Passage 1 （选自北师大版英语选修8 Unit 22 Lesson 1，教师根据课例需要对文本进行了删减、改编。）
Can We Take the Heat?
Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth's temperature that, in turn, leads to climate change. Scientists found that the temperature of the Earth is controlled by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide which trap heat from the sun in the Earth's atmosphere. Without these naturally occurring gases, the sun's rays would bounce back into space leaving the Earth cold and impossible to live on. When the presence of these gases in the atmosphere increases, however, more heat is trapped and the Earth's temperature rises.
In the last few decades, scientists have reached consensus and reported that human beings are causing changes in the Earth's climate—something previously seen as beyond our control. They believe that global warming could be one of the biggest environmental problems facing the 21st century. But how is it relevant to our lives?
Over the last 100 years, the global average temperature has increased by 1℉ and many experts insist that the blame for this global warming can mostly be connected with human activities. As a result of increased industry, agriculture, the cutting down of forests, the increase in transport and the burning of fuels, nearly 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere every year for every one of the Earth's 6 billion people. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by more than 30% in the last 250 years with half of this increase occurring since 1960. Given this data, it seems that the link between human activities and rising global temperatures is not merely a coincidence.
Governments all over the world have a responsibility to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide which their countries are producing. If less carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere, global warming will slow down. The WWF is calling on governments to support the Kyoto Protocol. However, this is no easy task because some countries are not prepared to sacrifice the amount of money they make from industry to save the Earth.
Word Bank:
carbon dioxide 二氧化碳 bounce v.弹跳
consensus n. 共识，一致 coincidence n.巧合
WWF 世界自然基金会
the Kyoto [ki̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̍̍̍'əutəu] Protocol [̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̩̍̍̍'prəʊtəkɔl] 《京都议定书》。其目标是“将大气中的温室气体含量稳定在一个适当的水平，进而防止剧烈的气候改变给人类造成的伤害”。
Passage 2 （选自BBC Take Away English ，教师根据课例需要对文本进行了改编。）
Is Your Lunch Costing the Earth?
A lunch break—it's an important and often necessary part of our working or school day. And now we're spoilt with lot of places to buy our lunch from, all offering food to eat on the go.
But our desire for buying lunch is not just costing us money, there might be a cost in terms of damaging our planet too. Just grabbing a sandwich, and maybe a cake and coffee can produce at least four items of waste. Cartons, cups, wrappers and plastic cutlery are all part of our disposable feast in addition to the food waste we create. Some experts say throwing away food, which produces methane as it rots, is a bigger cause of global warming than plastics.
But regardless of what causes the most damage, the solution is to eat packed lunches, according to an environmental campaign group called Hubbub. Tessa Tricks from the group says“People are saying that they are buying food to take out because life has got busier.”And she says people think they are being more efficient; but she argues that it's usually healthier and cheaper to make your own lunch. It means you can eat the things you really want and make the quantity that you actually need.
If you haven't got time to make your own lunch and you are going to buy it, an alternative Hubbub suggests is to take your own container to a shop and ask them to put your food in it. The idea of using reusable coffee cups for hot drinks and refilling water bottles has already proved successful, so this could be another step in the right direction. A trial in the UK showed that offering a 10% price reduction did persuade some customers to come prepared with their own lunch box.
The problem with eating on the go is that you might want to carry your food in something that is disposable, so it's a good idea to make sure it's something that is recyclable and not to take extra cutlery that you're not going to use. The message seems to be that if we give our lunchtime eating habits some thought, we can all do our bit in helping reduce global warming and damage to our environment. That is something for all of us to think over!
Word Bank:
lunch break 午餐休息 on the go 外带，在路上吃
carton n.硬纸盒，塑料盒 wrapper n.包装纸，包装材料
cutlery n.餐具（刀、叉、匙等） disposable adj.一次性的
feast n.（讽刺的）“盛宴” methane n.甲烷
packed lunch（自带）盒装午餐
Passage 3（选自《悦读联播·美文精选》 高二上册Unit 10，教师根据课例需要对文本进行了改编。）
Saving the World One Day at a Time
1 January
Dear Diary,
I'm not normally one for New Year's resolutions but I read something today that has changed my mind. I saw a documentary on TV about global warming. The thing that disturbed me most was the image of a polar bear sitting on a tiny ice floe. I cannot get that sight out of my mind. It was so sad.
After seeing this documentary, I just cannot sit and do nothing anymore. I am going to try and live a more environmentally-responsible life and, while I'm busy doing this myself, perhaps I can educate my family and friends, too. I will try to change one thing that I do each day and see if I can make a difference in the environment. Hopefully even the little bit that I can do will make a difference.
4 January
Dear Diary,
Today I have decided to make my home free of plastic bags. I've stopped using plastic wrap around the sandwiches that I make myself for lunch at work. Plastic wrap keeps my sandwich nice and fresh, and it's easy to throw away at work when I'm finished with it. However, I've come up with a more environmentally-responsible idea. I'm using a container that I take home and wash every day and reuse the next day for work lunch. I know that it will take me more time and be more troublesome but I feel that I must do this. I've told a few people at work too and they seemed shocked by the information about the damage of global warming. I'm hoping to see more reusable containers at work tomorrow.
5 January
Dear Diary,
Great news, four other people at work are trying to decrease their environmental impact on the world! My change for today is to have my own canvas or cloth shopping bags when I go to the store. It is going to be really difficult to turn this idea into a habit that I simply do every day. When I went into the shops today, I forgot and had to go back out to my car and get them. Of course this was quite an effort on my part because I would much rather have left the cloth bags and just used the plastic ones in the shop. However, as I said yesterday, a bit of effort is needed. It may not be comfortable for me to do this now but imagine how uncomfortable the polar bears are when there are less ice for them to hunt and survive.
7 January
Dear Diary,
Today I'm looking at other ways to look after the environment. Today I'm going to the beach instead of sitting all day in my air-conditioned house. As you know, it's summer in Australia and it's very hot. It will be much cooler down near the water and the best part is that going to the beach is free. By not using the air conditioner for the day I'm not only reducing any bad emissions that come out of it. I'm also saving electricity. This seems like a win-win situation to me. I'm off to the beach!
9 January
Dear Diary,
Well, it's been more than a week since I decided to try to reduce my impact on global warming and live a more environmentally-friendly life. The unbelievable part is that I can actually see a difference in the garbage in my home. The garbage bag is lighter and only one third filled. I feel good knowing that I have made a real difference.
Tomorrow I'm taking the bus to work to save petrol. I'm going to keep saving the world one day at a time.
Word Bank:
resolution n. 决心 documentary n.纪录片
ice floe 浮冰 plastic wrap塑料保鲜膜
canvas n. 帆布 emission n.排放物
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