【推荐1】When it comes to going green, intention can be easier than action. Case in point: you decide to buy a T-shirt made from 100% organic cotton, because everyone knows that organic is better for Earth. And in some ways it is; in conventional cotton-farming, pesticides strip the soil of life. But that green label doesn’t tell the whole story. Or the possibility that the T-shirt may have been dyed using harsh industrial chemicals, which can pollute local groundwater. If you knew all that, would you still consider the T-shirt green?     1    .

It’s a question that most of us are ill equipped to answer, even as the debate over what is and isn’t green becomes all-important in a hot and crowded world.     2    . We evolved to respond to threats that were clear and present. That’s why, when we eat spoiled food, we get disgusted and when we see a bright light, we shut our eyes.     3    . Scanning the supermarket aisles, we lack the data to understand the full impact of what we choose —and probably couldn’t make sense of the information even if we had it.

But what if we could seamlessly calculate the full lifetime effect of our actions on the earth and on our bodies?     4     That’s what psychologist Daniel Goleman describes in his forthcoming book, Ecological Intelligence. Using a young science called industrial ecology, businesses and green activists alike are beginning to compile the environmental and biological impact of our every decision—and delivering that information to consumers in a user-friendly way. That’s thinking ecologically—understanding the global environmental consequences of our local choices. “We can know the causes of what we’re doing, and we can know the impact of what we’re doing,” says Goleman, who wrote the 1995 best seller Emotional Intelligence.

    5     It’s also about our ability to accept that we live in an infinitely connected world with finite resources. Golem an highlights the Tibetan community of Sher, where for millenniums, villagers have survived harsh conditions by carefully conserving every resource available to them. The Tibetans think ecologically because they have no other choice. Neither do we. “We once had the luxury to ignore our impacts,” says Goleman. “Not anymore.”

A．Would you still buy it?

B．What if we could think ecologically?

C．It’s going to have a radical impact on the way we do business.

D．Ecological intelligence is ultimately about more than what we buy.

E．Not just carbon footprints but social and biological footprints as well?

F．But nothing in evolution has prepared us to understand the accumulative impact industrial chemicals may have on us.

G．That’s because our ability to make complex products with complex supply chains has outpaced our ability to comprehend the consequences.

【推荐2】A colleague recently sent me an article, Cutting back on waste is possible — if you can afford it, to read. It argued that reducing waste-food related, in particular — is an expensive effort and a near impossibility for anyone working low-wage jobs with little extra time. The conclusion ? Zero waste is something only suitable for people who can afford, not for those who are struggling to get by.

However, I take issue with the idea that zero waste must be all or nothing. I think this is an unfortunate mentality that prevents valuable progress toward reducing one’s food-related waste. When we get too hung up on the idea of so-called zero waste and of being like the zero waste superstar Bea Johnson who can fit years of trash in a single jar, we start missing the broader point. The goal, after all, is to make smarter shopping decisions and establish practices that are sustainable (可持续的) for us, with our own unique resources and living situations.

I live in a small rural town with no fancy zero-waste stores. My husband and I both work full-time. I am uninterested in spending my free time doing DIY projects and driving from store to store in search of perfect packaging. Instead, I just do the best I can.

When I first read about Bea Johnson’s multi-stop grocery shopping routine, I tried to copy it. That lasted a few weeks before I gave up. Unlike her, I still had babies to look after, and I did not live in San Francisco where stores are closer together than in rural Ontario, Instead, I’ve resigned myself to the supermarket being the main supply of food and trying to work with it.

Now, when I enter the supermarket on a once-weekly basis, I view all packaging through a critical eye. I make constant comparisons between how one brand packages its food to another. That is the main factor in deciding what to buy, though I also consider the unit price, the origin and the ingredients.

1. What is the idea of the article recommended by the author’s colleague?

A．Most people can afford zero waste.

B．Food-related waste is unavoidable.

C．Cutting down on waste costs much.

D．The poor care little about food waste.

2. How does the author understand the concept of zero waste?

A．It is related to recycling our resources.

B．It prevents people from reducing waste.

C．It means fitting your trash in a single jar.

D．It encourages reasonable green practices.

3. Why did the author fail to follow Bea Johnson?

A．Her living situations differed from hers.

B．She hardly knew about food packaging.

C．She didn’t receive her husband’s support.

D．Her love for shopping was deeply rooted.

4. What’s the best title of the text?

A．Live in a Small Town for a Zero-waste Life

B．Forget Zero Waste and Be Better Shoppers

C．Take Advantage of Local Zero-waste Shops

D．Stop Wasting and Build a Greener Society

【推荐3】The “Give It Up for Earth Day” encourages people to commit to giving up actions that are harmful to the environment, such as using poisonous cleaners.

Throughout the month of April, Canadians are being asked to “Give It Up for Earth Day！” Earth Day has been celebrated every year on April 22 since 1970. Earth Day Canada president Jed Goldberg says that as people become more environmentally aware, they want to find ways to reduce their environmental influence, not just celebrate one special event.

“Earth Day is a great launching_pad for thinking about environmental action                              every day，” said Goldberg. “Choosing healthier options, even for the short term,                              can lead to thinking about the influence of our decisions for a lifetime.”

That's the reason behind the “Give It Up for Earth Day” campaign.   It's designed to encourage healthy habits that benefit people and the planet. It challenges everyone to help create a healthier world by making changes in their daily routine.

“We wanted to plan an actiontargeted campaign that will give people a chance to act on their concern for the environment in a positive way，” said Goldberg.

