1 . Like most of us, I try to be mindful of food that goes to waste. The arugula (芝麻菜)was to make a nice green salad, rounding out a roast chicken dinner. But I ended up working late. Then friends called with a dinner invitation. I stuck the chicken in the freezer. But as days passed, the arugula went bad. Even worse, I had unthinkingly bought way too much; I could have made six salads with what I threw out.
In a world where nearly 800 million people a year go hungry, “food waste goes against the moral grain,” as Elizabeth Royte writes in this month’s cover story. It’s jaw-dropping how much perfectly good food is thrown away — from “ugly” (but quite eatable) vegetables rejected by grocers to large amounts of uneaten dishes thrown into restaurant garbage cans.
Producing food that no one eats wastes the water, fuel, and other resources used to grow it. That makes food waste an environmental problem. In fact, Royte writes, “if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world.”
If that’s hard to understand, let’s keep it as simple as the arugula at the back of my refrigerator. Mike Curtin sees my arugula story all the time — but for him, it's more like 12 bones of donated strawberries nearing their last days. Curtin is CEO of DC Central Kitchen in Washington, D.C., which recovers food and turns it into healthy meals. Last year it recovered more than 807,500 pounds of food by taking donations and collecting blemished (有瑕疵的) produce that otherwise would have rotted in fields. And the strawberries? Volunteers will wash, cut, and freeze or dry them for use in meals down the road.
Such methods seem obvious, yet so often we just don’t think. “Everyone can play a part in reducing waste, whether by not purchasing more food than necessary in your weekly shopping or by asking restaurants to not include the side dish you won’t eat,” Curtin says.
1. What does the author want to show by telling the arugula story?| A．We pay little attention to food waste. | B．We waste food unintentionally at times. |
| C．We waste more vegetables than meat. | D．We have good reasons for wasting food. |
| A．Moral decline. | B．Environmental harm. |
| C．Energy shortage. | D．Worldwide starvation. |
| A．It produces kitchen equipment. | B．It turns rotten arugula into clean fuel. |
| C．It helps local farmers grow fruits. | D．It makes meals out of unwanted food. |
| A．Buy only what is needed. | B．Reduce food consumption. |
| C．Go shopping once a week. | D．Eat in restaurants less often. |
2 . Is there a single word that motivates us more than “weekend”? It’s like the promise of a sweet holiday following what seems like long-time exhaustion. It’s the spring in our step that gets bouncier with each passing day — until by Friday, we’re practically bumping our heads against the ceiling.
The trouble is that the weekend is a rip-off. You think you’re getting 48 hours of unconditional downtime, but reality takes a discount. In fact, it takes most of Sunday. That’s when anxiety comes creeping in and another countdown begins: 12 hours until Monday. Sure, the weekend is free time. But the mounting stress of an incoming Monday can ease any joy you might get from a Sunday evening.
That feeling is so common among the Monday-to-Friday crowd that there’s even more than one name for it: the Sunday Scaries, or Sunday Fear Syndrome. Going from a countdown to the weekend to a countdown to Monday can be difficult. Even monster.com — a website that specializes in binding humans to the Monday-to-Friday cycle — admits it’s a problem. In a survey, Monster found that 76% of Americans have “really had” Sunday night blues.
For most people, Sunday is no holiday at all. It may all come down to the same problem: We can’t stop thinking about tomorrow. Even worse, we may develop some downright unhealthy coping strategies for that transition from weekends to Monday. Some might resists — staying up late, milking every minute of a fleeting Sunday in the form of mind-numbing distractions.
But why should Monday cast such a long and fearful shadow on our lives? Maybe it’s because the counter is reset and the weekend, or happiness, seems at furthest point. If, like most of us, you have a tolerable job, but don’t much like the whole idea of working, there are plenty of ways to make Mondays a little less stressful. Most importantly, don’t leave any unsettled Friday business hanging over the weekend. So, clear the decks and tie up loose ends.
