1 . We’ve all done it before—dropped a box of unwanted household belongings at a flea market and driven off with a sense of accomplishment. But have you ever stopped to think about where those items actually go?
Business journalist Adam Minter began considering this while cleaning out his late mother’s home. Seeking reassurance that his mother’s donated items would be put to good use rather than destroyed be started a journey worldwide that resulted in his latest book, Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage sale. He found the industry significantly in the dark, with a disturbing lack of data on secondhand goods, despite their crucial role in clothing furnishing and educating people worldwide.
In this book, Minter fully reveals himself as an investigative journalist. He doesn’t shy away from the commonly accepted assumptions about the global trade in used goods. First, Minter questions the idea that shipments of secondhand clothes from developed countries to Africa have destroyed local textile industries (纺织业). That’s overly simplistic, he says. He further explains that multiple factors, such as declining cotton production in local areas and economic liberation have influenced the situation.
Minter then explores the topic of car seats, making a statement that recycling car seats, instead of selling them secondhand, is wasteful and might compromise (危害) safety for children in developing countries. It is disturbing to say so in a society that prioritizes child safety and highlights zero risk, but when you consider the excessive caution that might endanger children’s lives elsewhere the situation starts to look different.
Minter calls it “waste colonialism” an idea that developed countries can apply their own safety standards onto the markets of developing counties. And it’s deeply wrong. Why label a used car seat or an old TV as unsafe If someone else, with different skills, is perfectly capable of repairing it and willing to use it, especially if they lack access to new products and other options?
The book explores the huge problems of handling surplus (剩余的) items and how producers discourage repairs and promote the sales of new products. Minter calls for initiatives to enhance product repairability and increase product lifetime.
1. Why did Minter set out on a journey worldwide?| A．To advocate recycling of used goods. | B．To collect data for fashion industries. |
| C．To be in memory of his late mother. | D．To explore where used stems end up. |
| A．One-sided. | B．Groundless. | C．Self-contradictory | D．Conventional. |
| A．It should be an available option. | B．It might endanger children’s safety. |
| C．It would destroy local textile industries. | D．It could take the place of recycling car seats soon. |
| A．Take initiatives to boost production. | B．Make more sustainable products. |
| C．Promote the sales of new products. | D．Handle unwanted items efficiently. |
2 . Packaging can play a greater role in keeping produce and other foods fresh, therefore minimizing food waste — especially if consumers can better understand those packaging technologies. That’s among the takeaways of research led by Michigan State University (MSU)’s School of Packaging, detailed in a recently released white paper.
In the United States, food waste in landfills doubled from 1990 to 2020, according to data shared by the US Environmental Protection Agency this year. Researchers cited data showing 40% of the food supply is wasted each year, with 43% of that happening at the consumer or household level.
Ameripen, the only organization exclusively focused on US public policy for the entire packaging industry, and the Environmental Research & Education Foundation funded research that included a survey of more than 1,000 people in the United States. Ameripen said it wanted to know what role packaging could play in reducing household food waste as well as understand consumer awareness of food packaging’s value and functions.
The survey asked consumers about their understanding of packaging forms and willingness to pay more for packaging designed to reduce food waste, among other areas.
The study found that whole fruits and vegetables, particularly bananas and lettuce, are the foods most wasted by households, with dairy products, prepared packaged foods and leftovers also common culprits (罪魁祸首). “Half-eaten packaged food products and food without packaging that went bad before it was eaten are the two primary reasons for food waste in American households, indicating there is opportunity for improved packaging design to help consumers with extending shelf life, reuse and size,” the white paper states.
Researchers reported that while consumers’ current understanding of packaging technologies was “limited”, they indicated “they would pay more for food contained in packaging that extends freshness and shelf life.”
“There’s a need to design packaging for produce that is currently not packaged; that most of the produce in this study was wasted is because there is no packaging at all,” MSU’s Korey Fennel said during the webinar (网络研讨会), also noting the importance of “intelligent packaging” that could indicate the shelf life of food products.
