A diet to save humankind
When I was a child, my family would always sit down together for meals. My favourite was among the simplest: pasta in tomato sauce. We ate fresh vegetables and fruit, and, starting in our teenage years, sipped a glass of red wine. We ate together. I indulged with a few slices of Italian ham and practised a wide variety of outdoor sports. This centuries - old Mediterranean diet kept me fit and trim - and turned out to be good not just for my personal well-being, but for the planet’s health too.
In 2021 we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of UNESCO’s designation of this Mediterranean diet as a ”Cultural Heritage of Humanity“.
Poor nutrition is a global problem, not just an Italian one. The fact that it’s hitting Italy, the land where the Mediterranean diet originated, represents a dangerous paradox(矛盾)- one of many troubling the world of food. After years of decline, hunger is back on the rise. Globally, some 821 m people still do not have enough to eat. Yet while the poor south starves, the rich north gorges: some 2bn people are overweight or obese. We waste one-third of global food production.
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals can show us the way. They aim to ”end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.“ These goals are ambitious but achievable.
Governments must provide incentives to support sustainable agriculture, slash food waste and meet nutritional challenges. This does not just mean taxing unhealthy foods.
We must change our diet. A food and environment pyramid which highlights the close links between food’s nutritional value and environmental impact has been devised. This ”double pyramid“ is based on the traditional Mediterranean diet of my childhood. Everyone can and must continue to have fun at the dinner table - while eating what is good for our health and our planet.
| A．Without a change in our diets, this disastrous cycle will worsen. |
| B．Farmers should use fertilizers more efficiently and reduce costs. |
| C．It is a diet full of vegetables, fruits and whole grains, with only occasional meat. |
| D．Farm animals consume an estimated two-thirds of all the land dedicated to agriculture and contribute about half of farming-related greenhouse-gas emissions. |
| E．Unfortunately, Italians have been turning away from their traditional healthy diet. |
| F．A more effective policy is to make healthy food, accessible and affordable for consumers and profitable for farmers. |
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【推荐1】Jeremy grew up being active in sports. But he never thought about healthy eating until he found himself gaining weight several years after college. Last week, Jeremy hit a turning point when he found that he was too out of shape to play in a company football team. He decided to change his eating habits.
The first step Jeremy took toward healthy eating was to stop going to fast-food restaurants. Jeremy used to eat fast food as often as 4 times a week. To his surprise, he found that giving up fast food wasn’t that difficult. Now, he says, “I don’t even like it anymore.” When Jeremy does go out to eat, he tries to pick menu items that he knows are healthier. He orders salads and lower-fat sandwiches instead of hamburgers, and he drinks water instead of soda pop. “I try to order things that are already prepared the way I would like them to be prepared.”
Planning meals has been a key to Jeremy’s success. It helps him avoid getting too hungry and eating fast food. Each week he plans what he will eat for each meal, and he shops for groceries (食品杂货) with his plan in mind. “It’s a lot easier to make healthy choices when you’re just planning ahead for it.” Rather than cutting out certain foods, Jeremy sometimes includes his favourite foods in his eating plan. “That way I don’t feel like I’m letting myself down by not sticking to my plan.”
Jeremy’s friends and family noticed when he started eating healthier. They have helped him to make a habit of his healthy eating changes. “It made me feel pretty good, especially when people started making comments about the changes I was making,” he says. “You just get the positive energy.”
1. What made Jeremy decide to change his eating habits?| A．Higher food prices. | B．Weight gain in college . |
| C．Dislike of unhealthy foods. | D．Failing to join a football team. |
| A．It was too easy for him. | B．It made him uncomfortable. |
| C．It was not as difficult as he thought. | D．It meant stopping going out to eat. |
| A．Eating less at mealtimes. | B．Making plans ahead of time. |
| C．Following his friends’ advice. | D．Cutting out all unhealthy foods. |
| A．Surprised. | B．Encouraged | C．Worried. | D．Interested. |
| A．Health. | B．Science. | C．Education. | D．Entertainment. |
【推荐2】If you’re enjoying a cup of tea while reading this, you’re supporting just about every organ in your body. Unsweetened tea can prevent some diseases and help repair cells in the body. The popularity of Chinese tea cannot be separated from its medicinal value.
