Each year, backed up by a growing anti-consumerist movement, people are using the holiday season to call on us all to shop less.
Driven by concerns about resource exhaustion, over recent years environmentalists have increasingly turned their sights on our “consumer culture”. Groups such as The Story of Stuff and Buy Nothing New Day are growing as a movement that increasingly blames all our ills on our desire to shop.
We clearly have a growing resource problem. The produces we make, buy, and use are often linked to the destruction of our waterways, biodiversity, climate and the land on which millions of people live. But to blame these issues on Christmas shoppers is misguided, and puts us in the old trap of blaming individuals for what is a systematic problem.
While we complain about environmental destruction over Christmas, environmentalists often forget what the holiday season actually means for many people. For most, Christmas isn’t an add-on to an already heavy shopping year. In fact, it is likely the only time of year many have the opportunity to spend on friends and family, or even just to buy the necessities needed for modern life.
This is particularly, true for Boxing Day, often the target of the strongest derision(嘲弄) by anti-consumerists. While we may laugh at the queues in front of the shops, for many, those sales provide the one chance to buy items they’ve needed all year. As Leigh Phillips argues, “this is one of the few times of the year that people can even hope to afford such ‘luxuries’, the Christmas presents their kids are asking for, or just an appliance that works.”
Indeed, the richest 7% of people are responsible for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. This becomes particularly harmful when you take into account that those shopping on Boxing Day are only a small part of our consumption “problem” anyway. Why are environmentalists attacking these individuals, while ignoring such people as Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has his own￡1.5bn yacht with a missile defence system?
Anyway, anti-consumerism has become a movement of wealthy people talking down to the working class about their life choices, while ignoring the real cause of our environmental problems. It is no wonder one is changing their behaviours—or that environmental destruction continues without any reduction in intensity.
1. It is indicated in the 1st paragraph that during the holiday season, many consumers .| A．ignore resource problems |
| B．are fascinated with presents |
| C．are encouraged to spend less |
| D．show great interest in the movement. |
| A．has targeted the wrong persons |
| B．has achieved its intended purposes |
| C．has taken environment-friendly measures |
| D．has benefited both consumers and producers |
| A．madness about life choices |
| B．discontent with rich lifestyle |
| C．ignorance about the real cause |
| D．disrespect for holiday shoppers |
| A．anything less than a responsibility | B．nothing more than a bias |
| C．indicative of environmental awareness | D．unacceptable to ordinary people |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】If we planted a lot more trees in just the right places, they could reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere to levels not seen since the 1920s, said study leader Jean Francois Bastin, an ecologist from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. After examining more than 70,000 high-quality satellite photos of trees from all over the planet, ecologists concluded that the earth could support 900 million additional hectares (公顷) of tree cover.
Bastin and his colleagues developed a computer program that estimates how much forested land could be restored both now and in a future warmer world. The team members combed through 78,774 satellite photos of a variety of ecosystems- everywhere from the thick Amazon rainforest to the dry Sahel in Africa-that had been protected from human influence. They counted every tree in every photo to assess the current tree coverage in natural environments. The researchers combined that information with data about the climate, temperature and soil conditions for each ecosystem. Then they taught their program to put it all together to determine how much tree coverage a particular area could support.
The result shows trees currently cover 2.8 billion hectares of land- but they have the potential to populate as much as 4.4 billion hectares. Right now, much of the additional 1.6 billion hectares is being used for agriculture or urban spaces. The researchers took those areas off the table and saw that the earth still has 900 million hectares ready and waiting to be restored with trees an area roughly the size of Brazil. When those trees mature, they could remove 205 gigatonnes (兆吨) of carbon from the atmosphere, the study calculated, That represents about two-thirds of the roughly 300 gigatonnes of atmospheric carbon that can be traced to human actions, they said.
Even if trees are planted in the most mindful way, other actions are still needed to fight climate change, Bastin said.
1. Why did Bastin develop a computer program?| A．To reduce air pollution in Africa. |
| B．To determine carbon dioxide in the air. |
| C．To assess the potential forested land. |
| D．To calculate the area of forest in the world. |
| A．Looked into. | B．Put away. |
| C．Brought back. | D．Took in. |
| A．Brazil has large areas to plant trees. |
| B．The tree cover is not enough to control greenhouse gases. |
| C．Trees removed two-thirds of carbon in the atmosphere. |
| D．Other actions are equally important compared to planting trees. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Objective. |
【推荐2】In recent years, lots of American companies have gotten behind a potential climate solution called carbon capture and storage, and the government has backed it with billions of dollars in tax preferences and direct investments. The idea is to trap planet-heating carbon dioxide from the smokestacks of factories and power plants and ship it to sites via thousands of miles of new pipelines. Communities nationwide are pushing back against these pipeline construction and underground sites, arguing they don’t want the pollution running through their land.
