1. Where are the speakers?
| A．At the recycling center. | B．At home. | C．In the office. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Curious. | C．Angry. |
| A．Paper. | B．Plastic bottles. | C．Cans. |
| A．Prepare boxes for different wastes. |
| B．Reduce the use of collection boxes. |
| C．Stop using paper and water bottles. |
2 . Coca-Cola announced on Wednesday that it will begin transitioning (转变) from green to clear plastic on Aug. I to increase the material’s likelihood of being remade into new beverage (饮料) bottles. The beverage giant is committed to making 100% of its packaging recyclable by 2025 and using at least 50% recycled material in its packaging by 2030.
Sprite, an important brand of Coca-Cola, currently uses plastic bottles containg a green additive called Polyethylene Telephthalate (PET). These bottles are commonly changed into single-use items like clothing and carpeting that can’t be recycled into new PET bottles.
“Taking colors out of bottles improves the quality of the recycled material,” said Julian Ochoa, CEO of R3CYCLE, which is working with Coca-Cola to improve bottle-to-bottle recycling. “When recycled, clear PET Sprite bottles can be remade into bottles, helping drive a circular economy for plastic.”
Sprite, the popular lemon-flavored soft drink, which first hit shelves in 1961, is also getting a new logo and packaging design. Sprite’s packaging will keep the brand’s recognizable green colour and include noticeable “Recycle Me” message. Other drinks that use green bottles, including Fresca, Seagram’s, and Mello Yello, will also transition to clear packaging in the coming months.
Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been criticized for contributing to the world’s plastic pollution. In 2021, both companies ranked as the world’s top plastic polluters for the 4th consecutive (连续的) year by the environmental organization Break Free From Plastic. Global beach cleanups were carried out by more than 11,000 volunteers in 45 countries to identify the most common plastic polluters. Break Free From Plastic found that 20,000 Coca-Cola branded products were picked up, representing more pollution than the next two top polluters combined.
Coca-Cola announced its “World Without Waste” sustainable packaging program in 2018, in which it promised to make all of its packaging recyclable — excluding the caps and labels — as well as have at least 25% of its beverages sold in refillable packaging by 2030.
1. What’s the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To state the main idea of the text. | B．To introduce Coca-Cola’s new product. |
| C．To give the news’ background information. | D．To draw people’s s attention to Coca-Cola. |
| A．Their material is of low quality. |
| B．They can only be changed into single-use items. |
| C．They contain more pollutants than clear bottles. |
| D．They are more expensive to recycle. |
| A．20,000 Coca-Cola products were produced in 2021. |
| B．Plastic was the most common polluter in 45 countries. |
| C．The top three and four polluters made less pollution than Coca-Cola in 2021. |
| D．Coca-Cola and PepsiCo were responsible for the environmental protection. |
| A．Coca-Cola’s releasing new soft drinks. |
| B．“Recycle Me” message on the clear Sprite bottle. |
| C．Colored bottles decreasing the quality of the recycled material. |
| D．Sprite retiring its signature green plastic bottles after more than 60 years. |
3 . The worsening air quality in tropical(热带的) cities is causing ever greater threats to people’s health and this trend will only get worse as the urbanization(城市化) is progressing quickly, scientists have warned. In a newly published study, a team of researchers explain that across all the 46 cities they surveyed from Africa to Asia, they have measured significant annual increases in pollutants harmful to health.
This trend is troubling as tropical cities usually lack proper air pollution monitoring measures and policies to deal with the problem. “These cities are predicted to reach populations of up to 80 million people by 2100, so actions targeting human-related pollution are badly needed,” the scientists stress.
Already the number of people dying prematurely(过早地) from long exposure to air pollution has been on the increase and people living in cities in South Asia are the worst affected. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, some 24, 000 people die of such causes each year while around 100, 000 people die in Indian cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore etc.
“The number of deaths in tropical cities in Africa is still lower due to recent improvements in health care there. But the worst effects of air pollution on health will likely occur in the coming decades,” the scientists say.
