1 . Food waste across the globe continues to fuel climate change, nature loss and pollution while hurting the global economy according to the UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024, which says it is important for countries to connect the fight against hunger and the three global crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.
The report, whose findings revealed that the total food loss on the global economy is estimated at roughly $1 trillion, emphasized that reducing food waste is an opportunity to reduce costs and tackle some of the biggest environmental and social issues of our time: climate change and food insecurity.
While making opening remarks at the conference that launched the report, Dechen Tsering, acting director of the climate change division at the UNEP, said government polices, such as tax rebates (退税) and waste collection fees, could be used to stimulate changes in business practices and consumer behavior. In addition, better data on the cost of food waste and the environmental, economic, and social benefits of limiting food waste could help influence investors and consumers.
According to the report, as of 2022, only 21 countries had included food loss and waste reduction in their national climate plans, including China, Namibia, Sierra Leone, etc. Meanwhile, the number of people who are food insecure and in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in the Greater Horn of Africa rose to 74 million at the end of February, according to another report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and other agencies.
The international agencies said that the 2023 El Nino rains contributed to the rise in the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the region. With wetter-than-normal conditions forecast in most parts of African countries during the 2024 March-May rainfall season, the situation may not improve.
1. What does the Report 2024 indicate?| A．Food loss is the biggest problem to tackle. |
| B．Serious pollution can cause food insecurity. |
| C．Food waste worsens the environmental situation. |
| D．Many countries are cooperating to fight against hunger. |
| A．Effective measures should be taken by government. |
| B．Unnecessary costs in climate lead to development problems. |
| C．Data make no sense to consumer behavior and investors’ decision. |
| D．Avoiding waste collection fees is beneficial to limiting food waste. |
| A．Humanitarian assistance is the only way to help African people. |
| B．Food insecurity is still a big challenge to many African countries. |
| C．The situation of food waste in Africa becomes more and more severe. |
| D．The number of people needing help is increasing mainly due to bad weather. |
| A．To reveal the urgent financial situation in Africa. |
| B．To stress the necessity of food waste prevention. |
| C．To call for the joint efforts of governments in climate. |
| D．To raise the awareness of environmental conservation. |
2 . When the economic crisis hit, Bruno and Marilena lost their jobs in Florence. It was then that they decided to return to their hometown in Tuscany. There, they
Guests at their Bed and Breakfast are treated like extended family, sharing home-cooked meals together and
Through commitment to community and sustainability values, Bruno and Marilena have not only found their inner
| A．appreciated | B．evaluated | C．transformed | D．deserted |
| A．resources | B．reservation | C．information | D．equipment |
| A．rural | B．urban | C．cultural | D．private |
| A．self-assessment | B．self-sufficiency | C．self-discipline | D．self-awareness |
| A．adapting | B．exchanging | C．publishing | D．creating |
| A．Legend | B．Word | C．Intelligence | D．Prediction |
| A．observed | B．booked | C．traded | D．conserved |
| A．escape | B．solution | C．opportunity | D．challenge |
| A．temporary | B．permanent | C．meaningful | D．complicated |
| A．Despite | B．Without | C．Against | D．Beyond |
| A．care for | B．fight with | C．take over | D．set down |
| A．donate | B．monitor | C．preserve | D．taste |
| A．hardship | B．pressure | C．fulfillment | D．maintenance |
| A．struggle | B．loneliness | C．achievement | D．peace |
| A．environmental | B．emotional | C．communicative | D．economic |
3 . Historically, only local governments worried about a widespread food crisis, but today, the rapidly rising food prices and the resulting food crisis can quickly be a worldwide phenomenon. Over the next 20 years, the fight to feed the world will be a huge challenge facing the global economy.
The first solution lies in the combined effect of money and time.
Another way to solve the crisis is to double food production in developing countries.
While we may not be seeing all the symptoms of food shortage, we must be clear-eyed in our current support of food production. It is obvious that we will face a severe problem, but the problem is solvable.
| A．Since you think it beneficial to the whole world |
| B．What about developing economy to solve the crisis |
| C．If we are to reach our goal and prevent a global food crisis |
| D．How can we relieve the current crisis and avoid future risks |
| E．The goal needs an enormous investment in agriculture from various sources |
| F．Developing a national strategy to reduce food loss and waste is also useful to handle the crisis |
| G．Some countries like India have realized this fact and are giving more financial support to agriculture |
4 . When children are growing up, what they see in their families is what they tend to consider normal. That means family traditions and other activities are generally seen as just normal. If a family eats dinner together or spends time talking with each other, that’s what the child absorbs and internalizes.
Our family traditions are declining as we move toward a more isolated (孤立的) society. How many families no longer share meals around the dinner table, instead choosing to watch TV or text friends on their phones? This tends to isolate and disconnect family members from each other. It also stops families from communicating and catching up on each other’s lives.
