【推荐1】“I’m so fat,” one of your friends says. The girl next to her joins in, “Well, I hate my hair today.” Without thinking, you respond, “No, you are not fat! I am fat. And my hair is flat and boring.”    1    .

It is easy for people to be involved in self-critical conversations, and once it starts, there is often pressure for you to join in.     2     Maybe it is because “just talking” feels harmless. But before you know it, those opinions flow out of your conversations and into your life, where they start eating away at your self-respect.

    3     When you start talking about yourself in a negative（消极的）way, you are affecting not only your self-respect, but your friends’! When you criticize yourself, your friends might think you have the same standards for them. If you don’t criticize your friends for the same thing, chances will be that you are being too hard on yourself. So, don’t start it.

But what if someone else starts? For example, your friend feels insecure about how well he played in his soccer game, so he puts himself down, “I suck at soccer.”     4     Ask him, “Do you really think that? Why?”Talking through the real issue will help him rather than slipping（陷入）into another negative talk.

It is important to talk to your friends about your insecurities, but make sure you are not talking about hem just to put yourself down.     5     Instead of just focusing on the negative, talk about what makes you and your friends beautiful and unique-including what you love about your body and what you have completed. When you show yourself love, you set yourself as an example, and everyone benefits from you positively.

A．Criticizing yourself helps nobody.

B．The negative talk affects self-respect.

C．But why do we hesitate to praise ourselves?

D．But why is it acceptable to talk so negatively?

E．All it takes is just one comment and the negative talk starts.

F．It is better to resist negative conversations and create more balanced ones.

G．Before everyone puts himself down, see if you can get to the root of the problem.

【推荐2】Nearly all of us have a bad habit, whether we know it or not. Some people say they want to get rid of it but don’t know the proper ways. Here’s some advice on how to get rid of bad habits.

Make a list. Write down all the reasons why you want to stop a certain behavior, how it’s hurting you and why to get rid of it, this will help a lot. Look at that list regularly.

Join in other activities. It’s wise of you to do something else when you want to stop your bad habit. If you get angry easily, for example, you can practice having a deep breath or going for a walk.

Give yourself a present. Before you take action against a bad habit, decide what you’ll do to celebrate it if you reach your goal.

Keep off bad habits. If you are fat and want to lose weight, keep junk food out of your house. If you are a heavy smoker with coffee, turn to tea and keep away from friends who like smoking.

Be patient. Bad habits develop over years, so you probably won’t be able to get rid of them quickly. In fact, people often give up several times before being successful, so you should be patient.

Find support. Don’t be afraid to ask for support from friends, family or other people who have the same bad habits as you. When you talk to others, they might be able to provide advice or encouragement that you usually wouldn’t get from yourself.

1. The writer gives us ________ pieces of advice in the passage.

A．four

B．six

C．five

D．seven

2. Which of the following is WRONG according to the passage?

A．When you want to stop your bad habits, don’t do anything, please.

B．You can write down all the reasons for getting rid of bad habits.

C．When talking to others, you can get what you can’t get from yourself.

D．It’s not easy to get rid of bad habits in a short time.

3. From the passage you can learn that ________.

A．how to get rid of bad habits	B．why we have some bad habits
C．what to do to have a bad habit	D．where to find some support

【推荐3】Have you ever heard of a Cucamelon? If not, you’re missing out on the cutest fruit on earth!

Cucamelons look like baby watermelons and taste like cucumbers mixed with lemon.     1     You can grow them in a pot, plastic bag or directly into a garden. These plants are fast growers and have a maturity of 80 days, which means you can grow them when it starts to get colder, too.     2     You’d have to look online and purchase them. Generally speaking, you can receive them within 7 days.

If you choose to plant them directly into your garden, you can plant them as soon as the chance of frost is gone.     3     You can put wood sticks into the ground for the roots to grow on, or use bamboo sticks as an alternative. After your first season of growing Cucamelons, you’ll notice that the root is very long. You can dig up these roots and store them in a cool, dry place and re-pot them at the start of the next growing season.     4     It will be a big harvest! By the way, you can use Cucamelons in food dishes or in drinks. The thought sounds pretty excellent!

    5     Your neighbors might even feel inspired to grow Cucamelons themselves!

A．This means you can eat fruit all the year round.

B．However, you won’t find these seeds in a store.

C．They’ll need a lot of water and a little support with growing.

D．They’re from Mexico and are known as “Sandíitas de Raton”.

E．That’s because the young plants can’t stand the cold weather.

F．If you’re looking for a new, exciting fruit to try out, try Cucamelons!

G．This will give you ten times as many Cucamelons the next time around!

【推荐1】Businesses are witnessing a difficult time, which has in turn produced influence on consumers’ desire to go green. However, shoppers are still laying stress on environmental concerns.

Two thirds of customers say that environmental considerations inform their purchases to the same degree as they did a year ago, while more than a quarter say that they are now even better aware of the environmental effect on what they buy.

This may help to influence how shops store goods on their shelves. And the companies should still make efforts to become more environmentally friendly. Two out of three people think it is important to buy from environmentally responsible companies, with about one in seven saying that they had even decided to take their custom elsewhere if they felt a company’s environmental reputation was not good enough.

