Disease spread in many ways. An infected person can cough or sneeze on someone nearby, or they can spread germs through a handshake. But sometimes we pick up germs indirectly. A sick person might leave behind bacteria or viruses when they touch a door handle, for example. But what if those surfaces could clean themselves?
Two teenagers from Hong Kong asked themselves the same question. Now they’ve developed a door handle that can kill germs on contact.
The idea is simple. Every time the door is opened, the movement creates power that starts a germ-killing reaction on the handle. In lab tests, their system killed about 99.8 percent of the germs that they spread onto lab dishes covered with their material.
Research by others has shown that door handles in public areas are often home to lots of bacteria and viruses, notes 17-year-old Sum Ming(“Simon”）Wong. He and schoolmate Kin Pong ( Michael ) Li, 18, wanted to design a covering for door handles that would kill germs.
After doing some research, they learned that a mineral called titanium dioxide(二氧化钛）is known to kill bacteria. It’s already used in many products, from paints to desserts. To make their covering, the teenagers made the mineral into a very fine powder.
Titanium dioxide kills bacteria best when lit by ultraviolet(紫外线的）light, says Simon. UV light is found in sunlight. But UV light does not naturally shine on indoor handles or any used at night, so the teenagers light their door handle from within.
To make sure the light reaches the coated surface, the teenagers made their door handle out of clear glass, Each end fits into a bracket (托架).Inside one of the brackets is a strong light-emitting diode(LED). From it comes UV light.
And here’s the interesting part: The power that makes the UV light shine comes from opening and closing the door. The power from the door is then carried by wire to the LED inside the door handle.
The door handle system, Michael and Simon say, might cost no more than about $13 (about 81 yuan) to build.
1. The ways diseases spread are mentioned at the beginning of the text to .| A．demonstrate how most diseases are spread indirectly |
| B．remind readers of the importance of cleaning their hands |
| C．explain how to kill bacteria or viruses effectively |
| D．help to describe a new invention that prevents diseases from spreading |
| A．is too expensive for ordinary families |
| B．is powered by the movement of its users |
| C．works better at night than in the daytime |
| D．is made of a metal that can take in UV light |
| A．supply enough power to the handle system |
| B．produce titanium dioxide to kill bacteria |
| C．provide UV light to help titanium dioxide work better |
| D．direct the UV light in sunlight to the coated surface |
| A．Cautious | B．Critical |
| C．Enthusiastic | D．Disappointed |
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【推荐1】While it throws out about 90 pounds of food per person every year, Japan doesn’t rank at the top of the world’s list of wasteful nations. Still, what’s thrown away represents a serious problem for an island nation with limited landfill space and a goal of greater sustainability. Reinvention can offer an alternative. A Japanese company is taking vegetable peels, cooking oil and other used foodstuffs and making entirely different products.
Concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world, and its key element, cement, is a major polluter of greenhouse emissions. So what if a more sustainable alterative were possible by making cement with food waste, which also would help reduce greenhouse emissions from landfills where that waste would otherwise be thrown away? That’s the idea behind Fabula, a Tokyo-based start-up.
Researchers at Fabula created a recipe to make food concrete by drying leftovers and pressing them into a mold (模具) at a high temperature. The company, founded by researchers at the University of Tokyo, began with items commonly thrown away like cabbage and orange peels but found that almost any food item can be used. It now takes mostly coffee grounds and tea leaves to make its cement. The product’s durability depends on the components.
Fabula is currently producing made-to-order household items, such as coasters and dishes, while awaiting its patent. The goal is to make furniture and larger structures once the technology is able to make the cement more durable. Food production companies that can’t avoid generating waste during their processes have reached out to work with the company. “We hope to become a matching service between companies that have food waste and companies who want to build things out of such materials,” said Takuma Oishi, Fabula’s chief commercial officer.
Since the cement is 100 percent eatable, it could create opportunities during disaster response when temporary structures need to be built quickly. The people inside might even turn to them for food. If the technology advances enough, Oishi suggested, someday we may be able “to eat the homes or furniture when necessary”.
