We all need to eat. So, meals could be a chance to stop what we're doing and spend time with the people in our lives. A recent study from a team of South Korea suggests that eating together has many good effects on children and teenagers while frequently eating alone may lead to poor eating habits and poor food choices. People who eat alone more than twice a week have a greater risk of developing high blood pressure.
There are benefits of family dinners on children and teenagers.
In 2014, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) looked at data(数据) from nearly three-quarters of the world's countries. Among its findings is the fact that students who share a main meal with their families are less likely to hate school. Children who eat a main meal with their families are also less likely to take drugs (毒品)．
In the report, titled “The Importance of Family Dinners (VIII)，”researchers say that teens who have frequent family dinners are more likely to say their parents know a lot about what's going on in their lives.
Another study from the University of Montreal finds that children who eat with their families experience long-term physical and mental(精神上的) health benefits. These children are physically in better shape and drink fewer sugary soft drinks. These children also seem to have better social skills and are less violent（暴力的）.
One of the researchers, Pagani, involved in this study is a professor at the university. She says that mealtimes with parents possibly provide young children with firsthand social events, which helps them have better communication skills.
1. Why is eating meals alone frequently bad for people's health?| A．Because people will get a chance to make friends. |
| B．Because people will have a risk of heart attack. |
| C．Because people will show no interest in food. |
| D．Because people will develop poor eating habits. |
| A．Ways to eat together more. | B．Benefits of eating together. |
| C．Chances to spend time with people. | D．Risks of developing high blood pressure. |
| A．They could enjoy sweet, and hard drinks. |
| B．They perform better in social activities. |
| C．They feel their parents know more about their studies. |
| D．They experience longterm physical and mental illness. |
| A．Positive. | B．Uninterested. | C．Worried. | D．Doubtful. |
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One traditional belief about television is that it reduces a child’s ability to think and to understand the world. While watching TV, children do not merely absorb words and images (影像). Instead, they learn both explicit and hidden meanings from what they see. Actually, children learn early the psychology of characters in TV shows. Furthermore, as many teachers agree, children understand far more when parents watch TV with them, explaining new words and ideas. Yet, most parents use an educational program as a chance to park their kids in front of the set and do something in another room.
Another argument against television is that it replaces reading as a form of entertainment. But according to Anderson, the amount of time spent watching television is not related to reading ability. TV doesn’t take the place of reading for most children; it takes the place of similar sorts of recreation, such as listening to the radio and playing sports. Things like parents’ educational background have a stronger influence on a child’s reading. “A child’s reading ability is best predicted by how much a parent reads.” Anderson says.
Traditional wisdom also has it that heavy television-watching lowers IQ (智商) scores and affects school performance. But here, too, Anderson notes that no studies have proved it. In fact, research suggests that it’s the other way around. “If you’re smart young, you’ll watch less TV when you’re older,” Anderson says. Yet, people of lower IQ tend to be lifelong television viewers.
For years researchers have attempted to show that television is dangerous to children. However, by showing that television promotes none of the dangerous effects as conventionally believed, Anderson suggests that television cannot be condemned without considering other influences.
1. By watching TV, children learn _________.
| A．images through words |
| B．more than explicit meanings |
| C．more about images than words |
| D．little about people’s psychology |
| A．on his own |
| B．with other kids |
| C．with his parents |
| D．with his teachers |
| A．Radio-listening |
| B．Television-watching |
| C．Parents’ reading list |
| D．Parents’ educational background |
| A．the more a child watches TV, the smarter he is |
| B．the younger a child is, the more he watches TV |
| C．the smarter a child is, the less likely he gets addicted to TV |
| D．the less a child watches TV, the better he performs at school |
| A．To advise on the educational use of TV. |
| B．To describe TV’s harmful effects on children. |
| C．To explain traditional views on TV influences. |
| D．To present Anderson’s unconventional ideas. |
【推荐2】Boomerang children who return to live with their parents after university can be good for families, leading to closer, more supportive relationships and increased contact between the generations, a study has found.
The findings contradict research published earlier this year showing that returning adult children trigger a significant decline in their parents’ quality of life and wellbeing.
The young adults taking part in the study were “more positive than might have been expected about moving back home—the shame is reduced as so many of their peers are in the same position, and they acknowledged the benefits of their parents’ financial and emotional support. Daughters were happier than sons, often slipping back easily into teenage patterns of behaviour, the study found.
