1 . Europe draws unnecessarily too much on the earth’s food resources, which is why researchers are calling for political actions to reduce food loss and waste on the continent.
According to researchers, “food loss” occurs from the primary agricultural sector to the food processing industry and the wholesale sector, while from the retail (零售) sector towards the service industry and households, we refer to it as “food waste”.
“Halving Europe’s food loss and waste could largely help solve the challenges of food shortages in the world,” says Marianne Thomson, research leader and professor of sustainable food systems at UCPH. The researchers’ calculations show halving food loss and waste in Europe equals saving 8% of the greenhouse gas, along with a saving of about 12% of agricultural areas. In addition, there is a saving of 7% of water consumption, and 14% of energy in the food production for the citizens of Europe.
The calculations apply a consumption-based approach. This includes the greenhouse gas from locally produced and imported food in European countries, while leaving out foods produced inside but exported to other countries.
This is why countries should take actions to reduce food loss and waste at all stages of the food supply chain. Marianne Thomson introduces monitoring and reporting of food loss and waste by all actors along the food supply chain as an important action.
Such an action, combined with other types of similar actions, may be a strong encouragement for companies and the rest of society to put in time and money for new technology and combined efforts to prevent food loss and waste along the food supply chain. Producing companies can cooperate on upcycling (升级改造) products. The service industry can apply upcycled materials produced from food not needed in the wholesale sector, and at the same time encourage costumers to take smaller portions by reducing the plate size.
“Cutting food loss and waste by 50% in Europe requires political actions, and also the actions need to adapt to national circumstances and specific regional and local challenges,” says Marianne Thomson.
1. What is the researchers’ ultimate aim?| A．To decrease food loss and waste. |
| B．To criticize Europe for overusing food. |
| C．To look for new products for Europeans. |
| D．To arouse people’s awareness of food shortage. |
| A．Possible causes. | B．Solving strategies. |
| C．Research findings. | D．Calculating methods. |
| A．It requires producing less food for citizens of Europe. |
| B．It gives no consideration to the food produced out of Europe. |
| C．It needs joint efforts of everyone along the food supply chain. |
| D．It costs too much time and money of food producing companies. |
| A．Food loss and waste appear at every stage of the supply chain. |
| B．Smaller sizes of plates lead to people’s eating more than they need. |
| C．Political actions to reduce food loss and waste meet with no difficulty. |
| D．Cutting food loss and waste in Europe by 50% means saving 14% agricultural lands. |
2 . After seeing the difficult living conditions for children in a migrant (移民) camp in Tijuana, Mexico, Estefanía Rebellón took matters into her own hands.
She could not believe what she saw: families lacking even the most basic supplies. The children, sometimes shoeless and often dirty, clearly had no place to go.
Back at home, Rebellón could think of nothing else. “We have to do something,” she told her partner, Kyle Thomas Schmidt. A school — a safe place for the children to gather and learn — seemed much-needed. So, Rebellón and Schmidt hired volunteer teachers via social media, and using a thousand dollars from their savings, set up a temporary school at the Tijuana border. Classes were held in two large tents.
In five years, that pilot program has grown into the non-profit Yes We Can World Foundation, which operates three classrooms in transformed school buses and two schools in Tijuana, plus another in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city directly across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Funded by donations, the foundation’s now well-trained teachers have provided a bilingual education to more than 3,000 kids from ages 3 to 15. The schools follow an official curriculum (课程) from Mexico’s education ministry. As well, Yes We Can offers special courses, including one that helps kids understand more about human migration.
“The program’s success is easy to see,” says Josh Phelps, former director of operations for World Central Kitchen, which has provided meals to some Yes We Can schools. “The kids really enjoy it. There are huge smiles on their faces.”
More than 6.6 million people live in refugee camps around the world, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Rebellón says she’d like to expand the foundation’s reach and support migrant children globally.
“She is a powerhouse,” says Phelps, “and, I think, one of the most important people doing work at the border right now.”
