Eradajere Oleita thinks she may have a partial solution for two of our county’s longstanding problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. The 26-year-old student and environmentalist from Detroit is asking a favor of local snack lovers: Rather than throw your empty Chip bags in the trash, donate them so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the homeless.
Chip eaters drop off their empty bags from Doritos, Lay’s, and other favorites at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store, where Oleita and her volunteer helpers collect them. After they clean the chip bags in soapy hot water, they slice then open, lay them fat, and iron them together.
It takes about four hours to sew a sleeping bag, and each takes around 150 to 300 chip bags, depending on whether they’re single-serve or family size. The result is a sleeping bag that is “waterproof, lightweight, and easy to carry around,” Oleita told the Detroil News.
Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has collected more than 80,000 chip bags and, as of last December, created 110 sleeping bags.
Sure, it would be simpler to raise the money to buy new seeping bags. But that’s only half the goal for Oleita — whose family moved to the United States from Nigeria a decade ago with the hope of attaining a better life — and her fellow volunteers. “We are committed to making an impact not only socially, but environmentally,” she says.
And, of course, there’s the symbolism of salvaging bags that would otherwise land in the trash and using them to help the homeless. It’s a powerful reminder that environmental injustice and poverty often go hand in hand. As Oleita told hourdetroit com: “I think it’s time to show connections between all of these issues.”
1. What is the purpose of the Chip Bag Project?| A．To make donations for the homeless. |
| B．To deal with garbage and sleeping bags. |
| C．To stop pollution caused by snack lovers. |
| D．To protect the environment and reduce poverty. |
| A．By turning to chip eaters. |
| B．By producing chip bags. |
| C．By purchasing snacks. |
| D．By cooperating with the poor. |
| A．Sewing. | B．Designing. |
| C．Emptying. | D．Recycling. |
| A．Devoted and creative. | B．Determined and honest. |
| C．Ambitious and humorous. | D．Caring and independent. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Jeff Jensen, the business and Boy Scout leader, was in a dilemma and had painful damage in his leg and foot. He needed surgery, but he doubted whether he could afford it, even with insurance. “There’s nothing more depressing than seeing a bill for 24, 000 dollars and going. How much of this will my insurance cover and how much is mine to cover?” Jensen told WWAY-TV.
Luckily for Jensen, his doctor is Demetrio Aguila. The nerve specialist gives patients the option to pay for surgery through volunteer work. He founded an organization called M25 Program. “We can’t ignore the people in our own backyard,” Aguila told CBS. “We want to be able to offer hope to patients who have lost hope medically.”
Using an algorithm (算法), the clinic calculates community service hours based on the price of the surgery. In Jensen’s case, the $12, 000 operation equaled 560 hours of helping out at one of the local charitable organizations registered with the M25 Program.
Like 10 percent of Aguila’s patients, Jensen chose the community service. And because hundreds of hours of community service can seem difficult, Aguila, 50, not only lets others participate, he encourages it. “I had this hope that we would reawaken in our neighbors and in ourselves a sense of volunteerism,” he told CNN.
Jensen, whose surgery was completed in February 2020, was helped by more than 100 friends and strangers who volunteered at Orphan Grain Train, which donates food, clothing, and medicine nationally and globally.
Dave Harvey, founder of the homeless aid organization Least of My Brethren, is counted as one who is inspired by Aguila. “He is making things easier by sending volunteers our way!” he told KMTV in Omaha. “What a cool thing!”
1. What can a patient do if he can’t afford surgery according to the text?| A．Seek aid from social media. | B．Raise money in the hospital. |
| C．Join in the voluntary service. | D．Turn to the insurance company. |
| A．People’s help. | B．The M25 Program. |
| C．Community service. | D．Medical assistance. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Concerned. | C．Grateful. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．A local newspaper. | B．A medical journal. |
| C．A clinic advertisement. | D．An insurance brochure. |
【推荐2】A Little Is A Lot For Those With Nothing
Each year, 22 million people die from preventable causes, such as polluted water or the lack of nutrition, according to a new report from the World Health Organization. These groups are taking some of the top lights:
●A child dies every eight seconds from water-borne disease. Global Water builds wells in very poor communities in Romania, Central America and Africa. Go to global www.water.org.
●As much as 80% of the world’s population may be lacking in iron. UNICEF supplies iron supplements (补充) to women and children in more than 100 countries, preventing anemia (贫血症), low birth weight and death. Their greeting cards, calendars and gifts help fund the program; visit www.unicef.org.
