Plants: we eat them, juice them, weave them — and now it seems we can mine them too!
After a successful experiment on the island of Borneo, Botany Professor Alan Baker and a group of researchers want to introduce phytomining (harvesting minerals from plants) as a better, partial substitute for traditional mining.
Phytomining means collecting metal from live plants. However, this can only be done with a group of plants known as “hyperaccumulators.” They naturally attract and absorb minerals through their roots and then store huge, pure concentrations of these minerals in their bodies. The metal can then be extracted from the plant’s sap (液), oil, or sometimes even live tissue.
The term “phytomining” was coined in 1983 by Rufus Chaney of the US Department of Agriculture, who had worked with Baker in early phytomining experiments. But the idea of plant-mining was actually thought of 500 years ago by German scientist Georgius Agricola, who smelted leaves to identify the metals underground.
Baker and his colleagues see a lot of potential in phytomining. Not only can it help meet the growing global demand for metals, but is also a way of undoing some of that damage to the environment by traditional mining.
One of the biggest problems with traditional mining is that it pollutes the surrounding area. Phytomining can extract that metal waste, plus planting the hyperaccumulators would regrow the deforested areas created by mining operations.
Aside from this, if phytomining is able to replace part of traditional mining, then there would be fewer instances of bad mining practices like abandoned mines, which pollute the nearby waters. Also, since phytomining provides metal that is already naturally pure, there is no need to use huge amounts of energy to purify the ore (矿石).
However, phytomining has its drawbacks. Harvesting plants on a large scale is expensive today, compared to traditional mining. Besides, plants can be wiped out by diseases or unexpected weather conditions.
However, there are many reasons to consider phytomining. It gives us the hope that our advancement doesn’t mean sacrificing Mother Earth.
1. What makes hyperaccumulators different from other plants?| A．The ability to take in and store metals. |
| B．The ability to process various nutrition. |
| C．Their roots deep through the earth. |
| D．Their oil extracted from live plant tissue. |
| A．It can pollute the nearby area. |
| B．It can waste huge amounts of energy. |
| C．It can do harm to our climate. |
| D．It can be affected by bad weather. |
| A．The term came up even 500 years ago. |
| B．Its potential mainly lies in lower cost, compared to traditional mining. |
| C．It can make up for the damage caused by traditional mining. |
| D．It uses clean energy sources to purify the ore. |
| A．Future of phytomining | B．Metals from plants |
| C．Solutions to pollution | D．Experiments on plants |
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【推荐1】In Sweden, McDonald’s is building “bee hotels” on the back of its roadside billboards (广告牌) to help save the country’s decreasing bee population. It launched the campaign together with outdoor advertising giant JCDecaux. Six large wooden bee hotels, with drilled holes on the front, first appeared on the back of a north-facing billboard in Jarfalla in September.
“Without pollination (授粉) from bees, a third of the food we eat would be threatened.” McDonald’s said. But it turns out that at least 30 percent of the country’s wild bee population is endangered, according to the fast-food chain. A big problem is that they lack places to live. Based on data released by Chalmers University of Technology, we know Sweden owns 274 species of bees, of which 37 species are bumblebees, and more than a third are decreasing or face the risk of decreasing. Their natural habitats have been damaged by factors including the changes of agricultural activities and fast urbanization (城市化). Fortunately, most bees are able to survive in urban habitats, like the bee hotels.
Every McDonald’s authorized restaurant in Sweden will be allowed to order their own bee hotel billboards and design the messages by themselves, as the fast-food chain says. It is their hope that the number of hotels could grow to a greater extent in the near future. Great efforts in addition to that have been made by the company. On World Bee Day, May 20, it introduced “the world’s smallest McDonald’s”. McHive, which could function as an actual beehive (蜂箱). Designed by set designer Nilsson himself, the creation was sold for $10,000 at a charity fundraiser held for Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Beehives can be found on the rooftops of some McDonald’s restaurants in Sweden, too. This took place in certain areas but is now followed by an increasing number of participants. More McDonald’s restaurants are making an effort to improve the living conditions of wild bees by removing the grass round their restaurants to grow flowers and plants instead.
