The tons of plastic we’re dumping in the oceans is finding a new home—the stomachs of our beautiful marine animals. Yet another reminder of this fact washed ashore in Eastern Indonesia this week. A large amount of waste, including drinking cups and flip-flops, was found in the stomach of a whale that died off the coast near Kapota Island.
The 9.5-metre sperm whale (抹香鲸) was found by rescuers from the Wakatobi National Park. The whale had swallowed 5.9 kilograms of plastic waste containing 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, and more than 1,000 other kinds of pieces of plastic, park chief Heri Santoso told the reporter.
“Although we have not been able to deduce the cause of death, the facts that we see are truly awful,” said Dwi Suprapti, a marine species conservation co-ordinator at WWF Indonesia. She said it was not possible to determine if the plastic had caused the whale’s death because of the animal’s advanced state of decay (腐烂). But this is only the latest.
Four Asian nations—Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand—account for 50% of the plastic waste in the oceans, according to a report by environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment. The Philippines is second to Indonesia when it comes to putting away plastic waste in the oceans, according to a study published in the journal Science in January. Of the 3.2 million mismanaged waste it produces every year, 1.29 million ends up in the ocean.
A report released earlier this year stated that the amount of plastic in the ocean is likely to increase.
1.What can we know about the sperm whale?
A. Its stomach is the home of plastic waste.
B. It died of swallowing lots of plastic waste.
C. It was the first whale to eat plastic waste.
D. It had eaten much plastic waste before its death.
2.Which can best replace the underlined word “deduce” in paragraph 3?
A. confirm B. cause
C. approve D. contain
3.Which country dumps the most plastic waste into the oceans?
A. Thailand B. Indonesia
C. Vietnam D. Philippines
4.What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. Philippines puts away 1.29 million tons of plastic.
B. A sperm whale was found dead near Kapota Island.
C. Much dumped plastic waste was found in a dead whale.
D. We should take measures to reduce the waste in whales.
Our hero’s origin story started this past February in the Perine family living room in Birmingham, Alabama. Austin, a 4-year-old boy, and his father, Tad Perine, were watching a program on Animal Planet about a mother panda leaving her cubs. “I told him that the cubs would be homeless for a while,” Tad says. “Austin didn’t know what homelessness meant, but he was sad and wanted to know more.”
Seeing this as a teachable moment, Tad took Austin to the Firehouse Ministries, a local shelter that provides housing, food, and other services for homeless men. As they drove by the redbrick building, they saw a group of 25 homeless men standing on the street corner. “Dad, they look sad.” Austin said. “Can we take them some food and make them smile?” That day, Austin used his allowance to buy each man a Burger King sandwich and handed the food out himself. Seeing what their presence meant to the men at the ministry, Austin and Tad returned the next week.
After he returned every week for five weeks, word of Austin’s acts of kindness spread through social media and national news outlets. Burger King jumped aboard, agreeing to donate $1,000 a month for an entire year toward the cause. Soon, churches and shelters across the country began inviting Austin to come to distribute food in other areas. Whereas before Austin and Tad could feed 25 to 50 people at a time; now, thanks to corporate and community support, they can feed 800 to 2,000 people at once.
As for Austin, he continues to give out food, smiles, and his inspirational message of love. “It makes me feel like I’m saving the day.”
1.How does Austin feel when seeing the TV program?
A. Surprised B. Joyful
C. Grateful D. Unhappy
2.Why did Tad drive Austin to the local shelter?
A. To donate some money for the homeless.
B. To ask for some help from the homeless.
C. To teach him the meaning of homelessness.
D. To introduce Austin to the staff there.
3.What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 3?
A. To confirm Austin’s influence.
B. To praise Burger King’s donation.
C. To thank the community’s support
D. To convey appreciation of the homeless.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. A Teachable Moment
B. A Boy Fighting Against Hunger
C. A Kind Family Helping the Poor
D. Tad’s Inspirational Message of Love
This week, we’re sharing our favorite recent reads. To help round out our recommendations, we also tapped some folks who you’ve heard on Code Switch before — novelists, scholars, poets and podcasters.
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
“The book is an extraordinary, honest and sympathetic look at adoption, race in America and families in general. It’s also such an engaging read. I stayed up way too late one night reading it because the story just pulled me in. And I’ve recommended many of my friends to read it so I can talk about it with them.” — Jasmine Guillory, author of The Wedding Date, The Proposal and the forthcoming book The Wedding Part.
Becoming by Michelle Obama
“It’s a deeply-moving coming of age story of Michelle Obama in her early life. There are such moving anecdotes about how this family just invested everything in the possibility of giving their children a better life. It’s not a sweet book, but at the same time, it’s deeply hopeful about the possibility of what happens when you work hard, what happens when you love hard.” — Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage, Silver Sparrow and other books.
Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger by Soraya Chemaly
“What really impressed me about this book is this idea that women should be allowed to express their anger, particularly in Latin American families and communities. I just think Soraya goes into this incredible detail citing scientific studies and different works of literature that really convey the necessity to female anger, not only for the health of women, but for the health of equality in society.” — Jean Guerrero, reporter with KPBS and author of Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir.
1.Who wrote The Wedding Date?
A. Tayari Jones B. Jean Guerrero
C. Jasmine Guillory D. Soraya Chemaly
2.Which book tells a bitter story with hope?
A. Becoming B. All You Can Ever Know
C. Silver Sparrow D. Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir
3.What’s the purpose of the passage?
A. To sell books. B. To comment on books.
C. To share reviews of books. D. To collect opinions of books.
假如你是李华，你的美国朋友Trevor对中国俗语很感兴趣，前些天给你发了一封邮件，向你请教“良言一句三冬暖，恶语伤人六月寒”的含义，请你结合以下要点给他回封邮件：
1.该俗语的含义;
2.你从中得到的启示。
注意：1.词数100左右;
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯;
3.开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Trevor,
Glad to receive your email and willing to explain to you the saying you mentioned in your email.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hope my explanation will be helpful to you.
Yours,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
I’m happy to know about that you are interested in Spring Festival couplets(对联), symbol of traditional Chinese culture. The tradition of put up Spring Festival couplets dates back to the Song Dynasty. Therefore, not until the Ming Dynasty did Spring Festival couplets become popular nationwide.
With black or golden character written on red paper, they are sticking on doors or walls. They are made up of positive words what convey wishes for love, health, success, wealth, happy and so on. A common theme of Spring Festival couplets is people’s desire for a better life in the coming year. In addition, praising your motherland is another popular theme.
Hopefully, you can have a better understanding because of my carefully explanation.
阅读下面短文，在空白处填入 1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
Almost all the ice covering the Bering Sea has melted(融化), scientists have confirmed, 1.(throw) communities living around 2.(it) shores into disorder. The region’s ice cover 3.(normal) lasts for at least another month, and this year it has disappeared earlier than any other year except 2017.
Living in 4. northern Pacific Ocean between Alaska and Russia, the Bering Sea is experiencing the climate change and has drawn attention this year for record-breaking levels of winter melting. In February, rising Arctic temperatures 5.(lead) to around half the region’s disappearing in the space of two weeks.
A report 6.(send) by the International Arctic Research Centre at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has outlined the real-world effects of these surprising environmental 7.(change) on the many communities 8. live in the Bering Sea region.
In their report, the International Arctic Research Centre scientists wrote that while not every year will be as bad as this one, ice 9.(form) is likely to remain low if the Bering Sea’s waters remain warm. They also warn that communities will need to “prepare for more winters 10. low sea ice and stormy conditions”.
