A forest in Staffordshire (in the UK) transformed into a hi-tech laboratory. Researchers here are investigating how the trees use carbon, and it’s difficult to find out. In an unusual experiment, extra carbon dioxide is piped to the trees, to create the kind of atmospheric conditions expected in the middle of the century. And instruments measure how the forest reacts.
The scientist in charge says there’s still a lot to learn. And he worries that governments and companies are rushing to plant trees as an easy answer to climate change. “If you try and use trees to tidy up the mess that we’re making through emissions, you are putting those trees into a very rapidly changing climate and they will struggle to adapt,” said Professor Rob MacKenzie, University of Birmingham.
This device tracks the movement of carbon dioxide. In a healthy forest, the gas is not only absorbed by the trees but some is released as well. What scientists here are finding out is the way carbon flows into a forest and out of it is a lot more complicated than you might think. So, if mass tree planting is meant to be a solution to tackling climate change, the trees are going to have to be monitored and cared for, over not just decades, but may be centuries as well.
Of all the challenges, the task of planting is the simplest. Shelby Barber from Canada can do an amazing 4,000 trees in a day. “People talking about planting millions billions of trees around the world. Is it possible do you think, physically?” asked BBC.
“It’s definitely possible with the right amount of people, the right group of people. I’ve personally, in three years, planted just over half a million trees.” said Professor Rob MacKenzie.
Once planted, the trees need to survive, and experts are mixing different types to minimize the risk of disease. “It’s a bit like making sure you don’t put all your eggs in one basket, you’re spreading out your risk. And then if one part of that woodland fails, for whatever reason, it gets a disease or it can’t tolerate future climatic conditions, there are other parts of the forest that are healthy and able to fill in those gaps.” said Eleanor Tew of Forestry England.
Suddenly there’s momentum to plant trees on a scale never seen before. So what matters is doing it in a way that ensures the forests thrive — so they really do help with climate change.
1．Why is extra carbon dioxide piped to the trees in the experiment?| A．To predict the future atmospheric conditions. |
| B．To imitate the possible air condition in the future. |
| C．To create an instrument to measure atmospheric conditions. |
| D．To investigate the quality of air condition in the future. |
| A．oxygen | B．carbon dioxide | C．mess | D．purified gas |
| A．Minimizing the area of the woodland. |
| B．Studying future climatic conditions. |
| C．Planting different types of trees. |
| D．Avoiding mixing different species. |
| A．It should be advocated in terms of efficiency and convenience. |
| B．It is the most effective solution to fighting climate changes. |
| C．It will do more harm than good to the health of the environment. |
| D．It needs to be studied further as a measure against climate change. |
The Fight against Fast Furniture
Fast furniture is a term that refers to furniture that is produced cheaply and quickly. These items are often bad for the environment because they are made from materials that break easily and need to be replaced often.
To help protect the environment, a movement to move away from fast furniture has begun. Many companies are joining the fight by finding cleaner ways to manufacture furniture. For example, IKEA has agreed to switch to using renewable or recycled materials for their furniture by the year 2030.
There is also a push to encourage shoppers to buy more used furniture for their homes. Small businesses that help transform old chairs and sofas into completely new products have even popped up recently. At the end of the day, consumers will play the most important role in the fight to end fast furniture. Shoppers should try to think more about the long term when preparing to purchase new furniture. They should stay away from furniture that is made from cheap materials like fiberboard or plastic because they will often fall apart after a few years.
A much better alternative is furniture made from real wood because it won’t break as easily. If wood furniture is damaged, it can often be repaired to last longer. High-quality metals are another good material, as they are durable. If the furniture is no longer fit for use, these metals can still be recycled and used to make new products.
| A．It has also designed a special program that lets people return used furniture pieces to its stores so they can be fixed and used again by consumers. |
| B．This would help to reduce overall waste, as it would extend the life cycle of old furniture items. |
| C．Although these items may cost less initially, they are more expensive because they will need to be replaced sooner than traditional pieces of furniture. |
| D．This creates a lot of pollution, as the furniture ends up buried in landfills where it can harm the soil. |
| E．Homeowners are looking for furniture that is kinder to the environment. |
| F．By choosing furniture that’s made to last, we can help reduce waste and protect the environment. |
Digital Nomads (游牧人)
How would you like to answer your work emails from a beachfront café in Thailand or a coffee shop in Portugal? If that appeals to you, being a digital nomad might be for you. Digital nomads can literally work from anywhere as their jobs are online. Digital nomads rely on portable devices with wireless Internet capabilities such as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Typically, they work from coffee shops, restaurants, co-working spaces, apartments or internet cafés — places with an Internet connection.
