1 . Vegetarians would rather not be forced to eat meat. Yet the reverse compulsion is hidden in the proposals for a new plant-based “planetary diet.” Nowhere is this more visible than in India.
Earlier this year, the EAT-Lancet Commission released its global report on nutrition and called for a global shift to a more plant-based diet and for “substantially reducing consumption of animal source foods.” In countries like India, that call could become a tool to aggravate an already tense political situation and stress already undernourished populations.
The EAT report assumes that “traditional diets” in countries like India include little red meat, which might be consumed only on special occasions or as minor ingredients in mixed dishes.
In India, however, there is a vast difference between what people would wish to consume and what they have to consume because of innumerable barriers around class, religion, culture, cost, geography, etc. Policymakers in India have traditionally pushed for a cereal-heavy “vegetarian diet” on a meat-eating population as a way of providing the cheapest sources of food.
Currently, under an aggressive Hindu nationalist government, Muslims, Christians, disadvantaged classes and indigenous communities are being compelled to give up their traditional foods.
None of these concerns seem to have been appreciated by the EAT-Lancet Commission’s representative, Brent Loken, who said “India has got such a great example” in sourcing protein from plants.
But how much of a model for the world is India’s vegetarianism? In the Global Hunger Index, the country ranks 102nd out of 117. Data from the National Family Health Survey indicate that only 10 percent of infants of 6 to 23 months are adequately fed, which is why calls for a plant-based diet modeled on India risk offering another whip with which to beat already vulnerable communities in developing countries.
A diet directed at the affluent West fails to recognize that in low-income countries undernourished children are known to benefit from the consumption of milk and other animal source foods, improving cognitive functions, while reducing the prevalence of nutritional deficiencies as well as death.
EAT-Lancet claimed its intention was to “spark conversations” among all Indian stakeholders. Yet vocal critics of the food processing industry and food fortification strategies have been left out of the debate. But the most conspicuous (明显的) omission may well be the absence of India’s farmers.
1. What is more visible in India than anywhere else according to the passage?| A．People’s positive views on the proposals for a “planetary diet”. |
| B．People’s reluctance to be compelled to eat plant-based food. |
| C．People’s preferences for the kind of food they consume. |
| D．People’s unwillingness to give up their eating habits. |
| A．Radically change their dietary habits. | B．Keep them further away from politics. |
| C．Make them even more undernourished. | D．Substantially reduce their food choices. |
| A．People’s diet will not change due to the EAT-Lancet report. |
| B．Many people simply do not have access to foods they prefer. |
| C．There is a growing popularity of a cereal-heavy vegetarian diet. |
| D．Policymakers help remove the barriers to people’s choice of food. |
| A．It may benefit populations whose traditional diet is meat-based. |
| B．It may be another blow to the economy in developing countries. |
| C．It may worsen the nourishment problem in low-income countries. |
| D．It may help narrow the gap between the rich and poor countries. |
内容包括：
1、描述现象；
2、表达自己的观点及理由。
注意：词数100词左右。
China—a Hot Destination for Studying Abroad
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . My phone was an extension of myself. I couldn’t go anywhere
When I was watching TV shows or movies and there was a boring part, I
I have welcomed silence into my life with open arms and am enjoying the increased
As much as having a smartphone was
| A．through | B．without | C．despite | D．upon |
| A．updates | B．instructions | C．assessments | D．decisions |
| A．symbol | B．responsibility | C．reality | D．addiction |
| A．conscious | B．shameful | C．foolish | D．random |
| A．sell | B．pull | C．throw | D．mind |
| A．avoided | B．denied | C．missed | D．allowed |
| A．assist | B．improve | C．associate | D．occupy |
| A．requests | B．thoughts | C．directions | D．comments |
| A．instead of | B．regardless of | C．but for | D．apart from |
| A．creativity | B．productivity | C．knowledge | D．independence |
| A．routine | B．necessity | C．loneliness | D．temptation |
| A．genuine | B．grateful | C．direct | D．desperate |
| A．naturally | B．certainly | C．seemingly | D．gradually |
| A．wonder | B．imagination | C．interest | D．authenticity |
| A．depressive | B．comfortable | C．stressful | D．boring |
4 . What comes to mind when you think about chocolate? A candy bar at Halloween? Ice cream on a hot day?