The campaign has identified four daily actions that can add up to huge environmental savings. They include pledging (保证) to turn off the TV, give up the use of poisonous cleaners, reduce consumption of consumer products and cut out meat.

At the end of April, all of the pledges will be recorded and converted (转化) into the number of TV hours not watched, dollars not spent on unnecessary items, electricity saved, greenhouse gas emissions (排放) avoided by cutting out meat, and poisonous chemicals produced from homes and landfills.

“What we're trying to achieve this year for Earth Day is to give people a chance to do something that is meaningful and measurable，” said Goldberg.

1. The aim of the campaign mentioned in the passage is to ________.

A．enable people to save more money for future use

B．help people develop environmentally friendly habits

C．prevent people from making changes in their daily routine

D．warn people against reducing consumption of consumer products

2. The underlined word “launching pad” (in Paragraph 3) probably means “________”．

A．starting point	B．finishing line
C．exchanging stage	D．reforming stage

3. We can conclude from the passage that ________.

A．Earth Day was first celebrated over half a century ago

B．short term decisions will by no means influence our lives

C．Earth Day Canada is actually an everyday environmental action

D．daily actions must be measured to benefit the environment

4. Which disagrees with the spirit of “Give It Up for Earth Day”？

A．Switching off TV.

B．Riding bikes.

C．Using poisonous cleaners.

D．Saving electricity.

【推荐1】For high school leavers starting out in the working world, it is very important to learn particular skills and practise how to behave in an interview or how to find all internship(实习). In some countries, schools have programs to help students onto the path to work. In the United States, however, such programs are still few and far between.

Research shows that if high schools provide career-related courses, students are likely to get higher earnings in later years. The students are more likely to stay in school, graduate and go on to higher education.

In Germany, students as young as 13 and 14 are expected to do internships. German companies work with schools to make sure that young people get the education they need for future employment.

But in America, education reform programs focus on how well students do in exams instead of bringing them into contact with the working world. Harvard Education school professor Robert Schwartz has criticized education reformers for trying to place all graduates directly on the four-year college track. Schwartz argued that this approach leaves the country’s most vulnerable (易受影响的) kids with no jobs and no skills.

Schwartz believed that the best career programs encourage kids to go for higher education while also teaching them valuable practical skills at high school. James Madison High School in New York, for example, encourages students to choose classes on career-based courses. The school then helps them gain on-the-job experience in those fields while they’re still at high school.

However, even for teens whose schools encourage them to connect with work, the job market is daunting. In the US, unemployment rates for 16-to-l9-year-olds are above 20 percent for the third summer in a row.

“The risk is that if teenagers miss out on the summer job experience, they become part of this generation of teens who had trouble in landing a job,” said Michael, a researcher in the US.

1. In the author’s opinion, American high school leavers _______.

A．have enough career-related courses

B．need more career advice from their schools

C．perform better in exams than German students

D．can get higher earnings in later years

2. According to Robert Schwartz, ________.

A．there is no need for kids to go for higher education in the US

B．students should get contact with the working world at high school

C．education reform should focus on students’ performance in exams

D．teenagers in the US can’t miss out on the summer job experience

3. What can be inferred from the text?

A．Unemployment rates for US teenagers remain high at the moment.

B．Students with career-based courses never have problems finding a job.

C．US companies work with schools to prepare young people for future employment.

D．High school leavers with no practical skills can’t find a job absolutely.

4. What’s the main idea of the text?

A．Arguments about recent US education reform.

B．Tips on finding jobs for high school leavers.

C．The lack of career-based courses in US high schools.

D．Advice for American high school leavers.

5. The underlined word “daunting” in Paragraph 6 most probably means _______.

A．discouraging	B．interesting
C．creative	D．unbearable

【推荐2】Johann Gutenberg, who worked as a goldsmith(金匠)，took what has already been discovered, and created a small invention that changed history. He created a machine that allowed him to move small blocks of letters in such a way that written material could be printed and mass-produced. Few people could read before Johann Gutenberg made the invention, but once books became less expensive, more Europeans could read and write.
Block printing existed long before Gutenberg. The Chinese had been using wood blocks to print books as early as 868, but a new set of woodcuts(木刻印版) had to be made for each book. Producing one book was not easy; producing all kinds of books was more difficult.
Writing ink dates from about 2500 BC in Egypt and China. Johann Gutenberg use an oil-base printing ink that would last longer than other inks used in his time. We don’t know much about Gutenberg because he was not famous during his lifetime. He was born in Germany about 1400. In 1448, Gutenberg developed signatures for each number, letter, and punctuation mark(标点符号). He then built the molds (模型) to hold the signatures in place. Johann Gutenberg published the first mass-produced book: a 1,282 page Bible. To this day, more copies of the Bible have been printed the any other book.
Copies of Gutenberg’s invention spread throughout Europe, but the German goldsmith did not get rich from his invention. Some officials denounced the invention of printing because they feared that it would spread bad ideas. By 1500 there 1,700 printing presses in Europe. The presses had already produced about 20 million volumes of 40,000 different books.
1. What happened after Johann Gutenberg’s invention?

A．People could afford to read books.

B．People became interested in inventing.

C．It was still difficult to print all kinds of books.

D．Punctuation mark began to be used in printing.

2. Compared with block printing in China, Johann Gutenberg’s method __________.

A．was difficult to run.	B．needed harder paper
C．used a new kind of ink	D．was put into use earlier

3. The underlined word “denounced” in the paragraph means __________.

A．fought against

B．accepted

C．laughed at

D．supported

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．A famous 1,282 page Bible

B．The life of a famous inventor

C．An invention that changed history

D．The development of printing