1 . Without less public attention, the nation’s egg producers are in the midst of a multibillion-dollar shift to cage-free eggs that is dramatically changing the lives of millions of hens in response to new laws and demands from restaurant chains. In a decade, the percentage of hens in cage-free housing has soared from 4% in 2010 to 28% in 2020, and that figure is expected to more than double to about 70% in the next four years.
The change marks one of the animal welfare movement’s biggest successes after years of battles with the food industry. The transition has cost billions of dollars for producers who initially resisted calls for more humane treatment of chickens but have since fully embraced the new reality.
Beginning in about 2015, many companies such as McDonald’s, Burger King responded to pressure from animal welfare groups by announcing their commitment to cage-free eggs. That was followed by laws requiring cage-free housing in California and similar rules in at least seven other states. Meanwhile, they widely promoted their move to cage-free as good for their brand’s image.
Animal rights groups have made allowing animals room to move a priority in their campaigns but the results have been mixed. The pork industry is fighting to block the California initiative that required more space for breeding pigs, and a state judge recently delayed implementation of new rules.
Looking years into the future, egg company leaders said they think the demand for cheaper eggs from caged hens will remain roughly 25% or more of the market, but Balk at the Humane Society said he expects it to become a tiny percentage of overall sales. Balk notes that hundreds of national retailers, restaurants, grocers and food manufacturers either have implemented cage-free requirements or plan to do so within a few years. “This is the future of every state in America,” he said.
1. What’s Balk’s attitude towards the promotion of cage-free eggs?| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. | C．Objective. | D．Pessimistic. |
| A．Accepted. | B．Abandoned. | C．Changed. | D．Adapted. |
| A．There have been some laws or rules requiring cage-free housing in some parts of the USA so far. |
| B．Egg producers have to deal with the sharp increase in the exact cost of the switch |
| C．Animal rights groups have successfully made allowing animals room to move a priority in their campaigns. |
| D．Many companies like Mc Donald’s widely promoted their move to cage-free as good for their brand’s image. |
| A．Animal well-fare groups’ request will be well achieved |
| B．More U.S. Eggs Will Soon Be Cage-Free |
| C．Consumers will have to pay more to eat eggs |
| D．Egg producers will experience dramatic changes to adapt |
2 . Perhaps you’ve heard the old saying “curiosity killed the cat.” It’s a phrase that’s often used to warn people — especially children — not to ask too many questions.
In addition to this, there’s the fact that we all now connect so deeply with technology, particularly with our phones. The more we stare at our screens, the less we talk to other people directly.
The final — and perhaps most worrying — way in which technology stops us from asking more has to do with algorithms, the processes followed by computers. As we increasingly get our news via social media, the big data find out what we like and push more of the same back to us.
| A．Yet it’s widely agreed that curiosity actually makes learning more effective. |
| B．All too often we accept the images of people that social media provides us with. |
| C．That means we end up inside our own little bubbles, no longer coming across new ideas. |
| D．We are always encouraged to challenge our pre-existing beliefs |
| E．In science, basic curiosity-driven research can have unexpected important benefits. |
| F．However, curiosity is currently under the biggest threat, coming from technology. |
| G．It is still not known why learning gives us such pleasure |
3 . What would you think if someone suggested pulling down Big Ben to make way for a car park? It would be ridiculous, right? But when it comes to devastation (毁灭) of the natural world, we aren’t so easily shocked. But we should be...or we’ll be in a lot of trouble.
Nature is shrinking by the day. Ancient forests are destroyed. Wetlands are becoming dry. Woodland is disappearing. And all in the name of progress. This is bad in itself, but it’s devastating for biodiversity.
Biodiversity refers to the variety of plants, animals and other living things which are all inter-connected. The ecological services provided by biodiversity are vital to everyday life. The air we breathe is a product of photosynthesis (光合作用) by green plants. In fact, all life on earth exists thanks to the benefit of biodiversity. More than 90 percent of the calories consumed by people worldwide are produced from 80 plant species. And 30 percent of medicines are developed from plants and animals. Maintaining a wide diversity of species in each ecosystem is necessary to preserve all living things.
The loss of biodiversity could be devastating. “It is wrong to think that biodiversity can be reduced indefinitely without threatening humans,” said Harvard University biologist Edward O. Wilson, known as “the father of biodiversity”. He warned, “we are about to reach a critical point beyond which biodiversity loss will be unavoidable.”
But what can we do? The problem is that the concept of biodiversity is so vague. People might care about giant pandas, but it is much harder to excite them about the fate of tiny sea creatures which are being boiled to death in the cooling systems of power stations along coastlines. The Guardian newspaper is trying to help. It has started the Biodiversity 100 campaign to try to convince governments around the world to take action to deal with the widespread concerns about biodiversity. This includes persuading the UK government to create a series of marine reserves to reverse the decline in sea-life caused by industrial fishing, banning the fishing sharks by the Japanese fishermen and stopping the killing of dingoes in Australia, among many other things.
There is a lot to do. And we’d better get a move on if we don’t want to end up with a planet that can’t support life!
1. What does the author want to tell us by the comparison in paragraph 1?| A．It is unreasonable to pull down Big Ben. | B．People take devastation of nature for granted. |
| C．The differences between Big Ben and nature. | D．The great trouble we have been faced with. |
| A．It doesn’t matter to reduce biodiversity. | B．People have done enough to preserve biodiversity. |
| C．The situation of biodiversity is very serious. | D．Biodiversity loss has become unavoidable. |
| A．The UK government. | B．The concept of biodiversity. |
| C．The action to deal with problem. | D．The Guardian newspaper. |
| A．Biodiversity Battle | B．Biodiversity Loss | C．Planet Conservation | D．Planet Changing |
4 . Today, with most of us owning a smartphone that lets us post on social media wherever and whenever we want, oversharing has become harder to avoid. But the tricky thing is that people usually don’t realize when they’ re oversharing. The problem can only be triggered by our friends and family. A survey showed that every two in three people in the US think their friends share too much on social media.
