1 . With all the dietary information online, it can be hard to know what tips to follow. Watch out for these words and expressions.

Fat Is Good

It doesn’t matter if you are part of the fat is GOOD for you or BAD for you group, the important question to ask is the source of the fat. If it comes from a land-based animal, and is likely to be solid at room temperature, then it is saturated (饱和的) fat whereas if it comes from fish or plants, and it is likely to be liquid at room temperature, then it is unsaturated fat. All the evidence indicates that eating more unsaturated fat than saturated fat lowers your risk of dying early.

Natural Sugar Is Better

The vast majority of sugar we consume is sucrose (蔗糖). It is the white powdered stuff we cook with and is made up of glucose and fructose. How about sugar from honey? It is often marketed as natural and better for you. Actually, it just has its own distinct flavour, but is as sweet because of glucose and fructose.

High-pH Water

Some people think we need to eat alkali (碱) food to maintain our blood at a pH of 7.4. But everything we eat or drink passes through the stomach, which, at a pH of 1.5, is the most acidic part of the body. It is then neutralised to a pH of 7. So, nothing we eat will change the pH of our blood.

Don’t Eat Anything That You Can’t Pronounce

Whether foods are natural or highly processed, they are all full of chemicals. Are you supposed to fear “phenylthiocarbamide”, because you can’t pronounce it? This is simply the chemical responsible for the bitter taste found in brassicas, the plants in the cabbage and mustard family.

Don’t Eat Food With More Than Five Ingredients(佐料)

Simple foods are not necessarily healthier for you. If I, for instance, use Chinese five spice powder in a recipe, that would count as one of the five ingredients. However, what if I added the typical components of five spice powder separately into a dish? Does that mean my recipe suddenly becomes bad because it has more than five ingredients?

1. According to the passage, healthier fat ______.

A．can be found in fish and plants	B．comes from land-based animals
C．remains solid at room temperature	D．can lower the death rate of elders

2. The passage suggests that ______.

A．diets can help adjust the pH of our blood	B．honey sugar can do more good than sucrose
C．foods with more ingredients may be as healthy	D．chemicals we can recognize are safer to take in

3. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To compare tips on food choices.	B．To introduce different health concepts.
C．To recommend fitness recipes to readers.	D．To warn us of some dietary misunderstandings.

3 . Students applying to colleges that use the Common Application should hand in an essay of 650 words. That includes the essay title, notes, and any other text that you include in the essay.

What Can You Accomplish in 650 Words?

Even if you take advantage of the full length available to you, keep in mind that 650 words is not a long essay. It’s roughly the equivalent of a two-page, double-spaced essay. Most essays tend to be between three and eight paragraphs depending on the applicant’s writing style and essay strategy.

As you plan your essay, you definitely want to keep the length requirement in mind. Many applicants attempt to do too much with their essays and then struggle to edit them down to 650 words. Realize the purpose of the personal statement is not to tell your life story or to give an exhaustive overview of all of your accomplishments. Let your list of extracurricular activities, academic record, letters of recommendation, and supplemental essays and materials show your range of accomplishments. The personal statement is not the place for long lists or catalogs of achievement.

To write an engaging and effective 650 word or shorter essay, you need to have a sharp focus. Narrate a single event, or illuminate a single passion or talent. Allow enough space for self-reflection so that whatever your topic is you spend at least some time talking about its significance to you.

Again, use the essay to narrate an engaging story. Make sure it highlights something you care about deeply, and be sure to provide a window into your interests or personality that isn’t already obvious from the rest of your application.

A Final Word About Essay Length

With the primary Common Application essay, you will need to come in at 650 words or fewer. However, you will find that most supplemental essays on the Common Application have different length guidelines, and colleges that don’t use the Common Application will have differing length requirements. No matter what the circumstances, make sure you follow the guidelines. If an essay should be 350 words, don’t write 370.

Finally, keep in mind that what you say and how you say it is far more important than whether you have 550 words or 650 words. If you’ve said all you have to say in 500 words, don’t try to pad your essay to make it longer. Regardless of length, the best writing will tell a compelling story, provide insight to your character and interests, and are written with crisp and engaging prose.

1. According to the passage, what might be a right thing to do while writing an essay?

A．To tell some interesting life stories.

B．To list all the possible achievements.

C．To show the range of accomplishments.

D．To highlight the focus of one single event.

2. As for the essay length, the applicant ________.

A．should follow the guidelines.

B．can set his or her own limit accordingly

C．should make sure it no less than 650 words

D．can write more than 650 words when necessary

3. What is the purpose of the passage?

A．To stress the importance of essay writing.

B．To introduce methods of writing a good essay.

C．To advertise a writing course for college students.

D．To remind the applicants of the length of their essay.

4 . Whether you’re managing medications, daily vitamins or other oral treatments, LiveFine takes the guesswork out of your routine with the ultimate efficiency and reliability system.

This WiFi-enabled Smart Organizer makes taking, tracking,and managing your medication simple—easy dosage templates (药剂模板)allow you to dispense(分配)pills anywhere from once up to nine times a day. 28 spacious sections hold multiple pills, tablets, and capsules in each part, removing the need for regular refills, which is perfect for prescriptions, supplements, vitamins, aspirin, antibiotics, etc.

