1 . Traditionally, it has been assumed that cultivating food leads to a loss of biodiversity and negative impacts on an ecosystem. In a recent study, researchers looked at 28 urban community gardens across California over five years and quantified biodiversity in plant and animal life, as well as ecosystem functions such as carbon sequestration (碳封存), food production, pest control, and human well-being.
“We wanted to determine if there were any biodiversity and impacts on ecosystem function in those urban gardens,” says Shalene Jha, the lead author of the study in Ecology Letters. “What we found is that these gardens, which are providing tremendous nutritional resources and increasing well-being for gardeners, are also supporting incredibly high levels of plant and animal biodiversity. It’s a win-win.”
Previous assumptions by scientists about the negative effect of food production on biodiversity have been almost entirely based on intensive rural agriculture enterprises that tend to grow only one or two types of crops, often at a massive scale. Urban community gardens, private gardens, and urban farms and orchards tend to grow more types of plants in smaller areas. The new study is the first to explore the effects of urban gardens across a wide range of biodiversity measures and ecological services.
“It’s estimated that by 2030, about 60% of the world’s population will live in cities, ” Jha says. “And urban farms and gardens currently provide about 15%-20% of our food supply, so they are essential in addressing food inequality challenges. What we’re seeing is that urban gardens present an critical opportunity to support both biodiversity and local food production.”
The study also found that the choices that gardeners make can have a large impact on their local ecosystem. For instance, planting trees outside crop beds could increase carbon sequestration without decreasing food production from too much shade. And covering only within crop beds could help improve soil carbon services, while avoiding negative effects on pest control.
1. What’s the purpose of the study conducted by Shalene Jha?| A．To analyze the cause of loss of biodiversity. |
| B．To increase well-being of gardeners. |
| C．To quantify nutritional levels in plants and animals. |
| D．To study the influence of urban gardens on ecosystem. |
| A．Inefficient pest control. |
| B．Limited planting scales. |
| C．Intensive agricultural pattern. |
| D．Unsatisfactory ecological services. |
| A．Objective. | B．Supportive | C．Doubtful. | D．Concerned. |
| A．Urban Gardens Boost Biodiversity. |
| B．Urban Gardens Challenge Rural Agriculture. |
| C．Urban Farms Address Food Inequality. |
| D．Urban Biodiversity Increases Well-being of Cardener. |
2 . Not too long ago, 41-year-old Garrett Fisher flew a small airplane close to the surface of the largest glacier in Norway. In that environment, the plane carrying a man who pursues glaciers seemed almost like a toy. Fisher is trying to photograph every glacier on Earth before some of them disappear.
Scientists say many glaciers are getting smaller because Earth’s average temperature is increasing. Information from the European Environment Agency, or EEA, says glaciers in the Alps have lost about half of their volume since 1900 and that by 2100, the size of European glaciers could decrease by between 22 percent and 84 percent. Historical records of the size of glaciers in Europe also show that glaciers are now shrinking faster. This has pushed Fisher to combine his love of flying and photography to photograph Earth’s remaining glaciers before it’s too late.
Fisher believes his photographs can be of great value to future generations. So, he has launched the Global Glacier Initiative, a non-profit group to support and show his work. He plans to open his photos to the public for research.
Fisher flew a small plane that has a smell of oil and feels like an old car. It was his choice to have the dangerous flying. “The weather is bad and the flying is technically challenging, ”Fisher said. Some people would ask, “Why risk flying over glaciers when satellites have already given pictures of them?” Fisher said that satellite images don’t catch the beauty of glaciers the way his photos can. His photos show the colors, shapes, and shadows as the light from the sun hits the glaciers.
Fisher has paid for his glacier photography with his own money. But it is costly. Money is running out and Fisher is looking for people who will help support his work. He hopes his photos will be a reminder to people. He is trying to obtain the perfect image, which is so beautiful that it can make people and policymakers act.