1. What does the underlined word “minimizing” in the first paragraph mean?| A．Showing. | B．Continuing. | C．Recovering. | D．Reducing. |
| A．Summarize the previous paragraph. | B．Provide some advice for the readers. |
| C．Add some background information. | D．Introduce a new topic for discussion. |
| A．By making observations. | B．By asking questions. |
| C．By carrying out experiments. | D．By referring to former studies. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Unclear. | C．Critical. | D．Favorable. |
3 . More than 1 billion children, teenagers and adults live with obesity (肥胖) around the world, making it the most common form of malnutrition in many countries, according to a study published on Thursday in the journal The Lancet.
“Previous estimates by the World Obesity Federation suggested that there would be 1 billion people living with obesity by 2030, but that number was already overtaken in 2022,” Dr. Majid Ezzati, senior author of the study and professor at Imperial College London, said in a news conference on Thursday. “We hadn’t expected that the things happened so fast.”
The new global study, conducted by more than 1,500 researchers from the Non-Communicable Diseases Risk Factor Collaboration and the World Health Organization (WHO), analyzed the height and weight measurements of over 220 million people from more than 190 countries.
The study focused on rates of underweight and obesity, both forms of malnutrition that are harmful to people’s health. Adults were regarded as obese if their body mass index (指数) (BMI) was greater than or equal to 30 and considered as underweight if their BMI was below18.5. Children and teenagers were defined as obese or underweight based on age and sex, according to the study.
“Undernutrition and obesity are two faces of the same problem, which is the lack of access to a healthy diet,” Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the WHO Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, said in the news conference. “Public policy must aim to improve monitoring of food producers and ensure fair access to healthy and nutritious food for everyone. Over 3 billion people in the world still cannot afford a healthy diet.”
France, which saw a steady level in its obesity rates in the study, has carried out a national plan called Programme National Nutrition Santé that sets objectives for nutritional policy at the industry, consumer and research levels. Countries in South America have begun carrying out front-of-package nutritional labelling that includes clear warnings about fat, sugar and salt levels. Mexico has led the way on taxation of sweetened drinks, and in Chile, processed foods cannot be marketed to children.
1. How does Ezzati feel about the number of obese people worldwide in 2022?| A．Disappointed. | B．Astonished. |
| C．Amused. | D．Relieved. |
| A．By asking questions. | B．By analyzing data. |
| C．By making observations. | D．By carrying out experiments. |
| A．33. | B．30. |
| C．20. | D．18. |
| A．The good habits of teenagers in South America. |
| B．The differences in diet among different countries. |
| C．The problems of rising obesity rates faced by France. |
| D．The measures taken by several countries to address obesity. |
4 . Twelve-year-old Catherine has a lot of friends—632, actually, if you count up her online friends. And she spends a lot of time with them.
But is it possible that Catherine’s online friendships could be making her lonely? That’s what some experts believe. Connecting online is a great way to stay in touch, they say. However, some experts worry that many kids are so busy connecting online that they might be missing out on true friendships.
Could this be true? During your parents’ childhoods, connecting with friends usually meant spending time with them in the flesh. Kids played Scrabble around a table, not words with friends on their phones. When friends missed each other, they picked up the telephone. Friends might even write letters to each other.
Today, most communication takes place online. A typical teen sends 2,000 texts a month and spends more than 44 hours per week in front of a screen. Much of this time is spent on social media platform.
In fact, in many ways, online communication can make friendships stronger. “There’s definitely a positive influence. Kids can stay in constant contact, which means they can share more of their feelings with each other,” says Katie Davis, co-author of The App Generation.
