1 . Coca-Cola is to test a paper bottle as part of a longer-term goal to get rid of plastic from its packaging entirely. The prototype (样本) is made by a Danish company from an extra-strong paper shell that still contains a thin plastic liner (衬垫). But the goal is to create a 100% recyclable, plastic free botte capable of preventing gas escaping from carbonated (碳酸) drinks. The barrier must also ensure no fibers get into the liquid.
That may have a risk of changing the taste of the drink — or potentially can't meet the requirements of health and safety checks. But industry giants (巨头) are backing the plan. Coca-Cola, for example, has set a goal of producing zero waste by 2030. Coca-Cola was ranked the world's number one plastic polluter by charity group Break Free From Plastic last year, closely followed by other drink-producers Pepsi and Nestle.
The Paper Bottle Company, or Paboco, is the Danish firm behind the development of the paper-based container. Part of the challenge has been to create a structure capable of standing the forces exerted by carbonated drinks — such as cola and beer — which are bottled under pressure. On top of that, the paper needs to be mouldable to create distinct bottle shapes and sizes for different brands and take ink for printing their labels.
After more than seven years of lab work, the firm is now ready to host a trial in Hungary this summer of Coca-Cola's fruit drink Adez. Initially, this will involve 2,000 bottles distributed via a local retail chain.
But it is also working with others. Absolut, the vodka maker, is due to test 2,000 paper bottles of its own in the UK and Sweden of its pre-mixed, carbonated raspberry drink. And beer company Carlsberg is also building prototypes of a paper beer bottle.
Michael Michelsen, the firm's commercial manager, says the bottles are formed out of a single piece of paper-fiber-based material to give them strength.
1. What is the longer-term goal of Coca-Cola company?| A．To stop using plastic in its packaging. |
| B．To produce drinks of alternative tastes. |
| C．To expand business in European countries. |
| D．To use paper bottles with a thin plastic liner. |
| A．Coca-Cola has very strong competitors. |
| B．Some industry giants are in favor of plastic free packaging. |
| C．Carbonated drinks are facing stricter health and safety checks. |
| D．The paper bottle company is under pressure from environmentalists. |
| A．Being hard to be printed on. |
| B．Being able to be strengthened. |
| C．Being able to be made into different shapes. |
| D．Being able to be mixed with other materials. |
| A．Coca-Cola Takes the Lead to Go Green |
| B．Paper Bottles Are in Place for the Market |
| C．Drink Industry Is Turning to Paper Bottles |
| D．Paper Bottle Companies Spring up Worldwide |
2 . Children's average daily time spent watching television or using mobile device increased from 53 minutes at 12 months old to more than 150 minutes at 3 years old, according to an analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Children aged 7 were more likely to spend the highest amount of screen time if they had been in bad home-based childcare or were born to first-time mothers.
“Our results indicate that screen habits begin early,” said Edwina Yeung, an investigator in National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), “This finding suggests that interventions to reduce screen time could have a better chance of success if introduced early.”
In the research, mothers of 4,000 children responded to questions on their kids' media habits when they were 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months of age.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends avoiding digital media exposure for children under 18 months of age, introducing children 18 to 24 months of age to screen media slowly, and limiting screen time to an hour a day for children from 2 to 5 years of age. In the current study, researchers found that 87% of the children had screen time exceeding these recommendations. However, while screen time increased throughout infancy, after 8 years of age, screen time fell to under 1. 5 hours per day. The researchers believe this decrease relates to time consumed by school-related activities.
The study authors classified the children into two groups based on how much their aver- age daily screen time increased from age 1 to age 3. The first group, 73% of the total, had the lower increase, from an average of nearly 51 minutes a day to nearly an hour and 47 minutes a day. The second group, 27% of the total, had the higher increase, from nearly 37 minutes of screen time a day to about 4 hours a day. Higher levels of parental education were associated with the lower odds of inclusion in the second group.
