1 . People generally like to pick out the best-looking fruits and vegetables when shopping for produce (农产品), but Canadian supermarket chain Loblaws is attracting customers with badly-shaped and faulty produce at the price of 30% lower than normal-looking one.
A trial run of the ugly food line, named “Naturally Imperfect”, began with only apples and potatoes to choose from. Consumer demand has been so huge that Loblaws is going to introduce more ugly vegetables and fruits like onions and mushrooms.
All the produce that will be sold through Naturally Imperfect would otherwise have been used in juices, sauces, or soups, or have not been harvested at all. The director Dan Branson explained that this program benefited both food producers who would otherwise have to let abnormal produce go to waste, and consumers who could buy fresh produce at low prices. And he was right, given how popular the line has become.
“It really went well beyond our expectation,” Branson said. “I think it really spoke to the fact that Canadians are out there really looking for some options.”
Of course, Canadians know that beauty is more than skin deep, and they also recognize that they can get the same flavor and nutritional benefits in spite of appearances. The positive response to the initial offering of apples and potatoes showed the opportunity to expand the line and offer more options at a greater price to Canadian families.
“If you grow produce in your backyard, there will be a lot of produce that won’t look as pretty as what you will see in a grocery store”, said Branson. “And nature doesn’t grow everything perfectly. I’d like to think if somebody were to take a No Name Naturally Imperfect apple, put it right beside a No.1 apple, close his eyes and eat them, there would be no difference.”
1. Loblaws is different from other supermarkets in that ______.| A．more fruits are offered at lower prices | B．normal-looking produce is forbidden there |
| C．only apples and potatoes are sold every day | D．imperfect produce is sold at lower prices there |
| A．prevents people from wasting their food | B．happens to be a win-win mode |
| C．teaches food producers how to grow | D．enables consumers to eat more fresh produce |
| A．Canadians are used to eating perfect produce. |
| B．Smart consumers know the importance of ugly produce. |
| C．Loblaws intends to improve customers’ quality of life. |
| D．Customers’ support promotes the development of the ugly food line. |
| A．Imperfect fruits are as tasty and nutritious as perfect ones. |
| B．The world is usually full of imperfect things. |
| C．We should eat imperfect apples with our eyes closed. |
| D．The fruits grown by ourselves are more nutritious than those in the store. |
1. If you happen to be the 200th customer to buy Cholesterol blockTM, what will you do?
| A．Be able to buy it at a low price. |
| B．Be the luckiest one online. |
| C．Try it free of charge. |
| D．Change your diet. |
| A．They are diseases. |
| B．They are side effects. |
| C．They are medicines. |
| D．They are cholesterol. |
| A．In a travel guide book. |
| B．On a university bulletin board (布告牌). |
| C．In a health magazine. |
| D．In a doctor’s prescription. |
3 . Like many parts of modern life, you can go digital when it comes to food scales (秤). If you want digital scales with an LCD display, then obviously you’ll need batteries which can run out at the most inconvenient of times. But the advantages of digital scales are many, including an accurate button which allows you to instantly remove the weight of an empty bowl, so you don’t need to do any maths calculations (计算). Mechanical (机械的)scales on the other hand have a pleasingly old-school reliability about them and undoubtedly add a touch of the style of the past to any kitchen. Read on for our top picks of mechanical scales, and digital scales, and balance scales.
EK backlit scales
A backlit display is an attractive feature. In addition to its good looks, it has an oversize digital display that is easy to read.
CN folding kitchen scales
When space is limited in your kitchen, you sometimes don’t want to buy another kitchen item. Folding kitchen scale is your best choice.
DM traditional cast iron balance kitchen scales
Cooking and baking isn’t all about time efficiency. It’s also about memories and the simple enjoyment of doing something that connects you.
MF 3-in-1 digital scales
We love the one that makes life easier by performing many functions. One part is a traditional balance, one part is a mixing bowl, and one part is a measuring pot, and the grade of the bowl itself allows accurate measurement of the liquid.
There are plenty of good reasons to prepare the best kitchen scales for your kitchen set up. More importantly, the sense of loss because of inaccuracy can be avoided. If you’ve got young kids, using scales is also a great way to add to their knowledge of weights and measures and to do some basic maths with them.
