【推荐2】What is eco­fashion? Eco-fashion is about making clothes that take into account the environment, the health of consumers and the working conditions of people in the fashion industry.

    1     Firstly, the production of textiles(纺织品)pollutes the environment heavily. Cotton­planting uses pesticides(杀虫剂)；sheep­farming and wool­cleaning contribute to global warming；Secondly, every stage of clothing production has a significant effect on the environment. They all use a great deal of energy, and some also involve chemicals which evidently do harm to the surroundings.    2    Thirdly, growing consumption levels and our shopping habits further worsen the bad effects. We are now so quick to throw away clothes that have been worn only a couple of times.

    3    To a large degree, it is the fashion producers that really have the power and the responsibility to shape our future. There are numerous ways in which these producers can reduce their ecological footprint, from switching to green energy and reducing energy use, through selecting sustainable (可持续的)materials and choosing local suppliers, to recycle and minimize waste.     4    

There is some concern that eco-friendly fashions are just a trend that we will eventually grow tired of but in fact, more and more people are concerning about this and we can make sure that doesn’t happen.    5    

A．Then, how to solve the problems?

B．They relate directly to our personal health.

C．Because choosing eco­fashion can also contribute to our personal health, though it is mostly done by way of keeping the health of the planet.

D．In addition to this, there is a lot of waste produced in the process, especially in the form of polluted water.

E．The fashion industry has developed quickly.

F．On the other hand, as consumers we can all make contributions by selecting environmentally friendly clothing and reducing clothing consumption.

G．A closer look at the fashion industry points out many problems.

【推荐3】The microplastics(微型塑料) problem in the oceans has made its way to sea turtles in a big way. A new study has found microplastics in the stomach of every single turtle they tested—a total of 102 sea turtles.

The researchers tested more than 100 sea turtles from all seven kinds and three different oceans, and they were looking for man-made things less than 5 mm long. The most thing the team found were fibers (纤维), which most likely came from clothing and fishing equipment.

“The influence of these particles (颗粒) on turtles is unknown,” said Emily Duncan. “Their small size means they can pass through the stomach without causing a problem, as is frequently reported with larger plastic pieces.”

The researchers found more than 800 man-made particles in the turtles, but since they only tested part of the stomach, they believe the total number of particles could be 20 times higher. They don't know how the turtles take in the particles, but they think they are from polluted seawater and polluted plants.

Professor Brendan Godley said that eating microplastics isn't the biggest problem to sea turtles at the moment, but it is a clear sign that we need to do a better job watching global waste.

This turtle study shows that we need to reduce the amount of plastic waste, so we can keep clean and healthy oceans for future people.

1. The underlined part in paragraph 1 probably means “_________” .

A．has gone into	B．has made great effect on
C．has been walking to	D．has tried to escape from

2. How did the researchers find out the microplastics problem?

A．By giving examples

B．By comparing sea life

C．By studying different sea animals

D．By testing turtles from different oceans.

3. The purpose of the text is to call on people to _________.

A．stop killing sea animals	B．find out more plastic waste
C．control pollution to oceans	D．carry out further researches

【推荐1】Soon after you have your first child, the question of having a second one is raised by friends and family. However, as the pattern of having two children in a family is challenged by modern family units, there are a few reasons why it is not selfish to want only one child.

Today, the role of women has changed a lot. But nowadays, a wife has to help her husband earn the bread and butter as well as well as looking after her family. In demanding times like these, a woman has to put in more physical and emotional effort than any other member of the family.

Raising a child comes at a cost that remains only heard of, until you find yourself paying it. The good reality of double income with no kids suddenly comes crashing down when there is a child involved in the picture. When one parent (the mother) needs to take some time off to look after the newborn, only one person becomes the earning member. Of course, the expenses went up rapidly. According to Susan Newman, PhD, a social psychologist, the average cost of raising a child is $227,000 from birth to college.

Most young mothers also think that having one child would mean that there is more income for the child, and thus, better facilities can be provided. It is much easier to educate a single child at a good school, and give him/her better life with more resources at hand.

With several children in the house, it becomes increasingly difficult to find ways to spend time with all of them. Dividing your time with just one child means that you can devote a little more time to doing the things you want to. In a single child unit, there are less comparison and more chances for positive motivation to learn new things. A happy child, who deserves the rightful attention, love, care, and time from both the parents, always gets a meaningful childhood, for both the parents and the child.

1. What does the writer mainly want to tell us in the passage?

A．It is not selfish to have only one child in a family.

B．Raising a child costs a lot nowadays.

C．It is more difficult to raise several children in a family.

