【推荐3】When my friend suggested going to the thrift shop (慈善商店), instantly I thought “I hope no one I know sees me”. It was the same when my cousin commented on my new furniture and Japanese fine­bone­china bowls and asked where I got them. They were from the local thrift shop but instead I said “from the antique shop”.

Many people in my Greek-Cypriot community would look down on me if I said I shopped at the thrift shop.They may pity me, consider me a failure. Immigrants sacrificed their families and homes for a better life. Buying a house and having enough money to live comfortably, to educate children and see them also live comfortably, are a big part of the immigrant dream. But has this dream made us materialistic at the cost of our own planet?

Our love for purchasing the latest trendy clothes or furniture, and then donating them when we are tired of them has become normal. I was once like this. But after watching the documentary The True Cost, I learned donated clothes that don’t get sold are sent to developing nations, many of them ending up in landfills (垃圾填埋地)．In addition, your new dress requires electricity and materials to make. But if you buy a second-hand dress, there’s one less dress in a landfill and one less new dress to be made.

A friend introduced me to the thrift shop only a few years ago. My first item was a dress she gifted me. It was lovely and I loved it.Nobody could tell it was second­hand. Then I began to purchase more second-hand branded clothes of high quality. Once I visited a friend and was impressed by how she decorated her apartment. “It’s all second-hand,”she said. I couldn’t believe it. The truth is that a lot of things sold at the thrift shop are in new or almost new condition. That’s when I made the decision to only buy second­hand things.

Selling second­hand things isn’t anything new but what the planet needs is more buyers. There is so much excess (过度的) production in the world. So stop feeling ashamed, and let’s get shopping.

1. What kind of feelings is expressed in Paragraph 1?

A．Pride.	B．Embarrassment.
C．Delight.	D．Sympathy.

2. What are many people in the author’s community like?

A．They are probably materialistic.

B．They care about the environment.

C．They think highly of thrift shopping.

D．They look down upon immigrants.

3. What was the author encouraged to do after visiting her friend’s apartment?

A．Watch the documentary The True Cost.

B．Donate more to local charities.

C．Avoid shopping too much.

D．Stop buying new things.

4. What’s the purpose of the text?

A．To entertain.	B．To advertise.
C．To persuade.	D．To describe.

【推荐1】Research shows that isolation（隔绝）is bad for us and associated with certain diseases including depression, high blood pressure and heart disease. Yet teenagers seek isolation by using the device of our times—a screen, screens of all kinds. However, in whatever form, screens are addictive（上瘾的）,and addictive from an early age. Research has shown that given the chance, six-month-old babies prefer screens to real human faces.

Hand in hand with this addiction to screens, we are seeing an explosion （增长）of teenage mental health problems. Social media claims to be inclusive（包容的）, keeping you connected. But it’s not. It isolates you from real people. Screens have even been described as being poisonous（有害的）for teenagers.

Psychologist Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University, believes today’s teenagers are “on the edge” of a major mental health problem. The problem is, she claims, children born between 1995 and 2012 have grown up with a smart phone in their hands, and it has “changed every aspect” of their lives. The number of teenagers who actually see their friends frequently has dropped by more than 40% since 2000. In 2015, only 56% of 17-year-old went on a date, down from 85%. Modern teenagers are slower to learn to drive, or earn money and spend more time at home. They’re “on their phone, in their room, alone and often depressed（压抑的）”, she says.

Some critics（评论家）, however, say we should encourage our children to spend more time online. Robert Hannigan, former director of GCHQ, said in August that Britain is badly short of engineers and computer scientists, and urged children to develop cyber skill to compete in the digital economy.

I’m not the first to say that social media is inferior to real human contact, and harms mental health. Studies show teens who spend three hours a day online are 35% more likely to suicide（自杀）.The suicide rate among girls aged 12 to 14 has more than doubled in a decade.

1. Why does Jean Twenge call on teens to surf online less?

A．Social media keeps them connected.

B．Social media leads to mental problems.

C．Social media does great harm to their eyesight

D．Social media has changed every aspect of their lives.

2. Which of the following statements might Robert Hannigan agree with?

A．We should allow teens to isolate themselves from real social contact

B．We should call on teens to do anything that doesn’t involve a screen

C．Children should be encouraged to contact people face to face instead of online.

D．Children should be encouraged to spend more time on the Internet.

3. According to the last paragraph, which of the sentences is right?

A．Social media is worse than real human contact.

