1 . You’ve heard that plastic is polluting the oceans — between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.

At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called “Strawpocalypse,” a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168,000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source (来源) of plastic pollution, but they’ve recently come under fire because most people don’t need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that’s part of Von Wong’s artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.

In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate (说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload’s worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled “Truckload of Plastic,” Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10,000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they’d been dumped (倾倒) from a truck all at once.

Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.

1. What are Von Wong’s artworks intended for?

A．Beautifying the city he lives in.	B．Introducing eco-friendly products.
C．Drawing public attention to plastic waste.	D．Reducing garbage on the beach.

2. Why does the author discuss plastic straws in paragraph 3?

A．To show the difficulty of their recycling.

B．To explain why they are useful.

C．To voice his views on modern art.

D．To find a substitute for them.

3. What effect would “Truckload of Plastic” have on viewers?

A．Calming.	B．Disturbing.
C．Refreshing.	D．Challenging.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety

B．Media Interest in Contemporary Art

C．Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies

D．Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures

2 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Since people can’t always eat out or cook for     1     (they), they get takeout or order delivery. More takeout and more food delivery equal more waste, especially plastic waste. That includes cups, bottles, and bags, most of     2     are only good for one use. That’s a big problem and it is getting even     3     (bad). The use of those plastics     4     (increase) by 300% since 2019. The world won’t survive if this situation continues.

3 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Plastic pollution at sea is reaching     1     (worry) levels. According to a review of hundreds of academic studies, it will continue to grow even if significant action is taken now     2     (stop) such waste from reaching the world’s oceans. The review by Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute examined almost 2, 600 research     3     (paper) on the topic to provide an overview ahead of a United Nations meeting later this month.

As plastic breaks down into smaller pieces, it also enters the marine food chain,    4     (take) in by sea creatures from whales to turtles. What’s worse, some regions already contain dangerous levels of plastic, and others risk becoming     5     (increasing) polluted in the future. Getting that plastic out of the water again is nearly impossible,    6     policymakers should focus on preventing any more of it entering the oceans in     7     first place. Matthew MacLeod, a professor of environmental science at Stockholm University,    8     (involve) in a separate study not long ago,    9     also concluded effective measures are required immediately because of the possible global impacts.

While consumers can help reduce plastic pollution by changing their behavior, governments have to step up and accept     10     (responsible) for solving the problem. It’s a global problem and it needs global solutions.

4 . Pollution is one of the biggest problems in the world today. In many places, rubbish is thrown into lakes and rivers.     1    

In some cities, the air is filled with pollution.     2     If it is not cleaned up, more people will be hurt.     3     Land and water pollution kills many animals every year.

If we do not act to improve the environment, more living things will be killed by pollution.

    4     We should separate rubbish into different groups. In this way, it can be recycled and reused. We had better plant more trees.     5     What’s more, we shouldn’t put the waste into lakes or rivers.

If we can do these, we will make the world a better place to live in.

A．This makes some old people and children ill.

B．As well as people, animals are also harmed by pollution.

C．We can make our lakes and rivers cleaner and cleaner.

D．It’s time for all of us to take action right away!

E．Because of this, these places have already been polluted.

F．Trees reduce dust and help keep the air clean.

G．A few of us should take action to protect the environment.

5 . Last week came solid evidence that living in toxic Britain can seriously harm your health. Cardiologists at Queen Mary University of London found that even "safe" levels of air pollution are linked to heart abnormalities similar to those seen during the early stages of heart failure. Their study of almost 4,000 people was backed up by a major US study which showed that higher exposure to fine particles and nitrogen oxides is linked to an acceleration in the hardening of the arteries (动脉).

We have long known that air pollution leads to coughing, shortness of breath and irritation in the eyes, nose and throat. It is also clearly linked to respiratory diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, as well as diabetes and some cancers. It is now beyond doubt that children's health is greatly affected, and links have been made between it and Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, dementia and congenital birth defects.

