【推荐1】There has been a very serious decline in the numbers of shallow-water fish as a result of overfishing. People still want to eat fish, so the fishing industry must look at other sources, especially the deep waters of the Atlantic.     1    .

Conservation measures will have to be put in place if these deep-sea fish are to survive. Research on five such species shows that numbers have declined by between 87 percent and 98 percent.     2     Many species could well disappear if the present trend continues. These are species that have been swimming in our oceans for hundreds of millions of years.

The problem is emphasised by the fact that the decline in numbers happened in less than twenty years. Deep-sea fish take a long time to reproduce and normally live for many years.

    3     The average size of such fish also declined, with one species showing a 57 percent decline in average size. This is of particular concern, as large fish tend to produce more offspring than small ones.

None of these facts has been taken into account by the fishing industry. The deep-sea species have been caught as if they were the fast-breeding fish like sardine and herring.     4    

The damage done by overfishing goes beyond the sea environment. Millions of people make a living in the fishing industry.     5     Measures must be taken to not only conserve ecosystems, but also sustain livelihoods and ensure food security.

A．Billions of people rely on fish for protein.

B．Many people now choose not to eat deep-sea fish.

C．Unfortunately, their reproduction rate is very low.

D．This puts them in the category of “critically endangered”.

E．Overfishing is a major cause of decline in populations of ocean wildlife.

F．It is like killing elephants as if they reproduced at the same rate as rabbits.

G．This has resulted in a sharp decline in the numbers of many of the species caught.

【推荐2】If the three Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) is a guideline to save the planet, garbage-sorting is where the   efforts start. Since May 1, Beijing has started to carry out mandatory garbage-sorting in new efforts to better protect the environment. Under the new regulation, residents are required to classify household waste into four categories: kitchen, recyclable, hazardous and other waste. People who fail to sort their garbage properly can be fined from 50 to 200 yuan, reported Xinhua.

Some residential communities in Beijing have introduced rewards to encourage residents to sort their garbage. According to Xinhua, residents can earn points by classifying their domestic waste correctly and then exchange the points they accumulate for daily necessities such as soap.

Garbage sorting practices have reached over 70 percent of housing estates in 18 cities, including Shanghai,     Xiamen and Hangzhou, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. Shanghai first enacted a mandatory garbage-sorting regulation in July 2019 and has had a 90 percent compliance (服从) rate among its housing estates.

According to a report by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, over 90 percent of the public believe that garbage-sorting is important for the protection of the environment. However, garbage-sorting is still a big problem in China. Only 30 percent of participants said they think they are completely sorting their waste, the report noted. According to Xinhua, it’s partly because many people lack the willingness to sort their own waste. Also, some previous garbage regulations didn’t include fines for people who failed to obey them.

“It’s a must to have a legal guarantee to promote garbage sorting,” Liu Jianguo, a professor from Tsinghua University, told China Daily, “Aside from China, many countries like Germany, Spain and Britain, also ask people to sort waste into specific categories. In Japan, there is a fixed time for the sorting of each kind of garbage and littering.”

1. What can we learn about the new regulation in Beijing?

A．It hasn’t been put into use yet.

B．Residents can sort the garbage as they like.

C．People can get money if they classify their domestic waste correctly.

D．Those who can’t sort the garbage as the new rule requires shall be fined.

2. What’s the problem in garbage sorting in China?

A．Most people are unaware of its importance in protecting environment.

B．Some people don’t want to take the trouble to sort the garbage.

C．Only residents in big cities can sort the trash correctly.

D．The government doesn’t have enough money to support garbage sorting.

3. What can we infer from Liu Jianguo’s words?

A．It’s difficult to carry out garbage sorting in China.

B．Some laws in garbage-sorting are needed.

C．People in developed countries can better sort the garbage.

D．We should learn from Japan.

4. What’s the best title of the passage?

A．Garbage sorting, a new start in China	B．New regulations in Beijing
C．Argument on garbage sorting	D．How to sort domestic garbage

【推荐2】Shortly before Christmas last year, one of Brazilian pianists Joao Carlos Martins invited his friends to a bar near his home. He wanted to show them the best gift he had received: a new pair of gloves. They are not just any gloves, however. The special bionic devices let the 79-year-old pianist play with both hands for the first time in more than 20 years.

