【推荐1】Lithium (锂) is called “white gold” for good reason. The metal’s value has been growing sharply over the last several years, in a large part because it is an essential part of batteries as well as several key sustainable technologies where energy storage is of huge significance. As electric cars, wind and solar power have grown into major players in the energy industry, lithium has become key to engineering a future free of fossil (化石) fuels.

But acquiring lithium comes at an enormous cost. It often works like this: Water containing lithium is delivered to the surface from underground and mixed with fresh water. The mixture then sits in pools to get rid of water, leaving the rest of its contents behind as brightly colored “mud”. Then heat and chemical reactions are used to get lithium from that, changing it into powder which is then packaged and shipped to buyers around the world.

Any accident that releases mine contents into surrounding communities or the groundwater supply could have unimaginable long-term impacts. To be specific, indigenous (土著的) communities often bear the damage, and political leaders have typically given little weight to their concerns. In Arizona, for example, an expanding lithium mine is threatening the Hualapai Tribe’s cultural and historic sites. Recently, mining lithium and other precious metals has brought about conflict: How do you ensure the availability of materials essential to the future of renewables while protecting those communities’ rights?

Mining of the metal is expected to increase dramatically in coming years. Over time, experts say, that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions (排放) by making electric cars more affordable and, therefore, more popular. As environmentally conscious consumers buy electric cars in ever-greater numbers, it’s important to be aware of the dirty process that powers those clean air vehicles.

1. What does the author’s intention of writing Paragraph 1?

A．To introduce the background of an event.	B．To explain a complex industrial theory.
C．To describe a noticeable recent tendency.	D．To predict the future of a main technology.

2. Which may cause enormous environmental damage?

A．Unexpected material leak.	B．Violent chemical reactions.
C．Wrong political decisions.	D．Lithium mine expansion.

3. What’s the author’s attitude towards mining lithium?

A．Intolerant.

B．Uncaring.

C．Favorable.

D．Objective.

4. What’s the most suitable title for the text?

A．High Expense of Lithium Mining	B．Potential Benefit of Using Lithium
C．Hidden Threat behind Clean Energy	D．Bright Future of Renewable Resources

【推荐2】One of the problems damaging our planet is the number of things we throw away. A more recent addition to the list of things we throw away is e-waste —   electronic items that are broken and not recycled.     1    , but also because we lack the skills to repair them even if we know their value. Many millions of tons of televisions, phones, and other electronic equipment are abandoned each year. A UN report claims the 50 million tons of e-waste generated every year will more than double to 110 million tons by 2050, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world.     2    .

Recently, there’s a growing trend for repair events and clubs which could be part of a solution to the growing amount of electrical and electronic junk. The BBC visited a Restart Project in London, which is one of many found around the world. One of its operators, Francesco Calo, said that “This project makes total sense.     3    . Besides, it helps people who cannot afford to get rid of items that have developed a fault.”

    4    . An experiment at the University of New South Wales involves extracting (提取) these materials from electronic gadgets (小工具). Apart from just being recycled, the European Union, for example, is trying to encourage manufacturers to reuse some extracted electronic components.     5    . With phones typically containing as many as 60 elements, this could be part of the solution to our appetite for new technology.

A．First of all, this project prolongs the life of electric objects

B．It is partly because it’s cheaper to replace them than fix them

C．It is reported that many people have made a big fortune from it

D．Now solutions have been put forward to give this e-waste a new life

E．So it’s thought that doing this could be more profitable than traditional recycling

F．As many electrical items contain valuable metals, another solution is e-waste mining

G．One of the reasons is that people don’t think their electronic items are fashionable enough

【推荐3】The tons of plastic we’re dumping in the oceans is finding a new home—the stomachs of our beautiful marine animals. Yet another reminder of this fact washed ashore in Eastern Indonesia this week. A large amount of waste, including drinking cups and flip-flops, was found in the stomach of a whale that died off the coast near Kapota Island.

The 9.5-metre sperm whale (抹香鲸) was found by rescuers from the Wakatobi National Park. The whale had swallowed 5.9 kilograms of plastic waste containing 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, and more than 1,000 other kinds of pieces of plastic, park chief Heri Santoso told the reporter.

“Although we have not been able to   deduce the cause of death, the facts that we see are truly awful,” said Dwi Suprapti, a marine species conservation co-ordinator at WWF Indonesia. She said it was not possible to determine if the plastic had caused the whale’s death because of the animal’s advanced state of decay (腐烂). But this is only the latest.

Four Asian nations—Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand—account for 50% of the plastic waste in the oceans, according to a report by environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment. The Philippines is second to Indonesia when it comes to putting away plastic waste in the oceans, according to a study published in the journal Science in January. Of the 3.2 million mismanaged waste it produces every year, 1.29 million ends up in the ocean.

A report released earlier this year stated that the amount of plastic in the ocean is likely to increase.

1. What can we know about the sperm whale?

A．Its stomach is the home of plastic waste.

B．It died of swallowing lots of plastic waste.

C．It was the first whale to eat plastic waste.

D．It had eaten much plastic waste before its death.

2. Which can best replace the underlined word “deduce” in paragraph 3?

A．confirm	B．cause
C．approve	D．contain

3. Which country dumps the most plastic waste into the oceans?

A．Thailand	B．Indonesia
C．Vietnam	D．Philippines

4. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．Philippines puts away 1.29 million tons of plastic.

B．A sperm whale was found dead near Kapota Island.

C．Much dumped plastic waste was found in a dead whale.

D．We should take measures to reduce the waste in whales.

【推荐1】China dropped is decades-long, one-child policy several years ago to allow each family to have two children.This change has put 270 million married women of childbearing age in the position of choosing between family and work.The employers also face big challenges as more female workers will have two maternity leaves（产假）for a total of seven to eight months.

In a survey published by classified advertising website Ganji.com，career women who might be considering having a second child were asked what kinds of pressure they might expect.More than 76 percent of the women who were questioned mentioned concerns about the financial burden of raising two children, while more than 71 percent said it would be difficult to balance career and family. In addition, nearly 56 percent said that having a second child would definitely have a negative effect on their career.

Another survey conducted by Chongging-based human resources website job. cg. qq. com found that over 70 percent of job seekers believe that having a second child would make females less popular in the job market, although two-thirds of the employers said the policy will make no difference in their employment of staff.

Feng Lijuan,a senior expert on human resources at 51 job. com, a leading Chinese job finding platform, said she would not say “there is prejudice against career women.” Feng said Chinese women shoulder more family responsibility. “It is not only about maternity leave; a female employee might only fully get back to work after three to five years after having her first child.”

Wang Yixin,a senior employment adviser, said the positive side is that more companies are trying to attract more talents by providing support to career women. “Different from before, it is not only employers choosing employees. Many talents, including professional career women, also chose employers.” said Wang. “According to our survey, many large companies are very open to their employees' choice of having a second child.”

1. According to the second survey, having a second child would          .

A．have no effect on career women

B．have a negative effect on career women

C．have a positive effect on career women

D．have both positive and negative effects on career women

2. According the first survey，what are women concerned about when having two children?
①Financial burden of raising two children
②Fewer opportunities to get a pay rise
③Negative effects on their career
④Difficulty in balancing career and family

A．①②③

B．②③④

C．①③④

D．①②④

3. Women employees take longer time to concentrate on work after childbirth because          ..

A．there is more prejudice against career women

B．they shoulder more family responsibility

C．they have longer maternity leaves to enjoy

D．having a second child makes them less popular

4. Which is the best title for the passage?

A．Effects of Two-child Policy on Women

B．Disadvantages of Raising Two Children

C．Responsibilities of Career Women

D．Different attitudes of Employers to Women

【推荐2】When I travel the country speaking to high school and college students about exactly what they need to do to become financially successful in life, I always begin my presentation by asking three questions:

“How many want to be financially successful in life?”

“How many think they will be financially successful in life?”

Almost every time I ask the first two questions every hand rises in the air. Then I ask the magic third question:

“How many have taken a course in school on how to be financially successful in life?”

Not one hand rises in the air, ever. Clearly every student wants to be successful and thinks they will be successful but none have been taught by their parents or their school system how to be financially successful in life. Not only are there no courses on basic financial success principles but there are no structured courses teaching basic financial literacy. We are raising our children to be financially illiterate and to fail in life. Is it any wonder that most Americans live paycheck to paycheck? That most Americans accumulate more debt than assets? That many Americans lose their homes when they lose their job? Is it any wonder that most Americans cannot afford college for their children and that student loan debt is now the largest type of consumer debt?

