1 . When John Todd was a child, he loved to explore the woods around his house, observing how nature solved problems. A dirty stream, for example, often became clear after flowing through plants and along rocks where tiny creatures lived. When he got older, John started to wonder if this process could be used to clean up the messes people were making.
After studying agriculture, medicine, and fisheries in college, John went back to observing nature and asking questions. Why can certain plants trap harmful bacteria (细菌)? Which kinds of fish can eat cancer-causing chemicals? With the right combination of animals and plants, he figured, maybe he could clean up waste the way nature did. He decided to build what he would later call an eco-machine.
The task John set for himself was to remove harmful substances from some sludge (污泥). First, he constructed a series of clear fiberglass tanks connected to each other. Then he went around to local ponds and streams and brought back some plants and animals. He placed them in the tanks and waited. Little by little, these different kinds of life got used to one another and formed their own ecosystem. After a few weeks, John added the sludge.
He was amazed at the results. The plants and animals in the eco-machine took the sludge as food and began to eat it! Within weeks, it had all been digested, and all that was left was pure water.
Over the years, John has taken on many big jobs. He developed a greenhouse — like facility that treated sewage (污水) from 1,600 homes in South Burlington. He also designed an eco-machine to clean canal water in Fuzhou, a city in southeast China.
“Ecological design” is the name John gives to what he does. “Life on Earth is kind of a box of spare parts for the inventor,” he says. “You put organisms in new relationships and observe what’s happening. Then you let these new systems develop their own ways to self-repair.”
1. What can we learn about John from the first two paragraphs?| A．He was fond of traveling. | B．He enjoyed being alone. |
| C．He had an inquiring mind. | D．He longed to be a doctor. |
| A．To feed the animals. | B．To build an ecosystem. |
| C．To protect the plants. | D．To test the eco-machine. |
| A．To review John’s research plans. | B．To show an application of John’s idea. |
| C．To compare John’s different jobs. | D．To erase doubts about John’s invention. |
| A．Nature can repair itself. | B．Organisms need water to survive. |
| C．Life on Earth is diverse. | D．Most tiny creatures live in groups. |
2 . Turning soil, pulling weeds, and harvesting cabbage sound like tough work for middle and high school kids. And at first it is, says Abby Jaramillo, who with another teacher started Urban Sprouts, a school garden program at four low-income schools. The program aims to help students develop science skills, environmental awareness, and healthy lifestyles.
Jaramillo’s students live in neighborhoods where fresh food and green space are not easy to find and fast food restaurants outnumber grocery stores. “The kids literally come to school with bags of snacks and large bottles of soft drinks,” she says. “They come to us thinking vegetables are awful, dirt is awful, insects are awful.” Though some are initially scared of the insects and turned off by the dirt, most are eager to try something new.
Urban Sprouts’ classes, at two middle schools and two high schools, include hands-on experiments such as soil testing, flower-and-seed dissection, tastings of fresh or dried produce, and work in the garden. Several times a year, students cook the vegetables they grow, and they occasionally make salads for their entire schools.
Program evaluations show that kids eat more vegetables as a result of the classes. “We have students who say they went home and talked to their parents and now they’re eating differently,” Jaramillo says.
She adds that the program’s benefits go beyond nutrition. Some students get so interested in gardening that they bring home seeds to start their own vegetable gardens. Besides, working in the garden seems to have a calming effect on Jaramillo’s special education students, many of whom have emotional control issues. “They get outside,” she says, “and they feel successful.”
1. What do we know about Abby Jaramillo?| A．She used to be a health worker. | B．She grew up in a low-income family. |
| C．She owns a fast food restaurant. | D．She is an initiator of Urban Sprouts. |
| A．The kids’ parents distrusted her. | B．Students had little time for her classes. |
| C．Some kids disliked garden work. | D．There was no space for school gardens. |
| A．Far-reaching. | B．Predictable. |
| C．Short-lived. | D．Unidentifiable. |
| A．Rescuing School Gardens | B．Experiencing Country Life |
| C．Growing Vegetable Lovers | D．Changing Local Landscape |
3 . Fitness Magazine recently ran an article titled “Five Reasons to Thank Your Workout Partner.” One reason was: “You’ll actually show up if you know someone is waiting for you at the gym, ” while another read: “
So, how do you find a workout partner?
First of all, decide what you want from that person.
You might think about posting what you are looking for on social media, but it probably won’t result in a useful response.
My partner posted her request on the notice board of a local park. Her notice included what kind of training she wanted to do, how many days a week and how many hours she wanted to spend on each session, and her age. It also listed her favorite sports and activities, and provided her phone number.
