【推荐2】What’s the first thing that pops into your mind when you think of wheat straw? Most people would probably just see it as a pile of waste in a farmer’s field. However, Wu Cui, an intangible cultural inheritor, can turn the straw left over from harvested wheat into beautiful and eye-catching functional artworks.

The earliest straw-weaving(草编的)products were discovered at Hemudu Cultural Ruins, a Neolithic cultural site located in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. The Book of Rites, one of the classical works of Confucianism, also records that there were already mats made of cattail grass and professional straw-weaving craftsmen during the Zhou Dynasty(c.11th century-256 BC).

Straw weaving is a method of making daily items or artworks. It was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

Wu explains the process of straw weaving: selection of materials is the first step of a complicated, time consuming and labor-intensive process that can take weeks, or even months, to complete. You need to sketch(索描)the piece on paper, which requires drawing skills. Next comes weaving, shaping and preserving of the work. Even by finishing that process, it does not mean that you will always create a good piece of work, and the hardest part is to make it lifelike.

In the past, woven straw items could be found almost in every household in the countryside, such as straw hats and straw shoes, because they were practical in everyday life. But due to the impact of industrialization, manufactured goods have replaced such products, which cause low profits, and there are only about 100 individuals engaging in the work across the country. “The world has changed, and craftsmen need to transcend(超越)practicality and pursue the beauty and artistry of straw culture to help the craft survive and thrive(茁壮成长),” Wu says.

From her perspective, straw weaving should respond to people’s needs and preferences, while still drawing inspiration from traditional culture, “Craftspeople should make a great effort to grasp the trends and opportunities of the times to create new and relevant products,” she says. When asked about her plans, Wu says she wants to dig deeper into local traditional culture and create cultural creative products by developing the straw-weaving technique.

1. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about straw-weaving products?

A．Their historic origins.	B．Their cultural value.
C．Their major uses.	D．Their producing process.

2. Which is the most difficult part for straw-weaving craftsmen according to Wu Cui?

A．Selecting suitable materials.	B．Drawing sketches on paper.
C．Making the artworks vivid.	D．Preserving finished products.

3. What can we learn from Wu Cui’s opinion according to the last paragraph?

A．Craftsmen should bring forth new ideas in the crafts based on traditional culture

B．Pursuing fashion should be the first preference for eraftspeople.

C．Local people benefit a lot from the straw—weaving techniques.

D．Straw-weaving products are out of favor with customers.

4. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To explain the process of straw weaving.	B．To present the future of a traditional culture.
C．To introduce a way to pursue the beauty and artistry.	D．To propose a new means of crafting.

【推荐1】On Wednesday a powerful earthquake hit Amatrice that was at the epicenter(震中), which is the point in the earth’s surface directly above where the earthquake happens. The town’s clock tower was the only building still standing. Italy’s prime minister said the earthquake had killed at least 120 people, and warned that the number might increase. There were several villages that were affected in farther mountainous areas. The earthquake was also felt as far away as Rome, 100 miles from the epicenter.

Earthquakes can’t be predicted. There are warning systems that can save some lives, but only under certain conditions. Unlike a tomnado warning where radar can see it and issue a warning before it, an earthquake warning happens when the earth is already shaking. We don’t have a system that can predict when the earth is going to shake. Our warning system is based on the fact that the earth is already shaking. The warning depends on how far you are from the earthquake epicenter. If you’re at an earthquake epicenter, you’re going to get no warning. If you’re far away from the epicenter, we can give you some time to prepare.

Another condition is how close the sensor is to the epicenter. If the sensor is 10 miles away from the epicenter, it takes five seconds to get to that sensor. So, the more sensors we get, the more time we’ll get as well. If you get 10 seconds notice of an earthquake that’s happening, especially a big one, you can open up the lifts on the nearest floor. You can also stop all the things that are moving before the shaking gets there. If you’re 30 miles away, your warning could be 15 seconds. It is 15 seconds that can save your life.

1. What can be learned from the first paragraph?

A．The earthquake happened on Monday.

B．The earthquake destroyed all the buildings.

C．Fewer than 120 people lost their lives.

D．Rome is about 100 miles away from Amatrice.

2. What can we say about the earthquake warning?

A．It can always give us time to prepare.

B．It is different from the tornado warning.

C．It can tell us how to prepare for the earthquake.

D．It can predict when earthquakes will happen.

3. How far might you be from the epicenter with 10 seconds notice of an earthquake?

A．5 miles.

