1 . An American company has developed a new technique (技术) to make bread stay fresh for 60 days.
Scientists found that a kind of mould (霉菌) caused bread to go bad. The new technique kills the mould and keeps the food for longer time. This means there will be less waste of food in the world in future.
Food waste is a big problem in most developed countries. In the US, an average (普通的) family throws away 40% of the food they buy, which adds up to $165bn every year, about 330 million tons in weight. Bread takes a larger part. In the UK, 32% of the bread they buy is thrown away as waste when they can still be eaten.
The bread usually goes mouldy (发的) in around 10 days, but the American company says the new technique will keep the bread free from mould for two months.
”We treated a piece of bread in a special machine. At 60 days it had the same amount of mould as it was first made,“ says Mr. Stull, the leader of the company.
Although there are a lot of bread makers interested in the new technique, few customers like the idea. They say they don’t think a piece of bread which lasts for 60 days tastes good.
”We’ll have to make our customers accept the idea. But it will take some time,“ says Mr. Stull.
1. What is the key point of the new technique?| A．It can prevent the world from wasting food. |
| B．It kills the mould and keeps bread fresh for longer time. |
| C．It keeps the same amount of mould. |
| D．It makes bread taste good. |
| A．Nearly half. | B．A quarter. | C．More than half. | D．About one-third. |
| A．Food waste can be reduced immediately (立刻) with the new technique. |
| B．We will buy bread that can last longer. |
| C．Few customers are sure about the technique. |
| D．Poor countries are in great need of food. |
| A．A new technique has been invented to keep bread fresh longer. |
| B．There is great waste of food in developed countries. |
| C．There is a kind of mould that causes food to go bad. |
| D．Customers don’t like food that lasts for two months. |
2 . Work starts early on White Gate Farm in East Lyme, Connecticut. By 7 a. m., farm manager Dan Wood was at the East Lyme Post Office dropping off a box of fresh produce that later in the day would be delivered by mail to Chelsea Gubbins, who lives across town.
White Gate Farm is a member of Farmers Post, a pilot programme that enables smallholder farms across eastern Connecticut to ship fresh produce and other farm products to local households through the United States Postal Service (USPS). Farmers Post takes advantage of a USPS programme called Connect Local that allows small businesses to offer same-day and next-day delivery at a fixed low cost.
Food remains in the fields because either market prices are too low or the cost of the workforce is too high, or because the size and shape of the produce make it unattractive to stores. Each year, around 10 million tons of crops never get harvested, causing about 16% of total US food loss and waste.
“Food that is wasted has a much larger influence than just the loss of the food itself,” says Julia Kurnik, senior director of Innovation Start-ups at WWF. “Everything that went into growing it goes out the window as well—the water, the land, and the energy. And as the food breaks down, it produces greenhouse gases. The bad effects amplify greatly.”
Besides reducing food waste, selling farm products directly to local customers cuts down on the cross-country shipping of food grown in California or elsewhere. This reduces the so-called food miles that researchers believe cause about 6% of the world’s greenhouse gases. Fruits and vegetables, which are often transported out of season and require refrigeration, produce lots of greenhouse gases between farms and people’s plates.
Wood understands that Farmers Post can help to end that waste. “Farming is kind of like cooking for a big group.” he says. “This is helping us get right on the money, using almost 100% of what we grow and harvest.”
1. Why was Farmers Post started?| A．To provide professional modern farming methods. |
| B．To create more delivery jobs for local people |
| C．To pick up and carry customers to different farms. |
| D．To make the delivery of produce easier and cheaper. |
| A．The limited need for farm products. | B．The shortage of workers and harvesting tool. |
| C．Their low value and poor quality. | D．Bad weather and road conditions. |
| A．Increase. | B．Slow. | C．Switch. | D．Weaken. |
| A．The Food Safety Movement Has Met Some Challenges |
| B．A Farm-to-Table Programme Helps Reduce Food Waste |
| C．Farmers Post Explores Ways to Make High-Quality Products |
| D．Small Farms Play a Leading Role in Serving Communities |
3 . As is known, Albert Einstein was one of the greatest scientists of all time. He was also a really great person.
Einstein learned from making mistakes
Many children wrote letters to ask him for help with their homework. One day, he wrote a letter to a young girl to tell her not to worry about her Maths homework because he thought Maths was difficult too.
Einstein considered time to be importantHe never wore socks because he thought putting on socks was waste of time as people already wore shoes. He also thought remembering things found in books was not worth it.
In one exam, a student asked him why all the questions were the same as last year’s. Einstein replied the questions were the same, but the answers were different.