You and your partner will probably have different skills.
| A．Your first meeting may be a little awkward. |
| B．A workout partner usually needs to live close by. |
| C．You’ll work harder if you train with someone else. |
| D．Do you want to be a better athlete in your favorite sport? |
| E．How can you write a good “seeking training partner” notice? |
| F．Just accept your differences and learn to work with each other. |
| G．Any notice for a training partner should include such information. |
4 . According to the Solar Energy Industry Association, the number of solar panels installed(安装)has grown rapidly in the past decade, and it has to grow even faster to meet climate goals. But all of that growth will take up a lot of space, and though more and more people accept the concept of solar energy, few like large solar panels to be installed near them.
Solar developers want to put up panels as quickly and cheaply as possible, so they haven’t given much thought to what they put under them. Often, they’ll end up filling the area with small stones and using chemicals to control weeds. The result is that many communities, especially in farming regions, see solar farms as destroyers of the soil.
“Solar projects need to be good neighbors,” says Jordan Macknick, the head of the Innovative Site Preparation and Impact Reductions on the Environment(InSPIRE)project. “They need to be protectors of the land and contribute to the agricultural economy.” InSPIRE is investigating practical approaches to “low-impact” solar development, which focuses on establishing and operating solar farms in a way that is kinder to the land. One of the easiest low-impact solar strategies is providing habitat for pollinators(传粉昆虫).
Habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change have caused dramatic declines in pollinator populations over the past couple of decades, which has damaged the U.S. agricultural economy. Over 28 states have passed laws related to pollinator habitat protection and pesticide use. Conservation organizations put out pollinator-friendliness guidelines for home gardens, businesses, schools, cities—and now there are guidelines for solar farms.
Over the past few years, many solar farm developers have transformed the space under their solar panels into a shelter for various kinds of pollinators, resulting in soil improvement and carbon reduction. “These pollinator-friendly solar farms can have a valuable impact on everything that’s going on in the landscape,” says Macknick.
1. What do solar developers often ignore?| A．The decline in the demand for solar energy. |
| B．The negative impact of installing solar panels. |
| C．The rising labor cost of building solar farms. |
| D．The most recent advances in solar technology. |
| A．Improve the productivity of local farms. |
| B．Invent new methods for controlling weeds. |
| C．Make solar projects environmentally friendly. |
| D．Promote the use of solar energy in rural areas. |
| A．To conserve pollinators. | B．To restrict solar development. |
| C．To diversify the economy. | D．To ensure the supply of energy. |
| A．Pollinators: To Leave or to Stay | B．Solar Energy: Hope for the Future |
| C．InSPIRE: A Leader in Agriculture | D．Solar Farms: A New Development |
5 . The elderly residents (居民) in care homes in London are being given hens to look after to stop them feeling lonely.
The project was dreamed up by a local charity (慈善组织) to reduce loneliness and improve elderly people’s wellbeing. It is also being used to help patients suffering dementia, a serious illness of the mind. Staff in care homes have reported a reduction in the use of medicine where hens are in use.
Among those taking part in the project is 80-year-old Ruth Xavier. She said: “I used to keep hens when I was younger and had to prepare their breakfast each morning before I went to school. ”
“I like the project a lot. I am down there in my wheelchair in the morning letting the hens out and down there again at night to see they’ve gone to bed.”
“It’s good to have a different focus. People have been bringing their children in to see the hens and residents come and sit outside to watch them. I’m enjoying the creative activities, and it feels great to have done something useful.”
There are now 700 elderly people looking after hens in 20 care homes in the North East, and the charity has been given financial support to roll it out countrywide.
Wendy Wilson, extra care manager at 60 Penfold Street, one of the first to embark on the project, said: “Residents really welcome the idea of the project and the creative sessions. We are looking forward to the benefits and fun the project can bring to people here.”
Lynn Lewis, director of Notting Hill Pathways, said: “We are happy to be taking part in the project. It will really help connect our residents through a shared interest and creative activities.”
1. What is the purpose of the project?| A．To ensure harmony in care homes. | B．To provide part-time jobs for the aged. |
| C．To raise money for medical research. | D．To promote the elderly people’s welfare. |
| A．She has learned new life skills. | B．She has gained a sense of achievement. |
| C．She has recovered her memory. | D．She has developed a strong personality. |
| A．Improve. | B．Oppose. | C．Begin. | D．Evaluate. |
| A．It is well received. | B．It needs to be more creative. |
| C．It is highly profitable. | D．It takes ages to see the results. |
6 . Human speech contains more than 2,000 different sounds, from the common “m” and “a” to the rare clicks of some southern African languages. But why are certain sounds more common than others? A ground-breaking, five-year study shows that diet-related changes in human bite led to new speech sounds that are now found in half the world’s languages.
