【推荐1】Why do people drink too much, eat too much, smoke cigarettes or take drugs? What’s to blame for all the bad behavior? Most people would say that, while these self-destructive acts can have many root causes, they all have one obvious thing in common: they are all examples of failures of self-control, lacking the will power to resist them.
According to a recent study, however, if you really think about it, something about that simple answer doesn’t quite make sense. In fact, it turns out that sometimes it’s having will power that really gets you into trouble.
Think back to the time you took your very first sip (啜饮) of beer. Disgusting, wasn’t it? When my father gave me my first taste of beer as a teenager, I wondered why anyone would voluntarily drink it. And smoking? No one enjoys their first cigarette — it tastes awful. So even though smoking, and drinking alcohol or coffee, can become temptation (诱惑) you need will power to resist, they never, ever start out that way.
Just getting past those first horrible experiences actually requires a lot of self-control. Ironically (讽刺的是), only those who can control themselves well, rather than give in to them, can ever come to someday develop a “taste” for Budweiser beer, Marlboro cigarettes, or dark-roasted Starbucks coffee. We do it for social acceptance. We force ourselves to consume alcohol, cigarettes, coffee and even illegal drugs, in order to seem experienced, grown-up, and cool.
These bad habits aren’t self-control failures — far from it. They are voluntary choices, and they are in fact self-control successes. Self-control is simply a tool to be put to some use, helpful or harmful. To live happy and productive lives, we need to develop not only our self-control, but also the wisdom to make good decisions about when and where to apply it.
1. What do most people think causes bad behavior?

A．Being forced by others.

B．Not having enough will power.

C．Enjoying their first experiences.

D．Following the examples of their friends.

2. The author mentions his experience in the third paragraph to prove ____.

A．will power helps develop bad habits sometimes

B．drinking beer is harmful to the health of teenagers

C．self-control should be developed when one is young

D．everyone can be challenged by different temptations

3. In the last paragraph, the author stresses that ____.

A．without self-control, no one can succeed

B．bad habits don’t always lead to bad results

C．applying self-control correctly is important

D．people can develop wisdom from bad behavior

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．My First Sip of Beer	B．Do You Have Will Power ?
C．Does Will Power Benefit Us?	D．Dark Side of Self-control

【推荐2】Researchers have found that cutting up children's food rather than giving them meals where they have to bite with their front teeth makes them better behaved at the dinner table.

Foods that children have to pick up and bite into using their front teeth — such as chicken or whole apples — encourage aggressive(攻击性的) behaviour, scientists at Cornell University have found.

Children eating chicken on the bone were twice as aggressive as those given the same chicken cut into pieces, the study reports. Those eating on-the-bone chicken also ignored（忽视）adults' instructions more than twice as often and displayed much worse dinnertime behaviour — such as standing on the table or jumping off chairs.

This is thought to be an example of so-called"facial feedback(面部反馈)", where using certain facial muscles improves particular emotions.

Facial feedback from smiling is well known. People holding a pencil between their nose and upper lip — preventing smiling — consider a cartoon far less interesting than those forced to smile by holding the pencil between their teeth.

In the case of eating, foods such as on-the-bone chicken, boiled corn and whole apples require the front teeth to be used for biting.

Showing the front teeth uses the same facial muscle as the one that is used to show aggression, and the feedback may immediately increase aggressive behaviour. Showing the front teeth is a common sign of aggression in the animal world. Being surrounded by bare (呲开的) teeth may make a child feel under threat, further increasing their aggression. As children have less self-control, they are more influenced by facial feedback than adults.

This small study, named Eating Behaviors, looked at six to ten year olds, but the same effects are expected in both older and younger children. The advice from study leader, Professor Brian Wansink, is simple: “If you want a nice, quiet, relaxing meal with your kids, cut up their food.”

1. Why is it good for children to have food cut up?

A．They will eat more.

B．They behave better at the table.

C．They will have healthy teeth.

D．They are happy eaters.

2. What may children eating on-the-bone chicken do?

A．Become less aggressive.

B．Stand on the table.

C．Keep seated on the chairs.

D．Throw the bones.

3. Children with a pencil between their nose and upper lip will think cartoons ________________ than those who are forced to smile.

