1 . Masses of ocean plastic are providing artificial habitat (栖息地) for otherwise coastal species, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. The study’s authors observed floating water bottles, old toothbrushes and waste fishing nets. The possibility exists that species may be evolving to better adapt to life on plastic.
A decade ago, marine researchers believed coastal species could not survive a trip across the inhospitable open ocean. Yet Japan’s 2011 tsunami (海啸), which sent some 300 species of Asian marine life riding floating plastic garbage onto North American shores, disproved that assumption.
Ocean plastic is “creating opportunities for coastal species’ biogeography to greatly expand beyond what we previously thought was possible”, Linsey Haram, a researcher and co-author of the study, said in a report.
The concept of species-covered plastic may sound like the story of ocean species’ victory in spite of human pollution. But that’s not quite the case, explains Juan José Alava, PhD, an expert at the University of British Columbia. In addition to transporting non-native species to new habitats where they may become invasive and destructive, the plastic is “basically an ecological trap”, says Alava. “That’s because small species on the floating structure may attract bigger animals to come for food. When these creatures enter garbage areas for food, they run a high risk of eating and/or becoming caught in plastic and dying.”
While scientists have found some types of bacteria (细菌) are able to break down plastic, thereby cleaning up garbage, it’s unlikely that the marine animals will have any such effect. “The 2021 UN report was clear that the increasing plastic pollution is putting the health of all the world’s oceans and seas at risk,” says Alava.
1. What does the underlined word “inhospitable” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Easy-to-spot. | B．Up-to-standard. |
| C．Down-to-earth. | D．Hard-to-stay. |
| A．Putting them at greater risk. |
| B．Causing them to grow bigger. |
| C．Enabling them to live in new habitats. |
| D．Freeing them from getting endangered. |
| A．It increases some creatures’ curiosity. |
| B．It causes damage to all marine species. |
| C．It creates habitats for larger creatures. |
| D．It leads to the death of some creatures. |
| A．Ocean plastic must be dealt with. |
| B．It’s OK to throw plastic into the ocean. |
| C．Marine life may adapt to ocean plastic. |
| D．Ocean plastic may be cleaned up soon. |
2 . People were already known to consume microplastics via food and water as well as breathing them in. In a new study, scientists analyzed blood samples from 22 healthy donators and found microplastics in 17. Half the samples contained PET plastic, which is commonly used in drinks bottles, while a third contained polystyrene, which is used for packaging food and other products. A quarter of the blood samples containcd polyethylene, from which plastic carrier bags are made.
“Previous work had shown that microplastics were 10 times higher in the faeces (粪便) of babies compared with adults and that babies fed with plastic bottles are swallowing millions of microplastic particles (微粒) a day. We also know in general that babies are more sensitive to chemical and particle exposure,” said Prof Dick Vethaak, a scientist at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.“That worries me a lot.”
The new research adapted existing techniques to detect and analyze particles as small as 0.0007mm. Some of the blood samples contained two or three types of plastic. The team used steel syrınge needles and glass tubes to avoid pollution and tested for background levels of microplastics using blank samples.
Vethaak acknowledged that the amount and type of plastic varied considerably between the blood samples.“But this is a pioneering study,”he said, with more work now necded. He said the differences might reflect short-term exposure before the blood samples were taken, such as drinking from a plastic-lined coffee cup or wearing a plastic face mask.
A recent study found that microplastics can attach to the outer membranes(膜) of red blood cells and may limit their ability to transport oxygen. The particles have also been found in the placentas of pregnant women.
“Arc the particles preserved in the body? Are they transported to certain organs? And are these levels sufficiently high to cause disease?” Vethaak said.“More detailed research on how microplastics affect the structures and processes of the human body, and whether and how they can transform cells and how they may cause cancer, is urgently needed. The problem is becoming more urgent each day,”Vethaak added.
