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 |
2 . Scientists visiting tiny Henderson Island in the South Pacific recently made an alarming discovery. Although it is one of the most remote places on the earth and previously untouched by humans, the island was covered in plastic waste. They calculated there were 38 million pieces of plastic, weighing almost 18 tons, with thousands of new pieces washing up each day. “No country has a free pass-we found plastic from everywhere,” said one scientist. “We all have a responsibility, and we have to sit up and pay attention. This is not an issue to ignore. We need to do something now to protect the sea.”
Plastic waste in the sea has long been known about, but only now are we discovering the true extent of the problem. Plastic takes hundreds of years to decompose, so all the plastic ever produced still exists somewhere. Around 95% of plastics made are not recycled, and large amounts enter the sea. Currents collect this waste in large circular systems called “gyres”. One of the largest is in the Pacific Ocean, an area now known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”.
The problem gets worse as plastic breaks down into very small pieces, or “micro plastic”. This is eaten by fish and leads to massive species loss. Humans also eat these fish, and micro plastic has even been found in tap water around the world. The problem has spread too far to ignore. The plastic on Henderson Island accounts for just 2 seconds’ worth of global annual plastic production. That production will more than triple by 2050. Then there will be the same weight of plastic in the sea as fish.
However, there are some young minds working to clean up and protect the sea for future generations. While diving in Greece, young Boyan Slat noticed there was more plastic waste than fish. He decided right then to dedicate his life to solving this problem. Previously the problem was considered too big to solve; collecting the plastic with boats and nets would be expensive, would harm sea life, and would take thousands of years! But, Boyan thought, why move through the sea when the sea can move through you? To work with the currents and gyres would help collect the waste. So he started The Ocean Cleanup project, which places very long floating barriers in the Pacific. Currents then concentrate the waste naturally so it can be collected and recycled. He hopes to reduce the patch by 50% in just five years.
“Many problems today are side effects of things people didn’t think about in the past”, he says. Sea plastic is a symbol of the negative effects of our lifestyle and technology. Our aim should be to create a new lifestyle for this century. Protecting the sea from plastic is a good place to start.
1. What alarming discovery did the scientists make?| A．They discovered a tiny island in the South Pacific Ocean. |
| B．They discovered there was plastic everywhere on Henderson Island. |
| C．They discovered that there was no human beings on Henderson Island. |
| D．They discovered Henderson Island was the most remote place in the world. |
| A．Micro plastic is merely harmful to the fish in the sea. |
| B．Not all the countries have to face the problem of plastic trash. |
| C．Nowadays there is the same weight of plastic in the sea as fish. |
| D．Most plastics made are not recycled, and large amounts enter the sea. |
| A．How the Ocean Cleanup project works. |
| B．The problem of plastic cleanup is too big to tackle. |
| C．Let the sea itself decompose the plastic waste naturally. |
| D．Collecting plastic with boats and nets would be a good way. |
| A．Considerate and straightforward. | B．Intelligent and responsible. |
| C．Knowledgeable and sensitive. | D．Devoted and courageous. |
3 . Are you a tea drinker? If so, you’re not alone. Every day around the world millions of cups of this popular brew are drunk, and it’s been that way for thousands of years. The oldest discovered tea is from the Han Dynasty, dating from 206BC to 220AD. But it’s thought that the tea trend really took off during the Tang Dynasty in the 8th Century, when it became China’s national drink. Now, Turkey, the Republic of Ireland and the UK are believed to be the biggest tea—drinking nations, per capita.
Tea is consumed in many ways-slurped, sipped or glugged. It can be poured from pots, infused or brewed in the cup using tea bags—and it’s this latter process that is causing concern. Research last year found some premium tea bags might be leaving billions of microscopic plastic particles in the cup. Scientists from McGill University in Montreal found that some ‘plastic’ tea bags shed high levels of micro plastics into water. However, The World Health Organization says such particles in drinking water do not appear to pose a risk.
Most tea bags are made from paper, with a small amount of plastic used to seal them shut— made from oil. This has led to debate about whether they can be recycled, but many are still composted. However, gardener Mike Armitage has told the BBC that the plastic contained in the soil could be washed into streams and rivers and ultimately out to sea.
Unilever, the owners of the tea brand PG Tips, said their tea bags are made with a small amount of plastic—used to seal them—and that they are suitable for composting. And the brand Yorkshire Tea said their bags do contain 25% polypropylene, but they were “actively developing plant—based and biodegradable alternatives”.