B．10 miles.

C．20 miles.

D．30 miles.

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．A Powerful Earthquake	B．The Introduction of the Earthquake Warning
C．Earthquakes and Tornados	D．How the Earthquake Happens

【推荐2】Earth's longest artificial structure is usually said to be the Great Wall of China while the second-longest is not a wall, but a fence. It stretches for 5,614km across eastern Australia and is intended to stop the country's wild dogs, the dingoes, from hunting sheep.

Australia's dingo fence does not stand alone. Millions of kilometres of fences wrap the world. Some are intended to limit the movement of animals, some the movement of people, and some merely to mark the the boundary.

Until recently, data on the effects of fences on wildlife have been inadequate. That has changed with the publication of a report by professor Alex McInturff. One discovery he has made is that more than half of published fence research focuses on just five countries-America, Australia, Botswana, China and South Africa. A second is that only a third of these studies examined the impact of fences on anything other than the target species involved, meaning the animals purposely intended to be kept in or out.

Non-target species, however, are often those that have their fortunes most greatly reshaped by the appearance of poles and wire. Australian fences intended to keep out dingoes are also barriers to long-necked turtles, which travel great distances over land when moving between nesting sites. In Botswana fences built to spare cattle from wildlife-borne disease result in serious interference with wildebeest (角马) migrations.

Not every creature fares badly. Hawks (鹰) in Montana gladly sit on newly built livestock fences to hunt small animals, while fence-based spiders in South Africa outperform their tree-based cousins when it comes to catching insects.

Often, though, the winners are creatures that cause trouble for existing ecosystems. Keeping dingoes out of large parts of Australia has allowed aggressive red foxes to multiply. Native rodents (啮齿类动物) have suffered as a result. Some have been brought to the edge of extinction.

1. Which is a purpose of building fences?

A．To expand the boundary of a country.

B．To protect livestock like sheep and cattle.

C．To stop wild animals from being hunted.

D．To help people move around freely.

2. What can we learn about the studies on fences?

A．Data on the impact of fences have been proved.

B．Previous researches were complete and systematic.

C．About two-thirds of the studies focus on the target animals.

D．Not all studies examined the effect of fences on wildlife.

3. Which animals unexpectedly benefit from fences?

A．Cattle in Botswana.

B．Wildebeest in Botswana.

C．Red foxes in Australia.

D．Native rodents in Australia.

【推荐3】China is showing the world its great resolve in the global climate campaign with concrete and self­motivated efforts as well as serious commitment.

At the opening ceremony of the Paris climate summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping restated China’s plan made in June to cut its carbon emissions( 排放)per unit of GDP by 60­65 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, and increase non­fossil fuel sources in primary energy consumption to about 20 percent.

With a large population, China is facing increasing resource limits, severe environmental pollution and a worsening ecosystem, and its citizens are also becoming increasingly aware of environmental problems. Suffering environmental problems and seeing the efforts as important to transforming its economic growth pattern, the country has much at risk if climate change is left unattended.

Actually, climate change efforts are already included in China’s medium­and long­term program of economic and social development, and ecological efforts are the clear characteristics in China’s 13th Five­Year Plan(2016­2020)．

Although it is and will be a developing country for a long time to come, China has been actively involved in the global campaign against climate change, now topping the world in terms of energy conservation and use of new and renewable energies.

However, China’s development rights need to be respected. It is unfair to overstress China’s status as one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters and regard it as the major part of responsibilities in the global fight against climate change.

It is worthy of notice that China’s emissions of greenhouse gases per person are far lower than those of developed countries, especially the United States, although rapid economic expansion and its population base have made it one of the biggest producers of the gases.

To show its great resolve, Beijing in September also announced the establishment of an independent South­South cooperation fund of ￥20 billion to help developing countries affected by global warming.

While China is eagerly accomplishing its policy commitments, developed countries should stop questioning China’s commitment to fighting climate change and pointing fingers, and start shouldering their due responsibilities instead.

1. China is self­motivated to transform its economic pattern in order to ________．

A．top the world

B．fight against climate change

C．solve its population problem

D．respond to pressure from developed countries

2. The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 7 refers to ________．

A．China

B．the United States

C．economic expansion

D．the population base

3. It can be inferred from the text that ________．

A．China will completely use non­fossil fuels by 2030

B．China will carry out its plan by stopping its development

C．Chinese emit more greenhouse gases than Americans on average

D．some developed countries are not taking on their due responsibilities