1. What does the new study in Paragraph I show?| A．Microplastic pollution is harmful to human health. |
| B．Microplastics have been detected in human blood. |
| C．Drinks bottles contain more microplastics than plastic carrier bags. |
| D．Food packagıng is the main source of microplastics in the human body. |
| A．The mass production of plastic bottles. |
| B．The impact of microplastics on babies. |
| C．The undeveloped digestive system of babies. |
| D．The increasing amount of chemicals in food. |
| A．Diverse sampling time. |
| B．Pollution of blood samples. |
| C．Different physical conditions of donators. |
| D．Short-term exposure to plastics before sampling. |
| A．Studies of Plastic Products. |
| B．The Expectation of Microplastics. |
| C．Pioneering Studies of Microplastic Particles. |
| D．Studies of Microplastics into Human Body. |
3 . Lego is considering a brick(积木)rental plan in an attempt to cut down on plastic waste.The Danish toymaker has promised to make all its bricks from sustainable(可持续的)materials by 2030 and is investing significant resources in finding alternatives.
Tim Brooks,vice-president responsible for sustainability,said the company was“totally open”to the idea of the product rental plan but admitted that lost pieces could produce a significant problem.“What are the chances of giving them to an eight-year-old child and getting them all back again?”Mr.Brooks added.
“There is a lot of technical thinking that needs to be done. We are right at the beginning.” Mr. Brooks said Lego was exploring several ideas with a view to producing the highest value from products while consuming the fewest resources. He said many would “probably never see the light of day”and that there is no current plan to try out the rental plan.
Lego has come under increasing pressure to reduce its carbon footprint for growing international alarm about the impact of plastic waste on the environment.It produces 19 billion pieces per year—36,000 a minute—that are made entirely of plastic while much of the inside packaging is also plastic.
So far,the only breakthrough has been the development of a line of bricks made of plant-based plastic sourced from sugarcane.The green trees,plants and flowers were first included in Lego sets late last year but currently make up only 1%— 2% of total plastic elements produced.Henrik Nielson,a production supervisor(主管)in Lego’s factory,said last year:“We need to learn again how to do this.”
Lego reportedly releases around a million tons of carbon dioxide each year, with about 75% coming from raw materials that go into factories. The company has invested more than 100,000,000 euros and hired 100 people to research non-plastic alternatives.It is aiming to keep all of its packaging out of landfill by 2025.
1. What is Lego making great efforts for?| A．promote its brick rental plan | B．explore ways to reduce plastic waste |
| C．raise its production efficiency | D．develop new products |
| A．It is well under way. | B．It is totally useless. |
| C．It has a long way to go. | D．It goes against Lego’s interests. |
| A．By means of comparison. | B．By means of examples. |
| C．By means of figures. | D．By means of classification. |
| A．Defensive. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Determined. |
4 . Tens of thousands of lives would be saved every year in the United States if common air pollution from burning fossil fuels (矿物燃料) is got rid of, according to a new study. The research stresses the huge health benefits of moving away from coal, oil and gasoline.
Using data from the Environmental Protection Agency, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimate (估计) that about 50,000 premature (过早的) deaths would be avoided every year if microscopic air pollutants called particulates were got rid of in the U.S..
Premature death and hospitalization are also extremely expensive for the U.S. economy. The study estimates that getting rid of such air pollution would save about $600 billion each year.
Burning fossil fuels are a main source of fine particulate pollution in the U.S.. The new study is the latest reminder that climate change and public health are closely related, and that cutting greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t just reduce long-term risk from global warming; it can save lives immediately by cutting pollution.
Fine particulates, also known as PM 2.5 by scientists and regulators, are pollutants generated by the burning of fossil fuels, wildfires, and some industrial processes. They are about 1/30th the width of human hair, which means they can go deep inside the lungs.
Worldwide, millions of people are estimated to die prematurely every year because of outdoor air pollution, the World Health Organization estimates. More than 1 million global deaths from fine particulate air pollution could be avoided in just one year if fossil fuel burning were got rid of, according to a separate study published last year.
Air quality in much of the U.S. is better than the global average. But the remaining pollution is still deadly, especially to those living in hotspots next to factories, power plants and highways.
“Even with the Clean Air Act in the United States, we still have more than 100,000 Americans who die prematurely from air pollution each year,” says Patz, who has studied the connections between climate change and human health for many years. “It’s a striking health threat.”
