1 . In the U. S., people eat more protein than they need to, which might not be bad for human health, but does pose a problem for the country’s waterways. The nation’s wastewater is loaded with the leftovers from protein digestion: nitrogen compounds(氯化合物) that can feed harmful algal blooms(藻华) and pollute the air and drinking water.
Maya Almaraz, a biogeochemist at the University of California, Davis, and her team wanted to see how much of this nitrogen entered into the U. S. wastewater system because of a protein-heavy diet. The researchers found that the majority of nitrogen pollution present in wastewater—some 67 to 100 precent—is a by-product of water people consume.
Once it enters the environment, the nitrogen can have a series of ecological impacts. It helps algae grow much faster than they would normally, which is harmful to humans, other animals and plants. And when the algae eventually die, the problem is not over. Microorganisms(微生物) that feed on dead algae use up the oxygen in the water, leading to “dead zones,” where many species simply cannot survive, in rivers, lakes and oceans.
Although it is possible to treat algal blooms, many of the current methods are not always effective at getting rid of all of the harmful growth. Some of these methods can even lead to additional pollution. So the best strategy for dealing with the effects of nitrogen pollution is prevention, says Patricia Glibert, an ocean scientist at the University of Maryland. Almaraz and her team suggest that controlling nitrogen pollution could be approached more quickly with a change in eating habits that could save billions of dollars in the long term.
1. Which aspect of Americans’ diet does Almaraz’s research focus on ?| A．Its variety. | B．Its effect. | C．Its make-up. | D．Its amount. |
| A．No oxygen for many species. | B．Death of lots of healthy algae. |
| C．Microorganisms’overconsumption of nutrients. | D．Poisonous chemicals released by harmful algae. |
| A．They are costly. | B．They may kill all algae. |
| C．They are slow to take effect. | D．They may cause secondary pollution. |
| A．It is high time to treat wild algae growth. | B．Eating too much protein harms the planet. |
| C．Prevention is better than cure in treating air pollution. | D．Researchers find solutions to the wastewater problem. |
2 . A new study has found that light pollution is making the night sky brighter and the stars dimmer (暗淡的). The study examined data from more than 50, 000 citizen star watchers across the world, It found that man-made, or artificial lighting is making the night sky about 10 percent brighter each year. Data for the study was collected from 2011 to 2022.
The result was a much faster rate of change than scientists had estimated in the past. As cities expand and put up more lights, a “skyglow” is created in the sky. Skyglow is a term scientists use to describe light that becomes more intense. The research team gave an example to explain the result. If a child is born where 250 stars can be seen on a clear night, by the time that child turns 18, only 100 stars will be seen.
Past studies involving artificial lighting used satellite images of the Earth at night. They had estimated the yearly increase in sky brightness to be about 2 percent a year. But the satellites used are not able to identify light with wavelengths toward the blue end of the spectrum (光谱) — including light given off by energy-effective LED bulbs. The researchers noted that more than half the new outdoor lights put in across the United States during the past 10 years have been LED lights. The satellites are also better at finding light that gets spread upward like a spotlight than light that spreads out from side to side, Kyba said.
“Migratory songbirds normally use starlight to orient (确定方向) where they are in the sky at night,” said Georgetown University biologist Emily Williams. She was not part of the study. And when sea turtle babies hatch, they use light to orient toward the ocean — light pollution is a huge deal for them.
Falchi, the physicist at the University of Santiago de Compostela, said part of what is being lost is a universal human experience. “The night sky caused the generations before ours to have exciting new ideas or made them want to create something, especially in art, music, science and literature,” he added.
1. What does the new study find according to Paragraph 1?| A．Stars are observed by more citizens. |
| B．Stars are much brighter than in the past. |
| C．Light pollution continues to darken stars. |
| D．Light makes the night sky more beautiful. |
| A．To highlight an experiment. |
| B．To present an assumption. |
| C．To clarify a concept. |
| D．To explain the result of artificial light. |
| A．By the moonlight. | B．By the starlight. |
| C．By the sunlight. | D．By the spotlight. |
| A．Inspirational. | B．Mysterious. | C．Awesome. | D．Scared. |
3 . Pollution is one of the biggest problems in the world today. In many places, rubbish is thrown into lakes and rivers.
In some cities, the air is filled with pollution.