For those of us who grew up in a household where families shared meals together and spent time talking with each other, chances are that we are passing along those traditions to our own families. The problem is, children today often want to spend their time in front of screens rather than people. Cell phones, computers and other attention-grabbing devices often mean parents get resistance to traditional family togetherness time. This pressure can lead to parents giving in and letting children do what they want rather than fight with them over sitting at the dinner table. This creates a new normal that no longer values the idea of families and the society at large, connecting with each other.
Family and community traditions are important, not just for the current shared experiences, but for the future as well. Since children internalize their experiences, that means generations to come may not know what it’s like to sit together around the dinner table and truly connect as a family.
That is why it is so important that parents and caregivers create boundaries of behavior that help to keep family traditions alive. If you remember the shared experiences you had with your parents and grandparents, you know the important bonding that took place during those times. It is this shared experience that brings people closer together and is well worth preserving.
1. What is the phenomenon the author describes at the beginning of the text?| A．The increase in shared family meals means a shift towards isolation. |
| B．Increased use of technology replaces traditional family interactions. |
| C．More and more children prefer to spend quality time with the family. |
| D．Family members are more likely to share their updates with each other. |
| A．The inability of parents to understand technology. |
| B．The challenge of preserving traditional family values. |
| C．The influence of technology on children’s education. |
| D．The necessity of controlling children’s digital devices. |
| A．They will be more addicted to advanced technology. |
| B．They will maintain stronger and closer family bonds. |
| C．They may create new and irreplaceable family traditions. |
| D．They may not understand the value of family gatherings. |
| A．Insignificant | B．Irresponsible |
| C．Crucial | D．Overemphasized |
5 . Bullet comments—comments which fly across the screen on certain video platforms—represent a ·modern approach to communication that young people use in cyberspace to express their ideas, emotions and feelings. When looking back, however, they are a good reminder of what was hot or trending in the past year.
On Dec 15,2023, Bilibili, a Chinese video-sharing platform, picked “Ah?” as the Bullet Comment of the Year. In 2023, “Ah?” appeared more than 13.2 million times on Bilibili as a bullet comment, according to Dazhong Daily.
Today, young people in China use “Ah?” to express their surprise and amazement. User Mo Xin filmed himself writing down the ancient Chinese text Hard Is the Road to Shu (《蜀道难》) in one stroke (一笔) and subsequently uploaded the video to Bilibili. This feat (壮举) resulted in the video winning the most “Ah?”bullet comments on the platform.
China’s huge technological advancements have also generated “Ah?” comments from Bilibili users. In August, China made a breakthrough in controllable nuclear fusion (可控核聚变) technology. Its new-generation “artificial sun” Huanliu-3 looks to open new doors in the world of nuclear fusion. Videos announcing this news were inundated (淹没) in “Ah?” comments.
Though simple and easily understandable, “Ah?” provides insights into young people’s interests. Their focus extends beyond mere entertainment, however. They also, use “Ah?” to engage with. commentaries, and scientific discoveries, indicating a deeper, more serious layer of interest. These “Ah?” comments reveal that young people are attentive to the world around them. “Ah?” has become their unique way of responding to contemporary events, using it as a tool to document today’s history.
Every year brings a new bullet comment of the year, but what never changes is how young people want their voices to be heard. Do you still remember which video got you to send an “Ah?” in 2023?
1. What do we know about “Bullet comments” according to the text?| A．They will remind others of your opinions. |
| B．They are an easy way to interact with others. |
| C．They enable us to think about the popular events. |
| D．They are used in young people’s daily communication. |
| A．To prove the function of “Ah?”. | B．To argue for the benefit of “Ah?”. |
| C．To explain the popularity of “Ah?”. | D．To clarify the development of “Ah?”. |
| A．Concrete and modern. | B．Easy and accessible. |
| C．Abstract but popular. | D．Unique but meaningless. |
| A．Huawei made a breakthrough in 5G. |
| B．Southern little potatoes poured in Harbin. |
| C．The Moutai-flavoured coffee came into the market. |
| D．China, Singapore mutual visa-free policies will boost tourism. |
6 . The study by University of Arizona researchers, published in the Creativity Research Journal, finds that creative people are more likely to fruitfully use idle (空闲的) time by letting one idea lead to another.
“In psychology and neuroscience, most studies on human thoughts either prompt (提示) participants to think in a certain way or ask them to report on thoughts they experienced, but less is known about how thoughts naturally arise and unfold over time in unprompted contexts,” said Jessica Andrews-Hanna, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and senior author of the paper. “This is where our study comes in.”
