A 2018 report found that food waste would increase by a third to 2. 1billion tons by 2030. Beyond the cost of the waste itself，thrown-away food generates a gas that contributes to climate change.
Home delivery meal kits(盒)can reduce food waste by more than two-thirds，but suppliers need to switch to reusable packaging to make them environmentally friendly.
Tailor-made meal kits cut waste by providing people with precise amounts of fresh ingredients(烹饪原料)for chosen recipes，meaning leftovers are minimized. But while the delivery services score well on reducing food waste，buying the same food ingredients from the supermarket almost always saves energy overall simply because meal kits use so much single-use packaging. The good news is that if people have meals that are tailored for consumption，they won’t overbuy and have less food waste. They fine-tune the amount of food to what they will actually eat.
Meal kits can reduce transport emissions(排放)if people go to the supermarket less frequently. If people only go and buy such goods as soap and toilet paper，they may only have to visit once every couple of months. A delivery truck can carry meals for a lot of people in the neighborhood. So dozens of car trips might be replaced with one truck trip.
However，study found that even if delivery meal kits reduced food waste to zero，they would still use up more energy overall than buying the same food from the supermarket unless the energy used for the meal kit packaging was cut by a fifth. The packaging is a killer if it’s single-use and thrown away，which can make all the environmental benefits lost. But if the packaging can be reused，if it’s glass bottles，like in the old days，we can get some benefits.
1.What can we learn about home delivery meal kits?
A.They can cut down on daily expenses.
B.They will totally solve the problem of food waste.
C.They can keep energy consumption to a minimum.
D.They will benefit the environment with reusable packaging.
2.What does the underlined word“fine-tune”in paragraph 3 mean?
A.Attach. B.Adjust.
C.Raise. D.Compare.
3.The author suggests carrying meals with a delivery truck to__________.
A.reduce transport emissions B.save more food
C.shop only in the supermarket D.shorten car trip distances
4.What’s the author’s attitude to meal kits?
A.Supportive. B.Unfavorable.
C.Objective. D.Indifferent.
For top students from low-income families，the challenge of applying to colleges is particularly difficult. 1 in 4 deal with all of that—the writing，the studying，the researching and applying—completely on their own. One approach to make this whole process easier? Pair students up with an adviser.
That’s the idea behind CollegePoint，an initiative to help gifted students go to schools that match their intellectual(智力的)ability. When a high school student takes a standardized test—the PSAT，SAT or ACT——and they score in the 90th percentile，and their families make less than$80，000 a year，they get an email from the program offering them a free adviser. The advisers listen，guide and answer students’questions.
Connor Rechtzigel，an adviser in Minnesota，sees the importance of his role，for research shows that low-income students are far more likely to undermatch because they don’t think they have what it takes to get in and because many don’t even know what schools are out there. He helped high school senior Justice Benjamin，the first in his family to apply to college，think about what his ideal learning experience was. Finally，Justice narrowed in on smaller schools where he could study environmental science and made his final choice：Skidmore College in New York. He felt empowered by the process.
Figuring out how to pay for college is a major part of what，CollegePoint advisers do. Nakhle，an adviser in North Carolina，is working with Hensley，an Ohio high school senior who can’t get extra financial help from her family. They spent a lot of time comparing and analyzing her financial-aid award letters，which made her decision much clearer. Finally，the Ohio State University offered an option where she would pay nothing. Staying in-state wasn’t her first choice，but it was the best option for her.
1.What is the second paragraph mainly about?
A.How CollegePoint works. B.The goal of CollegePoint.
C.Ways to apply for a free adviser. D.The challenge of choosing colleges.
2.What prevents low-income students from attending proper colleges?
A.Overestimating their abilities. B.Knowing little about colleges.
C.Lack of enough learning experience. D.Failure to get support from their families.
3.Why did Hensley finally choose the Ohio State University?
A.She didn’t want to stay far from home.
B.Her favorite major was provided there.
C.She would show her talents to the full.
D.The university met her financial needs.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.How to Be a Financial Adviser
B.Steps for Top Students to Select Ideal Colleges
C.Advisers Help Poor Students Apply to Suitable Colleges
D.CollegePoint—a Program Helping Students Score High
In India，one of the most significant festivals is Diwali，which falls between October and November. It’s a five-day celebration that includes good food，fireworks，colored sand，and special candles and lamps.
In honor of Lakshmi，the Hindu goddess of wealth，people make special prayers on the first day to obtain blessings for welfare，succcss，and well-being. People welcome the goddess into their homes by decorating entrances with colorful lanterns and traditional designs. In addition，many people treat themselves to fine jewelry，praying for good fortune. Those who cannot afford so much，seek out cheaper items such as clothes or household goods.
The second day of the festival is called Kali Chaudas. For some，the day provides an opportunity to drive away misfortune from homes and businesses. They decorate their homes with clay lamps and create design patterns called rangoli on the floor using colored powder or sand.
The third day is when the biggest celebrations occur，which begin early in the morning with a visit to a temple to seek the blessings of the goddess. As the sun sets，festival observers light up their homes with small lamps and enjoy delicious traditional foods with their loved ones.
