1 . Stacy Dean, an official at the US Department of Agriculture, was inspired by a visit to Watkins Elementary, in Washington, D. C. Students grow vegetables in their school garden. They also roll up their sleeves in the school’s kitchen to participate in a FRESHFARM FoodPrints class, which integrates cooking and nutrition education.
“Who’s next?” asks instructional coach Regina Green, as kids throw vegetables into the pan and the smell of fresh ginger and onions fills the air. “We grew these in our garden,” Jessie Gibson, one of the students, says proudly. Then he measures and pours dry ingredients into a bowl.
“Our family has tried new things because of the program,” says Catie Kelley, whose two children have participated in the FRESHFARM program. “They come home with the recipes,” Kelley says. “It’s fun because it’s things that we don’t usually make at home,” so it has encouraged them to try novel combinations. She says the kids take more of an interest at the grocery store to identify foods they’ve tried in the program.
Dean wants to have the science around healthy eating integrated. A block to scaling up these types of programs is money. The program relies on grants and receives some federal funding, but it’s not enough to expand the program to all the schools that could benefit.
In fact, there are other problems. At a time when diet-related disease is a leading cause of death, and unhealthy eating habits are rooted in US culture, it’s unrealistic to think that a cooking curriculum could overcome such a sweeping, societal problem. “We know from years of evidence that we need multiple things to come together to support healthy eating,” says Angela Odoms-Young, a professor of maternal and child nutrition at Cornell University.
Despite these challenges, programs like FRESHFARM can help kids expand their choices by introducing them to new tastes. At first, many kids are turned off by the bitter taste of greens. But through the magic of cooking, processing the onions, and blending in fresh ginger, kids can be inspired.
1. What inspired Dean during the visit to Watkins Elementary?A.The coach’s skillful performance. |
B.Students’ getting more access to nature. |
C.The integrated hands-on cooking. |
D.Students’ gardening and cooking. |
A.They pay more attention to healthy eating. |
B.They have a more harmonious relation. |
C.They show more interest in shopping. |
D.They have enriched their recipes. |
A.Advocating healthy eating needs joint efforts. |
B.A cooking curriculum should be promoted. |
C.Nutrition helps put students on a healthy path. |
D.Food is fundamental to life and good health. |
A.Complex. | B.Widespread. | C.Effective. | D.Easily-operated. |
2 . Ideally, childhood is a time of growth and learning. But for many children around the world, this time is cut short when they are forced to work, sometimes in dangerous conditions. As a result, June 12 is recognized as the annual World Day Against Child Labor.
As of 2020, around 160 million children worked as child laborers, which means that one child in 10 was a child laborer. Overall, child labor has decreased over the past 20 years, but in recent years, this progress has stalled. Child labor is distinguished from ordinary housework, helping with a family business or working to earn pocket money after school. Work done by children is classified as child labor when it harms the child physically, mentally, socially or morally, or when it hinders(阻碍) the child’s education.
About 79 million children are engaged in hazardous child labor. Sometimes this means the work is extremely dangerous because of heavy machinery or exposure to chemicals. Hazardous child labor can also involve harsh conditions, long hours, or exposure to various kinds of abuse.
The primary goal of the World Day Against Child Labor is raising awareness of the issue and encouraging individuals, organizations and governments to take action. Fighting child labor is a complex task. It involves social workers who identify child laborers and take action to provide these children and their families with other options. But it also involves change in communities as a whole, challenging the social norms(行为准则) that can lead adults to make their children work.
Child labor and poverty often go hand in hand as parents feel that removing their children from school is necessary to earn money so the family can survive. So, measures or policies meant to fight poverty are also tied to preventing child labor. Being harmful to children and to communities, child labor hinders children from growing into healthy, educated citizens who could make a difference in society. By highlighting the problem and offering a variety of solutions, the World Day Against Child Labor can make the situation a bit better.
1. What does the underlined word “stalled” in the second paragraph mean?A.Slowed | B.Speeded | C.Stopped | D.Disappeared |
A.Helping parents with the daily housework. |
B.Assisting family business during the holidays. |
C.Earning money for one’s camp trip after school. |
D.Working in a shoe store every weekday afternoon. |
A.The consequences of child labor. | B.The main types of child labor. |
C.The seriousness of child labor. | D.The reasons against child labor. |
A.Social workers. | B.Parents. | C.Governments. | D.Communities. |
3 . Family vlogging — the frequent recording and uploading of personal videos of the family, usually on video sharing website — has become big business nowadays, especially among parents of young children. The more viewers such videos can get, the more money the family can make. At first thought, it does seem like an easy way to make money. However, are we doing right by putting their lives up for public attention?
