1 . A new study finds too much light at night can cut the number of seeds a plant produces. Researchers put up street lights in Swiss meadows, far from any real street. The setup mimicked (模拟) urban light pollution. In these now-light-polluted fields, flowers had 62 percent fewer night visitors—insect pollinators(传粉者)—than the flowers in
Cabbage thistles are the most common flowers in these meadows. Fewer insect visitors at night could mean less pollen (花粉) pollinated from plant to plant (the first step in producing seeds). “For the thistles, daytime pollinator visits didn’t make up for this loss at night,” says Eva Knop, an ecologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Overall, night-lit plants produced one-eighth fewer seeds than plants that got full nights of darkness did.
“Light pollution might affect a whole network of plants and their pollinators,” Knop and her colleagues now suggest. Indeed, night pollination is not just a lonely business for a few special plants. There are lots of links between production of pollen by night and that by day. Plants with a lot of night visits are often very busy by day, too. Light at night that decreases seed numbers could over time mean fewer new plants. And fewer plants could mean less food and shelter for daytime insects. Therefore, a lot of pollinators working day and night shifts could be affected, which is what Knop worries about.
The new study is the first to show how artificial light affects plants’ ability to produce seeds. The test is also unusual because it considers all kinds of insect pollinators instead of focusing only on night-flying insects. The researchers paid special attention to the cabbage thistle, but they also mapped which kinds of insects visited other plants by day or night.
1. Why were street lights put up in the meadows?| A．To copy light pollution. |
| B．To promote urbanization. |
| C．To accelerate plant growth. |
| D．To attract insect pollinators. |
| A．They attract only night visitors. |
| B．They grow slowly during the night. |
| C．They are the most common Swiss flowers. |
| D．They rely on insects to help produce seeds. |
| A．sight | B．numbers | C．growth | D．food and shelter |
| A．Plants attract more insects due to light pollution. |
| B．Night-flying insects matter more than daytime ones. |
| C．Light pollution may affect plants seed numbers. |
| D．Researchers found ways to protect the insects. |
Nowadays, our living conditions are becoming increasingly serious owing to the destruction of our environment. Many plants and
It is obvious that there are many reasons
Personally, I hold the view that effective measures must be taken
3 . During the pandemic, masks and other forms of personal protective equipment (PPE) have become familiar fixtures of our daily lives. They have helped ensure the safety of ourselves and our loved ones. Yet, the improper disposal of PPE has contributed to a hazardous trend — the accumulation of medical waste and the littering of our planet.
Every month, we use nearly 129 billion masks. In a recent report, the United Nations found that from March 2020 to November 2021, around 87,000 tons of used masks and gloves have become non-disposable waste.
This is very worrying, as the waste traps animals and affects the health of our communities. When not properly discarded (丢弃), PPE waste may be blown into local rivers and streams or mistaken by birds as materials for building nests. It is harmful to the environment because most PPE is made from plastic fibers. These fibers can never fully degrade, and instead, break down into microplastics and nanoplastics that linger in our oceans.
At present, many healthcare facilities do not have systems that can deal with the increasing amount of medical waste. As a result, facilities have resorted to burning medical waste. This can put healthcare workers at a higher risk of catching the disease, and communities near landfills (废弃物品填埋场) can be influenced by the poisonous air from the burn pits.
Instead of traditional masks, the United Nations recommends using safe, biodegradable masks or washable cloth masks as an alternative. Sealing used masks and gloves in a separate bag and cutting mask straps before throwing them away can also prevent PPE from ending up in unintended locations, such as sewage systems on streets.
However, it is important to note that masks should not be placed in household recycling bins because most garbage collection systems in cities are unable to dispose of the materials. Ultimately, knowing how to responsibly discard our PPE can help us not only protect the environment but also ourselves and other individuals in our community.
1. What does the underlined word “hazardous” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Welcome. | B．Clear. | C．Dangerous. | D．Gradual. |
| A．Its amount is decreasing on an annual basis. |
| B．Its fibers can permanently stay in the ecosystem. |
| C．It can be burned by healthcare workers without pollution. |
| D．It can be degraded by the majority of healthcare facilities. |
| A．The components of the used masks should be recycled. |
| B．The used masks should be mixed with household trash. |
| C．The raw material of traditional masks should be reconsidered. |
| D．The community should build sewage systems to collect used masks. |
| A．To appeal to people to recycle. | B．To explain a social phenomenon. |
| C．To stress the importance of PPE. | D．To introduce an environmental problem. |
Most of the efforts aimed at reducing climate change center on
The study found that if the world food system stays on
Researchers from the University of Minnesota and the University of Oxford in Britain led the study,
A main goal of the 2015 United Nations Paris Agreement
很多人认为目前我们正在面临“一次性文化”(throw-away culture)的冲击。我们习惯使用各种一次性用品，原因是它们方便、卫生，但是后果也是非常严重的——这些用品会破坏水源、污染土地和空气。假如你是李华，请写一封信给世界自然保护联盟，谈谈你对一次性用品的看法，包括以下内容：
●你是否有使用一次性用品的习惯以及理由;
●具体说明如何面对一次性用品造成的环境问题。
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6 . Friday night lights are good for the game, but they may be bad for biodiversity.