D．Women are playing a more important role in the family than before.

2. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．A family with several children can give parents a meaningful life.

B．The only child in a family can more easily get a wonderful childhood.

C．A family with only one child is surely better than a family with several children.

D．You can be more relaxed with several children.

3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage to support the writer’s opinion?

A．better education.	B．meaningful childhood.
C．less generation gap.	D．better care.

4. Which of the following is the right structure of the passage?

A．	B．
C．	D．

【推荐2】David Rees runs a very distinctive business. He charges customers $15 to sharpen their pencils to perfection, using a variety of tools.

I know what you’re thinking—is this a joke? The 39-year-old gets asked that question a lot. To clarify everything, he even created a special section on his website telling everyone he’s actually providing a real service.

You can supply your own pencil or you can have Rees sharpen one of his own favorite 2B pencils. After that, he mails it to you in a display tube with the shavings in a separate bag, and an authentic certificate which just happens to mention the pencil is so sharp as to be a dangerous object.

To achieve the desired result, the master sharpener uses all kinds of tools, including general sandpaper, pocket knives and even a special $ 450 sharpening machine. “It depends on what the customer wants to use his/her pencil for,” he says. That determines the most appropriate pencil-sharpening technique. Some customers buy pencils as inspirational symbols while others buy them because of their special memories of classic 2B pencils.

$15 to have a pencil sharpened is a bit expensive though, right? You’re not the only one who feels that way, and David’s unique business has really angered lots of people, who talk of inequality in America, saying it is so insane for the wealthy to pay $15 to sharpen a pencil. But others will say, “This is just our urge to put an end to the welfare state because new ideas arise along with the business.”

David admits his trade is sort of unusual. But there are those who actually value his service, as is proven by the over 500 orders he has gotten.

1. How could David make money by sharpening pencils?

A．He invented new tools for the job.

B．He provided quality service for his customers.

C．He promoted his skill on his website.

D．He saved lots of time for other people.

2. What can we infer from the words of David Rees in paragraph 4?

A．He provides personalized services.

B．He knows all kinds of pencil users.

C．He values ideas behind the pencils.

D．He always writes in pencil.

3. What does the underlined word “insane” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Deliberate.

B．Rewarding.

C．Unreasonable.

D．Irresponsible.

4. What seems to be the author’s attitude to David Rees’ trade?

A．It’s a waste of time and money.	B．It needs further improvement.
C．It’s awfully expensive.	D．It’s a fancy service.

【推荐1】The Chinese fashion icon, qipao, was born a century ago in Shanghai. However, the dress made its way through history from the hands of old craftsmen and is deep-rooted in Chinese culture.

“Qipao used to be so popular,” Leung Long-kong, 89, a well-known qipao craftsman, says, adding that the dress was an everyday outfit among women, from the less well-off to women at the highest levels of society. “Now, nobody is wearing them except on grand and happy occasions.”

To carry on the tradition, fashion designer Mary Yu, 41, who has been attending classes teaching knot button-making techniques, is trying to renew the design of qipao by taking symbols from Chinese history and literature.

“I feel I should look into Chinese culture and learn more about the past. People should have an in-depth understanding of their culture in order to move on,” Yu says. “Fashion design requires a profound knowledge of one’s culture before visualizing it.”

“After a period of wearing foreign brands all the time, there will be a day when one looks back to traditional Chinese culture. It is about finding the stuff that exists in your genes and suits you best.”

Yu set up her own qipao brand in 2016. Most of the clothes were made by tailors based in Shenzhen and Hangzhou, for their lower cost and more traditional work.

In the constantly evolving fashion industry, qipao is catching up with the times. Zippers, digital print patterns and new materials such as lace and denim have been introduced to a new generation. More daring ideas like 3D printed qipao have also become a reality. Yu believed that with the help of these new technologies, qipao will find its way back to the daily life of Chinese people in the near future.

1. Which of the following best describes Mary Yu?

A．Creative.

B．Conservative.

C．Cautious.

D．Considerate

2. Why does the author quote Leung Long-kong in Paragraph 2?

A．To call on Chinese women to wear qipao in everyday life.

B．To introduce the development of qipao in China.

C．To emphasize the importance of qipao in China nowadays.

D．To show that qipao is no longer as popular as it was.

3. What did Yu do to renew the design of qipao?

A．She devoted herself to using new technologies to make qipao.

B．She borrowed some symbolic designs from foreign brands.

C．She added some elements from Chinese culture to the design.

D．She learned the tailor techniques in Shenzhen and Hangzhou.

