Plastic-Eating Worms
Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.
Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms’ chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms’ stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.
Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms’ ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. "Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, "she explains, "The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. "
Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?
Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply "millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic."
1.What can we learn about the worms in the study?
A.They take plastics as their everyday food.
B.They are newly evolved creatures.
C.They can consume plastics.
D.They wind up in landfills.
2.According to Jennifer DeBruyn, the next step of the study is to .
A.identify other means of the breakdown
B.find out the source of the enzyme
C.confirm the research findings
D.increase the breakdown speed
3.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the chemical might .
A.help to raise worms
B.help make plastic bags
C.be used to clean the oceans
D.be produced in factories in future
4.What is the main purpose of the passage?
A.To explain a study method on worms.
B.To introduce the diet of a special worm.
C.To present a way to break down plastics.
D.To propose new means to keep eco-balance.
高三英语阅读理解困难题
Plastic-Eating Worms
Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.
Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms’ chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms’ stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.
Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms’ ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. "Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, "she explains, "The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. "
Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?
Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply "millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic."
1.What can we learn about the worms in the study?
A.They take plastics as their everyday food.
B.They are newly evolved creatures.
C.They can consume plastics.
D.They wind up in landfills.
2.According to Jennifer DeBruyn, the next step of the study is to .
A.identify other means of the breakdown
B.find out the source of the enzyme
C.confirm the research findings
D.increase the breakdown speed
3.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the chemical might .
A.help to raise worms
B.help make plastic bags
C.be used to clean the oceans
D.be produced in factories in future
4.What is the main purpose of the passage?
A.To explain a study method on worms.
B.To introduce the diet of a special worm.
C.To present a way to break down plastics.
D.To propose new means to keep eco-balance.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
Plastic-Eating Worms
Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.
Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms’ chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms’ stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.
Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms’ ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. "Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, "she explains, "The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. "
Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?
Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply "millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic."
1.What can we learn about the worms in the study?
A.They take plastics as their everyday food.
B.They are newly evolved creatures.
C.They can consume plastics.
D.They wind up in landfills.
2.According to Jennifer DeBruyn, the next step of the study is to .
A.identify other means of the breakdown
B.find out the source of the enzyme
C.confirm the research findings
D.increase the breakdown speed
3.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the chemical might .
A.help to raise worms
B.help make plastic bags
C.be used to clean the oceans
D.be produced in factories in future
4.What is the main purpose of the passage?
A.To explain a study method on worms.
B.To introduce the diet of a special worm.
C.To present a way to break down plastics.
D.To propose new means to keep eco-balance.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
Coca-Cola, which reportedly produced more than 3 million tons of plastic packaging in 2017, announced Thursday it wants to “help fix the world’s plastic waste problem one community (社区) at a time.”
The soda giant is doing so by providing $ 5.4 million for recycling programs in cities like Atlanta, Boston, Denver and Houston. In these cities, partners, like The Green Blue Institute and The Recycling Partnership, which receive the money, will work together to improve recycling rates.
“We focus on areas where we have the ability to make the biggest influence on communities through the funding and expert skills of Coca-Cola employees,” Carlos Pagoagoa, Coca-Cola’s group director of community partnerships, said in a statement. “In each city, local partners will work together to identify barriers to recycling on a local level and test a range of solutions,” he added. “We hope the learnings from these ‘model markets’ can offer solutions to other cities facing similar challenges.”
As part of the effort, The Recycling Partnership and the city of Atlanta, where the cola company’s headquarters are based, will send street teams out to open recycling carts and leave citizens cards informing them what they can and can’t recycle, and let them know how their efforts work.
“Two of the most urgent problems with recycling in the U. S. today are lack of access, followed by pollution in recycling,” Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership, said in a statement. “We know from the success of Atlanta in 2017 that the citizens want to recycle, and that communicating with them in the street works.”
Last year, Coca-Cola announced its task to collect and reuse a bottle or can for each one it sells, and increase the amount of its products out of recycled materials to 50% by 2030. The brand also aims to make all its packaging fully recyclable by 2025.
1.What does Coca-Cola company intend to do in the program?
A. Produce less packaging.
B. Help deal with plastic waste.
C. Pick up waste in communities.
D. Build a plant to recycle plastic waste.
2.What’s Paragraph 2 mainly about?
