1 . Pollution of the world’s rivers from medicines and pharmaceutical (制药的) products poses a “threat to environmental and global health”, a report says.

Various drugs were widely detected in a University of York study. The research is among the most extensive conducted on a global scale. Rivers in Pakistan, Bolivia and Ethiopia were among the most polluted. Rivers in Iceland, Norway and Amazon Rainforest were the least polluted.

The impact of many of the most common pharmaceutical substances in rivers is still largely unknown. But it is already well established that dissolved human contraceptives (避孕药) can impact the development and reproduction of fish, and scientists fear the increased presence of antibiotics (抗生素) in rivers could limit their effectiveness as medicines.

The study took samples from more than 1,000 test sites in more than 100 countries. Overall, more than a quarter of the 258 rivers sampled had what are known as “active pharmaceutical ingredients” present at a level considered unsafe for life in water.

“Typically, what happens is, we take these chemicals, they have some desired effects on us and then they leave our bodies,” Dr. John Wilkinson, who led the research, said. “What we know now is that even the most modern efficient wastewater treatment plants aren’t completely capable of removing these substances before they end up in rivers or lakes.”

The report said the increased presence of antibiotics in rivers could also lead to the development of resistant bacteria, damaging the effectiveness of medicines and finally posing “a global threat to environmental and global health”.

The most polluted sites were largely in low-income to middle-income countries, and in areas where there was poor wastewater management and pharmaceutical production. “This is most concerning because you have the weakest populations with the least access to healthcare exposed to this,” said Dr. Mohamed Abdallah from the UK’s Birmingham University.

On the question of what can be done, Dr. Wilkinson suggested, “One of the few things that could have an effect right now is the proper use of medicines.” That would mean making it harder to get hold of medicines like antibiotics, and tougher restrictions on doses (剂量).

1. In which county were rivers the least polluted?

A．Pakistan.

B．Bolivia.

C．Ethiopia.

D．Iceland.

2. How does the author support his point in paragraph 4?

A．By listing figures.	B．By giving examples.
C．By comparing different facts.	D．By debating and concluding.

3. What’s Dr. Mohamed Abdallah’s attitude to people in poor countries?

A．Positive.

B．Hateful.

C．Worried.

D．Unconcerned.

4. What’s the best title of the text?

A．How to Deal with the Pollution in the Rivers

B．The Proper Use of Medicines such as Antibiotics

C．Most Rivers in the World Have Been Polluted Seriously

D．Pharmaceutical Products Left in Rivers Threaten Creatures and People’s Health

2 . Oil spills (泄漏) are common. When they happen, they can cause a lot of damage.

How Oil Spills Happen

Oil is a fossil fuel. It’s used in gasoline. That powers boats, cars, and trucks. It’s also used to make things. Some plastics, paints, and makeups are made with oil. Oil can be found below the ocean floor. Machines drill beneath the ocean. Then the oil is pumped out. This is called extraction (开采). It’s one way oil can accidentally leak. Oil spills can also be caused by transporting or moving oil.

Impacting the Environment

In the United States, thousands of oil spills happen each year. It can take years to clean up after a large spill. But even small leaks and spills can cause damage. Oil spills can have long-lasting effects. They hurt wildlife. Birds get oil on their feathers. They can’t fly. Sea otters (海獭) get oil in their fur. This makes it hard for them to stay warm. Oil creates poisonous gas. This makes it hard for whales to breathe.

Larger oil spills are a danger for people and wildlife. Spilled oil must be removed from the environment. Emergency response teams are called in to do the work. There are several ways to clean up oil spills.

●Shoreline flushing (冲刷). Pipes flush oil from the shore. The oil is washed into the water. It’s more easily collected there.

●Booms. Booms are floating barriers. They are used to stop oil from spreading on the water’s surface.

●Sorbents. Sorbents act like sponges (海绵). They absorb oil but do not pick up water.

●Burning. Newly spilled oil can be set on fire. This helps remove the oil that is floating on the water.

1. What can we know about oil spills?

A．They are uncommon.	B．They are easy to clean up.
C．They affect the environment.	D．They are not a danger for people.

2. What’s the influence of oil spills on sea otters?

A．They can’t swim.	B．They can’t breathe.
C．They can’t find enough food.	D．They can hardly stay warm.

3. What can be used to keep oil from spreading on the water’s surface?

A．Pipes.

B．Booms.

C．Sponges.

D．Boats.

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What is wrong with the lake?

A．Its color is strange.