1. What does the underlined part “took matters into her own hands” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Relied on others. | B．Got rid of it. |
| C．Took it into account. | D．Dealt with it herself. |
| A．To find houses for migrants. |
| B．To establish a school for migrant children. |
| C．To raise money for migrants. |
| D．To provide migrants with daily necessities. |
| A．Easy-going and ambitious. | B．Quick-thinking and generous. |
| C．Open-minded and imaginative. | D．Warm-hearted and responsible. |
| A．How We Can Provide Education for Migrants? |
| B．One Woman Founded Schools for Migrant Children |
| C．One of the Greatest Women in the World — Rebellón |
| D．Yes We Can World Foundation — a Nonprofit Organization |
3 . The psychological term, valence weighting bias, describes people’s tendency to adapt in new circumstances by drawing more strongly from either their positive or negative attitudes, or rather, whether negative or positive internal “signals” carry the most weight in guiding people’s final behavior.
Studies led by Russell Fazio and Javier Granados from Ohio State University found links between a negative-leaning attitude and procrastination (拖延) and that it’s possible to shift the weighting bias and reverse the tendency to delay a task.
In the study, 147 college students participated in a program allowing them to accumulate course credits for engaging in a research. Those who thought it was an awful thing to do procrastinated starting. The study also explored whether students’ measures of self-control influenced task-related behaviors: How students characterized their level of motivation about the research program, and if that affected whether students got an early start. Results showed the combination of negative weighting bias and self-reported low motivation for self-control was linked to students putting off research program participation by getting started later in the semester.
Then the students in the program who were self-reported procrastinators and who scored high for negative weighting bias were asked to join in another study. Researchers then inspired one group in a way that led participants to weigh positive and negative signals in a more balanced way. This shift caused the students to accumulate credit hours more quickly than the group whose negative weighting bias and low self-control reliably predicted their delay. “If somebody is more motivated and able to think more about it, that might bring other considerations that weaken the influence of the valence weighting bias,” researchers said.
Negative weighting bias can have a positive effect on behavior, though. These researchers have also found evidence that a negative weighting bias may help people be more realistic when they’re asking themselves, “Have I studied enough for this test?” “It’s better to be more objectively balanced than to be at either extreme,” Fazio said. “But the situation where a particular valence weighting bias is likely to be problematic is going to vary.”
1. What can we know about valence weighting bias?| A．It is used in modern technology. | B．It influences people’s mental health. |
| C．It directs what people do variously. | D．It leads to delays in carrying out tasks. |
| A．suffered from valence weighting bias | B．drew more strongly from positivity |
| C．thought poorly of their self-discipline | D．considered themselves lack of motivation |
| A．High scores lead to more consideration. |
| B．Negative weighting bias can be reversed. |
| C．Participants need professional knowledge. |
| D．Measuring properly is of vital importance. |
| A．Negative weighting bias can be beneficial. |
| B．People need to strive to be positive at any time. |
| C．Positive people tend to make random decisions. |
| D．Valence weighting bias applies to different situations. |
4 . Imagine being an Olympic racer. Before stepping onto the track, you have to decide which pair of shoes to wear: One made from sustainable materials or a traditionally built model? If you’re like most people, you’d opt for the non-sustainable version. Consumer behavior research indicates sustainable products are often assumed to be weaker, less durable and perform worse than non-sustainable ones.
But are there instances in which sustainability is not a liability? To investigate this, researchers conducted a series of studies. They theorized that under some circumstances, sustainability may provide a halo effect, meaning that being perceived as sustainable also leads consumers to assume other positive characteristics about them as well.
In the first study, 595 participants were asked to make judgments about several household products like washing powder. The results suggest one’s values do play a role: People with higher environmental values viewed sustainable products as also being higher-performing, thus lending support for the halo effect theory.
The second experiment looked specifically at the effect of messaging, testing to see whether focusing the sustainability claims on the company, as opposed to the product, would be more effective in driving participants’ belief in product performance. 270 participants were asked. The results suggest that associating sustainability with the company has a much larger impact than messaging about product sustainability.
Study 3 sought to further expand these mechanisms by examining the influence of societal impact. 148 participants who saw various advertisements for products either described as having a “sustainable benefit” or “societal benefit” were more likely to see the products as being of higher performance if they were presented as positively impacting society, above and beyond merely being sustainable, supporting the idea that the halo effect is driven by the belief of the company as a moral agent engaged in socially beneficial behavior.
