Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated (人口密集的)cities in the world, but with night skies around 1,000 times brighter than globally accepted levels, it gains a bad reputation for its light pollution.

A study by Hong Kong University found that brightness levels in the southern Chinese city's popular shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui were 1,200 times greater than the international dark sky standard.

The crowded city of 7 million residents(居民), full or residential high-rises, towering office blocks and neon(霓虹灯) advertisements, has no laws to control outdoor lightning.

The result is that light pollution is thought to be much worse than in other large cities, including London, Sydney, Tokyo and Shanghai.

“In Hong Kong , you can’t go anywhere outdoor in the evening without your eyes being blinded by this really disturbing outdoor lightning,” the light pollution survey’s head Jason Pum told AFP.

“The fact that we have all this light in the sky means energy is wasted,” he said, adding that too much artificial lightning also affects nightly wildlife.

Research has suggested that light pollution can cause a number of harmful health effects in humans, including sleeplessness and headaches and can also interrupt body clocks and hormones(荷尔蒙).

The university survey, the result of five million measurements taken from points across the city, was released just days before the start of the annual Earth Hour event, organized by the World Wildlife Fund.

People around the world will be encouraged to turn off the lights for an hour on Saturday night to raise awareness of climate change. Last year, a number of Hong Kong’s major buildings along Victoria Harbour went dark to mark Earth Hour.

“Anyway, we should do our best to reduce the amount of lightning and adjust it for the benefit of the environment.”

1.If you walk out at night in Hong Kong, you can see all those things except ______.

A. neon advertisements              B. residential buildings

C. a dark sky with twinkling stars      D. high office blocks

2..which of the following statements about too much lightning is NOT true?

A. Too much lightning means a waste of energy.

B. It can make the sky and the city more beautiful.

C. It may have a bad effect on nightly wildlife.

D. It can lead to some health problems.

3..We can know from the passage that__________

A. light pollution in Hong Kong is among world’s worst.

B. light pollution is the biggest problem in Hong Kong.

C. Earth Hour is simply organized to reduce pollution.

D. light pollution is the primary causes of sleeplessness.

4..what will the author probably discuss after the last paragraph?

A. Bad effects of light pollution

B. Causes of light pollution

C. Worries about light pollution

D. Ways to reduce light pollution

 

The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modern traffic and modern communication means （通讯设备）.Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest is pollution. To pollute means to make things dirty. Pollution comes in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it.
Man has been polluting the earth. The more people, the more pollution. Many years ago, the problem was not so serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in one place, Man moved to another place. But this is no longer true. Man is now slowly polluting the whole world.
Air pollution is still the most serious. It’s bad for all living things in the world, but it is not the only one kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily.
Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air.
Pollution by carbon dioxide is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. It is caused by heavy traffic. It is true that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.
The earth is our home. We must take care of it. That means keeping the land, water and air clean. And we must take care of the rise in population at the same time.
【小题1】.
. Hundreds of years ago, the pollution was _________it is today.

A．much easier than

B．as easy as

C．as hard as

D．much less than

【小题2】.
Our world is becoming much smaller_________.

A．because the earth is being polluted day and night

B．because science is developing

C．because of the rise in population

D．because the earth is blown away by the wind every year

【小题3】.
Air pollution is the most serious kind of pollution because_________.

A．it does harm to all living things in the world	B．it makes much noise
C．it makes our rivers and lakes dirty	D．it makes us angry more easily

【小题4】.
Which of the following is NOT the possible way to reduce air pollution?

A．Stop people from burning coal in the houses and factories in the city

B．Stop putting dirty smoke into the air

C．Encourage people to go to work by bike or on foot instead of driving a car

D．Don’t throw rubbish into the river.

【小题5】.
Which of the following is NOT true?

A．The problem of pollution is not so serious because there are not so many people living on the earth.

B．The pollution of the earth grows as fast as the world’s population does.

C．If people could go to work by bike ,it would be helpful against the problem of carbon dioxide.

D．Many countries are making rules to fight against pollution.

Most air pollution is caused by the burning of ____ like coal, gas and oil.

A. fuels       B. articles        C. goods       D. products

The economic growth that many nations in Asia and increasingly Africa have experienced over the past couple of decades has transformed hundreds of millions of lives – almost entirely for the better. But there’s a byproduct to that growth, one that’s evident – or sometimes less than evident – in the smoggy, smelly skies above cities like Beijing, New Delhi and Jakarta. Thanks to new cars and power plants, air pollution is bad and getting worse in much of the world, and it’s taking a major toll (伤亡人数，代价) on global health.

