1 . Many of the negative impacts humans have on the environment are visible to the naked eye. Trash washes up on our beaches, the ice caps are visibly shrinking, and smog darkens our skies. But some environmental threat, such as microplastics, are nearly invisible.
The U. S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration classifies microplastics as any piece of plastic less than five millimeters. Some are as small as three microns—half the size of a red blood cell. This comes from a variety of sources, including the microbeads found in cosmetics, paint, tire dust, industrial waste, and clothing.
These tiny fragments can become fixed in animals’ tissue through taking food or breathing. Various marine species, such as deposit-feeding lugworms, are shown to have microplastics in their intestinal tracts (肠道). The production and disposal of microplastics, among other unaware actions by humans, have played a significant role in boosting the worsening of marine ecosystems. But microplastics are not just a problem for marine life. Humans are consuming them too, sometimes through eating seafood containing microplastics.
Microplastics also run uncontrollably in drinking water. A 2017 investigation by Orb Media, which looked at tap water samples from over a dozen countries, found that 83 percent of the samples were contaminated with plastic fibers. Once taken, most of the microplastics stay in our systems forever, and little is known about their long term impact on our health.
Microplastic pollution is not an easy problem to deal with, but there are small changes that you can make to reduce your contribution to the problem. One strategy is to stop fibers before they enter the wastewater stream. Patagonia announced that it will sell the Guppy Friend, a bag that you can place clothing in before tossing it into the wash, which will prevent the fibers from being flushed away. You can also avoid buying any facial scrubs (面部磨砂膏) that use plastic microbeads. Lastly, you can reduce your plastic consumption and waste altogether by buying reusable water bottles and grocery bags, and being sure to always recycle any plastics you come across.
1. Why did the author mention the negative impacts visible to the naked eye?| A．To blame people for their behaviors |
| B．To show the notable threats on earth. |
| C．To stress the urgency of ecology protection. |
| D．To introduce the hidden dangers of microplastics. |
| A．They are so small that can be ignored. | B．They are produced by human deliberately. |
| C．They have a lasting effect on people’s body. | D．They gain attention for the bad influence. |
| A．To promote the sales of a new type of bag. |
| B．To give ways to reduce microplastic presence. |
| C．To tell how to reduce waste and consumption. |
| D．To state the difficulties of decreasing microplastics. |
| A．Many hands make light work. | B．Constant dropping wears the stone. |
| C．Actions speak louder than words. | D．Practice makes perfect. |
2 . City air is in a sorry state. It is dirty and hot. Outdoor pollution kills 4.2 million people a year, according to the World Health Organization. Concrete and blacktop, meanwhile, absorb the sun’s rays rather than reflecting them back into space, and also take the place of plants which would otherwise cool things down by transpiration. The never-ending spread of buildings and roads thus turns urban areas into heat islands, discomforting residents and worsening dangerous heatwaves, which are in any case likely to become more frequent as the planet warms.
A possible answer to the twin problems is trees. Their leaves may destroy at least some chemical pollutants and they certainly trap airborne particulate matter, which is then washed to the ground by rain. And trees cool things down. Besides transpiration, they provide shade. Their leaves have, after all, developed to block sunlight.
To cool an area effectively, though, trees must be planted in quantity. In 2009, researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that American cities need 40% tree coverage to cut urban heat back meaningfully. Unfortunately, not all cities — and especially not those now springing up in the world’s poor and middle-income countries — are blessed with parks, private gardens or even decorative street trees in sufficient numbers. And the problem is likely to get worse. At the moment, 55% of people live in cities. By 2050 that share is expected to reach 68%.
Some botanists believe they have at least a partial solution to this lack of urban vegetation. It is to plant very small simulacra of natural forests, ecologically engineered for rapid growth, Over the course of a career that began in the 1950s, Akira Miyawaki, the team leader and a plant ecologist at Yokohama National University in Japan, have developed a way to do this starting with even the most unpromising and in-bad-condition areas.
The method originated in Japan and was later introduced to other Asian countries. As it has become known, the Miyawaki method is finding increasing prevalence around the world. In Europe, Belgium; France and the Netherlands are all home to Miyawaki forests. Dr Miyawaki’s insight was to deconstruct and rebuild the process of ecological succession, by which bare lands develop naturally into mature forests.
1. What are the twin problems in the text?| A．Air pollution and heatwaves. | B．Lack of water and green space. |
| C．Bad weather and road conditions. | D．High-rise buildings and traffic jams. |
| A．Paragraph 2. | B．Paragraph 3. | C．Paragraph 4. | D．Paragraph 5. |
| A．Return. | B．Threat. | C．Trade. | D．Favour. |
| A．What mature forests are. | B．How bare land comes into being. |
| C．How the Miyawaki method works. | D．Why the Miyawaki method is popular. |
3 . Researchers from London’s Queen Mary University studied how participants were affected by pollution based on where they live. In the journal Circulation on Friday, the scientists revealed that air pollution can harm the heart to the point where it resembles (类似) the early stages of heart failure.
According to Emory Healthcare, deaths have decreased around 12 percent per decade on average over the past 50 years, but 287,000 people die frorn heart failure each year. There are more hospitalizations from heart failure each year than all cancers combined.
In this study, the scientists examined information from 4,000 participants that were in the UK Biobank study. Volunteers had blood tests, health scans and heart MRIs, which measured the function, size and weight of their hearts. They also recorded their lifestyle, health record and where they’ve lived.
The team found participants had larger right and left ventricles (心室) in the heart when they lived closer to busy roads and were exposed to nitrogen dioxide(NOz), which enters the air when fuel is burned. The right and left ventricles are crucial for pumping blood. They were healthy but resembled the ventricles in early-stage heart failure. The scientists found that the higher the exposure to the pollutants, the greater the changes in the heart.
“Air pollution should be seen as a modifiable risk factor,” Dr. Nay Aung, who led the data analysis of the study, said in a statemnent from Queen Mary University. “The public all need to be aware of their exposure when they think about their heart health, just like they think about their blood pressure and their weight.”
Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation said in the statement from Queen Mary University, “We can’t expect people to move home to avoid air pollution, so government and public bodies must act right now to make all areas safe and protect the population from these harm.”
1. What is the finding of the study?| A．Air pollution causes many people to die. |
| B．People have big problems of heart health. |
| C．People’s houses have a great effect on the heart. |
| D．Air pollution makes our hearts at risk of heart failure. |
| A．It can be cured easily. | B．It remains a serious threat. |
| C．It’s the most common illness. | D．It causes people to suffer cancers. |
| A．They had many health problems. | B．Their ventricles worked better. |
| C．Their hearts were out of danger. | D．The size of their hearts was bigger. |
| A．Moving to safer areas. | B．Living far away from crowds. |
| C．Taking notice of air pollution. | D．Taking blood pressure regularly. |