Contrary to previous thinking, this research illustrates that sustainability claims can produce positive belief about product performance in the above conditions. Like the track star, consumers often feel sustainability and performance exclude each other. When the brand (品牌) presents it just the right way, there doesn’t need to be a trade-off. These can be one and the same.
1. What does the underlined word “liability” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Priority. | B．Secret. | C．Drag. | D．Target. |
| A．highlight the product | B．are aimed to generate profits |
| C．contrast with consumers’ values | D．are made about the company itself |
| A．Previous experience. | B．Sales statistics. |
| C．Respondents’ opinions. | D．Social phenomenon. |
| A．How Green Products Benefit Consumers |
| B．How Consumers View Company Culture |
| C．How Sustainability Claims Impact Product Quality |
| D．How Psychology Helps the Belief in Green Products |
5 . Parenting styles have changed over the years in response to the rapid changes in the world. Whether it is tapping technology or applying the best parenting practices to meet a parenting need, parents nowadays generally invest more time in finding out how best to raise their children.
Modern parents often look to the internet and social media for parenting advice. The availability of resources has helped modern parents engage more in their children’s development, both academically and emotionally. Modern parents are also more eager to find out effective parenting methods to help them raise disciplined and confident children.
A modern parenting style that has emerged is helicopter parenting, where parents are much too focused on their children. They help children with tasks they’re capable of doing on their own, like selecting activities and friends for them, or calling their teachers about homework matters. Such a parenting style can hold back the development of the children’s ability to handle responsibilities independently. Children might be ill-equipped with life skills such as doing laundry (洗衣),clearing their plates or coping with their schoolwork. Always protecting children from failures may also prevent them developing adaptability and acquiring skills like problem-solving.
On the other hand, parents in the past tended to monitor less. Children were given more control over how to manage their schoolwork and choose their friends. Domestic helpers were also not the norm then, hence children of the past were often expected to shoulder the responsibilities of caring for younger brothers and sisters and managing housework. Living in the pre-internet age, parents were less informed about different parenting methods, and their parenting styles were guided more by their personalities, common sense and friendly advice from the extended family and neighbors, rather than by social media influences or parenting websites.
There is no one right way to raise a child. Each child is unique and should be raised differently by parents who are present but not wandering, who are supportive but not controlling, and who protect but not care too much.
1. What does the underlined word “tapping” mean in paragraph 1?| A．Employing. |
| B．Tracking. |
| C．Monitoring. |
| D．Identifying. |
| A．Flexible. |
| B．Efficient. |
| C．Conventional. |
| D．Overinvolved. |
| A．They educated kids in a rigid way. |
| B．They overestimated their kids’ independence. |
| C．They afforded kids more space for self-growth. |
| D．They tended to stay away from social activities. |
| A．How to raise all-round children. |
| B．How to enhance parent-child bonds. |
| C．How parenting modes have shifted over the years. |
| D．How information technology boosts people’s lifestyles. |
6 . When Andre too the stand in a courtroom on a fall afternoon in 2022, he testified (作证) to the financial worth of an old-growth redwood.
Andre is a registered professional forester in California. Before his testification, foresters from Redwood National and State Parks in northern California were deep into a months-long investigation of burl poaching (树瘤偷猎). Burls, the bark covered growths that can stick out from a tree’s trunk, produce a wood that’s valued for its unique grain and smooth workability. Because of their beauty and relative rarity, old-growth burls fetch very high prices and are eventually turned into tables and bowls, or carved into statues.
Burl poaching is an ongoing concern in northern California’s parks. It affects the stability of some of the only old-growth coastal redwoods: Only 4% of the coastal redwoods remain, and 45% of those are conserved in park boundaries. When someone poaches a burl from one of these ancient trees, it leaves the tree with structural damage that can kill it, and makes it more subject to disease.
