Something has changed at a workplace cafeteria in Birmingham. Next to the sandwiches and hot and cold dishes is a small globe symbol, coloured green, orange or red with a letter in the centre from A to E. “Meet our new eco-labels” a sign reads.
Researchers at Oxford University have analysed the ingredients in every food item on the menu and given the dishes an environmental impact score, vegetable soup (an A) to the lemon, spring onion, cheese and tuna bagel(an E). They team up with the food services business Compass Group for a trial at more than a dozen of its cafeterias across the UK to see if a label can change the way people eat.
The challenge for the scientists designing the trial is the image the diners see on the signs. How much information do you include in a label? How do you strike a balance between effective and practical?
During the pandemic, researchers ran studies on an online supermarket where people were given fake money to complete their fake shopping list. The trial gave a sense of what labels were more likely to sway people to buy eco-friendly. They round the most effective way to get people not to buy an item was to use a dark red globe symbol with the word "worse" printed on it. But while effective, it had real world limitations. "You're not going to be able to get anyone to use that unless you threaten them with legislation, because they don't want to say 'don't buy this',"said Brian Cook, the leader of the research.
The next challenge is the scale, especially in supermarkets. Going through tens of thousands of products and countless ingredients, determining the environmental impact in a supermarket would be a Herculean(艰巨的) task. To make it easier, the research team finally decided on four indicators for the trial's formula: greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, water pollution, and water use. They weighted each indicator equally in their equation for overall impact.
In most cases, the researchers say the biggest environmental impact will be to get people off meat. "Given that the goal is to get people to shift behaviour the most correct and scientifically reliable approach may actually not be the best approach." Clark said. He has considered that a national rollout of labels might need to be based on indicators already prioritised by businesses and mandated (强制执) by governments, to make the move as easy as possible.
1. What has changed at a workplace cafeteria i Burmingham?| A．Food is marked from A to E according to its nutrition. |
| B．Dishes are displayed with an environmental impact score. |
| C．The ingredients in every food item are regularly analysed. |
| D．The restaurant reopened with a sign "Meet our new eco-labels". |
| A．The image does not affect consumers’ opinion |
| B．The dark red globe symbol is a threat to the law. |
| C．An effective image might not be a practical one. |
| D．The image must carry as much information as possible |
| A．damage the interest of the business in food industry |
| B．put more weight on the indicator of greenhouse gas emissions |
| C．combine the benefit for business and the order of the government |
| D．consider whether the approach is supported by scientific evidences |
| A．Eco-friendly, Start from Food |
| B．Off Meat, We Will Be Healthy |
| C．Eco-labels, A New Way We Eat |
| D．Globe Symbol, A New Trend for Business |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Bread fruit is a traditional staple (主食) crop from the Pacific islands with the potential to improve worldwide food security. While people have survived on it for thousands of years, there was a lack of basic scientific knowledge of the health impacts of a bread fruit-based diet in both humans and animals. Now the fruit is getting the nutritional thumbs-up from a team of British Columbia researchers.
Bread fruit can be harvested, dried and made into flour. For the project, researchers had four bread fruits from the same tree in Hawaii, shipped to the march Lab at UBC Okanagan. Ying Liu led the study examining the digestion and health impact of a bread fruit-based diet.
“We wanted to contribute to the development of bread fruit as a sustainable, environmentally-friendly and high-production crop,” Liu says. The researchers designed a series of studies that could provide data on the impacts of a bread fruit-based diet fed to mice and also an enzyme (酶) digestion model.
The researchers determined that bread fruit protein was found to be easier to digest than wheat protein in the enzyme digestion model. And mice fed the bread fruit diet had a significantly higher growth rate and body weight than standard diet-fed mice. Liu also noted mice on the bread fruit diet had a significantly higher daily water consumption compared to mice on the wheat diet.