1. Which problem Japan faces is mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．Food waste. |
| B．Garbage littering. |
| C．Energy crisis. |
| D．Environmental pollution. |
| A．Using food remains in recipes. |
| B．Finding a cheaper alternative to landfills. |
| C．Making a novel building material from leftovers. |
| D．Cutting greenhouse gases by recycling home devices. |
| A．The diversity of food sources. |
| B．The prospects of the company. |
| C．The innovation of a traditional cuisine. |
| D．The process of developing food concrete. |
| A．It can fill stomachs. |
| B．It’s solid and lasting. |
| C．It can prevent disasters. |
| D．It’s delicate but cost-free. |
【推荐2】“I hope my technology can help the blind to live independently.” Said Dr. Chieko Asakawa, an IBM computer scientist, sharing her life experience and her research with students in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Asakawa began losing her eyesight after an accident and was totally blind by the age of 14. Since the 1980s, she has devoted herself to helping blind people to live a better life with the help of modern technology.
Asakawa was born a normal child, but she became blind at age 14 due to a swimming accident at age 11. In the 1980s. she was a lead developer in digital(数字的)books, allowing blind people to read newspapers and books.
Three years ago, Dr. Asakawa began to work on cognitive assistant (认知辅助)research. NavCog an app developed by Asakawa, uses cognitive technologies to locate users’ position, determine their facing directions and get other information about the surrounding environment. Asakawa is exploring more possibilities, hoping people with disabilities like her can give a presentation on stage without any assistance.
Dr. Asakawa and her team want to develop new technology for various situations-shopping malls. airports, hospitals, etc. She hopes this technology can also be used by normal people-a Take Me Home app for the elderly who get lost, for example.
Dr. Asakawa studied English literature(文学)in college. After she joined IBM, she earned a Ph. D. degree from the University of Tokyo after three years’ study. One student asked Dr. Asakawa how she dealt with the difficulties of changing from English literature to computer science. She replied that she studied from 9 p. m. to midnight every day including weekends and worked the rest of the time. Dr. Asakawa told the students that everything is possible if you don’t give up.
1. What can be learned about Chieko Asakawa?| A．She went blind in her teens. | B．She was born with poor eyesight. |
| C．She wrote books for blind people | D．She became disabled as a college student. |
| A．It will locate lost things. | B．It will help normal people keep fit. |
| C．It will be applied in various surroundings. | D．It will help users become familiar with blind people’s life. |
| A．Be prepared for the future. | B．Never give up. |
| C．Treasure what we have. | D．Treat the disabled nicely. |
| A．Exploring the importance of modern technology | B．How the Internet has changed everyday life |
| C．How Chieko Asakawa “survived” an accident | D．Let the blind “see” the real world |
【推荐3】Although his 1-year-old smart-phone still works perfectly, Li Jijia already feels the need to replace it. “There are many better ones available now. It's time to upgrade(更新)my phone.”
Li’s impatience is shared by many. Shortly after the season when new products are released(发布,发售), many consumers feel the urge to upgrade their electronic equipment, even though the ones they have still work just fine.
As consumers’ minds are occupied by Apple’s newly- released products and debate whether the Google tablet is better than the new Amazon Kindle, it might be time to take a step back and ask: “Do we really need the latest upgrades?”
According to Donald Norman, an American author, “planned obsolescence (淘汰)” is the trick behind the upgrading culture of today’s consumer electronics industry.
Electronics producers strategically(战略性地) release new upgrades periodically, both for hardware and software, so that customers on every level feel the need to buy the newest version.
“This is an old-time trick---they’re not inventing anything new,” Norman said. “This is a wasteful system through which companies--many of them producing personal electronics-- release poor-quality products simply because they know that, in six months or a year, they’ll put out a new one.”
But the new psychology of consumers is part of this system, as Norman admitted, “We now want something new, something pretty, the next shiny thing.” In its most recent year, Apple's profit margin(利润) was more than 21 percent. At Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest PC maker, it was only 7 percent.
Apple’s annual upgrades of its products create sales of millions of units as owners of one year’s MacBook or iPhone line up to buy the newest version(版本), even when the changes are slight.
As to Li Jijia, the need for upgrading his smart-phone comes mainly from friends and classmates. When they are switching to the latest equipment, he worries about feeling left out.
“Some games require better hardware to run,” said Li. “If you don't join in, you lose part of the connection to your friends.”
1. What’s the author’s attitude towards people’s greed for new products?| A．Supportive. | B．Satisfied. |
| C．Critical. | D．Unclear. |
| A．They make a fool of customers by recycling their old products. |
| B．They make full use of the “planned obsolescence” strategy. |
| C．They control the customers’ way of thinking while shopping. |
| D．They invent new products to attract the youth like Li Jijia. |
| A．To provide customers with better service. |
| B．To defeat other competitors like Hewlett-Packard. |
| C．To establish a favorable image of itself among its customers. |
| D．To make huge profits(利润) out of its business. |
| A．peer pressure | B．new psychology |
| C．life style | D．friends' expectation |
【推荐1】We’re growing more used to chatting to our computers, phones and smart speakers through voice assistants. Out of these assistants, Siri is the most well-known spoken web. Blind people have been using text-to-speech assistant for decades.
