1 . 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.

2. What is the advantage of Raman microscopy?

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.

3. Why will the team expand their research into tap 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.

4. What is Qian’s attitude towards his research?

A．Skeptical.

B．Objective.

C．Conservative.

D．Positive.

2 . As newer, more advanced technologies come out, huge amounts of electronics (电子产品) are thrown away, instead of being reused. These goods often end up in landfills, where the chemicals inside them may be a danger to the environment. Electronics can contain harmful materials. If these materials get into the ground or water, the pollution can cause serious problems. Most electronics require metals. These metals must be mined from the Earth. Often the mining process creates serious pollution.

A group known as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum is trying to make people more aware of the problems of e-waste. Recently, the WEEE Forum asked researchers from the United Nations (UN) to study a kind of e-waste that’s often not noticed because people don’t consider the goods to be electronics. The WEEE Forum calls this kind “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste.

The UN study shows that about 1/6 of all e-waste is “unable-to-be-seen”. Though it’s “unable-to-be-seen”, it’s certainly not a small amount. The “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste weighs about 9 billion kilograms. The WEEE Forum says that if this e-waste were put into 40-ton trucks and the trucks were then lined up, the line of trucks would be about 5,630 kilometers long.

The surprising kind leading the “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste group was toys. Worldwide, roughly 7.3 billion electronic toys are thrown away each year. These include goods like car racing sets, electric trains, and musical toys. They also include toys with electronic parts, like dolls that speak or games with electronic timers. In all, toys make up about 35% of “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste. But the problem is far larger than just toys. The report also shows that other everyday goods like home alarms, smoke alarms, power tools, and computer cables (电缆) are also big sources of “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste.

The WEEE Forum is hoping that as more people and governments become aware of e-waste, they will make a much greater effort to make sure electronics get reused.

1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?

A．The amount of electronics.	B．The development of electronics.
C．The ways of reusing electronics.	D．The pollution of electronics.

2. What causes some e-waste often unnoticed?

A．People’s interest in electronics’ character.

B．People’s impression on electronics’ package.

C．People’s misunderstanding of electronics.

D．People’s struggle to adapt to electronics.

3. How does the author support his viewpoint in paragraph 3?

A．By showing numbers.	B．By providing examples.
C．By making a summary.	D．By making a comparison,

4. Which of the following is the WEEE Forum’s solution to e-waste?

A．Designing advanced electronics.	B．Making electronics get reused.
C．Stopping giving away electronics.	D．Reducing electronics’ production.

3 . As we all know, waste is extremely bad for the environment. Let’s talk about why litter is harmful to our streets and towns, our drinking water, and sea animals.

Waste can have a bad influence on our cities. Cleaning up litter costs US taxpayers (纳税人) and businesses $11.5 billion each year.    1     Litter on the streets can cause road accidents with hundreds of deaths because of it. Areas that have more waste have more crime (犯罪). The litter on the streets sends a message that people don’t care about their neighborhood.

    2     The litter we drop on the ground can pollute rivers, lakes, oceans, and other bodies of water. 60%of water pollution is caused by littering. Waste hurts sea animals.     3     You may think that when you litter, “Oh, this is just one piece of litter. It can’t do any harm. But if every person does that, even if it’s only once, there will still be 7.9 billion pieces of litter in our ocean. Over one million sea animals die every year because of waste.    4    

As you can see, waste is harmful in many ways.    5     We need to take action to avoid unnecessary waste, and pick up every piece of waste we see. We should try to make it a habit because if we don’t, the waste problem will become even worse.

A．Everybody wants to breathe fresh air.

B．That money could have been spent on parks.

C．How do you feel when you see people littering around?

D．In the future there might be more waste than fish in the ocean.

E．Litter can go into the soil and water and pollute our drinking water.

F．We need to stop littering for us, for the environment, and for the planet.

G．Did you know every day almost 8 million pieces of litter go into the ocean?

6 . 假定你是李华，你对近年来的严重雾霾深有感触，认为绿色生活方式对于改善空气质量十分有益。请根据下列要点写一篇短文，向校刊“英语角”栏目投稿。提出具体措施，注意用词，使行文连贯，字数100左右。
1. 简述雾霾情况;
2. 倡导绿色生活;
3. 提出具体措施
注意：
1. 词数100左右;
2. 可以适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。

Green Life, Clearer Air

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7 . The effects of noise can reach organisms (生物体) without ears. Because of the way living things rely on each other, noise pollution may actually stop some forests from growing, a new study suggests. In a New Mexico woodland of pine trees, researchers found far fewer tree seedlings (小苗) in noisy sites than they did in quiet ones.

