In my everyday life, I am on an ongoing journey to figure out different ways to reduce my carbon footprint on the planet. A carbon footprint is the measure of influence our activities have on the environment, in particular climate change. It is calculated by the amount of greenhouse gas we produce in our daily lives. Fortunately, nowadays it is much easier to make eco-friendly lifestyle choices than, let's say, 20 years ago. But one question has been on my mind a lot lately: is it better to buy new eco-friendly products or used traditionally produced goods?
After doing some research, I have decided that some things are better new and others are better used. Let me try to explain.
A carbon footprint is made up of two parts, the primary footprint and the secondary footprint. The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions(排放)of carbon dioxide(CO2)from the burning of fuels, including household energy consumption and transportation. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use-those related to their production and breakdown.
Based on this understanding, we have a good deal of control and responsibility over our carbon footprint. Things like dishes, clothes and furniture fall into the “secondary footprint” group, so less is more and we can focus on finding used goods to avoid the added production. However, for the car and the other appliances(设备)that we need we can go with new, energy-saving models. I heard somewhere that electronics and appliances give off 90% of their carbon footprint after they leave the factory. So it seems most reasonable to go for the energy-saving models. The main concern here is the amount of energy that goes into the making of new products and whether or not that extra carbon is worth the footprint the product will make once it gets to you.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．What appliances to buy to save energy. |
| B．What a carbon footprint means in our life. |
| C．How to identify different carbon footprints. |
| D．How to make eco-friendly lifestyle choices. |
| A．It is related to our consumption of fuels. |
| B．It is made when we are buying the products. |
| C．It is less harmful than the primary carbon footprint. |
| D．It is counted as ours though not directly made by us. |
| A．Using second-hand textbooks. | B．Using old and expensive cars. |
| C．Buying new but cheap clothes. | D．Buying new wooden furniture. |
| A．using the product | B．recycling the product |
| C．making the product | D．transporting the product |
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【推荐1】In the past few weeks, Richard Eckersley has noticed a change in the type of people who come into his shop. In 2017, the former Manchester United footballer set up Earth. Food. Love in Tones, Devon, with his wife, Nicola. It’s the UK’s first “zero waste” store—the food is in big jars and boxes and people bring their own containers. “A lot of new people are coming in-people who have not necessarily been interested in environmental issues before”, he says.
Recently, the government called for supermarkets to introduce plastic-free passageways. But Eckersley says many customers are already way ahead of politicians. He and Nicola have helped people set up similar stores in Wales, Birmingham, and Bristol. Ingrid Caldironi had a similar idea. She set up a plastic-free shop in London last year, which has been so popular that it is soon moving to a bigger site.
Eckersley and Caldironi are members of an anti-plastics movement in the UK that has been growing as a result of the BBC’s Blue Planet series and a general worry about the damage plastic is doing to the environment. But big supermarkets have so far not tried very hard to reduce their plastic waste. Sian Sutherland, founder of the movement “A Plastic Planet”, says, “The most exciting thing is that politicians and industry are no longer saying that recycling will solve the problem. Banning the use of plastic packaging for food and drink products is the only answer.” Walking down the passageways of the supermarket where everything from pizza to fresh fruit and vegetables is covered in plastic. Sutherland says immediate action is needed.
Plastic pollution is causing widespread global damage. More than one million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute, and most end up in landfill or the sea. The contamination is so wide that tap water around the world also contains plastic.
1. What is special about Earth. Food. Love?| A．It gives away boxes of food. | B．It is a store without plastic bags. |
| C．It has few new customers. | D．It is the UK’s first supermarket. |
| A．Its popularity. | B．Its products. | C．Its profits. | D．Its similarity. |
| A．Pollution. | B．Acceptance. | C．Influence. | D．Application. |
| A．The impact of BBC’s Blue Planet series on anti-plastics movements. |
| B．Rising anti-plastics movement alongside increasing environmental concerns. |
| C．A guide to setting up plastic-free stores to promote recycling in the whole UK. |
| D．Richard Eckersley’s personal journey in waste reduction and pollution prevention. |
【推荐2】Imagine living on the edge of a vast desert, which is moving quietly closer to your village every day and covering your fields. The desert is on the move. This is called desertification.
