2 . Many cities around the world today are heavily polluted. Careless methods of production and ________ of consumer demands for environment friendly products have ________ the pollution problem. One ________ is that millions of tons of glass, paper, plastic, and metal containers are produced, and these are difficult to get rid of.

________, today, more and more consumers are choosing “green” and demanding that the products they buy should be safe for the environment. ________ they buy a product, they ask questions like these: “Will this shampoo damage the environment?” “Can this metal container be ________ or can it only be used once?”

A recent study showed that two ________ five adults now consider the environmental safety of a product before they buy it. This means that companies must now change the ________ they make and sell their products to make sure that they are “green,” that is, friendly to the environment.

Only a few years ago, it was impossible to find green products in supermarkets, but now there are hundreds. Some supermarket products ________ labels to show that the product is green. Some companies emphasize that their products are clean and safe in their advertising and have made it their main selling ________.

The ________ for a safer and cleaner environment is making companies rethink ________ they do business. No longer will the public accept the old ________ of “Buy it, use it, throw it away and forget it.” The public ________ is still here, and companies are ________ their act gradually.

4 . Mobile phones have become a problem for middle schools. Some middle schools in Australia have prevented students from carrying mobile phone during school hours.

Mobile phone use among children has become a problem for the school this year. Several children have got mobile phones as Christmas gifts, and more students will want them.

Mary Bluett, an official, said mobile phone use is a distraction(悲伤的事) to students during school hours and it also gives teachers so much trouble in their classrooms. Teachers were also saying that sometimes students might use phone messages to cheat during exams.

She said some schools had tried not to let students use mobile phones at school. Some parents felt unhappy because they couldn’t get in touch with their children.

Many teachers said students should not have mobile phones at school, but if there was a good reason, they could leave their phones at school offices. They also said there were many reasons why the students should not have mobile phones at school. They were easy to lose and were a distraction from studies.

Many people say that they understood why parents would want their children to have mobile phones, but they think schools should let the students know when they can use their mobile phones.

5 . One form of social prejudice against older people is the belief that they cannot understand or use modern technology.     1     Isn't it unfair that older people enjoying a computer game should be frowned upon by their children and grandchildren?

Nowadays older people have more control over their lives and they play a full part in society. Moreover, better health care has left more people in their sixties and seventies feeling fit and active after retirement.     2     Playing computer games is a very effective way of exercising the brain.

When personal computers were first introduced, most older people didn't believe they would ever familiarize themselves with it. Now computers have been around for a few generations and retired people have gradually become more relaxed about using them for fun.     3     Kate Stevens, aged 72, says, “I find playing such games very relaxing. It's not very demanding, but you still need to concentrate.”

    4     There's a greater variety of games to choose from, including more intellectual and complex strategy and simulation( 模拟) games. Internet Chess and Train Simulator are among the most popular of these. Train Simulator is based on real-world activities. Players can choose from a variety of challengers, such as keeping to a strict-timetable and using helper engines during a winter storm.

Some people argue that “grey gamers” simply don't have the skills required for computer games, and that teenagers are better.     5     Most computer games require the kind of analytical thinking that improves with practice, which means that the “grey gamers” may well be far better than gamers half a century younger than them. In games where speed is the main consideration, older people would be at a disadvantage because they may have slower reaction time. On the other hand, “grey gamers” have a preference for slower paced, mind challenging games.

7 . Up to 40% of all food in the United States is wasted. Producing food that people don’t consume swallows up roughly 20% of America’s cropland and agricultural water, and produces greenhouse gas emissions(排放物) equal to 37 million passenger vehicles each year. Yet, 37 million Americans lack consistent access to adequate and nutritious food.

NRDC’s Food Matters Initiative partners cities to confront food waste. Food Matters is piloting all-round, cutting-edge strategies that are easy to follow and share. The first two strategies--and arguably the most critical ones--are to estimate a local baseline level of food waste and then assess the potential for rescuing surplus food. A baseline is necessary in order to understand the scale and natural of the problem. It is also a prerequisite(先决条件) to assessing any progress made, which will help inform future program development.

Using a calculator tool NRDC developed based on the Food Matters research models ,the Atlanta’s Mayor’s Office of Resilience had a better understanding of the qualities of wasted food and where it was likely occurring. This allowed the city to focus the attention on the solutions that were more closely related to the situation in Atlanta.

