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

2. The underlined word “fragility” in Paragraph 5 means ________.

A．weakness	B．diversity
C．unfairness	D．complexity

3. What can we learn from the passage?

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.

4. The main purpose of this passage is to ________.

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

4 . Why humans make and appreciate music is an evolutionary (进化的) mystery. Recently David Schruth and his colleagues have a new explanation. They say the roots of human music can date back to the branches of trees more than 50 million years ago, when the first primates (灵长类) appeared. Early primates moved around forest by leaping (跳跃) from branch to branch, a very dangerous way to travel that relies on hand and eye working together and control over muscles.

Schruth argues that a primate that calls in a musical way is advertising that it has fine control over its vocal (声音的) muscles. This might have convinced other primates that the caller also had fine control over its body. His another research shows the species that leap the most tend to have more complicated calls, which the team jokingly named as ‘protomusical’.

Hagen, a worldwide famous scientist in this field, commented on the research: “Some people would not include what we see in primates and songbirds as music. But I do see a continuity between human music and primate vocalizations”.

Hagen doesn’t think human music has a single, simple explanation. He argues that human ancestors originally used music-like vocalizations in two ways: groups vocalized together to send

a signal of strength and unity to scare outsiders away, and mothers used vocalisations to communicate with babies. Also another idea: humans used music to strengthen social bonds.

All these ideas might be compatible, says Hagen. Protomusic could have evolved in primates both to attract companions and for territorial signaling. Later, as early humans began cooperating in large numbers, protomusic might have been repurposed so it could attract rather than frighten outsiders, while also strengthening social bonds within groups.

1. What is Schruth’s finding?

A．Primates have the most complex calls.

B．Human ancestors leap around trees skillfully.

C．Frequent movements sharpen early human calls.

D．Complicated vocalizations result from more leaps.

2. What’s Hagen’s attitude to Schruth’s research?

A．Negative.

B．Skeptical.

C．Supportive.

D．Cautious.

3. Which word can replace the underlined word in the last paragraph?

A．Clever.

B．Reasonable.

C．Misleading.

D．Contradictory.

4. What’s the best title of the text?

A．Repurposed functions of music

B．Arguments on primates’ evolution

C．Origins of music linked to leaping

D．Discoveries about the human origins

6 . A new study has found that animals feign（假装）death for long periods of time in order to escape capture from their predators. How long they are motionless depends on the circumstances, but they can wait out their predators for quite a long time when their lives are in danger.

Animals stay still to avoid capture for different lengths of time. “Most intriguingly, Charles Darwin recorded a beetle that remained motionless for 23 minutes. Antlions, our favorite study creature in this regard, set a record of 61 minutes,” says lead author Nigel R. Franks from the University of Bristol.

Antlions are members of large group of insects. Antlion larvae（幼虫）dig pits in loose soil and then aggressively attack ants and other small insects that fall into the sandy pits. In another study, researchers dug sandpits to understand the physics of how antlion larvae build their pits. As part of their research they needed to weigh the individual larvae. When they put them onto the microbalance scale to weigh them, they noticed that the larvae remained motionless for long periods of time. “This made it ‘piece of cake’ to weigh them but it aroused researchers’ curiosity, ‘What on earth were they playing at?’” Franks says.

The researchers found that the amount of time the antlions remained stationary after being disturbed was unpredictable and was often quite lengthy. In researching other animals, they found that how long they wait to move again can depend on factors such as hunger and temperature, but it always varies.

This unpredictability is absolutely crucial for their survival, Franks says. For example, if a bird visits these antlion pits and the larvae “play dead”. the birds will fly around the antlions to see if they move. “Imagine if antlions always remained immobile for 5 minutes. In such case, the predator could look for alternate prey（猎物）and then return to its original one when the time is up,” he says. “If that happened, it would be a short life for the predictable death-feigner.” But because the time is unpredictable, the birds leave and go find something else to eat. The predators turn their attention from the unmoving prey that no longer catches their eye to something nearby that is a better alternative.

1. What is the new study about?

A．Animals’ hunting skills.

B．Animals’ living conditions.

C．Animals’ self-protecting behavior.

D．Animals’ means of communication.

2. Why did the author mention another research in paragraph 3?

A．To introduce a new topic for discussion.

B．To offer supporting data for the discovery.

C．To make a comparison between the two studies.

D．To provide some background information on the study.

3. What does the underlined word “stationary” probably mean in paragraph 4?

A．Unmoving.

B．Alarmed.

C．Energetic.

D．Peaceful.

4. How do antlions take advantage of playing dead according to the last paragraph?

A．By scaring away predators.

