greenhouse gases. |
In the United States alone, over 100 million cell-phones are thrown away each year. Cell-phones are part of a
Electronic devices contain valuable metals such as gold and silver. A Swiss study reported that while the weight of electronic goods
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that most wastes are so dangerous that the tough
10 . Microplastics have invaded seemingly every part of the planet today, including the Arctic. Scientists have been puzzling over how this flood of pollution makes its way to such distant locations far from the city centers where it’s created. A new study finds a surprising route for the tiny particles (微粒).
Scientists found that Arctic surface waters had the highest microplastics concentrations of all the world’s oceans. “We asked ourselves, where does it come from?” says Melanie Bergmann, a scientist and lead author. The biggest load is carried north by the Gulf Stream.
But could microplastics be catching rides on the wind and landing far to the north as snow? It turns out they are. Snow from ice floes (浮冰) in the Arctic had surprisingly high concentrations of microplastics. One spot, close to the middle of the passage, had 14,000 particles per 34 ounces (盎司). And the average across all samples was 1, 800 particles. For comparison, the researchers also analyzed snow near Germany and the Alps. The microplastics measured there were considerably higher, with an average of 24, 600 particles per 34 ounces. So it seems aerial transport is the pathway to transport microplastics to the Arctic.
The study raises concerns about how much microplastics contaminate the atmosphere, carrying a possible health risk to people and animals that breathe them in. “Microplastic is in the air, and it’s not unlikely that we also breathe some of it in,” says Bergmann.
“People think that plastic pollution is a middle-of-the-ocean problem,” says Jennifer Provencher, who studies the effects of plastics and was not involved with the study. “And the more we work on this, the more we are learning that it’s not a middle-of-the-ocean problem. It’s a water body problem, it’s a ground problem, it’s an air problem, and it’s an Arctic problem,” she says.
“For human health, we now know very little. There is a lot of concern because we know we are exposed. More research is needed to fully understand the health effects,” says researcher Chelsea Rochman. Even worse maybe the threat from airborne nanoplastics — they’re too small to see and about which almost nothing is known. “They may actually enter cells,” says Rochman. “So we may have a big problem.”
1. What is the finding of the study?| A．Microplastics found in the Arctic come from the sky. |
| B．The least microplastics are found on the Arctic surface. |
| C．The majority of plastics in the Arctic water come from the air. |
| D．The highest concentrations of microplastics are in the Gulf Stream. |
| A．Shape. |
| B．Pollute. |
| C．Control. |
| D．Rebuild. |
| A．Microplastics cycle faster in the air than in the water. |
| B．Microplastics are easy to break down underground. |
| C．Plastic pollution affects the ocean most. |
| D．Plastics exist everywhere on Earth. |
| A．It has benefited humans greatly. |
| B．It has progressed smoothly. |
| C．It is totally disorganized. |
| D．It is still developing. |