The statistics are alarming. In the UK, more than 2 million people suffer from cardiovascular (心血管的) diseases, and nearly one in seven men and one in 12 women will go on to die from them. Heart disease costs the UK economy nearly £30 bn a year to treat, as much as the state spends on secondary education. It is one of the greatest single drains on the public purse. Britain, however, rejects common sense, and shows little sign that it wants to seriously address pollution any time soon.

Despite the mounting evidence of air pollution's costs and health impact, Britain has had to be dragged screaming through the courts to make it comply with minimal clean air guidelines and laws. Successive governments have continually tried to evade their legal responsibilities, spending millions of pounds fighting in the courts and lobbying the EU to be allowed to continue to pollute.

The government now has a new draft clean air strategy our for consultation until 14 August and claims to be acting faster to tackle air pollution than almost every other major developed economy. It pledges to halve the number of people living in places that do not meet World Health Organization pollution guidelines, and it propose to end the sale of new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2040.

But intending to cut the air pollution bill by around 12.5% in 12 years and waiting 20 years to be rid of the worst vehicles seems criminally weak. Meanwhile, government is knowingly forging ahead with infrastructure plans that will inevitably increase air pollution. The effect will inevitably be to massively increase air pollution and health costs for millions of Britons.

So could the car-clogged streets of Sunder-land, Birmingham and London, where I lived for many years, have contributed to my disease and those of millions of others? Probably. Could the oil companies be responsible for far more than climate change? Certainly. Could Britain's monstrous and mounting bill for heart disease be partly due to the highly polluting diesel cars that governments so scandalously encouraged us to drive? Quite possibly.

What is certain is that air pollution is now an international scandal, and the cause of a health emergency that governments and industry have failed to address. It undoubtedly threatens life more than any war or disaster. When there are clear alternatives to burning fossil fuels then politicians who do not act to prevent it must stand accused not just of failing to act, but of condoning the mass poisoning of their people.

1. According to the study, ________ is probably unrelated to air pollution.

A．diabetes

B．stomachaches

C．Alzheimer

D．artery hardening

2. The writer thinks Britain shows little sign to tackle air pollution because ________.

A．British government has been screaming for help in court

B．EU has dissuaded British government for help in court

C．British government has tried to have EU's permission for more pollution

D．The government firmly refused to act in accordance with the clean air guideline.

3. What is the writer's attitude toward the new draft?

A．Britain will implement it faster than other major developed economies.

B．It presents a practical way to end pollution from vehicles.

C．Its goal will be achieved at the price of massive health cost.

D．It's aiming too low when more pollution is expected.

4. What can be inferred from the article?

A．Government officials should feel disgraced for non-action as leaders.

B．The government should cover the bills for air pollution and related diseases.

C．Oil companies should not be held accountable for the international scandal.

D．British government is an irresponsible one for encouraging people to use vehicles.

6 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Oysters, soft-bodied animals without skeletons, are important for the underwater community they share with plants, fish, and other life. They are food     1     crabs and other animals. As new oysters grow, they attach their shells to older ones,     2     (form) bigger reefs with many small spaces     3     other animals live. Oysters eat algae (藻类). If algae grow too fast, they can exhaust oxygen from the water—and even fish need oxygen     4     (breath)!

Because so many animals depend on them, oysters are called a keystone species. If a keystone species     5    (disappear), other plants and animals may die off and not grow back.

That’s     6     (exact) what happened 100 years ago in New York Harbor—a group of rivers and bays around New York City. Before then, lots of oysters lived in these waters. The oysters were famous! They     7     (ship) to restaurants around the world. The oysters were delicious—maybe too delicious. By the early 1900s, people were eating them faster than they could grow.

The oysters were in trouble for     8     reason. Pollution was pouring into the waters of the growing city. The harbor became so     9     (pollute) that few types of animals could live in it. Since the 1970s, new laws     10     (help) reduce toxic waste. Some fish started to swim through again. But oysters were still missing—until recently.

7 . Microplastics —   tiny pieces of plastic waste less than five millimetres long that have been degraded by waves, wind and ultraviolet rays — have been discovered in the deepest oceanic trenches and within the stomachs of the organisms that live there, but we have little idea about where the great majority of them end up. More than eight million tonnes of plastic enters our oceans every year, comprising between 80 and 85 percent of all marine trash, but with inadequate data, there are concerns that these figures could be underestimates.

