【推荐1】Easy to make and cheap to buy, instant noodles have long been China’s, ultimate convenience food.

Since it was a snack for students, a meal on the train, or just the go-to choice for hungry workers, more than 46.2 billion packets were sold in China in 2013. But it seems this industry has gone off the boil. By 2016 those sales had declined to 38.5 billion, according to the World Instant Noodle Association, a drop of almost 17%.

“This phenomenon shows an unnoticeable while continuous change in China’s consumption (消费) patterns,” said Zhao Ping of the Academy of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. He told the China Daily, “Consumers are more interested in life quality than just filling their bellies these days.”

About 730 million people in China now have access to the Internet according to government figures. And about 95% of those are using smart phones to connect. And apps that offer food delivery to your home, office or wherever you happen to be are a real fast-developing industry.

Their menus are undoubtedly more expensive than a pot of instant noodles. But these meals can still be inexpensive, and arguably more tasty, depending on your favor.

But put in the global background, China is still easily the biggest market for instant noodles. In fact, China’s consumption was roughly equal to Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, India, the US, South Korea and the Philippines combined.

And that means global noodle manufacturers are unlikely to turn away from the Chinese market. Japan’s instant noodle business Nissin Foods, for example, is planning to land on the stock market, in Hong Kong, by which operation it hopes to raise about 145 million dollars. It is rare for a Japanese firm to list in Hong Kong, but Nissin is talking up its prospects in China, where it is already the fifth biggest brand.

“Some consumers stopped consuming instant noodles, but most consumers want to increase the quality (of food they consume),” chief executive Kiyotaka Ando told CNBC last week.

“We can supply high-quality products so we have more possibility to develop our business.”

1. The phrase “go off the boil” in Paragraph 2 is close in meaning to ________.

A．stop boiling	B．turn down
C．develop rapidly	D．get out of control

2. According to the text, it is because of ________ that people have more food choices.

A．development of food manufacturing industry

B．fall of price in foods beyond instant noodles

C．technological development on communication

D．people’s doubt on instant noodles’ food safety

3. Which of the following descriptions is TRUE according to the text?

A．China consumes more instant noodle than any other country does.

B．China is beginning to lose its first place in instant noodle business.

C．Nissin is the fifth biggest brand of Japan’s instant noodle business.

D．Nissin is planning to build an instant noodle factory in Hong Kong.

4. We can infer from the text that ________.

A．China’s instant noodle consumption will continue to drop

B．Chinese people will favor cheaper instant noodles to save money

C．instant noodles will have a pessimistic prospect in the future

D．instant noodle manufacturers will focus more on its food quality

【推荐2】Educating girls quite possibly outputs a higher rate of return than any other investment (投资) available in the developing world. Women’s education may be an unusual field for economists, but raising women’s contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social problem. And economics, with its emphasis on motivation, provides an explanation for why so many girls can’t receive education.
Parents in low-income countries fail to invest in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else’s family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and are kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school—________________, trapping women in a vicious circle (恶性循环) of neglect.
An educated mother, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of her daughters then makes it much more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy. The vicious circle is thus transformed into a good circle.
Few will disagree with it that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantages as well. Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 per cent for each additional year of schooling. Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the beginning. Educating women also has a significant influence on health practices, including family planning.
1. The author argues that educating girls in developing countries is ________.

A．troublesome	B．rewarding
C．labor-saving	D．expensive

2. What does the underlined part probably mean?

A．Girls will turn out to be less valuable than boys.

B．Girls will be capable of realizing their own dreams.

C．Girls will eventually find their goals in life beyond reach.

D．Girls will be increasingly discontented with their life at home.

3. The author believes that a vicious circle can turn into a good one when ________.

A．women care more about education

B．girls can gain equal access to education

C．a family has fewer but healthier children

D．parents can afford their daughters’ education

4. The passage mainly discusses ________.

A．unequal treatment of boys and girls in developing countries

B．the potential earning power of well-educated women

C．the major contributions of educated women to society

D．the economic and social benefits of educating women

【推荐3】Can food be free, fresh and easily accessible? That’s the bold (大胆) question that the city of Seattle is hoping to answer with a new experimental farm not far from the city’s downtown area that will have fruits and vegetables for anyone to harvest this fall.
On Beacon Hill, just south of central Seattle, landscape developers and a few affordable-food advocates are building an eatable food forest. Everything grown in the area will be eatable. And it’ll be open around the clock to anyone who wants to come and pick some fresh blueberries or pears.
Organizers shared with National Geographic a list of the crop offerings. Many are expected: apples, berries and tomatoes. But others are pretty far-out. A large Asian community in the area suggested things like Asian pears and honeyberries. A European influence led to the planting of medlar trees.
The concept is modeled on permaculture, a design system and school of thought emphasizing the use of renewable nature resources and the enrichment of local ecosystems. Offering people free, fresh food is one motivation, but making the land useful and ecologically enriched is the larger goal.
That being said, some potential problems come to mind. What if all of one fruit is gone the first weekend when it’s ripe? What if people pick things too early and spoil the potential for everyone?
Organizers aren’t concerned about those questions. “We’ve had many discussions about what would happen if someone comes and picks all the blueberries,” says Margarett Harrison, the landscape architect designing the project.” But that’s been considered as a good thing. We’ll just plant more.”
Anything related to agriculture and good food — in large quantities — takes time. Most of the trees won’t be mature enough for a few more years. But a few decades could make the area impressively productive.
Idealistic? Perhaps. But it’s the kind of idealism that anyone who likes to eat fresh things from time to time can get behind. And that’s the type of motivation that organizers hope will keep going.
1. Paragraph 3 is mainly about _______.

A．the crops that will be harvested this fall

B．people’s attitude towards the project

C．which communities live in the area

D．how the food selection was made

2. What’s Margarett Hrrison’s attitude towards the potential problems the forest may face?

A．Concerned.	B．Cautious.
C．Optimistic.	D．Uninterested

3. The text is mainly about ______.

A．Seattle’s free food experiment

B．what the future of forests will be

C．agricultural development in Seattle

D．how to keep in harmony with nature