1 . Some of the world’s most significant problems never hit headlines. One example comes from agriculture. Food riots and hunger make news. But the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decline in the growth in yields of some of the world’s major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring.

The authors take a vast number of data points for the four most important crops: rice, wheat corn and soybeans. They find that on between 24% and 39% of all harvested areas, the improvement in yields that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s.

There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world’s most populous countries, India and China. Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down or reverse.

Second, yield growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soya beans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods, accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soybeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note that “we have preferentially focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world.”

The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organization has argued.

Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughed up for crops might be able to revert to forest or wilderness. This could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in yields, which may not actually happen.

1. What does the author try to draw attention to?

A．Food riots and hunger in the world.	B．News headlines in the leading media.
C．The decline of the grain yield growth.	D．The food supply in populous countries.

2. Why does the author mention India and China in particular?

A．Their self-sufficiency is vital to the stability of world food markets.

B．Their food yields have begun to decrease sharply in recent years.

C．Their big populations are causing worldwide concerns.

D．Their food self-sufficiency has been taken for granted.

3. What does the new study by the two universities say about recent crop improvement efforts?

A．They fail to produce the same remarkable results as before the 1980s.

B．They contribute a lot to the improvement of human food production.

C．They play a major role in guaranteeing the food security of the world.

D．They focus more on the increase of animal feed than human food grains.

4. What does the Food and Agriculture Organization say about world food production in the coming decades?

A．The growing population will greatly increase the pressure on world food supplies.

B．The optimistic prediction about food production should be viewed with caution.

C．The slowdown of the growth in yields of major food crops will be reversed.

D．The world will be able to feed its population without increasing farmland.

2 . A new keyboard tool makes it easier for blind Internet users or those who have low vision to quickly access options on popular websites.

Browsing（浏览）through offerings on Airbnb, for instance, means clicking on rows of photos. This is easy for common people but can be hard or impossible for the blind or those with poor eyesight. A new way of using the keyboard to access tables and maps lets blind and poor-sighted users visit sites more successfully than screen readers alone. The new keyboard tool, Spatial Recognition Interaction Techniques, or SPRITEs, maps different parts of the keyboard to areas on the screen.

In an experiment, 10 people, eight of whom were blind and two with poor eyesight, were asked to complete a series of tasks using their favorite screen reader technology, and then using that technology plus SPRITEs. After 15 minutes, three times as many participants were able to complete web-browsing tasks within the given time limit using SPRITEs, even though all were experienced with screen readers.

Users press keys to make the screen reader move to certain parts of the website. For instance, number keys, along the top of the keyboard, map to menu buttons. Double-clicking on a number opens that menu item’s submenu, and then the top row of letters lets the user select each item in the submenu. Most participants couldn't complete a task such as finding an item in a submenu or find certain information in a table using their favorite screen reader, but could complete it using SPRITEs. For text-based tasks such as finding a given section header, counting headings in a page, or finding a specific word, participants were able to complete them successfully using either tool.

Now the developers plan to make the system better for any website and then add it to some free online screen readers.

1. Why did the researchers carry out the experiment?

A．To show the advantage of SPRITEs.

B．To improve the use of screen readers.

C．To test web-browsing tasks in given time.

D．To prove SPRITEs’ advancement over the screen readers.

2. How can users open a submenu using SPRITEs?

A．By clicking the mouse.	B．By touching the screen.
C．By tapping twice on a number.	D．By pressing keys at the bottom.

3. What can be learned about SPRITEs?

A．It contributes to typing fast.

B．It can recognize words much faster.

C．It helps explore new ways to surf the Internet.

D．It assists the blind and poor-sighted to find information more easily.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．The age of keyboard is gone

B．The blind and poor-sighted's needs are met

C．Screen will be combined with a new keyboard

D．New keyboard technology is helping the blind and poor-sighted

3 . With attractiveness in its structure (结构) and in its presence, the Eiffel Tower has become a great site of France and Gustave Eiffel's architectural wonder. Also known as La Tour Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower is climbed by millions of visitors every year. Do you know how tall the Eiffel Tower is? Standing at 1, 063 feet tall, this is the second tallest building in France after the Millau Viaduct, a road bridge across the river Tarn. Nicknamed La Dame de Fer, or the iron lady, this tower is a symbol of France even today.