Worldwide, statistics show the number of digital nomads hit 35 million in 2021. So what is it that makes the lifestyle of digital nomads so fascinating? First and foremost, digital nomads get to live in different countries and cultures while they work, providing them with opportunities to have adventures and experience new things. These folks have also found the most flexible means of online incomes, allowing them to head out at a moment’ notice and go where they please. “I’m free,” says Nimisha Walji, “I can go where the wind takes me and live any place I choose! If I feel like a change, I can pursue that in a matter of days, sometimes hours.”
You may think that being a digital nomad is all sunshine and rainbows. It is not necessarily so. Job finding is one of the hardest tasks for the digital nomad, given that they have no permanent home, no office address, and no one knows them. To apply for a job, they need to find the employer and persuade him to hire them. Most of the employers hire from their own city, and that’s why it’s so hard for a nomad to find a job. Access to stable Wi-Fi and adequate workspace can be difficult. If someone struggles to stay focused at home, there can’t be a worse place than a fascinating holiday location. Few people can manage to be productive faced with the temptations and distractions. It seems that living the life of a digital nomad isn’t for everyone.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Yours'
Li Hua
When glaciers melt, they leave behind infertile (贫瘠的) landscapes. But a new study found that within just three years, such exposed land was restored by llamas (美洲驼), whose activity enriched the soil and promoted plant growth. By the foot of Peru’s melting Uruashraju glacier, researchers partnered with local farmers to farm llamas on four specific plots. For three days a month from 2019 to 2022, the llamas grazed (吃青草) the plots, fertilizing them with waste and spreading seeds from droppings.
As is the case worldwide, glaciers are disappearing in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca mountains at an alarming rate. And as the ice melts, nearby ecosystems wither: They lose access to summertime supplies of freshwater and sometimes encounter harmful acidic minerals in rocks once covered by the glaciers.
Llamas may help count er some of these effects. Their transformation of the land, as seen in the new study, could reduce rock weathering and help the soil hold onto more dampness, thus limiting the acidic runoff that can poison farmers’ crops. Such pollution is one reason why local farmers partnered with the researchers. The animals’ behavior could one day even generate new grasslands as soil quality improves.
The idea that animal grazing may positively impact a landscape is not new. Nor is rewilding, the push to bring key species back to their native ecosystems, unique to the Cordillera Blanca mountains. In Finland, for example, the Indigenous Sami are working to reintroduce reindeer in deforested land, potentially restoring it. But the size and speed of the changes the llamas helped bring about surprised the researchers. From 2021 to 2022, the average amount of plant cover in the llama plots grew from about 9 percent to nearly 14 percent—faster than it did in four control plots. The research underscores the valuable roles animals play in shaping landscapes, says ecologist Kelsey Reider of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., “The animals themselves are doing a lot.”
1．What did the new study find?| A．Llamas could help improve ecology. | B．Llamas needed to be exposed to soil. |
| C．Llamas might survive poor situation. | D．Llamas were able to stop ice melting. |
| A．Expand. | B．Arise. | C．Integrate. | D．Worsen. |
| A．Because they longed to be more learned. |
| B．Because they profited from the research. |
| C．Because they wanted to keep llamas away. |
| D．Because they failed to know llamas’ behavior. |
| A．Llamas restore the forest in Finland. | B．Wildlife helps a lot in restoring nature. |
| C．The idea of rewilding isn’t common. | D．The research should collect more data. |
The annual Halloween arrived, during which kids dressed in traditional clothes went to neighbors’ houses to ask for candy.