1. What caused Fisher to combine flying and photography?| A．The request from the EEA. |
| B．The beauty of Earth’s glaciers. |
| C．The crisis of disappearing glaciers. |
| D．The need to enrich glacier records. |
| A．To carry out research on glaciers. |
| B．To make his photos publicly available. |
| C．To record the size of European glaciers. |
| D．To attract more glacier enthusiasts. |
| A．Adventurous and determined. | B．Optimistic and generous. |
| C．Creative and thoughtful. | D．Brave and patient. |
| A．Bringing him some financial support. |
| B．Being recognized by policymakers. |
| C．Strengthening the human-nature bond. |
| D．Raising people’s concern for glaciers. |
3 . For years, I rejected this part of myself, until I realized what I was missing.
I used to be proud of my southern origin. My own voice reflected my family’s past and present, all southern. While growing up, I began to realize outside of our region, southerners were often dismissed as uncultured and uneducated, ignorant and narrow-minded. In that awkward stage between teenager and adult, my accent was a symbol of everything I hated about my life in the rural South.
The process of getting rid of my accent began in high school with Gilmore Girls. After each episode, I’d stand before a mirror, practicing the characters’ lines in an effort to speak like a “normal” white upper-middle-class girl. Eventually, I was successful at breaking down my tongue and rebuilding it. Every time I was asked where I was from, I would say “near Memphis” or make an ambiguous statement about my country background.
Now I’m living in a big city with a respectable job downtown. Every step I walk from the train station to the office seems victorious. However, I’ve been pretending and I’m fed up with it. Occasionally my old self escapes from my lips when encouraged by an extra glass of whiskey, but I unconsciously go back to the safety of the unaccented minutes later, making me feel as if I’m a fraud — a girl who forgets where she comes from. Then gradually I’ve become kind of homesick that leads me to put on the old Highwomen record and dance around, singing with all the accents I’ve got left.
My grandmother used to tell me, “Girl, don’t you forget where you come from?” Memories are fading by time but this one has remained impressed on my mind. So, I decide to move back. I’m still searching for what it means to be southern, but now I’m doing it with all the “y’alls”, and “ain’ts” I’ve kept back for so long.
1. Why did the author decide to get rid of her southern accent?| A．Because she got uneducated. |
| B．Because she was misled by prejudice. |
| C．Because it reflected her shameful past. |
| D．Because it made her laughed at by others. |
| A．The author learnt the language well. |
| B．The author finally succeeded in big cities. |
| C．The author made a white upper class girl. |
| D．The author managed to rebuild her accent. |
| A．Her over-drinking. | B．Her boredom of pretending. |
| C．Her homesickness. | D．Her grandmother’s words. |
| A．Stay true to yourself. |
| B．Everyone has his own secret. |
| C．God helps those who help themselves. |
| D．There’s always a silver lining in the cloud. |
4 . In September, thousands of monuments, civic buildings and private homes throw open their doors to offer a rare glimpse of normally of-limits spaces. Here are some less-known treasures around the UK.
Guided tour of Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden
Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden will be running special tours as part of the Open Doors-Wales festival. It was built as a memorial to prime minister Wiliam Gladstope, Take a tour of beautiful Reading Rooms housing 150, 000 books.
September 16, 10 am-2 pm, booking required.
Britannia Panopticon Music Hall, Glasgow
The atmospheric Britannia Panopticon will be showing off its collection of theatrical relics, props and costumes. Sample Victorian items at the world’s oldest surviving music hall without booking.
September 15 and 16, 11 am-5 pm and September 17, 12 pm-5 pm
Gothic Temple, Stowe Gardens
Visitors to Stowe Gardens will be offered a rare chance to see inside the 18th century Gothic Temple. Though it’s normally rented as a holiday let, its circular rooms and mosaic ceilings will be open to prebooked visitors for one weekend.
September 16 and 17, 10:30 am-4:30 pm, free of charge
Appleton Tower: School of Informatics, Edinburgh University
As part of Scotland’s Doors Open Days festival, Edinburgh University’s Appleton Tower will be offering tours of the world-leading School, including a visit to the study suite on Level 9 which offers far-reaching views of the Edinburgh skyline.
