1 . 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 |
2 . Rubbish of all kinds is piling up in landfill and polluting our rivers and oceans. A more recent addition to the list of things we discard is e-waste — electronic items that are broken and not recycled. A UN report claims the 50 million tonnes of e-waste produced every year will more than double to 110 million tonnes by 2050, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world. Now ways are being found to give it a new life.
There’s a growing trend for repair events and clubs which could be part of a solution to the growing amount of electrical and electronic garbage. The BBC visited a Restart Project in London, which is one of the many found around the world. One of its volunteers, Francesco Calo said, “This project allows you to reduce waste, lengthen the life of objects, and it helps people who cannot afford to get rid of items that have developed a fault. ”
Electronics consist of materials like plastic, metals, chemicals and glass. As many electrical items contain valuable metals, another idea is e-waste mining. An experiment at the University of New South Wales includes extracting (提取) these materials from electronic items. It’s thought that doing this could be more profitable than traditional mining. With phones typically containing as many as 60 components, this could be part of the solution to our appetite for new technology.
These projects make total sense — collections of e-waste for recycling are not progressing or even decreasing according to Ruediger Kuehr of the United Nations University. And in countries where there are no recycling laws, much of it is got rid of. However, the European Union, for example, is trying to settle the problem by insisting business firms have to make appliances longer-lasting and have to supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.
1. What does the underlined word “discard” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．throw away | B．take apart |
| C．make the best of | D．put together |
| A．Collect electronic garbage. | B．Use their electronics longer. |
| C．Buy good-quality electronics. | D．Get jobs in recycling companies. |
| A．Hard plastic. | B．Precious metals. |
| C．Toughened glass. | D．Various chemicals. |
| A．Improving recycling process. | B．Replacing spare parts timely. |
| C．Using electronics permanently. | D．Making e-waste recycling laws. |
3 . With the young unable to afford to leave home and the old at risk of isolation (孤独), more families are choosing to live together.
The doorway to peace and quiet,for Nick Bright at least, leads straight to his mother-in-law, she lives on the ground floor, while he lives upstairs with his wife and their two daughters.
Four years ago they all moved into a three-storey Victorian house in Bristol—one of a growing number of multigenerational families in the UK living together under the same roof. They share a front door and a washing machine, but Rita Whitehead has her own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room on the ground floor.
“We floated the idea to my mum of sharing at a house,” says Kathryn Whitehead. Rita cuts in: “We spoke more with Nick because I think it’s a big thing for Nick to live with his mother-in-law. ”
And what does Nick think? “From my standpoint,it all seems to work very well. Would I recommend it? Yes, I think I would. ”
It’s hard to tell exactly how many people agree with him, but research indicates that the numbers have been rising for some time. Official reports suggest that the number of households with three generations living together had risen from 325,000 in 2002 to 419,000 in 2013.
Other varieties of multigenerational family are more common. Some people live with their elderly parents; many more adult children are returning to the family home, if they ever left. It is said that about 20% of 25—34-year-olds live with their parents,compared with 16% in 1991. The total number of all multigenerational households in Britain is thought to be about 1.8 million.
Stories like that are more common in parts of the world where multigenerational living is more firmly rooted. In India, particularly outside cities, young women are expected to move in with their husband’s family when they get married.
1. Who mainly uses the ground floor in the Victorian house in Bristol?| A．Nick. | B．Rita. |
| C．Kathryn. | D．The daughters. |
| A．Family traditions. | B．Financial reports. |
| C．Public opinions. | D．Published statistics. |
| A．A rising trend of living in the UK. | B．Conflicts between generations. |
| C．A housing problem in Britain. | D．Lifestyles in different countries. |
1. 简述你校食堂餐桌浪费现象；
2. 提出解决办法；
3. 倡议共同行动。
注意：1. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
2. 词数100左右（开头已经给出，但不计入总词数)。
参考词汇：节约 thrift； 光盘行动 “Clean Your Plate” campaign
Dear fellow students,
I am Li Hua, president of the Student Union.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Student Union
赞成(45%) | 反对(50%) | 没有发表意见(5%) |
| 1.很多人只是聊天或玩电子游戏，浪费时间； 2.很多网站内容不适合学生。 | 1.上网是现代化的交流方式； 2.查阅信息，上网校，收发电子邮件等。 | 征求编辑的意见 |
1.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
2.词数：100词(开头语已为你写好，但不计入总数)。
Dear Editor,
Some students go to the net bars near our school almost every day.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
6 . About 5,000 children die each day because of preventable diseases such as cholera (霍乱) and dysentery (痢疾), which spread when people use unclean water for drinking or cooking. A lack of water for personal health leads to the spread of totally preventable diseases like trachoma (沙眼), which has blinded some six million people.
