1 . For today’s increasingly interconnected food supply chains, “efficient” is what it’s supposed to be: Each country specializes in what it’s best, at and puts it on the global market. Producers and processors within countries specialize, too, as a way to minimize costs. As a result, at least in theory, prices stay low, the world gets fed and everyone wins.
However, the coronavirus crisis demonstrates what is wrong with this approach. When barriers prevent food from reaching its markets, or demand suddenly drops — both of which are happening now — the system falls apart.
Specialization of the food system makes it hard to shift into different markets when disruptions arise. Belgium, a leading exporter of potatoes, lost sales not only to local restaurants but also to other countries because of lockdowns（封锁）. At least the Belgians can try to eat the potatoes at home. That strategy won't work for every crop: Ghana, the world’s top cocoa exporter, lost markets when people stalled focusing on buying essential items instead of chocolate.
The loss in export income in Africa more generally could have a huge impact if the pandemic continues, as many countries there rely heavily on imported wheat and rice. The prices of these grains have soared not only because of rising demand for these grains during the crisis, but also because a few countries — including Russia and Vietnam — imposed export restrictions out of fear that sending food abroad would lead to higher prices at home.
Concentrated markets dominated by just a handful of companies heighten food system fragility. For example, just three meatpacking plants process over 95 percent of Canada’s beef and nearly all of its beef exports. Now, those meat processing plants have had to temporarily shut down because of outbreaks of COVID-19 among workers.
Seeing the spoiled products across the world should force all of us to rethink our “efficient” food supplies. We need to rejuvenate（使恢复活力）local and regional food systems to reduce the vulnerabilities that come with being too reliant on imported and corporate-dominated foods. This doesn’t mean cutting off all trade or abolishing all packaged foods, but it does mean building diversity, and increasing opportunities for small and medium-scale enterprises to flourish in shorter, more sustainable food supply chains that are closer to home.
One place to start is for governments to shift their support from the large-scale, specialized and export-oriented food system to building infrastructure for more diverse local food systems. Around the world, small-scale and organic producers have been overwhelmed with the surge in interest from customers who want to buy directly from farmers during the crisis. But these producers often lack the infrastructure to meet that demand. As governments around the world pass stimulus packages to address the crisis, building more diverse and localized food systems should be an obvious inclusion.
1. In theory, specialization of the food system ________.| A．adapts to changes efficiently | B．balances supply and demand |
| C．focuses on essential items | D．reduces costs of production |
| A．weakness | B．diversity |
| C．unfairness | D．complexity |
| A．A few countries restrict exports to stabilize local food prices. |
| B．Grain prices rise due to Africa’s dependence on importation. |
| C．Ghana might be less affected by lockdowns than Belgium was. |
| D．Packaged-food consumption should be encouraged to address the crisis. |
| A．expose food security issues during the crisis |
| B．advocate establishing diverse local food systems |
| C．discuss the development of a sustainable economy |
| D．prove the importance of sound government policies |
2 . Human activity is changing the surface and temperature of the planet. But new research shows it is also changing the sound of the Earth’s oceans and seas.
Scientists say the changes in the sounds of our oceans and seas affect many marine(海洋) animals—from very small fish to huge whales. Sound travels “very far underwater,” Francis Juanes told the reporter. Juanes is an ecologist at the University of Victoria and co-writer of the recent research published in a magazine. “For fish,” he explained, “sound is probably a better way to sense their environment than light.”
Sounds help fish and other marine animals survive. They use sounds to communicate with each other. Sounds also help some ocean animals find food and avoid their hunters. Many ocean animals use sounds to find good places to give birth. However, increased noise from humans is making it harder for these animals to hear each other. The noise comes from shipping traffic, underwater oil and gas exploration, offshore construction, and other noisy human activity.
“For many marine species, their attempts to communicate are being masked by sounds that humans have produced,” said Duarte. The marine ecologist at the Red Sea Research Center co-wrote the paper with Juanes. The Red Sea, Duarte said, is one of the world’s most important shipping passages. It is full of large ships traveling to Asia, Europe, and Africa. Some fish and other animals, he said, now avoid the noisiest areas. Also, the overall number of marine animals has gone down by about half since 1970. In some parts of the ocean, scientists now record “fewer animals singing and calling than in the past—those voices are gone,” said Duarte.
