1 . Have you ever wondered what happens to your mobile phones and laptops after you throw them out to make way for a newer model? According to its latest Global E-Waste Monitor, India is the third top producer of e-waste in the world. E-waste in Indian landfill goes on to pollute soil and groundwater, affecting food supply systems and water sources.
Thankfully, the country has a new group of artists who are changing these thrown mechanical items-from mobile phones to old televisions- into large murals (壁画) and artworks to creatively show their concern for the waste problem.
Over the past quarter of a century, Mumbai’s Haribaabu Naatesan has transformed hundreds of tonnes of e-waste into art, integrating elements from nature and industry. “I get my waste material from friends, relatives and neighbours who know my interest in e-art and send me bags of thrown electronic appliances,” says Naatesan. Over his career, he has created huge murals for several companies. He has also showed his work at the India Art Fair, as well as several other national displays.
Another artist Vishwanath Davangere has also long worked with e-waste. He likes to take apart old laptops and reassemble (重新组装) them into birds, animals and plants. After retirement, he started pursuing this hobby more seriously and started selling his creations across the world. His most outstanding works include a robotic Egyptian statue with glowing red eyes and a Milky Way made from keyboard keys. He hopes to enable others to reconsider their own consumption habits and make more environmentally conscious choices.
“By giving e-waste a second chance, I aim to raise awareness about the environmental impact of electronic waste.” says Davangare, who today has a collection of more than 600 eco-art objects.
1. Why do the artists create artworks from E-waste?| A．To promote their artistic career. | B．To update electronic appliances. |
| C．To make profits for several companies. | D．To express their environmental concern. |
| A．His creations are displayed globally. | B．He gains support from people around. |
| C．He has been creating e-art for 10 years. | D．His works integrate technology and history. |
| A．Reliable. | B．Confident. | C．Devoted. | D．Generous. |
| A．E-waste Recycling Sweeping the World | B．Environmental Problems Worrying Indians |
| C．An Art Movement Turning Trash into Cash | D．Indian Creatives Transforming E-waste into Art |
2 . Some of the world’s most famous musicians recently gathered in Paris and New Orleans to celebrate the first annual International Jazz Day. UNESCO( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) recently set April 30 as a day to raise awareness of jazz music, its significance, and its potential as a unifying (联合) voice across cultures.
Despite the celebrations, though, in the U.S. the jazz audience continues to shrink and grow older, and the music has failed to connect with younger generations.
It’s Jason Moran’s job to help change that. As the Kennedy Center’s artistic adviser for jazz, Moran hopes to widen the audience for jazz, make the music more accessible, and preserve its history and culture.
“Jazz seems like it’s not really a part of the American appetite,” Moran tells National Public
Radio’s reporter Neal Conan “What I’m hoping to accomplish is that my generation and younger start to reconsider and understand that jazz is not black and write anymore. It’s actually colorful, and it’s actually digital.”
Moran says one of the problems with jazz today is that the entertainment aspect of the music has been lost. “The music can’t be presented today the way it was in 1908 or 1958. It has to continue to move, because the way the world works is not the same,” says Moran.
Last year, Moran worked on a project that arranged Fats Waller’s music for a dance party, “Just to kind of put it back in the mind that Waller is dance music as much as it is concert music,” says Moran. “For me, it’s the recontextualization. In music, where does the emotion (情感) lie? Are we, as abstract as a Charlie Parker record gets us into a dialogue about our emotions and our thoughts? Sometimes we lose sight that the music has a wider context,” says Moran, “So I want to continue those dialogue. Those are the things I want to foster.”
1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 3 refer to?| A．Jazz becoming more accessible. |
| B．The production of jazz growing faster. |
| C．Jazz being less popular with the young. |
| D．The jazz audience becoming larger. |
| A．It will disappear gradually. |
| B．It remains black and white. |
| C．It should keep up with the times. |
| D．It changes every 50 years. |
| A．Exploring the Future of Jazz |
| B．The Rise and Fall of Jazz |
| C．The Story of a Jazz Musician |
| D．Celebrating the Jazz Day |
3 . A punctual (准时的) person is in the habit of doing a thing at the proper time and is never late in keeping an appointment.
