【推荐2】You’d think the human race would have understood sleeping very well by now, but many of us are still sleeping poorly. Part of the problem is that we have wrong information and beliefs about this important health need. Let’s set the facts straight.     1    

1. More sleep is better for you.

There could be such a thing as too much sleep. The amount of sleep we need varies by person and also changes as we age. Harvard researchers found that a lot of sleep (9 hours or more) is linked with poor sleep quality.     2     Aim for better sleep.

2.     3    

Alcohol can help most people fall asleep. However, it also can cause you to wake up more during the night, decreasing your sleep quality. Consider drinking non-alcoholic drink before bed instead.

3. If you wake up in the middle of the night, lie in bed until you eventually fall back asleep.

    4     We all hope to quickly fall back asleep. So we tend to stay in bed hoping it’ll happen at any minute now. If that doesn’t happen, though, within 15 minutes, most experts recommend getting out of bed to do something that occupies our bodies and brains without overstimulating us. Try not to check the clock either.

4. You can catch up on sleep on weekends.

When we lose sleep during the week, we accumulate a kind of sleep ＂debt＂.     5            Not so fast. This might actually make you sleepier the next week. Instead of waking up later on the weekends, you’d better go to sleep earlier or perhaps take a nap in the afternoon.

A．Alcohol helps you sleep.

B．Here are some things you might have been told about sleeping but aren’t completely true.

C．Everyone should get 7—8 hours of sleep per night.

D．So don’t aim for more sleep — even on the weekends.

E．Waking up in the middle of the night is the pits (烦心事), but it happens to all of us.

F．You’ll have a better day and perhaps sleep better at night.

G．Can you pay that debt back by sleeping on Saturday or Sunday?

【推荐1】阅读下面的短文和问题，根据短文内容，在相应题号后的横线上写下相关信息，完成对该问题的回答。答语要意思清楚，结构正确，书写工整。

As online learning becomes more common and more resources are changed to digital form, some people have suggested that public libraries should be shut down and everyone should be given a tablet.

Supporters of this idea state that it will save local cities and towns money because libraries are expensive to maintain. They also believe it will encourage more people to read because they can simply click on what they want to read wherever they are.

However, it would be a serious mistake to replace libraries with tablets. Digital books and resources are associated with less learning and more problems than print resources. A study done on tablet vs. book reading found that people read 20-30% slower on tablets, remember 20% less information, and understand 10% less of what they read, compared to people who read the same information in print. Additionally, staring too long at a screen has been shown to cause health problems, including blurred vision, dizziness, dry eyes and headaches, at much higher instances than reading print does. We should not add to these problems by giving people, especially young people, more reasons to look at screens.

It is incredibly narrow-minded to assume that the only service libraries offer is book lending. Libraries have a lot of benefits, and many are only available if the library has a physical location. Some of these benefits include acting as a quiet study space, giving people a way to talk to their neighbors, holding classes on a variety of topics, providing jobs, answering questions, and keeping the community connected. One neighborhood found that, after a local library instituted community events such as play times for kids and parents, job fairs for teenagers, and meeting spaces for senior citizens, over a third of residents reported feeling more connected to their community. Therefore, people see libraries as a way to connect with others and get their questions answered, which are benefits that tablets can’t offer as well or as easily.

While replacing libraries with tablets may seem like a simple solution, it would encourage people to spend even more time looking at digital screens, despite the many issues surrounding them. It would also end access to many library benefits that people have come to rely on. In many areas, libraries are such an important part of the community network that they could never be replaced by a simple object.

1. Why do some people believe tablet reading can encourage more people to read? (不多于14个单词)
2. What does the study in paragraph 3 show? (不多于12个单词)
3. According to paragraph 4, what are the advantages of public libraries over tablets? (不多于15个单词)
4. Do you think public libraries will be replaced by tablets? Why or why not?(单词数不限)

【推荐2】To be clear, plastic bags are rightly thought of as a threat that’s harmful to human health. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a decade ago, the average American family took home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year, filling our cabinets, kitchen drawers, and landfills (垃圾填埋场). Today the numbers are slightly better: According to National Geographic, as of 2018, shoppers in the United States used almost one plastic bag per resident per day.