The tower was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance for the World Fair. This event was to mark the 100th celebration of the storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution. Ironically, at first, the tower was considered unpleasant by a lot of art enthusiasts. Several members from the arts community said it only ruined the empty skyline of the Paris city. French novelist Guy de Maupassant expressed his dislike for the tower                    by eating lunch every day at the tower's restaurant — his explanation was that it was the only place in Paris where one could not see the structure! Whatever may have been the opinion about the structure at the time, the fact remains that                    it became an object that attracted many people around the world.

The tower, weighing 10, 000 tons, includes several non-metallic (非金属的) parts as well. The metallic parts used in the structure weigh 7,300 tons, which, if melted (熔化), will fill up a 125-meter square with a depth of 6cm. At the time when the tower was built, the great structure amazed lots of engineers and common people. The Eiffel Tower needs 50~60 tons of paint every seven years to keep the rust (铁锈) away.

The structure decorates the Parisian skyline. Being one of the most visited sites in the world, the Eiffel Tower still remains an architectural wonder!

1. What does “the iron lady" refer to in paragraph 1?

A．Gustave Eiffel.	B．The Eiffel Tower.
C．Millau Viaduct.	D．The river Tarn.

2. The underlined word “Ironically" in the second paragraph means “______________".

A．impolitely

B．impossibly

C．unexpectedly

D．cautiously

3. How much paint was probably used from 1996 to 2017 on the tower?

A．170 tons.

B．220 tons.

C．5,500 tons.

D．10,000 tons.

4. What is the purpose of the third paragraph?

A．To show how huge the Eiffel Tower is.

B．To show the Eiffel Tower is a good entrance.

C．To show the materials used to build the Eiffel Tower.

D．To show how difficult it is to clean the Eiffel Tower.

4 . Dr. Donald Sadoway at MIT started his own battery company with the hope of changing the world's energy future．It's a dramatic endorsement（支持）for a technology most people think about only when their smartphone goes dark．But Sadoway isn't alone in boasting about energy storage as a missing link to a cleaner, more efficient, and more equitable energy future．

Scientists and engineers have long believed in the promise of batteries to change the world．Advanced batteries are moving out of specialized markets and creeping into the mainstream, signaling a tipping point for forward-looking technologies such as electric cars and rooftop solar propels．

The ubiquitous（无所不在的）battery has already come a long way, of course．For better or worse, batteries make possible our mobile-first．lifestyles, our screen culture, our increasingly globalized world．Still, as impressive as all this is, it may be trivial compared with what comes next．Having already enabled a communications revolution, the battery is now poised to transform just about everything else．

The wireless age is expanding to include not just our phones, tablets, and laptops, but also our cars, homes, and even whole communities．In emerging economies, rural communities are bypassing the wires and wooden poles that spread power．Instead, some in Africa and Asia are seeing their first light bulbs illuminated by the power of sunlight stored in batteries．

Today, energy storage is a $33 billion global industry that generates nearly 100 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year．By the end of the decade, it's expected to be worth over 50 billion dollars and generate 160 gigawatt-hours, enough to attract the attention of major companies that might not otherwise be interested in a decidedly pedestrian technology．Even utility companies, which have long viewed batteries and alternative forms of energy as a threat, are learning to embrace the technologies as enabling rather than disrupting．

Today's battery breakthroughs come as the world looks to expand modern energy access to the billion or so people without it, while also cutting back on fuels that warm the planet．Those simultaneous challenges appear less overwhelming with increasingly better answers to a centuries-old question: how to make power portable．

To be sure, the battery still has a long way to go before the nightly recharge completely replaces the weekly trip to the gas station．A battery-powered world comes with its own risks, too．What happens to the centralized electric grid, which took decades and billions of dollars to build, as more and more people become "prosumers," who produce and consume their own energy on site?