Currently, most of the data we have on microplastics are accidentally captured by research ships, which use plankton nets to collect marine-microorganism samples. However, researchers Christopher Ruf and Madeline Evans from the University of Michigan have discovered an innovative way to identify and track concentrations of microplastics in the ocean.

The technique relies on NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), a constellation of eight micro-satellites used to predict hurricanes that calculate wind speeds above the ocean by measuring the roughness of surface waters. As the satellites are continuously recording, Ruf and Evans realised that they collect a great deal of additional data. It was while analysing these data that they noticed some differences-times where the surface of the ocean appeared to be much smoother than it should, given the prevailing wind (盛行风) conditions.

Knowing that water isn’t roughened as much when it contains a lot of floating material, Ruf and Evans identified a pattern that linked areas of unusual smoothness and predicted microplastic distributions. They found that the difference between their measurements, and how much rougher the surface would be if winds of the same speed were blowing across clear water, was “highly correlated with the presence of microplastics, and the degree of the difference also correlated with the concentration of the plastics.”

The research reveals that there are seasonal variations,where the concentrations of microplastics tend to be higher in the summer and lower in the winter in a very clean, periodic way, which Ruf explains mirrors the way in which the ocean circulation changes throughout the year. It also confirms, as was previously thought, that rivers are the main source of ocean microplastics.

Raising awareness of the issue of ocean microplastics among the public and politicians is just one of the researchers’ future aims; they are also in conversation with Duteh non-profit The Ocean Cleanup and Finnish clean-technology specialist Clewat, which are interested in using the information to more efficiently target their trash-collection campaigns.

So far, only one year’s worth of data have been processed since CYGNSS was launched in 2016. By looking at a longer time period, Ruf and Evans aim to determine whether the seasonal pattern is repeatable, and whether the concentration of micmplastics in the ocean is getting worse.

1. What is Paragraph 1 mainly about?

A．The limited knowledge about ocean microplastics.

B．The harm of ocean microplastics to sea creatures.

C．The methods of degrading ocean microplasties.

D．The previous research on ocean microplasties.

2. According to the passage, CYGNSS ________.

A．has offered data about the repeatable seasonal pattern

B．guides research ships to gather data about sea animals

C．provides unexpected data about the changes of sea surface

D．was designed to measure the distribution of ocean microplastics

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Microplastics will end up in the stomachs of the ocean organisms.

B．Mlicroplastics play a vital role in the yearly ocean circulation changes.

C．The surface of the ocean can get smoother with more microplastics in it.

D．The new way of tracking microplastics has helped prevent ocean pollution.

4. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To introduce the technology of CYGNSS.

B．To present a way to study ocean microplastics.

C．To test an assumption on ocean microplastics.

D．To propose a new means of protecting the ocean.

8 . Peru demanded compensation (赔偿金) Wednesday from Spanish energy giant Repsol over an oil spill (石油泄漏). It might be caused by sudden and big _________ from a volcanic eruption near Tonga in the South Pacific because volcanic eruption can cause waves.

Authorities _________ three beaches on Monday _________ 6,000 barrels (桶) of oil were spilled during the _________ of an oil-transporting ship at the Pampilla oil-processing factory off the coast near Lima. The Repsol oil spill “is the worst _________ disaster in Lima in recent times, and has caused serious _________ to hundreds of _________ families. “Repsol must make an immediate _________ for their loss,” the authority said on Twitter. “This terrible situation has put plants and animals _________ in two protected areas,” it noted. Peruvian authorities found lots of dead sea animals __________ in oil. The spill happened on Saturday at the oil-processing factory in the Lima region, __________ a 3-kilometer stretch of beaches.

Officials of the factory __________ described the spill as “limited” and said it was working with authorities to __________ the beaches. “Controlling barriers that cover all of the affected __________ have been set up. And a team of __________ in sea and land have been sent,” said the factory, which __________ the spill on the waves caused by the volcanic eruption more than 10,000 kilometers away but not a bit on the mishandling of the workers who moved the oil barrels off the __________.

