1 . Here’s the deal: you’re as hungry as a horse and you want a delicious meal from a fine restaurant, but you’re a little low on funds.

So what do you do? If you happen to live in Europe, the answer is as easy as pie: you pull out your smart phone or tablet, and tap Too Good To Go, Europe’s most popular app. Approximately 23,000 restaurants and food sellers post their leftover offerings on the app for half their usual cost.

Why all this incredible generosity? Unbelievably, one-third of the world’s food is thrown away, and nearly one billion people don’t have enough to eat. Besides, burning wasted food releases harmful carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, which contributes to climate change. That’s why environment-minded companies around the world are creating apps for phones, tablets, and other smart devices that connect uneaten food with people who want or need it.

After a long day at work, Anne, a 34-year-old student, pulls out her smart phone and chooses a noodle dish —pasta with mushrooms. Then she heads to a restaurant on the banks of the Spree River, where the owner packs her dinner and also offers her a spoon of free icecream, which is a reward for bringing her own container.

Indeed, there are many programmes serving the same mission around the world. In America, people are using an app called Food for All. One hour before a restaurant closes, its staff can post leftover meals to the app for up to 80 percent off menu prices. The app also allows customers to donate leftover meals to others.

In the Netherlands, 77,000 people have downloaded an app called No Food Wasted. This programme allows grocery store workers to share products that are approaching their expiration dates with customers who might need them.

Some countries are taking their commitment to reducing food waste a step further. France and the Czech Republic, for example, have laws that prohibit restaurants and grocery stores from throwing away food. Instead, workers are required to donate that food to charity.

So think about if there might be a better use for your uneaten vegetables. The planet will thank you.

1. Why are such apps as Too Good To Go created?

A．They are created to show the generosity of some eco-minded companies.

B．They are created to offer delicious meals to those who live on a tight budget.

C．They are created to call for people to not waste food and to reduce harmful emissions from burning wasted food.

D．They are created as a publicity tool for restaurants and companies.

2. Which is not a way mentioned in the passage to save food or protect the environment?

A．Make laws and regulations to ban the waste of food.

B．Share products approaching their expiration dates with those who might need them.

C．Post leftover meals to the app for up to 80 percent discounts.

D．Offer consumers a free meal as the reward for bringing their own container.

3. What is this passage mainly about?

A．Companies are designing environment-friendly apps for poor people.

B．Restaurants enable their staff to sell leftover meals at a low price on apps.

C．Apps are designed to provide leftover food for people in need to choose from.

D．Apps are designed to appeal to the public to treasure food and donate food to people in need.

4. We can infer from the last paragraph that ________.

A．more methods are needed to help solve the problem of leftover food

B．more applications should be created to help restaurants sell food

C．leftover food will pose a great danger to the environment

D．the applications already designed cannot ensure a good use of leftover food

3 . Tiredness May Lead to Snacking

Staying up late doing homework is always tiring. Perhaps when we are tired, we feel the need to eat unhealthy snack food. Recently scientists have been investigating tiredness and snack food.

According to a study in the Journal of Neuroscience, people are more likely to crave snacks when they don’t get enough sleep.

For the study, researchers from University of Cologne in Germany gave the same dinner to 32 healthy men aged between 19 and 33. Half of the men were then sent home to bed, and the other half were kept aware in the laboratory all night.

The next morning, the participants were asked to consider how much they would be willing to pay for snack food items shown to them in pictures.

According to the researchers, all were similarly hungry in the morning, and had similar levels of most hormones and blood sugar.

However, brain scans showed that when the sleep-deprived participants looked at the pictures of junk food, they released more of the “hunger hormone”. This is the hormone responsible for increasing the appetite, and making us consume more.

Asked about how much they would pay for snacks, “participants with sleep deprivation were more willing to overspend on food items than those with a good night’s sleep,” researchers said.

Researchers also observed that among the people who hadn’t slept, there was greater activity in the part of the brain where food rewards are processed.

Scientists think that sleep-deprived people experience changes to the hunger hormone and the brain’s reward system that leads to a stronger desire to eat snacks with high fat and calories.

“This brings us a little closer to understanding the mechanism behind how sleep deprivation changes food valuation,” Professor Jan Peters, a co-author of the study from the University of Cologne, told The Independent.