No one knows which——if any——battery technology will ultimately dominate, but one thing remains clear．The future of energy is in how we store it．

1. What does Dr. Sadoway think of energy storage?

A．It involves the application of sophisticated technology．

B．It is the direction energy development should follow．

C．It will prove to be a profitable business．

D．It is a technology benefiting everyone．

2. What is most likely to happen when advanced batteries become widely used?

A．Mobile-first lifestyles will become popular．

B．The globalization process will speed up．

C．Communications will take more diverse forms．

D．The world will undergo revolutionary changes．

3. In some rural communities of emerging economies, people have begun to _______________．

A．find digital devices simply indispensable

B．communicate primarily by mobile phone

C．light their homes with stored solar energy

D．distribute power with wires and wooden poles

4. What does the author imply about the centralized electric grid?

A．It might become a thing of the past．

B．It might turn out to be a "prosumer"．

C．It will be easier to operate and maintain．

D．It will have to be completely transformed．

5 . Like other pandemics and emerging disease outbreaks, COVID-19 is creating immense psychosocial disturbances. The disease involves an unfamiliar threat that is difficult to detect and challenging to distinguish from more benign illnesses. Dynamic pandemic conditions will draw out the anxiety. Things will get worse before they get better. A vaccine absent, non-pharmaceutical (非药物的) interventions are the only way to prevent infections, and they dramatically upset everyday bodily habits, social interactions and economic exchanges.

Recent grocery store runs are a sign of concern in the community. Personal actions to avoid infection such as stocking hand sanitizer also present a sense of control over an uncertain danger. Improvements to current risk communication can alleviate（减轻）widespread distress. Top elected officials and health authorities should empathize with people’s fear, normalize stress reactions, provide clear guidance on recommended health behaviours, and instruct in concrete protections including those for mental health.

However, more interventions are essential because specific groups are at a higher risk of both acute and lingering emotional distress. Health care workers on the epidemic front lines face compounding stressors: the prospect of more and longer shifts, finite supplies of personal protective equipment, fear of bringing infection home, witnessing co-workers becoming ill, and making tough allocation decisions about scarce, lifesaving resources like mechanical ventilators (通风设备).

Exposed individuals confront a potential fall of challenging circumstances. To protect others, they may enter a state of self-quarantine. During the incubation period (潜伏期), they must live with uncertainty and limit physical contact with others while trying to maintain social connectedness. Less income-generating activities and unmet obligations to others can increase the stress. Infected individuals may become sick, experience a lengthy convalescence (康复期), feel survivor’s guilt, and be avoided despite a complete recovery.

For people with pre-existing mental health conditions, a pandemic can further heighten their anxious thoughts and compulsive behaviours. Previously managed symptoms can flare up, requiring additional care beyond what was sufficient before the crisis.

1. The underlined word “benign” is closest in meaning to ______.

A．friendly to the environment	B．mild and favourable
C．not harmful in effect	D．not caused by cancer

2. According to the passage, the pandemic can ______.

A．put enormous stress on health care workers only

B．create immense psychosocial disturbances

C．definitely alleviate the anxiety

D．impose compulsive behaviours on healthy people

3. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Vaccine is the only effective way available to prevent infections.

B．Personal actions like stocking can help keep the pandemic in control.

C．The mental crisis caused by COVID-19 should be treated equally with the physical one.

D．The health care workers are mainly confronted with temporary emotional stress.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．A New Kind of Virus	B．Selfless Health Care Workers
C．On Experiencing Coronavirus Infection	D．COVID-19’s Psychosocial Impacts

6 .

WILDE THEATRE

BOOKI NG
-in person
The Box Office is open Monday to Saturday, 10 am-8 pm.
-by post
Stating the performance and choice of seats, enclosing a cheque, postal order, or your credit card details to Wilde Theatre Box Office, PO Box 220, Earnest Street. All cheques should be made payable to Wilde Theatre.
-by telephone
Ring 0844 - 847-2484 to reserve your tickets or to pay by credit card (UnionPay and Master Card accepted)
-online
Complete the on-line booking form at www.wildetheatre.com.
DISCOUNTS
Saver: $2 off any seat booked any time in advance for performances from Monday to Thursday inclusive, and for all matinees (下午场). Savers are available for children up to 16 years old, over 60’s and full-time students.
Supersaver: half-price seats are available for people with disabilities and one companion. It is advisable to book in advance. There is a maximum of eight wheelchair spaces available and on wheelchair space will be held until one hour before the show (subject to availability)
Standby: best available seats are on sale for $6 from one hour before the performance for people eligible (有资格的) for Saver and Supersaver discounts and thirty minutes before for all other customers.
Group Bookings: there is a ten percent discount for parties of twelve or more.
Schools: school parties of ten or more can book $9 tickets in advance and will get every tenth ticket free.
*Please note: we are unable to exchange tickets or refund money unless a performance is cancelled due to unforeseen circumstance.
1. When booking by post, you can pay for a ticket by ______.