Other experts, however, warn that too much online communication can get in the way of forming deep friendships. “If we are constantly checking in with our virtual world, we will have little time for our real-world friendships,” says Larry Rosen, a professor at California State University. Rosen also worries that today’s kids might mistake the “friends” on the social media for true friends in life. However, in tough times, you don’t need anyone to like your picture or share your blogs. You need someone who will keep your secrets and hold your hand. You would like to talk face to face.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To tell about true friends. | B．To start a discussion. |
| C．To encourage online friendships. | D．To summarize(总结) the text. |
| A．In any case. | B．In public. | C．In person. | D．In advance. |
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Positive. | C．Worried. | D．Confused. |
| A．Teenagers need to focus on real-world friendships. | B．It’s easier to develop friendships in real life. |
| C．It’s wise to turn to friends online. | D．Social media help people stay closely connected. |
5 . South Korea’s birth rate, already the world’s lowest, has dropped yet again in the latest setback to the country’s efforts to boost its declining population.
The national statistics body reported Wednesday that the birth rate fell to 0.72 in 2023—down from 0.78 the previous year. Countries need a birth rate of 2.1 to maintain a stable (稳定的) population, in the absence of immigration. South Korea’s birth rate has been falling since 2015 and the country recorded more deaths than births for the first time in 2020, a trend that has continued since. In 2022, the country recorded about 249, 000 births and 372,800 deaths. Meanwhile, Korean women are also having children later in life. The average age of childbirth in South Korea was 33.5 last year.
Similar population declines are being seen in several other Asian countries including Japan and China, raising concern that there will be too few people of working age to support the ballooning elderly population.
Experts say the reasons for these population shifts across the region include demanding work cultures, stagnating wages, rising costs of living, changing attitudes toward marriage and gender equality, and rising disappointment among younger generations.
But despite the economic factors at play, throwing money at the problem has proved ineffective. Last September, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol admitted that more than $200 billion has been spent trying to boost the population over the past 16 years. The South Korean government has introduced various initiatives such as extending paid paternity leave, offering monetary “baby vouchers” to new parents, and social campaigns encouraging men to contribute to childcare and housework. But experts and residents say more support is needed throughout a child’s life, as well as change on several deep-rooted social issues.
1. What do the data imply in Paragraph 2?| A．South Korea has a stable population. |
| B．The birth rate differs among countries. |
| C．The ideal birth rate is possible to reach. |
| D．South Korea’s birth rate declines seriously. |
| A．Increasing rapidly. | B．Staying unstable. |
| C．Decreasing slowly. | D．Remaining the same. |
| A．Solve various social issues. |
| B．Extend paid paternity leave. |
| C．Focus on a child’s life continuously. |
| D．Encourage men to take care of children. |
| A．Population crisis is worth public attention. |
| B．South Korea’s birth rate has become an emergency. |
| C．Efforts to increase population has paid off in South Korea. |
| D．Social problems result in population crisis in South Korea. |
6 . We’ve seen it used numerous times, from the cover of publications to speeches by world leaders: “Data (数据) is the new oil.” But the analogy (类比) should stop there.
Douglas Hofstadter, a philosopher, notes that this commonly-heard analogy belongs to those on which nonspecialists are likely to base their understandings of scientific ideas. Such analogies are probably easy to remember but in a certain context they can lead to complete dead ends.
There is a fixed amount of oil on our planet to be extracted (提取). Unlike oil, increasing amounts of data are being produced at a rate that’s hard to fathom: in the next two years, 40 zettabytes of data will be created — an amount so large that there is no useful approach to showing or describing its size effectively.
The value of oil comes from its limited amounts and the difficulty of extracting it. However, data is something quite different. For example, data is both created and used by autonomous cars interacting with connected equipment in a smart city. In San Francisco, there are 470,000 registered cars. If just 25% of those cars were autonomous, the amount of data produced yearly would be the same as about 300,000,000 Internet users. Imagine what will happen if this situation covers a whole country.
Oil is also a single-use supply, while data can be reused and shared for new purposes. Recently, data from a test of drugs commonly used to treat heart problems was reused, leading to the discovery of a second use for the medicine: destroying a protein (蛋白质) related to nearly half of all cancers. In comparison, adding more oil doesn’t result in getting better quality oil.