Desertification occurs in regions close to an already existing desert.
The second cause is misuse or over-use of the land.
What can be done to slow down or stop the process of desertification? A great deal of work is already under way. Obviously the first steps are to find new water sources.
| A．It generally arises from two related causes. |
| B．It is not only the farmers and villagers who suffer. |
| C．Scientists are doing the research on the cause of desertification. |
| D．They destroy the land, as the oil dries out and is then blown away. |
| E．Tree planting can help, by providing barriers between desert and rich field. |
| F．This means that the wrong crops are planted, and need more water than is available. |
【推荐3】How to limit your environmental impact while travelling
Travelling unlocks a world of endless possibilities and adventures, allowing us to hike through breathtaking landscapes, encounter kangaroos and deer in their natural habitat, and witness the power of volcanoes.
Try to travel by land instead of air. While air travel can often be quicker, it is typically one of the most polluting forms of transport.
Make the most of safe tap water (自来水). Drinking tap water may come as a shock to many travelers. But when you’re in countries where tap water is safe to consume, avoid bottled options. Not only are they more expensive, but they have a higher level of pollution compared to treated tap water.
Respect the local environment. When visiting different destinations, we should recognize the importance of protecting the natural beauty. We mustn’t throw rubbish everywhere.
| A．Be a responsible hotel guest. |
| B．Explore with green tour companies. |
| C．Instead, carry a bottle and refill it wherever you can |
| D．And we should avoid activities that may harm wildlife. |
| E．However, tourism can also be harmful to the environment. |
| F．Low-cost airlines have made it much more affordable to travel. |
| G．Taking the train or driving in some countries may be better options. |
【推荐1】In many walks of life and in many situations, persuading people to .do what you want them to do is the key to success. Researchers have looked into different aspects of persuasion and come up with some interesting results which are surely helpful to us.
One advertising copywriter came up with an approach to selling a product on a TV shopping channel via phone sales. Instead of being instructed “Operators are waiting, please call now”, viewers were told “If operators are busy, please call again”. The results were extraordinary. The ad suggested operators weren't- sitting around hoping .people would call. Instead there were so many people: wanting the product that people might have to wait until they could get it.
What role does choice have in persuading people to buy or get something? One study in a supermarket showed the effect of choice. A particular supermarket displayed either 6 or 24 different kinds of jam. The 1arge display attracted more interest than the small one. But when the time came to purchase things; people who saw the large display were one-tenth as likely to buy. If they do buy, they are less content with their selection, even though they have made a good choice. A wider range of choices require more time and effort and lead to unreasonably high expectations.
Another aspect 6f persuasion concerns getting someone to change their mind: It's hard to prove to someone that a previous decision is wrong, and as people get older they get less and less willing to change their minds. People want things to be unwavering; they want their attitudes, statements, values and actions to follow a set pattern. The only way to persuade them to change is to acknowledger this by agreeing that the previous decision they made is a perfectly understandable one. This allows them to focus on your suggestion without feeling their previous decision is wrong. As a result, they may be persuaded to break out of their established pattern.
1. What does the advertising copywriter want to indicate about the product?| A．It's for sale. | B．It's precious. | C．It's in demand. | D．It's' rare. |
| A．Increased choice decreases satisfaction. | B．More selections bring more actions. |
| C．More and more people don't want to choose. | D．Some choices are more attractive than others. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Favorable. | C．Understandable. | D．Unbearable. |
| A．To teach bow to get better at persuasion. | B．To discuss various studies on persuasion. |
| C．To compare different forms of persuasion. | D．To analyze how persuasion affects success. |
【推荐2】 Recently, the UK Department of Health (DoH) says in one of its reports that measures taken to deal with the advertising of rubbish food to children seem to be taking effect — at least in terms of television advertising. According to DoH, a childthemed ad is an ad that has a connection with a children’s TV programme, film, book, computer game or a licensed character, a new product or packaging designed to appeal to children.
The advertising of HFSS foods (high in fat, sugar and salt) has become something of a battleground between the industry and health defenders, with the former saying that efforts are being made to guarantee that children are targeted less, and the latter arguing that these efforts are inadequate (不适当的)．
However, advertisers may be turning their attention to other media. In the press, money spent on general food and drink childthemed advertising between 2004 and 2009 increased. Annual childthemed ad spending on radio and the Internet also increased by 11 percent.
