1 . The world food safety could be in danger because of a number of food production shocks (冲击), according to an Australian study.
The researchers from the University of Tasmania found that there were 226 shocks in the area of food production across 134 nations and the frequency has been increasing over the past 50 years.
According to Cottrell, a researcher from the University of Tasmania, the main causes behind the shocks are different. For crops, extreme weather events such as floods and no rain for a long time play the biggest part. Weather also plays a role in livestock(家畜)production, but disease plays a bigger role. Disease also leads to aquaculture(水产业)shocks, while in the ocean most of the food shocks are caused by overfishing.
“When we look at the food production systems, covering crops, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture,” Cottrell said, “we find that crops and livestock are more easily affected than aquaculture. And some countries in South Asia are more frequently affected than others.”
The effects of production shocks reached far away from where they happened. When one means of food production is greatly reduced, it will cause unexpected results. “The India got a lot of food production shocks in crops and livestock, largely because of floods,” Cottrell explained. “If countries like India are shocked and the rice production is much smaller, they’ll probably send less goods to another country. And that shock suddenly starts to affect all the trade partners of the major producers as well.”
According to what Cottrell said, while the international community faces a great challenge to these problems, steps taken now can help fight against unexpected shocks in the future. “This can be done through measures such as food store systems so that they are better able to deal with the effect which is caused by problems such as climate change.” said Cottrell.
1. What do we know about food production shocks?| A．Their causes are different in different production areas. |
| B．Some diseases are the main cause. |
| C．Extreme weather is the biggest shock. |
| D．Overfishing is the main cause. |
| A．Livestock in Australia. | B．Crops in Australian. |
| C．Fisheries in India. | D．Livestock in South Asia. |
| A．To show India sells a lot of crops to other countries. |
| B．To show the shocks can cause unexpected results. |
| C．To show Indian shocks are more often. |
| D．To show India has a lot of flood. |
| A．Results Caused by the Problem of Global Food Safety |
| B．Measures Solving the Problem of Global Food Safety |
| C．Production Shocks Threatening Global Food Safety |
| D．The Importance of Global Food Safety |
2 . According to a report from the Ministry of Public Security. Yichen (奕辰) and Yinuo (一诺) are the most popular names for newborns in 2020. More than 14,000 boys were named Yichen while over 24,000 girls were given the name Yinuo.
More and more parents are giving their babies longer names to make their names stand out. There are around 3 percent of people with four or more characters in their names.
To help avoid too common names, new parents are able to check how many people are using a certain name on the website of the Ministry of Public Security.
As to the ranking of surnames (姓), the largest group of newborns shared the surname Li, with 726,000 new babies have this surname. Wang, Li, Zhang, Liu and Chen are the top five common surnames in China in 2020, the same as in 2019. 30.8 percent of the total population in China has these five surnames.
Although the common practice is to adopt (采用) the surnames of their fathers, more children have taken their mothers’ surnames because of the country’s second child policy. In 2020, about 7.7 percent of the 10 million newborn babies used their mothers’ surnames.
1. More than 14,000 new born boys are named ________ in 2020.| A．Yichen | B．Yinuo | C．Yiwei | D．Yihan |
| A．wish a good luck | B．to honor their mothers |
| C．make more friends | D．avoid too common names |
| A．Zhang | B．Li | C．Wang | D．Liu |
| A．they are the second child in their families |
| B．their mothers’ surnames are more popular |
| C．their parents follow an old tradition in China |
| D．their parents want to make their names special |
3 . The 11-year-old girl who fought off an attempted kidnapping this week was considered as “Brave Teenager” for her quick thinking that helped police identify the suspect.
That’s exactly what happened. Alyssa was
The girl was
Alyssa told investigators that the same man had
Asked how she felt after her
| A．searching for | B．looking for | C．waiting for | D．working for |
| A．curiously | B．excitedly | C．eagerly | D．cruelly |
| A．failed | B．fell | C．formed | D．filled |
| A．attempt | B．struggle | C．effort | D．escape |
| A．firm | B．cautious | C．specific | D．devoted |
| A．when | B．where | C．how | D．while |
| A．playing against | B．dealing with | C．playing with | D．pressing against |
| A．Therefore | B．Since | C．However | D．Instead |
| A．evidence | B．idea | C．image | D．decision |
| A．sentenced | B．punished | C．prisoned | D．seized |
| A．confirmed | B．approached | C．questioned | D．stared |
| A．uncomfortable | B．dissatisfying | C．unusual | D．annoyed |
| A．accident | B．event | C．incident | D．affair |
| A．limited | B．close | C．narrow | D．tight |
| A．argument | B．emergency | C．impact | D．opportunity |
4 . Are you right-handed or left-handed? Have you ever wondered why?