What's worse is what our children are being taught by their parents, the school system, politicians and the media. They are teaching our children that the wealthy are corrupt, greedy, have too much wealth and that this wealth needs to be redistributed. What kind of a message do you think that sends to America's future generation? It is teaching them that seeking financial success by pursuing the American Dreams is a bad thing.

The statistics from my five-year study on the daily habits that separate the wealthy from the poor illustrate the fact that the poor are poor because they have too many Poverty Habits and too few Rich Habits. Poor parents teach their children the Poverty Habits and wealthy parents teach their children the Rich Habits. We don't have a wealth gap in this country, we have a parent gap. We don't have income inequality, we have parent inequality.

Parents and our schools need to work together to instill good daily success habits as follows:

•Limit T. V., social media and cell phone use to no more than one hour a day.

• Require that children read one to two educational books a month.

• Require that children set monthly, annual and 5-year goals.

• Require that children save at least 25% of their earnings or gifts they receive.

• Teach children the importance of relationship building by requiring them to call friends, family, teachers, coaches etc. on their birthdays and to send thank you cards for gifts or help they received from anyone.

• Reassure children that mistakes are good not bad.

• Children need to learn how to manage money.

• Teach children how to manage their time.

1. What's the writer's purpose of raising the three questions at the beginning of the presentation?

A．To show children's ambition to lead a successful life.

B．To attach importance to financial success.

C．To blame parents, teachers, and the media for the lack of courses about money management.

D．To emphasize the association between financial success and financial literacy.

2. What does the underlined word “accumulate” mean in the context?

A．Get used to.

B．Increase.

C．Pay back.

D．Borrow.

3. Which of the following belongs to the good daily habits mentioned in the passage?

A．Parents open up a checking account or savings account for children and force them to use their savings to buy the things they want.

B．Children understand that the very foundation of success in life is built on learning from parents' mistakes.

C．Children spend no more than 1 hour per day on Internet use.

D．Children are required to create daily “to do” lists and these lists are monitored by parents.

【推荐3】The British economy is showing the greatest signs of stress since the Eurozone crisis and fears of a double-dip recession（衰退）six years ago, as worrying reports show the steepest fall in manufacturing（制造业）output and the greatest degrees of pessimism among employers since 2012. Concerns over Brexit（英国脱欧）and a slowdown for high street spending are among the major factors contributing towards 2018 being the worst time in six years for British firms planning to take on new staff, according to a closely watched survey conducted by the employment firm ManpowerGroup.

Watched by the Bank of England and the government for early warnings of hiring increases or downturns, the quarterly poll（季度民意调查）of about 2,000 major employers from nine different industry sectors across the UK found a net balance of only 4% planning to hire more staff rather than cutting back.

The weakest outlook from the survey was reserved for the banking and finance industry, which recorded the worst outlook since the depths of the financial crisis almost a decade ago, suggesting job cuts may be on the way over the summer.

The barometer（晴雨表）of hiring sentiment comes as Britain’s factories unexpectedly recorded the sharpest drop in output for more than five years in April. Pointing to fewer orders for steel used in infrastructure（基础设施）projects and a wider slowdown in demand for British goods at home and abroad, the Office for National Statistics said manufacturing output fell by 1.4% in April from the previous month. Economists had forecast modest growth of 0.3%.

Although the situation does not appear to be as severe this year, forecasts issued by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research on Monday suggest the UK has done little to bounce back from heavy snowfall earlier in 2018. Putting the growth rate for GDP at only 0.2% in the three-month period to May, up from 0.1% in the same period ending in April, Niesr’s head of UK macroeconomic forecasting, Amit Kara, said: “Economic growth has slowed materially since the start of this year and it continues to remain weak.”

1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．The British economy is booming now.

B．The British economy is going through a great depression.

C．People are not concerned about Brexit at all.

D．British firms are planning to take on new stuff.

2. Which of the following best explains the underlined word in paragraph 2?

A．development	B．demand
C．distribute	D．decline

3. What indicates that the hiring sentiment has come?

A．The recession in banking and finance industry.

B．The sharpest drop in output recorded by Britain’s factories.

C．GDP increasing at a rather low rate.

D．The surplus of British goods at home and abroad.

4. What is the Amit Kara’s attitude toward the current economic situation?

A．pessimistic	B．optimistic
C．indifferent	D．hopeful