Water troubles also trap many lowincome families in a cycle of poverty and poor education and the poorest suffer most from lack of access to water. People who spend much of their time on ill health, caring for sick children, or collecting water at a distance averaging 3.75 miles a day don’t have educational and economic chances to better their lives.
Agriculture is called the lion’s share of clean water worldwide, using some 70 percent, and industrial use needs another 22 percent. Water areas have no political borders and nations don’t always work together to share common resources, so water can be a frequent source of international problems as well.
Daybyday demand keeps growing, further draining water sources, from great rivers to groundwater. “We’re going deeper into debt on our groundwater use,” Postel said, “and that has great effects on global water safety. The rate of groundwater use has doubled since 1960.”
Some of Earth’s groundwater is fossil water created when Earth’s climate was far different. Today such water is as limited as petrol. “But we’re pumping much of them out faster than ever,” Postel explained. “Man’s growing thirst also causes a major problem about water and our ecosystems. And that also creates a cost to us, to our sons and to our grandsons, not just to nature.”
1. What does the author mainly discuss in the passage?| A．Water shortage has been a most serious challenge. |
| B．So many children die of polluted water every day. |
| C．Diseases should be properly controlled and treated. |
| D．Wasting water leads to the unrest of the world. |
| A．Because nations don’t always work together to save water. |
| B．Because agriculture uses about two thirds of clean water. |
| C．Because more people live on the agricultural produce. |
| D．Because agriculture is much stronger than industry. |
| A．groundwater is rich for us to use | B．there is no need to dig deep for groundwater |
| C．we are using our next generation’ water | D．we should use river water instead of groundwater |
| A．Water should be distributed equally. | B．Laws should be passed from groundwater. |
| C．We shouldn’t use water from rivers. | D．We should protect our ecosystems. |
7 . A letter written by Charles Darwin in 1875 has been returned to the Smithsonian Institution Archives(档案馆) by the FBI after being stolen twice.
“We realized in the mid-1970s that it was missing,” says Effie Kapsalis, head of the Archives. “It was noted as missing and likely taken by an intern (实习生), from what the FBI is telling us. Word got out that it was missing when someone asked to see the letter for research purposes,” and the intern put the letter back. “The intern likely took the letter again once nobody was watching it.”
Decades passed. Finally, the FBI received a clue that the stolen letter was located very close to Washington, D.C. Their art crime team got back the letter but were unable to accuse the suspect because the time of limitations had ended. The FBI worked closely with the Archives to determine that the letter was both genuine and exactly belonged to Smithsonian.
The letter was written by Darwin to thank an American geologist, Dr. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, for sending him copies of his research into the geology of the area that would become Yellowstone National Park.
The letter is in fairly good condition, in spite of being out of the care of trained museum staff for so long. “It was luckily in good shape,” says Kapsalis, “and we just have to do some minor things in order to be able to unfold it. It has some glue on it that has colored it slightly, but nothing that will prevent us from using it. One of our goals is to get items of high research value or interest to the public online.”
It would be difficult to steal things like the letter. “Archiving practices have changed greatly since the 1970s,” says Kapsalis, “and we keep our high value objects in a safe that I can’t even reach.”
1. What happened to Darwin’s letter in the 1970s?| A．It was got back by the FBI. | B．It was stolen more than once. |
| C．It was bought by the archives. | D．It was put in the archives for research purpose. |
| A．They proved its real identity. | B．They kept it in a safe. |
| C．They helped repair the letter. | D．They accused the suspect but failed. |
| A．Display it in the Archives. |
| B．Turn it into an item of interest. |
| C．Carry out a major repair. |
| D．Make it available on line. |
| A．People grow more interested in art objects |
| B．Strict safety measures are taken in Archives. |
| C．The value of museum objects has been increased. |
| D．The letter helped Ferdinand do research into geology. |
8 . When you were at school, the last thing you probably wanted to do was to spend your weekends going to work. There was homework to do, sports to play and fun to have. But our parents probably persuaded us to find a job to earn some money and get some life experience. When I was a teenager I delivered newspapers to people’s homes. I then progressed to a Saturday job in a supermarket: stacking shelves and working at the checkout.