1. Which of the following is a reason for children's addiction to the media?| A．Low economic level. | B．Poor family education |
| C．The media's attraction. | D．The shortage of parents' love. |
| A．To stop children using the media. | B．To help parents care for children well |
| C．To reduce children's screen time earlier | D．To increase intervention to children |
| A．By giving some examples. | B．By showing some data. |
| C．By analyzing some reasons. | D．By concluding some results. |
| A．Probability. | B．Price. | C．Cost. | D．Income. |
3 . An international group of electronic music composers is taking beats from the dance club to jungles and forests and back, all to help save nature's greatest singers. A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean is a new album that includes the sounds of endangered birds. The album will come out next month, whose proceeds will go directly towards efforts to save birds.
The whole project was born out of this idea of trying to combine birdsong, electronic music and conservation. A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean was organized by activist, music producer, Robin Perkins. He invited artists from each of the endangered birds 'homelands to build their own songs around the birds’ songs. There are contributions from ten artists in eight different countries.
First single Black Catbird was created by The Garifuna Collective, from Belize. Al Obando, guitarist and producer of the group, always took in national parks and viewed birds when on the road with the band. “There are no trails, and there are no signs there to tell you about what you reseeing,” Obando says. “So we're trying to do something for the birds and nature tourism.”
Another musician who responded to Robin's call is Tamara Montenegro, an artist from Nicaragua. She was shocked to hear of the serious situation of the Guardabarranco after being approached: “This beautiful creature I grew up adoring also faced the influence of the systematic human activities”. In response, she created a song inspired by this bird and the challenges it faces to live naturally.
The new album is the second edition, following on from A Guide to the Birdsong of South America, produced by Robin in 2015. That first album has raised, to date, over $15,000 benefitting conservation projects in South America. As with the first album, all of the money from the sales of the new album will support specific organizations, including Birds Caribbean.
1. What does the underlined word “proceeds” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Profits. | B．Budgets. | C．Challenges. | D．Effects. |
| A．He created a hit single himself. |
| B．He was fond of observing birds. |
| C．He was the organizer of the new album. |
| D．He did a lot for birds in South America. |
| A．It was friendly to humans. |
| B．It was beautiful in appearance. |
| C．It was losing its living environment. |
| D．It was facing challenges from other birds. |
| A．To collect money for a project. |
| B．To popularize electronic music. |
| C．To recommend some famous artists. |
| D．To introduce a new album of electronic music. |
4 . Darrion Cockrell,who wasn't much of a student, has been named Missouri's Teacher of the Year-the state's highest honor for educators, becoming the first male since 2015 to capture the state's top award.
Cockrell-the child of a drug-addicted mother and a father who was killed when he was four years old-was in and out of the childcare centers and eventually became a gang(帮派) member. In his speech, he shouted out the special people who helped to guide him down the right path when he was going off the track.
He thanked his teacher Ken who provided him with life advice while he lived in a group home. "He taught me it's OK to be tough, but at the same time, it's OK to be sympathetic," Cockrell said. "He was like a father figure to me."
The teacher-affectionately known as "DC"-also expressed his gratitude for the football coach that adopted him when he was in the 7th grade and helped to change his whole perspective(视角) on life. "When I changed the way I looked at things, the things around me started to change," he said. "I had a lot of struggles and hurdles, and if not for those educators, I would not be here today."
Now, Cockrell hopes to make an impact on the students at Lindbergh Schools' Crestwood Elementary in St. Louis, where he's been teaching physical education since 2015. Among his many accomplishments at the school, the greatest one is his development of the “Crest-Fit”training program for teachers, students and parents.
"Missouri is fortunate to have so many high-quality educators, and Darrion will be a wonderful representative as our state's Teacher of the Year," Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven said in a statement. "He guides his students towards long-term physical and mental wellness, and the connections he has established will affect Crestwood children for years to come."
1. What was Cockrell's childhood like?| A．Peaceful. | B．Fortunate. |
| C．Promising. | D．Tough. |
| A．He persuaded Cockrell out of the gang. |
| B．He put Cockrell in the childcare system. |
| C．He changed Cockrell's way of looking at things. |
| D．He recommended Cockrell to join a football club. |
| A．Achievements. | B．Difficulties. |
| C．Experiences. | D．Opportunities. |
| A．His original teaching theory. |
| B．His effective training methods. |
| C．His influence on the students’ health. |
| D．His role as a model for the other teachers. |
5 . A new study shows a link between bad technology and higher stress levels of employees. The research involved experiments in which brainwaves were measured as people were put through a series of bad technology experiences. The experiments involved adults of many ages with different levels of computer skills.