Some think voice could soon take over from clicking as the main way to interact online. They believe online interaction would soon depend mainly on voice.
Building the spoken web—web-to-voice and voice-to-web—is by no means an easy task. For software to answer simple questions about the weather and play music for us is easy.
Using voice interaction feels far closer than surfing the net the old-fashioned way.
| A．Spoken web requires more personality to become popular. |
| B．But what are the challenges of moving to ”the spoken web“? |
| C．It is also possible to search for different information you need. |
| D．The benefits of using voice obviously depend on the context. |
| E．The informal tone of the assistant helps create an emotional attachment. |
| F．But to have a conversation with users on diverse topics is a long way off. |
| G．People who can’t read can also obtain information using the spoken web. |
【推荐2】A new phone app uses shaking from smartphones to warn people about earthquakes. The new app is called MyShake, which is the work of four researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.
Smartphones are equipped with accelerometers （加速器）.MyShake uses phone accelerometers to measure seismic （地震的）activity. It has been programmed to know the difference between normal activity and earthquake movement. The software developers say their app is right 93 percent of the time. A smartphone sends seismic information to the app developers. If the developers receive several warnings from one area it recognizes that an earthquake may be taking place or will take place soon. Using information sent from the app, the network then judges the location and strength of the quake in real time. MyShake can record 5. 0 earthquakes at distances of 10 kilometers or less.
MyShake uses very little power according to its developers. Only when seismic activity is sensed by the app does it become active and sends data to the network. The app works best when your phone is resting on a flat surface like a table.
The developers hope that MyShake can add to information collected by the US Geological Survey. That US agency has created the Earthquake Early Warning System also known as the EEW. The EEW has used sensors for measuring quakes in many areas. In places where no such equipment exists MyShake may be the only method of early quake detection（发现）. The app also shows ways to stay safer during an earthquake. The developers say it will become more effective as more people use it.
The developers say they hope to add a feature that will warn people about a possible tsunami（海啸）after an earthquake.
1. What's the main idea of the first two paragraphs?| A．What seismic activity is, |
| B．What MyShake is and how it works. |
| C．When accelerometers record earthquakes. |
| D．MyShake plays an important role in reporting earthquakes. |
| A．Only when smart phones are placed on a flat surface can it work. |
| B．The smart phone can warn its owner when it senses an earthquake. |
| C．MyShake can quickly send seismic information to the app's developers. |
| D．MyShake can sense the difference between normal activities and earthquakes every time. |
| A．To better the EEW. |
| B．To combine the EEW and MyShake. |
| C．To add its function to warn the possible damage after an earthquake. |
| D．To use the information by the U.S. Geological Survey to better MyShake. |
| A．MyShake will Be Used in Earthquakes |
| B．MyShake Is on the Way to Predict Earthquakes |
| C．MyShake Has Been Developed to Predict Earthquakes |
| D．MyShake Makes Earthquake Prediction More Accurate |
【推荐3】It is currently the harvest season for Christian Nachtwey, who operates an apple farm, or orchard, in the western German town of Gelsdorf.
A reporter from The Associated Press (AP) recently visited Nachtwey as workers loaded up red Elstarapples ready to be shipped to stores. In addition to apples, Nachtwey’s farm also produces a second harvest: electricity. Many of the farm’s trees grow beneath solar panels that have been producing power during this year’s unusually sunny summer. In addition to providing electricity, the panels protect the fruit below with shade.
Nachtwey said the idea behind the farm is simple. The design protects the trees from getting too much sun without reducing the available growing area. “On top of that, there’s the solar electricity being generated on the same land,” Nachtwey said. Putting solar equipment on the same land as crops is becoming increasingly popular in Europe and North America. Farmers are finding that this model can make the most of their land, while establishing a second way to earn money.
But getting the right mix of crops and solar panels is difficult. Most fruit requires specific growing conditions. Even small changes in the environment can harm crops and cause financial losses. Even if the fruit survives, it might turn the wrong color or be less sweet and may be difficult to sell. For this reason, Nachtwey is working with researchers to test which kinds of apples do well under a solar cover. He is also investigating which kinds of solar panels work best in the orchard. For testing purposes, Nachtwey covered some of his trees with a traditional netting material. It is normally used to protect sensitive crops from damaging weather events.
