Being in green spaces and connecting with nature is good for your physical and mental health. In Japanese natural healing, forest bathing has been used to decrease stress, anxiety, and even to treat mild depression. Now, scientists have discovered that blue spaces — natural waterways — are also connected to better mental health. A population-based study found that approach to water increased positive feelings of wellbeing.
Being near water gives people a sense of awe, because it gives people a consciousness of something greater than themselves. The sounds and movement of water gets people to focus their attention — like meditation — and this invites calm, You do not have to go to the coast to experience this well-being. Any waterway will do, including lakes, rivers, canals, or ponds. Even a flowing fountain will work.
The study also found that urban waterways were superior to feelings of well-being than just being near the ocean. Canals and rivers contain not only water but also an abundance of trees and plants, which means their capacity to improvement al well-being is likely to be due to the multiple benefits associated with both green and blue spaces.
Canals and rivers also provide homes to a range of wildlife, and we know that there is a notable association between encountering wildlife and mental well-being. Taken collectively, these findings provide an evidence base for what we thought about water and well-being.
These results are very exciting for urban citizens who have access to rivers and canals. The study also found that there were continuous improvements to mental well-being for up to 24 hours after visiting urban waterways. This is all good news. The availability of spaces to be in nature — both green and blue — will help calm their anxiety, stress, and help boost mental health.
1. Why does the author mention green spaces in paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic about blue spaces. |
| B．To tell the great benefits of forest bathing. |
| C．To tell us what works best in reducing stress. |
| D．To explain green spaces are unpopular now. |
| A．Your moods in the woods work quite differently. |
| B．Being near the ocean has the best function to you. |
| C．Green spaces have no capacity to improve well-being. |
| D．Combinations of green and blue spaces are more effective. |
| A．Slight. | B．Rare. | C．Significant. | D．Indistinct. |
| A．Intolerant. | B．Favorable. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
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【推荐1】Carrots are grown all over the world. They are easy to plant and easy to harvest. They have a good taste.
When people think about carrots, they usually think they are a kind of long, thin, orange-colored vegetable. In fact, carrots are in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange.
Carrots should be grown in a field that does not have water for a long time. The earth also should not be too hard. To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the earth and turn it over.
Weather, soil condition and time affect the taste of carrots. Warm days and cool nights are the best time to grow great delicious carrots.
The best way to decide if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color is, the better the taste is.
Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow carrots the same way as you do during the summer months.
Carrots are prepared and eaten in many different ways. They are cut into thin pieces and cooked with other vegetables or meat. Or, they are washed, and eaten just as they come out of the ground.
1. What can affect the taste of carrots?| A．Weather and time | B．Weather and soil condition |
| C．Soil condition and time | D．Weather, time and soil condition |
a. Carrots are eaten in different ways.
b. Carrots are in many sizes and shapes.
c. Dig up the earth and turn it over before planting carrots.
d. The best way to decide if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color.
| A．b→a→c→d | B．b→c→d→a | C．c→b→d→a | D．d→c→b-a |
| A．Carrots are easy to plant and easy to harvest. |
| B．Carrots should be grown in a field without water for a long time. |
| C．Everyone knows that carrots can be grown during the winter months. |
| D．Carrots have a good taste. |
【推荐2】Fat on human beings is distributed(分布) in different ways. Some fat people have a large stomach and no waistline- -which makes them look round, rather like apples. Others are fatter below the waist, which makes them appear pear shaped.
There are two types of fat: external fat (fat under the skin) and internal fat (fat inside the body wall). Doctors, who have been examining the relationship between health and fatness, have found that the 'pears' have less internal fat, but the ‘apples’ have more internal fat than external fat. This seems to be what causes the health problems.
The best treatment for fatness is to reduce the internal fat. But unfortunately it seems that dieting simply makes an apple shaped person into a smaller apple and a pear-shaped person into a smaller pear. At the moment there is no known way of reducing the internal rather than external fat.
1. What is the passage about?| A．Ways to lose weight. | B．Distribution of fat. |
| C．People's body shape. | D．Fatness and health. |
A．  | B．  | C．  | D．  |
| A．external fat than internal fat | B．internal fat than external fat |
| C．fat above the waist | D．fat below the waist |
【推荐3】You know by now that dirt is good for lots of things: growing plants, feeding worms, even the occasional mud bath. But building houses? Absolutely.
