This is the year 2070. Today is my
I remember when I
I remember there were “Saving Water” warnings in many public places, but nobody
In the past, doctors suggested adults drink eight glasses of water a day. Nowadays, I am allowed half a glass only. Most people are weak and sick.
When my son asks me about my childhood, I tell him about how pleasant it was to fish in the rivers
I hope the people living in the 2020s
| A. fertile B. rewoven C. deep-rooted D. recapture E. produce F. needlessly G. foodstuffs H. minerals I. worthlessly J. document K. deforested |
The Promise of the Circular Economy
The origins of the expression “waste not, want not” can be traced to the 1500s.We feel bad when we expend resources
But we do waste in ways big and small. The result is this shocking fact: Of the
“Plastic trash drifted into
What if we could
Kunzig was sent to
“It reminds me of a line in Diner, a movie I love: If you don’t have good dreams, you got nightmares.” Kunzig said, “The circular economy is like that -- it’s a dream we have to try to make real.”
3 . In the United States, farmers who are trying to earn money find the situation difficult to deal with. The United States Department of Agriculture found that more than half of the small farms in California do not make money. But the United Nations reported at least one third of the food is wasted by not selling it out in time.
One California farm family is using social media to change the situation and reduce wasted food. Nick Papadopoulos is the manager of Bloomfield Farms in Sonoma County. He was sad and worried to watch his employees returning from some weekend farmers’ markets with top quality unsold products.
Mr. Papadopoulos said he would find boxes of leaf greens and carrots left in a storehouse. The vegetables would go bad before the next market day. One night, he began thinking about the matter of wasted food when he didn’t know how to deal with 32 cases of broccoli (西兰花). Usually he would give it to chickens and use the rest to make fertilizer (肥料). He thought he shouldn’t let the farm products go to waste.
Then his daughter showed him a book she bought online. Suddenly it hit him that he could offer the food at a low price by advertising it on the farm’s Facebook page on Sunday nights. The deals were open to anyone using the social media website. In the first week, some neighbors came to his home to buy the vegetables. Another week, the buyers were a group of friends. And now many people wait to buy his cheap products.
After his success, Mr. Papadopoulos helped to set up a website called cropmobster. com, which is a place where people deal with food production at low prices, feeding the hungry. Since March, the website has stopped more than 20, 000 kilograms of food from going to waste.
1. According to the United Nations, much food is wasted mainly because .| A．there is too much food | B．the food can’t be sold out |
| C．the food isn’t of good quality | D．the prices of the food are high |
| A．On weekend markets. | B．On a food website. |
| C．In the supermarkets. | D．Beside his farms. |
| A．Gave them to the poor. |
| B．Sold them at lower prices. |
| C．Put them in a storehouse for the next chance. |
| D．Gave them to chickens and turned them into fertilizer |
| A．Improving the farm products. |
| B．Improving the farmers’ incomes. |
| C．Providing cheap food for the poor. |
| D．Helping farmers sell out farm products. |
4 . Adults understand what it feels like to be flooded with objects. Why do we often assume that more_is_more when it comes to kids and their belongings? The good news is that I can help my own kids learn earlier than I did how to live more with less.
What do the words “more is more” in paragraph 1 probably mean?
| A．The more, the better. |
| B．Enough is enough. |
| C．More money, more worries. |
| D．Earn more and spend more. |
5 . It is reported that half of the food the world produces is never eaten but thrown away instead. Wasteful people in rich nations, however, are not the only food buyers. Poor countries, too, are throwing out perfect good food. According to Elliot Wooley, a professor who studies at Loughborough University, what should be noticed is that developed and developing countries have different causes for their waste.
Because of few food production methods, in developing countries, food is usually wasted while it is still in the field or during the storage and transportation process, but once food is sold, people usually eat everything they buy. In the United States and other developed countries, people throw away as much as half the food they buy.
Such a change among countries calls for special solutions. Professor Wooley’s answer to food waste is a smart-phone app that he created. It would inform people of how many goods they have bought, how long they will last and so on. At the international meeting held last month in Vietnam, the professor said the result from an experiment shows that people who used the app cut down the amount of food they wasted by 34 percent.
But Jeremy, a student from Germany thinks Professor Wooley’s app is not enough to prevent food waste. “It might help those who already want to change the way they use the food they buy, but it could also encourage them to waste more because they no longer have to pay attention to how much food they buy,” Jeremy said.
“The problem is that as food is getting cheaper, people are buying more food than they need, which will surely result in a huge waste,” Jeremy added, “so one way to prevent food waste is to persuade people to stop buying too much food in their first place.”
1. Which of the following is TRUE about food waste?| A．People in rich countries are more likely to waste food. |
| B．People in poor countries don’t value food at all. |
| C．Some countries waste food before it is sold. |
| D．All countries waste food before it is sold. |
| A．By using his app, food waste could be reduced. |
| B．By encouraging people to save food. |
| C．By informing people of the amount of food they buy. |
| D．By educating people to save food since childhood. |
| A．he has developed another app to prevent food waste |
| B．the app could only apply to those who plan to save |
| C．it will surely decrease more food waste |
| D．people still haven’t realized how serious waste is |
| A．Buying food without control if it is cheap. |
| B．Persuading people not to throw away food. |
| C．Making laws to forbid people to waste food. |
| D．Persuading people not to buy more than they need. |
6 . Apples, oranges and other fruit should be kept in the fridge to last long, new supermarket labels (标签) will say, in a move which could tell the end of the traditional fruit bowl. The labels will form part of the government-backed guidance to help customers bring down the amount of food they throw by changing advice on packs of supermarket food.