More than 30 years ago, the scholar Charles Hockett noted that speech sounds called labiodentals, such as “f” and “v”, were more common in the languages of societies that ate softer foods. Now a team of researchers led by Damián Blasi at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, has found how and why this trend arose.
They discovered that the upper and lower front teeth of ancient human adults were aligned (对齐), making it hard to produce labiodentals, which are formed by touching the lower lip to the upper teeth. Later, our jaws changed to an overbite structure (结构), making it easier to produce such sounds.
The team showed that this change in bite was connected with the development of agriculture in the Neolithic period. Food became easier to chew at this point. The jawbone didn’t have to do as much work and so didn’t grow to be so large.
Analyses of a language database also confirmed that there was a global change in the sound of world languages after the Neolithic age, with the use of “f” and “v” increasing remarkably during the last few thousand years. These sounds are still not found in the languages of many hunter-gatherer people today.
This research overturns the popular view that all human speech sounds were present when human beings evolved around 300,000 years ago. “The set of speech sounds we use has not necessarily remained stable since the appearance of human beings, but rather the huge variety of speech sounds that we find today is the product of a complex interplay of things like biological change and cultural evolution,” said Steven Moran, a member of the research team.
1. Which aspect of the human speech sound does Damián Blasi’s research focus on?| A．Its variety. | B．Its distribution. | C．Its quantity. | D．Its development. |
| A．They had fewer upper teeth than lower teeth. |
| B．They could not open and close their lips easily. |
| C．Their jaws were not conveniently structured. |
| D．Their lower front teeth were not large enough. |
| A．Supporting evidence for the research results. |
| B．Potential application of the research findings. |
| C．A further explanation of the research methods. |
| D．A reasonable doubt about the research process. |
| A．It is key to effective communication. | B．It contributes much to cultural diversity. |
| C．It is a complex and dynamic system. | D．It drives the evolution of human beings. |
7 . Like most of us, I try to be mindful of food that goes to waste. The arugula (芝麻菜)was to make a nice green salad, rounding out a roast chicken dinner. But I ended up working late. Then friends called with a dinner invitation. I stuck the chicken in the freezer. But as days passed, the arugula went bad. Even worse, I had unthinkingly bought way too much; I could have made six salads with what I threw out.
In a world where nearly 800 million people a year go hungry, “food waste goes against the moral grain,” as Elizabeth Royte writes in this month’s cover story. It’s jaw-dropping how much perfectly good food is thrown away — from “ugly” (but quite eatable) vegetables rejected by grocers to large amounts of uneaten dishes thrown into restaurant garbage cans.
Producing food that no one eats wastes the water, fuel, and other resources used to grow it. That makes food waste an environmental problem. In fact, Royte writes, “if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world.”
If that’s hard to understand, let’s keep it as simple as the arugula at the back of my refrigerator. Mike Curtin sees my arugula story all the time — but for him, it's more like 12 bones of donated strawberries nearing their last days. Curtin is CEO of DC Central Kitchen in Washington, D.C., which recovers food and turns it into healthy meals. Last year it recovered more than 807,500 pounds of food by taking donations and collecting blemished (有瑕疵的) produce that otherwise would have rotted in fields. And the strawberries? Volunteers will wash, cut, and freeze or dry them for use in meals down the road.
Such methods seem obvious, yet so often we just don’t think. “Everyone can play a part in reducing waste, whether by not purchasing more food than necessary in your weekly shopping or by asking restaurants to not include the side dish you won’t eat,” Curtin says.
1. What does the author want to show by telling the arugula story?| A．We pay little attention to food waste. | B．We waste food unintentionally at times. |
| C．We waste more vegetables than meat. | D．We have good reasons for wasting food. |
| A．Moral decline. | B．Environmental harm. |
| C．Energy shortage. | D．Worldwide starvation. |
| A．It produces kitchen equipment. | B．It turns rotten arugula into clean fuel. |
| C．It helps local farmers grow fruits. | D．It makes meals out of unwanted food. |
| A．Buy only what is needed. | B．Reduce food consumption. |
| C．Go shopping once a week. | D．Eat in restaurants less often. |
8 . Grading Policies for Introduction to Literature
Grading Scale90-100, A; 80-89, B; 70-79, C; 60-69, D; Below 60, E.
Essays (60%)Your four major essays will combine to form the main part of the grade for this course: Essay 1 = 10%; Essay 2 = 15%; Essay 3 = 15%; Essay 4 = 20%.
Group Assignments (30%)Students will work in groups to complete four assignments (作业) during the course. All the assignments will be submitted by the assigned date through Blackboard, our online learning and course management system.
Daily Work/In-Class Writings and Tests/Group Work/Homework (10%)Class activities will vary from day to day, but students must be ready to complete short in-class writings or tests drawn directly from assigned readings or notes from the previous class' lecture/discussion, so it is important to take careful notes during class. Additionally, from time to time I will assign group work to be completed in class or short assignments to be completed at home, both of which will be graded.