1. What makes people die young according to the new study?| A．Growing economy. | B．Huge benefits. | C．Air pollution. | D．Climate change. |
| A．Stop burning fossil fuels. | B．Cut down the cost of economy. |
| C．Avoid living in the busy place. | D．Reduce risk from global warming. |
| A．People mainly die from air pollution. |
| B．Air pollution endangers people’s lives. |
| C．The Act works well in the United States. |
| D．People’s health relies on climate change. |
| A．Air Quality Depends on People’s Efforts |
| B．Burning Fossil Fuels Does Harm to People |
| C．Public Health Is Connected to Climate Change |
| D．Getting Rid of Air Pollution Would Save Lives |
5 . Indonesia
What Indonesians commonly do is put their trash in their personal garbage area which is usually located at the front of their houses, right at the side of the street. Put trash there, and the garbage collectors with their big garbage trucks will pick it up.
Germany
The country has a quite detailed way of sorting its wast — down to the color of the glass waste and the type of paper that can be put inside the garbage bin. Some common public garbage bins are available in the German apartment/housing area：
| 1. Blue bin — for paper and cardboard. Greasy(油腻的) pizza box goes to the gray bin! 2. Green and white bin — for glass, different bins for different glass colors! 3. Yellow/orange bin — for plastic and metals. 4. Brown bin — for biodegradable goods. 5. Gray/black bin — everything else that can’t be recycled such as used diaper, animal waste and ashes. |
Some items don’t belong in your housing area’s public garbage bins. Items like used batteries, electronics, unused paints, and light bulbs must be returned to special locations so they can be recycled. Other items such as clothes, oversized trash and furniture are advised to be sold or donated.
South Korea
Here are the types of garbage bin provided in South Korea：
| Food Waste, anything that could be eaten by animals Recyclable Waste Oversized Waste, mostly electronics and furniture General Waste, anything that doesn’t belong to the other types. |
Because the food waste bin is reserved for anything that can be eaten by animals, eggshells, crustacean shells and bones are fairly forbidden from it. You have to separate the bones from your meat waste, put the meat waste in the food waste bin and put the rest of the bones in the general waste bin.
1. How do Indonesians usually deal with their trash?| A．By paying someone to throw it. |
| B．By throwing it into a public garbage bin. |
| C．By wrapping it in a plastic bag and throw it away anywhere. |
| D．By putting it in an appointed place to be collected. |
| A．Donate it to others. | B．Put it in the blue bin. |
| C．Return it to special locations. | D．put it outside the room. |
| A．Cardboard. | B．Chicken sandwiches. | C．Crustacean shells | D．Second-hand furniture. |
1. 简述雾霾情况;
2. 倡导绿色生活;
3. 提出具体措施
注意：
1. 词数100左右;
2. 可以适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。
Green Life, Clearer Air
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7 . Plastics are amazing materials, which are widely used in our daily life. Besides, they’re often cheap to make. About 8. 3 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced to date. That’s about 1,400 times the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Some of that plastic is still in use. But about 5. 8 billion metric tons have been thrown away.
All that plastic waste is an environmental scourge (祸根). Only about 9 percent of plastic waste has been recycled. Another 12 percent has been burned. The remaining 79 percent wound up in landfills or in nature. And that plastic, like a single Lego block, takes a long time to decompose (分解).
Plastic litters the world from the highest mountaintop to the deepest seafloor. Many animals mistake this rubbish for food. If they get full, these animals may forget to eat real food and suffer. Plastic rubbish in the oceans also leaves birds, turtles and other wildlife in a jam.
Big pieces of plastic aren’t the only problem. Abandoned plastic can break into tiny bits called microplastics. Winds blow these bits far and wide. Ocean currents can spread them throughout the sea. These pollutants build up inside animals. They also get into our food and drinking water. Each American is likely to consume more than 70, 000 microplastic pieces per year. Right now, no one knows what risk that might bring.
Scientists have some ideas about how to clean up this mess. The Ocean Cleanup is developing cleanup systems to fish out plastic pieces from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Microbes or mealworms with an appetite for plastic might someday eat the garbage. And new nanotechnology (纳米技术) could help microplastics decompose in the environment. But many of these plans are still far from effective so far. The best way to help Earth right now is to stop buying so much plastic — and then throwing it out — in the first place.