Kill the craving

Listen to some soft music to relieve your tiredness.

Do some slight exercise for a short time when you’re tired.

Eat yogurt or fruits to replace snacks with high fat and calories.

Distance yourself from the craving.

1. People are more likely to crave snacks if they don’t get enough sleep because they ______.

A．have high levels of most hormones and blood sugar

B．release more of the “hunger hormone”, making them consumer more

C．are extremely hungry in the morning

D．are attracted by the snack food items in the pictures

2. Which of the statements is NOT TRUE according to the passage?

A．Hunger hormone can increase people’s appetite and let them eat more food.

B．Participants without sleep deprivation may spend less on food items.

C．The brain’s reward system will lead to craving snack food.

D．Greater activity will appear in certain part of the brain among those who sleep well.

3. Which of the following way is most likely to help you kill the craving?

A．Listening to Rock & Roll.	B．Walking out for while.
C．Ordering a McDonald’s Big Mac.	D．Drinking black coffee.

4 . ①We have a problem, and the strange thing is that we not only know about it but also celebrate it. Just today, someone boasted to me that she was so busy she’s averaged four hours of sleep a night for the last two weeks. She wasn’t complaining; she was proud of the fact. She is not alone.

②Why are typically rational (理智的) people so irrational in their behavior? The answer is that we’re in the midst of a bubble. I call it “The More Bubble.”

③The nature of bubbles is that something is absurdly overvalued until-eventually-the bubble bursts, and we’re left wondering why we were so irrationally animated in the first place. The thing we’re overvaluing now is the opinion of doing it all, having it all, achieving it all.

④This bubble is being enabled by a combination of three powerful trends: smart phones, social media, and extreme consumerism. The result is not just information overload, but opinion overload. We are more aware than at any time in history of what everyone else is doing and therefore, what we should be doing. In the process, we have been sold a bill of goods: that success means being supermen and superwomen who can get it all done. Of course we boasted about being busy—it’s code for being successful and important.

⑤And our answer to the problem of more is always more. We need more technology to help us create more technologies. We need to shift our workload to free up our own time to do yet even more.

⑥Luckily, there is a solution to the pursuit of more: the pursuit of less, but better. A growing number of people are making this change. I call these people Essentialists.

⑦These people are designing their lives around what is essential and removing everything else. These people arrange to have actual weekends (during which they are not working). They create technology-free zones in their homes. They trade time on Facebook with calling those few friends who really matter to them. Instead of running to different meetings, they put space on their calendars to get important work done.

⑧So we have two choices: we can be among the last people caught up in “The More Bubble” or we can join the growing community of Essentialists and get more of what matters in our one precious life.

1. When the woman said she only slept for four hours a night for two weeks, she “_________”.

A．took pride in doing so	B．was asking for suggestions
C．was unsatisfied with her lifestyle	D．knew few people were like her

2. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．The solutions to “The More Bubble”.

B．The advantages of “The More Bubble”.

C．The cause and result of “The More Bubble”.

D．The disadvantages of “The More Bubble”.

3. According to the article, Esscntialists are those who _________.

A．are tired of information and opinions

B．prefer not to rely on technology at their homes

C．give up certain things for what matters in life

D．are not interested in becoming successful and important

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards “The More Bubble”?

A．Disapproval.

B．Indifferent.

C．Supportive.

D．Skeptical.

5 . The term home schooling means educating children at home or in places other than a normal setting such as a public or private school. These days, homeschooling in America is ________.

Teaching methods at homeschooling ________. Some parents follow a strict timetable and ________ a traditional school environment. Other parents follow an extreme form of homeschooling in which they do not give grades or tests and allow their children to study wherever they want. More parents, however, follow the middle ________ to provide a balance between freedom and discipline.

Why do parents choose homeschooling? Some believe that children in public schools experience too much “peer pressure”, or social pressure from friends. They say it may have a ________ effect on the child’s studies. Other parents are dissatisfied with the quality of education in the public school. About half the parents who teach at home are ________ motivated and use lessons by mail or Internet from church schools. Whatever the ________ may be, it is evident that more and more children are being taken out of normal schools every year. ________, many questions have emerged, encouraging the debate over home schooling against public schooling.

