Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he’s an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein’s jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.
Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts(收银台). The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.
Among the bag makers’ argument: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today.
The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.
Environmentalists don’t dispute(质疑) these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.
What has Steven Stein been hired to do?| A．Help increase grocery sales. |
| B．Recycle the waste material. |
| C．Stop things falling off trucks. |
| D．Argue for the use of plastic bags. |
相似题推荐
Make a newsletter about environmental protection by hand
手工绘制关于环境保护的新闻简报
| 80%赞同 | 1.降低环境污染的程度；2.降低农业生产成本。 |
| 20%反对 | 目前有机食物不能满足市场需求。 |
| 你的看法 | …… |
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
In recent years, organic farming ________ (popularity), so our class had a discussion about it. ________ (opinion, topic).
80% of students are in favor of it. Firstly, they think organic farming ________ (beneficial, environment) by reducing the level of pollution. Secondly, it reduces the costs of agricultural production. However, 20% of them insist that now organic food ________ (meet, demand), and that there is still a long way for organic farming to provide sufficient food.
In my opinion, we should ________ (attitude, organic farming), and I believe that it will be very mature in the future.
【推荐3】King Canute couldn’t stop the ocean’s tide from rolling in — can Africa hold back the desert?That’s certainly what the continent is tying to do with its proposed “Great Green Wall”, 800km (almost 5,00 miles) worth of trees that officials hope will stop the advancement of the Sahara Desert, which has been rapidly expanding southward.
The idea was introduced in the 1970s when the once-rich region turned barren (贫瘠的) due to climate change and intensive land use. But it’s not a new idea; China has its own desert vegetation project to hold back the Gobi Desert! Thanks to the Chinese plan, the African project aims to plant 100 million hectares of trees by 2030 across the entire Africa. The initiative is a decade in, and around 15% completed, and there have already been benefits for many communities and wildlife. It’s bringing life back to the continent’s degraded landscapes at an unprecedented scale, providing not only food security and jobs but a reason to stay for the millions who live along its path.
The creators of the wall hope it will bring an urgently needed solution to the threats facing the African continent, creating 10 million jobs in rural areas, as well as preventing 250 million tons of carbon. The initiative is Africa-driven, which for those on the continent, is vital, and may hold the key to success. “The Great Green Wall…is about ownership, and that has been the failure of development aid because people were never identified with it,” said Elvis Paul Tangam, African Union Commissioner for the Sahara and Sahel Great Green Wall Initiative.“But this time they identify. This is the very thing of us!”
The wall may seem like a moonshot, but all the best ideas usually are. As Thomas Sankara, former president of Burkina Faso said in 1985, “You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain degree of madness. The courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future.”
1. What does Africa’s “Great Green Wall” aim for?| A．Offering more jobs for locals. |
| B．Stopping the expansion of desert. |
| C．Creating a harmonious society. |
| D．Improving African landscapes. |
| A．From their practices of planting trees. |
| B．From the process of stopping flooding. |
| C．From China’s success in desert control. |
| D．From Africans’ wisdom and hard work. |
【推荐1】The connection between people and plants has long been the subject of scientific research. Recent studies have found positive effects. A study conducted in Youngstown, Ohio, for example, discovered that greener areas of the city experienced less crime. In another, employees were shown to be 15% more productive when their workplaces were decorated with houseplants.
The engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have taken it a step further — changing the actual composition of plants in order to get them to perform diverse, even unusual functions. These include plants that have sensors printed onto their leaves to show when they’re short of water and a plant that can detect harmful chemicals in groundwater. “We’re thinking about how we can engineer plants to replace functions of the things that we use every day, ” explained Michael Strano, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT.
One of his latest projects has been to make plants glow (发光) in experiments using some common vegetables. Strano’s team found that they could create a faint light for three-and-a-half hours. The light, about one-thousandth of the amount needed to read by, is just a start. The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn trees into self-powered street lamps.
In the future, the team hopes to develop a version of the technology that can be sprayed onto plant leaves in a one-off treatment that would last the plant’s lifetime. The engineers are also trying to develop an on and off “switch” where the glow would fade when exposed to daylight.
Lighting accounts for about 7% of the total electricity consumed in the US. Since lighting is often far removed from the power source (电源) — such as the distance from a power plant to street lamps on a remote highway — a lot of energy is lost during transmission (传输). Glowing plants could reduce this distance and therefore help save energy.
Which of the following can be the best title for the text?| A．Can we grow more glowing plants? | B．How do we live with glowing plants? |
| C．Could glowing plants replace lamps? | D．How are glowing plants made pollution-free? |
WORKING OUT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO
As an adult, one of the first questions you are asked when meeting someone new is, “What do you do?” This is because your career is a very important part of who you are. The career you have defines your life, and so taking time to think about it is an essential exercise for young people.
The best time to start thinking about possible careers is while you are still at school, before you make any choices about your further education. This, however, is not always easy. Some people know what they want to do from a young age, but many others just have a few ideas bouncing around in their heads.
One of the most effective ways to get some insight on a possible career path is to complete a “career aptitude test”. The results of the test will tell you about your strengths and interests, and some tests also suggest careers that you may be suited to. Having this information will provide you with a better chance of finding a job you like. There are many free tests online, so give one a try. Getting a head start in considering your future career may help you for the rest of your life. You don’t want to look back in years to come and say, “I wish I had thought more about what I really wanted to do.”