Juanes and Duarte examined studies and research articles about changes in noise volume(音量) and frequency in the world’s oceans. Then they put together a detailed picture of how the ocean soundscape is changing and how marine life is affected.
Climate change, the researchers found, also affects physical processes that shape ocean sounds. These include such things as wind, waves, and melting ice.
Some studies suggest that noise may cause hearing loss of marine animals. Besides, many marine animals are showing higher levels of stress due to noise, which might also affect the immune(免疫) system.
Scientist Juanes says sound pollution may be easier to deal with than other ocean threats. “In theory,” he said, “you can turn down or turn off the sound immediately. It’s not like plastics or climate change, which are much harder to undo.”
1. What can we learn from the passage?| A．Sound noise may result in hearing loss of human beings. |
| B．Sound pollution killed most of the marine animals in the Red Sea. |
| C．Sound noise can influence the communication of marine animals. |
| D．Sound is unlikely to be a better way to sense their environment than light. |
| A．Channel. | B．Address. |
| C．Industry | D．Company. |
| A．what is the main cause of climate change |
| B．what should be done to reduce sound pollution |
| C．how to record changes in noise volume and frequency |
| D．how to enhance the immune system of marine animals |
| A．The Future of Oceans Exploration |
| B．The Changes in the Sounds of Oceans |
| C．Sounds Help Marine Animals Survive |
| D．Humans are Making Oceans Too noisy |
3 . Text messaging is a surprisingly good way to receive candid responses to sensitive questions, according to a new study to be presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. “The preliminary (初步的) results of our study suggest that people are more likely to disclose sensitive information via text messages than in voice interviews,” says Fred Conrad, a psychologist at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.
“This is sort of surprising,” says Conrad, “since many people thought that texting would decrease the likelihood of disclosing sensitive information because it creates a persistent, visual record of questions and answers that others might see on your phone and in the cloud.”
With text, the researchers also found that people were less likely to engage in “satisficing”— a survey industry term referring to the common practice of giving good enough, easy answers. “We believe people give more precise answers via texting because there's just not the time pressure in a largely asynchronous (非同步的) mode like text that there is in phone interviews, ” says Conrad. “As a result, respondents are able to take longer to arrive at more accurate answers.”
Conrad conducted the study with Michael Schober, a professor of psychology at the New School for Social Research. “We're in the early stages of analyzing our findings,” says Schober. “But so far it seems that texting may reduce some respondents' tendency to shade the truth or to present themselves in the best possible light in an interview, even when they know it's a human interviewer they are communicating with via text. What we cannot yet be sure of is who is most likely to be disclosive in text. Is it different for frequent texters, or generational, for example? ”
For the study, the researchers recruited approximately 600 iPhone-users through Google Ads, offering them iTunes Store rewards to participate in the study. Their goals were to see whether responses to the same questions differed depending on several variables: whether the questions were asked via text or voice, whether a human or a computer asked the questions, and whether the environment, including the presence of other people and the likelihood of multitasking, affected the answers.
1. The underlined word “candid” in Para.1 probably means _________.| A．straightforward | B．appropriate | C．ambiguous | D．objective |
| A．people fond of text messaging are more honest. |
| B．texting will give away less sensitive information. |
| C．different variables might affect the responses of messaging. |
| D．about 600 iPhone users have been awarded iTunes by researchers. |
| A．present their best to the interviewers | B．have more time to make a reply |
| C．pay less for sending a message | D．enjoy more freedom of speech |
| A．Texting Downs Responses | B．Texting Exposes Identity |
| C．Texting Benefits Interviewees | D．Texting Ups Truthfulness |
4 . World’s loneliest marathon
Many of us know about Russia’s Lake Baikal from our textbooks, or by listening to Chinese singer Li Jian’s hit song, Lake Baikal. But over the past decade, the world’s deepest freshwater lake has been in the spotlight for an extreme sport.
Each March since 2005, about 150 people from around the world sign up for the Baikal Ice Marathon. They come to explore the lake’s breathtaking beauty and challenge themselves in unpredictable conditions.