B．There are not enough fish there.

C．Chemical pollution happened there.

2. What probably caused the trouble?

A．People’s action.

B．The weather.

C．The fish.

3. What will the speaker do tomorrow?

A．Catch the fish.

B．Follow up the news.

C．Report chemical pollution.

4. What will listeners probably hear next?

A．Sports news.

B．The weather report.

C．Updated information on the lake.

4 . Plastic pollution has become an unfortunate fact of life all over the world—including in the oceans. While all that junk floating around can pose a serious threat to many animals, a new study finds some species may have actually turned it into an entirely new ecosystem!

The North Pacific“Garbage Patch”is a huge area in the ocean where a lot of plastic waste gets stuck. However, it’s not just wastes that get caught up in this mess. Researchers from Georgetown University found that many sea creatures like jellyfish, snails, and barnacles also live there.

In 2018 and 2019, scientists collected 105 pieces of plastic from the patch, and found 46 different species of invertebrates(无脊椎动物)living on them. About 80％of those species normally live near the coast rather than in the middle of an ocean. The researchers also found that these species have been breeding on the patch—meaning there may now be a permanent community of coastal species in the middle of the ocean.

Lead author Linsey Haram said that it’s not yet known how this will affect the ocean ecosystem. But she said the coastal species are likely competing for food with ocean species, and they may also be eating each other.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of the five areas of garbage that have formed in the middle of huge circular ocean currents called gyres(环流). Another garbage patch is in the South Pacific, two are in the Atlantic Ocean, and the fifth is in the Indian Ocean.

A 2018 study of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch found that about one-third of garbage that could be linked to Japan. Up to 20％of garbage added since 2011 was created by the huge tsunami that hit northern Japan that year, the study said.

1. What makes the plastic waste get stuck in the garbage patch?

A．Climate change.	B．Human activities.
C．Sea creatures living there.	D．Huge circular ocean currents.

2. What does the underlined word“breeding”in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Reproducing.	B．Restoring.
C．Revising.	D．Refreshing.

3. Why does the author mention Japan in the last paragraph?

A．To blame Japan for polluting the ocean.

B．To indicate one of the sources of the garbage.

C．To stress the responsibility of some countries.

D．To suggest clues that help with the plastic pollution.

4. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?

A．Education.	B．Economy.
C．Environment.	D．Entertainment.

5 . Chinese consumers have said they will avoid eating Japanese seafood over safety concerns once Japan starts releasing (排放) nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.

On July 7, the General Administration of Customs released an import (进口) ban on aquatic products from the 10 Japanese cities. It’s indicated that Japan’s plan to release polluted wastewater into the sea was a matter of global concern. The plan caused more Chinese consumers who eat seafood began to worry about their safety, according to the administration.

According to a survey in 2022 by Chinese market consultancy company iiMedia Research, 39.58 percent of participants eat Japanese seafood once every two or three weeks.

“I will not eat seafood imported from Japan anymore,” said a data engineer surnamed Wang in Shanghai. The 42-year-old has been a fan of Japanese food since 2000 and used to eat Japanese food once a month. “If I have other options, I will choose seafood that does not come from the Pacific Ocean,” he added.

Wang Qian, a financial employee in Beijing, said she has been to about 20 Japanese restaurants so far. “Normally, I would not pay attention to where the seafood came from. But now I will try not to choose seafood from Japan,”she said. “Wastewater poses a threat to human health and marine ecology.”

Wang Qian said that Japan should use other methods to solve the problem, rather than releasing nuclear wastewater into the ocean.

An employee of the Japanese restaurant Jiubanwu, in Beijing, who did not want to be named, told China Daily that the restaurant’s fish and shrimp are imported from Russia, France and other countries. “We have not been buying seafood from Japan since April,” she said.

In addition to food safety, some people are worried about using cosmetic (美容的) products made in Japan.

1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?

A．Releasing nuclear wastewater has aroused worldwide concern.

B．All the seafood which is imported from Japan will be banned.

C．Chinese consumers will be stricter when choosing seafood to eat.

D．Japan’s plan to release the wastewater is criticized by Japanese.

2. What can be inferred from the words of Wang Qian?

A．She won’t eat Japanese seafood anymore.

B．She will be more cautious of the source of seafood.

C．She will be devoted to career of human health and marine ecology.

D．She is sure that Japan will figure out methods to solve the problem.

3. What will be mentioned in the following passages?

A．China’s specific methods to dealing with nuclear wastewater.