With 10% of all humans being left-handed, lefties have been looked down upon as being unlucky. In the past, left-handers were thought to be strange, and left-handedness was thought to be caused by how anxious a pregnant (怀孕的) woman was during her pregnancy. However, we might now be closer to discovering the genetic reasons behind handedness.
We know that the human body is made up of cells, each of which contains a nucleus (细胞核). Inside the nucleus are thread-like structures called chromosomes (染色体) which can be stretched out to what is known as DNA. Sections of this DNA are referred to as genes — one section of DNA would show clearly your hair color and others, the shape of your nose!
The University of Oxford research team examined the genomes (基因组) of 400,000 volunteers in the UK Biobank, of whom 38,332 were left-handed. The team discovered four genetic regions, three of which had proteins (蛋白质) that play a key role in the formation of the physical structure of the cells.
By studying the brain scans of 9000 volunteers, researchers noticed that in people who were left-handed, the left and right halves of their brain that dealt with language worked in a much more intentionally matched manner. This led them to conclude that the genetic differences they had observed in left-handed people were responsible for differences in the white matter that connects language regions of the brain.
The team also found that the regions of left-handers’ brains that set them apart from right-handers gave them a slightly higher chance of getting some mental diseases, but a slightly lower chance of getting Parkinson’s disease. This study is the first to find a link between handedness, genes, and the language areas of the brains.
1. Why does the writer use two questions at the beginning?| A．To show the importance of genes. |
| B．To invite the readers to answer them. |
| C．To draw the readers’ attention to the topic. |
| D．To test the readers’ knowledge about being left-handed. |
| A．It is caused by the anxious pregnant woman. |
| B．It has something to do with genes. |
| C．It means greater creativity. |
| D．It is regarded as being strange. |
| A．By asking volunteers questions. |
| B．By testing volunteers’ intelligence. |
| C．By examining genomes and studying brain scans. |
| D．By comparing the acts of people with different hands. |
| A．Right-handers are better than left-handers. |
| B．Left-handers have a smaller chance of getting Parkinson’s disease. |
| C．Handedness is decided by the white matter of the brain. |
| D．There is a connection between handedness and genes. |
5 . After two years of working from home, we have adapted to communicating digitally, in short bursts of time. Remember in Before Times you could head to the gym after work and then get dressed for dinner and a night out? The pandemic(疫情) has changed this. Our social batteries have run out of charge. It’s been a long time since we had to perform our social role for an extended period.
For 23-year-old Jennie, the excitement of her friends and family to restart their social lives has left her astonished. “At the minute my parents are planning a trip abroad and I keep postponing getting back to them with a date,” she explains. “They don’t know it’s because of all of this. Just the thought of being in a room full of people is scary, it’s like going back to school.”
Heather Garbutt, psychotherapist of The Counselling & Psychotherapy Centre says communication is key to recharging your unused social battery. “Take it slowly and don’t immediately organise a large get-together,” she advises. “Go for a walk with somebody for no more than half an hour and gently get used to being with people again. It may actually be a shock to our system which has been shut down to some degree to cope with absence. We may have that longing to be with others, but that doesn’t mean we are free from anxiety. It would be good to start off with a conversation about what it’s going to be like when you are all together again.”
She says finding some casual topics to discuss also works. Understand that many of you may feel a bit awkward after being physically apart for so long. It’s a bit like learning to walk again after you’ve broken a leg. It may all be off-balance to begin with but you will find a new steadiness with practice. Whatever happens post-pandemic, your loved ones can’t judge if you want to take it easy and not engage in the festivities immediately. We are recovering from a post-pandemic stress disorder, after all.
1. What has become of us after two years of working from home?| A．We are addicted to chatting with people online. |
| B．We may feel it impossible to go back to normal. |
| C．We are quite looking forward to being with people. |
| D．We may find it hard to communicate with others like before. |
| A．She is excited to see her friends again. |
| B．She is not on good terms with her family. |
| C．She is not good at communicating with people. |
| D．She is anxious about meeting people face to face. |
| A．Pay a visit to a close friend and stay over. |
| B．Hang out with your friends for several hours. |
| C．Have a brief chat about your future get-together. |
| D．Ignore those who are anxious about connecting with others. |
| A．How Can We Restore Our Social Batteries? |
| B．When Can We Speed Up Our Reunion Plan? |
| C．What Can Help Repair Our Social Networks? |
| D．Why Did the Pandemic Mess Up Our Social Life? |
6 . Teens who have good, supportive relationships with their teachers enjoy better health as adults, according to research published by an American research center.
