Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he’s an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein's jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.
Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts(收银台) . The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.
Among the bag makers' argument: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today
The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.
Environmentalists don't dispute（质疑） these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.
1.What has Steven Stein been hired to do?
A. Help increase grocery sales.
B. Recycle the waste material.
C. Stop things falling off trucks.
D. Argue for the use of plastic bags.
2.What does the word “headwinds”in paragraph 2 refer to?
A. Bans on plastic bags.
B. Effects of city development.
C. Headaches caused by garbage.
D. Plastic bags hung in trees.
3.What is a disadvantage of reusable bags according to plastic-bag makers?
A. They are quite expensive.
B. Replacing them can be difficult.
C. They are less strong than plastic bags.
D. Producing them requires more energy.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A. Plastic, Paper or Neither
B. Industry, Pollution and Environment
C. Recycle or Throw Away
D. Garbage Collection and Waste Control
A music festival is a community event focusing on live performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme. On the list are the music festivals for fans around the world. Find your favorite now!
Field Day
January 1, 2018. Sydney
Field Pay means New Year’s Day for young people in Sydney. Seen as the city’s original multi－stage party,, it’s a gathering of friends coming together for a great fun - filled first day of the year. There’s an air of hope and positive energy on a perfect summer’s day.
The Envision Festival
February 22 – 25, 2018, Uvita
The Envision Festival is an annual gathering in Costa Rica that aims to provide an
opportunity for different cultures to work with one another to create a better community. The festival encourages people to practice art, music, dance performances, and education. Meanwhile, our connection with nature is expected to be strengthened.
The McDowell Mountain Music Festival
March 2 - 4, 2018, Phoenix
The McDowell Mountain Music Festival is Phoenix、musical cele ra ,on of community culture. Since its founding in 2004 f it is the only 100% non – profit music festival designed to support, entertain and educate the community. The festival attracts thousands of visitors each year from around the country, and it is an opportunity to experience true culture.
The Old Settler’s Music Festival
April 19 - 22, 2018, Dale
The Old Settler’s Music Festival is a nationally known music festival for American music. The festival is held in the country of Texas at the height of the wild flower season. The Old Settler’s Music Festival offers great music and activities for the whole family.
1.In which city can people enjoy a fun New Year’s Day?
A. Phoenix B. Uvita.
C. Sydney D. Dale
2.What is special about the McDowell Mountain Music Festival?
A. It encourages people to receive education.
B. It is not aimed at making money.
C. It provides an opportunity for friend gathering.
D. It focuses on cultural exchanges.
3.Which festivals are connected with nature?
A. Field Day and the Envision Festival.
B. The Envision Festival and the McDowell Mountain Music Festival.
C. The Old Settler’s Music Festival and the McDowll McDowell Mountain Music Festival.
D. The Envision Festival and the Old Settler’s Music Festival.
假定你是校英语报的记者，请根据表格内容就本周在你校举行的足球比赛写一篇报道。
时间及地点 本周三；学校体育场
参赛者 你校足球队vs来访的巴西某中学代表团
赛况 1. 两队势均力敌，上半场平局；
2. 下半场刚刚开始来访队就进了一球；
3. 校队最终以一分之差输掉了比赛。
注意：1. 词数150左右；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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请认真阅读下面短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：每个空格只填一个单词。
Social workers are those who work for the welfare of people who face certain problems in life. They not only struggle for the betterment of individuals, but also for society as a whole. Earlier, social work was considered to be a service done for society by retired people or the rich. It was purely voluntary work done in their spare time, and also just for the purpose of helping others and to get a sense of satisfaction. However, with the appearance of various courses offered by professional social organizations, young people have started looking at it as a serious career choice.
Why is it beneficial to pursue a career in social work? Well, there is a lot more to be expected from it. For example, it is good for your personal growth. When you work in an environment where you get to see the not-so-pleasant aspects of life, you get a reality check and come to appreciate (感激) all that you have in your own life, and then learn to be thankful. What’s more, social work exposes (使接触) you to a lot of cases that require time and crisis (危机) management and almost all social work organizations provide professional training for candidates (人选) who want to join them. Such kind of training prepares you to stay calm and conduct yourself professionally when facing disaster and crisis.
