【推荐1】I was dirty, smelly, hungry and somewhere beneath all that, suntanned. It was the end of an Inter-Rail (欧洲旅游火车通票) holiday. My body couldn’t take any more punishment. My mind couldn’t deal with any more foreign timetables, currencies or languages.

“Never again,” I said, as I stepped onto home ground. I said exactly the same thing the following year. And the next. All I had to do was buy one train ticket and, because I was under twenty-five years old, I could spend a whole month going anywhere I wanted in Europe. Ordinary beds are never the same once you’ve learnt to sleep in the passage of a train, the rhythm rocking you into a deep sleep.

Carrying all your possessions on your back in a rucksack (背包) makes you have a very basic approach to travel, and encourages incredible wastefulness that can lead to burning socks that have become too anti-social, and getting rid of books when finished. On the other hand, this way of looking at life is entirely in the spirit of Inter-Rail, for common sense and reasoning can be thrown out of the window along with the paperback book and the socks. All it takes to achieve this carefree attitude is one of those tickets in your hand.

Any system that enables young people to travel through countries at a rate of more than one a day must be pretty social. On that first trip, my friends and I were at first unaware of the possibilities of this type of train ticket, thinking it was just an inexpensive way of getting to and from our chosen camp-site in southern France. But the idea of non-stop travel proved too attractive, for there was always just one more country over the border, always that little bit further to go. And what did the extra miles cost us? Nothing.

We were not completely uninterested in culture. But this was a first holiday without parents, as it was for most other Inter-Railers, and in organizing our own timetable we left out everything except the most available sights. This was the chance to escape the guided tour, an opportunity to do something different. I took great pride in the fact that, in many places, all I could be bothered to see was the view from the station. We were just there to get by, and to have good time doing so. In this we were no different from most of the other Inter-Railers with whom we shared passage floors, food and water, money and music.

The excitement of travel comes from the sudden reality of somewhere that was previously just a name. It is as if the city in which you arrive never actually existed until the train pulls in at the station and you are able to see it with your own tired eyes for the first time.

1. What does the writer mean by “this way of looking at life” in Paragraph 3?

A．Worrying about your clothes.	B．Throwing unwanted things away.
C．Behaving in an anti-social way.	D．Looking after your possessions.

2. Why did the writer originally buy an Inter-Rail ticket?

A．To get to one place cheaply.	B．To meet other young people.
C．To see a lot of famous places.	D．To go on a tour of Europe.

3. What the writer liked about traveling without his parents was that_____.

A．he could see more interesting places	B．he could spend more time sightseeing
C．he could stay away from home longer	D．he could make his own decisions

4. What does “it” in the last sentence of Paragraph 6 refer to?

A．A name.

B．The city.

C．The train.

D．The station.

【推荐1】The painting “Portrait(肖像) of Omai” was finished in 1774 and was sold to John Magnier in 2001. When he wants to take the painting out of the country, the government believes it’s important for Britain and stops him doing so. Yet British buyers can’t raise the money needed to get it from Mr. Magnier before the deadline of a ban one exporting it. A solution may now involve Getty Museum in Los Angeles; it could be a model for her treasured artworks too expensive for the nation to buy.

Most countries have export restrictions on their cultural treasures. Many European counts a low the government to step in and buy any work offered for sale. Britain operates a system called Waverley standards, balancing the aims of keeping important pieces and protecting the rights of their owners. Valuable pieces are evaluated at monthly meetings of a committee of owners, dealers and art historians. The most important works are kept in Britain temporarily while institutions at home try to raise the funds to buy them.

Mr. Magnier paid £10.3 million for “Portrait of Omai”. Now he wants £50 million for it, a fair value. The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London has been trying to raise the cash, but only half the money had been raised. The NPG’s answer is to buy the painting together with the Getty Museum, spending half its time in London and the other half in California. In 2015 a similar arrangement was agreed between France and the Netherlands to share ownership of a pair of important portraits by Rembrandt.

The Waverley standards were meant to keep Brit in’s cultural treasures at home. But protecting an artwork for the nation for some time maybe all that can be achieved. Closed for three years for repair, the NPG hopes it will open its doors again with “Portrait of Omai” as its glory.

1. What can we learn about Magnier from Para. 1?

A．He painted a portrait of an Englishman.	B．He wanted to take the painting abroad.
C．He illegally took hold of the paining.	D．He solved the problem with a portrait.

2. What do the Waverley standards do to keep cultural treasures at home?

A．They set aside time for home purchase.

B．They checkout annual export licences.

C．They decide a ban on the rare treasures.

D．They advertise the sales of the treasures.

3. What will be the final solution to “Portrait of Omai”?

A．Britain takes it for permanent ownership.

B．Mr. Magnier takes it abroad after the deadline.

C．Britain works with France to share its ownership.

D．NPG and the Getty Museum share its ownership.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．The Cooperation of World’s Galleries	B．The Protection of Galleries’ Paintings
C．A New Way to Save Art for the Nation	D．A Clever Way to Stop Loss of Paintings

【推荐2】Refill shops have been around for a decade. The first stores were small but appealed to many people who wanted to ditch plastic packaging and be more environmentally friendly. These zero-waste grocery stores allowed people to bring in their own refillable containers to buy food stored in large bins.

While these small shops are common in Europe and the US, they have recently gone from being trendy to being very mainstream. That’s because the UK supermarket giant ASDA rolled out its own chain of sustainable refill shops, according to The Grocer.

These refill stores offer the usual bins and have many household brands without the excessive(过度的)packaging including Kellogg, Yorkshire Tea, and Nestlé. Even Unilever and P&G shampoos and soaps are represented.

“We hope the varieties offered across our range of 100 branded and own-label loose(裸包装的)products can bring together several simple ways for customers to reduce, reuse or recycle at home,” ASDA director of commercial sustainability Susan Thomas told The Grocer.

Cutting back on single-use plastics is a big win for the planet while many people make an effort to recycle. But according to Greenpeace, while the government of the UK claims that 50 percent of household plastics is being recycled, over half of that is being sent to other countries. There is no way to know how much is actually being recycled. The best way to ensure that plastic doesn’t end up incinerated(焚烧), in landfills, or in the oceans, is not to use it in the first place. That’s where refill shops can help.

Many of these shops stock products from brands that are also being enthusiastic about selling sustainably sourced and local products, which helps reduce your carbon footprint. Only buying the amount of food that you actually need will also help cut down on food waste and the environmental cost of food production.

1. What does the underlined word “ditch” in paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．Abandon.

B．Improve.

C．Consider.

D．Recycle.

2. How does ASDA make refill shops become mainstream?

A．By selling cheaper refillable containers.

B．By prohibiting plastic packaging widely.

C．By funding these first small refill shops.

D．By building its own chain ofrefill shops.

3. What’s the function of paragraph 5?

A．Warning grocers of plastic problems.

B．Showing the necessity of refill shops.

C．Telling the harm of single-use plastics.

D．Giving the examples of going zero-waste.

4. What are we advised to do to help protect the environment?

A．Purchase more products from brands.

B．Send plastic products to other countries.

C．Ensure wasted food ends up in landfills.

D．Avoid buying more food than we need.