“This research suggests that improving students’ relationships with teachers could have positive and long-lasting effects beyond just academic success,” said Jinho Kim, a professor at Korea University and author of the study. “It could also bring about health implications in the long run.” Previous research has suggested that teens’ social relationships might be linked to health outcomes in adulthood. However, it is not clear whether the link between teen relationships and lifetime health is causal (因果的) — it could be that other factors, such as different family backgrounds, might contribute to both relationship problems in adolescence and to poor health in adulthood. Also, most research has focused on teens’ relationships with their peers (同龄人), rather than on their relationships with teachers.
To explore those questions further, Kim analyzed data on nearly 20, 000 participants from the Add Health study, a national study in the U. S. that followed participants from seventh grade into early adulthood. The participant pool included more than 3, 400 pairs of siblings (兄弟姐妹). As teens, participants answered questions, like “How often have you had trouble getting along with other students and your teachers?” As adults, participants were asked about their physical and mental health.
Kim found that participants who had reported better relationships with both their peers and teachers in middle and high school also reported better physical and mental health in their mid-20s. However, when he controlled for family background by looking at pairs of siblings together, only the link between good teacher relationships and adult health remained significant.
The results suggest teacher relationships are more important than previously realized and that schools should invest in training teachers on how to build warm and supportive relationships with their students. “This is not something that most teachers receive much training in,” Kim said, “but it should be.”
1. What does the underlined word “implications” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Recipes. | B．Habits. | C．Risks. | D．Benefits. |
| A．Poor health in adolescence. | B．Teens’ relationships with their peers. |
| C．Limitations of the previous research. | D．Factors affecting health in adulthood. |
| A．Positive student-teacher relationship helps students’ adult health. |
| B．Good family background promises long-term adult health. |
| C．Healthy peer relationships leads to students’ academic success. |
| D．Good adult health depends on teens’ good teachers. |
| A．A medical report. | B．A health magazine. | C．A term paper. | D．A family survey. |
7 . Starbucks recently made plans to build nearly 3, 000 new stores in China over the next five years. That almost doubles the number of stores here now. The company just opened its largest stores in Shanghai, China, which often has a long line of people waiting. It is opening a new store in China every 15 hours, and it now has plenty of competition. That marks an important change in the tastes and buying power of the growing market.
It’s no secret there’s a lot of tea in China. But coffee, not tea, is increasingly becoming the choice for China’s rapidly growing middle class.
Starbucks keeps opening hundreds of new stores here mainly because of China’s young people who are accepting coffeehouse culture. “You have a very young population that has got in touch with Western cultures easily,” Dave Seminsky said. He owns Sumerian Coffee in Shanghai.
There’s still a lot of room for the bean business here to grow. The ordinary person in China drinks just 3 cups of coffee every year, while the ordinary person in the U.K. drinks 250 cups and in the U.S., the number is 363. But that need and the influence of climate change on the world’s supply could lead to fewer beans and higher prices.
In the next 30 years, China could be bringing two to three million tons of coffee into the nation and the world’s supply of coffee now is 6.9 million tons. If coffee really does take off here, is there enough supply? Luckily, there’s still all that tea in China.
1. Why are China’s young people fond of drinking coffee?| A．They can afford Western products. |
| B．They want to look more international. |
| C．Their taste gradually changes as they grow up. |
| D．They grow up influenced by Western cultures. |
| A．Competition in the coffee market. | B．Changes in natural conditions. |
| C．More new drinks coming out. | D．Terrible taste of coffee beans. |
| A．The supply of coffee cannot meet people’s needs. |
| B．Tea will be the main drink for the Chinese. |
| C．Coffee beans cannot be grown in China. |
| D．Fewer companies will offer coffee. |
| A．leave the ground and begin to fly | B．become popular |
| C．go away in a hurry | D．remove clothing from the body |
8 . Identity theft is attracting increasing attention from the public.
Why is identity theft becoming so common?
Many people are not aware of the problems caused by the crime.