The researchers divided the study into two parts. For the first experiment, the researchers asked each participant to sit alone in a room for 10 minutes without any access to digital devices. In the absence of any particular prompt, the participants were asked to voice their thoughts aloud in real time. The recorded files from 81 participants were then transcribed (转录) and analyzed.
The first experiment found that creative people were more engaged in their thoughts when they were left alone without distractions, such as cell phones and the Internet. “Creative people rated themselves as being less bored, even over those 10 minutes. They also spoke more words overall, which indicated that their thoughts were more likely to move freely,” said Andrews-Hanna.
For the second experiment, over 2,600 adults answered questions through a smartphone app called Mind Window, developed by Andrews-Hanna and her graduate student Eric Andrews. Participants who self-identified as being creative reported being less bored during the idle time.
The researchers are continuing this line of work using their Mind Window app. They encourage people to download and use the app to help scientists understand how people across the world think in their everyday lives. “Understanding why different people think the way they do may lead to promising interventions to improve health and well-being,” said Andrews-Hanna.
1. What do Andrews-Hanna’s words in paragraph 2 focus on?| A．The necessity of the study. | B．The value of former studies. |
| C．The participants of the study. | D．The process of former studies. |
| A．They spoke out what they thought. | B．They recorded their own voices. |
| C．They remembered some prompts. | D．They finished a number of reports. |
| A．They made better use of digital devices. |
| B．They enjoyed idle time more than others. |
| C．They were more likely to understand others. |
| D．They were more willing to share their thoughts. |
| A．Educational. | B．Fashionable. | C．Expensive. | D．Beneficial. |
7 . People duck responsibility for reasons ranging from simple laziness or a fear of failure, through to a sense of feeling frightened by the scale of a problem or a situation. Whatever the reason, if people fail to take responsibility, they’ll fail in their jobs, they’ll fail their teams, and they’ll fail to grow as individuals. All of this makes it important to address the issue.
Signs of not being responsible
There are several signs to watch out for. These include:
Lacking interest in their work, and in the well-being of the team
Blaming others for mistakes and failures
Missing deadlines
Avoiding challenging tasks and projects, and not taking risks
Regularly complaining about unfair treatment by team leaders and members and engaging in self-pity
Avoiding being dependent on others for work, advice and instructions
Lacking trust in team members and leaders
Ways to encourage responsibility
Start by talking
Your first step is to talk to the individuals concerned. Are there circumstances that are contributing to the situation, or problems that you can deal with?
Communicate roles, responsibilities and objectives
Your people need to know clearly what their roles and responsibilities are. Ensure that you have an up-to-date job description for each team member, and be as detailed as possible about every responsibility that they have.
Re-engage people
Your people will be more engaged if their work is supported with their values. Talk to them to find out what they are. Then, illustrate how their daily tasks and responsibilities go with those values.
Give plenty of praise
Finally, be sure to give your people plenty of praise when they do take responsibility. And help them improve by providing them with regular, effective and fair feedback.
1. What will happen if John fails to take responsibility?| A．He can complete his jobs. |
| B．His teams may suffer. |
| C．His growth will continue. |
| D．He will lose his life. |
| A．“It’s not my fault.” |
| B．“I’ll have it completed tomorrow.” |
| C．“It’s tough, but I can manage it.” |
| D．“I need resources to solve the problem. ” |
| A．Let him know their specific tasks. |
| B．Get them to find out the values of work. |
| C．Praise them for their good jobs. |
| D．Have a chat with him to find out problems. |
8 . “Few articles change owners more frequently than clothes. They travel downwards from grade to grade in the social scale with remarkable regularity,” wrote the journalist Adolphe Smith in 1877 as he traced a coat’s journey in the last century: cleaned, repaired and resold repeatedly; cut down into a smaller item; eventually recycled into new fabric. But with the improvement in people’s living standards, that model is mind-boggling in the era of fast fashion. The average British customer buys four items a month. And it is reported that 350,000 tonnes of used but still wearable clothes go to landfills in the UK each year.
Yet the gradual revival of the second-hand trade has gathered pace in the past few years. At fashion website Asos, sales of vintage clothes (古董衫) have risen by 92%. Clothing was once worn out of necessity, and now it is simply a way of life. Busy families sell used items on eBay, teenagers trade on Depop and some fashion people offer designer labels on Vestiaire Collective. Strikingly, it has become big enough business that mainstream retailers (零售商) want a slice of the action.
For some buyers and sellers, the switch to the second-hand is born of financial difficulties. Only a few have become worried about the impact of their shopping habit on the planet. But the shift is only a partial solution. Some people worry that some mainstream brands may “greenwash” — using second-hand goods to improve their image, rather than engaging more seriously with sustainability.
However, the biggest concern may be that people keep buying because they know they can resell goods, still chasing the pleasure of the next purchase but with an eased conscience (愧疚). Boohoo, a powerful fast fashion company, has seen sales and profits rise, despite concerns about environmental problems in its supply chain that led to an investigation last year.