UK Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo responded to the report, “I am pleased that there are now fewer ads on TV that are making our children fall into bad eating habits — but we must keep an eye on other types of media. I hope that the industry will continue to play its part in reducing the exposure that children have to the advertising of HFSS foods.”
1. We can learn from the text that DoH’s report ．| A．shows the government’s attitude toward rubbish food advertising |
| B．stresses the responsibilities taken by the advertising industry |
| C．covers the effects of HFSS foods on children’s health |
| D．concerns with children’s exposure to rubbish food advertising |
| A．plays a major role in children’s lives |
| B．will influence children’s buying habits |
| C．is designed to target child customers |
| D．will be banned by DoH |
| A．The measures taken to fight against the rubbish food advertising. |
| B．The influence of advertisements for rubbish food on children. |
| C．The efforts made to reduce childthemed advertisements. |
| D．The efficiency of the advertising of HFSS foods to children. |
| A．the government should take further measures to solve the problem |
| B．TV advertising will greatly influence children’s eating habits |
| C．he is fairly confident of the solution to the problem in the end |
| D．it needs the efforts from the government and the industry to solve the problem |
【推荐3】Engineers from the University at Buffalo, Fudan University in China, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have come together with funding from the National Science Foundation to produce an efficient and cost-effective device that purifies drinking water using the world’s most abundant power source-the sun.
More than 2, 300 years ago, the philosopher Aristotle described the water cycle. He has explained that water is heated by the sun, evaporates (蒸发) up into the air, condenses (凝结) into drops, and then falls back to the ground, pure and free of pollutants.
Professor Qiaoqiang Gan and the other engineers created a method of purifying water that builds upon Aristotle’s ancient observations. Gan’s team invented a solar water purifier that is a modern version of an evaporative solar still. This device looks like the roof of a tent, with strips of carbon-coated paper covering the top so that the paper strip hangs down on the sides. The ends of the paper strip dip into a water container at the bottom. Gradually, the water in the container is absorbed by the paper. When the black carbon coating on the paper is heated by the sun, the wet paper begins to dry. During evaporation, salt, dirt, bacteria, and other pollutants are trapped in the paper. As the temperature cools, water droplets begin to condense on the surface of the paper. The purified water is collected in a clean container and is ready to drink.
There are a few key advantages of the solar water purifier. First, the device is quick and efficient. The solar still can generate up to 5 gallons of clean water daily, which is enough to provide sufficient drinking water for a family. Furthermore, this solar water purifier is cheaper than other water-purification devices because it is made with inexpensive and widely available materials.
There are also disadvantages in terms of the adaptation to diverse environments on Earth and the building up of salt in the process. Currently, the engineers are working to make their purifier available worldwide. Soon, drinkable water will be purified and accessible where it is needed.
1. Why does the author mention Aristotle and the water cycle in the text?| A．To catch readers’ attention and interest. |
| B．To add more authority to the new invention. |
| C．To show the history of the solar water purifier. |
| D．To help illustrate the basic working principles of the invention |
| A．To cover the top. | B．To collect clean water. |
| C．To hang down on the sides. | D．To absorb water and heat from the sun. |
| A．What the researchers have done. |
| B．How the solar water purifier works. |
| C．What the solar water purifier can do. |
| D．How similar Aristotle’s observation is to the purifier. |
| A．Dark. | B．Uncertain. | C．Promising. | D．Unpredictable. |
【推荐1】The real point of human nature lies in the social bonds that we make through family, friendships, professional associations and local communities. These bonds produce a sense of common purpose and values, in which groups of people seek hard and enjoy together the things that are for the common good: a sound education, a pleasant environment to live in, a healthy population. This is what the heart of the gift economy (经济) is.
In the past, American companies operating in Japan found it difficult to attract Japanese people, even though, compared with Japanese employers, they offered more generous wages, shorter work hours and better promotion chances. But these were traditionally not so important to the employees, who did not think of their services as being ‘bought’. Rather, they felt they were entering into a long-term—“gift exchange” —relationship with their employer, which was of mutual (相互) benefit.