September 23, 11 am-2 pm, booking in advance.
1. What can visitors do at Britannia Panopticon Music Hall?| A．They can appreciate theatre-related items. |
| B．They can listen to the oldest surviving music. |
| C．They can visit a study room with far-reaching scenery. |
| D．They can read in Reading Rooms with 150, 000 books in store. |
| A．Guided tour of Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden. |
| B．Britannia Panopticon Music Hall, Glasgow. |
| C．Gothic Temple, Stowe Gardens. |
| D．Appleton Tower: School of Informatics, Edinburgh University. |
| A．They both last for four hours. |
| B．They both offer classic books to visitors. |
| C．They both honor world famous figures. |
| D．They both require reservations. |
5 . Diebedo Kere is a young architect from Africa. There was no
Opened in 2001, the school now
“Africa is full of very bright and
| A．legal | B．local | C．musical | D．medical |
| A．loss | B．occasion | C．family | D．responsibility |
| A．cheat | B．blame | C．disappoint | D．trouble |
| A．While | B．Whenever | C．Although | D．Since |
| A．sale | B．opening | C．collapse | D．exchange |
| A．Asked | B．Reminded | C．Determining | D．Allowing |
| A．poverty | B．education | C．courage | D．fortune |
| A．set about | B．insisted on | C．picked up | D．looked into |
| A．advises | B．counts | C．monitors | D．abandons |
| A．changes | B．spares | C．finds | D．provides |
| A．tradition | B．wealth | C．knowledge | D．freedom |
| A．ambitious | B．modest | C．patient | D．generous |
| A．devotion | B．access | C．tendency | D．application |
| A．treat | B．failure | C．term | D．success |
| A．fields | B．companies | C．apartments | D．factories |
6 . Winners of the Broadcom MASTERS
Girls took the top prizes at the Broadcom MASTERS, a science competition for middle school students.
Alaina Gassler
Alaina won the $25,000 Samueli Foundation Prize for the project of reducing blind spots in cars. She was inspired to solve this issue by her mother who didn’t like driving her vehicle because its large A-pillar (A柱) design made her feel in danger. “I started to think about how blind spots were a huge problem in all cars,” said Alaina. So she worked on and solved it.
Sidor Clare
Sidor won the $10,000 Marconi/Samueli Award for Innovation, an honor made by Samueli’s generous donation of his 2012 Marconi Society Prize Award. She developed bricks that could one day be made on Mars, so that humans wouldn’t be required to carry building materials with them in order to build there.
Alexis MacAvoy
Alexis won the $10,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement, which recognized the student whose work and performance showed the most promise in health-related fields and demonstrated an understanding of the many social factors that affect health. She designed a water filter (过滤器) by using carbon to remove heavy metals from water.
Rachel Bergey
Rachel won the $10,000 Lemelson Award for Invention, awarded by The Lemelson Foundation to a young inventor creating promising solutions to real-world problems. She developed a trap made of tinfoil (锡纸) and netting for the spotted lanternfly, an invasive species causing damage to trees.
1. What is the purpose of Alaina Gassler’s invention?| A．To beautify vehicles. | B．To improve the safety of driving. |
| C．To decorate the sidewalk for the blind. | D．To reduce the carbon released from cars. |
| A．Alaina Gassler’s. | B．Sidor Clare’s. |
| C．Rachel Bergey’s. | D．Alexis MacAvoy’s. |
| A．Art. | B．Sport. | C．Technology. | D．Education. |
7 . The idea that the standard human body temperature is about 98.6℉ (37℃) was first presented by the German physician Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich in 1851. Since then, it’s become so widely accepted that it serves as a touchstone for health—a diagnostic tool used by physicians and parents as a basic indicator if someone is sick or well.
However, it turns out that this well-established fact isn’t, in fact, correct—or, to put it more accurately, human beings have been getting cooler over the years.
