Plastic is the workhorse material of the modern economy (经济). Lightweight and durable, it’s been used to make a vast number of products since its introduction over 100 years ago.
However, a study carried out by the World Economic Forum, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey Company showed the status of the breakdown in the global plastic system. A full 32% of the 78 million tons of plastic packaging produced annually is left to flow into our oceans.
The Ocean Cleanup, a start-up founded in 2013, is the brainchild of Boyan Slat, who came up with the idea for the company when he was just 17 years old. Since then, it’s received more than $2 million in funding(基金). The company plans to use a large array (列阵) that will be fixed to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. This will have arms that spread out over 100 km, getting all of the plastic garbage pushed into its nets. This is then collected by a 10,000-metre-cube container that will be emptied monthly.
Most recently, the Ocean Cleanup launched a team of explorers aboard a specially refitted C-130 Hercules aircraft heavily loaded with specialized sensor equipment. It discovered that the problem was worse than expected with an abundance of plastics measuring up to 1.5 m across and at a higher density than previously thought. The organization will continue to pilot the array and will start cleaning the pile before the end of the decade.
Once the plastic is out, what should we do with it? The foundation (基金会) hopes that the plastic from the ocean will have a commercial value which can help to fund the project. Ocean plastic is not easy to use, it’s mixed by nature consisting of everything from intact PET bottles to micro plastics. However, some of the world's biggest companies also see the chance to market oceans plastic products.
Transforming today’s plastics economy from its present form (take-make-waste) to a zero waste circular economy (take-make-take-make) is a difficult challenge. However, with cooperative action from producers, recyclers, governments and consumers alike and continuing innovation (革新) it can be done.
1.What’s Boyan Slat’s idea about?
A.A way to collect ocean plastic waste.
B.A new product made of ocean plastic.
C.A machine to recycle plastic garbage.
D.An organization to research into plastic.
2.Which of the following can replace the underlined word “density” in Paragraph 4?
A.Flexibility. B.Thickness.
C.Width. D.Strength.
3.What do some biggest companies expect of the ocean plastic?
A.It’ll be turned into treasure. B.It’ll sponsor the foundation.
C.It’ll cooperate with the government. D.It’ll take the form of take-make-waste.
4.Where is this text most likely from?
A.A diary. B.A guidebook.
C.A novel. D.A magazine
On winter, a fisherman — Jim Savage — was braving the freezing temperatures when he noticed a baby dolphin struggling to free herself from another fisherman’s traps — the netting. Jim spoke to her and she calmed down as he cut her free from the line. Seeing she was too tired to swim away, he called the Wildlife Conservation Commission and they rescued the dolphin, named her Winter and took her back to the center to get treatment.
Winter was placed in a holding tank and the team put a feeding tube in her throat. Soon, though, Winter learned how to eat from a bottle. But the line wrapping around Winter’s tail had caused her tail to fall off piece by piece. Eventually all that was left was a fleshy stump (残肢). Though Winter did eventually start to swim, she taught herself an entirely original way — to swing her tail stump from side to side like a fish.
She learned very well and learned how to trust and love the people who cared for her. And she made a new non-human friend — Panama, another rescued dolphin. The two became lifelong friends, completely inseparable.
But her trainers were worried, her original moving way prevented her from growing properly. Then Kevin Carroll, a dolphin lover and maker of prosthetic limbs (假肢) for people, stepped in. With a team of experts, vets, and trainers, Kevin developed a new tail for Winter. Winter was retrained to use the device (装置) to swim properly, but with lots of hard work she did it!
Word about the disabled dolphin got it and everyone could relate to the dolphin. Now she seems to connect with everyone - from adults with prostheses to a little girl who didn’t want to wear her hearing aid until she met Winter.
1.What made Winter calm down?
A.The netting.
B.Jim’s words.
C.The rescue team.
D.The new tail.
2.Why did Jim phone the Wildlife Conservation Commission?
A.To cure the baby dolphin.
B.To deal with the fishing net.
C.To rescue the other fisherman.
D.To look at the baby dolphin.
3.What made the trainers worried?