So the next time you hear someone say this analogy, ask them when the earth will have no more data to extract and see if you can get an answer.
1. What’s Hofstadter’s attitude to the famous analogy?| A．Supportive. | B．Objective. | C．Negative. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．Understand. | B．Quicken. | C．Discover. | D．Reuse. |
| A．To explain it has busy public transportation. |
| B．To suggest it employs many autonomous cars. |
| C．To prove it is in great demand of updated data. |
| D．To show it alone creates large amounts of data. |
| A．It may prevent some cancers from happening. |
| B．It promotes scientific creations and advances. |
| C．It inspires healthy competition in the drug market. |
| D．It makes medical treatment accessible to people. |
7 . The number of states requiring high schoolers to learn about personal money matters continued to increase in 2021, and another —Florida—is ready to join the group shortly. In Florida, the Legislature has passed a law requiring students to take a full term course in personal finance (金融) before graduating.
Financial concerns grew during the pandemic, and rising inflation (通货膨胀) is tightening household budgets. Those factors, combined with worries about burdensome student debt levels, have created a stronger reason for making personal money skills a must for high schoolers.
“The need has never been greater,” said Annamaria Lusardi, the founder and academic director of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at George Washington University. “We owe it to this young generation to be well prepared for the future.”
Financial literacy (金融素养) — a working grasp of concepts like saving, credit, interest rates, investing and risk assessment — is generally low among American adults, especially younger adults. Two-thirds of Generation Z adults, for example, couldn’t correctly answer more than half the financial questions in the center’s survey, which compared financial literacy across five generations.
“The pandemic has shown a great need for the average Americans to have these skills,” said Tim Ranzetta, co-founder of Next Gen Personal Finance.
State-level surveys conducted for Next Gen have found strong support for high school personal finance requirements, Mr. Ranzetta said, and dozens of proposals are awaiting action in state legislatures. It’s uncertain how many will become laws, but a requirement in a large state like Florida, he said, may help promote other states’ efforts.
While the progress among states is encouraging, there is more to do. Currently, just nine of the 23 states require personal finance to be taken as a stand-alone course. Others permit the subject to be combined with other classes, like math or social studies, or provide other ways for students to quit the course.
1. Which is NOT the reason for requiring students to take a course in personal finance?| A．The impact of the pandemic. | B．The tight household budgets. |
| C．An increase in financial cases. | D．Concerns about student debt levels. |
| A．Dozens of proposals are sure to become laws. |
| B．Florida’s new law may encourage other states’ efforts. |
| C．Personal finance is not necessary for the average Americans. |
| D．The young generation have been well prepared in personal finance. |
| A．Positive. | B．Objective. | C．Indifferent. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．A New Course in Personal Finance |
| B．A Great Need for Financial Literacy |
| C．High Schoolers’ Growing Financial Concerns |
| D．High Schools’ Requirements for Personal Finance |
Nowadays, some famous tourist attractions are crowded of tourists during the holidays, which makes it possible for tourists to enjoy themselves. It reflects the fact what it is difficult to travel to crowded tourist attractions. Therefore, to travel in the holidays made no sense. That is why many people prefer to stay at home rather than to go out. In my opinion, the government should devote its energies to relieve the stress of tourist attractions. Some effective measure can be taken. For example, the number of tourists to famous tourist attractions should limited and citizens should not travel at a same time. Only in this way can tourists enjoy our holidays.
While many Chinese cities are experiencing freezing cold, spring lingers at the Dounan Flower Market in Kunming, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province.
A sea of blossoms, including lotuses, roses and sunflowers, is ready to go on
About 30 years ago, the Market was just a street with roadside stalls selling flowers, but today it has become Asia’s
This is a market for all people, where everyone can buy their favorite flowers
Nevertheless, staying busy is
| let out, escape, transform…into…, come across, impact, keep records, inspire, break down, energetic, mass, let down, establish, major, further, concern, live up |
Nowadays, there is widespread
Every small change in learning strategy has a(n)
