1 . Imagine being able to pop to your local park and pick some tomatoes, potatoes or even bananas to take home for dinner. Sounds too good to be true, right? For residents of Andernach, German, it’s not just a dream—it’s their reality.
In 2010, Andernach began its edible(可食用的)city project, planting 101 varieties of tomatoes in public green spaces around the city centre. Its 30,000 residents are free to help themselves to whatever grows, as are any other visitors. The town’s motto of sorts is “Picking is encouraged—help yourself!” Every year a new type of plant is highlighted. In 2011, 100 types of beans were planted, while 2012saw the introduction of 20 onion varieties.
It’s a community effort, as local citizens are encouraged to help plant and maintain the gardens. This offers an opportunity to socialise as well as to learn about planting, cultivating and harvesting food.
An Andernach resident spoke to DW,“I often drop by to pick some herbs that I’m missing at home. Everything is easily accessible. There aren’t any fences. You just take what you need. The only thing is that you have to be quick once the fruits are ripe or they’ll all be gone!”
Andernach may have been the first in German, but it isn’t the only edible city. It’s part of the Edible Cities Network, a project funded by European Union to connect green urban foot initiatives around the world. Other cities include Carthage in Tunisia, Havana in Cuba and Sempeter-Vrtojba in Slovenia. In February 2022, the first Edible Cities Network Conference took place. Dr Ina Saumel, principal investigator of the Edible Cities Network, called it “a unique opportunity to invite researchers of edible city solutions and practitioners to the same table.”
Ultimately, the Edible Cities Network aims to give people “greener, more edible and, above all, more livable cities.” It is a response to the pressures of global climate change, and a significant cause full of hope.
1. What can residents do in public green spaces according to the edible city project?| A．Sell the produce they grow there. |
| B．Learn knowledge about planting. |
| C．Grow whatever plant as they like. |
| D．Pay to pick some vegetables there. |
| A．Novel and popular. | B．Creative and costly. |
| C．Common and fundamental. | D．Rare and unacceptable. |
| A．Andernach is the only city to carry it out. |
| B．European Union originally established it. |
| C．It helps combine theories with practices. |
| D．It invites people to share meals together. |
| A．To help residents relieve their pressure. |
| B．To involve residents in urban planting. |
| C．To increase the produce supply in cities. |
| D．To create environmentally friendly cities. |
2 . It was mid-afternoon. I looked outside my dorm window, and saw the lifeless gray sky, the snow and the trackless sidewalks. There was no one in the snow but a squirrel. The brown-gray North American squirrel,a look of terror in his shining eyes, braved the cold to throw himself over snow. In his mouth was a large acorn(橡实)—I was surprised it fit in his mouth.
I moved closer to my window, outside of which is a medium-sized tree, lacking its warm-weather leaves. The squirrel ran up rapidly, higher and higher in the tree, and his small body held onto his dear acorn.
Up he went, to the tip of one of the highest branches. I held my breath—I wondered if that slender branch could support him. I wondered if his winter food store was in this tree—squirrels are known to hide their nuts, mushrooms, and vegetation high up in trees. Outside, the squirrel firmly grasped that branch, jaw clamping(夹紧)on his acorn.
Then came the wind blowing violently, shaking the tree, the branch and the squirrel. He hung on for dear life, and both arms wrapped around the branch in the wind. I held my breath: If he fell from a height like this, then.... Seeing this little squirrel, I had my heart in my mouth. As the wind became stronger, the squirrel’s precious acorn fell to the ground. The squirrel followed its downward progress only by sight—if he let go the branch, he would fall downwards as well. I was so nervous that I didn’t take my gaze off the squirrel for one minute. Surprisingly, he then climbed down the tree and was now half-buried in the snow, searching desperately for his acorn. Finally, he made it.
The brave animal is able to survive in nature all because of its desperate efforts.The same goes for us humans. We all work hard to survive, and this is the law of nature. So effort is not something special, but a matter for all living things to do to survive.
1. What did the author discover outside the window?| A．A squirrel was freezing nearly to death. |
| B．A squirrel was choked by a large acorn. |
| C．A squirrel was picking acorns from a tree. |
| D．A squirrel was climbing to the top of a tree. |
| A．Dead. | B．Straight. | C．Slim. | D．Thick. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Unfriendly. | C．Uncaring. | D．Curious. |
| A．Stop struggling, life is stopped. |
| B．Facts speak louder than words. |
| C．Failure is the mother of success. |
| D．Teaching others teaches yourself. |
3 . There are a total of 3, 044 national parks worldwide. Africa contains 249. Asia has 985. 474 are in Europe. 297 are in Central and North America. 335 are in South America and Oceania has 704.
