【推荐1】Lego is considering a brick rental scheme in an attempt to cut down on plastic waste. The Danish toymaker has promised to make all its bricks from sustainable （可持续的） sources by 2030 and is ploughing significant resources into finding alternatives.

Tim Brooks, vice-president responsible for sustainability, said the company was "totally open" to the idea of a product rental scheme but acknowledged that lost pieces could cause a significant problem. He said the rental scheme was "possible" but admitted there were some "technical barriers", one of which is the complexity of some Lego kits （配套元件），many of which contain thousands of pieces.

" What are the chances of giving them to an eight-year-old child and getting them all back again?” Mr Brooks added. "There is a lot of technical thinking that needs to be done.

We are right at beginning of that.” Mr Brooks said Lego was exploring several ideas with a view to producing the highest value from products while consuming the least amount of resources. He said many would "probably never see the light of day” and there was no current plan to try a rental scheme.

Lego has come under increasing pressure to reduce its carbon footprint amid growing international alarm about the impact of plastic waste on the environment. It manufactures 19 billion pieces per year—36,000 a minute——that are made only of plastic while much of the internal packaging is also plastic.

So far, the only breakthrough has been the development of a line of bricks made from plant-based plastic sourced from sugarcane. The green trees, plants and flowers were first included in Lego sets late last year but account for only one-two percent of the total amount of plastic elements produced. Henrik Ostergaard Nielson, a production supervisor in Lego's factory in Billund, told the New York Times last year： "We need to learn again how to do this”

1. How will Lego cut down on plastic waste?

A．By considering a brick rental scheme.

B．By producing a new kind of toys instead of bricks.

C．By replacing common plastic with a renewable material.

D．By investing large amounts of money into market.

2. What does Tim Brooks expect of the product rental scheme?

A．It'll cause certain serious problems.

B．It'll be of great complexity.

C．It'll require more mature technical skills.

D．It'll involve much more kits of bricks.

3. What does the underlined word “many” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Ideas.	B．Values.
C．Products.	D．Resources.

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Lego has to explore a new product to earn a profit.

B．A brick rental scheme has been put into mass production.

C．plant-abased plastic is environmentally friendly.

D．Lego is optimistic about the brick rental scheme.

【推荐2】Heating and cooling equipment are the biggest users of energy in American homes. And homes are responsible for about one fourth of the nation’s total energy use. But there are surprisingly simple ways to deeply cut energy use，its effect on the environment and its cost. David Peabody and his team at Peabody Architects design passive homes. He says the design of a passive house aims to reduce energy demand to its lowest possible level. Passive houses use no solar，geothermal or wind energy equipment. But they are extremely energy efficient.

Mr Peabody says passive houses cut heating and cooling costs by about 90 percent. But what sets his design apart from other "green homes" is that it looks like any other home. Peabody Architects says it is building the first passive home in the Washington. D.C. area. But it will not he the last. In Arlington. Virginia. Roger Lin and his brother Eric are also building one. Roger Lin of Southern Exposure Homes explains that windows are sealed against leaks and have three layers of glass. The windows are airtight. On a cold winter day，the temperature inside the unfinished home is a comfortable 12 degrees，or 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

David Peabody says you can find passive honks all over the world. DAVID PEABODY：

"North Africa，for example，has a passive house community designing for very hot dry climates.” The first passive design was an apartment building in Darmstadt，Germany. Two physicists helped develop it about 20 years ago. Passive houses use some specialized materials. These include precast concrete panels and insulation(隔热).They also need to have special air treatment systems. Supporters say they cost only about five or eight percent more than traditional homes. But they use 10 percent of the energy for heating and cooling.

1. Which of the following is the advantage of passive houses?

A．They are extremely energy efficient.

B．They look much like the other houses.

C．They cost much less than traditional houses.

D．They are more comfortable than other houses.

2. People are building or living in passive homes in the following places EXCEPT

A．Arlington	B．Mexico
C．North Africa	D．Germany

3. What can be implied in the passage?

A．Passive homes are specially built for winter use.

B．Passive homes can be found everywhere in the world.

C．"Green homes" differ from traditional homes in their appearances.

D．The construction of passive homes takes advantage of high technology.

4. What is the author’s attitude toward passive homes?

A．Objective.	B．Negative.
C．Doubtful.	D．Optimistic.

【推荐3】These days everyone is worried about the size of their carbon footprint. In order to reduce global warming, we need to make our carbon footprints smaller. But how much CO are we responsible for?

A new book by Mike Berners-Lee (a leading expert in carbon foot-printing) might be able to help. The Carbon Foot print of Everything looks at the different things we do and buy, and calculates the amount of CO₂ they produce, including the ingredients, the electricity, the equipment, the transport and the packaging. And it’s frightening how much carbon dioxide everything produces.

But all of this can help us decide which beer to drink. From Berners-Lee’s calculations, it’s clear that a pint (568 ml) of locally-brewed (酿制的) beer has a smaller carbon footprint than a bottle of imported beer. This is because the imported beer has been transported from far away, and it uses more packaging. The local beer only produces 300 g of CO₂-but the imported beer produces 900 g! So, one pint of local beer is better for the environment than three cans of cheap foreign beer from the supermarket.