The reasons for worsening air quality in tropical cities lie in increasing road traffic, waste burning, and the widespread use of coal and wood. Industry is also partly to blame. “Open burning for land clearance in the past contributed most to air pollution in the tropics,” explains Karn Vohra, an author of the study. “Our analysis suggests we’re entering a new age when some cities experience rates of air pollution in a year that others experience in a decade,” Vohra warns.
1. What is the function of the numbers mentioned in paragraph 3?| A．To show the negative effect of urbanization. |
| B．To warn people to limit their time of going out. |
| C．To remind people to pay attention to their health. |
| D．To display the seriousness of air pollution in some tropical cities. |
| A．The fast-paced urbanization. |
| B．The improvements in health care. |
| C．The proper policies dealing with air pollution. |
| D．The effective air pollution monitoring measures. |
| A．Take responsibility. | B．Get affected. | C．Break down. | D．Check out. |
| A．Air pollution is fast getting worse in tropical cities |
| B．The growing population is speeding up air pollution |
| C．Human activities lead to air pollution in tropical cities |
| D．It’s of great importance to increase the use of green energy |
4 . With roaring ships, hammering oil drill, industrial fishing and coastal construction, humans have strongly influenced the underwater soundscape over the past couple of hundred years — in some cases posting a threat to whales, dolphins and other ocean creatures. Until recently, underwater sound pollution had not attracted the same attention. Now, a new paper published in the journal Science lays out the impacts, demonstrating that noise pollution can be just as harmful to the ocean environment as other kinds of pollution.
Even the cracking of glaciers and any drop of rain falling on the water’s surface can be heard deep under the sea. Sea life uses sound to study their habitat, and to keep in communication with each other. They also use sound to know something about their environment. However, the loud noise from human beings would make it in vain.
“It’s a long-lasting problem that certainly weakens the animals all the way from individuals to populations,” says lead author Carlos M. Duarte, distinguished professor at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), “We are hoping that this report will not only reveal elements of how humans impact the ocean through sound pollution, but that it will also bring the topic to the attention of policymakers who will be able to act based upon the very real solutions.”
Marine ecologist Kirsten Thompson of the United Kingdom’s University of Exeter, who was not involved in the study, said the report could not have come at a better time. “It summarizes the fact that we are in this new phase of human-caused noise in our oceans that is having a dramatic impact on different species.” What matters most, she notes, is the fact that the paper “doesn’t just point at the problem, but it shows how to solve it.”
Unlike plastic pollution or fertilizer runoff, noise pollution will not take years to fix. The moment we switch our noise off, the impact disappears, Duarte says, pointing to marine life surveys conducted around April 5, 2020. Having the world use more renewable energy would lessen the need to drill for oil and gas. The international team of researchers also called for a global regulatory framework for measuring and managing ocean noise.
1. Which of the following threatens ocean creatures?| A．Travel industry. | B．Human activities. | C．Construction companies. | D．Sailing off the coast. |
| A．Ocean animals can’t fall asleep. | B．It causes the cracking of glaciers. |
| C．It’s a signal to the lower sea level. | D．It disturbs the behavior of sea life. |
| A．The solutions are already available. | B．She is one of the paper’s co-authors. |
| C．The report does not come at the right time. | D．The report has raised great attention from seamen. |
| A．Ocean noise is hard to root out. | B．Ocean noise has been addressed. |
| C．Formation of ocean noise is obvious. | D．Noise pollution threatens ocean creatures. |
The population of the earth is increasing very fast. Humans must make the earth support the increasing population. This has made it necessary for agriculture and industry
Such a rapid development produces more and more waste,
When farmers add fertilizer (肥料)
The air in some cities
6 . Lacking a nose, insects such as butterflies and bees use their antennae (触须) to detect smells. Those smells help them find food and more. What happens, though, when air pollution beats the smells on which these creatures depend? Those insects become less likely to visit a flower. That’s the finding of a new study.