Today in the UK you are allowed to work from the age of 13, and many children do take up part-time jobs. It’s one of those things that are seen almost as a rite of passage(成人仪式). It’s a taste of independence and sometimes a useful thing to put on your CV(简历). Teenagers agree that it teaches valuable lessons about working with adults and also about managing their money.
Some research has shown that not taking up a Saturday or holiday job could be deleterious to a person later on. A 2015 study by the UK Commission on Employment and Skills found that not participating in part-time work at school age had been blamed by employer’s organizations for young adults being ill-prepared for full-time employment, but despite this, recent statistics have shown that the number of schoolchildren in the UK with a part-time job has fallen by a fifth in the past five years.
So, does this mean that British teenagers are now afraid of hard work? Probably not. Some experts feel that young people feel going out to work will affect their performance at school, and they are under more pressure now to study hard and get good exam results and a good job in the long term. However, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told BBC News that “Properly regulated part-time work is a good way of helping young people learn skills that they will need in their working lives.” In reality, it’s all about getting the right balance between doing part-time work and having enough time to study and rest.
1. How did the author feel about doing part-time jobs on weekends when he was a teenager?| A．Delighted. | B．Interested. | C．Unwilling. | D．Angry. |
| A．Learning to be independent. | B．Gaining some life experience. |
| C．Being prepared for future jobs. | D．Spending what they earn as they like. |
| A．Valuable. | B．Harmful. | C．Necessary. | D．Impossible. |
| A．Students should spend all their time on studies. |
| B．Students should have as many part-time jobs as possible. |
| C．Doing part-time jobs must affect students’ school results. |
| D．It’s important for students to balance part-time jobs and studies. |
采访内容:
1.你或你身边的人在日常生活中使用移动支付的情况；
2.移动支付带来的好处
3.你的看法。
参考词汇: 微信: Wechat 支付宝: Alipay 二维码: QR code
注意:1.词数120左右;
2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯
Dear Jenny,
How is your survey on mobile payment going？ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours faithfully
Li Hua
10 . Social networking isn’t only for the under 40s. More than 25 percent of Americans 50 years and older stay connected using sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, according to new research.
“The latest data tells us that more and more social networking is becoming a part of everyday life for Americans 50 plus,” said Kevin Donnellan, the chief communications officer at AARP, which released the report.
Nearly a quarter of older Americans are on Facebook and 73 percent said they use it to stay in touch with relatives, but not just their children and grandchildren. “They are using the Internet to keep up with the world and the people who are important to them,” said Jean Koppen, the author of the report. She added that older adults are also on Facebook to stay connected, not only with their family, but with their friends and those in the same age group. Almost 50 percent of older adults were introduced to the social networking sites by a family member, mainly a child or grandchild. “Just under one-fifth of adults aged 50 and older say they do not use the Internet,” according to the report.
The findings are based on a telephone survey of 1,863 adults. In addition to keeping up on Facebook and Twitter older adults are aware of the latest technology. Eighty-three percent had heard about the Apple iPad and 11 percent intended to buy one.
Despite the popularity of the Internet among the over 50s, they still mostly go to print newspapers and magazines for news. Only one percent said they followed blogs.
1. What is the main idea of the text?| A．Social networking isn’t for the under 40s in the U.S.A. |
| B．American old people’s way of life is quite fashionable. |
| C．Social networking is becoming popular among older Americans. |
| D．Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are the most popular websites in the US. |
| A．85% of Americans 50 plus choose the Internet over print media. |
| B．About 460 people in the telephone survey often use Facebook. |
| C．About 20% of adults aged 50 plus have access to the Internet. |
| D．Three quarters of the people surveyed got to know the Internet through their family. |
| A．many older Americans are open-minded about new developments |
| B．Kevin Donnellan supports this change among older Americans |
| C．Young people should introduce their elders to new technology |
| D．In a high tech age it is difficult to avoid social networking |
| A．A novel. | B．A newspaper. |
| C．A technology guide. | D．A student’s research paper |