Berners-Lee has even calculated the carbon footprint of cycling to work. Nothing is more environmentally - friendly than riding a bike, surely? Well, it depends on what you’ve had to eat before. To ride a bike we need energy and for energy we need food. So, if we eat a banana and then ride a kilometer and a half, our footprint is 65 g of CO₂. However, if we eat bacon before the bike ride, it’s 200 g. In fact, bananas are good in general because they don’t need packaging. They can be transported by boat and they grow in natural sunlight.

So, does this mean that cycling is bad for the environment? Absolutely not. If you cycle, you don t use your car; and the fewer cars on the road, the fewer traffic jams. And cars in traffic jams produce three times more CO₂ than cars travelling at speed. Cycling also makes you healthy and less likely to go to a hospital. And hospitals have very big carbon footprints!

So, maybe it’s time for us all to start making some changes. Pass me a banana and a pint of local beer, please.

1. Which of the followings produces the smallest carbon footprints?

A．A pint of local beer.

B．A bottle of imported beer.

C．A banana before a 1.5 km bike ride.

D．Bacon before a 1.5 km bike ride.

2. According to the article, the author suggests choosing the local food because it is ________.

A．more tasty	B．easier to buy
C．better packaged	D．more energy-saving

3. The purpose of writing this article is to ________.

A．promote a new book

B．advertise the imported beer

C．instruct how to measure the carbon footprint

D．encourage people to reduce the production of CO2

【推荐1】Biologists from the John Innes Centre in England discovered that plants have a biological process which divides their amount of stored energy by the length of the night. This solves the problem of how to portion out（分配） energy reserves during the night so that the plant can keep growing, yet not risk burning off all its stored energy.

While the sun shines, plants perform photosynthesis（光合作用）. In this process, the plants change sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into stored energy in the form of long chains of sugar, called starch（淀粉）. At night, the plants burn this stored starch to fuel continued growth.

“The calculations are precise so that plants prevent starvation but also make the most efficient use of their food,” said study co-author Alison Smith. “If the starch store is used too fast, plants will starve and stop growing during the night. If the store is used too slowly, some of it will be wasted.”

The scientists studied the plant Arabidopsis, which is regarded as a model plant for experiments. To give the plants some math tests, the biologists let night arrive unexpectedly early or late for them.

During one of the exams, they shut off the lights early on them that had been grown with twelve-hour days and nights. Putting them into darkness after only an eight-hour day means they didn’t have time to store as much starch as usual. And this forced the plants to adjust their normal nightly rhythm.

Amazingly, even after this day length trick, the plants did very well in their exams and ended up with just five percent of starch left over at the end of the night. They had neither starved, nor stored starch that could have been used to fuel more growth.

The authors suggested that similar biological calculators may explain how a migratory bird, the little stint, can make a five-thousand-kilometer journey to their summer habitat in the Arctic and arrive with enough fat reserves to survive only approximately half a day more, on average.

The results of the study were published in e Life.

1. According to the passage, plants _________.

A．use little energy during the day

B．usually stop growing at night

C．waste a lot of energy at night

D．store starch during the day

2. What did the scientists do when studying Arabidopsis?

A．They changed the plant’s light conditions.

B．They provided the plant with more starch.

C．They tried to keep the plant’s natural rhythm.

D．They attached a biological calculator to the plant.

3. When morning arrived, the experimental plants ________.

A．nearly died of lack of food

B．used most of their stored energy

C．began to regulate their food store

D．stored enough starch for the next day

4. What can we learn about the little stint?

A．They may have a system to control energy consumption.

B．They often die during their long and difficult journey.

C．They leave the Arctic in summer every year.

D．They are unable to calculate the distances.

5. The passage mainly tells us _________.

A．plants feel hungrier day by day

B．plants are good at storing energy

C．plants do math to survive the night

D．plants use starch to fuel their growth

【推荐2】请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的 单词。注意：请将答案谢在答题纸上相应题号的横线上，每个空格只填一个单词。

On the surface, one would be hard-pressed to find many similarities between German chancellor Angela Merkel, Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf --- except for the fact that they are all female leaders of nations. Merkel, for example, spent more than a decade as a chemist before going into politics, while Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh ’s first president, served as her father’s political assistant while at college, and Johnson Sirleaf worked at multiple financial institution s before running for vice president. Is there something deeper than they share?

The researcher Susan R. Madsen of Utah Valley University interviewed women in some countries about their paths to leadership. She was surprised by the similarities among the women when they spoke about how they became leaders. “Every single one of them talked about finding their voices and their confidence at dinner-table conversations with their families. Their parents talked about politics, about what was happening in the community, and when the women had something to say, their parents didn't stop them,” Madsen said.

As part of a series of interviews on women and leadership, I spoke to three women from different countries who have each become leaders in their respective fields: Agnes lgoye of Uganda, who works with her government to counter human trafficking; Ikram Ben Said, the founder of Tunisian women’s rights organization Aswat Nissa; and Sairee Chahal of India, who started a digital platform that helps women get back into the workforce.

