1 . Every festival has its own meaning. Labor Day, for example, celebrates the value of hard work. Thanksgiving is about showing thanks to people around you. And Valentines’ Day is a time when you express love to your loved ones. But somehow it now seems that all festivals we just care about one thing — shopping. And that can be a big problem.
“In a way, over-consumption (过度消费) is the mother of all our environmental problems,” Kalle Lasn once told CNN. Lasn is the organizer of Buy Nothing Day, a day set up in Canada in 1992 to fight against unhealthy spending habits, and has now become an international event. It’s held on the day, which is known as Black Friday — a famous shopping day in the US and Canada.
You can see the irony (讽刺) here.
Even though the idea of Buy Nothing Day was brought up 26 years ago, we seem to need it now more than ever. It’s just as Lasn said, all the different kinds of pollution in our lives today — bad air quality, the reduction of forest area, endangered animal species, and plastic bags found in the ocean — seem to be the same cause: over-consumption.
The latest example is the Singles’ Day shopping craze of Nov 11, which saw a new sales record. But as Nie Li, a campaigner at Greenpeace, told Reuters, “Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste.” And it was reported that last year the Singles’ Day packages left more than 160,000 tons of waste, including plastic and cardboard. The Collins Dictionary has also just named “single-use” its Word of the Year, pointing out the problem that there’re too many things we tow out after only using them once.
So, Buy Nothing Day might only be here for one day a year, but it’s not just to remind us to the a break from shopping on that day, but to change our lifestyle completely, focusing on fun “with people we care about” rather than wasting money on useless things.
1. What’s the authors purpose of writing the first paragraph?| A．To express the people’s love for all festivals. |
| B．To talk about the meaning of the festivals. |
| C．To appreciate the value of the festivals. |
| D．To bring out the topic of the passage. |
| A．To help people save money. | B．To cut the cost for daily life. |
| C．To prevent over-consumption. | D．To set up a new sales record. |
| A．Opposed (反对的). | B．Supportive. |
| C．Unknown. | D．Neutral (中立的). |
| A．Creating a New Lifestyle | B．Buy Nothing Day |
| C．Festivals Around the World | D．A Change in People’s Life |
2 . If someone were to ask me what it is like to be a student in today’s society, I would probably answer: Being a student in today s society is not always easy.
Adults often tell us that we don’t know what stress is. But we have our own levels of stress. Many students in their high school years start their part-time job, so now you have school in the mornings, followed by responsibilities needing to be taken care of at home and then you’re off to work. By the time you are done there, you are too tired to finish your school work, but you stay up late to try and return to school feeling sleepy the next day. What good is that?
My point is, it is a whole lot more stressful to be a student in high school than adults believe. Our “stress” may not include paying bills or taking care of a family, but I’m sure if the adults in our lives could go back to school today, they would be surprised at how much it has changed.
I don’t want you to think for a minute that there aren’t good moments and memories while we are students at school. My mom always tells me to enjoy it while I can. I know that the world outside of school is often hard and that the responsibilities are serious. That’s exactly why I know that the focus I give to my future is important in leading me to a career that will allow me to contribute to society.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．The stressful life of high school students. | B．The way of dealing with stress of study. |
| C．The role of students in today’s society. | D．The differences between teenagers’ and adults’ life. |
| A．He thinks it does them good. | B．He feels disappointed at it. |
| C．He thinks it is worth a try. | D．He is favor of it. |
| A．Adults are more stressful than students. |
| B．Adults have not fully understood students’ stress. |
| C．Adults should help students to deal with stress. |
| D．Adults should go back to school to experience students’ life. |
| A．Stress. | B．Study. | C．School life. | D．Future career. |
3 . As parents, we walk a fine line between caring for our children and teaching them how to care for themselves. When they're little, they need our help with everything. Over time, kids usually take the lead on things like feeding and dressing themselves, but it can be difficult to know when it's time for them to start doing some basic things, such as packing their own lunches for school or solving problems with teachers without a parent's help.
