【推荐1】A new study suggests drinking coffee as soon as someone wakes up from a poor night’s sleep greatly affects metabolism(新陈代谢) and blood sugar control.

In the study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, UK researchers let 29 healthy men and women take part in three different overnight experiments. In the first two scenes, participants were given a sugary drink upon waking—first from a normal night’s sleep, and then again after a poor night’s sleep during which they were woken up for five minutes every hour. In the third, their sleep was similarly disrupted, but they were given a strong black coffee 30 minutes before consuming the sugary drink.

Blood samples from participants were taken following the sugary drink, which mirrored the calories of a typical breakfast, in each experiment. Results showed that one night of disrupted sleep did not worsen the participants’ blood sugar responses at breakfast when compared to a normal night of sleep. However, strong black coffee consumed before breakfast increased the blood sugar response by around 50 percent.

By drinking such kind of drink after breakfast, UK researchers found that our bodies’ ability to break down our food healthily is completely improved. Examining the effects of broken sleep and morning coffee across a range of different metabolic markers, scientists at the University of Bath found that, while one night of poor sleep had a limited effect on metabolism, drinking coffee before breakfast could have a negative effect on blood sugar control.

“We know that nearly half of us will wake in the morning and, before doing anything else, drink coffee—the more tired we feel, the stronger the coffee is. This simple study is important and has far-reaching health influences, and it indeed moves some coffee drinkers’ heartstrings. As up to now we have had limited knowledge about what this is doing to our bodies, in particular for our metabolic and blood sugar control, so we have a long way to go.” said Professor James Betts, co-director of the Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism at the University of Bath.

1. How did UK researchers get the result of the experiment?

A．By making comparisons.	B．By consulting journals.
C．By questionnaire.	D．By assumption.

2. What can we learn from the experiment?

A．One night of poor sleep surely affects blood sugar.

B．Drinking coffee after breakfast does harm to health.

C．Having strong drinks has a good effect on metabolism.

D．Drinking coffee at different time has different effects on health.

3. What does James Betts think of the study?

A．It makes no sense.	B．It remains to be continued.
C．It is limited and blind.	D．It is particular and explicit.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．How Much Coffee to Drink Matters

B．Does Coffee Really Wake Up an Appetite?

C．How Does Drinking Coffee Affect One’s Sleep?

D．Drinking Coffee before Breakfast Harms Metabolism

【推荐2】Scientists have learned a lot about the kinds of food people need. They say that there are several kinds of food that people should eat every day. They are: (1) green and yellow vegetables of all kinds. (2) citrus(柑桔) fruits and tomatoes; (3) potatoes and other fruits and vegetables; (4) meat of all kinds, fish and eggs; (5) milk and foods made from milk; (6) bread or cereal(谷类), rice is also in this kind of food; (7) butter, or something like butter.
Paragraph 2
People in different countries and different places of the world eat different kinds of things. Foods are cooked and eaten in many different kinds of ways. People in different countries eat at different times of the day. In some places people eat once or twice a day; in other countries people eat three or four times a day. Scientists say that none of the differences is really important. It doesn’t matter whether foods are eaten raw(生的) or cooked, canned or frozen. It doesn’t matter if a person eats dinner at 4 o'clock in the afternoon or at eleven o'clock at night. The important thing is what you eat every day.
Paragraph 3
There are two problems, then, in feeding the large number of people on earth. The first is to find some ways to feed the world’s population so that no one is hungry.
The second is to make sure that people everywhere have the right kinds of food to make them grow to be strong and healthy.
1. According to the scientists, which of the following groups of food is the healthiest for your lunch?

A．chicken, apples, cereal, cabbages

B．potatoes, carrots, rice, bread

C．oranges, bananas, fish, tomatoes

D．beef, pork, fish, milk

2. It is important for people to eat _______.

A．three times a day

B．dinner at twelve o'clock

C．cooked food all the day

D．something from each of the seven kinds of food every day

3. People in different countries and different places of the world _______.

A．has the right kinds of food to eat

B．cooks their food in the same way

C．has their meals at the same time

D．eat food in different ways

4. If there is Paragraph 4, what do you think is going to be talked about?

A．When people eat their lunch

B．What to do with the two problems

C．How to cook food in different ways

D．Why people eat different kinds of food

【推荐3】Recently some American scientists have given a useful sincere piece of advice to people in industrialized nations that they would be much healthier if they ate more of the same kind of food eaten by humans living more than 10,000 years ago.