For Ibrahim, a 12-year-old boy from the West African country of Ghana, chocolate is not about sweet treats; it is about bitter work.
To change the harmful practices like this, some farms use an approach called Fairtrade.
Consumers like you can play a role as well. You can buy Fairtrade chocolate if possible, pressure candy companies to change their labour practices, or ask local stores to sell Fairtrade products.
Chocolate has a hidden story that affects children like Ibrahim—children who want a happy future just like you do.
| A．You have the power to change the story. |
| B．The labels on chocolate do not tell his story. |
| C．Fairtrade is a way of doing business that prohibits child labour. |
| D．You can also take action through the Fairtrade Schools network. |
| E．On many farms, children like Ibrahim perform difficult farming tasks. |
| F．Cocoa trees grow in the tropical climates of Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. |
| G．With more income, farmers can pay adult workers and can send their children to school. |
5 . From AI-made jokes to Harry Potter fashion videos, AI can be used to make funny stuff. But can it be as funny as a human? And if it can, does it present a danger to comedy writers in the future? That’s something performers have been looking at in this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, running from Aug. 4 to Aug. 28.
Anyone can put on a show at the Fringe, and this year even robots were getting in on the act. One of Fringe’s big shows used a small robot to come up with jokes from audiences’ suggestions, which were then performed by humans. The results could be very funny, but sometimes they weren’t funny at all. That was part of the point, explained Piotr Mirowski, the show’s co-maker. “We do not use humans to ‘show off’ AI; instead, we use AI ‘to show’ its limitations, to showcase human creativity on the stage,” said Mirowski, according to The Guardian.
Comedian Pierre Novellie said that it will take a long time for AI to get good at creating comedy. “Comedy is the last thing that AI is going to get near,” Pierre told Sky News. “Even normal human comedians struggle to ‘tune’ their jokes ‘for’ the right crowd at the right time, every time. But that’s what’s interesting about stand-up (独角喜剧) and fun.”
But Peter Bazely, a performer at the Fringe, said he’s using AI to make jokes for him because he’s out of ideas. One of Bazely’s shows had him playing a supporting role to “an entirely computer-generated comedian” called AI Jesus.
The Fringe review website, Chortle, talked about today’s AI concerns: “In a world where artists are worried that AI could end up doing their jobs for them, Bazely is said to be praying this one will do exactly that.”
The reasons for companies wanting to use AI are certainly understandable, but the dangers they present to many people’s jobs are becoming more and more real, and that’s not very funny. In May, leaders in the AI industry signed a document warning that AI could present an extinction-level danger and “should be a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war”.
1. What does the underlined “That” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Performing jokes made by robots. | B．Robots’ jokes are very popular. |
| C．Robots’ jokes sometimes are not fun. | D．Using humans to show off AI. |
| A．AI limits the creativity of humans. |
| B．It is not easy for AI to replace comedians. |
| C．AI responds well to audiences’ suggestions. |
| D．The audience of comedy is hard to appeal to. |
| A．He has got difficulty in making comedies. |
| B．He doesn’t want to play supporting roles any more. |
| C．He believes AI Jesus won’t replace human comedians. |
| D．He thinks jokes made by AI can make his shows popular. |
| A．To promote the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. |
| B．To display the joys and sorrows of comedians. |
| C．To warn the public of the existing danger of AI |
| D．To raise public concern for the possible threat of AI. |
6 . People are less willing to rely on their knowledge and say they know something when they have access (使用权) to the Internet. That suggests that our connection to the Internet is affecting how we think. Professor Evan F. Risko led a study where 100 participants (参与者) faced general knowledge questions, such as naming the capital of France. For half of the study, participants had access to the Internet. They had to look up the answer when they said that they did not know the answer. In the other half of the study, participants who did not have access to the Internet did differently.
The team found that the people who had access to the Internet were about 5 percent more likely to say that they did not know the answer to the question. And the people with access to the Internet reported feeling as though they knew less. “When a large amount of information is within reach, people seem less likely to rely on their own knowledge,” said Professor Risko.
