Refill shops have been around for a decade. The first stores were small but appealed to many people who wanted to ditch plastic packaging and be more environmentally friendly. These zero-waste grocery stores allowed people to bring in their own refillable containers to buy food stored in large bins.
While these small shops are common in Europe and the US, they have recently gone from being trendy to being very mainstream. That’s because the UK supermarket giant ASDA rolled out its own chain of sustainable refill shops, according to The Grocer.
These refill stores offer the usual bins and have many household brands without the excessive(过度的)packaging including Kellogg, Yorkshire Tea, and Nestlé. Even Unilever and P&G shampoos and soaps are represented.
“We hope the varieties offered across our range of 100 branded and own-label loose(裸包装的)products can bring together several simple ways for customers to reduce, reuse or recycle at home,” ASDA director of commercial sustainability Susan Thomas told The Grocer.
Cutting back on single-use plastics is a big win for the planet while many people make an effort to recycle. But according to Greenpeace, while the government of the UK claims that 50 percent of household plastics is being recycled, over half of that is being sent to other countries. There is no way to know how much is actually being recycled. The best way to ensure that plastic doesn’t end up incinerated(焚烧), in landfills, or in the oceans, is not to use it in the first place. That’s where refill shops can help.
Many of these shops stock products from brands that are also being enthusiastic about selling sustainably sourced and local products, which helps reduce your carbon footprint. Only buying the amount of food that you actually need will also help cut down on food waste and the environmental cost of food production.
1. What does the underlined word “ditch” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Abandon. | B．Improve. | C．Consider. | D．Recycle. |
| A．By selling cheaper refillable containers. |
| B．By prohibiting plastic packaging widely. |
| C．By funding these first small refill shops. |
| D．By building its own chain ofrefill shops. |
| A．Warning grocers of plastic problems. |
| B．Showing the necessity of refill shops. |
| C．Telling the harm of single-use plastics. |
| D．Giving the examples of going zero-waste. |
| A．Purchase more products from brands. |
| B．Send plastic products to other countries. |
| C．Ensure wasted food ends up in landfills. |
| D．Avoid buying more food than we need. |
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【推荐1】An 8-year-old boy I know is small for his age, shorter and slighter than his friends, even smaller than his 5-year-old sister. Concerned about the increasing use and possible risks of growth hormone(生长激素), I asked his mother if she’d considered treating him with it. She replied, “Not really. He’s built like his father, who was short and slight as a boy and didn’t shoot up until college.”
His father, at 41, is now 6 feet tall, though still very slender. He recalls being a reasonably athletic child but without the physical power of his friends, making up for what he lacked in mass with speed and agility. “I enjoyed competitive sports and worked on skills others didn’t have,” he told me, and said he encourages his son to recognize and capitalize on the skills he has.
If only every parent with a short but healthy child approached the matter as sensibly. Experts estimate that 60% to 80% of children who are short for their age do not have a growth hormone deficiency(缺乏) or other medical condition that limits growth. But knowing there’s a therapy available to increase height, some parents seek a medical solution for a perceived problem, even when there is no medical abnormality. They should also know, however, that new research has linked growth hormone treatment to serious unfavorable health effects years later.
Dr. Adda Grimberg, a doctor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, recalled that “Twenty years ago, families were focused on health. They came in with a child who was not growing right and wanted to know if there was an underlying disease. Now, more and more, they’re focused on height. They want growth hormone, looking for a specific height. But this is not like online shopping; you can’t just place an order and make a child the height you want.”
In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration approved use of recombinant human growth hormone for the condition known as “idiopathic short stature”, or short build of unknown cause, which is not a disease. But it has caused a growing number of parents to consider using the hormone to boost the height of their children.
The resulting rush to therapy reflects concerns about a widespread societal bias(偏见) against shortness, rather than a true medical need. Experts have noted that the practice backs up the belief that short stature is unacceptable, leading to an increasing demand for therapy. It is far better, Dr. Grimberg suggested, to help a short child develop coping skills than to buy inches through medicine.
1. As for the parents’ attitude to their 8-year-old boy’s shortness, the author is ________.| A．critical | B．tolerant | C．supportive | D．worried |
| A．They are eager to get the expected result. |
| B．They spare no effort to sort out the cause. |
| C．They feel disturbed by their children’s health. |
| D．They help develop their children’s coping skills. |
| A．It might be officially recommended. |
| B．It may fuel height discrimination. |
| C．It is pushed by a medical need. |
| D．It is targeted at certain diseases. |
| A．Shower the Short with Growth Hormones |
| B．Find Replacement for Growth Hormones |
| C．Assess the Effects of Growth Hormones |
| D．Weigh the Use of Growth Hormones |
【推荐2】When international aid is given, steps must be taken to ensure that the aid reaches the people for whom it is intended. The way to achieve this may not be simple. It is very difficult for a nation to give help directly to people in another nation. The United Nations Organization (UNO) could undertake to direct the distribution of aid. Here however rises the problem of costs. Also tied with this is time. Perhaps the UNO could set up a body of devoted men and women in every country who can speedily distribute aid to victims of floods and earthquakes.