What then is the future of education? Although children often learn well at home, weak regulations in most states mean that officials rarely challenge or ________ parents who say they are home-schooling. As the ________ continues, so do the questions about what home schoolers are studying at home. How can parents ensure that their children are prepared academically for college? How are home schoolers ________ to make sure they are getting the same educational standards that school students must have? Recent studies in the United States have shown that homeschooled children tend to be slightly better in subjects like English and art, but they are obviously less ________ math and science. Finally, there are questions regarding the children’s emotional development. Are they too ________ their fellow students? Are they ________ the opportunity to get the social benefits of being in a large classroom of students? As with any debatable issue, the answers to these questions are never ________.

1.

A．disappearing

B．reducing

C．contributing

D．rising

2.

A．vary

B．last

C．exist

D．work

3.

A．imitate

B．alter

C．promote

D．neglect

4.

A．instructions

B．path

C．technique

D．standard

5.

A．positive

B．practical

C．negative

D．remarkable

6.

A．economically

B．religiously

C．psychologically

D．physically

7.

A．effects

B．suggestions

C．reasons

D．pressures

8.

A．As a result

B．On the whole

C．By the way

D．In addition

9.

A．encourage

B．interrupt

C．contact

D．monitor

10.

A．appreciation

B．opposition

C．expectation

D．debate

11.

A．assessed

B．chosen

C．compared

D．classified

12.

A．satisfied with

B．involved in

C．skilled at

D．ashamed of

13.

A．worried about

B．isolated from

C．connected with

D．ignorant of

14.

A．creating

B．grasping

C．awaiting

D．losing

15.

A．acceptable

B．informative

C．one-sided

D．practical

6 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A.kill   B.connection   C.powered   D.manufacturer   E. potential   F.expected   G.catch   H.developed   I. reported J. react K.measured

Love it or hate it, flying is necessary if we want to get to a faraway destination (目的地). For those of us who love to read e-books or listen to music on our phone to     1     the time, however, taking a flight in China can be a boring experience.

This is because Chinese airlines didn’t allow smartphones to be     2     on during flights, even in flight mode (模式). The reason behind the ban is something called electronic interference (电磁干扰). According to a study by plane     3     Boeing in 2014 published by CNN, electromagnetic interference can sometimes cause flight equipment to     4    .

During the study, Kenny Kirchoff, a Boeing engineer,     5     the radio signals sent out by a laptop’s (笔记本电脑的) Wi-Fi radio. He found that some of the signals from the laptop actually jump over the limit, which means there’s a     6     that this piece of equipment could interfere with [plane instruments]. This issue is worse with mobile phones, which constantly send and receive strong signals while they search for a     7     to the network. Even in flight mode, many phones still do this. Despite this, there were just 29 cases of electromagnetic interference caused by mobile phones     8     worldwide between 2003 and 2009, according to CNN. Besides, the instruments in modern planes are protected from electronic interference by metal “shields (护罩)”.

Many Chinese airlines are now     9     to allow passengers to use their smartphones freely, meaning that we can finally     10     up on our favorite books and songs while at 30,000 feet in the air.

7 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Time to appreciate food

Food is a necessity for human beings to survive and thrive. But it’s a lot more than that. As Mariette DiChristina of Scientific American wrote: “The most intimate relationship we will ever have is not with any fellow human being. Instead, it is between our bodies and our food.”

Nowadays, for most people in the world’s     1     (wealthy) countries, food is a hobby, an enthusiasm, and even something fashionable. Turn on the TV in the US, UK or France, and you     2     (find) at least one channel feeding this popular obsession. And most of us know at least one person who thinks of themselves     3     a “foodie”. It’s almost impossible nowadays to check our social media apps without at least two or three photos of delicious meals appearing on our screen — however annoying we may find it.

    4     behind the fancy recipes and social media bragging, many of us forget how much we take food for granted. This is why World Food Day     5     (hold) each year by the United Nations on Oct 16. The day allows the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization to highlight both the progress that     6     (make) against hunger, and what still needs to be done.