Parents on the whole were more uncertain, expressing concern about the likely duration of the arrangement and how to manage it. But they acknowledged that things were different for graduates today, who leave university with huge debts and fewer job opportunities.
The families featured in the study were middle-class and tended to view the achievement of adult independence for their children as a “family project”. Parents accepted that their children required support as university students and then as graduates returning home, as they tried to find jobs paying enough to enable them to move out and get on the housing ladder.
“However”, the study says, “day-to-day tensions about the prospects of achieving different dimensions of independence, which in a few extreme cases came close to conflict, characterised the experience of a majority of parents and a little over half the graduates”.
Areas of disagreement included chores, money and social life. While parents were keen to help, they also wanted different relationships from those they had with their own parents, and continuing to support their adult children allowed them to remain close.
1. What is the finding of the previous research?| A．Boomerang children made their parents happier. |
| B．The parents were looking forward to their children’s return. |
| C．The parents’ quality of life became worse than before. |
| D．Boomerang children never did any housework. |
| A．cause | B．defeat |
| C．arise | D．allow |
| A．They are ashamed of turning to their parents for help. |
| B．They are glad that they could come back. |
| C．They are doubtful about whether they should return. |
| D．They are proud to be independent from the family. |
| A．The children want to keep in closer touch with their parents. |
| B．The parents are willing to provide support to their children. |
| C．It is harder for the children to secure a satisfying job. |
| D．There is more house work needed to be done by the children. |
| A．Both parents and children enjoy a more harmonious relationship. |
| B．Neither parents nor children want to do the chores at home. |
| C．Not only parents but also children want to be independent. |
| D．There are occasional quarrels between parents and children. |
【推荐3】Many years ago, on a winter morning, Lily, our only daughter, sat quietly, all her heart put into her work. Every once in a while she would ask how to spell the name of someone in our family, and then painstakingly(费力地) formed the letters one by one. Next, she added flowers and green grass at the bottom of each page with a sun in the upper right corner, surrounded by the blue sky. Holding them at eye level, she was satisfied.
“What are you making, honey?” I asked.
“It’s a surprise,” she said, covering up her work with her hands.
It wasn’t until later that evening that I noticed the “mailboxes” fastened to the door of each of our bedrooms. There was one for Edward, one for Tom. She hadn’t forgotten Peter and baby Paul.
For the next few weeks, we received mail regularly. There were little notes showing her love for each of us and short letters full of tiny things that only a seven-year-old child would notice. I was in charge of retrieving baby Paul’s letters, page after page of colored scenes, including flowers with happy faces.
“He can’t read yet,” she said, “but he can look at the pictures.”
This little girl grows up now, but something about her has never changed. One morning only a week or so ago, I found a love note next to my pillow.
“Thanks for always being there for me, Mum,” it read, “I’m glad that we are best friends,”
I couldn’t help but remember that she has brought me countless hours of joy throughout these years. There are angels among us. I know, I live with one.
1. What was Lily busy doing that afternoon?| A．Playing a spelling game. |
| B．Examining her work carefully. |
| C．Doing her drawing homework |
| D．Preparing love notes for the family |
| A．surprised | B．happy |
| C．proud | D．interested |
| A．her habit of writing letters to her friends |
| B．her interest in drawing pictures |
| C．her action of giving us surprises on purpose |
| D．her love for the family members |
| A．To draw people’s attention to her daughter |
| B．To tell people her daughter’s growing stories. |
| C．To remember the true love from her daughter, |
| D．To describe the angel living with her all her life. |
【推荐1】According to the US government's dietary guidelines, people should eat 14 grams of fiber (纤维素) for every 1, 000 calories you take in daily. But only around 9% of women and 3% of men in the US meet the fiber recommendations. So how do we add more fiber to our diets?
Focus on getting fiber from a variety of plant-based foods
Researchers say your best bet is to get fiber from a variety of plant-based foods. That means eating different kinds of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, seeds and nuts. Think about sweet potatoes, brown rice and pumpkin seeds.
Take baby steps
Everyone is different, and some people might be more sensitive to certain types of fiber than others. So when you increase your fiber intake, you can write down how various high-fiber foods affect you.
