Skyscrapers (摩天大楼) are the symbol of urban life and city people are used to seeing tall buildings and apartments. Farms, on the other hand, are associated with rural life. However, there are experts who think skyscrapers should become farms to meet the increasing food needs.
By the middle of this century, some scientists suggest, almost 80% of the earth’s population could live in cities. In addition, the population could increase to 9.1 billion people during that time yet the amount of land available for farming will be the same. If current farming practices don’t change, we will need an area of new land to produce enough food for the planet.
Vertical farms, where urban farmers could grow crops in environmentally friendly skyscrapers, could be the solution. In spite of concerns over high costs, experts want to make it a reality and use these skyscrapers to grow crops.
Vertical farms would have many advantages, supporters say. Unlike traditional farming, vertical farming could be free of chemicals and diseases. Besides, crops would not suffer from problems like flooding. Finally, vertical farms would reduce the cost and negative effects of transporting food over long distances.
Some argue that although crops growing in a tall glass building would get natural sunlight during the day, it wouldn’t be enough. For this reason, vertical farms would need additional light sources, such as artificial light.
Another way of growing fresh food is to build urban farms on rooftops. This more practical approach may be more achievable than the idea of farms in skyscrapers, researchers suggest. Experts agree that innovative farming practices are needed to support the need for more food at affordable costs, both to the farmer and to the consumer, but the best ideas could be yet to come.
1. What primary problem could vertical farming settle?| A．Poor state of rural life. | B．Shortage of food supply. |
| C．High costs for transporting crops. | D．Environmental pollution. |
| A．It can benefit transport industry. | B．It requires little care. |
| C．It can produce organic food. | D．It needs very low cost. |
| A．Farmable land. | B．Light sources. |
| C．Crop diseases. | D．Climate conditions. |
| A．Future Food Needs | B．Symbol of Urban Life |
| C．Farms of the Future | D．Farming on Rooftops |
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【推荐1】Rather than building new homes to help satisfy housing markets, a new study says that taxing empty homes in big cities could increase housing affordability for local residents while generating income for the governments.
During the past 20 years, housing affordability has decreased significantly in the UK due to a rapid increase in prices relative to earnings. This may be due to foreign investors buying properties in cities such as London, or from British citizens in the countryside buying second homes in the city, which reduces the availability of affordable housing for local residents.
This means that local citizens who actually live in the city are forced to pay more money for housing in neighborhoods that are filled with homes that are unoccupied for more than half of the year.
In a study that was published recently, researcher Jonathan Bourne at University College London studied the relationship between the amount of properties which do not have permanent residents, and housing affordability in different parts of England and Wales. Upon researching the data, which represents about 40% of the population, the researcher was stunned to find that there were over 340,000 empty apartments across the places.
Though some cities are trying to meet housing demands by building more housing, Bourne suggests that local governments put an empty homes tax of 1% instead. “The data shows that empty homes are very concentrated in small numbers of desirable areas. In such cases simply building more homes is not going to solve the problem, as the issue is severe competition for property, not a lack of places to live. ” says Bourne.
Vancouver introduced a similar empty homes tax in 2017, which was the first of its kind in North America. One year after it went into effect, the city reported a 15% decrease in unoccupied homes, which amounted to 163 properties being rented out to local people. Furthermore, the tax raised more than $ 38 million in city revenue(税收），all of which was spent on affordable housing programs.
1. Who might be blamed for low housing affordability?| A．Local residents. | B．Foreign tourists. |
| C．The local governments. | D．The owners of empty homes. |
| A．Taxing empty properties works well. |
| B．Taxes on housing need to be cut down. |
| C．Providing more housing is a wise choice. |
| D．Housing demands have fallen in North America. |
| A．To encourage people to rent a house. |
| B．To suggest building more new homes. |
| C．To explain why housing prices have risen. |
| D．To discuss solutions to affordable housing. |
【推荐2】Trees take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in complex molecules (分子), releasing oxygen. The more photosynthesis (光合作用), the more carbon is locked away.
Carbon dioxide is a major driver of climate change, so the more that can be taken out of the atmosphere by plants, the better. With the warmer climate leading to a longer growing season, some researchers have suggested that more carbon dioxide would be absorbed by trees and other plants than in previous times. But a new study has changed this theory and could have profound effects on how we adapt to climate change.
The researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology studied the degree to which the timing of colour changes in autumn tree leaves was determined by the growth of the plants in the previous spring and summer.
Using data from the Pan European Phenology Project, which has tracked some trees for as long as 65 years, the researchers found in their long-term observational study that as the rate of photosynthesis increased, leaves changed colour and fell earlier in the year. For every 10%d increase in photosynthetic activity over the spring and summer growing season, trees shed their leaves, on average, eight days earlier.
This research shows that deciduous (每年落叶的) trees can only absorb a set amount of carbon each year and once that limit is reached, no more can be absorbed. At that point, leaves begin to change colour. This limit is set by the availability of nutrients, particularly nitrogen (氮气), and the physical structure of the plant itself, particularly the inner vessels which move water and dissolved nutrients around. Nitrogen is a key nutrient which plants need in order to grow, and it’s often the amount of available nitrogen that limits total growth. This is why farmers and gardeners use nitrogen fertilisers (肥料) to overcome this limitation.