B．The influence of wastewater on Japanese cosmetic products.

C．A formal call to Japan for producing safer cosmetic products.

D．The world’s reply to Japanese nuclear wastewater releasing.

4. What is the author’s attitude towards Japan’s plan to release polluted wastewater?

A．Surprised.

B．Doubtful.

C．Unclear.

D．Critical.

7 . Naturalist Enzo Suma, who is now 40, lives in Puglia, a region in southern Italy whose long coastline faces the Adriatic Sea. Floating waste accumulates in this relatively enclosed part of the Mediterranean, unlike the open ocean, where the waste tends to be spread over a vast area. Feeling concerned about that, Suma makes it a habit to pick up the washed-up waste along the shore, especially after big winter storms.

One day, Suma was walking along the beach near his home when he discovered a bottle of Coke. Suma noticed on the bottle that the price, clearly printed on the bottom, was in lire, a currency (货币) that hadn’t been used in Italy since it was replaced by the euro in 2002. Could a plastic container have well survived in the Mediterranean, he wondered, for about two decades?

That led him to founding the Archeoplastica museum. It has a collection of about 500 unique pieces recovered from Italian shores and the Coke bottle is the first one of them. All collection demonstrates the unsettling life force of plastic waste in the environment. “Seeing that a product people may have used 30, 40, or 50 years ago remains still unchanged, you’ll feel different. It’s a great shock,” Suma said to a reporter. So Suma often exhibits selected pieces from the Archeoplastica collection at local schools around his hometown of Ostuni.

“The playful side of the work allows you to arrive at the less beautiful side of things,” Suma acknowledged. “Plastic is a kind of useful substance. But it’s unthinkable that a water bottle, made from a material designed to last so long, can be used for just a few days—or even minutes—before becoming garbage. Clean the beaches. Clean the oceans. Recycle. But if we are still throwing out plastics, none of those are going to be long-term solutions.”

1. What’s Suma’s concern about his living place?

A．Its long coastline is disappearing.	B．Big storms frequently hit the area.
C．Floating waste spreads over a vast area.	D．The waste pollution on shore is worsening.

2. What can be learned about the objects in the Archeoplastica museum?

A．They have a history of more than half a century.

B．They were quite valuable before turning into waste.

C．They’re more like educational exhibits than garbage.

D．They have stronger life force than ordinary plastic products.

3. Which of the following can best describe Enzo Suma?

A．Creative, devoted and socially responsible.	B．Enthusiastic, ambitious and adventurous.
C．Generous, cautious and humorous.	D．Curious, efficient and playful.

4. What does Suma intend to tell us by his words in the last paragraph?

A．The birth of plastics has greatly served humans.

B．The key to tackling the plastic pollution is to stop littering.

C．The plastic problem can be solved by cleaning and recycling.

D．People should be more aware of the powerful functions of plastics.

8 . Remember boiling tap water for drinking? Who has the time now? Instead, bottled water is everywhere, in offices, airplanes, stores, homes and restaurants. But what’s in that bottle? Beautiful names and labels depicting romantic scenes have convinced us that the liquid is the purest drink around. But given the lack of labeling requirements for bottled water, how much do consumers really know about what’s in the bottle? “The public should not assume that water purchased in a bottle, is better regulated purer, or safer than most tap water. Water utilities are required to tell the public more about the tap water than bottled water companies are,” says Mae Wu, a bottled water (expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit organization in the US devoted to protecting health and the environment. Sure, some bottled water comes from sparkling springs and other, sources. But in the US, alone, more than 25 percent of it comes from a municipal (市政的) supply. The water is treated, purified and sold to us, often at a thousand fold increase in price. Most people are surprised to learn that they are drinking glorified tap water, but bottlers aren’t required to list the source on the label.

According to the Asian Bottled Water Association, water from municipal supply does not have to state on its label that it is from a community water system. However, there are some brands like Nestle Pure Life that indicate whether the water comes from public, private or deep well sources. Advertising can be misleading at best and deceptive at worst. In a recent case, a food and drink manufacturer boasted in a TV commercial that its mineral water came from a “high-quality water source” but it turned out that, that was no more than plain tap water.

The potential health risks are important to understand, but bottled water also affects the health of the planet. While we struggle to, cut down on our consumption of fossil fuels, bottled water increases it. Virgin petroleum (石油) is used to make PET, and the more bottles we use, the more virgin petroleum will be needed to create new bottles. Fossil fuels are burned to fill the bottles and distribute them. Some brands of water come from islands and countries thousands of kilometers away, and shipping bottles can cause carbon pollution to spill into the water and spew into the air.