When Einstein was a child, his teachers used to say he was not clever. However, Einstein kept working hard and surprised the world with his achievements.
| A．Einstein was also very modest. |
| B．What a humorous person he is! |
| C．Einstein was also strict with his students. |
| D．Give students a chance to correct their mistakes. |
| E．That’s why he never remembered his own phone number. |
| F．If we ever feel like giving up when we have problems, we should think of him. |
| G．When Einstein started to work in America, someone asked him what he needed. |
4 . Smartwatches and fitness trackers (健身追踪器) have gained popularity recently. These tools can record your daily steps, heart rates, etc.
It’s a struggle to overcome the addiction to fitness trackers.
Of course, failing to meet your daily goal can be discouraging. You might focus on your shortcoming rather than your progress. Another problem is that you might find yourself paying too much attention to the step number rather than how your body feels.
Therefore, if you’re spending too much time looking at your smartwatch, limit your daily step count to a comfortable level.
| A．How can you tell whether you’re addicted to your fitness tracker? |
| B．Actually this addiction to step count can be risky, mentally and physically. |
| C．Don’t overuse your smartwatch. |
| D．However, do you find yourself checking your steps and heart rates too often? |
| E．After all, reaching a daily step count can be so appealing. |
| F．Besides, you can find other things to do that don’t involve checking your fitness tracker. |
| G．It doesn’t covey what you’re really feeling. |
5 . I started to worry when the golf car taking me, Steve, and our suitcases stopped in the middle of the Maine forest. A yurt (蒙古包) is a tent tall enough to stand in and wide enough to fit a big family. But I didn’t see it anywhere.
“You hike from here,” said the driver, pointing down a weedy (杂草丛生的) path. The woods were darkening, and Steve encouraged me to pick up the pace. My summer sandals (凉鞋) slipped on the wet leaves. Steve and I spent a good hour until we spotted the light of the yurt.
Steve skillfully lit a fire. We ate some sandwiches, had a few beers, and settled in for a good night’s sleep. But I couldn’t relax. I shook Steve awake. “The door to the yurt doesn’t lock,” I said. “What if a bear wanders into the camp?”
“Don’t worry. Moose (驼鹿) are a bigger problem here than bears,” he said.
“Well, what if someone decides to rob us? Or what if one of the locals wants to teach us a lesson?” “OK,” Steve said with a heavy sigh. He forcefully placed a chair under the door handle. “There, additional protection.” He smiled. “And even if someone gets through the door, you’ll have time to grab that book and use it as a weapon.” I laughed. Sleep moved in. We could enjoy our weekend.
When we “checked out” three mornings later. I was the first one up. That’s when I realized that the door opened ... out. The chair had been serving no purpose other than to keep me quiet.
“So,” I said, as we walked heavily back to meet the golf car. “How else have you been ‘handling’ me this weekend?”
He smiled. “Well. I decided not to tell Von about the snake that lived in the firewood.”
1. What can be learned from the first two paragraphs?| A．I was quite looking forward to the trip. | B．It was convenient to get to the yurt. |
| C．I felt nervous and anxious about the trip. | D．The golf car sent us directly to the yurt. |
| A．To make it safer to sleep inside. | B．To stop me from worrying. |
| C．To protect them from locals. | D．To have fun. |
| A．He was worried about moose and bears. |
| B．He might have some experience in sleeping in a yurt. |
| C．He put the snake in the firewood. |
| D．He had learned a lesson from the locals. |
| A．A Meaningful Trip to Yurt | B．The Importance of Getting Close to Nature |
| C．More to Know about Yurt | D．The Time I Survived a Yurt |
6 . The living room is cleared. The host taps a wine glass with a knife, and people file in, filling the sofas and chairs that are pushed up against the walls. Soon every seat in the house is taken, and a bottle of schnapps is passed around. Lyon Hansen, who minutes before was knocking about in the kitchen, walks over and picks up a guitar and starts to play. Hoyma has begun.
For one night, homeowners primarily in Sydrugota, a small town on the Faroe Islands, open their doors, inviting friends, family and tourists in to enjoy intimate (亲密的) concerts by local artists. The tradition dates back nearly 500 years to a time when Faroese life had to move underground due to Danish rule. The culture and the language was kept alive in people’s living rooms, where they gathered to sing and tell stories.
The modern Hoyma concert series started as an offshoot (分支) of the G! Festival, an annual musical event on the beaches of Eysturoy every summer since 2002. Around 2007, G! Festival’s creator Jón Tyril, exhausted by all the red tape (繁文缛节) that came with putting on a big music festival, started to dream a little smaller. Specifically, he started to think about tiny concerts held in living rooms—no sound systems or spotlights, the audience made up of as many people as can fit inside a house. The idea resounded in his mind, not only because it didn’t involve any heavy lifting, physically or mentally, but also because it went back to the longstanding Faroese tradition.