1. According to the passage, the challenge that wild bees are facing is ________| A．the fast process of industry. |
| B．the world's Large amount of trash. |
| C．the rapid development of urbanization. |
| D．the sharp growth of population. |
| A．By providing shelters for bees. |
| B．By offering food to bees. |
| C．By advertising rescue activities. |
| D．By putting up more billboards. |
| A．Wild bees in danger |
| B．The loss of bees’ habitats |
| C．McDonald’s bee hotels |
| D．The protection of wild bees |
【推荐2】Where Do Mosquitoes(蚊子)Go in Winter?
Why do mosquitoes ,everywhere in warmer months,disappear completely in winter?
Female mosquitoes, though, can live through the winter. They hibernate (冬眠). In autumn, the females will go into hollow logs or cracks in the ground and enter this still state.
When it warms up again, the females will come out from hibernation. At this point, they’re getting ready to lay their eggs and they need as much blood as possible to help the eggs develop. The females must find a blood meal to provide the protein(蛋白质) needed by their eggs to develop, just in the time, when humans are outdoors in short sleeves enjoying the warming weather.
It actually doesn’t have to be what we humans would consider “cold” to put a mosquito in danger. While these pests live actively when it’s around 80 degrees F, most species can start heading into hibernation when it drops to around 50.
| A．The obvious answer is that it’s cold. |
| B．Now it’s time for male mosquitoes to wake up. |
| C．It’s only the female mosquitoes that are biting you. |
| D．Unlike birds,mosquitoes don’t fly south for the winter. |
| E．Anything below 50 degrees is already too cold for most mosquitoes. |
| F．They carry on with life only when there is enough water for their needs. |
| G．They can hibernate for up to six months in freezing or waterless conditions. |
【推荐3】High-pitched and yet distinct, the sound of a voice calling the name “Amy” is unmistakable. But this isn't a human cry—it's the voice of a killer whale called Wikie.
New research reveals that orcas are able to imitate human speech, saying words such as "hello", "one, two" and “bye bye”. The study also shows that the creatures are able to copy unfamiliar sounds produced by other orcas.
Writing in the journal Biological Sciences, researchers from institutions in Germany, UK, Spain and Chile, describe how they carried out the latest research with Wikie, a 14-year-old female orca living in an aquarium in France.
After first brushing up Wikie's grasp of the “copy” command, she was trained to imitate three familiar orca sounds made by her 3-year-old Moana. Wikie was then additionally exposed to five orca sounds she had never heard before, including noises sounding like a creaking door. Finally, Wikie was exposed to a human making three of the orca sounds, as well as six human sounds, including “hello”, “Amy”, “ah ha”, “one, two” and “bye bye”.
The team found that Wikie was often quickly able to copy the sounds, whether from an orca or a human, with all of the novel noises copied within 17 trials. What's more, two human sounds and all of the human-produced orca sounds were managed on the first attempt—although only one human sound "hello" was correctly produced more than 50% of the time on subsequent trials.
The creatures are already known for their ability to copy the movements of other orcas, with some reports suggesting they can also copy the sounds of bottlenose dolphins and sea lions after several trials.
Scientists say the discovery helps to cast light on how different groups of wild killer whales have ended up with distinct accents, adding weight to the idea that they are the result of imitation between orcas.