The scientists say that the human body has changed very little since humans first appeared on the earth, but the way we live has changed greatly. Our body has not been able to deal with these changes in life style and this has led to new kinds of sicknesses. These new sicknesses were not known in ancient times, so they are called “diseases of civilization”. Many cancers and diseases of the blood system, including heart attacks and strokes (中风) are examples of such diseases.

Scientists noted that people in both the Old Stone Age and the New Stone Age enjoyed very little alcohol (酒精) or tobacco (烟草), probably none. Ancient people also got a great deal of physical exercise, but a change in food is one of the main differences between life in ancient times and that of today.

Stone-age people hunted wild animals for their meat, which had much less fat than domestic or tame ones (家畜). They also ate a lot of fresh wild vegetables and fruits. They didn’t have milk or any other dairy products, and they made very little use of grains. But today, we eat a large amount of these. We eat six times more salt than our remote ancestors (祖先). We eat more sugar. We eat twice as much fat but only one third as much protein (蛋白质) and much less vitamin C.

People today probably do not want to live the way people thousands of years ago did, but scientists say that we would be much healthier if we ate much the same way as remote ancestors did, cutting the amount of fatty, salty and sweet food.

1. According to the passage, people in industrialized nations would be much healthier if they ate___________.

A．more food than humans living 10,000 years ago did.

B．as much food as humans living 10,000 years ago did

C．more kinds of food eaten by people living over 10,000 years ago.

D．more of the same kind of food eaten by people over 10,000 years ago.

2. New kinds of sicknesses have been found because __________.

A．the human body has changed compared with humans who first appeared on the earth.

B．the way we live has changed a little.

C．our body can’t deal with the changes in life style.

D．the way we live today is proper for the human body.

3. What is the main cause that people suffer from a lot of new sicknesses?

A．Ancient people did a great deal of physical exercise.

B．People today have a lot of alcohol.

C．People today have more tobacco.

D．Food today is quite different from that of ancient times.

4. According to some scientists , Stone-age people were much healthier than people today because they ate a lot of _____________.

A．milk and other dairy products.	B．wild animals, fresh wild vegetables and fruits.
C．salt and sugar	D．grain foods

【推荐1】People generally see themselves through achievements. In doing that, they end up caring more about their image than the reality of who they actually are. Rather than their performance at work, they end up defining themselves by external markers that they hope will earn them respect.

The problem with this is that it encourages both themselves and other people to judge their worth based on some relatively unimportant measure. For example, one day, their educational diploma may overshadow what they actually learned. Therefore, a better way to know a person, I think, is to ask a different set of questions: What motivates them? What makes them ache? What do they long for?

It’s in this spirit that I want to publicly share my values. They are the compass(罗盘) that guides my life. The kindest and most sincere thing I can do is to see, recognize, and understand another person before I make judgments. From there, I can learn to treat others appropriately, depending on the context, learning from my mistakes with time and experience. It's just a reminder that life is hard for all of us, while at the same time accepting that it's important we are all also held accountable for our actions.

I have learned that we are all deeply self-interested. I hope to be self-aware enough to check out of the power and status games. That means I'm not competing with anyone for a shiny object; I'd rather compete with myself. It's about becoming so uniquely different that it would be an insult for me to measure myself against someone else. I believe if I do the work to be internally free from the pull of the power and status games, then I can add value to others based on my unique knowledge and experience.

If this resonates with(与……共鸣) you, I invite you to join me on this journey in understanding and relating to this complex world. It's a wonderful mystery, and I think together we can better define it—not just personally, but also collectively.

1. According to the article, which of the following is TRUE?

A．People generally judge others' worth by what they have achieved.