1. What is the feature of a mechanical scale?| A．It has LCD display. |
| B．It needs batteries |
| C．It is a little inaccurate |
| D．It shows an old-fashioned style. |
| A．EK backlit scales |
| B．CN folding kitchen scales |
| C．DM traditional cast iron balance kitchen scales |
| D．MF 3-in- 1 digital scales |
| A．Mechanics. | B．Mathematics. | C．Chemistry. | D．Physics. |
4 . When you want to go shopping, you will decide how much money you can pay for new clothes and think about the kind of clothes you really need. Then you just only look for those clothes. There are labels inside all new clothes. The labels tell you how to take care of your clothes. The labels may say “dry-clean only”. If you put these clothes into the water to wash them, you may ruin them.
Many clothes today must be dry-cleaned. Dry-cleaning is expensive. So when you buy new clothes, check if they will need to be dry-cleaned. You’ll save money if your clothes can be washed in water.
You can also save money if you buy clothes that are well-made. Well-made clothes last longer. They look good even after they have been washed many times. Clothes that cost more money are not always made better. They don’t always fit better. Sometimes the less expensive clothes look and fit better than the more expensive ones.
1. Before you buy clothes. the first thing for you to do is .| A．to get advice from others | B．to decide how much money they cost |
| C．to decide what colour you like | D．to think about what size you want |
| A．The labels | B．The colours |
| C．The styles | D．The materials |
| A．that can be washed in water | B．that need to dry-cleaned |
| C．that look good | D．that is the cheapest |
| A．dry-cleaning is cheap |
| B．sometimes the cheaper clothes can fit you better |
| C．expensive clothes last longer |
| D．cheap clothes last longer |
| A．how to choose label | B．how to wash clothes |
| C．how to save money | D．how to buy clothes |
Football T-shirts are more commonly connected with boys than girls. This can often cause a problem when you want to find a cool shirt for a girl.
If you do not feel like you have to try the T-shirts on, then an online store may be your best choice.
If you want to see what the T-shirt looks like in real life, then going to a store is the best choice. Large sportswear stores often have football shirts.
| A．These shirts cost much more than ordinary ones. |
| B．These are the best places to go if you do not live close to an official store. |
| C．It is cool for boys and girl to wear football T-shirts. |
| D．You can also go through official channels to get the shirt you want. |
| E．That is not to say that there are no cool shirts out there for girls to wear. |
| F．The reason for this is that you can visit various stores and find the best ones. |
| G．You can get custom (订制的) shirt printed for girls from a number of custom print stores. |
6 . With fashion magazines, advertisements and teenage idols sporting the “latest and greatest” trends, there’s a lot of pressure on teenagers to fit the mold...no matter how expensive it might be. For decades, teenagers have used fashion as a social weapon. Bullies (霸凌者) will pick out peers that aren’t wearing the best brands of clothing and criticize them.
Dr. Jensen, a professor at Western Illinois University, says there are some signs your child might be a victim of fashion bullying. They’ll become picky about what clothes they wear and will be very demanding when you take them shopping. He continues: “Bullying of this kind can be quite insidious (阴险), it can just be a look that a child is given. Advertising and marketing have made our society increasingly image-conscious and our children are suffering the consequences. Schools and colleges should be places where all children feel equal, but it is actually impossible for schools to protect their pupils from the harsher aspects of these commercial influences.”
Andy Cranham, a teacher at City of Bristol College said: “The need to belong in groups is crucial to young learners and exclusion (排挤) is something they see as the end of the world.”
What Not to Wear, a popular television show, features fashion bullying as entertainment. Each week Stacy and Clinton pick out a fashion victim, thinking little of her appearance, and verbally trashing her wardrobe. They bully the victim while she shops according to their “fashion rules”. After she receives a total fashion renovation, Stacy and Clinton offer her acceptance and approval. Each show ends with a homecoming celebration where the former fashion disaster returns to friends and family who praise her with admiration as a “new woman”.
I think beauty is probably at the base of fashion, but the problem comes when so called “stylish” people start defining beauty in a way that excludes other people. Why wait for a trend in order to follow it? If you’re able to wear something with confidence, you will be the one starting a trend.
1. What shows teenagers are suffering from fashion anxiety?| A．They are afraid of shopping. | B．They refuse to talk to parents. |
| C．They always buy cheap clothes. | D．They are particular about clothes. |
| A．Teenagers. | B．Advertising and marketing. |
| C．Schools. | D．Friends and family. |
| A．The sense of belonging to a group. | B．Protection from schools. |
| C．The appreciation of beauty. | D．Creation in fashion design. |
| A．Approving. | B．Disapproving. | C．Neutral. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Listen to stylish people. | B．Follow the trend. |
| C．Believe in yourself. | D．Observe and learn. |
7 . The term “oniomania”, which is used to describe people with obsessive (强迫性的), problematic shopping and spending behaviors, consists of the Greek words “onios”, meaning “for sale”, and “mania”. Also known as Compulsive Buying Disorder (CBD) and Impulsive Compulsive Buying Disorder (ICBD), oniomania can leave negative impact on your financial health and mental wellbeing if left untreated.
