1 . Plastic straws (吸管) have been a major problem in global discussions of environmental damage. Maybe because of their small size, the production cost of straws is low. In many countries, straws are offered freely after buying soft drinks. Therefore, plastic straws are one of the most used plastics and pollutants in the world.
The plastic straw is light and small. Due to their small size, plastic straws are often eaten by sea animals. Environmentalists have shown that the death of many sea animals is caused by eating plastic straws. The other damaging characteristic of plastic straws is that they are made of materials which cannot degrade. That means the materials cannot be changed into small harmless ones.
The most effective way of dealing with the environmental pollution caused by plastic straws is the reuse or banning (禁止) the use of plastic straws. Being plastics, the straws can be made into new items. Many organizations around the world change used straws into new products. In Africa, local communities collect used plastic straws and use them to make mats and bags. Another way of dealing with environmental pollution caused by plastic straws is placing a ban on their production and use. Experts advise governments to ban using plastic straws to save the environment. A few countries in the world, such as Rwanda, Macedonia, China, Kenya, have already banned the use of plastic bags and are expected to include plastic straws to save the environment. A few countries in the world, such as Rwanda, Macedonia, China, Kenya, have already banned the use of plastic bags and are expected to include plastic straws and bottles. But it will be a long way to do this effectively.
There are few environmentally friendly and biodegradable products to take the place of plastic straws. These products include paper straws and bamboo straws. However, such straws are usually expensive as their production cost is high. It’s still a question whether they can entirely take the place of plastic straws.
1. Why can people be free to use plastic straws?| A．They are very cheap. | B．They are light and small. |
| C．They are dangerous. | D．They are easy to use. |
| A．Cut up. | B．Break down. | C．Burn up. | D．Go by. |
| A．It’s not difficult to ban using plastic straws. |
| B．Many countries have stopped using plastic straws. |
| C．Experts advise people to stop producing plastic straws. |
| D．Some Africans change plastic straws into new products. |
| A．It is a must to use them. |
| B．It’s not easy to reuse them. |
| C．There are still some problems to be solved. |
| D．There are some other kinds of cheaper straws. |
2 . 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. |
3 . 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. |
4 . Drive through any suburb in the U. S. today, and it’s hard to miss the recycling bins that have become companions to America’s trash cans. Recycling has become common, as people recognize the need to care for the environment. Yet most people’s recycling awareness extends (延伸) only as far as paper, bottle, and cans. People seldom find themselves facing the growing problem of e-waste.
E-waste rapidly increases as the techno-fashionable frequently upgrade to the most advanced devices, and the majority of them end up in landfills (填埋). Some people who track such wastes say that users throw away nearly 2 million tons of TVs, VCRs, computers, cell phones, and other electronics every year. Unless we can find a safe replacement (替代品), this e-waste may get into the ground and poison the water with dangerous toxins (霉素), such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. Burning the waste also dangerously contaminates the air.
However, e-waste often contains reusable silver, gold, and other electrical materials. Recycling these materials reduces environmental problems by reducing both landfill waste and the need to look for such metals, which can destroy ecosystems.
A growing number of states have passed laws to ban (禁止) getting rid of e-waste. Still, less than a quarter of this waste will reach lawful recycling programs. Some companies advertising safe disposal (处理) in fact merely ship the waste to some developing countries, where it still ends up in landfills. These organizations prevent progress by unsafely disposing of waste in an out-of-sight, out-of-mind location.
However, the small but growing number of cities and corporations that do handle e-waste responsibly represents progress toward making the world a cleaner, better place for us all.
1. What can we know from the first paragraph?| A．E-waste cannot be put into trash cans in the U. S. |
| B．Many Americans now have access to recycling bins. |
| C．Most Americans have realized the dangers of e-waste. |
| D．Most of America’s trash cans are made of recycled material. |
| A．Pollutes. | B．Heats. | C．Attacks. | D．Reduces. |
| A．Much e-waste is still not properly handled. |
| B．Some developing countries welcome e-waste. |
| C．Laws have played a major role in getting rid of e-waste. |
| D．The e-waste buried in the landfills won’t destroy ecosystem. |
| A．To tell us how to recycle &waste. |
| B．To talk about the future of e-waste. |
| C．To discuss if it’s necessary to, recycle e-waste. |
| D．To encourage people to deal with e-waste properly. |
5 . 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. |
| 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. |
| A．By showing numbers. | B．By providing examples. |
| C．By making a summary. | D．By making a comparison, |
| A．Designing advanced electronics. | B．Making electronics get reused. |
| C．Stopping giving away electronics. | D．Reducing electronics’ production. |
6 . My husband and I always wanted to go to the Caribbean but didn’t know much about the islands or how we were going to afford it. By chance, a friend of ours in Australia mentioned “pet sitting” and that it is something you can do all over the world.
