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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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 |
2 . In July, a big study came out in the journal JAMA. It was titled “Association of Screen Time and Depression in Adolescence.” This big headline seemed to confirm what a lot of people have been saying—that screen time is horrible for young people.
The study followed over 3,800 adolescents over four years. Part of what the investigators measured was the teens’ amount of screen time, including time spent on social media, as well as their levels of depression symptoms. One of their main findings was that higher amounts of social media use were associated with higher levels of depression. That was true both when the researches compared between people and compared each person against their own mental health over time. Case closed? Not so fast. Let’s take a closer look at this and other studies, and ask ourselves: What exactly is the relationship between social media use and depression? It turns out there are several caveats.
Caveat #1: The association between social media use and depression is, on average, tiny.
In this big JAMA study, the investigators compared social media use and depression between teens and found that those who used social media more had higher depression scores. Specifically, for every hour per day that one teen spent on social media more than her peers, she likely had a 0.64-point higher depression score. Within each teen, increasing their daily social media use by 1 hour was also associated with a 0.41-point increase to their own depression score. You may be asking, “But what does a 0.64-point increase mean? How much more depression is that?” Depression was measured on a 28-point scale, so these less-than-one-point increases are tiny.
Caveat #2: Not everybody has the same relationship with social media.
A different study published in 2018 identified five distinct types of social media users, and the take-home finding was that “problematic social media use” was one of the main themes for people whose mental health was affected by social media. What makes for “problematic” use? The researchers adapted the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale to cover all forms of social media. It includes questions like, “You use Facebook in order to forget about personal problems” and “You have tried to cut down on the use of Facebook without success.” These sound similar to questions about other types of addiction like alcoholism. You can have alcohol in your life without it being a problem, or your alcohol use may become problematic. It’s the same with social media.
Caveat #3: We don’t know if it’s really social media use causing depression.
There’s one important thing to remember about survey research—just because two things happen together, it’s not necessarily true that one causes the other. Another possibility is that something else entirely is causing some people to have both high levels of depression and social media use. For example, one interesting study shows that childhood maltreatment was associated with greater current social media use. It’s not hard to imagine that people mistreated in childhood also had higher levels of depression. In this case, depression may have nothing to do with how much someone is using social media.
1. The study published by the journal JAMA ________| A．found screen time is the cause of adolescent depression. |
| B．has researched more than 3,000 young adults over the span of four years. |
| C．concluded that teens who used social media more suffered from more depression. |
| D．found that teens who spent one more hour on social media had a 0.41-point higher depression score than their peers |
| A．warnings | B．approaches | C．faults | D．suggestions |
| A．Almost all types of social media users experience problematic social media use. |
| B．The influence of social media use on depression has not been exaggerated. |
| C．People who are depressed always choose to spend more time on social media. |
| D．People mistreated during their childhood suffer from depression probably due to their childhood experience rather than social media use. |
| A．The more people use social media, the more depressed they will feel. |
| B．Social media use actually has nothing to do with people’s level of depression. |
| C．Higher depression scores will certainly stimulate people to use social media more. |
| D．People need to be more cautious when making judgments about the relationship between social media and depression. |
3 . When you are little, it’s not hard to believe you can change the world. I remember my enthusiasm when, at the age of 12, I addressed the people at the Rio Earth Summit. “I am only a child,” I told them. “Yet I know that if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this world would be. In school you teach us not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share. not to be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the thing you tell us not to do? You grown-ups say you love us, but I challenge you, please, to make our actions reflect your words.”
I spoke for six minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur (激励) action. Now, ten years from Rio, after I’ve sat through many more conferences, I’m not sure what has been accomplished. My confidence in the people in power and in the power of an individual’s voice to reach them has been deeply shaken.
When I was little, the world was simple. But as a young adult, I’m learning that as we have to make choices-education, career, lifestyle-life gets more and more complicated. We are beginning to feel pressure to produce and be successful. We are taught that economic growth is progress, but aren’t taught how to pursue a happy, healthy or sustainable (可持续的) way of living. And we are learning that what we wanted for the future when we were 12 was ideal and innocent.
Today I’m no longer a child, but I’m worried about what kind of environment my children will grow up in. I know change is possible, because I am changing, still figuring out what I think. I am still deciding how to live my life. The challenges are great, but if we accept individual responsibility and make sustainable choices, we will rise to the challenges, and we will become part of the positive tide of change.
