1 .
The latest pack from Sierra Designs is the Gigawatt 60L. The pack has an adjustable back system that fits back lengths from 40cm to 53cm. It’s made from durable 300D polyester. Features include a zipped top and side access, oversized side and front pockets. The Gigawatt 60L weighs 1.84kg and costs £130. sierradesigns.com |
Maestrale Re-Made ski boots are made from Polymer taken from around three tons of leftover materials. Creating a Re-Made boot from Polymer emits 27% less carbon dioxide than creating a “classic” boot from plant-based Pebax Rnew, which emits 32% less carbon dioxide than Fossil-based Plastics. The design and manufacturing process behind the Re-Made boot were developed by Scarpa’s Green Lab, the production department dedicated to sustainable solutions. A pair costs £500. scarpa.co.uk / ellis-brigham.com |
The well-established Vasque Breeze hiking boot has been modernised with environmentally friendly materials. It’s now made with recycled polyester and is the first boot to have a VasqueDry Waterproof membrane, which is made from 25% recycled materials. The Breeze is also comfortable to wear with its soft footbed. The Breeze weighs 1120 grams and comes in two widths. It costs £140. vasque.com |
The Dawn Turn clothing provides a layering system for ski touring designed to keep you warm, dry and freely moving. It includes a shell jacket, midlayers, trousers and accessories. The Dawn Turn 2.0 jacket won the innovation award at ISPO for its breathable layer. The cost is £350. The Dawn Turn 1.0 Jacket is made from waterproof DryVent. It features a windproof hood and oversized front pockets, and costs £325. thenorthface.co.uk |
| A．The ski athletes | B．The outdoor lovers |
| C．The environmentalists | D．The sports retailers |
| A．Both kinds of boots mentioned in the passage have two different widths. |
| B．The latest big pack from Sierra Designs has a fixed back system. |
| C．The Vasque Breeze hiking boot is both eco-friendly and waterproof. |
| D．The Dawn Turn 1.0 Jacket won the innovation award at ISPO. |
| A．Polymer > Pebax Renew >Fossil-based Plastics |
| B．Fossil-based Plastics > Pebax Renew > Polymer |
| C．Fossil-based Plastics > Polymer >Pebax Renew |
| D．Polymer >Fossil-based Plastics >Pebax Renew |
2 . How to fight your bad breath
More than 80 million people suffer from bad breath, according to the Academy of General Dentistry, a professional association of dentists from Canada and the United States.
Onions and garlic add flavor to many foods, but they also add odors (臭味) not easily brushed away. The substances that cause their bad smells make their way into your bloodstream and travel to your lungs, where you breathe them out. The best way to avoid the problem is to avoid such foods.
Avoid dry mouth.
Saliva (唾液) is the key thing in your mouth that helps keep the odor under control because it helps wash away bacteria.
Brush and floss (用牙线清洁).
Oral hygiene experts recommend you brush your teeth at least twice a day and floss at least once to reduce plaque (牙斑). The sticky buildup on your teeth collects bacteria that cause bad breath, and trapped food adds to the problem.
Brush your tongue.
| A．Avoid certain foods |
| B．Don’t overdo things, though |
| C．If you aren’t producing much saliva |
| D．Bacteria don’t just live on your teeth |
| E．Brush your teeth after you eat these foods |
| F．Although bad breath can happen because of medical reasons |
| G．If your bad breath is thought to be caused by a potential health condition |
3 . A single toy catches a child's attention for a limited period of time, but a box of items that allows a child to build their own toys will catch their imagination for years to come. This brilliant idea already exists in real product form, and it's called Toyi.
Toyi is described as an eco-friendly creative building kit, and it recently won the well-known IF Design Award. It came from Istanbul, Turkish, where a young female designer named Elif Atmaca first came up with the idea for it when she wanted to help the kids living in disadvantaged areas. These children do not have access to the variety of interesting toys that wealthier children do.