The 26-mile (41.84-kilometers) journey starts on the lake’s eastern shore. In March, the ice is a meter thick and iron-hard. Runners cross this frozen surface, finishing on the western side of the lake.
Known as the “blue eye of Siberia”, Lake Baikal has exceptionally clear waters. This means its ice is almost perfectly transparent. “Seen from above, a runner on the ice looks as if he or she is jogging through space,” The New York Times noted.
The landscape might be beautiful, but it’s also harsh. Strong winds blast across the lake and frostbite can occur within half an hour. Runners say the cold climate is what draws them. They want to test their limits.
“When you are in such an environment, you don’t have cars around you, you don’t have the noise around. I think these extreme races allow you to be alone with nature,” Alicja Barahona, a 64-year-old runner from the US, told ABC News.
The location offers some strange and unique characteristics for this marathon. The finish line is visible from the start, but the endless white offers no progress markers. The race also ends with little fanfare (喧闹). Tourists crowding the ice are mostly addicted to snapping selfies (自拍) and just ignore the runners.
For some runners, the absence of spectators (观众) makes the race more challenging, because it’s lonely. They must fight with themselves. “You are alone on Baikal. It is your race. You are alone with yourself. All you need to do is to defeat yourself,” Veronique Messina, a French runner, told the Telegraph.
1. What can we know about the Baikal Ice Marathon from the article?| A．It takes runners from the northern end to the southern end of the lake. |
| B．It involves extreme weather and beautiful scenery. |
| C．It attracts more and more participants each year. |
| D．It is about 26 kilometers in length. |
| A．interesting | B．mysterious |
| C．severe | D．safe |
| A．Only men are allowed to run in this race. |
| B．The runners can see the finish line from the start. |
| C．The runners are often distracted by tourists. |
| D．There are many progress markers on the ice. |
| A．Loneliness. | B．The long distance. |
| C．The cold climate. | D．Noisy surroundings. |
5 . Most people have been taught that losing weight is a matter of simple math. Cut calories—specifically 3,500 calories, and you’ll lose a pound. But as it turns out, experts are learning that this decades-old strategy is actually pretty misguided. “This idea of ‘a calorie in and a calorie out’ when it comes to weight loss is not only outdated, it’s just wrong,” says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity specialist at Harvard Medical School. The truth is that even careful calorie calculations don’t always yield(产生) uniform results.
How your body burns calories depends on a number of factors. Three factors affect how your body processes calories.
Your gut microbiome (肠道微生物). Trillions of organisms live in your gut, and the important types may influence how many calories your body absorbs from food. This may occur because some types of organisms are able to break down and use more calories from certain foods than other types of organisms. Researchers have found that people who are naturally thin have different types of organisms living inside them than those who are overweight.
Your metabolism (新陈代谢). Each body has a “set point” that governs weight, says Dr. Stanford. This set point reflects several factors, including your genes, your environment, and your behaviors. A region at the base of your brain stands guard to keep your body weight from dipping below that set point—which is not really a bonus if you’re trying to lose weight.
The type of food you eat. Your food choices may also influence your calorie intake, and not just because of their specific calorie content. One 2019 study published in Cell Metabolism found that eating processed foods seems to spur people to eat more calories compared with eating unprocessed foods.
If counting calories isn’t a dependable way to manage your weight, what can you do to shed extra pounds? Dr.
Stanford recommends the following.
Focus on diet quality. When planning your meals, focus on choosing unprocessed foods, including lean meats, whole grains, and lots of fruits and vegetables in their natural form.
Exercise regularly. Aim to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week. Moderate exercise is done at a level where you can talk, but not sing.
Consult a professional. “A lot of people believe it’s a moral failing if they are unable to lose weight,” says Dr. Stanford. But it’s not. As with other medical conditions, many people will need help from a doctor. Successful weight loss may require more than just diet and exercise. “Only 2% of people who meet the criteria for the use of anti-obesity medications actually get them. This means that 98% of people who could be treated aren’t,” she says, “Don’t be afraid to seek help if you need it.”
