When people think about ways to help the environment, encourage biodiversity and decrease greenhouse gases, they don’t usually think about the impact of food waste.
Producing food for a growing global population is a complex challenge with a lot of negative environmental consequences, so food waste creates unnecessary stress on our fragile environment. Here are four things you can do to cut food waste.
Single-use plastics. Many of us are seeking to decrease the amount of single-use plastics in our lives, and in our shopping baskets. This is good but often these plastics and packaging keep food fresh for longer.
Dish up smaller portions. This results in up to 20% less food waste. Many of us put our leftovers in the fridge, then forget about them. Fortunately, there are many ways to manage our fridge contents effectively and decrease food waste.
Buy directly from local suppliers. Our food systems and supply chains are incredibly complex, which leads to high levels of food loss and waste. In contrast, buying directly from local suppliers results in less waste.
| A．Set your freezer to below 5℃. |
| B．Store the food in the fridge. |
| C．These range from apps, to the humble post-it note, or pen. |
| D．Support a local business, eat quality food, and decrease waste. |
| E．The most commonly wasted foods are fresh fruit and vegetables. |
| F．Fortunately, there are significant developments towards a post-plastic world. |
| G．Yet food waste is responsible for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. |
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【推荐1】“The Great Good Place” is a short story by American novelist Henry James, first published in 1900. Its theme is that people need a place where they can escape the grind of daily life. This is an idea that Howard Schultz, who turned the Starbucks coffee chain into an international giant, used in his business strategy.
Born in 1952, Schultz grew up in Brooklyn. After university, he worked for a firm supplying coffee-making equipment. Shortly after working there, Schultz noticed that a company in Seattle was buying a surprisingly large amount of the firm's equipment, and he decided to investigate. It turned out to be a simple coffee-bean store, but its owners were committed to teaching the public to appreciate good coffee.
This store in Seattle opened in 1971 and took its name from Starbuck, a sailor in the classic novel Moby Dick. Its logo was a two-tailed mermaid. Fascinated by its owners' commitment to coffee, Schultz joined Starbucks. Later, on a trip to Europe, he was impressed by the way that street cafés in Italy were both meeting points and places to drink espresso. This was something American didn't have yet.
In 1985, Schultz started his own coffee-bar business, which soon became a success. Two years later, he got together with some other investors and bought Starbucks for US $ 3. 8 million. Adopting the name and logo, Schultz developed a marketing strategy that turned ordinary cafés into fashionable outlets for coffee. He used clever tricks, such as selling coffee in "short", "tall" and "grande" size rather than the usual small, medium, and large. Customers learned to pronounce unfamiliar Italian names like latte and macchiato. Schultz actually created a market that hadn't existed before.
Within 20 years, Schultz had taken coffee culture from the streets of Europe to almost every city in developed countries. Today, millions of people a week visit Starbucks locations in countries globally. Clearly, these customers are happy with the "great good place".
1. What does the underlined word “grind” mean in paragraph 1?| A．boredom | B．flavor | C．virtue | D．intervention |
| A．He wanted to expand his business of equipment. |
| B．His trip Europe instructed him and changed his initial mind. |
| C．He was struck by the its owner's devotion to coffee. |
| D．He was impressed by the relaxing atmosphere in Starbucks. |
| A．opening stores all over the world. |
| B．changing the name and logo of the store at some locations. |
| C．selling coffee in “short”, “tall” and “grande” sizes. |
| D．His wisdom and cooperation with other investors. |
| A．The Starbucks coffee chain originated in Seattle. |
| B．Street cafes in Italy usually have far more customers than cafes in America. |
| C．Starbucks are what American novelist Henry James described “great good places”。 |
| D．Schultz successfully transformed Starbucks into an international giant. |
【推荐2】Before you start feeling regretful about eating too much, consider a new study from the Center for Nutrition Research at Illinois Institute of Technology that suggests the fat in avocado (鳄梨) can help you prevent hunger and stay more satisfied longer.
The study was published in the journal Nutrients on May 8, 2019. It concludes that overweight people who added avocado to their meals as a substitute for carbohydrates (碳水化合物) like cola were able to stave off hunger longer and increase meal enjoyment. On three different days, researchers fed 31 overweight adults one of three meals with the same calories; a high-fat meal with one avocado, a high-fat meal with half an avocado, or a low-fat meal. For six hours afterward, the volunteers reported how hungry they felt.
Everyone reported feeling fuller longer after the meal featuring a whole avocado; even the meal with half an avocado helped satisfy the volunteers longer than the low-fat meal. Further tests revealed that the avocado meals helped improve an intestinal (肠的) hormone called PYY—when it drops, you feel hungry.