Don't forget to drink water
As you add more fiber to your diet, make sure to drink plenty of water as well.
| A．Rethink your salads |
| B．Here are some tips for getting there |
| C．You include fiber in your regular diet |
| D．Keep track of how high-fiber foods affect you |
| E．Not only are these foods a good source of fiber |
| F．If you don’ eat a lot of fiber before, the key is to start slowly |
| G．It can help the fiber move through your digestive system smoothly |
【推荐2】A small piece of fish each day may keep the heart doctor away. That’s the finding of a study of Dutchmen. It shows that deaths from heart disease were more than 50 percent lower among those who consumed at least an ounce of salt water fish per day compared to those who never ate fish.
The Dutch research is one of three human studies that give strong scientific support to the long-held belief that eating fish can provide health benefits, particularly to the heart.
Heart disease is the number-one killer in the United States, with more than 550,000 deaths occurring from heart attacks each year. But previous research has shown that the level of heart disease is lower in cultures that consume more fish than Americans do. There are fewer heart disease deaths, for example, among the Eskimos of Greenland, who consume about 14 ounces of fish a day, and among the Japanese, whose daily fish consumption (消耗) averages more than ounces.
For 20 years, the Dutch study followed 852 middle-aged men, 20 percent of whom ate no fish. At the start of the study, average fish consumption was about two-thirds of an ounce each day, with more men eating lean fish than fatty fish.
During the next two decades, 78 of the men died from heart disease. The fewest deaths were among the group who regularly ate fish, even at levels far lower than those of the Japanese or Eskimos. This relationship was true regardless of other factors such as age, high blood pressure, or blood cholesterol (胆固醇) levels.
1. How many lives could probably be saved each year in America by eating fish according to the Dutch study?| A．550,000 | B．852 | C．110,000 | D．275,000 |
| A．in countries of the yellow-skin race | B．in highly-developed countries |
| C．in the countries with high consumption of fish | D．in the countries with good production of fish |
| A．the kind of fish eaten | B．regular fish-eating | C．the amount of fish eater | D．people of different areas |
| A．the effect of fish-eating on people’s health | B．the high incidence of heart disease in some countries |
| C．the changes in people’s diet | D．the daily fish consumption of people in different cultures |
【推荐3】Food is part of who we are. We all need it, survive because of it and derive happiness from it. So if food matters so much, why do we let so much of it go rotten in our fridges, or get thrown out in our stores? Sadly, we love food, but we don’t take care of it.
• Reduce your food waste.
Buy only the food you need, store food wisely, donate excess and turn leftover food into the next day’s meals. When we waste food, all the resources used for growing, processing, transporting and marketing that food are wasted too.
• Support your local food producers.
Chefs get awards, stars and recognition for their creations. But what about our farmers?
• Adopt a healthier, more sustainable diet.
•
By treating each meal with pride, we respect the farmers who produced it, and the resources that went into it. Respect can be passed on. Talk to the people around and to the next generation about making informed, healthy and sustainable food choices.
Respecting food means appreciating the back-story of food. When we know the full picture, it is easier to see what our food really stands for and how precious it really is.
| A．Have a conversation. |
| B．Learn where food comes from. |
| C．Our bodies consume calories and nutrients. |
| D．For many people on the planet, food is giving. |
| E．Food is so much more than what is on our plates. |
| F．One third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted. |
| G．Without them, we wouldn’t have the fresh food we need on a daily basis. |
【推荐1】For one week in May, more than 100,000 people in the UK carefully counted their plastic waste at home in a national investigation into plastic use and recycling. It was called the Big Plastic Count, run by organizations Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic.
So how did they get on, and what did they discover about their dependency on a material that has become a part of our everyday lives?
Jules, 41, and her family threw away 124 pieces of plastic during their week of counting. The packaging in party bags and sticker packs for her daughter’s sixth birthday was the most upsetting, she says. She had thought her household was quite low plastic and so was “shocked” by how much they used. “It’s the hidden stuff that isn’t recyclable—like pizza wrappers—that gets you,” Jules explains.
“Every single sheet for the stickers in the party bags came individually wrapped in its own unrecyclable bag, and then they were packed together in a bigger bag,” she says.
Her children are passionate about protecting the environment but Jules says she finds it very hard as a consumer to make the right choices.
“We can only do so much. It’s in the manufacturer’s hands. The whole thing is such a juggle (杂耍).” Taylor, a 25-year-old scheduler, says of the 70 pieces of plastic he counted, it was the cucumber packaging that upset him the most. He has family who live abroad where he says it’s easy to buy fruits and vegetables without any plastic. He’d also like to see more local produce in shops direct from farmers, which would reduce the need for excessive packaging used to transport goods long distances.