First, make sure your computer has an updated anti-virus and firewall system installed. Second,
| A．A gateway is offered for the identity theft by the popularity of the Internet and computers. |
| B．Give away your personal information on social networking sites with the utmost caution. |
| C．There is one solution to solve the problem. |
| D．This is a crime in which your personal information is stolen by someone and is used in an illegal way. |
| E．They wake up from their carefree attitude only when they become a victim and suffer the damages caused by the crime. |
| F．There is no cure for identity theft except prevention. |
| G．They may borrow money from the bank in your name. |
9 . Have you ever heard such kind of complaint from the parents that the child is so secretive and never tells them anything? But they seldom realize that they have brought this on themselves.
Parents are often upset when their children praise the homes of their friends and regard it as an evil speaking on their own cooking, or cleaning, or furniture, and often are foolish enough to let the adolescents see that they are annoyed. They may even accuse them of disloyalty, or make some spiteful remark about the friends’ parents. Such a loss of dignity and descent into childish behavior on the part of the adults deeply shocks the adolescents, and makes them decide that in future they will not talk to their parents about the place or people they visit.
Disillusionment(幻灭) with the parents, however good and adequate they may be both as parents and as individuals, is to some degree unavoidable. Most children have such a high ideal of their parents, unless the parents themselves have been unsatisfactory, that it can, hardly hope to stand up to a realistic evaluation. Parents would be greatly surprised and deeply touched if they realized how much belief their children usually have in their character and ability with no fault, and how much this faith means to a child. If parents were prepared for this adolescent reaction, and realized that it was a sign that the child was growing up and developing valuable powers of observation and independent judgment they would not be so hurt, and therefore would not drive the child into opposition by hating and resisting it.
The adolescent, with his passion for sincerity, always respects a parent who admits that he is wrong, or ignorant, or even that he has been unfair or unjust.
Parents in Victorian times believed that they kept their dignity by holding an unreasonable authoritarian attitude. The adolescent at that time tended to go to the other extreme though today we will bravely respond to the parents in some way. On the whole this is a healthier attitude both for the child and the parent. It is always wiser and safer to face up to reality, however painful it may be at the moment.
1. When adolescents feel disillusionment with their parents, it means they ________.| A．are developing into maturity |
| B．just want to hurt their parents |
| C．are expressing their dissatisfaction |
| D．feel disappointed with their parents |
| A．showed more respect for parents than today |
| B．always answered back to deal with the problem |
| C．admired the authoritarian attitude of their parents |
| D．were too afraid to tell what they really thought |
| A．Humorous. | B．optimistic. |
| C．Serious. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．Children will become more and more mature when growing up. |
| B．Parents have to change their ways in educating their children. |
| C．The conflicts between parents and their children are unavoidable. |
| D．Parents have made mistakes in communication with children. |
10 . Years ago it was popular to speak of a generation gap, a disagreement between young people and their elders. Parents said that children did not show them proper respect and obedience (服从), while children complained that their parents did not understand them at all. What had gone wrong? Why had the generation gap suddenly appeared? Actually the generation gap has been around for a long time. Many people argue that a gap is built into the fabric (结构) of our society.
One important cause of the generation gap is the chance that young people have to choose their own ways of life. In more traditional societies, when children grow up, they are expected to live in the same area as their parents, to marry people that their parents know and agree to, and to continue the family occupation. In our society, young people often travel great distances for their education, move out of the family home at an early age, marry or live with people whom their parents have never met, and choose occupations different from those of their parents.
In our easily changing society, parents often expect their children to do better than they did: to find better jobs, to make more money, and to do all the things that they were unable to do. Often, however, the strong wish that parents have for their children is another cause of the disagreement between them. Often, they discover that they have very little in common with each other.
Finally, the speed at which changes take place in our society is another cause of the gap between the generations. In a traditional culture, elderly people are valued for their wisdom, but in our society the knowledge of a lifetime may become out of date overnight. The young and the old seem to live in two very different worlds, separated by different skills and abilities. No doubt, the generation gap will continue to be a feature of American life for some time to come. Its causes are rooted in the freedom and changes of our society, and in the rapid speed at which society changes.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．The concept of generation gap. |
| B．The reasons for generation gap. |
| C．Ways to reduce generation gap. |
| D．Attitudes towards generation gap. |
| A．depend on their parents to make a life |
| B．live with their parents in the same area |
| C．ask their parents for the best advice |
| D．have very little in common with their parents |
| A．Parents should be strict with their children. |
| B．The generation gap is partly caused by the older generation. |
| C．Parents couldn’t do things well themselves. |
| D．The young never want to satisfy their parents. |
| A．Parents are not strict enough with their children. |
| B．The young value the old too much for their wisdom. |
| C．Young people don’t have the knowledge of a lifetime. |
| D．The society develops too fast. |