According to a study published Friday in the journal Animal Conservation, bright stadium lighting could affect the feeding habits of bats. Insects swarm (涌往) to these lights in large numbers, creating a competitive advantage for bat species who aren’t afraid of humans and human structures. This could impact local ecosystems and reduce biodiversity.
For most humans, there simply isn’t enough daylight hours—we have been developing new ways to light the night since we first controlled and used fire. But researchers say our need for continuous visibility can have serious consequences for neighboring species.
Light pollution has been linked to some ecosystem damage. Baby turtles, for example, naturally use the light of the moon to travel towards the open ocean. But constant and poorly designed artificial lighting can affect their sense of direction, obviously disturbing their life cycles.
“Increasing light pollution is a major feature of global change that’s caused by humans, and it is a potential threat to biodiversity,” co-author M. Corrie Schoeman said in a press release.
Dr Schoeman, a professor of biology at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, conducted field experiments to determine how stadium lighting affected bat behaviors. He found that “urban exploiter” bats were drawn to hunt near bright lights, while “urban avoider” bats were not. Exploiter species are able to take advantage of human resources, such as artificial light. Avoider species, by comparison, tend to avoid humans and human structures.
But it’s hardly survival of the fittest. This man-made, ecological scale-tipping could result in the decline or loss of avoider species. And that, in turn, could threaten the balance of local ecosystems.
Luckily, light pollution is considered an “easy fix” compared to other forms of pollution. Smart lighting design— hooded (带罩的) streetlamps，motion-sensitive residential lights (触控住宅用灯), and better controls to remove unnecessary brightness—can obviously reduce light pollution. As for stadium lights, earlier games could do a lot of good, both for bats and for our ecosystems as a whole.
1. What does the author want to demonstrate with the example of baby turtles?| A．Turtles are good at using human lights. |
| B．Light pollution has caused ecological damage. |
| C．Artificial lighting can train turtles’ sense of direction. |
| D．Human neighboring species have their own way of lighting. |
| A．They are the fittest of their species. |
| B．They are fond of artificial lighting. |
| C．They always defeat “urban avoider” bats. |
| D．They break the balance of their species. |
| A．How to reduce light pollution. | B．How to improve stadium lights. |
| C．How to balance the ecosystem. | D．How to recognize unnecessary brightness. |
| A．Evolution of Bats | B．Competition Among Bats |
| C．Stadium Lights Change Bat Behavior | D．The Number of Bats Are Decreasing |
7 . It’s no secret that inhaling (吸入) smoke is bad for your lungs. But now, scientists are suggesting smoke may also carry and spread infectious diseases. The theory, published in Science Magazine, is based on research that found wildfire smoke is crowded with thousands of species of microorganisms. Some of these microorganisms, including bacteria and fungal spores, are known to cause disease.
The new research suggests that when a wildfire burns plant or animal matter and disturbs soils, it exposes thousands of species of bacteria and fungi that otherwise might not easily become airborne (空气传播的). You might think the high heat from fire would kill these organisms, but one study mentioned in the article found that some bacteria even multiply post-fire. Scientists say the organisms attach to smoke particles, allowing them to travel thousands of miles across continents.
Dr. Peter Chen, director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, is interested in the theory but somewhat skeptical that the microorganisms in smoke would actually cause infections. Many bacteria and fungi don’t cause lung infections, says Chen, but it’s certainly possible that a significant amount could worsen symptoms in someone with a preexisting lung condition. “I always thought it was the particles in smoke that were causing these issues,” says Chen. “But when I read this, I started thinking: Could it be the microorganisms that are also worsening existing illnesses?”
Whether the microorganisms in smoke actually cause infection or simply worsen potential respiratory (呼吸的) issues, the article raises a new health threat that is “certainly alarming”, says Kelsey Jack, an associate professor of environmental and development economics. This is especially true for lower-income populations, Jack says, because people with fewer means are often more exposed to the environment. If smoke is affecting the air quality in a certain area, the people who work outside, or who have to go to the office on foot or by bike will inhale more smoke than those who drive.
But until more research is done, Chen says the best thing people can do is just follow existing recommendations when air quality is poor—including staying indoors, keeping windows and doors closed, using HEPA filters and running air conditioning.