“I get progressively more upset with the fact that supermarkets sell so much plastic,” he says. Even if he could find plastic-free alternatives, he says the cost is exorbitant. “The price of everything is going up, but things that are better for the environment are much more expensive,” he says.
1. What was Jules’ reaction to the plastic packaging in her house?| A．Nervous | B．Annoyed | C．Desperate. | D．Tolerant. |
| A．Flexible | B．Reasonable. | C．Low | D．Sky-high. |
| A．Consumers can’t control the plastic packaging. |
| B．Almost every family has many plastic products. |
| C．Taylor’s parents don’t like cucumber packaging. |
| D．Jules’ children like to collect plastic waste. |
| A．Health. | B．Business. | C．Environment. | D．Entertainment. |
【推荐2】Today, it’s impossible to imagine life without highways which connect goods with markets, employees with work places. “Everything in life is somewhere else,” wrote E.B.White, “and you get there in a car.”
Do highways bring any benefit to our natural world? Yes. Arizona’s highways rainfall softens desert soils for underground-living animals, while vultures (秃鹫) get to expand their diet by roadkill. Butterflies find home on the roadside grassland. In Britain, such habitat is called the “soft estate”—a concept that roads are able to create new ecosystems, even though they sometimes destroy existing ones. A biologist once led me under a highway bridge to show me hundreds of bats resting beneath the bridge, not bothering with the traffic overhead.
But the positive situation isn’t always the case. We tend to ignore the death number as the unavoidable cost of modernity. Although few people ever flatten an animal on purpose while driving on the road, the attraction of the car is so strong that it has caused Americans to kill about 40,000 human lives in car accidents each year, what chance does wildlife have on the road?
Northern America and Europe used to build their road networks with little regard for how they would affect nature. Today, in theory, we know better. Over the last several decades, America and European countries have built bridges for bears, tunnels for turtles, rope webs that allow monkeys to swing over highways without going down to the forest floor. In Kenya, elephants walk under the highways and railways via passages as tall as two-story houses. And road ecology has brought more than crossings: We’ve also learned to map and protect the migrations of animals to design roadsides that benefit bees and butterflies－proof that old mistakes will surely be corrected in the upcoming future.
1. What do E.B.White’s words mean in Paragraph 1?| A．Highways benefit the natural world. | B．People can’t get everything in life. |
| C．A good car is needed to get somewhere. | D．Highways are essential for our daily life. |
| A．Destroying the ecosystem. | B．Building new ecosystems. |
| C．Planning road networks. | D．Repairing habitats for animals. |
| A．To reveal the negative effects of highways. |
| B．To explain people flatten animals on purpose. |
| C．To stress the importance of American modernity. |
| D．To show the number of animals killed on the road. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Unclear. | C．Worried. | D．Doubtful. |
Wise use of free time does not mean getting an advanced degree，although the mental encouragement gained through education is unbeatable in keeping your mind active. Learning new things nearly always adds a spark to your daily life，especially if it is a favorite topic，such as sport，fashion，or art. Also，look through your bookstore or library to find books on your interests. Try to replace a half hour TV watching with reading.
It is reported that in the United States recently，many individuals have as few as two good friends. Long work hours and car commute act to separate people from each other. This separation is deadly. Find ways to meet people at the end of the day and on weekends. Often this can be best done by combining activities，such as by joining a walking group to get both exercise and companionship. Taking a class will lift your spirits and allow you to meet others with similar interests. Hobbies are great for reducing stress and provide another opportunity for social interaction.
Using your free time to aid your health may include these elements and many more，such as going to concerts and spending time with family. Overall，the key is to spend less free time being passive. The best ways to use free time are to be mentally and physically active，spend some time outdoors，and interact with other people on a regular basis.
1. What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Watching television may cause women to feel depressed. |
| B．Finding interests and hobbies in common means taking a class. |
| C．Going to concerts is the best way to make you mentally active. |
| D．Getting an advanced degree in education always lights up your life. |
| A．The arrangement to work every day. |
| B．The journey to work every day. |
| C．The communication between people. |
| D．The separation between people. |
| A．Live a Happy and Healthy Life |
| B．Relax Yourself in Various Ways |
| C．Spend Your Free Time Wisely |
| D．Interact With Others Outdoors |