A.Winter’s relationship with Panama.
B.Winter’s popularity with visitors.
C.The effect of the damage on Winter.
D.Winter’s moving style like other dolphins.
4.How would the author feel about the outcome of the event?
A.It’s beautiful.
B.It’s controversial.
C.It’s humorous.
D.It’s discouraging.
I’ve spent two decades observing what makes people lucky and trying to help people increase their luck. I teach entrepreneurship (社会学). We know many new enterprises fail, and innovators (创业者)need luck.
With my students, I spend much time encouraging them to get out of their comfort zone and take some risks. I do this myself all the time. About a dozen years ago, during a flight, I decided to take a little risk. I started a conversation with the man sitting next to me. I introduced myself, and I learned that he was a publisher. I learned all about the future of the publishing industry and we exchanged contact (联系) information. So about three quarters through the night, I decided to take another risk. I showed him a book plan I was doing in my class. Although he was very polite, he said it wasn’t right for us.
A couple of months later, I told him I was doing a project on transforming the book, the future of publishing and invited him to come to my class. So he gladly came to my class. We had a great experience. A few months later, I wrote to him again, sending a bunch of video clips (剪辑) from another project my students had made. He was so stricken by one of them that he thought there was a book in it. I was a little bit hurt, but it was all right. So I invited him and his colleagues to have lunch together. Later, one of his editors asked me if I had considered writing a book. And I pulled out the exact same plan I had showed his boss a year earlier. Within two years, my book had sold over a million copies.
1.We can infer from the author’s experience on the plane that .
A.the publisher was stricken by his book
B.that was his first experience by plane
C.the first risk during the night didn’t work out
D.the experience made him transform his book
2.Why did the author send the students’ video clips?
A.To have their book published. B.To help to increase his luck.
C.To assess their writing skills. D.To help them see their strength.
3.Which can be the best title for the passage?
A.Take the Lead B.Everything is Possible
C.Win in Danger D.Luck and Risk
4.What does the author think resulted in his luck?
A.Publishing books. B.A series of small risks.
C.Being turned down frequently. D.Meeting with the stranger on the plane.
Are you driven to create change in bettering kids’ futures? Here are a few options.
Education
Going after a career in education is sometimes overlooked. Yet teaching is an important path to creating change. You will educate the young minds responsible for the future. In addition to presenting basic school subjects, you can teach them to be leaders. You can motivate them to want to make a difference themselves.
A career in education doesn’t have to mean leaching in a classroom. You can help them to learn in a way that works for them and be a friend to them as well.
Social work
As a social worker, you can directly change the lives of children in need as well advocate for services for drug abusers, family-violence survivors, mental-health patients, and more. You will provide them with the necessary resources to succeed and advise them through trauma (精神创伤), unemployment, education difficulties, addiction and poverty.
Many social workers are associated with governmental agencies, but there are also jobs in schools, nonprofit organizations and hospitals.
Child psychology
Studying child psychology may lead to a career option. Psychologists can provide support for children with mental-health problems and give them a place to be open about their feelings.
You may wish to become a school psychologist and guide children (and their parents) through the education system while dealing with mental illness or trauma. As a psychologist, you will help your patients find the source of trauma or stress and discover ways of reducing or removing the problem. You may even conduct your own research on new treatment methods.
1.Which educational concept does the author support?
A.Working with students’ group leaders.
B.Teaching children according to their interests.
C.Keeping teaching children in the classroom.
D.Encouraging students to make a change themselves.
2.Who will social workers help most probably?
A.Governmental officials.
B.Local business agents.
C.Children with education difficulties.
D.Women suffering from family violence.
3.Which career mainly deals with children with mental illness?
A.Educators.
B.School leaders.
C.Social workers.
D.School psychologists.
请认真阅读下面短文，并按照要求用英语写一篇 150 词左右的文章。
Running individual official accounts on social-networking app WeChat has become a new channel for Chinese people to express themselves, according to a survey.
At present, many media organizations, companies and individuals in China have launched official accounts on WeChat, making efforts to attract more subscribers to expand their reach. Over 66 percent of 2,001 respondents said they were willing to set up individual official accounts while 27.2 percent said they had already started such accounts.