1. What can we know about the microorganisms from paragraph 2?| A．They could be killed by high heat. |
| B．They could reproduce in large numbers after fires. |
| C．They could possibly travel through air by themselves. |
| D．They can easily attach themselves to smoke particles. |
| A．They might worsen lung diseases. | B．They will cause lung infections. |
| C．They will destroy living environments. | D．They might damage respiratory systems. |
| A．They live in poor areas. |
| B．They drive to and from work. |
| C．They have suffered from lung disease. |
| D．They are exposed to polluted air more frequently. |
| A．Results of the new research. |
| B．Suggestions on dealing with poor air quality. |
| C．Disagreements between the author and Chen. |
| D．Benefits of preventing smoke from polluting the air. |
8 . Blue Planet Ⅱ’s latest episode (情节) is about how plastic is having a terrible effect on the ocean and slowly poisoning our sea creatures. Researchers have also found that sea creatures living in the deepest place on Earth, Mariana Trench, have plastic in their stomachs. Indeed, oceans are drowning in plastic.
Though it seems that the world couldn’t possibly function without plastic, plastic is a very recent invention. The first plastic bags were introduced in the 1950s, the same decade (十年) that plastic packaging began gaining popularity in the United States. This growth has happened so fast that science is still catching up with the change. Plastic pollution research, for example, is still a very early science.
We put all the plastic into the environment, but we still don’t really know what the outcomes are going to be. What we do know, though, is disturbing. Ocean plastic is expected to kill millions of sea animals every year. Hundreds of 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 stomach. Ninety percent of seabirds are now eating plastic regularly. By 2050, that figure is expected to rise to 100 percent.
And it’s not just wildlife that is threatened by the plastic in our seas. Humans are consuming plastic through the seafood we eat. I could understand why some people see ocean plastic as a disaster, worth mentioning in the same breath as climate change. But ocean plastic is not as complicated (复杂的) as climate change. There are no ocean waste 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 deal with 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 plastic pollution research still a very early science?| A．The plastic pollution research is too difficult. |
| B．Plastic has produced less pollution than coal. |
| C．Plastic has gained popularity too fast for science to catch up. |
| D．The world couldn’t possibly function without plastic. |
| A．By presenting reliable data. |
| B．By citing quotes from leading experts. |
| C．By making a comparison and contrast. |
| D．By listing examples from his own experiences. |
| A．We reap what we sow. |
| B．The shortest answer is doing. |
| C．All things are difficult before they are easy. |
| D．Actions speak louder than words. |
| A．The oceans become choked with plastic. |
| B．Ocean plastic is a global problem. |
| C．Blue Planet Ⅱ has left viewers heartbroken. |
| D．Plastic gains in popularity all over the world. |
9 . If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars, we would go in darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal (夜间活动的) species on this planet. Instead, we are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun’s light. This is a basic evolutionary fact, even though most of us don’t think of ourselves as diurnal beings. Yet it’s the only way to explain what we’ve done to the night: We’ve engineered it to receive us by filling it with light.
The benefits of this kind of engineering come with consequences — called light pollution — whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky. Ill-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night and completely changes the light levels — and light rhythms — to which many forms of life, including, ourselves, have adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some aspect or life is affected.
In most cities the sky looks as though it has been emptied of stars, leaving behind a vacant haze (霾) that mirrors our fear of the dark. We’ve grown so used to this orange haze that the original glory of an unlit night — dark enough for the planet Venus to throw shadow on Earth — is wholly beyond our experience, beyond memory almost.
We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet (磁铁). The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being “captured” by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms. Migrating at night, birds tend to collide with brightly lit tall buildings.
Frogs living near brightly lit highways suffer nocturnal light levels that are as much as a million times brighter than normal, throwing nearly every aspect of their behavior out of joint, including their nighttime breeding choruses. Humans are less trapped by light pollution than the frogs. Like most other creatures, we do need darkness. Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself.
Living in a glare of our own making, we have cut ourselves off from our evolutionary and cultural heritage — the light of the stars and the rhythms of day and night. In a very real sense light pollution causes us to lose sight of our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best measured against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way — the edge of our galaxy — arching overhead.
1. According to the passage, human beings__________.| A．prefer to live in the darkness |
| B．are used to living in the day light |
| C．were curious about the midnight world |
| D．had to stay at home with the light of the moon |
| A．The night. | B．The moon. | C．The sky. | D．The planet. |
| A．provide examples of animal protection |
| B．show how light pollution affects animals |
| C．compare the living habits of both species |
| D．explain why the number of certain species has declined |
| A．light pollution dose harm to the eyesight of animals |
| B．light pollution has destroyed some of the world heritages |
| C．human beings cannot go to the outer space |
| D．human beings should reflect on their position in the universe |
| A．The Magic Light | B．The Orange Haze |
| C．The Disappearing Night | D．The Rhythms of Nature |
Zou Yi, an environmentalist
The fact that China is the first major developing country to combat PM 2.5 may sound unfamiliar to many,
Days with good air quality accounted