Now the U. S. Forest Service is proposing to change a rule to allow storing this carbon dioxide pollution under the country’s national forests and grasslands. “Authorizing carbon capture and storage on National Forest System (NFS) lands would support the Administration’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent below the 2005 levels by 2030,” the proposed rule change says.
Some experts, like June Sekera, a research fellow with Boston University, question the timing of the proposed rule change, given community pushback across the country to pipelines planned on private land. Yet she says the Forest Service proposal to open up national parks for CO2 storage is “an end run around local towns and counties. And it’s a much simpler and way less expensive route.”
In an email, Scott Owen, press officer for the Forest Service, writes that the proposed rule change would allow the Forest Service to consider proposals for carbon capture and storage projects. He writes that any proposals must still pass through a secondary screening, adding, “The Forest Service has been ‘screening’ proposals for use of NFS lands for over 20 years as a means to be increasingly consistent in our processes and also be able to reject those uses that are inconsistent with the management of the public’s land. ” He notes the Forest Service currently does not have any carbon capture project proposals under consideration. The Forest Service has opened public comments on the proposed rule change until Jan. 2, 2024.
1. What does the Forest Service intend to do by changing a rule?| A．Answer the appeals of communities. | B．Provide legal space for carbon storage. |
| C．Enlarge national pipeline storage capacity. | D．Loosen tax burden on American companies. |
| A．An eventful act. | B．A desperate try. |
| C．An alternative way. | D．A breathtaking race. |
| A．It is still up in the air. | B．It is dead in the water. |
| C．It is widely recognized. | D．It is far from satisfactory. |
| A．A fruitful research. | B．A timely rule change. |
| C．An authorized project. | D．A controversial proposal. |
【推荐3】Stefani Shamrowicz lives in Colorado. The 24-year-old woman has spent 23 days picking up126 bags of rubbish across the country
Having over a month off from her job at a campus recreation center, Stefani Shamrowicz decided to take a trip to help clean up the environment.
She's now driven over 70 hours through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana Florida,Georgia,Tennessee,Kentucky，Ohio，Pennsylvania，and New York-cleaning up everything from pee-filled bottles to lawn ornaments. About 80 percent of the rubbish was drinking bottles. Stefani said she had found a few fast-food toys and a tire with a pair of cowboy boots in it and her aim wasn't to shame, but rather encourage people to do what they can
Collecting anywhere from one to 16 bags at a time, Stefani's been discouraged. She felt she wasn't doing enough. She said there was a place that had an ocean of rubbish and she pushed out four bags, but then she broke down because she realized how much rubbish there was and it felt like four bags didn't do anything. But she remembered to just do what she could, especially since she had gone beyond her goal. She said she dedicated that to her parents because they raised her to be an independent person and had been very supportive on the trip
People donated $10 a bag for Stefani to clean up in their name, which she uses for lodging and gas. The person's name is written on how many bags they've donated towards and Stefani posted a picture on her Instagram when they were filed, thanking them for helping clean up the cit she was in.
People online and in person have responded positively to the project. Stefani recalled people sent her pictures of bags of trash they picked up. Once, when she started doing a bag on the beach in Florida,two ladies saw her and started helping her fill the bag.
With her job resuming June 1, Stefani is now back home but she has so many good things to say about her unique U.S.road trip.There's litter everywhere, so I'm just happy to be able to make a little bit of an impact everywhere I go. Cleaning up this litter is a huge thank you for all the joy and good times national parks and nature in general has brought to my life,”she said.
1. Why did Stefani drive ower70 hours across the USA?| A．To call on people to donate money |
| B．To earn a living by classifying rubbish. |
| C．To encourage people to protect the environment. |
| D．To enjoy the scenery of the national parks and nature |
| A．People offered their help along her journey |
| B．Her parents make joint efforts to support her. |
| C．People begin to donate their money for her project. |
| D．Many people take action to clean up the environment |
| A．Discouraged. | B．Anxious | C．Surprised. | D．Pleased. |
| A．Cleaning up rubbish is a tough task. | B．A kind act can make a big difference |
| C．Believing in oneself is the key to success. | D．One will realize his dream if he persists in it. |
【推荐1】The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (儿科学) just released its updated guidelines for children’s media use.