A．visiting the website of a post office	B．going to your local bank in person
C．enclosing your Master Card in an envelope	D．providing your credit card information

2. What benefit can bookers enjoy according to the text?

A．A party of nine adults going to a performance can book $9 tickets.

B．A group of twelve students that book in advance pay $108 in total for a performance.

C．Someone accompanying a wheelchair user to a performance receives a discount.

D．A 15-year-old teenager can get $2 off any seat booked in advance for matinees only.

3. According to the text, ______ can get Standby ticket.

A．full-time students buying tickets one hour and a half ahead of a performance

B．65-year-olds buying tickets forty-five minutes before a performance begins

C．bookers who are unexpectedly unable to be present at a performance

D．all theatre-goers who buys tickets one hour before a performance begins

7 . Notice: Medical Alert

Dear Reader,

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We are offering a FREE Medical Alert System to seniors or theirloved ones who call now. For a limited time, there will be no set-up fees and the medical monitoring starts at less than a dollar a day. The system is Top-ranked and easy-to-use. The pendant (挂件)is 100% waterproof and it can travel with you. Our new system can detect falls automatically.

Call Toll-free 1-800-360-0405 and gain peace of mind. There is no long-term contract. Our medical alert professionals can walk you through everything over the phone.

The first 100 callers to order will receive

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Don’t wait until after a fall to give us a call. Take advantage of this special offer now to protect yourself or a loved one.

Call Now Toll-free: 1-800-360-0405 and mention “Readers’ Digest”

Sincerely,

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President

MedicalAlertnow. com

1. Which of the following statements is true about the medical alert system?

A．The users of it will be given timely support on the phone.

B．All medical serious events can be avoided after using it.

C．Its service runs in the daytime and suspends at night.

D．People can buy it from hospitals at the same price.

2. Which of the following is included in an early bird deal?

A．No set-up fees.	B．Long-term contract.
C．Shipping fee discount.	D．A water-proof necklace.

3. This advertisement aims to ______________.

A．urge the government to cut medical expenses for seniors

B．provide advice to old people on how to prevent falls

C．alert people to the high risk of falls

D．promote a medical alert system.

4. Who might make a call after reading the advertisement?

A．a father who cares for his young daughter

B．a doctor who specializes in heart disease

C．a teacher who worries about his elderly father

D．a student who makes troubles at school

8 . Most people want to know how things are made. They honestly admit, however, that they hardly know a thing when it comes to understanding how a piece of music is made. Where a composer begins, how he manages to keep going----in fact, how and where he learns his trade----all are covered in complete darkness. The composer, in short, is a man of mystery.

One of the first things the common man wants to know about is the part that inspiration plays in a composer's work. He finds it difficult to believe that composers are not much interested in that question. Writing music is as natural for the composer as eating or sleeping for all. Music is something that the composer happens to have been born for.

The composer, therefore, does not say to himself: "Do I feel inspired?" He says to himself: "Do I feel like working today?" And if he feels like working, he does. It is more or less like saying to himself; "Do I feel sleepy?" If you feel sleepy, you go to sleep. If you don't feel sleepy, you stay up. If the composer doesn't feel like working, he doesn't work. It's as simple as that.

1. What would be the best title for the text?

A．Composer: a man of mystery	B．Practice makes good music
C．Relation between sleeping and music	D．Music: product of nature

2. The words "covered in complete darkness" underlined in Paragraph 1 most probably mean ______.

A．difficult to be made	B．without any light
C．black in color	D．not known

3. Most people seem to think that a composer_______.

A．finds it difficult to write music

B．considers it important to have a good rest

C．should like to talk about inspiration

D．never asks himself very simple questions

4. The author will most probably agree that composers_______.

A．are born with a gift for music.	B．are people full of mystery
C．work late at night for their music	D．know a lot about eating and sleeping

9 . New York City is known as America’s economic and cultural capital. It’s a city where young people want to go, whether to take up a high-paying job on Wall Street, study, or struggle to pay rent while working in the arts.

It’s also the setting of some of America’s most popular TV shows and movies. The best known may be TV series “Sex and the City”. It features four women enjoying the comfortable life of chatting, shopping, clubbing and looking for their Mr. Right.

However, Dunham, 26, said TV shows only touch the surface. “TV shows never get how expensive things are in New York, Manhattan,” she said, adding that she knows a married couple who are in their 30s, have good jobs, and still share a couch because their apartment is so small.