B．The external markers are better ways to know a person.

C．The author is someone who is keen on power games.

D．Learning from mistakes is the first step of treating others kindly.

2. What does the underlined word “overshadow” probably mean?

A．be relatively similar to	B．cause something to be stronger than
C．make something less important	D．block off light from something

3. Which of the following might the author agree with?

A．People should be self-aware enough and compete with themselves.

B．Life is hard, so we shouldn't criticize others when they are not responsible.

C．Everyone is unique, so showing off uniqueness is an insult to others.

D．One should see and understand another person using a real compass.

4. What is the writer's purpose of writing the article?

A．To promote harmonious living.

B．To ask people not to judge others.

C．To call on readers to learn his values.

D．To share his values of understanding the world.

【推荐2】Living alone is hard, especially for old people. Besides, some old homeowners might have trouble bringing food and articles of daily use in from a car. Or they might need someone to tell them where they’ve put their house keys.

College students are trying to find cheap, comfortable places to live without borrowing even more money from a bank. Dorms(宿舍) are a choice for some, but they often come with crowded bathrooms, shared bedrooms. And sometimes university housing is even more expensive than local apartments. A Canadian organization, Toronto HomeShare, noticed both of these problems and came up with a way to solve the problem.

College students usually deal with some housework and provide company while living in comfortable environments without breaking the bank. The old benefit from it spiritually. Nick, a 27-year-old graduate student who lives with 75-year-old Maureen Tara, said, “Coming back home to Tara’s family helps me recover because it’s such a relaxed environment here. If I’ve had a hard day and I’m feeling low, there’s lots of love in the air.”

The level of care that older housemates need is different. Joshua is in a poor state of health. His son thanks the college student living with his dad for his help in dangerous situations when he’s not around. “At least, there is someone to talk to my dad,” says Joshua’s son. Students who’ve moved to a new city, far from their families and the comforts of a home-cooked meal, also need to find peace in their living situation.     

Boston’s Nesterly is a homeshare app for senior/student living pairings, and people living in St. Louis’s Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood can take part in Homeshare St. Louis. The advantages of senior/student homeshare program are clear, and they might just make college students wonder why this wasn’t a choice when they were sharing crowded dorms with others.

1. What is the trouble of the old people living alone according to Paragraph 1?

A．They miss their families too much.

B．They cannot go somewhere far away.

C．They have trouble dealing with daily housework.

D．They cannot save themselves in dangerous situations.

2. What is Toronto HomeShare’s way to deal with the problem of the old and college students?

A．By making them live together.

B．By organizing students to help the old.

C．By making them experience each other’s life.

D．By supporting students’ life with the old’s money.

3. What does the example of Nick show?

A．College students may face great stress.

B．College students do chores to cover their rent.

C．Old people need young people’s help and care.

D．Sharing homes benefits college students spiritually.

4. What does the last paragraph say about the homeshare program?

A．It will include many other services.

B．It is carried out in Boston and St. Louis.

C．It needs to improve its services.

D．It is doubted by college students.

【推荐2】China's ban on the domestic sale and processing of ivory(象牙) and its products took effect on Sunday, at the very beginning of 2018, making good on a commitment Chinese authorities made last year.

The move, which effectively closes one of the world's largest ivory markets, has been supported by conservationists as a crucial step toward combating elephant poaching."This ban alone won't end the poaching of elephants," Ginette Hemley,senior vice-president of the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement. "It's equally critical that China's neighbors follow suit and shut down ivory markets across Asia. Only then can we ensure the open trade doesn't simply shift to other countries for newly-poached ivory."

China's ban on the domestic ivory trade follows a similar measure adopted in the U.S. in 2016, when the Fish and Wildlife Service set a ban to reduce the movement of ivory within U.S. borders. Both the U.S. and China had been negotiating on their proposed ivory regulations since 2015.