When you read or watch TV, you must have come across stories about animals taking care of each other! Well, if animals can show such great compassion (同情心), we humans definitely can put our fellow creatures before ourselves more often! And what is a better way to feel more human than to make a positive difference to the lives of others? Making life better for others just proves how human you are!
In order to enter this field, one needs to have excellent organizational and communication skills. It is likely that one will have to work with many people, including children, senior citizens, etc., and will have to learn to deal with them in a patient way. It seems that while working, the individual will meet with a variety of emotional problems that make these people feel sad. Thus, it is important that an individual who desires to follow this career should not only be enthusiastic about helping others, but also be mentally strong.
To be a social worker | |
General information about social work | ●Social work is intended to 1. individuals’ lives as well as society. ●In the past, it was mainly the retired or rich people who 2. in their spare time. ●With various courses about social work, young people have started to make it their 3.. |
4. of social work | ●It does good to one’s personal growth by teaching him to appreciate what he has. ●It can teach social workers how to 5. time and crisis. ●It is a good way to make a(n) 6. to other people’s lives. |
7. of being a social worker | ●He has to be good at organizing events and 8. with others. ●He has to be able to deal with people’s problems 9.. ●He has to have 10. for being a helper and be mentally strong. |
One of the marks of the Millennial Generation involves a passion for education. However, American students tend to rank unfavorably when compared with their peers in other nations globally. In his fascinating book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, the author Thomas L. Friedman describes how American students have fallen behind those of other nations in such subjects as math and engineering.
Meanwhile students in the U.S. are excellent at becoming couch potatoes: 65% of Americans are overweight. “We’re simply killing ourselves,” John Ratey says in his book Spark. “What’s even more disturbing is that inactivity is killing our brains too.” Low expectations produce expected results whether we are talking about the general population or students in local church ministries.
Let’s enter the Naperville school district near Chicago. In this single district, of the 19,000 sophomores (二年级学生), only 3% are overweight (compared to 30% nationally). But the students in this district reveal prowess (专长) in more ways than in fitness. In 2015 their 8th graders participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, an international study of students’ achievement. Ratey observes that in a time students in China, Japan and Singapore rank consistently above American students, while the Naperville class ranked sixth in math and first in science globally. What happened in this school district? There are several factors, as one reason hardly ever explains such a remarkable performance. But one issue stands out: each school day in Naperville begins with a “class” called Zero Hour in which students begin not with study but with exercise.
Ratey comments, “The essence of physical education in Naperville is teaching fitness instead of sports. The underlying philosophy is that if PE lessons can be used to instruct kids how to monitor and maintain their health and fitness, then the lessons they learn will serve them for life.”
Could it be that fitness is the most inexpensive means of increasing test scores? What has happened in Naperville did not begin with a brilliant educator with a Mensa-level IQ. It started with a PE teacher who read about the growing unhealthiness of American students. You can read Ratey’s book to get the details but in brief, the Naperville students no longer take gym classes with meaningless topics like learning the dimensions (面积) of a volleyball court. They start with Zero Hour running a mile with heart rate monitors. Here is what is discovered: learning is significantly improved when students begin with exercise. If you know students struggling with academics, or perhaps someone discouraged or even depressed (沮丧的) by academic setbacks, encourage them to try exercising. Help them get up, get active, and start their day by getting their body going.
More studies than can be counted have noted the positive ripple effect of exercise on dealing with depression, on eating better, on developing discipline, and on one’s general character. Now it seems that it also can directly affect academic performance. Students serious about becoming better learners should probably not start in the library at a desk with a pile of books but at home or the gym with some running shoes or a set of weights.
And who knows? They may discover they’re smarter than they thought.
1.What’s the main purpose of the first two paragraphs?
A. To show the author’s concern for American students’ academic performance.
B. To introduce to us two books which have something to do with education.
C. To inform us that the number of overweight children in America is huge.
D. To list the reasons for comparing students in America with those of other nations.
2.We can infer from Paragraph 3 that _____.