Failure to be punctual in keeping one’s appointments is a sign of disrespect towards others. If a person is invited to dinner and arrives later than the appointed time, he keeps all the other guests waiting for him.
Unpunctuality, moreover, is very harmful when it comes to doing one’s duty, whether public or private. Imagine how it would be if those who are put in charge of important tasks failed to be at their proper place at the appointed time.
| A．However, the man who really has a great deal to do is very careful with his time and seldom complains because he lacks it. |
| B．The unpunctual man, on the other hand, never does what he should do ahead of time. |
| C．The unpunctual man, on the other hand, never does what he has to do at the proper time. |
| D．A man who is known to be habitually unpunctual is never trusted by his friends or fellow men. |
| E．In fact, time is life itself. |
| F．All guests present ought to be respected by the host. |
| G．Usually this will be regarded as a great disrespect to the host and all other guests present. |
4 . Cultural heritage is an essential part of our identity, history and traditions. It includes buildings, monuments, artworks, books, music and other artefacts.
So, what can we do to protect our cultural heritage? The first step is to raise awareness about its importance. People need to understand that cultural heritage is not just a collection of old things.
Another way to protect cultural heritage is through legislation.
Education plays a crucial role in preserving cultural heritage. Schools and universities can teach students about the value of cultural heritage and how to care for it
Technology can be a useful tool in protecting cultural heritage. Digitization allows us to preserve and share cultural artefacts with a wider audience, while also reducing the risk of damage or loss. Virtual reality can also be used to recreate historical sites and buildings, allowing people to experience them in a new and immersive way.
| A．Historic buildings are climate friendly. |
| B．It is also a symbol of our cultural diversity and creativity. |
| C．Protecting cultural heritage requires a collective effort. |
| D．To be kept alive, cultural heritage must be related to its community. |
| E．This non-renewable treasure should be passed down from one generation to another. |
| F．Governments can establish laws and regulations to protect historic sites, buildings and artifacts. |
| G．Museums and other cultural institutions can offer exhibitions and events that show the importance of cultural heritage. |
5 . Earlier this month, TikTok announced that it will be introducing screen time limits for the accounts of users aged under 18. Children under 13 will require a parent or guardian to type in a password to continue scrolling (滚屏) through their feed, and those aged 13-17 will be asked to set their own passwords when the viewing time goes beyond the limit.
Studies suggest that 30 minutes may be the sweet spot for social media use, where users are able to stay connected with friends and family and view entertainment. However, many other studies show that overly-heavy social media use can lead to a lot of problems, such as physical issues and depression.
By suggesting 100 minutes as a hard line where a password is required to be created by the user, TikTok is gradually making the standards clear as to what may be regarded as problematic social media habit in young people. Although these passwords for older teenagers can obviously be bypassed, they are a step in the right direction in encouraging children to use social media responsibly.
Also, parents who own their own TikTok accounts will be able to link with their children’s accounts, gaining additional, such as muting notifications (消息免打扰) and customizing time limits for different days in the week.
Algorithms (算法) that could tell parents if the child has been viewing dangerous material could soon be put into use. However, the difficulty in this is the amount of content available on the internet.
Ultimately, apps such as TikTok and Instagram will need to continue introducing more measures to improve online safety for children.
Lawmakers around the world are paying close attention to the effect social media has on the young, meaning that the development of new tools to improve its use will no doubt take place soon if big tech wishes to avoid additional legal issues.
1. Why did TikTok introduce screen time limits for teenagers?| A．To protect their privacy. |
| B．To develop their self-control. |
| C．To improve family relationship. |
| D．To prevent overuse of social media. |
| A．Favourable. | B．Objective. | C．Concerned. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．Type in a password to stop the use. |
| B．Send a link to the children’s account. |
| C．Set time limits through their own account. |
| D．Use algorithms to remove dangerous content. |
| A．Its effects on the young. | B．Legal pressure on its improvement. |
| C．Its application to lawmaking. | D．Solutions to its technological issues. |
6 . To nap or not to nap? Whether napping will work for you depends on a range of factors, such as lifestyle, sleep cycle length, culture, and, most importantly, the length of your snooze. If you like to nap, you are not alone. Napping is part of the culture in many countries: around 51 percent of people worldwide habitually enjoy 40 winks in the daytime.