Juergen Zimmer is an expert in the area’s agricultural services department. He told the AP that apples grown under the solar covers were a little less sweet this year than those under the nets.
Researchers hope the tests will show that fruit crops perform well under solar panels.
1. What’s the main purpose of the design of the farm?| A．To generate electricity. | B．To protect the environment. |
| C．To make the most of the land. | D．To protect the fruit trees. |
| A．Because of fruit’s specific growing conditions. | B．Because of financial problems. |
| C．Because of the lack of traditional material. | D．Because of the weather changes. |
| A．He is an expert in The Associated Press. |
| B．He figures apples grown under the nets are sweeter. |
| C．He is working with Christian Nachtwey. |
| D．He is testing which kinds of apples do well under a solar cover. |
| A．Nachtwey’s farm produces a good harvest. |
| B．A German farmer plans to provide electricity to homes in the surrounding area. |
| C．Nachtwey is growing apples beneath solar power equipment that produces electricity. |
| D．Nachtwey uses the solar electricity produced on the farm to power his own machines. |
【推荐1】What comes to mind when you think of the materials used for constructing a home? Concrete, steel, aluminum, rocks? Yes, most modern buildings stand upright due to these materials. But at what cost?
Concrete, one of the most popular construction materials worldwide, is “the most destructive material on Earth”, according to the Guardian. The burden of destruction isn't just limited to concrete but all the other popularly used building materials.
So, how can this be addressed? Putting an end to construction simply isn't realistic Nigeria is doing its part to address this environmental problem by constructing with plastic bottles. Plastic is being used to protect our environment from becoming worse. Nigerians are using bottle brick technology instead of regular construction materials to build house.
Bottle brick technology uses plastic bottles filled with material plastic wrappers and landfill rubbish to other inorganic waste to create a Bottle bricks are an eco-friendly alternative to traditional bricks. They are durable (耐用的) and used to construct many types of buildings.
According to the BBC, the first plastic house in Nigeria was constructed in the village of Yelwa, where a different variant of bottle brick technology was used. The bottles were filled with sand instead of rubbish and inorganic waste.
This bottle brick technology in Nigeria didn't just par one house in Yelwa. Today, Nigeria is dealing with its plastic crisis by using abandoned bottles to build affordable housing for its citizens.
The bottle brick houses are environmentally-friendly, cheap, and, most importantly, durable They’re a great answer to the country's housing problems. Besides, Nigeria produces about 32 million tons of solid waste per year, of which 2. 5 million is plastic. So, there’s no doubt that currently the country has plenty of raw product supply.
In addition to addressing the housing crisis of the country, the bottle brick technology also tackles the youth unemployment crisis. The project is providing jobs to the unemployed youths of Nigeria and training them in green construction.
1. What's the purpose of mentioning the four materials in paragraph 1?| A．To list their advantages. | B．To compare their costs. |
| C．To lead in a further topic. | D．To give some examples. |
| A．They are filled with rubbish. | B．There is sand in them. |
| C．They are a mixture of materials. | D．There are wrappers in them. |
| A．Increases. | B．Surveys. |
| C．Assesses. | D．Settles. |
| A．How solid waste is recycled in Nigeria. |
| B．How unemployment is dealt with in Nigeria. |
| C．What roles bottle bricks play in Nigeria. |
| D．What contributions Nigeria makes to the world. |
【推荐2】Birthday card history is said to be over a hundred years old. There is no record to tell us who sent or received the first birthday card but it is said that the tradition of sending birthday cards began in England a century ago. In those times people used to personally greet a person on a birthday, but when a well-wisher was unable to do so he sent a birthday card. Thus birthday cards were more like an apology at that time.
History of greeting cards can be traced back to the ancient Chinese who are said to have started the tradition of sending goodwill messages on New Year Day. Early Egyptians too are believed to have made used papyrus scrolls（纸莎草纸画卷）to send greetings to dear ones. During early 1400 the tradition of exchanging handmade paper greeting cards developed in Europe while Germans at that time were known to have printed New Year's greetings from woodcuts. The advancement in printing technology in 1850s helped to make greeting cards more affordable. No wonder, they soon became popular means of personal communication. During the 1980s non-event cards or the cards not made for any particular occasion became popular and helped card industry reach a new high.
