Title: My view on being a vegetarian
Suggested points:
Do you agree or disagree with the idea of ‘being a vegetarian’? Why? List two or three reasons to explain.
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如今，许多家长焦虑地守在孩子身边、密切关注孩子一举一动，被称之为“直升机父母(Helicopter parents)”，还有“扫雪机父母(Snowplow parents)”,轰隆隆地扫除孩子通往成功路上的所有障碍，让孩子免遭失败、挫折。对此，学校校刊特辟专栏对此进行讨论，请以李华为名投稿，用身边的例子描述这两类家长，并谈谈对此的看法。
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3 . Leftover again? Hurray
Here’s the deal: You’re as hungry as a horse and you want a delicious meal from a fine restaurant, but you’re a little low on funds.
So what do you do? If you happen to live in Europe, the answer is as easy as pie: You pull out your smartphone or tablet, and tap Too Good To Go, Europe’s most popular app. Approximately 23,000 restaurants and food sellers post their leftover offerings on the app for half their usual cost.
Why all this incredible generosity? Unbelievably, one-third of the world’s food is thrown away, and nearly one billion people don’t have enough to eat. Besides, burning wasted food releases harmful carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, which contributes to climate change. That’s why environment-minded companies around the world are creating apps for phones, tablets, and other smart devices that connect uneaten food with people who want or need it.
After a long day at work, Anne, a 34-year-old student, pulls out her smartphone and chooses a noodle dish—pasta with mushrooms. Then she heads to a restaurant on the banks of the Spree River, where the owner packs her dinner and also offers her a scoop of free ice cream, which is a reward for bringing her own container.
Indeed, there are many programs serving the same mission around the world. In America, people are using an app called Food for All. One hour before a restaurant closes, its staff can post leftover meals to the app for up to 80 percent off menu prices. The app also allows customers to donate leftover meals to others.
In the Netherlands, 77,000 people have downloaded an app called NoFoodWasted. This program allows grocery store workers to share products that are approaching their expiration dates with customers who might need them.
Some countries are taking their commitment to reducing food waste a step further. France and the Czech Republic, for example, have laws that prohibit restaurants and grocery stores from throwing away food. Instead, workers are required to donate that food to charity.
So think about if there might be a better use for your uneaten vegetables. The planet will thank you.
1. What is this passage mainly about?| A．Restaurants can post leftover meals on the app Food for All. |
| B．Apps are designed connecting leftover food with people in need. |
| C．Stores share food approaching their expiration dates with customers. |
| D．It’s popular for people to claim food that might otherwise be thrown away. |
| A．Carbon dioxide is given off, worsening the problem of climate change. |
| B．Some countries have laws making restaurants donate the food they make. |
| C．Governments have made many apps that let people find cheap meals. |
| D．Nearly one billion people on the planet do not get enough food to eat. |
| A．Anne packed a tasty pasta and mushroom dish to give away to charity. |
| B．The restaurant Anne visits sells its leftover food at a discount each day. |
| C．The 80-percent-off deal offered on app is not available during lunch hours. |
| D．Laws have been passed to prevent restaurants from throwing out leftover food. |
| A．application of technology to help solve the problem of leftover food |
| B．laws to help promote the safe transportation and sale of food products |
| C．restaurants using high-tech solutions to reduce packaging waste |
| D．methods to design apps that connect restaurants with customers |
When you hear the final whistle
One of the hardest things for any sportsperson to do is to know when to retire. But even harder is finding the answer to the question “What am I going to do with the rest of my life?”
Some sportspeople go on playing too long. Perhaps they just can’t stand life without the “high” of playing professional sport. Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time retired three times. He retired once from the Chicago Bulls, made a successful comeback with the Bulls, then retired again. His second comeback with an inferior team ended in failure and he retired forever at the age of 38. Jordan said, “There will never be anything I do that will fulfill me as much as competing did.”
Others can’t resist the chance of one last “pay day”. Muhammad Ali needed the money, but his comeback fight, at the age of 39, against Trevor Berbick, was one of the saddest spectacles in modern sport. After losing to Berbick, Ali retired permanently. Three years later he developed Parkinson’s disease.
For some people, the pain of retirement never leaves them. As Jimmy Greaves, an ex-England international footballer said, “I think that a lot of players would prefer to be shot once their career is over.” Many of them spend their retirement in a continual battle against depression, alcohol, or drugs.
But for the lucky few, retirement can mean a successful new career. Franz Beckenbauer is a classical example of a footballer who won everything with his club, Bayern Muaich. After retiring he became a successful coach with Bayern and finally president of the club. John McEnroe, the infamous “bad boy” of tennis, is now a highly respected and highly paid TV commentator. But sadly, for most sportspeople these cases are the exceptions.