A. How Coca-Cola conducts its program.
B. What organizations participate in the program.
C. How Coca-Cola chooses cities for the program.
D. What the local people do in Coca-Cola’s program.
3.What do street teams do to help?
A. Sort out various waste in the city.
B. Look into the cause of pollution.
C. Instruct local people what to recycle.
D. Hand cards to the locals in person.
4.What does Keefe Harrison think of the program?
A. Promising. B. Difficult. C. Pioneering. D. Costly.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Imagine how you’d feel if you had to get more than 9,000 tons of junk out to the sidewalk. That’s how much trash is floating around in space. In fact, there’s about 4 million pounds flying over our heads in low-Earth orbit. Daan, a Dutch artist, and his team at Space Waste Lab have come up with a creative plan that could clear up space junk in a spectacular fashion.
①Most space waste comes from dead satellites and rockets. Functioning satellites are the backbone of the information systems that keep our world running smoothly. But all the satellites eventually become obsolete within just a few decades. When they die out, there’s the problem of them drifting in outer space, collecting in what scientists call the “graveyard orbit.”
Maybe you’re thinking, “Why should I care about garbage 12,500 miles above me?” Well, all that fun stuff that satellites help beam down to us—mobile games, Instagram, cat videos—could be shut down by space waste. Lots of old junk floating around up there, plus new satellites added each year, means more and more high-speed collisions (碰撞). And when chunks of junk crash into one another, they break apart into millions of pieces, quickly building up speed and turning into fast-moving objects, which are dangerous to operational satellites as well as astronauts working on the International Space Station.
②Space waste is a problem that’s escalated so much, some scientists say that by 2050 we’ll be forced to stop launching new spacecraft altogether, including new satellites. Think about that for a minute. When the last satellites finally become disused, GPS, cell phones, and the Internet will no longer function.
③So we have to find a way to deal with this space garbage, and Daan pictures a sort of trash pickup, which involves groups of small spacecraft casting large nets into orbit that would collect space debris (碎片) and send it back toward Earth at top speed. Here’s the best part—while reentering Earth’s atmosphere, the pieces of junk would burn up all at once, creating a light show similar to hundreds of shooting stars falling in the night sky. A spectacle indeed!
To get ready for such an amazing effort, Space Waste Lab has been traveling to major cities across Europe and enlightening the public on the problem of the junk in space. ④But Daan doesn’t just talk about ways to relieve the problem—he’s created something a little grander than that. In October 2018, his team launched Space Waste Lab Performance, an outdoor art exhibition that shows the location of each piece of space trash using large lasers that make each debris look a bit like a star wandering slowly and silently over the sky, allowing viewers to wave and say, “Hallo, space trash!”
1.The word “obsolete” (paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to “______”.
A.accessible B.profitable
C.floating D.outdated
2.According to the passage, which sentence best replaces the question mark in the diagram?
A.Working satellites can be damaged and astronauts can be hurt.
B.Satellites can help people track the weather and find new locations.
C.There is more junk floating in space each year as new satellites are added.
D.The Space Waste Lab Performance can show people where satellites are located.
3.Which of the following best supports the idea that space waste should be dealt with very soon?
A.Sentences ① B.Sentence ②
C.Sentence ③ D.Sentence ④
4.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A.Space Junk Harms Digital Systems
B.Artists’ Proposal to Save Space
C.A New Glimpse into Outer Space
D.Test of Waste Collection Nets
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
Outdoor air pollution leads to more than 3 million premature deaths each year, and more than two thirds of them occur in China and India, according to new research. The authors estimate that without government intervention, the total number of deaths could double by 2050.
The study, published in the journal Nature, identifies particulate matter(悬浮微粒) as the prime pollutant leading to premature mortality. Particulate matter, a substance formed as a combination of different materials released into the air, is thought to be harmful to human health once it exceeds 2.5 micrometers in diameter. Researchers also identified ozone as a contributor to dangerous air quality.
The causes of air pollution vary dramatically from place to place. In India and China, the study says, emissions from residential heating and cooking drive air pollution by creating unhealthy quantities of smoke. Overall, residential heating emissions cause one third of air pollution-related deaths worldwide.
In highly regulated areas, like the United States, Europe and Japan, emissions from agriculture tend to be primary contributors to air pollution. Fertilizer used in agriculture releases ammonia into the atmosphere, a process that creates harmful particulate matter. Globally, air pollution from agriculture kills more than 600,000 people annually, the study finds.