●Mercy Corps fed more than 150,000 mouths in 2013. Still, more than one-quarter of children worldwide are underweight. One dollar helps feed 15 kids in developing countries like China and India; learn more at www.mercycorps.org.
1. What is the purpose of the advertisement?| A．To ask readers to do their bit for the people likely to die from preventable causes. |
| B．To attract people’s attention to the problem of water pollution in poor communities. |
| C．To help the homeless children lacking nutrition in developing countries. |
| D．To ask the readers to surf the Internet and become aware of the miserable things. |
| A．buying special greeting cards or gifts from UNICEF |
| B．helping the program of digging wells in poor areas |
| C．doing some volunteer work for them |
| D．keeping our environment from being polluted |
| A．15 dollars. | B．20,000 dollars. |
| C．4,500,000 dollars. | D．2,200,000 dollars. |
Children’s Charity Organization
Healing children’s smiles.Making the world a better place.
At Operation Smile，we measure ourselves by the joy we see on children’s faces.We’re more than a charity.More than 200，000 children are born with a severe cleft(裂口) condition each year—often unable to eat，speak，socialize or smile.In some places these children are shunned and rejected.And in too many cases，their parents can’t afford to give them the surgeries they need to live a normal life.
That’s where we come in.Since 1982，Operation Smile—through the help of dedicated(有奉献精神的)medical volunteers—has provided free surgeries to children around the world.With a presence in over 50 countries，we are able to heal children’s smiles and bring hope for a better future.
Thanks to the generosity and spirit of volunteerism shown by our supporters，we heal thousands of children per year and，today，more than 150，000 girls and boys have a new chance at a new life because of our work.With your help，how many lives can we change tomorrow?
Question：What can you do for Children’s Charity Organization?
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【推荐1】Global warming is causing more than 300,000 deaths and about $125 billion in economic losses each year, according to a report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, an organization led by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general.
The report, to be released Friday, analyzed data and existing studies of health, disaster, population and economic trends. It found that human-influenced climate change was raising the global death rates from illnesses including malnutrition (营养不良) and heat-related health problems. But even before its release, the report drew criticism from some experts on climate and risk, who questioned its methods and conclusions.
Along with the deaths, the report said that the lives of 325 million people, primarily in poor countries, were being seriously affected by climate change. It projected that the number would double by 2030.
Roger Pielke Jr., a political scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who studies disaster trends, said the Forum’s report was “a methodological embarrassment” because there was no way to distinguish deaths or economic losses related to human-driven global warming amid the much larger losses resulting from the growth in populations and economic development in vulnerable (易受伤害的) regions. Dr. Pielke said that “climate change is an important problem requiring our utmost attention.” But the report, he said, “will harm the cause for action on both climate change and disasters because it is so deeply flawed (有瑕疵的).”
However, Soren Andreasen, a social scientist at Dalberg Global Development Partners who supervised the writing of the report, defended it, saying that it was clear that the numbers were rough estimates. He said the report was aimed at world leaders, who will meet in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a new international climate treaty.
In a press release describing the report, Mr. Annan stressed the need for the negotiations to focus on increasing the flow of money from rich to poor regions to help reduce their vulnerability to climate hazards while still curbing the emissions of the heat-trapping gases. More than 90% of the human and economic losses from climate change are occurring in poor countries, according to the report.
1. What is the finding of the Global Humanitarian Forum?| A．Global temperatures affect the rate of economic development. |
| B．Rates of death from illnesses have risen due to global warming. |
| C．Malnutrition has caused serious health problems in poor countries. |
| D．Economic trends have to do with population and natural disasters. |
| A．Its statistics look embarrassing. |
| B．It is invalid in terms of methodology. |
| C．It deserves our closest attention. |
| D．Its conclusion is purposely exaggerated. |
| A．How rich and poor regions can share responsibility in curbing global warming. |
| B．How human and economic losses from climate change can be reduced. |
| C．How emissions of heat-trapping gases can be reduced on a global scale. |
| D．How rich countries can better help poor regions reduce climate hazards. |
【推荐2】Known for their huge size, whales are important sea animals. The organizations of the world are calling all nations not to kill or eat whales any more.
After the Japanese government made its decision clear on Nov. 8, 2016 to catch 100 more whales in 2017, many animal experts in the world voiced their angry answers. Japan’s new whaling (捕鲸) plan is a great danger to the living of these large animals. It will also do harm to the sea interests (利益) of other surrounding countries including China, experts said.
According to a Japan News report, Japan caught 174 minke whales and 140 sei whales totally in the northwest Pacific Ocean in 2017. “After years of overfishing (过度捕捞), the population of minke whales in the northwest Pacific Ocean has been reduced to a dangerous level. Therefore, Japan should stop whaling in the area,” said Wang Yaming, a leader of the International Whaling Organization.