This relationship had many aspects. At its most basic it related the simple exchange of physical gifts. For example, if the employee got married, the company sent a gift. Another company gift which is popular among Japanese employees is the yearly company vacation. On these organized weekends co-workers share dormitories, eat together and visit the same attractions, largely at the company’s expense. For their part, the main gift given by the employees to their company is their hard work and this is why each Japanese employee gives such great attention to accuracy, and quality in their work. Even the simplest tasks are carried out with extraordinary care.
Now, neighborhood groups use online networks to share tools and skills. Someone who needs a long ladder to repair their roof does not need to go out and buy one; they simply put a message up on the neighborhood discussion board and soon a neighbor will offer theirs. Via the Internet, knowledge and advice can be shared on almost everything, from how a nuclear reactor works to how to plan your holiday. The gift economy is going through a booming time.
1. What is the key point of the gift economy?| A．People’s working hard. | B．People’s similar social status. |
| C．Sharing social interests. | D．Accepting social bonds. |
| A．The companies offered them low salaries. |
| B．They were difficult to get a better position. |
| C．The companies provided shorter vacations. |
| D．They didn’t want to sell their services. |
| A．Contribute themselves to the company. |
| B．Exchange physical gifts with each other. |
| C．Spend less money while talking vacations. |
| D．Organize more effective weekend parties. |
| A．It is changing the Internet services. | B．It benefits greatly from the Internet. |
| C．It is better accepted on the Internet. | D．It booms the Internet development. |
【推荐2】Bike Share Toronto is the city’s official bike share program, designed to give locals and visitors a fun, affordable and convenient alternative to walking, taxis, buses and the subway. There are 200 Bike Share Toronto stations and 2,000 bikes across the city, making Bike Share the most accessible way to get around and explore.
How it works
●Become an Annual Member or buy a day Pass to access the system.
●Find an available bike nearby, and get a ride code or use your member key to unlock it.
●Take as many short rides as you want while your pass or membership is active.
●Return your bike to any station, and wait for the green light on the dock(停靠点)to make sure it’s locked.
Choose a plan
●For visitors
Day Pass: $7. Unlimited 30-minute rides in a 24-hour period.
3-Day Pass: $15. Unlimited 30-minute rides in a 72-hour period.
●For locals
Monthly Pass: $25. Unlimited 30-minute rides for a month.
Annual Membership: $90. Unlimited 30-minute rides for a whole year. The Annual Membership is the best deal for locals of Toronto and other frequent riders.
The first 30 minutes of each ride is included with the membership or pass price. Avoid extra fees by dropping off your bike every 30 minutes at any other station. If you keep a bike out for longer than 30 minutes at a time, you will be charged an extra $1.50 for the first 30 minutes over, $4 for the next 30 minutes, and $7 for each additional 30 minutes after that.
Contact us
●Customer Service: (855)898-2388
●Repair Service: (855)-2378
●Corporation Partners: (855)898-2398
●Employment Opportunities: (855)898-2498
1. Which is the most suitable choice for locals in Toronto?| A．Day Pass | B．3-Day Pass |
| C．Monthly Pass | D．Annual Membership |
| A．$5.5 | B．$9.5 |
| C．$12.5 | D．$15.5 |
| A．(855)898-2399 | B．(855)898-2378 |
| C．(855)8989-2398 | D．(855) 898-2498 |
| A．A member can get a code or a key to the bike |
| B．Bike Share Toronto is a non-profit organization |
| C．Shared bikes have taken the place of other vehicles |
| D．The green light on the dock shows the bike is unlocked |
【推荐3】A mother has taken her celebration（颂扬）of great women in history to the next level—by dressing her baby daughter up as some of the most famous women of all time. Jenelle Wexler, a hair stylist from Chicago, the USA, came up with the idea when she noticed similarities in appearance between her four-month-old baby, Liberty, and a Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
Wexler took photos of Liberty who was dressed up as the Mexican artist. And after that, Wexler wanted to go on with what she did. "The pictures came out wonderfully, and soon after that, I thought about other women in history that contributed to the benefit of women and people as a whole," she says.
