1 . Nowadays, the food that you buy comes from many different countries. Have a look in your fridge, cupboard, and fruit bowl and check the origins (来源) of the food. Perhaps there are apples from California, lamb from New Zealand, or potatoes from Egypt? You will probably be surprised how far food travels to get to your plate. This journey, from “field to plate”, is called “food miles”. A food mile is the distance that food travels from the farmer’s field to the person who buys the food. Nowadays, food often travels thousands of miles to get to the consumer. Why is this, and what are the effects of these long distances?
Traditionally, farmers sold their food in the local market so the food didn’t have to travel very far. The consumers also did not travel very far, because they went to their local market to buy the food. This was a good system for farmers and consumers. However, there were some disadvantages. For example, consumers could only buy food that farmers produced locally. In addition, they could only get food that was in season. Now, because of modern technology, food comes from all over the world. We do not have to wait for spring or summer to buy strawberries or tomatoes. They are available in winter if we want.
Some countries have to import most of their food. This is because they have difficult climates. The United Arab Emirates(UAE), for example, gets 85% of its food from other countries. Even food made in the UAE often uses imported materials.
What’s wrong with “food miles”? Is this not a good way of increasing international trade? I believe these miles are worrying for a number of reasons. First of all, because food travels such long distances. We need more planes, lorries, and ships to move the food. This means we use more oil or petrol, so there is more pollution and more global warming. In addition, food that travels a long way is not fresh and usually not very tasty. Tomatoes, for example, are picked early and stored for their long journey. For this reason, they are usually tasteless when they get to the consumer. Local food has a better taste, and it also reduces the amount of global pollution. We need to buy more local food.
1. What is called “food miles” according to this passage?A.The origins of the food. | B.The effects of long distances. |
C.The journey from field to plate. | D.The disadvantages of imported food. |
A.easy to get | B.not busy |
C.willing to talk | D.impossible to get |
A.long distances | B.difficult climates |
C.fresh and tasty food | D.modern technology |
A.how local food travels from field to plate |
B.what “food miles” is and its effects |
C.how some countries import their food |
D.where different kinds of food come from |
One fall evening, 13-year-old Briar Omar agreed to look after his four younger sisters when his parents went to the grocery store to pick up the family dinner. The parents were confident that responsible big brother Briar with their protective dog called Mandy, was capable of managing the family in their absence. During that brief time, an unexpected thing happened: The home suddenly went up in flames(火焰). It was up to Briar and Mandy to save his family.
The children smelled smoke soon after their parents left for the store. They turned around to search for where the fire came from and were shocked and frightened to find their baby sister’s playpen(玩耍护栏) on fire.
The first thought that came to Briar’s mind was to rescue his little sisters. The family had previously discussed what to do in the face of danger, so he was prepared to act.
In a few minutes, flames were climbing the ceiling(天花板). Smoke was filling up the hallways. The horrible fire quickly spread throughout the home.
Briar remained calm and focused on the urgent task of saving his four younger sisters: Peyton, 12, Jocelyn, 3, Willow, 1, and 6-month-old baby Sawyer. He quickly picked up the two babies and rushed the older sisters out of the door to safety. After making sure his sisters were far away from the danger and breathing in fresh air, he ran back to save their home despite the flames surrounding him.
注意:1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
He quickly held the fire extinguisher(灭火器) from the kitchen and tried to put out the flames.
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Briar cheered up immediately and managed to escape from the fire to safety with the dog following the way.
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Home alone: Are you ready?
Do you know that in the US almost half of all kids aged 6 to 13 are home alone for part of the day? The boys in the Home Alone movies certainly have fun, but the whole experience can be freaky sometimes. These days, even a lot of adults are scared to be alone in the house! It’s totally understandable if you or someone you know are nervous about being home alone.
Take Jessi and her brother Joey as an example. For over five years now, they’ve been taking care of themselves until their mum comes home from work. Jessi says that the worst thing about it is when she or her brother is locked out. Then they have to wait on the porch until the other gets home! Sometimes, both of them get locked out! Fortunately, they each have a cellphone so they can call their mum when that happens.
Your parents think you’re ready, but do you?
At first it sounds cool to be home alone, right? Think of the freedom you’d have around the house! There’s nobody to stop you from playing video games or watching your favourite TV show!
Joey admits that he likes being able to watch TV shows or listen to music he likes. “ It’s more freedom, ” he says, “ but it’s also more responsibility. ”
So there you are listening to that CD your parents hate. Then what’s that? You hear a noise outside. It sounds like it could be a person on the front doorstep, and there’s been a string of robberies in the area lately. Suddenly, your unsupervised (没人监管的) freedom doesn’t feel so safe anymore.