According to Wang, most whales living in the northwest Pacific Ocean are migratory (迁徙的) animals, and their traveling way is very close to the land of Russia, South Korea, North Korea, Japan and China. Japan’s whaling will also have a terrible influence on those countries.
Although the world has stopped to catch and kill whales, Japan lies to others that its killing of whales is just for scientific purposes. However, many experts don’t agree with it completely. “Japan should not kill more whales, as doing so would harm the international whale resources (资源). Japan’s whaling in the northwest Pacific Ocean hasn’t drawn much more attention because it hardly influences the interests of western countries.” Wang explained.
It is really high time for Japan to stop its whaling from now on.
1. What is animal experts’ attitude towards the Japan’s whaling plan?| A．Surprised. | B．Interested. | C．Angry. | D．Happy. |
| A．About 314. | B．About 274. | C．About 240. | D．About 414. |
| A．Whales travel far from the land of Japan when they are migrating. |
| B．Western countries strongly oppose to Japan’s whaling in the northwest Pacific Ocean. |
| C．Japan’s whaling has nothing to do with the neighboring countries. |
| D．Overfishing has made certain whales in the northwest Pacific Ocean fewer. |
| A．Food supply. | B．Scientific study. | C．Zoo interests. | D．Sea balance. |
【推荐3】Making a transition away from fossil fuels and towards low-carbon energy is the only way to keep our planet safe and habitable for future generations. That transition has thankfully begun, but it has a vast distance to go. And the kinds of changes that are needed cost money. Development of new technology has always required investment.
This applies to the generation of renewable energy, and to the countless lifestyle changes that follow from the shift away from coal, oil and gas. Electric cars and other transport are one example. Packaging to replace plastic is another. Resources are also required to protect societies from the harms caused by the global heating that has already happened, and to help them adjust to altered conditions.
A new report presented at the Cop27 UN climate summit says that about S2tn (£1.75tn) a year will be needed by 2030 if developing countries are to make the necessary changes. One of the authors, Nicholas Stern, pointed to a crucial role for the World Bank as well as western governments in redirecting finance and reducing the cost of capital for investors (banks typically charge higher interest on investments in poor countries, due to predicted risks).
The promise made in 2009 of S100bn worth of climate finance annually from rich countries to poorer ones has been broken. But developing countries have succeeded in getting loss and damage on to the formal Cop agenda (议程) for the first time. So far, five European countries have agreed to contribute to a fund to help weak countries manage global beating’s destructive effects. These commitments are welcome, but insufficient.
Carbon emissions, and the dangerously warming planet they have led to, are the byproduct of the way that the rich world developed. Since industrialisation, we have burned our way to wealth. Thankfully, we now know that there are alternatives to this destructive patter. Renewable energy, along with social change aimed at limiting some forms of consumption, is at the heart of this prospectus (会议章程).
1. What does the underlined word “This” refer to in paragraph 2?| A．Transition | B．Investment |
| C．New technology | D．Low-carbon energy |
| A．Disapproving | B．Suspicious | C．Unconcerned | D．Unsatisfactory |
| A．By limiting our consumption. |
| B．By developing the byproducts. |
| C．By changing the destructive pattern. |
| D．By holding the Cop27 UN climate Summit. |
| A．A green transition requires funding. |
| B．The rich world must do more in the transition. |
| C．Rich countries are to blame for carbon emissions. |
| D．Development of new technology is urgently-needed. |
【推荐1】Spider monkeys know that the best way to find food is in a group. But when they divide to hunt for fruit, there’s no random (随意的) pairing off. Researchers have found that they use collective computation (群体计算) when they break up into teams.
Typically, the older females lead the rest of the younger monkeys, having the final say in group activities. But that’s not the case for wild spider monkeys living in a protected area near Punta Laguna, Mexico.
When they’re ready to search for food, the monkeys form teams without a single leader picking who goes into which group. Instead, each monkey decides which group to join and when to move to another group.
“The spider monkeys seem to be collecting information about resources by forming these small teams, so that as a group they know their environment better than anyone does on its own,” lead study author, Gabriel Ramos-Femandez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said.
To study the animals’ behavior, researchers spent two years recording 47 different spider monkeys for five hours each day. For hunting for food, they usually formed groups of 2 to 17 monkeys. Researchers worked together with the scientists to find out how a spider monkey decided to stay with or leave a group. Their study found that the monkeys’ decisions were influenced by the decisions of the other monkeys on the team. They would feel out their teammates about the best size and then make their own decisions accordingly.