1. What can we infer from Paragraph 1?| A．Old theories actually mislead us. |
| B．Losing weight lies in losing calorie. |
| C．Calorie calculations lead to good results. |
| D．Losing weight by losing calorie is outdated. |
| A．choose the types of food you consume |
| B．focus on the quality of your diet |
| C．adjust your brain to the “set point” |
| D．reduce the organisms living in your gut |
| A．weigh | B．produce |
| C．lose | D．cost |
| A．cutting calories is essential for weight loss |
| B．losing weight can be double-edged |
| C．healthy eating keeps you losing weight |
| D．a healthy lifestyle is key to weight loss |
6 . Photo Research
“If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of better stuff.” Photographer Jim Richardson shared it with others. He spends a great deal of time doing photo research, looking for great locations to shoot.
Seeing a wonderful place is bread-and-butter photography—it’s just part of the job. Getting there is only half of any great photograph’s story. The other half is how the photographer prepares to capture the subject once in front of it. It is believed that groundwork is part of photography, as essential as knowing exposure and lighting or recognizing the decisive moment to take the shot. Research sounds like a boring task for many photographers, while for others digging into a subject in advance is part of the pleasure.
Philosophically, photographers seem to divide along that line. On one side are those who desire only to be in the moment. On the other side are the planners. They would never dream of going out the door without a full list of how they’re going to approach the shoot. Actually, there is a third group nowadays. They just take photos of the whole scene and do all the creative work in Photoshop after the event. Most photographers do both: research carefully to prepare their schedule and then act in the moment once on site.
Photographers should do a lot of research in order to get ready for a photographic trip. This includes creating a file for each location they are due to visit. They start a file for each place and begin to make a list of the pieces of information. Knowing what the place looks like in advance is invaluable, so it is good to hit several Internet photo sites. Besides clueing them into the photographic possibilities of the location, this can also show what angles have already become overused and which they should therefore avoid. But photographers will also find angles they didn’t expect from locations they hadn’t imagined. Armed with these they will be better prepared to push the boundaries of what they expect.
“Above all, I’ll look for places and events that are seasonal and timeless. I open my mind to what might make a great subject for a picture,” Jim said. “Most travelers tend to think only of places they’re visiting, without looking deeper into culture, history or meaning. I try to get in time with the rhythm of the place and in tune with its melody. But most of all I just want to be ready. If I’m ready, I can just about count on being lucky.”
1. What does the underlined word “capture” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Identify. | B．Record. | C．Arrange. | D．Explore. |
| A．They are unable to decide on the best plan of action. |
| B．It is possible for them to adopt flexible ways of working. |
| C．The third group is not as imaginative as some of the others. |
| D．Some of them refuse to try to understand the way others work. |
| A．Sound preparation is a must for a satisfactory photo. |
| B．One should create photo sites in a photographic trip. |
| C．Taking photos requires vivid imagination in advance. |
| D．It is essential to do photo research in central locations. |
| A．he feels good to visit those historical places |
| B．he refuses to spend too much time in one place |
| C．he is careful about choosing the right place to visit |
| D．he likes to go to places that few people bother to visit |
7 . Elizabeth Spelke, a cognitive (认知的) psychologist at Harvard, has spent her career testing the world's most complex learning system-the mind of a baby. Babies might seem like no match for artificial intelligence (AI). They are terrible at labeling images, hopeless at mining text, and awful at video games. Then again, babies can do things beyond the reach of any AI. By just a few months old, they’ve begun to grasp the foundations of language, such as grammar. They’ve started to understand how to adapt to unfamiliar situations.
Yet even experts like Spelke don’t understand precisely how babies — or adults, for that matter — learn. That gap points to a puzzle at the heart of modern artificial intelligence: We're not sure what to aim for.
Consider one of the most impressive examples of AI, Alpha Zero, a programme that plays board games with superhuman skill. After playing thousands of games against itself at a super speed, and learning from winning positions, Alpha Zero independently discovered several famous chess strategies and even invented new ones. It certainly seems like a machine eclipsing human cognitive abilities. But Alpha Zero needs to play millions more games than a person during practice to learn a game. Most importantly, it cannot take what it has learned from the game and apply it to another area.