The study area is dotted with gas wells, some of which are quiet and some of which have compressors (压缩机) that create a constant noise. This allowed Jennifer Phillips, a behavioral ecologist at Texas A&M University-San Antonio and her colleagues to compare sites that were similar except for noise level. In areas that had been noisy for at least 15 years, the researchers found only about 13 pine seedlings, compared with 55 pine seedlings per hectare (公顷) in quiet areas.

The differences in plant growth were probably caused by changes in animal behavior, said Phillips. For example, noise might drive away certain pollinators (传粉昆虫) such as bees, bats and moths. In the case of pine trees, the problem was likely a lack of animals to disperse seeds. Pines depend on birds to carry their seeds away from the parent tree, and birds are known to avoid noise. The differences between the sites aren’t yet obvious to someone walking through them, said Sarah Termondt, a botanist (植物学家) with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who helped conduct the study. That’s probably because pines are slow-growing, with most of the mature trees in such woodlands being over a century old.

The study raises questions about the future of the area. “If the noise stays there long term, are we going to lose this important ecosystem of the pine which supports so much wildlife?” said Phillips. The study was published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.

1. What does the new study focus on?

A．The influence of noise pollution on plants.

B．The way the organisms receive noise.

C．The harm of noise pollution to insects.

D．The effects of noise pollution on humans .

2. What can be learned from paragraph 2 and 3?

A．Gas wells dotted in the area provide favorable conditions for the study.

B．The study sites are different in many ways including their noise level.

C．It is difficult for plants to live without noise and animals.

D．People can easily find the difference between the noisy and the quiet sites.

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

A．Seedling.	B．Thin.
C．Grown-up.	D．Tall.

4. What does Phillips mean by saying the words in the last paragraph?

A．Noise pollution is obviously a trouble that can be avoided.

B．Noise pollution could be a threat with the power to change ecosystems.

C．The pine forest is important because it supports so much wildlife.

D．Wildlife should be well protected for the future of this area.

8 . The world has a plastic problem—and it is increasing.    1    . But in the meantime, here are five things you can do to reduce plastic waste now.

1. Quit using plastic bags. Instead, take your own reusable shopping bag to the store. People use a trillion plastic bags worldwide every year. About 10 percent are used in the United States alone. That’s almost one bag per American per day.    2    .In 1993, Denmark was the first country to place a tax (税) on plastic bags. Today, other countries either make customers pay for plastic bags or have banned them completely.

2. Skip the straw. Today, around 8.3 billion plastic straws pollute the world’s beaches.    3    . In 2018, Seattle became the first major U.S. city to ban plastic straws, and many other cities are set to follow its example.

3. Don’t use plastic bottles. Buy a reusable bottle and fill it with any type of beverage you like.    4    Globally, however, people still buy nearly a million plastic bottles every minute.

4. Avoid plastic packaging. Buy bar soap instead of liquid soap in plastic containers. Don’t buy fruit or vegetables in plastic packaging. In the United Kingdom, leaders are calling for supermarkets to have plastic-free areas. They also want to tax plastic take-out containers.

5. Recycle. We can’t recycle all plastic items, but it is possible to recycle most bottles and milk or juice cartons. Today, Norway recycles 97 percent of its plastic bottle.    5    

A．Likewise, the average Dane uses four plastic bags per day.

B．In contrast, the average Dane used four single-use bags per year.

C．So when you order a drink, say no to the straw, or bring your own reusable one.

D．However, there are still loads of people ignoring the seriousness of it.

E．Scientists are working to find a long-term solution by making plastic more biodegradable (可降解的).

F．Some cities, like Bundanoon in Australia and San Francisco in the U.S. have completely or partially banned bottled water.

G．How? Machines at most supermarkets take the bottles and give a refund (退款) of up to 2.5 kroner (32 cents) per bottle.

9 . You’ve heard that plastic is polluting the oceans — between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.

At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called “Strawpocalypse,” a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168,000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source (来源) of plastic pollution, but they’ve recently come under fire because most people don’t need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that’s part of Von Wong’s artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.

In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate (说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload’s worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled “Truckload of Plastic,” Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10,000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they’d been dumped (倾倒) from a truck all at once.

Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.

1. What are Von Wong’s artworks intended for?

A．Beautifying the city he lives in.	B．Introducing eco-friendly products.
C．Drawing public attention to plastic waste.	D．Reducing garbage on the beach.

2. Why does the author discuss plastic straws in paragraph 3?

A．To show the difficulty of their recycling.

B．To explain why they are useful.

C．To voice his views on modern art.

D．To find a substitute for them.

3. What effect would “Truckload of Plastic” have on viewers?

A．Calming.	B．Disturbing.
C．Refreshing.	D．Challenging.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety

B．Media Interest in Contemporary Art

C．Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies

D．Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures