【推荐1】In recent years, the food industry has increased its use of labels. Whether the labels say “non-GMO(非转基因的)” or “no sugar”, or “zero carbohydrates”, consumers are increasingly demanding more information about what’s in their food. One report found that 39 percent of consumers would switch from the brands they currently buy to others that provide clearer, more accurate product information.     1    . And they’re doing so with an eye towards giving their products an advantage over the competition, and bolstering profits.

This strategy makes intuitive sense. If consumers say they want transparency, tell them exactly what is in your product. That is simply supplying a certain demand.     2    . These labels are known as “absence claims” labels, and they represent an emerging labeling trend that is detrimental both to the consumers who purchase the products and the industry that supplies them.

For example, Hunt’s put a “non-GMO” label on its canned crushed tomatoes a few years ago—despite the fact that at the time there was no such thing as a GMO tomato on the market.     3    .

While creating labels that play on consumer fears and misconceptions about their food may give a company a temporary marketing advantage over competing products on the grocery aisle, in the long term this strategy will have just the opposite effect: by injecting fear into the discourse about our food, we run the risk of eroding consumer trust in not just a single product, but the entire food business.

Eventually, it becomes a question in consumers’ minds: Were these foods ever safe? By purchasing and consuming these types of products, have I already done some kind of harm to my family or the planet?

    4    . And this isn’t just supposition. A recent study found that absence claims labels can create a stigma around foods even when there is no scientific evidence that they cause harm.

It’s clear that food manufacturers must tread carefully when it comes to using absence claims. In addition to the likely negative long-term impact on sales, this verbal trick sends a message that innovations in farming and food processing are unwelcome, eventually leading to less efficiency, fewer choices for consumers, and ultimately, more costly food products. If we allow this kind of labeling to continue, we will all lose.

A．Some dairy companies are using the “non-GMO” label on their milk, despite the fact that all milk is naturally GMO-free, another label that creates unnecessary fear around food.

B．Food manufacturers are responding to the report with new labels to meet that demand.

C．Despite negative myths, there are many reasons why GMOs are good for the environment.

D．But the marketing strategy in response to this consumer demand has gone beyond articulating what is in a product, to labeling what is NOT in the food.

E．He said that GMO development is a process that relies on age-old knowledge strengthened by new knowledge.

F．For food manufacturers, it will mean damaged consumer trust and lower sales for everyone.

【推荐3】For some climate challenges, there are relatively straightforward fixes. For example, renewable energy sources can already replace much of the energy needed to power buildings, cars and more.

There’s no substitute for food, but shifting what we eat is possible. If everyone on the planet ate vegetables, greenhouse gas emissions from the food system could be cut by more than half; a planet of vegetarians would reduce food emissions by two thirds. If we stopped consuming conventional food and relied on a lab-grown nutritional food instead of soil or water-produced food, we could prevent about 1 degree centigrade of future warming, according to a recent paper that considered the unique thought experiment.

“What this work says is: Hey, look, we can still get pretty big wins even if we’re not making these really big changes in dietary composition,” says Clark. “I think that’s really powerful, because a lot of people just don’t want to make those really big dietary changes, for many reasons. While vegetarian diets are becoming more common in America and some European countries, it’s absolutely ridiculous to assume that everyone will be eating a vegetarian diet 30 years from now,” he says.

Food choices are personal, deeply connected to cultural, religious, emotional, economic concerns and so much more. “Rather than dictate how to do it, it’s much better to try to give choices,” says Naglaa, a food, nutrition and environment researcher at Tufts University. This approach aims to inform people so that they can make choices that correspond with their needs and values instead of waiting for the authority’s rules and orders. As a whole, those choices can benefit both human health and the planet. For that to happen, it is necessary to work alongside large-scale efforts to reshape industrial food production.

“But what people choose to eat daily is far from insignificant,” says Clark. “We don’t all have to become vegetarians overnight. Small changes can make a big difference.”

1. How does the author show the effects of dietary changes in paragraph 2?

A．By analyzing the reasons.	B．By using a quotation.
C．By answering questions.	D．By listing data.

2. What is Clark’s attitude towards small dietary changes?

A．Indifferent.

B．Skeptical.

C．Favorable.

D．Negative.

3. What does the underlined word “dictate” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Command.

B．Persuade.

C．Perceive.

D．Describe.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．How small changes to our diets can benefit the planet

B．Small changes in life choices can make a big difference

C．Why renewable energy sources can reduce gas emissions

D．Lab-grown nutritional food could prevent future warming

【推荐1】阅读下面短文，根据题目要求用英语回答问题。请在答题卡指定区域作答。

Many scientists believe our love of sugar may actually be an addiction. When we eat or drink sugary foods, the sugar enters our blood and affects parts of our brain that make us feel good. Then the good feeling goes away, leaving us wanting more. All tasty foods do this, but sugar has a particularly strong effect. In this way, it is in fact an addictive drug, one that doctors suggest we all cut down on.

“It seems like every time I study an illness and search for the first cause, I find my way back to sugar,” says scientist Richard Johnson. One-third of adults worldwide have high blood pressure, and up to 347 million have diabetes (糖尿病). Why? “Sugar, we believe is one of the culprits, if not the major reason,” says Johnson.

Our bodies are designed to survive on very little sugar. Early humans often had very little food, so our bodies learned to be very efficient in storing sugar as fat. In this way, we had energy stored for when there was no food. But today, most people have more than enough. So the very thing that once saved us may now be killing us.

So what is the solution? It’s obvious that we need to eat less sugar. The trouble is, in today’s world, it’s extremely difficult to avoid. From breakfast cereals (谷物) to after-dinner desserts, our foods are increasingly filled with it.

But there are those who are fighting back against sugar. Many schools are replacing sugary desserts with healthier food like fruit. Other schools are growing their own food in gardens, or building facilities (设施) like walking tracks so students and others in the community can exercise.

1. What is one of the reasons for high blood pressure?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Why did our bodies learn to store sugar as fat?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
—The sugar enters our blood and affects parts of our brain that make us feel good, so we should eat more in daily life.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
4. In your daily life, how do you fight against sugar? (In about 40 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

【推荐2】Most people would like to keep a healthy diet during the holiday season. There are many social events to celebrate—we love to look our best when we’re there, and we don’t always look our best with bloated(肿胀的) stomachs and pained expressions on our face after having too many cookies, candies and pies. We also need healthy food to provide us with the energy necessary to go to all of these parties with a big smile on our face, gift in hand, and enthusiastic attitude in heart. Starting the New Year with some healthy habits in place, rather than a long list of things to change, can also add momentum (动力) towards reaching other goals. The unfortunate reality is that many of us have a hard time with healthy eating during the holidays.

The holiday season is when we bring out candies, cookies, and all the other party foods! It’s easy to eat too much of the wrong thing. It’s also the time of year when people cook really delicious food in abundance: turkeys, roasts, hams and other great foods are the centerpieces of feasts that tempt(引诱)us to eat more than we need. The holiday season is also a busy and stressful time of year. We’re rushing too much, spending too much, and letting perfectionism and stress take hold of us all too often. This can lead to emotional eating.

People who are celebrating often consume more than they would in their regular lives. When celebrating the holidays, there are several occasions where people might relax their dietary standards a little, in the name of celebration. These celebrations, however, can be rather plentiful during the holiday season, and the indulgence(放纵) can add up.

Fortunately for all of us, there are some pretty effective ways to deal with holiday eating problems, and they’re mostly under your control. For instance, adding certain spices (香料) to your foods can not only make them more flavorful which can lead you to feeling more satisfied as you eat, but these spices can bring added health benefits as well. Additionally, try mindful eating, a healthy eating strategy that has been gaining popularity lately. By eating mindfully, you can eat less and enjoy your food more, relieving stress in the process. It’s win-win-win!

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. If you plan ahead, you can head off temptation for unhealthy holiday eating. For example. If you’re going to a party or an event where you know you’ll be tempted, eat some healthy food first so you won’t show up starving. Learn your triggers(诱因), and have strategies for combating them.

Holiday eating
1    of healthy holiday eating	·It can let us enjoy various celebrations in a good    2    state. ·It can make us    3    enough to join in various parties. ·It also can increase the possibility of achieving our other goals.
4    of holiday eating	·The easy     5     to abundant and amazing food during the holiday makes us eat more unconsciously. ·Holiday    6     results in us eating more emotionally. ·The holiday season provides us with more convenient     7     to eat more.
Hope for holiday eating	·Make your foods a little spicy in order to eat contentedly and     8     ·Try mindful eating to eat less and relieve stress without decreasing the     9     of eating. ·Avoid the temptation to eat unhealthy food by eating something healthy in     10    .

【推荐3】Over the past few months, people in the United States have been watching some unusual television advertisements (广告). They are unusual because they advertise a product that no American uses now or is likely to use in the future.

The advertisements show that a product called golden rice will help prevent blindness in millions of children.

None of these children live in the United States. They live in countries where white rice forms the main part of the diet. Too much white rice without other food causes lack of vitamin A. This can lead to blindness.

Golden rice has been developed to solve this problem through genetic (基因的) engineering. As well as TV advertisements, most news media carried stories on this great scientific development that would help some of the poorest children in the world.

It could also save the science of genetic engineering. People in Europe and America have learned more about genetically modified (转基因的) food over the past few years. And the more they learn, the less they like what they hear. People like science. And people like to eat food. But they would like the two things kept separate.

The truth is that a child would have to eat 9 kilograms of golden rice every day to get enough vitamin A. And Gordon Conway of the Rockefeller Foundation, which helped the development of golden rice, says that the advertisements have gone too far.

Perhaps the main purpose of golden rice is to get people to accept genetically modified food. The TV advertisements sent a very clear message—if you don’t accept this technology then poor children will go blind. It cost US $50 million to get that message across. That would buy a lot of food for poor children.

What do the people who are said to benefit from golden rice think of being part of this great scientific and social argument? Nobody knows. Nobody has asked them.

1. Why do you think children in the USA need no golden rice?

A．They do more bad than good to children.	B．It is genetically modified food.
C．They don’t treat it as staple food.	D．There isn’t enough vitamin A in it.

2. What is the main reason why golden rice is advertised in the USA?

A．Golden rice will prevent blindness in children.

B．People have not accepted genetically modified food.

C．People know little about genetically modified food.

D．Golden rice is the first genetically modified food.

3. According to the text, what kind of food do people in Europe and America like best?

A．Food that is rich in vitamin A.

B．Food produced with no help from science.

C．Food produced in the third countries.

D．Food produced through genetic engineering.

4. What is the author’s opinion of the TV advertisements?

A．They are not that useful.	B．They need improvement.
C．They are unbelievably practical.	D．They are put in a wrong place.

【推荐2】As warming continues, scientists warn the oxygen content of oceans across the planet could be more and more reduced, with serious consequences for the future of fish and other sea life.

    1    One is the simple fact that as water gets warmer, it can hold less dissolved (溶解的) oxygen. The other reason is less obvious. The entire ocean gets its oxygen from the surface — either from the atmosphere, or from photosynthesizing algae floating at the top of the sea.     2    

Global warming is expected to reduce the mixing of the ocean by making surface seawater lighter. That’s because in a warmer world we can expect more rainfall and more melting (融化) of glaciers, icebergs, and ice sheets.     3    The extra heat from the warming atmosphere will also make surface water expand and thus make it lighter still.     4    Instead, more of the oxygen will remain near the surface, where it will be used up by oxygen-breathing organisms.

A low-oxygen ocean may become an inescapable feature of our planet. A team of Danish researchers wondered how long oxygen levels would drop if we could somehow reduce our carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2100. They determined that over the next few thousand years oxygen levels would continue to fall, until they declined by 30 percent. The oxygen would slowly return to the oceans, but even 100,000 years from now they will not have fully recovered.     5    

A．It’s not known why the oxygen level of oceans has reduced.

B．Scientists point to two reasons to expect a drop in ocean oxygen.

C．Fresh water’s inpouring will make the water at the ocean’s surface lighter.

D．The oxygen then spreads to the deep ocean as the surface water slowly sinks.

E．Global warming has caused the reduction of the oxygen content of oceans worldwide.

F．The light surface water will be less likely to sink so the deep ocean will get less oxygen.

G．If they are right, we have every reason to worry about the major effect it has on sea life.

【推荐3】In recent years, the leaders and islanders of many small-island nations have warned that climate change is an existential threat to their homelands, fearing they could disappear under rising seas as the planet warms. But according to the latest research, small, low-lying islands dotted around the Pacific and the Caribbean—often seen as the places most vulnerable to global warming—can naturally adapt and raise themselves above disturbing waves.

A three-year study led by Britain’s University of Plymouth, which looked at coral reef islands such as the Maldives, found that tides move sediment (沉积物) to create higher altitude, a process that may keep islands habitable. These islands were formed hundreds of thousands of years ago by waves moving and piling up reef material or sediment to create higher ground—a natural defence mechanism that continues.

Low-lying island states are judged to be at greatest risk from increasingly powerful storms and rising oceans, with some making preparations to resettle their people within decades. Many are already building sea walls, appealing for international aid or setting up projects to repair damage caused by climate change impacts. The world’s tens of thousands of coral reef islands are mostly uninhabited, but are home to about one million people who largely rely on fishing or tourism for a living.

Scientists built a model coral reef and island in a laboratory tank with rising water levels and used computer models to reproduce how such islands respond to higher seas in reality. The results suggest that by choosing climate-adaptable infrastructure (基础设施) that allows for occasional flooding, like building on stilts (桩子) and movable houses, islanders with enough space could adapt to their shifting environment. Sea walls, however, are compromising the natural ability of the islands to adjust to rising sea levels. “If you stop the flooding of the islands, you also stop the movement of the sediment on top of the island,” said lead author Gred Masselink, professor of coastal geography at the University of Plymouth.

1. What does the underlined word “vulnerable” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．Unnoticeable.	B．Beneficial.
C．Significant.	D．Sensitive.

2. What do we learn from the three-year study?

A．Piling-up sediment creates a natural defence for small islands.

B．Disturbing waves keep the islands unlivable.

C．A computer model is used to provide more space for islanders.

D．Sea walls prevent the disappearance of small islands.

3. Which word best describes low-lying island states’ attitude to rising seas?

A．Casual.	B．Joyful.
C．Unconcerned.	D．Defensive.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Small Islands May Not Disappear Under Rising Sea.

B．Climate Change Poses Threats to Small Islands.

C．The Climate-adaptable Infrastructures of Small Islands.

D．The Perfect Solution to Rising Seas for Small Islands.