2 . Six-year-old Kendall Rae Johnson has been in love with gardening all her life. Now, the Georgia native is the state’s youngest certified farmer. Taught by her grandmother, Kendall started her first garden on a backyard, and by her fourth birthday, she had a backyard garden filled with carrots, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and strawberries. Her green thumb just didn’t extend in the walls of her garden. She started a monthly gardening club with subscription food boxes, to help spread awareness about farming among her peers.

Kendall’s journey to becoming a certified farmer didn’t happen overnight. First, she had to get a business unit at the state and federal levels. Then she joined various farming organizations associated with Georgia’s Department of Agriculture and Georgia Farm Bureau. This made her qualified to be certified.

The ambitious grower was to apply for scholarships so she can purchase her own land and run the business, which she can legally do now that she is certified. She also hopes to raise $10,000 for an outdoor agricultural science lab to begin composting. Kendall’s mother told ABC News her daughter was “the example of young entrepreneurship and the future of Black farmers.”

Black farmers are few and far between. According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, of the farmers in the United States, less than 2% are black. However, Black people do have a strong history in farming. In 1920 there were nearly a million black farmers in the United States: there are just 45,000 now. But Kendall can help change that. Kendall regularly attends farming conferences and Agriculture summits and is committed to making a difference in the field. Throughout it all, she is still a kid and says her main goal is to make new friends. But along the way she also hopes to motivate those friends to grow an interest in farming.

1. What can we learn about Kendall’s gardening club?

A．It took her over a month to prepare.	B．It made her the youngest certified farmer.
C．It was created as a gift for her fourth birthday.	D．It is aimed at teaching other kids about farming.

2. What does the author intend to convey in paragraph 2?

A．Getting certified as a farmer is not easy.	B．Kendall is the youngest farmer in the USA.
C．The journey to Kendall’s garden is difficult.	D．Kendall is popular among farming organizations.

3. What enables Kendall to buy land for her business?

A．Asking for scholarships.	B．Raising money by delivering speeches.
C．Earning money through her science lab.	D．Selling her own produce from her garden.

4. What is Kendall’s wish according to the last paragraph?

A．To educate the black farmers.	B．To organize more farming meetings.
C．To teach other kids to plant vegetables.	D．To make more friends and inspire them.

7 . It’s exciting when your teens announce a dream of being a writer. However, besides providing them with different kinds of reading materials, you can direct them to the following websites offering great resources to future storytellers.

Figment

This is an online community and self-publishing platform for young writers. Users can not only “publish” and read short stories, poetry, lyrics (歌词), essays, and novels on it but also review, react to and comment on works from other users. Sometimes, Figment offers writing contests to help young writers improve their skills.

Wattpad

It is described as “the YouTube of writing”, because it allows amateur(业余的) creators to share their works with others. It claims to have more than 90 million users. Well-known writers, such as Margaret Atwood and Cory Doctorow, even post their works here.

Teen Ink

Supported by the non-profit Young Authors Foundation, Teen Ink has offered teens the opportunity to publish their creative works and express opinions on issues that affect their lives for over 31 years. Teen Ink has no staff writers or artists. The magazine and website are devoted entirely to writing, artworks, and photos by teens. It’s also a good platform for teens interested in writing and publishing non-fiction essays and articles, as well as poetry.

Tumblr

The microblogging platform is a wonderful place for bold self-expression, but it is also suitable for young literature lovers and bookworms. Tumblr optionally allows users to raise questions about the blog, and it also offers a “fan mail” function, so users can send messages to those bloggers they like.

1. Which of the following organizes writing competitions for users?

A．Figment.

B．Wattpad.

C．Teen Ink.

D．Tumblr.

2. What can we know about Teen Ink from the text?

A．It encourages bold self-expression.

B．It is a newly-founded platform for teens.

C．All the works on it are provided by teens.

D．There are many famous writers sharing their works on it.

3. On the platform of Tumblr, users can________.

A．publish their own novels.

B．communicate with other bloggers.

C．read short stories, poetry, lyrics and essays.

D．express opinions on issues that affect their lives.

8 . The red knot, flying long distances and migrating (迁徙) every year from the Arctic to West Africa and back, has been facing great risks as shellfish food is becoming fewer in the feeding grounds lining its migratory route. Now climate change is affecting these birds: they are getting smaller in size, and the effects may be speeding up their extinction.

Scientists found that global warming is making red knot chicks miss their insect peak and therefore achieve a smaller size with a shorter bill (喙). The changes are reducing the population's survival rates in their wintering grounds.

Furthermore, the fewer migrants are paying the price, with the smallest young birds' survival only half of that of the larger ones. Leading researcher Jan van Gils of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research said the reason is quite simple since only larger birds with long bills can reach deeply hidden shellfish for food. “Shorter­billed birds were forced to live on seagrass, which is a poor food source for these birds. The poor survival of fewer first­year birds clearly contributes to the population decrease seen in red knots nowadays，” van Gils explained.

The North American red knots were listed as threatened in 2015 due to the decrease in horseshoe crab eggs in their key stopover feeding location, Delaware Bay, on their way to their winter home.

Over the last three decades, snow at the birds' breeding ground has progressively melted at a half­day rate every year, which brings it to over two weeks at present. This change has led to a mismatch: plants blossom earlier and insects feeding on the plants come out earlier, but the chicks eating the insects are too late to feed on them at their peak.

1. What threatens red knots on their way of migration?

A．Cold weather.	B．The falling snow.
C．Their difficulty in finding shellfish.	D．The disappearance of their feeding grounds.

2. In what way does global warming affect red knots?

A．They now hunt with shorter bills.	B．They are confused during migration.
C．They have to migrate farther to find food.	D．Fewer of them are migrating year by year.

3. What happens when plants blossom earlier?

A．Red knot chicks come out earlier.

B．Red knot chicks miss the insect peak.

C．The insect peak comes and goes too quickly.

D．There are too many insects for red knot chicks.

4. Which can be the best title for the text?

A．The endangered red knots	B．Global warming and its effect
C．Climate change affects migrating birds	D．Red knots get fewer due to climate change