1. The purpose of what the speaker said at the age of 12 was to ________.| A．end poverty and make school beautiful |
| B．end poverty and solve the problems about environment |
| C．find a wonderful place and clean it up |
| D．find environmental answers and keep the words that they always told themselves |
| A．a long period of laughing | B．a warm welcome |
| C．a long period of clapping and applauses | D．an expression used for greeting |
| A．in his teens | B．in his forties | C．in his thirties | D．in his twenties |
| A．the writer thinks what he thought at the age of 12 is mature. |
| B．the writer’s children will certainly live in an ideal environment. |
| C．the writer’s confidence in the people in power has deeply shaken their voice. |
| D．the writer’s belief does not change when he grows up. |
4 . We must face the fact that there are many aspects of the Information Ages. All information makes us anxious. Over some of these, we have little or no control. On the other hand, there are steps we can take to eliminate much of
To some extent, we are all receivers and givers of information. Our brain, however, receives and processes information in different ways. One way involves the amazing capacity of the brain to process information subconsciously.
Another way involves
Information gathered by reading is processed consciously and
How can we
To cut through confusing information,
| A．curiosity | B．trouble | C．interest | D．anxiety |
| A．donating | B．rewarding | C．interesting | D．searching |
| A．sensitive | B．conscious | C．unconscious | D．reasonable |
| A．energy | B．wealth | C．power | D．health |
| A．expanding | B．surviving | C．stretching | D．bearing |
| A．still | B．however | C．hence | D．yet |
| A．cooperating | B．finding | C．removing | D．stimulating |
| A．think of | B．deal with | C．do with | D．rule over |
| A．recreational | B．professional | C．humorous | D．traditional |
| A．break into | B．bring about | C．get rid of | D．come to |
| A．catch | B．offer | C．abandon | D．apply |
| A．rank | B．limit | C．field | D．lane |
| A．received | B．supplied | C．labeled | D．recommended |
| A．offered | B．stated | C．declined | D．opposed |
| A．maximum | B．minimum | C．quantity | D．presence |
| A. extended B. married C. estimate D. keeping E. experiment F. noticed G. glued H. initially I. replaced J. sense K. vastly |
In South Korea, smartphone cases come with rings tied on the back of the mobile phones to prevent clumsy owners from dropping them. This makes people look like they literally are
Walk around the streets of Seoul or any other South Korean city, and there is a real risk of bumping into people whose eyes are
The government
Instead of appealing to people’s good
6 . “Walkability” linked to reduced hospital costs and admissions
Neighborhoods designed to encourage people to walk to and from the shops and public transport will help reduce hospital costs and admissions linked to residents, new Canberra research shows.
The research project, from the University of Canberra’s Health Research Institute, has revealed a relationship between a suburb’s “walkability score” and a reduction in both hospital costs and admissions and added to the growing debate surrounding the role of “social determinants” in health outcomes.
Coauthors Dr. Yan Yu and Vincent Learnihan studied ACT Health data from 30,690 hospital admissions across 88 of the ACT’s suburbs, and then matched them against each suburb’s “walkability score”. That score is a measure of how easy it is to get around a particular suburb, including the number of interconnected streets, footpaths and the presence of shops, public transport stops, restaurants and services within walking distance of each other.
Dr. Yu said the study showed that those suburbs rated as “walkable”—with a walkability score of 20 units or more—were linked to a 12.1 per cent lower hospital cost for those residents and a 12.5 per cent lower rate of hospital admissions.
She said the admissions data they focused on included cancers, cardiovascular diseases, endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases and diabetes.
But the research also showed that in Canberra, some 80 per cent of all the city’s suburbs were still “car-dependent”, which Mr. Learnihan said showed more needed to be done to help encourage Canberrans to walk, ride and use public transport.
While Mr. Learnihan commended the ACT government’s existing “active travel” programs, he said the study showed that wider and better funded initiatives to improve the “walkability” of new and existing suburbs could help save on health costs and improve Canberrans’ quality of life.
Dr. Yu said such changes could be as simple as improving footpaths and bike paths, increasing public transport access and improving local shops.