Fundamental understanding of the health impact of bread fruit digestion and diets is necessary and essential to the establishment of bread fruit as a staple in the future. “Overall, these studies support the use of bread fruit as part of a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet,” says Liu. The use of bread fruit could make inroads in food sustain ability for many populations globally. Liu suggests if a person ate the same amount of cooked bread fruit they can meet up to nearly 57 per cent of their daily fibre requirement, more than 34 per cent of their protein requirement and at the same time consume vitamin C, iron, calcium and other elements.
1. What does the underlined word “thumbs-up” mean in the first paragraph?| A．Requirement. | B．Benefit. | C．Reflection. | D．Acceptance. |
| A．To help those Pacific islanders. | B．To prove the value of the food. |
| C．To promote the food worldwide. | D．To develop a new type of diet. |
| A．The research method. | B．The research focuses. |
| C．The research process. | D．The research findings. |
| A．It will take the place of wheat. | B．It is superior to other foods. |
| C．It can help ease food shortage. | D．It needs further improvement. |
【推荐2】For many, scientific innovations tend to be welcome advancements that improve our lives. For some, however, new technologies bring risk of uselessness, in turn leading to great resistance.
With the climate crisis unfolding before our eyes, the race is on to find alternatives that will help humanity leave a smaller footprint on our planet. Because of animal agriculture's leading role as a greenhouse gas emitter, the search for more sustainable protein sources could be one such alternative.
As food tech companies use science to unlock the potential of plant proteins, they're producing increasingly better plant-based meats and milks that look and taste like the real thing, but with a much lower carbon footprint. Some in the meat industry are supporting the new and investing in these alt-protein companies.
For some lawmakers, however, these innovative products don't deserve support; they deserve restriction. Missouri State, for example, recently passed a bill making it a crime punishable by imprisonment for companies to call their products ''meat'' if they don’t come from an animal.
So why the mania (狂热) over meat and milk all of a sudden? Was there a consumer who brought home some pies labeled ''plant-based meat'' only to realize he was tricked? Did confused milk-drinkers file complaints with the Department of Agriculture when they found out their soymilk didn't contain actual milk?
There really are some consumers who are truly confused. Surveys show, however, that number is remarkably small. If anything, consumers are choosing these plant-based products specifically because they think they're better for them than the original products. And they have good reason to believe that plant-based milks and meats usually have less fat and more fiber than comparable animal-based foods.
So, consumers aren't confusing ''veggie bacon'' for real bacon; and if they don't think chicken nuggets have the same nutritional value as ''chicken-free nuggets'', then why do some meat and milk groups want a monopoly (垄断) over the M-words? Could it have to do with the fact that the increasing popularity of these foods, which are more sustainable and better for you, is threatening the profits of their constituents?
And with the future of our civilization hanging in the balance as climate change becomes more severe, it's time for policy makers to stop trying to prevent innovation, and instead to celebrate all the ways science can save us, including with sustainable proteins that can and do produce new kinds of meat.
1. What can be learned about the M-word applied to plant-based substitutes?| A．They are environmentally friendly. |
| B．They are innovative and widely accepted. |
| C．They have been restricted across America. |
| D．They have been produced in large quantities. |
| A．have sufficient faith in new science and technology |
| B．prefer the original products to the plant-based products |
| C．buy the plant-based products for their great benefit to health |
| D．often get confused by the composition of the new kind of meat |
| A．it contains no real meat |
| B．it brings risks to society |
| C．it plays a trick on customers |
| D．it poses a threat to their profits |
| A．Supportive. | B．Cautious. |
| C．Ambiguous. | D．Disapproving |
【推荐3】Sicilian Rouge High GABA is a special type of tomato designed to contain high levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) (氨基丁酸), an amino acid believed to aid relaxation and help lower blood pressure.
Tokyo-based startup Sanatech Seed Company teamed up with scientists at the University of Tsukuba to develop a new variety of tomatoes using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology. Named Sicilian Rouge High GABA, this new type of tomato contains five to six times the normal level of a type of amino acid called gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA. According to Japanese media, the company removed an inhibitory domain (抑制域) within the tomato’s genome to enable it to produce these high levels of GABA.