As in many cities across the U.S., much of the food wasted in Atlanta occurs in households and consumer-facing businesses such as restaurants. Armed with this information, the Mayor’s Office of Resilience, creates a restaurant challenge encouraging restaurants to work on the entire system of reduction, rescue, and recycling. After 90 days and participation from 6 restaurants at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson airport, the program rescue 21,000 meals and saved owners over $62000.

Atlanta’s restaurant challenge is one of a handful of examples where cities have engaged(吸引) consumer-facing food businesses to reduce their food waste. New York led the charge with a Mayor’s challenge to restaurants .Denver recently completed a series of neighborhood restaurant   challenges. Nashville has an ongoing Mayor’s Food Saver Challenge including not just restaurants but other food businesses as well. Several other cities and countries throughout the country have similar business engagement success stories.

8 . A Great Way to Teach Children to Take Responsibility

As parents, one of the most important things to teach children to take responsibility is to include chores as a part of their daily routine. In order to make a family function smoothly, every member must contribute. Teaching your children to take responsibility at an early age makes it easier for them to shoulder greater responsibilities as they grow older.

    1     If your children leave their crayons lying on the table after drawing, picking up those crayons is not a chore. It is cleaning up a mess they have created.     2    

    3    . For example, if it is to feed the dog every day, make   sure   the   children understand that if they fail in their responsibility, the dog will go hungry.

Make rewards and punishments a part of the lesson. Together decide whether they will be rewarded or not.     4     Some parents make their reward a monetary payment, while others choose to reward with certain privileges, such as extra television viewing time.

Children need to be taught that there are punishments for their actions in case of not doing their assigned chores. Decide and agree from the start what the punishment will be.

Teaching your children the importance of contributing to the family is of great importance.     5     By taking this step, you have done a wonderful thing for your children by providing them with life skills they can take with them into society.

9 . Parents can begin good organization (条理) habits with preschool-age kids. Experts recommend asking them to do small, simple actions on a regular basis with the help of parents. Maybe they open their bags and bring their lunch bag to the kitchen, or take their shoes off at the door and put them in a nearby closet. These won’t save parents much time, but they will help develop good habits.

When kids enter primary school, they should be ready for more responsibility. This is the time to teach them about daily routines, and help them take control over theirs. Parents and children might sit down together and make a list of everything that needs to be done to get out of the house in the morning, or get ready for bed at night. Together, parents should figure out how long each activity takes, and when is the best time to do them. Some of the kids might want to get their bags ready and pick out their clothes the night before.

It’s also wise to create a firm schedule for homework. When do kids do their homework? How long do they need? Where do they do it? Where will the homework go once it is done? Figure them out and stick to the schedule as much as possible.

Parents should print up these task lists and help kids finish them step by step. Kids might even check them off each morning or evening. Also, make sure there are clocks in the rooms in which these tasks will take place. Time management is an important part of learning organization, but it can’t be done if kids don’t know what time it is.

Organization gives kids the chance to make it possible to focus on a task and complete it. Kids tend to be more motivated to learn organization skills if they see organization as a challenge to overcome, rather than a fault to repair.

10 . British parents encourage their children to play musical instruments as part of a family tradition(传统) rather than raise their children’s competitiveness as the American parents do.

Dr. Aaron Reeves from Oxford University found that the UK parents did not see musical practice as character building or useful in getting university places or jobs for their children. Instead, they usually encouraged their children to follow their interests.

This is different from what the other researchers had found in America. Middle-class parents in the US appear to associate(与……相联系) these cultural practices with other worldly benefits and often center these music activities around the school subjects.

Researchers think that it may be due to(由于) the fact that the US parents have become increasingly worried about providing their children with skills and abilities enabling them to stand out from their competitors.

However, for British parents, no such direct connection was made with future educational or job advantages. The parents interviewed here did not connect music with usefulness but rather they just paid attention to the value of music as a family tradition and, to some degree, as something valuable in its own right.

One Scottish parent said during an interview, “We’ve got two learning musical instruments. If they think it is fun, we try and encourage them, but we wouldn’t force them.” Another housewife said, “My son has just turned five and I want him to play the guitar because his uncle is good at it, but it’s up to my son.”

“Lots of UK parents don’t think music practice could be very helpful for the children’s confidence or school success. They say that it takes time and some talent for the children to gain a competing advantage,” said Dr. Reeves. “I think they are right.”