For one thing, as the children grow up, they increasingly become aware that what they do needs to be admirable enough for the public to enjoy — Being young children, they also would want to do whatever it takes to please others. They then feel the pressure to be perfect, and as that is something not always possible, they become anxious and stressed. Comments from viewers and the expectations of sponsors (赞助者) can also affect the parents’ reactions towards their children.
Another problem is the lack of privacy in the children’s lives. As the children reach adolescence, there is a greaser need for personal space. At 12 or 13, very few children would appreciate being filmed while eating or having a conversation with their friends. Teenhood is a time of significant change in an individual, both physically and emotionally, and is a time when parents need to protect their children and guide them, instead of exposing them to the eyes of the public.
Family vlogging can be irresistible, given how it allows parents to bring greater fun to their family lives. There is also the easy money and the fame to look forward to. Indeed, all would probably go well, but only as long as parents keep in mind that, if not managed well, making their children live their lives in the unforgiving eyes of the public could prove to be a big mistake.
1. How does vlogging about children’s lives influence the family?A.Children will get used to public attention. |
B.Children may suffer from too much pressure. |
C.Parents may show no concern for their children. |
D.Parents become addicted to exposing their children to the public. |
A.By providing examples | B.By listing numbers |
C.By making comparisons | D.By analyzing causes |
A.To introduce a new big business |
B.To show how vlogging influence people’s lives. |
C.To persuade parents to watch out for comments from viewers. |
D.To convince parents of the danger of vlogging about children’s lives. |
A.negative | B.positive | C.neutral | D.uninterested |
4 . We can text WhatsApp, Facebook message and Snapchat — but are we losing the convenience of the phone conversation? Who has time to chat when you can spend hours on WhatsApp?
Most of my phone calls are less than a minute long. If I unintentionally hit answer instead of pressing the ignore button, I usually say, “Hold on, I’ll call you back,” before quickly typing out a “what’s up?” text. My list of recent phone calls is limited to four people and unless we live together, are related, or dating, there’s very little chance that you’ll be added to that list.
It seems I’m not the only who’s abandoning the phone call. The average adult spends more time on media or communication per day than on sleeping, but among all that communication, the phone call is the medium that’s falling.
So why has the phone call fallen out of favor? Many messaging apps seem to have created a grade of communication, so that the phone call is no longer the standard way of conversing long distance, but a relatively intimate (亲密的) thing.
Rachel, 24, says that she used to speak to all her girlfriends on the phone but now only calls a few. “I rarely even speak to good friends on the phone and if they call me I’m like, ‘Hello, is something wrong?’,” says Rachel. “If I do a phone call it feels really official, like it’s a big deal.”
Instead of taking the time to ring a friend and catch up, it now seems easier to send a short message. And unless you’re very close to someone, an unscheduled phone call can feel like an intrusion (干扰). While text messages can be put to one side for hours or even days, a phone call demands attention in the moment.
But while text messages and emails may be a more efficient way of sharing basic facts and information, they’re not necessarily the best way of communication. We may be communicating more than ever before, but we seem to be listening far less.
1. What does the author intend to tell us in paragraph 1?A.People chat much less on the phone now. |
B.People are addicted to messaging apps. |
C.People find no time to chat face-to-face. |
D.People have many ways to communicate. |
A.will ignore the call. |
B.will call back immediately. |
C.will make an official visit to her friend. |
D.will think her friend has some problems. |
A.Text messages demand immediate attention. |
B.An unscheduled phone call may be unwelcome. |
C.Using a phone call to communicate is out of date. |
D.It is hard to keep track of friends on messaging apps. |
A.Doubtful. | B.Uncaring. |
C.Supportive. | D.Hopeful. |
5 . Recently I bought a book about signposts. Signposts aren’t very interesting, you’re thinking. Well, that, of course, depends on whether you happen to be lost! Ancient travelers would have been grateful for these when settlements were smaller and further apart. In winter, the ability to reach shelter for the night could be the difference between life and death.
One of the very earliest way-marks discovered is in Cumbria. Dating from Roman times, it had lain fallen until 1836, when a farmer ploughing his fields came across a sandstone shaft (碑文). There are other stone posts that have stood by roadsides for centuries. It wasn’t until 1697 that an act was passed declaring that guide-stones must be built.
This applied to remote parts of the country where there might be confusion as to which path led to the nearest market town. Later, with the appearance of the Royal Mail, the number rose still further. Nowadays many of these early road signs are designated (指定) as Listed Monuments.
“How times change!” Lucy, an enthusiastic walker, to whom I loaned the book, exclaimed.
“I suppose now we all rely far more upon mobile phones to guide us.”
“Yet they aren’t perfect. Whenever I go out, I prefer a map. I never have to worry about running out of battery.” “I’m always grateful to whoever is placing way-markers along the route,” she added, “I suppose that however sure we are, a little outside confirmation is always welcome.”
Lucy is quite right there. Life itself can offer us a great many choices of path, and sometimes it isn’t easy to know if we’ve chosen the best one.