People build houses with dirt because it is plentiful, really cheap, and fireproof. Thick dirt walls keep you warm in winter and cool in summer. And you can build a whole house with few tools other than your own two hands.
In fact, dirt is so good for building things that half the people in the world live in houses made of mud. Maybe even you!
Mud works best for building where it’s dry for most of the year. If there’s too much rain, the walls of your mud house could melt like ice cream on a warm day.But in places that don’t see many storm clouds, mud bricks (砖块),which are baked hard in the sun or in a hot oven, can be as strong and durable as stone. In Africa, some mudbrick buildings have been standing for thousands of years.
In the southwestern United States, American Indians built fourstory apartment buildings from mud bricks called adobe (土坯). And on the Great Plains, the first white settlers saw an ocean of grass as tall as oxen, but few trees for building houses. So they made their houses out of sod, dirt held together by the thick, tangled roots of prairie grass.
Most sod houses became worm food years ago, but many of the buildings you see every day are pure dirt.The bricks that may make up the walls of your house or school are made of clay that’s been baked in a fiery kiln (炉). So the next time someone says a building is made of bricks, correct them. You know it’s really made of plain old dirt.
1. What does the second paragraph mainly tell us?| A．The way to build houses of dirt. | B．The best time to build houses of dirt. |
| C．The reasons to build houses of dirt. | D．The places to build houses of dirt. |
| A．Places where it rains most of the year. |
| B．Places where there are many storm clouds. |
| C．Places where there is little rain all the year around. |
| D．Places where it is cold in winter and hot in summer. |
| A．the grass was as tall as oxen | B．they were as strong as stones |
| C．they could make a garden on the roof | D．they were lack of wood |
| A．Sod houses could be destroyed by worms. | B．Sod houses could last as long as stone ones. |
| C．Sod bricks are baked in the oven. | D．Sod bricks are really made of pure dirt. |
【推荐1】At one point in June last year, Zeng Jinpeng was more than 10,000 yuan in debt to a smart phone app. The 23-year-old Shanghai citizen pays for his online purchases of food, clothes, and travel with Huabei, a virtual credit card that's part of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. 's spreading stable of e-commerce. His spending often used to go beyond his only source of income: the 8,000-yuan monthly allowance from his parents. He tried to repay the debt in installments(分期付款), even borrowing from Jiebei, another Alibaba-owned credit service, but eventually his mother and father had to help him out.
Zeng's story is typical of members of China's Generation Z. These young consumers，born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, have little income and therefore actually no credit history. Yet they have easy access to credit from a variety of banks, financial-tech companies, and peer-to-peer(P2P)Lenders(网络借贷平台), plus other channels that are unregulated. The spending habits of the young in particular are causing concern. In some cases the younger generation is being tempted to overconsume via credit secured through technology. Unsecured consumer leading has expanded 20% a year in China since 2008. The amount of consumer finance available through the Internet will more than double, to 19 trillion yuan, by 2021, from 7.8 trillion yuan last year. Official data showed that almost 70%. of China's 50 million P2P borrowers were younger than 40.
As for Zeng, he's trying to be a little more frugal, even though he is now trying to earn a little by himself. “I deliberately set the credit limit at a lower level,” he say, “so that hopefully I can better match my income with spending.”
Regulators(监管部门)last year launched a breakdown on peer-to-peer lending, which, besides being a source of easy credit, had also become a popular investment tool. The sector has shrunk to less than half its peak size as a result of forced shutdowns.
1. What can we learn about Zeng Jiapeng from the first paragraph?| A．He was in debt because he bought smart phone app. |
| B．He liked purchasing on the app Huabei of Alibaba Group. |
| C．He depended on his parents to support him to repay his debt. |
| D．He always spent more than he earned from his salary in the past. |
| A．Impractical. | B．Hardworking. |
| C．Avoiding waste. | D．Relying on others. |
| A．Overconsumption—A Bad Habit | B．China's Generation Z—Hooked On Credit |
| C．Chinese Youth In the E-commerce Age | D．Zeng Jinpeng's Financial Crisis |
Can’t your newspaper do something about the custom of hitchhiking?