According to Shimpei Takeshita, President of Sanatech Seed and Chief Innovation Officer of Pioneer EcoScience, the exclusive distributor of the tomato, the company was given permission to commercialize the genetically changed Sicilian Rouge High GABA variety last December, and contract farmers who have been growing them ever since. Now, the tomatoes are ready to hit store shelves.
“At first, we got mixed reactions to genome- edited foods, and we thought it would be difficult to bring them to market as they’re not fully understood by consumers,” Tatsuo Takeshita, chair of Sanatech Seed told NHK. “But the tomatoes earned a good name from those who took part in the trials.”
A Japanese health ministry committee gave Sanatech Seed permission to commercialize the new tomato variety. They provided notification and the startup plans to ship each package of tomatoes with a sticker that says “improved using genome-editing technology”.
Unlike genetically modified foods, genome-edited plant varieties are considered just as safe as varieties improved using traditional methods because no outside gene is introduced during the process.
Sanatech Seed has already started accepting online orders for Sicilian Rouge High GABA tomatoes. A 3-kilogram box of tomatoes will reportedly cost 7,500 yen. That’s a lot of money for tomatoes.
1. What do we know about Sicilian Rouge High GABA?| A．It is beneficial to our health. | B．It can promote tomatoes’ output. |
| C．It contains high level of nutrition. | D．It can make people energetic. |
| A．President of the Sanatech Seed Company, | B．The University of Tsukuba, Tokyo. |
| C．A Japanese health ministry committee. | D．Chair of Tatsuo Takeshita Company. |
| A．Harmful. | B．Easy. | C．Traditional. | D．Secure. |
| A．Curious. | B．Subjective. | C．Dissatisfied. | D．Objective. |
【推荐1】Humans: It's time to abandon Earth or race extinction.
It could be the plot of a summer blockbuster(巨片), but this prediction isn't science fiction. It's a glimpse of the future, according to famous British scientist Stephen Hawking.
"I see great dangers for the human race," he said in an interview with global forum Big Think. "There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been a question of touch and go."
"I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space", he said. "It will be difficult enough to avoid disasters on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million."
Hawking, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year, has recently voiced many concerns about the future of life on Earth.
"If aliens visited us, the outcome would be as much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said. "Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads(游牧者), looking to conquer(征服) and colonize whatever planets they can reach."
But Hawking says he's still hopeful for the future of humanity. He told Big Think, "We've made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space."
Getting to another planet will prove a challenge, not to mention colonizing it for humanity. Katherine Freese from University of Michigan told Big Think that "the nearest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri which is 4.2 light years away. That means, if you were traveling at the speed of light the whole time, it would take 4.2 years to get there — or about 50,000 years using current rocket science."
1. Humans are advised to abandon Earth mainly because _____.| A．aliens will take up our home planet soon |
| B．it was discussed in the forum Big Think |
| C．many scientists like Hawking concern it |
| D．many disasters will happen on the Earth |
| A．humans can't live on the earth any longer |
| B．the earth will not be habitable for humans |
| C．other planets are ready for humans to reach |
| D．aliens are the biggest future threat to humans |
| A．It is impossible to get to another planet in space. |
| B．It is urgent for Hawking to develop the space science. |
| C．The near future can't see human's move to another planet. |
| D．The planet Proxima Centauri is far away from the earth. |
| A．a conference interview |
| B．a science fiction |
| C．a history book |
| D．a forum report |
【推荐2】A recent study in the science publication Joule says there are enough rare earth metals (稀土金属) on Earth for new “low-carbon electricity generation” technologies. The researchers said the amount of minerals available is enough to supply a switch to renewable energy and more mining is needed to make more of the valuable metals available to industry.
Rare earth metals are in demand for products such as magnets, wind turbines (涡轮机), solar panels and computers. All are part of the “green energy” push to remove carbon gases from electricity generation.
Zeke Hausfather, an expert who works at a technology company called Stripe and at Berkeley Earth, called the process “big and messy”. But he thinks reducing carbon gases, or “decarbonization”, can be done. He said he is not worried about the long-term supply of rare earth materials.