If we do not act to improve the environment, more living things will be killed by pollution.
If we can do these, we will make the world a better place to live in.
| A．This makes some old people and children ill. |
| B．As well as people, animals are also harmed by pollution. |
| C．We can make our lakes and rivers cleaner and cleaner. |
| D．It’s time for all of us to take action right away! |
| E．Because of this, these places have already been polluted. |
| F．Trees reduce dust and help keep the air clean. |
| G．A few of us should take action to protect the environment. |
4 . Taking in dirty air does great harm to our health. Air pollution lowers the average life spans by a year worldwide and in more polluted parts of Asia and Africa, dirty air shortens lives up to twice that much. Scientists shared their new findings in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. The study used data gathered in 2016 as part of a project known as the Global Burden of Disease and was the first major country-by-country look at the connection between the length of life and what’s known as fine PM.
Air pollution has been linked to many health problems. Most earlier studies had looked at how tiny air pollutants affected rates of illness or death. Joshua Apte is an environmental scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. By looking at life expectancy (预期寿命), his team had hoped to make the threat easier to understand. PM2.5 is what scientists call tiny particles (颗粒) of pollution in the air. Higher levels of PM2.5 can cause health problems and cut months, if not years, from the average length of life. This analysis shows how pollution affects life expectancy in different parts of the world.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends limiting PM2.5 to 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air. Apte’s group calculated how holding pollution to this low level would help people. In countries with very dirty air, meeting this standard would lengthen people’s lives. However, in countries whose air already meets this standard, the study shows no gain in life expectancy. In other words, meeting the WHO standard won’t reduce health costs resulting from dirty air because even below 10 micrograms per cubic meter, pollution still causes serious risks. Meanwhile, the scientists compared how other threats including smoking and cancer shorten the length of life across the globe.
1. What is special about the study?| A．It won recognition from a professional journal. |
| B．It discussed health problems caused by air pollution. |
| C．It gathered lots of data for the Global Burden of Disease. |
| D．It analyzed the link between life spans and PM by country. |
| A．Help people better understand air pollution. |
| B．Study life expectancy in different countries. |
| C．Know how small air pollutants affect health. |
| D．Deal with different kinds of health problems. |
| A．People’s life spans will surely increase. |
| B．It will guarantee people clean air. |
| C．People’s health may not be much improved. |
| D．It will be awarded by the WHO. |
| A．How other threats shorten life expectancy. |
| B．How cleaning up the air can lengthen lives. |
| C．How air pollution shortens lives by country. |
| D．How all the countries deal with severe pollution. |
5 . Blue Planet II’s latest episode focuses on how plastic is having a disastrous effect on the ocean and slowly poisoning our sea creatures. Researchers recently also found that sea creatures living in the deepest place on Earth, the Mariana Trench, have plastic in their stomachs. Indeed, the oceans are drowning in plastic.
Though it seems now that the world couldn’t possibly function without plastics, consumer plastics are a remarkably recent invention. The first plastic bags were introduced in the 1950s; the same decade that plastic packaging began gaining in popularity in the United States. This growth has happened so fast that science is still catching up with the change. Plastics pollution research, for instance, is still a very early science.
We put all these plastics into the environment and we still don’t really know what the outcomes are going to be. What we do know, though, is disturbing. Ocean plastic is estimated to kill millions of marine animals every year. Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by it. One in three leatherback turtles, which often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, have been found with plastic in their bellies. Ninety percent of seabirds are now eating plastics on a regular basis. By 2050, that figure is expected to rise to 100 percent.
And it’s not just wildlife that is threatened by the plastics in our seas. Humans are consuming plastics through the seafood we eat. I could understand why some people see ocean plastic as a disaster, worth mentioning to the same degree as climate change. But ocean plastic is not as complicated as climate change. There are no ocean trash deniers (否认者), at least so far. To do something about it, we don’t have to remake our planet energy system.
This is not a problem where we don’t know what the solution is. We know how to pick up garbage. Anyone can do it. We know how to dispose (处理) of it. We know how to recycle. We can all start by thinking twice before we use single — use plastic products. Things that may seem ordinary, like using a reusable bottle or a reusable bag — when taken collectively, these choices really do make a difference.