The survey, published by the China Youth Daily, also said expressing feelings and views, as well as gaining popularity, was the top reasons why people wanted individual official accounts. More than half of individual official accounts offered content concerning personal views and feelings, as well as entertainment and recreation information, the survey said.
Of more than 540 respondents that have individual official accounts on WeChat, 5 percent claimed that they had built popular ''self-media'' brands using the accounts, while 12.2 percent said they had made money from the accounts through advertising. Meanwhile, 42 percent said their accounts had limited influence with only a few subscribers.
（写作内容）
1. 用约 30 个词概括上文的主要内容；
2. 用约 120 个词说明你对“创建个人公众号”此现象持支持或反对的态度，并给出 2 个理由。
（写作要求）
1. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3. 不必写标题。
（评分标准）
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
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请认真阅读下列短文, 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 1 个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。
There are times when you want to know how to make friends. Maybe you are just not confident because you're afraid that people may not react the way you want them to. But it is not very hard to make friends; it is just what you think it is that makes you not willing to do it. Continue reading to find out how!
Don’t be mean or rude; you do not want to lose any potential friends. Be nice and friendly. If you want to make friends, you first need to put yourself out there somehow in order to meet people. If you just sit alone, friends might come to you, but the odds are much smaller. If you're still in school, sit somewhere with other people. It doesn’t have to be the ''popular'' or ''cool'' table, or a crowded one, but one with at least two other people. Hang out with many others. The popular kids won’t matter when you’re older, but a true friend will be there for you forever.
There is no necessary need to have a lot of common interests with people in order to make friends with them. But if you like a specific topic, try searching for just an organization or a club where you can find people who are also interested in it and become a member of it. It's a great way to meet new local people.
Volunteering is also a great way for people of all ages to meet others. By working together you build bonds with people, and you might meet others who have a passion for changing things the way you do, that is, a common cause.
There are many ways to start a conversation-a comment about your immediate environment (The weather is a classic: ''At least it's not raining like last week! ''), a request for help (''Can you help me carry a few boxes, if you have a minute? '' or ''Can you help me decide which one of these is a better gift for my mum? '') or a compliment (''I love your shoes. ''). Follow up immediately with a related question: Do you like this warm weather? What kinds of gifts do you normally buy for your mums? Where did you get shoes like that? Also, make a small talk. Remember the 30% talking and 70% listening ratio during small talk.
You've probably heard of fair-weather friends. They're the ones who are happy to be around you when things are going well, but are nowhere to be found when you really need them. Part of being a friend is being prepared to make sacrifices of your time and energy in order to help your friends out. If a friend needs help with an unpleasant chore, or if he or she just needs a shoulder to cry on, be there. If your friend tells a joke, laugh with him or her. Never complain about a friend. If you and your friend agree to meet somewhere, don’t be late, and do not stand him or her up. If you're not going to make it on time or make it at all, call him or her as soon as you realize it. Apologize and ask to reschedule. Be someone who people know that they can count on.
In a word, when you get along with people around you, it's important for you to actively approach others, start a small conversation freely and then develop a close relationship with others.
Introduction | Sometimes you want to find ways to make friends, but you1.confidence. |
Spend more time around people | If you don’t want to lose any potential friends, be nice and friendly to others. |
2.an organization or a club | ▲You don't3.need to have a lot of common interests with people. ▲Some of the most rewarding friendships are between two people who don't have much in common at all. |
Volunteer | When volunteering with others, you can keep in4.with people and might meet those who can change the way that you do. |
Start a conversation | ▲You can start a conversation by5.on the environment or make a small talk. ▲Keep the 30% talking and 70% listening ratio in6.during small talks. |
Be nice and loyal to a friend | ▲Sometimes, you have to7.your time and energy when your friends need help. ▲If a friend needs help when he or she is in trouble, or if he or she wants to 8.joy or sorrow with you, be there. ▲Don't make9.about your friends. ▲Don't be late for your appointments. |
10. | Only when you actively approach others can you make friends with others much better. |
