5 . The following are some coding(编程) games, toys and apps the kids in their life will love.

Think & Learn Code-a-pillar Twist

Best for ages: 3-6 Price: $34.99

It’s never too early to start learning programming. In fact, the earlier, the better. This code-a-pillar lets preschoolers twist dials to create sequence and send caterpillar on a programmed path. There are more than 1,000 possible coding combinations, so this toy will keep your child entertained for hours.

Robo Rally

Best for ages: 12+

Number of players: 2-6 players Price: $39.99

Have some time to play with your kids? You’ll all love Robo Rally. You’ll use playing cards to direct robots’ moves, avoid obstacles, and make it to a checkpoint. Get ready for some friendly coding competition.

Robot Turtles

Best for ages: 4+

Number of players: 2-5 players Price: $24.99

Designed by a programming expert, Robot Turtles challenges even younger kids to write programs using playing cards, making it a great way for them to become familiar with programming principles. It’s another one that you’ll want to play with your kids — and, we promise, you’ll enjoy it too.

GrokLeaning

Best for ages: 13+

Price: $5 per year for students up to Grade 6, $30 per year for students up to Grade 7

GrokLearning is a series of online courses introducing students to coding. For kids who like a little competition, GrokLearning also hosts online coding contests that take place across the globe.

1. What do Robo Rally and Robot Turtles have in common?

A．Both are designed by a programming expert.

B．Both can get kids ready for coding competitions.

C．Both are suitable for parents to play with their kids.

D．Both are designed for kids to play cards to direct robots’ moves.

2. What is special about GrokLearning?

A．It keeps kids entertained for hours.

B．It satisfies parents’ need to take online courses.

C．It sets different prices for students of different grades.

D．It offers kids chances to experience competition in coding.

3. What is the purpose of this text?

A．To guide parents to code.	B．To teach kids coding.
C．To promote programming.	D．To introduce coding products.

6 . 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.

2. Why are fast fashion clothes cheap?

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.

3. How does the society think of throwing away clothes according to the author?

A．Natural.

B．Surprising.

C．Absurd.

D．Puzzling.

4. What’s the way to change fast fashion mentioned in the text?

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.

7 . Generally speaking, convenience and safety affect how we choose to pay for things. Environmental concerns do, too.

Each time you pull out a credit, use a phone’s wallet app or hand over cash, you take part in a system. Some parts of that system make things, like coins, bills or cards. Other parts move money between buyers, sellers, banks and others. Used cash, cards and equipment will be eventually disposed of (处理), as well. Each part of this system uses materials and energy. And all parts produce waste.

Now researchers are looking more closely at how “green” these payment systems are. They’re finding buyers can help cut some of the environmental costs, no matter how they pay.

To understand the full “cost” to society of money or any other system, researchers can perform what’s called a life-cycle assessment. It looks at all the environmental impacts of a product or process. It starts with mining, growing or making the raw materials. It includes what happens while something is in use. And it considers the final disposal or reuse of things.

Even though raw materials are the first step, in fact there are raw materials added in at every single step along the journey. For money, raw materials go into each step of something that is “made”. Fuels are the raw materials for energy to make products and transport them. More energy goes into using products. Recycling or disposal also requires energy, plus water, soil or other materials.

People don’t realize most of those steps, so they can’t judge if one form of payment is dirtier or more costly. And that’s a problem, researchers say. It’s also what has got some of them to show more about the costs of how we pay for our lifestyles.

A life-cycle assessment doesn’t tell you what to do. However, it gives you an informed basis for making a decision.

1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．The ways of paying.	B．The process of payment.
C．The waste produced by payment.	D．The introduction of payment systems.

2. What does the life-cycle assessment of payment systems focus on?

A．The real value of money.	B．The history of the currency.
C．The effect on the environment.	D．The importance of raw material.

3. What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 5 refer to?

A．Steps.

B．Products.

C．Materials.

D．Fuels.

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

A．The Payment Patterns are Changing	B．How We Choose to Pay Affects the Environment
C．New Payment Patterns Have Come into Being	D．How We Make Payment Systems “Green”

8 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

A historic bottle of whiskey (威士忌) can soon be     1     (you) — if you have tens of thousands of dollars     2     (spend). The whiskey,     3     (discover) in LaGrange, Georgia, is about to go up for auction (拍卖) and bids are expected to fall between $20,000 and $40,000. This Old Ingledew Whiskey is believed to be the oldest known whiskey in     4     (exist), according to Skinner, who is hosting the auction. Research indicates the wine was     5     (probable) produced between 1762—1802, around the time of the Revolutionary War.

Financier John Pierpont Morgan reportedly bought the bottle during one of his frequent visits to Georgia, Skinner said. It is believed to have been bottled in LaGrange in     6     1860s, according to the auction house, which said it was standard practice to store spirits (烈酒) in bottles after being aged in oak barrels. Morgan     7     (send) it as a gift to a close friend and neighbor, Francis Drake,     8     family safeguarded the bottle for three generations.

While this may be the oldest known bottle of whiskey, it’s nowhere near the most expensive. In 2019, the Macallan Fine and Rare 60-Year-Old 1926 became the     9     (high) priced bottle of wine ever auctioned when it sold     10     $1.9 million.

10 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。1.

A．To save space for people.

B．To protect the environment.

C．To make life more convenient.

2.

A．It’s hard to build.

B．It’s expensive to buy.

C．It’s unrealistic to live in.