While tea bag manufacturers might be doing their bit to reduce plastic pollution, it could be a good time to switch your favourite beverage to coffee, or if that isn’t your cup of tea then try using loose-leaf tea, which can have a better flavour.
1. What is the main idea of paragraph 2?| A．Tea can be consumed in many ways. |
| B．The use of tea bags doesn’t appear to pose a risk |
| C．The use of tea bags is causing concern. |
| D．Some tea bags might be leaving microscopic plastic particles in the cup. |
| A．reduce the amount of plastic used to seal tea bags |
| B．wash the plastic in the soil into streams, rivers and sea |
| C．develop plant-based and biodegradable alternatives |
| D．switch to coffee or try to use loose-leaf tea |
| A．Supportive | B．Indifferent | C．Opposed | D．Neutral |
| A．Potential Plastic Pollution |
| B．Chinese tea culture |
| C．What is your favorite drink? |
| D．The Humble tea bag |
| 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.
5 . We know light pollution can threaten the heath and well-being of humans, animals, and the environment. Researchers have long studied the impact on birds and how brightness can affect their reproduction (繁殖), feeding, and migration behaviors. A new study, published in Nature, takes a comprehensive look at how light pollution affects birds throughout North America. It found that these factors can affect how birds succeed in reproduction and often are related to the impacts of climate change.
For the study, researchers looked at data collected by other researchers and by citizen scientists. They analyzed how light pollution affected the reproductive success of more than 5800 nests from 142 bird species across North America. They considered several factors including the time of year when reproduction happened and whether at least one chick got the feathers necessary for flight or independent activity.
Birds typically reproduce about the same time each year, using daylight cues to time their reproduction to coincide with when the most food will be available to feed their babies. “Artificially changing day length with light pollution essentially misleads them to stat reproducing earlier than they normally would,” Francis says. When that happens, sometimes chicks hatch before food is available. But with climate change, sometimes the results are a little different.
“We also found that the same species that reproduce earlier appear to benefit from light exposure in terms of nest success. This was unexpected. We do not know for sure that light pollution helps birds cope with climate change. It needs to be tested in further research. Nevertheless, it is quite possible that light allows birds to ‘catch up’ to earlier prey availability due to climate change,” Francis explains.
Researchers know through studies of climate change that plants and insects are starting to emerge earlier each spring. They respond to warmer temperatures rather than light. So possibly the birds are benefiting from that change. “A likely explanation is that light pollution causes birds to nest earlier and restore the match between the timing of their nesting and the highest availability of their food,” Francis says. “Again, this needs to be tested. Still, if true, it means that birds exposed to light pollution are ‘ keeping up ’ with climate change and those in pristine areas where there is no light pollution would not. ”
1. What does the passage mainly talk about?| A．The data that had been collected previously. |
| B．The effects of light pollution on birds reproduction. |
| C．The ways to improve birds’ reproductive success. |
| D．The loss of birds caused by light pollution. |
| A．They get confused about the reproductive time. |
| B．They are more likely to abandon their babies. |
| C．They have a harder time finding food. |
| D．It’s harder for them to hatch the eggs. |
| A．They nests earlier. | B．Plants grow taster. |
| C．Insects appear earlier. | D．There are more lights. |
| A．Light pollution has a great negative effect on the birds’ life. |
| B．Climate change is causing birds to change their food choices. |
| C．Birds look for other suitable breeding sites because of light pollution. |
| D．Birds are adjusting their reproductive time to adapt to climate change. |
Oysters, soft-bodied animals without skeletons, are important for the underwater community they share with plants, fish, and other life. They are food
Because so many animals depend on them, oysters are called a keystone species. If a keystone species
That’s
The oysters were in trouble for
7 . 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. |
8 . A recent study published in the journal Science Advances has revealed that the United States ranks as high as third among countries contributing to coastal plastic pollution. The new research challenges the once-held assumption that the US is adequately “managing” its plastic waste. A previous study using 2010 data that did not account for plastic waste exports had ranked the US 20th, globally, in its contribution to ocean plastic pollution.
Using plastic waste generation (产生) data from 2016 — the latest available global numbers — scientists calculated that more than half of all plastics collected for recycling (1.99 million tons of 3.91 million tons collected) in the US were shipped abroad. Of this, 88% of exports went to countries struggling to effectively manage plastics; and between 15-25% was low-value or contaminated (受污染的). It means it was unrecyclable. Taking these factors into account, the researchers estimated that up to 1 million tons of US-generated plastic waste ended up polluting the environment beyond its own borders.