It suggests that by 2100, when tree growing seasons are expected to be between 22 and 34 days longer, leaves will fall from trees between three and six days earlier than they do now.
1. What can we know from the first two paragraphs?| A．More carbon dioxide has been absorbed by plants than before. |
| B．Higher temperature has an influence on plants’ growing season. |
| C．Climate change can be solved naturally through photosynthesis. |
| D．Plants can give off oxygen and molecules through photosynthesis. |
| A．Eight days. | B．Sixteen days. |
| C．Twenty-eight days. | D．Thirty-four days. |
| A．Basins. | B．Wells. | C．Containers | D．Channels. |
| A．Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growing. |
| B．Warmer climate contributes to longer growing season. |
| C．Farmers use fertilizers to increase the growth of plants. |
| D．The amount of carbon plants absorb is limited in a year. |
【推荐3】A short period of sleep taken during the day is known as a nap. Naps don’t just have benefits for adults at work, though. They could also help pupils to make the most of their school day. Studies have shown that a 20 to 30-minute “beauty sleep” makes people more alert and focused. This improves people’s ability to remember new information, which would help school children concentrate during lessons. Experts say that napping also improves brain functions, such as memory and the ability to complete difficult tasks.
The school day starts early, which means that pupils don’t always get enough sleep because there’s no chance to have a lie-in. Adding naptime during the school day would help exhausted pupils to make up for any sleep they’ve lost from getting up so early.
There are long-term benefits to taking a short nap, too. According to a recent study from University College London, the brains of people who have regular naps are bigger than those who don’t. People’s brains naturally shrink when they grow old, and the results showed that little sleeps can help people’s brains to age more slowly.
Although a nap can seem like a good idea, going to sleep for too long can actually make you feel worse. It’s not very pleasant to wake up from a daytime nap feeling confused and sleepy. Napping during the day can also have a negative impact on how well you sleep at night. This can create a cycle of not being able to sleep as well at night, leaving you feeling even more tired in the daytime. Sleep expert Dr Clete Kushida said, “It’s generally recommended to maximize sleep at night.”
Another consideration is that there really isn’t time in the school day for pupils to go to sleep. Some parents and teachers are concerned that it would cause children to miss too much lesson time. Pupils might take advantage of the system and use their need for a nap as an excuse to get out of lessons.
So, what do you think? Should school allow kids to have naps, or should you wait until the evening to catch up on your sleep?
1. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.| A．children need more naps than adults do |
| B．naps improve memory, efficiency and beauty |
| C．both children and adults are equally in need of naps |
| D．naps can bring more benefits to children than to adults |
| A．it may affect a healthier cycle of sleep |
| B．school kids will feel too sleepy to wake up |
| C．it can’t make up for the sleep lost from waking up early |
| D．it extends the school day for kids to have enough lessons |
| A．It’s better for babies to have as many daytime naps as possible. |
| B．Regular naps can slow the rate at which brains shrink with age. |
| C．There’s no need to guarantee night sleep if one has regular naps. |
| D．Different from teachers, parents want their kids to have naptimes. |
| A．Should Schools Have Naptimes? | B．How Could Naptimes Benefit Kids? |
| C．Are Kids Losing Too Much Sleep? | D．Do You Get Enough Daytime Sleep? |
【推荐1】To reach a sustainable food system, “integrity has to run through the whole system, especially with the farmers,” say Jan and Steve Petersen, Niman Ranch farmers. “We have to learn to care for our shared resources, like soil, water, air, and ecosystems.”
Jan and Steve created a family of sustainability advocates. To them, sustainable farming means protecting soil, water, and ecosystems for future generations. The Petersen family always farmed crops sustainably and raised their pigs naturally, using mostly organic practices. Their son Ted continues to work on the farm part-time, while their oldest son Luke works with farmers in California to encourage sustainable farming practices as a conservation biologist who received a Niman Ranch Next Generation Scholarship Award in 2008 to help him continue his farming practices. “He doesn’t hesitate to feed his dad ideas on new practices and technologies,” says Jan.
The Petersens joined Niman Ranch in 2003 for the support it provided for farmers raising pigs naturally after the pig market crashed in 1998. “We suddenly had a sense of belonging and support, becoming part of a whole network of farmers who shared similar values,” explain Jan and Steve. “This matched our personal passion for community revitalization (复兴) and the promotion of responsible land use practices.”
In their community, the Petersens have a great passion for responsible land use and its benefits for the food system. They realized early on how farmland preservation is connected to all sorts of land use issues, so they got involved on many levels. Steve chairs the local planning committee. And Jan not only started the community’s farmers’ market, but also serves on the county Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, encouraging businesses to redevelop ignored properties. Together, the Petersens also brought historic property in their community back to life.
“We feel we are caretakers of not just the land on this fifth generation farm, but also the historic house and barns, around 1871, here on the Petersen Farm. We always hope the wildlife appreciates our commitment to avoiding farming the whole place into the ground,” say the Petersens.