B．Social media is as effective as real human contact.

C．Social media is more useful than real human contact.

D．Social media is similar to real human contact.

4. What may be the best title for the text?

A．Teenagers seeking isolation using screens

B．Social media causing teenagers health problems

C．Teenagers’ heavy addiction to social media

D．Different opinions on teenagers surfing online

【推荐3】Scientists in Britain have managed to teach bees to pull strings (线) to get to food and then pass on what they have learned to others in their colony (群体) — showing a high level of intelligence despite their tiny brains.

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London said the experiments, often used to test the intelligence of apes (猿) and birds, showed for the first time that some insects are up to the task, and can also pass skills on through several generations.

The findings add to the evidence suggesting the ability for “culture spread”— the ability to learn and pass on knowledge and skills — may not be exclusive to humans.

In the research, published in the journal PLOS Biology on Tuesday, the scientists were able to train 23 out of a group of 40 bees to pull strings with their legs and feet.

The strings were attached to discs — or artificial “flowers”— containing food at their center but placed under a transparent (透明的) screen. The bees, spotting the food beneath the screen, learned to pull the “flowers” out by pulling the string with their legs and feet to be able to get to it.

From another group of bees given the chance to solve the task without any training, only two of 110 were successful.

Another group of bees was then allowed to observe the trained bees pulling the strings, and 60 percent of them successfully learned the skill. Finally, trained bees were put in colonies, and the scientists found the technique spread successfully to a majority of the colony's worker bees.

Lars Chittka, a Queen Mary University professor who guided the project, said the team is interested in figuring out the brain processes behind the bees' learning and teaching skills.

1. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “exclusive” in Paragraph 3?

A．Ordinary.

B．Limited.

C．Beneficial.

D．Widespread.

2. What did the researchers find about bees?

A．Bees learn best in insects.	B．Bees are as clever as birds.
C．Bees are born good learners.	D．Bees can be trained to learn skills.

3. What may the research team focus on next?

A．What else bees can do.	B．Where bees learn skills.
C．How bees teach others.	D．How bees' brains work.

4. What may be the best title for the text?

A．Small Bees, Great Abilities	B．Bees Can Learn and Teach
C．Bees Are Smarter	D．Let Bees Learn

【推荐1】What to watch with your kids

WONDER PARK (PG)

“Wonder Park” in an animated cartoon about an imaginative girl named June (voiced by Brianna Denski), who’s spent years dreaming up a magical amusement park named Wonderland with her mom (Jenifer Gamer). Their fancies become reality when June manages to protect the park from getting broken apart and sucked into scary purple clouds of darkness. The film underlines the importance of not letting fear stop you from being yourself and doing what you love. (93 minutes)

NANCY DREW AND THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE (PG)

“Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase” is based on a classic 1930 Nancy Drew mystery book. After her mother’s death, 16-year-old Nancy Drew (Sophia Living) and her family move from Chicago to rural River Heights. Following a number of incidents, they meet various characters. The scariest moment an during what turns out to be a dream sequence (序列). (89 minutes)

CAPTIVE STATE (PG-13)

“Captive State” is an alien-attack movie set in a future Chicago. Some humans try to support the conquering aliens, while others try to fight against them. The movie in more about its own big ideas than about characters or emotions, but it’s smart enough that it should please most teen and adult sei-fi fans. John Goodman and Vera Farmiga co-star. (109 minutes)

FIVE FEET APART (PG-13)

“Five Feet Apart" is based on the best-selling. The novel about Will (Cole Sprouse) and Stella (Haley Lu Richardson), two hospitalized 17-year-olds with cystic fibrosis (囊性纤维化) who fall in love. Since the guideline for CF patients is that they should stay a minimum of six feet apart from each other due to the danger of cross-infection, the title refers to the one foot the pair “take back” to be a tiny bit closer as their love story develop. (115 minutes)

1. Which film attracts more sei-fi lovers?

A．Captive State.	B．Five Feet Apart.
C．Wonder Park.	D．Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase.

2. What does the title “Five Feet Apart” suggest?

A．A discouraging illness.	B．A moving love story.
C．A strict hospital rule.	D．A best-selling novel.

3. What’s the theme of the cartoon film?

A．Strong action saving a sorrowful romance.

B．Scary movements having great characters.

C．Imaginative adventure dealing with worry and fear.

D．Violent but smart alien attack appealing to audience.

