1 . Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but has brought new peoplems. One of the biggest is pollution. Pollution come in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it.
Men have been polluting the earth. Many years ago, the pollution was not so serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in one place, men moved to another place.
Air pollution is now the most serious. Air makes people sick. And lots of people now are trying to use something to clear the air. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us become angry more easily.
Many countries are making rules to fight air pollution. They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air.
Pollution by SO2 is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. It is caused by heavy traffic. It is true that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.
Although most of the pollution is caused by us, we are the ones who can change the situation. The earth is our home. We must take care of it. And we must pay more attention to the information in pollution at the same time.
1. Why was the pollution in the past less serious?| A．Because life in the past was easier. | B．Because there were not so many people. |
| C．Because men stayed in one place. | D．Because people used less coal to make fire. |
| A．Air pollution. | B．Noise poliution. | C．Light pollution. | D．Water pollution. |
| A．Try to use something to clear the air | B．Ask people to use public transport more. |
| C．Stop putting dirty smoke into the air. | D．Encourage people to move to another place |
| A．Because there are so many factories. |
| B．Because the global warming is becoming worse and worse. |
| C．Because carbon dioxide emissions are increasing. |
| D．Because there is heavy traffic. |
| A．To prove life is much easier today. | B．To call on us to take care of our earth. |
| C．To show the danger of pollution. | D．To introduce how to fight air pollution. |
2 . In the old days, when you had to drive to a movie theater or to a video store to get some entertainment, it was easy to see how your actions could have an impact on the environment. You were hopping into your car, driving across town, and using gas all the way.
But now that we’re used to staying at home and streaming movies, we might feel better about ourselves. After all, we’re just picking up our phones or maybe turning on the TV. You’re welcome, Mother Nature.
“Not so fast,” says a recent report from the French-based Shift Project. Watching a half-hour show would lead to 3.5 pounds of CO₂ emissions. That’s like driving 3.9 miles. According to “Climate Crisis: The Unsustainable Use of Online Video,” digital technologies are responsible for 4% of greenhouse gas emissions, and that energy use is increasing by 9% a year. Stored in data centers, videos are transferred to our terminals such as computers, smart phones, etc. via networks: all these processes require electricity whose production consumes resources and usually involves CO₂ emissions.
In the European Union, the Eureca project lead scientist, Rabih Bashroush, calculated that 5 billion downloads and streams of the song “Despacito” consumed as much electricity as the countries of Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic used in a single year.
Streaming is only expected to increase as we become more attached to our devices. Online video use is expected to account for 80% of all internet traffic in five years according to CISCO. By then, about 60% of the world’s population will be online.
You’re probubly not going to give up your streaming services, but there are things you can do to help lessen the impact of your online use.
Here are some tips:
Disable autoplay for video on social media.
Stream over Wi-Fi, not mobile networks.
Watch on the smallest screen you can.
Don’t use high-definition (高清) video on devices.
1. It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that people think ______.| A．they should welcome Mother Nature |
| B．streaming at home avoids possible emissions |
| C．it is inconvenient to drive to a movie theater |
| D．watching movies at home is more fun |
| A．60% of the world’s population watch videos online |
| B．digital technologies account for 4% of electricity use |
| C．online video use makes up 80% of all internet traffic |
| D．30 minutes of streaming video may produce 3.5 pounds of CO₂ |
| A．To praise their energy-efficient practice. |
| B．To prove the poverty of the five countries |
| C．To stress the popularity of the song “Despacito” |
| D．To show the high energy use of downloads and streams |
| A．Use high-definition videos. | B．Turn off video autoplay |
| C．Stream over mobile networks. | D．Watch movies on bigger screens. |
When travelling overseas, do you buy water in plastic bottles or take your chances with tap water? Imagine you are wandering about on a Thai island or
That’s the conclusion of a recently
Confronted with this evidence, several bottled-water manufacturers including Nestle and Coca-Cola undertook
4 . Water companies have pumped waste water into Britain’s seas and rivers for more than nine million hours since 2016, new data suggests. The figure is an increase of 2,553% over five years, according to Environment Agency (EA) data, so the EA warned holidaymakers to avoid dozens of beaches across England and Wales this week.