A．less boring

B．more aggressive

C．more boring

D．less aggressive

4. Which food is best for children's behavior at the table?

A．Small pieces of meat

B．Whole corn

C．A whole apple

D．A bone

【推荐1】Litterati is an app that people can use to upload information about litter they collect outside, such as its appearance, material, location, and brand. Shared online, this information contributes to building a global database of “litter maps”, which can influence policy and packaging design.

“Society’s failure to solve the litter problem is not from a lack of trying. There have been public service announcements, and coastal cleanups. But I believe two components are missing from the discussion — community and data,” said Jeff Kirschner, the developer of Litterati app.

Uploading pictures to an app shows users that they are not the only ones picking up litter from public places and that others are invested in cleaning the planet, too. And the data accumulates rapidly, telling a story that helps people understand who picked up what, where, and when. In this way, people are encouraged to do more.

In San Francisco, the Litterati app was able to identify and map more than 5,000 pieces of litter in order to determine how much was caused by cigarettes specifically. Using this information, the city successfully challenged a lawsuit by tobacco companies and doubled an existing cigarette sales tax, bringing in US $4 million annual revenue (税收).

By joining forces with others using the same platform, individuals are able to take their anti-litter activism to another level. The power of combined data leads to more Extended Producer Responsibility, which is precisely what we want and advocate here — producers are forced to be responsible for dealing with their own products once consumers no longer find them useful and areincentivizedto create more environmentally friendly packaging or better policies as a result of that new responsibility.

Litterati takes a refreshingly non-judgmental approach. It shows a positive we-can-do-it attitude. Just as Jeff Kirschner said, “Our goal isn’t to shame. It’s to provide transparency to the problem. We provide access to data and share insights with cities, citizens and businesses, guiding us all to identify the root cause of the problem, and make informed decisions of how to clean the planet.”

1. Why are tobacco companies mentioned?

A．To show the influence of Litterati.

B．To describe the details ofthe map.

C．To warn people ofthe harm of cigarettes.

D．To prove the large consumption oftobacco.

2. What does the underlined word “incentivized” in paragraph 5 most probably mean?

A．allowed.

B．appointed.

C．inspired.

D．believed.

3. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．Litter Maps: Make litter-picking a Fun Way

B．Litterati App: Guide People Where to Collect Litter

C．Litterati: Transparent Data for a Cleaner World

D．Litterati Campaign: Everyone Counts in Litter Picking

【推荐3】Are Food Miles Really Important?

A popular narrative with food is simple: “eating local” is one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint. It seems quite reasonable intuitively, but how reliable is it? Well, it is indeed true that the food sector uses a lot of energy, contributing 20 to 30 percent of all greenhouse gases. But how much of this is directly connected to moving food around the globe from farm to fork? Perhaps less than you might think.

In one of the most comprehensive studies, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania have reported that the shipment of food around the world only contributes around 4 percent of global carbon emissions. The report is in line with much research from around the world, which suggests that transportation only generates between 4 to 6 percent of the food system’s carbon footprint. Many studies revealed that most emissions were actually generated from other aspects of food production, such as agriculture, processing and cooking. In fact, it is the end consumer that used by far the most energy. Transport? The least.

One UK government study found that tomatoes trucked hundreds of kilometers from sunny Spain had a carbon footprint that was less than a third of that of those grown in heated glasshouses in chilly UK. In contrast to the simple “local=more eco-friendly” narrative, the authors therefore concluded that: “A single indicator based on total food kilometers travelled would not be a valid indicator of sustainability.”

When it comes to our carbon footprint, transport methods vary enormously too. For example, as air freight produces more than 75 times more emissions than sea freight, shipping food to the UK all the way from South-East Asia would involve far less carbon than the same product popped on a short flight from Italy. In this context, the emissions that come from shipping food by air freight one mile, is equal to the emissions from shipping food for more than 9 miles by road, and 75 miles by sea, making the concept of distance as a direct indicator of emissions highly problematic.

So is eating local really a better option? It depends. There are many reasons why you might be choosing to do so, aside from environmental concerns. Indeed, there are many other ways to measure environmental impact other than carbon emissions. But when we look at the evidence, only one thing is clear: food miles alone really aren’t a good proxy(指标)for sustainability. In fact, sometimes they are incredibly misleading. While we can’t disregard them entirely, we should view them in the context of a suite of other factors, recognizing that they often make up a tiny fraction of food’s carbon impact.