However, the scientists warn that in the early days of the switch to green energy, there will be shortages. For example, there could be a shortage of the element called dysprosium. It is used to make strong magnets. Industry will require three times more of the metal than is produced now. However, there is 12 times more dysprosium available than needed, the researchers said.
Another element is tellurium, which is used in large groups of solar panels, called solar farms. There is just enough of that material available if the world makes a fast push to solar power, the researchers said. In addition, there are other materials that can be used instead of tellurium if needed.
Daniel Ibarra, an environment professor at Brown University, told the Associated Press that the study is forceful and “debunks” concerns about running out of rare earth materials. He said the main question is whether production of the materials can keep up with demand.
The United States Geological Survey reports that the countries with the largest supplies of rare earth metals are China, Vietnam, Russia and Myanmar, also known as Burma.
1. What is Zeke Hausfather’s attitude towards the storage of rare earth metal?| A．Confident. | B．Skeptical. | C．Uncertain. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．compare it with other elements |
| B．indicate its wide existence in nature |
| C．stress its importance in industrial production |
| D．show its shortage in the early change to green energy |
| A．have doubt about | B．show something false |
| C．be certain about | D．prove something correct |
| A．Necessity of Mining for Renewable Energy |
| B．Concerns about Shortage of Rare Earth Metals |
| C．Rare Earth Metals Are Enough for Green Energy |
| D．Low-carbon Technologies Are Developing Fast |
【推荐3】Recently, we have already shown that climate change has led to a dramatic increase in storm surge risk in New York City, making devastating events like Hurricane Sandy more likely.
What can we say about the role of climate change in the unprecedented disaster that is unfolding in Houston with Hurricane Harvey? There are certain climate change-related factors that we can, with great confidence, say worsened the flooding.
Sea Level rise attributable to climate change-some of which is due to coastal subsidence(下沉) caused by human disturbance such as oil drilling-is more than half a foot(15cm) over the past few decades. That means the storm surge was half a foot higher than it would have been just decades ago, meaning far more flooding and destruction.
In addition to that, sea surface temperatures in the region have risen about 0.5℃(close to 1F) over the past few decades from roughly 30℃(86F) to 30.5℃(87F), which contributed to the very warm sea surface temperatures(30.5-31℃, or 87-88F). There is a simple thermodynamic(热力学的) relationship known as the Clausius-Clapeyron equation that tells us there is a roughly 3% increase in average atmospheric moisture content for each 0.5℃ of warming. Sea surface temperatures in the area where Harvey intensified were 0.5-1℃ warmer than current-day average temperatures, which translates to 1-1.5℃ warmer than “average” temperatures a few decades ago. That means 3-5% more moisture(水分) in the atmosphere. That large amount of moisture creates the potential for much greater rainfalls and greater flooding. The combination of coastal flooding and heavy rainfall is responsible for the devastating flooding that Houston is experiencing.
Not only are the surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico unusually warm right now, but there is a deep layer of warm water that Harvey was able to feed upon when it intensified at near record pace as it neared the coast. Human-caused warming is penetrating down into the ocean. It’s creating deeper layers of warm water in the Gulf and elsewhere. Harvey was almost certainly more intense than it would have been in the absence of human-caused warming, which means stronger winds, more wind damage and a larger storm surge.
Finally, the more tenuous but potentially relevant climate factors: part of what has made Harvey such a devastating(毁灭性的) storm is the way it has stalled near the coast. It continues to strike Houston and surrounding regions with a seemingly endless flood, which will likely top out at nearly 4ft(1.22m) of rainfall over a days-long period before it is done. The stalling is due to very weak prevailing winds, which are failing to steer the storm off to sea, allowing it to spin around and wobble back and forth. This pattern, in turn, is associated with a greatly expanded subtropical high pressure system over much of the US at the moment, with the jet stream pushed well to the north. This pattern of subtropical expansion is predicted in model simulations of human-caused climate change. More tenuous(微弱的), but possibly relevant still, is the fact that very persistent, nearly “stationary” summer weather patterns of this sort, where weather anomalies(both high-pressure dry hot regions and low-pressure stormy/rainy regions) stay locked in place for many days at a time, appears to be favoured by human-caused climate change.