Subjects were tested with simple computer problems, like troubled sign-in operations. Others dealt with slow-speed connections to the Internet. Still others experienced system crashes. “The moment people started using bad technology, we saw a doubling of their levels of stress,” said Olivier Oullier, president of EMOTIV. “I was a bit surprised by that, because you rarely see those levels going so high,” he said. The experiments showed that technology-related stress had a lasting effect, he added.
In addition to tech failures affecting the mental health of employees, the problems can also affect a company’s business, the research found. Bad problems can reduce productivity, especially that of younger workers. The research showed a thirty percent production drop among study subjects under age 40.
“As stressful as the tech problems were for those in the study”, Oullier said, “such effects were likely to be even more severe in the real world.” He said the subjects knew they were involved in an experiment so they may not have been as personally affected by the results. He also said the continuing coronavirus crisis has sharply increased stress levels around the world. So real tech problems drive up those already high stress levels.
Another issue is that many employees are working remotely and this can also add to tech difficulties. In an office, computer support helpers are usually available to help workers solve tech problems. But working from a kitchen or home office, employees are often on their own.
The amount of work an employee can get done in a day can increase as much as 37 percent when effective technology is used, along with supporting software and services. Using good technology can save employees 23 minutes per hour. And on average, bad tech was found to interfere with employee performance by up to 30 percent.
1. How did researchers carry out experiment?| A．By involving employees of similar ages. |
| B．By asking employees to finish the same task. |
| C．By exposing employees to bad technology problems. |
| D．By offering employees different types of computers. |
| A．By giving an example. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By using others’ opinion. | D．By following the order of time. |
| A．Imagination. | B．Happiness. |
| C．Health. | D．Output. |
| A．Higher Stress Levels of Younger Workers |
| B．Technology Problems Linked to Higher Stress Levels |
| C．Effects of Bad Technology Experiences on Employees |
| D．Employees’ Productivity and Working Environment |
6 . Litterati is an app that people can use to upload information about litter they collect outside, such as its appearance, material, location, and brand. Shared online, this information contributes to building a global database of "litter maps", which can influence policy and packaging design.
"Society's failure to solve the litter problem has not been from a lack of trying. There have been public service announcements, and coastal cleanups. But I believe two components are missing from the discussion—community and data," said Jeff Kirschner, the developer of Litterati app.
Uploading pictures to an app shows users that they’re not the only ones picking up litter from public places and that others are invested in cleaning the planet, too. And the data accumulates rapidly, telling a story that helps people understand who picked up what, where, and when. In this way, people are encouraged to do more.
In San Francisco, the Litterati app was able to identify and map more than 5,000 pieces of litter in order to determine how much was caused by cigarettes specifically. Using this information the city successfully challenged a lawsuit by tobacco companies and doubled an existing cigarette sales tax, bringing in US $4 million annual revenue（税收）.
By joining forces with others using the same platform, individuals are able to take their anti-litter activism to another level. The power of combined data leads to more Extended Producer Responsibility, which is precisely what we want and advocate here—producers are forced to be responsible for dealing with their own products once consumers no longer find them useful and areincentivizedto create more environmentally friendly packaging or better policies as a result of that new responsibility.
Litterati takes a refreshingly non-judgmental approach. It shows a positive we-can-do-it attitude. Just as Jef Kirschner said, "Our goal isn't to shame. It's to provide transparency to the problem. We provide access to data and share insights with cities, citizens and businesses, guiding us all to identify the root cause of the problem, and make informed decisions of how to clean the planet."