Greeting cards have taken a new form in this present age of Internet technology. Today, they are being increasingly exchanged as electronic or e-greeting cards. Advancement in technology that began in the 1990s has led to a further growth in card industry. People find it easier to send e-cards as a means of exchanging greetings.
Greeting cards are an important means of communicating good wishes and love to a person. They carry a personal touch that makes them lovable and very special.
1. What is the function of the birthday card in England a century ago?| A．To send good wishes. |
| B．To present a personal greeting. |
| C．To make an apology. |
| D．To work as a birthday present. |
| A．the British | B．the Chinese |
| C．the Egyptians | D．the Germans |
| A．The tradition of sending goodwill messages. |
| B．The invention of handmade paper. |
| C．The advancement in printing technology. |
| D．The development in Internet technology. |
| A．The History of Greeting Cards |
| B．The Importance of Birthday Cards |
| C．The Function of Birthday Cards |
| D．The Tradition of Sending Greeting Cards |
【推荐3】The Door-to-Door Bookstore, whose author is Carsten Henn, translated from the German by Melody Shaw, is an undoubtedly emotional, inspiring novel about friendships between generations developed through books.
Carl Kollhoff, a 72-year-old bookseller in southern Germany, is beloved among his customers for finding just the right books for them. But his role is threatened when a new boss is determined to push out the star employee.
One of the limited highlights of Carl’s life is to deliver books every evening to a handful of shut-in customers. The selections are made by their stated preferences—for happy endings, tragedy, philosophical works and so on. Trouble happens when a pretty wise (and a little annoying) motherless 9-year-old girl tags along with him on his rounds. She decides Carl is not actually giving his customers what they really need, and comes up with a plan to correct this.
Like Carl’s backpack, Henn manages to fill his novel with books without weighing it down. Chapter titles suggest that classics are involved: The Stranger, The Red and the Black, Great Expectations. Carl, who is terrible with names, assigns a literary character to each customer—Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Longstocking, The Reader—to help him keep them straight.
We gradually come to know these townsfolk: the abused wife, and the ambitious writer with the soothing voice who is paid to read classics to cigar factory workers.
The Door-to-Door Bookstore is also filled with amusing observations. Carl divides readers into hares (野兔), who race through books; fish, who allow books to carry them along on their current; curious lapwings (鸟头麦鸡), who jump ahead to see the ending first; and tortoises, who fall asleep each night after a single page and take months to get through a book, having to turn back repeatedly to check what they’ve forgotten.
Readers will have fun finding themselves in these pages.
1. Where is the text most probably taken from?| A．A review of a book. | B．An essay on literature classics. |
| C．An introduction to a bookstore. | D．A biography of Carl Kollhoff. |
| A．The takeover of a family business by a young girl. |
| B．The friendship between Carl and a 9-year-old girl. |
| C．Carl’s struggle to find the right books for his customers. |
| D．The competition among different bookstores in Germany. |
| A．To compare the book with them. | B．To stress the importance of them. |
| C．To help readers understand the book. | D．To show their popularity. |
| A．Readers will relate to the characters and situations in the novel. |
| B．Readers will find satisfaction in correctly guessing the endings of the books. |
| C．Readers will enjoy the different ways people read books. |
| D．Readers will be amused by the diverse personalities of the customers. |
【推荐1】In the early 1980s, one of our neighbors asked my mom if she would make a few gift baskets for her to give as gifts for the holidays. My mom agreed and news of the unique gift baskets my mum was making spread like wildfire throughout the neighborhood. My mum was busy throughout the holiday season, so she asked a friend to help her. When the orders continued after the holiday season for baby gifts, birthday gifts and more, it occurred to them that maybe this job could be turned into a business and they did it.
My mum went into her business because she had a creative idea. She got orders and filled orders. But there was no purpose and no real strategy(策略). In 1991, my mum' s partner got into financial trouble and there was not enough money to support either my mum or her partner.
So if you are led by your creativity or enthusiasm, make sure you ask yourself what you want out of your business. If you don't set goals, how will you know what direction to go in? Do you want to create jobs and growth in the economy? Are you looking for a hobby? You can't keep scores if you don' t know what game you are playing.
After my mom's partner gave up, she had to abandon(抛弃) her business to support herself. She swore（ 发誓） she would run a business again and do it differently the next time. However, there wasn't a "next time" for her. She passed away just after her 51st birthday. She never had someone tell her how important having a goal was. She never had an opportunity to be everything that she could be.