1. What does the Lego block show about plastic waste?| A．It is hard to break down. | B．Little of it has been burned. |
| C．It is easy to pile up. | D．Most of it ends up in landfills. |
| A．By starving them. | B．By reducing their food. |
| C．By piling up in their homes. | D．By changing the environment. |
| A．Opposed. | B．Supportive. | C．Indifferent. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．To criticize plastic production. | B．To suggest ways to handle plastic. |
| C．To advocate environmental protection. | D．To introduce the state of plastic pollution. |
8 . Artificial light should be treated like other forms of pollution, research says. Human illumination (照明) of the planet is growing in range and intensity by about 2% a year, creating a problem that can be compared to climate change, according to a team of biologists from the University of Exeter. Hormone levels, breeding cycles, activity patterns and vulnerability to predators are being affected across a broad range of species, they write in a paper published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
From reduced pollination (授粉) by insects and trees budding earlier in spring, to seabirds flying into lighthouses and sea turtles mistakenly wandering inland to bright hotels in search of the dawn sun, their study brings together 126 previous papers to assess the extent of the impact.
In all the species examined, they found reduced levels of melatonin — a hormone that regulates sleep cycles — as a result of artificial light at night. Rodents (啮齿动物), which mostly search for food at night, were active for a shorter duration, while birds started singing and searching for worms earlier in the day. However, the outcomes were not purely negative. Owing to night-time light, some plants grew faster and some types of bats thrived. But the overall effect was disruptive, particularly to the insects drawn to hot bulbs or fast-moving car lamps.
“What stands out is how ubiquitous the effects are. The effects are found on microbes, invertebrates (无脊柱动物), animals and plants,” said the lead author, Kevin Gaston, a professor at the university's Environment and Sustainability Institute. “We need to start thinking about lighting in the way we think of other big systemic pressures like climate change.”
According to Gaston, there has been an increase in studies in the past five to ten years as the amount of lighting in the world has increased and the effects have become more evident. Satellite images of the Earth at night show how rapidly the problem is expanding geographically, and lights are also becoming more intense as expensive bulbs with yellow light are replaced by greater numbers of cheap bright white LEDs. This is biologically problematic because the white light has a wider spectrum, like sunlight.
Gaston urged governments, companies and individuals to be more discriminating. “At the moment, we just take lighting for granted. But we need to think in terms of using it only when we need it, where we need it and how we need it,” he said. “It is another pollutant.”
Unlike the climate crisis, however, he said solving the lighting problem would save rather than cost money. If people use fewer lights, it would mean lower costs, less electricity and lower emissions.
“At the heart of this is a deep-rooted human need to light up the night. We are still in a sense afraid of the dark,” he said. “But the ability to turn the night-time into something like the daytime is something we have pursued for beyond the necessity of doing so.”
1. Why is artificial light a pollutant according to the biologists?| A．It has a serious impact on nature. |
| B．It shortens the growing time of plants. |
| C．It contributes to other forms of pollution. |
| D．It threatens the existence of human beings. |
| A．It can be used to act as the dawn sun. |
| B．It can regulate the sleep cycles of animals. |
| C．It can prevent all species developing properly. |
| D．It can disturb behavior patterns in some species. |
| A．Normal. | B．Common |
| C．Powerful. | D．Special. |
| A．It is worth the cost. | B．It is time-consuming. |
| C．It requires a change of attitude. | D．It needs to be discussed globally. |
The world itself is becoming much smaller because of the use of modern traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it
Man has been polluting the earth. The more people, the more pollution. Many years ago, the problem was not so serious
Air pollution is still the most serious. It’s bad for all living things in the world. Water pollution
1. What’s getting less and less these days according to the talk?
| A．Empty land. | B．Garbage. | C．Water. |
| A．Burying it. |
| B．Sending it out of our planet. |
| C．Using it as an energy source. |
| A．It is hardly ever done. |
| B．It causes air pollution. |
| C．It is useless for hard materials. |
