1 . Donna Edmonds certainly knows a thing or two about getting children outside of the classroom. Having been a teacher for 23 years, she’s now in charge of Farms For City Children, a program enabling children in cities to explore the farms in the British countryside. Visiting children can take part in the farm tasks: growing and harvesting in the gardens; caring for chickens and looking after the land; and cooking up a home-grown meal in the farmhouse kitchen.
Donna’s connection with the charity led to a life-changing experience. She explained, “In November 2000, my headteacher said we’d got this trip going to a farm. I didn’t want to do that. I’m from south London and had no interest in farming.” But the week at Farms For City Children changed Donna’s entire life.
Donna said, “Quite honestly, the nature connection gap in our society is embarrassing; there are so many children who haven’t been to the countryside. I remember asking them what cows drank and they replied “milk”. Seeing them fall in love with nature was incredible to my life.”
Donna believes there is a strong need for teachers to bring city children into close contact with nature. Farms for City Children was founded in 1976, and it has now embraced a new direction — more children from different backgrounds can get into the countryside and they may one day even make a career from it.
1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．It praises an excellent teacher. | B．It introduces a school program. |
| C．It tells the adventure of a field trip. | D．It shows the difficulty in education. |
| A．They badly need to connect with nature. | B．They felt embarrassed in the countryside. |
| C．They are unlikely to fall in love with nature. | D．They know nothing about biology knowledge. |
| A．Help with young people’s career plan. | B．The right direction of farming development. |
| C．Improvement of children’s school performance. | D．Better ways to improve farmers’ living conditions. |
1.活动时间及地点；
2.队员选拔要求；
3.表达你的期待。
注意：
1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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3 . Ant Forest, a green initiative by the world’s leading payment and lifestyle platform Alipay, received the “U.N. Champions of the Earth” award, the UN’s highest environmental honor. It was given to Ant Forest for motivating half a billion people to adopt an eco-friendly and greener lifestyle, greatly contributing to ecological protection with the help of digital technology.
Alipay achieved this by inspiring its users to do environmentally-friendly things, such as walking, using public transportation, going paperless in the office and more to earn “green energy points”. These points can then be used to water and grow their own virtual young trees. After the virtual young trees have grown up on line, Ant Forest will plant real trees somewhere in China.
The number of Ant Forest users has reached 350 million, reducing 3 million tons of carbon dioxide. “Such programs are quite attractive to me. I feel satisfied to see a real tree planted just by doing some simple things such as riding bicycles and buying tickets online,” said an interviewee.
This initiative of Ant Forest is in line with the Chinese government’s strategy of a “Green Economy”. The country is taking aggressive actions in expanding its green coverage. Now, its efforts are paying off, with improved biodiversity and a healthier economic growth. Rare animal species have been spotted and forest parks are now popular attractions of tourism.
The planet is at a critical point which could result in natural disasters. It seems clear that unless governments, businesses and people form a focused team, it’s difficult to stop global warming. Fortunately, Ant Forest shows that it is possible to make joint efforts while relying on digital technology. And more initiatives are using technology to contribute to a sustainable future of the planet.
1. What was Ant Forest given the award for?| A．It brings convenience to people’s lives. |
| B．It is run by the world’s leading payment platform. |
| C．It technically assists many people to protect ecology. |
| D．It has made the greatest contribution to global development. |
| A．How Alipay makes profits. |
| B．How Ant Forest is carried out. |
| C．What a low-carbon life is like. |
| D．Why Alipay takes up the initiative. |
| A．350 million people have planted real trees. |
| B．Promoting tourism can help save animals. |
| C．China keeps a balance between economy and ecology. |
| D．The expansion of green coverage mainly results from Ant Forest. |
| A．By criticizing natural disasters. |
| B．By stopping the global warming. |
| C．By providing a platform to make joint efforts. |
| D．By encouraging people to donate money to plant trees. |
Since the beginning of the 21st century, artificial intelligence (Al)
“I think Al is going to be
However, the company also knows some of the fears surrounding Al. “
5 . Gregory Talley used to sleep in a park or under a bridge. The 50-year-old has been homeless for more than 10 years.
“It is hard. It’s hard to live homeless. You filled every day trying to find cut where you are going to get something to eat. If I hadn’t found wonderful Fairfax County Kennedy Shelter, I wouldn’t know where I would be by now. I might be dead,” Talley said.
The Kennedy Shelter is one of the facilities New Hope Housing provides for homeless people.
Pam Micheli has devoted her life to making the lives of this vulnerable（易受伤的）population better as executive director of the non-profit organization.
“I went to Africa in 1985. And I saw a huge amount of poverty, but I saw so much hope. And I decided that I should try to do something that would bring hope to people,” Michell said.
When Michell began working with New Hope Housing 25 years ago, its three shelters had about 80 beds. Now, it has 350 beds and serves about 1,500 homeless people every year. She has expanded the program beyond just providing beds for the night.
“We do outreach（拓展）, we do prevention, we do permanent housing. We do transitional housing. We have an education program with all sorts of different things to move people to end their homelessness,” she said, “Our Out of Poverty program is not just about money. It’s about you could be spiritually poor, you could be relationship poor ... you could be educationally poor. So it is focusing on how you get out of this poverty that has brought you to being homeless. The program tries to teach the shelter residents self-reliance（自立）and work values, and includes courses on planning and personal responsibility.
“I learned I still have opportunities to change it and I can change it,” said shelter resident Lewis Webster. “It is just about going forth in doing necessary work to do it. I mean if you really want better, you would do better and that’s the frame of mind of me now.”
1. Gregory Talley’s story is told at the beginning of the text to .| A．tell readers the situation for the poor in the US is getting worse |
| B．introduce a non-profit organization that is trying to help the poor in the US |
| C．disclose the truth that more and more homeless people are dying from hunger |
| D．remind readers that the homeless people in the US have no trouble getting food |
| A．providing dothes for them |
| B．offering food for them |
| C．building new houses for them |
| D．offering them shelters for the night |
| A．To tell the homeless people the ways to make money. |
| B．To help the homeless people find the causes of their poverty. |
| C．To encourage the homeless to work and rely on themselves. |
| D．To teach the poor how to live a better life in the shelters. |
| A．Comfort in the Kennedy Shelter |
| B．Ways to Achieve Success |
| C．An Opportunity to Fight Homelessness |
| D．An Organization to End Homelessness |