Using 2016 data, the paper also estimated that between 0.91 and 1.25 million tons of plastic waste generated in the US was either littered or illegally dumped into the environment domestically. Combined with waste exports, this means the US contributed up to 2.25 million tons of plastics into the environment. Of this, up to 1.5 million tons of plastics ended up in coastal environments. This ranks the US as high as third globally in contributing to coastal plastic pollution.
“The US generates the most plastic waste of any other country in the world, but rather than looking the problem in the eye, we have outsourced it to developing countries,” said Nick Mallos, senior director of Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas program and a co-author of the study. “The solution has to start at home. We need to create less, by cutting out unnecessary single-use plastics; we need to create better, by developing innovative new ways to package and deliver goods; and where plastics are inevitable, we need to greatly improve our recycling rates.”
“Previous research has provided global values for plastic input into the environment and coastal areas, but detailed analyses like this one are important for individual countries to further assess their contributions,” said Dr. Jenna Jambeck, Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering and a co-author of the study. “In the case of the United States, it is critically important that we examine our own backyard and take responsibility for our global plastic footprint.”
1. Compared with the previous study, the new one ________.| A．covers data more comprehensively |
| B．excludes plastic waste shipped abroad |
| C．is contrary to the latest global numbers |
| D．challenges the recycling way of plastics |
| A．Over half of it ended up polluting the environment outside the US. |
| B．Most of its exported plastic waste wasn’t worth recycling. |
| C．Less than half of it was actually recycled domestically. |
| D．More of it is littered or illegally dumped than exported. |
| A．plastic pollution in developing countries is more serious |
| B．US has been irresponsible in dealing with its plastic waste |
| C．US should cooperate with others to handle its plastic waste |
| D．innovative means are needed to eliminate single-use plastics |
| A．Plastic Pollution Great Risk to Marine Life |
| B．US Top Contributor to Coastal Plastic Pollution |
| C．Plastic Waste Major Source of Coastal Pollution |
| D．Recycling Effective Way to Address Plastic Waste |
9 . 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. |
10 . Rain is vital to life on Earth. However, rain isn’t just made of water anymore—it’s partly made of plastic.
Millions of tiny pieces of plastic, called microplastics, are wandering around Earth’s atmosphere and traveling across entire continents, according to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on April 12. Another study, published in the journal Science in June 2020, has revealed that every year more than 1,000 tons of the particles (颗粒)—equivalent to over 120 million plastic bottles—fall in rain.
Microplastics are plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in diameter (直径) and come from a number of sources. Plastic bags and bottles released into the environment break down into smaller and smaller bits. Some microplastics are manufactured deliberately to provide abrasion (研磨) in a host of products, such as toothpaste and cleansers, according to the Daily Mail. Another major source is your washing machine. When you wash synthetic (合成的) clothing, tiny microfibers get flushed (冲掉) away with the wastewater. Even though the water is treated by a wastewater plant, the microplastics remain, and they are released into the sea, according to American magazine Wired.
Plastic rain may remind people of acid rain, but the former is far more widespread and harder to deal with. The tiny particles, too small to be seen with the naked eye, are collected by the wind from the ground. They are so light that they stay in the air to be blown around the globe. As they climb into the atmosphere, they are thought to act as nuclei (核心) around which water vapor (水蒸气) condenses (凝结) to form clouds. Some of the dust falls back to land in dry conditions, while the rest comes down as rain, according to the Daily Mail.
Microplastics have been found everywhere you can imagine. From fish and frogs to mice and mosquitoes, their bodies have been found, on average, to contain 40 pieces of microplastic, reported Daily Mail. As the top of the food chain, humans are exposed to microplastics, too. “We live on a ball inside a bubble,” microplastic researcher Steve Allen at University of Strathclyde, Scotland, told Wired. “There are no borders, there are no edges. It (plastic rain) raining on the land and then getting blown back up into the air again, to move somewhere else. There’s no stopping it once it’s out.”
1. What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about?| A．How microplastics should be handled. | B．How microplastics are used widely. |
| C．How microplastics pollute water. | D．How microplastics come into being. |
| A．They are light and can be easily dealt with. |
| B．They result in both acid rain and plastic rain. |
| C．They have a diameter of at least 5 millimeters. |
| D．They have nearly affected the whole food chain. |
| A．No place is safe from microplastic pollution. |
| B．The atmosphere possesses the capacity to self-cleanse. |
| C．Countries should work together to fight plastic pollution. |
| D．It is important to remove microplastics somewhere else. |
| A．To compare acid rain and plastic rain. |
| B．To warn people of the dangers of microplastics. |
| C．To call on people to reduce using plastic products. |
| D．To introduce the sources and effects of microplastics. |