The user guide provides comprehensive instructions for how to set up. In short, just fill the slots, install your preferred rings, and receive alerts. You can even customize audio and visual device alerts— plus notifications, alarms, and reminders and make missed doses a thing of the past! Just choose from multiple unique device alarm tones and adjust the volume to meet your precise needs.

Use the LiveFine mobile app reminders for added reliability, which takes patient monitoring to another level, with notifications when medications are taken or the dispenser cover is opened. Plus, the app provides simple review of past doses, with times recorded for each administered dose and an ultra-convenient remote monitoring option to help your family members and caregivers check on your progress straight from their phones.

Discover peace of mind with the dispenser that does it all—click here and add a LiveFine Smart WiFi Pill Dispenser to your cart today!

Extended LiveFine Features List Secure Cover The transparent design makes monitoring pills easy, while the lid’s manual key lock enhances security to prevent theft, spills, and mix-ups. Effortless Setup Just add your device to the app with a click. Then plan with simple button controls and an XLLCD display that make timing easy. Easy-Read LCD An LCD screen provides first-glance updates on the current time, upcoming alerts, battery life, and more. Large buttons, letters, and numbers are great for seniors. Plug-in Usage with Short Term Backup Battery Powered by included Type-C cable with rechargeable battery for backup power that supports 2-3 days use of device, in case of unexpected power outages.

1. LiveFine is a device that can____.

A．ensure efficient medical refills

B．reduce the need to see a doctor

C．remind users to track their daily routine

D．make it easier for users to take medicine

2. How can a LiveFine mobile app help the users?

A．By recording users’dosage activities.

B．By personalizing users’ rings and alerts.

C．By opening the dispenser cover remotely.

D．By keeping record of the symptoms of users.

3. What additional feature does the device have?

A．Its backup battery lasts for a week.

B．Its buttons prevent mix-ups of medicine.

C．Its lid reminds users to take medicine in time.

D．Its LCD screen makes it friendly to the elderly.

6 . Best Gifts for Every Type of Mom

Do you want to reward Mom with New Year gifts? Millions of products are offered online, but don’t get scared away. We have done the work for you by selecting best gift ideas for every type of mom. Just click “Add to cart” to shower Mom with love.

Dainty Earrings-Best for the Jewelry Lover

Made from sterling silver, the earrings are lightweight and perfect for everyday wear. They’re also ideal for anyone with sensitive ears. Among the 8,000 plus five-star reviewers, April Farmer confirm: this, saying, “Just about every material irritates (刺激) my ears, but I have had these in for three months now-and no irritation, no color changing, or fading of silver. I can’t even tell they are in!”

KS Lunch Bag-Best for the Working Mom

This in-disguise cooler bag will put a smile on mom’s face during lunch hour. With thousands of five-star reviewers, the fashionable and functional KS bag has an insulated lining (隔热的内衬) that helps keep food and beverages fresh, and an inside pocket that holds utensils. Plus, the soft, lightweight design makes it easy to bring anywhere.

Breville Express-Best for the Coffee Lover

Talk about a morning boost! If Mom is a true coffee lover, she’s dreamed of owning a high-end espresso machine. Now you can make that dream a reality. The Breville Express, which has more than 14,000 five-star reviews, comes in either black or stainless steel surfaces and offers the same dose-controlled grinding (研磨) that’s normally reserved for fancy coffee shops.

Beckham Pillows--Best for the One Who Needs a Good Night’s Sleep

She deserves a peaceful night’s rest after all the hard work she does every day, and she’ll get just that with these Beckham pillows. The set of two affordable cooling gel pillows is ideal for back, stomach and side sleepers. It offers much-needed temperature regulation that will keep her more comfortable than ever. It’s a best seller with more than 126,000 five-star reviews, so it’s pretty much a hit.

1. April Farmer’s review indicates that the Dainty Earrings are       .

A．durable and fancy	B．simple and unique
C．stylish and valuable	D．light and skin-friendly

2. From the passage, we can know that       .

A．Dainty Earrings are best for formal occasions

B．KS Lunch Bag is silver, portable and insulated

C．Breville Express features fine and quick grinding

D．Beckham Pillows suit different sleeping positions

3. Who is the passage intended for?

A．Agencies selling products to moms.

B．People seeking gifts for their moms.

C．Moms planning to reward themselves.

D．Salesmen studying moms’ preferences.

7 . Humans have long gained pleasure from the smells of the natural world. For the most part, though, human beings are not their target market. For plants, fragrances are a way to interact with insects and other animals. Their attraction for people happens simply by chance.

In chemical terms, most natural fragrances are made up of volatiles — so called because of their tendency to change states suddenly. Volatiles evaporate easily, drifting into noses. In plants’ reproductive processes, smelly volatiles attract pollinators (授粉昆虫). But their natural applications are much more varied. If an insect chews through the leaves of some Bursera plants, out shoots a sticky, smelly liquid to trap it. Coyote tobacco plants are even more crafty: upon sensing the smell of hungry caterpillars, they produce volatiles that attract predators to kill the pests.