Oversharing can have negative impacts. For instance, it can put your personal information at risk. When you update your status, or simply recall an experience on social networking sites like WeChat, chances are that you are revealing critical personal information.
According to a survey by Visa Canada, 45% of people aged 18-34 “overshare” their financial information online. “Young people shared payment card information via e-mail, loaned out their cards, and didn’t keep their PIN confidential,” reported CBS. This behavior mirrors similar habits of sharing personal information on social media sites. They’re really not totally aware of who has access to this information and who else can be seeing this information and what could be done with it.
“Oversharing contributes to a larger culture in which such behavior is considered acceptable or even desirable,” said Seidman, associate professor at Albright College in the US. Elizabeth Bernstein, a US-based educator, said that “the great increase of overshare is partially because of the wild use of social media as a subconscious attempt to control anxiety. We actually use a lot of mental energy trying to manage the other person’s impression of us by oversharing.”
Moreover, oversharing online can damage effective communication in real life. “Having such easy access to so many people makes communication superficial,” said Chen, a psychologist at South China Normal University. “In the end, the lack of deep communication hurts strong social bonds, particularly friendships.”
1. Why is oversharing hard to avoid?| A．Most people have the habit of oversharing on social media. |
| B．Close friends and family members are eager to know our updates. |
| C．Social media welcome oversharing to make profits. |
| D．Most people are unaware of the problem of oversharing. |
| A．Acceptable. | B．Desirable. | C．Disturbing. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．By sharing his/her personal experience. | B．By analyzing advantages and disadvantages. |
| C．By giving experts’ opinions and research findings. | D．By presenting some classic cases in history. |
| A．Trying to avoid oversharing on social media. | B．Sharing personal information on social media. |
| C．Updating your status constantly on social media. | D．Communicating deeply on social media. |
In my first attempt to get control over my technology use, I set my phone to vibrate rather than ring. Soon after, another problem appeared. The act of continually checking the phone became a habit. I knew then that using only tips to permanently reform digital life is difficult. We should go past the notification settings (通知模式) on our devices or apps and consider the more essential topic of why we use so many apps in the first place. What all of us who are struggling with these challenges need is a technology usage philosophy, something that explains from the ground up which digital tools we allow into our lives, why, and under what conditions.
Cal Newport, a professor of computer science, defines Digital Minimalism (极简主义) as a “philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected activities that strongly support the things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.”
To do so, however, we cannot passively allow the tools and apps provided by the internet age to control how we spend our time or how we feel. Instead, we must take steps to draw the positive aspects of these technologies while sidestepping the negative aspects.
1. What does “its danger” in the first paragraph refer to?| A．Feeling depressed. |
| B．Getting distracted in a discussion. |
| C．Giving up private moments. |
| D．Losing control of your digital life. |
| A．To make a comparison. |
| B．To explain a phenomenon. |
| C．To bring in a better solution. |
| D．To clarify misunderstandings. |
| A．Ignoring the side effect of digital tools. |
| B．Devoting your screen time to valuable things. |
| C．Spending more time selecting information. |
| D．Getting away from entertainment apps. |
| A．Reforms in life. |
| B．Technology challenges. |
| C．Apps and social media sites. |
| D．Technology usage philosophy. |
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：takeout food 外卖食品
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7 . A cozy environment fostering focused thinking and concentration on books is what study lounges are all about. Ideal for students with limited options as after-school study spaces. And relatively cheap.
The demand for study lounges rose in China because students can hardly find a peaceful place to study after finishing classes. Before 2018, there were few study lounges in China, and the few that existed were mainly in first- and second-tier cities such as Guangzhou, Suzhou and Tianjin. Yet by 2019, they had become popular nationwide.
But the pandemic (流行病) has dealt a blow to the industry. Since personal contact in a closed environment is unavoidable, the pandemic forced all study lounges to shut down for several months. Lou Qingxiao, founder of Xinliuzaowu, one of Beijing’s earliest study lounge brands that opened in 2018, said their first study lounge near Renmin University of China had made ends meet before the pandemic. Li Hang and Zhang Yang, co-founders of Sishiloushi, a Beijing-based independent study lounge, said that even before COVID-19 broke out, the industry’s profit was neither promising nor clear, let alone in such a particular period.
“Rent is a major fixed cost for study lounges, especially in first-tier cities,” Lou said. In a first-tier city such as Beijing, rentals comprise more than a half of a study lounge’s monthly operation cost. But Lou sounds optimistic about the industry commercial prospects, “because it’s a blue ocean with less competition.”
Study lounges provide a better learning experience that people cannot get in free public libraries. “Privately operated study lounges like ours actually make up for the shortage of public infrastructure (基础设施) and public services and we are willing to cooperate with the government to better serve the public.” Li said.
1. What contributes to the rise of study lounges in China?| A．The rapid development of cities. |
| B．The shrinking number of libraries. |
| C．The need for a peaceful study environment. |
| D．The lack of alternative after-school activities. |
| A．The earliest study lounge brands in China. |
| B．A guideline on finding famous study lounges. |
| C．An introduction to the founders of study lounges. |
| D．The influence of the pandemic on study lounges. |
| A．It is promising. | B．It is unclear. |
| C．It will be full of competition. | D．It will be free of rent. |
| A．Government involvement is welcome. |
| B．The infrastructure construction is needed. |
| C．Study lounges should be privately operated. |
| D．Cooperation with public libraries has been achieved. |