Recent studies have shown that temperature records of groups of people have tended to run low compared to the accepted norm (标准), so the Stanford team, led by Julie Parsonnet, MD, professor of medicine and of health research and policy, decided to do a more in-depth study to compare modern measurements with historical records to try to identify body temperature trends and, perhaps, uncover the reason why this cooling is happening.
For their research, the Stanford team looked at three distinct datasets (数据集) from three historical periods. One was military service records, medical records, and pension records from Union Army veterans of the American Civil War that were compiled from 1862 to 1930. The second was from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Ⅰ collected between 1971 and 1975, and the third from adult patients visiting Stanford Health Care from 2007 to 2017.
In all, the team went through 677,423 temperature measurements, making sure that temperatures recorded were accurate rather than the result of poorly designed thermometers (温度计). They did this by looking at the change in temperature inside each group over time to ensure that the curves (曲线) showing a decrease were consistent between the datasets.
At the end of the day, the team found that men born in the 21st century had an average body temperature of 0.59℃ lower than those born in the early 19th century, while modern women showed an average decrease of 0.32℃ compared to those born in the 1890s. Together, this means that human body temperatures have fallen by 0.03℃ per decade.
1. What is Wunderlich’s achievement?| A．He was the inventor of the thermometer. |
| B．He set up a standard for normal body temperature. |
| C．He discovered humans’ body temperature trends. |
| D．He put forward the theory of normal human body temperature. |
| A．By having interviews. | B．By conducting field research. |
| C．By analyzing historical records. | D．By doing experiments in the lab. |
| A．The quality of thermometers. | B．The backgrounds of the subjects. |
| C．The sorting of the collected datasets. | D．The number of adult patients involved. |
| A．Modern women’s body temperatures have risen over the past century. |
| B．The 19th century saw the greatest increase in men’s body temperatures. |
| C．The 21st century saw the greatest decrease in men’s body temperatures. |
| D．Men’s body temperatures have fallen faster than women’s over the years. |
8 . I enjoy throwing stuff away. I’d love to go full minimalism (极简主义), but my wife and two teenage kids do not share my dream of a house with almost nothing in it. I have tried. When the kids were little, I taught them my two favorite games – “Do We Need It?” and “Put It in Its Place”— and made them play every few months. Their enthusiasm never matched mine.
If I’m going to be honest, my own tidying skills are not as great as I’d like. My “discarded” pile is never quite the trash mountain I want because I make up excuses for why things are useful. I consider this unhealthy. I want to be better at moving on.
So, this time I found help—the classics for people like me: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo. Kondo’s commitment to her craft is astonishing. Her philosophy is only to keep things you love. Can I go full Kondo? I will try. One central idea is to clean by category. You start by collecting all clothes and gathering them together for consideration. It makes you rethink how you organize. Next, hold each item and ask if it brings you joy. This way you’re choosing what to keep. And that’s how I find myself with all my clothes on my bedroom floor. My wife walks by and gives me a look that says I’m nuts. She’s probably not wrong.
Somewhere near the bottom of this chaos is my special jacket. I move through the pile: pants, shirts, suits and shoes. Then my last category: jackets. I haven’t worn it in about 30 years. Somehow, it has survived. Now, has its time come?
I hold it in my hand. There is a tear just below the collar that widens as I hold it. It’s literally falling apart. Will I ever wear it again? Not a chance. Does it feel good to wear? Does it bring me joy? Actually, yes. At this moment, my daughter walks in. She asks about the jacket. I tell her the story. She thinks I should keep it. It’s cool and unique and full of memories. She is arguing that nostalgia (怀念) is the very reason.
I’m not entirely convinced by my daughter’s arguments. I believe in looking ahead, not backward. Nevertheless, sometimes it’s hard to let go. So I gently place the jacket on the “keep” pile.