Since 2007, Hoyma has featured 20 concerts in ten different family homes in Sydrugota. For Laksá, hosting the concerts is not only fun, but a way to give back, and to ensure the islands survive in the modern world. As in many families, her daughters grew up and left the Faroes. “They studied in the U. K. for nine years, but both came back,” she says. “I actually think that Hoyma is partly the reason why many children from this village that go abroad come back. They are proud of it.”
1. How does the author introduce the topic?| A．By presenting a scene. | B．By evaluating an argument. |
| C．By clarifying a concept. | D．By making an assumption. |
| A．A stage when the G! Festival was needed by the Faroese. |
| B．A period when only local artists were allowed to perform. |
| C．An occasion when people celebrated the encounters with tourists. |
| D．A time when freedom of the Faroese was limited because of Danish rule. |
| A．Economical and varied. | B．Convenient and entirely original. |
| C．Accessible and profitable. | D．Simple and culturally attached. |
| A．Hoyma contributes to the survival of the islands. |
| B．Hoyma reflects the affection between mother and children. |
| C．Hoyma is gaining popularity across the globe in modern times. |
| D．Hoyma becomes enter taining with the involvement of the young. |
7 . You know the feeling — you have left your phone at home and feel anxious, as if you have lost your connection to the world. “Nomophobia” (无手机恐惧症) affects teenagers and adults alike. You can even do an online test to see if you have it. Last week, researchers from Hong Kong warned that nomophobia is infecting everyone. Their study found that people who use their phones to store, share and access personal memories suffer most. When users were asked to describe how they felt about their phones, words such as “hurt” (neck pain was often reported) and “alone” predicted higher levels of nomophobia.
“The findings of our study suggest that users regard smartphones as their extended selves and get attached to the devices,” said Dr Kim Ki Joon. “People experience feelings of anxiety and unpleasantness when separated from their phones.” Meanwhile, an American study shows that smartphone separation can lead to an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.
So can being without your phone really give you separation anxiety? Professor Mark Griffiths, psychologist and director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University, says it is what is on the phone that counts — the social networking that creates Fomo (fear of missing out).
“We are talking about an Internet-connected device that allows people to deal with lots of aspects of their lives,” says Griffiths. “You would have to surgically remove a phone from a teenager because their whole life is ingrained in this device.”
Griffiths thinks attachment theory, where we develop emotional dependency on the phone because it holds details of our lives, is a small part of nomophobia. For “screenagers”, it is Fomo that creates the most separation anxiety. If they can’t see what’s happening on WeChat or Weibo, they become panic-stricken about not knowing what’s going on socially. “But they adapt very quickly if you take them on holiday and there’s no Internet,” says Griffiths.
1. Which of the following may Dr Kim Ki Joon agree with?| A．We waste too much time on phones. |
| B．Phones have become part of some users. |
| C．Addiction to phones makes memories suffer. |
| D．Phones and blood pressure are closely linked. |
| A．We worry we may miss out what our friends are doing |
| B．We fear without phones we will run into a lot of trouble |
| C．We are accustomed to having a phone on us |
| D．We need our phones to help us store information |
| A．Approved of. | B．Relied on. | C．Opposed to. | D．Determined by. |
| A．In a research report. |
| B．In a science textbook. |
| C．In a popular science magazine. |
| D．In a fashion brochure. |
8 . In habitats across the planet, animals periodically drop everything to walk, fly or swim to a new place. Some animals such as whales and geese learn migration paths by following their parents. Others, including small songbirds, gain the distance and direction of their migration within their genetic code. And some animals use a combination of genetics and culture to guide their migration.
Another group of migrators does not quite fit either model, and researchers have only recently started to figure out how they find their way. The Cory’s shearwater is an oceangoing seabird that migrates over the Atlantic every year. The young do not migrate with their parents, so culture cannot explain their journeys. And the exact paths vary wildly from individual to individual, making genetics equally unlikely.
Cory’s shearwaters are long-lived, rarely producing young successfully before age nine. This leaves an opening for learning and practice to develop their migration patterns. Researchers call this the “exploration-refinement”, and until now it has been hypothetical (假设的) because of difficulties in tracking migratory animals’ movements.
But a team of researchers has done that by attaching small geolocators to more than 150 of the birds aged four to nine. They found that younger birds traveled longer distances, for longer periods, and had more diverse paths than older birds. “We finally have evidence of the ‘exploration-refinement’ for migratory birds,” says Letizia Campioni, who led the study. Younger Cory’s shearwaters are able to fly just as fast as the adults——but they do not, suggesting that the young do more exploring, which gradually fades as they mature and settle into a preferred course.
