Fashion designers are always looking for new materials to work with. Lately, it’s all about environment-friendly materials -- recycled tires, mushrooms, even pineapple fibers! What if you want such a pair of shoes? Thaely is here to help.
This sneaker brand out of Dubai wants to fight the growing problem of plastic pollution. Led by 23-year-old Indian businessman Ashay Bhave, they may have found a winning approach: making shoes out of plastic grocery bags. “Thaely” means “plastic bag” in the Hindi language.
“I was looking to create footwear that is cost-effective and safe for the environment,” Bhave said in an interview with a newspaper. “I needed to come up with something that uses recycled plastic without creating any more plastic waste. ”Plastic bags were the perfect solution. He said five trillion plastic bags are used around the world each year. “I was motivated to find a solution to this problem,” Bhave said.
That solution was the fiber called ThaelyTex. Made entirely from plastic bags, the material looks and feels like leather. That sounds promising. Better yet, the production process requires no additional chemicals and produces no poisonous by-products. The result is a smart-looking pair of white low-top sneakers.
Bhave wouldn’t expose the full process for making ThaelyTex, but he said that each pair of shoes was made from up to 15 plastic bags and 22 plastic bottles. Where do they get the materials? Bhave told Elle that was the hardest part. “The biggest challenge we faced was right at the first step of acquiring the plastic bags. ”
Finally, they got help from TrioTap Technologies, a waste management plant. Bhave said they offered to collect the bags and also process them into ThaelyTex.
So far, it seems like things are falling into place. There are already hundreds of pre-orders in place. It sounds like they have some plans for the future. “We have a few more colors coming up,” said Bhave. They also plan to put out a high-top model and bring in a line of clothing. Let’s hope their growth is also friendly to the environment.
1. Why did Bhave choose to make shoes out of plastic bags?| A．To set a new footwear trend. |
| B．To test new materials for footwear. |
| C．To reduce the use of plastic bags in his home country. |
| D．To use recycled plastic in an environment-friendly way. |
| A．Having a few more colors for Thaely. | B．Processing plastic bags into ThaelyTex. |
| C．Collecting enough production materials | D．Dealing with many poisonous by-products |
| A．produce | B．conserve |
| C．provide | D．broadcast |
| A．Bhave: a promising young man |
| B．Thaely: killer of waste plastic bags |
| C．ThaelyTex: material out of plastic bags |
| D．TrioTap Technologies: a waste management plant |
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【推荐1】Roosters act differently when faced with another chicken versus just their own reflection. This may mean that the roosters can recognise themselves in a mirror, a key test of self-awareness in animals. The way researchers tailored this mirror test to roosters may open up new methods of determining self-recognition in a diversity of animal species. In the traditional mirror self-recognition test, developed in 1970, researchers place a mark on an animal’s body in a spot that it could only see reflected in a mirror. They note if the animal inspects or touches the mark while examining its reflection, suggesting it understands the reflection represents its own body.
Results from this test are often highly variable. Sonja Hillemacher at the University of Bonn in Germany and her colleagues wondered if this has less to do with the animals not recognising themselves, and more to do with the fact that there is little natural motivation for many animals to investigate the marks.
So the team turned to roosters, which loudly alarm other chickens to the presence of nearby predators, but generally stay quiet when alone. In the lab, the researchers tested 68 roosters one by one in a closed area divided down the middle by a wire net. They placed a rooster on one side, and either left the other side empty or put another rooster in it. Then they added a mirror to the divider for some tests. To mimic a threat, they projected the silhouette (轮廓) of an eagle on the ceiling above the area. The researchers found that when a rooster was paired with another rooster, it raised the alarm far more often than when it was alone in the area, regardless of whether it could see its own reflection.
Since the roosters acted similarly when alone and with a reflection, they may realise their reflection is of themselves, the researchers say. This would point to self-recognition possibly being more widespread across the animal kingdom than previously thought, says Hillemacher.
Nathan Emery at Queen Mary University of London thinks it’s premature to say chickens definitely recognise themselves in their reflections. It’s possible the strange behaviour of a reflection.