1. The suburb’s “walkability score” depends on the following factors within the walking distance of each other EXCEPT ______.| A．the presence of shops | B．the presence of taxi stands |
| C．the number of interconnected streets | D．the number of interconnected footpaths |
| A．praised | B．abandoned |
| C．transformed | D．conducted |
| A．the suburb with a walkability score of 12.5 units can be rated as “walkable” |
| B．a majority of Canberrans walk, ride and use public transport to and from work |
| C．admissions data researchers focused on included different kinds of disease |
| D．footpaths and bike paths in the suburbs of Canberra are far from satisfactory |
| A．There will be fewer cars in Canberra. |
| B．Canberrans will have easier access to public hospitals. |
| C．The word “walkability” will be included in the authoritative dictionary. |
| D．“Walkability” of new and existing suburbs in Canberra will be improved. |
7 . Over the last decade, demand for the cosmetic surgery has increased by more than 400 percent. According to Dr. Dai Davies, of the Plastic Surgery Partnership in Hammersmith, the majority of cosmetic surgery patients are not chasing physical perfection. Rather, they are driven to improve their appearance by a desire to look normal. “What we all crave is to look normal. The advertising media give us a perception(概念)of what is physically acceptable and we feel we must look like that.”
In America, the debate is no longer about whether surgery is normal; rather, it centres on what age people should be before going under the knife. New York surgeon Dr. Gerard Imber recommends “maintenance” work for people in their thirties. “The idea of waiting until one needs a heroic transformation is silly,” he says. “By then, you've wasted 20 great years of your life and allowed things to get out of hand.” Dr. Imber draws the line at operating on people who are under 18, however. “It seems that someone we don't consider old enough to order a drink shouldn't be considering plastic surgery.”
In the U. K. cosmetic surgery has long been seen as the exclusive domain(领土)of the very rich and famous. But the cost of treatment has fallen considerably, bringing all but the most advanced laser technology within the reach of most people. Dr. Davies says, “Of course, ￡3,000 for an operation is a lot of money. But it is also an investment for life which costs about half the price of a good family holiday.”
Dr. Davies suspects that the increasing sophistication(精密)of the fat injecting and removal techniques that allow patients to be treated with a local anesthetic(麻醉)in an afternoon has also helped promote the popularity of cosmetic surgery. One woman who recently paid f2, 500 for liposuction to remove fat from her thighs admitted, “Going into the clinic was so low key and effective that it whetted my appetite. Now I don't think there's any operation that I would rule out having if I could afford it.”
1. The statement “draws the line at operating on people” (Paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to ________.| A．removing wrinkles from the face | B．helping people make up |
| C．enjoying operating | D．refusing to operate |
| A．cosmetic surgery, though costly, is worth having |
| B．cosmetic surgery is too expensive |
| C．cosmetic surgery is necessary even for the average person |
| D．cosmetic surgery is mainly for the rich and famous |
| A．it is wise to have cosmetic surgery under 18 |
| B．cosmetic surgery is now much easier |
| C．people tend to abuse cosmetic surgery |
| D．the earlier people have cosmetic surgery, the better they will be |
| A．the advantage of having cosmetic surgery |
| B．what kind of people should have cosmetic surgery. |
| C．the reason why cosmetic surgery is so popular. |
| D．the disadvantage of having cosmetic surgery |
8 . How Common Is Sweatshop Labor?
The prevalence(普遍) of sweatshop labor depends largely on the definition being used. At its most
It can be
Another factor that
Certain economists, such as Jeffrey Sachs and Benjamin Powell, argue against the popular opinion that sweatshop labor should be considered
Other experts maintain, however, that
| A．accurate | B．general | C．operational | D．distinct |
| A．opinion | B．condition | C．image | D．representation |
| A．though | B．as | C．thus | D．however |
| A．local | B．international | C．domestic | D．federal |
| A．exclusively | B．particularly | C．broadly | D．initially |
| A．feasible | B．significant | C．awkward | D．difficult |
| A．On the other hand | B．As a result | C．Specifically speaking | D．Above all |
| A．adds to | B．results from | C．takes into consideration | D．appeals to |
| A．in spite of | B．in addition to | C．in terns of | D．in return for |
| A．comparative | B．competitive | C．mutual | D．potential |
| A．By contrast | B．In turn | C．Above all | D．Last but not least |
| A．necessary | B．constructive | C．illegal | D．inhuman |
| A．encouraged | B．forbidden | C．reminded | D．obliged |
| A．establishing | B．enforcing | C．sustaining | D．dropping |
| A．impossible | B．incredible | C．inevitable | D．unnecessary |
9 . Maeve Higgins once set herself a task. The Irish-born comedian wanted to see what life would be like if she stopped laughing at things that weren’t funny. Turns out it wasn’t as easy as she thought. “It was so hard,” she says. “ Laughter is a lubricant (润滑油) and is expected, and it’s really hard not to do it.”