1. What’s the function of the author mentioning Blue Planet II’s latest episode in the first paragraph?| A．It serves as a comment. | B．It serves as a lead-in. |
| C．It serves as a background. | D．It serves as a conclusion. |
| A．Plastics have gained in popularity too fast for science to catch up. |
| B．Plastics have produced less pollution than coal. |
| C．The world couldn’t possibly function without plastics. |
| D．The plastics pollution research is too difficult. |
| A．By using examples from his own experience. | B．By quotations from leading experts. |
| C．By statistics. | D．By comparison and contrast. |
| A．Ocean plastic is a global issue. | B．Plastics gain in popularity all over the world. |
| C．Blue Planet II has left viewers heartbroken. | D．The oceans become choked with plastic. |
6 . With the largest population in the world, China has the most mouths to feed on the planet. Consequently,food waste is a great problem in China. It is reported that more than 6% — or 35 million kgs — of the country's total food production is lost before reaching consumers, in the household and warehouse storage, transport and processing sectors. With an ever-growing population, it's imperative to deal with food waste in China.
Thankfully, policies covering food waste have been rapidly emerging in recent years. Since 2010, the Chinese government has selected 100 cities and encouraged them to explore alternative waste management systems. In 2016，China amended (修改) its Solid Waste Law to stop illegal dumping (倾倒) and promote recycling and reuse of waste, including food. Restaurants will soon be charged a fee for the amount of food waste they produce. And China is using a good food waste processing method called anaerobic digestion, a process that transforms organic waste into biogas, which can be used as energy, or turned into biofuel.
Moving forward, policymakers should consider loss and waste reduction to be as important as increasing production. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the current policy system of agricultural subsidisation (补贴) mainly includes price guarantees and subsidies for crops, production materials, seeds and agricultural machinery,which leads to local governments focusing on crop production while paying little attention to the wastage in the supply chain. There should also be increased investment in the construction of new warehouses and special funds for storage, transport, and processing technologies.
If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitting (排放)country in the world, generating about 8% of total greenhouse gas emissions. This issue is not location-specific, but an issue that affects every living thing on the planet and should therefore be seen as an essential area to take action in.
1. What does the underlined word “imperative”in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Impractical. | B．Hopeful. | C．Costly. | D．Urgent |
| A．It has been widely used in restaurants. |
| B．It is required by the Solid Waste Law. |
| C．It is eco-friendly to reuse food waste. |
| D．It has proved effective in 100 cities. |
| A．Food waste in the supply chain is ignored. |
| B．Prices of production materials go up. |
| C．Investment in the supply chain increases. |
| D．Food waste during crop production gets serious. |
| A．To promote the idea of recycling food waste. |
| B．To call for action against food waste. |
| C．To assess the consequences of food waste. |
| D．To discuss the reasons behind food waste. |
7 . Most of us are used to the sound we hear in daily life, such as loud music, the television, people talking on their phone and even pet dogs barking in the middle of the night.
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, disturbance of sleep, and constant stress can be linked to excessive(过度的) noise levels.
Loud noise can certainly influence your sleeping pattern.
As of now, there do not exist many solutions to such pollution.
| A．You’ll feel it hard to deal with others |
| B．It 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 |
8 . Do you still remember the haze（雾霾）in the winter? So many people got terribly ill during or after the haze.
Spend less time outdoors.This is the most effective way for self-protection in such bad weather.With PM2.5 increasing 103mg per cubic meter,residents will risk a 2.29% increase of death,which experts found out in 2012.If you have to get out,avoid riding bicycles.
Close your windows.Experts advice residents to avoid opening windows at home.If you have to ,avoid the time when smog is at its densest（浓的）.
Smoke less.
| A．Wear masks. |
| B．Pay attention to other daily things. |
| C．Also avoid rush hours,when pollutants will be denser. |
| D．That’s because haze does harm to the health of people. |
| E．Cigarettes could cause more particulate matters,which are included in PM2.5 . |
| F．Take more fruits and vegetables instead,which are good for lung,spleen（脾）and kidney（肾）. |
| G．For residents who use air-conditioner,make sure your apartment has enough oxygen indoors. |
9 . Air pollution shortens human lives by more than a year, according to a new study from a team of leading environmental engineers and public health researchers. Better air quality could lead to a significant extension of lifespan(寿命) around the world.