Ecological (生态的) values
The world is fast losing its natural assets (资产). According to a study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 2015, the total number of species (物种) in the last 30 years is 477. Their habitats are getting destroyed worldwide because of all kinds of human activities. How to solve the problem?
Economic (经济的) values
Well-protected national parks serve as a good way to increase national economy.
It has been found that people can make some illnesses like stress, frustration, eye problems, and anger go away if they spend some quality time in the national parks’ green surroundings. Moreover, people also have chosen these national parks to be a place where they can spend a joyful time.
Social and cultural values
| A．Political values |
| B．Health and pleasure |
| C．The reason is that they hugely attract tourists |
| D．They have great significance in various directions |
| E．Now, national parks are a solution to this problem |
| F．The national parks are alive with rich history and culture |
| G．In national parks, all plants and animals are kept in their natural state |
4 . An important lesson in the moral (道德的) education of children could be as close as the book in their hands. Stories matter. And they can play a role in building moral values in young audiences, according to the results of a new study.
Lindsay Hahn is the first author of the new study, which explores how media content (内容) influences children. Many studies done before have focused on wide concept (概念), but Hahn’s study looks at how moral values might influence the kids’ values. Do children reading particular moral, characteristics take in those qualities and build their own morality? The findings suggest so.
“Parents, caregivers, and teachers are often wondering how media can be used for good,” says Hahn. “How can it be used for good things? How can it discourage bad habits? How can it educate?” Answering those questions begins with a better understanding of how to use media. “When parents are considering what media they might want to select for their children, they can deliberate what particular moral value is being stressed by the main character, and how the main character is treated because of those actions,” she says.
For the study, Hahn and her workmates took the main character from a young adult novel. They wrote the content to reflect the study’s focus on moral values. Those stories were shared with about 200 participants (参与者) between the ages of 10 and 14. This is a favorable range for media research because it’s more difficult to introduce the understanding of stories to younger kids, while challenging to hold the attention of older teenagers, who become bored with basic storylines, according to Hahn.
1. What is the result of the new study?| A．Stories should be spread more by media. |
| B．Children like reading books full of funny stories. |
| C．Children have learned an important lesson from stories. |
| D．Stories help children to develop their own moral values. |
| A．How children deal with media content. |
| B．How children are exposed to modern society. |
| C．How media content influences children’s moral: values. |
| D．How children should deal with the moral values in stories. |
| A．Describe. | B．Improve. | C．Title. | D．Consider. |
| A．The Young Can Build Good Moral Values Easily |
| B．It Is Difficult for the Young to Understand Moral Values |
| C．Stories Play an Important Role in the Young’s Moral Values |
| D．Scientists Find More Ways to Help the Young Build Moral Values |
5 . When I was young, I had no idea what I wanted to do. The choices were thin. It was assumed (假定的) that I’d go to college, and after, that I could be a mom. I could, be a secretary. I could be a nurse or a teacher. If anyone asked, I said I wanted to be a writer. Even I knew that wasn’t a real job. Mostly, I didn’t think about it.
But just as I was coming of age, a world of possibility opened up. By the time I graduated from college with a science degree, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. And one day, after seeing a notice in the paper, I remembered there was something I’d wanted to do, once. It sounded fun, so I took the test to be a mail carrier. The new Postal Service was by law an inclusive group. If you got a good enough score, you were in.
It was an older woman conducting (执行) my fitness entry exam who was the first to disagree. This wasn’t a job for a girl, she said. And I shouldn’t take a man’s job away from him. He has a family to support. Despite that poor assumed man’s family, I became one of perhaps a dozen female carriers in the whole city of Portland, Oregon.
On the street, I was a novelty (新奇的人). I didn’t go a single day without hearing some friendly words: Well, I guess we can’t call you the mailman, can we? We’ll have to call you the mail-woman! Those particular words somehow appeared naturally in thousands of minds at once. My existence received attention. It’s hard to imagine now.
Thirty-two years later I retired into a very different world. Being a retired mail carrier is even more fun than being a mail carrier. And finally, I get to be a writer. It’s still not really a job.