Under the plan supermarkets will introduce a new “Little Blue Fridge” sign for food which should be kept chilled (冷藏), or benefit from being kept in the fridge to prevent it going off. The sign will appear on much food which is not usually kept in the fridge. For example, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) pointed out that apples, oranges and pear, which are usually kept in a fruit bowl, should in fact be stored in the fridge.
Dr. Andrew Parry, a Special Advisor at WRAP, said, “Most fresh fruit and vegetables will keep fresher for longer if kept in their packaging and in the fridge. Generally a good way to manage fruit at home is to take out enough into the fruit bowl-if you prefer it at room temperature, but use your fridge as cold storage for the rest. This will give you more time to enjoy your food, and help cut down on waste.”
Environment Minister Therese Coffey said, “We know that confusing labels can lead to food waste by suggesting that esculent items need to be thrown away sooner. This new guidance will make packaging much clearer for customers, saving them money and cutting waste. I encourage all food businesses, large and small, to use this guidance to help them put the right date mark on food and help to guide people on the freezing products, which are key to cutting down on the amount of eatable food thrown away.”
Heather Hancock, Chairman of the Food Standards Agency, said, “I think this clear guidance can help deal with food waste, without damaging the safety of food. It will help businesses supply food that is properly described and stored, and safely provided to consumers.”
1. Which is in line with the goal of the government-backed guidance?| A．Encouraging business. | B．Lowering goods prices. |
| C．Cutting down on waste. | D．Improving product quality. |
| A．Eatable. | B．Bad. | C．Fresh. | D．Packaged. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Tolerant. | C．Positive. | D．Disappointed. |
| A．The Clearer Label Plan to Reduce Food Waste. |
| B．The Disadvantages of Confusing Labels on the Food. |
| C．The New Ways to Keep Fruit and Vegetables Fresh. |
| D．The End of the Traditional Fruit Bowl. |
7 . Each year, the world wastes about one-sixth of the food available to consumers. It is estimated（估计）that the world has lost approximately 931 million metric tons of food so far. That's about an average of 121 kilograms for each man, woman and child on Earth.
What isn't eaten also wastes all of the resources used to make that food. Those resources include the water, energy, money, human labor and more. Wasted food "does not feed people, but it does feed climate change", said Otto, who works for the UN Environment Program (UNEP), during a news conference. Some 690 people go hungry each year. More than 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. Meanwhile, the activities that had produced all of the lost and wasted food led to 8 to 10 percent of all global greenhouse-gas emission. Reducing food waste could ease hunger and possibly lower that pollution. That's the conclusion of the Food Waste Index Report 2021, a report issued on March 4.
The report's authors collected data on food-waste from 54 countries. Most food that went uneaten - 61 percent - was thrown out by home cooks and diners. Food services, such as restaurants, accounted for 26% more of the "lost" food. Groceries and other stores were responsible for 13% of the wasted food. Going in, Otto says, "We thought waste was mainly a problem in rich countries." In reality, the new report finds, food waste is a big problem in nations rich and poor.
While the report is the best study of the issue to date, several data gaps remain. The countries surveyed are home to just 75% of the world's population. What happens in other places remains unknown. And only 23 countries provided waste estimates for food losses by restaurants or retail stores. The researchers tried to account for such gaps. To do this, they made estimates based on what they learned in parts of the world that do tally such data.
Otto recommends that countries begin making more efficient use of food a part of their climate strategies and their COVID-19 recovery plans. "Food waste has been largely overlooked in national climate strategies," Otto said. "We know what to do. And we can take action quickly."
1. What is the main problem talked about in the passage?| A．World hunger. | B．Resource shortage. | C．Food losses. | D．Global warming. |
| A．Potential | B．Shocking. | C．Incurable | D．Temporary. |
| A．Climate change is caused by pollution. | B．Waste is a permanent problem. |
| C．No solution to the problem is available. | D．Food waste is a worldwide issue. |
| A．a virtue to be advocated | B．a win-win solution |
| C．a battle unlikely to win | D．a matter of chance |
8 . There was a time in the past when, if you had surplus(多余的）food in your fridge, you may have knocked on a neighbor's door to see if they wanted it. Now, unfortunately, giving away food may cause embarrassment, so uneaten food often ends up being thrown in the trash.
Olio hopes to change that. This smart food-sharing app allows people with extra food to post a picture online and anyone who wants it can respond and pick it up, usually within minutes or hours of it being posted. No money is exchanged. It's straightforward gift of surplus food to someone who can prevent it from going to waste. You might even make a new friend in the process!
The app was created in 2015 by two businesswomen, Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One , in England. Since then it has grown rapidly with nearly 3.5 million people using it in 50 countries. The app saw even more people join in throughout 2020, when food insecurity increased due to the pandemic(疫情).
Clarke told the Guardian that, in the United Kingdom, about a third of all food is thrown away - half of it in people's homes.“Each family throws away an average of 730 of food each year,” she said. Olio managed to fix this in a simple way. “The app connects people with others who have surplus food but don't have anyone to give it to because so many people are disconnected from their communities.”
It's a great idea that will hopefully continue to expand around the world as people realize the benefits of sharing food, rather than throwing it away.
1. What is Olio intended to do?| A．Exchange money. | B．Stop wasting food. | C．Entertain people. | D．Protect the environment. |
| A．People were much busier than before. | B．People got much closer to their neighbors. |
| C．People were more worried about food safety. | D．Olio was improved and became easier to use. |
| A．It will be thrown away. | B．It will be more popular. |
| C．It will be more expensive. | D．It will be replaced by other apps. |
| A．Order Food through the Internet | B．Never Waste Food in Your Fridge |
| C．Create Peaceful Communities to Do Charity | D．Share Surplus Food Using the Olio App |