The recommendations reflect what all parents know: children need less screen time, which indicates that they desperately need more free time to develop their imagination, a sense of wonder and discover their passion and purpose.
Our children are over-stimulated, over-scheduled and under pressure to perform academically and beyond school. This weakens their ability to build creative thinking skills essential to self-discovery. Creativity occurs when kids have time for curiosity and exploration. With children spending up to eight hours a day on media devices and additional hours engaging in scheduled activities, opportunities for growth disappear.
What we are not so sure about is how to get our kids to want the free, screenless time which we know will benefit them. It may sound counter-intuitive (违背直觉的) but today’s kids need coaching to experience and discover the benefits of free time.
What came to parents easily a few decades ago has become a challenge for our generation. It’s not that yesterday’s parents knew more about child development; they simply had fewer choices. Boredom and relaxation were an inescapable part of daily life. Today, they mean, “I’m a bad parent and not doing enough to get my kid ahead.”
Recently, I had an eye-opening revelation while watching my 11-year-old daughter play in a softball game. I have six children and have attended dozens of such game. I know the drill—or thought I did. Families settled in for the day with lawn chairs, cold drinks and cousins. These brothers and sisters would gradually chat with each other. Games of catch and hide-and-seek began, and friendships were formed then. At crucial moments, the newfound friends turned their attention to the field to cheer on their teams.
But that wasn’t happening. Though there were at least 15 children by the sidelines (球场边线), I didn’t hear any of them. They sat in silence using their individual tablets (平板电脑). Even with the score tied in the final inning (垒球比赛的一局), not a single child watched the game or spoke to each other. The situation was strange and revealing: Kids have more planned activities and passive entertainment at their fingertips than ever before, but less free time to dream, imagine and focus on what they truly love.
I understand that making time for “nothing” is difficult in a world where we are constantly worried our kids will fall behind if they aren’t good at academics. But I refuse to sit back and watch this loss of childhood. We are taking back childhood. Imagination needs time and space to blossom.
If your kids are like mine, asking them to imagine will at the beginning be difficult. That’s because they haven’t developed the skills and muscle memory to make it second nature. I hope the AAP guidelines prompt all of us to set needed screen time limits for our children. Personally, I am practicing strategies to “develop imagination” in my children. Imagination, like a sport, requires practice, training, motivational speeches, rewards and extreme patience.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 3 and Paragraph 4?| A．Parents are not sure whether the free, screenless time benefits their children. |
| B．Children have the ability to imagine because they perform well academically. |
| C．Opportunities for growth disappear when children have time for curiosity or exploration. |
| D．Kids don’t have time to develop their imagination because of media devices and scheduled activities. |
| A．Because kids have more free time to dream and imagine. |
| B．Because kids don’t know how to experience and discover the benefits of free time. |
| C．Because today’s parents have fewer choices compared with yesterday’s parents. |
| D．Because today’s parents are bad parents and not doing enough to get kids ahead. |
| A．They chatted and played hide-and-seek games. |
| B．They didn’t watch the game but used their tablets. |
| C．They developed friendships with brothers and sisters. |
| D．They watched the game attentively and cheered on their teams. |
| A．kids are given too much time and space to imagine |
| B．today’s parents all expect their kids to sit silently using their individual tablets |
| C．today’s parents set needed screen time limits for the kids according to the AAP guidelines |
| D．kids are over-stimulated, over-scheduled and under pressure to perform academically and beyond school |
| A．How we are endangering our kid’s imagination |
| B．When kids should engage in scheduled activities |
| C．Whether it is difficult for kids to imagine in the beginning |
| D．Why kids need guidance on how to discover the benefits of free time |
【推荐2】Kids spend a lot of time looking at screens, and some parents worry, but a new study argues against the fears parents may feel.
“The danger is that they’re hearing a message that social media, digital technology use is causing very serious and harmful problems like depression（抑郁症) and suicide-related(与自杀有关的) behaviors. And the idea is that if you shut off social media, which lots of kids use to connect with each other, their friends, find out information about health, you could be making a situation worse. Parents are really being sent a message that is not supported by anything scientifically.” Candice Odgers, professor of psychological science at the University of California, said.
