1 . You’ve heard that plastic is polluting the oceans — between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.
At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called “Strawpocalypse,” a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168,000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source (来源) of plastic pollution, but they’ve recently come under fire because most people don’t need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that’s part of Von Wong’s artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.
In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate (说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload’s worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled “Truckload of Plastic,” Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10,000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they’d been dumped (倾倒) from a truck all at once.
Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.
1. What are Von Wong’s artworks intended for?| A．Beautifying the city he lives in. | B．Introducing eco-friendly products. |
| C．Drawing public attention to plastic waste. | D．Reducing garbage on the beach. |
| A．To show the difficulty of their recycling. |
| B．To explain why they are useful. |
| C．To voice his views on modern art. |
| D．To find a substitute for them. |
| A．Calming. | B．Disturbing. |
| C．Refreshing. | D．Challenging. |
| A．Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety |
| B．Media Interest in Contemporary Art |
| C．Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies |
| D．Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures |
2 . When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline (座机)?
These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.
Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter (29%) rely only on their smartphones according to a survey (调查). Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.
More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor (因素)— only 58 percent of Generation Ys still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.
Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone (using Caller ID would take the fun out of it).
How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?| A．Their target users. | B．Their wide popularity. |
| C．Their major functions. | D．Their complex design. |
| A．Admit. | B．Argue. |
| C．Remember. | D．Remark. |
| A．They like smartphone games. | B．They enjoy guessing callers’ identity. |
| C．They keep using landline phones. | D．They are attached to their family. |
| A．It remains a family necessity. |
| B．It will fall out of use some day. |
| C．It may increase daily expenses. |
| D．It is as important as the gas light. |
3 . In the digital age, we rely on technology such as social media in trying to build interesting and varied lives. Social networking sites like Facebook are designed and promoted to make us believe enthusiastically that they are able to open up new experiences for us. There are constant notifications (通知) and updates, urging us to check-in to find out what is new.
But if we do not use the technology wisely, we can end up becoming overly attached and trapped in a cycle of social media FOMO, a sign of deeper unhappiness. FOMO, or fear of missing out, is a fear that exciting or interesting events are happening somewhere else and that we are not able to join.
People who experience high levels of FOMO have been found to be more likely to give in to urges to write and check text messages while driving, as well as to use Facebook more often directly after waking, while going to sleep and during meals.
When it comes to lasting happiness, it is best not to give in to FOMO, but rather to deal with the cycle of desires that fuel it. Hard as it is, we are better off working toward facing the fearful reality that we cannot experience everything we might like than to get caught in a cycle of checking behaviors that only cause anxiety.
If we have become used to using social media as part of our attempts at living interesting lives, we must admit that it is not easy to change our approach. But change is almost always worthwhile in the long run.
The fact that FOMO is so common in our digital age is a sign that there is something wrong with the way we are pursuing happiness and that we are not as happy as we might think we are. It should warn us that, in our eagerness to use digital technology to try to make ourselves happier, we may unintentionally (无意之中) be bringing on exactly the opposite result.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The digital age has arrived. |
| B．Sites give netizens useful experiences. |
| C．People have fallen into modern technology. |
| D．Social media are designed to attract public attention. |
| A．Failing to use Facebook. | B．Answering a call during shopping, |
| C．Reading text messages on reaching offices. | D．Checking Facebook while driving. |
| A．To gain long-time happiness. | B．To speed the cycle of desires. |
| C．To work much better. | D．To reduce fearful reality. |
| A．Everybody has experienced FOMO. |
| B．Digital technology may make us unhappier. |
| C．Pursuing happiness is a sign of the digital age. |
| D．People may unintentionally get lost in technology. |
4 . Getting less sleep has become a bad habit for most American kids. According to a new survey(调查) by the National Sleep Foundation, 51% of kids aged 10 to 18 go to bed at 10 pm or later on school nights, even though they have to get up early. Last year the Foundation reported that nearly 60% of 7- to 12-year-olds said they felt tired during the day, and 15% said they had fallen asleep at school.
How much sleep you need depends a lot on your age. Babies need a lot of rest: most of them sleep about 18 hours a day! Adults need about eight hours. For most school-age children, ten hours is ideal(理想的). But the new National Sleep Foundation survey found that 35% of 10- to 12-year-olds get only seven or eight hours. And guess what almost half of the surveyed kids said they do before bedtime? Watch TV.
“More children are going to bed with TVs on, and there are more opportunities(机会) to stay awake, with more homework, the Internet and the phone,” says Dr. Mary Carskadon, a sleep researcher at Brown University Medical School. She says these activities at bedtime can get kids all excited and make it hard for them to calm down and sleep. Other experts say part of the problem is chemical. Changing levels of body chemicals called hormones not only make teenagers’ bodies develop adult characteristics, but also make it hard for teenagers to fall asleep before 11 pm.