Take Kenya for example. This African nation     7     (suffer) terrible droughts in recent years. People are beginning to starve. Children in particular are suffering, with some of     8     even dying. This may seem     9     (shock) to know, especially as many cultures outside of Africa think of food in a completely different way. But even in developed nations, families on low incomes are forced to use food banks — organizations that hand out donated food to those     10     can’t afford to pay for it themselves.

So what can we do on World Food Day? One good way to spend it would be to feel humble and appreciate what we have.

9 . In Japan many workers for large corporations have a guarantee of lifetime employment. They will not be laid off during recessions or when the tasks they perform. are taken over by robots. To some observers, this is capitalism at its best, because workers are treated as people not things. Others see it as necessarily inefficient and believe it cannot continue if Japan is to remain competitive with foreign corporations more concerned about profits and less concerned about people.

Defenders of the system argue that those who call it inefficient do not understand how it really works. In the first place not every Japanese worker has the guarantee of a lifetime job. The lifetime employment system includes only “regular employees”. Many employees do not fall into this category, including all women. All businesses have many part-time and temporary employees. These workers are hired and laid off during the course of the business cycle just as employees in the United States are. These “irregular workers” make up about 10 percent of the nonagricultural work force. Additionally, Japanese firms maintain some flexibility through the extensive use of subcontractors. This practice is much more common in Japan than in the United States.

The use of both subcontractors and temporary workers has increased markedly in Japan since the 1974 — 1975 recession. All this leads some to argue that the Japanese system is not all that different from the American system. During recessions Japanese corporations lay off temporary workers and give less business to subcontractors. In the United States, corporations lay off those workers with the least seniority. The difference then is probably less than the term “lifetime employment” suggests, but there still is a difference. And this difference cannot be understood without looking at the values of Japanese society. The relationship between employer and employee cannot be explained in purely contractual terms. Firms hold on to the employees and employees stay with one firm. There are also practical reasons for not jumping from job to job. Most retirement benefits come from the employer. Changing jobs means losing these benefits. Also, teamwork is an essential part of Japanese production. Moving to a new firm means adapting to a different team and at least temporarily, lower productivity and lower pay.

1. according to the passage, a woman in Japan ________.

A．cannot get a lifetime job	B．is impossible to get a part time job
C．will be employed for life	D．is among the regular workers

2. Which of the following is NOT the reason why Japanese workers stay with one firm?

A．They don’t want to lose their retirement benefits.

B．They are not adaptable people.

C．Any change of jobs will make them less paid.

D．They get used to the team work.

3. It can be interred from the passage that________.

A．Those who want to change jobs frequently in Japan should think twice.

B．Those who are first laid off by American corporations are temporary workers.

C．The use of subcontractors makes Japan films less flexible

D．The Japanese system is totally different from the American system

10 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A.emphasize     B. misunderstanding     C. reflect            D. referred       E. contract          F. attached               G. occurring          H. oppose   I. civilization       J. concerning            K. attractive

The most difficult part of a Western-Chinese marriage is the cultural differences. The traditional Chinese culture is established on the Confucian philosophy, while the western culture is based on ancient Greek    1    . Cultural differences exist in almost every aspect and therefore     2    also on relationships and marriage.

From the traditional Chinese point of view, marriage is a relationship    3    many aspects such as family, friends and relatives, while from the Western point of view, marriage is a    4    signed between two people that is based on trust and love. Furthermore, Westerners’ marriages    5     more the independence and privacy of the couple.

That is why Westerners sometimes cannot understand why we Chinese need to our relatives if we are asked to do so. Chinese need to maintain their “face” and “relations”. Even in relationship, we are somehow still    6    to our family and relatives. Our partner has to understand it and at least does not    7    it.

It is not easy to maintain Chinese-Western relationship. Cultural differences may result in    8    . Young Asian ladies are fond of western men because they believe they are more gentlemanly and in addition their appearances are more    9    . Western men may think Chinese ladies are gentler and more feminine.

My suggestion for the cross-culture relationship is always trying to put yourself in other’s shoes: accepting rather than changing; always respecting your partner but clarifying your own red lines; showing your interest in his/her different culture and carefully commenting on it and so on.

There are more and more cross-culture marriages    10     recently. I would like to take this chance to sincerely wish them the very best in their love journeys.