“Although it may seem less efficient than other strategies, exploration refinement could be beneficial to birds and other organisms in a rapidly changing world due to unpredictable man-made changes,” says Barbara Frei. “It might be safer to repeat a behavior that was recently successful than to rely on patterns that were perfected long ago but might no longer be safe.”
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．It describes animals’ habitats. | B．It compares different species. |
| C．It talks about migration models. | D．It introduces a tracking technology. |
| A．The opening for learning and practice. |
| B．The unique living habit of Cory’s shearwaters. |
| C．The process scientists track Cory’s shearwaters’ movements. |
| D．The way Cory’s shearwaters form their migration patterns. |
| A．They travel as much as adult birds. | B．They lower the speed for exploration. |
| C．They move in a predictable manner. | D．They look for a course with their parents. |
| A．Exploration refinement contributes to birds’ adaptability. |
| B．Man-made changes make migration easier. |
| C．Animals make a safer journey via a fixed track. |
| D．A combination of strategies assures migration success |
9 . We’re all familiar with the feeling―it usually starts with a little itch (痒) deep inside the nose. Next comes the awareness that it’s going to happen. Then, achoo! Air rushes out of our nose at a shocking 100 miles per hour, bursting out whatever was causing the itch. The high-pressure from a sneeze (喷嚏) has led some people to think that if we didn’t close our eyes, they could be pushed out.
For decades, countless people have tested the theory. When finding it almost impossible to keep their eyes open while sneezing, many have concluded that the theory must be true. If you try it yourself, the possibilities are that your eyes are still where they belong. That’s because they are held firmly by the muscles in the eyes. Furthermore, increased pressure from sneezing actually builds up in the blood vessels (血管), which may cause vessels to break but may not be possible to push the eyeballs out.
Why did this theory start, anyway? Some say that it all began in 1882, when the New York Times reported an incident of a woman who burst one of her eyeballs during a sudden sneeze. Others point at the fact that different high-pressure experiences, such as childbirth, can cause blood vessels in the eyes to break out. Still others say that closing our eyes when we sneeze shows the theory is true. Scientists, on the other hand, explain that we close our eyes for the same reason we sneeze ― to prevent unwanted things from entering our bodies. Either way, as far as we know, there are no actual recorded cases of anyone losing an eyeball because of a sneeze, so don’t lose any sleep over it!
1. What is mainly talked about in paragraph 1?| A．The cause of a sneeze. | B．The danger of sneezing. |
| C．The importance of a sneeze. | D．The experience of sneezing. |
| A．Because they are fixed firmly in the eyes. |
| B．Because high pressure builds up in the eyes. |
| C．Because they are held strongly by blood vessels. |
| D．Because increased pressure prevents them from bursting out. |
| A．Sneezes usually cause an itchy nose. |
| B．People sneeze to burst out unwanted things. |
| C．The high pressure caused by a sneeze will become less through breathing. |
| D．People close their eyes when sneezing to stop their eyeballs from popping out. |
| A．A guidebook. | B．A magazine. |
| C．A storybook. | D．A textbook. |
10 . Food festivals are a common occurrence in the UK and take place in all sorts of places and at all sorts of times. Whatever your taste, there’s a food festival to match — no matter how specialized.
1. Meatopia
This three-day, London-based festival takes place at the end of August and is a meat lover’s paradise. In addition to a range of legally sourced meat products, from juicy burgers to tender steaks, attendees can listen to live music, watch butchery demonstrations, and attend informal meat-based workshops.
2. The National Honey Show
If you have a sweet tooth, then it could be that the National Honey Show, which started in 1921 and is the largest event of its kind, is the place for you to be. This three-day event attracts many local entries who showcase their sweet golden honey, some of which is sold globally.
3. The Orange Sauce Festival
Have you heard about a festival that is devoted only to orange sauce? Held in Cumbria, this sweet, fragrant festival has been running for 3 years. What attracts people most is a competition to find the best homemade orange sauce. There are thousands of participants from over 30 different countries across the globe, bringing their local snacks to share here.
4. The Ginger and Spice Festival
If you’d prefer something with a little more kick to it, then you could attend The Ginger (姜) and Spice Festival held in Market Drayton. Unlike other food festivals, it celebrates its town’s historic connection to Robert Clive, who returned from India with ginger. Because of this, they specialize in baking gingerbread, but also sell a range of traditional spices from mild to hot.
1. What do Meatopia and the National Honey Show have in common?| A．Both of them last for three days. | B．Both of them hold workshops. |
| C．Both of them originated from London. | D．Both of them have a long history. |
| A．The Meatopia. | B．The Ginger and Spice Festival. |
| C．The National Honey Show. | D．The Orange Sauce Festival. |
| A．It has something to do with a historic figure. |
| B．The ginger used in the festival is from India. |
| C．It sells spicy food. |
| D．The food is cooked by Robert Clive. |