All three of my interviewees pointed to the family environment they had been raised in --- particularly a father figure who taught and empowered the women in the family to learn, ask questions, and form their own opinions. Also, mothers broke convention by displaying leadership within the family.

Igoye, for example, credited her father with having the foresight to send his daughters to school despite opposition from others in their village. Her mother went back to school as an adult to improve her career as a teacher, which lgoye described as being a big influence on her. Similarly Ben Said talked about how her father encouraged political debate among the family when she was growing up, even when her opinions contradicted his. Meanwhile, Chahal said that even in her younger days, her parents went against the general convention of expecting their daughters to aim only for a good husband.

Another conclusion from Madsen's work is that women's leadership development doesn't look like men's. “Men tend to follow a more straight path to becoming a leader. Women's paths are much emergent. They tend to not necessarily look ahead and think, ‘I want to be on top.’ Women would point to a number of experiences--- motherhood, or working with a non-profit, or sitting on a board, as shaping their path to becoming leaders,” she said.

Actually, women leaders tend to be held to higher standards than their male counterparts. lgoye has felt this in Uganda. “Women who take up leadership positions in my country have to be tough, it's not easy at all,” she said. “You are always aware that you are representing all women. You have to work extra hard to deliver, to perform, because if you do something wrong, they will say, ‘Ah, you see, women!’ ”

Therefore, merely having women leaders can change the opportunities available for generations of women in a country. What leadership looks like in their country, how much of a voice the women leaders are having, influences what leadership is and what it means to its women.

What do women leaders have in common?

Introduction	These female leaders come from different cultural and political backgrounds, but do they share any     1     ?
Findings of Madsen’s research	In their early years, these female leaders were enabled to express themselves     2     and     develop     their confidence at dinner table. They got more chances to be     3     to politics. ⚫ Different from men, their previous experiences help them work their way to the     4     of their career ladder.
Findings of the author’s research	All these female leaders     5     their success to their family environment. ◇Unlike other children in her village, Igoye received     6     with her sisters. ◇Ben Said was encouraged to debate among the family even when her opinions went     7     her father’s. ◇Despite the general convention of     8     well, Chahal was brought up otherwise. ⚫ Women   leaders have   to   work     9     than   men
Conclusion	Female leadership     10     a lot to a nation and its women as well.

【推荐3】In 1880, fourteen-year-old Matthew Henson loved to hear sailors tell tales of their exciting lives at sea. The travel, the adventure, the danger, and the steady pay were all attracting young Henson. One day, he found a job as a cabin boy on a beautiful ship called the Katie Hinds. For the next five years, Henson sailed around the world. With the help of the ship’s captain and other members of the crew, Henson learned mathematics, navigation, history, geography, and many other subjects. By the time he left the Katie Hinds in 1885, Henson was well educated and had become an excellent seaman.
     Unable to find work anywhere else, Henson took a job in a hat shop in Washington, D.C. One day in 1887, a man came in to buy a hat. The man, Robert Peary, asked the owner if he knew anyone with experience at sea. Peary would soon travel to South America for the U.S. government. He needed experienced men to accompany him. The shop owner knew about his young employee’s skills and experience on ocean journeys, so he introduced Peary to Henson.
     Using his map-reading and sailing skills, Henson proved himself to be a worthy and smart seaman. Peary soon made Henson his assistant (助理), and they became close friends. One day Peary told Henson about his real dream: to be the first man to stand on “the top of the world” at the North Pole. He asked Henson to help him make his dream come true. Over the next five years, the two explorers made two trips together to the Arctic. However, they were not able to reach the pole either time. The cold, wind, and ice were worse than either of them had ever imagined.
     In 1908, Peary and Henson were ready to make their final attempt at reaching the North Pole. Both men were over forty years old. The years of hardship in the arctic cold had made them suffer a lot. This would be their last chance. With four Inuit (因纽特) guides, they made a mad rush straight across the ice toward the pole. Peary’s feet were injured and he had to be pulled on a dogsled. In April 1909, Henson’s instruments showed they were standing at the North Pole. Together Henson and Peary planted the American flag in the snow.
     In later years, Robert Peary and Henson were greatly honored for their achievements. Today, the two friends and fellow explorers lie in heroes’ graves not far apart in the Arlington National Cemetery.
1. In paragraph1, the author shows how Henson became ________.

A．a wonderful seaman

B．an educated captain

C．a good shop assistant

D．a successful learner

2. Paragraph 2 mainly tells us ________.

A．why Matthew Henson went to the hat shop

B．how Matthew Henson met Robert Peary

C．why Matthew Henson stopped working on the Katie Hinds

D．how Robert Peary knew Matthew Henson had sea experience

3. The following statements are TRUE except ________.

A．Henson proved himself a better seaman than Peary

B．Peary wanted Henson to help him realize his dream

C．Before their final attempt, they made two trips together

D．After they died, they were highly respected by people

4. The story between Henson and Peary could best be compared to ________.

A．treasure hunters looking for fortunes

B．sailors seeking power over others

C．soldiers fighting for their freedom

D．fighters exploring an unknown land