“For years, fats have been targeted as the main cause of obesity, and now carbohydrates have come under scrutiny (监视) for their role in appetite regulation and weight control,” said Britt Burton-Freeman, PhD, director of the Center for Nutrition Research at Illinois Tech. “There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to best meal composition for managing appetite. However, understanding the relationship between food chemistry and its physiological (生理的) effects in different populations can reveal opportunities for addressing appetite control and reducing rates of obesity, putting us a step closer to personalized dietary recommendations.”
Although nutritional experts have long blamed fat for weight gain, more and more studies like this one indicate that eating a proper amount of healthy fat can help prevent hunger and assist with weight control. This study proves that small, enjoyable changes in your diet like swapping a piece of bread for a yummy half-avocado can lead you to achieve your weight-loss goals.
1. What’s the possible meaning of the underlined phrase “stave off” in paragraph 2?| A．Feel. | B．Delay. |
| C．Stand. | D．Hold. |
| A．The one who had lunch with an avocado. |
| B．The one who had a meal with low fat. |
| C．The one who has a low PYY level. |
| D．The one who has a fast intestinal movement. |
| A．By making sure different people have their own appetite control and can reduce unnecessary food. |
| B．By knowing the connection between food chemistry and its physiological effects for different people. |
| C．Through finding different people’s appetites. |
| D．Through understanding people’s eating habits. |
| A．Terrible. | B．Bitter. |
| C．Unpleasant. | D．Delicious. |
【推荐3】If you have never heard of pawpaw, you are not alone. Most Americans do not know of the fruit, although it is native to the United States. Once, however, it was one of the most popular fruits in North America. Happily, those who love the pawpaw are trying to return it to its former position in American foods.
The pawpaw is a kind of fruit that grows on trees found all over the eastern United States. It is similar in size to a typical mango. It has a dull green-colored skin, and a soft, almost creamy orange inside. Most people agree that the pawpaw tastes like a combination of bananas, apricots (杏）and mangos. Most people are very surprised by its sweet taste. The fruit has a very short harvest season to three weeks in September and October.
The pawpaw has sold commercially (商品化地).The fruit requires a very special environment—low, wet areas that sometimes flood. In addition, the fruit is good to eat for only two to three days after harvesting. This makes it hard to sell anywhere distant from the pawpaw trees.
Planters are again growing pawpaw trees and harvesting the fruit In several states farmers have organized pawpaw festivals to reintroduce the food to people.
Farmers are trying to grow different kinds of pawpaws that will be easier to ship and sell commercially. Donna and Jim Davis are pawpaw fanners in Westminster, Maryland. They told National Public that they purchased their pawpaw trees in the 1990s and now sell the fruit at farmer markets and online.
So, who knows? Maybe the pawpaw will up soon at a market near you.
1. What is the pawpaw's most outstanding ?| A．It is very rich in sugar. |
| B．Its sour taste is like an apricot |
| C．It grows on trees all over the US. |
| D．It I like a combination of bananas and mangos. |
| A．It has to be sold far from the pawpaw tree. |
| B．It is hard to keep its freshness for long. |
| C．It is difficult to harvest in the low and wet areas. |
| D．It needs expensive transportation to the market |
| A．They advertise on National Public Radio. |
| B．They organize pawpaw festivals. |
| C．They plant improved pawpaw trees. |
| D．They sell the fruit at farmer markets. |
| A．A traditional fruit has changed people's diet |
| B．Most people have hardly eaten fresh pawpaws. |
| C．Fruit of pawpaw ploys an important part in America. |
| D．A forgotten American fruit is becoming popular again. |
【推荐1】Shopping online make it easy for pet seekers to choose more pets, which was once largely limited to cats and dogs. Today, one should not feel surprised if someone steps out to show off their uniqueness with a rope on a salamander(蝾螈), just as others walk their dogs. However, the owners might cause a challenge to the nation’s biological security(生物安全).
Many of these unique pets are often caught in the wild, requiring hunters to enter nature reserves illegally to catch these protected species. So when some people pay money in advance to get these rare pets, their crime is no less than that of the hunters. Never thought one could spend a few years in jail for buying a pet, right?
In fact, lots of rare pets were thrown away. The pet owners are likely to throw them away because of a little trouble. Some pet lovers raised crocodile turtles(鳄鱼龟) without realizing that when the animal grows its neck could stretch 40 centimeters long, causing greater challenges. However, when pet owners give up these rare pets, they increase the risks for local species. That is because many of these “pets” are foreign species. They have almost no natural enemies in China. As a result, when they are thrown into the wild, they will destroy the local ecology(生态).
Some of the abandoned “pets” might also be dangerous. In 2014, there were reports that someone had put poisonous snakes into the wild in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.
One way of strengthening monitoring of these rare pets is by strengthening the regulation of online platforms. As most of these rare pets and their food are sold online, it is time the online platform honor their duties and strengthen monitoring, so that the rare pets don’t cause anyone any problem.
There is a reason why humans traditionally pick cats or dogs for pets. Maybe, one should just stick to that simple choice.