At this point you might be wondering: “What’s the difference between an oniomaniac and someone who likes to shop perhaps a bit too much?” We tend to believe that the two are rather similar. Clinically (从临床上看), however, they are quite easy to separate.
Although people who like shopping will return an item if they do not like it and start budgeting if they run low on money, people suffering from oniomania are no longer able to make reasonable, let alone financially responsible, decisions. They sometimes emotionally dissociate from what they are doing, making their purchases while they are not really sure what to buy. Spending relieves feelings of anxiety and depression, but only temporarily. In a short time, they might become moody, annoyed, and depressed, and their confidence declines sharply.
To a certain extent, spending makes everyone feel good. In 2007, a group of researchers from MIT, Stanford and Carnegie Mellon looked at the brains of American consumers via MRI technology and found that when they purchased desirable objects, their nucleus accumbens — the brain’s pleasure center — would light up, indicating a positive stimulation. This stimulation can take on different forms. For instance, some people get particularly excited when they believe they have gotten a good deal. This, researchers say, is the result of the prefrontal cortex — the decision-making part of our brain — interacting with the insula, the part of our brain that processes pain. According to psychotherapist Joyce Marter, compulsive buyers in the U. S. make an average of 156 impulsive purchases per year. Each purchase sets them back around $81. 75, making for a grand total of $5, 400 per year and a thorough shocking $324, 000 per lifetime. That money could have been invested in a home, an education, or other products that you actually need in order to survive and thrive in the world. Ultimately, though, treating oniomania is about much more than just protecting your finances from your own impulses — it’s also about maintaining your personal mental health and improving your relationships with others.
1. What do we know about oniomania?| A．It is a normal behavior. |
| B．It influences people’s health. |
| C．It means people who like shopping. |
| D．It describes people’s difference. |
| A．Run out of |
| B．Go short of |
| C．Look down on |
| D．Become rich in |
| A．Why many researchers take part in the study. |
| B．How everyone makes a wise decision. |
| C．How desirable objects are well welcome. |
| D．Why shopping makes common people happy. |
| A．It is beneficial to education. |
| B．It develops our desires. |
| C．It keeps our mind healthy. |
| D．It is harmful to relationships. |
8 . Between 30 and 40 percent of food produced for humans never gets eaten in the USA, ending up in landfills (垃圾填埋场), where it breaks down and produces greenhouse gases. Now, Elena Belavina, a professor from Cornell University, has an interesting solution. He says that opening more grocery (食品杂货) stores could reduce (减少) food waste greatly.
People of most US cities don’t have enough choices when it comes to grocery shopping, which means that people will overbuy when visiting a store. They buy more than what they can really eat, which means food goes to waste. However, when there are more stores in a neighborhood, people will shop daily or many times a week, buying just what they need, which means less food goes to waste.
For example, Belavina found that in Chicago, adding just three or four markets within a 10-square-kilometer area reduced food waste by 6 percent to 9 percent. Europe (and much of the rest of the world) is famously good at this, with stores meeting shoppers’ different needs, such as bread, cheese, meat and produce.
Belavina’s research did find that increasing the number of grocery stores would lead to more food waste by sellers, but this is less than food waste produced by customers. “We at home throw away 10 times more food than the grocery stores,” she said. This is why focusing on solutions to reducing life rubbish will have a greater help than focusing on sellers. Belavina suggests that when adding more stores isn’t workable, people should explore other shopping methods such as online orders. “Any service that makes it easier and allows you to shop more often is helpful. To reduce food waste, what people need to do is bring fewer groceries home.”
1. What will people do when there are more shops around?| A．They will eat more healthily. |
| B．They will shop more often. |
| C．They will eat more food. |
| D．They will buy too much. |
| A．To compare it with other US cities. |
| B．To show it has the similar problem. |
| C．To point out its importance in the US. |
| D．To prove Belavina’s solution is workable. |
| A．We should try to avoid shopping online. |
| B．We should shop at stores near our home. |
| C．We should shop in small shops more often. |
| D．We should increase the ways of shopping. |
| A．The reasons for food waste. |
| B．The change of shopping methods. |
| C．The advantage of more shops around. |
| D．The importance of self-control in shopping. |
9 . Some Thoughtful Mother’s Day Gifts
Mother’s Day is right around the corner and it’s a special day for showing some gratitude and appreciation to mothers worldwide for raising and caring for their children. Naturally there are a lot of potential gifts out there for the occasion to choose from, so we’ve put together some thoughtful gifts you can send.