Your heart will thank you. Tea’s properties can keep your blood vessels (血管) relaxed and clear, putting less stress on your heart, and thus slow down block formation in vital blood vessels.
Your risk of the brain disease could decrease.
Your attention may improve. The caffeine in tea can improve your attention and awareness. The unique acid to tea may also improve attention by relaxing the brain, but stimulating it when it is time to focus.
| A．Your sleep could improve |
| B．Your body becomes more energetic |
| C．When you have the habit of getting up early |
| D．Once you have formed the habit of drinking that kind of tea |
| E．you ever find yourself having difficulty with concentration |
| F．So drinking a proper amount of black tea can be beneficial to your heart |
| G．The thought of you being diagnosed with the brain disease is very scary |
【推荐3】 Recently, the UK Department of Health (DoH) says in one of its reports that measures taken to deal with the advertising of rubbish food to children seem to be taking effect — at least in terms of television advertising. According to DoH, a childthemed ad is an ad that has a connection with a children’s TV programme, film, book, computer game or a licensed character, a new product or packaging designed to appeal to children.
The advertising of HFSS foods (high in fat, sugar and salt) has become something of a battleground between the industry and health defenders, with the former saying that efforts are being made to guarantee that children are targeted less, and the latter arguing that these efforts are inadequate (不适当的)．
However, advertisers may be turning their attention to other media. In the press, money spent on general food and drink childthemed advertising between 2004 and 2009 increased. Annual childthemed ad spending on radio and the Internet also increased by 11 percent.
UK Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo responded to the report, “I am pleased that there are now fewer ads on TV that are making our children fall into bad eating habits — but we must keep an eye on other types of media. I hope that the industry will continue to play its part in reducing the exposure that children have to the advertising of HFSS foods.”
1. We can learn from the text that DoH’s report ．| A．shows the government’s attitude toward rubbish food advertising |
| B．stresses the responsibilities taken by the advertising industry |
| C．covers the effects of HFSS foods on children’s health |
| D．concerns with children’s exposure to rubbish food advertising |
| A．plays a major role in children’s lives |
| B．will influence children’s buying habits |
| C．is designed to target child customers |
| D．will be banned by DoH |
| A．The measures taken to fight against the rubbish food advertising. |
| B．The influence of advertisements for rubbish food on children. |
| C．The efforts made to reduce childthemed advertisements. |
| D．The efficiency of the advertising of HFSS foods to children. |
| A．the government should take further measures to solve the problem |
| B．TV advertising will greatly influence children’s eating habits |
| C．he is fairly confident of the solution to the problem in the end |
| D．it needs the efforts from the government and the industry to solve the problem |
【推荐1】When school closes, poor pupils lose the last social institution-one that educates, feeds, and sometimes clothes them-whereas richer pupils are gaining relatively more advantages. Disruptions to schooling tend to lower achievement while increasing inequality.
A new industry of"Learning Pod", where a group of families pool cash to pay for an in-person tutor, is deepening that inequality. Scoot Education, whose normal business is providing substitute teachers for schools, quickly developed a sideline in learning pods in California. For younger pupils, the total cost of a pod, shared among all parents, is $349 a day, which is beyond what a poor family can afford.＂Rich families can always find a way to educate their children, even if COVID-19 pandemic had not started," says Sarah Cohodes, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University.
Thus, if there would be no extraordinary interventions in the closing of schools, the long-run effects on those poor students are predictable.
A team of five education scholars recently calculated that American schoolchildren in 2020 learned 30% less reading and 50%less maths than they would in a typical year. Despite that, the top third of pupils posted gains in reading. Data from Opportunity Insights, an economic-research team at Harvard University, shows that after lockdowns began in March pupils from low-income neighbourhoods fell permanently behind on online maths coursework, while those from richer areas quickly rebounded.