Untreated waste water was spotted pouring into the sea near Bexhill, East Sussex on Wednesday. On Saturday, the red flags were removed, meaning the water was officially considered safe to bathe in. The beach, however, was nearly deserted.
Rachel Streeter moved to Bexhill in 2007 to enjoy wild swimming and the beach. “Flies actually flew above the surface of the water as well as the waste water. It’s quite horrible,” she said. Rachel says her friends and family have all become sick after swimming. Her 79-year-old mother went for a swim last week and fell ill with “a severe bacterial infection (感染)”.
Businesses say they are being affected by it too. Cliff Meadon, who runs business in the sea, says he has lost “thousands” pounds over the last two years due to water pollution. “We’ve been on the water with groups when we’ve had to come in as the waste comes out,” he said.
In Hastings people were advised not to swim due to a pollution risk this week. Beaches in Normans Bay as well as Bexhill were closed but have now reopened.
Southern Water argued that the water company had not been deliberately (故意的) pouring untreated water into the sea. A spokesperson for the company said, “This week’s heavy rain has fallen onto dry ground that can’t absorb surface run-off, meaning that more rain than usual has entered our waterway networks. This led to some overflows, spilling some untreated water into the sea.”
Southern Water was fined £90 million last year for widespread pollution after sending out more than 6,000 untreated waste water.
1. What warning has the EA given?| A．Holidaymakers not going to certain beaches. |
| B．A severe bacterial infection breaking out in the UK. |
| C．Southern Water stopping pouring waste water into the sea. |
| D．Cliff Meadon stopping running business in the sea. |
| A．Heavy rainfalls. | B．Too many holidaymakers. |
| C．Damaged waterway networks. | D．Poor management of water companies. |
| A．Holidaymakers facing pollution risk |
| B．Dozens of Britain’s beaches closed to holidaymakers |
| C．Lots of families pouring untreated waste water into seas |
| D．Huge increase in untreated waste water entering Britain’s seas |
| A．Health. | B．Business. | C．Environment. | D．Sports. |
5 . For most of human history, the stars shone brightly in a dark night sky. But today, cities and towns, increasingly lit by artificial light at night, dramatically reduce the visibility of stars.
Satellite data suggests that light pollution has been increasing in many parts of the world over the last decade. However, satellites miss the blue light of LEDs (发光的二极管), which are commonly used for outdoor lighting, resulting in an underestimate of light pollution.
An international citizen science project called Globe at Night (环球夜景) aims to measure how everyday people’s view of the sky is changing. The data shows that the night sky got, on average, 9.6% brighter every year. For many people, the night sky today is twice as bright as it was eight years ago. The brighter the sky, the fewer stars you can see. If this trend continues, a child born today in a place where 250 stars are visible now would only be able to see 100 stars on his/her 18th birthday.
The main factors leading to increasing brightness of the night sky are industrialization and the growing use of LEDs for outdoor lighting. The loss of dark skies threatens our ability as astronomers to do good science. But everyday people feel this loss too. Starry night skies have inspired artists, writers, musicians and philosophers for thousands of years. Light pollution also has a bad effect on the daily cycle of light and dark that plants and animals use to adjust their lifestyle. Two-thirds of the world’s key biodiversity (生物多样性) areas are affected by light pollution.
Individuals and their communities can make simple changes to reduce light pollution. The secret is using the right amount of light, in the right place and at the right time. Making outdoor lights shine downward, using lights that give out more yellow-colored light instead of white light and putting on light timers can all help reduce light pollution. A view of about 2,500 stars in a truly dark sky might convince you that dark skies are a resource worth saving.
1. How is the first paragraph mainly developed?| A．By giving an example. | B．By making a comparison. |
| C．By reaching a conclusion. | D．By raising a question. |
| A．The light pollution is getting more serious. |
| B．The night sky today gets darker than before. |
| C．It’s difficult to imagine a child’s fast growth. |
| D．LEDs are commonly used for outdoor lighting. |
| A．The bad effects of light pollution. | B．The factors causing light pollution. |
| C．The functions of starry night skies. | D．Key biodiversity areas in the world. |
| A．To explain a phenomenon. | B．To suggest a solution. |
| C．To remember a scientist. | D．To increase public awareness. |
6 . At any moment, about half the world’s population is wearing denim (牛仔布). But few realize tiny bits of denim have been adding up to a surprising amount of pollution in water, as a new study shows.