1. The data mentioned in the second paragraph are used to ______ .

A．illustrate that “food miles” has nothing to do with carbon emissions

B．encourage readers to consume imported food without guilt

C．prove that blaming carbon emissions on “food miles” only is unwise

D．warn readers that food transport is to blame for global warming

2. The author is likely to agree that _______ .

A．eating local actually doesn’t help cut down on the carbon footprint of food

B．cutting transport distance always helps to cut down on food’s carbon footprint

C．food transport has more to do with carbon emissions than food processing does

D．food’s carbon footprint depends both on the distance and the method of transport

3. What’s the author’s attitude towards “food miles” as an indicator for sustainability?

A．neutral

B．serious

C．opposing

D．supportive

【推荐1】There was one thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cities with factories and heavy traffic. At present，we realize that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution， the problem is really worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade，a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the east of the United States and brought health warnings in distant areas away from any industrial cities. In fact，the very climate of the entire earth may be infected by air pollution. Some scientists consider that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) is creating a “greenhouse effect” —keeping heat reflected from the earth and raising the world’s average temperature. If this view is correct and the world’s temperature is raised only a few degrees，much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York，Boston，Miami，and New Orleans will be in water.

Another view，less widely held，is that increasing particular matter in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth’s temperature—a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to a new ice age，and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. Today we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen. Perhaps，if we are lucky enough，the two tendencies will offset each other and the world’s temperature will stay about the same as it is now. Driven by economic profits，people ignore the damage on our environment caused by the “advanced civilization”. Maybe the air pollution is the price the human beings have to pay for their development. But is it really worthwhile?

1. People used to think that air pollution________.

A．caused widespread damage in the countryside

B．affected the entire eastern half of the United States

C．had a very bad effect on health

D．existed merely in urban and industrial areas

2. As to the greenhouse effect，the author________.

A．shares the same view with the scientists

B．is uncertain of its occurrence

C．rejects it as being ungrounded

D．thinks that it will destroy the world soon

3. The underlined word “offset” in the second paragraph could be replaced by “________”.

A．counteract	B．break from
C．get along	D．communicate

4. If the world’s temperature lowered just a few degrees________.

A．it would not do much harm to life on earth

B．it would lead major farming areas to disaster

C．particular things would increase greatly in the atmosphere

D．seas and oceans would flood many cities

【推荐2】What defines an eco-house? There are two features to take into consideration. Firstly, the energy efficiency and carbon emissions associated with running the house, and then the type of construction materials used, their associated emissions and the raw materials required.

At Baufritz, we have won awards relating to the sustainability of our houses. This is because as a company we had decided to put environmental stewardship at the core of our values way back in the 1960s. So how do we do it?

Heating is the biggest emissions factor for any house. It is really rather simple to solve this problem — make a house extremely energy efficient and this will no longer be a factor. Ultra low energy houses have become known as Passive houses, where a certain set of design characteristics help to improve efficiencies. You need a very high level of insulation in the walls and roof. Glass should be suitably positioned to optimize solar gaintucmrr (heat from the sun). The house needs to be very well engineered so no heat is lost through cracks or poorly fitted windows and doors. At Baufritz we manufacture Kit houses, and use Modern Manufacturing Methods in our factory to engineer our houses in such a way that leaks are minimized.

We have also developed “HOIZ” insulation. Manufactured from natural wood waste products, HOIZ is placed between the inside and outside layers of our timber framed houses to create the highest level of insulation. Our windows and doors use triple glazing to minimize heat loss. Overheating is one of the biggest challenges Passive houses face and our architects use some very clever ventilation systems   to manage   internal   environmental   conditions.   All   houses   still   have   energy-consuming appliances, but with the addition of solar for both electricity generation and water heating, the carbon footprint of the homes we produce are further reduced.

Embedded carbon in building manufacturing materials such as concrete, as well as a historic tendency to send materials to landfills, results in a high carbon footprint and natural resource exploitation. Baufritz addresses this problem in a number of ways. Our primary manufacturing material is wood. We source from sustainable certified forests where felled trees are replanted. In fact, we believe all building materials should be as natural as possible. We say no to PU construction foams, chemical insulation materials, toxic adhesives and laminate flooring. A house constructed using only natural materials creates a healthy living environment for its residents. As all our houses are manufactured in our state-of-the-art factory, waste is kept to an absolute minimum. At the end of their life-cycle, our houses can also be recycled. Today, demolition（拆除）firms clearing the site for the new build are able to recycle nearly all of the building materials, therefore closing the manufacturing loop.