1. Compared to the tap water, bottled water             .

A．is much better, than the tap water

B．is better regulated, purer and safer

C．spends more money on advertisement

D．is required to list the source on the label

2. What can you infer from the second paragraph?

A．We can never trust the TV commercials.

B．Advertisements on bottled water always cheat the audiences.

C．Some companies choose to state where the water comes from.

D．The government asks the company not to state the source of water.

3. How is the third paragraph organized?

A．Through listing, figures.

B．Through making comparisons.

C．Through adding background information.

D．Through cause and effect argumentation.

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards the bottled water?

A．Indifferent.

B．Negative.

C．Favorable.

D．Ambiguous.

9 . People often recommend planting trees to make cities greener, cleaner and healthier. But during heat waves, city trees can actually increase air pollution. Indeed, a new study has found, up to 60 percent of the smoggy ozone in a city’s air on hot days may trace to chemicals emitted by trees. Galina Churkina, who works at Humboldt University of Berlin, and her team have confirmed it.

The findings might seem the opposite of what you would expect, notes Robert Young, an expert in city planting at the University of Texas at Austin. Indeed, he says, “Everything has multiple effects.” The new findings do not mean cities should discourage tree planting. Instead, cities may need stricter controls on other sources of pollution, such as tailpipeemissions from cars and trucks.

City trees soak up carbon dioxide, and at the same time they release oxygen into the air. But oxygen is far from the only gas that trees and certain other green plants release into the air. One of these chemicals is a hydrocarbon known as isoprene(异戊二烯). It can react with combustion(燃烧)pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides(氮氧化物)emitted by cars and trucks in cities. The result is the formation of ozone, a component of smog, which can irritate the lungs and cause airway diseases.

Churkina says her team is not surprised to see the seemingly contrary relationship between plants and pollution. She adds that its importance is quite amazing. “The results,” Churkina says, “suggest that city tree planting programs should not ignore the role this greenery may play in aggravating summer air pollution.” “Adding more trees will improve quality of life only if those cities also undertake plans to sharply cut vehicle pollution in summer and to increase their reliance on clean energy sources for electric power,” she says.

1. What does the new study find about city trees on hot days?

A．City trees can reduce the smoggy ozone.

B．City trees may easily absorb heat waves.

C．City trees may cause more air pollution.

D．More city trees can make a city far better.

2. What is the third paragraph mainly about?

A．The harm ozone does to people in cities.

B．The way trees help the formation of ozone.

C．The chemicals green plants release into the air.

D．The benefits trees bring to the city environment.

3. What does the underlined word “aggravating” mean in the last paragraph?

A．Worsening.

B．Decreasing.

C．Improving.

D．Releasing.

4. Which of the following is suggested by Churkina?

A．Planting more trees in cities.

B．Advocating using clean energy.

C．Improving people’s quality of life.

D．Banning vehicle pollution in summer.

10 . Have you ever stopped to consider how empty the world would look without trees? Below are five of the top benefits that trees provide.

    1     When adults who are feeling down spend time in the forest, they feel better. Forest therapy can range from simply walking among the trees for a couple of hours to meditating (冥想) in a forest. The adults note they become more confident and their mood improves after forest therapy.

Trees help you heal faster. Natural environments, including forests, help you reach a more positive state of mind.     2     In fact, sick people with exposure to nature heal faster than those who don’t, even if it’s just a view through a window!

Trees reduce air pollution and improve respiratory (呼吸的) health. Trees take in many harmful pollutants from our environment.     3    These forests reduce an estimated 670, 000 cases of respiratory illness and save 850 lives.

Trees provide oxygen. Trees are like the lungs of our Earth. They supply us with oxygen while taking away our carbon dioxide and ask for nothing in return. A single tree can provide enough oxygen for four people.     4    

Trees cool cities. Trees cool things down by offering shade and through evapotranspiration (蒸腾作用).     5     Trees even save your money on your electric bill. When a tree offers direct shade for your home, you’ll use less air conditioning.

A．Trees cheer you up!

B．Trees help reduce the effects of climate change.

C．This, in turn, affects your overall state of wellness.

D．In fact, large forests can influence regional weather patterns.

E．So plant more trees around your home if you want to feel cooler.

F．And of course, trees also provide plenty of oxygen for birds and other wildlife.

G．For example, in the US, forests remove 17.4 million tons of pollution per year.