1. What is the author's main purpose in writing the text?| A．To analyze orcas' speech abilities. | B．To highlight the conservation of the orca. |
| C．To inform us of orcas' ability to imitate sounds. | D．To convince us of the intelligence of the orca. |
| A．The process of the research. | B．The outcome of the research. |
| C．The purpose of the research. | D．The significance of the research. |
| A．The six human sounds. | B．All the new orca sounds. |
| C．Human-produced orca sounds. | D．Dolphin and sea lion sounds. |
| A．Why orcas imitate human speech. | B．Why orcas have different accents. |
| C．How orcas copy others' movements. | D．How orcas communicate with others. |
【推荐1】When it comes to cooling the planet, forests have more than one trick upon their trees. A new study finds tropical (热带的) forests help cool the average global temperature by more than 1℃. “The effect is largely from forests’ ability to stockpile CO2. But around one third of that tropical cooling effect comes from several other processes, such as the letting-out of water vapor (水蒸气),” researchers reported on March 24 in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change.
“We tend to focus on CO2 and other greenhouse gases, but forests can not only keep CO2,” said Deborah Lawrence, an environmental scientist at the University of Virginia. “It’s time to think about what else forests are doing for us besides keeping CO2.”
“Researchers already know that forests influence their local climates through various chemical processes. Trees let out water vapor through their leaves and, like human sweating, this cools the trees and the things around them. But on a global scale, it isn’t clear how the other cooling works compared with the cooling provided by forests’ ability of keeping CO2,” Lawrence said.
So she and her colleagues studied how over-cutting would affect global temperatures, using data gathered from other studies. For example, the researchers used data to decide how much the letting-out of CO2 stored by those forests would warm the global temperature. They then compared those results with other studies’ results of how much the loss of other aspects of forests.
The researchers found that in forests at latitudes (纬度) from around 50°S of the equator to 50°N, the primary way that forests influenced the global average temperature was through CO2 store. But other cooling factors still played large roles.
1. What does the underlined word “stockpile” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Improve. | B．Explore. | C．Store. | D．Defend. |
| A．Forests need CO2 to keep their balance. | B．Some chemicals are harmful to forests. |
| C．Forests can sweat and breathe like humans. | D．Forests may benefit us in many other ways. |
| A．The result of Lawrence’s research. |
| B．Lawrence’s research method. |
| C．The difficulty that Lawrence was faced with. |
| D．The reason why Lawrence studied trees. |
| A．Nature. | B．Technology. | C．Culture. | D．Sports. |
【推荐2】Studies show that humans and cats have been living together for about 9,500 years. Dogs have lived with humans longer than cats, and dogs have been trained to do what people want them to do.
As cat owners know well, cats do not follow humans in the same way dogs do. As a result, many people have come to think that maybe cats do not understand human language. A report shows that cats understand human language well enough to recognize their own names. The report tells a series of experiments with house cats in Japan. In these tests, people said four words that were similar to cats' names, and each word had the same number of syllables and some of the same sounds.
The cats seemed to lose interest after the speaker said a few of the words. Then the person said the cats' names. The cats moved their ears when they heard their names. They also moved their feet.
In another part of the experiment，Japanese researchers went to a cat café, a business where humans can come to spend time with cats. They compared house cats to cats that live at the cat cafe. When people said the names of the cats staying in the cat café, these house cats reacted as much to the names of the cats living at the cat cafe just as to their own names. The researchers thought this was because visitors may give food to the cats when they reacted.
The researchers hope that the findings from their study will help both cats and people. They add that perhaps cats can learn words to warn them of dangerous things or places.
1. What does the report show?| A．Dogs can recognize their names. | B．Cats know nothing about humans. |
| C．Cats understand some human language. | D．Dogs have lived with humans shorter than cats. |
| A．They moved their ears. | B．They made a big noise. |
| C．They moved off the speaker. | D．They touched the speaker with their feet. |
| A．To take care of cats. | B．To do an experiment with cats. |
| C．To buy some cat food. | D．To drink coffee. |
| A．The cats like to live with human beings. | B．The cats can understand what human says. |
| C．The cats and dogs both are friends of human. | D．Human like dogs better than the cats. |
【推荐3】Adjusting to a new sleep schedule at the start of the school year can lead to disturbed rest, daytime tiredness and changes in mood and focus for teens. Although they need eight to ten hours of sleep per night to maintain physical health, emotional well-being and school performance, according to the National Sleep Foundation, most adolescents get less than eight.