1. What makes us fail to solve the litter problem according to Kirschner?| A．Lack of necessary data about litter. |
| B．The public's laziness in taking action |
| C．People's poor environmental awareness. |
| D．Absence of government publicity and support. |
| A．To show the influence of Litterati |
| B．To describe the details of the map |
| C．To warn people of the harm of cigarettes. |
| D．To prove the large consumption of tobacco. |
| A．Allowed. | B．Appointed. |
| C．Inspired. | D．Believed. |
| A．It can sort out litter automatically |
| B．It makes litter problem transparent. |
| C．It can shame people into not littering. |
| D．It can guide people when they collect litter |
7 . Extreme athletes have been using wingsuits（翼装）to fly for many years. However, the pull of gravity makes it impossible to speed up or fly higher. To push past the limitations, Peter Salzmann teamed up with German car maker BMW. The result is an electrified wingsuit, which allows flyers to rise to higher altitudes at the speed of up to 186 miles per hour!
The 33-year-old professional wingsuit pilot first thought of creating the design in 2017, "At the time, I was developing suits for skydiving with a friend," he explains. "One evening after a day of testing, we threw out lots of ideas about how we could improve performance. One of them was a supporting motor-and it's an idea I just couldn't shake off. I found the idea of being able to jump from my local mountain wearing the wingsuit and land in my garden exciting."
To help with the process, Salzmann reached out to the experts at BMW's Designworks Studio. It took the team three years and multiple test jumps to perfect the design. The result is an updated version of wingsuit with two 5-inch propellers（螺旋桨）, Powered by a battery, the propellers can be controlled using an on/off switch and even stopped mid-flight using the emergency button, if the flyer encounters an airplane or a flock of birds.
On November 6, 2020, Salzmann, wearing his hi-tech suit, leaped from a helicopter from an altitude of 10,000 feet to soar around the mountain peaks. The expert pilot fired up the electric motors and rocketed forward, gliding above four mountain peaks. The task completed, the pilot opened his parachute（降落伞）and gently landed.
It is unclear if Salzmann and BMW plan to make the electrified wingsuits available to the general public. But, one can always hope!
1. What do we know about the new wingsuit?| A．It flies faster and higher. |
| B．It breaks away from gravity. |
| C．It's equipped with a car motor. |
| D．It has been used for many years. |
| A．What Salzmann's friend did to help him. |
| B．What Salzmann experienced in his career |
| C．How Salzmann became a professional pilot. |
| D．How Salzmann came up with the new design. |
| A．Press the emergency button. | B．Reach out to an expert. |
| C．Check the propellers. | D．Open the parachute. |
| A．Explore. | B．Search. | C．Fly. | D．Dig. |
8 . Children born in the past four decades had the luxury of being the center of their parents’ attention. The entire family’s resources were poured into their education and well-being.
However，when the same resources are split between two children，the amount distributed to each one is going to shrink.
According to the Hangzhou Daily，when there are two children in the family，parents tend to choose public schools instead of private schools，which are usually more expensive. Each child is enrolled in fewer after-school training classes.
But having a second child may cure some deep-rooted problems in China’s traditional family education.
Having two children in the family can help to prevent one child being spoiled by too much attention，according to People’s Daily. It also spares the only child from the pressure of shouldering parental expectations all alone. Taking care of a sibling also enables children to gain a sense of responsibility，cooperation，obedience and caring.
China’s public education system is also expected to shift. Currently，there are not enough vacancies in kindergarten and schools to accommodate the potential increase in children.
“It’s not only the enrollment capacity of educational institutions that will feel the pressure. People are also placing more emphasis on the quality of education，”Peng Xizhe， director of the Population and Development Research Policy Center at Fudan University，told China Education Daily.
He predicts the government may have to invest more to support the educational system as a result of the new family planning measure.
1. What can children benefit from a two-child family?| A．They can have less pressure. |
| B．They can study in private schools. |
| C．They can get much more attention. |
| D．They can take more after-school training classes. |
| A．hold | B．adapt | C．solve | D．consider |
| A．People are placing more emphasis on the quality of education. |
| B．The government may have to invest more to support the educational system. |
| C．The new family planning measure will challenge the current educational system. |
| D．The educational institutions will feel the pressure that their capacity is not enough. |
| A．To show benefits of owning two children. |
| B．To persuade people to bear more children. |
| C．To encourage people to have only one child. |
| D．To introduce the impact of two-child policy. |
9 . Perhaps you have ever heard the saying: Change is the only constant. Everyone, without doubt, goes through changes in their life, whether it is a physical state of aging or a mental state of emotional maturity. However, some are afraid to make the conscious decision to move or they think it's too late to have a fresh start.