To some AI experts, that calls for a new approach. In a November research paper, Francois Chollet, a well-known AI engineer, argued that it’s misguided to measure machine intelligence just according to its skills at specific tasks. “Humans don’t start out with skills; they start out with a broad ability to acquire new skills,” he says. “What a strong human chess player is demonstrating is not only the ability to play chess, but the potential to fulfill any task of a similar difficulty.” Chollet posed a set of problems, each of which requires an AI programme to arrange colored squares on a grid (格栅) based on just a few prior examples. It’s not hard for a person. But modern machine-learning programmes-trained on huge amounts of data — cannot learn from so few examples.
Josh Tenenbaum, a professor in MIT's Center for Brains, Minds & Machines, works closely with Spelke and uses insights from cognitive science as inspiration for his programmes. He says much of modern AI misses the bigger picture, comparing it to a cartoon about a two-dimensional world populated by simple geometrical (几何形的) people. AI programmes will need to learn in new ways — for example, by drawing causal inferences rather than simply finding patterns. “At some point — you know, if you’re intelligent — you realize maybe there's something else out there,” he says.
1. Compared to an advanced AI programme, a baby might be better at _______________.| A．labeling images | B．identifying locations |
| C．playing games | D．making adjustments |
| A．Stimulating. | B．Measuring. | C．Beating. | D．Limiting. |
| A．AI is good at finding similar patterns |
| B．AI should gain abilities with less training |
| C．AI lacks the ability of generalizing a skill |
| D．AI will match humans in cognitive ability |
| A．What is exactly intelligence? |
| B．Why is modern AI advanced? |
| C．Where is human intelligence going? |
| D．How do humans tackle the challenge of AI? |
8 . As online technology advanced, web sites, podcasts, and blogs became powerful sources of information that allowed everyone to stay updated on any subject imaginable. Although all of these information sources remain popular, there's a new king of media and it's online video.
There are many reasons why online video has increased suddenly over the past few years. The first is increasing data speeds. It wasn't until recently that people everywhere had fast enough online connections to enjoy high-definition （高清）videos. However, once faster Internet speeds were provided, people quickly fell in love with online videos. The second reason why online videos have become so popular is convenience. Watching videos requires less effort and energy than reading through paragraphs of text after a day of hard work. Videos also seem to provide more satisfaction, as people prefer to connect with people they can hear and see, as against the words of some author whom they know little about.
Advancing digital technology has also helped, as it has made sharing videos easier and more convenient than ever. High-powered smartphones and more affordable video cameras allow anyone to easily record an event or give a few comments about a scorching topic that is on their mind. Meanwhile, sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and Ustream allow users to quickly upload their videos and share them with friends, family, and the general public if they wish.
Last but not least, advertising. Companies have made it easy for people to get rewarded for creating popular videos. Some people with large enough fan bases can even make a very wealthy living by uploading a few videos every week.
The future also looks bright for companies who post online video ads. In fact, new software allows them to watch viewers' emotional reactions to their content through the users' webcams （网络摄像机）.They'll be able to see whether users laugh, cry, or feel bored during videos, so they can adjust their ads. This should prove extremely helpful, as there will be millions of videos competing for viewers' attention.
1. Why do some people prefer watching videos to reading after work?| A．It helps them review the news. |
| B．It helps them get information with relative ease. |
| C．It provides them more information. |
| D．It helps them save time. |
| A．Unusual. | B．Future. | C．Hot. | D．Social. |
| A．It will enable them to better understand what customers enjoy. |
| B．It will let more viewers see the advertisements they make. |
| C．It will cause viewers to create more popular videos. |
| D．It will make people like their videos. |
| A．Online Video: The New King of Media |
| B．Online Technology is Developing Fast |
| C．Online Video: A New Advertising Trend |
| D．Online Technology is Closely Related to People |
9 . Recently whenever I turned on my computer or my mobile phone, news about the great effect of Hurricane Harvey（哈维飓风）on thousands of people caught my eye. I saw many unfortunate events. However, there was also lots of bright news that showed the goodness of mankind. As a reporter, I reported many human-interest stories when doing my job, That’s why the story about the guys in the bakery（面包店）caught my eye.