Newly published research from RUSH in the journal SLEEP reveals how adolescents can get more shut-eye. “There are a lot of changes a teen goes through,” said Stephanie J. Crowley, PhD. “One specifically is a change to sleep biology that happens during adolescence.” Crowley said, “there are two competing forces: one to go to bed earlier for the school schedule and the other a biological change that happens naturally to a teen’s body.” Because of this complex conflict, RUSH researchers set out to test a two-week intervention that targets the circadian(昼夜节律的) system with different behavioral measures and tries to help the teens figure out a better nighttime routine.
To solve teen sleep shortage, the researchers used bright light therapy on two weekend mornings for a total of 2.5 hours. The bright light helps the internal clock to wake up a little earlier. This shift should make it easier for the teens to fall asleep at an appropriate time. Crowley and her team then helped them make up for sleep problems by providing time management tools and addressing barriers to an earlier bedtime, like limiting certain after-school activities.
Researchers were able to shift the teens’ bedtime by an hour and a half earlier, and their total sleep time increased by approximately an hour. “The interesting thing is that teens with late circadian clocks shifted by up to two hours earlier,” Crowley said. “And the teens who had an earlier circadian clock didn’t need to be shifted any earlier. They just needed the behavioral support of trying to manage their time in the evening and increase their sleep duration.” The researchers also found the teens in the intervention group were less tired, and less angry, and they exhibited better concentration. The students’ morning attention improved as well.
1. According to the author, what’s the major sleeping problem in teens?| A．Most teens’ circadian clocks have changed. |
| B．Most teens get less than eight hours of sleep. |
| C．Too much sleep affects teens’ academic performance. |
| D．Teens have to get more sleep in order to go to school. |
| A．To highlight the importance of circadian clock changes in teens. |
| B．To emphasize the significance of teens’ night-time routine. |
| C．To show the conflict between sleeping early and not wanting to sleep. |
| D．To build connection between sleeping earlier and rising earlier. |
| A．It makes teens go through many different changes. |
| B．It makes teens without enough sleep concentrate on their study. |
| C．It helps teens go to bed three hours earlier every day. |
| D．It does help teens develop good sleep patterns. |
| A．Teens’ Sleeping Time | B．Helping Teens Get More Sleep |
| C．Experiment on Teens’ Behavior | D．Improving Teens’ Concentration |
【推荐1】According to a study published in the pre-print website bioRxiv, a team of Israeli scientists recorded tomato and tobacco plants producing sound frequencies which humans cannot hear in stressful situations-such as when they experienced a lack of water or their stems were cut. The team identified the sounds with microphones placed around 10 centimeters (around four inches) away from the plants, though the scientists say the noises could potentially be heard several feet away by some mammals and insects, such as mice.
Plants exposed to drought stress have been shown to experience cavitation—a process where air bubbles form, expand and explode inside tissue that transports water. These explosions produce sound, but they have only ever been recorded using devices directly connected to the plants. The latest study, meanwhile, is the first to identify plants making sounds which can be detected over a distance. And the researchers say that cavitation could potentially be the source of these sounds.
The team detected the tomato plants made 35 sounds an hour on average when they were exposed to drought conditions, while the tobacco plants produced 11. When the stems of the plants were cut, the tomato plants made 25 sounds an hour on average and the tobacco plants produced 15.As a comparison, unstressed plants made less than one sound hour on average, according to the study.
The team say that while they only tested tomato and tobacco. It's possible that other plants could also produce sounds, adding that the latest findings could have implications for agriculture. “Plant sound emissions could offer a novel way for monitoring crops' water state- a question of vital importance in agriculture,” the authors wrote in the study. “more Precise irrigation can save up to 50 percent of the water consumption and increase the output, with dramatic economic implications.”
“According to Anne Visscher from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K, the idea that the sounds could be used in precision agriculture is, practical' though she urges caution regarding the Israeli team's suggestion that other animals could hear the sounds at a distance,” New Scientist reported.