More than the help that one nation can give to another during a disaster, it would be more effective to give other forms of help during normal times. A common proverb says, “Give me a fish and I eat for a day, teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime.” If we follow this wise saying, it would be right to teach people from less developed nations to take care of themselves. For example, a country could share its technology with another. This could be in simple areas like agriculture or in more complex areas like medical and health care or even in building satellites. Even a small country is able to help less developed nations. Sometimes what is taken for granted, like the setting up of a water purification plant or the administration of a school, could be useful for countries which are looking about to solve common problems. It does not cost much to share such simple things. Exchange students could be attached for a number of months or years and learn the required craft while on the site. They can then take their knowledge back to their homelands and if necessary come back from time to time to clear doubts or to update themselves. Such aid will be truly helpful and there is no chance of it being temporary or of it falling into the wrong hands.
Many countries run extensive courses in all sorts of skills. It will not cost much to include deserving foreigners in these courses. Besides giving effective help to the countries concerned, there is also the build-up of friendships to consider. Giving direct help by giving materials may be effective in the short run and must continue to be given in the event of emergencies. However, in the long run what is really effective would be the sharing of knowledge.
1. The second paragraph is developed mainly _________.| A．by example | B．by process |
| C．by comparison | D．by contrast |
| A．A medical team. | B．An exchange program. |
| C．A water plant. | D．Financial support. |
| A．It is facing difficulties. |
| B．It should be given in the form of materials. |
| C．It has gained support by developed countries. |
| D．It is unnecessary during normal times. |
【推荐3】It happened to me recently. I was telling someone how much I had enjoyed reading Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father and how it had changed my views of our President. A friend I was talking to agreed with me that it was, in his words, “a brilliantly written book”. However, he then went on to talk about Mr. Obama in a way which suggested he had no idea of his background at all. I sensed that I was talking to a book liar.
And it seems that my friend is not the only one. Approximately two thirds of people have lied about reading a book which they haven't. In the World Book Day's “Report on Guilty Secrets”, Dreams From My Father is at number 9. The report lists ten books, and various authors, which people have lied about reading, and as I'm not one to lie too often (I'd hate to be caught out), I'll admit here and now that I haven't read the entire top ten. But I am pleased to say that, unlike 42 percent of people, I have read the book at number one, George Orwell's 1984. I think it's really brilliant.
The World Book Day report also has some other interesting information in it. It says that many people lie about having read Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky (I haven't read him, but haven't lied about it either) and Herman Melville.
Asked why they lied, the most common reason was to “impress" someone they were speaking to. This could be tricky if the conversation became more in-depth!
But when asked which authors they actually enjoy, people named J. K. Rowling, John Grisham, Sophie Kinsella (ah, the big sellers, in other words). Forty-two percent of people asked admitted they turned to the back of the book to read the end before finishing the story (I'll come clean： I do this and am astonished that 58 percent said they had never done so).
1. How did the author find his friend a book liar?| A．By mentioning a famous name. | B．By discussing the book itself. |
| C．By judging his manner of speaking. | D．By looking into his background. |
| A．Dreams From My Father is hardly read. |
| B．Charles Dickens is very low on the top-ten list. |
| C．The author admitted having read 9 books. |
| D．42% of people pretended to have read 1984. |
| A．learn about the book |
| B．appear knowledgeable |
| C．control the conversation |
| D．make more friends |
| A．Are You a Book Liar? | B．Readers Are All Liars |
| C．World Book Day | D．Dreams From My Father |
【推荐1】Social Media
Social media can be defined as web-based mobile media that are used for people to interact, connect and communicate with each other. It often involves the creation and sharing of content( writing, pictures and videos) that people make themselves, mostly through the Internet.