An international ban on the commercial ivory trade was established in 1990 — but that rule hasn't exactly achieved all its aims."Wildlife experts had thought that the international ban on ivory trade would slow or even stop the killing of elephants for their tusks. However, the killing got worse. That's mostly because the ban didn't cover older ivory," Joyce, a journalist, reported, noting that ivory taken from elephants before the ban was still legal to trade. "So people are still killing elephants but passing off their ivory as old."That has had disastrous effects for elephants. Over the span from 2007 to 2014, for instance, there was a decline of roughly 144,000 animals in seven years.

Still, there have been some signs of hope for the campaign against elephant poaching: Prices for the animals' tusks in China had dropped from $2,100 per kilogram in 2014 to just $730 per kilogram in March 2017. And this, at least, is offering conservationists reason for cautious optimism — assuming the China’s ban is enforced effectively.

1. What did Ginette Hemley mean?

A．The poaching of elephants will never be banned.

B．China should put a more effective ban on ivory trade.

C．Other countries in Asia should ban ivory trade.

D．China’s neighbors will threaten China’s ivory market.

2. What happened after an international ban was established?

A．More old elephants were killed.

B．More ivory was sold as old ivory.

C．The number of elephants increased

D．People pulled off old elephants’ ivory.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．The China’s ban will close the world largest ivory markets.

B．The measure in the U.S reduced ivory trade in China.

C．Prices for ivory have dropped about 65% in the last three years.

D．China is offering hope for the future of elephants.

4. How do conservationists feel about the China’s ban?

A．It’s disappointing.

B．It’s promising.

C．It’s demanding.

D．It’s history-making.

【推荐3】The over 48,000 orange trees in Seville, Spain, not only fill the city’s air with the pleasant smell of orange blossoms in spring, but they also produce over 16,500 tons of fruit every winter. Though that makes the capital of southern Spain’s Andalusia region Europe’s top orange-producing city, the fruit is too sour to be consumed fresh. While some of the produce is used to make orange jam and an alcoholic drink, most of it ends up in Seville’s landfills (填埋场). However, that may change soon thanks to a clever idea to use the oranges to produce clean energy.

The trial programme is being launched by the city’s council and park department in cooperation with Emasesa, Seville’s water supply and sanitation (卫生) division. Juice from 38. 6 tons of oranges will be left to ferment (发酵) in a specialised facility. The methane (甲烷) released from the fermented liquid will be captured and used to drive a generator to produce clean power. The officials estimate the test run will produce about 1,500 kWh of energy – enough to run one of Emasesa’s water purification plants. To ensure there is no waste, the orange skins, peels, and flesh will be used as fertiliser.

“It’s not just about saving money. The oranges are a problem for the city, and we’re producing added value from waste,” said Benigno Lopez, head of Emasesa’s environmental department.

If successful, by 2023, the city hopes to recycle all the oranges and add the electricity produced back into its power transmission network. In trial runs, one ton of oranges produced 50 kWh of clean energy – enough to cover the daily electricity needs of five homes. The project team estimates that if all the fruit is recycled, it will produce enough energy to power as many as 73,000 residences.

“This project will help us to reach our targets for reducing emissions, energy self-sufficiency, and the circular economy,” Juan Espadas Cejas, mayor of Seville, said in the press conference announcing the trial programme.

1. What do we know about oranges in Seville from the first paragraph?

A．They are usually picked in spring.

B．They are mostly used to make jams and juice.

C．They are not recommended to be eaten fresh.

D．They make Seville the world’s top orange-producing city.

2. What is the second paragraph mainly about?

A．Different uses of Seville oranges.

B．Ways to produce power from juice.

C．An introduction to the trial programme.

D．Reasons for launching the trial programme.

3. What can we infer from the passage?

A．The energy produced will be used to purify water.

B．Seville hasn’t carried out the trial programme yet.

C．The electricity produced will go to Seville’s power plants.

D．14,600 tons of recycled oranges are needed to power 73,000 homes.

4. What is Juan Espadas Cejas’ attitude towards this project?

A．It is risky but beneficial.

B．It is helpful and worth trying.

C．It is crazy and cannot become a reality

D．It is impractical though possible in theory.