1. Where did the researchers mark the spot in the traditional test?| A．On the mirror where the animals can see. |
| B．On their body where the animals can touch. |
| C．On the mirror where the researchers can inspect. |
| D．On their body where the animals can only see in the mirror. |
| A．Face. | B．End. | C．Imitate. | D．Test. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Doubtful. | C．Careless. | D．Objective. |
| A．Rooster Attacks His Own Reflection |
| B．Roosters Have Passed the Self-recognition Test |
| C．Roosters May Be Able to Recognise a Mark in a Mirror |
| D．Roosters May Recognize Their Reflections in Mirrors |
【推荐2】Airplane accidents are statistically rare. When they do happen, however, they are often fatal and people want answers as to why their loved ones lost their lives, and that is where black boxes come into play.
A black box, known as flight recorder, is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft to help the investigation of air accidents. The term “black box” was a World War II British phrase, originating with the development of radio, radar, and electronic navigational aids in British and Allied combat aircraft. These often-secret electronic devices were literally covered in non-reflective black boxes or housings, hence the name “black box”.
There are two different flight recorder devices: the flight data recorder (FDR) as well as the cockpit voice recorder (CVR). Together, the FDR and CVR objectively document the aircraft’s flight history, which may assist in any later investigation. They are usually kept in the tail of an aircraft, where they are more likely to survive a crash. FDRs record things like airspeed, height and vertical acceleration (垂直加速度) and has about 25 hours of recording storage. The CVRs store the crew’s interactions with each other and air traffic control, as well as the background noise that can give vital clues to investigators in case of a crash. However, a CVR can store only two hours of cockpit voice recording.
Though the black box is useful, it’s looking increasingly likely that the little one will be replaced by streaming all essential data directly to a ground-based station. Air-to-ground systems can send flight data to a home base via satellite, which help to reduce time to search for a box, possibly avoiding a crisis. However, satellite and GPS capacity and data storage speeds are all areas that are being developed by scientists to support new innovations that are faster and lighter. The challenge is to build the systems to manage a large number of data that are needed to make it possible to track all commercial flight activity, especially the use of satellites and data storage.
1. What’s the function of a flight recorder?| A．To avoid airplane accidents. |
| B．To help investigate air crashes. |
| C．To save lives of the passengers. |
| D．To answer the questions of loved ones. |
| A．For its container. | B．For its design. | C．For its function. | D．For its position. |
| A．FDR is more effective than CVR. |
| B．The data can be preserved for two days. |
| C．The background noise can be recorded by FDR. |
| D．They are fixed at the back of the aircraft to keep safe. |
| A．Scientists need to improve the speed to store data. |
| B．Commercial flight data can not be tracked and stored. |
| C．The black box will be replaced by other facilities soon. |
| D．It will take more time for air-to-ground systems to find the black box. |
【推荐3】When he was a kid, Alex Vardakostas began working in the grill (烧烤店)alongside adult employees. He estimates he has cooked 50,000 burgers (汉堡包).
Now, Vardakostas co-owns a burger joint called Creator, in San Francisco, California. But he doesn't stand over a grill flipping burgers, and neither do his employees. At Creator, burgers are cooked and assembled entirely by machine. And because it costs less to maintain the machine than to pay a kitchen's worth of employees, burgers cost less.
Creator is just one example of a growing phenomenon: Automation is taking over more and more jobs. That means work is done by machines or computers instead of people.
According to a report from McKinsey Global Institute, about 800 million people could be forced out of their jobs by 2030. McKinsey predicts that as technology improves, some tasks will be done more quickly or cheaply by machine, so businesses will install robots or computer Programs to perform them.
Some jobs are more likely to be automated than others. Machines can do jobs that have three characteristics: They are routine, repetitive, and predictable. Some of these jobs pay low wages and require little education. But others pay well and demand an advanced college degree. Taxi drivers, cashiers, lawyers, and doctors all perform some tasks that can be done by machines.
So what jobs are safe from automation? Answers include coming up with new ideas or work that involves interacting with other people and building relationships. Jobs in engineering, science, the arts, therapy, and nursing are examples.