A short time ago, on a car travel I counted at least 50 people standing beside the road, asking for rides. Many of them were young women.
Don’t they understand how dangerous it is to get into the car driven by a stranger? How much do they know about the driver? Is he a good driver of not? Nothing!
Many of these young hitchhikers may come from good families. Don’t their parents teach them anything about the world? I always taught my children not to talk to strangers. I never let them take rides from people they didn't know.
Isn’t there enough crime (犯罪) today without asking for trouble by hitchhiking? On the other hand, hitchhiking may bring some traffic trouble. Don’t you think what I said is true?
A Worried Grandfather
1. The word “hitchhiking” means ______.| A．waiting for a bus at the bus station |
| B．driving to somewhere in a dangerous way |
| C．going somewhere by getting free rides in others’ cars |
| D．asking a stranger the ways in a car |
| A．He will either return the letter to the old man or give it to the police station. |
| B．He will write back to the Worried Grandfather and tell him not to hitchhike. |
| C．He will write something about the danger of hitchhiking in the newspaper. |
| D．He will hold a meeting to tell the drivers to make less traffic trouble. |
【推荐3】Working as a temporary worker is a great way to earn extra money when you’re out of work. Temporary work can also be an excellent way for unemployed persons to make a positive impression upon an employer and thus be employed for a more permanent job in the future. However, most unemployed workers are financially difficult and fear the loss of their unemployment benefits if they take on a temporary.
In general, your unemployment benefits will usually be reduced or eliminated during the period of your temporary (临时的) work depending on the level of pay for your temporary job. Usually, you will still be entitled (有资格的) to the difference between your temporary pay and the value of your unemployment benefits, if you earn less than the total amount of your unemployment benefits.
For example, if you earn $200 and are entitled to $400 in unemployment benefits, you will still receive $200 of unemployment compensation (补偿). However, if you earn $400 or more in that temporary job, then your benefits would be stopped.
When the temporary job ends, you should be able to either continue your existing unemployment claim (索赔). Your benefits will generally be based on the period of temporary work. State employment laws vary, so temporary employees may still qualify for unemployment benefits once the temporary job has been completed.
Similar to temp workers, seasonal workers are employed for short, specific times of the year due to weather-related or tourist-related industries. In many states, seasonal workers may not meet the standard to be suitable for unemployment benefits.
In general, suitable work is determined by working conditions, health and ability, required skills, and commuting distance. In some states, union workers registered (登记) with local hiring halls are considered free from these suitable work requirements.
1. What is the advantage of a temporary job?| A．It can give an individual a steady income. |
| B．It can help deal with the permanent (永远的) issues. |
| C．It can be the only choice for the unemployed. |
| D．It can be beneficial for the future job. |
| A．Increased. | B．Stopped. | C．Investigated. | D．Approved. |
| A．Impossible. | B．Useless. | C．Unimportant. | D．Beneficial. |
| A．The latter work a shorter time than the former. |
| B．The former may be not given unemployment benefits. |
| C．The latter surely have a lower pay than the former. |
| D．The former tend to be busy in light industries. |
【推荐1】Did you know that the color of uniforms can influence the performance of an athlete? It may sound strange, but a study suggests this might be true.
Two British scientists studied the results of four sports in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games where the athletes had been given either a red or a blue uniform. They discovered that when there was a big difference in the score, color had no influence on the result. But if it was a close match, the athlete in a red uniform was more likely to win. Then they looked at the uniforms of the soccer teams at the Euro 2004 tournament (锦标赛). Again, teams wearing red won more games.
The two scientists got their idea from earlier studies of wild animals. It had been discovered that when a male shows red on its body, it sends a signal of its power and strength. For example, in many kinds of monkey, the more the male shows off its red scars (伤疤) , the more females it can attract.
Based on this fact, the British scientists thought that the idea might work for humans, too. According to them, when an athlete sees a competitor in a red uniform, he gets a feeling that he couldn’t be stronger than his competitor. And that kind of feeling may have a bad influence on the player’s performance in the actual game.
