【推荐1】Save the world’s trees

“When it comes to the Earth, there is no time to waste.” Says the Earth Day Network. And that is right. Protecting our environment is very important, and World Earth Day was created in 1970 to ask more people to protect our environment. On April 22, people around the world celebrate Earth Day.

Every year there is a special topic, and this year it is “Trees for the Earth,”     1     They are planning to plant 7.8 billion trees within the next five years.

That's a big goal, and you might wonder why trees are so important. Because they can take in carbon dioxide（CO₂）and protect the air quality（质量）. CO₂ is a chemical in our atmosphere, but humans make too much of it.     2    

Well guess what!     3     Last year, there were 3 trillion trees in the world, about 139 billion in China. But according to China Daily, the world’s total number has been almost cut in half since human civilization（文明）began. That’s because 15 billion trees are cut down every year.

So we need to plant more to make up for（弥补）the ones we lost. One tree can take in 21.8 kilograms of CO₂ per year.     4     But don’t forget that we can also help the environment by cutting down on how much energy（能源）or water we use every day. Every little things help.

A．Planting new trees is important because people cut down a huge number of trees.

B．Cutting down a lot of trees is not good for our living environment.

C．And it’s still one of the cheapest and best ways to get rid of CO2.

D．so Earth Day this year will be all about planting trees.

E．There are fewer and fewer trees, so we should plant trees.

F．Each person makes about 2.3 tons a year, which is bad for the environment.

【推荐2】Every year more people recognize that it is wrong to kill wildlife for “sport”. Progress in this direction is slow because shooting is not a sport for watching, and only those few who take part realize the cruelty and destruction.

The number of gunners, however, grows rapidly. Children too young to develop proper judgments through independent thought are led a long way away by their gunning parents. They are subjected to advertisements of gun producers who describe shooting as good for their health and gun-carrying as a way of putting redder blood in the veins. They are persuaded by gunner magazines with stories honoring the chase and the kill. In school, they view motion pictures which are supposedly meant to teach them how to deal with arms safely but which are actually designed to stimulate（刺激）a desire to own a gun.

Wildlife is disappearing because of shooting and because of the loss of wild land habitat. Habitat loss will continue with our increasing population, but can we slow the loss of wildlife caused by shooting? They seem to forgive shooting for sport because they know little or nothing about it. The only answer, then, is to bring the truth about sport shooting to the great majority of people.

Now, it is time to realize that animals have the same night to life as we do and that there is nothing fair or right about a person with a gun shooting the harmless and beautiful creatures. The gunner like to describe what they do as character building, but we know that to wound an animal and watch it go through the agony of dying can make nobody happy. If, as they would have you believe, gun-carrying and killing improve human character, then perhaps we should encourage war.

1. According to the text, most people do not seem to be against hunting because _______.

A．they have little knowledge of it	B．it helps to build human character
C．it is too costly to stop killing wildlife	D．they want to keep wildlife under control

2. The underlined word “agony” in the last paragraph probably means _______.

A．form

B．condition

C．pain

D．sadness

3. According to the text, the films children watch at school actually _______.

A．teach them how to deal with guns safely	B．praise hunting as character-building
C．describe hunting as an exercise	D．encourage them to have guns of their own

4. It can be inferred from the text that the author seems to _______.

A．blame the majority of people	B．worry about the existence of wildlife
C．be in favor of war	D．be in support of character-building

【推荐3】

Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that is in landfills, and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to solve it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.

Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms can break down polyethylene, which is an important part of plastics. The team left 100 worms on a polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To make sure that the worms’ eating alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of the whole-obviously broken down by enzymes from the worms’ stomachs. Their findings were published in Modern Biology in 2017.

Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms’ ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. “Wax is a mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well,” she explains, “The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. ”

Jennifer Debruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who didn’t join in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will find out the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes?

Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical made in some kind of industrial process — not simply. “millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.”

1. What can we learn about the worms in the study?

A．They can consume much plastics.	B．They are produced in plastics.
C．They take plastics as their everyday food.	D．They pollute landfills and oceans.