Odgers and her colleagues looked at the screen-related behavior of 400 public-school students in North Carolina aged 10 to 14. This group was picked as a representative sample of race and socioeconomic status for the entire U.S. The researchers found that the kids spent between almost five hours to seven hours per day on their devices, with the older kids online the most. That’s a lot of hours, but:
“Overall, what we find is no connection between the amount of time that young people spend online using digital technologies and mental health symptoms like depression and anxiety. When we do find associations, they were actually quite surprising to us. We found that young people who sent more text messages actually reported better mental health.
Now, again, this was a small association, but it reflects what other people have found: that people who are very connected offline and who use technology in the positive ways to stay connected often, are more connected online as well and experiencing better mental health.”
So why the fears about screen time? Odgers argues that the methodologies for older studies may have led to false conclusions.
“One of the issues with the research that’s been done to date has been that youths are, you know, in school.... They have a survey put in front of them, and they’re asked to recall(想), over the past six months, ‘How often are you online?’and ‘Have you ever felt depressed?’And the correlation (相互关系) between those two things has been used to spread a lot of fear around this connection between social media use and things like depression—99.5 percent of the reasons that kids differ in their depression are due to something other than the time they spend online.”
1. According to Professor Odgers, we know that___________.| A．social media is causing serious problems |
| B．digital technology is the cause of depression |
| C．parents are holding wrong ideas about social media |
| D．parents have showed too much concern for their children |
| A．Kids all over America. |
| B．Kids and parents in North Carolina. |
| C．Kids with different family backgrounds. |
| D．A number of public elementary and middle school students. |
| A．The more screen time kids have, the less happy they are. |
| B．Kids who use social media more are not necessarily depressed. |
| C．Using digital technology has nothing to do with one’s health. |
| D．The relationship between digital technology and depression is unclear. |
| A．technology should be put to good use |
| B．kids who make more phone calls might be happier |
| C．we should pay more attention to mental health |
| D．we should enrich our lives by spending more time offline |
| A．Time and effort. | B．Aim and purpose. |
| C．Ideas and dreams. | D．Means and principles. |
| A．the sample is too small |
| B．the respondents are too young |
| C．not considering the time spent offline |
| D．deliberately(故意地) linking the Internet to mental issues |
Importance of Ethics
Two 1996 studies indicate the importance of the study of ethics to students in journalism and mass communications programs. A survey of seventy-three media ethics courses at universities across the country revealed a continuing rise in enrollment.
However, reasons for studying ethics go beyond what potential employers desire. Proper behavior is necessary for growth and order. if one objective of an education is to promote the growth and development of the individual, then the place to start is with personal behavior. Developing a sense of what is right and wrong, or appropriate and inappropriate, will promote order, not only in individual lives but also in society at large.
| A．Ethical behavior could play the same role. |
| B．Think, for example, of the order required to move traffic on roads and highways. |
| C．Ethics promotes not only a better individual but also a better society. |
| D．The other study noted that 44 percent of the responding schools required students to complete an ethics course. |
| E．In conclusion, ethics seeks to resolve moral problems by defining concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong. |
| F．Ethics, however, is not a magic cure-all |
【推荐1】You want your children to do well in school. You want them to have nice friends and interesting hobbies and to not go out with strangers. You may even want them to be happy. But in this computer game, you can always start over with a new digital child if things don't work out as planned.
A new game in China puts players in control of those most fearsome of characters: Mom and Dad. The mission? Raise a son or daughter from kindergarten to college.
In a nation of famously demanding, scolding and, yes, sometimes loving mothers and fathers, the game, Chinese Parents, is a hit. Since its release in September, it has found a huge audience on Steam, an online marketplace run by the American game maker Valve Corporation. There are no official figures for how many people have downloaded the game but it has caused heated discussion online while earning tens of thousands of reviews.
Yang Gee Yelling, a founder of Moy wan Games, the independent studio that developed Chinese Parents, said he hoped to produce an English version this year. The success of the game, which costs $9. 99 to play, does not appear to be driven by people hoping to exact revenge for their own upbringings. Quite the opposite: Some fans have written that, by letting them experience childhood from their parents' perspective, it had moved them to tears.