B．By distracting predators’ attention.

C．By staying still for an uncertain amount of time.

D．By waiting for predators to eat something else

9 . When he was two years old, Ben stopped seeing out of his left eye. His mother took him to the doctor and soon discovered he had cancer in both eyes. After possible treatments failed, doctors removed both his eyes. For Ben, vision was gone forever.

But by the time he was seven years old, he had developed a technique for feeling the world around him: he clicked with his mouth and listened for the returning echoes. This method enabled Ben to determine the locations of open doorways, people, parked cars, garbage cans, and so on. He was echolocating: bouncing his sound waves off objects in the environment and catching the reflections to build a mental model of his surroundings.

Echolocation may sound like an improbable feat for a human, but thousands of blind people have perfected this skill, just like Ben did. The event has been written about since at least the 1940s, when the word ''echolocation" was first invented in a science article titled “Echolocation by Blind Men , Bats, and Radar.”

How could blindness give rise to the amazing ability to understand the surroundings with one's ears? The answer lies in a gift on the brain; huge adaptability.

Mother Nature filled our brains with flexibility to adapt to circumstances. Just as sharp teeth and fast legs are useful for survival, so is the brain's ability to reset, which allows for learning, memory, and die ability to develop new skills.

In Ben's case, his brain's flexible wiring repurposed his visual cortex for processing sound. As a result, Ben had more neurons available to deal with listening information, and this increased processing power allowed Ben to interpret soundwaves in shocking detail. Ben's super-hearing proves a more general rule: the more brain area a particular sense has, the better it performs.

1. How did Ben “see” after he had his eyes removed?

A．By using a walking stick.	B．By asking others for help.
C．By inventing a new system.	D．By echolocating surroundings.

2. What does the underlined word “feat” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Skill.

B．Task.

C．Sense.

D．Invention.

3. What can we learn from Ben's case?

A．He laughs best who laughs last.	B．Actions speak louder than words.
C．God shuts one door but he opens another.	D．Man becomes learned by asking questions.

4. In which column of a magazine can we read this passage?

A．Culture Shock.	B．Human Biology.
C．Scientific Technology.	D．Environmental Protection.

10 . Arguster grew up on his family’s farm in a remote village. Planting cash crop — cotton, they were breaking even and had to make ends meet. In his childhood, there were nine kids at home. All the boys were in one room with two beds. Two slept at the head while two slept at the foot. Therefore, there was one thing about their feet — washing them before crowding onto the bed.

When there was a hole in Arguster’s jeans, his mother would put a patch on it. However, the hole kept going. It was the naughty kids, Arguster included, that took the jeans out, hung them on a line and shot them to put holes. Aware of that, however, Ben, the father, didn’t rebuke them, knowing it might be the only way to bring laughter to his kids.

Arguster’s first lesson in economics was taught by Ben. The childish kid had worked and made a little extra money. He couldn’t help admiring himself, “I make six dollars! Six dollars! Man! I’m on the top of the world!” With a great thrill, Arguster decided to go to fair, where he played games, ate cotton candy... When asked by Ben how much he had spent, with his head down, Arguster replied, “Daddy, I spent it all...” Looking at his messy hair, Ben sighed, “Boy, you spent all your money and haircut’s gone up to 75 cents. I’m afraid...” From then on, Arguster always kept enough money to get himself a haircut.

Ben taught his kids how to do the right thing and wanted them to do the right thing, which Ben tried to pass on to his kids, in his own way. Ben started a syrup mill(糖坊). People in the community brought their cane and millet for Ben to grind up (磨碎) for syrup. When people paid with buckets of syrup, Ben refused. Arguster got confused, “Daddy, why don’t you let these people pay you?”

“Because we got enough syrup to last for a long time! Son, these people don’t have money to pay. That’s the only way they can pay.”

1. Why should the kids wash their feet before going to bed?

A．Because they turned dirty after playing on the farm.

B．Because they crowded on a small bed with feet close to others’ heads.

C．Because the beds were made of cotton which was easy to spot.

D．Because they had to make ends meet, making them seldom bathe.

2. What does the underlined word “rebuke” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Question.

B．Oppose.

C．Amuse.

D．Criticize.

3. What might happen to Arguster after he spent all the money he earned?

A．He worked and earned money again for his haircut.

B．He had his hair cut with the money Ben gave him.

C．He waited for the price of haircut to decrease.

D．He borrowed money from his mother for his haircut.

4. What’s Ben’s attitude towards people in the community?

A．Strict.

B．Casual.

C．Considerate.

D．Mean.