To Dunham, reality in New York means getting a quick lunch at food stands, smelling the piles of rubbish every week on trash day and paying tolls to cross bridges and tunnels—things that TV series rarely show.

Elise Glick, 23, an artist living in Brooklyn, said that while New Yorkers can sometimes be unfriendly, it’s often because of their nature as driven, ambitious individuals. “People here are mostly young and single,” she said, “a lot of people are confident and know what they want.”

25-year-old legal(法律的) assistant Jin Jing agrees. During her three-month experience as a United Nations intern(实习生), Jin found New Yorkers to be friendly and helpful people. But she also learned that the TV show “Friends” were fantasy and unreal. “When I went to America, I realized that ‘Friends’ was not real life,” Jin said. “In New York, people have no time for friends. People have no time to hear you talk.” But she said she didn’t feel like a stranger, thanks to the diversity(多样性) all around her. “Most of the time, I forgot that I didn’t belong there, since there are people of different skin colors,” she said.

While Dunham admits that life in New York can be both good and bad, special moments help her fall in love with the city. She once paused to watch dancers and street musicians performing in a subway tunnel and found herself among many other busy New Yorkers attracted by their show. “People who were clearly in a rush to get home just stopped to watch because these guys were really good,” she said. “From businessmen to mothers—everyone was represented. In that moment we were all together before we went our separate ways.”

1. According to the passage, which of the following views doesn’t the writer agree with?

A．Life there is very busy.

B．New Yorkers sometimes are unfriendly because of their nature.

C．People find it impossible to make friends there.

D．The scenes in “Sex and the City” and “Friends” can hardly be found in New York.

2. In paragraph 4, toll can be replaced by __________.

A．tickets

B．money

C．fines

D．tax

3. We can infer from the passage that __________.

A．People with different nationalities can be found in New York.

B．New York is a place where people can have a comfortable and relaxing life.

C．The living cost in New York is very low.

D．The street dancers and musicians are beggars, only asking money from passengers.

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．Unfriendly New Yorkers	B．Busy New Yorkers
C．New Yorkers’ Stories	D．New Yorkers’ True Life

10 . You would like to take good photographs of real-life situations but you have few ideas for pictures. I suggest you look around you. The everyday world is full of scenes being played by an ever-changing group of actors. You probably passed a dozen picture situations without noticing on your way to work this morning.

The realistic approach to photograph has been perfected in the past by such masters as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Bill Brandt. But while you can learn a great deal from looking at the work of others, any success you can hope to achieve in this field has to come from developing an individual approach.

The main requirement for any photographer has little to do with technical matters. You must develop an awareness of the world around you and the people who live in it, and you should learn to notice when a situation may develop to a point where you will be able to take a good picture. Those who have reached this happy state will be prepared when that moment comes, and will simply raise their camera quickly and shoot. Others who are not so aware will be struggling with camera cases and lens caps.

Film manufactures must be delighted at the thought of the inexperienced photographer setting out in search of the right situation and the right moment. Many miles of costly material have passed through thousands of cameras as this endless search continues. But although a lot of this waste must be put down to inexperience, you'll find that even the professionals have to use a lot of film when they are out shooting.

Not every shot is going to be a winner. If you look at the work of even the best photographers, you'll notice dozens of pictures have had to be taken only because they lead up to the successful shot of a situation that the photographer has obviously been observing through the lens. You may find that you have taken one or two pictures after the right moment has passed as well. There is seldom more than one shot which stands out. There is just one point where it all comes together, and you often have to waste film to catch that precious moment.

1. According to the passage, one can become a better real-life photographer by ______.

A．watching other photographers at work

B．learning about famous photographers

C．just taking a great many photographs

D．developing skills and ideas for yourself

2. The writer thinks that a photographer is required to ______.

A．go out and search for unusual situations

B．be highly skilled in camera techniques

C．be able to tell when a good situation might come

D．have a camera which is easy and quick to use

3. Most likely, to catch the right moment, one must ______.

A．take pictures without too much preparation

B．take a whole series of similar pictures

C．take great care to set up the situation

D．take one picture just at the right moment

4. Which of the following is TRUE?

A．The waste of film in photography is essential to the production of good pictures.

B．Film manufacturers usually enjoy pictures by inexperienced photographers.

C．Only amateur photographers waste film in taking pictures.

D．The waste of film, which is the result of poor choice of subject, is expensive and unnecessary.