Higgins suggests there’s something particularly special about being part of the shared experience that is live comedy — that curious magic that occurs when people come together specifically to laugh.
Comedy is more than just a pleasant way to pass an evening, humour more than something to amuse. They’re interwoven into our everyday existence. Whether you’re sharing an amusing story at a party or telling a dark joke at a funeral, humour is everywhere. But what is it for? And can humour, as comedy, change how we feel, what we think or even what we do?
As an essential part of human interaction, humour has been on the minds of thinkers for centuries. One of the most enduring theories of humour was put forward by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. It asserts that humour appears to make fun of the weak and exert superiority. While this is clearly the function of some comedy, it’s far from a complete explanation for the overall purpose of humour.
For some comedians, it’s not just about getting laughs — it’s about changing what we think and maybe even what we do. If there’s one comic who is really typical of this, it’s Josie Long. A social justice activist and a comedian, Long has a reputation for delightful, optimistic humour and storytelling.
As her career has evolved, she has consciously put social and political topics at the heart of her act. She believes that comedians have a role to play in challenging some of the most pressing issues of the day.
British comic Stephen K Amos sells out venues seating thousands, year in, year out. Amos firmly believes that when comics consciously deal with pressing or controversial （有争议的）social issues like racism, they can reach people on a much more meaningful level than that achieved by briefly lifting someone’s mood. And while it may be difficult to quantify, he says, the social and psychological impact of comedy deserves much greater recognition.
The research backs this up. Although the role of comedy is to be entertaining first and foremost, Sharon Lockyer, a sociologist who studies humour, has identified a number of possible other functions. These include challenging stereotypes (刻板印象).
Amos’s work frequently settles the issues of race by challenging stereotypes.”I don’t do things for shock value,” he says. “ I do stuff that matters to me. In the old days it was just about doing jokes. We’ve moved on — people are talking about things that matter. ”
1. What do the first two paragraphs mainly talk about?| A．The benefits of laughing. |
| B．What a comedian’s daily work is about. |
| C．Why Maeve Higgins chose to be a comedian. |
| D．Maeve Higgins’ understanding of the appeal of comedy. |
| A．Protect the weak from the evil. |
| B．Encourage people to be stronger. |
| C．Be determined to improve oneself. |
| D．Show you are better than other people. |
| A．By gradually influencing people’s attitudes. |
| B．By urging politicians to try and solve the issues. |
| C．By quickly yet thoroughly changing people’s thinking. |
| D．By calling on the whole society to pay attention to the issues. |
| A．getting people to laugh |
| B．promoting social progress |
| C．influencing people’s ideas |
| D．making people more productive |
10 . The virtual world is full of opportunities to share with people around the world. It’s also a place where nothing is
Research shows that a high percentage of teens receive
If you are eager to let out angry comment on a message board or blog, it’s a good idea to wait a few minutes,
Chances are that you’ve already checked your “digital
| A．restrictive | B．temporary | C．simple | D．memorable |
| A．deleted | B．saved | C．copied | D．forwarded |
| A．correct | B．positive | C．awkward | D．improper |
| A．stimulated | B．troubled | C．fooled | D．bored |
| A．doubt | B．hesitate | C．hide | D．respond |
| A．cheer up | B．give in | C．calm down | D．shout out |
| A．attend to | B．take to | C．lead to | D．stick to |
| A．interpret | B．praise | C．regret | D．recommend |
| A．intentionally | B．randomly | C．scarcely | D．illegally |
| A．cheat | B．hurt | C．help | D．avoid |
| A．Besides | B．However | C．Therefore | D．Likewise |
| A．efficiency | B．expectation | C．quality | D．footprint |
| A．Consequently | B．Surprisingly | C．Contrarily | D．Admittedly |
| A．cleared | B．shaped | C．revised | D．transferred |
| A．ambitious | B．responsible | C．fascinating | D．emotional |