Sam Athey, one of the study’s authors, says, “Even though denim is made of a natural material—cotton—it contains chemicals.” Cotton fibers are treated with many types of chemicals, she notes. Some improve its durability (耐久性) and feel. Others give denim its distinctive blue color.
Athey and her team washed jeans and found that about 50,000 microfibers come off from each pair per wash. Not all of those fibers make their way into the environment. Wastewater treatment plants catch about 83 to 99 percent of them. Catching 99 percent may sound pretty good. But one percent of 50,000 is still 500 fibers per wash. And since every pair of jeans is washed again and again, it still adds up to lots of microfibers entering water environments.
Denim microfibers showed up in sediment (沉淀物) from the Great Lakes. More of these fibers polluted a series of shallow lakes in southern Ontario. They even turned up in sediment from the Arctic Ocean in northern Canada. The team found denim accounted for 12 to 23 percent of microfibers in the sediment. There were other microfibers too. But the team focused on denim because so many people wear jeans.
“Everyone wears jeans so they could be our largest input of microfibers into our streams and soils,” Athey says. “An easy way to limit that is by washing our jeans less often.” Athey grew up thinking she should wash her jeans after every couple of wearings, but most jean companies recommend washing them no more than once a month. “The solution is not that you shouldn’t wear jeans,” she says. “We need to buy fewer denim clothes and only wash them when they truly need it.”
1. Why are chemicals used to deal with cotton according to the passage?| A．To avoid its harm. |
| B．To make it into denim. |
| C．To remove its blue color. |
| D．To prevent fibers from falling. |
| A．wastewater treatment plants are good at dealing with microfibers |
| B．few microfibers are entering water environments |
| C．catching 99 percent means doing no harm to the environment |
| D．the effects of microfibers can not be ignored |
| A．The seriousness of denim pollution. |
| B．The types of water pollution. |
| C．The wide uses of denim. |
| D．The large water area of Canada. |
| A．Wash jeans more often. |
| B．Avoid wearing jeans. |
| C．Produce less jeans. |
| D．Reduce denim consumption. |
Air pollution has largely gone under-reported by the media, yet despite
Then how can we measure and end such a problem? The answer is
8 . In the endless sky, the unaided human eye should be able to perceive several thousand stars on a clear, dark night. Unfortunately, growing light pollution has impeded people from the nightly view.
New citizen-science-based research throws alarming light on the problem of “sky glow”-the diffuse illumination (漫射照明) of the night sky that is a form of light pollution. The data came from crowd-sourced observations collected from around the world as part of Globe at Night, a program developed by astronomer Connie Walker.
Light pollution has harmful effects on the practice of astronomy but also on human health and wildlife, since it disturbs the cycle from sunlight to starlight that biological systems have evolved alongside. Furthermore, the loss of visible stars is a great loss of human cultural heritage. Until relatively recently, humans throughout history had an impressive view of the starry night sky, and the effect of this nighty spectacle (壮观) is evident in ancient cultures.
Globe at Night has been gathering data on star visibility since 2006. Anyone can submit observations through the Globe at Night web application. Participants record which one best matches what they can see in the sky without any telescopes or other instruments.
Researchers find that the loss of visible stars indicates an increase in sky brightness of 9.6% per year while roughly 2% is measured by satellites. Existing satellites are not well suited to measuring sky glow as it appears to humans, because they can not detect wavelengths shorter than 500 nanometers (纳米). White LEDs, with shorter wavelengths under 500 nanometers, now are increasingly commonly used in outdoor lighting. But human eyes are more sensitive to these shorter wavelengths at nighttime. Space-based instruments do not measure light from windows, either. But these sources are significant contributors to sky glow us seen from the ground.
“The increase in sky glow over the past decade underlines the importance of redoubling our efforts and developing new strategies to protect dark skies,” said Walker. “The Globe at Night dataset is necessary in our ongoing evaluation of changes in sky glow, and we encourage whoever can to get involved to help protect the starry night sky.”