The findings are consistent with a 2014 report from the World Health Organization that suggested that 7 million deaths occur annually due to both indoor and outdoor air pollution.
The study’s conclusions give a sense of urgency to efforts to reduce air pollution but present challenges because of difficulty regulating heating activity in people’s homes, according to study author Jos Lelieveld. People who live in the most affected areas should be provided with information about less toxic heating methods, he said.
“It’s important to reduce emissions from residential energy use,” Lelieveld said on a conference call for journalists. “You can’t ask people to stop eating and cooking, but you can provide better technologies.”
Air pollution contributes to a variety of ailments that eventually lead to premature mortality like lung cancer, stroke and heart failure, according to the study. Another study published this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives reached similar conclusions showing the devastating (毁灭性的) effects of pollution on individual health. Researchers found that chronic exposure to particulate matter increases the chance of early death by 3%. That risk is especially high for heart disease; the chance a person will die of heart disease increases by around 10% with chronic exposure to particulate matter.
Researchers found that the number of deaths is expected to double by 2050 without new government policies. Nearly all of the increase will occur in Asia, according to the report.
1.Which of the following contributes to the air pollution?
A. Particulate matter. B. Ozone.
C. Smoke D. Both A and B.
2.Which of the following is NOT true?
A. Residential heating emissions cause two thirds of air pollution-related deaths worldwide.
B. 7 million deaths occur annually due to air pollution.
C. Air pollution from agriculture kills more than 600,000 people annually.
D. The causes of air pollution vary dramatically from place to place.
3.What might air pollution lead to?
A. Lung cancer. B. Stroke.
C. Heart failure. D. All above.
4.What can be inferred from the article?
A. Residential energy use should be stopped.
B. Chronic exposure to particulate matter increases the chance of early death by 3%.
C. The number of deaths is expected to double by 2050 due to air pollution.
D. It is urgent for the government to take action.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
More than 26 million Americans took part in the Vietnam (越南)War. More than 58,000 of them 21; over 300,000 were 22, and nearly 2300 were missing and thought dead. Improved 23services saved many soldiers with serious 24 that in earlier wars would have been fatal(致命的). More than 600 Americans were prisoners of war (POWs).Some POWs spent six years or even 25 in North Vietnamese prisons.
One of the 26things of the war has been the fate of its veterans(退伍军人).The 27 of soldiers from the Vietnam War was not 28celebrated. Americans 29them with stony silence.
The public's 30 reaction made many veterans angry and 31 them. They had 32a life-and-death struggle, obeying orders for their country's national 33 .In the book Born on the Fourth of July (1976).Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic expressed his 34over their not being supported.
"I didn’t want to 35 it at first---people went against us when we were putting our 36 on the frontline for our country……How could they do this to us? Many of us wouldn't be coming back……"
Thousands of Vietnam veterans turned to drugs or37to kick the drug habits they had developed 38 the war. Many others had trouble in finding jobs or 39down and starting families. Between 250,000 and 350,000 homeless Americans--nearly one third of the total 40 Vietnam veterans.
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高三英语完型填空困难题查看答案及解析
More than 7 million tickets will go on sale for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which is more than the number of tickets 1 (sell) in the 2004 Athens Games, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the 29th Olympiad (BOCOG) said on Friday.
Of the tickets, about 4.9 million, 2 70 per cent will be sold within China and the rest 30 per cent will be sold abroad.
“Since we have more 3 (seat) than Athens, we can sell 4 tickets,” said Rong Jun, an 5 (office) from the BOCOG Marketing Department.
It 6 (report) that Athens offered 5.3 million tickets 7 the 2004 Olympics.
“The 8 (open) ceremony will be held in the National Stadium, 9 is able to seat 91,000 people. Since 10 large number of seats will be taken by broadcasters and the media, there will be only about 60,000 for ordinary audience.”
高三英语填空题简单题查看答案及解析
Although the United States covers so much land and the land produces far more food than the present population needs, its people are by now almost entirely an urban society. Less than a tenth of the people are engaged in agriculture and forestry(林业), and most of the rest live in or around towns, small and large. Here the traditional picture is changing: every small town may still be very like other small towns, and the typical small town may represent a widely accepted view of the country, but most Americans do not live in small towns any more. Half the population now lives in some thirty metropolitan areas(large cities with their suburbs ) of more than a million people each – a large proportion than in Germany or English, let alone France. The statistics(统计) of urban and rural population should be treated with caution because so many people who live in areas classified as rural travel by car to work in a nearby town each day. As the rush to live out of town continues, rural areas within reach of towns are gradually filled with houses, so that it is hard to say at what moment a piece of country becomes a suburb. But more and more the typical American lives in a metropolitan rather than a small town environment.
