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.

2. Which of the following was a creative method used to explore the airpollution issue in Mukuru?

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.

3. What does Sarah West advise researchers to do about talking about difficult problems?

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.

4. What is the best title for the text?

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 . 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.

2. What happens to birds exposed to light pollution according to the text?

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.

3. What does the underlined part “that change” in the last paragraph refer to?

A．They nests earlier.	B．Plants grow taster.
C．Insects appear earlier.	D．There are more lights.

4. What might Francis most agree with according to the last paragraph?

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.

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.

2. How did Clinton Franci’s team carry out the research?

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.

3. Which of the following would Phillips most probably agree with?

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.

4. What does the text mainly talk about?

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 .

2. What can be learned from paragraph 2 and 3?

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.

3. What does the underlined word “mature” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Seedling.	B．Thin.
C．Grown-up.	D．Tall.

4. What does Phillips mean by saying the words in the last paragraph?

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 . 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.

2. What do we know about microplastics?

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.

3. What do Steve Allen’s words mean in the last paragraph?

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.

4. What’s the main purpose of the article?

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.