There are no right or wrong goals, only the ones that matter to you. Set them so that you can make progress and achieve success, whatever that may mean to you.
1. The author's mum started her own business after she .| A．got continuous orders with her friend |
| B．cooperated with one of her neighbors |
| C．advertised her products in the neighborhood |
| D．designed unique gift baskets for the holidays |
| A．enthusiasm | B．imagination |
| C．intelligence | D．consideration |
| A．hoped to restart it after her 51st birthday | B．wanted to find a different partner |
| C．reflected on her failure | D．didn’t work any more |
| A．creativity | B．opportunities |
| C．goals | D．partners |
【推荐2】A 17-year-old Bangladeshi boy has won this year’s International Children’s Peace Prize for his work to fight cyberbullying(网络欺凌) in his country. The prize winner, Sadat Rahman, promised to keep fighting cyberbullying until it no longer exists. “The fight is like a war, and in this war I am a soldier,” Sadat Rahman said during a ceremony on November 13 in The Hague, Netherlands. He added, “If everybody keeps supporting me, then together we will win this battle.”
Rahman developed a mobile phone application that provides education about online bullying and a way to report cases of it. He said he began his work on the project after hearing the story of a 15-year-old girl who took her own life as a result of cyberbullying.` “I will not stop until we receive no more cases through the app,” Rahman said at the ceremony.
The award comes with fund of over $118,000, which is invested by the KidsRights Foundation. The group chooses projects to support cases that are closely linked to the winner’s work. Past well-known winners of the prize include Pakistani human rights activist Malala Yousafzai. And students who organized the March for Our Lives event in 2018 after a deadly mass shooting at their school in the American state of Florida also won.
Yousafzai won the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2013. A year later, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for girls to have a universal right to education. Yousafzai spoke highly of Rahman’s work during the ceremony. She spoke through video conferencing, “All children have the right to be protected from violence no matter if it is physical or mental, offline or online.” She added, “Cyberbullying is a violation of that right.”
1. Why did Sadat Rahman win the prize?| A．He trained soldiers to fight for justice. |
| B．He made a contribution to the world peace. |
| C．He was devoted to battling against online abuse. |
| D．He organized a campaign against physical bullying. |
| A．A girl’s true story. | B．An education report. |
| C．His own experience. | D．A mobile phone application. |
| A．The winner will earn a large sum of money as a reward. |
| B．A Pakistani human rights activist will be awarded next year. |
| C．Sadat Rahman may use the fund to fight against cyberbullying. |
| D．Students surviving a deadly mass shooting also won the prize. |
| A．Objective. | B．Supportive. | C．Negative. | D．Ambiguous. |
【推荐3】Agriculture plays an essential role in the rise of the human civilization. Even though agriculture is contributing to employment of a significant part of the population in majority nations, over the years, the percentage of workers has witnessed a steep decline. According to world-wide estimations, not even five percentage of the population in rich nations is employed in the agricultural sector.
Agriculture is still the backbone of the economy in several nations of Africa. According to data released by the World Bank in 2017, the top ten countries where agriculture plays a vital role in employment are in Africa. Burundi, the landlocked nation on the eastern side of the continent, has 91% of its population dependent on it. However, only 15% of the total agricultural production goes to the market. Sweet potatoes, beans, bananas and corn, are some major crops produced on the land.
The second largest employment in agriculture was also registered in an African country； Chad with 87% population working on the field. Other nations which follow on the list are： Somalia, Central African Republic, Malawi, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Mauritania, Madagascar and Mozambique. Amid the developing countries of BRICS, it is India where more people are employed by agriculture. The agriculture in India can be traced back to the era of Indus Valley Civilization. By 2017, 43 % of the Indian population is dependent on the agriculture sector for employment.
Meanwhile, many developed countries witness less than 15 percent of their population engaged in the agriculture sector. These nations include Greece, Malaysia, Russia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and many others. At the bottom of the list stand United Arab Emirates , Singapore and Hong Kong, with 0 % of its people employed in agriculture.
1. What does the writer want to highlight in the first paragraph?| A．Agriculture is the foundation of civilization. |
| B．Agriculture is the main sector of employment. |
| C．Agriculture is the backbone of the economy. |
| D．The agricultural population is in sharp decline. |
| A．is for family use | B．goes to the market |
| C．is used for export | D．goes to the government |
| A．Second. | B．Third. |
| C．Fourth. | D．Fifth. |
| A．the more developed the country | B．the less developed the economy |
| C．the more advanced the civilization | D．the longer the history of a country |