Through the results, the researchers held that access to the Internet might make it less acceptable to say you know something but are incorrect. It is also possible that participants were more likely to say they didn’t know an answer when they had access to the Internet, because online searching offers a chance to confirm (证实) their answer or satisfy their curiosity.
“Our results suggest that access to the Internet affects the decisions we make about what we know and don’t know. We hope this research is helpful in our growing understanding of how easily access to large amounts of information can influence our thinking.” Risko said and planned to further the research in this area.
1. What can we know about the participants without the Internet?| A．They knew all the answers. |
| B．They asked to look up the answers. |
| C．They were surer of their knowledge. |
| D．They were more successful in their jobs. |
| A．They knew a little about the answers. |
| B．They wanted to avoid making mistakes. |
| C．They could not give the correct answers. |
| D．They were curious about other people’s lives. |
| A．Our growing understanding. |
| B．What we know and don’t know. |
| C．Our access to large amounts of information. |
| D．The influence of access to the Internet on us. |
| A．Access to the Internet is running our lives. |
| B．The Internet is a good place to get information. |
| C．We’re unwilling to believe in others with the Internet. |
| D．The Internet makes us unwilling to say we know things. |
7 . Every festival has its own meaning. Labor Day, for example, celebrates the value of hard work. Thanksgiving is about showing thanks to people around you. And Valentines’ Day is a time when you express love to your loved ones. But somehow it now seems that all festivals we just care about one thing — shopping. And that can be a big problem.
“In a way, over-consumption (过度消费) is the mother of all our environmental problems,” Kalle Lasn once told CNN. Lasn is the organizer of Buy Nothing Day, a day set up in Canada in 1992 to fight against unhealthy spending habits, and has now become an international event. It’s held on the day, which is known as Black Friday — a famous shopping day in the US and Canada.
You can see the irony (讽刺) here.
Even though the idea of Buy Nothing Day was brought up 26 years ago, we seem to need it now more than ever. It’s just as Lasn said, all the different kinds of pollution in our lives today — bad air quality, the reduction of forest area, endangered animal species, and plastic bags found in the ocean — seem to be the same cause: over-consumption.
The latest example is the Singles’ Day shopping craze of Nov 11, which saw a new sales record. But as Nie Li, a campaigner at Greenpeace, told Reuters, “Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste.” And it was reported that last year the Singles’ Day packages left more than 160,000 tons of waste, including plastic and cardboard. The Collins Dictionary has also just named “single-use” its Word of the Year, pointing out the problem that there’re too many things we tow out after only using them once.
So, Buy Nothing Day might only be here for one day a year, but it’s not just to remind us to the a break from shopping on that day, but to change our lifestyle completely, focusing on fun “with people we care about” rather than wasting money on useless things.
1. What’s the authors purpose of writing the first paragraph?| A．To express the people’s love for all festivals. |
| B．To talk about the meaning of the festivals. |
| C．To appreciate the value of the festivals. |
| D．To bring out the topic of the passage. |
| A．To help people save money. | B．To cut the cost for daily life. |
| C．To prevent over-consumption. | D．To set up a new sales record. |
| A．Opposed (反对的). | B．Supportive. |
| C．Unknown. | D．Neutral (中立的). |
| A．Creating a New Lifestyle | B．Buy Nothing Day |
| C．Festivals Around the World | D．A Change in People’s Life |
8 . Many of us are lonelier than ever. We can go shopping and avoid speaking to a single person. Automated voice son phones and machines suck the contact and relational element out of day-to-day life, so much so that experts say that we are experiencing a loneliness disease.
According to Dr. Lalitaa, loneliness is the feeling we get when our need for rewarding social contact and relationships is not met. But loneliness is not always the same as being alone. Loneliness is a state of mind linked to wanting human contact but feeling alone. People can be alone and not feel lonely, or they can have contact with people and still experience feelings of loneliness.
Loneliness is a universal human emotion that is both complex and unique to each individual. There are many contributing factors to loneliness, such as illness, relationships breaking down, moving country, changing jobs or not being understood by co-workers, retiring, starting university, etc.
