【推荐1】Picky eaters may have good reasons for their behaviour. No matter why your child has become picky, how you handle the situation can affect his or her future. Therefore, you should know the following reasons for picky children first of all.

Neophobia is common in children; it often happens at the dinner table. Some children just refuse to try new food because they don’t know what it will taste like, while others dislike new food before even smelling it. Some children take it to the extreme(极端) and will only eat a few foods that they like. Psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Capaldi says that, by the time children reach the age of two, they have formed their own eating habits that they don’t want to be disturbed by new offerings at the table.

A newly published study led by Dr. Lucy Cooke of University College London showed that picky eating in children results from genetic(遗传的) and environmental causes. The research, which followed the eating habits of 5,390 pairs of twins between the ages of 8 and 11, found that about 75% of the neophobia in the children was from their parents, while 25% was due to the influence of environment.

Children grow at a high speed during their first year, but that fast-paced growth tends to slow down by their second year. When children are not experiencing one of those fast growth periods, their body needs less energy; and that results in a smaller appetite(胃口). When children are not hungry, they tend to enjoy only food they like. They refuse new food and food that is not their favourite. Some children will limit the amount of food to only one kind, like hamburgers or pancakes, leaving all the other foods untouched.

In some cases, many real reasons why a child behaves as a picky eater exist. About 5% of children who are 10 years of age or younger have some type of neurological dysfunction(神经机能障碍) that influences their eating habits. These children may be easily hurt by some special smells, or their brain may not be able to process such sensory information properly.

1. The underlined word “Neophobia”in Paragraph 2 probably means_________.

A．the fear of something new or unknown

B．the worry about the amount of new food

C．the feeling of eating at the dinner table

D．the fear of eating tasty food

2. What can we learn about the study led by Dr. Cooke?

A．It paid more attention to the environmental effects on children’s eating habits.

B．It followed the eating habits of 5,390 children aged between 8 and 11.

C．It showed that genetics greatly affect children’s eating habits.

D．It suggested that parents should have good eating habits.

3. The fourth paragraph mainly tells us that_______.

A．children’s growth speed stays the same in the first two years

B．children develop their own diet when they grow up

C．children tends to eat less when they grow up

D．children’s growth has an effect on their diet

4. The reason mentioned in the last paragraph has something to do with a child’s_______.

A．exercise

B．sense

C．habit

D．Interest

【推荐2】Gorillas (大猩猩) in films such as King Kong and Tarzan are wildly beating their chests when under threat. Researchers have tried to find out what the behavior might mean, and they doubt that the gorillas exhibit this behavior not to start fights, but to prevent themselves — and chest-beating could be used to advertise their body size to other gorillas.

Scientists observed 25 wild male mountain gorillas for over 3,000 hours. The research team used audio (音频) equipment to record the sound frequency, rate, duration, and amount of chest beats. To determine each gorilla’s size, the researchers used cameras to photograph and measure each gorilla’s back.

Although the rate, duration, and amount of beats did not correlate with the size of the gorillas, sound frequency did , the researchers report. The team also noticed that larger gorillas produced deeper-tone chest drumming. Previous research has shown that a gorilla’s larger body size is linked to reproductive success and social rank. The chest-beating could be a way for the gorillas to advertise their size to others and, in turn, avoid fights that could result in serious injury or death.

Though gorillas can obviously observe size just by getting a good look at others, the researchers suggest chest beating is copper-bottomed when trying to communicate through a thick forest. The sounds gorillas created by beating their chests are powerful enough to travel long distance through thick forests and signal others their size and fighting ability.

Animal expert Anna Nekaris says it would be interesting to see if smaller gorillas can imitate the deep tones of larger ones in future studies. Nekaris says, “For now, the researchers will continue to study chest-beating to see if the action can pass on other information, such as dominance rank, sex, and individual identity, to nearby gorillas.”

1. What is the second paragraph mainly about according to the research?

A．Its findings.

B．Its purpose.

C．Its samples.

D．Its method.

2. Why do some gorillas beat their chests?

A．To declare war on other gorillas.	B．To frighten other gorillas away.
C．To welcome their companions.	D．To celebrate their victory in a fight.

3. What does Nekaris suggest researchers’ study in the future?

A．If smaller gorillas can make deep-toned chest drumming.

B．If gorillas’ chest-beating contains other information.

C．If larger gorillas are better at using their body influence.

D．If gorillas have other communication skills.

4. Which section may the passage come from in a newspaper?

A．Health.

B．Entertainment.

C．Science.

D．Sports.

【推荐1】Carbon dioxide emissions from transportation are now thought as the top source of green-house gases. One of the most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to reconsider how much, and how often, you travel.