【推荐2】Children have their own rules in playing games. They seldom need a referee and rarely trouble to keep scores. They don't care much about who wins or loses, and it doesn't seem to worry them if the game is not finished. Yet, they like games that depend a lot on luck, so that their personal abilities cannot be directly compared. They also enjoy games that move in stages, in which each stage, the choosing of leaders, the picking-up of sides, or the determining of which side shall start, is almost a game in itself.

Grown-ups can hardly find children's games exciting, and they often feel puzzled at why their kids play such simple games again and again. However, it is found that a child plays games for very important reasons. He can be a good player without having to think whether he is a popular person, and he can find himself being a useful partner to someone of whom he is ordinarily afraid. He becomes a leader when it comes to his turn. He can be confident, too, in particular games, that it is his place to give orders, to pretend to be dead, to throw a ball actually at someone, or to kiss someone he has caught.

It appears to us that when children play a game they imagine a situation under their control. Everyone knows the rules, and more importantly, everyone plays according to the rules. Those rules may be childish, but they make sure that every child has a chance to win.

1. What is true about children when they play games?

A．They can stop playing any time they like.

B．They can test their personal abilities.

C．They want to pick up a better team.

D．They don't need rules.

2. To become a leader in a game, the child has to ___________.

A．play well	B．wait for his turn
C．be confident in himself	D．be popular among his playmates

3. What do we know about grown-ups?

A．They are not interested in games.

B．They find children's games too easy.

C．They don't need a reason to play games.

D．They don't understand children's games.

4. Why does a child like playing games?

A．Because he can be someone other than himself.

B．Because he can become popular among friends.

C．Because he finds he is always lucky in games.

D．Because he likes the place where he plays a game.

【推荐3】French children are saying “Hello” to the new academic year and “Bye” to their cellphones during school hours. That’s because a new law has come into effect which bans phone use by students up to the age of 15. The law, which follows a campaign promise by French President Emmanuel Macron, also bans tablets and smart watches.

The ban is also in place at break times, with exceptions in case of emergency and for disabled children, the French Education Ministry said in a statement. In emergencies, students can ask their teachers for permission to use their phones. Meanwhile, high schools can voluntarily carry out the measure.

Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said the new rules aim to help children focus on lessons, better socialize and reduce social media use. The ban is also designed to fight online bullying(欺凌) and prevent thefts and violence in school. Blanquer has told the media that the new law would improve self-control among France’s 12 million school students, nearly 90% of whom have mobile phones. “Being open to technologies of the future doesn’t mean we have to accept all their uses,” Blanquer said in June as the bill was going through in Parliament.

School administrations will decide how to put through the ban and a series of practical measures will be adopted to store students’ phones in lockers or allow them to keep them, switched off, in their backpacks. The law allows teachers to take away the phones until the end of the day in case of someone disobeying the bans.

Jacqueline Kay-Cessou, whose 14-year-old son, David, is entering eighth grade at the Camille See International School, told ABC News she was happy to hear of the ban. “It’s fantastic news. It’s something I’ve wanted for years,” Kay-Cessou said. “I think phones are harmful socially. Kids can’t think and sit still anymore and it’s highly addictive.”

1. What can we know about the new rule?

A．The new rule is welcomed by teachers.

B．French students can use phones during breaks.

C．French students can bring phones to school.

D．The new rule bans all the electronic products at school.

2. Which of the following is the benefit of the new rule?

A．Saving resources.

B．Opening to technologies.

C．Helping fight online bullying.

D．Reducing the misuse of electronic products.

3. What is the opinion of Jacqueline kay-Cessou?

A．Parents should take away cellphones.

B．The school should be strict with students.

C．The cellphone help people socialize better.

D．The cellphone brings a lot of harm to students.

4. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear ?

A．Science.	B．Education.
C．Culture.	D．Entertainment.

