A deal has been signed to turn byproducts from a Scottish distillery (酿酒厂) into fuel for cars.
In what is declared to be a world first, the Tullibardine distillery in Perthshire has linked up with a spin－out company from Napier University in Edinburgh.They plan to use bacteria to feed on the “leftovers” from the whisky (威士忌酒) making process.This will produce butanol which can be used to fuel vehicles.
More than 90% of the stuff that comes out of a whisky distillery is not whisky.It is leftovers like draff and pot ales (酒糟)—both produced in the early stages of the process.They are high in sugar and are currently used for things like fertiliser and cattle feed.Napier University's Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) has already shown that the right bacteria can feed on those by－products to produce butanol－a direct replacement for vehicle fuel.Now the spin－out company, Celtic Renewables, and independent whisky producer Tullibardine have signed an agreement.Together they will apply the process to thousands of tons of the distillery's leftovers.
Professor Martin Tangney, founder of Celtic Renewables, said Our partnership with Tullibardine is an important step in the development of a business which combines two important Scottish industries—whisky and renewables.This project shows that creative use of existing technologies can utilize resources on our doorstep to benefit both the environment and the economy.
Douglas Ross, managing director of Tullibardine, which spends ￡250,000 disposing of its by－products every year, said “We are delighted to be partnering Celtic Renewables in this creative business, the obvious benefits of which are environmental.It takes a cost to us and turns it into something that has social as well as commercial value.”
The project is being supported by a grant(拨款) from the Scottish government's Zero Waste Scotland initiative. Celtic Renewables said it eventually aimed to build a processing plant in Scotland, with the hope of building an industry that could be worth ￡60m a year.
1.According to the passage, ____ will be used to take the place of petrol.
A. whisky B. whisky leftovers
C. butanol D. draff and pot ales
2.How do people deal with whisky leftovers at present？
A. They throw them away.
B. They use them to feed people.
C. They use them to feed bacteria.
D. They use them for crops or cattle.
3.What does the underlined word “utilize” in the fourth paragraph probably mean？
A. Make use of. B. Get rid of.
C. Use up. D. Find out.
4.Which of the following categories does this passage belong to？
a．Health b．Science c．Food d．Nature e．Environment f．Business
A. b，c，e B. b，e，f
C. a，b，f D. a，b，c
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.
As the world's largest terrestrial carnivore (陆地食肉动物), the polar bear is the king of the great white north.Adult males can measure more than 9 feet in length and weigh between 770 and 1,430 pounds.The polar bear has a strong body while their heads are narrow with small, rounded ears.
Polar bears can be found in northern Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia, and there have been reports that polar bear tracks have been found as far north as the North Pole.The 5,000,000－square－mile range of the polar bear circles the Arctic and contains pieces of open water where seals are easily caught.
Polar bears live on the annual Arctic sea ice that provides a platform from which they can hunt.They hunt seals on the sea ice by breaking into seal dens in the sea ice.The dens aren't visible from above, but seeing is less important than smelling to polar bears—with their sharp sense of smell, polar bears can sense the breathing holes of seals in their dens beneath the snow and ice.As the southern edge of the Arctic ice cap melts in summer, polar bears are forced to stay on land and spend their summers fasting (禁食), living off body fat stored from hunting in spring and winter.
With about 22,000 polar bears living in the wild, the species is not endangered at the moment, but its future is far from certain.Climate change is causing the disappearance of sea ice from which polar bears hunt seals.Sea ice in the Arctic is melting earlier and forming later each year.People have reached an agreement that controls the hunting of polar bears and directs each nation to protect their habitats, but it does not protect the bears against the biggest man－made threat to their survival: global warming.If current warming trends continue, scientists believe that polar bears may disappear within 100 years.
1.Polar bears search for seals mainly through their ____.
A. eyes B. ears
C. noses D. necks
2.The underlined word “dens” in paragraph 3 most probably means “____”．
A. the skin of the wild animals
B. the home of wild animals
C. the breathing holes of seals
D. water of the deep sea
3.Which of the following statements is TRUE？
A. A polar bear measures at least 9 feet long.
B. Polar bears can be found in both the North Pole and the South Pole.
C. Polar bears stop hunting in summer because seals are hidden at that time.
D. Polar bears may die out as a result of climate change.
假如你是星光中学的学生李华，将参加主题为“My Chinese Dream”的英语演讲比赛，请撰写一篇演讲稿，主要内容包括：
1．梦想成为一名山村老师，帮助山村孩子；
2．山区偏僻，教育落后；
3．父母和朋友都反对；
4．我会……
注意：词数100左右。
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假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌的以下作文。文中共有10处错误，每句中最多有两处。错误涉及单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号(∧)，并在此符号下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错词下面划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Tom's parents are very diligent. His father is a kind of person who never gets boring.He is always doing repair jobs around the house.It's never been the problem for him to repair a broken hairdryer and to make wooden shelves.He spends a lot time in his workshop，where he's got all his tools there.His mother likes to work in the garden. Her garden is the more beautiful one in the street.It always made her happy to harvest the fruit and vegetables, that she often uses for her second passion：cooking.She enjoys try new recipes，and she likes to bake either.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。
The study of the Silk Road actually became popular following the trips of the Swede Sven Hedin in 1895，1.was a skilled mapmaker and linguist, and became one of the most well－known2.(explore) of that time period.In his later trips，he found out a few3.(destroy) cities in the south side of the desert, and his4.(great)discovery of all, the city of Loulan, from which he took away many ancient handwritten documents.
Right after Hedin, the archaeological(考古学的) competition5.(begin)．There followed a period of crazy digging around the edges of the Taklamakan Desert，to find out as many documents as possible6.(concern) the old Buddhist culture. One of the most important discoveries was7.walled－up“library”， the so－called “Library Cave”， inside the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang. This covered thousands of old documents, Buddhist paintings and silk temple banners.Among all these8.(be) what is considered to be the world's earliest printed book.
The particular treasures of the ancient Silk Road are9.(separate) stored in museums in a dozen countries.
The biggest collections are in the British Museum and in China.But the majority of the original handwritten documents are actually in the British Library, but not accessible10.the public.