I have a friend named Jack. At the age of 37, he is a Senior Manager at one of the Big Four. He has a great salary, owns his own apartment and enjoys the fine things in life, but not without the heavy burdens that his job brings. On the surface, it looks like he has got life figured out. Yet when I once asked if he was happy with his work, he answered that he some- times wished to quit his job to do something less stressful. But he’d become accustomed to this lifestyle and felt that it would be too late to give it up to achieve a new ambition.
For him, the risks are too high, so whether he can't abide his present job or not, he has to choose to suck it up. You might have come to a similar situation as Jack’s or you might be a Jack. You're now facing a wall. No matter what it is—the stress of your job or the terrible feeling, it’s time that you had to decide whether you'll tear down that wall or continue to let it enclose you. I suggest pushing back the boundaries and breaking the fixed patterns. Why do you feel it's too late to start over? That is simply because you're comparing yourself with others—younger or more successful individuals. In fact, you should compare yourself with the older version of you.
Don't become that person who lets life pass by only to regret it when you are making your way into old age. Don't let your life plateau（停滞不前）and waste away in the daily chores. Don't give up the potential you still have hidden and be locked away by your current state. Now, you’d better bravely start going after the things you want to do, without abandoning your dreams, ambitions and responsibilities.
1. What kind of people does Jack represent according to the author?| A．Those leading a happy life. |
| B．Those having an easeful career. |
| C．Those thinking it's too late to change. |
| D．Those having a high ambition to work. |
| A．Value. | B．Recommend. | C．Understand. | D．Tolerate. |
| A．Let life stand still. |
| B．Enjoy the present job. |
| C．Have a small goal in life. |
| D．Consider ourselves as a failure. |
| A．Everyone Can Meet a Jack |
| B．Don't Try to Control Yourself |
| C．Never Think Change Is Too Late |
| D．You Should Make Alteration Earlier |
10 . “We can't play tennis because you don't have a net.” I was standing on a suburban street when Eric, the boy next door, said that to me. Two rackets(球拍)in hand, I felt my face burning and anger spread through my 10-year-old body.
“I don't have net? You don't have net. Your father and mother don't have net,” I yelled, firing at him with what I thought was a hurt. I just had to make him understand that I had plenty of net. Eric was speechless. He admitted that indeed, he and his family had neither a tennis court nor a net, but he seemed unable to make sense of my reaction to this shortcoming.
As a new arrival to the United States, armed with limited English words, I had thought that “net” meant "manners". Eric didn't want to play with me because I lacked good manners. It was only after I stormed home that my brother, who had been in America for a decade, explained where I had gone wrong.
Language barriers are the most common communication barriers. Even when we speak the same language, understanding and being understood can be difficult, not to mention communicating in a foreign language. And confusion and amusement follows-a phenomenon that is common in sitcom(情景喜剧).For example, in a 1970s British sitcom, a foreign student says “squeeze(捏)me”, instead of “excuse me”, to his young principal.
That's the thing with languages. Though the languages are technically the same, the meanings, implications and interpretations of words are different. No two people really speak the same one. But in order to be understood, we should be willing to use more words and expressions and have the patience to find out more about what is happening to get a whole picture of the situation.
1. Why was the author angry?| A．Eric refused to lend him a bat. | B．He thought Eric was rude to him. |
| C．Eric laughed at his limited English. | D．He had to play tennis without a net. |
| A．His bad manners. | B．His poor background. |
| C．His limited vocabulary. | D．His violent character. |
| A．Went angrily. | B．Left hurriedly. |
| C．Attacked suddenly. | D．Disappeared completely. |
| A．They are worsened by sitcoms. |
| B．They contribute to cultural differences. |
| C．They can be overcome by sending and receiving ideas. |
| D．They exist even between speakers of the same language. |