1. What does the Israeli scientists find about plants?| A．Stressed plants tend to lack water. |
| B．The stressed plants can make sounds. |
| C．Some plants can understand humans' sounds. |
| D．Some mammals and insects can communicate with plants. |
| A．It may lead to plants experiencing drought. | B．It may contribute to the plants' sounds. |
| C．It is determined by the number of air bubbles. | D．It was identified and recorded for the first time. |
| A．35 | B．11 | C．25 | D．15 |
| A．critical | B．cautious | C．reserved | D．supportive |
【推荐2】Hunting for aliens (外星人) might sound like science fiction. But it’s a serious science.
No aliens have been found yet. But it’s a big universe. Scientists have found thousands of planets orbiting other stars. And there may be billions of other worlds still to be discovered. Some may even have moons that can support life. Over the last 60 years, scientists have hunted only a tiny bit of it for interstellar (星际的) messages.
Some people think we’d have a better chance of meeting aliens if we introduce ourselves. In other words, send our own messages into space. But other scientists say this is a bad idea. We might not want to advertise our existence to unfriendly aliens.
There may also be aliens that aren’t able to send or read messages. Some planets may be home to simple, even tiny life forms. To find those worlds, scientists look for new worlds in the place suitable to live. This is the area around a star where a planet would be just warm enough to have liquid water. That’s important because water is essential for all known life.
A planet may not have to look just like Earth, though, to be a good home for aliens. Some hardy creatures on our own planet grow strong and tall in seemingly unlivable conditions. Some microbes (微生物) live on the deep seafloor. Learning about these microbes broadens our view of what places in the universe might be livable.
The question of whether we are alone in the universe has captured people’s imaginations for thousands of years. And the answer has two equally exciting possibilities. In outer space, either we are completely alone—or we are not.
1. What can be inferred from the second paragraph?| A．Aliens have been found up to now. | B．The universe has a lot to be discovered. |
| C．There can’t be aliens on other planets. | D．No messages have been received from outer space. |
| A．It is hard to send messages into space. | B．Aliens cannot receive the messages. |
| C．It may bring trouble to human beings. | D．Aliens are not so smart as us humans. |
| A．To show aliens might be easier to be found. |
| B．To illustrate microbes like living in the sea. |
| C．To explain why hardy creatures can grow stronger. |
| D．To show that life may exist in some poor conditions. |
| A．Fashion. | B．Health. | C．Sports. | D．Science. |
【推荐3】Hundreds of native North American plants, often dismissed as weeds, deserve a lot more respect, according to a new study. These plants, distant cousins of foods like cranberries and pumpkins, actually represent a botanical treasure now facing increased threat from climate change, habitat loss and invasive species.
The crops that the human race now depends on, including grains like wheat and tree fruit like peaches, originally were selected or bred(培育) from plants that grew wild hundreds or thousands of years ago. And those ancestral plants like the small wild sunflowers that can be found across the United States, still exist. “If you see them growing along roadsides, those are the ancestors,” says Colin Khoury, a research scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. Khoury says wild lettuce(莴苣) plants grow along roads, or in backyards, but go unrecognized. “They look nothing like lettuce,” he says. “They are scratchy, thorny, little and ugly.”
Khoury loves these wild relatives of food crops, not just for emotional reasons. “These wild plants are of great value,” he says. That wild sunflower, for instance, can survive in a salty environment that would kill most plants. So plant breeders cross-pollinate(使异花传粉) it with commercial sunflowers and create new varieties that can grow in places where the soil contains more salt. Other wild relatives may be hiding similarly remarkable gifts, Khoury says, such as genes that could help their domesticated(家养的) relatives survive diseases, deal with pests, or adapt to disruptions in the climate.
Khoury and some of his colleagues just finished a survey of about 600 wild crop relatives that grow in North America, and published it this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They found that the survival chances for most of these plants are being undermined because of things like fires, farming and commercial development. The scientists argue that these endangered species deserve more protection. “It’s more just being aware that these plants actually exist,” Khoury says. “They need protection.”