"I used to not understand many things my mom made me do when I was little, "said Kang Shang hero, 19, a professional blogger in the northeastern city of Qinhuangdao. "But when I play the game and try to increase figures for my son so he can unlock more achievements and marry the prettiest girl in school, start to understand my parents more.
All the joys and trials of raising children are here. Players choose between pushing their digital generation to attain conventional success and allowing them some appearance of childhood innocence. They must give career guidance and tolerate (just barely) their teenager's first dates. Everything leads up to the gaokao, the highly competitive college entrance exam that decides the fortunes of so many young Chinese people.
1. What's the function of the first paragraph?| A．To attract readers to the topic. | B．To present the parents' expectations. |
| C．To arouse argument among readers. | D．To state clear fact. |
| A．It is produced as expected. |
| B．It has aroused heated discussions and received many comments online. |
| C．Many parents have been engaged in playing this computer game. |
| D．It is hoped that an English version of this computer game will come out this year. |
| A．Pessimistic. | B．Cautious. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Disgusted. |
| A．To introduce the computer game Chinese Parents. |
| B．To encourage children to play this computer game Chinese Parents. |
| C．To persuade parents to be strict with their children. |
| D．To let parents understand their children better. |
【推荐2】In the early days of sea travel, seamen on long voyages lived exclusively on salted meat and biscuits. Many of them died of scurvy (坏血病), a disease of the blood which causes swollen gums (牙龈), livid white spots on the flesh and general exhaustion. On one occasion, in 1535, an English ship arrived in Newfoundland with its crew desperately ill. The men’s lives were saved by Iroquois Indians who gave them vegetable leaves to eat. Gradually it came to be realized that scurvy was caused by some lack in the sailors’ diet and Captain Cook, on his long voyages of discovery to Australia and New Zealand, established the fact that scurvy could be prevented by the supply of fresh fruit for the sailors.
Nowadays it is understood that a diet which contains nothing harmful may yet result in serious disease if certain important elements are missing. These elements are called “vitamins”. Quite a number of such substances are known and they are given letters to identify them, A, B, C, D, and so on. Different diseases are associated with shortages of particular vitamins. Even a slight lack of Vitamin C, for example, the vitamin most plentiful in fresh fruit and vegetables, is thought to increase significantly our susceptibility (敏感度) to colds and influenza.
The vitamins necessary for a healthy body are normally supplied by a good mixed diet, including a variety of fruit and green vegetables. It is only when people try to live on a very restricted diet, say during extended periods of religious fasting (斋戒), or when trying to lose weight, that it is necessary to make special supply to make up for the missing vitamins.
1. Scurvy is a disease that is caused by .| A．salted meat and biscuits | B．exhaustion |
| C．lack of some essential substances | D．need of fresh vegetables and fruits |
| A．not to eat much salted meat |
| B．to supply our diet with various vitamin pills |
| C．to have more fresh fruit and vegetables |
| D．to develop a good dietary habit |
| A．vitamin pills are of no use |
| B．nutritious food might be unhealthy |
| C．vegetable leaves can be a good treatment |
| D．religious fasting may help out a lot |
| A．Shortages of Vitamin C may cause serious diseases. |
| B．Fresh fruit and green vegetables contain enough nutrition that is necessary for a healthy body. |
| C．Vitamins play a vitally important role in people’s health. |
| D．A good mixed diet normally supplies sufficient vitamins for us. |
【推荐3】Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus Cars, was once of motor racing’s most influential engineers. Between 1962 and 1978 Lotus won seven Formula One constructors championships. He summed up his philosophy as “simplify, then add lightness”. It appears to be an uncommon insight. A paper published in Nature suggests that humans struggle with subtractive(减法的) thinking. When asked to improve something, they tend to suggest adding new things rather than removing what is already there, even when additions lead to subpar(低于标准的) results.
The research was motivated by everyday observation rather than psychological theory, says Gabrielle Adams, the paper’s first author, who cites folk wisdom such as “less is more” and “keep it simple”. Perhaps the need for such reminders was evidence of a blind spot in people’s thinking?
Along with colleagues at the University of Virginia, Dr. Adams conducted a series of observational studies. In one, when participants were asked to alter an essay they had written, 16% cut words while 80% added them. Others gave similar results. Of 827 suggestions received by the new boss of an American university for how the institution could be improved, 581 involved adding new things and just 70 suggested removing something.
Having established that addition does indeed seem to be more popular than subtraction, the next step was to work out why. One possibility was that people were considering subtractive options, but deliberately choosing not to pursue them. Another was that they were not even thinking of them in the first place.
