【推荐1】The United Nations Food Systems Summit(峰会)held last September was overshadowed by a powerful counter-moblilization effort led by farmers and scientists and small-scale food producers across the world.

Opposition to the summit had been mounting since July, when hundreds of grassroots organizations challenged the organizers for framing the problem of food systems in narrow, technocratic ways and offering “false solutions” such as biotechnological interventions(干预)instead of promoting more sustainable, just and people-first ways of farming. Also in July the Philippines approved commercial cultivation of Bt eggplant, a genetically modified (GM) food that produces a protein that kills eggplant fruit and “Golden Rice” changed to produce beta-carotene, the forerunner of vitamin A. The Philippines thus became the first country in South and Southeast Asia of approve GM rice.

Advocates of GM crops praised the Philippines’ move as a victory of science. Since the U. N.’s food summit was announced two years ago, different groups have steadily reduced applications of science to global problems to a limited set of investor-oriented innovations. Within this orbit, agricultural biotechnology and digitalization are boasted as vital to achieving the U. N.’s sustainable development goals. As governments now debate the way forward from the summit, it is critical to recognize that a narrow focus on technology to address the complex structural problems of farming and food has an astonishingly poor track record.

At its base, GM crops are rooted in a colonial-capitalist model of agriculture based on theft of local land and on exploiting farmers’ and food workers’ labor, native knowledge and the web of lift itself. Today this agricultural model is responsible not only for increasing farm debt, depleted soils, and threats to native seeds and biodiversity but also the destruction of farmers’ knowledge and skills. For the world to achieve sustainability, this colonial model of agriculture must be dismissed, and promising agroecological approaches based on working with biodiversity and farmers’ knowledge and skills should be brought to center stage.

Most GM crops are engineered with resistance to herbicides(除草剂)and insects, which has not only contributed to the emergence of “super-weeds” and increasing pesticide use but has driven the global growth of seed and chemical industries. These kinds of crops have principally benefited large-scale farmers, grain traders and multinational corporations involved in selling seeds and pesticides.

Multinational agribusinesses have understood Golden Rice and Bt eggplant as pro-poor technologies to win over smallholder farmers and consumers in the Global South. The International Rice Research Institute has led Golden Rice’s development with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and in partnership with Syngenta (which owns rights to the rice) to address vitamin A deficiency (VAD) among the poor, especially children and pregnant women.

1. The recent Food Systems Summit was greeted with distrust because the organizers ________.

A．didn’t take the interests of people concerned into account

B．didn’t attach importance to the blossoming of agriculture

C．failed to come up with the effective initiatives with joint efforts

D．employed the inappropriate approaches to farming

2. What is the purpose of mentioning the Philippines’ case?

A．To prove the victory for the supporters of GM food.

B．To illustrate the Philippines’ opposition to the summit.

C．To argue it is a waste of money in the GM food.

D．To introduce how many nutrients GM food may contain.

3. ________ is advocated for the development of agriculture in the long run.

A．Exploiting farmers’ and food workers’ labor

B．Developing crops resistant to insects

C．Removing the colonial-capitalist model

D．Establishing partnership to address VAD

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．The Philippines is a country with cutting-edge technologies.

B．The application of GM food will solve the problem of environment.

C．Governments have initiated into the complex structural farming problems.

D．The booming pesticide industry is credited to the cultivation of GM food.

【推荐3】It’s hard to ignore the importance of sleep for our well-being. This is especially true for our children, says Rafael Pelayo, a sleep expert at the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center. Children who get insufficient sleep can become forgetful, have problems concentrating in school and studying, and have poorer immune function. They may even experience delayed growth. “Bone growth occurs when you’re sleeping,” says Pelayo. “From birth, sleep affects children’s bodies and brains.”

It’s probably not surprising, then, that sleep also affects mental health. “There is no mental health problem that doesn’t have a sleep element,” says Pelayo. For example, it’s well known that one of the signs of depression involves changes in sleep. Luckily, returning to a normal sleep pattern can help relieve depressive symptoms (症状), he says, stressing why treating sleep seriously could improve mental health. “Mental health and sleep impact each other,” says Pelayo.

While there are many benefits of having healthy sleep patterns, most kids don’t get enough sleep. As an example, Pelayo points to a time when his own child was in kindergarten, and the teacher assigned regular homework for her, which his daughter felt she needed to stay up late to finish. The same is true for older children — like teenagers — who are often assigned several hours of homework that keeps them up late studying. They may be unaware of how much sleep loss they are experiencing or how negatively it’s affecting them. But no one can sustain a loss of sleep over time, he adds.

What can we do to protect children’s sleep? Pelayo says that while sleep is a biological necessity, sleep habits are learned. That’s where parents can play an important role. First, they need to understand the necessity of sleep and pay attention when their kids seem sleepy or have trouble getting up in the morning. Also, parents should try to role-model good sleep habits themselves, he says. Role modeling is much more effective than punishment, he suggests. “You can’t be smoking a cigarette and telling your kids not to smoke, right? Parents have to model healthy behavior themselves,” he says.

1. What can be a possible consequence of children’s lack of sleep?

A．The forgetfulness of everything.	B．The stop of growth.
C．The collapse of immune system.	D．The decline of school performance.

2. Why does the author mention “depression” in paragraph 2?

A．To state people’s ignorance of sleep loss.

B．To stress the importance of mental health.

C．To display the consequences of mental problems.

D．To show the connection between sleep and mental health.

3. What does Pelayo think about his daughter’s regular homework in kindergarten?

A．It affected his daughter’s sleep negatively.

B．It wasn’t beneficial to the studies of his daughter.

C．It helped his daughter form healthy sleep patterns.

D．It wasn’t helpful for his daughter to develop good learning habits.

4. What can we conclude from the last paragraph?

A．Good sleep habits are inborn for children.

B．Kids will definitely follow the example of their parents.

C．Parents can do much to help their kids form good sleep habits.

D．Punishment is an effective way to make kids get up early in the morning.

【推荐1】阅读下面短文，根据文章内容及题目要求回答问题。

It is normal to feel worried and stressed during an exam period. Exams show progress, and failing could mean falling behind in the same course or subject. That is why most people can understand your anxiety around the exam period. However, too much worrying could be the start of failure. Here are some tips to help you stay positive.

From attending classes to completing homework, the period leading to an exam is always a difficult process. This is why preparing well for the exam is key to ensure your efforts do not go fruitless. Going through practice questions beforehand never disappoints for any exam. For example, if you are a physician preparing for the USMLE exams, you could check for the USMLE practice questions before the real exam time just to familiarize yourself with the exam. By so doing, you are more guided on how and where exactly to review.

Although some exams are important and could determine the future of your academic life, it cannot determine your whole life. You might have done a thorough revision but still, the first paper ended up extremely tough for you. At this point, you can only keep a hopeful mind that the next one will be easier and that you will do better.

It can be really motivating for you to know that you have something positive coming up right after going through a difficult exam time. Being able to plan for a trip or buy yourself a gift after an exam is awesome enough. The fact that you are able to face the exams should be encouraging enough and you should appreciate yourself for it.

Exams times are temporary(暂时的) and they are usually for a good course, In any case, you will only be dealing with the exams for a short time and so you should put all your time and energy there.

1. According to the passage, why is it understandable to be anxious around the exam period?
2. What does the author advise us to do when the first paper is rather difficult?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
>It is encouraging for you to know that something good will happen when you achieve expected results.
4. Please briefly present your ways to stay positive during an exam period.(In about 40 words)