（浙江省）九年级上学期2024年开学启航·英语题型精训营：阅读理解（人与自然）

It's raining plastic! No, plastic bottles and bags are not dropping down from overhead. But plastic is in raindrops. A study by the U. S. Department of the Interior and the U. S. Geological Survey showed tiny pieces of plastic in rainfall in Denver and Boulder, Colorado. Scientists couldn't see the plastic until they put the rainwater they collected under a microscope. Once they did that, they found tiny pieces of plastic in 90 percent of the rain samples.

▲ It's a problem all around the world. Scientists haven't figured out just how widespread plastic pollution is, but they think that microplastics have probably find their way into every part of the environment. And just because we can't see the plastic doesn't mean it's not there. Scientists have found tons of plastic in the oceans, as well as in sea animals and plants. Even the human body can't resist microplastics.

No one's certain how microplastics have gotten all over the place. But really, it's no secret that we use a lot of plastic. It's commonly found in packaging, bags, electronics, and even in some of our clothes. Scientists think little pieces of plastic may be breaking off every time when we wash our clothes or just use something that contains plastic. That just may be how the rain samples in the study ended up containing so much of plastic.

OK, so there's a lot of plastic. Is it bad for us? Scientists are still studying the long-term effects of plastic exposure on people. But there's some research that suggests it may be harmful. In one study, microplastics were fed to mice, and they messed up the mice's gut microbiomes. Scientists know that when people's gut microbiomes are messed with, they are more likely to develop diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Sounds like we should all just avoid plastic to be on the safe side. That's easier said than done. Plastic is everywhere. It's impossible to avoid completely. Experts say we can reduce our exposure to plastic by limiting the amount of plastic products we use every day and by not washing our clothes too much. Both of those shed plastic into the environment. Still, there's a long way to go.

The following mainly introduces four top tourist spots (景点).

PHEW! It's so hot today. A group of animals are resting under a big tree. They are talking about how they like to cool themselves down during the hot summer.

Happy birthday, the Palace Museum! As once an area of emperors and royal yard, the Palace Museum celebrated its 600^th birthday on Aug. 14^th, 2020. Though it was closed to the public for a while during the outbreak (疫情期间), it still received billions of wishes from all directions.

  ①  Built in 1420, the palace recorded lives of important people through various treasures and documents. The museum can provide a large amount of valuable material for today's historical research, as well as inspiration (灵感) for literature and entertainment.

  ②  Over the last ten years, the museum has produced more than 10,000 cultural products about the imperial palace, ranging from fans, notebooks to apps and decorations.

  ③  The most popular products are the royal cats. The items are inspired by the real cats who call the Palace Museum home. More than 200 cats are living in the palace where they are being well cared for. These furry guys often roam around without purpose and pose lovely to the delight of visitors, who often can interact with them.

  ④  "The primary reason why the Palace Museum has become so popular among people is that it keeps the right balance between preserving history, sharing knowledge, and providing interesting displays," said Shan Jixiang, former director and curator of the museum.

Why is it called Mars? You might have asked yourself this before. Well, Mars is the name of the Roman god of war. People have seen the planet as a symbol of war for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks called the planet Ares after their god of war. Chinese people called it the "fire star" for the same reason.

Scientists have been interested in the planet since long before any space tasks. Egyptian scientists first saw Mars in the sky more than 4,000 years ago. Since then, people from all over the world have studied the planet.

Over the years, scientists have continued to study the planet and learned some basic things about it.

Mars is 10 times lighter and about 6 times smaller than Earth. Earth is 93 million miles (about 150 million km) from the sun, while Mars is 142 million miles away. That means it is much colder on Mars. In fact, the average temperature on Mars is - 62℃. Scientists found water on Mars long ago, but because of the low temperatures there, it is frozen. One day on Mars is called a sol and is about 40 minutes longer than one Earth day. The Red Planet's surface gravity* is only 37% as strong as Earth's, meaning you would be able to jump nearly two times higher on Mars.