Let’s enter a new set of experiments. One experiment asked participants to redesign a lopsided(不平衡的) Lego structure so that it could support a house-brick. Participants could earn a dollar for fixing the problem, but each piece of Lego they added cut that reward by ten cents. Even then, only 41% worked out that simplifying the structure by removing a single block, rather than strengthening it by adding more, which was the way to maximise the payout. Another example, asking people to make a golf course worse rather than better did not change their preference for additions, which suggested that many were simply not thinking of the possibility, at least at first.
What all this amounts to, says Benjamin Converse, another of the study’s authors, is evidence for a new entry in the list of “cognitive biases” that skew(歪曲) how humans think. Instead of thinking a problem through and coming up with an ideal solution, they tend to use cognitive shortcuts that are fast and mostly “good enough” in their mind.
Such research has inspired an entire field dedicated to working out when such shortcuts lead people astray(迷失). Dr. Adams and her colleagues, meanwhile, are keen to investigate their result thoroughly. One question is whether the preference for addition is inborn or learned.
1. Why does the author mention the story of Colin Chapman?| A．To provide evidence. |
| B．To highlight the experience. |
| C．To present background information. |
| D．To introduce the topic of the passage. |
| A．People prefer additions to subtractions in most situations |
| B．The philosophy “less is more” is well-received for long. |
| C．Strengthening the structure is the way to maximize the payout. |
| D．People tend to use shortcuts and come up with ideal solutions. |
| A．A way that people automatically think. |
| B．A fact that people routinely forget. |
| C．A view that shortcuts are good enough. |
| D．A point that addition is always better. |
| A．The benefits of subtractions for people. |
| B．The ways of changing how people think. |
| C．The details of the preference for addition. |
| D．The influence of cognitive biases on people. |
【推荐1】Portraits as Art
According to a dictionary, portraiture is “a representation (描绘) of a person, especially of the face by drawing or painting a likeness.” However, this definition neglects the complexities of portraiture. Portraits are works of art that engage with ideas of identity rather than just a likeness. These concepts of identity involve social rank, gender, age, profession, character of the subject, etc. It is impossible to copy all the aspects of identity. Therefore, portraits reflect only certain qualities of subjects. Portrait art has also undergone significant shifts in artistic practice. The majority of portraits are the outcome of current artistic fashions and favored styles. Therefore, portrait art is an art category providing various engagement with social, psychological, and artistic practices and expectations.
Since portraits are different from other art categories, they are worthy of separate study. During their production, portraits require the presence of a specific person, or an image of the individual. In many instances, the production of portraiture has required sittings, which result in interaction between the subject(s) and the artist throughout the creation of the work. In certain instances, portrait artists depended on a combination of different involvement with their subjects. If the sitter can’t sit in the studio regularly, portraitists could use his or her photographs. In Europe, during the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the sitting time was sometimes decreased by focusing only on the head. Theoretically, portraitists could work from impressions or memories when creating a painting, but this rarely occurred according to documented records. Nonetheless, whether the work is based on model sittings, copying a photograph, or using memory, the process of painting a portrait is linked with the model’s attendance.
Furthermore, portrait painting can be distinguished from other artistic categories by its connection with appearance, or likeness. As such, the art of portrait painting got a reputation for imitation instead of for artistic innovation. Based on Renaissance art theory, portraiture was related to the level of a mechanical exercise as opposed to a fine art. Michelangelo’s well-known protest against portraits is only one example. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the attitude to portraiture was critical. Even so, artists from around the globe persisted in painting portraits despite their theoretical objections. Picasso, for example, became widely-known for cubist still-life painting (立体派静物画) early in his career, but some of his early experiments in this new style were his portraits of art dealers.
