1 . Despite many air-pollution-reduction policies (政策) designed to improve health, these are always ineffective. Often this is because they fail to consider local knowledge and cultural practices. Previous research suggests that people should be put at the centre of developing ways around the problem. Thus, a study has been done to confirm it.
One of the authors of the study, Dr. Cressida Bowyer from the University of Portsmouth, says, “For the first time, a study has placed arts and humanities (人文学科) methods at the centre of the exploration of perceptions (感知) of air pollution. Working with local communities, we were able to discover how people there understood air pollution.”
Researchers from the University of Portsmouth, and researchers and experts from the UK, Kenya and Sweden worked together with local people in Mukuru in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya in East Africa, to explore a range of methods including storytelling, music, art and theatre to explore understandings of air pollution. Some community members made digital (数字的) stories by taking photos around Mukuru which told their story of air pollution. Trained community researchers helped school children to create drawn and/or written stories of their experiences of air pollution. Theatre pieces were presented in key community spaces around Mukuru. Suggestions were given by the audience about how to solve the problem and local people acted out their suggestions as part of the theatre. The song “Mazingira”, which explained the problems of air pollution, had been played on national radio and television stations with an audience of about three million people.
Dr. Sarah West, Principal Investigator at the Stockholm Environment Centre, says, “From this range of methods we have got a more detailed understanding of how air pollution is perceived and understood in Mukuru. The project also created new spaces for conversations about the topic of air pollution in the community. We expect other researchers wishing to discuss difficult problems to use various creative methods to have a wide range of people take part in their activities. This can lead to unexpected understandings that may not otherwise exist.”
1. Why are many air-pollution-reduction policies ineffective according to the text?| A．Local people don’t care about the issue. |
| B．Little attention is paid to local people. |
| C．No one is responsible for offering solutions. |
| D．Policymakers don’t have enough experience. |
| A．Fully accepting local people’s proposals. |
| B．Inviting actors to give professional performances in theaters. |
| C．Training local students to reduce air pollution. |
| D．Using music to make people realize the problem. |
| A．To have a more detailed understanding. |
| B．To creatively get many people to join in. |
| C．To have conversations in communities. |
| D．To attract support from local experts. |
| A．How Can Local People Make Further Research? |
| B．Air-pollution Problems Cannot Be Solved Traditionally |
| C．How Can Music, Dance And Art Help Cut Air Pollution? |
| D．Researchers Help People in Nairobi Cut Air Pollution |
| situation However on Amazingly natural |
Boyan Slat has one huge goal. It’s a goal that could be good for people and animals all over the world.
When he was 16. Dutch engineering student Slat was on vacation in Greece, and he started to think about all the rubbish that is pushed onto beaches by water. The oceans around the world are all of plastic—millions of tons of plastic.
The present
Slat started with an idea for an unusual machine to “catch” the plastic floating(漂浮)in the water using the
A year later, Slat was named a “Champion of the Earth” by the United Nations for his valuable work.
3 . Noise pollution has a long-term effect on tree populations that may persist even after the sources of noise are removed, according to research published Wednesday.
Man-made noise from industry and the building of infrastructure such as roads and pipelines has increased greatly since the middle of last century. While previous research has documented the short-term effect noise has on tree populations as it scares off pollinators (传粉者) such as insects and animals, few studies have covered the long-term effect.
Researchers in the United States looked at tree populations in New Mexico that had been “hearing”a high level of man-made noise for 15 years. They found 75 percent fewer pinyon pine seedlings (矮松苗) in noisy places than quiet ones.
Then they looked at other places in New Mexico, where sources of noise had recently been added and then removed, and examined how populations recovered. The team assumed that populations of the trees — in this case pinyon seedlings — would recover as the pollinators would return to the places once the noise had disappeared. Instead, they found a long-term drop in seedling numbers as the birds refused to revisit the places.
“The effects of human noise pollution are growing into these woodland communities,” said Clinton Francis, lead researcher from California Polytechnic State University. “What we’re seeing is that removal of the noise doesn’t necessarily immediately result in a recovery of ecological function.”
Jennifer Phillips, co-author of the research, said the findings showed how the effect of noise pollution could put pollinators off even after the noise is removed. “Animals like the birds that are sensitive to noise learn to avoid particular areas.” said Phillips. “It may take time for animals to come back to pollinate trees in these previously noisy areas, and we don’t know how long that might take.”
As governments continue to face growing evidence of the damage to nature caused by urbanization (城市化), Phillips held that the influence of noise pollution should also be factored into planning decisions.