This is not a story about the evil of plastics, but about whether the reusable bag can justify its existence. Although more environmentally friendly than traditional single-use plastic bags, reusable bags, depending on what they are made of, are more energy-intensive (耗能的) to recycle.

According to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme, depending on what they are made of, reusable bags might have to be deconstructed in a costly recycling process to separate the different materials. As a result, in many cases, reusable bags are not recycled. That means despite the best intentions, millions of reusable bags designed to replace the need for traditional plastic shopping bags, will also end up in landfills.

Another point to consider, not all reusable bags are equal in terms of their recyclability. There are a wide range of reusable bag options on the market, and reusable bags tend to be made of more than one material to give the bag added reinforcement and added street fashion. On a life cycle basis, stronger, heavier bags—no matter what material they are made of—will have a more severe environmental effect. That’s because heavier bags use more resources to produce as well as distribute.

Just like plastic bags did, reusable bags multiply rapidly. Used for promotional (促销的) purposes and marketing of all kinds, reusable bags’ growing popularity means bags that have been used very little (or not at all) can be found piled in streets, in garbage cans, in city parks, and basically everywhere. Therefore, consumers have come to see them as disposable, defeating their very purpose.

In the end, the best practice of dealing with reusable bags is to have no half measures: Either use them all the time or don’t use them at all. Using a reusable bag once or twice and then throwing it away doesn’t do the environment any favors.

1. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Plastic bags are refused by environmentalists.

B．Shops in America have limited the use of plastic bags.

C．The need of strong and fashionable reusable bags is more than the supply.

D．Reusable bags demand more resources to produce and recycle than expected.

2. The words “very purpose” in Paragraph 5 refer to the intention of ________.

A．being left in landfills

B．being used as much as possible

C．replacing plastic bags

D．promoting goods on the market

3. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．How to Recycle Reusable Bags

B．Disadvantages of Plastic Bags

C．Reusable Bags? Think Twice!

D．Plastic Bags, Less Popular?

【推荐3】Research carried out last year stressed the growing challenge facing employers in terms of managing and supporting the UK’s aging workforce.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics have suggested that the number of people aged 65 and over still working has reached 1.19 million—up 25,000 from a year ago. There were also now more people aged 50-74 in work than ever before. However, the overall trend was hiding the fact that 12% people are forced to stop working before reaching state pension age because of ill health or disability.

Nearly half a million (436,000) workers who are within five years of state pension age have had to leave work for medical reasons, with an apparent divide between the North (worse) and South (better). Those in the lowest-paid jobs, including cleaners, leisure industry workers and people doing heavy laboring jobs, were twice as likely to stop working before retirement age, because of sickness and disability than managers or professionals.

Within this, the needs of the “sandwich generation”— those juggling work with caring for elderly dependents as well as children — needed to be given greater priority (优先权) by employers, a white paper by insurer and health care provider concluded.

Its research argued that 66% of managers think the average age of retirement in their organization will increase in the next 5 to 10 years. Yet, 36% reported being unaware of anything their organization did to attract, keep and engage older staff. Fewer than a quarter (23%) of employees said they felt supported by their employer with their responsibilities for caring for a loved one.

This was perhaps unsurprising, given that only 28% of managers said their organization had formal policies and practices in place to support these employees, argues health care distribution director Chris Horlick.

1. According to the passage, who is more likely to leave work before retirement age?

A．Tom, a physician.	B．Jason, a language teacher.
C．Henry, a construction worker.	D．Bill, a bank manager.

2. The present support from the employers can be best described as _________.

A．moving

B．dissatisfying

C．inspiring

D．surprising

3. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Old employees are well attended in the UK.

B．Aging workforce should be well supported in the UK.

C．Employers show responsibilities for supporting their employees.

D．UK employers are facing challenges in supporting aging workforce.