At Creator, Vardakostas hired people to do just that kind of work. Instead of repetitive burger prepping, workers interact with customers and advise them on flavor pairings, like mushroom sauce with pickles and onion jam. "In our world at Creator, all the work is creative and social," Vardakostas says. "And I think that is what we're going to see more of the future. ”
1. What's the difference between Creator and a traditional restaurant?| A．There is neither worker nor waiters at Creator at all. |
| B．Some work is done by machines instead of humans at Creator. |
| C．The number of owners of Creator is larger than that of a traditional one. |
| D．The price of burgers at Creator is higher than that of a traditional one. |
| A．A lot of people will lose their jobs. |
| B．More cheap machines will be invented. |
| C．More working opportunities have to be created. |
| D．Humans will have difficulty in running business. |
| A．A writer who always publishes works. |
| B．A nurse who is good at taking care of patients. |
| C．A cleaner who works in a big supermarket. |
| D．An engineer who can design new machines. |
| A．To make an advertisement for Vardakostas. |
| B．To increase the plot of the story. |
| C．To introduce a modern restaurant. |
| D．To introduce the topic of the text. |
【推荐1】With fifteen years Britain and other nations should be well on with the building of huge industrial complexes（建筑群） for the recycling of waste. The word “rubbish” could lose its meaning because everything which goes into the dumps would be made into something useful. Even the most dangerous and unpleasant wastes would provide energy if nothing else.
The latest project is to take a city of around half a million inhabitants and discover exactly what raw materials go into it and what go out. The aim is to find out how much of these raw materials could be provided if a plant（工厂） for recycling waste were built just outside the city. This plant would recycle not only metal such as steel, lead and copper, but also paper and rubber as well.
Another new project is being set up to discover the best ways of sorting（分类整理） and separating the rubbish. When this project is complete, the rubbish will be processed like this: First, it will pass through sharp metal bars (金属条) which will tear open the plastic bags in which rubbish is usually packed; then it will pass through a powerful fan（风扇） to separate the lightest elements from the heavy solids; after that founders and rollers will break up everything that can be broken. Finally, the rubbish will pass under magnets (磁铁), which will remove the bits of iron and steel; the rubber and plastic will then be sorted out in the final stage.
The first full-scale giant recycling plants are perhaps fifteen years away. Indeed, with the growing cost of transporting rubbish to more distant dumps (垃圾场), some big cities will be forced to build their own recycling plants before long.
1. What is NOT mentioned as a part of the recycling process described in Paragraph 3?| A．Separating light elements from the heavy ones. | B．Sorting out small pieces of metal. |
| C．Breaking up whatever is breakable. | D．Sharpening metal bars. |
| A．To protect the environment. | B．To get big profits from those plants. |
| C．To get raw materials locally. | D．To reduce transportation expense. |
| A．Rubbish will be dealt with in a better way later. |
| B．Recycling plant only recycles metal and paper. |
| C．Dangerous wastes can’t be recycled. |
| D．The first full-scale giant recycling plants will begin operation in less than 15 years. |
| A．Scientific Ways to Get Energy | B．The Location of Recycling Plants |
| C．New Ways of Recycling Wastes | D．Some Methods to Protect the Environment |
【推荐2】In the past few weeks, Richard Eckersley has noticed a change in the type of people who come into his shop. In 2017, the former Manchester United footballer set up Earth. Food. Love in Tones, Devon, with his wife, Nicola. It’s the UK’s first “zero waste” store—the food is in big jars and boxes and people bring their own containers. “A lot of new people are coming in-people who have not necessarily been interested in environmental issues before”, he says.
Recently, the government called for supermarkets to introduce plastic-free passageways. But Eckersley says many customers are already way ahead of politicians. He and Nicola have helped people set up similar stores in Wales, Birmingham, and Bristol. Ingrid Caldironi had a similar idea. She set up a plastic-free shop in London last year, which has been so popular that it is soon moving to a bigger site.
Eckersley and Caldironi are members of an anti-plastics movement in the UK that has been growing as a result of the BBC’s Blue Planet series and a general worry about the damage plastic is doing to the environment. But big supermarkets have so far not tried very hard to reduce their plastic waste. Sian Sutherland, founder of the movement “A Plastic Planet”, says, “The most exciting thing is that politicians and industry are no longer saying that recycling will solve the problem. Banning the use of plastic packaging for food and drink products is the only answer.” Walking down the passageways of the supermarket where everything from pizza to fresh fruit and vegetables is covered in plastic. Sutherland says immediate action is needed.
Plastic pollution is causing widespread global damage. More than one million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute, and most end up in landfill or the sea. The contamination is so wide that tap water around the world also contains plastic.