The festival’s fourth day is celebrated in many different ways. Friends and relatives visit with gifts，sweets and best wishes for the season.
And the final day of the festival is called Bhai Oooj. It honors the close bond between brothers and sisters and is observed with traditional ceremonies and more delicious food.
For children in India，Diwali is similar to Christmas. They get all entire week off from school and are treated to gifts，new clothes，amazing food，and，in the past at least，a large number of fireworks. It is no wonder that the festival ranks high among the country’s favorite celebrations.
1.People celebrate the first day of Diwali mainly for______.
A.good fortune. B.colorful lanterns
C.expensive jewelry D.traditional designs
2.What’s the probable purpose of creating“rangoli”on the floor?
A.To design traditional patterns. B.To produce colored powder or sand.
C.To help get rid of bad luck. D.To produce an opportunity in business.
3.What is a man likely to do on the last day of the festival?
A.Exchange gifts and best wishes with his loved ones.
B.Be busy decorating his home during the day.
C.Get together with his sisters and brothers.
D.Light up his home with small lamps.
4.Which of the following may not be a reason for children’s love of Diwali?
A.Having a week off. B.Getting Christmas gifts.
C.Enjoying amazing food. D.Setting off fireworks.
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1.What will you do on Grand Morocco tour?
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Some of the world’s most significant problems never hit headlines. One example comes from agriculture. Food unrest and hunger make news. But the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decline in the growth in production of some of the world’s major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring.
The authors study the four most important crops: rice, wheat, corn and soybeans. They find that the improvement in yields that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s.
There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world’s most populous (人口多的) countries, India and China. Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down.
Second, production growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soybeans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods, accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soybeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note that “We have preferentially focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world.”
The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organisation has argued.
Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughed up for crops might be able to revert (回返) to forest or wilderness. This could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in production, which may not actually happen.
1.What does the author try to draw attention to?
A.Food riots and hunger in the world.
B.News headlines in the leading media.
C.The decline of the grain production growth.
D.The food supply in populous countries.
2.Why does the author mention India and China in particular?
A.Their self-sufficiency is vital to the stability of world food markets.
B.Their food yields have begun to decrease sharply in recent years.
C.Their big populations are causing worldwide concerns.
D.Their food self-sufficiency has been taken for granted.
3.What does the Food and Agriculture Organization say about world food production in the coming decades?
A.The growing population will greatly increase the pressure on world food supplies.
B.The optimistic prediction about food production should be viewed with caution.
C.The slowdown of the growth in yields of major food crops will be reversed.
D.The world will be able to feed its population without increasing farmland.
4.How does the author view the argument of the Food and Agriculture Organisation?
A.It is built on the findings of a new study.
B.It is based on a doubtful assumption.
C.It is backed by strong evidence.
D.It is open to further discussion.
Does Fame Drive You Crazy?
Although being famous might sound like a dream come true, today's stars, feeling like zoo animals, face pressures that few of us can imagine. They are at the center of much of the world's attention. Paparazzi(狗仔队) camp outside their homes, cameras ready. Tabloids(小报) publish thrilling stories about their personal lives. Just imagine not being able to do anything without being photographed or interrupted for a signature!
According to psychologist Christina Villarreal, celebrities—famous people—worry constantly about their public appearance. Eventually, they start to lose track of who they really are, seeing themselves the way their fans imagine them, not as the people they were before everyone knew their names. “Over time，” Villarreal says, “they feel separated and alone.”
The phenomenon of tracking celebrities has been around for ages. In the 4th century B．C., painters followed Alexander the Great into battle, hoping to picture his victories for his admirers. When Charles Dickens visited America in the 19th century, his soldout readings attracted thousands of fans, leading him to complain(抱怨) about his lack of privacy. Tabloids of the 1920s and 1930s ran articles about filmstars in much the same way that modern tabloids and websites do.
Being a public figure today, however, is a lot more difficult than it used to be. Superstars cannot move about without worrying about photographers with modern cameras. When they say something silly or do something ridiculous, there is always the Internet to spread the news in minutes and keep their “story” alive forever.
If fame is so troublesome, why aren't all celebrities running away from it? The answer is there are still ways to deal with it. Some stars stay calm by surrounding themselves with trusted friends and family or by escaping to remote places away from big cities. They focus not on how famous they are but on what they love to do or whatever made them famous in the first place.
Sometimes a few celebrities can get a little justice. Still, even stars who enjoy full justice often complain about how hard their lives are. They are tired of being famous already.
1.It can be learned from the passage that stars today ________.
A.are often misunderstood by the public
B.can no longer have their privacy protected
C.spend too much on their public appearance
D.care little about how they have come into fame
2.What is the main idea of Paragraph 3?
A.Great heroes of the past were generally admired.
B.The problem faced by celebrities has a long history.
C.Wellknown actors are usually targets of tabloids.
D.Works of popular writers often have a lot of readers.
3.What makes it much harder to be a celebrity today?
A.Availability of modern media.
B.Inadequate social recognition.
C.Lack of favorable chances.
D.Huge population of fans.
4.What is the author's attitude toward modern celebrity?
A.Sincere. B.Sceptical.
C.Disapproving. D.Sympathetic.