【推荐2】Today we bring you an old tale. It’s the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf that blew down a house made of straw and one made of sticks. The only house left standing was the one made of bricks. Now there is new evidence to suggest that houses built with bales of straw can be very strong. They are also very environmental.
Pete Walker is a professor at the University of Bath in Britain. He and a team of researchers there have built a house made out of straw bales and hemp material. During the next twelve months the team will study the effectiveness of these materials in home building. Professor Walker says there are many good reasons for using straw.
Professor Walker: “One of the benefits is it’s a relatively inexpensive renewable material that’s readily available.” He also agrees that straw takes in carbon dioxide as it grows and helps the environment in other ways. So it can be seen as having no harmful effects on the environment.
Professor Walker: “The straw bale walls are relatively thick and so all that straw provides very good thermal insulation. So we make buildings that require very little heating in the winter or indeed very little cooling in the summer. So they require very little additional energy.”
Professor Walker says this reduces home operating expenses. It also reduces the effect on the environment. He says the current interest in straw bale houses is a direct response to the problem of climate change.
David Lanfear owns an eco-friendly home building service in the United States called Bale on Bale Construction. He says he laughed when some friends first told him about houses built of straw. But after doing his own research, he learned that building with straw bales made a lot of sense. He has now helped to build more than ten straw bale houses and says the building material is becoming more widely accepted.
To build the houses, he fills a wood frame with tightly packed bales of straw. Next he coats the walls inside and out with layers of clay plaster. He says the common ideas about straw houses continue, including stories about the threat of fire. Mr. Lanfear says straw bale houses have done well when tested for fire resistance. And he says his builders use the same building methods as traditional builders to keep out rain.
David Lanfear: “We use what we call good shoes and a good hat, and that would be a solid foundation and a really good roof.”
1. What’s David Lanfear’s attitude towards the straw houses at last?

A．Ridiculous.	B．Approving.
C．Defensive.	D．Unbelievable.

2. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Using straw to build houses is dearer than using bricks.

B．The houses built with bales of straw are stronger than those built with bricks.

C．Straw which is convenient to get is much cheaper than thick bricks.

D．Houses made of bricks are no better than those made of straw.

3. According to the passage, we know that ________________.

A．there is some experience in building the straw houses

B．the house made of straw bales is the same as the traditional one

C．the house made of straw bales is still under research

D．it’s uncertain that the straw house can be very strong

【推荐3】Do you continue to be healthy in social isolation (隔离)? NASA is looking for people to spend 8 months locked in a Russian lab for a new experiment.

When humans go to the moon and travel to Mars, they will need to be prepared for long-term space travel and even longer stays on these far-off destinations. Currently, NASA’s Artemis program aims to land humans on the moon for the first time since NASA's Apollo 17 mission landed in 1972.

While the moon is the main goal of NASA’s Artemis program, the agency’s larger goal is to send people to Mars. But long term space travel and habitation (居住) won’t be easy. Such missions will present both physical and mental challenges as astronauts work to not only survive, but perform important scientific research in uniquely difficult environments.

In the upcoming NASA-Russia experiment, a group of people will live in a closed facility at Russia’s Institute for Biomedical Problems, which is in Moscow. This habitat facility was used in 2011 for a notable series of Russian mock (模拟的) Mars missions known as Mars500. During these missions, groups of people spent 520 and 105 days on two separate missions in the facility.

The facility, according to the statement, will have “environmental factors similar to those astronauts are expected to experience on future missions to Mars”. The group of people will spend 8 months living together in isolation and working on scientific research.

By living and working in this Mars-like environment, participants in this study will help NASA researchers understand the psychological and physiological (生理的) effects of isolation. These missions help researchers not only perform relevant science experiments but also see how people might get on under strange conditions for long periods of time.

So, if you’re finding that living in social isolation works for you, you might be particularly well-suited for living in a Mars-like environment and this could be for you. But first, you have to qualify. NASA is looking for “highly motivated” Americans between the age of 30-55, who must speak both Russian and English fluently and have a Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor o[ Medicine, or military officer training. Applicants with other related experience may also be considered. Those who are chosen to be a part of this group will be paid for their work.

1. Which of the following succeeded in landing humans on the moon?

A．Apollo 17 mission.	B．Artemis program.
C．Mars500.	D．Institute for Biomedical Problems.

2. What do we know about the new NASA Russia experiment?

A．It will send people to live on Mars for 8 months.

B．It needs experienced Americans without an age limit.

C．It will be carried out in a Mars-like environment in NASA.

D．It makes preparations for NASA’S human spaceflight program.

3. Why does the author mention “Mars500” in the text?

A．To show the progress in space technology.

B．To explain why the facility has been chosen.

C．To indicate the new experiment will be successful.

D．To describe the life of astronauts in the mock Mars missions.

4. Which can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Want to Have A Trip to Mars? Come!

B．Aretmis -- NASA’S Latest Program

C．Competent in Isolation? NASA Wants You!

D．NASA’s Human Space Travel Program