1. What is the characteristic of wild lettuce plants?| A．They can be commonly seen. | B．They look the same as lettuce. |
| C．They are selected from grains. | D．They are smooth and beautiful. |
| A．They can improve soil quality. |
| B．They can slow down climate change. |
| C．They can kill most dangerous wild plants. |
| D．They can help with domesticated plants’ growth. |
| A．Assessed. | B．Destroyed. |
| C．Obtained. | D．Offered. |
| A．The Distant Cousins of Food Crops Are What We Really Need |
| B．Scientists Have Found a New Way to Increase Our Food Crops |
| C．Wild Relatives of Food Crops Deserve Respect and Protection |
| D．Everyone Should Take Action to Protect Botanical Treasures |
【推荐1】Free Level Test: Spanish courses in Sydney
Let your language journey begin.
Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world and the official language of more than 20 states, including Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, etc.
If you are planning a trip or just want to learn Spanish, consider taking a free Spanish Level Test at Instituto Cervantes Sydney, the official Spanish language and cultural centre in Australia.
Instituto Cervantes Sydney is home to Spanish language classes whose purpose is to develop students’ ability to understand, speak, read and write in Spanish. All teachers are university qualified and use the most up-to- date teaching methods.
If you already have some knowledge of Spanish, this Level Test is fit for you, as you will be tested by one of the teachers before being put into a class. You can also have all the information you need to start learning Spanish here, including courses and costs.
Ask the customer service team members about information on the free library service for students and the exciting cultural activities held all year round.
If you haven't studied Spanish before, you can enroll(注册) online in a level A1.1 ( Beginner Course). You can also enroll at the reception during business hours.
Don't miss out on discounts. Learn Spanish with up to a 7% Early Bird Discount if you enroll before the 20 of April. Students at Instituto Cervantes Sydney also enjoy special discounts on activities such as dance classes, cinema tickets and much more.
Begin your Spanish language journey with Instituto Cervantes Sydney today by joining a free Level Test this summer; there are different classes to choose from between the 11h and 18 of April.
For more information on Instituto Cervantes Sydney and their classes and cultural activities, please visit sidney. cervantes. es/ en/ default. shtm.
1. To a student who has learned Spanish, the class he will be in is decided by _______.| A．which country he is from | B．his grades in a Level Test |
| C．when he enrolls for the course | D．his reasons for learning Spanish |
| A．They are about business Spanish. | B．They center on learners' listening. |
| C．They are run with cultural activities. | D．They are taught with traditional methods. |
| A．They can save some money. | B．They can go to free dance classes. |
| C．They can start their classes earlier. | D．They can choose their favorite teachers. |
【推荐2】As I was thinking about language learning the other day, the image of baking bread came into my mind. I compared some of the exercises and drills that we put ourselves through in order to learn a language to the various ingredients that go into baking a loaf of fresh bread.
Real language learning takes place in human relationships. No one sits down and eats a cup of flour, even if he is hungry and in a hurry. You don’t become bilingual (双语的) by learning lists of vocabulary. You don’t become a speaker of a language by memorizing verb conjugations (动词的词形变化) and agreement rules. You become bilingual by entering a community that uses that other language as its primary means of communication.
I am not suggesting that we can make bread without ingredients. Flour is necessary, as are yeast, salt, water and other ingredients. Vocabulary is part of any language and will have to be learned. Grammatical rules exist in every language and cannot be ignored. But merely combining the appropriate ingredients in the recommended proportions does not result in bread. At best, you only end up with a ball of dough (面团).
In order to get bread, you have to apply heat to the dough. And in language learning, that heat comes from the community. Anyone who has learned a second language has experienced that heat. It creeps up your neck when you ask the babysitter, “Have you already been eaten?” when you meant to say, “Have you already eaten?” When you try to say something quite innocent and the whole room bursts into laughter, you are experiencing the heat that turns raw dough into good bread. Remember the old saying, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen?” This is where language learning often breaks down because we find the heat uncomfortable and we stop the baking process. In other words, we can’t stand the heat, so we get out of the kitchen.
