1 . Kenya has been at the forefront (前沿) of the global war on plastic since the government banned single-use plastics in protected areas in June 2020. Unfortunately, the preventive measures have barely received attention. Hundreds of tons of industrial and consumer polymer waste continue to get dumped into landfills daily. However, if 29-year-old Nzambi Matee has her way, the unsightly plastic heaps will soon be transformed into colorful bricks.
The materials engineer’s seeking to find a practical solution to control plastic pollution began in 2017. She quit her job and set up a small lab in her mother’s backyard. It took her nine months to produce the first brick and even longer to convince a partner to help build the machinery to make them. But the determined eco-entrepreneur was confident in her idea and did not give up.
She says, “I wanted to use my education to handle plastic waste pollution. But I was very clear that the solution had to be practical, sustainable, and affordable. The best way to do this was by channeling the waste into the construction space and finding the most efficient and affordable material to build homes.” Her company produces over 1,500 bricks a day. The pavers are made using a mix of plastic products that cannot be reprocessed or recycled.
The collected plastic is mixed with sand, heated at very high temperatures, and compressed (压缩) into bricks that vary in color and thickness. The resulting product is stronger, lighter, and about 30 percent cheaper than concrete bricks. More importantly, it helps repurpose the lowest quality of plastic. “There is that waste they cannot process anymore; they cannot recycle. That is what we get.” Matee says.
Matee is not nearly done. Her dream is to reduce the mountain of trash to just a hill by increasing production and expanding her offerings. She says, “The more we recycle the plastic, the more we produce affordable housing, the more we created more employment for the youth.”
1. What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 1 imply?| A．Matee’s method can be effective if adopted. | B．Matee’s idea has been widely accepted. |
| C．Colorful bricks are in huge demand. | D．Plastic waste hasn’t attracted enough attention. |
| A．Generous and ambitious. | B．Confident and grateful. |
| C．Creative and resolved. | D．Optimistic and modest. |
| A．to build cheaper houses. | B．to support the government. |
| C．to create job opportunities. | D．to tackle plastic pollution. |
| A．Kenya: Pioneer in Banning Plastic Single-use Plastics |
| B．Nzambi Matee: Innovator in Solving Plastic Waste |
| C．Mix of Plastic Products: A New Construction Material |
| D．Plastic Recycling: A Creative Solution to Pollution |
2 . Recycling is a great way of doing your bit for the environment and helping to protect the earth’s precious resources. However, a new study has revealed that our desire to be sustainable maybe doing more harm than good. According to waste company Biffa, this is because of “wish-cycling” — assuming that items such as disposable coffee cup sand pizza boxes will be recycled if put in the recycling bin. In fact, pollution from those items or other non-recyclables can result in recyclable items that have been put in the correct bin going to landfill. David Heaton, a business director at Biffa, said: “Pollution happens when items are disposed of in the wrong bins or haven’t been cleaned before being recycled.”
Experts at Biffa analyzed the amounts of non-target and non-recyclable materials that entered UK material recycling facilities between 2016 and 2020. It was found that, in 2016, the average pollution rate of recycling waste was 13.4 percent, rising over four years to 17 percent by the end of 2020. This shows that, even as people are becoming more eco-conscious, wish-cycling is increasing both in households and businesses.
The Biffa experts say that one of the best ways to prevent pollution of recycling is to clean recyclable waste before putting it in the bin. They suggest cutting off the top of old pizza boxes and only recycling that part to avoid pollution from the grease (油脂). Check the on-packaging recycling label to check it can actually be recycled When it comes to plastics, Biffa recommends checking the resin code, the number in the plastic triangle, to know whether it should go in the recycling bin. In general, resin codes 1, 2, 4 and 5 are recyclable, while 3, 6 and 7 are not. Larger items, like electronics, furniture and batteries, can also be recycled but often can not go in household recycling bins as they need specialist separating. These will need to be taken to recycling centers or sustainable waste management companies.
“It’s vital as a nation that we get better at effective ‘pre-cycling’— sorting waste correctly before collection to reduce pollution rates,” added Mr. Heaton.