Wexler takes the photos with her iphone. Up until now, she has dressed Liberty up as a series of famous women, including Marie Curie, Coco Chanel, Madonna and Amelia Earhart.
Once she decides which woman she would like Liberty to play, she researches the person and learns about some of the historic achievements this woman has made. Wexler checks photos of each woman, which she then uses to design clothing and setting that will show their character and achievements.
It takes Wexler around 20 minutes to take each photo, and for every dress-up activity, Wexler usually takes nearly 50 pictures in total. "Liberty has acted 34 women of influence," she says. She just wants to draw people's attention to those who should really be admired in our society—there are so many great women who need to be remembered and have their stories told.
1. What made Wexler dress Liberty up as Frida Kahlo?| A．Frida Kahlo is popular among women. |
| B．Wexler admires Frida Kahlo very much. |
| C．Liberty and Frida Kahlo looked like each other. |
| D．Wexler wanted Liberty to be an artist like Frida Kahlo |
| A．Show how the dress-up activity goes on. |
| B．Offer some suggestions on picture-taking. |
| C．Value women's contributions to the world |
| D．Introduce some research on famous women |
| A．She enjoys taking photos to record life. |
| B．She devotes all her time to her daughter. |
| C．She works hard to protect the rights of women |
| D．She puts lots of effort into the dress-up activity. |
| A．To introduce some excellent women. |
| B．To advise people to take pictures of kids. |
| C．To call on people to remember famous women. |
| D．To choose proper role models for young people. |
【推荐1】If you believe that scientists and artists are most creative when they're young, you are missing an important part of the story. A new study published in De Economist looked at Nobel Prize winners in the field of economics. It found there are two different peaks of creativity. One comes early in a person's career, while another comes later.
The research supports previous work by the authors that found similar patterns in the arts and other sciences.
"We believe what we found in this study isn't limited to economics, but could apply to creativity more generally," said Bruce Weinberg, lead author of the study and professor of economics at The Ohio State University.
"Many people believe that creativity is exclusively associated with youth, but it really depends on what kind of creativity you're talking about."
In the study, those who did their most groundbreaking work early in their careers tended to be "conceptual" innovators（创新者）.
These type of innovators "think outside the box", challenging conventional wisdom and suddenly coming up with new ideas. Conceptual innovators are not yet immersed（沉浸于）in the accepted theories of their field, Weinberg said.
But there is another kind of creativity, he said, which is found among "experimental" innovators. These innovators accumulate knowledge through their careers and find new ways to understand it.
The long periods of trial and error for important experimental innovations come later in a Nobel laureate's（荣誉获得者的）career.
"Whether you hit your creative peak early or late in your career depends on whether you have a conceptual or experimental approach," Weinberg said.
The researchers took a novel, empirical（经验主义的）approach to the study, which involved 31 laureates. They arranged the laureates on a list from the most experimental to most conceptual.
This ranking was based on the laureates' most important work, classifying them into "conceptual" or "experimental".
After classifying the laureates, the researchers determined the age at which each laureate made his most important contribution to economics and could be considered at his creative peak.
They found that conceptual laureates peaked between ages 25 and 29. Experimental laureates peaked when they were roughly twice as old, in their mid-50s.
"Our research suggests that when you're most creative is more about how you approach your work."
1. What does the underlined phrase "think outside the box" mean?| A．Follow rules strictly. | B．Experiment on boxes. |
| C．Break old thought patterns. | D．Figure out how to escape from a box. |
| A．They usually come up with new ideas all of a sudden. |
| B．They make discoveries through constant trial and error. |
| C．The majority of them reach their creative peak in their twenties. |
| D．They make more contributions than "conceptual" innovators. |
| A．The study is not the first of its kind. |
| B．The conclusion can be applied to other areas. |
| C．The laureates' most important work decides whether they are "conceptual" or "experimental". |
| D．The "conceptual" won their Nobel Prizes between ages 25 and 29. |
| A．One's personality type. | B．What kind of job one takes. |
| C．How one handles their work. | D．One's attitude toward their work. |
| A．Creativity comes at any age, young or old. |
| B．Creativity tends to decrease as people get older. |
| C．Economists, artists and other scientists have much in common. |
| D．Economists are more creative than artists and other scientists. |
【推荐2】A new study found the greater the improvement in people’s handwashing habits at airports, the more noticeable the effect on slowing the infectious (传染的) diseases, including the flu. The findings were published in late December, 2019, just before the recent coronavirus (冠状病毒) outbreak, but the study' s authors say that its results would apply to any such disease and are relevant to the present outbreak.
