1 . A Plastic Ocean is a documentary to make you think. Think, and then act. We need to take action on our dependence on plastic. We’ve been producing plastic in huge quantities. Some bottles, shopping bags and toys are made of plastic.     1     What happens to all the rest? This is the question the documentary A Plastic Ocean answers.

The documentary begins with a journey to film the largest animal on the planet, the blue whale. But during the journey, the producers made a shocking discovery of a huge, thick layer of plastic floating in the Indian Ocean.     2     In total, they visited 20 locations around the world during the four years to make the documentary.

In the documentary there are beautiful shots of the seas and marine life.     3     We see how marine species (海洋物种) are being killed by all the plastic we are dumping (倾倒) in the ocean. The message about our use of plastic is painfully obvious.

    4     In the second half, the producers look at what we can do to deal with the problem. They present short-term and long-term solutions. These include avoiding plastic containers and recycling plastic as much as you can. The producers also stress the need for governments to work more on recycling programmes.

We make a shocking amount of plastic. Over 300 million tons of plastic is produced every year, and at least 8 million of it is dumped into the oceans. The results are disastrous, but it isn’t too late to change.     5    

A．It has raised public concern all over the world.

B．In conclusion, we only have one earth to live on.

C．But the documentary doesn’t only present the negative side.

D．These are contrasted with plastic rubbish.

E．Once you’ve seen the documentary, you’ll realize it is time to do our part.

F．We live in a world full of plastic, and only a small amount is recycled.

G．This caused them to travel around the world to look at other affected areas.

2 . Ocean Noise Pollution

Some scientists say that animals in the ocean are increasingly threatened by noise pollution caused by human beings.

The noise that affects sea creatures comes from a number of human activities. It is caused mainly by industrial underwater explosions, ocean drilling, and ship engines. Such noises are added to natural sounds. These sounds include the breaking of ice fields, underwater earthquakes, and sounds made by animals themselves.

Decibels (分贝) measured in water are different from those measured on land. A noise of 120 decibels on land causes pain to human ears. In water, a decibel level of 195 would have the same effect.

Some scientists have proposed setting a noise limit of 120 decibels in oceans. They have observed that noises above that level can frighten and confuse whales.

A team of American and Canadian scientists discovered that louder noises can seriously injure some animals. The research team found that powerful underwater explosions were causing whales in the area to lose their hearing. This seriously affected the whales’ ability to exchange information and find their way. Some of the whales even died. The explosions had caused their ears to bleed (流血) and become infected (感染).

Many researchers whose work depends on ocean sounds object to a limit of 120 decibels. They say such a limit is a greater danger than they believed. They want to prevent noises from harming creatures in the ocean.

1. According to the passage, which of the following is increasingly dangerous to sea creatures?

A．The sound of a car.

B．The sound of voices.

C．Man­made noise pollution.

D．The sound of steps.

2. According to the passage, natural sounds include all of the following EXCEPT         ．

A．sounds made by animals themselves

B．ocean drilling

C．underwater earthquakes

D．the breaking of ice fields

3. Which of the following is true of whales?

A．They won’t be confused by noises.

B．They are deaf to noises.

C．Their ability to reproduce will be lowered by high­ level noises.

D．Their hearing will be damaged by high ­level noises.

4. According to the passage, what will scientists most probably do in the future?

A．They will work hard to reduce ocean noise pollution.

B．They will protect animals from harmful noises.

C．They will try to set a limit of 120 decibels.

D．They will study the effect of ocean noise pollution.

3 . Most of us are used to the sound we hear in daily life, such as music, the middle of the night.     1    . However, when these sounds of television, people talking on their phones and even pet dogs barking in the night keep you from sleeping all night or the traffic starts to give you a headache, they turn into noise pollution. For many of us, the concept of pollution is limited to nature an resources. However, noises that tend to damage the natural rhythm of life make environmental pollutants.

    2    . Man-made noises such as horns, airplanes and even cars can be too loud for our hearing range. Constant exposure to loud noise can easily result in the damage to our eardrums (耳膜) and lead to our loss of hearing.

Too much noise pollution in working areas such as offices, construction sites, bars and even in our homes can influence psychological health. Studies show that the occurrence of aggressive behavior, sleep disturbance, and constant stress can be linked to excessive (过度的) noise levels.     3    .