Late WorkAn essay not submitted in class on the due date will lose a letter grade for each class period it is late. If it is not turned in by the 4th day after the due date, it will earn a zero. Daily assignments not completed during class will get a zero. Short writings missed as a result of an excused absence will be accepted.
1. Where is this text probably taken from?| A．A textbook. | B．An exam paper. | C．A course plan. | D．An academic article. |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．You will receive a zero. | B．You will lose a letter grade. |
| C．You will be given a test. | D．You will have to rewrite it. |
9 . A machine can now not only beat you at chess, it can also outperform you in debate. Last week, in a public debate in San Francisco, a software program called Project Debater beat its human opponents, including Noa Ovadia, Israel’s former national debating champion.
Brilliant though it is, Project Debater has some weaknesses. It takes sentences from its library of documents and prebuilt arguments and strings them together. This can lead to the kinds of errors no human would make. Such wrinkles will no doubt be ironed out, yet they also point to a fundamental problem. As Kristian Hammond, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern University, put it: “There’s never a stage at which the system knows what it’s talking about.”
What Hammond is referring to is the question of meaning, and meaning is central to what distinguishes the least intelligent of humans from the most intelligent of machines. A computer works with symbols. Its program specifies a set of rules to transform one string of symbols into another. But it does not specify what those symbols mean. Indeed, to a computer, meaning is irrelevant. Humans, in thinking, talking, reading and writing, also work with symbols. But for humans, meaning is everything. When we communicate, we communicate meaning. What matters is not just the outside of a string of symbols, but the inside too, not just how they are arranged but what they mean.
Meaning emerges through a process of social interaction, not of computation, interaction that shapes the content of the symbols in our heads. The rules that assign meaning lie not just inside our heads, but also outside, in society, in social memory, social conventions and social relations. It is this that distinguishes humans from machines. And that’s why, however astonishing Project Debater may seem, the tradition that began with Socrates and Confucius will not end with artificial intelligence.
1. Why does the author mention Noa Ovadia in the first paragraph?| A．To explain the use of a software program. |
| B．To show the cleverness of Project Debater. |
| C．To introduce the designer of Project Debater. |
| D．To emphasize the fairness of the competition. |
| A．Arguments. | B．Doubts. | C．Errors. | D．Differences. |
| A．Create rules. | B．Comprehend meaning. |
| C．Talk fluently. | D．Identify difficult words. |
| A．Social interaction is key to understanding symbols. |
| B．The human brain has potential yet to be developed. |
| C．Ancient philosophers set good examples for debaters. |
| D．Artificial intelligence ensures humans a bright future. |
10 . As Ginni Bazlinton reached Antarctica, she found herself greeted by a group of little Gentoo penguins (企鹅) longing to say hello. These gentle, lovely gatekeepers welcomed her and kick-started what was to be a trip Ginni would never forget.
Ever since her childhood, Ginni, now 71, has had a deep love for travel. Throughout her career (职业) as a professional dancer, she toured in the UK, but always longed to explore further. When she retired from dancing and her sons eventually flew the nest, she decided it was time to take the plunge.
After taking a degree at Chichester University in Related Arts, Ginni began to travel the world, eventually getting work teaching English in Japan and Chile. And it was in Chile she discovered she could get last-minute cheap deals on ships going to Antarctica from the islands off Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of the South American mainland. “I just decided I wanted to go,” she says. “I had no idea about what I’d find there and I wasn’t nervous, I just wanted to do it. And I wanted to do it alone as I always prefer it that way.”
In March 2008, Ginni boarded a ship with 48 passengers she’d never met before, to begin the journey towards Antarctica. “From seeing the wildlife to witnessing sunrises, the whole experience was amazing. Antarctica left an impression on me that no other place has,” Ginni says. “I remember the first time I saw a humpback whale; it just rose out of the water like some prehistoric creature and I thought it was smiling at us. You could still hear the operatic sounds it was making underwater.”
The realization that this is a precious land, to be respected by humans, was one of the biggest things that hit home to Ginni.
1. Which of the following best explains “take the plunge” underlined in paragraph 2?| A．Try challenging things. | B．Take a degree. |
| C．Bring back lost memories. | D．Stick to a promise. |
| A．Lovely penguins. | B．Beautiful scenery. |
| C．A discount fare. | D．A friend’s invitation. |
| A．It could be a home for her. | B．It should be easily accessible. |
| C．It should be well preserved. | D．It needs to be fully introduced. |
| A．A childhood dream. | B．An unforgettable experience. |
| C．Sailing around the world. | D．Meeting animals in Antarctica. |