My house is old, so why is this relevant? There are still lots of things which can be done. Improve your insulation. When your appliances expire, replace based on efficiency. Consider heat pumps instead of gas boilers and explore solar to deliver electricity and water heating. By designing and building houses to ultra low energy standards, and by using natural sustainably sourced materials and recycling the waste products from our manufacturing processes, we are able to deliver Carbon Neutral Houses. This means that the total carbon footprint throughout the life-cycle of each house is zero, which is why we call ourselves eco-house pioneers. All houses are prefabricated at our state-of-the-art factory in Erkheim, Germany, and then assembled on site.

1. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT associated with the sustainability of eco-houses?

A．The raw materials used.

B．Energy efficiency of the house.

C．Carbon emissions released by house designers.

D．Construction materials used and their emissions.

2. From the passage it can be inferred that Passive houses _____________.

A．fail to optimize solar gain

B．need to be carefully engineered to trap heat

C．use more energy-consuming appliances than Kit houses

D．could have less comfortable environmental conditions inside them

3. Which of the following statements is true about the way Baufritz builds houses?

A．House recycling is an additional service provided free by Baufritz.

B．Building materials are obtained from factories to ensure their quality.

C．Man-made materials are applied to reduce their impact on the environment.

D．The houses are all manufactured in their factory so as to reduce costs and waste.

4. The purpose of the passage is to ________.

A．argue for the necessity of eco-houses

B．advertise Baufritz, an eco-house builder

C．explain the underlying values of eco-houses

D．expand people’s knowledge of what eco-houses are

【推荐1】Speaking, writing and reading are necessary to everyday life, where language is the major tool for expression and communication. Studying how people use language — what words they unconsciously choose and combine — can help us better understand ourselves and why we behave the way we do.

Linguists (语言学家) try to determine what is unique and universal about the language we use, how it is learned and the ways it changes over time. They consider language as a cultural, social and psychological phenomenon.

“Understanding why and how languages differ tells us about the range of what is human,”said Dan Jurafsky, chair of the Department of Linguistics at Stanford.

Stanford linguists and psychologists study how language is interpreted (理解) by people. Even the slightest differences in language use may show the biased (有偏见的) beliefs of the speakers, according to research.

For example, a relatively harmless sentence, such as“girls are as good as boys at math,” because of the statement’s grammatical structure (结构), suggests that being good at math is more common or natural for boys than girls, the researchers said. Language can play a big role in how we and others see the world, and linguists work to discover how words and phrases can influence us, unknowingly.

People speak about 7,000 languages worldwide. Although there is a lot in common among languages, each one is unique. Jurafsky said it’s important to study languages other than our own and how they develop over time because it can help linguists understand what lies at the foundation of humans' unique way of communicating with one another.

Linguists analyze how certain speech patterns influence particular behaviors, including how language can influence people’s buying decisions. Jurafsky said. “Understanding what different groups of people say and why is the first step in determining how we can help bring people together.”

1. What does the example mentioned in Paragraph 5 show?

A．Misunderstanding is common in daily life.

B．People should avoid using harmful sentences.

C．Speech patterns can show people’s biased beliefs.

D．Some grammatical structures are difficult to understand.

2. What does Jurafsky suggest in Paragraph 6?

A．Researching languages.

B．Learning from linguists.

C．Developing good learning habits.

D．Communicating with others frequently.

3. What is the main purpose of the text?

A．To show the power of language.

B．To give an introduction to Jurafsky.

C．To teach readers how to learn a language.

D．To call on readers to learn more languages.

【推荐2】New Year’s resolutions(决心) have been around long enough that we all tend to stick to the same ones—hit the gym, lay off the candy, read more books, call your mother—regardless of whether we follow through with our intentions.

While January 1st seems like the perfect time to have a new start again, exactly when people developed that mindset(思维模式) isn’t common knowledge. It turns out that the modern belief of a New Year’s resolution isn’t as old as you thought. According to many historians, the ancient Babylonians were the first group of people to make New Year’s resolutions. However, instead of making a commitment to self improvement, they made a commitment to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed.