Toyi Atmaca's design allows children to transform what are around them into clever toys. It consists of sticks, junction parts, flexible connectors, toy body parts like feet, eyes, hands, and wheels that can be used to turn old water bottles, cups, boxes, towels, etc. into cute, clever, and unique playthings. This toy kit upcycles(升级利用) materials that would otherwise go to waste, turning a recycling bin into a treasure container.
“Our initial target was to deliver Toyi kits to only disadvantaged children in Turkish,” Atmaca told the media. But during a research conducted with around 300 children, .she realized that the restriction on being creative went beyond any boundary. “I saw that everything was planned and shaped by grown-ups, blocking the kids' imagination in a significant way,” said Atmaca.
Atmaca concluded that each kid needed space where he or she could freely create. She explained the entire process should be left to kids’ creativity, reminding teachers and all grown-ups that child-led play was an excellent way for children to develop lifelong skills.
Toyi's creators are now considering distributing the kits to as many children as possible around the world through different international NGOs. Atmaca notes that for each Toyi kit sold out, they will also donate one kit to a disadvantaged child through different partnerships around the world.
1. Why did Atmaca design Toyi at first?| A．To win the famous IF Design Award. |
| B．To help poor kids make their own toys. |
| C．To protect the environment in Istanbul. |
| D．To recycle all the waste in the dustbin. |
| A．A new picture of a young boy. | B．A computer with high technology. |
| C．A treasure container from a dustbin: | D．A six-armed “robot” from a water bottle. |
| A．It provides the kids various types of toys. |
| B．It offers space for the kids’ creative minds. |
| C．It changes the poor kids' living conditions. |
| D．It teaches the kids to share joys with others. |
| A．Donating toy kits to more poor children. |
| B．Selling toy kits to every kid in the world. |
| C．Designing new toy kits for kids and adults. |
| D．Doing further research on the kids' demands. |
4 . The fertile land of the Nile delta is being eroded (侵蚀) along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast at an astonishing rate, in some parts estimated at 100 metres per year. In the past, land washed away from the coastline by the currents of the Mediterranean Sea used to be replaced by sediment (沉淀物) brought down to the delta by the River Nile, but this is no longer happening.
Up to now, people have blamed this loss of delta land on the two large Aswan dams in the south of Egypt, which hold back almost all of the sediment that used to flow down the river. Before the dams were built, the Nile flowed freely carrying huge quantities of sediment. But when the Aswan dams were constructed to provide electricity and irrigation, and to protect the huge population centre of Cairo from annual flooding and drought, most of the sediment with its natural fertilizer accumulated up above the dam in the southern upstream half of Lake Nasser, instead of passing down to the della.
Now, however, there turns out to be more to the story. It appears that the sediment-free water picks up sand as it erodes the river bed and banks on the 800-kilometre trip to Cairo. Daniel Jean Stanley of the Smithsonian Institute noticed that water samples taken in Cairo indicated that the river sometimes carries more than 850 grams of sediment per cubic metre of water — almost half of what it carried before the dams were built.
International environmental organizations are beginning to pay closer attention to the region, partly because of the problems of erosion and pollution of the Nile delta, but mainly because they fear the impact this situation could have on the whole Mediterranean coastal ecosystem.
But there are no easy solutions. In the immediate future, Stanley believes that one solution would be to make artificial floods to flush out the delta waterways, in the same way that natural floods did before the construction of the dams. He says, however, that in the long term an alternative process such as desalination (脱盐) may have to be used to increase the amount of water available.
1. What stopped the sediment coming down to the delta?| A．The Mediterranean Sea. | B．The River Nile. |
| C．The Aswan dams. | D．Lake Nasser. |
| A．To flush out the river beds. |
| B．To offer electricity and protection. |
| C．To make the water in the River Nile clean. |
| D．To keep the soil in the region nearby nutrient-rich. |
| A．There is no need to worry about the delta. |
| B．The methods of measurement need improving. |
| C．Whether the situation is good or not remains to be seen. |
| D．The dams’ consequences are beyond people’s expectation. |
| A．Difficulties to be settled. |
| B．Rewards for the challenge. |
| C．Severe influence of the situation. |
| D．Possible solutions to the problem. |