1. What’s the truth of “wish-cycling” according to the first paragraph?| A．The desire to lead a sustainable life. |
| B．The good intention to help recycling. |
| C．The habit of throwing items that end up in landfills. |
| D．The practice of recycling items that can not be recycled. |
| A．People are becoming more eco-conscious. |
| B．Wish-cycling is on the rise in recent years. |
| C．Pollution happens less frequently in recycling facilities. |
| D．People are used to cleaning recyclable waste before putting it in the bin. |
| A．Dispose of electronics together with household waste. |
| B．Skip the step of checking the on-packaging recycling label. |
| C．Check the resin code of plastics to see whether it is recyclable or not. |
| D．Cutoff the top of old pizza box and throw the rest to the recycling bin. |
| A．Recycling: a Big Project | B．Wish-cycling: a New Trend |
| C．Wish-cycling: a Growing Concern | D．Pre-cycling: an Effective Method |
A sandstorm,
4 . Of the 8,300 million tons of virgin (原始的) plastic produced up to the end of 2015, 6,300 million tons have been discarded (丢弃). Most of that plastic waste is still with us, buried in landfills or polluting the environment. Microplastics have been found in Antarctic sea ice, in the guts of animals that live in the deepest ocean trenches and in drinking water around the world.
But what if we could wave a magic wand and remove all plastics from our lives? For the sake of the planet, it would be a tempting prospect — but we’d quickly find out just how far plastic has spread to every aspect of our existence.
In hospitals, the loss of plastic would be devastating. “Imagine trying to run a dialysis (透析) unit with no plastic”, says Sharon George, senior lecturer in environmental sustainability and green technology at Keele University in the UK. Plastic is used in gloves, tubing, blood bags, sample tubes and more.
Some everyday plastic items are also vital for protecting health. Face masks, including plastic-based surgical masks and respirators (人工呼吸器), as well as reusable cloth masks, have helped slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. “A mask that you have for COVID is related to our safety and the safety of others,” says George. “The impact of taking that away could be loss of life if you took it away on a big scale.”
Our food system would also quickly come apart. We use packaging to protect food from damage in transit and preserve it long enough to reach supermarket shelves, as well as for communication and marketing. “I cannot imagine how plastic would be replaced completely in our system,” says Eleni Iacovidou, a lecturer in environmental management at Brunel University London.
Swapping out plastic packaging would have knock-on (产生连锁反应的) environmental effects. While glass has some advantages over plastic, such as being endlessly recyclable, a one-liter glass bottle can weigh as much as 800 g compared to a 40 g plastic one. When those heavier bottles and jars need to be transported over long distances, carbon emissions grow even more.
It’s clear that replacing one material with another won’t solve all our plastic problems.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To give a definition. | B．To report on a study. |
| C．To introduce a topic. | D．To describe a phenomenon. |
| A．Interesting. | B．Practical. | C．Predictable. | D．Destructive. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Supportive. | C．Optimistic. | D．Uninterested. |
| A．What if we stopped using plastic? |
| B．Is plastic packaging bad for the environment? |
| C．More recycling won’t solve plastic pollution |
| D．Swapping out plastic for sustainable living |
5 . Sleeping in a noisy room isn’t only distracting (使人分心的), and it can also harm your health. Although researchers have known for decades that longterm loud noises can harm us, it’s only recently become recognized as a widespread problem.
In a new review of previously published studies, researchers from Germany and Denmark took a look at the ways in which noises, such as an airplane passing by or jackhammer digging in the ground, can affect our hearts. Perhaps the most obvious impact of a loud sound while you are sleeping is that it can wake you up. But, even if you don't remember hearing the noise or you don’t physically get out of bed, it can disrupt you in ways you may not realize.
“Noise is not just causing annoyance, but it actually makes us sick,” said Dr. Thomas Münzel, a professor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. “Regardless of where the sound is coming from, if it gets louder than 60 decibels (分贝),it can increase the risk of heart disease.”
When our body hears these noises, it reacts with a stress reaction. In this case, these sudden and unexpected noises cause hormones(荷尔蒙) to speed up and eventually damage the heart. Although the chance that a single noise will affect you is unlikely, it’s the continuous exposure (接触) to the sound that can finally affect you.