1. What can we know about the author when she was young?| A．She had no plan for her future. |
| B．She studied hard to be a writer. |
| C．She never wanted to go to college. |
| D．She knew little about what a real job was. |
| A．She could do nothing else after her graduation. |
| B．She thought it interesting to be a mail carrier. |
| C．She got a high score in the test to be a mail carrier. |
| D．She was bored with studying for a science degree. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Careless. | C．Unclear. | D．Negative. |
| A．To stress the importance of a career plan. |
| B．To share the story of her career options. |
| C．To show the fun of being a mail carrier. |
| D．To express her regret about her job choice. |
6 . A Tour Around Tasmanian, Australia
Come to Tasmanian, Australia for a great tour around the coasts, wetlands, rain forests, national parks and mountains in search of its different wildlife and beautiful scenery.
Expect to see different types of wildlife from little penguins to a large number of birds. With just 10 places available, all guests will have a deeply personal experience, in a friendly atmosphere designed to have a low effect on the places visited.
Tour Details:
◎Lasting up to 12 days
◎Traveling on foot and by boat
◎A small group tour with just 10 guests
◎Led throughout by biologist Nick Mooney
◎Seeing some unusual and endangered wildlife
◎Staying in 4-star hotels, wood-built rainforest houses and farms
◎Visiting Mount Field National Park, Cradle Mountain, Maria Island and Bruny Island
The tour is perfect for those nature-lovers, as it acts as a fantastic introduction to Tasmania’s amazing plants and animals and how it is being protected while allowing those with a deep understanding of wildlife protection to observe a great many species on land, in the sky and at sea.
Email to wildlife@tasmanian.com to book now and we will provide you with more information.
1. What do we know about the tour?| A．It is guided by a biologist. | B．It lasts ten days. |
| C．It offers hotels for free. | D．It offers a bus. |
| A．Protect nature. | B．Feed wildlife. |
| C．Stay away from forests. | D．Visit twelve attractions. |
| A．By phone. | B．By email. |
| C．By posting a letter. | D．By going to a travel company. |
7 . Strategies for Getting Kids off Screens
It’s time to keep kids off the screens! Parents should use the winter vacation to remind their children of what it’s like to play freely, offline for hours on end.
Set clear screen time limits
Establish how many minutes or hours you’re OK with them each week, and make it something that can never be changed. For example, you could say they’re allowed to watch for an hour on Sunday morning, or for 15 minutes in the evening while dinner is being made, or none at all for the rest of the winter—and then stick to it.
Get kids cooking
Involve them in meal preparation by assigning recipes that you’d like them to make each day.
There are numerous half- and full-day camp options and lessons that can occupy a child’s time, such as swimming, art classes, tennis, dinosaur camp and sports camp. Look around your community for activities that can get them out of the house for a few hours each day.
Establish a reading routine (习惯)
| A．Sign up for lessons |
| B．Assign household work |
| C．That helps stop arguments of screen time |
| D．Of course, this is easier said than done |
| E．Master some basic tricks, using a homemade tool |
| F．They’ll develop new skills at cutting, cooking and baking |
| G．Go to the library once a week to store up fresh reading material |
8 . Some Asian children are becoming increasingly fat, a new report says. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) joint report was released on Monday. The two agencies call for better regulation of junk food and a limit on sugary drinks for children. They also call for action against malnutrition (营养不良), because a lack of food has prevented children who live in poverty growing normally and healthily-or rather, hurts their development.
Dorothy Foote is a UNICEF regional nutritional specialist. She says the lack of food affects children’s height and development inside their bodies. But at the same time, the area is facing high levels of overweight children.
The main reason for the food problems, the report says, is that there is more junk food available, which does not provide nutrition. Another problem is drinks with high sugar or high trans-fat, but low nutritional value. Lack of physical activity is also part of the problem, the report adds.
Foote says this is seen in nutrition across the area. She says people lack knowledge about what is needed and normal for healthy children’s development.
The economic growth in the area has brought unhealthy products to rural areas. Poor and middle-class families buy them and do not make the right choices to use healthier foods instead. Poor feeding practices, especially for children younger than two, mean ongoing high levels of malnutrition.
The report says governments need to regulate the marketing of junk food and sugary drinks to children. It also calls for better feeding practices for infants and young children, and treatment for severely malnourished children. And it says the countries should work to reduce poverty and make sure that children stay in school.