What can you take in Shanghai? Subway must be your first choice!

A sunflower is a sunflower. A mobile phone is a mobile phone. But can you put the two together to do something for your local environment? As early as next year it may well be possible. When you have finished with your mobile phone, you will be able to bury* it in the garden and wait for it to flower.

A biodegradable* mobile phone was ,this month, introduced by scientists. It is hoped that the new kind of phone will encourage users to recycle*. Scientists have come up with a new material*over the last five years. It looks like any other plastic*and can be hard or soft, and able to change shape. But after some time, it can also break down without polluting the environment. British researchers used the new material to develop a phone cover with a sunflower seed. When this cover turns into waste, it forms nitrates*. These feed the seed and help the flower grow. "We've only put sunflower seeds into the cover so far. But we are trying to find out which flowers would be the best. Maybe we could put roses in next time." said one scientist.

As phones are developing so quickly, people are always throwing their mobiles away. This means producers have to find ways of recycling them. About 650 million mobile phones have been sold this year. Most of them will be thrown away in two years, leaving plastic*, heavy metal and other waste to the environment. A biodegradable cover can reduce the harm to nature, according to the scientists. "The seed sprouts*and the flower grows so you don't have to worry about the phone when you have finished using it," said Kerry Kirwan, the leader of the research team, which is based at the University of Warwick in Britain.

NASA has been trying hard to explore the space. The recent developments include, the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, the successful asteroid hit by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spaceship, and the launch of the most powerful rocket ever built for the Artemis mission. The James Webb Space Telescope is the biggest and most powerful telescope ever built. It can see through dust in the universe and find new stars hiding inside those clouds. Even more exciting, it will try to find signs of Life on planets far away!

The telescope has been working for more than a year and has caught some amazing images and data. One example is an image of a huge star called Wolf-Rayet 124, which weighs about 10

times heavier than our sun, reported the Space website. 

DART spaceship is another breakthrough for NASA. It will be used to keep Earth safe from asteroids. In September 2022, NASA tested it by hitting an asteroid called Dimorphos. The goal was to change its orbit

Finally, we have the Mega Moon Rocket! This rocket is the most powerful one ever made and it's being used to help us get closer to Mars. NASA successfully launched it on Nov 16, 2022, and it had a 26-day trip around the moon. This is the first step of NASA's Artemis mission, which plans to set up a base on the moon for people to use in the future.

Despite the program's high cost, NASA believes that the Artemis project is worth it as it will be a key next step in the story of human exploration. As NASA administrator Bill Nelson told the BBC, "This time we' re going to learn how to live in that bad environment for long periods of time all with the purpose of one day going to Mars. "

Our lives would not be the same without bees. Bees help plants grow. Many of these plants provide us with food. What would happen if there were no bees? Some fruits and vegetables that we enjoy could not grow. Bees are wonderful creatures. 

But now the number of bees is getting lower and lower. Scientists worry that bees may die off. How can we solve it? One answer is to make our gardens friendly to bees. 

Making our gardens bee-friendly can increase the number of bees. Planting a bee garden is a great idea. These gardens provide bees with nectar. A successful bee garden would have flowers from spring to fall. The garden would have all kinds of plants that are closely grouped together. Many people believe that all bees live in hives. In fact, some bees dig into the ground. There they build nests and lay eggs. People lay wood pieces or other things on the ground. Bees can not dig nests when these materials cover the ground. Here is another good way to help bees. When you are working outside, leave loose dirt in flower beds and gardens. 

Some bees' nests are in old pieces of wood while others' in holes, in buildings or in trees. Gardens can provide spaces like these for bees. Trees or walls that stop wind are a good idea. And cool areas also can help bees get away from the hot sun. Bee gardens also provide bees with water. Bees need water just like people do

Making a garden friendly for bees is far from a useless task. The results are worth the efforts. A bee-friendly garden is beautiful and colorful. Most importantly, it helps to keep bees healthy and happy.