The results produced teams of many different sizes, which were helpful in finding fruit in the forest. The researchers said that the collectively computed sizes were sometimes not a perfect match based on the food that was available. They suggest a similar study should be used to examine how other groups or systems work, such as flocks of birds or schools of fish.
1. How do spider monkeys living near Punta Laguna differ from the typical ones?| A．They can live better even in bad weather conditions. |
| B．The sizes of their teams are decided by each of them. |
| C．The older monkeys play a leading role in a team. |
| D．They usually take turns to look for food. |
| A．To take better care of little spider monkeys. |
| B．To protect their homes from being damaged. |
| C．To fight against their natural enemies more easily. |
| D．To develop a good knowledge of their environment. |
| A．Its teammates’ choices. |
| B．The sudden danger that appears. |
| C．The unfair treatment from teammates. |
| D．Its disappointment with the amount of food. |
【推荐2】Personality is , to large extent, inherent (天生的). A-type parents usually bring about A-type offspring (产物). But the environment must also have a big effect, since if competition is important to the parents, it is likely to become a major factor in the lives of their children.
One place where children soak up A characteristics is school, which is, by its very nature, a highly competitive institution. Too many schools adopt the “win at all costs” moral standard and measure their success by sporting achievements. The current passion for making children compete against their classmates or against the clock produces a two-layer system, in which competitive A types seem in some way better than their B-type fellows. Being too keen to win can have dangerous consequences: remember that Pheidippides, the first marathon runner, dropped dead seconds after saying: “Rejoice, we conquer! ”.
By far the worst form of competition in school is the improper emphasis on examinations. It is a rare school that allows pupils to concentrate on those things they do well. The merits of competition by examination are somewhat questionable, but competition in the certain knowledge of failure is positively harmful.
Obviously, it is neither practical nor desirable that all A youngsters change into ‘B’s. The world needs types, and schools have an important duty to try to fit a child’s personality to his possible future employment. It is top management.
1. What affects the building of personality according to the passage?| A．inheritance, employment and examination. |
| B．inheritance, competition and environment. |
| C．competition, employment and questions. |
| D．environment, knowledge and examination. |
| A．abstract | B．accept |
| C．absorb | D．accomplish |
| A．express the positive attitude toward the examinations |
| B．express his approval for the competition |
| C．show that he was too keen to win the game |
| D．show the consequence of the severe competition |
| A．positive. | B．negative. |
| C．doubtful. | D．acceptable. |
| A．All students at schools should be made into competitive A types. |
| B．A child’s personality be considered according to his possible future job. |
| C．All students should be changed into B characteristics. |
| D．All kinds of schools should get rid of all examinations. |
【推荐3】In the second half of each year, many powerful storms are born in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean seas. Of these, only about half a dozen becomes the strong, circling winds of 75 miles per hour or more that are called hurricanes, and several usually make their way to the coast. There they cause millions of dollars of damage, and bring death to large numbers of people.
The great storms that hit the coast start as soft circling wind hundreds—even thousands—of miles out to sea. As they travel aimlessly over water warmed by the summer sun, they are carried westward by the southeast winds. When conditions are just right, warm, moist air flows in at the bottom of such a wind, moves upward through it and comes out at the top. In the process, the moisture in this warm air produces rain, and with it the heat is changed to energy in the form of strong winds. As the heat increases, the young hurricane begins to move in a counter－clockwise motion.
The life of a hurricane is only about nine days, but it contains almost more power than we can imagine. The energy in the heat released by a hurricane’s rainfall in a single day would satisfy the entire electrical needs of the United States for more than six months. Water, not wind, is the main source of death and destruction in a hurricane. A typical hurricane brings 6 to 12 inch downpours, causing sudden floods. Worst of all is the powerful movement of the sea — the mountains of water moving toward the hurricane center. The water level rises as much as 15 feet above normal as it moves toward shore.
1. When is an ordinary tropical storm called a hurricane?| A．When it begins in the Atlantic and Caribbean seas. | B．When it hits the coastline. |
| C．When it is more than 75 miles wide. | D．When its winds reach 75 miles per hour. |
| A．The terrible effects of water. | B．The heat they give off. |
| C．That they last about nine days. | D．Their strong winds. |
| A．heavy rainfall | B．the progress of water to the hurricane center |
| C．dangerous waves | D．the increasing heat |
| A．It travels more than 75 miles per hour. |
| B．It usually stays about 9 days. |
| C．It usually causes 6 to 12 inch downpours. |
| D．It sometimes brings the sea water level to the height of 15 feet. |