Allison lived in a small town. That day after dinner, Allison put on her dress her father had just bought for her. The dress was cheap and second-hand because her family was poor. But Allison still thanked her dad and said, “Everyone will love my dress!” Then, she left for neighbors’ houses to ask for candy.
On the way, she came across Anna and her friends and wanted to join them. “No! Look at your dress! It’s ugly!” Anna said. Her friends also laughed. “Look at our dresses, especially mine! It’s new and beautiful,” Anna added. Her friends nodded, and in some way they were right. Anna’s dress was shiny and looked expensive. She always had the best clothes because her parents were rich.
Allison was shocked and sad. The kids not only disliked her dress but made fun of it. “You can’t come with us!” Anna stressed. “We would never hang out with you!” The other kids agreed and laughed. They all left to start collecting candy for the night while Allison was left alone, embarrassed in the middle of the street.
Anyway, she knew all the neighbors. She often helped around carrying their groceries and helping them with their gardens. People around there knew her. She didn’t need to hangout with Anna or her friends. “I’ll go just alone,” the little girl said to herself and started walking.
She as well as Anna and her friends walked in the same direction: towards their first neighbor Mrs Vaughan’s house. But Allison walked behind and kept her distance from them. And she stopped when Anna and her friends were near Mrs Vaughan’s house.
Just then, Mrs Vaughan looked out of her window. She noticed that Allison was being excluded by Anna and her friends. She knew it was probably because of Allison’s poor dress. She immediately felt pity for Allison, who often helped her and other neighbors. She decided to give Allison much more candy as a reward and teach Anna and her friends a lesson.
When Anna and her friends knocked on her door, Mrs Vaughan opened it.
Anna looked up and said, “Our clothes are more beautiful! But you gave Allison more candy! Why?”
People get distracted by irrelevant websites and unproductive tasks occasionally. According to McKinsey, high-skilled workers in the U.S. spend a surprising 28% of their working hours reading and replying to e-mail messages. But if we learned to manage our distraction by communication technology in a more efficient manner, we could give the economy a $900 million to $1.3 trillion boost per year.
How did we end up in this situation? The 21st century is characterized by connectivity. Over the past couple of decades, it has become increasingly difficult to disconnect from sources of information. And this addiction becomes especially apparent when we lose our phones or our Internet connection drops out. For example, have you ever mislaid your phone for a few hours and become crazy at the thought of missing out on social media updates?
Originally, smartphones and other portable devices were designed to maximize convenience. Unfortunately, now they have turned into a distraction that often interrupts our daily lives. Every time your attention is diverted away from your task, you lose time. It takes effort to get back on track, and repeated interruptions can demotivate you. The more complicated your project is, the longer it takes to regain your focus, because your brain has to put in considerable effort when switching between complex objectives.
So what can you do? First, when focusing on an important project, you can put your phone and other devices away. If you don’t receive any messages, you won’t be distracted. There’s also a useful technique that will quickly get you back on track: The 20-Second Rule. It’s believed by some psychologists that if something—such as checking your social media—takes you 20 seconds longer to do, you’re less likely to do it. So you need to make it slightly more difficult to give in to temptation. For example, uninstall(卸载) a messaging app so that it takes you 20 seconds longer to install it again and log in. This approach means you do not have to rely on willpower. Instead, you will have set up a reliable system that facilitates good habits.
1．For what purpose does the writer use numbers in the first paragraph?| A．To point out few workers reply to e-mail messages in the U.S. |
| B．To picture the bad results caused by distraction in work. |
| C．To prove reading and replying to e-mails are good for economy. |
| D．To tell how much more money can be made by replying to e-mails. |
| A．We’ll be interrupted repeatedly. | B．It’ll make us never get back on track. |
| C．We’ll completely lose time. | D．It’ll be harder to regain our attention. |
| A．It helps us to deal with distraction more effectively. |
| B．It makes us check social media longer than 20 seconds. |
| C．It suggests uninstalling all the messaging apps in your phone. |
| D．It has proved to be effective with the help of will power. |
| A．No Phones, No Distraction | B．Why We Get Distracted Easily? |
| C．The Shocking Price of Distraction | D．Distraction Brings Us Harms or Benefits? |
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