By his retirement last March, Martins had received 24 medical operations to try to reduce pain caused by a disease and from a series of accidents. Before the gloves, which were especially developed for him, Martins could only play songs slowly with his thumbs and, sometimes, his pointer fingers.

However, one designer believed Martins’ retirement had come too early. The designer, Ubirata Bizarro Costa, created special bionic gloves for Martins’ hands. The gloves help move his fingers up after they press on the piano keys. Costa said he created early models based on images of Martins’ hands, but he said those models were not good. He then decided to tell Martins about his work. Costa and Martins then spent several months testing different models. Finally, the perfect model came in December, and cost only $125.

These days, Martins never takes off his new gloves, even when he goes to sleep. Martins said, “I have received more than 100 devices in the last 50 years. None of those devices worked well or long enough, but these gloves do. ”

The new gloves have given Martins a new goal. He hopes to play the piano at New York’s Carnegie Hall in October. He is already set to conduct a concert celebrating the 60th anniversary of his first appearance there.

1. What can we know about Joao Carlos Martins?

A．He enjoys playing the piano in a bar.	B．He has received the best gift in his life.
C．He has just retired from a music company.	D．He often discusses with his friends about music.

2. What caused the pianist’s pain?

A．A failed operation.	B．His friend's death.
C．The new pair of gloves.	D．A disease and some accidents.

3. How did Costa and Martins create the perfect bionic gloves?

A．By testing different models.	B．By pressing Martins’ fingers.
C．By examining Martins’ hands.	D．By working with other companies.

4. What does Martins think of the special pair of gloves?

A．They are useless.	B．They are strange.
C．They are satisfying.	D．They are frightening.

【推荐3】Power often boosts an employee’s creativity because being powerful liberates the individual from restrictions. However, new research shows that employees who are not in positions of power can become more creative when given time to “warm up” to a task by engaging in the creative task more than once.

“This is important because when people with more power are able to express their creative ideas more than those with less power, which leads to a rich-get-richer dynamic that strengthens these power imbalances.” said Brian Lucas, assistant professor in the Cornell University. “Understanding ways to boost the creativity of lower power workers can help them find the right way to deal with this low-power disadvantage,” Lucas said.

Lucas and his colleagues conducted two studies to reach their conclusion. In the first study, they divided the creative idea generation session into two rounds consisting of a one-minute “warm up” followed by a second round in which the participants could take as long as they wanted. Participants were randomly assigned to a high-power condition or a low-power condition, and feelings of power were generated with a role manipulation (操纵) where participants were given a leadership role and control over resources (high power) or an employee role with no control over resources (low power). The study found that high-power individuals were more creative than low-power individuals in the warm-up round. There was no difference, though, in creativity in the second round.

In the second study, the researchers gave them a different creative task and increased the number of rounds from two sessions to five, taking as long as they like to complete the task. Similar to the first study, the study found that high-power individuals were more creative than low-power individuals in the first round. But the creativity of low-power individuals caught up to the creativity of the high-power individuals after the first round.

“The low-power warm-up effect suggests a simple intervention that empowers all employees to tap their creative potential and overcomes power imbalances in the workplace: when pursuing creative work. let employees warm up first,” Lucas said.

1. Why is it important to boost lower-power workers’ creativity according to Lucas?

A．It stimulates power balances.

B．It motivates their ambition to catch up.

C．It encourages a harmonious workplace.

D．It creates a competitive work environment.

2. How did the participants feel the power in the first study?

A．By competing with leaders.

B．By receiving different positions.

C．By working in different working conditions.

D．By finishing a creative task with time limits.

3. How did the second study differ from the first study?

A．It had more rounds.

B．More participants were involved.

C．Participants had a more complicated task.

D．Participants’ creativity gap became wider.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Power tends to encourage creative ideas.

B．Changing tasks boosts all the employees’ creativity.

C．Warm-up time corrects creativity power imbalances.

D．Low-power individuals outperform the high-power ones.