Demand on tourism burst as the Minsu market’s recovery sped up during the May Day holiday. Oceans of tourists flooded into Zibo in China’s Shandong Province for its BBQ,
The Minsu in rural areas still gain
Among customers booking the Minsu in rural areas, the “post-80” and “post-90” generations are still the mainstream. The
2 . Manufacturing (批量生产) is a one-way business. Raw materials go into a factory and finished products come out. Once those goods are sold, producers usually wash their hands of them. They normally don’t worry about how the products are disposed of (处理). Most are burnt or rot in landfill. In only 50 years the world’s consumption of raw materials has nearly increased to more than 100 billion tonnes according to the latest Circularity Gap Report from the World Economic Forum. Less than 9% of this is reused. Industry does talk about sustainability and recycling, but much of that is greenwashing intended to improve brand images.
Every car-making country wants gigafactories (超级工厂) that produce batteries for electric vehicles (EVS), which is profitable. Batteries contain valuable but expensive materials that are hard to get. Supply chains are long and complex. Recycling makes sense.
Most gigafactories are designed with recycling in mind from the start. The result is a circular (循环的) production process. The idea is that once batteries reach the ends of their lives, they should go back to a factory, where they can be used again.
Northvolt, a Swedish battery-maker, aims by 2030 to produce batteries enough to power some 2 million EVS from the three gigafacotries. By then, around half its raw materials should come from recycling old batteries. Using recycling and renewable power, CATL, a Chinese EV batteries firm, similarly, thinks it should eventually be possible to shrink the carbon footprint of a battery towards zero.
Carmakers such as the Renault Group and Stellantis, owner of brands that include Chrysler and Peugeot are both setting up circular-economy businesses, not just for batteries, but also for repairing and reconditioning parts and vehicles. Each of these operations will, bosses hope, have annual income of more than 2 billion dollars by the end of the decade.
1. Which of the following statements is right?| A．Circular economy is a one-way business. |
| B．Recycling is an important part of manufacturing. |
| C．Greenwashing helps improve recycling of raw materials. |
| D．Peugeot is setting up circular-economy businesses. |
| A．Gigafactories are making some progress in recycling. |
| B．Northvolt is building 3 gigafactories to power some 2 million EVS. |
| C．Northvolt set up circular-economy businesses to make money. |
| D．CATL has cut down the carbon footprint to zero. |
| A．The Chinese firm is producing EV batteries. |
| B．Carmakers such as the Renault Group and Stellates. |
| C．Repairing and reconditioning parts and vehicles. |
| D．World Economic Forum’s making Circularity Gap Report. |
| A．Gigafactories and Carmakers | B．One-way Business |
| C．Battery Producing | D．Circular Economy |
3 . Birth rates often fall during hard times, but the covid-19 pandemic was no ordinary difficult times. On the one hand, people might hesitate to bear children during such a challenge; on the other, the opportunity to work from home makes parenting much easier. During the dark days, no one knew which of these effects would be greater.
According to the data from an American survey, covid did lead to a small decrease in birth rates. Birth counts fell from 3.75 million in 2019 to 3.67 million in 2021. However, a new study by Martha Bailey, Janet Currie and Hannes Schwandt reaches the surprising conclusion that despite apparent decline, birth rates among women born in America actually rose during the pandemic.
The clue that data on total births might be misleading was the timing of the drop. Birth counts fell in early 2020, but most babies conceived (被怀上) after covid struck America in March 2020 would have been due in 2021. The study suggests that what changed in 2020 was not whether women gave birth, but where.
In 2019, 23% of newborns in America had foreign-born mothers (外籍母亲). Breaking down the data on pandemic-era births by mothers’ origin, the researchers found a striking difference: foreign-born women give birth to 91,000 fewer babies than pre-pandemic-era, whereas native-born ones had 46,000 more.
The study did not assess how much of the fall is from fewer foreign-born women entering the country and then giving birth, and how much from immigrants already in America deciding to leave. But given that America closed its borders for non-essential travel in 2020, a reduction in new arrivals-including those who visit briefly to have an American-citizen child, and then leave-seems more likely.
The researchers figured that the shift to remote work explained much of native-born women’s rise in birth-rate. The increase was most marked (明显的) among the college-educated, who are more likely to be able to work from home, in a country without any paid maternity-leave (产假) or child-care subsidy (补贴).
1. What can be inferred from the passage?| A．The data on all America-born babies might be misleading. |
| B．More babies would have been born in 2021 in America. |
| C．There is paid maternity-leave in America. |
| D．Birth counts did fall in 2021 in America. |
| A．Some foreign-born women could not enter America and gave birth. |
| B．Some immigrants living in America decided to leave for their homeland. |
| C．Some women hesitate to give birth during hard times. |
| D．Some native American women were unwilling to give birth. |
| A．By grouping the mothers based on their origins. |
| B．By researching into the mothers’ education level. |
| C．By looking at the data of birth rates from 2007 to 2019. |
| D．By studying the American mothers’ working place. |
| A．Previous research data on birth rates was not accurate. |
| B．Birth rates fell in America during the pandemic for many reasons. |
| C．Pandemic-era birth rates among America-born mothers rose. |
| D．Covid-19 has greatly affected the place American women give birth. |