Because sleepiness is such a problem for teenagers, some school districts have decided to start high school classes later than they used to. Three years ago, schools in Edina, Minnesota, changed the start time from 7:25 am to 8:30 am. Students, parents and teachers are pleased with the results.
1. What is the new National Sleep Foundation survey on?| A．American kids’ sleeping habits. | B．Teenagers’ sleep-related diseases. |
| C．Activities to prevent sleeplessness. | D．Learning problems and lack of sleep. |
| A．7 hours. | B．8 hours. |
| C．10 hours. | D．18 hours. |
| A．They are affected by certain body chemicals. |
| B．They tend to do things that excite them. |
| C．They follow their parents’ examples. |
| D．They don’t need to go to school early. |
5 . Too much screen time for kids can lead to poor health the American Heart Association (AHA) says. A scientific statement published by the AHA in the medical journal Circulation said screen time from smartphones, tablet computers and other devices can lead kids to a sedentary(惯于久坐不动的) lifestyle ,increasing the possibility that they grow up as overweight or obese(肥胖的).
The AHA is the latest organization urging parents to limit how much time their kids spend in front of screens. It recommends children get one to two hours of screen time each day. Although television viewing among children and teens has dropped, the use of smartphones and tablet computers has surged.
“Although the mechanisms(机制) linking screen time to obesity are not entirely clear, there are real concerns that screens influence eating behaviors, mainly because children don’t notice when they are full when eating in front of a screen,” said Tracie Barnett, a researcher at the INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier Research Centre,in a statement.
Barnett, one of the authors of the statement, also urges parents to keep screens out of kids’bedrooms, raising the fear that too much screen time can affect sleep.
Many studies have warned about the potential (潜在的) negative effects of too much screen time. Last year, a study from researchers at San Diego State University(SDSU) found nearly half of teens who spent five or more hours in front of screens every day experienced long periods of hopelessness or sadness.
Apple, who makes the iOS mobile platform, plans to introduce new tools to devices to help users cut back on screen time. As for iOS 12,iPhones will include a screen time feature where users can control and review how they spend time on their mobile devices. Another company that makes the Android platform will introduce “digital well-being” tools such as screen time limits and a “wind down” option to encourage users to put down their phones before bed.
1. Which can replace the underlined word “surged” in paragraph 2?| A．Increased suddenly. | B．Decreased slowly. |
| C．Stayed the same. | D．Lost the balance. |
| A．By changing the time they eat. | B．By changing their taste for food. |
| C．By influencing how fast they eat. | D．By influencing their feeling of fullness. |
| A．It affected children’s sleep. | B．It led to children’s obesity. |
| C．It resulted in diet problems. | D．It negatively influenced moods. |
| A．Reduce its products’ battery life. |
| B．Provide a screen time feature. |
| C．Introduce “digital well-being” tools. |
| D．Add a “wind down” option to its products. |
6 . Girls should take part in competitive sport to build confidence, and the leaders of a group of girls’ schools will argue this week. Helen Fraser, director of the Girls’ Day School Trust(GDST), will tell the group that sport can help girls deal with failure.
“All girls, not just the sporty ones, should take physical exercise,” Ms. Fraser says. Research that girls are far less active than boys is worrying, she argues. Ms. Fraser will tell the group that she supports “sport for all”. “That’s why I love it when our schools have A, B, C and D teams and beyond,” she says.
The GDST draws on research from the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation which suggests only a quarter of girls in England meet basic levels of activity each week. One in five girls do no activity at all, twice the proportion of boys, the research suggests.
Ms. Fraser says other research suggests that more than 80% of women business leaders played sports while growing up. She uses the examples of former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who once was a skater and tennis player, and the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, who was in the French national swimming team. Ms. Fraser says Olympic medallists like Jessica Ennis and Katherine Grainger are excellent role models for young women but says women’s sport needs more money and more news reports.
Valerie Dunsford, head of Sheffield High School for Girls, part of GDST, said it was important to offer a large number of sports to attract different types of girls. “Not everyone wants to be out playing the hockey.” said Ms. Dunsford.
1. Which of the following ideas would Ms. Fraser agree with?| A．Boys are born to be sport lovers. | B．Girls are less confident than boys. |
| C．More should be done to make girls do sports. | D．Those taking part in the sport are always successes. |
| A．1/10. | B．1/5. | C．1/4. | D．2/5. |
| A．hard work will pay off | B．it’s not easy to be great |
| C．sport can help girls to succeed | D．it’s necessary to balance work and sport |
| A．To explain the key to success. | B．To show the importance of sport. |
| C．To introduce more sports to girls. | D．To encourage more girls to do sports. |
Every day many teens wake up afraid of
School bullying can threaten students’ physical and emotional
For younger kids, the best way of solving the bullying problem is to tell a trusted adult. For teens, the tell-an-adult way depends on the bullying situation. If you see or hear someone
The Teacher-Student Relationship
A good teacher-student relationship will make learning enjoyable and interesting for the students.