When the workers at a Mexican bakery chain in Houston were trapped inside the building for two days, they didn't sit there feeling sorry for themselves. They used their time wisely after flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. While waiting for the eventual rescue that came on Monday morning, the four workers decided to make as many loaves of bread as possible for people around the neighborhood. They talked to their manager about their plan over the phone and the manager agreed.
The flood water rose in the street outside. They took advantage of their emergency power supply to bake bread. They used more than 4,200 pounds of flour（面粉）to create hundreds of loaves and sheets of sweet bread. Although the water kept rising, they continued baking to help more people. By the time the manager managed to get to them, they had made so much bread that they took the loaves to lots of emergency centers across the city for people affected by the floods.
The store manager, Brian Alvarado, told The Independent, “They've done more than they should have done. And what they had done has lit a light for people. I feel lucky to have them work in the bakery.”
Whenever a disaster occurs, nobody should feelforlorn. Instead, we should stay hopeful and take positive action to save ourselves and help others. Our acts of kindness will make a big difference to the people in the world as well as the world itself.
1. Why did the story in the bakery draw the author’s attention?| A．It was helpful in choosing a good job. |
| B．It made him/her interested in baking. |
| C．It could bring him/her much money. |
| D．It showed the goodness of mankind. |
| A．They tried to get people out of water. |
| B．They set up emergency centers to help. |
| C．They offered to make bread for people. |
| D．They let homeless people live in the bakery. |
| A．He found them lucky. | B．He was proud of them. |
| C．They were experienced. | D．They were shy but brave. |
| A．Hopeless. | B．Confident. | C．Serious. | D．Angry. |
10 . We know that the pandemic(流行病)has had a far-reaching impact on our minds — so much so that it may have changed the very fabric of our society altogether. Mental health professionals think that those with social anxiety will not emerge from the pandemic unaffected.Counselling Directory member Beverley Blackman says, “For people with social anxiety, lockdown will make them deeply anxious in one way, and yet a relief in another.” He added, “On one hand, a person with social anxiety may feel relieved that they no longer have to socialize in person, but they may also feel that they have lost the opportunity to socialize with the people they feel safe and secure spending time with, meaning that they feel a new level of isolation and a different level of anxiety about socializing in any form.Without the security of those they feel safe with, self-confidence may very well decrease rapidly.Lockdown may have had a negative impact on those with social anxiety.”
Dr Daria J.Kuss, associate professor in psychology at Nottingham Trent University, says: “Following the lockdown, people in this country were allowed to meet up again, which for individuals with social anxiety may have led to stress and worry.They may not be comfortable being expected to be ‘social’ again, especially when in larger groups, and may worry about saying the wrong things and asking the wrong questions as they are reintegrating into their offline social lives.” Furthermore, Beverley says our even bigger reliance on social media and digital communication in the midst of lockdown could also have a negative impact on people with social anxiety.She says “For some people with social anxiety, communication by media can be even harder than communication in person.We know that words form only roughly 7-10% of the way in which we communicate and that we rely on body language, facial expression, tone of voice, and unconscious signals behind words to convey our thoughts and feelings.”
When it comes to what people with social anxiety can do to feel better as the lockdown situation continues to shift, Dr.Kuss says “I recommend being open and honest with their social environments. Friends and family will empathize when the concerns are voiced openly.Engaging in focused breathing and relaxation may also help alleviate feelings of worry and discomfort.Finally, negative thinking (e.g., “I don’t know what to say”) may be replaced with positive ones (e.g., “I am good enough” and “My friends want to see me”).”
1. Why do people with social anxiety feel relieved during the lockdown?| A．There is no one disturbing their life. |
| B．There is no need for them to socialize. |
| C．They have increased their self-confidence. |
| D．People can no longer communicate with each other. |
| A．Stimulate. | B．Relieve. | C．Begin. | D．Develop. |
| A．Stay at home alone. | B．Communicate online. |
| C．Open heart to strangers. | D．Take a positive attitude. |
| A．Stay with safe people can bring more confidence. |
| B．Lockdown can help people overcome the feeling of anxiety. |
| C．For people with social anxiety, lockdown is a double-edged sword. |
| D．It is a suitable way for people of social anxiety to communicate by media. |