A. the students in Naperville keep fit in more ways than we expected
B. it’s worthwhile to pay a visit to the Naperville school district
C. the Naperville students’ fitness contributes greatly to their higher test scores
D. students in some Asian countries do better academically than American ones
3.It can be inferred from the passage that Ratey _____.
A. knows how to monitor and maintain students’ health and fitness
B. sings high praise of Thomas L. Friedman’s book on American education
C. may mention the Naperville students’ gym classes
D. has been devoting himself to students’ overall development worldwide
4.In the last paragraph but one, the “ripple effect” indicates the fact that _____.
A. exercise can build up one’s general character
B. exercise produces more than one positive effect
C. exercise is the best way to improve students’ test scores
D. exercise has a long-term effect on students’ academic performance
5.We can learn from the passage that _____.
A. during Zero Hour students themselves spend time working out before class
B. forty-five minutes of exercise a day may be the magic number to lose weight
C. during Zero Hour heart rate monitors are used to prevent students’ laziness
D. fitness-based exercise makes our brain more ready to learn
6.What is the author’s advice according to the passage?
A. To improve education, employ brilliant educators with high IQs.
B. Spend as much time as possible on sports.
C. Produce expected results with low expectations of students.
D. To help young people academically, get them moving.
When Helly Scholten makes dinner, if she needs a tomato or an onion, she heads upstairs — the top floor of her house, a 440-square-foot indoor vegetable garden. She starts cooking before the sun goes down, while warmth is still flooding through the glass walls of the kitchen downstairs. The entire home is wrapped in a greenhouse.
In Rotterdam, the second-largest city in the Netherlands, such house is part of an experiment called Concept House Village, created to push the limits of sustainable (可持续的) design. It is an attempt to take things in different directions, experimenting with more radical features (特征).
Down the street, in the middle of a mostly empty field, another house tests features of an energy-producing toilet that uses waste. Another house, built from renewable materials, is designed to be constructed in a day.
Inside each of the three houses, volunteer families promised to live there for three years while giving feedback on the designs.
“Of course, it’s a test,” says Scholten. “We knew in advance that everything was not going to be perfect right away.” A rainwater-harvesting system on the roof, which was designed to directly water the vegetables growing in the loft, hasn’t been working correctly, so the family spends at least an hour a day watering the plants by hand. The parts of the house directly under the greenhouse walls can overheat, while the rest of the house can be cold in the winter. The current solar hot waters aren’t enough to keep showers comfortable.
When these new challenges arise, a team of students and professors from the University of Rotterdam — who originally designed and built the home — come over, continually tweaking the design to solve the problems.
Sustainable architecture is not unusual in Rotterdam. Next to the Concept House Village test site, another planned development of 170 homes will be completely energy-neutral — meaning, at the end of each year, the homes will have produced as much power as they used. By 2020, all new houses in the Netherlands will have to be carbon-neutral, by law.
Rotterdam is becoming a sustainable design capital, home to dozens of experimental projects. Next year, the world’s first floating dairy farm will open in a local harbor. The city is testing one-of-a-kind recycled bike paths and climate-proof parks; the port will soon start filtering(过滤) plastic waste from the harbor. Local businessmen are experimenting with mushroom farming, bread recycling, and turning food waste into leather.
1.What do we know about Concept House Village?
A. It is built based on sustainable concepts.
B. It fixes an indoor vegetable garden on each house.
C. It uses renewable materials to build toilets for its villagers.
D. Its buildings are completely different from traditional ones.
2.According to Helly Scholten’s words in Paragraph 5, her attitude towards the greenhouse can be described as _____.
A. cautious B. reserved
C. uninterested D. objective
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A. Volunteer families were required to live in the house for at most three years.
B. The home was not so satisfactory because it was designed and built by some college students.
C. Rotterdam has started filtering plastic waste from the harbor.
D. It is easy for people to find sustainable architecture in Rotterdam.
4.What’s the passage mainly about?
A. Ways to build sustainable buildings.
B. New greenhouses in the Netherlands.
C. An experimental city in the Netherlands.
D. The importance of Concept House Village.