1. What do we know about the weekend in Paragraph 2?| A．It is hard-earned. |
| B．It doesn’t bring joy as expected. |
| C．It adds to people’s anxiety and stress. |
| D．It provides good time to relax. |
| A．To clarify a question. | B．To show its popularity. |
| C．To provides an illustration. | D．To support his idea. |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Conservative. | C．Unwise. | D．Practical. |
| A．Why People Are Stressed Out on Fridays |
| B．Why Monday Takes a Bite out of Sunday |
| C．Why a Countdown to the Weekend Is Difficult |
| D．Why Monday Casts a Fearful Shadow on Our Lives |
3 . Grandparents Answer a Call
As a third－generation native of Brownsville, Texas, Mildred Garza never planned to move away.Even when her daughter and son asked her to move to San Antonio to help with their children, she politely refused.Only after a year of friendly discussion did Ms.Garza finally say yes.That was four years ago.Today all three generations regard the move as a success, giving them a closer relationship than they would have had in separate cities.
No statistics show the number of grandparents like Garza who are moving closer to adult children and grandchildren. Yet there is evidence suggesting that the trend is growing.Even President Obama’s mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, has agreed to leave Chicago and move into the White House to help care for her granddaughters. According to a study by grandparents.com, 83 percent of the people said Mrs.Robinson's decision will influence grandparents in the American family.Two－thirds believe more families will follow the example of Obama’s family.
“In the 1960s we were all a little wild and couldn't get away from home far enough or fast enough to prove we could do it on our own,”says Christine Crosby, publisher of Grand, a magazine for grandparents. “We now realize how important family is and how important it is to be near them, especially when you’re raising children.”
Moving is not for everyone. Almost every grandparent wants to be with his or her grandchildren and is willing to make sacrifices, but sometimes it is wiser to say no and visit frequently instead.Having your grandchildren far away is hard, especially knowing your adult child is struggling, but giving up the life you know may be harder.
1. Why was Garza’s move a success?| A．It strengthened her family ties. |
| B．It improved her living conditions. |
| C．It enabled her to make more friends. |
| D．It helped her know more new places. |
| A．17% expressed their support for it. |
| B．Few people responded sympathetically. |
| C．83% believed it had a bad influence. |
| D．The majority thought it was a trend. |
| A．They were unsure of themselves. |
| B．They were eager to raise more children. |
| C．They wanted to live away from their parents. |
| D．They had little respect for their grandparents. |
| A．Make decisions in the best interests of their own. |
| B．Ask their children to pay more visits to them. |
| C．Sacrifice for their struggling children. |
| D．Get to know themselves better. |
4 . In the past 60 or so years. American parents’ approach to naming their kids has undergone a profound shift. Today, many parents seek out less popular names to help their kids stand out. But in the past, parents typically picked common names, consciously or not, so that their kids would fit in.
“We are deep in an era of naming individuality where parents assume that having a name which sounds distinctive and unique is a virtue,” Laura Wattenberg, the founder of the naming-trends site Namerology, said, “how parents are thinking about naming kids is more like how companies think about naming products, which is a kind of competitive marketplace where you need to be able to get attention to succeed.”
There were signs that people were tired of names that were too popular. Cleveland Evans, a professor emeritus of psychology at Bellevue University and an expert on names, said that there was a 1953 song titled John, John, John, which included the lines “Every Tom, Dick, and Harry’s called John. Can’t we give this little guy a break and call him something new?”
This tune signaled the coming turn toward novelty and distinctiveness that took hold in the 1960s. It was driven by a number of broader shifts in daily life. As family sizes shrunk and kids stopped doing labor, Americans “started to fixate on the uniqueness of each child,” as the sociologist Philip Cohen has written, and “individuality emerged as a project—starting with naming -of creating an identity.”
Another crucial change is that in the 1960s parents started gaining access to data on baby-naming trends, according to Evans. Books informed parents which names were popular—and, by extension, which overexposed names they might want to avoid of this has brought us to an era of exceptionally varied names, which, in a way, represents its own kind of conformity: trying not to be like everyone else makes you just like everyone else.
1. What does the underlined word “virtue” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．A good quality. | B．A moral standard. |
| C．An attractive habit. | D．An obvious advantage. |
| A．To show that the song was widely spread. |
| B．To show that John was a child everyone liked. |
| C．To show that the name John was too overexposed. |
| D．To show that the name John was something quite new. |
| A．The larger family sizes and less labor for children. |
| B．Parents’ concerns about the novelty and distinctiveness. |
| C．Some books showing which names are appropriate for children. |
| D．The changes in daily life and the access to the naming trend. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Optimistic. | C．Ambiguous. | D．Indifferent. |
5 . Most of us spend our lives surrounded by screens, which offer us convenience as well as connection and an ocean of information. But since it’s easy to feel pressured to keep up with every notification, technology may feel more like a burden than a blessing. Thus, the idea of “digital detox” is becoming increasingly inviting.