Harry Morrison, chief executive (主管) of the Carbon Trust, sympathizes: “I understand this situation where survival is very important now. But from environmental considerations, the clock is ticking — we don’t have much time. In addition, cutting carbon has an immediate effect as costs drop and a medium­term benefit for the brand.”

Larger companies have an extra motivation to look at reducing their carbon footprint, as new rules next year will require businesses to buy carbon allowances to make up for their emissions (排放). Those that have taken early action will have a head start. More than two thirds of consumers are not clear about which companies are environmentally responsible. This suggests that firms that are able to relay clearly their message to the public will be in a pole position to attract shoppers.

The Carbon Trust believes that it can help by informing customers about the good work companies are doing.   

“When companies are granted the standard, they can use a logo in all their marketing which makes it clear that they are working towards cutting emissions,” Mr. Morrison said.
1. The underlined word “inform” in Paragraph 2 probably means “        ”．

A．affect

B．change

C．disturb

D．reject

2. According to Harry Morrison, businesses         ．

A．will benefit from cutting carbon emissions

B．should buy carbon allowances for shoppers

C．are required to make up for their carbon emissions

D．have encouraged shoppers to take their custom elsewhere

3. We can learn from the passage that businesses will         ．

A．have a strong desire to reduce costs	B．use the same logo in their marketing
C．gain advantages by taking early action	D．attract more shoppers by storing goods

4. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．Businesses are finding ways to send their message to the shoppers.

B．Companies will soon get information about cutting carbon emissions.

C．Firms are making efforts to encourage customers to keep goods at home.

D．Firms are urged to cut carbon emissions by shoppers’ environmental awareness.

【推荐2】One million species face extinction, more than ever before in human history, according to a UN report released in May. And humans should be responsible.

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) based the assessment (评估) on some 15,000 sources considering the causes and results of environmental changes over the past 50 years.

The findings are clear and alarming. The researchers have found that about 25 percent of the world’s plants and animals are at risk of extinction. These include sea and land animals. Even the domesticated (驯养的) animals are at risk: Over 9 percent of the domesticated animal species used for food and agriculture might have been lost.

There are some big problems. This rapid decrease of the natural world endangers global food safety and quality of life. For example, about 4 billion people rely on natural medicines, produced by the disappearing species, for their health care. And losses of species that pollinate (授粉) plants threaten up to $ 577 billion in crops each year.

The researchers identified five drivers responsible for the unpleasant news. They think at the top of the list is the change of land and sea use. The change in ecosystems towards agriculture, aquaculture and other human developments has led to changes in the natural living space of species. It is followed by the direct overuse of creatures (harvesting crops, cutting down the trees, hunting and fishing) and climate change, including rising sea levels and increasing extreme-weather events, wildfires, floods and droughts. The final causes of species extinction are pollution, especially plastics, and the spread of non-native species that can displace or kill native plants and animals.

The researchers say it is time for humans to make a change. They think maybe a new global way to save food and refuse waste in our everyday life could turn the tables. Whether that is possible is an open question.

1. What is the main purpose of the first paragraph?

A．To introduce the topic of the text.

B．To introduce the schedule of the report.

C．To introduce humans’ sense of responsibility.

D．To introduce the history of human development.

2. What does paragraph 3 mainly show?

A．The reliability of the findings.

B．The species of animals worldwide.

C．The seriousness of species’ reduction.

D．The risky experiences of the researchers.

3. What is the biggest threat to species’ survival according to the researchers?

A．Climate change.

B．Natural disasters.

C．Changes of their living space.

D．The direct overuse of creatures.

4. What are the researchers in favor of?

A．Ignoring the food problem.

B．Spreading non-native species.

C．Limiting native plants and animals.

D．Changing some habits in our daily life.

【推荐3】When high temperatures are around the country, some things also go up.Here are four things expected to rise along with our desire to stay indoors and beat the heat.

1.Sales of goods that keep you cool

Malls are high on the list of places where people often go for free air conditioning outside home in summer.    1     Goods related to keeping cool,like air conditioners,fans or sun care items,are very popular.

2.    2    

Pests like stink bugs(椿象)grow fast during summer heat waves,and many agriculture experts are expecting a repeat of last year's outbreak that harmed fruit and crops,particularly on the East Coast.

3.Energy bills

    3     With all those air conditioners and fans working,it makes sense that energy bills will be higher than average.    4     "Not only are people going to have extremely high energy bills for July,it will also put increased stress on power plants,and we're going to see more air pollution because of it," says Angela Fritz.

4.Violence

Heat waves may cause violence,right? "Not necessarily,"says Richard

Larrick,a researcher.He took a unique look at the relationship between violence and heat through baseball.Larrick and his research team examined 57,294 Major League Baseball games taking place between 1962 and 2017 and found that while heat may increase violence,there always has to be a motive."    5     Instead, heat affects a specific form of violence," he said.

A．Pest population

B．Air pollution

C．Rising heat is the expected response in any summer.

D．As more energy is used,air quality problems may occur.

E．More and more people are worried about their expenses.

F．Heat does not directly lead to more violence in general.

G．So it's not a surprise that some sales jump during heat waves.