Mother’s Day scrabble printThis scrabble frame offers a more personal and alternative touch for Mother’s Day, with a simple but thoughtful message. You can also customise the names on the pieces to your own family names.
Katie Loxton slim pouchSometimes a small and simple gift can do just the trick, so if you wanted to go that route, this Katie Loxton pouch would be a great choice. It’s made from vegan leather and carved with “Wonderful Mum” on its front. It’s pocket-sized and can also handily fit in a handbag as an option for carrying small items.
Jimmy Choo Blossom special edition-Eau de ParfumSpring is in the air and so are the fragrances that are commonly associated with it. Presented in a lovely, brightly-coloured bottle and also diamond-shaped cap, this Jimmy Choo fragrance is a great gift for Mother’s Day and the blossoming of a new season, with its sweet and warm floral scents.
Floral punch needle kitIf your mum is into crafts, needling or is a plant lover, then this is the perfect gift for her. Made from cotton, beech wood and recycled plastic, it’s a punch needle kit ideal for hanging on a wall or help decorate a table stand with its nature themed fern look. Every gift is wrapped in recyclable packaging as well. Included inside is: the needle fabric, a model design, and detailed needling instructions for beginners.
1. How can you show some gratitude to mothers on Mother’s Day?| A．By celebrating a special day. | B．By sending thoughtful gifts. |
| C．By appreciating gifts worldwide. | D．By raising and caring for children. |
| A．It’s personal and identical. | B．It’s expensive and thoughtful. |
| C．It includes our names on the pieces. | D．It can cover our own family names. |
| A．Floral punch needle kit | B．Katie Loxton slim pouch |
| C．Mother’s Day scrabble print | D．Jimmy Choo Blossom special edition-Eau de Parfum |
10 . Make Our Wardrobe Special
It may be the beginning of a new year, but by January it certainly feels like it should be the end of winter. Unfortunately, we still have a couple of cold grey months to get through. One bright spot in January, however, are the post holiday sales. I treat these sales as a chance to find something warm, comfortable and stylish to get me through the next few months, and future winters.
Here’s what I purchased last year: a cozy, vintage-looking, faux-fur coat. It met all of my criteria for a good purchase. It’s well made and will last me for many years. It’s a timeless style that won’t date. It works with everything else in my wardrobe. I can dress it to be either very smart or very casual. It’s practical and warm as well as stylish. And last but not least, it makes me feel great when I wear it.
I view the January sales as a great chance to pick up things you genuinely need while retailers offer hefty discounts to clear their shelves before spring. To make sure you’re not buying something impulsively that you might later regret, ask yourself a few questions: Will you wear it at least 30 times in a year? Is the price worth it or should this same money be better spent on something you’d wear more frequently?
If you don’t trust yourself to stick to a budget, leave the credit cards behind and take cash only when you shop in a store. The most important step before you walk into a shop is to look at your wardrobe and assess where there are gaps. Is a pair of boots completely worn out? Do you need a more modern style of jeans? Is a jumper beyond mending and repair? Try to replace those items rather than buying another blouse simply because it is heavily reduced in price. It has never made sense to me to spend a lot of money on something such as a dress to attend a wedding, rather than putting that money towards a great camel coat that would get far more wear. Make your everyday wardrobe special.
I haven’t always been as thoughtful and conscious about my purchases as I currently am. However, when I consider that the fashion industry is the second most polluting on the planet after oil and gas, I feel compelled to make much more principled purchases now. So this is my New Year’s resolution for myself and also my challenge to you: buy only what you need, buy only what you truly love, and consider every purchase carefully, just as our parents and grandparents did before cheap, disposable fashion took over retail. Let’s make our wardrobes special in 2022.
1. According to the author, which of the following things will she buy?| A．A pair of fashionable high-heel shoes that is perfect for dresses. |
| B．A vintage-looking hat with timeless style made of beaver fur. |
| C．A classical scarf on discount that goes well with every dressing style. |
| D．A trendy and well made coat that needs washing by hand in warm water. |
| A．special | B．generous | C．extra | D．seasonal |
| A．January is the best time to buy real bargains. |
| B．Never make impulsive purchases. |
| C．It makes sense to buy things on special offer. |
| D．One can enjoy more discounts by paying in cash. |
| A．Be more sustainable when purchasing clothing. |
| B．Learn how to make match of the clothes in wardrobe. |
| C．Stock up on your favourite clothes if they are on sale. |
| D．Clean out your wardrobe to make room for the new fashions. |