However, the language learner who stays in the kitchen——in the heat until the combined ingredients are thoroughly transformed will enjoy the richness of a quality loaf of bread. He said that he did not “get out of the kitchen” at the critical moment when the oven seemed too hot. The dedicated language learner knows that becoming bilingual cannot be achieved without the heat!
1. The passage is mainly about________.| A．how we can make baking bread with various Ingredients |
| B．how to become bilingual by communicating with others |
| C．what an important role “heat” plays in learning a language |
| D．what a high quality of bread you may achieve in the kitchen |
| A．bearing millions of words and expressions in your mind |
| B．using the language to communicate with those around you |
| C．knowing verb conjugations and grammatical rules |
| D．saying something innocent to be laughed at by others |
| A．To prove that you are sure to make some mistakes when you enter a community. |
| B．To show that you should combine the ingredients in the recommended proportions. |
| C．To prove that you may experience “heat” from the community in language learning. |
| D．To indicate that being bilingual calls for your courage, confidence and perseverance. |
| A．Wonderful skills. | B．Various ingredients. |
| C．Appropriate proportions. | D．Uncomfortable heat. |
【推荐3】Sometimes when she felt bored, she would pick up one of the numerous biographies（传记） about herself and begin to note on it. “I never did that” or “simply not true” she would write roughly in the margins at the sides of pages. Since journalists, biographers and more recently even “bloggers” had been writing about her since the day she was born, there was plenty of material to edit. Not that her notes or corrections were ever shared with the authors. Lately, however, she even seemed to have lost her appetite for correctness. Did it matter anymore if things were not right?
She knew that sitting alone chewing away on downbeat thoughts would not get her anywhere and would leave those around her confused and upset, should they ever catch her out. After all she was the decisive one, always on top of her game. A printed timetable for the following day lay on the table. full day of openings and presentations, of smiling and nodding and flowers.
Shaking herself out of her gray mood, she stepped over towards the computer where a sudden burst of energy gave her an idea. The screen flashed up in front of her but instead of clicking on the familiar icons which would lead her to the emails Randolph had considered she needed to read, she simply went to visit Mr. Google and began her search for train timetable.
A dish heaped with multi-coloured jellies and plenty of ice cream, served by a white-gloved train waiter with a perfect moustache. So many years had passed but she still remembered the jelly dissolving on her tongue in small but delicious mouthfuls. Each spoonful had to be lifted delicately to her mouth under the watchful eye of her grandmother, who was a stickler for good manners. It was unlikely that they served jelly on the trains these days, what with all the concern about childhood fatness, but even a Spartan menu could not kill the romance of a train journey. As the timetable for Linehurst line flashed in front of her, she remembered that the Mayor of Alwoy would be expecting her to make a short predictable speech at the opening of the new bridge.
1. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?| A．Randolph is probably an assistant or a secretary to the main character. |
| B．The main character is always busy editing plenty of material about herself. |
| C．The main character is probably a journalist writing blogs about royal members. |
| D．The authors probably had chances to get the notes or correctness from the main character. |
| A．She wishes she still knew where the handsome train waiter was. |
| B．Today's children aren't allowed to eat the same things that she ate as a child. |
| C．She wishes that she were still a child so that she could eat jellies and ice cream. |
| D．She is reminded of these foods because the thought of a train journey reminds her of them. |
| A．include a range of sweets, but no jelly |
| B．be suitable for a romantic dinner |
| C．have mainly low fat, healthy foods |
| D．include foods which are easy to transport |
| A．Randolph will send some emails to the main character. |
| B．The main character will update her blog on the Internet. |
| C．The main character will decide to take a rail journey. |
| D．The main character will practise her speech for greeting the Mayor of Alwoy. |