1. What is special about Earth. Food. Love?| A．It gives away boxes of food. | B．It is a store without plastic bags. |
| C．It has few new customers. | D．It is the UK’s first supermarket. |
| A．Its popularity. | B．Its products. | C．Its profits. | D．Its similarity. |
| A．Pollution. | B．Acceptance. | C．Influence. | D．Application. |
| A．The impact of BBC’s Blue Planet series on anti-plastics movements. |
| B．Rising anti-plastics movement alongside increasing environmental concerns. |
| C．A guide to setting up plastic-free stores to promote recycling in the whole UK. |
| D．Richard Eckersley’s personal journey in waste reduction and pollution prevention. |
【推荐3】Raising livestock (牲畜) is a big part of the carbon emission from agriculture. But it is hard to change people’s habits and get them to give up their hamburgers, especially since more than one-third of Americans eat fast food every day. We previously called for carbon labels on everything from buildings to burgers. Now, a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that labels on fast food affected people’s choices.
The study said shifting current dietary patterns to more sustainable diets with less red meat could reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 55% and have health benefits.
The 5,000 participants in the study were shown fake menus. One group got menus with high climate impact labels on red meat items and another had low climate impact labels on fish or plant-based burgers. Both menus were effective in reducing the orders for red meat. But interestingly, the high-impact labels were far more effective, with 23% of the participants choosing a more environmentally sustainable selection, while menus listing low-impact choices encouraged only 10% participants to change.
“We found that labeling red meat items with high-climate impact labels was more effective in increasing sustainable selections than labeling non-red meat items with low-climate impact labels,” wrote the authors of the study.
Lead author, Julia Wolfson, said, “These results suggest that menu labeling, particularly labels warning that an item has high climate impact, can be an effective strategy for encouraging more sustainable food choices in a fast food setting.”
The study points out negative labels might be unpopular: “It is unlikely that the industry would voluntarily adopt a negative label approach; such an approach needs to be carried out via law. However, high climate impact labels may easily be adopted in settings like universities and hospitals.”
They have a point that this label is aggressively negative, more like a cigarette warning than a food label. In the study, the authors note that future research should test more label designs using qualitative and quantitative research on how people understand different climate impact labels.
1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．The background of the new study. |
| B．The influence of the carbon emission. |
| C．The request of giving up carbon labels. |
| D．The difficulty in changing people’s habits. |
| A．They liked them very much. |
| B．They stuck to their preferences. |
| C．Some of them stopped eating fast food. |
| D．Some of them changed their food choices. |
| A．It will be banned by law. | B．It will produce bad results. |
| C．It will face some resistance. | D．It will be accepted by all industries. |
| A．Fast food has a negative effect on climate. |
| B．Raising livestock surely causes carbon emission. |
| C．Researchers care too much about climate impact. |
| D．Labels on fast food can help protect the environment. |
The law in almost all states used to require stores to close on Sunday; in most, it no longer does. It used to keep the schools open in all seasons except summer; in most, it still does. And whether the work week should strengthen its legal limits, or whether it should become more “flexible,” is often debated. How should we, as a society, organize our time? Should we go even further in relaxing the boundaries of time until we live in a world in which every minute is much like every other?
These are not easy questions even to ask. Part of the difficulty is that we rarely recognize the “law of time” even when we meet it face to face. We know as children that we have to attend school a certain number of hours, a certain number of days, a certain number of years—but unless we meet the truant officer （学监）, we may well think that we should go to school due to social custom and parents’ demand rather than to the law. As adults we are familiar with “extra pay for overtime working,” but less familiar with the fact that what constitutes （构成）“overtime” is a matter of legal definition. When we turn the clock forward to start daylight-saving time, have we ever thought to ourselves: “Here is the law in action”? As we shall see, there is a lot of law that has great influence on how we organize and use time: compulsory education law, overtime law, and daylight-saving law — as well as law about Sunday closing, holidays, being late to work, time zones, and so on. Once we begin to look for it, we will have no trouble finding a law of time to examine and assess.