2. According to Jennifer DeBruyn, the next step of the study is to _________.

A．push the industrial process	B．increase the breakdown speed
C．find out the source of the enzyme	D．identify other ways of the breakdown

3. We can know from the last paragraph that the chemical might _________.

A．help to raise worms	B．help make plastic bags
C．be used to clean the oceans	D．be produced in factories in future

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．A Study on Worms	B．The Worms’ Diet
C．Plastic-Eating Worms	D．Keep Natural Balance

【推荐1】Large gatherings such as weddings and conferences can be socially crowded. Pressure to learn people’s names only adds to the stress. A new facial recognition app could come to save you, but privacy （隐私） experts suggested using with care.

The app, called Social Recall, connects names with faces through smartphone cameras and facial recognition, avoiding the need for formal introductions. “It breaks down the social difficulties we all have when meeting somebody,” says Barry Sandrew, who created the app and tested it at an event attended by about 1, 000 people.

After receiving an invitation to download Social Recall from an event organizer, the user is asked to take two selfies（自拍照） and sign in through social media. At the event, the app is active within a certain area. When a user points his or her phone camera at an attendee’s face, the app recognizes the person, displays the person’s name, and links to his or her social media. To protect privacy, it recognizes only those who have agreed to participate. And the app’s creators say it automatically deletes users’ data after an event.

Ann Cavoukian, a privacy expert who runs the Privacy by Design Center of Excellence praises （表扬） the app’s creators for these protective measures. She calls for people’s attention, however, that when people choose to share their personal information with the app, they should know that “there may be unwanted consequences （后果） down the road with that information being used in another social environment that might come back to bite you.”

The start-up has also developed a version of the app for individuals who suffer from prosopagnosia, or “face blindness,” a condition that prevents people from recognizing people they have met. To use this app, a person first gets an image of someone’s face, from either the smartphone’s camera or a photograph, and then tags it with a name. When the camera sees that same face in real life, the entered information is shown. The collected information is stored only on a user s phone, according to the team behind the app.

1. Social Recall is used to ________.

A．take photos

B．organize events

C．make friends

D．help us remember others’ names

2. Paragraph 3 is mainly about ________.

A．how the app works	B．how the app was created
C．what makes the app popular	D．what people can do with the app

3. Social Recall helps people with prosopagnosia by ________.

A．giving names to the photos kept in their smartphones

B．collecting information

C．providing the information of a person when they first meet

D．showing the person’s information when it sees a stored face

4. What can we learn about Social Recall from the passage?

A．It may put people’s privacy at risk.

B．It caused unwanted result.

C．It can prevent some communication disorders.

D．It is praised（被称赞） by many users for its protective measures.

【推荐2】Do you compare yourself to other people? Perhaps your best friend receives something you really want. Even though comparisons are common and can sometimes be helpful, focusing (专注) on your own progress is important for your happiness.

“We often compare ourselves to others.” says Dr. Jack. “But I suggest comparing yourself to your past self and your future self. This can make you feel proud of what you’ve achieved and excited about what you might do. Focusing on your own purposes is more worthwhile than always trying to come out on top.”

Comparing yourself to those around you is natural and we often do it without realizing it. It can help us to be clear about our achievements and to form friendships with new people. However, it’s important to remember that nobody is perfect in real life. It’s also important to know how the comparison is making you feel. “If you begin to feel quite low, focus on your own strengths.” says Jack. In other words (换句话说), you can ask yourself questions like “What can I do well in?”, which can help you trust yourself.

Maybe here you are wondering “What if all my friends are better than me?” Dr. White says that focusing on bettering your own work can help you feel just as successful. He also mentions that learning to celebrate your friends’ success can not only help you feel good but also encourage you to build each other up.

1. What does the writer tell us in Paragraph 1?

A．We should compare with others.	B．We should share things with brothers.
C．We should enjoy concerts with sisters.	D．We should focus on our own progress.

2. Why should you compare yourself to your past self?

A．To care about others.	B．To be proud of your achievements.
C．To increase your interest.	D．To change your purposes.

3. What does the underlined phrase “your own strengths” probably mean in Paragraph 3?

A．what you’re good at	B．what you’ve understood
C．what you’re crazy about	D．what you’ve experienced

4. What does Dr. White suggest?

A．Trusting your friends.	B．Cheering on tiny success.
C．Celebrating your friends’ success.	D．Forming a deep friendship.

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

A．Plan Your Own Future	B．Enjoy Your Own Happiness
C．Run Your Own Race	D．Follow Your Own Dream