“But our heart health isn’t the only cause for concern. Long-term noise may also raise the risk of type 2 diabetes (糖尿病), depression, and anxiety disorders,” he warns. In the future, Münzel plans to examine how noises from cars, planes, and other vehicles affect the brain. But despite the amount or the depth of research he conducts, it’ll take the help of politicians to improve the effect of noise on our health.
“Politicians have to take into account, in particular, the new findings,” Münzel said, “As for aircraft noise and airports, it is important to make new laws and set new lower noise limits that protect people living close by the airport instead of the owners of the airport.”
1. What do researchers from Germany and Denmark find?| A．Noise does little harm to people who are asleep. |
| B．Noise can cause people’s memory to get worse sharply. |
| C．Noise has been a widespread concern for a long time. |
| D．Noise louder than 60 decibels may cause heart disease. |
| A．Defeat. | B．Harm. | C．Attract. | D．Discourage. |
| A．Politicians should take action to handle noise pollution. |
| B．Münzel will continue other studies on brain diseases. |
| C．Benefits of airport owners are more important than health. |
| D．Attention should be paid to heart health and other diseases. |
| A．Who Is to Blame for Noise Pollution | B．What Should Be Done to Stop Noise |
| C．How Münzel Carried Out His Research | D．How Noise Pollution Harms Our Body |
6 . A cap and trade system is a method for managing pollution, with the end goal of reducing the overall pollution in a nation, region, or industry. Many supporters of pollution control are in favor of the concept of such systems, arguing that well-designed cap and trade systems are extremely effective, and that they make sense economically as well.
Under a cap and trade system, a government authority first sets a cap, deciding how much pollution in total will be allowed. Next, companies are issued credits, essentially licenses to pollute, based on how large they are, what industries they work in, and so forth. If a company comes in below its cap, it has extra credits that it may trade with other companies.
For companies that come in below their caps, this system is great, because they can sell their extra credits, profiting while reducing their pollution. For companies that cannot get their pollution under control, the system punishes them for their excess pollution while still bringing overall pollution rates down. In a sense, the need to purchase credits acts as a fine, encouraging companies to reduce their emissions.
By creating a cap, nations make it clear that they want to reduce overall emissions, rather than just fining companies for excessive emissions or trying to force all companies to reduce their emissions by a set percentage. Cap and trade systems allow for flexibility, which usually benefits the market. Some people view the concept as preferable to a taxation or fining system, because it is easier to administer and it results in a pollution reduction. These systems are most commonly used for carbon emissions, leading people to refer to it as “carbon trading”, and there is a potential for a global carbon trading market, in which more efficient nations could trade credits with other countries.
1. What can be inferred about the cap and trade system?| A．It can greatly promote economy in a nation. |
| B．It will soon be welcomed by all companies. |
| C．It is well-designed and extremely effective. |
| D．It is environmentally and economically friendly. |
| A．Those who always have more extra credits. |
| B．Those whose overall pollution is below their caps. |
| C．Those who have never been fined for overall pollution. |
| D．Those who help other companies reduce their pollution. |
| A．All the pollution will be reduced by the cap and trade system. |
| B．Carbon trading is likely to be conducted among countries. |
| C．Carbon trade is more effective than the cap and trade system. |
| D．The taxation and fining system now is out of use. |
| A．The use of credits in reducing pollution. |
| B．Efficient ways to manage overall pollution. |
| C．An introduction of the cap and trade system. |
| D．Potential application of the cap and trade system. |
7 . Light pollution is a significant but overlooked driver of the rapid decline of insect populations, according to the most comprehensive review of the scientific evidence to date.
Artificial light at night can affect every aspect of insects' lives, the researchers said. "We strongly believe artificial light at night — in combination with habitat loss, chemical pollution.invasive (入侵的) species, and climate change — is driving insect declines, " the scientists concluded after assessing more than 150 studies.
Insect population collapses have been reported around the world, and the first global scientific review published in February, said widespread declines threatened to cause a "catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems".