We cannot underestimate the impact loneliness can have on our physical and mental wellbeing. According to research, loneliness has comparable health risks to smoking 15cigarettes a day, and people who feel lonely are more likely to die earlier and suffer from heart attacks. Dr. Lalitaa says, “People often say to me, ‘It’s too late to meet new people as an adult.’ Having human connect ion can look different for each person, but this can become a block, stopping them going out, trying new things and connecting with new people. Remember, it is never too late to make good, meaningful connections.”
However, don’t put pressure on yourself. A meaningful relationship takes time. It is not just created overnight. Also, take some time to sit with yourself and venture (冒险) into some of the things that you like doing. “The first thing I would say is not to deny or distance the feeling. Acknowledge it and then you can choose to focus on ways to help yourself,” says Dr.Lalitaa.
1. How does the author clarify what loneliness is?| A．By stating arguments. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By employing figures. |
| A．To explain the causes of loneliness. |
| B．To illustrate the harm from loneliness. |
| C．To overestimate the impact of loneliness. |
| D．To emphasize the universality of loneliness. |
| A．Lack of appealing reward. |
| B．Dependence on the network. |
| C．The regret for the passing youth. |
| D．The idea of being too late for new relations. |
| A．Having new experience. |
| B．Telling it from being alone. |
| C．Being aware of and recognizing it. |
| D．Making friends from all walks of life. |
9 . How to protect children Web fans from unsuitable material on-line while, encouraging them to use the Internet has long been discussed in the U.S.
Most kids have started to use search engines (搜索引擎). Many of them are great for finding tons of interesting Internet sites, and they can also locate places where you might not want your kids to go.
A few other tips
●
●Ask your child what he or she has been doing and about any friends they make on-line.
●And tell your children never to talk to anyone they meet on-line over the phone, send them anything, accept anything from them or agree to meet with them unless you go along.
| A．There are search engines designed just for kids. |
| B．Another way is that mum or dad is nearby when the child is surfing the Internet. |
| C．Don’t put the PC in a child’s room but keep it in an area where mum or dad can keep an eye on things. |
| D．For some parents, the Internet can seem like a jungle, filled with danger for their children. |
| E．Most kids are taught to use search engines |
| F．The best way is to limit the time your children spent online. |
| G．Kids have to be on-line. |
10 . The characteristic (特征) of shyness is to feel frightened and nervous in new social situations or when being the center of attention. Whether shyness is part of your children’s personality or just something they feel when they are in front of a group of strangers, it is a common experience, according to a study.
To look at shyness, researchers brought 152 children aged 7-8 into a lab and told them they would give a speech, which would be filmed and shown to other children. The study showed that about 10% of the children showed a level of stress over time when giving the speech. About 25% of the children were not reported to be shy in the eyes of their parents, but in fact showed a level of social stress from giving the speech. This finding provides the fact that shyness may be a part of these children’s temperament (性情).
For children at this age, shyness may be a quite common and normal experience when they face a speech task. For a smaller group of shy children, however, being the center of attention may be stressful at different times and environments.
A shy temperament isn’t always valued by society like an outgoing personality, but that doesn’t mean there is something wrong. Everyone can feel shy at times depending on the environment. And those who are particularly shy often have happy social lives—they just aren’t likely to be the liveliest people in a crowded room.
Although shyness itself may not necessarily be a problem, parents should pay attention to signs of worry, particularly in their shy children. Importantly, however, we know that not all shy children are the same, and that many shy children grow up to be well-balanced adults.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 1?| A．Shyness is not an unusual characteristic. |
| B．Shyness is born with personality. |
| C．Shyness will appear when one is in public. |
| D．Shyness means not communicating with others. |
| A．Few kids like to give a speech to others. |
| B．Some kids can get shy while giving speeches. |
| C．Some kids appear less shy with their parents. |
| D．Some kids are stressed when being separated. |
| A．Bring them to crowded space. |
| B．Care for them and give them confidence. |
| C．Keep them away from shyness. |
| D．Let them be alone. |
| A．When are people shy? | B．Ways of beating shyness |
| C．Why is shyness a bad thing? | D．The discoveries about shyness |