A new Netflix series, Worn Stories, documents the emotional meanings that clothes can have: Each old item is full of memories. Actually, a handbag from a grandmother and a scarf passed on by a father are both valuable for us. A love of style is not a bad or an unimportant thing. But a committed relationship is better than a quick flash. Can we learn to appreciate our own old clothes as well as others’?
1. What does the word “mind-boggling” underlined in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Unbelievable. | B．Popular. | C．Reasonable. | D．Influential. |
| A．old clothes are more popular than new pieces |
| B．the online second-hand markets are booming |
| C．the fashion world begins to favor vintage clothes |
| D．many clothing brands are innovative in their new products |
| A．It makes people feel free to pursue fast fashion. |
| B．It makes people more cautious about their budgets. |
| C．It encourages people to choose eco-friendly clothes. |
| D．It pushes people to be more engaged with sustainability. |
| A．Old items have lost favor with the public. |
| B．Old items are worthy of being long cherished. |
| C．Older generations attach great importance to old items. |
| D．Older generations care about the quality of their clothes. |
9 . History has not yet
Whatever we
Historian Neil Howe sees
| A．remarked | B．convinced | C．guaranteed | D．revealed |
| A．numbers | B．houses | C．accommodates | D．contains |
| A．peers | B．adolescents | C．folks | D．guys |
| A．over | B．without | C．besides | D．beyond |
| A．diagnosed | B．dismissed | C．labeled | D．coined |
| A．end up | B．consider about | C．appeal for | D．approve of |
| A．distribution force | B．purchasing power | C．global view | D．unique outlooks |
| A．vivid | B．instructive | C．instant | D．profitable |
| A．feed up with | B．put up with | C．make up for | D．identify with |
| A．faking | B．revising | C．illustrating | D．maintaining |
| A．supervising | B．forming | C．representing | D．promoting |
| A．parallels | B．contrasts | C．comparisons | D．reservations |
| A．because | B．although | C．while | D．when |
| A．emphasis | B．generation | C．intensity | D．cultivation |
| A．routes | B．schemes | C．names | D．definitions |
10 . Television has transformed politics in the United States by changing the way in which information is spread, by altering political campaigns, and by changing citizen’s patterns of response to politics. By giving citizens independent access to the candidates, television reduced the role of the political party in the selection of the major party candidates. By centering politics on the person of the candidate, television accelerated the citizen’s focus on character rather than issues.
Television has altered the forms of political communication as well. The messages on which most of us rely are briefer than they once were. The stump speech, a political speech given by traveling politicians and lasting 1 to 2 hours, which was popular in the nineteenth-century, has given way to the 30-second advertisement and the 10 second “sound bite” in broadcast news. Increasingly the audience for speeches is not that standing in front of the politician but rather the viewing audience who will hear and see a short video of the speech on the news.
In these simplified forms, much of what comprised the traditional political speech of earlier ages has been lost. In 15 or 30 seconds, a speaker cannot establish the historical context that shaped the issue in question, cannot detail the probable causes of the problem, and cannot examine alternative proposals to argue that one is preferable to others. In short videos, politicians assert (断言) but do not argue.
Because television is an intimate (亲密的) medium, speaking through it requires a changed political style that is more conversational, personal, and visual than that of the old-style stump speech. Reliance on television means that increasingly our political world contains memorable pictures rather than memorable words. Schools teach us to analyze words and print. However, in a world in which politics is increasingly visual, informed citizenship requires a new set of skills.
Recognizing the power of television’s pictures, politicians craft televisual, staged events designed to attract media coverage. Much of the political activity we see on television news has been crafted by politicians, their speechwriters, and their public relations advisers for televised consumption. Sound bites in news and answers to questions in debates increasingly sound like advertisements.
1. What do we know about “stump speech” in paragraph 2?| A．It’s an event created by politicians to attract media attention. |
| B．It’s an interactive discussion between two politicians. |
| C．It’s a kind of political presentation typical of the nineteenth century. |
| D．It’s a style of speech common to televised political events. |
| A．politicians need to learn to become more personal |
| B．attractive politicians are favored by citizens |
| C．citizens tend to favor a politician who analyzed issues |
| D．citizens need to learn how to evaluate visual political images |
| A．Political presentations today are more like advertisements than in the past. |
| B．Politicians today tend to be more familiar with the views of citizens than in the past. |
| C．Citizens today are less informed about a politician’s character than in the past. |
| D．Political speeches today focus more on details about issues than in the past. |
| A．Television: an Agent of Change in Politics | B．Television: a Platform for Political Debate |
| C．Television: an Alternative to Stump Speech | D．Television: a New Medium for Communication |