1. What does the underlined word “impeded” in the first paragraph mean?| A．separated. | B．disabled. | C．demanded. | D．protected. |
| A．Poorer human health. | B．Fewer wildlife species. |
| C．More delicate biological systems. | D．Less nightly culture elements of the sky. |
| A．Crowd sourced data are invaluable | B．Shorter wavelengths are hard to detect. |
| C．Satellites play a vital role. | D．White LEDs are widely used. |
| A．Their consistent efforts pay off. | B．The dataset needs to be updated. |
| C．The sky glow has been over-emphasized. | D．More participants are expected to join in. |
Just as noise pollution negatively impacts human health, it also affects wildlife. It can affect animal communication, their abilities to find food and impact where they live. A recent study published in Biology Letters found that human-created noise is affecting a wide range of animals. Noise pollution is caused by cars, trucks, airplanes, ships, factories, industrial activities and sounds from cities, among others. Researchers found that wildlife in many different land and water ecosystems showed significant responses to human-created noise.
For example, bats use ultrasonic sound waves to get around and to find food. However, noise pollution affects this and causes them to spend more time and energy locating their food source. Shipping lanes in the UK can be deafening to harbor seals, and noises from ships are seriously impacting killer whales ability to find food and avoid potential dangers, according to episode 2 of CBC s Killers: J pod on the brink (边缘). And it’s no secret that many human-created conditions, like noise, are changing the behavior of birds. You may be surprised to learn that plants are also impacted, since pollinators (传粉昆虫) often relocate to quieter areas.
Not unlike the impact of light pollution on insects, noise pollution is causing change. It can change the types of species living in many different ecosystems, which in turn impacts the functions of these areas, according to The Guardian.
The good news is that if noise is reduced or simply turned off, it more or less removes the issue. The impact does not remain in the same way as other forms of pollution, like plastic or chemicals. And efforts are already underway in Canada.
BC Ferries is working to lessen the effects of underwater noise, especially along ferry routes that pass through critical habitats. WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) Canada is encouraging the federal government to increase protective measures in the Arctic. They’re also working with international colleagues to address the increase of noise in the region as a result of new shipping routes.
While these initiatives demonstrate progress, tightening rules and regulations around noise pollution is an important measure for conserving wildlife in Canada.
1. Why do bats spend more time looking for food?2. What is the influence of noise pollution on ecosystems?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Noise pollution affects animals in many ways, and compared with other forms of pollution, noise pollution is harder to deal with.
4. Please give some advice on how to reduce the effects of noise pollution on animals. (In about 40 words)
10 . In Mumbai, there’s the ceaseless clamor of car homes as drivers edge through traffic. There’s pounding and buzzing from the construction of office towers and apartment blocks. Drumbeats and trumpet melodies spill out from weddings and countless festivals. And it’s all topped off by bellowing (大声吼叫的) street vendors and garbage trucks blasting Bollywood songs. Living in Mumbai requires a huge
When Sumaira Abdulali began campaigning against noise pollution in India’s financial capital two decades ago, friends, acquaintances and even her lawyers insisted it was
But in 2003, Abdulali won a lawsuit seeking to
The World Health Organization warns that noise is a top threat to human
In recent years, the battle against noise has become increasingly
Traffic is a tougher problem. Noise on the road can reach 110 decibels (分贝) — a level that can lead to permanent hearing damage after just 15 minutes of exposure, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Luckily,
Far more important is the longer-term impact of the day-to-day noise, so that’s where Vijay believes activists should focus their energy. “In India we celebrate festivals with lots of noise,” he says. “But our
| A．talent | B．potential | C．demand | D．tolerance |
| A．encouraging | B．reasonable | C．ridiculous | D．depressing |
| A．take advantage of | B．put an end to | C．lay emphasis on | D．throw light on |
| A．Therefore | B．Similarly | C．Subsequently | D．However |
| A．well-being | B．intelligence | C．interaction | D．behavior |
| A．largest | B．busiest | C．loudest | D．richest |
| A．difficult | B．successful | C．diverse | D．easy |
| A．availability | B．capitalization | C．urbanization | D．convenience |
| A．in pace with | B．in contact with | C．in league with | D．in conflict with |
| A．recommend | B．justify | C．resist | D．advocate |
| A．government | B．technology | C．finance | D．psychology |
| A．quiet | B．brave | C．safe | D．alert |
| A．trigger | B．satisfy | C．reduce | D．maintain |
| A．steps in | B．takes over | C．cuts in | D．takes off |
| A．traffic | B．construction | C．ceremony | D．background |