It is the first time that data on air pollution and the lifespan has been studied together in order to check how air pollution affects overall life expectancy.
The researchers looked at outdoor air pollution from particulate matter (PM)(颗粒物) smaller than 2.5 microns. These particulates can enter deep into the lungs, and breathing PM 2.5 is associated with the increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and cancers. PM 2.5 pollution comes from power plants, cars and trucks, fires, agriculture and industrial emissions(排放物).
Led by Joshua Apte, the team used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study to measure PM 2.5 air pollution exposure and its consequences in 185 countries. They then quantified the national impact on life expectancy for each individual country as well as on a global scale.
“The fact that air pollution is a major global killer is already wellknown,” said Apte. “And we all care about how long we can live. Here, we were able to systematically identify how air pollution shortens lives around the world. What we found is that air pollution has a very large effect on survival — on average about a year globally.”
In the context of other significant phenomena negatively affecting human survival rates, Apte said this is a big number. “For example, it’s considerably larger than the benefit in survival we might see if we found cures for both lung and breast cancer combined,” he said. “In countries like India and China, the benefit for elderly people of improving air quality would be especially large. For much of Asia, if air pollution were removed as a risk for death, 60yearolds would have a 15 percent to 20 percent higher chance of living to age 85 or older.”
1. What do we know about PM 2.5?| A．It has a bad effect on human health. | B．It will be controlled in the future. |
| C．It only comes from industrial emissions. | D．It spreads to the world from Asian countries. |
| A．They collected accurate information from all the Asian countries. |
| B．They employed the research data to calculate the effect. |
| C．They studied the disease and lifespan together time and time again. |
| D．They measured particulate matter much more carefully than before. |
| A．The key to people living longer is good air quality. |
| B．People think air pollution is the most dangerous killer to them. |
| C．Apte will agree that people should take action to deal with air pollution. |
| D．Factories should decrease the production of cars to stop air pollution. |
| A．The Way Human Beings Enjoy a Longer Lifespan |
| B．The Importance of Getting Rid of Air Pollution |
| C．Asian People Are Suffering from Serious Air Pollution |
| D．Air Pollution Reduces the Lifespan by More than One Year |
10 . The idea of turning recycled plastic bottles into clothing is not new. During the last five years, a large number of clothing companies, businesses and environmental organizations have started turning plastics into fabric to deal with plastic pollution. But there’s a problem with this method. Research now shows that microfibers could be the biggest source of plastic in the sea.
Dr. Mark Browne in Santa Barbara, California, has been studying plastic pollution and microfibers for 10 years now. He explains that every time synthetic clothes go into a washing machine, a large number of plastic fibers fall off. Most washing machines can’t collect these microfibers. So every time the water gets out of a washing machine, microfibers are entering the sewers and finally end up in the sea.
In 2011, Browne wrote a paper stating that a single piece of synthetic(合成的) clothing can produce more than 1, 900 fibers per wash. Browne collected samples from seawater and freshwater sites around the world, and used a special way to examine each sample. He discovered that every single water sample contained microfibers.
This is bad news for a number of reasons. Plastic can cause harm to sea life when eaten. Studies have also shown that plastic can absorb other pollutants.
Based on this evidence, it may seem surprising that companies and organizations have chosen to turn plastic waste into clothing as an environmental “solution.” Even though the science has been around for a while, Browne explains that he's had a difficult time getting companies to listen. When he asked well-known clothing companies to support Benign by Design-his research project that seeks to get clothes that have a bad effect on humans and the environment out of the market, Browne didn’t get a satisfying answer. Only one women’s clothing company, Eileen Fisher, offered Browne funding.
1. What has happened during the past five years?| A．Fabric has become much stronger. | B．Plastic pollution has been less serious. |
| C．Many plastic bottles have been reused. | D．Microfibers have been greatly improved. |
| A．It is adding microfibers to the clothes. |
| B．It is worsening environmental problems. |
| C．It is making synthetic clothes last longer. |
| D．It is doing great damage to washing machines. |
| A．It has achieved great success. | B．It hasn’t got anything done. |
| C．It is known to very few people. | D．It is facing some difficulties. |
| A．It’s important to learn to recycle |
| B．It’s never easy to solve pollution problems |
| C．Recycled plastic clothing: solution or pollution? |
| D．Are human beings moving forward or backward? |