1. What does the underlined word “persist” mean in paragraph 1?| A．Recover. | B．Decrease. | C．Last. | D．Disappear. |
| A．By studying cases in New Mexico. |
| B．By challenging the previous research. |
| C．By recording the routines of pollinators. |
| D．By following the sources of noise pollution. |
| A．Noise pollution kills large numbers of birds. |
| B．Governments should take measures to remove noise. |
| C．Ecological recovery contributes to the removal of noise. |
| D．It’s hard to tell when birds will revisit previously noisy places. |
| A．Removing noise enables plants to grow better. |
| B．Pollinators play a role in increasing plant population. |
| C．Noise pollution has long-term effects on plant populations. |
| D．Man-made noise does great harm to woodland communities. |
4 . The effects of noise can reach organisms (生物体) without ears. Because of the way living things rely on each other, noise pollution may actually stop some forests from growing, a new study suggests. In a New Mexico woodland of pine trees, researchers found far fewer tree seedlings (小苗) in noisy sites than they did in quiet ones.
The study area is dotted with gas wells, some of which are quiet and some of which have compressors (压缩机) that create a constant noise. This allowed Jennifer Phillips, a behavioral ecologist at Texas A&M University-San Antonio and her colleagues to compare sites that were similar except for noise level. In areas that had been noisy for at least 15 years, the researchers found only about 13 pine seedlings, compared with 55 pine seedlings per hectare (公顷) in quiet areas.
The differences in plant growth were probably caused by changes in animal behavior, said Phillips. For example, noise might drive away certain pollinators (传粉昆虫) such as bees, bats and moths. In the case of pine trees, the problem was likely a lack of animals to disperse seeds. Pines depend on birds to carry their seeds away from the parent tree, and birds are known to avoid noise. The differences between the sites aren’t yet obvious to someone walking through them, said Sarah Termondt, a botanist (植物学家) with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who helped conduct the study. That’s probably because pines are slow-growing, with most of the mature trees in such woodlands being over a century old.
The study raises questions about the future of the area. “If the noise stays there long term, are we going to lose this important ecosystem of the pine which supports so much wildlife?” said Phillips. The study was published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.
1. What does the new study focus on?| A．The influence of noise pollution on plants. |
| B．The way the organisms receive noise. |
| C．The harm of noise pollution to insects. |
| D．The effects of noise pollution on humans . |
| A．Gas wells dotted in the area provide favorable conditions for the study. |
| B．The study sites are different in many ways including their noise level. |
| C．It is difficult for plants to live without noise and animals. |
| D．People can easily find the difference between the noisy and the quiet sites. |
| A．Seedling. | B．Thin. |
| C．Grown-up. | D．Tall. |
| A．Noise pollution is obviously a trouble that can be avoided. |
| B．Noise pollution could be a threat with the power to change ecosystems. |
| C．The pine forest is important because it supports so much wildlife. |
| D．Wildlife should be well protected for the future of this area. |
5 . Cars are “boxes collecting toxic(有毒的)gases” that stunt the growth of children, a leading expert has warned. Professor Sir David King said that parents should avoid driving their little ones to school and encourage them to walk instead. Vehicles(车辆)provide hardly any protection from the deadly gases, while walking is already known to be good for health.
Sir David told The Guardian: “Children sitting in the backseat of vehicles are probably breathing in polluted air. You may be driving a cleaner vehicle but your children are sitting in a box collecting toxic gases from all the vehicles around you. The best thing for all our health is to leave our cars behind. It’s been shown that the advantages of walking and cycling far outweigh the costs of breathing in pollution.” Sir David added: “If more drivers knew the damage they could be doing to their children, I think they’d think twice about getting in the car.”
His warming comes after recent research found that children’s brains slow down when they are put in high levels of air pollution. The study found pupils who breathed in toxic gases on the way to school had difficulty in performing as well as their classmates Spanish researchers said their findings appeared to show that polluted air is harming children’s brains as well as their lungs.
Toxic air is responsible for 40,000 deaths a year in the UK---and Brussels has warned Britain it could face if it continued to break EU safety rules. Former research has shown that too much polluted air will shorten people’s life length. Air pollution falls only behind cancer, obesity and heart disease in the biggest health risks to the nation, Prime Minister Theresa May recently said.
1. What does the underlined word “stunt” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Slow down | B．Speed up |
| C．Set down | D．Keep up |
| A．It’s better to cycle or walk kids to school |
| B．Driving costs more than walking and cycling |
| C．A cleaner vehicle will not collect toxic gases |
| D．Most people have a good knowledge of toxic gases |
| A．Air pollution only affects kids’ lungs |
| B．Air pollution levels have risen in Spain |
| C．Air pollution has greatly changed kids’ character |
| D．Air pollution may worsen kids’ school performance |
| A．Ignore EU safety rules |
| B．Take steps to improve air quality |
| C．Encourage people to drive cleaner vehicles |
| D．Stop parents from driving children to school |