People depend on insects to help the plants to make many of the fruits, nuts and vegetables we eat. Past studies showed urban air pollution might hide the smells insects use to find flowers. For instance, ozone(臭氧), an ingredient in smog, can break down the smells from flowers. Computer models predicted this would cause problems for insects seeking flowers for a meal. But scientists weren’t sure that would happen in real life.
James Ryalls and his team decided to find out if it would. Ryalls is a biologist at the University of Reading in England. Working in a field of black mustard plants, his group created a system made up of rings eight meters in diameter. Each area was open, so nearby insects could fly into it. The researchers pumped pollutant gases into these rings: Two rings received diesel fumes(柴油废气). Two more got ozone. Another two got both gases. A final pair of rings was a control and received no added gases.
The tests took place over two summers. During each field season, the scientists counted how many times insects visited the flowers in each ring. “The results were much more severe than we thought,” Ryalls says. Adding both the diesel fumes and ozone pollution “caused up to 90 percent less insects to be able to find the flowers that they need for food,” he says. This was in comparison to the pollutant-free rings. This surprised the scientists and made them worried about the food resources of humans.
1. What is the finding of the new study?| A．Insects have noses. | B．Insects can feel smells. |
| C．Smells are helpful for insects to get food. | D．Polluted air makes insects hard to find food. |
| A．Part. | B．Shape. | C．Flower. | D．Colour. |
| A．Seven rings had gasses. | B．They lasted two summers. |
| C．They were led by a biologist. | D．They were done on the playground. |
| A．Save Flowers. | B．Poor Insects. |
| C．Tests by Researchers. | D．Environment and Food. |
Plastic pollution at sea is reaching
As plastic breaks down into smaller pieces, it also enters the marine food chain,
While consumers can help reduce plastic pollution by changing their behavior, governments have to step up and accept
8 . 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. |
9 . Improved air quality to reduce ozone (臭氧) pollution may have avoided the loss of 1.5 billion birds during the past 40 years, a study found. That’s nearly 20% of bird life in the United States today.
Ozone, a gas that appears in nature, is also produced by human activities, including by power plants and cars. The ozone in the upper atmosphere protects the Earth from the harmful ultraviolet rays (紫外线) of the sun. But ground-level ozone is harmful and pollutes the air we breathe.
To examine the relationship between bird populations and air pollution, the researchers used models that connected bird observations from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird program with ground-level pollution data. They tracked monthly changes in bird populations, air quality, and regulation status (治理现状) for 3,214 US counties over a period of 15 years. The findings suggest that ozone pollution is most harmful to the small birds — such as sparrows, warblers and finches — that make up 86% of all North American land-bird species. Ozone pollution directly harms birds by damaging their breathing systems, and indirectly harms their food sources.
“Not only can ozone cause direct physical damage to birds, but it also can harm plant health and reduce numbers of the insects that birds eat,” said co-author Amanda Rodewald. “Not surprisingly, birds that cannot get high-quality habitat or food resources are less likely to survive or reproduce successfully. The good news here is that environmental policies intended to protect human health and return important benefits to birds too.”
This work contributes to our ever increasing understanding of the connection of environmental health and human health.
1. How many birds are there in the United States now?| A．0.75 billion. | B．1.5 billion. |
| C．3 billion. | D．7.5 billion. |
| A．Ozone pollution harms birds’ food sources indirectly. |
| B．86% of North American land-bird species are extinct. |
| C．3,214 counties in America have effective regulations. |
| D．The researchers have observed birds for many years. |
| A．Worried. | B．Positive. |
| C．Uncaring. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．Ground-Level Ozone Makes up Most of the Air We Breathe |
| B．Environmental Policies Intend to Protect Human Health |
| C．Reduced Ozone Pollution May Have Avoided Bird Deaths |
| D．Regulations Bring Important Protection Benefits to Birds |
On April 22nd, the UNEP（United Nation Environment Programme）called for increasing protection of Antarctica,
Since 2019, scientists have travelled around the world, determined
Therefore, it's time that action