In conclusion, while we cannot say climate change “caused” Hurricane Harvey, what we can say is that it exacerbated several characteristics of the storm in a way that greatly increased the risk of damage and loss of life. Climate change worsened the impact of Hurricane Harvey.
1. What’s the main purpose of writing the passage?| A．To offer tips on climate change. |
| B．To advocate paying more attention to current climate change urgently. |
| C．To share experiences on avoiding climate change. |
| D．To criticize human-caused climate change. |
| A．worsened | B．caused |
| C．favoured | D．increased |
| A．Climate change made Hurricane Harvey more deadly |
| B．Sea level rise sea and surface temperatures changed Hurricane Harvey |
| C．Hurricane Harvey and its characteristics |
| D．The climate change-related factors and human-caused warming |
I: Introduction CP: Central point P: Point Sp: Sub-point(次要点) C: Conclusion
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
【推荐1】We can video chat with astronauts aboard the International Space Station and watch live footage from the frozen heights of Everest. But communicating with a submarine (潜艇) or a diver is not so easy. The lack of practical methods for sharing data between underwater and airborne devices has long been a frustration for scientists. The difficulty stems from the fact that radio signals work perfectly in air travel but poorly in water. Sonar(声呐)signals used by underwater sensors reflect off the surface of the water rather than reaching the air.
Now, researchers at MIT have developed a method with the potential to revolutionize underwater communication. "What we've shown is that it's actually feasible to communicate from underwater to the air，" says Fadel Adib, a professor at MJT's Media Lab, who led the research.
The MIT researchers designed a system that uses an underwater machine to send sonar signals to the surface, making vibrations (震动)corresponding to the Is and Os of the data. A surface receiver then reads and decodes these tiny vibrations. The researchers call the system TARF. It has any number of potential real-world uses, Adib says. It could be used to find downed planes underwater by reading signals from sonar devices in a plane' s black box and it could allow submarines to communicate with the surface.
Right now the technology is low-resolution. The initial study was conducted in the MIT swimming pool at maximum depths of around 11 or 12 feet. The next steps for the researchers are to see if TARF is workable at much greater depths and under varying conditions-high waves, storms, schools of fish. They also want to see if they can make the technology work in the other direction- air to water.
If the technology proves successful in real-world conditions, expect "texting while diving" to be the latest underwater fashion.
1. What does the author mainly talk about in Paragraph 1？| A．The future of video chat underwater and in air. |
| B．The difficulty of communication from water to air. |
| C．The frustrations of developing underwater devices. |
| D．The current situation of communicating with a submarine. |
| A．Changeable. | B．Convenient. | C．Achievable. | D．Alternative. |
| A．It is widely used to find downed planes. |
| B．It can work well at great depths underwater. |
| C．It is an underwater machine that sends signals. |
| D．It can send, receive and read signals from underwater. |
| A．The Real-world Uses of Sonar Technology |
| B．A Breakthrough in the Application of Video Chat |
| C．Full Water-to-air Communication Closer to Reality |
| D．TARF Becoming a New Means of Communication |
【推荐2】“I’m not a reader.” It’s a common reply that Julia Torres, a teacher-librarian in Denver Public School, has heard throughout her 16-year career, She’s seen students tear up books, throw them away or check them out only to immediately return them all because they didn’t have confidence in their ability to read.
As a librarian, Torres feels strongly that libraries should be spaces of liberation, places where students can develop a love of reading at any stage. Reading is a skill that everyone can grow to love, but too many negative experiences during a child's literacy （读写能力）education can result in boredom, lack of interest or even anger. When a student has a poor experience like being shamed for their reading choices, they can begin to associate reading with painful feelings of insecurity, shame and stress.