When it comes to napping. one size definitely doesn’t fit all. If you are sleep deprived, a nap can be helpful or even essential for making it through the day. However, for those with other sleep issues, a nap may make it harder to fall asleep at night. For most of us, the timing and length of our nap will largely determine how beneficial it is to our sleep routine.
Between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., most people experience an increase in sleepiness, triggered by a slight drop in core body temperature. A nap of 30 minutes or less around this time allows you to benefit from a burst of Stage I and 2 sleep, which is good for mental and physical alertness.
Napping for 30 minutes or less can reduce stress and lower the risk of cardiovascular problems like heart attacks and strokes. One study showed that napping three times a week for 30 minutes led to a 37 percent decreased risk of dying from heart disease.
A brief nap can be beneficial for those with excessive daytime sleepiness, including people suffering from sleep apnea(呼吸暂停) or narcolepsy, shift workers, and people with jet lag. Studies show that short naps can help improve or reset a disrupted circadian rhythm (昼夜节律).
Naps can interfere with insomnia(失眠) treatment, which involves restricting daytime sleep to increase the likelihood of sleeping solidly at night.
Be cautious about naps of more than 30 minutes. Waking from the deep-sleep stages results in sleep inertia, a super-dizzy state where brainwaves are slow and it takes longer to adjust to the awake state.
A recent study has found that napping for more than 60 minutes a day increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 50 percent.
1. Whether a nap is needed is determined mainly by .| A．your living habit | B．your sleep-wake circle |
| C．the society you’re in | D．period of time in sleeping |
| A．A nap benefits all the people. |
| B．Not all the people fit napping. |
| C．A nap works on one with sleep problems. |
| D．A nap works for you if you’re lacking sleep. |
| A．Improper length of napping leads to sleep disorder. |
| B．A 30-minute napping results in longer time to keep awake. |
| C．Napping 60 minutes a day tends to trigger certain disease. |
| D．Napping less than 30 minutes ensures you refreshed after wake. |
| A．Napping: Harmful or Helpful? | B．A Boost for Sleeping |
| C．The Timing of a Nap | D．A New Trend of Napping |
7 . Music is not just a set of sounds and rhythms. Its influence on brain is much deeper than any other human experience. Keep on reading to know all these amazing power of music.
A recent study suggests that preterm (早产的) babies appear to experience less pain and feed more when listening to music. Experts led by Dr. Manoj Kumar of the University of Alberta,Canada,found that music had a beneficial effect on reducing pain for preterm babies experiencing painful medical tests. It also appeared to benefit full-term babies during operations.
Many people experiencing brain damage have speech and movement-related problems. Music can help recover from brain injuries. As a different and effective treatment, doctors often advise such patients to listen to good music to improve the parts of the brain responsible for these two functions. When people with neurological (神经的) disorders hear a musical beat, it helps them to regain a balanced walk.
Though music cannot make deafness disappear, it really can stave off the loss of hearing. There was an experiment involving 163 people where 74 were musicians. Participants were asked to pass some listening tests. Musicians heard the sounds better than non-musicians, and this difference gets clearer with age. This means that a 70-year-old musician hears better than a 50-year-old non-musician, even in a noisy environment.
Besides, music mends a broken heart. It is not about a thrown-away love, but about a heart attack. The matter is that music can help people recover from a heart attack or heart operation by reducing blood pressure, slowing down the heartbeat rate, and reducing anxiety. Listening to the quality music produces positive emotions, improves the movement of blood, and expands blood vessels, thus, promoting quick recovery of the whole cardiovascular (心血管的) system.
1. How does music affect preterm babies?| A．It helps develop their potential in music. |
| B．It helps reduce their pain. |
| C．It helps improve their hearing systems. |
| D．It helps repair their neurological systems. |
| A．Cause. | B．Increase. |
| C．Prevent. | D．Expand. |
| A．It has a positive effect on human body systems’ work. |
| B．It can encourage people to do sports. |
| C．It helps make a person outgoing. |
| D．It helps patients recover more quickly than medicine does. |
| A．People Who Can Benefit From music. |
| B．The Best Time to Listen to Music. |
| C．The Way to choose Quality Music. |
| D．How Music Affects Our Mind and Body. |
8 . China has been the birthplace of many of the world’s greatest inventions. It was, for example, the first country to produce paper money. Before the invention of paper money and coin, people used many different kinds of things for buying and selling.