5 . Summary Writing
September is around the corner, and some of us are already complaining about summer’s end. But parents have a special reason to do so. The end of summer means the start of school. And these days, planning a young child’s schedule is a big challenge. The challenge is no longer finding activities to fill a child’s day; it is saying no to the hundreds of options available. Our mailbox is filled with brochures urging us to sign our kids up for classes from cooking to martial arts (武术).
Educators are themselves discouraged by the number of special classes that many children attend. In the name of “enrichment,” three-year-olds not only go to preschool in the morning but study French or gymnastics after lunch. One teacher tells of a four-year-old asking for help in the toilet before hurrying off to tennis. Another teacher says that children sometimes hold on to her at pickup time. What happened to unstructured time?
A generous explanation is that we enjoy giving children opportunities we never had. The truth however is that many parents have doubts about how much time they spend away from their families. And one way to reduce this guilt is to believe that time spent in these classes is somehow more beneficial to children than the time we know we should be giving them ourselves.
David Elkind, an expert on children, suggests that the 1960s gave birth to the belief that earlier is better. Parents hope that early music lessons, for example will build a child’s confidence. The truth, however, is that any time children are asked to do too much, too soon, they are at greater risk for feelings of failure.
A child’s time does not have to be planned to be meaningful. Remember the lazy days of summer? Some children sleep late and play with the kids across the street until it’s time to come home for dinner. However, with the majority of mothers working, fewer children enjoy that idle (空闲的) time now.
Come September, children across the country will finish a full day of kindergarten, only to attend an after-school program until 6 P.M., when a working mom or dad comes to take them home. That’s too much for a five-year old. Finances, of course, do limit some parents. But let’s be honest with ourselves – our own busy schedules, whatever they involve, are no excuse for burdening a young child’s.
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| A．He is sending an email. | B．He is addicted to information. |
| C．He is learning badminton. | D．He bought a new cell-phone. |
| A．Too much information to handle. | B．More information to make use of. |
| C．Much information to ignore. | D．Lots of information to adopt. |
| A．Texting on his cell-phone. | B．Opening all the tools. |
| C．Developing new hobbies. | D．Sending and receiving emails. |
| A．Apple will release its new foldable phone soon. |
| B．Apple has already released its new foldable phone. |
| C．Many people don’t want Apple to release its new foldable phone. |
| D．Whether Apple will release its new foldable phone is unclear. |
7 . Is Paperless Office Really Paperless?
A rising economy increased paper sales by 6 to 7 percent each year in the early to mid-1990s, and the convenience of desktop printing allowed office workers to indulge anything and everything. In 2004, Ms. Dunn, a communications supplies director, said that plain white office paper would see less than a 4 percent growth rate, a primary reason for which is that some 47 percent of the workforce entered the job market after computers had already been introduced to offices.
For office innovators, the dream of paperless office is an example of high-tech arrogance（傲慢）. Today’s office service is overwhelmed By more newspapers than ever before. After decades of development, the American government can finally get rid of the madness on paper. In the past, the demand for paper has been far ahead of growth in the American economy, but the sales have slowed markedly over the past two to three years, despite the good economic conditions.
“Old habits are hard to break,” says Ms. Dunn. “There are some functions that paper serves where a screen display doesn’t work. Those functions are both its strength and its weakness.” Analysts attribute the decline to such factors as advances in digital databases and communication systems. Escaping our craving for paper, however, will be anything but an easy affair.
“We’re finally seeing a reduction in the amount of paper being used per worker in the workplace,” says John Maine, vice president of a paper economic consulting firm. “More information is being transmitted electronically, and an increasing number of people are satisfied that information exists only in electronic form without printing multiple backups.”
To reduce paper use, some companies are working to combine digital and paper capabilities. For example, Xerox is developing electronic paper: thin digital displays that respond to a stylus, like a pen on paper. Marks can be erased or saved digitally. Even with such technological advances, the increasing amounts of electronic data necessarily require more paper.
“The information industry today is composed of a thin paper crust surrounding an electronic core,” Mr. Saffo wrote. The growing paper crust is most noticeable, but the hidden electronic core is far larger and growing more rapidly. The result is that we are becoming paperless, but we hardly notice at all. “That’s one of the greatest ironies of the information age,” Saffo says. “It’s just common sense that the more you talk to someone by phone or computer, it inevitably leads to a face-to-face meeting. The best thing for the aviation industry was the Internet.”