What is truly amazing is just how wily plants can be in using their scents for reproduction. White flowers often emit their scent at night to attract nocturnal pollinators such as moths. They produce a dilute nectar (稀释的花蜜) that encourages moths to keep moving, rather than linger at a single bloom—all the better to increase pollination. Other flowers change their fragrance after being successfully pollinated, as a signal for insects to go elsewhere.

But though “Scent” is a story of plants’ cleverness, it is also a tale of the human kind. People have long used fragrances for their own purposes, particularly for use in religious ceremonies: perfume recipes on the walls of an Egyptian temple in Edfu demonstrate just how long ingredients have been mixed in pursuit of the best blend. So highly prized were some scents that, to scare off competitors, Arab traders spread a legend about giant eagles that guarded cinnamon.

Eventually scientists no longer needed natural sources for fragrances. In 1866 a fragrance molecule was produced for the first time. Sixteen years later, Houbigant Parfum released Fougère Royale, the first “modern fantasy perfume” that creates an imaginary scent rather than copying a natural one. Nowadays fragrance–making is dominated by man–made compounds, which can be reliably and affordably produced in large quantities.

That has led to the mass production of smelly products, from toilet paper to toothpaste. Scent is accordingly big business. It is said that a world–famous fragrance and flavour manufacturer that claims people interact with its products up to 30 times a day, had sales of €3.8bn last year.

1. According to Paragraph 1 and 2, which would the author agree with?

A．Some plants might kill the pests with their smells.

B．Fragrance is a tool for plants to protect themselves.

C．People interact with nature easily through fragrance.

D．Fragrances are less important to humans than to animals and insects.

2. What does the underlined word “prized” in Paragraph 4 most probably mean?

A．Developed.

B．Rewarded.

C．Mixed.

D．Valued.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Humans do not use fragrances as purposefully as plants do.

B．Natural sources for fragrances will be out of date in the future.

C．Plants use fragrances to both attract and send away pollinators.

D．Man–made fragrances have to be produced by copying natural ones.

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．Plants Smell, Insects Prey	B．Smartness behind Fragrance
C．Fragrance: To Make or Not to Make	D．Fragrance Connects Human & Nature

8 . Next Frontiers

Schoolbooks typically present explorers as intrepid (勇敢的) individuals who, for example, sail wooden ships to new lands. But today most explorers who are making fundamental discoveries are scientists. And whether the frontiers are tiny, like the human genome, or massive, like our deepest oceans, we still have much left to learn about planet Earth. The quests that modern scientists pursue rival (比得上) anything in a history book or an adventure novel.

Exploration is science in its most basic form — asking questions of the natural world and, we hope, using the answers for the betterment of everything on Earth.

Exploration has great value. It inspires us, widens our knowledge and gives us hope for a better future. And the practical payoffs can even be lifesaving. Scientists who spent decades exploring what was in the atmosphere found that over time the concentration of carbon dioxide was rising. Without that discovery, we humans would now be living like the proverbial frog in a pot of gradually heating water, unsure why the environment around us is changing, and slowly boiling to death.

The human drive to overcome challenges is an essential aspect of the human drive to explore, which, in most cases, spurs innovation. Early human submersibles that reached the bottom of the deepest ocean trenches made the trip just once, stressed by the enormous pressures there. But eventually a more stress-resistant deep–submergence vehicle, the Limiting Factor, allowed investor and undersea explorer Victor Vescovo to reach trench bottoms numerous times.

Now there are roughly 4,000 autonomous Argo floats across the world’s oceans that dive down to 2,000 feet and resurface every 10 days. Programmable vessels greatly expand our reach and reduce the risk to the people involved in exploration, allowing for the kind of discovery that the human body might limit. The Argo group will also deploy dozens of sensors every year that will gather biological and chemical data, leading to new observations about marine life.

Other institutions plan to search the seas in unison, sending data to guide ships that forward the information to researchers on shore. Ocean research groups have made it a priority to openly share their discoveries and data with the public and to inspire the next generation of young scientists. Anyone can go along for the ride — we can all be explorers. Maybe one day you’ll explore the Great Barrier Reef, the desert, or a rain-forest canopy.

Captain James T. Kirk began each episode of the original Star Trek television series by saying, “Space, the final frontier.” Not necessarily. We still have plenty to discover right here on Earth, and we eagerly await surprises from the newest worlds we find.

1. The example “proverbial frog” in Paragraph 3 is used to       .

A．illustrate the significance of exploration	B．stress the importance of knowledge
C．argue for the necessity of innovation	D．show the impact of global warming

2. We can learn from Paragraph 4 and 5 that      .

A．the human desire to overcome challenges leads to innovation

B．sea life observation is the final purpose of ocean exploration

C．the findings of ocean exploration are rather disappointing

D．new technologies push human exploration in the ocean

3. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Few modern scientists are true explorers.	B．The space will be human’s final frontier.
C．Exploring is an in-born human quality.	D．Exploring the earth can still be fruitful.