1. How did the Petersen family advocate sustainable farming?| A．By engaging neighbors in part-time laboring. |
| B．By cooperating with conservation professionals. |
| C．By encouraging practices on organic farming. |
| D．By awarding biologists for ecological conservation. |
| A．It applied innovation to farming. |
| B．It supplied assistance to farmers in need. |
| C．It introduced them to bigger markets. |
| D．It offered convenience to communities in trouble. |
| A．They assumed leading roles. | B．They advocated land expansion. |
| C．They modernized historic properties. | D．They founded various organizations. |
| A．A Family’s Efforts to Protect Land | B．The Benefits of Sustainable System |
| C．The Protection of Shared Resources | D．The Progress in Organic Farming |
Farm Theme Parks Popular in Japan
In modern times, when we think or hear about major theme parks, what often comes to mind are successful franchises like Disneyland, Disneyworld and Universal Theme Parks. But a growing independent group of specialized theme parks in Japan are catching the attention of those who are in search of entertainment, fresh food and the feel of the great outdoors.
For example, Namegata Farmers Village is a sweet potato theme park in Ibaraki Prefecture, an area noted for sweet potato production. “The number of sweet potato producers has dropped due to the aging population. We thought up the idea to convey the charm of agriculture to young people who moved to urban areas because they didn’t want to take over from aging farmers. We hoped to secure a stable future for sweet potatoes,” said Toshikazu Nagao, president of the village.
Namegata Farmers Village covers a total area of about 33 hectares, or 82 acres, and utilizes abandoned farmland. A former primary school is used as the main facility. The park features the Yakiimo Factory Museum, a restaurant, a direct sales shop for agricultural products and rental farmland. Classes for making sweet potato cakes are popular among families with children.
The concept of an agriculture theme park is not new in Japan. Iga no Sato Mokumoku Tezukuri Farm pioneered the concept of agricultural theme parks in the late-1980s. The farm opened in 1988 when MokuMoku Tezukuri Farm Co., an agricultural corporation, attempted to improve the added value of Iga pork, a local brand. Local beer, bread and tofu are now produced at the 14-hectare farm. Visitors can experience making sausages in a factory, enjoy being close to animals, and eat at a restaurant.
“I think farm theme parks are the future direction of agriculture. It should also lead to the preservation of the local rustic scenery (乡村风光),” Naoyuki Matsuo, president of the farm said.
Whether the theme park concept flourishing in Japan would ever work in other countries remains to be seen, but for those in Japan, at least, thinking outside the box is earning farmers and food corporations alike a good profit.
1. Who are usually attracted to farm theme parks in Japan?2. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
The first agriculture theme park in Japan opened in 1988 with the purpose of helping young people living in urban areas know more about rural life.
3. Naoyuki Matsuo said, “farm theme parks are the future direction of agriculture”. Do you agree with him? Why or why not? (In about 40 words)
【推荐3】Look for the word “regenerative” at your local grocery store. Chances are that you’ll spot it on boxes of cheese, cartons of milks, or even bags of chips. Regenerative agriculture, also called carbon farming, has become the latest darling of everyone from food companies to universities. But what is regenerative agriculture?
In essence, regenerative agriculture is farming done in a way that helps build soil health, increase organic matter, store water more effectively, and draw carbon out of the atmosphere.
This isn’t exactly a new idea—farming with soil health in mind is a concept nearly as old as agriculture itself. It wasn’t until the 1980s, however, that the Rodale Institute began using the term, and it’s only recently become a buzzword. It’s a farming philosophy focused on healing.
“It’s soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness,” says Birgit Cameron, head of Patagonia Provisions. “It goes together with organic. You can call it regenerative or not, but you can’t have a truly regenerative system if organic isn’t attached to it.”
Patagonia Provisions partners with farmers and producers interested in regenerative agriculture that are already practicing organic farming, and the company has strong animal welfare and social fairness philosophies. While regenerative agriculture is something that many small farmers have long specialized in, that doesn’t necessarily make the practice an easy one.
It’s hard to compare the regenerative agriculture products you find at the supermarket because (for the time being) General Mills’ definition will be different from Patagonia’s, whose definition might be different from your local CSA farmer’s.
“If at all possible, see the farm and purchase from them directly,” said Pettinelli. “If you can’t visit, explore their website and ask questions about their practices. It’s challenging to see past the marketing.” You can explore more about the Regenerative Organic Alliance label on their website and shop for certified products there.
1. The author make an assumption at the beginning mainly to show ______.| A．the concept of regenerative agriculture |
| B．the function of regenerative agriculture |
| C．the application of regenerative agriculture |
| D．the popularity of regenerative agriculture |
| A．It’s a brand-new idea. |
| B．It is convenient to practice. |
| C．It is environmentally friendly. |
| D．It became a buzzword in the 1980s. |
| A．unrelated | B．closely linked |
| C．opposite | D．cause and effect |
| A．Farm direct selling. | B．Street markets. |
| C．Grocery stores. | D．Supermarkets. |