Going car free for a year could save about 2. 6 tons of carbon dioxide, according to a study from the University of British Columbia. How can you stop using a car? Try taking a train, bus or better yet, riding a bike.

But let’s be realistic. You will likely need to use a car this year. So, when you do, here are some tips to make your trip more climate-friendly. Driving efficiently can help to reduce emissions. Go easy on the gas and brakes and drive like you have an egg under your foot. Regularly service your car to keep it more efficient. Keeping your tires pumped correctly can re-duce emissions. Low tire pressure will hurt your fuel economy. Air conditioning and frequent city driving can make emissions go up. So cut down on these as often as possible. Use cruise control (定速巡航) on long drives-in most cases, this can help to save gas. Don’t weigh your car down with extra things that you don’t need on your trip.

Fly often? Taking one fewer long round-trip flight could reduce your personal carbon footprint significantly. If you use public transportation often and fly less, your carbon foot-print might still be relatively sustainable, but if you drive and fly a lot, your emissions will be sigher. If you can’t avoid flying, you can offset them by donating money to sustainable proacts, such as supplying efficient stoves to rural homes, or projects which help farmers deal with crop waste environmentally.

1. What does the author think of going car free?

A．Efficient.

B．Costly.

C．Impractical.

D．Reliable.

2. Which can be adopted to save fuel of your car?

A．Maintaining your car properly.	B．Using cruise control in the city.
C．Stepping hard on the gas and brakes.	D．Geiting rid of all the necessary loads.

3. What does the underlined word “offset” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Make up for.

B．Team up with.

C．Set foot in.

D．Put up with.

4. Which is the best title for the text?

A．How to save fuel when driving cars	B．How to reduce your carbon footprint
C．Reduce carbon footprint by all means	D．Lower carbon footprint in transportation

【推荐2】Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he’s an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein’s jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bag.

Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts(收银台). The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.

Among the bag makers' argument: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today.

The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.

Environmentalists don't dispute(质疑) these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.

1. What has Steven Stein been hired to do?

A．Help increase grocery sales.

B．Recycle the waste material.

C．Stop things falling off trucks.

D．Argue for the use of plastic bags.

2. What does the word “headwinds” in paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Bans on plastic bags.

B．Effects of city development.

C．Headaches caused by garbage.

D．Plastic bags hung in trees.

3. What is the best title for the text?

A．Plastic, Paper or Neither

B．Industry, Pollution and Environment

C．Recycle or Throw Away

D．Garbage Collection and Waste Control

【推荐3】Do you have full confidence in your memory? There has been a discussion about whether it is shi or si in the sentence “Thus when Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man...” (“故天将降大任于是/斯人也”). Most people chose si as what they learned at school. However, People’s Education Press, a leading publisher of Chinese textbooks, claimed on Oct 26 that all its textbooks say shi.   

Supporters of si feel shocked and say they’ve experienced the “Mandela Effect” — the situation in which a large number of people believe that an event occurred when it didn’t. Many people believed that former South African president Nelson Mandel died in the1980s in prison. However, Mandela was alive and well, eventually passing away in 2013. US researcher Fiona Broome set up a website to explain her observation of this phenomenon first, coining the term.

Some often joke that our memories have been changed by a strange force. In fact, psychologists have looked into the reasons for the Mandela Effect, as reported on the US-based website Verywell Mind. For example, your mind may fill in gaps missing in your memory to make more sense of it, which is called confabulation (虚构症). However, try not to feel bad — this is not lying, but rather remembering details that never happened.

The Internet may be another reason why we have Mandela Effect events, as the news we read can be false from the beginning. In 2018, Science journal published a study of over 100,000 news stories discussed across Twitter. It showed that false news can spread faster and reach more people than the truth. As a powerful way to spread information, the Internet might be the main reason for falsehoods to enter our minds.

1. What’s the author’s purpose of telling the saying “Thus when Heaven is …”?

A．To show our memories can be wrong.

B．To provide solutions to the discussion.

C．To raise readers’ interest in the discussion.

D．To introduce the topic of the Mandela Effect.

2. Which can replace the underlined word coining in Paragraph 3?

A．Creating.

B．Misunderstanding.

C．Forgetting.

D．Changing.

3. What is the “Mandela Effect” about?

A．Attitudes to a particular event.

B．A kind of psychological effect.

C．The benefit of good memory.

D．The effect of Mandela’s death.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．False news travels much faster than true stories.

B．The Internet can also cause Mandela Effect events.

C．It is harder than ever to read false news at present.

D．The Internet can make false information avoidable.