1 . If you are a fan of fast fashion, your choices may be narrowing in the near future. Recently, a large number of fast-fashion stores were closed worldwide.
A major reason is the shift in the mindset (心态) of consumers. Millennials, those who were born in the 1980s or 1990s, are now the largest consumer group.
Molly, 22, is one of them. Before she went to college, she used to frequent fast-fashion shops.
In order to survive in the competitive market, many fast-fashion brands are making changes as well.
| A．Millennials like brands with a long history. |
| B．It shows that fast fashion is slowing down. |
| C．Climate change should be blamed on the fashion industry. |
| D．Unlike their predecessors (前人), millennials hold different attitudes towards products. |
| E．Another factor is the growing concern over the fashion industry’s effect on the environment. |
| F．For example, some companies plan for all of their clothes to be sustainable in the future. |
| G．But after taking a class that focused on the environmental impact of clothing production, her preference changed. |
Scientists are increasingly warning that sitting for long periods even if you also exercise regularly could be bad for your health. And it doesn’t matter where the sitting takes place at the office, at school, in the car or before a computer or TV — just the overall number of hours it occurs. Several studies suggest people who spend most of their days sitting are more likely to be fat, have a heart attack or even die.
In an editorial published this week in the British Joumal of Sports Medicine, Elin Ekblom-Bak of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences suggested that authorities rethink how they define physical activity to highlight the dangers of sitting.
While health officials have issued guidelines recommending minimum amounts of physical activity, they haven’t suggested people try to limit how much time they spend in a seated position. “After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals,” said Ekblom-Bak. She explained that sitting too long slows the metabolism-which affects our ability to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure, and metabolise fat-and may cause weaker muscles and bones.
Even for people who exercise, spending long periods of time sitting at a desk is still harmful. Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the World Health Organization, said people who exercise every day-but still spend much time sitting-might get more benefits if that exercise was spread across the day, rather than in a single bout (一回).
Experts said more research is needed to figure out just how much sitting is dangerous, and what might be possible to offset (抵消) those effects.
“People should keep exercising because that has a lot of benefits,” Ekblom-Bak said. “But when they are in the office, they should try to interrupt sitting as often as possible,” she said.
1. What are the possible bad effects of sitting for a long time?2. What is the next step for the current research on sitting long hours?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Sitting for long periods is bad for your health. However, doing exercise once a day is enough to get rid of the impact of sitting too much.
4. What habits do you think are good for your health? Why?
3 . It’s worth being aware that developmental changes could make children more sensitive to the negative side of social media. During the teenage years, for example, the brain changes massively, and this can influence how young people act and feel—including making them more sensitive to social relationships, and status.
“Being a teenager is a really a major time of development,” says Orben. “You’re much more impacted by your peers, you’re much more interested in what other people think about you. And the design of social media might be more stressful at certain times.”
As well as age, other factors could influence the impact of social media on children and teenagers—but researchers are only just beginning to explore these individual differences. “There will be people who are more negatively or positively impacted at different time points. That might be due to living different lives, going through development at different points. They might be using social media differently.” says Orben.
For many parents, buying a child a phone is a practical decision. “In a lot of cases, parents are the ones that want the younger children to have phones so that they can keep in touch throughout the day.” says Odgers.
It can also be seen as a milestone on the road to adulthood. “I think for children it gives them a sense of independence and responsibility,” says Anja Stevie, researcher at the University of Vienna, Austria. “This is definitely something that parents should consider: are their children at a stage where they are responsible enough to have their own device?”
One factor parents shouldn’t overlook is how comfortable they feel with their child having a smart phone. Besides, it’s worth remembering, though, that having a smart phone need not open the floodgates to every single app or game available. “I’m increasingly hearing, when I interview children, that parents are giving them the phone but introducing requirements to check and discuss which apps they get, and I think that is probably really wise,” says Livingstone.
1. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?| A．Parents feel comfortable when children have smart phones. |
| B．Many parents have a tendency to buy children smart phones. |
| C．Age does not influence the impact of social media on children. |
| D．It is unacceptable for parents to check apps on children’s phones. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Puzzled. | C．Pessimistic. | D．Subjective. |
| A．Parents’ Practical Decision | B．Negative Sides of Social Media |
| C．An Introduction of Apps & Games | D．When to Buy Children Smartphones |
4 . The rising costs of health care have become a problem for many countries in the world. To deal with this problem, it is recommended that a big part of the government’s health budget（预算)be used for health education and disease prevention instead of treatment. Actually, many kinds of diseases are preventable in many ways and preventing a disease is usually much cheaper than treating it. For example, people could avoid catching a cold if they dressed warmly when the weather starts getting cold. But many people get sick because they fail to do so, and have to spend money seeing a doctor.
Daily habits like eating more healthy food would have kept millions of families from becoming bankrupt if the patients had taken measures for early prevention. For example, keeping a balanced diet, such as not consuming too much animal fat and insuring a steady intake of vegetables and fruits, seems to be quite important.
One very effective and costless way of prevention is regular exercise, which is necessary for a healthy mind and body. Regular exercise, such as running, walking, and playing sports is a good way to make people feel better or reduce stress.
In addition, health education plays a key role in improving people’s health. By giving people more information about health, countries could help people understand the importance of disease prevention and ways to achieve it. For example, knowing one’s family medical history is an effective way to help keep healthy. Information about health problems among close relatives will make them aware of what they should do to prevent certain diseases through lifestyle changes, which will work before it is too late.
However, stressing disease prevention does not mean medical treatment is unimportant. After all, prevention and treatment are just two different means toward the same effect. In conclusion, we could save money on health care and treat patients more successfully if our country spends more money on health prevention and education.
1. What’s the best title of the passage?| A．Prevention or Education? | B．Prevention or Treatment? |
| C．Health or Illness? | D．Exercise or Illness? |
| A．Unable to be cured. |
| B．Unable to pay one’s debts. |
| C．Stronger than ever before. |
| D．More successful than ever before. |
| A．dressing warmly can prevent diseases |
| B．a balanced diet is cheaper than regular exercise |
| C．It’s better to have more health education. |
| D．the government’s health budget should be increased |
CP(Central Point) P(Point) S(Sub—point次要点) C(Conclusion)
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