It’s a normal feeling and it doesn’t mean you’re a “baby”. There’s always stuff going on in the world to shake our feelings of security. You might feel totally fine about being alone when you’re 10. Then, two years later, something happens that makes you feel different about it. Every person and every home environment is unique.
If you have worries about being home alone, it’s really important to speak out about them, even though it may cost money to get a sitter or your parent has to rearrange his or her schedule.
1. What will Jessi and Joey do if both of them get locked out? ( no more than 6 words )2. What’s the main idea of Paragraph 4? ( no more than 6 words )
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
It is always cool to be home alone — freedom you’d have around the house! There’s nobody to stop you from playing games or watching your favourite TV show.
4. What will you do when you are alone at home? ( About 40 words. )
4 . Every minute, every hour, every day, we are losing precious time to our devices (设备).Technology has taken over much of our lives,especially over the last two years as school and work went online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you feel an urge to jump on social media or scroll websites when you have a few spare minutes, don’t feel bad. This is normal.
Another great way to help reduce the desire to check your device is to turn off notifications (通 知).In the 1890s, Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov conducted experiments to measure the build-up of saliva (唾液) in the mouths of dogs under a variety of conditions. Like the dogs in the experiments, people are conditioned to respond each time they hear a ping.
As the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind.
A.Is it possible to get back the time you have lost? |
B.Today many people spend much time on electronic devices. |
C.One way to manage your time is to control how you spend it. |
D.Here are some ways to reduce the desire to check your device. |
E.This is also a helpful reminder to keep you away from your device. |
F.You can avoid this trap by listing things you can do when you are free. |
G.By removing the notifications, you remove the reminder to check your device. |
5 . “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for,” said John A. Shedd, an early 20th century author. Throughout the Covid-19, we’ve all become used to assessing risk in new ways. We’ve come to understand, though we can never get rid of risk altogether, we have great power to make choices both large and small to protect ourselves.
Developmental psychologists talk about “positive risks” — socially acceptable risks that our lives can benefit from.
One guide to positive risk management lists ways that people can make sure their risks are on the “safe" side of risk range. For example, to ensure a successful bike ride, you should in advance equip yourself with a fully-charged cell phone and a full water bottle.
Nobody wants to be needlessly risky. But using our newly-acquired risk assessment tools, we can once again learn and grow in our lives.
A.Take risks in a positive way. |
B.But the self-protective mind state carries its own risk. |
C.Overall happiness is one benefit of positive risk-taking. |
D.Remember to tell one of your friends or family your destination. |
E.Besides taking preventive steps, flexible thinking is also encouraged. |
F.Like a ship sailing away from its harbor, that is what we were built to do. |
G.For teenagers, this means risks like running for monitor or trying out for a team. |
6 . Medha Pappula, an eight-grader at Brambleton Middle School, is using her skill set to solve a problem — bullying. She recently earned an award from National Bullying Prevention Center (NBPC) for her anti-bullying efforts in software development and animation (动画).
Pappula, 13, said she discovered that a classmate had experienced cyberbullying (网络欺凌), which was painful for her to learn about. “Even though I didn’t experience it, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, even my worst enemy.” Pappula said.
Then she developed a program. “It takes a message, and then recognizes signs of bullying and gives a rating (评价) to the cyberbullying.” the teen said. “If the rating is high, the program can be used to carry out things like removing that message or reporting it.”
In addition to this program, the NBPC awarded Pappula for a three-minute animated video about Unity Day, which she created and shared on YouTube last October. Unity Day was started by the NBPC in 2011 to raise bullying awareness among school-age children. Schools encourage their students to wear orange on Unity Day, as it is a color that is connected with safety.
Pappula visited different websites to develop her animation skills several years ago. She spent more than a month creating her 2-D animated video using an animation software called Krita. The effort paid off, as nearly 6000 people have already viewed the “Unity Day” video on YouTube. Pappula hopes to continue to work with the NBPC and use her skills to lift those around her.
1. According to Pappula, cyberbullying _______.A.was her painful experience | B.was her worst enemy |
C.shouldn’t happen to anyone | D.could be stopped easily |
A.Take a message. | B.Carry out bullying. |
C.Recognize signs of bullying. | D.Give a rating to the cyberbullying. |
A.She developed the skills herself. | B.She asked schools for help. |
C.She learned from YouTube. | D.She developed Krita. |
A.A Cyberbullying Experience | B.An Anti-bullying Software |
C.A Bullying Prevention Center | D.An Anti-bullying Teenager |
7 . Do you remember the name of your kindergarten teacher? I do. Her name was Mrs. White.