We quickly created an account on a pet sitting website and began searching for options. There were only a couple of sits available in that part of the world, but we tried our luck, sent a request, and to our surprise, landed a three-month job in Grenada, so our year was going to be taken up with Caribbean pet sits.
Inspired by a Canadian couple, we decided to start our own travel blog. We began by writing about The British Virgin Islands, highlighting the beautiful beaches. However, for every photo album of a beautiful beach, there were 10 photos of trash (垃圾). It was hard to ignore the plastic pollution issue, especially on such primitive and remote beaches. So, we began to share photos of the trash we saw and how much we could pick upon our daily dog walks.
The more we looked into plastic pollution, the more we realized the severity of the global plastic pollution. From that point, we used our platform to create awareness and highlight ways to say no to plastic and travel plastic-free. We changed our daily routines, our way of living, and even our diets to accommodate more organic foods and little to no plastic packaging.
It’s been over three years now and we continue to do what we can. This journey has led us to some amazing places, working with great brands and even organizing a country-wide beach clean-up campaign in Grenada.
Our aim now is to keep on going. We love connecting with like-minded people. It’s been amazing few years that was sparked by a conversation about pet sitting. Who would have guessed?
1. Why did the author do pet sitting?| A．To cover travel expenses. | B．To raise fund. |
| C．To conserve the environment. | D．To shoot beautiful beaches. |
| A．Pet sitting is a new sort of occupation. |
| B．The Caribbean is a perfect travel destination. |
| C．Travel blog is a superb way to gain popularity. |
| D．Actions should be taken to fight plastic pollution. |
| A．Challenging. | B．Significant. | C．Adventurous. | D．Unbearable. |
| A．Shifting Lifestyles by Pet Sitting | B．Address Global Environment Pollution |
| C．Unexpected Gains from Pet Sitting Travel | D．The availability of Pet Sitting in the Caribbean |
7 . The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modern traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest problems is pollution. To pollute means to make things dirty. Pollution comes in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it.
Man has been polluting the earth. The more people, the more pollution. Many years ago, the problem 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, man moved to another place. But this is no longer true. Man is now slowly polluting the whole world.
Air pollution is still the most serious. It’s bad for all living things in the world, but it is not the only one kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily.
Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air. Pollution by S02 is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. It is caused by heavy traffic. We are sure that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.
The earth is our home. We must take care of it. That means keeping the land, water and air clean. And we must care about the rise in pollution at the same time.
1. Why is our world becoming much smaller?| A．Thanks to the development of science. |
| B．Because of the rise in pollution. |
| C．Because the earth is being polluted day and night. |
| D．Because the earth is blown away by the wind every year. |
| A．Rubbish. | B．Water pollution. |
| C．Air pollution. | D．Noise pollution. |
| A．Because it’s bad for all living things in the world. |
| B．Because it makes much noise. |
| C．Because it has made our rivers and lakes dirty. |
| D．Because it makes us become angry more easily. |
| A．Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. |
| B．The problem of pollution is not so serious because there are not so many people living on the earth. |
| C．The pollution of the earth grows as fast as the world population does. |
| D．If people could go to work by bus or bike instead of car or motorbike, it would be helpful in fighting against the problem of S02. |
8 . The increased use of light-emitting diodes (LED) and other forms of lighting are now brightening the night sky at a dramatic rate. Research has revealed that light pollution is now causing the night sky to brighten at a rate of around 10% a year, an increase that threatens to ruin the sight of all but the most brilliant stars in a generation. A child born where 250 stars are visible at night today would only be able to see about 100 by the time they reach 18.