The oil-processing factory could face a __________ of up to $32.3 million, the __________ ministry of Peru said on Monday. And the prosecutors (公诉人) have opened an __________ into the company for environmental pollution.

1.

A．fishes

B．waves

C．fires

D．stones

2.

A．closed

B．discovered

C．destroyed

D．named

3.

A．before

B．unless

C．until

D．after

4.

A．uploading

B．repairing

C．offloading

D．supplying

5.

A．agricultural

B．snowy

C．ecological

D．nuclear

6.

A．waste

B．damage

C．crime

D．storm

7.

A．fishing

B．poor

C．teaching

D．rich

8.

A．escape

B．advertisement

C．encouragement

D．payment

9.

A．in advance

B．in air

C．at risk

D．at work

10.

A．measuring

B．decorated

C．swimming

D．covered

11.

A．recovering

B．affecting

C．creating

D．leaving

12.

A．traditionally

B．proudly

C．originally

D．honestly

13.

A．clean up

B．take up

C．build up

D．cut up

14.

A．animals

B．people

C．plants

D．zones

15.

A．specialists

B．students

C．journalists

D．stars

16.

A．impressed

B．spent

C．blamed

D．put

17.

A．truck

B．ship

C．line

D．store

18.

A．failure

B．fine

C．prize

D．fund

19.

A．environment

B．education

C．finance

D．defense

20.

A．organization

B．entrance

C．account

D．investigation

9 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入一个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

In a study conducted twelve years ago near natural gas wells in New Mexico, researchers found that there were 75% fewer pinon pine seedlings(幼苗) in noisy sites than in quiet     1     . This was most likely due to the noise driving away the scrub jay(灌丛鸦), which plants thousands of pine seeds while     2    (store) them to eat during the winter months. A research team from California Institute of Technology recently returned to the sites to find out whether the pinon pine had recovered     3     time.

    4     companies changed the sites where they used noisy compressors(压缩机) to help produce natural gas, some of the     5    (previous) noisy sites had become quiet. The researchers found that in these areas, there were still fewer seedlings     6    (compare) to sites that didn’t have compressors added to speed up gas extraction. This shows that though the noise was removed before the pinon pine seeds     7    (plant), they still didn’t sprout(发芽).

“The effects of human noise pollution     8    (grow) into the structure of the woodland communities at present,” said biology professor and senior author Clint Francis.     9     we’re seeing now is that     10    (disappear) of the noise doesn’t necessarily immediately result in a recovery of ecological function.

10 . Around the world, people are realizing the significant problems caused by plastic waste. In the last 65 years, we have become increasingly dependent on plastic. It’s easy to understand why: it’s cheap to produce, light — therefore easy and cheap to transport — and incredibly strong and durable.     1    

One popular solution to the problem is to prohibit single use plastics. In the British supermarkets, shoppers are encouraged to make more environmentally-friendly choices in packing and transporting their food.     2     Some governments have even promised to ban the use of single-use plastic altogether by the not-too-distant future.

However, such plans may not be beneficial to eliminate (消除) the use of single-use plastic altogether.     3     This is not just because of its low cost. It’s also because infection and cross-contamination (交叉感染) are minimized. Plastic packaging is also crucial in the food industry. It ensures that food is safe for consumers.

Another issue is that alternative materials to plastic are often more environmentally harmful than plastic. Take paper bags, for example.     4     The process requires cutting trees, the emission of greenhouse gases and the production of poisonous chemical waste. Even more pollution is created when paper bags break down.

Clearly there is a need to reduce plastic waste and its impact on the environment.     5     Industries that rely on single-use plastics for people’s health and safety must be considered. Moreover, alternative materials must be evaluated strictly regarding their own environmental impact.

A．But it’s these advantages that also make it so harmful.

B．They are very fragile and rarely reusable, unlike plastic.

C．One of the fields where single-use plastic has a vital role is medicine.

D．However, simply banning their single use may not be the best option.

E．It also boosts the local economy and save costs in managing littering and waste.

F．Bans on single-use plastic items like drinking straws are also coming into place.

G．According to a research, they require four times more energy when produced than a plastic bag.