Although the idea is interesting, most people don’t accept that color signals in the animal world can really be useful to humans in sports. They think that it is unreasonable to develop an idea based on such a small number of examples. Much more research has to be done to prove the influence of uniform colors on the performance of athletes.
1. What did the scientists find out about the 2004 Athens Olympic Games?| A．Athletes dressed in red scored more in a close match. |
| B．Game results had a big influence on the athletes. |
| C．Athletes played equally well in four sports. |
| D．There was a big difference in red and blue teams’ scores. |
| A．danger | B．shame | C．pride | D．weakness |
| A．Interested. | B．Doubtful | C．Satisfied | D．Grateful. |
【推荐2】Most birds are afraid of humans, but this kind of bird is quite different. It is trying to tell you something. It flies just in sight, leading you to follow.
The bird seems to be able to smell wax from a long distance away. It often guides humans and other animals to bee hives. The humans then drive the bees and take the honey, allowing the bird to get to the leftovers. This habit of guiding gives this special bird its common name of honeyguide, or honey bird.
The honeyguide does not actually like honey, but it does like the wax in the bees’ honeycomb. The little bird cannot reach this wax, which is deep inside the bees’ nest. So, when it finds a nest, it looks for someone to help it. The honeyguide gives a loud call that attracts the attention of both passing animals such as ratels, and human beings. There is a sense of urgency in the call, almost as if the bird is saying Hurry up. Come quick. Follow me.
If you follow a honeyguide to a nest, the bird will wait patiently in a tree nearby, waiting for you to pull apart the beehive and harvesting the honey. Once you are finished, it will be the bird’s turn — not for the honey, but to eat the larvae and rich wax that is part of the bird’s diet.
Tribesmen in Africa are very grateful to the honeyguide for leading them to good sources of honey, but they are also afraid of the little bird. They believe that if they do not open a bees nest and leave some honeycomb for the honeyguide the next time the bird cries to them through the forest it will lead them to a lion or a snake as revenge.
Due to ongoing habitat loss, this amazing honey bird is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
1. The honeyguide waits patiently nearby in order to _______.| A．eat some wax |
| B．get some honey |
| C．find another person |
| D．find another nest |
| A．climb to the nest |
| B．take honey from the beehives |
| C．smell honey in the distance |
| D．smell wax in the distance |
| A．how people get delicious honey |
| B．how a bird helps people and other animals get honey |
| C．how a bird takes revenge on humans |
| D．how tribesmen protect themselves from the bird |
【推荐3】Many people prefer eating out instead of cooking at home. A change appears to be taking place, though, and millennials (千禧一代) are leading the way. According to one survey, more young people are starting to cook at home for three basic reasons: They can save money, eat healthy and waste less food.
Popular TV chefs are also getting millennials excited about learning some basic cooking skills. Many millennials view cooking as a form of entertainment and self-expression. They proudly post pictures of their cooking creations on Facebook or Instagram, and invite friends over to share the cooking experience.
Many millennials have also found ways to avoid wasting food. After roasting a chicken, they put the leftover bones in their freezer instead of the garbage can. Later, they use the bones to make chicken soup, which is an important raw material in many dishes.
They also hate throwing out fruit that’s too old. To avoid that situation, they bake ripe fruit like berries and bananas for 15 minutes at 175 degrees C. Then they freeze it overnight. After that, they place the fruit in plastic bags and store it their freezer for later use.
Now millennials only eat at restaurants that have excellent food-waste policies. These servants use every part of the vegetables they buy, including their stems and roots, in dishes. They also use beef, chicken and pork bones to make their own soup.
Millennials also reduce food waste by only buying what they require. Before going to a market, they write down what they need and don’t buy anything else. They way they won’t purchase more food than they can consume.
1. What is the main subject of this article?| A．A cooking trend that has attracted millennials. |
| B．A plan that millennials have for donating food. |
| C．A novel cooking technique that millennials like. |
| D．A food production system favored by millennials. |
| A．Mix it with other raw materials in a bowl. | B．Carefully remove the skin and seeds from it. |
| C．Use a sharp knife to chop it up into pieces. | D．Put it in an oven at the proper temperature. |
| A．They select small cans and packages. | B．They leave their credit cards at home. |
| C．They prepare a practical shopping list. | D．They weigh produce before buying it. |