How big? According to a new analysis published in the Lancet, more than 3.2 million people suffered deaths from air pollution in 2010, the largest number on record. That’s up from 800,000 in 2000. And it’s a regional problem: 65% of those deaths occurred in Asia, where the air is choked by diesel soot (内燃发动机烟雾) from cars and trucks, as well as the song from power plants and the dust from endless urban construction. In East Asia and China, 1.2 million people died, as well as another 712,000 in South Asia, including India. For the first time ever, air pollution is on the world’s top – 10 list of killers, and it’s moving up the ranks faster than any other factor.

So how can air pollution be so damaging? It is the very finest soot – so small that it roots deep within the lungs and then enters the bloodstream – that contributes to most of the public – health toll of air pollution including death. Diesel soot, which can also cause cancer, is a major problem because it is concentrated in cities along transportation zones affecting overpopulated areas. It is thought to contribute to half the deaths from air pollution in urban centers. Fro example, 1 in 6 people in the U.S. live near a diesel – pollution hot spot like a rail yard, port terminal or freeway.

We also know that air pollution may be linked to other non – deadly diseases. Fortunately in the U.S. and other developed nations, urban air is for the most part cleaner than it was 30 or 40 years ago, thanks to regulations and new technologies like the catalytic converters (催化式排气净化器) that reduce automobile emissions. Govemments are also pushing to make air cleaner – see the White House’s move last week to further tighten soot standards. It’s not perfect, but we’ve had much more success dealing with air pollution than climate change.

Will developing nations like India eventually catch up? Hopefully – though the problem may get worse before it gets better. The good news is that it doesn’t take a major technological advance to improve urban air. Switching from diesel fuel to unleaded (无铅燃油) helps, as do newer and cleaner cars which are less likely to send out pollutants. Power plants – even ones that burn mineral fuels like coal – can be fitted with pollution – control equipment that, at a price, will greatly reduce smog and other pollutants.

But the best solutions may involve urban design. In the Guardian, John Vidal notes that Delhi now has 200 cars per 1,000 people, far more than much richer Asian cities like Hong Kong and Singapore. Developing cities will almost certainly see an increase in car ownership as residents become wealthier – and that doesn’t have to mean deadly air pollution. Higher incomes should also lead to tougher environmental regulations, which is exactly what happened in the West. We can only hope it happens before the death toll from bad air gets even higher.

1.What tends to give rise to the highest death toll according to the passage?

A．The lack of tight environmental protection standards.

B．The increasing numbers of the diesel cars and trucks.

C．The frighteningly high death rate from deadly cancer.

D．The world’s serious air pollution such as soot and dust.

2.The “byproduct” (Paragraph 1) most probably refers to     .

A．consequence      B．solution       C．reform         D．design

3.The basic reason why so many people die from air pollution is that       .

A．the diesel soot is too small to be seen

B．the diesel soot is much too poisonous to breathe

C．the diesel soot roots in lungs and gets into blood

D．the diesel soot can also contribute to deadly cancer

4.According to the passage, the writer actually wants to convince the readers that        .

A．the global economic growth is mainly to blame for air pollution and climate change

B．the developing countries are repeating the same mistakes as the developed ones made

C．the ecological situation and air pollution in India are becoming worse and worse

D．the unbeatable air is increasingly becoming a major killer throughout the world

5.By describing urban design as “the best solution” in the last paragraph, the writer means that        .

A．the making of tougher environmental regulations alone is of little use

B．more sever regulations should be made to handle air pollution

C．the urban construction in western developed countries is the best choice

D．the pace of development has to be slowed down to reduce air pollution

 

The sense of sound is one of our most important means

1．________

of knowing what is going around us．Sounds serve to

2．________

pleasure us in music．Sound has a waste product, too,

3．________

in the form of noise．Noise is growing and they may

4．________

get much more worse before it gets any better．Scientists,

5．________

for several years, have been studied how noise affects

6．________

people and animals, they are astonished by that they have

7．________

learned．Peace and quiet is becoming harder to find.

8．________

Noise pollution is no joke．It is a sign for danger that

9．________

should be looked carefully．It’s necessary for us to

10．________

reduce noise.