An ancient Roman tradition from 46 B. C, bears even more likeness to modern resolutions. Emperor Julius Caesar declared January the month of Janus. Romans believed Janus looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future. In his honor, they made sacrifices to the god and promises of good behavior for the coming year.

But the modern New Year’s resolution didn’t fully form until centuries later. The practice was common enough by the early 1800s. An article in 1802 states, “Statesmen have sworn to have no other object in view than the good of their country. The physicians have determined to advise the use of medicine no more than is necessary, and to he very reasonable in their fees.”

The first time “New Year’s resolution” appeared as a phrase was in the January 1st issue of a Boston newspaper in 1813. “I believe there are a lot of people,” the article goes, “with a serious determination of beginning the New Year with new resolutions and new behavior, and with the full belief that they shall accept punishment for all their former faults and wipe them away.

So as you make (and possibly fail at) your New year’s resolutions, know that you’re in good company.

1. Whose New Years resolutions were most different from the present common practice?

A．Ancient Babylonians’.	B．Ancient Romans’.
C．Statesmen’s in the 1800s.	D．Boston people’s in 1813.

2. According to Paragraph 4, the physicians focused their resolutions on ________.

A．annual incomes	B．personal ambitions
C．professional honesty	D．academic improvement

3. What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To encourage people to make New year’s resolutions.

B．To give advice on how to make New Year’s resolutions.

C．To compare different New year’s resolutions in history.

D．To introduce the development of New Year’s resolutions.

【推荐3】Success and Risk in Extreme Sports

What is it that drives some to take extreme risks, while the rest of us hurry for the safety of the sidelines?

Lester Keller, sports-psychology expert, says that not everyone has the mental makeup to do well in extreme sports. He notes that most of us hit a natural ceiling that limits our appetite for extreme risk in tricky conditions. But others have a much higher tolerance for risk. Keller points to a top ski racer. He told Keller that “the high element of risk makes you feel alive, tests what you are made of and how far you can take yourself”. He said he would get nervous on some of the courses, but that this would just make him fight more.

Psychologists note that some people seem to have a strong desire for adrenaline (肾上腺素) rushes as a behavior seeking excited feelings. Like many extreme athletes, Emily Cook’s appetite for risk appeared at a young age. “I was a gymnast,” she said. “I was one of those kids who enjoyed and did well at anything where you were upside down.” As she started doing harder tricks, she was drawn to the challenge. “There are moments when you’re up there doing a new trick and it seems like an impossible thing. But overcoming that is just the coolest feeling in the world.”

Shane Murphy, sports professor, has worked with groups climbing Everest. “To me, that just seems like the height of risk,” he said. “But to them it was the next step in an activity that they’ve prepared for years.” Murphy said the view of extreme athletes is different from our own. “We look at a risky situation and know that if we were in that situation we would be out of control. But from the athletes’ view, they have a lot of control, and there are many things that they do to minimize risk.”

Another aspect of risk perception (认知) may be something referred to as “the flow”, a state in which many athletes become absorbed in the acts that focus the mind completely on the present. “Something that makes you try doing a tougher climb than usual, perhaps, is that your adrenaline flows and you become very concentrated on what you’re doing,” Murphy says. “After it’s over, there’s great excitement.”

People of different skill levels experience the flow at different times. Some may always be driven to adventures that others consider extreme. “I can enjoy hitting a tennis ball around, because that’s my skill level,” Murphy says. “But others might need the challenge of Olympic competition.”

1. By using the term “natural ceiling” in Paragraph 2, Lester Keller points out that ______.

A．extreme athletes must learn special skills

B．extreme athletes have chances to take risks

C．many people don’t want to do extreme sports

D．many people can’t limit desire for extreme sports

2. What does Shane Murphy think about the mountain climbers he mentions?

A．They put in lots of preparation for challenges.

B．They are more fortunate than other sportspeople.

C．They carry little risk when facing big challenges.

D．They have special reasons that others can’t easily understand.

3. What main point is made in Paragraph 5?

A．Extreme athletes use techniques other people don’t use.

B．Non-athletes are probably wise not to try extreme sports.

C．Most people lack the focus required to take bigger risks.

D．A certain state of mind makes attempting an activity more likely.

4. We can learn from the passage that ______.

A．risk-taking is something you either naturally do or avoid

B．those who take risks are more likely to be successful in life

C．extreme athletes are driven by a need to be better than others

D．taking part in extreme sports is not as difficult as people think