1. By saying “Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be”, the writer means that_____ .
| A．work time is equal to rest time |
| B．many people have a day off on Monday |
| C．it is hard for people to decide when to rest |
| D．the line between work time and rest time is unclear |
| A．fail to make full use of their time | B．enjoy working overtime for extra pay |
| C．are unaware of the law of time | D．welcome flexible working hours |
| A．need to acquire knowledge | B．have to obey their parents |
| C．need to find companions | D．have to observe the law |
| A．Our life is governed by the law of time. |
| B．How to organize time is not worth debating. |
| C．New ways of using time change our society. |
| D．Our time schedule is decided by social customs. |
【推荐2】5G wireless networks are ready to power the cities of tomorrow. However, exact implementation (实施)of 5G will vary from city to city, with each city having its own unique set of priorities, requirements, and objectives.
Since 5G enables countless service possibilities, cities must develop strategies around their specific needs. Business and civic leaders play a decisive role in this process, helping to drive smart city initiatives and ensuring that key infrastructure (基础设施)elements are in place.
Several urban areas, including Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Chicago, are early to benefit from 5G For operators, these large urban centers offer a critical mass of solid infrastructure to support 5G’s complex technology requirements.
Now, regional and local governments play a critical role in positioning their cities to become early 5G adopters. They have a growing responsibility to streamline the permitting process, change fee structures, and minimize regulator hurdles in order lo enable greater 5G implementation.
Efforts are already in full force by industry players to overcome challenges for a smooth build-out in areas where 5G is needed first. As business leaders take a more active role in ensuring that they are well-positioned to better 5G services, they also increase their ability to transform their organizations into smart companies. Peter Linder, head of 5G marketing for North America at Ericsson, emphasizes the critical role individual leaders can play in making 5G and smart cities a reality. “5G will be introduced in urban areas first, driven by consumer and business’s needs,” he says. “Proactive city leaders appreciate the potential value of 5G for developing smart city solutions and will partner with service providers to speed up vital network development.”
The role of business and civic leaders as stimulators for encouraging 5G adoption is decisive to creating smarter, safer, and cleaner cities. The time is right for urban leaders and business executives (执行官)to work together toward making smart cities a reality.
1. What should a concerning government do for 5G?| A．Establish more smart companies. |
| B．Tap the value of 5G application. |
| C．Fulfil the requirements of 5G adoption. |
| D．Collect money from local residents. |
| A．Individual leadership. | B．Leaders’ promoting role. |
| C．Solid infrastructure. | D．Promising values. |
| A．To build smart cities. |
| B．To test new technology. |
| C．To regulate IT marketing. |
| D．To satisfy clients’ needs. |
| A．Negative. | B．Doubtful. | C．Uncaring. | D．Positive. |
【推荐3】Welcome to Our Festival
Story Show in Oheron
Adults
8: 00 pm—10: 00 pm
Join us for an evening of true, personal stories about science. Come to the only show where you can hear people—scientists, not-scientists, and half-scientists-tell funny and touching stories about the role of science in their lives.
Cost: $10
Make Your Own iPhone Case through Toysinbox 3D Printing
Families & Teens&. Adults
10: 00 am—12: 30 pm
In this workshop, you will learn to design and make your own iPhone case by 3D printing. First, you will learn how to use a 3D printer. Next, you will design a 3D model for your iPhone case that will have a lovely pattern and your name. Once you create the model, you will print it out on our 3D printers. A 3D-printing worker will guide you through this process step by step. Come and enjoy this fun and unique learning experience!
Cost: $35
DIY Underwater Vehicle Design in MIT Museum Teens
2: 00 pm—5: 00 pm
Dive into the world of ocean engineering by designing and building an underwater vehicle! Test your vehicle in large tanks on the Museum’s floor. Show off your engineering creations and share your design process with Museum visitors.
Cost: $15, Ages 12
Animal Kingdom for Young Ones in Museum of Science, Boston
Families
9: 30 am—2: 00 pm
Join us for a day of hands-on science fun designed especially for pre-schoolers!
Activities include the Museum’s popular “Live Animal Story Time” shows and a talk about baby animals and book-signing by children’s book authors. Take part in special live animal visits and activities in the exhibition halls, as well as design challenges and lab activities—all created with your young scientist in mind!
Cost: $20
1. If you are interested in stories about science, you will probably attend ________.| A．Make Your Own iPhone Case | B．DIY Underwater Vehicle Design |
| C．Story Show | D．Animal Kingdom for Young Ones |
| A．Do role-play games. | B．Test their creations. |
| C．Put on science shows. | D．Meet authors of the books. |
| A．kids not old enough for school | B．children of all ages |
| C．adults | D．college students |