1. Why do some people keep rare pets?| A．They dislike the traditional pets. |
| B．They want to show off their uniqueness. |
| C．They feel traditional pets are very limited. |
| D．They try to challenge the biological security. |
| A．Keep rare pets at home. |
| B．Buy pets on online platforms. |
| C．Put a poisonous snake into the wild. |
| D．Throw the foreign species into the wild. |
| A．The ecologists. | B．The sellers of rare pets. |
| C．The online platform. | D．The owners of rare pets. |
| A．Keeping Traditional Pets Is Better |
| B．Walking Rare Pets Becomes popular |
| C．Biological Security Faces Challenges |
| D．The Rare Pets Cause a New Problem |
【推荐2】At the World Economic Forum last month, President Trump drew claps when he announced the United States would respond to the forum's proposal to plant one trillion(万亿) trees to fight climate change. The trillion-tree idea won wide attention last summer after a study published in the journal Science concluded that planting so many trees was “the most effective climate change solution to date”.
If only it were true. But it isn't. Planting trees would slow down the planet's warming, but the only thing that will save us and future generations from paying a huge price in dollars, lives and damage to nature is rapid and considerable reductions in carbon release from fossil fuels, to net zero by 2050.
Focusing on trees as the big solution to climate change is a dangerous diversion(偏离). Worse still, it takes attention away from those responsible for the carbon release that are pushing us toward disaster. For example, in the Netherlands, you can pay Shell an additional 1 euro cent for each liter of regular gasoline you put in your tank, to plant trees to balance the carbon release from your driving. That's clearly no more than disaster slightly delayed. The only way to stop this planet from overheating is through political, economic, technological and social solutions that end the use of fossil fuels.
There is no way that planting trees, even across a global area the size of the United States, can absorb the huge amounts of fossil carbon released from industrial societies. Trees do take up carbon from the atmosphere as they grow. But this uptake merely replaces carbon lost when forests were cleared in the first place, usually long ago. Regrowing forests where they once grew can undo some damage done in the past, but even a trillion trees can't store enough carbon to head off dramatic climate changes this century.
In a sharp counter argument to last summer's Paper in Science, Justin Gillis wrote in the same journal in October that the study's findings were inconsistent with the dynamics of the global carbon cycle. He warned that “the claim that global tree restoration(复原) is our most effective climate solution is simply scientifically incorrect and dangerously misleading”.
1. What do we know about the trillion-tree idea?| A．It was published in a journal. |
| B．It was proposed last summer. |
| C．It was put forward by Trump. |
| D．It drew lots of public attention. |
| A．A drawback of the tree planting strategy. |
| B．An example of balancing carbon release. |
| C．An anecdote of making a purchase at Shell. |
| D．A responsibility for politicians and economists. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Opposed. |
| C．Hesitant. | D．Supportive. |
| A．Contradictory Ideas on Tree Planting. |
| B．A Trillion Trees Come to the Rescue. |
| C．Planting Trees Won't Save the World. |
| D．The Best Solution to Climate Change. |
【推荐3】People feel good about recycling, maybe even more so when it comes to electronics. While electronics recycling isn’t bad, making it a panacea(万能药) for the e-waste problem we currently have certainly is. Unfortunately, that’s how we think of recycling and companies are eager to jump on that trend to appear more “green”.
A case in point: Apple. In 2016, there was lots of report on Liam, a robot able to dismantle(拆解) an iPhone in just 11 seconds--- a good way to recycle 1.2 million units a year. That sounds amazing until you take into account the fact that Apple had actually sold 231 million new iPhones the year before. Actually, Liam is the perfect symbol for recycling in the field of high-tech: a drop of green water in an ocean of pollution.
According to a recent UN report, the US produces about 6.3 million tons or 14% of the world’s electronic waste. Worldwide, almost 45 million tons of electronic waste were produced in 2016. Among them, only 20% has been recycled in some shape or form. The remaining 80% made its way to a more environmentally damaging end at the landfill(垃圾清理场).
Of course, we can say it’s time to double our recycling efforts. However, the huge amount of e-waste is impossible to deal with. The UN report points out that while there is an increased focus on recycling today compared to the past, the efforts to reuse used devices simply can’t keep pace with the high consumption rates for new devices.
And in their environmental responsibilities report, Apple admits that 77% of the carbon footprint of their electronics comes from its actual use. The environmental effect of replacing a device, even if it is recycled after, remains significant.
1. What’s the author concerned about according to Paragragh 1?| A．Some recycling turns out to be harmful |
| B．People have too much faith in recycling |
| C．Companies bear a high cost to be green |
| D．The e-waste problem is out of control |
| A．Few reports on the issue |
| B．Low quality of equipment |
| C．Difficult recycling progress |
| D．High demand for new electronics. |
| A．The ways to lead a green life. |
| B．The limitation of electronics recycling |
| C．The responsibilities Apple should take on |
| D．The importance of protecting the environment. |