People can be surprisingly casual about washing their hands, even in crowded locations like airports where people from many different locations are touching surfaces such as chair armrests, check-in entrances, security checkpoint trays, and restroom doorknobs and taps. On average, only about 20 percent of people at airports have clean hands. The others are potentially polluting everything they touch with whatever infections they may be carrying.
Improving handwashing at all of the world's airports to be three times that rate, so that 60 percent of travelers have clean hands at any given time, would have the greatest effect, potentially slowing global disease spread by almost 70 percent, the researchers found. Adopting such measures at so many airports and reaching such a high level of obedience may be impractical, but the new study suggests that it could potentially be accomplished through education, posters, public announcements, and perhaps improving access to handwashing facilities. It could slow the global rate of the spread of a disease by about 24 percent, they found.
The findings are consistent with recommendations made by both the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. Both have indicated that hand hygiene (卫生) is the most efficient and cost-effective way to control disease spread. While both organizations say that other measures can also play a useful role in limiting disease spread, such as use of surgical face masks, airport closures, and travel limitations, hand hygiene is still the first line of defense-and an easy one for individuals to implement.
1. What is most people’s attitude to handwashing?| A．Favorable. | B．Careless. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Cautious. |
| A．Establishing higher hygiene standards. |
| B．Making handwashing fun and enjoyable. |
| C．Passing special laws to require handwashing. |
| D．Raising people's awareness of handwashing. |
| A．To introduce other measures. |
| B．To stress the importance of it. |
| C．To tell who carried out the study. |
| D．To make the study results more convincing. |
| A．People have many good habits at airports. |
| B．Handwashing reduces infectious diseases. |
| C．New coronavirus is breaking out. |
| D．There is great improvement in handwashing. |
【推荐3】It turns out that overworking your brain with either physical or mental exercise may lower your ability to delay self-satisfaction. And that may set you up for poor choices in your self-care and finances.
A new study published in the journal Current Biology asked excellent endurance athletes to overtrain for three out of 9 weeks, and compared them to a group who did a normal 9-week training program.
Not only did those overworked athletes perform worse on a cycling test at the end of the overtraining, MRIs of their brains during behavioral tasks showed more exhaustion in the cognitive control part of the brain system. "Cognitive control in this situation is the capacity to maintain exercise despite things like muscle pain," said study author Bastien Blain, a research associate at University College London. “And what we found is that there is an intelligence factor involved in exercising and it has a limited capacity. You cannot use it forever.''
In other words, your brain will burn out and affect your body's ability to exercise. But that's not all. Overworking that part of the brain also reduced the athletes' abilities to resist temptation of an immediate reward."For example, they were asked whether they preferred $10 now or $50 in six months," Blain said. “And those who overtrained were more likely to choose the immediate reward, which is interesting. It could provide a mechanism to explain why some athletes are using drugs to improve their performance."
One caution about the exercise study is that it only looked at endurance athletes, said. Dr. Mare-Andre Cornier, who is associate director of Colorado University's Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. "This is potentially very important for the higher end athlete who is overdoing it," he said.“But does this have anything to do with the average Joe going to the gym? You can't conclude that from this study."
1. According to Paragraph 3 we know that__________.| A．Overworked athletes did well in their training. | B．A limited capacity can't be used forever. |
| C．The intelligence factor can't be used forever. | D．Cognitive control is the ability to start exercise. |
| A．Because overtraining led to their bad decisions. |
| B．Because all parts of their brain were tired. |
| C．Because they were too eager to succeed. |
| D．Because they took drugs to improve their performance. |
| A．A study about self-satisfaction. | B．Negative effects of too much exercise. |
| C．The relation between brain and exercise. | D．Poor choices in people's self care and finances. |
| A．There is a limit to the brain. |
| B．Higher end athletes have great potential |
| C．Top athletes possibly suffer from overtraining. |
| D．Delaying self-satisfaction results in better performance. |