1. What does paragraph 1 mainly tell us?| A．The changing definition of portraiture reflects shifting attitudes to it. |
| B．Most portraits reflect artistic fashions and favored styles when created. |
| C．Portraiture is a more complex art form than is defined in a dictionary. |
| D．Portrait art shouldn’t be seen as a distinct art category for its complexity. |
| A．Portraiture typically takes much less time than other art forms. |
| B．Portraiture often requires frequent cooperation between artists. |
| C．Portraits show models in a more accurate way than other art forms. |
| D．Portraits generally involve interaction between subjects and artists. |
| A．based their work on the subjects’ attendance |
| B．preferred models’ photographs to their presence |
| C．were more willing to use impressions or memories |
| D．reduced sitting time to concentrate on a sitter’s head |
| A．altered the way other artists felt about portrait art |
| B．created portraits in spite of his objection to portrait art |
| C．depended on portrait art to establish a higher reputation |
| D．had fewer theoretical objections to portraitures than others |
The circles are called “crop circles” because they appear in the fields of grain - usually wheat or corn. The grain in the circles lies flat on the ground but never broken; it continues to grow, and farmers can later harvest it. Farmers always discover the crop circles in the morning, so the circles probably form at night. They appear only in the months from May to September.
At first, people thought that the circles were a hoax. Probably young people were making them as a joke, or farmers were making them to attract tourists. To prove that the circles were a hoax, people tried to make circles exactly like the ones that farmer had found. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t enter a field of grain without leaving tracks(痕迹), and they couldn’t flatten the grain without breaking it.
Many people believe that beings from outer space are making the circle to communicate with us from far away and that the crop circles are messages from them.
Scientists who have studied the crop circles suggested several possibilities. Some scientists say that a downward rush of wind leads to the formation of the circles - the same downward rush of air that sometimes causes an airplane to crash. Other scientists say that forces within the earth cause the circles to appear. There is one problem with all these scientific explanations: crop circles often appear in formations, like the five-dot formation. It is hard to believe that any natural force could form those.
1. In the summer of 1978, an English farmer discovered in his field that __________.
| A．some of his wheat had been damaged |
| B．his grain was growing up in circles. |
| C．his grain was moved into several circles |
| D．some of his wheat had fallen onto the ground. |
| A．an attempt made to fool people |
| B．a special way to plant crops |
| C．a research on the force of winds |
| D．an experiment for the protection of crops. |
| A．The farmer couldn’t step out of the field. |
| B．The farmers couldn’t make the circles round. |
| C．The farmers couldn’t leave without footprints. |
| D．The farmers couldn’t keep the wheat straight up. |
| A．An Unsolved Mystery |
| B．Strange Flying Objects |
| C．The Power of Natural Forces |
| D．The discovery of Strange Circles |
【推荐3】Saving the giant panda from extinction isn't just good for the bears-it's good for the bottom line too,a new analysis by an international team of scientist shows.
The results,published in the journal Current Biology,highlight the economic benefits that they say go hand in hand with environmental conservation. In order to protect giant pandas,the government must protect their forests,which provide a host of often-under appreciated services to the communities that live in and around them. For example,forests allow for the growing of crops and the grazing(放牧）of animals,store clean fresh water and supply firewood,lumber(木材）and many useful plants.They manage storm runoff and help prevent erosion(侵蚀）。
The pandas themselves also hold enormous cultural value that has risen rapidly in recent decades among Chinese residents,the study also points out. "From 1980 to 2010,the cultural values of pandas and their reserves almost doubled,largely driven by tourism use,rising 500-fold from 1980 to 2010, "they said.
Taking all of these factors into account,the scientists calculated a total economic value of Approximately $2. 6 billion in 2010 in China. Keep in mind,the costs of preserving panda habitat at current levels come to about$255 million. The study authors said that including the global cultural Value of the animals would increase the total economic value to $6. 9 billion per year-or about 27 times the cost of habitat preservation.
The researchers also noted that the investment in panda habitat has improved the living conditions of local residents. They pointed to data from the Chinese Statistical Yearbook showing that the annual income in Sichuan, Shanxi and Gansu provinces,which sit next to panda reserves,rose by an average of 56%from 2000 to 2010. Farmers in counties within these provinces that were next to the panda reserves saw their annual incomes rise by 64%,on average.
The findings provide a promising example of how conservation efforts can pay off,and they could be applied to many other threatened and endangered species,the study authors said.
1. What does the underlined words "bottom line"refer lo in the first paragraph?| A．Moral standard. | B．Economic profits. |
| C．Overall development. | D．Environmental conservation. |
| A．Less farmland. | B．More foreign trade. |
| C．More forest fires. | D．Better farming conditions, |
| A．26. | B．10. |
| C．4. | D．3. |
| A．Protecting pandas takes great efforts. |
| B．Pandas are a major tourism attraction in China. |
| C．Conservation of pandas is economically rewarding. |
| D．Pandas make great contributions to the environment. |