Physicist Christopher Kyba, of the German Centre for Geosciences told the Observer. “A couple of generations ago, people would have regularly encountered this glittering (闪耀) vision of the universe—but what was formerly universal is now extremely rare.” Nevertheless, the introduction of only a modest number of changes to lighting could make a considerable improvement, Kyba argued. These moves would include ensuring outdoor lights are carefully capped, point downwards, have limits placed on their brightness, and are not predominantly blue-white but have red and orange components.
The problem is that light pollution is still not perceived by the public to be a threat. As Professor Oscar Corcho, of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, has put it: “The negative consequences of light pollution are as unknown by the population as those of smoking in the 80s.”
Yet action is now urgently needed. Apart from its astronomical impact, light pollution is harming human health. “When reddish light shines on our bodies, it stimulates mechanisms including those that break down high levels of sugar in the blood. Since the introduction of LEDs, that part of the spectrum (光谱) has been removed from artificial light and it is playing a part in the waves of obesity (肥胖) and rises in diabetes cases we see today,” said Prof Fosbury from University College London (UCL),
UCL researchers are preparing to install additional infrared (红外线) lamps in hospitals and intensive care units (ICU) to see if they have an effect on the recovery of patients who would otherwise be starved of light from this part of the spectrum.
1. What does the author want to show by citing the child’s example?| A．More objects in the universe will disappear. |
| B．Light pollution is blinding our view of the stars. |
| C．People’s perception of the universe is inadequate. |
| D．New forms of lighting have made stars unnecessary. |
| A．They are practical. | B．They are rarely successful. |
| C．They aren’t worth the effort. | D．It takes ages to see the result. |
| A．Controlling population growth. |
| B．Changing people’s perception. |
| C．Exploring the unknown universe. |
| D．Banning smoking in public places. |
| A．Whether they help patients recover. |
| B．Whether they increase obesity risk. |
| C．Whether they leave people starving. |
| D．Whether they raise blood sugar level. |
9 . Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease. But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately: the air you breathe.
Previous studies have linked high exposure to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problems, but two analyses now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke(中风) within as little as a few hours after exposure. In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants(污染物) were up to 5% more likely to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure. A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be of “moderate” quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.
The authors of both studies stress that these risks are relatively small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure. However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices. So stricter regulation by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health.
1. The passage aims to________.| A．call the government to improve environmental air quality |
| B．list all the factors that can cause heart problems |
| C．inform people of the relationship between heart problems and air quality |
| D．persuade people to exercise more and give up smoking to decrease the risk of heart problems |
| A．relatively high | B．extremely low | C．relatively low | D．extremely high |
| A．Smoking is the most immediate factor that causes heart problems. |
| B．High level of air pollution can lead to heart problems in a short time after exposure. |
| C．Moderate air quality doesn’t raise the risk of stroke. |
| D．It’s not important to be aware of the air quality. |
10 . The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modern traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest problems is pollution. To pollute means to make things dirty. Pollution comes in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it.
Man has been polluting the earth. The more people, the more pollution. Many years ago, the problem 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, man moved to another place. But this is no longer true. Man is now slowly polluting the whole world.
Air pollution is still the most serious. It’s bad for all living things in the world, but it is not the only one kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily.
Many countries are making rules to fight 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. We are sure that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.
The earth is our home. We must take care of it. That means keeping the land, water and air clean. And we must take care of the rise in pollution at the same time.
1. Hundreds of years ago, life was ________ it is today.| A．much easier than | B．as easy as |
| C．much harder than | D．as hard as |
| A．rubbish | B．noise pollution |
| C．air pollution | D．water pollution |
| A．it makes much noise | B．it makes us angry more easily |
| C．it makes our rivers and lakes dirty | D．it’s bad for all living things in the world |
| A．stopping people from burning coal. |
| B．stopping people from pouring dirty water into the ocean. |
| C．stopping people from moving to other places. |
| D．stopping people from putting dirty smoke in the air. |
| A．Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. |
| B．The pollution of the earth grows as fast as the world population does. |
| C．The problem of pollution is not so serious because there are not so many people living on the earth. |
| D．If people could go to work by bus or bike instead of car or motorbike, it would be helpful in fighting against the problem of SO2. |