1. What does the report focus on?| A．The economic growth in Asia. |
| B．Asian countries’ development. |
| C．The education in Asian rural areas. |
| D．Some Asian children’s health problems. |
| A．The right choices. | B．The high levels. |
| C．The unhealthy products. | D．The healthier foods. |
| A．The children’s situations. | B．The report’s suggestions. |
| C．The governments’ efforts. | D．The problem’s causes. |
| A．The reasons for children’s being hungry |
| B．How to stop children from being overweight? |
| C．Why children in Asia become overweight? |
| D．Asian children face malnutrition or fatness |
9 . The essence (本质) of fast fashion is to make clothes inexpensively and quickly, to get new trends and styles into stores and online as soon as possible, and it comes at a high social and environmental cost. Keeping production costs low means they can make their clothes cheap, using cheap labour in unsafe working conditions, and in countries with bad environmental regulations.
Throw-away culture is deeply rooted in our society; three in five of our clothing pieces are thrown out within a year. Fast fashion brands keep the consumers hungry and feeling like they need more by attracting them with newness and convincing the consumers that they need what they’re selling. This only results in increasing textile waste as people no longer want but throw it away.
Criticisms of the fast fashion industry include its negative environmental impact: water pollution, the use of toxic (有毒的) chemicals and increasing levels of textile waste. Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of clean water globally, after agriculture. Fast fashion companies rely on their products being made cheaply and quickly, so they avoid talking when it comes to being aware of their impact on the environment. Greenpeace’s recent Detox Campaign showed that many brands use toxic and dangerous chemicals in their supply chains, and many of the chemicals are either banned or strictly controlled in lots of countries.
In conclusion, the fast fashion industry has a bad effect on our environment through fast fashion brands’ ecological practices and only continues to make the problem last for a long time in the future through extreme consumerist culture. In order for change to happen, the common people need to open their eyes and take measures to prevent the fast fashion from growing.
1. What’s one of the characteristics of fast fashion?| A．Causing a lot of anxiety. | B．Making people buy old clothes. |
| C．Selling most clothes through stores. | D．Producing clothes quickly. |
| A．They are mainly sold online. | B．They are made in unsafe countries. |
| C．They are made by cheap labour. | D．They save the cost of advertising. |
| A．Natural. | B．Surprising. | C．Absurd. | D．Puzzling. |
| A．Changing fast fashion brands’ working conditions. |
| B．Changing clothes stores’ sales model. |
| C．Introducing stricter laws for factories. |
| D．Raising public awareness of preventing fast fashion. |
10 . My 15-year-old boy is a high achiever. He is very bright, pursuing everything he does with devotion and determination. And he is a great kid; honest, kind, faithful and caring.
Like a lot of kids who are high achievers, he is a perfectionist and very easy to fall into anxiety. That is manifested in his study, and other things he does as well. For example, he loves tennis but he is often worried about losing in the game. Now he has to stop competing because the pressure he puts on himself is becoming unhealthy. He still plays, but playing socially rather than competitively means that it’s an outlet for him rather than a source of stress.
He does not manage stress well. He puts so much pressure on himself to the point of worrying himself sick over just about every assessment. And he gets so negative about it, everything I say to him is met with negativity, every suggestion with a response that it won’t work, and honestly it’s depressing and tiring.
To help my son, I had a patient conversation with him, and he finally followed my advice about physical exercise to ease stress. Whenever he was under a lot of pressure, I would run with him for half an bour and do some push-ups to relax the pressure. Gradually, he became less nervous in the later exams and his scores became more and more stable.
Pressure from grades and perfectionism can be really hard to manage when it comes to schooling. As kids, what they need is effective communication and sincere encouragement. So I have always told and shown my son that we’re proud of him, and that pride doesn’t merely depend on top grades.
1. Which of the following best explains “manifested” underlined in paragraph 2?| A．Exchanged. | B．Explored. | C．Achieved. | D．Reflected. |
| A．He is a high achiever. | B．He’s easy to fall sick. |
| C．He hopes to release stress. | D．He wants to win the game. |
| A．His son fails to handle stress properly. | B．His son becomes tired of stress. |
| C．His son is good at some sports. | D．His son is doing well at school. |
| A．Taking up a new hobby. | B．Hanging out with some friends. |
| C．Doing some exercise with him. | D．Talking to friends as much as possible. |