Social media are different from traditional media. With social media, many individual people in different places create content. Another difference is that people who produce content in social media don't need very special skills.
| A．And social media can be produced much faster. |
| B．In general, there are six different types of social media. |
| C．Another type of social media is social networking sites. |
| D．They can also create avatars (化身) and use and create objects. |
| E．Some people think social media is good and some think it is bad. |
| F．In traditional media, people need special skills to produce something. |
| G．Social media are one of the fastest-growing industries in today's world. |
【推荐2】“Regrets, I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention,” Frank Sinatra chanted in his 1969 hit “My Way”. The song’s idea is attractive: that anyone can just declare what’s done is done and move on. Some take the declaration a step further and claim they have no regrets at all. Whether a boast or an actual attitude, “no regrets” suggests that life can and should be lived without looking through the rear-view mirror.
Easier said than done, though. In 2020, author Daniel H. Pink launched the World Regret Survey, the largest ever survey on the topic. With his research team, Pink asked more than 15,000 people in 105 countries, “How often do you look back on your life and wish you had done things differently?” 82% said regret is at least an occasional part of their life; roughly 21% said they feel regret “all the time.” Only 1% said they never feel regret.
If you are of the “no regrets” type, you might think that all this regret is a recipe for unhappiness. But that isn’t the case. True, being overwhelmed by regret is indeed bad for you. But going to the other extreme may be even worse. To rid yourself of regrets doesn’t free you from shame or sorrow; it leads you to make the same mistakes again and again. To truly get over our guilt requires that we put regret in its proper place.
As uncomfortable as it is, regret is an amazing cognitive (认知) achievement. If today your relationship with your partner has soured, your regret might mentally take you back to last year. You would remember your being mean and sensitive, and then imagine yourself showing more patience, being kind instead of hurtful at key moments. Then you would fast-forward to today and see how your relationship could be progressing instead of languishing.
But regret doesn’t have to be left unmanaged. The trick is to acknowledge it and use it for learning and improvement. You can be honest with yourself about what went wrong and use that knowledge to enjoy better relationships in the future.
1. What should we do if we have had a bitter quarrel with a close friend according to Frank Sinatra?| A．Attract more people to your argument. |
| B．Send him/her a letter of apology. |
| C．Boast about being more reasonable. |
| D．Forget about it and just let it go. |
| A．We can do nothing about regret. |
| B．Unhappiness results from regret. |
| C．Ignoring regrets is missing the opportunity to improve. |
| D．Ridding yourself of regrets helps free you from sorrow. |
| A．Improving. |
| B．Healing. |
| C．Showing up. |
| D．Breaking up. |
| A．Regret to become smarter-if you let it. |
| B．Long for a different past? Regret it! |
| C．Regret? Not my way! |
| D．Stay away! Regret will heal itself. |
【推荐3】The right paint can add appeal to your walls and now it can also make them smarter. Researchers recently transformed a wall into an outsize trackpad and motion sensor by using low-cost conductive paint to create a large grid of electrodes（电极）.
Such a smart wall can sense human touch and track gestures from a short distance. It can also detect where electrical equipment is and whether it is switched on. The technology could someday turn on lights when a person enters a room, track a player's motion in an interactive video game or monitor a child's television use. "Walls are everywhere, so why not turn them into sensors for smart homes?" says Yang Zhang, a computer science doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University. who helped to develop the concept.
To create the high-tech surface, Zhang and his colleagues applied painter's tape in a lattice（格子结构）pattern to a twelve-by-eight-foot wall, and then coated it with commercially available conductive paint. Removing the tape left a pattern of diamond-shaped electrodes, which the researchers connected using thin copper tape strips. Finally, they wired the strips to a custom-built circuit board and covered the wall with standard latex（胶乳） paint. The entire project took four hours and cot less than $200. In theory, Zhang says "Anyone can use the technique to make a wall smart. "
In the wall's appliance-detection mode, the power is turned off. The researchers detected iPads up to 6. 5 feet away from the wall; fans and floor lamps could be sensed from about 10 feet. Zhang and his colleagues presented the wall in April at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
"Engineers have long dreamed of technologies that blend into our surroundings, "says Christiar Holz, a research scientist at Microsoft Research in Redmond, who did not participate in the work. "It nicely questions our understanding of what a device might be and demonstrates how rich sensing technology can combine with everyday objects."
1. What can a smart wall do now according to the passage?| A．Detect people' locations. | B．Turn on lights automatically. |
| C．Track humans' movements at close range. | D．Monitor a person's television use. |
| A．It is easy to build. | B．It benefits people in many ways. |
| C．1t is cheap but time-consuming. | D．It adds appeal to the buildings. |
| A．Painter's tape and standard latex paint. |
| B．A lattice pattern and conductive paint. |
| C．A custom-built circuit board and iPads. |
| D．Diamond-shaped electrodes and copper tape strips. |
| A．Neutral. | B．Negative. |
| C．Positive. | D．Unknown. |