Loud noises can certainly influence our sleeping pattern.     4    , if we don’t have a good sleep at night. For example, our performance may go down i the office as well as at home. It is therefore recommended to take a sound sleep to give our body proper rest.

As of now, there do not exist many solutions to such pollution.     5    , when it comes to what an individual can do. Only when our understanding of noise pollution is complete can we take steps to get rid of it completely.

A．You’ll feel it hard to deal with others

B．They may lead to problems related to tiredness

C．But everybody can help to reduce the noise in their homes

D．These, in turn, can cause more severe health problems later in life

E．Many firm measures should be taken to remove loud noises in our life

F．Our ears can take in a certain range of sounds without getting damaged

G．All of these have become a part of the urban culture and rarely disturb us

7 . 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.

2. What can be inferred about cabbage thistles?

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.

3. Light pollution affects pollinators’ _____.

A．sight

B．numbers

C．growth

D．food and shelter

4. What is the main idea of the text?

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.

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.Replace plastic bags. People use a lot of 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(吸管)．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.Use limited plastic bottles. Buy a reusable bottle and fill it with any type of beverage(饮料)you like.    4    Globally, however, consumers still buy nearly a million plastic bottles every minute.

4.Avoid plastic packaging materials.Don’t buy fruit or vegetables in plastic packaging.In the United Kingdom, leaders are calling for supermarkets to have plastic­free areas.They also want to tax plastic take­out 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.How?    5    

A．Likewise, the average Dane(丹麦人) uses four plastic bags per day.

B．In contrast, the average Dane uses four single­use 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 long­term 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．Machines at most supermarkets take the bottles and give a refund (退款) of up to 2.5 kroner (32 cents) per bottle.

10 . The national movement to get rid of plastic bags has been gaining steam — with over 240 cities and counties passing laws that ban (明令禁止) or tax them since 2007 in the US. But these bans may be hurting the environment more than helping it.

University of Sydney economist Rebecca Taylor and her colleagues compared cities with the bans with those without them about the use of bags. For six months, they spent weekends in grocery stores recording the types of bags people carried out.

Taylor found these bag bans did what they were supposed to: People in the cities with the bans used fewer plastic bags. But people who used to reuse their shopping bags for other purposes, like picking up dog waste, still needed bags. “What I found was that sales of garbage bags actually grew sharply after plastic grocery bags were banned,” she says.

Garbage bags are thick and use more plastic than typical shopping bags. “About 30 percent of the plastic that was reduced by the ban comes back in the form of thicker garbage bags,” Taylor says. On top of that, cities that banned plastic bags saw a surge in the use of paper bags, which she thinks resulted in about 80 million pounds of extra paper garbage per year.

A bunch of studies find that paper bags are actually worse for the environment. They require cutting down and processing trees, which needs lots of water, toxic chemicals and fuel. While paper is biodegradable and avoids some of the problems of plastic, Taylor says, the huge increase of paper means banning plastic shopping bags increases greenhouse gas emissions.

The Danish government recently did a study that took into consideration environmental impacts beyond simply greenhouse gas emissions, including the use of water, damage to ecosystems and air pollution. These factors make cloth bags even worse. They estimate you would have to use an organic cotton bag 20,000 times more than a plastic grocery bag to make using it better for the environment.

1. What is the result of banning plastic grocery bags?

A．Plastic bags are no longer needed.

B．People begin to reuse their plastic bags.

C．The amount of garbage is even greater.

D．Most of the reduced plastic returns in the form of garbage bags.

2. What does the underlined word “surge” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Sharp increase.

B．Slow development.

C．Tight control.

D．Sharp decrease.

3. Why are paper and cloth bags worse for the environment?

A．They are much thicker than plastic bags.

B．They are not as biodegradable as plastic bags.

C．They can’t be reused as many times as plastic bags.

D．They need more natural resources and hurt the environment more than plastic bags.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Banning plastic may do more harm than good.

B．Banning plastic has great influence on people’s life.

C．Banning plastic increases the use of paper and cloth bags.

D．Banning plastic bags is gaining popularity worldwide.