Then there is the problem of access to online classes. Nearly half of native American pupils and 35% of black and Hispanic ones do not have access to either a computer or the internet at home, compared with 19%of whites. Worsening mental health among poorer families will also hurt achievement. Elizabeth Ananat of Barnard College and Anna Gassman-Pines of Duke University surveyed part-time workers in Philadelphia who had young children; half were showing their anxiety or depression for children's schooling.
1. What do we know about Learning Pod?| A．It was started as the key business by Scoot Education. |
| B．Families can afford this teaching model with$349 a day. |
| C．It is a long-existing method to find an in-person tutor. |
| D．It worsens educational inequality to some extent. |
| A．Learned maths in advance. | B．Performed poorly in maths. |
| C．Regained improvement in maths. | D．Showed permanent love to maths. |
| A．Effects of educational inequality. | B．Psychological problems of the pupils. |
| C．Opportunities to use online resources. | D．Low academic achievement of the poor. |
| A．a health magazine | B．an educational report |
| C．a science textbook | D．a learning guideline |
【推荐2】Many Chinese students think American students enjoy more freedom than them at school. But American schools also have their rules. If the students break the rules, they willget punishment, too. On the first day of a new term, 128 students of Morton High School were sent home for wearing the wrong clothes. There are altogether 1200 students in the school. Usually only 20 students break the school dress rule every day. So the headmaster Theresa Mayerik said it was the worst new term she had ever seen.
At Morton High School, students’ favorite clothing such as baggy (宽大的) trousers, low-necked shirts and tanktops (紧身短背心) are not allowed in classrooms. Some students think they have the right to choose what to wear. But the headmaster doesn’t think so. “I’d be supportive if half the school was sent home, because 99% will get the message that our school are for education.” “Freedom” does not mean “free of restrictions (约束)”. That is to say there is no total freedom in the world, no matter in the US or in China.
1. 128 students of Morton High School were sent home for _______.| A．not finishing their homework | B．being late for school |
| C．not wearing the right clothes | D．not listening to the teachers in class |
| A．decide when to go to school | B．go to school or not |
| C．eat and drink in class | D．choose what to wear |
| A．高兴的 | B．支持的 | C．害怕的 | D．反对的 |
| A．Agree. | B．Disagree. | C．Not sure. | D．Unclear. |
[1] Nowadays the cost of a new car has fallen in real terms so that it is cheaper than ever to own one, and better road conditions have also attracted more drivers. The result is overcrowding on the road system, which is one of the problems the local governments are faced with.
[2] When people travel to other towns, the problem might be relieved by getting them to park outside the town. Buses could be provided to take them into the centre. These Park and Ride projects are increasingly popular in the UK. At Southerton, for example, a council-funded project led to a 15% drop in city centre traffic over five months.
[3] What the council found, though, was that the project proved somewhat unpopular with shop owners in the area outside the centre. Many of their shops relied on passing car drivers for some of their trade. As the number of people driving past dropped, so did their incomes.
[4] Making car driving expensive is another way of ____________. Road taxes tend to mean that people use their cars less. Fining drivers who are in areas where cars have been banned can also tend to encourage them to leave their cars behind.
[5] However, one thing has to be got right for any solution to succeed. If we expect people to give up the habit of driving, we must give them an alternative they can rely on. Constant delays, unannounced changes to the timetable and sudden cancellations all discourage people from using public transport. People will only see it as a real choice if the buses and trains are on time.
1. What causes overcrowding on the road system according to Paragraph 1? (no more than 12 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
2. What should people do when traveling to other towns according to the Park and Ride projects? (no more than 10 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
3. Why were some shop owners unhappy about the project? (no more than 10 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
4. Fill in the blank in Paragraph 4. ( no more than 8 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
5. Why are people unwilling to use public transport according to Paragraph 5? (no more than 8 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