To set up a good teacher-student relationship, a teacher’s
As for the students, they must always respect their teachers. Students should be eager to learn as well as willing
Above all, both students and teachers have to focus on
9 . A new report has concluded that advertising managers are becoming increasingly interested in children. Studies show that children influence about 50 percent of things that families buy, so they’re an attractive target for advertisers.
John Taylor, the author of the report, says:“Advertisers can reach their target in many ways. They can, for example, show an ad many times during school holidays, they can make the TV advertisements a little louder than the programmes to attract attention, or they can sponsor programmes and show their advertisements just before the programme begins.”
Most advertisements aimed at children are short, imaginative and often in the form of animated cartoons(动画片).“Children love the ads and watch them in the same way as any entertainment programmer,”Taylor says.
There’re concerns about advertising aimed at young people. The concerns are shared by Sarah Durham, a writer and journalist specializing in media analysis. “The most worrying thing is that children don’t think carefully when they see television advertisements. They’re less critical than adults and don’t usually realise the advertisement has a persuasive message, to encourage them or their parents to spend as much money as possible on the product or service,”she says.
There’re also concerns over the vast sums of money that junk food producers spend on advertising to persuade children to buy their food products. Many advertisements, argues Durham, sell food that is a lot higher in fat, salt and sugar than healthier alternatives. “Many companies target children with offers of free toys, models of cartoon characters and gimmicky（耍花招的）packaging.”
Government approaches to controlling advertising to children vary. In Sweden, one of the strictest countries where advertising is concerned, TV advertising to children under the age of 12 is banned. Greece bans television advertisements for children’s toys between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Denmark and the Netherlands also have legal controls whereas France, Britain and Germany prefer self-regulation（自动调节）．
Some countries are not as certain as the Swedes that advertising to children is harmful. The French argue that children need to see many advertisements so that they can develop their ability to think as they grow up. The belief is that advertising will help children to be more aware of its persuasive power.
1. What does John Taylor mainly talk about in Paragraph 2?| A．Ways in which advertisers reach children. |
| B．The time children spend watching television. |
| C．Examples of successful advertising to children. |
| D．The serious problems of advertising to children. |
| A．TV ads limit children’s imagination. |
| B．TV ads affect children’s brain development. |
| C．Children lack the good sense to make decisions. |
| D．Children may spend lots of time watching television. |
| A．It’s tasty. | B．It’s cheap. |
| C．It’s unhealthy. | D．It’s readymade. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Relaxed. |
| C．Objective. | D．Unfavorable. |
10 . We often hear that 60 is the new 50. Just check out images of your grandparents or great-grandparents and notice their stooped (驼背的) bodies, their wrinkled faces when they were barely pushing 60. What a contrast with energetic, gym-going sexagenarians (60几岁的人) of today!
A research, overseen by gerontologist Taina Rantanen, compared adults born in 1910 and 1914 with those born roughly 30 years later. Both birth groups were examined in person at age 60 and again at 70 with the same set of six physical tests and five measures of cognition.
According to the research, the later-born group could walk faster, had a stronger hand grasp and could use more force with their lower legs. On cognitive tests, the later-born group had better verbal fluency, and scored higher on a test matching numbers to symbols. But not everything changed across the generations: measures of lung function were surprisingly not changing, and there was no improvement in the short-term-memory task of recalling a series of digits.
There are many reasons why people are aging better, including improved medical care and a drop in smoking, but the key factor shown in the study of physical function was that the later-born adults were more physically active and had bigger bodies, which suggests better nutrition. For brain function, the key seems to be more years of education.
Education is a powerful influence on aging and health, says Luigi Ferrucci, scientific director of the U.S. National Institute on Aging: “With more education, you are probably going to have a larger income, which means you are more likely to go to the doctor, and have good nutrition.” He also points out that the average life span is seven years shorter in a poor state such as Mississippi than in a wealthier one such as California. “Here we still have lots of people who cannot take the drugs they need because they cannot pay for them,” he says. In short, 60 may be the new 50 for many of us but not for all.
1. How does the writer begin the passage?| A．By imagining a scene. | B．By making a comparison. |
| C．By raising a question. | D．By presenting an image. |
| A．Everything didn’t change across the generations. |
| B．The later-born group could hardly grasp things more tightly. |
| C．The later-born group did worse in matching numbers to symbols. |
| D．There was a little improvement in short-term memory in both groups. |
| A．Improved medical care. | B．Education. |
| C．Better nutrition. | D．Energetic images. |
| A．Many reasons contribute to people’s better physical function. |
| B．Today’s energetic sexagenarians have much better images. |
| C．Education is the key to people’s aging better. |
| D．People today are aging better in many ways. |