There are many different kinds of career aptitude tests. Some ask questions about your personal interests and attitudes. Others focus more on asking you to rate different kinds of work scenarios， like working as a librarian or a lawyer. Of course, while completing these sorts of tests, it is very important to be honest—and don’t worry—there are no right or wrong answers.
| Career Aptitude Test example Page 1 of 10 | |
 How do you feel about the work tasks below? | |
1 | ○○○○○Assemble a chest of drawers |
2 | ○○○○○Drive an ambulance |
3 | ○○○○○Help develop a cure for breast cancer |
4 | ○○○○○Analyse the elements hydrogen and radium |
5 | ○○○○○Design a new range of wrist accessories |
6 | ○○○○○Design clothes for brides and bridegrooms |
7 | ○○○○○Teach children geometry |
8 | ○○○○○Help and advise people in serious debt |
9 | ○○○○○Manage a hair and nail shop |
10 | ○○○○○Provide investment advice |
11 | ○○○○○Check and edit education materials |
12 | ○○○○○Categorise employee profiles |
One popular test asks the participants to grade their preferences for a variety of work tasks. Their answers are then analysed and divided up between six different types of work personalities.The participant is then given a chart showing their score for each type of work personality. The top three scores are used to make a code that indicates the participant’s overall work personality. This code is then used to generate a list of career suggestions.
The career suggestions are also based on your education and experience level, but you can look at higherlevel careers as well, which is very useful for high school students. For example，you could look at the basic careers to see what work you might like now，and then look at the more advanced careers so you know what you may like to aim for in the future. This is a great tool to help plan your career and let you know what targets you need to reach to get there.
In conclusion, career aptitude tests are clearly a very useful tool. However, it is important to remember that they are only meant for guidance.The secret to a good career is finding something that you are passionate about. So try a few tests online and start thinking about your future career right now!
1. What’s the main idea of this text?| A．The answer to the question what you do. |
| B．Career aptitude tests, a useful tool for career suggestions. |
| C．An example of career aptitude tests. |
| D．The best time to start considering possible careers. |
| A. Conclusion B. Problem C. Solution |
Part 2(Paras.3－6)
Part 3(Para.7)
3. Why are you asked a question about your work by a new person?
| A．Because it is a very important question. |
| B．Because he wants to do the same work as yours. |
| C．Because your job is part of your life. |
| D．Because he is interested in your work. |
| A．After you graduate from the college. |
| B．When you are married. |
| C．When you are a college student. |
| D．When you are at school. |
| A．The questions are about your personal interests and attitudes. |
| B．They focus on your work scenarios. |
| C．They will ask questions about being a librarian or a lawyer. |
| D．You are supposed to be honest about your answers. |
| A．College graduates. |
| B．Job hunters. |
| C．Students with excellent grades. |
| D．High school students. |
It is common that an adult
One of the most
In
(1)The career you have defines your life，and so taking time to think about it is an essential exercise for young people.
(2)You don’t want to look back in years to come and say，“I wish I had thought more about what I really wanted to do.”
(3)The secret to a good career is finding something that you are passionate about.
【推荐3】It’s possible that interstellar space explorers could come across problems communicating with previous and subsequent arrivals, as their spoken language has changed in isolation along the way.
Regarding the issue, two American scholars, Andrew McKenzie and Jeffrey Punske, co-authored the article “Language Development During Interstellar Travel”. What has been discussed in the article is the concept of language change over time. They wrote that given more time, new grammatical forms can completely replace current ones.
What is the text mainly about?
| A．Why space travelers change their language. |
| B．How language is changed in the future time. |
| C．The language issue during interstellar travel. |
| D．New concepts of language created in a spaceship. |
【推荐1】“Your password has expired,” a message said on my screen, with instructions for changing it. Coming up with a new code doesn’t seem like a big deal, unless you work at my company, where we have to change it monthly, using at least one uppercase character, one lowercase character, one symbol, and one number. Oh, the whole password can’t be fewer than eight characters. And I can’t use any of the same passwords I’ve used in the past three months.
What does the word “expired” underlined in the 1st paragraph refer to?
| A．been renewed | B．changed | C．been mistaken | D．become due |
【推荐2】When the explorers first set foot upon the continent of North America, the skies and lands were alive with an astonishing variety of wildlife. Native Americans had taken care of these precious natural resources wisely. Unfortunately, it took the explorers and the settlers who followed only a few decades to decimate a large part of these resources. Millions of waterfowl ( 水 禽 ) were killed at the hands of market hunters and a handful of overly ambitious sportsmen. Millions of acres of wetlands were dried to feed and house the ever-increasing populations, greatly reducing waterfowl habitat.
What does the underlined word “decimate” mean in the first paragraph?
| A．Acquire. | B．Export. |
| C．Destroy. | D．Distribute. |
【推荐3】When Hal Donaldson was 23, fresh out of college and found himself in India, where he was writing a book for a couple feeding hungry children. He was told that there was someone he had to interview. It was Mother Teresa. After their interview, Mother Teresa had a question for him, “What are you doing to help the poor?” He told her the truth that he wasn’t focused on helping others. With a smile on her face, Mother Teresa said, “Everyone can do something.”
Donaldson returned home from India with a changed perspective. He knew he needed to do something to help others. He packed up his car and hit the road. He travelled to eight cities in America and stayed on the streets for three nights in each of them. He spent that time talking with the people he came across and he listened to their stories. “My heart broke,” he says. “I knew I could no longer just live for myself.”
What does the underlined phrase “a changed perspective” in paragraph 2 refer to?
| A．His attitude towards helping people. |
| B．His courage to create an organization. |
| C．His desire to live a healthy life. |
| D．His doubt about his action. |