The phrase “digital detox” describes getting rid of TV, phones, computers and other forms of technology that control our lives for a period of time. Some experts advocate completely avoiding unnecessary screen time for 30 years. Others suggest using an app that will limit the amount of time one can spend on certain websites. A third option is logging out in evenings or on weekends. Others simply turn their phones off at scheduled times. Some even pay high prices to take vacations in places where they can unplug from their digital routine.
Why might you want to take a digital detox? Perhaps you find that you are spending longer than you intend on certain apps or that they distract you from more important things. Perhaps social media is depressing because you compare yourself to others or you fear missing out on things that other people are enjoying. Constant negative news can also give rise to a lot of stress.
Technology can also have physical effects. Many people experience back or neck pain as a result of bending over screens. The blue light coming from most screens can also affect people’s sleep by preventing production of melatonin(褪黑素).
Giving up all screens may not be realistic, but strategic breaks from technology may be good for your body, mind, emotions and relationships. It is high time that you picked a time to turn off your devices and focus on really important things.
1. Why does the author say “technology may feel more like a burden than a blessing” in paragraph 1?| A．To confirm a concept. |
| B．To present a problem. |
| C．To explain a rule. |
| D．To make a prediction. |
| A．Recover. | B．Benefit. | C．preventing | D．Suffer. |
| A．Apps selection difficulty. |
| B．Fear of missing important things. |
| C．Exposure to false news. |
| D．Pressure from social comparison. |
| A．To recommend healthy lifestyles. |
| B．To call for reducing the use of digital devices. |
| C．To give instructions on starting digital detox. |
| D．To present different attitudes to digital products. |
6 . “It’s too sugary, I can’t manage very many,” said a friend. She wasn’t talking about dessert but about some fresh cherries. I bit into another cherry and realized she was right. The fruit was so sweet that it was as if it had been pre-sugared.
But the cherries of my childhood were much less sweet than today’s cherries. Some of them were hardly sweet at all, which made it all the more exciting when you happened upon a super sweet one.
Is modern fruit getting sweeter? The answer is yes. Some of the most powerful evidence comes from zoos. In 2018, Melbourne Zoo in Australia had stopped giving fruit to most of its animals because cultivated fruit was now so sweet that it was causing tooth decay and weight gain.
Breeding isn’t the only reason that modern fruit is sweeter; there’s also climate change. It’s found that since the 1970s, with rising temperatures, Fuji apples have become significantly sweeter and softer.
But the sweetness of modern fruit is not without its problems, especially for people with diabetes, who have to be careful to moderate their intake of higher - sugar fruits such as pineapple. Fruit that is bred sweeter also tends to be lower in the phytochemicals (植物化学成分) that make it so healthy.
Health aside, maybe the real problem with modern fruit is that it has become yet another sweet thing in a world filled with sugar. Even grapefruit, which used to be quite bitter, is sometimes now as sweet as oranges. If you’ve never tasted a sour cherry, how can you fully appreciate a sweet one? Experts put forwards some thoughts about how to appreciate the various tastes of modern fruit.
1. Why does the author mention her friend’s words in Paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic of the extreme sweetness of modern cherries. |
| B．To highlight the content of friend’s preference for sour cherries. |
| C．To emphasize the importance of pre-sugaring fruits. |
| D．To show the breeding and selection of modern fruit. |
| A．The author believes it has no impact on health. |
| B．The author sees it as a triumph of plant breeding. |
| C．The author thinks it is a bit worrying in today’s world. |
| D．The author is concerned that it will lead to bitterness in fruit. |
| A．It is short of healthy phytochemicals. |
| B．It may not be as tasty as it used to be. |
| C．It could lack variety and contrast in taste. |
| D．It doesn’t meet people’s need for sweetness. |
| A．The advice on selecting modern fruit. |
| B．The approaches to freeing bitter fruit. |
| C．The comments about cultivated grapefruit. |
| D．The research into the health of zoo animals. |
7 . Recently, Facebook has changed its corporate name to Meta. The company said it would better include what it does, as it broadens its reach beyond social media into areas like virtual reality (VR). The CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the existing brand could not possibly represent everything that they’re doing today, let alone in the future. He also revealed the company’s plans to build a “metaverse (元宇宙)” — an online world where people can game, work and communicate in a virtual environment.