4. What can we infer from the passage about qipao?

A．Qipao is an iconic sign in the fashion industry.

B．Qipao is on its way back to the daily life of Chinese.

C．Qipao enjoys a good reputation in the world.

D．Qipao is seen as a symbol of wealth in modern China.

【推荐2】A new research, presented on Monday, suggests that parents who go down slides with their kids are actually making slides even riskier for their little ones.

Led by Dr. Charles Jennissen, a professor at the University of Iowa, the research found that placing children (especially infants and toddlers蹒跚学步的小孩) on adult laps increases the risk of injury to their lower legs, including broken bones.

"I've seen a lot of these injuries all through my career, and I hadn't seen anybody talk about this problem," says Jennissen.

So Jennissen and his colleagues found that about 350,000 children under the age of six were injured on slides in the U.S. from 2002 to 2015. Injuries were most common among kids from 12-23 months of age, and the most common injury was lower leg fractures (骨折).

The researchers found that 94 percent of 600 cases include lower leg injuries. This is important, because that's not how a kid falling off a slide alone would usually get hurt. The fact that so many kids are getting lower leg injuries—and that those injuries seem to get less common as kids get older—suggests something else is at play.

Jennissen thinks that when children are sliding alone, they aren’t going fast enough or carrying enough body weight to hurt themselves. When they’re sitting on an adult’s lap and their foot gets caught, they have the added momentum of an adult body.

"We think a lot of these lower extremity injuries are because they're on the lap," says Jennissen. "We don't know that for sure, because no parents say that. But from my experience, and the data that suggests it, we think almost all of these are kids are on the lap."

Jennissen isn’t arguing that you should never go down the slide with your kid—he agrees that it’s fun and that he’s done it with his own kids—but he thinks adults should realize the risks.

1. What can we learn about the research from the passage?

A．Many parents are hurt when going down slides with their kids.

B．More and more adult laps are found hurt in the accidents.

C．The research issue has not yet concerned many people.

D．Many people have discussed the possible reasons for the injuries.

2. The underlined phrase “at play” in Para.5 probably means _____.

A．paying attention

B．taking effect

C．solving problems

D．making efforts

3. What is Jennissen’s attitude towards parents’ going down slides with kids?

A．He supports it.	B．He is against it.
C．He doesn’t care about it.	D．He is careful about it.

【推荐3】Mountain regions are not just playgrounds for the richer citizens on the planet, however. The disappearing snows of Mount Kilimanjaro are a worrying sign that nowhere is safe from the adverse effects of human actions. The United Nations has identified three main areas that need to be addressed to ensure the future safety of the world’s mountains. These are: the protection of mountain ecosystems, the encouragement of peace and stability in mountain regions, and assistance for mountain people to maintain their ways of life.

From the busy cities of India to the farmlands of California, more than half the world’s population is dependent on mountains for their fresh water supply. Global warming, deforestation, mining and heavy farming seriously damage breakable mountain ecosystems and put vital fresh water sources at risk.

Mountain regions host a large proportion of the world’s wars. From Afghanistan to the Balkans and the Andes to many parts of Africa, territorial(领土的) and drug related conflicts have damaging effects on the local environment and the lives of the local people. Fighting makes essential tasks such as farming impossible. Land mines make large areas of potential farming ground unusable. Also schools, roads, bridges and other important infrastructure(基础设施) are left in ruins.

Mountain people are among the poorest, least represented groups on the earth. They face many hardships and each day can be, “a test of survival”. Damage to mountain ecosystems worsens their situation and leaves them even more unprotected to disease and ‘natural’ disasters such as floods and landslides. It’s been recommended that forest profit should be reinvested in mountain communities and the people living there should be given a stronger political voice. Their fate is in many ways directly connected with that of people living at sea level.

There is an old motto for visitors to the countryside which advises them to leave nothing but footprints. It is still as relevant today as it always was. Unfortunately, the size of our footprints seems to be getting larger.

1. What the writer discussed in the previous sections is most probably about         .

A．mountain ecosystems	B．mountain regions
C．mountain people	D．mountain sports

2. The word “adverse” (paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to “__________”.

A．direct	B．harmful
C．positive	D．powerful

3. Wars have directly brought the following effects EXCEPT __________.

A．inadequate supply of fresh water	B．impossible farming
C．mountain people’s poor living condition	D．ruined infrastructure

4. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A．Mountain people have enough political voice to protect themselves.

B．More money should be raised to establish mountain communities.

C．Worsened ecosystems put mountain people’s lives under threat.

D．Visitors to mountains have left nothing but large footprints.