There are thought to be millions of insect species, most still unknown to science, and about half are active at night. Those active in the day may also be disturbed by light at night when they are at rest.
The most familiar impact of light pollution is moths (飞蛾) flapping around a bulb, mistaking it for the moon. Some insects use the polarisation of light to find the water they need to breed, as light waves line up after reflecting from a smooth surface. But artificial light can scupper (使泡汤) this. Insects are important prey (猎物) for many species, but light pollution can tip the balance in favour of the predator if it traps insects around lights. Such increases in predation risk were likely to cause the rapid extinction of affected species, the researchers said.
The researchers said most human-caused threats to insects have analogues in nature, such as climate change and invasive species. But light pollution is particularly hard for insects to deal with.
However, unlike other drivers of decline, light pollution is relatively easy to prevent. Simply turning off lights that are not needed is the most obvious action, he said, while making lights motion-activated also cuts light pollution. Shading lights so only the area needed is lit up is important. It is the same with avoiding blue-white lights, which interfere with daily rhythms. LED lights also offer hope as they can be easily tuned to avoid harmful colours and flicker rates.
1. What is discussed in the passage?| A．Causes of declining insect populations. |
| B．Consequences of insect population collapses. |
| C．Light pollution: the key bringer of insect declines. |
| D．Insect declines: the driver of the collapsed ecosystem. |
| A．How light travels in space. |
| B．How light helps insects find food. |
| C．How the food chain is interrelated. |
| D．How light pollution affects insects. |
| A．Selective things. | B．Similar things. | C．Variations. | D．Limitations. |
| A．To offer solutions. |
| B．To give examples. |
| C．To make comparisons. |
| D．To present arguments. |
8 . Microplastic pollution is increasing dramatically around the globe, according to a study of airborne (空气传播的) plastic particles (粒子).
People are already known to breathe, drink and eat microplastics, and research suggests that pollution levels will continue to rise rapidly. The researchers said that breathing in these particles can damage lung tissue and lead to serious diseases.
Professor Natalie Mahowald, at Cornell University in the US and part of the research team, said, “But maybe we could solve this before it becomes a huge problem, if we manage our plastics better, before they accumulate (积聚) in the environment and move around quickly everywhere.”
The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined airborne microplastics, which have been far less studied than plastic in oceans and rivers.
The team gathered more than 300 samples of airborne microplastics from 11 sites across the western US. These were the basis for atmospheric modeling that estimated (估计) the contribution from different sources, and was the first such study to do so.
They found that roads were the main factor in the western US, linked to about 85 percent of the microplastics in the air. These are likely to include particles from tires on vehicles, and plastics from litter that had been broken down.
The researchers enlarged their modeling work to a global level and this suggested that while roads are also likely to be the main driver of airborne plastics in Europe, South America and Australia, plastic particles blown up from fields may be a much bigger factor in Africa and Asia.
Professor Andreas Stohl of the University of Vienna’s Faculty of Earth Sciences, and not part of the study team, said, “The study confirms the global-scale nature of microplastic transport in the atmosphere and does a good job in highlighting highly relevant and concerning possibilities, but more measurement data is needed to get a better idea of the sources.”
1. What did the researchers find out about airborne plastic pollution?| A．Its impact varies on different continents. |
| B．Public transportation takes responsibility for it. |
| C．Its main driver differs across continents. |
| D．Africa is suffering the most from the pollution. |
| A．To predict the possible damages of microplastics. |
| B．To get more data to understand the sources of microplastics. |
| C．To understand the nature of airborne plastic pollution globally. |
| D．To improve the method of collecting samples of microplastics. |
| A．Effects of microplastics on human health |
| B．Possible solutions to microplastic pollution |
| C．Microplastic pollution on the global scale |
| D．Microplastic pollution rising rapidly in the air |
| A．Society. | B．Nature. | C．Health. | D．Science. |
| A．The sea is getting smaller. |
| B．The sea is being polluted. |
| C．The sea is getting cleaner. |
China will closely track
Japan's plan prioritizes its own interests
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
"We urge the Japanese government to listen to the voice of the international community and