The term “metaverse” was invented by author Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash, a science fiction published in 1992. In the work, the metaverse is a sort of 3D virtual world. It’s not simply a virtual reality game but is a persistent and shared virtual world. Or rather, the metaverse is a whole universe of shared virtual spaces seemingly linked together — you could, essentially, teleport (瞬移) between them.
Metaverse combined at the very least five technologies — they are social media, online game, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and cryptocurrency (加密货币). Those technologies will bring users to an interactive world. AR and VR are vital for Metaverse. VR serves to present the virtual world visually and then AR will provide the audio and sensors for people to be able to interact. With Metaverse, Facebook will offer not only a texting service but also a multi-perspective virtual touch that feels like a real thing.
Facebook said that it plans to create 10,000 jobs in Europe over the next five years to work on metaverse-related endeavours (活动). The company also has introduced Oculus-branded virtual-reality headsets, and it joined with Ray-Ban to develop smart sunglasses that went on sale for $299. “Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we’re building towards,” Mark Zuckerberg said. “I view this work as critical to our mission because delivering a sense of presence — like you’re right there with another person — that’s the highest goal of online social experiences,” he said.
1. Why has Facebook changed its corporate name?| A．To lead the gaming industry. |
| B．To cover its extended business. |
| C．To improve its corporate image. |
| D．To attract investment for its new plans. |
| A．The introduction to the VR game. |
| B．The future with 3D virtual world. |
| C．The origin of the word “metaverse”. |
| D．The importance of the novel Snow Crash. |
| A．It has a wide range of applications. |
| B．It offers people deeply interactive experiences. |
| C．It enables people to enjoy a free texting service. |
| D．It uses the five technologies to explore the universe. |
| A．There will be fierce competition in the metaverse market. |
| B．Facebook will focus on designing virtual devices. |
| C．Metaverse will be the center of online experience studies. |
| D．Facebook will be devoted to developing the metaverse. |
8 . I came across an image recently of a distance runner with a message that told readers to persevere (坚持) at all costs. It reminded me of a conversation I had. My colleague’s teaching assistant was asking for my advice. He wanted to know when to quit something. He described how he’d been playing an online game with people for some time. It hadn’t been very fun lately, but there was always that small chance of a reward (upgraded equipment, etc).
I inquired further about his relationship with the players and his gains from the game. I then discussed the sunk cost dilemma, a concept I studied in advanced school due to its personal impact. In high school, I applied to five universities, planning to choose the cheapest one. SUU offered the best scholarship, and after paying a $100 commitment fee, I heard back from another school with an even better scholarship. Despite the new offer, I stayed committed to SUU, believing that switching schools, even if it meant acknowledging the “wasted” $ 100, would have been the wiser financial choice.
A rational (理性的) decision maker is not ruled by past investments, but weighs future outcomes. I didn’t focus on future outcomes when weighing colleges. I focused on the money I sunk into SUU. Rather than evaluating future career options, I focused on the fact that I’d already taken elementary education courses.
I’m not the only one that’s fallen prey to this. I wear clothes I dislike simply because I spent money on them (and that money won’t come back). Unhealthy relationships last because of the invested time (leading to more unhappy years). However, time, effort, or money that you’ve invested doesn’t mean you should continue. Society often stresses perseverance — never quit, never give up, don’t waste. However, only you know your right path. Walking away can be the toughest choice. You might realize a path you’re on is no longer the right one or never was.
1. Why does the author introduce a distance runner’s image at first?| A．To make a contrast. | B．To give a definition. |
| C．To draw a conclusion. | D．To illustrate a theory. |
| A．Following suit as most people. | B．Taking elementary education. |
| C．Valuing the development in future. | D．Overlooking past investments. |
| A．Get benefits from. | B．Be harmed by. | C．Be interested in. | D．Get rid of. |
| A．Perseverance is a virtue | B．The chosen path is the toughest |
| C．Cut your losses for your winners | D．Walking away means losing all |
9 . It is hard to say the first day of school in the United States because when the first day of school is and what happens on the first day of school usually are different by districts（地区）.