1.If now America has 250 million people.how many of them are engaged in agriculture and forestry?
A.About 25 million. B.More than 25 million.
C.Less than 25 million. D. Less than 225 million.
2.Which of the following four countries has the smallest proportion of people living in metropolitan areas?
A.United States B.Germany C.France D.England
3.What’s the meaning of the word “metropolitan” in the middle of the passage?
A. Of a large city with its suburbs.
B.Of small and large towns.
C.Of urban areas.
D.Of rural areas.
4. According to the passage,what can we learn about small towns in the United States?
A.Most small towns become gradually crowded.
B.Small towns are still similar to each other.
C.As the traditional picture is changing,towns are different.
D .Small towns are turning into large cities.
5.Why is it hard to say when a piece of country becomes a suburb?
A.Because they are the same.
B.Because the rush takes place too quickly.
C.Because the process is gradual.
D.Because more and more Americans live in metropolitan areas.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Although the United States covers so much land and the land produces far more food than the present population needs,its people are by now almost entirely an urban society Less than a tenth of the people are engaged in agriculture and forestry(林业),and most of the rest live in or around towns,small and large.Here the traditional picture is changing:every small town may still be very like other small towns,and the typical small town may represent a widely accepted view of the country,but most Americans do not live in small towns any more.Half the population now lives in some thirty metropolitan areas(1arge cities with their suburbs、of more than a million people each—a larger proportion than in Germany or England,let alone France.The statistics(统计)of urban and rural population should be treated with caution because so many people who live in areas classified as rural travel by car to work in a nearby town each day.As the rush to live out of town continues.rural areas within reach of towns are gradually filled with houses,so that it is hard to say at what moment a piece of country becomes a suburb But more and more the typical American lives in a metropolitan rather than a small town environment.
1.If now America has 250 million people.how many of them are engaged in agriculture and forestry?
A.About 25 million.
B.More than 25 million.
C.Less than 25 million.
D.Less than 225 million
2.Which of the following four countries has the smallest proportion of people living in metropolitan areas?
A.United States.
B.Germany.
C.France.
D.England.
3.What’s the meaning of the word“metropolitan”in the middle of the passage?
A.Of a large city with its suburbs.
B.Of small and large towns.
C.Of urban areas.
D.Of rural areas.
4.According to the passage,what can we learn about small towns in the United States?
A.Most small towns become gradually crowded.
B.Small towns are still similar to each other.
C.As the traditional picture is changing,towns are different.
D.Small towns are turning into large cities.
高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析
Although the United States covers so much land and the land produces far more food than the present population needs,its people are by now almost entirely an urban society Less than a tenth of the people are engaged in agriculture and forestry(林业),and most of the rest live in or around towns,small and large.Here the traditional picture is changing:every small town may still be very like other small towns,and the typical small town may represent a widely accepted view of the country,but most Americans do not live in small towns any more.Half the population now lives in some thirty metropolitan areas(1arge cities with their suburbs、of more than a million people each—a larger proportion than in Germany or England,let alone France.The statistics(统计)of urban and rural population should be treated with caution because so many people who live in areas classified as rural travel by car to work in a nearby town each day.As the rush to live out of town continues.rural areas within reach of towns are gradually filled with houses,so that it is hard to say at what moment a piece of country becomes a suburb But more and more the typical American lives in a metropolitan rather than a small town environment.
1.If now America has 250 million people.how many of them are engaged in agriculture and forestry?
A.About 25 million. B.More than 25 million.
C.Less than 25 million. D. Less than 225 million
2.Which of the following four countries has the smallest proportion of people living in metropolitan areas?
A.United States. B.Germany.
C.France. D.England.
3.What’s the meaning of the word“metropolitan”in the middle of the passage?
A.Of a large city with its suburbs.
B.Of small and large towns.
C.Of urban areas.
D.Of rural areas.
4.According to the passage,what can we learn about small towns in the United States?
A Most small towns become gradually crowded
B.Small towns are still similar to each other.
C.As the traditional picture is changing,towns are different.
D .Small towns are turning into large cities
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析