1. What can we learn about the author’s family members from Paragraph1?| A．They can’t tolerate what the author insists on. |
| B．They are less passionate about full minimalism. |
| C．They are strongly opposed to full minimalism. |
| D．They completely support what the author does. |
| A．abandoned | B．disposable | C．organized | D．classified |
| A．To learn how to categorize. | B．To develop a passion for minimalism. |
| C．To persuade his family members. | D．To improve his tidying skills. |
| A．The importance of categorizing skills | B．The changes brought by minimalism |
| C．The author’s efforts to go minimalism | D．An inspiration got from the book |
9 . You probably know who Marie Curie was, but you may not have heard of Rachel Carson. Of the outstanding ladies listed below, who do you think was the most important woman of the past 100 years?
Jane Addams(1860-1935)
Anyone who has ever been helped by a social worker has Jane Addams to thank. Addams helped the poor and worked for peace. She encouraged a sense of community (社区) by creating shelters and promoting education and services for people in need. In 1931, Addams became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Rachel Carson(1907-1964)
If it weren’t for Rachel Carson, the environmental movement might not exist today. Her popular 1962 book Silent Spring raised awareness of the dangers of pollution and the harmful effects of chemicals on humans and on the world’s lakes and oceans.
Sandra Day O’Connor(1930-present)
When Sandra Day O’Connor finished third in her class at Stanford Law School, in 1952, she could not find work at a law firm because she was a woman. She became an Arizona state senator(参议员) and, in 1981, the first woman to join the U.S. Supreme Court. O’Connor gave the deciding vote in many important cases during her 24 years on the top court.
Rosa Parks(1913-2005)
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks would not give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. Her simple act landed Parks in prison. But it also set off the Montgomery bus boycott.It lasted for more than a year, and kicked off the civil-rights movement. “The only tired I was,was tired of giving in,”said Parks.
1. What is Jane Addams famous for in history?| A．Her social work. | B．Her teaching skills. |
| C．Her efforts to win a prize. | D．Her community background. |
| A．Her lack of proper training in law. | B．The discrimination against women. |
| C．Her little work experience in court. | D．The poor financial conditions. |
| A．Jane Addams. | B．Rachel Carson. |
| C．Sandra Day O’Connor. | D．Rosa Parks. |
10 . Chinese cuisine is widely known and enjoyed all around the world. Who doesn’t long for a favorite Chinese dish? But there is one interesting concept concerning Chinese food which is almost unheard of in the West, and which is becoming increasingly ignored by the youth of the East—the ancient custom of “tonic food”.
Tonic food is food which is consumed to improve one’s well-being or avoid sickness. For instance, it was once the custom for new mothers to eat a sesame oil(麻油) chicken soup every day for the first month after giving birth. It was believed that this dish would benefit the muscles, reduce pain, improve circulation, stimulate sweating, and warm the body. Some foods, such as goat meat and spinach, are seen as “hot”, while others, such as Chinese cabbage and radishes, are seen as “cold”. One should be careful not to eat too much of either “hot” or “cold” food. However, how much “hot” or “cold” food one should eat depends on the time of the year, how the food is prepared and what it is prepared with, and the individual’s health.
The custom of employing tonic food for a healthier life also influences the catering industry. Chinese herbal medicines, such as wolfberry(枸杞子), can be found on many a restaurant menu, either added to fruit tea or as a beneficial addition to a dish. These herbs attract customers, such as overworked office staff, in need of a modest pick-me-up.
So, whether you need to boost your strength with a large helping of chicken soup, or increase your mental powers with a serving of fish soup, you may find that this ancient Chinese custom could be just the tonic you were looking for.
1. What is the present situation of tonic food?| A．It is catching less attention. | B．It is enjoyed by many young people. |
| C．It is well-known worldwide. | D．It is becoming increasingly popular. |
| A．Chinese cabbage. | B．Fruit tea. |
| C．Sesame oil chicken soup. | D．Fish soup. |
| A．Medicine. | B．Restaurant. | C．Manufacture. | D．Agriculture. |
| A．The Charm of Chinese Cuisine | B．The Popularity of Tonic Food |
| C．An Introduction of Chinese Tonic Food | D．Differences Between “Hot” Food and “Cold” Food |