When poaching cases are brought to trial, judges are tasked with arguing for a punishment that takes a tree’s worth into account. The reliance on a purely market-based fine is gradually falling from favor. Judges have started arguing more forcefully for valuation that considers the forest as a complex ecosystem, within which old-growth is just a single, yet crucial, element. It’s a shift from the easily quantifiable toward a multi-aspect consideration of worth. The gravity of poaching is most felt, not simply the loss of a marketable resource. The new strategy is partly due to the surprisingly low fines for poachers, usually based on that week’s wood market data.
Finally, the judges handed down two years’ probation (缓刑), community service hours and a $1,200 fine to the poacher. Although judges and foresters continue to argue for expanding definitions of “worth”", poaching from American forests still remains worth the risk.
1. What drives poachers to steal old growth redwood burls?| A．The absence of a forest law. | B．The burls’ medicinal properties. |
| C．The commercial profits from burls. | D．The burls’ fast reproduction ability. |
| A．Where redwoods are distributed. |
| B．How many varieties of redwoods exist. |
| C．What threat burl poaching poses to redwoods. |
| D．Why California’s parks are home to redwoods. |
| A．Overall value of the tree. | B．Previous poaching cases. |
| C．Average wood market prices. | D．Environmental impacts of the tree. |
| A．It fails to reach desired effects. |
| B．It causes panic among poachers. |
| C．It discourages people from poaching. |
| D．It guarantees reasonable sentences to poachers. |
7 . Drone hobbyists will be required to register their aircraft with the government or face unspecified penalties (处罚), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a new law on Monday.
The move is an attempt to prevent drones endangering air safety, as the number of complaints about errant (偏离的) flyers has skyrocketed in recent months, the FAA said.
“We are certainly seeing a significant increase in reports,” Huerta, administrator of the FAA, said. “Clearly, this is an industry that is taking off. And there are a lot of activities taking place in the national airspace system.”
Drones are taking to the skies in groups, and the number of tiny flyers is expected to multiply in the coming years. Amazon and Google aim to use drones to deliver commercial goods in the next decade. Already this year, pilots and others have reported 100 complaints about drones a month, roughly double the rate of complaints in 2021, the FAA said. Many of those complaints are about close calls, in which drones narrowly miss other aircraft.
The FAA bars people from flying drones within 5 miles of an airport, or higher than 400 feet above the ground. But increasingly, drone pilots are breaking those rules. In August, for instance, two airplanes landing at Kennedy International Airport came within 100 feet of a drone flying at a height of roughly 800 feet. When such drones violate (侵犯) airspace, the government currently has no way to locate their operators.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the FAA are working out the details, but right now, the new registry wouldn’t require drones to carry trackers. And it wouldn’t institute a policy of “geofencing”, which involves creating marked-off safe spaces where drones would automatically be deactivated.
“Unless a drone crashes, it could be difficult to identify tiny flyers from sight alone. But our biggest challenge so far has not been identifying the drone itself. It’s been connecting it back to the person who’s using it,” said Foxx, secretary of the TSA.
1. Why did the FAA announce the law?| A．To promote drones’ business services. |
| B．To regulate drones for airspace security. |
| C．To adjust the flight direction of errant drones. |
| D．To charge people for personal use of airspace. |
| A．Frees. | B．Saves. | C．Distracts. | D．Prohibits. |
| A．Building safe drone airspace. |
| B．Tracking down the drone pilots. |
| C．Publicizing current flight rules. |
| D．Planting trackers on the drones. |
| A．Drones Will Get People in Trouble |
| B．America Is Expanding Drone Industry |
| C．Complaints About Drones Continue to Pour in |
| D．Flying Unregistered Drones Will Be Illegal in the US |
According to a survey, most Chinese young netizens are in favor of videos featuring traditional culture. That
China Chic, or guochao, features fancy designs mixed with elements from traditional culture. It became widely
China Chic has changed from a consumption trend
The concept
China Chic expresses traditional culture with the language of pop culture, bringing it closer to young people. Eager to show their personalities to the .world, young people find national identity a good way to distinguish
9 . In need of some encouragement? Students at West Side Union Grade School in California are providing just that in recorded messages on a free telephone hotline.