In the years which followed this invention, many other countries around the world began to do the same.
About 1,000 years later, leather was used as money in China, and in 806 AD, the first banknotes were produced by the Chinese people.
| A．As time went by, trade between countries increased. |
| B．People also began collecting foreign coins as souvenirs. |
| C．They also used tiny shells as money for buying and selling. |
| D．It was still many years before paper currency appeared in Europe. |
| E．However, as the economy developed, such exchanges became impractical. |
| F．During that time, for example, buying a chicken might cost several potatoes. |
| G．The very first coins often had holes in them so that people could string them together. |
9 . Scientists at Purdue University created the world’s whitest paint — a discovery that not only adds yet another choice to the “which white should we paint this wall” dilemma, but also might help the climate crisis.
The paint was developed by Purdue mechanical engineering professor Xiulin Ruan and his team. It works through a passive cooling technology that offers great promises to reduce space cooling cost and global warming. “When we started this project seven years ago, we had saving energy and fighting climate change in mind,” Ruan said in a podcast (播客) episode of This Is Purdue. They wanted to create a paint that would reflect sunlight away from a building, dramatically decreasing the need for air conditioning.
Heating, cooling, and lighting account for 28 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. And overusing air conditioning can overwhelm a city’s power grid and cause blackouts (停电). In a Queens blackout in 2006, 175,000 people were left without power, which lead to 40 deaths. This paint could effectively be an alternative to air conditioners in some places.
The paint reflects 98.1%of solar radiation while also giving out infrared (红外线的) heat. Because the paint takes in less heat from the sun than it gives out, a surface coated with this paint is cooled below the surrounding temperature without using power. Covering a roof area of 1,000 square feet with the paint could create 10 kilowatts ofcooling power, the researchers found.“That’s more powerful than the air conditioners used by most houses,”Ruan told This Is Purdue.
You can’t buy the paint just yet, but researchers are partnering with a company to put the paint on the market. While individual action to fight elimate change can help save our planet, it’s important to note that the vast majority of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to 100companies. Maybe we can douse(浇) those companies with this white paint, too — it could be worth a shot.
1. What is known about the paint?| A．It has different colors. | B．It doesn’t cost much. |
| C．It uses heating technology. | D．It is climate-friendly. |
| A．The poor management of power. | B．The significance of the paint. |
| C．The importance of air conditioning. | D．The result of global warming. |
| A．Its application. | B．Its function. |
| C．Its composition. | D．Its disadvantage. |
| A．The quality of the paint needs improving. |
| B．The paint will bring profits to the 100 companies. |
| C．Researchers want to see the paint in commercial use. |
| D．Individual efforts matter in creating the whitest paint. |
10 . Museums can be overwhelming. With thousands of pieces there, how do you know which to focus on? And once you see a piece you like, how do you interact with it? Here is some advice on how to have a meaningful connection when you look at art.
Get up close and personal.
Stand back. Next, take a few steps back, stand in the center — and observe what’s happening in the big picture. What’s going on in the piece?
Look at it from an angle. Then try looking at an artwork from its sides, because you might catch something you might not have seen straight on. If it’s something like The Ambassadors by Holbein at The National Gallery in London, and if you stand to the side, you’ll see something that from front on looks very different.
Move your body. If you’re looking at a painting, you can take a finger to the air and trace the outline of the figure or the movement of the brushstrokes.
Consider the subject of the art. That can have a profound effect on how you feel about the work and perhaps you can learn something from it. Take the example of Andrew Wyeth’s famous painting, Christina’s World, which depicts (描绘) a girl with a muscle disease crawling across a field to get to her home in the distance. The painting personifies (体现) determination.
| A．So just keep an open mind. |
| B．What have they gone through? |
| C．When you stand to the side, it changes. |
| D．How are the figures in the piece arranged? |
| E．We have the luxury of seeing the real thing at a museum. |
| F．When looking at sculptures, try the poses with your body. |
| G．It can in a way relieve your stress to know we have this inner strength. |