I don’t remember much about what we learned in her
My mother said Mrs. White said “The children are just
Thanks to Mrs. White, I
A.expression | B.school | C.class | D.home |
A.sing | B.write | C.draw | D.speak |
A.bring back | B.hand out | C.hand in | D.make up |
A.signatures | B.mistakes | C.words | D.stars |
A.regret | B.sadness | C.happiness | D.worry |
A.saw | B.found | C.changed | D.corrected |
A.meanings | B.spellings | C.use | D.place |
A.beginning | B.leading | C.happening | D.choosing |
A.reading | B.discovering | C.forming | D.hearing |
A.thought | B.patience | C.courage | D.excitement |
A.wait | B.advance | C.disappear | D.return |
A.accept | B.prove | C.agree | D.say |
A.that | B.what | C.which | D.how |
A.grew | B.stood | C.added | D.gave |
A.doubt | B.ability | C.confidence | D.opinion |
A.as if | B.now that | C.if only | D.even if |
A.hardly | B.usually | C.probably | D.actually |
A.back | B.round | C.up | D.out |
A.beautiful | B.interesting | C.unusual | D.strict |
A.show | B.let | C.enjoy | D.allow |
Square dancing is a well-known recreational group activity in China. It
Ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, when authorities launched the
9 . The Book Lady
It was Jennifer Williams's mother who got her hooked on books. A librarian, she read to her three children every day. “Not until we went to kindergarten,” Williams told vadogwood.com, a local news site. “Until we went to college.”
When Williams, now 54, became an elementary school teacher and tutor in Danville, Virginia, she wanted her students to fall in love with reading just as she had. But early on, she realized that some kids had limited access to books.
“It’s very obvious to teachers of young children which kids are read to versus kids who are not,” she said. “It’s obvious at the end of the first day of school.” To Williams, the solution was simple: Give kids books. In 2017, as part of a civic event called Engage Danville, she gave away 900 used children’s books over three days. Most people would be satisfied with that.
“I was like, ‘Anybody could do that,’” she said. “I wanted to do something that’s going to stretch my faith, my work ethic, my everything.”
So she set a new goal for herself: Give away one million books. It sounds like an unreachable number, but as Williams posted on Facebook: “Don’t complain in the bleachers if you aren’t willing to work hard out on the field.”
So she got to work, first by roping in friends to donate books or money to buy books. Before long, as news of Williams’s project spread, strangers started leaving piles of books on her front porch. As quickly as the books come in, Williams gives them to local schools — free of charge — and also supplies books to little free libraries around the city of 41,000 just over the North Carolina border. She also hosts a book club for prisoners in the local prison.
In the four years she's been doing all this, the Book Lady, as Williams has come to be known, has given away more than 78,000 books — only 922,000 more to reach her goal! And she’s not slowing down. It’s too important for kids with few options.
“Reading can take you anywhere,” she told CNN. “You can travel in time and space. If you can read, you can learn almost anything.”
1. What made Willian interested in reading?A.Her children’s hobby. | B.Her mother’s influence. |
C.A stranger’s encouragement. | D.A teacher's impact. |
A.To satisfy most people. | B.To celebrate the civic event. |
C.To help students love reading. | D.To stretch her faith and work ethic. |
A.By asking her friends to buy books. | B.By attaining books from the prison. |
C.By getting donation from free libraries. | D.By receiving donated books from strangers. |
A.helpful and ambitious. | B.respectable and innocent. |
C.hardworking and adventurous. | D.determined and humorous. |
10 . “Fire! Fire!” What terrible words to hear when one wakes up in a strange house in the middle of the night! It was a large, old, wooden house and my room was on the top floor. I jumped out of bed, opened the door and stepped outside the house. It was full of thick smoke.
I began to run, but as I was still only half-awake, instead of going towards the stairs I went in the opposite direction. The smoke grew thicker and I could see fire all around. The floor became hot under my bare feet. I found an open door and ran into a room to get to the window. But before I could reach it, one of my feet caught in something soft and I fell down. The thing I had fallen over felt like a bundle of clothes, and I picked it up to protect my face from the smoke and heat. Just then the floor gave way under me and I crashed to the floor below with pieces of burning wood all around me.
I saw a doorway in fire, then I put the bundle over my face and ran. My feet burned me terrible, but I got through. As I reached the cold air outside, my bundle of clothes gave a thin cry, I nearly dropped it in my surprise. Then I was in a crowd gathered in the street. A woman in a night-dress and a borrowed man’s coat screamed as she saw me and came running madly. She was the Mayor’s wife, and I had saved her baby.
1. When the fire arose in the middle of the night, the author was ________.A.at home | B.sleeping | C.sitting in bed | D.both A and B |
A.because he was very brave. | B.because he liked the baby very much. |
C.but he just happened to save it. | D.because it was the Mayor’s baby. |
A.was a stranger there | B.could see nothing |
C.was not completely awake | D.Both A and C |
A.save the baby | B.call for help | C.protect his face | D.run quickly |