To prevent reading disorder （阅读障碍）practices, as Torres notes, librarians first can build an inclusive （内容丰富的）library where classified collections can make it easier for students to find out the books they want and also help identify gaps in the collections. Reevaluating librarians, role is necessary, which allows students to take control of the library and have a say in what’s purchased for the collection, directly exciting students’ reading interest. Instead of hosting traditional book fairs where students have to pay for books, it is better to open up a True Book Fair, where students are invited to choose books intentionally to their interests without any costs. Librarians are recommended to read what students are reading. Another two important approaches to preventing reading disorder are to take a look at the library policies and redefine what counts as reading. It is necessary to get rid of fines, checkout limits, security gates, and punishment policies. Plus, students are encouraged to listen to audiobooks or read picture books. Find a way to teach important skills like comprehension or critical thinking with the texts that excite and interest students.
1. What can be inferred from the underlined sentence “I’m not a reader”?| A．Some students have no ability to read. |
| B．Some students show little interest in reading. |
| C．Some students don't borrow books from the library. |
| D．Some students fail to read beyond the lines. |
| A．Getting rid of library rules. | B．Voicing their own choices. |
| C．Librarians’ recommendation. | D．Reducing charges caused by reading. |
| A．To do a research on reading disorder. |
| B．To analyze why reading disorder forms. . |
| C．Tb offer librarians suggestions on book choice. |
| D．To draw attention to reading disorder prevention. |
【推荐3】Moving around Bogota can be a bit of a Jekyll-or-Hyde experience. On the one hand, the city is infamous (声名狼藉的)for having the world’s worst traffic. Yet, on the other, its cycling infrastructure is considered a good model of sustainable urban mobility, according to the Copenhagenize Index, which ranks bike-friendly cities. The Colombian capital generated a now-international movement in the 1970s called Ciclovia, which sees 1.5 million people cycle across 128km of car-free streets each Sunday morning.
So, when the pandemic reached its shores in mid-March, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez, an avid cyclist herself, introduced one of the world’s first plans to encourage bike travel, using traffic cones to create 76 km of temporary lanes.
“Everyone started using a bicycle, and they already knew how to get around on one because we have this bike culture thanks to the Ciclovia,” says Carlos Pardo, a local cycling advocate and senior advisor at the New Urban Mobility Alliance. Pardo got involved at the beginning of the pandemic by partnering with a local bikeshare company to provide 400 free e-bikes to health workers. Now, he’s busy persuading the public that the government’s new bike lanes should become permanent fixture (固定设施).
“Some drivers say, ‘you took away our lane’, but we’re saying, we took one car lane and made a two-lane bidirectional bike lane,” he explains. “So, you’re duplicating the effectiveness of the space, and moving more people per hour, per direction.”
Biking has enjoyed a renaissance (复兴) around the world as urban citizens avoid public transport for the relative safety of a two-wheeled commute. Now, many advocates like Pardo are working with local governments in the hope of turning these pandemic-response measures into lasting changes—ones that are more plausible now than ever after lockdowns provided an unprecedented (空前的)opportunities to fast-track infrastructure trials. The results of these urban planning experiments could not only radically shape the way we commute across global cities, but also make them more adaptable to future shocks.
1. What can best illustrate the underlined sentence?| A．Much knowledge that is of help in learning about a new place. |
| B．A mixed feeling that is too confusing to express themselves. |
| C．An understanding that everything has both advantages and disadvantages. |
| D．An idea that human beings are born somewhere between good and evil. |
| A．The outbreak of the pandemic in mid-March. |
| B．The worldwide bike culture dating back to the 1970s. |
| C．The government’s support for the temporary bike lanes. |
| D．The local bike company’s contribution to health workers. |
| A．The increasing number of cyclists. | B．Duplicated effectiveness of road use. |
| C．A well-rounded city expansion plan. | D．The growth of car ownership. |
| A．Urban life. | B．Politics. | C．Sports | D．Advice column. |