1. Which of the following statements is NOT a reason for the slowdown in American paper sales?| A．Workforce with better computer skills. |
| B．Slow growth of the U.S. economy. |
| C．Changing patterns in paper use. |
| D．Changing employment trends. |
| A．We have to look at paper consumption from different angles. |
| B．There is little chance that paper consumption will fall in the digital age. |
| C．Paper consumption will be greatly reduced in the digital age. |
| D．People are no longer so addicted to paper in the digital age. |
| A．the intergration of digital technology with traditional paper |
| B．the chance from traditional paper to digital technology |
| C．the combination of the use of computer screens and cell phones |
| D．a new type of computer writing and communication |
| A．The dream of the paperless office will be realized some day. |
| B．People usually prefer to have face-to-face meetings instead of using computers. |
| C．More digital data use leads to greater paper use in the digital time. |
| D．Some people are no longer opposed to video-conferencing. |
8 . Last summer, bird-watchers confirmed the discovery of a new species of bird in Cambodia was not an event of particular biological significance, but it was striking for one reason in part. This species of bird was discovered not in an unspoiled rain forest but within the limits Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh – a city the size of Philadelphia.
What the researchers found was surprising in cities. The medium-sized city in the state about 110 species of birds, over 95 percent of which would have been growing there urbanization. Ecologically speaking, cities are different, concrete buildings. Rather, each unique bio-profile – a kind of ecological fingerprint – that is against the idea of an environment dead zone.
Of course, it’s also true that in the world of birds and plants, as in human society, there is such a thing as worldwide—the city-inhabitants who feel equally at home in San Francisco, Milan and Beijing. Four birds occur in more than 80 percent of the cities studied, and 11 plants occurred in more than 90 percent of the cities. On the plant side, those are seemingly spread by European settlement. In the air, it’s the usual suspects: the rock pigeon and many other birds. “They have become completely adapted to urban life,”Katti says. “That’s not much of surprise. But they don’t actually dominate as much as we think they do.” Those species—occurring in the cities across the globe—represent only a small part of a city’s natural varieties.
Not all cities are equal protectors of native animals and plants, though. One of the biggest predictors for a city’s biodiversity is its urban design. Territory as varied as backyards and street trees can lay important roles in greening a city. In fact, the amount of green space is a stronger predictor of the density of biodiversity than a city’s size. A metropolis with a sizable network of parks can contain more species per square mile than a much smaller city.
In a world where architecture, food, language, fashion and commerce are increasingly globalized, a city’s native animals and plants can be a kind of identity. There may be neighborhoods in London and Paris that resemble Singapore or Hong Kong. Cities are becoming similar, but their natural environments stand completely apart.
1. According to the passage, what do you think of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital?| A．It is full of various rare plants and animals. |
| B．Its birds’ population is larger than that of San Francisco. |
| C．It’s as big as Philadelphia in terms of area. |
| D．It is on an equal footing with Beijing and Milan. |
| A．From a biological point new changes happen every day. |
| B．From an environmental point the daily changes aren’t obvious enough. |
| C．Each city has different characteristics in terms of ecological development. |
| D．Different species of creatures are born in different cities. |
| A．natural selection | B．globalization |
| C．urban development | D．colonization |
| A．What Surprising Cities! The Medium-sized City Has Various Species of Birds! |
| B．The Power of Plants and Animals! The Charm of All the Cities! |
| C．The Cities Are Concrete Jungles! Never Think about Them the Same Way Again! |
| D．More Species Per Square Mile! The Amount of Green Space Is a Stronger Predictor! |
Sociologists have long recognized that organization of less than 200 individuals can operate through the free flow of information among the members.Once their size goes beyond this figure, the organizations are getting less flexible. So it seems necessary to prevent total disorder resulting from failures of communication.
One solution to this problem would, of course, be to structure large organizations into smaller units of a size that can act as a group. By allowing these groups to build reliance on each other, larger organizations can be built up. However, merely having groups of, say, 150 will never of itself be a complete solution to the problems of the organization.Something else is needed: the people involved must be able to build direct personal relationships. To allow free flow of information, they have to be able to communicate with each other in a casual way. Maintaining too formal a structure of relationships inevitably prevents the way a system works.
The importance of this was drawn to my attention two years ago by the case of a TV station. Whether by chance or by design, it so happened that there were almost exactly 150 people in the station. The whole process worked very smoothly as an organization for many years until they were moved into purpose-built accommodation. Then, for no apparent reason, the work seemed to be more difficult to do, not to say less satisfying.
It was some time before they work out what the problem was. It turn out that, when the architects were designing the new building,they decided that the coffee room where everyone ate their sandwiches at lunchtimes was an unnecessary luxury and so did away with it. And with that, they accidentally destroyed the close social networks that strengthened the whole organization. What had apparently been happening was that, as people gathered informally over their sandwiches in the coffee room, useful information was casually being exchanged.
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