Blogger Amy Carney recently shared a post about the things parents should stop doing for their teens. In it, Carney shared the basic skills that she expects her kids to master by the time they hit 13, such as waking themselves up in the morning, making their own breakfast and lunch, and finishing their own homework.
Barb Harvey, a childhood behavior expert, gave me her answer: The age at which children learn to master certain skills will be different depending upon the maturity (成熟) and interest level of the child.
I asked the same question among my friends. They gave all kinds of answers, which can explain Harvey's opinion.
Therefore, there's only one expert who can determine when your kids have the ability to deal with certain skills, and that's you. If your kids aren't ready to pack their own lunches — don't sweat it. Help them learn the skills they're ready to deal with and keep working towards the end goal of raising responsible and able adults. Because if there's one thing that we can all agree on as parents, it's that time moves quickly when you're raising kids. One day you will wish they could just do things without you and the next day, you will feel upset that they do.
1. What is Amy Carney's expectation when her children are 13?| A．To be a skillful cook. | B．To follow Harvey's opinion. |
| C．To be an expert. | D．To have basic skills. |
| A．Amy Carney. | B．Barb Harvey. |
| C．The children. | D．The parents. |
| A．Their kids can do nothing. |
| B．They feel less important. |
| C．Their children become able adults. |
| D．Their kids disagree on anything. |
| A．Walking a fine line. |
| B．Blogger Amy Carney. |
| C．Parents and their children's growth. |
| D．A childhood behavior expert. |
4 . A single cigarette sold on a street corner may not cost a lot; however, the whole costs of smoking are huge.
First, consider the cost of human life. The World Health Organization says about 10 people die of a tobacco-related disease every minute. That speed adds up to almost six million people dying of such diseases every year.
Most of these preventable（可预防的）deaths happen in low-income and middle-income countries. The World Bank says each of these countries has a total national income（收入）of less than $12,746.
The World Health Organization says tobacco kills 6 million people yearly — a number that is expected to rise to 8 million by 2030 unless immediate action is taken.
For most people, stopping smoking is hard. Many began smoking as teenagers. They are used to it. Also, tobacco contains the powerful drug nicotine.
Studies show people who want to stop smoking can do so with different treatments. Some get help from electronic cigarettes, medicine or nicotine patches that reduce their desire for the drug.
But smoking costs more than the life of a person. It can affect the health of the whole country. The World Health Organization says low-income countries depend heavily on taxes from cigarettes. They use the money, in part, to pay the costs of health care for tobacco-related diseases.
But the illegal trade in tobacco products is further testing the economies of low-income countries. WHO officials say the illegal trade earns about $31 billion every year.
Douglas Bettcher is the director of the WHO’s Department for the Prevention of Non-communicable Diseases. He calls the illegal trade a monster with many heads. He says the trade enables young people to buy cigarettes at low prices, become addicted to tobacco and suffer from serious health problems. It also increases crime and reduces taxes.
The World Health Organization is strongly suggesting that the United Nations member states sign an agreement to end the illegal trade in tobacco products. Eight countries have agreed to the agreement. But the agreement of 32 other countries is still needed for it to become an international law.
1. According to the passage, people dying of a tobacco-related disease are mostly from ______.| A．developed countries | B．high-income countries |
| C．less developed countries | D．the United Nations |
| A．Destroying the environment. | B．Being bad to human life. |
| C．Affecting the whole country’s economy. | D．Causing the illegal trade. |
| A．Some action has been taken by the WHO. |
| B．The harm of the illegal trade in tobacco products. |
| C．Young people who are addicted to smoking may commit a crime. |
| D．An agreement to end the illegal trade in tobacco products is being signed. |
| A．Smoking Costs More than You Think |
| B．Different Ways to Stop Smoking |
| C．The Illegal Trade in Tobacco Products |
| D．Immediate Action to Stop Smoking |