Perhaps when it comes to gratitude, we should also include thanks for those people who appear in our lives when we most need them — either giving us gentle warning that we might be heading in the wrong direction, or reassurance that we are on the right track. After all, we’d be lost without them!
1. What does the underlined word “these ” in the first paragraph refer to?A.Signposts. | B.Abilities. | C.Settlements. | D.Shelters. |
A.The market trade. | B.The act passed in 1697. |
C.The discovery of the sandstone. | D.The appearance of the Loyal Mail. |
A.Popular. | B.Outdated. | C.Imperfect. | D.Helpful. |
A.To choose right tracks. | B.To live a colorful life. |
C.To have a grateful mind. | D.To offer practical choices. |
Water shortage is one of the
This is not just
On China's Internet, some young people say their ambitions can't be achieved and many of them have given up on trying.
The phrase bai lan, which has its origin in NBA games,
On Weibo, the bai lan-related topics
State media have taken note of this trend. “
China has once again showed its ability to change the world with its “four great new
China’s new-generation high-speed train, the Fuxing Hao, is now one of the
Bike sharing, for example, is not new itself. But China has made
And back in China, when riding a shared bike, you can stop
As for Alipay, it was designed to serve the online shopping at first,
9 . What if you could give your children everything they wanted without them having to take any effort at all to get it?Would they appreciate what they now have?Would they know how to even maintain the lifestyle or how to keep the business moving forward and not downward?
There is some debate among parents of this new generation about the question of whether our children have been given so much that they now expect everything all at once. A case in point is a friend of mine who has a son in his late twenties. It is not that he doesn't have a good paying job and a really nice house. Actually his house is a lot better and bigger than I ever had at his age. But, he is not satisfied with what he has;he wants everything else right now, not tomorrow, but right now.
What he wants is a bigger house, a fancier car, and all the newest gadgets(小玩意) that come on the market. He never thinks he should work a little longer and save his money or that he shouldn't have it all. Maybe we have spoiled our children to expect more than what they should normally expect and then expect all of these worldly possessions to keep coming their way.
Now, the situation with my friend's son is one where his son calls him and complains that life is difficult and that he is having a hard time getting what he wants. The discussion usually then turns to waiting a little longer and working to save money but this discussion usually ends with his son still being disappointed with his life.
Each life must come from work, sacrifice and satisfaction of being able to provide for your family, but there is little room for just wanting when waiting, working and patience could get it done.
All of us need a bit of hardship, struggle, learning to overcome obstacles, understanding perseverance, and developing an attitude that speaks loudly about accepting responsibility for one's own destiny.
1. The writing method of the passage is ________ .A.listing facts | B.giving an example |
C.explaining reasons | D.making comparisons |
A.live a happier life | B.learn to be independent |
C.never be satisfied with it | D.be grateful for his parents |
A.the result of parents' spoiling their children |
B.the way for parents to prepare for a better life |
C.the advice for parents on how to raise their children |
D.the solution for parents to solving their family issues |
A.What our life offers us. |
B.What we should do for our family. |
C.How we should gain what we desire. |
D.How we should prepare for our destiny. |
10 . Experts say over half of the world’s seven thousand languages are in danger of disappearing. Every two weeks one language disappears.
Sometimes a language disappears immediately when the last person speaking it dies. Or, a local language might disappear more slowly. This happens when an official language is used more often and children stop learning the local language of their parents. Official languages often represent a form of control over a group of people.
Throughout history, the language spoken by a powerful group spreads across a civilization. The more powerful culture rarely respects the language and culture of smaller groups. Smaller cultures lose their local language as the language of the culture in power has a stronger influence.
Experts say protecting languages is very important for many reasons. Languages contain the histories, ideas and knowledge of a culture. Languages also contain valuable information about local medicines, plants and animals.
Many endangered languages are spoken by native cultures in close contact with the natural world. Their ancient languages contain a great deal of information about environmental systems and species of plants and animals that are unknown to scientists. As the last speakers of a language die off, the valuable information carried within a language also disappears. Language is, in many ways, a window to the mind and the world.
Any hope for protecting languages can be found in children and their willingness to learn. It is these young people who can keep this form of culture alive for future generations.
1. Which of the following is true?A.There have existed 7,000 languages in history. |
B.No one can prevent languages from disappearing. |
C.There will not be any local languages left some day. |
D.Half of the world’s languages will possibly disappear. |
A.it represents the working of the human minds |
B.local languages are more closely related to culture |
C.ancient languages can reveal ancient people’s thoughts |
D.it contains information about both culture and nature |
A.children are interested in learning it | B.people are forced to speak it |
C.it is linked to a powerful culture | D.it keeps pace with the times |
A.local languages | B.language protection |
C.the power of language | D.language and culture |