Peptoc is an art project created by teachers Asherah Weiss and Jessica Martin of this school. Peptoc is how Martin’s son, a first-grader at the school, spelled “pep talk”, which refers to a speech attempting to input enthusiasm and determination in a team.
The project consists of student-made motivational flyers (海报), and a hotline with pre-recorded pep talks and life advice from kids aged 5 — 12.
Dial 707-998-8410 and you will be greeted with the following message: “If you’re feeling mad, depressed or nervous, press one. If you need words of encouragement and life advice, press two. If you need a pep talk from kindergarteners, press three. If you need to hear kids laughing with delight, press four.”
Since its launch last month, the hotline has been receiving up to 9,000 calls per hour. Martin said she had signed up for the cheapest hotline provider she could find, thinking the kids would be excited to hear 100 people had called in a month. “And then two days later, we’re getting 500 an hour, and now we’re getting 9,000 an hour.”
Patients at Johns Hopkins Medical Center had been regularly calling the hotline. Rima Meechan, the school’s principal, heard from a woman with cancer who called during her treatment. Weiss said she had seen the school’s office manager in tears on the phone with the administrator of an elder care facility, where most patients are over 90 years old. The administrator was calling to thank all of the kids, because he played it for everyone who was part of that facility, and he said, “I haven’t heard laughter like that from them in years.”
Weiss and Martin said it’s more than just the messages. “Adults support children, but we don’t really celebrate how much they support us,” Martin said, “And to be able to be consoled by them gives us great hope that maybe we’re all going to be okay.”
1. What will the caller obtain through the hotline?| A．Parental motivation. | B．Operators’ friendly service. |
| C．Experts’ real-time guidance. | D．Kids’ recorded inspiring words. |
| A．The rapid popularity of the hotline. |
| B．The contribution of art education to society. |
| C．The general phenomenon of anxiety disorder. |
| D．The dramatic change in patients’ values of life. |
| A．Accompanied. | B．Concerned. | C．Comforted. | D．Admired. |
| A．To promote the free telephone hotline. |
| B．To offer positive energy to needy people. |
| C．To help students express themselves freely. |
| D．To fuel students’ enthusiasm for public affairs. |
10 . In the past few decades, parental fears over their children's “fragile” egos (脆弱的自我) have dominated thinking. Rather than using failure to improve, participation and effort have become what is celebrated. Parents now see failure as a terrible disaster with negative consequences as opposed to something their children could recover and grow from.
In a recent study, administrators at Harvard observed that despite awesome grades, the kids entering college seem unable to take care of themselves and think for themselves. The study points to the fact that for all their lives their parents have taken care of every need, told them what path to follow and if any difficulty occurs, have made sure to fix it for them. As a result, children have lost the ability to feel competent and to be in charge of their own lives.
I was a baseball player. When the opportunity to coach my son's team came up, I was in two minds. I wanted my kids to do activities without their dad hanging around. But an old friend happened to be the head coach and he convinced me to help out. I coached it well, rarely having a hand in training my son. I found out the learning opportunities on and off the field were even better than I had imagined.
Last season, our team lost 0-13. In the post-game meeting, my message was, “You have to learn how to lose if you ever want to win.” When saying this to the team, I was met with blank stares. When I said it to the parents, there was some nodding but not everyone was on board. Shouldn't I be praising the kids for their every action? Why didn't I put only the best players at the “important” positions? How come I didn't replace kids who were struggling with players who could do better?
Luckily, the parents eventually got my message and I didn't get any push-back at all. They desired to learn more about life lessons that failure could teach their kids. And the team began to win games after early losses.
1. What does children's failure mean to parents?| A．Children's self-reflection. |
| B．Destructive effects on children. |
| C．A steppingstone to children's success. |
| D．Parental irresponsibility in raising children. |
| A．The rapidly-developing society. |
| B．Parents' high expectations of children. |
| C．Children's wrong attitude towards failure. |
| D．Too much parental intervention in children's life. |
| A．Excited. | B．Confident. |
| C．Hesitant. | D．Uninterested. |
| A．Some parents doubted the author's strategies. |
| B．The players felt confused about their failure. |
| C．The author was to blame for the team's defeat. |
| D．The author ignored the head coach's good advice. |
