1 . 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 |
2 . 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. |
| 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. |
| A．Creative, devoted and socially responsible. | B．Enthusiastic, ambitious and adventurous. |
| C．Generous, cautious and humorous. | D．Curious, efficient and playful. |
| 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. |
3 . 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 |
| 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. |
| A．Through listing, figures. |
| B．Through making comparisons. |
| C．Through adding background information. |
| D．Through cause and effect argumentation. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Negative. | C．Favorable. | D．Ambiguous. |
4 . 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. |
| 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. |
| A．Worsening. | B．Decreasing. | C．Improving. | D．Releasing. |
| A．Planting more trees in cities. |
| B．Advocating using clean energy. |
| C．Improving people’s quality of life. |
| D．Banning vehicle pollution in summer. |
5 . Have you ever stopped to consider how empty the world would look without trees? Below are five of the top benefits that trees provide.
Trees help you heal faster. Natural environments, including forests, help you reach a more positive state of mind.
Trees reduce air pollution and improve respiratory (呼吸的) health. Trees take in many harmful pollutants from our environment.
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.
Trees cool cities. Trees cool things down by offering shade and through evapotranspiration (蒸腾作用).
| 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. |
6 . 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. |
7 . 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. |
8 . 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 |
9 . 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. |
10 . There are many kinds of pollution, which can be classified by environment, including air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution. Modern society is also concerned about specific types of pollution, such as noise pollution, light pollution and plastic pollution. Pollution of all kinds may not only have negative effects on the environment and wildlife, but also do harm to human health and well-being.
Although environmental pollution can be caused by natural events such as forest fires and active volcanoes, use of the word “pollution” generally means that the wastes have an anthropocentric source—that is, a source created by human activities. Pollution has accompanied humankind ever since groups of people first congregated and remained for a long time in any one place. Indeed, ancient human settlements are frequently recognized by their wastes, Pollution was not a serious problem as long as there was enough space available for each individual or group. However, with the establishment of permanent settlements by great numbers of people, pollution became a problem, and it has remained one ever since.
By the middle of the 20th century, an awareness of the need to protect air, water, and land environments from pollution had developed among the general public. In particular, the publication in 1962 of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring focused attention on environmental damage caused by improper use of pesticides such as DDT. In response, major pieces of environmental law and regulation were passed in many countries to control the environmental pollution.
Great efforts are made to limit the release of harmful substances into the environment. Unfortunately, attempts at pollution control are surpassed by the scale of the problem, especially in less-developed countries. Noxious levels of air pollution are common in large cities. To control the pollution completely, we still have a long way to go.
1. What does paragraph 1 mainly talk about?| A．The history of pollution. | B．The types of pollution. |
| C．The causes of pollution. | D．The effects of pollution. |
| A．Natural disasters. | B．Forest fires. |
| C．Volcanoes. | D．Human activities. |
| A．Gathered. | B．Separated. |
| C．Attended. | D．Lived. |
| A．No measures have been taken by the government to control the problems of pollution. |
| B．The book Silent Spring helped to improve the awareness of protecting the environment. |
| C．Silent Spring concentrated on the improper use of plastic bags. |
| D．The pollution has been controlled in less-developed countries. |