The first day of school for many school districts in different states is on the day after the first Monday in September. In some other school districts, school begins in mid-to-late August. For example, the Denver, Colorado schools go back in mid-August and schools in Cleveland, Ohio start back usually one week before the first Monday in September. The Boston, Chicago, New York City and San Diego schools start back on the Tuesday or Wednesday after the first Monday in September.
Schools in Cleveland, Ohio used to start the school year on the day after the first Monday in September, but in the 1976-1977 and 1977-1978 academic years, the school year was affected by several bad snowstorms, extreme cold. In the 1978-1979 school year, the Ohio Department of Education moved the start of the year to late August, one week before the first Monday in September. This went into effect in the 1980-1981 school year.
In most school districts in Utah, the school year starts between August 25 and August 30, and goes until the last week of May or the first week in June next year.
In American high schools, the freshmen class usually goes back one or two days before the rest of the school body for an orientation（迎新）period. An orientation period helps the freshmen get familiar with their new school, its rules, and surroundings.
In some schools, the freshmen classes have their photographs taken for identification purposes. Some high schools have tried to make the first week of school fun for incoming freshmen.
1. According to the passage, which schools start their school year the earliest?| A．Schools in Denver. |
| B．Schools in Cleveland. |
| C．Schools in New York City. |
| D．Schools in Boston. |
| A．Because of some political events. |
| B．Because of the entrance examinations. |
| C．Because of the increasing number of students. |
| D．Because of the extreme weather. |
| A．About seven months. |
| B．About eight months. |
| C．About nine months. |
| D．About ten months. |
| A．a book about one's life story |
| B．an official website of education |
| C．an advertisement in a newspaper |
| D．a sports magazine |
10 . Each year, backed up by a growing anti-consumerist movement, people are using the holiday season to call on us all to shop less.
Driven by concerns about resource exhaustion, over recent years environmentalists have increasingly turned their sight on our “consumer culture”, with Groups such as The Story of Stuff and Buy Nothing New Day growing as a movement that increasingly blames all our ills on our desire to shop.
We clearly have a growing resource problem. The products we make, buy and use are often linked to the destruction of our waterways, biodiversity, climate and the land on which millions of people live, but to blame these issues on Christmas shoppers is misguided, and puts us in the old trap of blaming individuals for what is a systematic problem.
While we complain about environmental destruction over Christmas, environmentalists often forget what the holiday season actually means for many people. In fact, for most, rather than an add-on to an already heavy shopping year, Christmas is likely the only time of year they have the opportunity to spend on friends and family, or even just to buy the necessities needed for modern life.
This is particularly true for Boxing Day, often laughed at by anti-consumerists the most. While we may look down on the queues in front of the shops, for many, those sales provide the chance to buy things they've needed all year. As journalist Leigh Phillips argues, “This is one of the few times of the year that people can even hope to afford such ‘luxuries’, the Christmas presents their kids are asking for, or just an appliance that works.”
Indeed, the richest 7% of people are responsible for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. This becomes particularly harmful when you take into account of our consumption “problem” anyway. Why are environmentalists attacking these individuals, while ignoring people like Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has his own £ 1.5bn yacht with a missile defence system?
Anyway, anti-consumerism has become a movement of wealthy people talking down to the working class about their life choice, while ignoring the real cause of our environmental problem. It is no wonder no one is changing their behaviour—or that environmental destruction continues without becoming any less severe.
1. What can be inferred about the environmentalist movement from Paragraphs 2 and 3?| A．It has targeted the wrong persons. | B．It has achieved its intended purposes. |
| C．It has solved the environmental problems. | D．It has persuaded consumers not to shop any more. |
| A．A trap for consumers. | B．A tough problem to deal with. |
| C．A precious shopping opportunity. | D．A positive contribution to the economy. |
| A．To show how rich he is. |
| B．To announce he is a Russian. |
| C．To present his contributions to the environment. |
| D．To suggest the real cause of environmental problems hasn't been found. |
| A．The environmental problems are very serious. |
| B．Less shopping can't solve the environmental problems. |
| C．Resources are becoming fewer and fewer on the earth. |
| D．Measures should be taken to protect the environment. |
